Latest / Thanks For Visiting / 261. Navigating the Challenges of Letting Your Team Members Go

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261. Navigating the Challenges of Letting Your Team Members Go · Thanks For Visiting

• 0:00
  Sarah: Hello, welcome back for another great week.
• 0:02
  My name is Sarah Karakaian.
• 0:03
  Annette: I am Annette Grant, and together we are--
• 0:05
  Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
• 0:06
  Sarah: Let's kick off this episode like we do every week, and that's sharing
• 0:09
  one of you, our loyal listeners who's using our hashtag #STRShareSunday.
• 0:13
  Annette, who are we sharing this week?
• 0:14
  Annette: This week we are sharing @hillsidehouse_shenandoah.
• 0:20
  And again, that's @hillsidehouse_shenandoah.
• 0:26
  I just want to go-- this is a cozy little nook.
• 0:28
  I want to shout out their dog, Luna.
• 0:31
  Sarah: Luna.
• 0:31
  Annette: They have a thread throughout their whole, um, Instagram with their dog.
• 0:36
  And I just absolutely love that, so I have to give--
• 0:39
  Sarah: They're pet-friendly too, so that makes sense.
• 0:42
  Annette: Yeah.
• 0:42
  You can pull in the heartstrings of the pet lovers.
• 0:44
  But I want to go through one thing.
• 0:46
  I love the cadence of their feed.
• 0:49
  They go through-- they do, um, five-star reviews.
• 0:52
  They do a reel of the area.
• 0:54
  They do some action shots of what you can do with the home.
• 0:57
  So they've done a nice job of just doing a mix.
• 1:00
  It feels like a little formulaic, but it's good, of what they're posting about.
• 1:05
  They also are getting people really excited.
• 1:08
  They're getting ready to build three places on the property, so they
• 1:12
  have a mockup of what's to come.
• 1:14
  And so I love them foreshadowing, getting things ready for people, knowing that
• 1:19
  they've got more places coming soon.
• 1:21
  The other thing I want to highlight is in their bio.
• 1:26
  They say it right there.
• 1:27
  Book directly and save, and then they have their link.
• 1:30
  So I think giving that call to action of say, why would
• 1:34
  someone want to book directly?
• 1:35
  So they have booked directly and save.
• 1:37
  So that's like, oh, if I just book direct, I can actually save money.
• 1:40
  So I think you can't just say book direct.
• 1:43
  You've got to give them a reason why they should book direct.
• 1:48
  So I love that they have that there, their call to action, in their
• 1:52
  bio, so people know immediately.
• 1:54
  Sarah: Absolutely.
• 1:55
  So great job Hillside House.
• 1:58
  Listeners, give them a follow.
• 2:00
  Share some love on the gram.
• 2:01
  Annette: And use our hashtag.
• 2:02
  And also they have this really cute green bathroom sink that I'm feeling.
• 2:06
  Sarah: I love green.
• 2:07
  Annette: Uh, yeah, it's good.
• 2:08
  Sarah: Green is so good.
• 2:10
  All right.
• 2:11
  So today we're going to talk about parting ways with team members.
• 2:16
  Annette: Ooh.
• 2:17
  Yeah.
• 2:18
  Sarah: It's never easy
• 2:19
  Annette: Yeah.
• 2:20
  Sarah: And I start off the episode, I feel like Annette thought maybe
• 2:23
  I was being a little too vague.
• 2:24
  So hang tight through the episode, and we get to the, um, nitty
• 2:28
  gritty of what actually went down.
• 2:30
  But yeah, letting go of team members is never easy no matter
• 2:34
  how long you've been with them.
• 2:35
  Annette: Years.
• 2:36
  Ooh.
• 2:37
  Sarah: Years or months.
• 2:38
  Either way, it's never
• 2:39
  Annette: They're all hard, especially when they're the backbone.
• 2:41
  Well, no, it's always hard.
• 2:43
  Sarah: So we're going to unpack, um, a situation that we've recently
• 2:46
  gone through, and we hope it serves one of you out there and helps
• 2:49
  you with a difficult situation.
• 2:51
  SEGMENT GAP
• 2:52
  All right.
• 2:53
  So this is a difficult conversation, but it's one that it's really important that
• 2:58
  we share here on the podcast, so anyone listening, maybe you're going through
• 3:02
  this right now, maybe you're thinking about it, might be in your near future,
• 3:06
  or maybe everything is great right now and you're like, this doesn't applied to me.
