April 10, 2025 • 28 mins
The constant barrage of new technologies, tools, and strategies in property management can easily lead business owners astray. In this thought-provoking conversation, we dive into the critical importance of maintaining a clear vision while navigating innovation and change.
Many entrepreneurs fall victim to "shiny object syndrome" after attending industry conferences or trade shows. They discover exciting new software, AI solutions, or management systems that promise revolutionary benefits, but without a strategic implementation plan, these tools often become costly distractions rather than valuable assets. As one host pointedly observes: "It's not about finding the time, it's deciding how important it is."
We explore the power of creating a concept-car vision for your business – one that stretches beyond current limitations and capabilities. This approach ensures you're intentionally building toward a cohesive future rather than randomly bolting on features that catch your attention. By first establishing what you're trying to build, you can selectively incorporate only those elements that contribute meaningfully to your vision.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when we discuss perceptual limitations in business decision-making. Just as our visual field encompasses only a portion of reality, with an even narrower field of focus, business leaders often hyper-focus on certain aspects while missing critical peripheral information. This understanding helps explain why dedicated time for strategic thinking is non-negotiable in today's rapidly evolving property management landscape.
Perhaps most valuable is our exploration of "false optionality" – the belief that we must choose between seemingly mutually exclusive options. Through creative thinking and intentionality, property management leaders can discover abundant solutions that transcend traditional either/or approaches, delivering maximum value to both their business and clients.
Ready to stop chasing every shiny object and start building with purpose? Listen now to revolutionize how you approach innovation and strategic planning in your property management business.
Join fellow property management entrepreneurs and 6 expert coaches in a small, private high level event at a mansion style venue with a private chef and personally selected attendees to maximize the value you receive while at the event.
Join the waitlist for additional information here: https://ONYXwaitlist.com
Save the dates! July 13th - 16th, 2025
visit pmsuccess.com for more value packed property management related information or to hire Tony as your property management coach.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's changing so fast in property management that we
have to have time, as thebusiness owners, to spend two
hours and do nothing, but justthink about what the future of
the business is going to looklike I love doing that.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'll spend more than two hours doing that.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
But most people struggle with finding that
amount of time.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's not about finding the time, it's deciding
how important it is.
Bam, did you hear that?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I did hear that.
I'm in a punchy mood today.
Welcome to the PropertyManagement Success Podcast,
where we interview leaders inthe industry to uncover the
secrets to profitability,efficiency and achieving true
freedom, whether it's your time,money or lifestyle.
I'm your host, tony Klein, andI'm here to help you build a
wildly successful propertymanagement business.
(00:44):
Let's get to it.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Property Management
Success Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Well, we've got Mark Brower in the house with us and
a lot of times when we do thissegment, we call it the Property
Management Aid Station.
I've noticed you got a pictureof the rower.
I see people that are listeningto it no significance.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I'm just trying to be distracting to you.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah Well, you're always a handsome young man like
you, always distracting.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So this is an impressionistic painting.
And I got this TV in my officebecause I thought, hey, maybe
someday I'll just sit across theroom and I'll have my computer
screen up there and I'll have alittle keyboard on my lap.
So I spent money on this reallynice dock for my MacBook Pro.
I got a little shelf behind meand put the laptop in the dock
(01:41):
and nada, like I can't figureout how to get it to project up
there.
It was a really good idea.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
You know what's funny is that ties so good into the
topic.
We haven't talked about thetopics we were going to cover
today?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
No, we haven't.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Today we were going to freestyle a little bit.
That ties so much into a topicthat I wanted to talk to you
about, which is you and I gotback from.
Broker owner was about week twoweeks ago, and I've been
thinking a lot about the vendorfair that's down there and I was
thinking a lot about theentrepreneurs, the brokers or
(02:20):
owners or property managementcompanies that went down there
to.
Are you doing this is asponsorship.
Mark is now sponsored by aliquid death, apparently.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Was that good?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
It was pretty clear.
All right, so let's, let'slet's bring it in a little bit,
so let's go back to.
Uh.
All these brokers or owners ofthese property management
companies took time off to gospecifically to see what's the
latest thing or things inproperty management, both from a
strategic and tacticalstandpoint, to tools and
(02:56):
resources.
So much about the damage thatcould be caused by going to one
of those events and not beingintentional about what you're
going to do or what actionsyou're going to take when you
come back.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The damage.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, so this ties into your picture and that fine
young gentleman rowing acrossthe waters with the TV in the
back.
I think a lot of times peopleget distracted by that shiny
object syndrome.
They think that they want toimplement some new tools, some
new software, some new thing,and they do, but then they don't
(03:37):
follow through and actuallymake it productive or make it a
benefit for the company and theyjust continue to pay for it
without actually fullyimplementing it and seeing the
benefit coming out the otherside yeah, like this guy's.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
He's like he sees something over there and he's
like he stopped.
You can tell he's not.
He's not actively in the act ofrowing right now.
He's holding the oars.
He's kind of coasting onmomentum.
He's like, uh, should I be overthere in that boat with that
young lady or what's that turtledoing in the water?
I don't know what he's thinking.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I know what he's thinking.
He's.
He's actually looking down.
I can see he's looking down atyou saying mark, why did you
make this investment for this tv?
