Help That Matters

The Friday before Memorial Day is something of an anniversary date for me. Six years ago on that very day my 20-year career in television marketing came to a screeching halt, without fanfare or ceremony. Maybe it was a fitting end for an inauspicious beginning.

I got into the television business through a side door, as a news producer. I doubt such a thing would ever happen the same way again: a News Director friend of mine hired me — with ZERO experience — to produce weekend newscasts. I liked the technology but hated the news business. For two years I was just this side of miserable. “But hey,” I’d say, “those people upstairs in the Promotion department sure seem to be having a good time.” So I landed a creative services job in an even bigger market, found my niche, and — just like that — my rocket was lit.

Commercial television is a high-octane business. That’s part of what makes it fun. But it’s also incredibly transitional, filled with what has to be a disproportionate number of really bad managers. In order to move up, one usually has to move on. Sometimes that’s by choice and sometimes it’s not. Consequently, my wife and I moved 9 times in 13 years. But well before that fateful Memorial Day weekend I decided that I wasn’t going to “move on” from North Carolina. My family liked it here, we had found a cherished church and we had developed an invaluable circle of friends. I decided it was time to reinvent myself.

And so in the spring of 2004 I earned my real estate license and joined Fonville Morisey. My 6th year anniversary was earlier this summer. But here’s what else happened this summer: I closed on my 100th transaction for someone buying or selling a home in the Triangle. For me, that’s something to celebrate.

One of the things I like about my work in Real Estate is that I get to get involved in the hopes and dreams of my clients. I get to make a difference. In commercial television, despite all of the meters and ratings books and other ways to measure one’s impact, my work just didn’t ever seem to matter. Not so any longer. I know my work has mattered to at least 100 folks since June of 2004. I’m not sure I tallied that same number after 20 years in TV.

And you know what? You’re reading these words today because YOU matter. You’re someone who I’ve helped in the past, or someone who I hope to help in the future. And If you know someone else who can benefit from my assistance, I’d love it if you’d pass my name along.

Robert Flinn, REALTOR®/Broker
919-698-2040 (Direct)
919-402-1242 (Office)
rflinn@fmrealty.com (email)