• 3:10
  But I assure you, if you get into business, there's going to be moments
• 3:14
  where it's time to part ways with people on your team, and it really doesn't matter
• 3:18
  if they've been on your team for a short amount of time or a really long time, but
• 3:22
  we've had to part ways with some of our team members recently, and we thought we
• 3:28
  would share as much as we can here in the podcast and with what we learned, what
• 3:31
  we did right, what we didn't do well, and just discuss it here in the pod.
• 3:35
  Annette: I'm actually going to quote-- I went to have coffee with the developer
• 3:41
  that I used to do all of my co-hosting with, and I do want to quote him because
• 3:45
  I thought it was the truth because we were talking about, um, turnover on
• 3:52
  your team, and he was like, it sucks.
• 3:55
  It always sucks.
• 3:57
  If they suck, it still sucks.
• 3:59
  If they're good, it sucks.
• 4:00
  It just always sucks.
• 4:01
  And I was like, oh, it just sucks.
• 4:03
  You know why?
• 4:04
  Because we're humans, and we care about each other.
• 4:09
  While it's happening and it sucks, but also, uh, as someone that has been let go,
• 4:14
  it also ends up being a really good thing.
• 4:16
  Because if it's not a fit, it's not a fit.
• 4:18
  And people can just move on to the next thing.
• 4:21
  Sarah: And I think we can say that with confidence.
• 4:23
  You and I have been let go in the past, and we've let people go.
• 4:28
  People let go of-- you know what I mean?
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  There's a lot of moving on.
• 4:30
  Annette: Chapters end.
• 4:31
  Sarah: Chapters end, and it's okay.
• 4:33
  And it's natural.
• 4:35
  This episode is going to offer you, though, some insight into our personal
• 4:38
  recent experience and what we learned from that, and hopefully it gives you just a
• 4:42
  little bit of insight into maybe what's normal, what is challenging for us is
• 4:49
  probably challenging for everyone else.
• 4:50
  And just deep dive into it a little bit.
• 4:52
  Annette: Let's do it.
• 4:52
  Sarah: All right.
• 4:53
  So first of all, I think the most important piece of advice we can give
• 4:57
  to everyone, and this goes for maybe you're a co-host and you're working
• 5:00
  with an owner, obviously, we can all relate to this from a guest standpoint,
• 5:04
  but also from our team, is to not make decisions when you're emotional.
• 5:09
  Annette: I joked around earlier, before the episode, and said to Sarah, so
• 5:12
  we should just never make decisions.
• 5:15
  Anyways.
• 5:16
  Sarah: No, but when you're really heightened, when maybe there's a
• 5:20
  disagreement that's happening, or you're frustrated because of repeated behavior,
• 5:25
  whatever that is or looks like for you, and you're just seeing red, that is not
• 5:30
  a good time to call that person, or to message that person, or to communicate
• 5:35
  with that person because you're going to say things that you don't mean, or maybe
• 5:38
  not in the tone you want to convey it in.
• 5:40
  Nothing productive is going to come out of that.
• 5:41
  Annette: Agreed.
• 5:42
  Step one.
• 5:44
  Sarah: Step one.
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  I then would lean on whether it's your business partner, your
• 5:50
  life partner, a friend, maybe your pillow, just scream into it.
• 5:53
  Get that emotion out.
• 5:55
  Say what you want to say, write it down, perhaps.
• 5:58
  I'm not saying to bottle it up, but you definitely don't want to
• 6:01
  share that with the person that maybe is causing the emotion.
• 6:05
  Okay.
• 6:05
  Next on is, here's what was difficult for us in our recent situation was how much
• 6:13
  we respected the fact that while there was some disconnect happening, that there is
• 6:20
  money going into this person's account.
• 6:22
  We had a job that was putting food on their table.
• 6:28
  Annette: Mm-hmm.
• 6:29
  Sarah: It was a big part of their life revenue.
• 6:33
  And so when you decide that it's no longer a good fit or you know it's coming, I
• 6:37
  think the thing that makes it so hard is, yes, we're human, and here's why.
• 6:40
  It's because we are exchanging money for those services.
• 6:44
  And so you know it's going to be a big thing in their life if you decide to
• 6:48
  call it quits, if they've not made the decision, you are making that decision.
• 6:51
  And that's hard.
• 6:52
  Annette: Mm-hmm.