Why did you buy the dockingstation and then?
Why did you not followinvestment for this TV?
Why did you buy the dockingstation and then why did you not
follow through to make thisactually a useful resource for
you?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I feel ashamed All right.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So that's one of my takeaways from broker owner is
that there was a lot of reallygreat stuff there.
But also, if you're not justsuper intentional about rolling
out some new tool, if you're notreally evaluating what problem
am I trying to solve, as opposedto, oh hey, that was a cool
thing, let me see how I couldcreate an issue to implement
(05:00):
that.
If you don't have an activeproblem or you don't have an
active opportunity that you'retrying to pursue, I think the
damage that I was mentioningbefore that comes from some of
this trade show or conferencecan be I get really excited
about things that I'm excitedabout there because it's really
(05:20):
cool and new and different, butyet I don't have a way I'm going
to implement that into mybusiness.
So I try to think about orcreate or make up a way to
implement something like thatinto my business.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, I'm with you, I think.
Um, well, this sparks a fewdifferent ideas.
Well, I had a mentor years agothat really changed my thinking,
and one of the things he sharedwas don't make decisions based
(05:55):
on your perceived options infront of you.
Create a clear vision of whereyou're headed, whether or not
there's a clear path to gettingthere.
You know there's.
There's two different.
It's almost like there's aseparation vision.
Is it is its own thing overhere, like let's get really
(06:17):
clear about what we want theconcept car.
I use this analogy in mybusiness.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
All the time we talked about the concept car no,
okay, well, if you did, Iwasn't paying attention, you
were distracted so there's, aman in the painting.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
He had my full attention young man, everybody's
young young man to you todayyeah there's this idea of a
concept car, where these theyhave these, uh car shows every
year and these designs of thesefuturistic cars are really cool
to look at.
And there are these prototypesand they're really amazing.
And when I was a kid I used toget these car magazines and be
(06:55):
like like, wow, I want to drivethat.
How much does that cost?
And it's not for sale, it's aconcept car.
Why would anyone?
I was like, why would anyonecreate a concept car that you
can't actually make and sell itto somebody?
This is ridiculous.
The idea behind a concept carone of the ideas is that we're
(07:20):
stretching the limits of design.
We're stretching the limits ofdesign.
We're stretching the limits ofengineering.
We're stretching, almost like aas a thought exercise, what
could be possible.
I mean, look at fashion shows.
Same thing.
Some of these fashion shows,like the ridiculous outfits that
(07:40):
are running down the, the, thewalkway what's that called
runway?
Speaker 1 (07:45):
yeah, the runway.
You what's that called Runway?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, the runway.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You probably walk it, I probably run it.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I do.
I've got one in my house so yeah, but you don't see those
outfits on the stands, you know,two months later in the spring
lineup.
But what they do is they informand inspire design elements.
And so when I think of vision,vision is its own thing.
The vision of your business,the vision of the future, is
(08:12):
crafted intentionally withcreativity and excitement and
enthusiasm, and it should, Ibelieve, stretch beyond what's
possible.
I believe, stretch beyondwhat's possible.
We should be inspiringourselves and our teams with
ideas that are not practical.
They are the concept cars ofour business.
(08:35):
And so vision's over here andthat's where I love to play, I
love to be a dreamer and thenover here is like a pragmatic,
strategic, you know, rank order,priority, like like implementer
type of thinking, and you needboth.
But don't show up at aconference and take something
(08:57):
off the shelf and and try tolike, oh, like, I can see some
value from that, you know.
And then, like you know, thenyou've got like, did you intend?
Is this the picture you createdin your mind?
All of this like bolted on,like awkward looking like is
that what you were going for?
Or did or did you createsomething that you were aspiring
(09:18):
toward?
And in so doing.
You put yourself in a positionthat, when the opportunity is
presented, you're like that'sone of the pieces.
I've already seen the designand that's one of the pieces,
and I see it for what it is.
Is this what we're talkingabout?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Absolutely.
I think.
If in uh, it's a little laterin the afternoon and I'm hungry,
so I'm going to take yourdesign, uh, your concept car and
I'm going to, I'm going to turnit into food.
So it's a little bit like I'mgoing to create.
I'm thinking about what's therecipe that I'm trying to create
and what's the recipe of mybusiness that I want it to be.
(09:55):
And sometimes I think we asentrepreneurs, especially
visionaries, we get excitedabout things and we're like I
like bananas, those, there'sbananas right there.
I like bananas, so let me justgrab some bananas and I'll put
that in the recipe.
I like cheese too, so you knowwhat I'm gonna?
I'm gonna throw some cheese onthere.
So now I got bananas and cheeseand, uh, you know, I, I don't
(10:18):
know.
I mean, I like I, I like bakedpotatoes and I like corn, so let
me throw that in there.
I like syrup too.
Well, actually I like orangemarmalade.
That's really good.
And you look at all theselittle things that you like that
catch your attention and wethrow that in the recipe as
opposed to being intentionalabout what are we actually
(10:39):
trying to build?
What are we actually trying tobuild?
And and only adapting oradopting things that fit the
recipe, as opposed to justsomething that oh, that looks
cool or I like that.
