VanDyk Mortgage - February 2022

FEBRUARY 2022

Letters From the Hart Give us a call! 239-437-4278 Or visit www.TimHartJr.com Corporate NMLS #3035 www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

LIFE IS A GAME, BABY

So Let Your Kids Play!

There’s nothing sadder as a volunteer coach than looking out at the field and realizing one player’s heart just isn’t in it. If you’ve ever been to a Little League game or a kid’s soccer match you know what I’m talking about. Everyone is running around having a blast, and then there’s one little guy or gal with absolutely zero desire to be there. They’re dragging their feet, looking off into space, or worse, glued to their cellphone. Here’s my take on this: Those kids should be allowed to quit. I don’t think any parent should force their child to play a sport if they don’t want to. That said, in my experience the haters

If you jump into sales, for example, you have to be ready to lose. In baseball, if you fail 7 times in your 10 at bats then you end up with a batting average of 300. Think about that! You get out 70% of the time and end up in the Hall of Fame! You are going to lose most of the time in sales so why not start early with team sports! Little League also prepared me to work with people of all races, ethnicities, and income levels. Here in Florida, you’re never going to find a more diverse group of kids than you will on a sports team!

are the .0001%. Most of the players I’ve coached have loved playing sports, and I’ve loved teaching them because I think immersing yourself in a team is one of the best things you can do as a kid. I played baseball pretty much my entire childhood. Last month, you read about one of my baseball buddies, and that’s no accident. I’m still friends with the majority of the guys I played with in Little League at 10, 11 and 12 years old! We don’t hang around reminiscing in our letterman jackets, but there’s no doubt our strong friendships were built in the dugout.

It’s vital that kids learn young how to work with people who look, act, and think differently than they do. It’s also important that they learn how to take direction from someone other than their parents — it prepares them for the real world of bosses and managers. Sports can teach them all of that and more. Plus, they’ll have a heck of a good time. As a parent, when you put your kid in a sport, you have to remember that your kid isn’t in it to go pro. That’s where so many parents with good intentions trip up. Don’t take the game too seriously (and I say that as a sports fanatic). Instead of obsessing over the points on the scoreboard, keep your eye on the real prizes: The lifelong friendships, listening skills, cooperation, humility, and competitiveness they’re learning. I remind myself about this at every one of my kids’

Apart from making friends, sports can also help kids learn other skills like winning and losing gracefully, competing hard for something they want, working with people of all backgrounds, and listening to a coach. All of these things are important in the “real world” outside of school.

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Eliminate unhealthy substances. Limit your intake of caffeine and sugar throughout the day — especially right before bed — for better rest. It’s also

Sleep is an essential part of our lives, but it becomes even more important as we get older, as it’s a necessity for healthy aging and staying energized. Ideally,

everyone should sleep between 7.5–9 hours a night, but as we get older, this becomes much harder to achieve. Health complaints, minor disturbances, and a decrease in melatonin levels make it difficult for seniors to get a full night of sleep, which can cause irritability and fatigue.

best not to drink anything about an hour before bed, so you don’t wake up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and disrupt your sleep. Regulate your sleep schedule. Keeping the same schedule for sleeping can reap immediate benefits. You will notice increased alertness during waking hours as well as enhanced memory and attention span. You may also start to feel tired around the same time every day, ensuring that you will actually go to sleep right on schedule.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD NIGHT’S REST

In order to combat these disturbances, here are a few

things you can do to ensure you get enough sleep during the night.

Quality Sleep Promotes Healthy Aging

Build an active daily routine. Outdoor exercise and general movement every day is good for your body, but being outside and absorbing sunlight can balance and optimize your melatonin levels, which can help you fall

It can take time and patience to adjust to new habits to improve sleep, especially for the elderly.

asleep easier. On top of exercise, try weaving protein-rich snacks and meals into your routine. Foods like light meat and nuts can improve sleep quality, and dairy foods contain tryptophan, which is a sleep-promoting chemical.

It won’t happen overnight, but the benefits that come with a better night’s sleep will have you feeling younger and healthier than ever before. If anything, you will feel more engaged and happier throughout your daily life.