• 6:53
  But you can also, a, if they're a vendor, if you have a contract with
• 6:57
  them ahead of time, that's something-- again, all these things-- always have
• 7:02
  the end in mind at the beginning.
• 7:04
  Um, and so that's something that you can put in their contract.
• 7:06
  If you have open invoices from them, of course, you want to square up with those.
• 7:11
  But I think there's a way to definitely handle that, and that's
• 7:15
  planning that ahead of time.
• 7:16
  Sarah: And I think you can also ask yourself as you are contemplating
• 7:19
  ending a relationship with a team member is, the reason you want to end
• 7:24
  the relationship, is it changeable?
• 7:26
  Are we putting in enough effort to see if there's a way to work things out?
• 7:32
  I think it's in an relationship, a marriage, a life partnership,
• 7:35
  business partnership, and a vendor or employee relationship is, are we
• 7:40
  supplying all the tools that they need?
• 7:42
  For example, here, are there training videos we could make to really
• 7:46
  clarify, um, anything that's a misstep?
• 7:50
  Whether it's a clean, or an inspection, or what you expect
• 7:53
  from an operator to deliver KPIs.
• 7:57
  Is there a disconnect, and is it something we can fix?
• 8:00
  Can we change that?
• 8:01
  Annette: Is it fixable?
• 8:01
  Sarah: Is it fixable?
• 8:03
  Pictures.
• 8:03
  Whether it's videos, training videos, pictures of ideal setups
• 8:06
  in your back of house space.
• 8:07
  This is exactly-- I always get that-- we went to this conference, listeners,
• 8:11
  several years ago, and this stuck out like a sore thumb, but the presenter
• 8:15
  was essentially talking about this very subject, and she had a piece of paper and
• 8:18
  a pencil on all of our chairs, and she asked us to draw the picture of a bicycle.
• 8:21
  We all know what a bicycle is.
• 8:23
  We all drew the bicycle, and of course all of our bicycles looked different.
• 8:27
  And so when we get frustrated about a relationship with a vendor because of
• 8:31
  some, whatever that disconnect is--
• 8:32
  Annette: The way you make a bed isn't the way they make a bed.
• 8:34
  Sarah: Correct.
• 8:35
  Youmight say, fold the towel.
• 8:36
  But see, when I want my towels folded, I have a very particular way that I want it
• 8:40
  folded, and I have to remind myself that even if you can see the end result, how do
• 8:46
  you get there really makes a difference.
• 8:49
  So are you doing enough focused training work with your vendors?
• 8:54
  Are you meeting with your vendors in between showtime, in between
• 8:58
  turnovers, or inspections, or whatever to revisit your expectations
• 9:03
  and their expectations of you?
• 9:05
  Are you pausing for a moment?
• 9:06
  Are you always in a go go go mentality, forgetting to come back and really
• 9:11
  discuss and break down those operations?
• 9:13
  Annette: And have you done-- Go side by side with them.
• 9:18
  Sarah: Yes.
• 9:18
  Annette: If there's been repeated issues, it's like, maybe just
• 9:21
  simply going to the home, doing the clean with them or the inspection.
• 9:25
  And I know that could be a very dicey subject because people don't want
• 9:29
  you looking over their shoulders per se, but this is-- again,
• 9:33
  you're in a partnership together.
• 9:34
  And it could be like, hey, I want to see if there are any tools,
• 9:37
  if there's anything that I can do that would make your job easier.
• 9:40
  And a lot of times-- I know we've talked about this all the time.
• 9:42
  You go, and you're like, oh my gosh, they just need a new vacuum cleaner
• 9:46
  or this isn't working properly.
• 9:48
  This washer and dryer is terrible.
• 9:50
  Let's get a new washer and dryer.
• 9:51
  It's faster.
• 9:52
  You can see-- that stuff becomes very, very clear.
• 9:56
  But if you're not on the frontline, you're not doing it, you don't even
• 9:58
  recognize what might be holding them back from doing an excellent job.
• 10:02
  Sarah: Here's my weakness, is I am very well aware of my
• 10:06
  aggressiveness in terms of details.
• 10:08
  Then I do get self-conscious when I work with a vendor or an employee to
• 10:12
  not micromanage or to-- obviously, I've hired them for a skillset, and so I am
• 10:17
  self-conscious about my aggressiveness, so I don't end up breaking it down
• 10:20
  step by step of how I want them to get to the final destination.
