Last week one of my Area Managers asked me to meet with him and a top recruit he wanted to hire.

I went ahead and drove over two hours to said interview. Once I arrived in the parking lot in saw that my manager was already there waiting in his car. I proceeded to park next to him and we just sat there chatting as we awaited the arrival of our recruit.

My manager then proceeds to tell me that he hasn’t actually spoken to the recruit, but had been communicating with her boyfriend. I was like, “What?”.

If you are in this specific market you know who this recruit is as she is one of the best in the business, so I wasn’t “too” concerned that he hadn’t actually spoken to her.

Obviously my next question was how did you get this top recruit to meet with you without communicating with her?

This is where it gets interesting. The boyfriend of said recruit acts as her “Agent” if you will and scrubs all of her calls as she is heavily recruited.

Well, we made the cut and and had the opportunity to meet with the recruit so I’m happy!

As we get out of our cars to head to the restaurant we see a “couple” also walking towards the restaurant and I said to my manager, I think this is our recruit AND her boyfriend!

Yep, this top producer came to the interview with her Agent, I mean boyfriend. That was different…

It turns out that he is an ex banker, very successful and knows our business very well.

The initial awkwardness quickly transitioned into a very good lunch meeting, very professional and we also had many laughs along the way.

I really enjoyed my time with the Dynamic Duo and feel extremely confident that we will work together in the near future.

I guess I was quick to judge their “process” of vetting out recruiters.

What they are doing works for them, so who am I to judge?

What started out as an awkward meeting ended up as one of my favorite recruiting lunches of my career.

When is 2 too many? In this case it was just perfect!

What are your thoughts?

OG

I was reminded this morning that sometimes we need to pause and self reflect on how our actions affect those that truly love us.

We are living in a constant “Rat Race” where it’s so hard to sometimes put on the brakes and truly “listen” to those around us, to truly “love” the way we are capable of.

It sometimes takes a kick in the gut for you to realize that you are hurting those around you, even if it’s unintentional and you didn’t realize it.

Becoming a better listener is something we can all become better at. I have been working on this my entire life. I am far from a finished product in this area and I will continue to work on this until I take my final breath on this planet.

By not taking the time to truly immerse ourselves in the lives of those we truly care about, listening to those we love and not just focusing on our own accomplishments or failures is a flaw, it’s my flaw.

As the quote below says, you must first accept your flaws and weaknesses before you point out the flaws and weaknesses in others.

I hope that you too can self reflect and make the necessary changes in your life in order to become a better person.

OG

The horrific shooting in El Paso Texas hits very close to home as my Niece, her husband, and their two children live in the community where this tragedy took place.

They often frequent the Walmart and Mall where this tragedy occurred. Thankfully my niece and her kids were home today. My niece’s husband is currently defending our country in Afghanistan as part of our amazing US Army so he wasn’t in El Paso during this tragedy.

As a proud Hispanic male, who is an immigrant from Cuba, I take this attack extremely personal.

When this POS shooter writes a manifesto where he blames “Hispanics” for taking over America, and blaming my people for what’s wrong in this country, that’s when I have to speak up.

That this MONSTER drove over 600 hundred miles so he could severely injure and kill as many Hispanics as possible is beyond comprehensible.

My name is Orlando Garcia, and I am a proud Cuban-American. As an immigrant, I have been extremely successful in my career and have helped thousands of families, be it White, African American, Hispanic, Asian, gay, straight, or transgender, achieve their dreams of homeownership. I will not stop until everyone in this country has the right to achieve their dreams and not be denied by the color of their skin, their sexual preference, or their religion.

To have a young man in this great nation of ours have so much hatred as to drive hundreds of miles to kill so many innocent people, including children, on a Saturday where they were probably shopping for school supplies a week before school starts is beyond anything I can write on this post.

This post is not politically driven, it is driven by a Hispanic man responding to a senseless, cowardless personal attack on my Hispanic brothers and sisters. This racist POS who said he did this because “Hispanics are taking over”, should have instead worked his A$$ off in order to better himself as many immigrants and minorities in this country do every day instead of being a coward and blaming hard working people for his insecurities.

There is a lot more I would like to say, but I won’t.

I hope that one day we can all truly live as ONE people and not be divided by our differences.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected today by this horrific act in El Paso.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton