Congratulations on writing such a wonderful treasure chest of simple ideas for achieving success.  I always thought that I practiced what you have described as Clients First, although I do not call it that.  For 11 years, I have called my brand, Golden Hands Service, which was derived from a label bestowed upon me by my grandmother, and which seemed to accurately describe how I conducted myself with clients.

Like you and JoAnn, my brand was born from client experience which I will very briefly relate here.  This occurred about my 3rd month into the real estate business.  While working with a new buyer client, I was driving them around and showing them neighborhoods of $700,000 to $800,000 homes.  He was relocating for a new job in New York City.  I used to be an executive headhunter before real estate, so we talked about his new job and the offer he was given.  It was soon clear to me that he had not negotiated a very good package and he was about to uproot his family for a move that would take him several steps backward and offered no future vision.  With his permission to intervene, I suggested specific things he needed to go back to his prospective employer with and what to ask for in order for both sides of their agreement to come out win-win.  When we got back to the office, he made the call and I coached him through it.  They ultimately gave him a take it or leave it, so I encouraged him to leave it and the offer was rescinded.  He and his family thanked me for saving them and returned to their life back in central Pennsylvania.

When I came home that night and told my wife what I did that day, she almost went ballistic.  “How in the world does doing that put food on the table?” she asked.  I admitted that it didn’t, just yet, but wait.  One day it would.  That night, I wrote my first draft of what Golden Hands Service meant and I have been retooling it ever since, struggling like you and JoAnn did, to adequately describe what it is I really do.  I’m still not satisfied I have it correctly described.  You have done it perfectly!!!

Six months later, almost to the day, I received a call from that client.  He had just been offered a phenomenal marketing position at Johnson & Johnson’s home office in New Brunswick, NJ and he and his wife wanted me to find their new home.  I found them their dream home and they have been avid supporters since; and my wife finally learned that good deeds do come back and put food on the table.

Your book has taught me that my brand of Golden Hands Service is not wholly complete and that I need to retool my thinking in certain areas if I am to emulate what you have described.  Thank you for providing the insight and the roadmap for me to do that.  I’m certain that with the base I am starting with and a full appreciation of what you have described as the Clients First experience, it will not be long before I too can proclaim to be a Clients First practitioner as well.  Thank you for that!  Now I must go and re-read the book.

All the best,

Brian

In the collector world the dust jacket represents at least half of the value.  A first edition dust jacket for Clients First for obvious reasons does not have The New York Times Bestseller banner.  An important step in protecting your dust jacket is to wrap it in a Brodart acid-free clear plastic cover.  A dust jacket in this protective environment will still look new years from now.

Due to a timely buyback of misdirected inventories we discovered a limited supply of these first editions of Clients First.  Consequently we are now offering these, while supplies last, direct from our website only.  They come already heirloom protected in a Brodart Dust Jacket Cover and to add even more value, each copy will be signed by the authors.

We are looking for personal moments of realization, situations where one or all of the three keys applied, commitment victories, monkey stories, elephant stories, giving stories, anything you believe will inspire.

Since publication of Clients First, we have received almost a thousand cards and letters and Joseph and JoAnn have poured over every one. They’ve laughed, they’ve cried, and now they wish to spread the joy. Probably half come by snail mail to P. O. Box 13103, Scottsdale, AZ 85267 and the other half come by email to JoAnn@thosecallaways.com.

Go to:  www.facebook.com/thosecallaways  now and like us today.

We are working on future posters designed around each of the three keys – Honesty, Competence and Care as the eleven steps on the Path to Clients First.

“A pleasant surprise to be sure,” states the publisher. “Only five percent of the almost 900,000 new titles published each year ever go back for even a second printing. This is especially true for new or first time authors,” the publisher goes on to say. “With first timers the odds drop to one in a thousand.”

Of course, the surprise was somewhat mitigated with the fact that “Clients First” opened on the New York Times Bestseller list and followed that with a Number One ranking in The Wall Street Journal. Beginning as a favorite of the real estate industry, the authors are successful real estate agents, the book has now transcended to the business community at large.

“We didn’t want to limit Clients First to a category,” says the publisher. “Its message goes far beyond dealing with prospective buyers and sellers of homes. This book can be applied to manufacturing, retail, large corporations, small business and any professional service. Barnes and Noble has it displayed in the Sales section but it could just as easily be in marketing, management, human resources, or any other part of the business books section.”