• 10:25
  But I have to remember that it's going to be better for everyone to just be who
• 10:31
  I am, the leader that I am, knowing that I have all the good intentions, and when
• 10:35
  we are going through those trainings and we are meeting up every month or quarter,
• 10:40
  whatever that is, to walk them through, and obviously, you don't want to put them
• 10:45
  down or make them feel like they're not capable, but still, you know what I mean?
• 10:49
  Annette: Mm-hmm.
• 10:50
  Sarah: Tell them what you want, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
• 10:52
  Annette: You permit it.
• 10:53
  You promote it.
• 10:53
  Sarah: You permit it.
• 10:54
  You promote it.
• 10:55
  And if I'm not being clear, I'm like, oh, just-- then I want you to roll the towels
• 10:59
  and make sure they're on the same way, but I need to show them exactly how to do it.
• 11:03
  Annette: Exactly how.
• 11:04
  I agree.
• 11:05
  Sarah: And then there's this side too of, can the behavior be changed?
• 11:10
  Is there something happening in their personal life that
• 11:13
  is affecting their work life?
• 11:15
  Are they having transportation issues?
• 11:17
  Is there an issue with how they communicate?
• 11:20
  Are they having trouble keeping up with their phone bills?
• 11:22
  And I know you might be thinking, well, that's not my responsibility, but just
• 11:26
  remember, number one, if otherwise the relationship is solid and their work
• 11:30
  is good, the cost of hiring someone new or finding a new vendor is--
• 11:36
  Annette: And the learning curve.
• 11:37
  Sarah: And the learning curve is, quite honestly, astronomical.
• 11:40
  And the time that you end up putting and focusing on this aspect of your business,
• 11:44
  where everything else gets put on hold or who knows what, wouldn't it have been
• 11:47
  nice just to maybe figure out how you can, I don't know, get them the bus pass or--
• 11:53
  Annette: Help them with-- or if they're asking for a higher rate.
• 11:56
  In our membership last week, we had, um, someone that actually, her cleaning team
• 12:01
  has asked for a pretty large increase in pay, and she's more than happy to give
• 12:05
  it to them because she gets five-star reviews again and again and again, and
• 12:09
  she knows that that would be on the edge.
• 12:12
  That might be forfeited if she were to go back to the open market
• 12:15
  and try to find someone new.
• 12:16
  And that was like, it was a no-brainer for her to just keep them on board
• 12:19
  because they give her excellent, excellent turns every single time.
• 12:23
  And she's like, yeah, if they need more money, they backed up why,
• 12:27
  and she was happy to provide that.
• 12:30
  Sarah: And obviously, she looked into her financials.
• 12:33
  It is something that she can figure out and make happen.
• 12:37
  Now, let's say you've done all these things.
• 12:39
  Because in my case, I did all of these things.
• 12:42
  I mean, this was quite some time of figuring out why is there a disconnect?
• 12:48
  What is it?
• 12:48
  Is it the tools?
• 12:50
  Is it the compensation?
• 12:52
  Is it the support?
• 12:54
  What is it?
• 12:54
  Why is there a disconnect?
• 12:56
  And at the end of the day, when it comes to something that is just against
• 13:01
  your company values, your mission, the culture that you want to create in your
• 13:06
  business, if your business is you, and that's it, and you still want to come to
• 13:11
  work in a happy, upbeat solution-based atmosphere, and there is a disconnect in
• 13:16
  terms of personality that isn't changeable by something that you can simply do,
• 13:21
  that's when you have to ask yourself when you're not in an emotional state.
• 13:25
  Annette: We're getting ready to leave for a trip.
• 13:27
  Sarah: We're getting ready.
• 13:28
  Right.
• 13:28
  Because as Annette said before we hopped on too, there is never a good time.
• 13:34
  Annette: Ever a good time.
• 13:34
  It's like, oh, it's a holiday weekend.
• 13:37
  Oh no, this guest is coming.
• 13:40
  There will never be a good time.
• 13:43
  That's the other part.
• 13:44
  I do want to-- the conversation will never be fun, and there
• 13:48
  will never be a good time.
• 13:49
  And it will always suck.
• 13:51
  Sarah: It'll almost always very much suck.
• 13:54
  But knowing that you have to-- know what your non-negotiables are.
• 13:58
  Annette and I talk about non-negotiables all the time.
• 13:59
  Non-negotiables in terms of working.
• 14:03
  We get into to business ownership, into running these short-term rentals to
• 14:06
  create a certain life for ourselves.
• 14:08
  So when you do that, you need to lay the groundwork of what you're willing
• 14:12
  to put up with and what you're not.
