If you own a property management company, you know how difficult it is to get solid leads and add doors. It’s even harder to get started when you have no doors, no experience, and you are focused on the wrong things.
Property management startups often make a lot of the same mistakes. Property management growth expert Jason Hull addresses common myths and misconceptions about starting a property management business and adding doors.
You’ll Learn…
[01:14] The DoorGrow Avatars: Pure Startups
[04:20] The Myth of Growing a Business by Stealing Prospects
[06:57] The Myth of Being the Cheapest Option
[08:36] Fantasy vs Reality in Business
[10:17] Embracing the Suck
[14:16] Become an Expert + Tenant Landlord Law
[17:26] Get Help and Resources!
[19:28] Branding and Website Mistakes
[24:52] More Helpful Resources to Check Out
“The biggest hurdle to overcome is they have decided they're going to start a business, but they haven't actually started it yet.”
“Every entrepreneur goes through this journey of learning through difficulty and pain.”
“Going with an unknown disrupts safety and certainty, which is the number one thing that owners want to get from a property manager.”
“There's no reason to charge less than what the typical or most common market rate is. You're just making your life harder.”
[00:00:00] Alright? Nobody wants to suck, but the biggest secret I can tell a pure startup... the biggest secret is: you need to get the 'suck' out of the way. You have to suck.
[00:00:10] Welcome DoorGrow Hackers to the #DoorGrowShow. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others impact lives, and you are interested in growing your business and life. And you're open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow Hacker.
[00:00:28] DoorGrow Hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate, high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income
[00:00:47] At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I'm your host property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now let's get into the show.
[00:01:14] So I'm thinking what I want to do with the next few episodes-- and I may change my mind-- is go over the different avatars that I recognize in the industry, or basically the different target audiences that we target as DoorGrow. So, this is something that, uh, we just brought on a new team member recently, and I was helping them to understand the property management industry.
[00:01:37] And we have this document that I've created once to give to marketers to help them understand who we're targeting. We didn't have much success with outside marketing firms. So it's all in-house now, but I still have this document. So I wanted to talk a little bit today about startups and some of the challenges and what I'm talking about are pure startups.
[00:02:00] Pure startups are those that have zero doors right now. They have no doors. And I think I may have talked about the idea of fantasy versus reality, but I'll touch on that again today. But pure startups are those-- when they come through our funnel, their number of doors is zero. And the number of years is zero. So we know they're a pure startup.
[00:02:19] And the biggest challenge I noticed with pure startups, the biggest hurdle to overcome is they have decided they're going to start a business, but they haven't actually started it yet. And so the biggest hurdle is just taking that first step. It's a huge step. They don't realize how huge it is. So what they usually do as a first initial step is they build this fantasy business in their mind. And some of us remember those days. We had this big "pie in the sky," huge vision and idea of how amazing our business would be and how rich we would be and how awesome things would be. I don't know, maybe.
[00:02:56] This fantasy initially is how a business starts out. It's not connected to reality because there's a lot you don't know. Like those of you that have been in this industry or in business or an entrepreneur for a while, know that there is a lot that you have learned. A lot of hard lessons, a lot of well fought lessons, a lot of painful lessons that you have absorbed or figured out. And some of these things were really challenging. Some of these things kept you up at night. Some of these things required legal battles and that was the tuition you paid to learn these lessons. Some of these cost you money. Sometimes there were refunds, right? And so every entrepreneur goes through this journey of learning through difficulty and pain.
[00:03:40] So pure startups: this fantasy is so seductive. It's sexy, it's delicious. And in their mind, what I hear from all the pure startups is every property manager in their market sucks. They all suck. And so they're going to start one that doesn't suck. So that's the first challenge and they think that they're going to be somehow magically different than all the other companies who have a lot more experience and a lot more knowledge. And the other weird thing I see really common with startups, pure startups is when I talked to them about their business plan, their idea, they usually have a couple of myths that they believe.
[00:04:20] One myth they believe is that they're going to win and grow their business by stealing other property managers' clients. They think that this is how they're going to grow their business. So that's one of the myths I have to destroy with them is they don't realize how difficult it is to get somebody to switch companies. Going with an unknown disrupts safety and certainty, which is the number one thing that owners want to get from a property manager. They want peace of mind, safety and certainty. They're not going to give up what little peace of mind and safety and certainty they have, even if it's not super great to go with an unknown.
[00:04:53] I usually like to use the analogy of a cow. He may see that there's greener pastures over the fence, but how likely is it for that cow to jump over the fence? Not very likely. Could the cow do it? Maybe. Maybe the cow could do it ,and maybe the cow would do it if there was a raging fire or a rattlesnake coming after them or something that was really scary to the cow. It might jump into that other pasture, but it's not generally going to happen.
[00:05:22] And what I've seen is people that make that their strategy and their goal and go try and reach out and target people, it doesn't work. I've even heard property managers that are more seasoned when they're meeting somebody new that's competing with them in their market, say to them, " Good luck," you know like, "go for it. If you can get any of my clients on..." you know, "good luck."
[00:05:44] Why? Because they know how hard it is. They know that it's not likely to work. And it generally doesn't work. And if anybody has had really amazing success in stealing business from somebody else, hit me up. I'd be super curious to hear about how you're doing this. But in general, they have to be a really, really bad company. The only time I've heard people leaving or being able to get clients from other property managers is when they found out that property manager was stealing from them or doing something really gross or unethical, and then they were able to get them to switch companies. And if you ever talk to anybody, that's worked with lots of property management companies and talks about how bad they all are. The red flag isn't the property management companies usually. The real red flag you should be paying attention to. Is that prospective client. They're the common denominator in all of these situations. So before you just believe that all of these companies are so horrible, you may want to take a really close look at what their expectations are and make sure you're setting really healthy boundaries with this prospective client, because the likelihood is they're the actual problem or bad egg or whatever.
[00:06:57] All right. So that's one of the things, the other common myth that I see with startups: they believe they're going to win business and be more successful by charging less money. This is so common. I always kill this very quickly. If I talk to a pure startup, I'm like, what's your plan?
[00:07:17] They're like, "we're going to go around. And all the other companies suck, so we're going to like take those clients away from them. We're going to get their clients and we're going to do it by being cheaper." First of all by having lower prices than your competition, you're just making your own life harder.
[00:07:36] There's no reason to charge less than what the typical or most common market rate is. You're just making your life harder. You're not going to make as much money. You're going to have much higher operational costs in the beginning because you're taking on worse clients and you're making a lot of mistakes in the clients you take on, and then you're going to have less revenue, so you're gonna have less profit than some of these companies. And then you're going to be the next sucky property management company that you thought you were going to be competing with and helping people avoid. So do not just come into the market, playing the game of "we're just going to be cheaper. And that's how we're going to get business on."
[00:08:15] That's not a very effective strategy. Most businesses that tried to do that generally end up failing. Can you build a really big portfolio really quickly by being super dirt cheap in the market? Maybe. But you're going to be miserable and it's not going to be very effective, and you're not going to make much money and the business is gonna fail.
[00:08:36] So, the next thing that I notice is that we've got to get them past this hurdle of fantasy versus reality. So they often spend, at the pure startup stage, too much time preparing, too much time planning, too much time scheming. They don't just implement and take action. They think they need a website in order to look legit and have a real business.
[00:09:03] They think they need business cards. They think they need a flashy logo. They think they need a whole host of things. And there's really only one thing that you need in order to have a real property management company. You can have a business that has none of those things. It doesn't have a cool name.
[00:09:22] It doesn't have a cool logo. It doesn't have a website. Like you can have a business that functions without any of that. You don't even have to have property management software. You can just do everything in spreadsheets. I've seen that done. The one thing that you do need in order to have a legitimate, real property management business though, is clients. That's it.
[00:09:42] And sometimes they focus on all these trappings and getting all these ducks in a row and all these things that they think they need. Meanwhile, they've got-- sometimes they'll tell me, "oh, I've got all these investors I know. And I've got all these connections and I've got some investors are saying they're ready to work with me as soon as I'm ready."
[00:09:58] And then, the property manager is spending a hundred hours building their own website on Wix or they're like trying to do something that isn't even in their skillset. Why do we tend to avoid as entrepreneurs getting started? Because the fantasy has to die. And the second we take a step into reality world, like we start saying, "Hey, I'm ready to take on your property."
[00:10:21] There's so many pieces that you don't have that you realize that actually matter. You need a contract. You need to know landlord tenant law. You need to know how to onboard this property. You need to know how to get the property rented out. And these are all things in your brain, you didn't have at a really specific detail level of how to do these things. So you're going to have to figure it out. And what that means is you're going to suck.
[00:10:47] This is the next thing I want to point out is most pure startups, most property managers that are just getting started, no doors... they're afraid to suck. Nobody wants to suck, but the biggest secret I can tell a pure startup... the biggest secret is: you need to get the 'suck' out of the way. You have to suck. You need to be willing to suck. We all start at 'level suck' in anything that we do that is new, and you have to be willing to do it. If you're unwilling to suck then you're going to just get caught up in your head in mental loops. You're going to mentally just keep going over and over and over things, trying to figure things out. You're going to do tons of research. You're going to watch tons of videos and read tons of books, and you're going to waste so much time. You want to know who learns fast? Those that are willing to suck that just do the work. They just go out and do the work and they suck and they learn really fast because sucking is painful.
[00:11:44] And as entrepreneurs, when we suck at something, we get good at it very quickly because we're highly adaptable creatures. We adapt very quickly. We figure out how to not suck really fast. So the analogy I like to use for those that are stuck in this loop of preparation and trying to get everything ready and trying to look really a certain way is: driving.
[00:12:09] So I like to ask them, how many videos and books and things could you watch and go through to get ready to drive that would make you ultimately just be an amazing driver without driving a car? And they're like, you could watch endless videos and books, and you're not going to be a great driver. Right? You have to just drive the car. You have to start driving the car. You have to suck at driving the car.
[00:12:36] I just taught my daughter Hailey how to drive and made her learn to drive in my suburban. Right? This is what she learned in. And we just helped her buy her first car, which was an SUV, but not a suburban, not that big. But she learned it's something that was difficult and challenging. And she sucked in the beginning. She was really bad and she got better and better and better. And she was willing to suck. And I had to put pressure on her, like, "Hey, we need to go driving. We need to get your time in. We need to get all the hours that are required here in the state of Texas."
[00:13:08] And so, we got her to the point where she was ready to take her driving test and get her license, and she aced her driving test. She had to go do a driving test in a car that was not a suburban and much easier to navigate and much easier for her to drive. And she felt like she did great. And she did. She did really well. And I feel a lot safer with her driving her vehicle because she learned in a situation where it was difficult and she sucked.
[00:13:35] So don't choose out of the discomfort. Don't choose out of sucking. Don't avoid that because you need to do that. And a lot of startups just avoid that. You have to just choose into it. You have to step into sucking. You have to start sucking. And this is relevant to anybody listening to this. There's always something that we know deep down we should do, and we probably could be great at it if we were just willing to step into it and just suck for awhile. And it doesn't take very long. Sometimes even 20 hours of putting some work into one thing, you're better at it than most of the people on the planet that are avoiding doing that thing. So just start sucking.
[00:14:16] The other thing that pure startups have that's a challenge is they have no real knowledge of what investors generally really need, want, what their objections are, what the challenges are... They don't know. This is where I coach clients on a strategy called product research interviews to collapse time on that without going into a whole lot of detail on this recording about that, it's basically, you need to do some market research. You need to talk to people that are the type of people you're going to be targeting.
[00:14:46] You need to get familiar with what their needs and their desires are and their challenges and why they aren't working with a property manager. And that knowledge is usually earned by talking to lots of investors over time. Property managers that have been at this for 20 years, they know right away like all the challenges, all the objections. They know how to form their pitch to include all of these potential hurdles and challenges.
[00:15:13] You're going to pitch, you're going to talk, if you're a pure startup, to somebody and you're going to leave out all of these things that they're concerned about internally. You're not going to hit those and target those effectively because you don't even know what they are. And so you need to do some research by talking to a lot of investors. Just ask some investors, go to some investor groups, talk to people there and just say, "Hey, I'm looking at starting a property management business. Do you work with one?" And they might say "no." and then ask them, "why haven't you worked with one yet? Like what's preventing you from doing that? Do you see that there'd be any advantages? What's your perception of property management companies? What would make you need one or think that you want one? What challenges are you dealing with with your properties currently? Right. You need to understand your audience. And the better you understand your audience, the better you're going to be able to sell.
[00:16:06] The other thing pure startups also lack that hurts their ability to sell or confidence is they don't know landlord tenant law. And that varies by location, city, state. You need to be the expert at this. So actually read the laws. Just go find all the laws. Look for tenant laws, look for things related to properties, owners, and read the actual laws and get to know this stuff. Get familiar with this so that you're aware of what the laws say. And then maybe even talk to some of the city officials, some of the people that are connected to this industry, some of the people that enforce these laws and ask, how does this actually play out in reality?
[00:16:51] You need to be educated. This is some preparation that would be worth doing, because if you're going to step into this industry, nobody in this industry wants more shitty property managers. Everybody wants some really good people that really know what they're doing and are giving really real, good advice. You may want to talk to an attorney or a lawyer, somebody that deals with landlord tenant law and challenges and ask, how does the law actually play out in reality? What happens here locally? How do evictions actually work or end up happening right now with COVID and everything else that's happened?
[00:17:26] Right. So figure out that, that piece. Um, another challenge that pure startups deal with is they don't get enough resources around them. They think they can figure it all out on their own. They think they're so smart. Like, "I'll figure it out on my own. Oh, this is going to be easy. I can read a book or I can watch videos..." or whatever. Get a mentor, get coaches, get connected to other property managers. That's all going to help you collapse time because there's so many things you don't know that you don't know yet. And you're going to make a lot of mistakes.
[00:18:03] Another big mistake that pure startups make is their growth strategy they think is to do SEO or some sort of internet marketing. They think this is their gateway to happiness and money and revenue and freedom. And this is a really expensive belief to have, a really expensive mistake to make. They usually think they're going to just somehow get to the top spot of Google through SEO. They're going to focus on pay-per-click and do Google ads or Facebook ads.
[00:18:31] They're going to do content marketing, do a ton of social media marketing. Or they're going to find some sort of pay per lead service, like allpropertymanagement.com or managemyproperty.com and they're going to buy leads and they don't realize how difficult this game is and how it just helps you get cold leads.
