Saint John, NB

In the past 3 years as a REALTOR in the Saint John area, I've seen many Realtors that speak before they think! They usually let their ego do the talking and lose their client or opponent Realtor at the other end. Being a former Math & Science teacher, I learned this early, but make it a point to reinforce it daily!

I'm the quiet type and have an advantage, since I listen for fluctuations in their speaking (when on the phone) and read body language (when in person). I never let them realize this, I just let them talk, so I get even more information from them.

This blog is for many of the Realtors who have never really got their "Listening Skills" down. I will be discussing the very basics on listening skills to help them negotiate the next deal and come back with their clients needs & expectations.

1) It's far more important to be a good listener than a good talker, when negotiating!

- State your case clearing & concisely & then "shut up".

2) Silence is a great weapon!

- Talking more gives information to your opponent.

- Let the other side do the majority of the talking.

- Active listening gives you clues on what the other side really wants to accomplish.

** The party who talks the most makes the most concessions.

3) Listening skills have to be learned! (This is something you are Not born with.)

- Work on improving your listening skills daily, so you can master the art of negotiating.

a) Listen more by talking less.

b) Take notes.

c) Ask more constructive questions.

d) Don't interrupt your opponent.

e) Use more eye contact.

e) Use the RSVQ Formula:

1) Repeat what was said in your own words.

2) Summarize the main points & subpoints.

3) Verify that your heard the correct information.

4) Query, by getting more constructive questions in and to give you more info.

**** Good listening skills provide the foundation for effective negotiating!

Finally, I always remember these two phrases on negotiating:

"He who speaks 1st loses."

"The party who talks the most, gets the least."

Meeting enthusiastic Elizabeth Rowe, Owner of Urban Deli, gives you the feeling that she loves the daily challenges of her new business in Uptown Saint John. Opening July 13, 2009, she has watched her business evolve, just like a child from infancy, from opening the doors and running it day-to-day. She loves the daily interactions with people; clients, suppliers & staff!

Elizabeth and her business partner, Gord Hewitt, purchased their building on 68 King Street East, across from the Brunswick Square area in April 2008. The building is designated Heritage, which means there are guidelines to follow on the exterior; therefore the Urban Deli canopy needed to comply and reflect heritage by including sculpted edging and the new front door had to reflect heritage.

Although clients vist from all over New Brunswick, Elizabeth believes that some of the core support comes from Uptown Saint John - it's the 80/20 rule. Elizabeth said it all with this quote: "The name Urban Deli simply fit it all for us: location and style." Elizabeth has created "a great gem" with fresh unique deli food and creative menus that include a brunch on Saturdays 9-12. Her focus is to attract and retain customers one at a time.

The Urban Deli specializes in Montreal Style Smoked Meats. Her rye bread and bagels are purchased from Montreal and the Deli mustard is homemade. No processed meats here!

The Urban Deli has a smoker on site and many of our meat products are smoked. Elizabeth enthusiastically says, "Our ribs are fall off the bone." Elizabeth shares the fact that there is an ever growing demand for appealing to Vegetarians and Vegans and is totally focused on capturing a larger share of that demographic over the next year. "I think that we have one of the best veggie burgers in the city." The Urban Deli also caters to Celiacs and now has partnered with The Gluten-Free Menu Company" to retain Gluten-Free breads and desserts

When you enter the Urban Deli, the environment is very vibrant, lively and fast moving. The color scheme includes original brick walls, hanging light fixtures, black and red colors to create the environment for social gathering and having fun! The background music is from the 60's & 70's because she likes it and "it's music everyone knows and can identify with; the roots to day's music!"

Elizabeth is always giving away samples to her clients to create an interest and loves their feedback...good, bad or indifferent. "It's valuable and it helps us to perfect our products." It's an open door policy on feedback from her clients & staff. The goal is always to encourage clients to come back and to tell their friends and family about their experience.

She realizes that the Urban Deli is very fortunate to be successful as quickly as it has been...this is due to atmosphere, food, consistency of food, staffing and truly caring about her clients. "Customers can go anywhere to spend their money on food and when they walk through our door, we love it! We never take anything for granted."

Budgeting is always tight for a start-up business and to date there has been zero dollars budgeted for advertising. In Elizabeth's mind she would rather stand out on the street and give away samples of her food. "This way potential customer's can see, taste, smell and touch the Urban Deli product. To date, I am not aware of any advertising that can deliver all of these things."

Her plans for the next year are to focus on retailing some of her products; salad dressings, homemade sausages, smoked products, homemade pastas, her vegetarian items, increase catering and roll-out our online ordering.

Her 3-year plan is to have more equipment for smoking products, more items for retailing (cold & hot smoking). Her 5-year plan is very energizing! She plans to have multiple locations (kiosk in the mall, retail outlets and/or other Urban Deli's at different locations).

For the technically inclined, the Urban Deli has a website that posts the menus and recipes that she has given to her clients and recipes that her clients have reciprocated back. She has a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Acct:

WEBSITE: http://www.urbandeli.ca

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Saint-John-NB/Urban-Deli/109885939407?ref=ts

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/urbandeli

LINKEDIN: http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/elizabeth-rowe/2/926/bb6

Give Elizabeth Rowe's new business the Urban Deli a try from Monday - Saturday.

Monday - Thursday, 11:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Friday, 11:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Saturday, 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. (Brunch from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.)

*** You won't be disappointed with the food, environment or service! ;>))

We finally have a COSTCO that will open next month in May!

I love IKEA stores!!! I think IKEA home furnishing stores are innovative, keep you organized within your home or office and have items I've never seen in any other store! These popular European stores are all over the world, but the only ones I've seen are in Canada and the U.S. Their kitchens are to "die for".