• 14:14
  And then when those things happen-- I'm not saying it's easy because I
• 14:18
  don't-- I mean, Annette can tell you how many times we've talked about
• 14:21
  these certain situations and how long we vacillate to making the decision
• 14:26
  that we know needs to be made.
• 14:28
  Annette: Mm-hmm.
• 14:29
  Sarah: And let me tell you, here on the other side, it never got easier.
• 14:32
  But once the decision was made to part ways, things end up working out.
• 14:38
  All the things that you were terrified about.
• 14:40
  Even on the other side, the person that you end up letting go, as we
• 14:47
  all know, being on the side of being let go, it ends up being some of the
• 14:50
  best things that can happen to you.
• 14:51
  AD MARKER
• 14:52
  Annette: I just want to dig into the situation a little bit more,
• 14:54
  but I don't know if you want to.
• 14:56
  Sarah: Do it.
• 14:56
  Yeah.
• 14:57
  Annette: We're specifically talking about-- you don't care
• 14:59
  if I talk about it's a cleaner?
• 15:01
  Sarah: No.
• 15:01
  Not at all.
• 15:01
  Annette: Okay.
• 15:02
  And I want to give some transparency here.
• 15:04
  This is specifically about the backbone of the business.
• 15:08
  The every day ins and outs.
• 15:13
  And so I know that this is a topic that comes up often of, is
• 15:19
  it about the work that they do?
• 15:20
  And there are some things that-- Sarah, and I can let you know, there are things
• 15:25
  that you-- there has to be give and take, especially-- the turnover team, the
• 15:30
  cleaning team, it is such a laborious job.
• 15:33
  And Sarah says it all the time.
• 15:34
  They are coming into a mountain of work.
• 15:38
  And so just having that understanding of what they're dealing with.
• 15:43
  But two, that's where as the turnover team, as the business owner,
• 15:46
  they also need to recognize that.
• 15:49
  There needs to be-- I think there is some stuff-- this particular situation
• 15:53
  of having some redundancy in their team and taking-- it's just as important
• 15:57
  for you as a host, taking some time off, also them having time off.
• 16:03
  But that's up to them.
• 16:04
  That's their business.
• 16:05
  But I'm in LinkedIn, um, following someone on LinkedIn right now, and every
• 16:08
  day it's like new property managers.
• 16:10
  And every day, the property manager is talking about their cleaning team and
• 16:14
  relying too much on one contractor there.
• 16:17
  And how that has just pretty much been a pain point for
• 16:21
  every single property manager.
• 16:23
  It's a through line, um, in every, uh--
• 16:25
  Sarah: I'll explain that a little bit.
• 16:26
  So, I mean, they have one contractor that they rely on for all of their
• 16:29
  properties, and how that's a mistake.
• 16:32
  Annette: Yes.
• 16:33
  Well, just like-- yeah, I mean, they're putting all their eggs in
• 16:37
  that one basket for that team.
• 16:39
  Sarah: And listeners, that's not uncommon.
• 16:41
  I've been there.
• 16:42
  I've done that.
• 16:45
  Because when you work with a company and you give them multiple properties,
• 16:50
  you can often work out a really great price point for their services.
• 16:55
  And then you get a certain amount of loyalty there too, because
• 16:59
  it's a large account for them.
• 17:01
  But then when things go south, no matter what the contract says, it doesn't make
• 17:07
  it any easier when you know the end is near and they have-- you're right.
• 17:12
  You have all of your eggs in one basket, and how tough that is.
• 17:16
  So it's such a-- catch 22.
• 17:18
  Is that the right word I'm looking for?
• 17:19
  You can get your best pricing when you work with one cleaning company, give
• 17:22
  them all your properties, but if it goes south, what does that look like?
• 17:26
  I remember we had an interview with a guest a long time ago on the podcast
• 17:31
  and she mentioned that a cleaner really wanted all of her properties
• 17:34
  because she had great properties.
• 17:35
  A cleaner loved working for her, and she made her sign a contract.
• 17:38
  I don't know what the contract said, but just something to the fact of--
• 17:41
  Annette: If you leave, you need to have-- I forget.
• 17:44
  It was like 30 days notice or something.
• 17:47
  Butstill doesn'tmean that's going to happen.
• 17:49
  Sarah: No, it doesn't mean that's going to happen.
• 17:51
  And here's the thing too, listeners.
