Mike Brewer
Apartment Marketing: Creating Community
Meet Lisa Zagoren – Property Manager at Mills Properties. She is responsible for the amazing and over the top performance of a 758 unit asset in North St. Louis County named Oak Park Apartments. This summer she has taken on the responsibility of producing a full on kids camp. She and her team are hosting twelve children from in and around the community and running them through all kinds of fun and educational activities aimed at keeping them off the streets and actively involved in her apartment community.
The camp runs daily from 9 to 4 and each of her team members to include herself are responsible for facilitating the activities. I got my first chance to observe the Kid’s Club last Thursday during a weekly site visit. At the time the kids were playing musical chairs and having a blast. The program goes beyond just having fun, however.
As you can see from one of the fliers created to promote the program, they are offering math, reading, language and arts, exercise programs, entrepreneurship training along with a host of other activities aimed at helping the children. Many of the educational programs are facilitated by four high-school students who also participate in the Kid’s Club. Their participation will yield them school credit for participating in a community service over the summer.
I had the privilege of meeting one young man who definitely exuded a community spirit. His firm handshake and confident demeanor assured me that he was aiming for a bright future somewhere in the world. It jazzed me to know – in the mean time – that he would be serving the Oak Park children this summer.
I got the real sense that this program is just the beginning of something of something really special as it relates to building community. And the marketing benefit? A whole host of kids and parents are talking about the Oak Park Kid’s Club and how cool it is…as such we will be checking in and reporting out often.
I’d be remiss to avoid sending out some major crazy cool – hat’s off to the Oak Park Team! Great Cause! And, thanks for rocking the house – always!
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Apartment Leadership – Lessons from THE CALL
Much has been written and much will be written about the perfect game that was not –
I see a major leadership lesson in the action that rocked the baseball world just a few nights ago.
Lesson #1: Admit
How many times do we as operators and managers drop the ball? I would be humble enough to suggest that I employ the super bouncy ball dropping method of dropping balls on a near daily basis. I exercise such strategies as forgetting to write it down, ignoring the reminders I have set in my phone and laptop and plan old fashion ignorance. All that being said, I have come to understand the power of Admitting the shortcoming.
As it relates to THE CALL – I admire what Jim Joyce had to say after he viewed the replay:
“I just cost that kid a perfect game,” Joyce said. “I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay.”
“It was the biggest call of my career,” said Joyce, who became a full-time major league umpire in 1989.
Lesson #2: Apologize
I read a book nearly ten years ago titled: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum – one of the lessons described is the ability to say – I’m Sorry. How many times do we launch into the why-for’s and what-not’s – siting policies, procedures, protocol and make-it-up-on-the-fly alternatives to simply saying – You know – I apologize that we gave cause for you to drive 27 miles to our corporate office to meet with upper-management over the fact that your faucet has been leaking for over a month now and despite 33 requests to fix it – nothing was done. I agree that that is far from the service you should expect in exchange for the biggest check you write out each and every month – faithfully.
As it relates to THE CALL – I admire what Jim Joyce did and said later:
DETROIT—Armando Galarraga squeezed the ball in his mitt, stepped on first base with his right foot and was ready to celebrate the first perfect game in Detroit Tigers’ history.
What happened next will be the talk of baseball for the rest of this season and likely a lot longer.
Umpire Jim Joyce emphatically called Cleveland’s Jason Donald safe and a chorus of groans and boos echoed in Comerica Park.
Then Joyce emphatically said he was wrong and later, in tears, hugged Galarraga and apologized.
Lesson #3: Acknowledge
The end all be all mother load of goodness played out the following night:
In a classy gesture meant to show the world the Tigers had moved on from the night before, manager Jim Leyland had pitcher Armando Galarraga — instead of Leyland or a coach — bring the lineup card to the home-plate umpire.
All I can say is -WOW! Class Acts All The Way Around. I often joke that watching baseball is like watching paint dry – and if given a choice I ask that the color be multiple shades of red and black preferably in a satin finish. But, this episode has given me a whole new perspective of the game – namely the people who played it well over the last two nights and the actions they exercised despite the wholly emotionally loaded circumstances! Yeah – for the kids old enough to understand what happened – that is where it mattered most.
Have a smashing weekend. – M
Photo credit: NJ.com
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Business Leaders – Respond vs. React
Just a short bit ago the following article posted over at Bloomberg Businessweek – the news, not so good.
Network Communications Talks With Lenders After Missing Payment – BusinessWeek
What I really admire is what happened just about three minutes ago on Twitter – Dan McCarthy, CEO of NCI got out in front of the story. He posted a the link to the story above. Astute by all measure – in my opinion.
Dan, I applaud you for moving quickly in a space that demands as much and thank you for providing a firm example of great leadership.
Respond vs. React
There is a big difference and I would love to hear your unadulterated thoughts on the subject…in my opinion, Dan responded…
What do you think?
Technorati Tags: @mbrewer, mbrewer, mike brewer, mbrewergroup.com, business leaders, respond, react
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Apartment Marketing – Love is what Engagement is aiming for –
A recent email from a uber-satisfied resident to be –
From:
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2010 6:34 PM
To: leasing2@millsproperties.net
Subject: attn:
J , thanks for showing me the place today.
[Resident] and I are set on living there. It is exactly what we want, and more. We’re looking at June 11th to be the day we move her and all her stuff to St. Louis. But having a week beforehand to get the place ready for her would be great. We’re really serious, and I’d hate to have to tell her we have to start all over from square one again. She said it countless times, that this is the place for us, that we both want to live there, and shes fallen in love with it the first time she saw it. It’s perfect. I’m sold and she is as well. Just hope everything else falls into place. I really hope we can get things movin’. Thanks again J , and call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx whenever you hear the great news. Thank you.Share this:
Apartment Reviews – This Wall was Not Made for Conversation
See this wall -it’s the Mills Properties Kudos Wall in our central office in Clayton, MO. Only one problem, it’s calendar year 2010 and I can’t converse with the people that took the time to write out their thoughts and mail them to our office.
I am certain that many of you can imagine the missed opportunity. My hope is that there are not others out there that have walls like this one in their offices. My plea to you if you do is to get digital fast –
We will be doing as much as we kick of the Get Social with Mills Initiative. Keying off what others have done in the industry, we feel it will be a necessary and fruitful piece of our on-line branding presence going forward.
Would love to hear your thoughts –
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