GRS Group Newsletter_July 2017

Update
ISSUE.003 2017 Q3 EDITION

A Great Year So Far! In this issue

Hard to believe the year’s half over and we’re headed into Q3! As Inc Best Workplaces P.1
we work our way through the dog days of summer, and our kids Mindfulness and 1 Million Steps P.2
are enjoying time away from school, we’re grateful to everyone on
the team for their e orts in 1 ! Book Club Update P.3
In this issue of the GRS Group Update, we celebrate being named Second Lean Award/IT Update P.5
to the Inc Magazine Best Workplaces in America... again! This is
the second year in a row that we have been honored. And, unlike Social Media P.6
last year---where we wrote our own story in the application ccounting R pdate P.7
form--this year the award came from you! The honoree Travel and acation Stories P.8
companies were selected based on responses to an anonymous
employee survey--to which we had absolutely no control or input.
This is a great testament to our corporate culture, camaraderie
and shared values. Thank you all for your participation in the
survey... and your belief in our mission! There’s lots more to
discuss... so let’s dig in!

GRS Group Named to Inc “GRS Group’s corporate
Magazine’s List of America’s Best values come directly from
Workplaces - 2nd Year in a Row! our life philosophy. We
believe in a philosophy of
GRS Group has been named to Inc. Magazine’s 1 List of Best balancing the four pillars
Workplaces in America--again! This is the second year in a row GRS in a person’s life: Family,
Group has received this honor. Career, Health and Spirit.”
Thanks to everyone who completed the survey. It measured our
overall employee engagement and determined that 1 of our - Charles Victor, CEO
employees are engaged with 9 being highly engaged. We also see
that those levels do not vary by gender or across age groups. What
this means is that everyone at GRS is committed to making the
company a success.
Our culture is uni ue and dynamic and this is what sets us apart as
a company. Chuck put it best in the press release uote he provided.
“GRS Group’s corporate values come directly from our life
philosophy,” he said. “Besides pu ng an emphasis on teamwork,
we recognize that each individual’s life balance fuels our overall
productivity and success. We believe in a philosophy of balancing
the four pillars in a person’s life: Family, Career, Health and Spirit. At
GRS Group, we take care to provide a nurturing environment to
support our employees in all facets of their lives.”
All of this is spelled out very e ectively in our GRS Group Values
Guide. Thank you everyone... and CONGRATS again!

The Mindful Leadership Team continues to have monthly GoToMeetings 1 Million Steps Update
with a face-to-face meeting being planned for September in Irvine.
Members of the team report on various methods and activities they Our 1 Million Steps program has been a great success this
practice as related to mindfulness for a personal benefit and how to year – so far, we’ve walked 26,280,288 steps and have 24
apply these in a corporate environment. President Noreen Clindinning people participating on a regular basis. Congratulations are
posts recaps of our monthly meetings on Socialcast so you can keep up in order for those who have already hit the 1 million step
with what is happening. mark and a special shout out to Andrew Chisholm who is
Over the past few months several way out front with well over 2 million steps logged. Our
team members hosted mindful leader stateside is currently Andy Brownstein but he’s got a
eating and walking sessions for lot of folks close on his heels.
GRS Group employees. Also during
this time period, numerous articles Allen Brown
on Mindfulness have been posted Jeff Coyne
to Socialcast and this is where you Kevin May
can find links to websites, articles, Julie Sorensen
suggested reading, and guided Andy Brownstein
meditation sessions. John Koch
As Jeff Coyne said in his Mindfulness article in the Spring Q2 Edition of Theresa Pappas
our newsletter, his finding time for 10 minutes a day, a few times a Rick Levis
week, for a meditation session has benefits. So taking 5 or 10 minutes Toni Robinson
to read an article or take part in a meditation practice of your choice Andrew Chisholm
does wonders for the mind. Try it out!
Program Details
- Michael Knudsen Remember, the goal is not necessarily to be the first person
to get to 1,000,000 steps but to support one another to help
2017 SUMMER get as many people as possible over the goal. You’ll have the
ability to earn GRS Bucks along the way when you reach
EDUCATION SERIES certain milestones or when you get others out walking with
you.
Corteq will be hosting a series of webinars for our Field Profes- • 1 GRS Buck for every 4 weeks of consecutive walking
sionals during the summer months. • 1 GRS Buck for every 100,000 steps logged
Thank you to all our speakers! • 3 GRS Bucks for every walking buddy you get to participate
How to create a Kick-ass Site Plan
Heather Pryor The human body is designed to move, so
Tips on Scheduling your Site Visit we should move it!
Michael Knudsen
What’s New in our Phase I Template
Ross Simmons
The Importance of Data Collection for Phase IIs
John Burkart

“Tell Me and I forget
Teach me and I remember
Involve me and I learn”

- Benjamin Franklin

Book Club Update!