• 17:53
  We not only had to part ways with this backbone of the company, a cleaner,
• 17:58
  but we've also had to part ways with other team members, and it had
• 18:01
  nothing to do with their skillset.
• 18:04
  This cleaner was actually excellent.
• 18:06
  These team members are actually good at what you've hired them to do.
• 18:10
  But when there is a misalign-- if there's something unaligned
• 18:13
  there-- unaligned, misaligned.
• 18:15
  Annette: Misaligned.
• 18:16
  Sarah: Misaligned.
• 18:16
  Annette: Go misaligned.
• 18:16
  Sarah: Okay, great.
• 18:18
  It's very hard to come back from that.
• 18:22
  Annette: Right.
• 18:22
  To bring it back to alignment.
• 18:25
  For misalignment to alignment.
• 18:27
  Sarah: Now let's talk about how, okay, you've made the decision,
• 18:31
  and you had the conversation.
• 18:35
  It was not easy.
• 18:36
  It was very hard.
• 18:37
  And actually, in this case, it was once I got it out of my mouth--
• 18:43
  Annette: Rip the bandaid.
• 18:44
  Sarah: Rip the bandaid.
• 18:45
  The response from the other party was actually quite pleasant.
• 18:49
  Annette: Yeah.
• 18:49
  because it was-- yeah.
• 18:51
  Sarah: Because I think they felt it too.
• 18:54
  And what's still sad to me, or what I'm still struggling with,
• 18:57
  listeners, is I still don't know why the relationship went south.
• 19:01
  There's no one that I know of or that they shared with me.
• 19:06
  There's no one moment or anything in particular I did.
• 19:09
  And that's tough.
• 19:11
  Annette: Right.
• 19:12
  Sarah: In any relationship.
• 19:13
  Annette: For sure.
• 19:13
  Sarah: It's not you, it's me.
• 19:16
  So that continues to be hard.
• 19:19
  But here's what I will tell you too.
• 19:20
  When you end up parting ways and you have to find a new team, what happens then?
• 19:25
  Well, here's what I've learned.
• 19:27
  That's also hard.
• 19:28
  No amount of prep work that I did in the background--
• 19:31
  Annette: I'll just say, be prepared to pick up the slack.
• 19:33
  Sarah: Are you prepared to pick up the slack?
• 19:35
  Know that you're not going to be able to predict everything.
• 19:37
  Because you know how I like to do that, and then I can't,
• 19:40
  and then that frustrates me.
• 19:41
  But I mean, I had discussions with other offers out there and having that
• 19:49
  transition from one cleaner to another.
• 19:51
  And it doesn't matter how far in advance I'd done that, how many people I talked
• 19:55
  to, all that got ready, the handing of the baton to the new team continues
• 20:01
  to be difficult, just because now you're working with a whole new person.
• 20:07
  Annette: Mm-hmm.
• 20:08
  Sarah: Or new company, and you have to retrain your brain to
• 20:12
  know that they're new to you.
• 20:14
  And so what you're used to not having to talk about, your
• 20:17
  basics, your brand standards--
• 20:19
  Annette: Right.
• 20:20
  Are all brand new.
• 20:21
  Sarah: They're all brand new.
• 20:23
  Annette: And we say this.
• 20:25
  Every property is a snowflake, so every single door, every single
• 20:30
  bed, every single bedroom, every kitchen, even though they can be
• 20:32
  similar, they're still different.
• 20:34
  Sarah: Yeah.
• 20:35
  Annette: They're still different.
• 20:37
  And, ooh, the-- there's a lot.
• 20:41
  There's so many things.
• 20:42
  But again, be prepared to pick up the slack.
• 20:45
  Sarah: And let me talk about that.
• 20:46
  So obviously, Annette and I talk about backups for your backups all the time.
• 20:49
  And listeners, I hope by now you've learned to know that Annette and I
• 20:53
  put our heart and soul, and, um, we take everything that we share with
• 20:57
  you very seriously, and we practice what we preach as much as we can.
• 21:02
  And again, I was doing my best to have a backup for my backup
• 21:06
  and I still had to clean.
• 21:10
  And I had to rally the troops to help me clean.
• 21:12
  Our inspectors helped clean.
• 21:13
  Annette helped me clean.
• 21:14
  Annette's mom helped clean, um--
• 21:16
  Annette: Your husband.
• 21:17
  Sarah: Husband cleaned.
• 21:18
  Who else cleaned?
