Apartment Notes From the Margin
Apartment Signage
Instead of threatening to fine the living day lights out of a resident that violates the dog poop law – try this.
What is Your Gut Worth
How many times have you sat back and said, I wish I would have just listened to my gut? My guess is likely equal to the several times you sat back and said, I wish I would have listened to my parents, coach, mentor or other significant people in my life.
Can’t Keep it In
Like Cat Steven’s suggests in the first two lines of his classic – Can’t Keep it In:
Oh I can’t keep it in,
I can’t keep it in, I’ve gotta let it out.
Now – Cat was waxing poetic about a number of themes on arguably a number of levels. But somewhere buried in there, I think he was admonishing multifamily maniacs on the need to trust thy guts. His overarching folk music profession in Can’t Keep it In was for types like us to rock the multifamily universe with the one and only thing we truly own in this world. Our voice.
You’ve got so much to say, say what you mean,
Mean what you’re thinking, and think anything.
Catch a Tiger by the Tail and an Elephant’s Behind
I know a cool cat in the multifamily business that waxed a poetic line that has held true in my head:
I would prefer to catch a tiger by the tail than light a fire under an elephant’s ass.
The other Cats take on this:
You allow too much to go by, and that won’t do.
Translation: Stop – Stand Up – Trust thy Gut – Speak Up – Shut Up (with the bad gut negative can’t do attitude mucky muck) – And Go and Do
Guess what – it’s highly likely someone has that same thought and the same gut arrest that you have. And guess what happens when you don’t speak up in that situation – two or more people get cheated. You out of being a better person the rest of the group out of being a better group.
Your no stupid thoughts or questions in my book multifamily maniac,
M
Busy Work
Stop the busy work and start the work that matters.
I have unsubscribed from roughly 25 newsletters and blogs over the last 6 days. All in the name of streamlining and simplifying. How did I do it? I don’t give myself the time to second guess any of the unsubscribes. I ask one question – when is the last time I read one of these. Not just the headline. I mean really took the time to click on a link a read the post from start to finish. If the answer is more than a month or so – unsubscribe.
On the other side of that – I have become relentless on new subscriptions. Relentless such that I have decided not to subscribe to anything in 2013. And, if the next hot platform is not beating me over the head with some serious social pressure from my oft relied upon G+ apartment maniac circle – then I won’t sign up.
What will I be doing instead?
Working on my Apartment Business
Your relentlessly working on the business multifamily maniac,
M
Accomplished
I am walking my way through the gigantic book that Seth Godin put out via the Kickstarter platform – page 9 of 800+/-. It’s a monster of a book. Let’s just say, it adds a whole new meaning to the idiom; throw the book at someone. It would level even the strongest among us. The entry I read tonight talked about being done.
Accomplished
Are we ever done in the property management business? I can’t tell you the last time my inbox was at zero or my to do list was fully accomplished. Or, that my site-visits were 100% done. Or, my apartment budgets were 100% complete. Or, my media company projects were all accomplished. But, what if I could say that? What would I do?
I think the short answer is – teach, train, coach and mentor. Read: lead the horse to the troth and teach him how to drink. Or, teach a person how to fish, if you prefer that well stated analogy. I would get back to the thing that I love the most about this business – exciting, encouraging and inspiring people.
Why Don’t I
The otherwise obvious follow-up to that bit of knowledge is – why don’t I?
Property management is a crazy world of nonstop fun and excitement. Never a dull moment. And, one day rarely looks like the day before or the day to come. In all fairness, like any other business in the world. Many times we are reacting where responding would be the much preferred alternative. It’s the nature of the beast – as they say.
That is my cop-out answer. My way of shirking responsibility.
The real answer – I don’t know but I am considering the ways to get relentlessly committed to getting back to what I love.
Your looking forward to accomplishing some people building multifamily maniac,
M
Let’s Do Some Average Work
Average is easy
Average gets a leasing person a fair amount of sales
An average service tech can do a fair amount of tickets in a day
An average make ready tech can do a fair amount of turns in a day
An average assistant manager can process a fair amount of transactions in a day
An average manager can lead a fair charge
Ever Get Annoyed?
Do you ever think – I really have a disdain for this guy or that gal because they seem to get more done in an hour than I get done all week? They get twice the commissions for half the work. They get twice as many service requests done in a day than I do and they head home on time everyday.
Get Annoyed Get Excellent
Put that ill-headed pride aside – get pissed – get over it and just ask. Ask that top producer what it is that makes them different. Ask them how they organize their day. What they say to people during the apartment tour and demonstration that gets them so many leases. Ask the leader how he/she gets so much out of their team. Then get busy doing that stuff.
This note from the margin got me thinking about the things that I do to avoid being average –
- I am number challenged. Budgets, forecasts and proformas are the bane of my existence. This is the hard work part of the business to me. What did I decide to do about it. I took out a budget and starting a blog series. I will take roughly two years – writing once a week – to think through and define every single line item right through the debt.
- For the longest time I really struggled with the written word – to combat that, I started reading everything I could get my hands on. I took the time to memorize the 5000 words used on the SAT test. And, I started this blog.
- I struggled with giving and taking feedback to and from industry leaders. Answer – I started participating in industry forums like the ones you see on Multifamily Insiders.
- I struggled with finishing. I love to start things but I get to a point and I lose interest. Answer – this is the eighth year of M Brewer Group. I have changed the name three times over the years and have written well over 2000 posts. And, I hope to never finish but not for lack of an endgame.
- I learned some basic code language so I could tweak the look of my blog. Word to the wise on this point (have a Mike Whaling backup plan if you get it wrong).
- As mentioned above – I read a ton.
- I am constantly trying something, suggesting we try something or pushing to get something done.
- I exercise.
- And, I love people where they are at without enabling them to settle.
Guess what, I still misspell words, break the rules of grammar, start and don’t finish, muck up budget work and go long stretches without posting to this blog. Do I fret – no. I acknowledge, learn from it and move on.
What do you do to keep yourself from doing above average work?
Your looking past average work multifamily manic,
M