The Fred Factor

The Order Fulfilment group at Corteq recently read The Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn. This is a great
little book about being the best person you can be using the following four principles:
✔ Everyone makes a difference. Some might see delivering mail as monotonous drudgery, but Fred
sees the task as an opportunity to make the lives of his customers more enjoyable. Regardless of
whether an employer hinders exceptional performance, ignores it, or does not adequately recognize
it, only the employee can choose to do his or her job in an extraordinary way. Sanborn writes,
Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be exceptional.
✔ Success is built on relationships. Indifferent people deliver impersonal service. Sanborn writes that
service becomes personalized when a relationship exists between the provider of the service and the
customer. The quality of the relationship determines the quality of the product or service. Leaders
succeed when they recognize that their employees are human, and employees like Fred the Postman
succeed when they recognize their work involves interacting with other human beings.
✔ You must continually create value for others, and it doesn t have to cost a penny. Replace money with imagination. Sanborn explains
that the object is to outthink your competition rather than outspend them. The most critical skill that contributes to employability is the
ability to create value for customers and colleagues without spending money to do it. Substitute creativity for capital. Mediocrity is your
silent opponent and can diminish the quality of your performance as well as the meaning you derive from it.
✔ You can reinvent yourself regularly. If Fred the Postman can excel at bringing creativity and commitment to putting mail in a box, you
are probably capable of doing as much or more to reinvent your work and rejuvenate your efforts. Sanborn believes that no matter what
job you hold, what industry you work in, or where you live, every morning you wake up with a clean slate. You can make your business, as
well as your life, anything you choose it to be.

Be Like Fred! AWARD

For the month of June everyone was asked to focus on how they can be more like Fred using the follow-
ing ideas to get them started:
✔ Give someone at GRS a Star Award hits the first principle Everyone Makes a Difference. We want to
recognize good work and exceptional performance. If you are out of bucks to give away please let me
know and we ll top up your bank
✔ Schedule a Facetime session with one member of your team or better yet use the app House Party
to tie together your whole team via Facetime and spend 10-15 minutes getting to know one another
better. Do not talk about work. This one hits principle two Success is Built on Relationships
✔ Send a thank you card to a client from your team also hits principle two. If you need note cards,
send a request to Mike Gerard. Or try Punkpost a great little app that handwrites and mails cards
✔ Share the idea of -Second Lean improvements with someone outside GRS family, friends, even
clients and help them brainstorm possible solutions hits principle three You Must Continually Create
Value for Others
✔ Complete the 4 items noted above and you will have hit the fourth principle Reinventing Yourself
Regularly.

Congratulations to Theresa Pappas and Erika Dahlem for completing all the items listed
above and earning a special Fred Factor Star Award. We will have another Fred month

later this year which will be open to everyone at GRS so stay tuned for an
announcement in the fall.

Book Club Update (cont.)

The evels o Communication

Everyone in our Sales swim lane read The Levels of Communication by Michael Maher. This was
another powerful book with some really great practical advice for all sales people. We had several
Roundtable Calls and are working on building new skills by focusing on the following tasks:

✔ Continue to hone our Four Enriching Rituals (Morning, Pre-leave, Pre-Sleep and Sunday Night). There is
some information on Socialcast about Sleep and Sunday Night rituals

✔ Ask for a referral each week using the Spokes to Hub Strategy

✔ Identify a Board of Advisors and asking them for some specific feedback about how GRS Group is doing

✔ se a Guaranteed Response Email continuing to tweak the message until you have one the works

Summer Reading

For our summer reading program participants were assigned their book
based on their selection of several key words. All of the teams will be
using the “ uick Read” method where they are only required to read
certain chapters or sections of their books. We have a diverse selection
that covers topics ranging from Minimalism, Social Media, Time
Management, Creativity, Happiness, Organization and Mindfulness. You
can check out our list below:

Everybody Writes by Ann Hadley

Manage our Day to Day: Building our Routine ind
our ocus Sharpen our Creative Mind edited by
Jocelyn K Glei

How to Have a Good Day by Caroline Webb

Essentialism by Greg McKeo n

All of the selected books build on programs and themes we already have
in place. In addition to personal development, one of the goals of each
group will be to generate ideas for enhancements and new components
to these programs. It is important that we continue to evolve not only
individually but as a company. Each of the four groups will meet in
September and then report back out to everyone later this year.

