Latest / Short Term Rental Problems and Solutions / 12 Books Build the Mindset of a Successful Property Manager
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- Jeremiah: It's not all sunshine and five star reviews. If you've realized that being an STR investor isn't glamorous, then you're in the right place. Today we're helping Jamaal leave his six figure income and start a property management business full time. He's been laid off and is searching for a long term plan with a new direction. What are some things he needs to know first? Let's get into it, because this is the community where we talk about the gross, the awkward, and the operational messes, as well as the real strategies that help you keep going instead of quitting. Anybody can win big in this industry, but you can also ignore education and you can quit. My name is Jeremiah, and I'm an investor with over a decade of experience, and I'm also a property manager with over 140 units under management. I talk about what rental investing looks like from the inside. Welcome to Short Term Rental Problems and Solutions. Let's get right into Jamaal's email. Good evening, Jeremiah. I'm writing this at two AM, having been made redundant rather unexpectedly yesterday, and finding sleep somewhat elusive. It has, perhaps predictably, prompted a broader examination of what exactly I intend to do with my life. I moved to the United States from the UK to attend Princeton University, where I ultimately graduated in the top of my field. Since then, I've occupated several well compensated, though thoroughly mind numbing roles in IT security. The recurring instability of that profession first led me into consulting and subsequently into property investment. I now own three short-term rentals in the Adirondacks, approximately three hours from my home in the Hudson Valley. They perform reasonably well, but the arithmetic is not sufficient to go on a never-ending holiday. Even if I sold my home and used the proceeds to eliminate the mortgages, the income would not come remotely close to replacing my salary. This has led me to consider property management. My present thesis is that I could build a management business capable of replacing my employment income within twelve months. I have several friends who have expressed an interest in investing as I have, two of whom were, rather ironically, included in the same round of redundancies. I've spent some time researching your management business, and your model appears both commercially viable and considerably more interesting than another decade spent behind a computer. This may be an ambitious question, but if my objective were to build a property management business managing fifty rentals within one year, what would you tell me I need to understand before I begin? Warm regards, Jamaal. Well, Jamaal, step one is the mindset. Step two is the nuts and bolts of the operation. I don't think we have enough time today to get into all of that. So what I recommend you do is book a consultation where we can develop out an actual strategy for you and your plans. The short answer is yes. If I was trying to start over today from nothing, could I build 50 units in a year? Yes, absolutely. Now, there are some things that could slow me down, but knowing that that's what I'm getting into makes things a lot simpler going forward. And then it's just a matter of execution. my mind goes back to what you were saying about graduating in the top of your field from Princeton. Like academically, you're very strong. But what leads to success in school, what leads to success academically, is sometimes very different from what leads to success as an entrepreneur. And that's what you're embarking on. You're actually going from success academically, and what I'm going to try and do today is help you match success in the academic world of Princeton to success in the entrepreneurial life of a property manager. The mindset is the foundation. I wouldn't recommend building a house without a foundation, would you? No. everybody knows that your foundation is very important. Everybody I sell a house to knows that if there's issues with the foundation, that it's a big, serious issue. If you did build a house without a foundation, you could build a gorgeous looking property, you could save a lot of money, and you could save a lot of time. But after a couple of weeks, maybe. You'd have cracks appearing from settlement. You'd have portions of the property that are just sinking. You'd have windows that are breaking because of the stress of that movement of the earth. So everybody knows that foundation is very important. And when it comes to being successful in business, your mindset is your foundation. So we're gonna focus in on that today. And I've got a bunch of tools that you can use. To set that mindset right where it needs to be. Building a business of 50 short-term rental properties while holding down a full-time job is gonna be a challenge to say the least. Just like it was when you set your eyes on being the top of your class. So, here's some required reading prior to our consultation. First one, ready, fire, aim by Michael Masterson. So you might notice I didn't say ready, aim, fire. Why is this book impactful? Why is it important to me? This summarizes the concept of entrepreneurialism. And as a student, you don't often fire before you've aimed. You often have one shot at that essay. So you want to make sure that it's good. You want to make sure that it's right. You want to do all your research before you submit the essay. But when it comes to business, there's no consequence for failure. It's just that the time, the effort, and the resources that you put into trying are completely lost. So where does that lead us? Well, in business, you can fail and fail and fail and fail as long as you fail forward. It's a learning strategy. It's a learning experience. You've just learned your way into success. Thomas Edison ready aim fire. He fired over and over again with thousands of light bulbs that were failures before one of them actually worked. And so often it's easy for us, especially somebody who's in an engineering background, to just overanalyze every situation, to just overanalyze what needs to be done and what it's going to take for them to be successful. And it causes them to just never move forward. I wouldn't want that for you. And I'm sure that's not what you want. And you've reached this point in life where you've just been laid off and it's causing you to rethink some things. But the easiest thing for you to do is to fall back into your habits is to fall right back into that nine to five job with a high salary that you can't get out of. If you will, it's a goal, it's a gilded cage. They're golden handcuffs. Somebody's got you and they can tell you what to do. Because at the end of the day, even if you are able to find another job, you still have lots of bills to pay. Now, for some of my listeners, it might be difficult to believe while you're earning maybe $50,000 a year and you've got small bills, you might be looking at Jamaal and saying, well, he's probably making $200,000 a year. He should be doing just fine. But the reality is that we just are in this consumerist society. It's very normal for us to just have bills that match up with our income. And those bills for Jamaal. are significantly bigger than your bills with your fifty thousand dollar salary. So just like for you with bills, he's also got that same thing going on. Not saying he doesn't have any savings. And Jamaal, I would like to hear what you've got saved up, what your nest egg is. And it sounds like you've got a decent amount of equity in your home. But