Let me see how that might work.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, intentionally choosing the ingredients that
are necessary to make the finalproduct.
That we start with the visionof the final product what it
looks like, what it smells like,what it tastes like, and and
(11:21):
the features, the benefits ofthat and like.
How does that part practical?
But definitely something thatcombines our unique ability, our
gifts and talents in theservice of others to create
maximum value.
That should be at the forefrontof our vision for our
businesses creating maximumvalue in a unique way.
(11:43):
Only we can, or only our teamcan.
And now, when the ingredientspresent themselves, we see them
for what they are.
You know, I can walk through atrade show and say like, oh my
gosh, I've heard from 10 smartpeople that AI is the future.
So I've got three AI options.
This is the best one.
Let's bring it in Bam Bolt iton.
(12:06):
Well, that's not really workinglike I expected.
You know it's just an exampleI've done that so many times
over the years where I like goto a trade show, see something
that says here, two or threepeople are using this particular
software.
You know, talk to the vendor.
All right, we're doing this Notreally being intentional, not
(12:29):
really being organized, notreally being systematic, Not
really having the persistence tofully integrate it and fully
realize the benefits from it.
Those are all things I'veexperienced experienced.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I want to go back to something.
We'll switch gears justslightly, but I wanted to go
back.
You mentioned um.
The reason we have concept carsis to expand the thinking of
what's possible and not justmaking the choices.
I don't remember exactly howyou phrased it but the person.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
We do not move forward by considering the
apparent options in front of usand choosing one of those.
We don't do that.
We go.
This is where I'm going.
Whether there's an option infront of me or not, this is
where I'm going.
And then we trust in theuniverse that as we hold
(13:26):
ourselves to that vision, theway will become clear.
We don't you.
I guess another way of sayingthis is you don't craft vision
by taking the next apparent stepforward.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
So I want to.
I want to pull that in.
I want to give you an exampleof a situation I had on one of
the coaching calls I had thisweek.
So I had a client and they weredoing exactly what you said,
which was they were trying tofigure out how to deliver the
maximum value in the servicesthat they offer.
And this is not a debate aboutwhether you should pre-lease
your properties or wait tillthey're vacant.
(14:02):
It's everybody.
You do what you want right,whatever works for your business
, whatever you can stand behind.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
But in this case they were trying to determine how
they were going to maximize thevalue that they were going to
deliver.
Yes, I'm with you, are you?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Are you Okay?
So in this call they werelooking at well, they wanted to
have a leasing guarantee, but itwas tied to them setting the
rent and also having anautomatic price reduction.
Because, as you know, you don'tset the market rent, there you
go.
I don't set the market rent Yep, the market sets the market
(14:41):
rent.
Buyers do the market rent yep,the market sets the market rent,
buyers do.
And so if we put the propertyon the market and we don't get
at least x number of showings ory number of applications and
it's been on the market longerthan 14 days, then we should
automatically do a pricereduction like that should be
our default.
It doesn't mean we have tofollow the default every time if
there's some weird circumstance, but we want to have that
(15:04):
default.
So they were trying toreconcile a few things of the
automatic price reduction withthe leasing guarantee, with
trying to minimize the vacancyand the turnover costs in
between tenants, between tenants, and so what they were doing is
(15:26):
they were trying to evaluateshould I do pre-showing and
pre-leasing or should I offerthis leasing guarantee where
we're doing automatic pricereductions?
And they were trying toevaluate between these two
choices and really the correctchoice that we came up with for
them and their company was thatit wasn't an either or.
It was a both.
(15:48):
And let's start pre-leasing evenmore, where a lot of the people
who are their target client fora resident, they're out there
looking because they've gothousing vouchers and different
things.
So they're looking for housingat least 90 or 60 days out from
(16:11):
the time that they need to movein.
So it actually helps topre-lease and it gives us an
extra if we said we're going tonot start pre-leasing at 30 days
out, but we're going to startpre-leasing at 90 days out.
But we're going to startpre-leasing at 90 days out or 60
, let's go 60.
Then it gives me 30 days toplay with the market, to try to
maximize my return for mylandlord and to see what the
(16:34):
market's going to say about thatbefore I have to get serious
and adjust it to where we're nowjust 30 days out.
So it was a combination of notjust looking at those two
choices they had in front ofthem and saying it's an either
or.
We actually created an entirelynew solution, love it.
That helped encapsulate all ofthe things they were trying to
(16:57):
accomplish and they're going tomake more money and the landlord
is going to have less expense,which means they're going to
have a better annual net.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Nice.
So they found a triple win bythinking creatively.
There's a name for what you'redescribing it's a false option,
false optionality, falseexclusionary choice.
It's a false something.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
We'll put it in the show notes.
Don't hurt yourself, Mark.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah so, and the book Crucial Conversations talks
about this.
They call it the fool's choice.
Fool's choice when you'represented, when you think you're
at a crossroads of like, well,I have to do this or this.
I would say, usually, when youthink you're at an either or
(18:01):
it's not an either, or you justhaven't spent enough time
sitting with that and withenough creativity and
intentionality to find theabundant solution, and that's
the essence of innovation.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
And that's why it's so important, with the things
that I coach and I talk aboutbeing in the entrepreneur
extraction business.
