Well, not me, but my guest, JT Foxx, almost went to jail Sunday! I was just going to get the ticket. Let me tell you the story before you jump to WORSE conclusions…
You see, JT Foxx, Host of a radio show in Chicago, was in town Saturday for a speaking engagement, so I invited him to go on the St Johns River on my jet-ski’s Sunday. We were having a grand old time, we stopped at a restaurant right on the water and had Sunday brunch, and then headed towards the house. Now, right in front of our house is this section where the river widens and it’s a great place to jump some wakes put off by the big boats coming through. Tim had been driving and I was passengering and JT was on the other bike. Tim and I had just switched so I was driving and I was having a good old time jumping some waves, right up until the blue flashing lights showed up behind me… Uh Oh!
Now let me tell you, I’ve been riding these waters for 4 years, and never had a problem, and here I have a VIP guest with me and I get pulled over. I pull over to the officer’s boat, and he is FUMING mad, I mean you can see the veins in his forehead and his voice is cracking when he talks- mad if you know what I mean…he starts shouting about $63 tickets and accidents and we’re going to kill ourselves and then he points at JT (who has now pulled over closer to us to see what’s going on) and says “and him, I should take him to jail right now, I could call his behavior a misdemeanor and take him in right now!” (veins pop, voice cracks, HELP! I need bail money!)
But then Tim and I practiced some very simple negotiation and crisis management techniques…
1. Calm them down, do whatever you can to get their attention OFF of the crisis. How did we do that? We kept our voices and tones very calm and collected, and spoke just a little slower than normal.
2. Whatever you do, don’t argue with them. We were very polite, apologized, asked what was the RIGHT way to maneuver in this area, etc.
3. Give them what they ask for. When he asked for our license and registration we gave it to him (he actually dropped one of the registrations in the water, so now HE felt kind of bad, which helped us even more as we said “don’t worry, mistakes happen”)
4. Try to change the subject to something more pleasant. Tim started asking him about speed limits on the river. Now he got to show US his knowledge level.
5. Apologize for making his day harder. We said something like “I’m sure you don’t want to be out here dealing with a bunch of yahoos and drunks on the water on such a nice day like this” to which he quickly agreed. (please note, we had NOT been drinking, unless you count iced tea!)
6. If all else fails…blame it on the tourist from Chicago!
Seriously though, how many of these lessons can you use with a seller who is irate over a low offer? or a borrower that’s just been turned down for a mortgage? or a client with a house that just appraised low? These are solid techniques that you can use in your real estate business, and they’re not too bad to keep JT out of jail too!
After our initial fear had passed, we joked a little about what our time in jail would be like…”so, what are you in for?”…”I killed 4 people because they looked at me funny, how about you?” … “me, I rode my jet-ski too fast” How would Andy do in jail? I’m sure I’d make the most of it, I’d catch up on my reading, lose a few pounds, and probably buy a few houses from my fellow inmates!
By the way, when it was all over, I turned to JT and said “this is going to be on your radio show, isn’t it?” he quickly replied “Yep! first thing!”
Till next week, stay out of jail!
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