[00:18:53] So if you are a property management startup and you're a pure startup, and you're thinking about starting this business, or you've already started to dabble with some of this stuff and realize how difficult it is, then I highly recommend that you get into our mastermind program so we can help you collapse time dramatically, make a lot more money. The program pays for itself very quickly. That's our initial first milestone actually in the program is to make sure the program is paid for. And our goal with clients is get them to do that within 30 days. So it's a no brainer to stay in the mastermind.
[00:19:28] So the other thing that startups do is they make a lot of mistakes on their branding. The most common is they brand themselves as something generic like "properties" or brand themselves as a real estate company, the most common, which is super detrimental to word of mouth and to getting referral partners in the industry and can cause a lot of challenges.
[00:19:50] The other big mistake is they make a lot of mistakes with their website. They just go and get some sort of website maybe from their property management software company. And they do some sort of website there, and they spend way too much money on this. We include in our mastermind, by the way, a website for free. They're included as part of the program now.
[00:20:12] So as long as you're a mastermind member, we will work on developing and building a website with you, however long that takes whether it's a month or two months or whatever it takes to get you to gather all the content and get everything up. We will build a website for you. We even have like 50 predesigned styles and we give you market exclusivity on that design.
[00:20:33] So that means nobody else in your state in the U.S. or your province in Canada, will get to have the same design or style as you. And we're going to match the colors to it, put your brand on it. We also are the world's leading branding agency. We help you avoid all the common potential pitfalls in your brand.
[00:20:53] We have training material on how to choose and pick a really effective name and branding, help you avoid common mistakes that really could cost you about 50% of the leads and deals you could or should be getting. We're gonna help you avoid that. And we've rebranded hundreds of companies over the years. Nobody else has done anything close to what we have done for clients in the branding space or at the level or the amount that we have done.
[00:21:18] We've rebranded hundreds of companies. And anytime we help clients rebrand or help them redo their websites, they tend to get more flow of whatever their acquisition strategy is for getting new clients on. We also have really good strategies for you getting acquisition or acquiring new clients. So that costs $0. They just take time and they actually take less time than SEO, pay-per-click, content marketing, social media marketing, or pay per lead services. It takes less time than those because those are cold leads, and cold leads take a lot of time to nurture, a lot of time to follow up. We're going to focus on warm leads, strategies, and we're not going to fight over the existing market share, which is small and try and compete with other companies that are probably a lot larger than you spending thousands of dollars to employ those strategies. We're going to sidestep all of that. And we're going to capture people earlier in the sales cycle where there's less price sensitivity. There's a much higher close rate. They're warmer leads, and you can charge more money on average.
[00:22:22] And then you're creating new market share. We call this the blue ocean strategy. Instead of fighting in the red ugly water with every other property manager, especially the big ones that are spending two, three grand a month on all of those channels, maybe even five grand a month and already have the top spot on Google, right?
[00:22:39] So we're going to get you focused on something that's more efficient, more effective. The biggest companies right now, most of them are down about 200 doors I've noticed over the last year or two, just due to sales and the sell-off. Investors are selling properties, so they're losing more doors than they're getting on, and they are spending a ton of money on marketing and it's not even helping them offset that. But we've got clients they've added 100, 200 doors easily in the last year and they didn't spend a dime on SEO, pay-per-click, content marketing, or social media marketing, or pay per lead. Nothing. No advertising costs. They did invest time into using our strategies, but they invested less time than it would have taken if they had gotten a huge pile of cold leads. And they've got a much better output.
[00:23:25] All right. So hopefully that gets you a little bit excited about talking to us at DoorGrow. A lot of people wonder if we're legit. We're legit. This has been proven. We've helped a lot of clients do this. And if you're willing to put in the work, you're going to get great results. That's the bottom line. There's no system out there that's just going to work for you and do the job for you.
[00:23:45] We're also gonna help you increase your close rate and help you be better at selling. And then the operational piece, which becomes the next big hurdle. We're going to help you solve that, how to scale your team and your business so that your life and business gets easier the bigger it gets instead of harder, which most listening, if you've had a business for a while, your business probably feels really hard and you probably feel pretty stuck and you probably recognize you're the biggest bottleneck in the company.
[00:24:11] And you're probably frustrated at your team and in a state of overwhelm and wish they would all just think and make decisions for and on your behalf. We can help you solve that problem, probably within the first 90 days of working with this. We call that the scale program. And anyway.
[00:24:28] So we talked today about pure startups. Just get started, start taking action, don't try to avoid sucking, and kill that fantasy as soon as possible by taking action and make sure you're educated on the legalities of your industry. And I hope that this has been really helpful for those that are looking to start a property management business.
[00:24:52] The last piece is if you do not know how to manage rental properties, which is not something I personally teach anybody. If you need the nuts and bolts like the basics join. The National Association of Residential Property Managers. They have great training and resources. Check out rentlikeapro.com and Rent Like a Pro's YouTube channel. They've put out some great content. There are books about running a property management business, things like that. So check out some of those resources we do have in our Facebook group doorgrowclub.com. Just go to doorgrowclub.com. If you join that and give us your email address, you will get some really cool tools, including a list of really cool software tools and vendor tools and stuff that you can use to build your business.
[00:25:40] We'll also send a gift, which is a fee Bible. So how you can make more money, which is put out by Rent Like a Pro. The fourth edition of that is given to you for free. If you join the DoorGrow Club Facebook group, you will also get a email. We have like five different gifts that you're going to get, a tool of how to grade your website in terms of getting business and some other things. So check that out. Get those free resources. We do have in the Facebook group, in the file, section a document for startups, with some of the things that I mentioned that can help you kind of get started.
[00:26:12] So I hope this has been helpful. And until next time to our mutual growth. Bye everyone.
[00:26:19] You just listened to the #DoorGrowShow. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet in the DoorGrowClub. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC, pay per lead content, social direct mail, and they still struggle to grow!
[00:26:46] At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge: getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today's episode on our blog doorgrow.com, and to get notified of future events and news subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe.
[00:27:07] Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow Hacking your business and your life.
At DoorGrow, we love highlighting client success and wins. The Schmitts are a great example of clients who put in the work and get the results. Since joining the program, they have DOUBLED their PM portfolio!
In this episode, property management growth expert Jason Hull interviews Jon and Sonia Schmitt from True Patriot Property Management in Florida and gains their valuable perspective on adding doors, growing a PM business, and being a part of the DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind.
You’ll Learn…
[01:06] Today’s Guests: Jon and Sonia Schmitt of True Patriot
[02:30] Discovering and Getting Started with DoorGrow
[04:39] The Results and Major Lessons: What Has Changed Since DoorGrow?
[07:28] Your Personal and Business ‘Why’
[12:29] Finding Clarity in Your Business
[14:17] What’s Next for the Schmitts?
[22:04] Where Would Jon and Sonia be Without DoorGrow?
[026:55] Wrapping up: How to Grow Your PM Business like Jon and Sonia
“The business exists to serve you.”
“Everything has to start with the sales and going after the right clientele that we want in our niche.”
“I find entrepreneurs, we have two speeds. We feel stuck or we feel like we're in momentum, and in momentum feels like life to us.”
“If you don't have the business of your dreams and the team of your dreams yet, you're not the person that can run it yet.”
[00:00:00] Jon Schmitt: You definitely changed me. You definitely did. Thinking, my focus, everything. I mean the name, just everything.
[00:00:07] Jason Hull: All right. Welcome DoorGrow Hackers to the #DoorGrowShow. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others impact lives, and you are interested in growing your business and life, and you're open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow Hacker.
[00:00:27] DoorGrow Hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate, high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income.
[00:00:46] At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I'm your host property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow.
[00:01:06] Now, let's get into the show. And today's guests, I have two guests here today hanging out with me and it's the Schmitts, right? So I've got Jon and Sonia Schmitt, and they are clients in our mastermind program. And why don't I let you two kind of introduce yourself?
[00:01:27] Jon Schmitt: I'm Jon.
[00:01:30] Sonia Schmitt: I'm Sonia.
[00:01:31] Jason Hull: Awesome. So why don't you give people a little bit of background on yourselves, like getting into property management and what you've got going on currently.
[00:01:39] Jon Schmitt: All right. Well, getting into property management, you know, just all started when I started buying properties back, you know, 28 years ago. Just driving around in a station wagon with my lawn mower, cutting grass, that kind of stuff.
[00:01:52] And then, uh, you know, became a real estate agent a couple of years later started managing properties for some other out-of-state people 'cause the company I worked for allowed that. And I figured, you know, it's income without having to do any deals. So struggling to be a real estate agent, property management was a paycheck every single month. So that's how I got started. And then Sonia, she has been a landlord as well from way back. And once we met, I already had an established business, which was dwindling away. Then she came on board, and we kind of held steady and we weren't growing, and then here we are with you. So that's pretty much our background.
[00:02:39] Jason Hull: How'd you hear about DoorGrow?
[00:02:41] Jon Schmitt: I seen you on Facebook.
[00:02:43] Jason Hull: Okay. And so you saw some Facebook and then... what's that?
[00:02:47] Sonia Schmitt: I was saying, I think he seen you on Facebook for a long period of time.
[00:02:51] Jon Schmitt: I was stalking you.
[00:02:52] Sonia Schmitt: He was a stalker.
[00:02:54] Jason Hull: Yeah. Okay, cool. I like stalkers 'cause they're like nurturing themselves over time. And then when they come to us, they're really excited. I mean, you're not just going to sign up right away, right? So you saw us on Facebook, and how many doors did you have at the time you decided to start with us and what challenges were you dealing with then?
[00:03:14] Jon Schmitt: I think we had about, um, forty or so. Most of our business was from foreclosures, from homeowners associations, and condo associations. I made a contact with a couple of attorneys and they were just throwing it at me and throwing out the owners that weren't paying their fees, getting foreclosed on.
[00:03:35] And then I was turning the properties around, getting them rented and collecting rents and doing the maintenance because the homeowners associations and their managers, their management companies, are not landlords. So, I established myself as a landlord. So that's what they needed. And I exploded from there.
[00:03:54] But then when the banks were taking over and I was losing business, right at that time, Sonia came into the picture. We kind of stabilized, but then we needed to grow. And I said, "Hey, Sonia, look at this guy on Facebook." and here we are today.
[00:04:10] Jason Hull: What'd you think Sonia, like, who is this cat?
[00:04:13] Sonia Schmitt: Oh, I thought you were phenomenal from the-- from the moment-- from the moment I heard you first speak and I was intrigued and excited. You brought excitement back and direction.
[00:04:27] Jon Schmitt: I should leave you two alone.
[00:04:29] Sonia Schmitt: He's a card. He's always a card. You never know what's going to come out of his mouth.
[00:04:39] Jason Hull: So we love having Jon on the calls because Jon is so funny. Like you just, you say the funniest things. So John, Sonia, you started at that level of doors and you had some challenges. What's changed? Like what's been happening in the business since then?
[00:04:56] Jon Schmitt: Well, since we hooked up with you, you totally changed our direction. You change the way we think. You're changing the way we operate. You've changed our brand. We kind of did that immediately. I mean, you really pointed out a lot of my own personal flaws, which, you said one thing where I was beside myself. You called me low value. I couldn't believe it.
[00:05:23] Jason Hull: Did I call you low value?
[00:05:24] Jon Schmitt: You called me low value! Hence the TalkRoute. And now I don't like it, but I'm going to go back to low value, but I'll figure that out at a later time.
[00:05:33] Jason Hull: I don't, I don't know that I called you low value. I want you to be high-value.
[00:05:38] Jon Schmitt: And I want to be that. And when you did my son, Alex was laughing, and he keeps teasing me. He's like, "You're low value." And you'll love that.
[00:05:49] Jason Hull: You tell him to watch it. You tell him to watch it.
[00:05:51] Jon Schmitt: Oh yeah.
[00:05:52] Jason Hull: He needs to respect his elders.
[00:05:55] Jon Schmitt: You've changed our direction. You really made an impact and changed our direction, and it seems to be working. We have to do the work. You have the ideas. You tell us the ideas, we do the work, and we're starting to get results. Hence, Alex landed a deal through a realtor. And the lady went with our premium services. And that was Alex. He's very proud of himself.
[00:06:16] Sonia Schmitt: Yeah.
[00:06:17] Jason Hull: Awesome. Yeah. We revamped your pricing.
[00:06:20] Jon Schmitt: Yes, yes.
[00:06:22] Jason Hull: Right. So you're making on average more money per deal. You have more offerings that are a better fit for different types of clients.
[00:06:31] So how many doors are you at right now?
[00:06:33] Jon Schmitt: What do we have? Like 80?
[00:06:35] Sonia Schmitt: 79.
[00:06:36] Jon Schmitt: 79 doors.
[00:06:39] Jason Hull: Yeah. I mean we're getting close to doubling, right? What- what'd you start with? What'd you say?
[00:06:45] Jon Schmitt: Like 40.
[00:06:46] Jason Hull: I mean, we're just right there.
[00:06:48] Jon Schmitt: Right. When we met you, we kicked a couple of sisters to the curb. You know, we were talking about firing them and then after talking to you, we said, "You know what?" Sonia said, "We're done." Fired. They were a little pissed off, you know, when we gave him 30 days notice and they couldn't believe it, but we needed to do it. And it was probably-- yeah, it was like almost 20 doors. So we took a hit, but we were okay with the hit. We're better now.
[00:07:15] Jason Hull: Yeah. So you had 40. I told you to get rid of 20. So you were at 20 and now you're at 79. You're almost at 80.
[00:07:26] Jon Schmitt: Right.
[00:07:28] Jason Hull: And so that's incredible. So that's awesome. What do you feel like for those that haven't been in the program, what do you feel like is the most significant thing that you've been getting out of this?
[00:07:40] Sonia Schmitt: Oh, I mean, for me and Jon handles most of the sales as of right now, but for me it was developing your 'why.' Why are you doing this? It's the weekly meetings that we have. We get ideas from you. We get ideas from other property managers that are located throughout the United States on things that are working, things that are not working. And it's the focus. I think, you know, you talked about the "5 currencies" and focus. And I think the focus has-- it's now laser sharp versus before it was very dull. Okay. So now we have focus. We're a little bit scattered because we're trying to do multiple different things, but we're laser focused in on the how and the why.
[00:08:37] And I also think accountability. Conversations. Where are you at? Tell me what you're struggling with. You know, what, what is your direction? I think that you come up with innovative ideas, which I think that is at the top of the game of different things that are gonna make us be able to succeed, make more money in collapsed time. And that's the one thing that I am working on is collapsing time so I can be more effective, more efficient. And I think with Jon, just-- gosh, it's the motivation behind it all. And like I said, being laser focused on what you're going after, why you're going after it. And you know, Alex and I went to a property and it's like, 'oh, I'm not sure. I'm not sure.' And I ended up and I liked it, but when I first seen him and I met him kind of like the location, and I didn't know what the inside looked like I just looked at him and I said, "I don't know if I'm going to take this or not." I said, "just be prepared," you know? But again, we don't want all properties. We want to know and go after our client health. And we want that to be narrowed in and focused on, which is going to give us the most bang for our buck.