Things are changing so fast inthe world in general just with
AI, legislation, all of thesethings.
It's changing so fast inproperty management that we have
(18:29):
to have time, as the businessowners, to spend two hours and
do nothing but just think aboutwhat the future of the business
is going to look like I lovedoing that, I'll spend more than
two hours doing that.
But most people struggle withfinding that amount of time.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
It's not about finding the time, it's deciding
how important it is.
Bam, did you hear that?
I did hear that I'm in a punchymood today.
My daughter the other day goesdad, I don't have the time for
that.
Um me nuts.
By the way, don't ever.
If, if you're my daughter,don't ever say I don't have.
You know, if you're close to me, don't ever say I don't have
(19:09):
time, for that drives me nuts.
Um, it's not being honest.
You have all the time in theworld.
You have all the time untilyou're dead.
You have all the time, and soit's.
How much?
Um, how important is it You'redeciding?
This is not important.
Now, that's a differentconversation.
Now you have to talk.
(19:29):
Now you have to decide why youdecided that.
Sorry if that's a sorry if I'mgoing off on a tangent.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
All right.
Well, for the folks that arejust listening, you can't see
what's happening in thebackground with the, with what
Mark's watching this on.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I thought everybody was watching this on video.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Are you intentionally being distracting with finding
the lilac bushes?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I think I should have ate lunch today, so can I?
Oh, I don't want that one up.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
No naked ladies on the back, Just so you know that
was not my choice okay, so yeah,so, um, impressionistic art.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I know this is not what we're talking about, but
impressionistic art art I wasthinking about this morning
because I had theseimpressionistic paintings up on
my tv here and the thoughtoccurred to me.
I'm curious what you think ofthis.
We don't see anything perfectlyclearly in life.
I think impressionistic art isa statement about life.
(20:28):
We don't see what the best wecan hope is to get a vague
impression that's more accuratethan not, about what's really
going on, and I thinkimpressionistic art is a
beautiful representation of thattruth there.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
All right, I'm going to, I'm going to build on that,
but go in a totally differentdirection.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Go for it, okay.
One of my favorite topics iseverybody that knows you knows a
different version of you.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
And that just kind of blew my mind the first time I
heard it and it's always stuckwith me.
But I want to tie in anotherpiece to give you something else
to think about, which is inlife we have a field of view
which I think it's like 135degrees, something like that.
So we have a field of view andwe're looking, we're standing,
looking forward.
Life in reality is happening360 degrees around us.
(21:26):
Oh yeah, but yet we only have afield of view of 135 degrees,
so we only can see what'shappening here.
So our reality is less thanhalf of what's happening in
reality.
Okay, and then you have yourfield of view, but you really
have your field of focus, whichI think is like 10 to 15 degrees
, don't?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
chat.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
GPT me on that Did you know, I was chat.
Gpting you.
Yeah, so you have a field ofview, but inside that field of
view, you have a field of focus.
So, even though things arehappening peripherally around
you, the things that are in yourfocus is what becomes your
reality.
You, the things that are inyour focus is what becomes your
(22:05):
reality totally, and so we needto be really conscientious and
intentional about what we put inour field of focus well, I have
something to add to that.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Add to it.
All right.
So there's a painting calledson of man and most people don't
know the name of the painting,but most people have seen the
painting and it's a man.
It's actually a self-portrait.
Apparently.
It's a man with like, dressedin like 1920s, like um, like
(22:39):
he's got a jacket on, he's gotlike a derby hat on and there's
a green apple in front of hisface.
Now, have you seen?
Speaker 1 (22:50):
this yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yeah, okay, so the artist, actually, I think, gave
a depiction or an explanation.
Not all artists do that, by theway, because they want, of
course, as you know, it's likeno, the piece needs to speak to
you.
You know, real art speaks toyou and delivers your message,
so they don't want to cloud themessage necessarily with their
(23:14):
own interpretation or theirexpression.
Right gave his own expressionand he said something to the
effect that, um, what is visible, everything we see, hides what
we don't see.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Um, everything we see hides what we don't see.
And so, even if we're talkingabout our periphery and then our
area of focus, and then oursingular focus, or whatever, we
are constantly making choicesabout what we're focusing
visually, mentally on, and thosechoices of focusing exclude a
(24:02):
lot of things that we're notseeing.
And I guess this is an argumentin favor of vision.
Take the green apple away fromyour face, look behind.
After, actually, my fractionalCMO told me that he's like hey,
you had this painting up in youroffice the other day.
I think it's really cool, wecould include it in our branding
somehow, because I looked it upand this is what it said.
(24:28):
He's like I started lookingaround in my periphery and my
field of vision.
I started thinking, okay, I seea wall right there.
That's.
That wall is actually hidingeverything behind that wall from
my vision.
That chair is doing the samething.
This door, you know this?
My computer screen, there'ssomething behind my computer
screen.
I cannot see it.
And, um, maybe, and maybe if wetied that back into your trade
show analogy, you're walkingthrough a trade show and you're
(24:48):
looking at the shiny object thatthe vendor is presenting to you
, and the choice to focus onthat thing is inviting the
experience of not seeingeverything else for whatever
period of time, that you'refocused on that thing.
(25:09):
So is that helpful to theconversation?