• 21:20
  We had to rally the troops because it just took-- I didn't want to--
• 21:24
  Annette: And we ain't canceling no reservations.
• 21:26
  Sarah: Heck no.
• 21:26
  We don't do that.
• 21:27
  And I'm not throwing in a, um, you could do this, but I wasn't
• 21:33
  going to throw in a temp service.
• 21:34
  Annette: Right.
• 21:35
  Just going online.
• 21:36
  Sarah: And here's what I realized.
• 21:37
  Annette: Which, if you need to, you need to still inspect.
• 21:39
  Sarah: No, no.
• 21:39
  Annette: Yeah.
• 21:39
  Sarah: People do it.
• 21:40
  I remember working at the hotel, we would do it often with servers,
• 21:43
  and bartenders, and cleaners.
• 21:45
  You can hire temp companies.
• 21:46
  But I did take this opportunity to re-put myself in the shoes of the cleaning team.
• 21:52
  And I learned so much about our checklists.
• 21:55
  Annette: Ooh.
• 21:56
  What your number one thing you learned?
• 21:57
  What do you think you learned?
• 21:58
  I learned that my feet really hurt.
• 22:00
  Sarah: You remember how just hard the job is.
• 22:02
  Annette: I'm like, oh man, my feet hurt really bad.
• 22:05
  And your husband's did too.
• 22:07
  We talked about that.
• 22:08
  Sarah: We did.
• 22:09
  And I remember just how tough the laundry situation will always be.
• 22:14
  Annette: Oh, yeah.
• 22:14
  Wrestling with the bedsheets.
• 22:16
  Sarah: Whether you send it out to a professional cleaning company,
• 22:18
  whether you have it in house, no matter what, laundry is tough.
• 22:21
  Annette: And it just keeps coming.
• 22:24
  And there always seems to be some little black speck of something no matter what.
• 22:29
  Sarah: Yeah.
• 22:31
  Unfortunately, I don't have a tangible like, here's what I learned, but I just
• 22:36
  relearned to--and I've always had an intense respect for the cleaning team,
• 22:40
  but my goodness, did that remind me.
• 22:42
  But also, I did this too.
• 22:44
  I timed how long it took me to do Breezeway every time.
• 22:47
  Annette: Mm.
• 22:48
  Yeah.
• 22:48
  That was a good one.
• 22:48
  Sarah: And Breezeway, listeners, if you're not sure, it's a property operations.
• 22:51
  They sponsor the podcast, but that's mostly because we're obsessed with them.
• 22:54
  We're like, listen, we love you so much.
• 22:56
  Please support our podcast because it's just perfect alignment.
• 23:00
  But we ask our cleaning team to go through a checklist that has pictures that
• 23:04
  really, again, draw that bicycle for them.
• 23:06
  And the way I explain to them is every checkbox, every box you check off, that's
• 23:10
  done, that's our little mini contract with each other that you've done that thing.
• 23:13
  Annette: Right.
• 23:14
  Sarah: And so I timed how long it took me to do it so that I knew when
• 23:17
  I was onboarding this new team, I could get down to the nitty gritty
• 23:20
  of how long each turnover would take with one person, with two people.
• 23:25
  What the quirks are at every single property.
• 23:27
  And I updated our Breezeway.
• 23:28
  So also in Breezeway, you can update the back of house of the property.
• 23:31
  So codes to all the doors, quirks about washers and dryers,
• 23:35
  dishwashers, whatever appliances.
• 23:37
  I really just got a chance to get in there and spring clean
• 23:40
  the back end of our properties.
• 23:42
  Annette: Well, something I know that you were doing, because I was listening
• 23:44
  to you is really shaping up the back of house and the supply closets.
• 23:51
  Wait a second.
• 23:52
  When those start to get sideways and messy, it does not make your life easier.
• 23:57
  So there needs-- we just did a YouTube video on this, but that is something like,
• 24:01
  keeping that tight helps with everything.
• 24:04
  Sarah: Well, because you end up getting comfortable with-- well, the current
• 24:07
  cleaning team, they had their own way of doing things and organizing things.
• 24:12
  So when we parted ways and I was bringing a new team in-house,
• 24:15
  I didn't know where stuff was.
• 24:17
  I didn't know.
• 24:18
  And I didn't have that tight grasp that I once had on all of our systems.
• 24:23
  And that's okay.
• 24:25
  I mean, we also learned-- we spoke at the investor conference two
• 24:28
  weeks ago in Scottsdale, Arizona.