[00:09:57] Jason Hull: Yeah. Yeah. Some of the stuff for people that are not in the program might sound a little fluffy and woo woo, right? Like "we figured out our 'why,' and like collapsing time... and you know, people in the program, they get it. So what would you say to those people that are not in this? Like, how has figuring out what your motivation or your 'why?' How has that shifted what happens in the business?
[00:10:21] Sonia Schmitt: We're just not going for anybody any longer. We're not taking on clients because those clients end up taking a lot of our time. You know, you don't want a homeowner, right? Or a landlord. You want a specific landlord within a certain location that takes care of their properties that cares about their tenants. So it becomes more focused. So, you know, and you then can drive your business with more focus in that direction.
[00:10:51] Jason Hull: Yeah. So you've got a lot more clarity on the avatar that you're kind of targeting and going after now. And so, surprise, you're getting more of that type of person as a client, right?
[00:11:02] Sonia Schmitt: Yes. Yes.
[00:11:04] Jason Hull: And really at the core, for those that are watching or listening to this now or later, understanding the 'why' may sound like fluffy sort of weird stuff, but understanding why you started as a business and the motivation behind it and what type of clients you want to be working with.
[00:11:21] I mean, the business exists to serve you. And I'm sure that it's starting to feel a bit more like that, like that instead of you serving the business, which doesn't feel very fun, now you're starting to shift into "the business is serving us and our needs and desires." Does that sound accurate?
[00:11:40] Sonia Schmitt: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:11:42] I think we were very scattered before all over the place. Now we are focused in on-- we have different buckets that we're going after. And we may not have everything checked off, but it brings clarity with the mastermind group of what needs to be done first. It's kind of like, yeah, I may handle the operations and the accounting, but without the sales, there is no operations or accounting. There is no maintenance. There is none of that. Everything has to start with the sales and going after the right clientele that we want in our niche.
[00:12:20] Jason Hull: Now I'm sure. Before you signed up, there was no shortage of a to-do list of things you felt needed to be done in the business, right?
[00:12:28] Jon Schmitt: Right.
[00:12:29] Jason Hull: I mean, every business we have endless to do lists. It's like a "to-die" list for us as entrepreneurs. So coming into the program, it sounds like just really helped you get clarity. And we talk about this a lot in the program, like really focusing on where's the biggest pain first and assessing things. I talk about going through the core functions of the business and figuring out which things are the weakest. Did you realize going through some of this and coming into the program, that you were focusing too much on some things that were already working well, and then maybe shifting to things that needed more attention?
[00:13:05] Jon Schmitt: Yeah, we were all over the board. Okay. We still are a little bit. But the things that need attention is new business at this point. The accounting is functioning good, bookkeeping's spot on, the maintenance? We're okay with that. You know, it's the sales. So I had a couple people that were referring me business, but you know, that kind of has gone away.
[00:13:29] Not that they don't like us anymore. They just won't throw us business. However, the type of business we had, the foreclosures, have dried up. So now we're just laser focused on the real estate agents, some other attorneys, CPAs, and insurance brokers. Alex and I are doing calls, you know, I have my calendar blocked from 9:00 to like 11:00-11:30. That's all I'm doing. Okay. And we do it nonstop one call after another. Some calls last 10 minutes, some calls last 30 seconds. So I want to try to make at least 30 calls a day. And Alex also, and that's our focus first thing in the morning. And then I'll take care of maintenance and everything like that afterwards, as it needs to happen.
[00:14:17] Jason Hull: Yeah. Awesome. So what are you excited about in the future? Because you're in a state of momentum. You can see the things are positively changing and shifting in the business. I mean a lot of property managers right now are losing more doors than they're getting on. They're like going down because the sell off that's happening in the marketplace. The market's generally hot throughout the U.S. Lots of investors are getting out and I'm sure you felt some of that as well. I doubt your market's immune to that totally. Correct me if I'm wrong. But you're growing and outpacing that attrition that's naturally happening with growth. So what would you say to those that are like thinking about working with DoorGrow? Because I'm sure a lot of people see my social media. They see the things that we put out and they think, 'yeah, who is this guy? Like this-- another guru out there who's trying to get money from people.' So what's your perception of me since you're on the inside, behind the paywall and we've had one-on-one conversations and you've been on our group things and you've been into the material. What's your perception of me, my motivation, and DoorGrow and the team? I'm curious. And you can be as honest as possible.
[00:15:32] Jon Schmitt: Oh, I'll be honest. I think you're a very interesting guy. Me personally, I'm not a woowoo type guy, but she's a woowoo girl and her friends are all woowoo. Um, you know, I think you're very interesting. You're very creative. And just your techniques that you pitched to us and your ideas and your way of doing things, I think it's spot on. I think that you know, people that aren't doing it the way you say to do it, it's kind of like they're old school and you know what? We're into like a new era, a new way of doing things. And you have to change with the times. If you don't change, you're going to die.
[00:16:12] The way we used to do it, you know, I would cold call landlords, I would send out mass fly postcards and stuff like that. I mean, I tell you I'd send out 10,000. It'd be 10,000, we'd get one call. Okay. You see what I'm saying? I mean, that's just like an old school way of doing it. And before we hooked up with you, I mean, I was printing out tax records of all out of state owners and just looking them up, calling them up, "Hey, Jason, you know, I see you've got these two duplexes over here. How's your management work and start talking to him and you'd get 'click.' Right? So I'm getting away from that, so people that are not in your group, I'm sure they're just old school and the ones that are losing business, aren't keeping up with the pace and the times and changing their ways.
[00:17:00] Sonia Schmitt: Hmm. I think you're very authentic. And I think that you have a lot of direction in many years of helping property managers throughout the United States. And I think what DoorGrow does is it brings focus whereas we could be all over the board trying to get new clientele from single family homes to quad quadplexes, triplexes, for sale by owners, property managers, people are getting rentals. You know, you'd go after the rentals and after all of that. But the nice thing is, is you establish relationships and trust with real estate agents. You have a big focus with that, right? Because that's your honey hole. I love that word. But anyways I think that having focus and going after certain groups. Real estate agents, CPAs... and you can take it out further and further. I mean, in Palm beach county alone, and in Florida, I believe we have the second largest or third largest real estate realtors associations.
[00:18:13] So I think that you're cutting edge. You stay on top of things. You're trying new things out. What works. You've tried it. Either you like it, you don't like it. If you'd like it, you pass it onto the group and then other people explore. So I think that adds a lot of value.
[00:18:33] Jason Hull: Cool. Yeah. I'm just wired that I love to learn and I love sharing good ideas that I learn. And I guess that kind of just is what we do. Well, I really appreciate both of you being the program. Oh, I wanted to touch on your son, Alex. So as part, like in this journey, in working with you at some point, you're like, "Hey, let's bring our son in on this."
[00:18:55] And by son, you know, some people might think it's some little kid. He's an adult, but he's come into the business and it's been rewarding for me to see him come in and be learning and stepping into new roles and doing things and getting success too. He shared a win on the call today.
[00:19:12] Now, Jon. Jon was chiming in from the background, making sure he said some of the right things being dad.
[00:19:19] Jon Schmitt: We received these doors this week from a realtor referral. So I was saying to him, "Alex, tell 'em--
[00:19:28] Jason Hull: Give credit!
[00:19:28] Jon Schmitt: Got them from where? And then he yells at me and says, "they're not realtors." I'm like, I'm not meaning what they are. I'm meaning how you got the doors, right? So he brought one in. The lady signed up for premium. And then I brought the other one in that Sonia and Alex closed the guy. Okay. I met him through another realtor referral. And then the other appointment that I was on, I was on actually two appointments that day.
[00:19:56] And they came off of people searching us and liking the new name.
[00:20:03] Sonia Schmitt: Rebranding
[00:20:04] Jon Schmitt: Right, they loved it, you know, the way we were branded. So that's why they called us.
[00:20:09] Jason Hull: Yeah. We've made a lot of changes in your business already. So in the fruit of all of those changes is going to start to really start to show up. You're just at the beginning of all of this, like the rebrand, the pricing, like all this. And as you build that brand in your market, and as you build that clout up, I'm really excited to see what you guys do. I mean, over the next year, I think you guys are going to be crushing it because once you really get into a groove with this... I mean, the sky's the limit. With the growth you've had, you could easily be adding a hundred to 200 doors a year, I would imagine.
[00:20:39] Jon Schmitt: You know, if we stay consistent, and that's what's going to happen, there's no other way to go. If we stay consistent, what we're doing and just keep doing what we're doing. I see that as well.
[00:20:50] Jason Hull: Does that sound crazy to you? Like if Jon pre-DoorGrow could listen to Jon now say that, would that sound a little crazy to that guy?
[00:21:00] Jon Schmitt: Yes.
[00:21:01] Jason Hull: Like impossible? Like there's no fricking way, you know?
[00:21:05] Jon Schmitt: You definitely changed me. You definitely did. Thinking, my focus, everything. I mean the name, just everything. Calendly the TalkRoute, which I'm getting rid of. I don't like it.
[00:21:16] Jason Hull: You don't like TalkRoute. Alright.
[00:21:20] Jon Schmitt: We'll find something that works for us.
[00:21:22] Jason Hull: Yeah. Right, right. I mean, you're old school sometimes. Right. So maybe just get a second phone. Right. Just get another phone, like the private phone and the public phone. Right? I don't know, but yeah. Yeah. So, well, it's been really great having you in the program, excited to see what you guys accomplish. Anything else you think people should know about door grow or about y'all before we wrap this up?
[00:21:49] Jon Schmitt: You're definitely a good coach. And we're happy with you and, um, we're looking forward to hearing about the invitation to the in-person meeting.
[00:21:58] Jason Hull: Ooh. Yeah.
[00:21:59] Jon Schmitt: We're looking forward to coming over to Texas.
[00:22:02] Jason Hull: Yeah? Alright. That'll be cool.
[00:22:04] Sonia Schmitt: We wouldn't be where we are today, if it wasn't for you and if it wasn't for DoorGrow. That I can tell you and our business is growing exponentially and we're very appreciative and grateful to be a part of your team.
[00:22:21] Jason Hull: Well, I appreciate that. Where do you think you would be? Where do you think things would be right now?
[00:22:27] Jon Schmitt: We would probably be-- we have a lot of investment properties of our own, so we would just be going off of that. And we would do some real estate sales and we would just, we'd probably get business here and there and we'd still be just old school, throwing out some mails every quarter. And you know, that's probably what we'd be doing.
[00:22:47] Jason Hull: I mean, that doesn't sound so bad. So on the personal side, what do you feel like has kind of changed like in your life? ' Cause I mean, really there's a reason behind this business, right? It's so you can have the life you want.
[00:22:59] Jon Schmitt: Right. My life basically changed. I've got new fire in me. I feel like I just came into the business again. So, you know, when you have something new? You're very excited about it. So I'm very excited every single day to see what I'm going to make happen. Okay. Sometimes the day before follows into the next day, but there's always something new now popping up. So that has been created again. It's like, I'm just, you know, the second week in.
[00:23:30] Jason Hull: Yeah. So you feel alive again. You know, I find entrepreneurs, we have two speeds. We feel stuck or we feel like we're in momentum, and in momentum feels like life to us. We're not so worried about whether we're happy or sad. That's everybody else on the planet, but for us as entrepreneurs, it's like, "am I in momentum? Do I feel alive and on fire and inspired? Or do I feel stuck or frustrated?" So Sonia, what's it been like seeing the shift in Jon, like with this?
[00:23:58] Sonia Schmitt: It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. I'll tell ya, you know, for couple of years. I think that he was burned out at work, tired. It was pretty much on my shoulders. And, um, you have made a difference in his life and like you said, he has a new spark. He has direction. He knows what he's going to do. And he has his plan. He's scheduled. There's a little bit of everything that you've spoken about and taught that he has implemented into his daily routine. And you can see a difference.
[00:24:37] He would say that he called people before, he didn't call nobody. You know, he didn't make connections if they call him that's great. He'd take it, but he was just kinda, I think he was burnt out. And you brought the spark back and we see the momentum, we see it making the bottom line difference in our lives, and we're able to expand, looking to hire somebody. So it's been a positive all around.
[00:25:04] Jason Hull: You know, property management can be a grind. It can be really hard. I mean I've never done it. Right. But, the feedback I've heard from hundreds, thousands of property managers is that this is not an easy business. It can be really difficult. It's as difficult as you allow it to be. Right. And business in general is hard. Running a business is hard. Entrepreneurs are under no illusion-- if they've run a business for even a year that it's not an easy thing. So I think every entrepreneur has gotten to that point.
[00:25:35] I know I have where I'm burnt out. I'm done. I wake up and I'm like, basically "fuck it." I'm watching Netflix today. Like, that's all I'm doing. Like, I don't want to do it. Like I've had those moments and I feel like I'm living a dream right now that I get to do what I get to do, because it's in alignment with my 'why.' and that's what I want for all of my clients. I want them to have that clarity because we're all unique, and we all have a different purpose in life and a different thing we really want that gives us the maximum level of the four reasons as I've talked about on a previous episode of fulfillment, freedom, contribution, and support, and that's different for everybody.
[00:26:13] And I get to experience that in my business and in my day-to-day. And I want all my clients to experience that because I also want their team members to experience that. And ultimately you're helping your clients to experience a taste of that as well. And so I think the ripple effect that I get to have through amazing clients, like you is really inspiring to me and it really motivates me to keep going. And just having clients that do what I tell them to do and get results is like super rewarding to me. So, you know I appreciate that greatly so. Well, I appreciate you being here on the #DoorGrowShow and I'm excited to see your continued success.
[00:26:52] Jon Schmitt: Thanks, Jason.
[00:26:53] Sonia Schmitt: Thank you very much.
[00:26:55] Jason Hull: All right. So we'll go ahead and wrap up this episode. I really appreciate them taking some time out of the day to come help me plug DoorGrow so to speak. But I wanted to just share if you are property management entrepreneur that is struggling to either add doors or maybe you have hundreds of doors, but you're really struggling to dial in the operations piece. You're just banging your head against the wall. Why can't my team members just think for themselves? Why do I have to micromanage them? Why can't they just do what I need them to do? The hard truth is you are not yet the entrepreneur that can run the business of your dreams, right? If you don't have the business of your dreams and the team of your dreams yet, you're not the person that can run it yet.