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I don't know if it's helpful or not but I really
liked it.
All right, I'll tell you what.
Let's wrap this up.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Let's get these folks back out on the get back out
there on the trail, it's gettinghotter, uh, you know, uh, it's,
it's getting, it's actuallygetting hotter.
You know it's April in Arizona.
So so, uh, stay hydrated, starttaking your salt.
I know you don't feel depleted,yet you got to load up on your
salt now, your electrolytes now,so, before you get to the next
(25:46):
aid station, you're not crashinghard.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
All right, we'll see you at the next one.
See you at the next one.
Thanks for tuning in to theProperty Management Success
Podcast.
We'll be back with anothervalue-packed episode to help you
level up your propertymanagement game.
If you've got somethingvaluable out of today's episode,
please share it with a friendor colleague, and don't forget
to subscribe and leave a reviewso you never miss out on future
insights and strategies andtactics.
(26:11):
Until next time, here's to yoursuccess.
It's changing so fast in property management that we
have to have time, as thebusiness owners, to spend two
hours and do nothing, but justthink about what the future of
the business is going to looklike I love doing that.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'll spend more than two hours doing that.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
But most people struggle with finding that
amount of time.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's not about finding the time, it's deciding
how important it is.
Bam, did you hear that?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I did hear that.
I'm in a punchy mood today.
Welcome to the PropertyManagement Success Podcast,
where we interview leaders inthe industry to uncover the
secrets to profitability,efficiency and achieving true
freedom, whether it's your time,money or lifestyle.
I'm your host, tony Klein, andI'm here to help you build a
wildly successful propertymanagement business.
(00:44):
Let's get to it.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Property Management
Success Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Well, we've got Mark Brower in the house with us and
a lot of times when we do thissegment, we call it the Property
Management Aid Station.
I've noticed you got a pictureof the rower.
I see people that are listeningto it no significance.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I'm just trying to be distracting to you.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah Well, you're always a handsome young man like
you, always distracting.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So this is an impressionistic painting.
And I got this TV in my officebecause I thought, hey, maybe
someday I'll just sit across theroom and I'll have my computer
screen up there and I'll have alittle keyboard on my lap.
So I spent money on this reallynice dock for my MacBook Pro.
I got a little shelf behind meand put the laptop in the dock
(01:41):
and nada, like I can't figureout how to get it to project up
there.
It was a really good idea.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
You know what's funny is that ties so good into the
topic.
We haven't talked about thetopics we were going to cover
today?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
No, we haven't.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Today we were going to freestyle a little bit.
That ties so much into a topicthat I wanted to talk to you
about, which is you and I gotback from.
Broker owner was about week twoweeks ago, and I've been
thinking a lot about the vendorfair that's down there and I was
thinking a lot about theentrepreneurs, the brokers or
(02:20):
owners or property managementcompanies that went down there
to.
Are you doing this is asponsorship.
Mark is now sponsored by aliquid death, apparently.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Was that good?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
It was pretty clear.
All right, so let's, let'slet's bring it in a little bit,
so let's go back to.
Uh.
All these brokers or owners ofthese property management
companies took time off to gospecifically to see what's the
latest thing or things inproperty management, both from a
strategic and tacticalstandpoint, to tools and
(02:56):
resources.
So much about the damage thatcould be caused by going to one
of those events and not beingintentional about what you're
going to do or what actionsyou're going to take when you
come back.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The damage.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, so this ties into your picture and that fine
young gentleman rowing acrossthe waters with the TV in the
back.
I think a lot of times peopleget distracted by that shiny
object syndrome.
They think that they want toimplement some new tools, some
new software, some new thing,and they do, but then they don't
(03:37):
follow through and actuallymake it productive or make it a
benefit for the company and theyjust continue to pay for it
without actually fullyimplementing it and seeing the
benefit coming out the otherside yeah, like this guy's.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
He's like he sees something over there and he's
like he stopped.
You can tell he's not.
He's not actively in the act ofrowing right now.
He's holding the oars.
He's kind of coasting onmomentum.
He's like, uh, should I be overthere in that boat with that
young lady or what's that turtledoing in the water?
I don't know what he's thinking.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I know what he's thinking.
He's.
He's actually looking down.
I can see he's looking down atyou saying mark, why did you
make this investment for this tv?
Why did you buy the dockingstation and then?
Why did you not followinvestment for this TV?
Why did you buy the dockingstation and then why did you not
follow through to make thisactually a useful resource for
you?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I feel ashamed All right.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So that's one of my takeaways from broker owner is
that there was a lot of reallygreat stuff there.
But also, if you're not justsuper intentional about rolling
out some new tool, if you're notreally evaluating what problem
am I trying to solve, as opposedto, oh hey, that was a cool
thing, let me see how I couldcreate an issue to implement
(05:00):
that.
If you don't have an activeproblem or you don't have an
active opportunity that you'retrying to pursue, I think the
damage that I was mentioningbefore that comes from some of
this trade show or conferencecan be I get really excited
about things that I'm excitedabout there because it's really
(05:20):
cool and new and different, butyet I don't have a way I'm going
to implement that into mybusiness.
So I try to think about orcreate or make up a way to
implement something like thatinto my business.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, I'm with you, I think.