2 Second Lean Award

Second Lean will flip your world AWARD ITECH UPDATE
right-side up. It s a practical way to
improve your life every day by Beware of SPAM & Phishing!
making a simple second improve- SPAM/fraudulent e-mails are on the rise. Don t recognize
ment. the sender(s)/e-mail is suspicious Forward the message
as an attachment to [email protected]
Each quarter we will run a contest The Importance of Backing Up
for the best Second Lean ideas. When is the last time you backed up your iPhone/iPad
Everyone is encourage to add Can t remember Plug the device(s) into your laptop,
Second Lean to the agendas for launch iTunes and create a backup ASAP - follow these
their individual team meetings and steps for How to backup with iTunes found here:
to keep the ideas coming. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT 0 9
IT at Your Service!
Congratulations to John och for Please remember to use [email protected] for ALL
winning our first Second Lean of your computer/phone/printer/electronic needs!
Award! John made several sugges-
tions for what on the surface seem - Marc Schnitman
like small improvements to our PCA Templates but when you
consider the overall time savings we should see their impact is
H GE.

Inaugural CREFC
Mentorship Program

CREFC has launched a Mentorship Program that will run from June “Tom Woodard of GRS | Corteq called on me at
through December 01 . The mission of the mentorship program is my office last year and I was impressed with his
to provide an opportunity for young leaders and seasoned profes- professionalism and decided to give him a try.
sionals in the commercial real estate finance industry to connect,
grow and create a lasting relationship by sharing their industry I had a loan I needed for a Phase I in Bridge-
knowledge, experiences and professional guidance in a confidential port, CT. I did get several bids and found that
and informal atmosphere. companies I had used in the past were unable
to do the the report in my time frame and on
Mark Halloran and Noreen Clindinning are participating as budget. I was very happy that GRS | Corteq
mentors for this session and have both been matched up with could put it together for me on time and at a
young leaders in Freddie Mac s DC office. This program is a great very resonable cost. This report was for a very
way for us to give back and show young people how the get the high profile customer.
most out of a career in the commercial real estate industry.
I have and will continue to highly recommend
“The delicate balance of mentoring Tom Woodard and GRS | Corteq to other bank-
someone is not creating them in your ers that I am in contact with.”
own image, but giving them the opportu-
nity to create themselves.” Claudia Murphy
VP and Commercial Relationship Manager
— Steven Spielberg
CenterState Bank

Social Media

Team Twitter!

Our team of Twitter Warriors is growing! If you don’t yet have a Twitter account, we’d love to
help you get started!
The social media task force is working hard to get the GRS Group word out. And we have
sharpened our focus in 2017. Rather than retweeting links to interesting and relevant articles,
our objective is to create and distribute more of our own original content. This, in turn will drive
more traffic back to our website.
An important software platform we use is called Hootsuite. The program allows us to manage all
of our team’s Twitter accounts from one dashboard.
Other companies and organizations known to use Hootsuite include Facebook, the Obama
administration, HBO, Martha Stewart Media, Virgin Group, SXSW, Panasonic, Zappos, The Gap
and LHC.

By aggregating and managing all Twitter accounts through Hootsuite, we were able to distrib-
ute 818 Tweets last monnth. Also, our combined followers and engagements are way up!

Don’t forget Hashtags in SocialCast! For the 2nd Half, the Social Media Task
Take your time... and be careful to Force will be focused on Linkedin. If you
SPELL CORRECTLY. Especially this one: don’t have it already, get the mobile app,
post frequently, turn on notifications and
#wackywednesday engage often!

Star Awards Production
& FP News
Providing a pla orm for employees to recogni e each other
is ust one way we encourage a positive atmosphere, all the In Q2 201 , your Production team sent over 1,500 Dra reports to
while fostering collaboration and teamwork. Twenty-one clients. Dra s, Dra Revisions, Dra Beer, Dra s, Dra s, Dra s! There
people received a STAR Award from a co-worker in the were over 2,200 Final reports sent out also! We were lucky to find a new
second quarter. Everyone has bucks to give away and we Service Coordinator, Ruby Aguirre, to help the team. Welcome Ruby!
encourage you to acknowledge your peers throughout the
course of the year. In Q3, along with hundreds and thousands of reports being happily
As a reminder, GRS Bucks are to be awarded to co-workers delivered to our clients, Production will continue working on Template
when the employee feels they or their work should be and Library revisions for the Phase I and PCA reports. A party is being
recogni ed as an e emplary e ample using one of the planned for the o cial release of the Dash-Free PCA templates! Watch
following categories your mail for your invite.
• Collaboration working well together on a oint
- Nancy Conner
pro ect
• Problem Solving providing constructive criticism Congratulations Linda Morris!