[00:27:34] That's what one of my mentors said to me once, and that hit me hard. And so I want to turn you into the entrepreneur that can have the business of his or her dreams and can grow it and can have that fire and have that excitement in your day to day, because you are aligned with the things you really enjoy doing. And you have direction on how to get what you really want to be doing. And you're not stuck because being stuck sucks for entrepreneurs. It's really uncomfortable. It's frustrating. So if that sounds interesting to you, that you're dealing with-- maybe your business it isn't in alignment, which is like branding is off and maybe your pricing isn't optimized and your website isn't optimized, or maybe you're just not getting the growth that you want.
[00:28:20] And you want to know how to add doors without having to spend any money on advertising or doing SEO or pay-per-click or content marketing or social media marketing. And you could still outpace all the companies that are spending tons of money to do all of this. Or you want to just scale your operations, get out of the day-to-day, have more energy, more fun, more focus, more freedom, and figure out how to get a team that really supports you.
[00:28:48] I want to help you build that business and I want to help you become the entrepreneur that can have that business. So reach out to us. You can find us at doorgrow.com, and until next time, to our mutual growth. Bye everyone.
[00:29:00] Jason: You just listened to the #DoorGrowShow. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet in the DoorGrowClub. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC pay per lead content, social direct mail, and they still struggle to grow!
[00:29:27] At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge: getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today's episode on our blog doorgrow.com, and to get notified of future events and news subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe.
[00:29:48] Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow Hacking your business and your life.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have your own kid work with you in your business? Here at DoorGrow, one of our team members is the founder/CEO’s daughter!
Property management growth expert Jason Hull interviews his own daughter AND team member, Madi Sleight. Madi gives a unique perspective on Jason, DoorGrow, social media, and more. If you ever wondered what Jason is really like personally, this episode is for you.
You’ll Learn…
[01:15] Meet today’s guest: Madilyn Sleight with DoorGrow
[05:16] What does Jason even do? Madi’s perspective as a kid and as Jason’s daughter.
[07:45] Joining the team at DoorGrow and Madi’s role on the team.
[05:16] What does Jason even do? Madi’s perspective as a kid and as Jason’s daughter.
[17:45] The program is not a miracle cure… then who is the program for?
[22:15] Jason’s personality according to his daughter and how Jason’s “out there” beliefs benefit the DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind
[27:40] What’s next for Madi?
[32:01] More about Madi and her relationship with her dad
[38:25] Madi learned to mimic Jason’s voice on socials + how she does social media
“I love those clients. I love the ones that just show up to everything and they do everything that we say and they just get the best results.”
“For me, it's super rewarding to see clients winning and succeeding. Like it's worth more than money and getting paid to do what I do.”
“It's crazy that I get paid to just help people win, which is really awesome.”
“I think the first thing that people who are skeptical or unsure need to realize is you're not selling a magical cure.”
[00:00:00] Madi Sleight: You know, you've always kind of been out there in your beliefs or like what you're interested in. Like, And I mean this in the best way possible, you're kind of like a nutjob.
[00:00:11] Jason Hull: All right, welcome DoorGrow Hackers to the #DoorGrowShow! If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others impact lives, and you're interested in growing your business and life, and you're open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow Hacker. DoorGrow Hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate. Think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships and residual income.
[00:00:50] At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I'm your host property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now let's get into the show.
[00:01:15] All right, everybody, so today's interview guest that I have with me is Madilyn Marie Hull, my daughter who goes by Madi.
[00:01:28] Madi Sleight: It's also Sleight now.
[00:01:31] Jason Hull: Oh, oh, that's right. She's married now. So it's Madilyn Marie Sleight. So... no? Madi Sleight?
[00:01:40] Madi Sleight: You didn't have to put in the middle name in there, come on.
[00:01:43] Jason Hull: I know, but like I named you, and I gave you that name, so. Cool. So yeah, gosh, that's a old habit. Yeah, Madi Sleight. I got to get used to that last name. I'm still not used to it. So Madi Sleight... I wanted to have her on the show. I want to have my daughter-- she's my oldest-- and I wanted to have her on the show partially because her birthday is tomorrow. We're recording this here on February 1st and she was born February 2nd. And it's her birthday tomorrow.
[00:02:10] But Madi also has been working with me. How long have you been working with me?
[00:02:17] Madi Sleight: It'll be two years in I think July-- June or July.
[00:02:22] Jason Hull: Yeah. So she's been going to school, going to college, and doing work with DoorGrow. And so, she's become a critical part of the team. And so, I wanted to have her on the show because I think it would be really cool for those that listened to the podcast. Those that wonder who Jason Hull is and what's he really like, you know? I'm also a father, and I am a boss and Madi's gotten to experience both sides of those things the good and the bad. And I thought it'd be cool to have you on the show just to help people understand maybe a little bit more about me and that sort of thing.
[00:02:59] So Madi, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell people with the right name, since I screwed that up already and tell everybody what it is that you do at DoorGrow.
[00:03:10] Madi Sleight: Okay. Well, my name is Madi Sleight. Nobody calls me Madilyn, except for you apparently. But, I am our social media manager here at DoorGrow, and I also just do a couple other little things like I video edit and I create case studies/ testimonials of our clients, showcase their wins, post those to YouTube, and I hand those over to Kyle as well, our kind of marketing guy. And he makes those into these awesome Facebook ads that are our lead gen source right now.
[00:03:40] I sit in on all the weekly calls, the weekly coaching calls with our clients and I take notes and I capture their wins, so I kind of get to know all of our clients on maybe more of a surface level, but it's still really cool. I get to know their names and faces and backgrounds of their businesses. How many doors they add each call. And it's very insightful. I've tried a lot of different things in the last year and a half of being at DoorGrow. I tried sales followup for a little bit, tried a little bit of client success here and there. I've gotten to learn a lot of things, and I am an advertising major at the university of Idaho.
[00:04:17] And so it's kind of been cool learning, you know, things in lecture about advertising, SEO, sales, marketing, stuff like that. Being able to use that knowledge at DoorGrow. But then also learning things at DoorGrow and being able to put that towards my degree and use that in my classes.
[00:04:38] Jason Hull: Yeah. And I think it's really cool.
[00:04:40] So, I think the most important thing that I want that you do is more testimonial videos because it's proof, it's evidence that we're getting results and you get to see this stuff firsthand. You're not just behind the paywall and seeing what goes on, but you get to see the inner workings of the business. And so, maybe you could share with people what you thought I did in the business and what you thought I did before you became a team member of the business, what your perspective was and then maybe how that shifted, because I'm sure that was quite a bit different once you got in.
[00:05:16] Madi Sleight: I don't even know what I thought you did cause for a while, when I was a little kid, you were the website guy. And I thought, "oh, how cool," you know, "my dad made a website for Mr. Gas in my hometown." And I was like, "wow!" You know.
[00:05:30] Jason Hull: Wow, that's a long time ago.
[00:05:32] Madi Sleight: I know! And I remember that. And so, when you started making that transition into coaching, you know-- and it was kind of a subtle, smooth transition. You started in with your brother. You've got family members who are into this kind of stuff, but it wasn't something that you necessarily shared with me and my siblings all the time. You kind of just would disappear and turn on your busy sign, your neon, sign outside your door of your office. And we were like, "Yeah, he's working," you know, "he's doing what he's doing."
[00:06:02] And it was only until I think two summers before I started working at DoorGrow, when you came to me and were like, "Hey, you should try out making a couple social media posts for us." And I did 'cause I was into design stuff. Only then I was like, what is DoorGrow? What is-- what does that even mean?
[00:06:22] That is such a weird term doors and growing? Is it like a plant business? I got really into it. Like I was really curious and I actually like begged him for the remainder of those two years. Like, "dude, I'll do your social media. It's a travesty. I will fix it for you"
[00:06:40] Jason Hull: "Let me do it, dad."
[00:06:42] Madi Sleight: Seriously! I was like begging him. And even like my sister-- I would be texting my sister and I'd be like, "man, you know, he still hasn't gotten back to me on this." And she's like, "oh, I'll go talk to him. Hailey did. Hailey and I would text behind your back and be like, man.
[00:06:58] And that was one of the first things when I, was graduating high school and going off to college, your social media was still-- it was still not great. it was very inconsistent. You guys were probably posting... you posted mostly about the podcast episodes, which I still do. But other than that, you were posting maybe once a month or less, not consistently.
[00:07:19] And the branding, the designs and branding were kind of off and it almost made you look sketchy from a social media standpoint, and I honestly, when I was applying to work for DoorGrow, I still wasn't completely sure what you did. I knew that you've coached businesses to like become better businesses. And that's kinda what I told people like, "yeah, he's a business guy who makes other business guys do better."
[00:07:45] But it wasn't until I actually-- I was just desperate for a job at that point, but I applied to DoorGrow and you made me jump through all these hoops, personality tests. I was like, "this is so my dad." Cause you had made me take these personality tests before. You had, you know, human design stuff. This was stuff that he would make my siblings and I do, but I took them again and I was like, "he makes his applicants do this?"
[00:08:10] I was like, that is such a thing that my dad would do, but I'm going through. I do all the things. And as I was going, I just started getting more and more excited. I was like, "man, this a lot of hoops to jump through." I feel like if I get past all of this, I must be a really cool person.
[00:08:27] Like it started making me more excited to work for you guys, because it was like qualifying me as someone you were hiring. And then I made the little introduction video, and I tried to have fun with it and get like my personality involved. And I remember being so nervous. I was like, "Why am I so nervous? It's my dad. I'm trying to work with my dad." But I was so nervous all of a sudden. I was so excited. And I remember-- we had different team members at the time like Jon Ray-- and you were sending me messages that you had gotten from the team. Like, "Man, I love her video!" And I got so excited, and going through the trainings that you sent me-- you sent me like the company mission statement and the core values-- I went through those and I read it and I got to learn like what you do and what you stand for. And not only was it cool' cause I got to know you a little bit better on the business side. That was something me and my siblings never really got to experience when we were little, but I also got to know the business.
[00:09:25] And first of all, I learned you were not a scam because I wasn't sure. It's an expensive program. You know? Like are people getting value out of it? But people were, and the more like I dove into the client testimonials and I watched, I remember some of my family members at the time being like, "what are you doing?"
[00:09:44] And they're like, "come take a break and hang out with us." I'm like, "no, I'm watching all these videos." I was like watching them in the background while doing other things. I was watching them and I really got to know the business. And then I got even more excited and I was like, "you know, this company doesn't really need me for social media right now. I mean, you did, you needed some social media help, but also you guys were doing just fine. The value was there and people noticed that even without flashy visuals or a really well set up socials page. Although, and I can get into this later, but I do think the social media is helping from what I've seen now. I can get into that later if you want, but...
[00:10:23] Jason Hull: I don't, I don't have to mess with it now, which is really nice. It just gets done. So, yeah. And I don't really have to spend time on Facebook. I don't have to spend time on Instagram. So that really did add value. My favorite thing that you do though, is get testimonial videos. I love those and you do a really great job on editing those. So you had mentioned just seeing me work from, you know, I was working from home. Right? And most people, if they have a dad that works, which I guess most people probably do, their dad usually takes off, like leaves and comes back. Like they just disappear, but I was always there and working from home. What do you think that was like for you? Is that different than you think other people's experience? Was it weird?.
[00:11:05] Madi Sleight: Yeah, it was weird. I mean, when we were really little, and I mean like second grade, eight years old, you had an office for OpenPotion downtown, you know, and even then when you would go to work sometimes--
[00:11:19] Jason Hull: I forgot about that.
[00:11:21] Madi Sleight: Sometimes even then when you would go to work, you'd take me and my sister along with you. And we would like to play around--
[00:11:27] Jason Hull: Yeah, I did for a little while. In the beginning, I did have an office, yeah.
[00:11:30] Madi Sleight: And we would play around in the back with your workout equipment while you were working. Even when you had an office. It wasn't like, like a day job, like a cubicle. We were around. We would play in the shop windows, you know.
[00:11:44] Jason Hull: You have such a good memory. It's really wild.
[00:11:49] Madi Sleight: I really do. Well, I wasn't that young. I was like eight years old. That was when I was missing my two front teeth, you know? Yeah, no, I remember. You had the Roomba going around the office. We would tape stuff to it. Anyway, I'm getting off track.
[00:12:04] Jason Hull: I had a robot cleaning for me. So coming in from the outside and then seeing-- cause you get to see-- you're on pretty much every coaching call, I think every coaching call, right? And you take show notes and then you give those to the group in the Mastermind and everybody else. How would you describe what we do now? And like, what's your perspective seeing what goes on in the business?
[00:12:30] Madi Sleight: Even in just the last year and a half, and I know like we've really sped up the process of getting things organized with Sarah coming on, but even in just the last year and a half, like from when I started versus now-- The program has been polished and cleaned up the value and the coaching, modules themselves were always there, but now we're really like getting to polish and refine them and you get to work on making all the fine adjustments and tunings that you want to.
[00:13:00] And it's really cool seeing that happen because as we're growing and adding more clients, I also see our clients getting more excited. When we made changes to certain documents a couple of weeks ago clients went crazy for it. They were like excited with us over this nerdy formatting change or like changing the order of the program around. The clients get excited, and I've gotten messages from clients being like, "Hey, can you send me the link to this document? I'm excited to restart it or like to do it over again. I want the newest updated version." And so, it's not just something that benefits us on like a organization level...
[00:13:37] Jason Hull: You're talking about the Roadmaps roadmaps or the new scripts, or?
[00:13:39] Madi Sleight: I didn't know if I was supposed to like, go into details on the podcast.
[00:13:43] I don't know what I'm supposed reveal to the public.
[00:13:44] Jason Hull: Like it's a proprietary secret? Nah.
[00:13:48] Madi Sleight: It's a secret. It's for clients only. I don't know. But no, the clients love the updated grow roadmap. They really did. They found a lot more clarity. And I remember when I was reaching out, you know, "Hey, you're in this program, we updated this."
[00:14:03] They're like, "man, can you send me the notes for that call? I missed it." Or I get notes all the time because I've turned into like the weekly coaching call and note taker. People will message me like, "oh man, I'm so upset. I missed today's call." You know, they'll be on every other call like, "man, what did I miss? Can you send me the summary directly so I can like study it and take notes? I'm like, wow. Some of our clients get really invested and find a lot of value in just the weekly coaching calls. And some of our clients-- like we've got a group of them that show up to every single one.