Another industry source calls “Clients First” a classic. “It came as no surprise to me,” says Dottie Dehart of Dehart and Associates, a North Carolina based publicity firm. “I think we will see twenty and thirty printings of this book. Its message and capacity to change and inspire readers is right up there with “Think and Grow Rich” and “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.”

They were there to meet their editor for the first time. He had invited them to “a proper author lunch” and they passed the moments looking at Manhattan and reading framed documents from two hundred years ago.

Richard arrived presently with his assistant, Lydia, in tow. He suggested the short walk to the W Hotel and the foursome set out.

“People can’t believe it.” JoAnn said over a delicious pasta, “when I tell them about your call.”

“We had heard about their manuscript from a trusted resource,” Richard reminded Lydia. ”I don’t think you knew who I was,” he said to JoAnn.

“Actually, I was at my computer Googling your name” Joseph said.

“I remember it was the second week in January last year and you said you wanted to read our book.” Richard nodded as JoAnn continued, “so we sent it overnight and we now know you read it on Wednesday and then you called on Thursday to say John Wiley wanted to publish Clients First.”

Richard said something about that not being the usual routine but it was a good book and he didn’t want someone else to get it. JoAnn replied that she later got calls from two other publishers but by then the bond was made.

The conversation continued over an abundance of subjects; Lydia is Greek, Richard’s wife is a University professor, which shows would win a Tony. They danced all around the title of the next book. Joseph said they were working on it and assured Richard that an outline was forthcoming. They all smiled.

Back at Wiley the Callaways got the tour and ended up in Richard’s office whereupon he presented Joseph and JoAnn with copies of a dozen of his best books. It was a beautiful gesture and JoAnn said something about catching up on her reading.

At the curb. Richard suggested JoAnn not miss Carlos Bakery, the home of the Cake Boss TV Show. That was all it took and Those Callaways were off on a mission. – to be continued…

When we appeared before the Lubbock, Texas Board of REALTORS in January the local Barnes & Noble came to the event with books. Although every attendee bought a copy, and some bought several, the store’s Customer Relations Manager still had 25 books left. This worried us so we called her two weeks later to check, and sure enough, they were sold out. We asked if more were on order. The manager said, “I suppose we could.”

This story has played out so many times in the months since Clients First hit the stores. The reality is that if they stock it, Clients First will sell. They just need a nudge and that needs to be expressed as local demand. So, if you love Clients First and want to be a part of the movement, start by telling your local bookseller. Ask them to stock Clients First and when they put it on the shelves take a photo and send it to us along with the name of the store and who’s in the picture. We will post it on our facebook page and send you a 11×17 suitable for framing Butterfly Poster signed by Joseph and JoAnn. You will also be entered into our monthly “Where in the World is Clients First” drawing for a $200 Barnes & Noble gift card.

P.S. If you travel, take your copy of Clients First with you and email us photos of you and your book in front of iconic locations (The Seattle Space Needle, The Lincoln Memorial, The Alamo … you get the idea) and for every photo we post your name goes into the hat. The more you enter the better your chances to win.

When JoAnn and I combined honesty with competence with caring we unleashed a powerful synergy which changed our lives and suddenly made everything easy.

Our lives before Clients First had been a series of ups and downs, anticipations and disappointments, successes and failures.  We were like most folks.  Life was often a struggle.  Suddenly our lives became a progression of ups and ups, expectations exceeded and undreamed of successes.  It was as if a logjam had busted up and now everything was flowing in the same direction.

I know of no other way to explain what was happening than using synergy.  At the time these three Key changes seemed small.  As we were going through the process of first deciding to undo that one transaction and then passing our decision on to Marta and Susan, we were excited at the way we felt without knowing why.  We felt good.    But we had no idea that this was some monumental moment in our lives.

I’m sure our forefathers were sober men as they penned the Declaration of Independence and later the United States Constitution but I doubt they had any idea about the vast consequences of their actions.  You simply don’t think about making history.  John Adams was probably preoccupied with his family’s needs and Benjamin Franklin may have been more concerned with a new ache or pain that morning.  They had no idea what was to come and how they would change the world.  Now I have no delusions that Clients First is as important as a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but it has a synergetic power to change lives.

Clients First changed our world. We were free.  We no longer had to think about what we were saying or had said.  Whatever we said was the truth or, we didn’t say it.  The only challenge was to know the truth and it’s surprising how easy that becomes when your goal is honesty.  Whatever we said was competent or, we didn’t say it.  How liberating it is to acknowledge your limitations and say, “I’ll find out.”  Whatever we said was anchored in a deep and passionate desire to get what our client wanted.  The synergy which results from the combination of the three Keys gave us the gift of freedom.