Um, well, this sparks a fewdifferent ideas.
Well, I had a mentor years agothat really changed my thinking,
and one of the things he sharedwas don't make decisions based
(05:55):
on your perceived options infront of you.
Create a clear vision of whereyou're headed, whether or not
there's a clear path to gettingthere.
You know there's.
There's two different.
It's almost like there's aseparation vision.
Is it is its own thing overhere, like let's get really
(06:17):
clear about what we want theconcept car.
I use this analogy in mybusiness.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
All the time we talked about the concept car no,
okay, well, if you did, Iwasn't paying attention, you
were distracted so there's, aman in the painting.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
He had my full attention young man, everybody's
young young man to you todayyeah there's this idea of a
concept car, where these theyhave these, uh car shows every
year and these designs of thesefuturistic cars are really cool
to look at.
And there are these prototypesand they're really amazing.
And when I was a kid I used toget these car magazines and be
(06:55):
like like, wow, I want to drivethat.
How much does that cost?
And it's not for sale, it's aconcept car.
Why would anyone?
I was like, why would anyonecreate a concept car that you
can't actually make and sell itto somebody?
This is ridiculous.
The idea behind a concept carone of the ideas is that we're
(07:20):
stretching the limits of design.
We're stretching the limits ofdesign.
We're stretching the limits ofengineering.
We're stretching, almost like aas a thought exercise, what
could be possible.
I mean, look at fashion shows.
Same thing.
Some of these fashion shows,like the ridiculous outfits that
(07:40):
are running down the, the, thewalkway what's that called
runway?
Speaker 1 (07:45):
yeah, the runway.
You what's that called Runway?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, the runway.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You probably walk it, I probably run it.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I do.
I've got one in my house so yeah, but you don't see those
outfits on the stands, you know,two months later in the spring
lineup.
But what they do is they informand inspire design elements.
And so when I think of vision,vision is its own thing.
The vision of your business,the vision of the future, is
(08:12):
crafted intentionally withcreativity and excitement and
enthusiasm, and it should, Ibelieve, stretch beyond what's
possible.
I believe, stretch beyondwhat's possible.
We should be inspiringourselves and our teams with
ideas that are not practical.
They are the concept cars ofour business.
(08:35):
And so vision's over here andthat's where I love to play, I
love to be a dreamer and thenover here is like a pragmatic,
strategic, you know, rank order,priority, like like implementer
type of thinking, and you needboth.
But don't show up at aconference and take something
(08:57):
off the shelf and and try tolike, oh, like, I can see some
value from that, you know.
And then, like you know, thenyou've got like, did you intend?
Is this the picture you createdin your mind?
All of this like bolted on,like awkward looking like is
that what you were going for?
Or did or did you createsomething that you were aspiring
(09:18):
toward?
And in so doing.
You put yourself in a positionthat, when the opportunity is
presented, you're like that'sone of the pieces.
I've already seen the designand that's one of the pieces,
and I see it for what it is.
Is this what we're talkingabout?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Absolutely.
I think.
If in uh, it's a little laterin the afternoon and I'm hungry,
so I'm going to take yourdesign, uh, your concept car and
I'm going to, I'm going to turnit into food.
So it's a little bit like I'mgoing to create.
I'm thinking about what's therecipe that I'm trying to create
and what's the recipe of mybusiness that I want it to be.
(09:55):
And sometimes I think we asentrepreneurs, especially
visionaries, we get excitedabout things and we're like I
like bananas, those, there'sbananas right there.
I like bananas, so let me justgrab some bananas and I'll put
that in the recipe.
I like cheese too, so you knowwhat I'm gonna?
I'm gonna throw some cheese onthere.
So now I got bananas and cheeseand, uh, you know, I, I don't
(10:18):
know.
I mean, I like I, I like bakedpotatoes and I like corn, so let
me throw that in there.
I like syrup too.
Well, actually I like orangemarmalade.
That's really good.
And you look at all theselittle things that you like that
catch your attention and wethrow that in the recipe as
opposed to being intentionalabout what are we actually
(10:39):
trying to build?
What are we actually trying tobuild?
And and only adapting oradopting things that fit the
recipe, as opposed to justsomething that oh, that looks
cool or I like that.
Let me see how that might work.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, intentionally choosing the ingredients that
are necessary to make the finalproduct.
That we start with the visionof the final product what it
looks like, what it smells like,what it tastes like, and and
(11:21):
the features, the benefits ofthat and like.
How does that part practical?
But definitely something thatcombines our unique ability, our
gifts and talents in theservice of others to create
maximum value.
That should be at the forefrontof our vision for our
businesses creating maximumvalue in a unique way.
(11:43):
Only we can, or only our teamcan.
And now, when the ingredientspresent themselves, we see them
for what they are.
You know, I can walk through atrade show and say like, oh my
gosh, I've heard from 10 smartpeople that AI is the future.
So I've got three AI options.
This is the best one.
Let's bring it in Bam Bolt iton.
(12:06):
Well, that's not really workinglike I expected.
You know it's just an exampleI've done that so many times
over the years where I like goto a trade show, see something
that says here, two or threepeople are using this particular
software.
You know, talk to the vendor.