[00:14:36] Jason Hull: Oh, I love those clients. I love the ones that they just, they show up to everything and they do everything that we say and they just get, they get the best results. They're like... they're the best. Like if I could just have all those kinds of clients, I would just have those and everybody would be rich. We would make tons of money. They would make tons of money. But yeah, I love clients that just do what I say.
[00:15:03] Madi Sleight: No, it's true. And it's nice to watch them, especially like from beginning to end. Sometimes they come in a little bit skeptical, like Jon Schmitt. I remember in the beginning he seemed a little stubborn. I dunno, he was intimidatingat first. But when I got on that interview with him last-- or a couple of weeks ago, he was the most excited and he was just going on and on about how much value he got out of the program and how he just decided to do what you said. And so he got the results and he's now like one of our biggest cheerleaders, he and Sonia and Alex come on the call and Alex as well, his son, Alex is always mentioning how much he's learning. He takes notes and he's learning and he wants to quit his day job and start taking over the property management business.
[00:15:47] And that's really cool to watch because I've been on and I've been able to watch a lot of the clients' journeys from beginning to now.
[00:15:58] Jason Hull: Yeah, you have, and you have a perspective or a lens through which you get to see the business that nobody else has because you're watching these videos over and over again, probably while you're editing them and piecing together, and you're like keeping track of different clips where they share wins on different calls, and then you're taking these together. So you get to see their entire journey in collapsed time. And so that's interesting.
[00:16:24] Madi Sleight: Well, I almost get like emotionally attached to these people that I've never met. You know, I've seen through a Zoom screen every week and I'm just quietly sitting there not talking back and I'm just recording them. Sometimes when I'm watching them and piecing together, putting music to their story and cutting out some "ums" or "and yeah"s or "and so"s and like putting together this really impactful video, sometimes I get emotional. I'm like, "wow, I'm so proud of them." You know, they came so far and it's so cool because I almost feel like I get to know these people on a personal level.
[00:17:00] Jason Hull: Yeah, I mean for me, it's super rewarding to see clients winning and succeeding. Like it's worth more than money and getting paid to do what I do and to be just even a guide and seeing all the success in their journeys. It's like really, I mean, it's really amazing. I think it's really amazing that I get to have this job. It's crazy that I get paid to just help people win, which is really awesome. So we like any coach or any business, I've had haters. There's people that just don't believe like we're real or think we just, maybe could be snake oil salesman or something like that. Maybe you could share with people what are you noticing clients are doing?
[00:17:44] Madi Sleight: I think the first thing that people who are skeptical or unsure need to realize is you're not selling a magical cure. You know, they're not going to go through the program and immediately they're going to have knocks on their door being like, "Here, take my properties." That's not how it works. And you know, at first I thought when I first joined the business, I was like, "How can you make that guarantee? How does this work? You know, are you helping them with SEO, helping them get referrals, but really the program benefits those who put in the work.
[00:18:15] It's not for people who are just going to watch the videos and then not do anything about it. In fact, most of the program is doing the work. The videos are almost just helpful content to get you going. The program is not the videos, but I feel like some clients come in and that's what they think, but our most successful clients, our most excited, our most-- I don't know-- just our best clients, the ones that get the best wins and successes. They just come in, they dive right into the content, they keep their three commitments. They put in as many hours of prospecting they can a week. They get right into it. They just do what you say. They attend the weekly coaching calls. They ask lots of questions. That is something that I've noticed is our best, most rewarded clients. They ask a lot of questions. They come on and ask where they're stuck. They ask really good, insightful questions.
[00:19:07] And sometimes they'll take up half the coaching call some of these questions, like 30 whole minutes or 40 minutes. We've been going over time a lot lately because we've been getting really good questions. And then they take what they learned from those calls and they just go implement it.
[00:19:26] Jason Hull: Yeah, it's true. Yeah, we spend a lot of time on those calls sometimes. And I love them asking questions. If they're doing the work, they always have questions. And I see my goal as mentor or as coach to just help them collapse time, point them in the right direction, give them enough information to get them moving forward in the right direction and then kind of get out of their way. So the training material in DoorGrow Academy helps them collapse time, especially because it helps them avoid doing the wrong things. Most people are just doing the wrong things or they're spending-- every business owner is spending tons of time in their business, but they're just focused on the wrong things. And so I think one of the greatest things I think that I provide is just clarity and helping them collapse time. So they don't waste so much time doing the stuff that isn't working.
[00:20:15] So they actually spend less time on the phones and less time talking to people overall. In relation to the amount of doors they're acquiring than they would, if they were focused on SEO or pay-per-click or content marketing or social media marketing, or pay per lead services. This is all the stuff that people try to do. And then they come to us and we say, don't spend any money on any of that stuff. In fact, you don't even need to spend money, and we'll get you growing faster, but it takes work. All of those channels take work. They all take time.
[00:20:48] But none of them could help somebody like John Babiarz add, you know, how many doors has he added in what period?
[00:20:58] Madi Sleight: Right now, our most updated testimonial, which is already out of date because you just had a call with him. He had hit around 200 in under a year of being in the program.
[00:21:10] Jason Hull: 10 months, I think you put on the video?
[00:21:11] Madi Sleight: 10 or 11 months.
[00:21:13] Jason Hull: Yeah, that would be impossible with focusing on lead gen, typical internet based lead generation, like SEO, pay-per-click, content marketing. How many doors did he start at? I can't remember.
[00:21:25] Madi Sleight: He said he started at 60 or 70. And so about six months into the program. I think he had doubled his portfolio.
[00:21:35] Jason Hull: Yeah.
[00:21:36] Madi Sleight: Don't quote me on that. Those dates could be wrong.
[00:21:38] Jason Hull: I think I remember our first video used to run ads was 60. He added 60 doors in 11 weeks is what it said. And we just got lucky that he would mention how many he had added so far in the program, which inspired us to actually start tracking with clients, like keep them conscious of that. Like how many doors total, since during the program, have you added? So that we can monitor that and speed it up.
[00:22:01] But yeah. So that's interesting. What else do you think people should know about. That don't know me from a perspective maybe as my kid or as boss, but how would you describe me to other people?
[00:22:15] Madi Sleight: I don't know. it's really interesting. You know, you've always kind of been out there in your beliefs or like what you're interested in.
[00:22:25] Like, you tend to-- and I mean this in the best way possible, you're kind of like a nutjob. Like you go out, you love to read books and learn. You're constantly on this like self-improvement grind. You're always like learning new things and that's something that you always, you've always been that way. You've always wanted to learn and try new things to figure out like, what's the best way to do this? What's the best diet to eat? What's the best workouts? You've always kind of got that like innovative mindset in a way. You're willing to try like out there experimental things if it's working.
[00:23:00] And I think that also translates into business. Like I wouldn't say that what we're doing is crazy here at DoorGrow. I think what we're doing is just something that helps businesses in general to thrive and to grow. But I don't think anyone else is really doing it like DoorGrow is. I don't think so.
[00:23:19] Maybe you would know better.
[00:23:20] Jason Hull: Probably not.
[00:23:20] I don't think anybody's doing anything the way that we do it. Not, not exactly. That's why all my trainings and with "secrets." We've got special, unique ways that I've come up with of doing things they're similar to what other people might do, but those little differences are where all the magic happens, I think.
[00:23:38] Madi Sleight: And I think in a way, you know, those kind of out there techniques in your personal life and in business, that's something that benefits DoorGrow and is kind of what this whole thing is riding on is your unique perspective and take on these processes that help property managers add doors and scale their businesses.
[00:23:59] It all kind of comes back to you being just a little bit crazy, just a little bit.
[00:24:03] Jason Hull: A learning nut job. So yeah, I think one of the most common things I heard you and the kids say to me growing up is, "you're weird" to me.
[00:24:17] Madi Sleight: You are! And you were, you really were.
[00:24:21] Jason Hull: So, what else would you describe about my personality? And then we'll probably talk a little bit about you.
[00:24:26] Madi Sleight: Well, another thing that I think kind of lends itself to the program and to DoorGrow, but it's totally your personality is you're very logical in thinking. You're very like process oriented. And so you take that crazy and you mix it with this nerd. And then you get this person who can not only come up with these crazy ideas, but can implement them. Like you spend hours in AirTable, creating spreadsheets and processes and crazy like interconnected, intricate spreadsheets and databases. And I don't know. I don't know if I could do that, but you're willing to figure that out. You think it's fun and it's 'cause you've kinda got that like nerdy side as well, but you're very logical oriented and I think that helps our clients as well.
[00:25:15] It's got pros and cons. You tend to think less emotionally and more logically. You don't bullshit or beat around the bush. You tell our clients what needs to get done. You push them to succeed and you're okay telling them the uncomfortable truth, even if they don't want to hear it.
[00:25:33] Jason Hull: Yeah. That's true. Do you think I'm too harsh?
[00:25:36] Madi Sleight: Um, you know, there are times where it's appropriate and times where it's not. In your personal life, sometimes I'd be like, man, you're just a robot.
[00:25:45] Jason Hull: Personally, I'm probably too harsh sometimes..
[00:25:48] Madi Sleight: Sometimes you're a little too logical. Me and my siblings come to you like, "oh my gosh, I've got this emotional problem." and you're like, "it's okay. Just read a book. Here, take this book on self-improvement. And we're like, "I just needed you to listen!" But I think your clients need to hear it, so.
[00:26:09] Jason Hull: Yeah, I think I've gotten better with that over time that, I mean, I used to be really, really analytical and logical and truth was all that mattered, you know, so. But yeah, I think the challenge of that is you're constantly bombarded by emotional challenges if you're too logical. So I had to learn how to feel things and empathize more and more over the years. So I'm up there in years now, you know.
[00:26:39] Madi Sleight: How old?
[00:26:39] Jason Hull: I think I turn 45 this year, so.
[00:26:42] Madi Sleight: You think? You don't know?
[00:26:43] Jason Hull: Yeah, no, I do. I turn 45 this year, so. All right, so that's enough about me. So let's just talk a little bit about you. So how old are you turning tomorrow?
[00:26:58] Madi Sleight: I'm turning 20.
[00:27:00] Jason Hull: 20? And your birthday's on 2/2/02. And you're turning 20 on 2/2/22.
[00:27:11] Madi Sleight: Yeah, it's also Groundhog's day.
[00:27:15] Jason Hull: Oh, okay. So what what's with the twos, Madi?
[00:27:19] Madi Sleight: I don't know. It's my lucky number. I was also married and I graduated in 2020, so.
[00:27:25] Jason Hull: Yeah, a lot of people did not like that year.
[00:27:28] Madi Sleight: You know what? It was okay I guess. I also did not like that year all the time, but hey, still the twos. Two is my lucky number.
[00:27:40] Jason Hull: Yeah. So what's next for you? Like you're going to school now. You're doing a little part-time with DoorGrow. What gets you excited about the future?
[00:27:49] Madi Sleight: I don't know. I've always been very future oriented, you know, even since I was a freshman in high school, I was getting 4.0 not because I want it to, or because anyone expected me to, but because I wanted to get scholarships for college and I accidentally became valedictorian by doing that. I was willing to give it to the other girl that was salutatorian. I literally said, she's student body president. She can have it. They said it doesn't work that way. I was like, okay. But I just wanted the scholarships. I was always very future oriented.
[00:28:23] And so I took a bunch of credits in high school, college credits. And so now I've kind of fast-tracked through college. It's only my second year, but I've got junior standing. And so I don't have a whole lot of college classes left to take, I don't have very many semesters left and at this point in my college career, I'm not taking any gen ed courses anymore. I'm taking all the fun, you know, journalism and mass media courses, taking a lot of graphic design, a lot of media ethics. And right now, I actually applied and I made it onto the school's national advertising competition team. So I'm working with a team of like nine or 10 other people right now, and we're working on a creative brief sent to us by Meta for the Meta Quest 2 VR headset.
[00:29:13] Jason Hull: Formerly known as Facebook?.
[00:29:14] Madi Sleight: Yeah, Facebook. You know, all that good stuff. And so I get to actually come up with a whole advertising campaign with this team and I was given the producer role, which basically means I get to boss everybody around, which is something I'm good at. I have been told.
[00:29:29] Jason Hull: You are. You're good at that. You used to boss around your siblings.
[00:29:32] Madi Sleight: I know, I know. And it's a little bit of a control freak. But I think this role suits me really well and I'm able to help our two presidents and I work very closely with them and they've already decided that I talk so much that I'm going to be the one presenting in person.
[00:29:51] I guess I volunteered by talking a lot in our meetings. But no, I'm excited and this is something that I feel like will benefit my future, my resume. And I was very excited to be working for DoorGrow and getting relevant experience toward the field I'm going into, the digital design space or the desktop publishing, advertising sphere.
[00:30:14] So I don't know. For a while, I feel like after I graduate, you know, Preston, my husband's still going to be in school, and so he'll still be going to school. So I'll just be sticking around and working with DoorGrow full-time and will stay.
[00:30:29] Jason Hull: Ooh, that'll be cool.
[00:30:30] Madi Sleight: I know you're excited. He keeps trying to get me to drop out by offering me a salary.
[00:30:39] Jason Hull: Yeah. 'Cause I'm obviously a huge fan of college. I went to college, but I feel like nowadays it's not really as useful as I don't really even look at applicants' college degrees. I really don't. I just look at experience and skills. Some people do, but yeah, I would love to have more Madi in the business because it's a good thing.
[00:31:03] Madi Sleight: After I graduate, I'm just going to be sticking around here, saving up money for whatever's next. We've got a good area. We're close to Washington advertising agencies and stuff like that. There's lots of internships and possibilities. So I don't know. I'm happy, you know, with what I do at DoorGrow right now, I wouldn't mind branching out and trying new things when I go full time. But for now, I'm just excited to stay within this industry of, marketing, advertising, graphic design area and I like working from home.
[00:31:34] And so that's something I've kind of gotten used to, but that's kind of what's next for me, I'm excited to keep taking classes at the university. It's a small college the journalism and mass media college, we're small. A lot of my classmates are the same in every class. A lot of my professors are the same, but they're very experienced.
[00:31:52] A lot of them are experienced journalists and advertisers, marketers, PR people, know what they're talking about, at least I think so.
[00:32:01] Jason Hull: All right. So everybody's like he's throwing her some like easy, slow balls. What do you feel like is my biggest challenges or my biggest deficiencies or whatnot?
[00:32:14] Madi Sleight: In the business or in general?
[00:32:17] Jason Hull: Oh, well either one.
[00:32:21] Madi Sleight: Well, I mean, like I said, it's something that you've been working on and something that you've improved upon, but the emotional aspect was something that I personally had an issue with growing up, especially being the oldest, being very hard-headed and stubborn and also very emotional. All of your kids are very emotional.