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softball, football, baseball, and lacrosse games. Those skills will take them pretty far in life, even if they never make it to the NFL or the NBA. I still use what I learned playing high school baseball every day at the office. I’m a competitive guy. I want to be the No. 1 loan officer in the company, and I use the other top producers here as motivation to push myself harder. We even have a monthly sales call we’ve named “Iron Sharpens Iron” and I think it’s 100% true. That competitive edge makes us better as individuals and better as a team. I hope that if you’re a parent, you’ll consider signing your kids up for team sports before it’s too late, even if you never played. They’ll thank you in 10 years, then thank you again in 20!

NMLS #354676

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is all about. Before Edison, I was in a Business Networking International (BNI) group and the goal was the same there, too: meet people, and help each other. Networking has been a big help to me over the years, but it was tough to get into it. Twelve years ago, I could barely afford the dues to join a BNI group. But I truly believed in word-of-mouth referrals, so I scraped together the cash and enlisted my mother-in-law’s help with the kids so I could make the meetings. Referrals are the backbone of small businesses, and that effort paid off. Back then, referrals alone brought me 10%–20% of my clients! My current networking group, Edison Professionals, is like BNI but better. We’re an independent organization with our own rules and without the BNI bureaucracy. The dues are much more affordable than the BNI bills I bent over backward to pay. Plus, the food is great! We meet at Jason’s Deli for breakfast every Thursday morning at 7:15 to catch up. So far, we’ve booked each other more than $577,000 in business since last May! That makes forcing myself out of bed at the crack of dawn worth it. There’s only one person of each profession in the group, and we all have each other’s backs when it comes to making referrals. I love it, because I know that when I send one of my clients to a friend from Edison for help, they’ll take care of them like family. You’ll never have to worry about someone I recommend ripping you off or doing a shoddy job. I can vouch for them, and they’ll vouch for me, too. I’ve used Edison Professional to connect with hundreds of people, Kevin Bacon-style. If you ever need any kind of service here locally, I’m happy to help you out.

Edison is also on the hunt for new members. If you could use a networking group and all of the benefits that come with it, check us out on Facebook (Facebook.com/EdisonProfessionals) or our website (EdisonProfessionals.com). As long as we don’t have someone in your industry already, we’d love to have you!

I’ll see you at Jason’s!

NMLS #354676

Solution on Pg. 4

Trivia Question : What is the name of Tim's networking group?

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PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411

Tim Hart, NMLS #354676 8280 College Parkway, Suite #101 Fort Myers, FL 33919

Give us a call! 239-437-4278 Or visit www.TimHartJr.com

Inside This Issue

The Life-Changing Impact of Team Sports PAGE 1

Quality Sleep Can Promote Healthy Aging PAGE 2

Testimonial From the Hart PAGE 3

What Tim and Kevin Bacon Have in Common PAGE 4

SIX DEGREES OF TIM HART

How Edison Professionals Keeps Me Connected

Have you ever played the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”? It’s not a board game or anything, just a way to kickstart a conversation. The idea is that you pick an actor, and then you and your buddies have to connect that actor to Kevin Bacon. You work backward through coworkers and connections, and if you can do it in six people or fewer, you win! Let’s take Mel Brooks. Brooks was in the movie “The Little Rascals” with Reba McEntire in 1994. In 1990, McEntire was in the movie “Tremors'' with … drumroll please … my man Kevin Bacon. Bam! Two degrees of separation. The longer you play “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” the more obvious it gets that Hollywood is a very small town. Over my years in the mortgage business, I’ve discovered that Southwest Florida is a pretty small area, too. I’m no Kevin Bacon, but you could probably “Six Degrees” me to pretty much any business owner around here. A lot of that is thanks to my networking group, Edison Professionals.

I’m a big believer in networking and using my contacts to help out friends, family, and clients. Over the last few years, I have made friends and connections with people from all different industries, and when I can, I am happy to help connect them to people looking for a referral.

As a bonus, these referrals get other entrepreneurs some much- needed work. That kind of matchmaking is what Edison Professional

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