All right, we're doing this Notreally being intentional, not
(12:29):
really being organized, notreally being systematic, Not
really having the persistence tofully integrate it and fully
realize the benefits from it.
Those are all things I'veexperienced experienced.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I want to go back to something.
We'll switch gears justslightly, but I wanted to go
back.
You mentioned um.
The reason we have concept carsis to expand the thinking of
what's possible and not justmaking the choices.
I don't remember exactly howyou phrased it but the person.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
We do not move forward by considering the
apparent options in front of usand choosing one of those.
We don't do that.
We go.
This is where I'm going.
Whether there's an option infront of me or not, this is
where I'm going.
And then we trust in theuniverse that as we hold
(13:26):
ourselves to that vision, theway will become clear.
We don't you.
I guess another way of sayingthis is you don't craft vision
by taking the next apparent stepforward.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
So I want to.
I want to pull that in.
I want to give you an exampleof a situation I had on one of
the coaching calls I had thisweek.
So I had a client and they weredoing exactly what you said,
which was they were trying tofigure out how to deliver the
maximum value in the servicesthat they offer.
And this is not a debate aboutwhether you should pre-lease
your properties or wait tillthey're vacant.
(14:02):
It's everybody.
You do what you want right,whatever works for your business
, whatever you can stand behind.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
But in this case they were trying to determine how
they were going to maximize thevalue that they were going to
deliver.
Yes, I'm with you, are you?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Are you Okay?
So in this call they werelooking at well, they wanted to
have a leasing guarantee, but itwas tied to them setting the
rent and also having anautomatic price reduction.
Because, as you know, you don'tset the market rent, there you
go.
I don't set the market rent Yep, the market sets the market
(14:41):
rent.
Buyers do the market rent yep,the market sets the market rent,
buyers do.
And so if we put the propertyon the market and we don't get
at least x number of showings ory number of applications and
it's been on the market longerthan 14 days, then we should
automatically do a pricereduction like that should be
our default.
It doesn't mean we have tofollow the default every time if
there's some weird circumstance, but we want to have that
(15:04):
default.
So they were trying toreconcile a few things of the
automatic price reduction withthe leasing guarantee, with
trying to minimize the vacancyand the turnover costs in
between tenants, between tenants, and so what they were doing is
(15:26):
they were trying to evaluateshould I do pre-showing and
pre-leasing or should I offerthis leasing guarantee where
we're doing automatic pricereductions?
And they were trying toevaluate between these two
choices and really the correctchoice that we came up with for
them and their company was thatit wasn't an either or.
It was a both.
(15:48):
And let's start pre-leasing evenmore, where a lot of the people
who are their target client fora resident, they're out there
looking because they've gothousing vouchers and different
things.
So they're looking for housingat least 90 or 60 days out from
(16:11):
the time that they need to movein.
So it actually helps topre-lease and it gives us an
extra if we said we're going tonot start pre-leasing at 30 days
out, but we're going to startpre-leasing at 90 days out.
But we're going to startpre-leasing at 90 days out or 60
, let's go 60.
Then it gives me 30 days toplay with the market, to try to
maximize my return for mylandlord and to see what the
(16:34):
market's going to say about thatbefore I have to get serious
and adjust it to where we're nowjust 30 days out.
So it was a combination of notjust looking at those two
choices they had in front ofthem and saying it's an either
or.
We actually created an entirelynew solution, love it.
That helped encapsulate all ofthe things they were trying to
(16:57):
accomplish and they're going tomake more money and the landlord
is going to have less expense,which means they're going to
have a better annual net.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Nice.
So they found a triple win bythinking creatively.
There's a name for what you'redescribing it's a false option,
false optionality, falseexclusionary choice.
It's a false something.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
We'll put it in the show notes.
Don't hurt yourself, Mark.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah so, and the book Crucial Conversations talks
about this.
They call it the fool's choice.
Fool's choice when you'represented, when you think you're
at a crossroads of like, well,I have to do this or this.
I would say, usually, when youthink you're at an either or
(18:01):
it's not an either, or you justhaven't spent enough time
sitting with that and withenough creativity and
intentionality to find theabundant solution, and that's
the essence of innovation.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
And that's why it's so important, with the things
that I coach and I talk aboutbeing in the entrepreneur
extraction business.
Things are changing so fast inthe world in general just with
AI, legislation, all of thesethings.
It's changing so fast inproperty management that we have
(18:29):
to have time, as the businessowners, to spend two hours and
do nothing but just think aboutwhat the future of the business
is going to look like I lovedoing that, I'll spend more than
two hours doing that.
But most people struggle withfinding that amount of time.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
It's not about finding the time, it's deciding
how important it is.
Bam, did you hear that?
I did hear that I'm in a punchymood today.
My daughter the other day goesdad, I don't have the time for
that.
Um me nuts.
By the way, don't ever.
If, if you're my daughter,don't ever say I don't have.
You know, if you're close to me, don't ever say I don't have
(19:09):
time, for that drives me nuts.
Um, it's not being honest.
You have all the time in theworld.
You have all the time untilyou're dead.
You have all the time, and soit's.
How much?
Um, how important is it You'redeciding?
This is not important.
Now, that's a differentconversation.
Now you have to talk.