• 24:31
  And one of the speakers just mentioned like, if you want to grow your
• 24:34
  business, you are going to have to delegate and know that things are
• 24:37
  going to happen and you're not going to be able to checkmate everything.
• 24:42
  And that's the way it is.
• 24:45
  In a certain regard, you cannot have a chokehold on literally
• 24:49
  every detail of your business.
• 24:51
  Annette: You got to let it go a little bit.
• 24:52
  Sarah: You got to let it go a little bit.
• 24:53
  And so I didn't want to be too hard on myself in the fact that I didn't
• 25:00
  know what the organizational systems were in all the properties anymore.
• 25:04
  But it was time for us to--
• 25:07
  Annette: Just reset.
• 25:08
  Sarah: Reset.
• 25:08
  And it was great.
• 25:09
  Annette: It's time for for a reset.
• 25:10
  Sarah: Yeah.
• 25:10
  Even the inspectors are really taking ownership, and loving
• 25:14
  it, and telling me what's been working, what hasn't been working.
• 25:16
  They'd love to try this so that when we onboard the new cleaning team, we
• 25:20
  can tell them, hey, we've learned over how many years now, this is will work
• 25:24
  really well, and we can actually give them a really nice onboarding experience.
• 25:28
  Annette: Mm-hmm.
• 25:29
  Ilikeit.
• 25:29
  Sarah: So that was also that too.
• 25:33
  But--
• 25:34
  Annette: Anything else?
• 25:34
  Sarah: It's been a really hard six months.
• 25:37
  Annette: Yeah.
• 25:38
  Then that's, um, we'll give some visibility there.
• 25:41
  I'll give it for Sarah.
• 25:43
  When it is the backbone of your business, it is mentally tough.
• 25:50
  I think this episode is just to give everyone out there--
• 25:54
  we know you're like us.
• 25:55
  We know that you care so much, not only about your team, but you
• 25:58
  care so much about your property and so much about your guests.
• 26:02
  You are going to feel it.
• 26:03
  You're human.
• 26:04
  That's why we produce the show.
• 26:06
  That's why we love when we meet our listeners because we know this is
• 26:09
  going to strike a chord with you of that it isn't just throwing any team
• 26:13
  in there, going on any app and just getting someone in your home because
• 26:18
  it is an asset, and they are helping you manage that asset alongside you.
• 26:24
  And so, um, it matters.
• 26:27
  It matters.
• 26:28
  Sarah: And I will always still hold with such weight in my heart team members.
• 26:33
  Annette: Mm-hmm.
• 26:33
  Sarah: Even if I know it's time to part ways, I mean, that's a long
• 26:37
  time that you've been working with someone, and there are so many awesome
• 26:40
  moments, and they've been there through it with growth and whatever.
• 26:43
  And so it's just--
• 26:44
  Annette: It's hard.
• 26:45
  Sarah: It's hard all around.
• 26:46
  But I will tell you, on this side of it, we're on the upswing again, and
• 26:51
  it feels really good to have some fresh energy, fresh ideas, and a new
• 26:56
  lease on business as we enter into the summer here, which is our busy season.
• 27:01
  So I hope that helps someone.
• 27:03
  Annette: Yeah.
• 27:04
  There's no good time.
• 27:05
  Just remember that.
• 27:06
  There's no good time.
• 27:07
  And if you've gone over the things again and again and again and
• 27:10
  it's not getting better, it's probably not going to get better.
• 27:12
  Sarah: No.
• 27:12
  It took me too long.
• 27:13
  Annette: Yeah.
• 27:13
  Sarah: Honestly.
• 27:14
  I'll admit that to all of you.
• 27:15
  It took me too long, and it was because I was just, I don't know.
• 27:19
  Annette: Well, you didn't want to have to worry about what was on the other side.
• 27:21
  There's a lot of other things that you have to deal with.
• 27:23
  Sarah: Yeah.
• 27:23
  So with that, listeners, listen to your gut.
• 27:26
  Know what your non-negotiables are.
• 27:27
  Go back to them.
• 27:28
  Because here's the deal.
• 27:29
  I wish I hadn't-- I vacillated for so long.
• 27:31
  I could have cut out a lot of sleepless nights if I would adjust,
• 27:35
  as I say, eaten the frog a lot sooner.
• 27:38
  So with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.
• 27:40
  Annette: I'm Annette Grant, and together we are--
• 27:42
  Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
• 27:43
  Sarah: Talk to you next time.