and suggestions for improvement, being creative Linda Morris, National Title O cer in
• Agility the ability to change course or direction as our Richmond o ce, is retiring from
full time employment at GRS Title in
needed, e ibility September. This is a er a 30-year
• Teamwork supporting others internally career. But she’s not going away!
• Service supporting our customers or other e ternal
Linda will stay on with GRS Title as a
partners part time contractor working three days
per week. As a highly valued employee
Stephen McNeil - August for almost 4 1 2 years, the Richmond
Jerry Staeckeler - August 1 team will miss seeing her in the o ce
everyday. They will especially miss her
Linda Morris - August 21 chocolate chip cookies!
Ross Simmons - August 2
Andy Brownstein - Sept 3 Linda started her career as a bank branch manager and also served as
a loan o cer and department manager. A er stepping away to have
Tony Mueller - Sept 22 her second child, she went to work for an attorney doing closings. This
is where Linda began to reali e that she truly loved the title
business especially commercial title. She then went on to title
e aminations and underwriting and spent some time with a First
American a liate. She was with Stewart Title’s National O ce in
North Carolina and later spent another years with a bank owned title
company doing commercial underwriting. A er interviewing with
Steve Francis for a position at GRS Title 4 years ago in February, all
immediately agreed she’d be a great fit.

While Linda loves what she does for a living, she’s looking forward to
having time to pursue some of her more personal interests. These
include painting, drawing, wood working, gardening and reading. But
that said, she still really loves a good commercial real estate deal!

I really like the fact that I’ll be able to stay involved, she said. I’m
not ready to be home seven days a week. GRS Group has been really
good to me and there is nothing like being in the middle of a good
commercial real estate deal. I really en oy it and GRS Group has given
me the opportunity to do what I love most. There are a lot of great
people here and I’ve learned a lot even at my age!

Congratulations Linda. Thank you for your service and keep those
cookies coming!

Accounting & HR Update uarterly k Calls

Ne Remi ance Address or Corte Starting this month, we will
Customers! begin having quarterly calls
with the financial advisor for
GRS | Corteq has moved its bank account from Wells Fargo our 401(k) plan, Jim Griffin.
Bank to Chase Bank. In addition, the remittance address for The purpose of these calls is to
customer payments has been changed. Payments are no help you maximize the benefit
longer to be sent to the Richmond office. Instead, please of your 401(k). There will be a pre-determined topic that Jim will
direct clients to mail payments (including deposits) to: address on each call but there will also be a chance for each of you to
ask questions of Jim. Please consider taking advantage of this valuable
Global Realty Services Group C resource.
Net ork Place
irtual Suggestion Bo !
Chicago I
Our Virtual Suggestion
Please note: This new address is a lockbox and cannot Box is now live. Please
accept FedEx packages. If you have a client that is sending a email any ideas you
payment or deposit via FedEx, please have them send the have for suggested pro-
payment to the Irvine office, attention Accounting Dept. cess improvements or
The Irvine office address is: new initiatives for us to
explore to the following
Spectrum Center Dr email address:
Suite
Irvine CA [email protected]

The “Remit To” address and the Wire/ACH instruction A MUST SEE! Find hope for humanity in this video
information have already been changed on our client invoic- of 65,000 people singing “Bohemian Rhapsody!”
es. Additionally, to assist with the transition, we have added
a letter/flyer notice and our W-9 to our invoice in
Gnet—both will be sent with our client invoices during the
transition period.

astly the ne Wire ACH instructions and W can be
ound on the G: drive under Accounting.

Concur

As a reminder, please submit expense reports via Concur
MONTHLY. All expenses from a given month should be
included on one report per month. This allows accounting
to capture expenses in a timely manner. Please do not hold
your expenses for several months before submitting them
for reimbursement.

NOTE: The Richmond office is moving! Same building, just different suite number.

Here is the new address: East Byrd St. Suite Richmond A

VitaMin

Vital health information in a minute

Eight ways to get hooked on exercise

You know that exercise is good for your health. But there’s always an excuse for dodging it – you’re too busy, too
tired, or just plain bored with exercise. It’s time for a fresh approach. With a little extra motivation, you can create an
exercise routine that you’ll feel good about. Try these tips.

