The Language of Luxury: Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tip: The Courage of Kindness

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see” Mark Twain

Whenever we are asked to define what it takes to be a great luxury real estate marketing professional, our answer is: “Cultivate the courage of kindness”. Kindness (and a good sense of humor, of course), is the ultimate luxury.

Courage is defined in the dictionary as: “The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.” Kindness is defined as: “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.”

It takes courage not to react when someone is disagreeable, or to automatically assess someone as being less than you, incompetent or one of “those” people. Our minds are constantly labeling and pigeonholing people and situations into categories.

For instance, while driving. someone honks at you or tries to cut you off. It is natural to react by honking back and letting out a stream of expletives, etc.

How can you stop your mind from doing that? Perhaps, you could entertain the thought that the reason they are going crazy is that they may be having the worst day of their life. It does take courage to for you to let them pass you, instead.

Here is an example of the courage of kindness in luxury real estate.

One of our clients sold a lovely estate to a couple. The couple was very happy. Several months later our client received a call from the wife saying the house was haunted! The ghost was telling her, in the middle of the night, “Get out of my house, or else!” She wanted our client to put the house on the market, immediately. Her husband did not want to sell; nor did he hear the ghost.

Our client knew that selling the home would be a colossal mistake. Instead of trying to talk her out of the sale, she came up with a brilliant solution. Knowing the wife was a devout Catholic she sought the help of the local priest. With the client’s permission, the priest came over to bless the house. After he did that, the ghost disappeared.

This instance of courageous kindness developed its own momentum. Our client regularly gets referrals from the couple, as well as from the priest, even though she is not a member of his church.

Taking a moment to practice kindness by overriding the mind’s automatic evaluations, takes courage. In the long run if we all did that we would be better people for it. We would also become outstanding luxury real estate marketing professionals.