Recently, I was in the company of many New England real estate brokers. Believe it or not, there are approximately 1.5 million realtors in the US, and most of which are female. I never realized until talking to and working with them, how vulnerable they really are when they have a showing at a home. What most people don’t realize is that the danger in showing a home to what is in reality, strangers, can be a serious cause for concern. The epitome of this is an unfortunate and tragic event that happened to a female broker 3 years ago, in Barrington Rhode Island. The female realtor showed up to the home, and unfortunately, the prospective buyer murdered her.
Thanks to Emilio Esperia and Joe Fazio, of Engel and Volkers, we came up with the concept of sharing my background of martial arts for the past four decades, with a workshop, referred to as “be your own bodyguard,” for real estate brokers
We successfully ran this workshop for his shop two weeks ago. Then I was able to go to the expo event in Worcester, with my friend Kenny Olson, and meet, talk with, and work with 350 realtors from the expo, to hear the concerns about personal protection for realtors.
“The beautiful body” is a program from ‘burn with kearns,’ that is designed to be easy to understand, while also being practical. The system is a blend of many martial arts, such as Muay Thai, Filipino kali, jiu-jitsu, grappling, old-school kung fu, and green World War II close quarter combat. I’ve taken the best from what my teachers have taught me and put it into a system that realtors can work easily and effectively.
We start with a workshop at their location, and then if they want, we can continue with regular classes, once to twice a month, either at their location or via the web.
Our approach is simple. We use effective, efficient, real world programming.
We have some rules that will guide and protect realtors, and this is also very common when I teach at domestic violence shelters.
These simple rules could save your life…
In a self-defense situation, you must understand and follow these rules to protect yourself from dangerous predators and situations…
- Being nice can be taken for being weak. Why? Predators often have ill intentions.
- Use your brain, your mouth, and your legs, to get out of danger .
- When they break the 6 foot barrier, it’s go time .
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One of the other big concepts we teach is that when you have a prospective buyer, treat them like a potential date. I know it sounds odd, but if you were going on a date with someone you met on a dating app, wouldn’t you plug their name into Google, to ensure they are who they say they are? You should also check their phone number and do some additional research, to learn as much as you possibly can about that person.
Another lesson we teach is to ALWAYS trust your instincts; if it doesn’t feel right, leave the situation immediately.
The next thing we strongly relay is to NEVER discount anything, strange feeling or otherwise. What that means is if you start seeing red flags, don’t brush them off. These types of people that want to hurt you are well-versed manipulators. It’s what they do! Furthermore, when with a prospective buyer in a home, always keep your eye on them, while maintaining eye contact, as much as possible.
Lastly, there’s a simple self-defense weapon you can carry with you that is completely innocuous, portable, and is very effective when utilized in a self-defense situation. I’ve traveled the globe with this throughout foreign countries, when traveling on airplanes, and no one would think twice about it. Do you know what it is? Well, it’s a small handheld tactical flashlight, similar to the ones military and law enforcement carry. This is a defensive tool that could save your life, and is available at the reasonable cost of only $9 to $20. This tool is completely portable, and we teach you how to use it as an effective self-defense weapon, for many situations.
Additionally, our workshops and classes are quite the workout.
My mission is to help everybody feel confident, and most important, safe, in all types of situations!
So ask yourself: Do you want to be the victim or the victor? I am confident that you would want to be the latter.
For more information about our workshops, classes, and seminars, I can be reached at kevin@burnwithkearns.com, or by calling 508-404-8503. And, yes, I answer my phone because why else would I have one?