1. Set one small goal. Instead of this: “I’m going to 4. Exercise your own way. You don’t have to go to the
exercise every day for an hour, count calories at gym to exercise. Find an activity you enjoy – such as
every meal and lose 10 pounds in 30 days,” start with tennis, golf, kayaking or hiking. Or, add more
one goal that’s achievable. “I’m going to add 10 more movement to your day by walking, taking the stairs or
minutes of exercise to my day.” If you currently get playing in the park with your kids.
no exercise, any improvement is a great start. Build
on small successes by continuing to add more 5. Get inspired by others. Read success stories and
minutes to your exercise routine. remind yourself that anything is possible. Make
connections with people who encourage each other
2. Sign up for a race. You don’t have to be a runner to to exercise. Work with a personal trainer or join a
enter a 5K race. These events are a great way to get running club for a boost of encouragement.
motivated to exercise and have fun with family and
friends. You can get ready for the race at your own 6. Focus on the benefits. Getting regular exercise is one
pace. You might start by walking for 20 minutes and of the best things you can do for your health. It helps
gradually increase the intensity of your workout to you feel good, control your weight, sleep better, fight
alternate jogging and walking. disease and live longer.

3. Make an exercise pact. Put your exercise plans in 7. Give yourself a pep talk. Negative self-talk can derail
writing or post it on social media. It makes your your plan to exercise. Tell yourself, “I can do this” and
commitment real, and people may even o er replace worries and doubts with positive thoughts.
encouragement. Making a pact with a friend is even
more powerful because there’s someone to hold you 8. Reward yourself. When you work hard and reach
accountable. Sign up for an exercise class together or your goal, it’s time to celebrate. Treat yourself to
schedule workouts on your calendar. something special.

This is intended to be general health information and not medical advice or services. You should consult your doctor for medical advice or services, including seeking advice before
undertaking a new diet or exercise program.

All Cigna products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Connecticut General Life
Insurance Company, Cigna Behavioral Health, Inc., Cigna Health Management, Inc., and HMO or service company subsidiaries of Cigna Health Corporation. The Cigna name, logo, and other Cigna
marks are owned by Cigna Intellectual Property, Inc. All pictures are used for illustrative purposes only.
893510 07/17 © 2017 Cigna. Some content provided under license.

TRAVEL & VACATION STORIES

Tony Robinson: Columbia Grad and Globetrotting
Through Europe!

I took my first trip to Europe in March. We went to London and
Bath in England and Paris, France. We visited a lot of tourist sites
and had a great time!
My son, Brandon earned his graduate degree from Columbia
University in May so we made a vacation of the event. My other
son Ethan came to the graduation and we all visited the Cloisters
and Met Breuer museums and the 9/11 Memorial near the
Calatrava Subway Station before he had to leave town.

Joseph Kim: Treasure Hunting on the Oregon Coast

The rocky coast of Oregon, along Highway 1, is considered one of the most scenic
roads in the U.S.
We decided to be adventurous by visiting Oregon in one of the wettest months of
the year, March. If you hate driving in the rain, I suggest that you visit Oregon in
summer. With two small kids travelling with us, we focused more on fun and
engaging activities rather than sightseeing. The highlight of the trip was razor
clamming along Capalis Beach in Washington. Razor clamming is a popular
tradition among locals. Another highlight was agate hunting. Agate is a semi-gem-
stone often found along rocky beaches. They really don’t have monetary value
unless polished and carved into jewelry, but we still love to find them!

Theresa Pappas: Wedding Bells in the Desert

No real vacation for us this year, but my daughter Lola and I were
in my sister’s wedding! It was at Bearizona in Williams AZ.

Jeff Coyne: Sand Surfin’ USA Mike Gerard: Never thought I’d be a “Dance Dad”...

We recently spent a weekend camping at the Great Sand Dunes Last week, we went to Palm Springs where my daughter competed in
National Park in CO! The tallest dunes in North America are the the Countdown National Dance Championships... Her Musical Theater
centerpiece in a diverse landscape of grasslands, wetlands, duo, “Can’t Do It Alone” won 1st Place Overall! :)
conifer and aspen forests, alpine lakes, and tundra. Experience
this diversity through hiking, sand sledding, splashing in Medano
Creek, wildlife watching, and more!

Here is a video of their winning
routine taken from a competition

earlier this year. #proudpapa