[00:32:39] So that's something that you're going to have...
[00:32:43] Jason Hull: Yeah, I think of all of them, you're the least emotional out of all of them.
[00:32:49] Madi Sleight: Which is funny because I've actually gotten more in tune with my emotions as I've gotten older, but I'm also just better at regulating, I think, than some of my siblings.
[00:32:59] Jason Hull: Yeah, perhaps yeah. I mean, you are the oldest. I'm also an oldest. Right. And I think there's a sort of a personality type attributed to the oldest child. But yeah, I know that the things that I've always seen in you, the gifts that I see in you is that you have a really great memory. Like you remember like history from even when you're really young, like you bring up stories and it sparks, like it helps me remember and I'm like, oh my gosh. I can't believe she remembers that. Even when you're a really young, it's really quite weird. You remember a lot of details. I think also you would always take control. If there were a group of kids playing-- we would go, I would take you to the community swimming pool, for example. And you would immediately just start meeting people and you would organize everyone into doing a game or doing something like you would immediately, you were taking charge.
[00:33:50] And it wasn't like something you were ever pushed to do, you just did it. You're just driven to do that. You're like, this is what I want. I want to have fun. And I want to be in charge and get everybody doing things and you would just do it. And every kid would then be playing and like doing what you wanted them to do. Even with your, you know, your sister right under you Hailey, you would tell her like-- You would play games, which would be like some sort of role-play like pretending to do stuff.
[00:34:15] And you would tell her what to say. You'd be like, "I will have a blah, blah, blah. And then you say blah blah blah blah..." and then she would be like, "blah blah blah blah." and she would just like, say it. Eventually, I think that wore thin.
[00:34:28] Madi Sleight: Yeah, she got sick of it real quick.
[00:34:31] Jason Hull: Eventually that wore thin. And she no longer tolerated that, but yeah, you would always like take charge. You were always really outgoing, like naturally, like talking to people and whatnot. And you were just, you were such a fun kid. You were just so fun. What was interesting about you growing up is you would just break out into song. You would make up songs while like, while we were driving or while we were doing things, you just sing about what you were seeing and what was going on. And it was really, really stinking cute.
[00:35:04] Madi Sleight: You want to know what's funny? You want to know what's really funny? So I remember that when I first came on at DoorGrow, you pulled up my DISC assessment. And you were like, "man, this is really interesting." It's something about like your natural or your taught personalities, you know?
[00:35:19] Jason Hull: Yeah. your natural score versus your--
[00:35:22] Madi Sleight: like adapted.
[00:35:24] Jason Hull: Yeah your adapted score.
[00:35:25] Madi Sleight: And you brought up something that was kind of unknown to me at the time that I was an adapted people pleaser, like my people pleasing score it was really, really high. I had been taught or expected to do that, but it was naturally pretty low. And that's, been in the back of my mind for like the last year and a half. And that's something that I've been working on. And as I've been like more myself and less worried about what people think... my poor husband. We have this inside joke. And I mentioned this when I was in Austin. The, "oh, is that your song? Is that your song?" Because I will be doing laundry or I'll be cooking and I'll be like, "it's time to do the laundry. I'm doing the laundry going to fold some socks." And like, I'll just start-- I'll just start like singing and dancing and he'll look at me and he'll go, "is that your song?"
[00:36:12] I'm like, "that's my song."
[00:36:13] Jason Hull: "That's my song."
[00:36:15] Madi Sleight: So now that I'm like getting more into like my natural personality, I'm like reverting back to how I was, singing and dancing and coming up with stupid little jingles when I was a kid, So it's really funny.
[00:36:30] Jason Hull: It's kinda like that inner child work. Like you're just, you're becoming more comfortable being that authentic version of yourself. It's funny. Cause like I wrote songs, and I would make up songs all the time, like about things. Like sometimes the kids will still, like, if they're making chicken nuggets, will sing "chicken nuggets."
[00:36:49] Madi Sleight: I do that! I do "the chicken nuggets."
[00:36:52] Jason Hull: "I want eat chicken nuggets, I like to eat chicken nuggets."
[00:36:57] Madi Sleight: I do that every time. I can't believe you remember that..
[00:36:59] Jason Hull: Yeah. I mean, as a parent, you've learned ways to get your kids inspired to do things because this is something that I learned a long time ago, but whenever we fail to inspire, we always control. And so it's hard to control people. if it were easy, everybody would do it. I'm going to control everybody and make the world around me, do what I want. But there's a lot less friction when you can inspire people to do it and song is sometimes a way to get kids to do things.
[00:37:24] So well. All right, cool. Is there anything else people should know? About you? About me? About DoorGrow?
[00:37:33] Madi Sleight: I don't know. I'm happy where I'm at. And I think as we're growing our team, you know, we just hired Ashlee and she seems like a really good fit. And I get along with everyone on the team super well. We've got a good, fun dynamic, even Adam, you know, Adam's a little more shy than Kyle.
[00:37:50] Kyle's a little rambunctious. Yeah. No, everyone like fits really well. And I get along with everybody and I like the company culture. I thought originally, you know, I kind of had this like inner fear that working with my own dad would be a nightmare.
[00:38:06] Jason Hull: Yeah.
[00:38:06] Madi Sleight: Yeah. That was something that I was worried about. But honestly, I think it's been good because I don't know how often we would get to communicate otherwise, but now we talk to each other on a daily basis. Sometimes I get sick of you. Sometimes I do. sometimes I'll be in the huddle at 7:30 in the morning and I'll be like, "I'm too tired for this," but I think it's helped us like grow together personally.
[00:38:28] And I also just learn a lot from you and from the business. And I think it's a really good opportunity for me.
[00:38:35] Jason Hull: Yeah. I love having you in the business because, you know, a lot of times parents-- I feel like I have a lot of stuff that I know that I would like to get into my kids, but there's not really a vehicle to do that, but getting your kid in business with you and in doing things because I want everyone on the team to grow, but of course I want my daughter to grow as well.
[00:38:56] And so, you know, it's being able to see you develop and grow. Is even more rewarding, you know, for me. And it's really rewarding to be able to share some of that stuff that's in me that I would love all my kids to have, which are heavily connected to values and the things that I care about.
[00:39:19] And. You know, interacting and dealing with people and what's effective and contribution and all the things that you've heard. Here's what's really genius about you that I should point out. So when you started doing social media posts, you had listened to some of my podcast and you'd listen to things. You've learned my voice, which is really weird. Like there's AI software out there now, which we now can play with a little bit that actually can learn our voice and it can speak. And it can make the sounds that sound like me, right? There's like an AI version of Joe Rogan out there. For example, it sounds exactly like them. It's like a deep fake, like, it's crazy. You can sound just like him and it's AI, people can type in words and it can spit out someone else's voice. Right.
[00:40:03] You learned to pretty much do that by just watching the videos, but in text, right. So when you're creating posts and content, every now and then I'll read something I'm like, well, that's kind of a little different than how I say it, but what's really weird is most of the time I would see posts or things that you would post and I would look at it and then I would feel like I needed to like it because I was like, that's great stuff. I love that. I mean, it's silly that I love like things you've gotten from what I say, but I didn't write it and I'm reading it going, "yeah. I resonate with this" obviously. And so it's really funny.
[00:40:40] And then I'm like, oh, that's silly. I shouldn't be liking my own stuff. That's weird, but I didn't post it, you know? So it's really awesome to see that you were able to encapsulate the voice. How are you able to do that when other people haven't?
[00:40:52] Madi Sleight: Well, the weird thing is I started out making this, like this kind of like a reservoir, like a doc of all these different quotes on all these different topics.
[00:41:00] So if I needed a caption for something about a topic, I'd look and I'd go, oh, and I'll just copy and paste it. So I really did just--
[00:41:08] Jason Hull: So you have a Jason's quotes database?
[00:41:11] Madi Sleight: I do, and I keep adding to it, but now I started off doing direct quotes and then I started like, "Hmm, I don't like the way he said that. I feel like that's inproper grammar" So I like tweak it a little bit. Yeah, no, "I feel that's not the right word. I think he meant to say this." And so I like put in little things that start tweaking it. And now what I do is I actually, like, I've gotten way more efficient and like more quick at getting social media posts out there.
[00:41:37] 'Cause I'll go into this reservoir. and I have pages and I know exactly where everything is and I'll be like, "oh, this is a good line. I'll throw that in there. This is also a good line. I'll throw that in there." you know, make something up as well to go along with it. It's almost bad because we'll be in the coaching calls and you'll be talking about something and I'll be like, "I could regurgitate this quote on this topic because you'll be trying to say it and I'll be like, "I know exactly what he's trying to say." because you've said it before. One thing that's helpful is your views on a certain topic, like let's say SEO, or referral partners or this or that, you say mostly the same things about the same topic in most of our calls. And so I kind of picked up on that.
[00:42:23] And so even if I don't have something in my beautiful reservoir, I just know what you would say. Like, I dunno.
[00:42:30] Jason Hull: You've heard me talk so much and heard me say so much, you know. I've worked with some coaches and mentors. I had one coach I worked with for like three years and it got to the point where on calls. I knew what he would say. Like, I could answer the question for people on his behalf. Yeah. So do you think you could coach clients? Do you think that's something that you could do? You'd be like, I know what Jason would say. This is like, what he would say.
[00:42:52] Madi Sleight: Well, it's funny because when I was doing like the client outreach for a little bit, you know, messaging all of our clients every week, sometimes I'd get a question and I would be able to confidently answer it. And other times, more rarely I would send them over to you but because I know your viewpoint on most of the things-- and that also helped when I was doing sales followup, because I started off and they'd ask me questions, like "how much does the program cost? What do you do?" And I couldn't confidently answer.
[00:43:17] But now I can. And I don't think I'm to the point where I could take over the weekly coaching calls yet. I think I need to go through our program kind of like what Ashlee's doing right now. And like actually go through, take notes and become more familiar with the content of the program itself. But I don't think I'm too far behind that honestly because I listen to you for an hour, twice a week, plus meetings and huddles. And I post to your personal and to our business, social medias every single day. And I'm looking at your quotes every single day. Every time I'm creating social media content, I'm going through. "Hmm. You know, what's a good topic for this post.""
[00:44:02] What's something we haven't, you know, put on social in a while." and I look at your podcast episodes and see what kind of content you put up there. And so there's a lot of information. If somebody wanted to impersonate you, I don't think it'd be that hard. There's enough information out there.
[00:44:20] Jason Hull: There's a lot out there..
[00:44:21] Madi Sleight: And the more that I consume just doing my daily tasks or weekly tasks, the better I get at, you know, mimicking your style, your voice on social media.
[00:44:32] Jason Hull: Cool. Yeah, I think it's just really kind of weird to see when I see stuff that looks like I did it, but it's actually you, but it's like I did it, which is really strange. Cause I don't remember doing it, which is the weirdest thing I'm like, "I don't remember doing that, but that sounds exactly like something I would say."
[00:44:52] Madi Sleight: Most of the time it is something you said.
[00:44:56] Jason Hull: That's why. Sometimes I don't even remember saying some things. You'll post something. I'm like, "that's really good! Did I actually say that?" Yeah. So, all right. Well, I think this has gone on long enough, and I appreciate you coming on and being willing to do this and kind of share your perspective on me.
[00:45:16] And I think it's probably fun for everyone to hear a little bit about you.
[00:45:20] Madi Sleight: I think that the people listening to this podcast should go check out our socials. You know, we don't get a ton of engagement. We've been getting higher numbers. I've checked the percentages. They've gone up. We've gained more followers, but I think our social media content is pretty good. So if you could go check it out, that'd be really great. You're gonna find a lot of regurgitated quotes from my dad, but a lot of it's good information, especially for property managers. If you're like struggling to grow doors or feel like you're stuck at a roadblock or you can't scale your business, there's a lot of little tidbits of sneak peaks of what we kind of talk about in the program on our socials, lots of short paragraphs.
[00:45:57] Little things, I take little gold nuggets from your podcast and put them on socials. So I think that's something that could be nice for someone to get into if they don't have a lot of time to listen to your podcast or to do a ton of research on DoorGrow,
[00:46:13] but also go check out our YouTube channel and our clients success videos. I'm going to be posting more this week as I get them refined to make some revisions and get them up there. We've got some really awesome client wins and people should expect a lot more client success videos in the coming year and in the next few months, especially because I've got a lot of content to get up there and to get out to people so we can show off how awesome our clients are.
[00:46:42] Jason Hull: Yeah. I just got to get you to quit college and make videos full-time so I can get more of them out of you faster.
[00:46:52] Madi Sleight: I'm too far in, at this point. I just gotta finish it. You don't have to wait that long. I promise I will work full time when I graduate.
[00:47:05] Jason Hull: Well, I'm looking forward to the time where you can go full time. Cause that'd be awesome and Madi, I love you. I adore you. A dad couldn't have had a better first kid and you were just, you've always been so fun. You always get my jokes and I really appreciate having you in the business. And thanks for coming on the podcast.
[00:47:26] Madi Sleight: Yeah. I don't know. I love working for DoorGrow and I like working with you, believe it or not.
[00:47:32] Jason Hull: I believe it. All right. And I think everybody else listening does too well, everybody else, I appreciate you hanging out with us. This is about an hour, this will be a long episode. And until next time to our mutual growth bye everyone.
[00:47:47] Jason: You just listened to the #DoorGrowShow. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet in the DoorGrowClub. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC pay per lead content, social direct mail, and they still struggle to grow!
[00:48:13] At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge: getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today's episode on our blog doorgrow.com, and to get notified of future events and news subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe.
[00:48:34] Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow Hacking your business and your life.
If you own a business, you are likely either a visionary or an operator. Entrepreneurs/visionary types are risk-takers. They innovate and lead a business with their ideas and vision. Operators are analytical and organized and solve problems within the business.
This important dynamic between the visionary & the operator personality types keeps a business balanced and running. Property management growth expert, Jason Hull explores the relationship between visionaries and operators and their roles in a business.
You’ll Learn…
[01:02] Intro: Visionary vs. Operator
[01:34] What is a Visionary? What Makes Them Different From an Operator?
[03:22] Visionaries Must be Allowed to Lead
[04:23] Giving Operators the Right Problems to Solve
[06:20] What if You are Both an Operator and an Entrepreneur?
[08:23] Surrounding Yourself with a Team that Supports You
[10:21] Another Type of Team Member: BDMs
[11:18] What to do in a Toxic Business Partnership
[12:28] The Visionary and the Operator Together: a Magical Pair
“Visionaries are big-picture oriented. They're dreamers, they're creative, risk-takers, innovators. Whereas operators-- operators are these really detail-oriented, meticulous people.”