(19:29):
Now you have to decide why youdecided that.
Sorry if that's a sorry if I'mgoing off on a tangent.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
All right.
Well, for the folks that arejust listening, you can't see
what's happening in thebackground with the, with what
Mark's watching this on.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I thought everybody was watching this on video.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Are you intentionally being distracting with finding
the lilac bushes?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I think I should have ate lunch today, so can I?
Oh, I don't want that one up.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
No naked ladies on the back, Just so you know that
was not my choice okay, so yeah,so, um, impressionistic art.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I know this is not what we're talking about, but
impressionistic art art I wasthinking about this morning
because I had theseimpressionistic paintings up on
my tv here and the thoughtoccurred to me.
I'm curious what you think ofthis.
We don't see anything perfectlyclearly in life.
I think impressionistic art isa statement about life.
(20:28):
We don't see what the best wecan hope is to get a vague
impression that's more accuratethan not, about what's really
going on, and I thinkimpressionistic art is a
beautiful representation of thattruth there.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
All right, I'm going to, I'm going to build on that,
but go in a totally differentdirection.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Go for it, okay.
One of my favorite topics iseverybody that knows you knows a
different version of you.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
And that just kind of blew my mind the first time I
heard it and it's always stuckwith me.
But I want to tie in anotherpiece to give you something else
to think about, which is inlife we have a field of view
which I think it's like 135degrees, something like that.
So we have a field of view andwe're looking, we're standing,
looking forward.
Life in reality is happening360 degrees around us.
(21:26):
Oh yeah, but yet we only have afield of view of 135 degrees,
so we only can see what'shappening here.
So our reality is less thanhalf of what's happening in
reality.
Okay, and then you have yourfield of view, but you really
have your field of focus, whichI think is like 10 to 15 degrees
, don't?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
chat.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
GPT me on that Did you know, I was chat.
Gpting you.
Yeah, so you have a field ofview, but inside that field of
view, you have a field of focus.
So, even though things arehappening peripherally around
you, the things that are in yourfocus is what becomes your
reality.
You, the things that are inyour focus is what becomes your
(22:05):
reality totally, and so we needto be really conscientious and
intentional about what we put inour field of focus well, I have
something to add to that.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Add to it.
All right.
So there's a painting calledson of man and most people don't
know the name of the painting,but most people have seen the
painting and it's a man.
It's actually a self-portrait.
Apparently.
It's a man with like, dressedin like 1920s, like um, like
(22:39):
he's got a jacket on, he's gotlike a derby hat on and there's
a green apple in front of hisface.
Now, have you seen?
Speaker 1 (22:50):
this yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yeah, okay, so the artist, actually, I think, gave
a depiction or an explanation.
Not all artists do that, by theway, because they want, of
course, as you know, it's likeno, the piece needs to speak to
you.
You know, real art speaks toyou and delivers your message,
so they don't want to cloud themessage necessarily with their
(23:14):
own interpretation or theirexpression.
Right gave his own expressionand he said something to the
effect that, um, what is visible, everything we see, hides what
we don't see.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Um, everything we see hides what we don't see.
And so, even if we're talkingabout our periphery and then our
area of focus, and then oursingular focus, or whatever, we
are constantly making choicesabout what we're focusing
visually, mentally on, and thosechoices of focusing exclude a
(24:02):
lot of things that we're notseeing.
And I guess this is an argumentin favor of vision.
Take the green apple away fromyour face, look behind.
After, actually, my fractionalCMO told me that he's like hey,
you had this painting up in youroffice the other day.
I think it's really cool, wecould include it in our branding
somehow, because I looked it upand this is what it said.
(24:28):
He's like I started lookingaround in my periphery and my
field of vision.
I started thinking, okay, I seea wall right there.
That's.
That wall is actually hidingeverything behind that wall from
my vision.
That chair is doing the samething.
This door, you know this?
My computer screen, there'ssomething behind my computer
screen.
I cannot see it.
And, um, maybe, and maybe if wetied that back into your trade
show analogy, you're walkingthrough a trade show and you're
(24:48):
looking at the shiny object thatthe vendor is presenting to you
, and the choice to focus onthat thing is inviting the
experience of not seeingeverything else for whatever
period of time, that you'refocused on that thing.
(25:09):
So is that helpful to theconversation?
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I don't know if it's helpful or not but I really
liked it.
All right, I'll tell you what.
Let's wrap this up.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Let's get these folks back out on the get back out
there on the trail, it's gettinghotter, uh, you know, uh, it's,
it's getting, it's actuallygetting hotter.
You know it's April in Arizona.
So so, uh, stay hydrated, starttaking your salt.
I know you don't feel depleted,yet you got to load up on your
salt now, your electrolytes now,so, before you get to the next
(25:46):
aid station, you're not crashinghard.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
All right, we'll see you at the next one.
See you at the next one.
Thanks for tuning in to theProperty Management Success
Podcast.
We'll be back with anothervalue-packed episode to help you
level up your propertymanagement game.
If you've got somethingvaluable out of today's episode,
please share it with a friendor colleague, and don't forget
to subscribe and leave a reviewso you never miss out on future
insights and strategies andtactics.
(26:11):
Until next time, here's to yoursuccess.
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