In fact, the closest eastern stores are either Montreal, Quebec or Boston, Massachusetts, where both of them are at least 8 hours away!

So I went to http://www.ipetitions.com website and created a petition to get as many local Saint Johner's signatures as possible!

By using an assortment of websites, I hope to create enough traffic to create the desire to have an IKEA here in Saint John, NB. I'm trying for 100,000 signatures so that I can summit this petition to IKEA's Corporate offices.

If you know anyone from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island (PEI) or even Maine, that would like to sign this petition, feel free to point them to this blog...

I've put this on my Twitter & LinkedIn connections:

http://twitter.com/YourKeyStJohn

http://www.linkedin.com/in/annmarieclementscanada

I created a FACEBOOK Fan Page for this cause also:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Bring-an-IKEA-Home-Furnishing-Store-to-SAINT-JOHN-NB/108130575887435

I also created a Kijiji Community Ad in the Saint John area:

http://saintjohn.kijiji.ca/c-community-activities-groups-SIGNATURE-PETITION-Lets-get-an-IKEA-store-to-Saint-John-W0QQAdIdZ196386247

Here's the link to my petition for the people of New Brunswick, especially my neighbors & friends of Saint John:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ikea_to_saint_john_nb_canada/

:>))

I worked two long productive hours this afternoon at our the Saint John Home Show, our local home show to bring out people from their long winter ordeal. It was very busy to say the least!

I came home and my spouse had taped our 3 bedroom walls to repaint them in a light brown, color is similar to the photo above, from the original pucky yellowish tan. I painted the majority of the walls and my spouse did most of the trim work. We finished around 8:00 p.m. and since my spouse had to catch a flight to Raleigh, NC tomorrow early morning ~ 5:00 a.m. in Fredericton, NB (which is about 45 mins away) he got ready to get come rest.

Since, most people forget the time change, I make it a habit to change the all the clocks the evening before. After he went to bed, I remembered "Spring Forward, Fall Back" and since I normally change the clocks, I went around and changed all the clocks, which included; the mantel clock, the german mantel, the grandfather clock, our microwave clock and finally I tiptoed in our bedroom and changed our two Bose clocks radios.

While I was finishing my folding of clothes, I changed the chanel to watch "Criminal Minds" at 10:00 p.m. (Atlantic Time Zone) and I couldn't find it. I didn't think anything of it until I realized that even my programs on HGTV were also not being given. I knew I had changed the clocks early, but something didn't seem right! I looked at the clock on my Satellite TV and then noticed that I had them 2 hours ahead. OPPS!!! Apparently he DID change them after all...

I jumped up and went and changed them all over again, but instead of going forward one hour, I was sending them back 1 hour.

So the moral of this story is, even when your spouse has to catch a flight early morning, PLEASE make sure, ESPECIALLY on those days when the time is going forward or back one hour that you check with your other half to effectively get the time right! I haven't informed him on our communication problem yet, but I think he will be okay in the morning!!! Since we have two Bose clock radios, I'll also set mine for the same time, to make sure he does get up after all this... even though, I get to sleep in late... Bahahaha.... ;>))

How many of you can say, that in your household, two people have changed the clocks without the other knowing they did it???

Ever start your day planning something and find out that interesting things can develop that make your day very different. This day pulled a few things together, that will help me in the next few months. I’m beginning my paperwork for Canadian Citizenship and I learned something today about Beavers & their significance in Canada. Researched a little deeper about Beaver Dams & Beaver Lodges only after I took these photos just east of Saint John, New Brunswick (CANADA) on the town lines between Norton & Bloomfield on Old Hampton Rd. after taking a ride to one of my listings in Sussex. Please enjoy these next fascinating photos of the beauty of Atlantic Canada...

Beavers in North America, are native to Canada, much of the United States and parts of northern Mexico. Beaver's preferred food is the water-lily, which bears a resemblance to a cabbage-stalk, and grows at the bottom of lakes and rivers and they eat berries in the summer months. Beavers also gnaw the bark of birch, poplar & willow trees, very readily available in these parts of Canada.

The Beaver symbol has an importance in the development of Canada through their original fur trade. The Canadians designated the Beaver as the national animal. It is depicted on the Canadian five-cent piece and was on the first pictorial postage stamp issued in the Canadian colonies in 1849 (the so-called "Three-Penny Beaver”). As a national symbol, the beaver was chosen to be the mascot of the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal with the name "Amik" ("beaver" in Ojibwe).

Beaver dams are created as a protection against predators, such as coyotes, wolves and bears, and to provide easy access to food during the winter. Beavers work at night and are prolific builders, carrying mud and stones with their fore-paws and timber between their teeth. See this dam today totally impressed my mind... (Notice the Beaver Lodge in the back right of this 1st photo)... being protected by the Beaver dam.

These next photos exemplify why Beavers are great builders. Destroying a beaver dam without removing the beavers is difficult, especially if the dam is downstream of an active lodge. Beavers can rebuild such primary dams overnight, though they may not defend secondary dams as vigorously. (Beavers may create a series of dams along a river. You can see the differences in the water levels on each side of these next series of side photos.

The ponds are created by well-maintained dams help isolate the beavers' homes, their Beaver Lodges, which are created from severed branches and mud. The beavers cover their lodges late every autumn with fresh mud, which freezes when the frost sets in. The mud becomes almost as hard as stone, and their predators can’t penetrate it.

Finally, this American New York City Native has learned a little more about the Canadian history and will be able to pass my Canadian Citizenship written test. Stay tuned, more info on the Canadian History will follow in the next few months, since after the paperwork is submitted it will take at least 9 months of processing. Eh!!!