“Giving the operator correct vision gives them the right problem to solve.”
“Running a business is risky. It requires innovation. It requires creativity. These are the skills of the visionary.”
“The visionary will lead with vision, and the operator in a healthy state will ensure that that vision is always going to get accomplished, which is super important.”
[00:00:00] Welcome DoorGrow Hackers to the #DoorGrowShow. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you are interested in growing your business and life, and you are open to doing things a bit differently... then you are a DoorGrow Hacker. DoorGrow Hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income.
[00:00:39] At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management businesses and their owners. We want to transform the eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I'm your host property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now, let's get into the show.
[00:01:02] So today's topic everybody. We're going to be talking about visionary versus operator. So I get a lot of clients coming to me that are visionaries. And so, I want to get into this dynamic of the visionary versus the operator, and there's some important ideas to understand around this because it's a really common partnership or relationship that exists in business. It can be very symbiotic and it can be very helpful to have this relationship in a business.
[00:01:34] And so let's talk about the visionary. So what is a visionary? Visionary is the typical entrepreneur personality type. The visionary is somebody that has, you know, vision. They have these ideas of what they want to accomplish. They are usually driven. They're usually a bit more sales-oriented.
[00:01:52] They're a bit more risk-oriented than most people on the planet. They're comfortable taking on risks. They're comfortable doing the work. They're comfortable coming up with new ideas and innovating. They change quickly. They move quickly. They want to do new things. They experiment... they're driven, risk takers. You get the idea.
[00:02:13] These are the typical, stereotypical sort of entrepreneur personality type. And the operator is very different than that. Right? So, and to contrast these: visionaries are big-picture oriented. They're dreamers, they're creative, risk-takers, innovators. Whereas operators-- operators are these really detail-oriented, meticulous people.
[00:02:35] They focus on the details instead of so much the big picture. They're grounded. They focus on keeping things grounded. They're not like theoretical and big plan, this guy dreams... They're like practical and grounded. They're meticulous. They're cautious. And they are focused on implementation rather than so much innovation.
[00:02:56] And so visionaries, you need operators, right? You know, you might have them as a personal or an executive assistant. They might then graduate to being an operations assistant-- might graduate to being an operations manager-- maybe eventually director of operations-- and then maybe the VP of operations --and maybe even the COO of your company, where they may be dealing with some financials and some other things that you wouldn't trust anybody else with. Right?
[00:03:22] It's important in understanding this relationship between these two contrasting, different personality types-- and this is really important for the operator to understand, is that the visionary must be allowed to lead. The visionary has to lead because they're going to move the business forward.
[00:03:40] Running a business is risky. It requires innovation. It requires creativity. These are the skills of the visionary. but they are a dynamic duo, right? The visionary will lead with vision and the operator in a healthy state will ensure that that vision is always going to get accomplished, which is super important.
[00:03:59] A lot of times, visionaries might be trying to do it all themselves, and they wonder why things end up staying on their to-do list forever, why they feel stuck, why they have so much frustration, why they aren't able to just get stuff done. And if there's all these things you've had on your to-do list for way too long, it's probably because you're a visionary and you need badly some sort of operator in the business.
[00:04:23] Now the operator has some inherent challenges. The operator needs vision, and it's important that you give the operator the right problem to solve because if the operator doesn't have the right problem to solve, their usual default problem that they work on is how should we do this? How can we avoid this? Is this safe? Keep the business safe and keep things comfortable and make sure everything is done perfectly before we take action. And so they're always looking for the flaw, the problem they're super critical. A lot of times and they're always looking for the flaw in whatever your vision and things are.
[00:04:55] So what's important to understand, visionaries, is you need to give operators the right problem to work on. So instead of the problem of, "should we do this?" And "what's wrong with this,? And "where's the flaw?" You need to give them a different problem to work on saying, "this is the goal. How do we get this accomplished?"
[00:05:15] "How can we make this possible? How can we make this work? How can we hit this target? How can we make more money? How can we do this?" Instead of, "should we?" or "why?" Or, you know, some of these kinds of things sometimes, right?
[00:05:29] So, giving the operator correct vision gives them the right problem. ‘Cause they are really good problem solvers. They're really good at solving these problems. And if given the right problem, "how can we make this work? How could we do this?" It shifts the brain out of, "should we do this?" Or "Why?" You know-- which your goal is to get this done-- shifts them to thinking and helping you figure out how to accomplish this.
[00:05:50] Now a lot of lawyers, accountants, really detail-oriented people might have that kind of personality type. And so a lot of times you need to give them the right problem to solve, because they're going to try and keep you from doing things or tell you don't do this, or this might not be safe. And if you know that this vision and down in your intuition says, 'this is what we're going to do, this is what I want to do.'
[00:06:10] You give them: this is the problem I want you to work on. I already know I want to do this. Help them figure out how to do this... very different problem to give operators.
[00:06:20] Alright, now, forcing non entrepreneurial operators. Cause there are some of you operators out there that are also the entrepreneur and you run a business. And you're kind of a unicorn, you're a little bit unique and different, but forcing a non-entrepreneurial operator to lead and to push and to have drive is often very uncomfortable for them. And it's often very ineffective. There's going to be a lot of friction. They'll experience massive resistance to doing new things, taking risks, and they shouldn't be pushed to do sales or marketing or outreach or prospecting, or to be the face of the company in the long run.
[00:07:03] So if you are the operator personality type running your property management business, you may want to attract or get around some people. So operators should not be over sales, marketing, BDM-- business development management. They should not be over that typically because they're going to focus on conservation and conserving and doing less and spending less money and not experimenting and doing things safer typically.
[00:07:29] So your head of sales and marketing would be maybe their equal, not their subordinate. You do not want to put your operations person over them. Everybody may report metrics to the operator, but the operators should not be their boss. They should not be their supervisor or superior. If you have a head of director or head of sales and marketing or a BDM.
[00:07:50] Now, what if you are that operator entrepreneur? So let's talk about that. First, you may not actually be that person. You may just enjoy creating operational systems. I enjoy that. I love creating the systems and building out operational stuff, but I don't love doing the data entry. I don't love running those systems. I don't want to run the meetings. I don't want to run the process, but I like building out sometimes those processes or the mechanics or the mechanisms 'cause that's creative work for me. That's visionary, creative work for me.
[00:08:23] Now, if you actually are this operator personality type and you run a business, you may have struggled to grow your business because of that. So you may need to surround yourself with visionaries to get ideas. This is why some of my clients that are operator personality types, work with me as a. It helps expose them to new ideas. It helps stretch them, move them into the things that they wouldn't normally think of doing. It's kind of like, I get to be the visionary for them in some regard.
[00:08:50] Or you may need to go get a business partner or somebody that can fill that role if you really feel that that's a deficiency. So getting a visionary co-mentor can help... getting somebody else. Now you may also want to-- just a tip-- is just practice feeling, right? Because usually operators are very in their head. They're very mental. They're avoiding their feelings. They're trying to avoid feelings by using logic, which doesn't really work.
[00:09:17] The only thing you can do with a feeling is to feel that feeling. So my recommendation is don't be mentally avoiding feelings, be present, get in your body and feel those feelings because once you're comfortable feeling uncomfortable feelings... Once you can deal with that, you can move to a higher level of capacity as an entrepreneur.
[00:09:39] You will also need to learn to build the right culture and attract people that you can actually trust to let go of control to. A lot of times, you want to hold onto things and control everything and you don't feel safe letting go. They don't really share your values and you're never going to trust somebody unless they really share your values.
[00:09:58] You won't trust them to do things the way you would. You won't trust them to work with people the way you would. You won't trust your clients to talk to them. You won't trust that they'll make great decisions because they don't share your values and you cannot create values in people. It's hard wired in. They get their values from their religion, their parents, their upbringing, the culture they grew up in.
[00:10:20] They have those kinds of set. They've made decisions long ago, lots of little decisions that led to their values. So you need to find people that are good at culture fit or value fit for you. You may also want to get a BDM. So a lot of the operator entrepreneurs really struggle in the sales outreach, business development sort of category. That stuff's not fun. Like making a cold call sounds really uncomfortable for a lot of them, for example, right? They just know they're not good at it. They're not a closer, they don't have the bite, the hunger, the drive. They don't feel comfortable following up on somebody three times in the same day. They're like, "that sounds mean, or uncomfortable for them. Right?
[00:11:01] So if that's you, you may need a BDM or you may want to partner with a visionary I had mentioned before. Or at the very least, at least maybe a sales assistant that you can groom to be a BDM, which I've done a podcast episode on previously, which is a great episode. You should listen to it if that's of interest to you.
[00:11:18] All right. So what if you have an operator business partner? You're the visionary. And you're both equal partners in this business? This can be a really difficult, uncomfortable dynamic. If you want to grow and you have vision and they don't trust you, then that relationship is now toxic.
[00:11:38] If the operator doesn't trust you-- if you've destroyed trust with your experiments and your risks, and they don't trust you anymore, then to, to move the business forward, either you need to rebuild that trust or the relationship needs to end, because it's toxic. You cannot grow when you have an equal partner that's able to make decisions in the business, and they're saying, "I don't want to do experiments or do something uncomfortable or hire a coach or work with DoorGrow, or do anything that feels expensive or risky or new... I'm comfortable with where things are right now.
[00:12:11] So if you have somebody that's growth oriented and somebody that's comfort oriented and wants safety and certainty, and they're equal partners, you may have to dissolve that relationship. This is why I say the visionary must be the one that leads. This is super important that the visionary must be the one that is allowed to have leadership and to lead in this organization. They have to lead. Visionary has to be allowed to lead in this organization.
[00:12:38] So the visionary plus the operator: so if everything's working out, then you will be stronger together. This is a magical relationship. Somebody's creating the vision and somebody making sure everything gets done. It takes a huge load off the visionary entrepreneur's plate. And the operator has the right problems to solve and the right things to do, and they know what to do in order to win and what to figure out. And they're in the right role. And everybody is going to be happier in that type of business.
[00:13:10] If you're in a business that doesn't have a good operator, then a lot of things will fall through the cracks. There'll be a lot of things that aren't getting done. There'll be a lot of chaos. A lot of confusion there'll be constant changes in direction. Goals will change. Goals will be too big and unattainable. You're not connected to reality in the business and a business without vision or without a visionary will feel like it's not moving forward. It won't feel like there's growth. It won't feel exciting. It won't feel like there's something to look forward to in the business.
[00:13:40] And it will feel just safe, comfortable, and you're not gonna have a lot of growth. Right? So my hope is that those of you listening have self-identified: are you more of a visionary? Or are you more of an operator? And what do you need in order to get to the next level? And I hope this is helpful for those of you that are running property management businesses.
[00:14:00] If you want to move your business forward, if you want to grow your company, if you could use a little more vision or you could use some operational systems and to learn how to attract and build the right team, the right planning system, the right meeting structures, the right, systems in order to scale your business operationally... To support your operator or the right sales-related things to support your BDM...
[00:14:27] there is nothing better out there than the DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind. Our clients are crushing it with this stuff right now. And we have scripts for your BDMs. We have programs that are far more effective than what most people are doing to grow their business that are focused on generating more warm leads, more trust, more relationships that have like an 80- 90% close rate-- really effective.
[00:14:52] And we also have systems that are better than EOS or Traction or all these systems that exist out there we call DoorGrow OS. We also have a really brilliant hiring system called DoorGrow ATS so you can attract and retain and have A-players in your business and make sure everybody's on track, everybody's accountable and you have no hiders in your business.
[00:15:13] And so if you are interested in this, get on a call with our team, check us out at doorgrow.com and we'd love to support you. And we will also give you a free training with 7-- there's a couple bonus ones-- maybe 9 Frameworks, in which you can learn some of the secrets to growing and scaling your business and different lenses to view your business so that you can make your business even more effective. And we will give that training to you for free and explain the program and everything in it. And we would love to do that for you. So reach out to us at DoorGrow, and, until next time to our mutual growth.
[00:15:47] Bye everyone.
[00:15:48] You just listened to the #DoorGrowShow. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet in the DoorGrowClub. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC pay per lead content, social direct mail, and they still struggle to grow!
[00:16:14] At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge: getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today's episode on our blog doorgrow.com, and to get notified of future events and news subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe.
[00:16:35] Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow Hacking your business and your life.
How can you build the ultimate property management team for your business? Too many entrepreneurs build the wrong team. They have to micromanage their team, they can’t trust them, and their team members do not share the business owner’s values.
Property management growth expert, Jason Hull explains why business owners might get stuck with hires that do not share their values, how to attract the right team members with clearly defined company culture, and what to look for in the ultimate executive team.
You’ll Learn…
[01:13] Recap on the Four Reasons for Starting a Business
[02:22] Going from Solopreneur to Having the Ultimate Team
[04:24] Building a Team to Give YOU Fulfillment and Freedom
[6:19] The “Sandtrap” of Struggling to Grow Business
[7:49] Why You Might Have the Wrong Team and Company Culture
[10:26] The “Fifth Reason” for Starting a Business: Safety and Certainty
[11:05] The Key Team Members for a Property Management Team
[15:10] Creating a Core Executive Team of Thinkers
[18:48] The First Hire You Should Make and Job Descriptions
“If every team member is coming to you and asking questions on a daily basis, throughout your day, you do not have a very good team.”
“The reason you have the wrong team is because you are showing up in the business as the wrong person, and you are in the wrong role.”
“The goal is we're trying to build a core executive team that you can trust to make decisions for and on behalf of you, the business owner. Which means you need people that can think, people that share your values.”
“The very first hire that you get should be based on not what the business needs most.”
[00:00:00] If every team member is coming to you and asking questions on a daily basis, throughout your day, you do not have a very good team. You've built the wrong team.
[00:00:10] Welcome DoorGrow Hackers to the #DoorGrowShow. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you are interested in growing your business and life, and you are open to doing things a bit differently... then you are a DoorGrow Hacker. DoorGrow Hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income.
[00:00:50] At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management businesses and their owners. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I'm your host property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now, let's get into the show.
[00:01:13] All right. So today, we're going to be talking about this idea of the ultimate property management team, at least the basic foundational team that you would need in order to get to that ultimate level we all want to get to where we have the highest level of the "four reasons." and if you have not listened to my episode on the "four reasons for starting a business," Then go back and check that out.
[00:01:42] So for those that have not heard that, quick recap: the four reasons for having a business are to have more fulfillment in life, to get fulfillment out of your business, to get freedom more and more freedom, and more contribution so you feel like you're making a difference, living your purpose, and support. This is why we create the vehicle of a business. So it can also give us more support and related to that, you cannot have maximum freedom, maximum fulfillment, maximum contribution, unless you have the ultimate team. So let's talk about the ultimate property management team.
[00:02:22] Now, for most business owners, you start out as a solopreneur. This is this journey you start on. The transition from solopreneur to having a team is one of the most painful and difficult transitions. I see business owners go through. This was hard for myself. It's one of the biggest challenges at even multimillion dollar companies or large companies that have been in groups or masterminds that I've been in with... it's building that team and building the right culture and the right team. In building the ultimate property management team, usually you're going to need a few key strategic ingredients, right? So the ultimate team would be basically you as a business owner-- property management business owner-- having a team that allows you to not have to do anything you don't want to do in the business.
[00:03:08] So let's say, you just want to function as a business owner and maybe just hold on to a couple of little pieces that you enjoy or love doing. So here are some of the key people. So typically you're going to need at least probably about five team members, and in order to afford that most property management businesses usually are going to need to be around 200 to 400 doors typically.
[00:03:34] I know there's this model out there. And a lot of people will bring up Steve Crossland. He's a really cool guy right here in Austin... does property management. And there is this Steve Crossland model of property management where you do everything. You do every single thing in the business.
[00:03:52] You do every single thing in the business, and if you're doing every single thing in the business, that's cool. But, you might not enjoy that. You might not enjoy every single thing. Most of us as business owners, there's certain things we're really good at, and there's a lot of things we're really bad at. There's a lot of things I'm not good at, and I don't want to do those things. I don't enjoy doing those things. Those things, those things are not fun for me. So I want other people to help me do those things. And not only that, but it becomes really difficult to try and do everything on your own.
[00:04:24] Now, is it more profitable if you can do every single thing yourself and you're willing to just dedicate all your time? Yes. You can make a lot more money maybe that way, because you have very little cost, but you have to recognize on a previous episode, I talked about the five currencies. I think I talked about that. If I didn't, I'll do it in a future episode, but these currencies are time, energy, focus, cash, and effort.
[00:04:52] So, not all of them are money, right? Cash is only one of them. You want to hold on to as much cash as possible and you're willing to give up all these other sacred currencies, like your life time, your energy, your focus, and that's fun for you? Cool. But for most that's not fun.
[00:05:10] That's not freedom. That's not fulfillment. That sounds like hell right? It's just another job. And if you want to be the guy, or gal by the way, for every maintenance request and every accounting problem and every sales call, or any leasing situation, or every showing... or every operational challenge you are not going to really--- you're not going to have freedom, you're not going to have fulfillment. You're going to be in a prison of your own creation.
[00:05:39] So what's the ultimate goal? Like, if you start this business, usually for most entrepreneurs, the ultimate goal is going to be to have a team so that you feel supported and you feel like Iron Man in that super suit. You're a normal person, but you have this team that increases your abilities, your capabilities, allows you to provide a great level of service and to do a good job and feel like you're making a difference in the world, but you don't have to do all the stuff that's uncomfortable, painful, or you don't enjoy doing.
[00:06:08] So typically, maybe about five team members in addition to yourself. And probably 200 to 400 doors so that you can afford or justify that at least minimum, somewhere in that range or more.
[00:06:19] So we need to get you to that point, and if you're having trouble with that, that's something we help clients focus on is how to get to that point. Now, most people get to this point, and I call this sometimes the "second sand trap," or maybe the third sand trap.
[00:06:33] But, there's the initial sand trap of like: "I can't get on any clients" or "I'm starting my business." That's where a lot of people get stuck. I don't know if that even counts as a sand trap because they're not even going, they have a fantasy business. Right? The next is the first real sand trap is the sand trap of the solopreneur sand trap. Just breaking that a hundred door barrier... getting stuck, maybe around between 50 to 80 doors... can't grow any more. It's too painful. You can't manage any more properties than that on your own for most people and you're struggling and you can't afford to hire anybody and you end up painted into a corner and stuck, right? First sand trap.
[00:07:09] Second sand trap is you are in that 200 to 400 door range and you have a team, but it's the wrong team. And this is where a lot of property management businesses sit stuck and stagnant. They're in that 200 to 400 door range.
[00:07:23] The business owner feels like they have to micromanage everybody on the team, which, you know you're that person if you're like, "We just need more checklists! And we need more processes!" And you're trying to control everyone. And you are the person that every single person on the team comes to and asks questions. If every team member is coming to you and asking questions on a daily basis, throughout your day, you do not have a very good team.
[00:07:49] You've built the wrong team. You don't have a team of thinkers. You don't have a team of decision makers. You have a team that you have to micromanage, and these are people as process that you have to control. And this is the initial team most people build. When they start building a team, they build a team the wrong way. They build a team that they have to micromanage and control because at first it feels really cool.
[00:08:11] There's a lot of ego and everyone's coming in asking questions and they feel like they're really smart. And they end up quickly like the Emperor or Empress with no clothes. Everybody wants to say yes to the boss. They're not giving the boss valid feedback. And so you end up with a business that is struggling.
[00:08:30] And the reason you have the wrong team is because you are showing up in the business as the wrong person. And you are in the wrong role. You've created this role, holding onto all the things that you think you have to do as a business owner. You're like, "I have to do, you know, the accounting. I have to control the finances."
[00:08:53] That's like, "I'm the business owner. That's my job." Or "I'm the only one that can do the sales. I have to do all the sales and I'm the BDM too. So I have to do all of that because nobody else is as good as me," or whatever you tell yourself. Or "I have to handle the operations because that's running the business and it's my business and I'm running it.
[00:09:11] "I have to manage the entire team and do everything." Whatever it is that you are holding on to, if it's not something you enjoy, you are showing up as the wrong person. So we want to make sure that we build the right job for you, and then we build the right team to supplement you-- the right team around you.
[00:09:31] And most business owners are stuck at the 200 to 400 door range in this industry because they have the wrong team because they've been showing up in the wrong role and they didn't understand the four reasons and they weren't moving towards that consistently. And they didn't set up the right culture.
[00:09:49] Their team has no clue really what the company's core values are. They have no clue what the company's client-centric mission is to, to benefit clients. Then, you know, none of this is clearly defined. There's a lack of culture. And the business owner has a lack of clarity on themselves and never got clear on why did they even do this? How does this give them more fulfillment and more freedom? How's this helping them be more of themselves, create more contribution. How does this help bring them more alignment towards the four reasons? That lack of clarity means you're going to have team members that also are not in alignment with those four reasons.
[00:10:26] So there's the fifth reason. And the fifth reason is safety and certainty. Your team members are just people that want safety and certainty, they just don't want to get fired. They just want to keep getting paid. They just want their job and they become hiders, not believers in your business because you haven't given them anything to believe in. There's no real culture that's clearly defined, so the culture in your business is what actually is going on in your business.
[00:10:49] So if there's office politics, if there's micro-managing, if there's laziness, if there's confusion, if there's crappy processes, that's your culture. That's the culture that you have defined by not clearly defining it.
[00:11:05] So let's talk about these key team members that you would need once you get to that 200 to 400 door range, or as you're growing and scaling, if you wanted to offload things. So in most businesses at that stage, you're going to probably need a maintenance coordinator that handles the maintenance coordination.
[00:11:23] This could be an introverted person. That's just really detail-oriented and really good at remembering stuff and can facilitate tools like Property Meld and stuff like that. That was property meld, M-E-L-D. They can facilitate tools like this for communication and nothing falls through the cracks with them because they're on top of that kind of stuff, if they're the right personality. So you have a maintenance coordinator handling maintenance, it's a big piece of the business, right?
[00:11:48] You will probably need a property manager, somebody that handles the leasing side of things, that handles the onboarding of new tenants and new owners that the salesperson hands people off to, and that is the boots-on-the-ground person that goes out into the field and does certain things related to leasing and onboarding... that sort of thing.
[00:12:08] You'll also need an operator. This is probably the most important role, second to the visionary or the entrepreneur, which would be you, those listening to this. So the operator is going to be the person that handles all the operational pieces they're going to be very different than the visionary personality type. They have all the details, make sure the team are doing what they're supposed to be doing. They make sure that meetings are being run on time.
[00:12:34] And in a certain way, they're handling the strategic planning for the company, which we have a system that we teach clients called DoorGrow OS, which I believe is better than Traction or EOS or any of that kind of stuff that most of you are dabbling with out there. There's several advantages in DoorGrow OS over that system. Maybe that'd be another podcast episode.
[00:12:55] But you have an operator and they have an operating system and they're going to make sure process documentation and systems and everything are working well and that the business runs. And they're basically the key person that's going to enact your vision and make sure your vision is coming to fruition and they will ensure that it gets done.
[00:13:12] You will probably also need a BDM. You may love doing sales. And that may be one of the last things that you give up and maybe nobody would be quite as good as you. But if that is not your personality type and you don't enjoy it, or you just have part time availability to dedicate to that, you can only really do sales and follow-up maybe 10 to 20 hours a week or less.
[00:13:34] Then you may want-- if you really want to grow and scale your business, then you will need to get a full time person. That's focused on networking, connecting, building relationships, prospecting, and growing and scaling your business... referrals... all of that kind of stuff. So that would be a BDM, which is a business development manager. Basically a sales person in your property management business.
[00:13:59] The other role that you may need is maybe you don't enjoy– or are not an expert at the financial stuff. I've worked with financial coaches and things like that, because this was something I was not naturally good at because I didn't enjoy it. But I like making money and I like winning financially. And I like knowing that the business is sound and safe financially. So I got coaches and mentors on this, but I still have people and resources and a team to help with these pieces so that it's not something I have to put a lot of time and energy into.
[00:14:33] So you'll need somebody on the accounting side or financial side, bookkeeping, accounting, that sort of thing if that's something that you are not getting a lot of freedom and fulfillment from and contribution from.
[00:14:45] Then another role that you will probably need would maybe be a receptionist, somebody to just field the onslaught of all these phone calls that you're getting from so many tenants and owners and things coming in, to triage things and get them to the right people. You'll need somebody maybe to answer the phones because those low level calls can eat up a lot of resources for these higher level team members.
[00:15:10] Now, what is the goal that we're trying to build here? The goal is we're trying to build a core executive team that you can trust to make decisions for and on behalf of you, the business owner. Which means you need people that can think, people that share your values. You will never trust your financial person to make decisions, you'll never trust your BDM to sell and bring in people the right way and attract the right clients, you'll never trust fully your operations person to do the job the right way unless you deep down know they share your values.
[00:15:48] They might be skilled and can do those jobs, and you may have a team. If you're in that 200 to 400 door range and you feel stuck it might be because you have a team of people that don't share your values, or they're not clear on your values and so there's a disconnect.
[00:16:05] So you need executive team members that are part of this executive team decision-maker/ thinkers that can run pieces of the business-- additional engines in the business-- instead of everyone just being cogs or wheels that are turned by the engine. You need other people that can take these pieces off of your plate so you don't have to make every decision. You don't have to answer every question. You don't have to do every single thing in that, and they don't have to check in with you on every single thing either-- that you're able to trust them. And the only way you'll be able to trust them is if they share your values.
[00:16:40] And if you cannot trust your team members with those things, either you haven't made your values clear to them, or you just know already, which is probably more likely they don't have the same value set as you, You cannot create enough processes and checklists and systems to force executive-level-thinker team members to be effective at implementation and taking action and taking over pieces of the business. That's impossible. There's too much going on.
[00:17:07] They need to share your values, and those values need to be clear to them and need to be related to them, and they need to buy into them and be believers in those values and believers in you and believers in the vision of the company.
[00:17:21] If they don't believe in you, and they don't believe in the values, then they're just "hiders." they're just showing up to get a paycheck. They're going to just do their job. They will do the bare minimum. They're not going to do anything extra. They're not going to think or make decisions 'cause they'll probably just make a mistake or get in trouble, so they're going to come to you and ask you to do it for them. "Make this choice for me." And then you end up just with a whole bunch of people that are eating up your time instead of taking more of your time off of your plate because they're just eating up time, asking all these questions.
[00:17:54] So that's kind of the ultimate team. Now, if you have other ideas or other team members, feel free to comment inside our Facebook group, which is the community for those that are fans of this podcast and that are fans of DoorGrow. You can go to doorgrowclub.com which is our Facebook group, and you can join that group.
[00:18:16] Let me know: what does the ultimate team look like for you? I'd be curious to see if I missed something here, but this-- these are some of the key team members that I've seen people need in their businesses in order to offload and take things off their plate. So that's that. That's about the ultimate team. So in order to have the ultimate team, you need culture, you need a lot of clarity on what you and your role should be in the business and on your purpose in life and on what your values are and what drives and motivates you so that we can build the right ultimate team around you.
[00:18:48] And the next step: the very first hire that you get should be based on not what the business needs most. It should be based on what you need most in order to get to the next level towards the four reasons. This is why I have a strategic process for clients to do a time study, to figure out: what do they need next?
[00:19:10] And then we have a specific way of doing job descriptions that I call "Rdocs" to figure out what is the ultimate job description for the next hire that I need to get in order to let go of the things that are eating up the currencies that I don't want to be giving up, which you know, things that are stealing my energy, things that are stealing my focus, things are stealing my cash, that were preventing from making more cash things. They're stealing my time.
[00:19:35] What are the things that I would want to give up most? And how can I build the right job description around that? And what is my current accurate job description? Is this what I want? Or are there things I can just highlight on that, that I could eventually put onto somebody else's job description. So these are the things we get into more in the DoorGrow OS and into the scale program that's in our mastermind.
[00:19:55] So if this stuff is interesting to you, if you got some value out of this, you might be a good fit or interested in being part of our DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind. So reach out to us, go to doorgrow.com, schedule a call with our team, and we will give you a free training that will help you know everything about our mastermind and help you learn some of these cool frameworks.
[00:20:20] We give this free training away that has seven-- actually, it has probably like nine or more, frameworks that are gonna help you learn how to scale and grow your business more effectively, and we hope you get really excited about that. Realize you're a great fit for it. And it will also break down why most companies are struggling to grow and why most marketing ideas and channels like SEO and pay per click, Google ads and content marketing and social media marketing and pay per lead services are BS and are not helping you grow your business.
[00:20:52] And if you've been trying this stuff and struggling, they all can work, but there's a big, massive reason why they're not working. We can reveal that to you in that training and help you do something that's not those things that cost no dollars and we'll make you a lot more money, and it takes less time than using those strategies to get on a lot of business.
[00:21:14] So anyway, check this out. Doorgrow.com and until next time, to our mutual growth. And I hope you all build the ultimate team and have the ultimate level of freedom and fulfillment in your life and contribution and support. Bye, everyone.