here's the thing we can all just be broke at different levels. The doctor might be making $150,000 and spending $154, just like you might be making $52,000 and spending $54. You're both overspending. You both don't have enough money to cover the interest on your credit card. Getting back to it. So ready, fire aim is the first one to read, Because just from chapter one is going to get you saying, all right, I'm gonna read through here. I'm gonna start taking steps. I'm gonna start moving in the right direction. I can correct movement. If you're standing still, you're not gonna get anywhere. Right? Imagine we're in a vehicle and you've got your foot on the throttle or on the brake, and I've got the steering wheel. Well, we can go somewhere together because if you press on the accelerator, then we actually are moving somewhere and I can steer. But what happens if you've just got your foot on the brake? You don't go anywhere. That's why it's important for ready fire aim. And this is, by the way, how you sight in a rifle. If you are a sniper working in the army, we'll say, then you got to get that aim correct. You've got to sight in your rifle and you can spend so much time analyzing the temperature, the dew point. The distance, the arc, the curve, the type of caliber, whatever. Or you can get up there and you can take a shot. And then you can say, all right, I need to go right three inches. I need to go down two inches. Click, click, click, click, click, click. You make your adjustments. What do you do? Do you analyze again? No. You shoot again. Fire. Now you look at where it was versus where you aimed. Okay, I've got to go up two inches. I got to go to the right one inch. Now you're getting closer. So ready fire aim is the same method that we follow when we're sighting in a rifle. It takes pulling the trigger to actually make something work. And I can guide somebody into success if they're willing to move. And that, Jamaal, is step one. Step two: seven habits of highly effective people. Now, you may have already read this and it sounds like it's pretty self-explanatory, but in these habits, There's something I want you to really catch on to. Actually, two things. Number one is that you need to begin with the end in mind. When you are building a business, don't just build yourself another job. I assume that you've already read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. If we analyze the cash flow quadrant, what you're doing is you're going from employee income to active income, where you're self-employed, active, self-employed. These are both active quadrants. You're still trading time for money. You're creating a job for yourself. But eventually you want to create a business, right? I think that's always our goal. That's probably why you got into short-term rental investing in the first place. It's because you wanted to build a business, a system of cash generations, something that you could invest into over time that would bring you bigger and bigger returns. So, in my opinion, starting off with the end in mind when it comes to property management businesses means building a business that can scale to the point where you can get away from it, where you can go on holiday and it's a never-ending holiday, where you can go away on vacation, where you can go travel the world. Like that is success in my mind. Not just having a high income, it's having freedom. So the next thing that you're going to get from the seven habits of highly affected people is the urgent. versus important quadrants. Now, we all like to spend time how we like to spend time, but it's easy enough to break it down into things that are urgent, things that are not urgent, things that are important and things that are not important. Now where the mind goes to play with itself is that entertaining space. It's not urgent and it's not important. For me, this might be Studio C. I like watching YouTube videos. Of these skits and sketches, and they're funny, they're entertaining, but they're not urgent, and they are not important. So I recognize that I can give them up in order to handle things that are important and in order to handle things that are urgent. But that's the thing, is there's not only two sides to this quadrant, there's also things that are not important, but are urgent. And this would be like me responding to. the guests issue with the light bulbs or the propane tank on the grill being out. This is not important for me to respond to. I need my team to do the job of my team. And even though I might be nearby and I can go solve a problem, this is an urgent issue, but it's not important for me to do it. So there are things that I could focus on that are all just urgent. Or I could look at these and say, this is not important for me to do. I have a team that can handle this. So I'm gonna let them handle this. Right? So it's urgent, but it's not important. And just like this, In one year, Jamaal, I hope that you are in a position where you feel like your job might be urgent, but it's not important. And you can tell your boss, I'm feeling too good to come into work today. And that is a motivation you've got right now that hopefully lasts. The next book I'm going to recommend is The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. So the purpose of the compound effect is because you will be surprised how your mindset shifts by reading this book. Your mindset shifts from like deadlines, we can do very good academically, even as a procrastinator. And the reason something gets done is because there's a deadline. It's because it's existing in that, quadrant where it's urgent. So, how do you do this as an entrepreneur when there's no accountability, where there's nobody holding you to a deadline? You have to build habits. So your habits are so incredibly important Because consistency beats hard work every single time. Success in short-term rentals requires having good habits. Because there's plenty of things that I need to do on a day-to-day basis that if I wait for them to become urgent, I've waited too long. One of those things is adjusting pricing, looking at marketing, updating photographs. There's no deadline for any of those things. If I don't do anything, The properties will continue getting booked. Their vacancy rates might go up. And then it'll become urgent because now I have to talk to the property owner about why they're not able to cover their mortgage this month. But that's why your habits are so important. Okay. So by focusing on what's important but not urgent, and by doing what's urgent and important, by staying in that side of this quadrant, you're going to be. successful in short term rentals because you're focusing your time on the right things. But if you're just running around like firemen trying to just respond to things that are urgent all the time, you'll end up neglecting the unurgent but important quadrant. And another example that's used in this book is like getting your oil changed. We all know that it's okay to go 4,000 miles without an oil change. they say to go three But we all know that we can go four without damaging the engine. So sometimes we push the envelope. Right? So I've done it. And I don't feel like it's urgent because I'm just, you know, a little over 3,000 miles. But if you keep doing that and focusing on only what's urgent, then you're gonna miss the important things like getting your oil changed. And before you know it, you're at 6,000 miles and you start hearing a tapping noise coming from your engine as you're accelerating. And that's because you didn't prioritize what was not urgent but important. Now, the next couple of books might sound like self-help kind of motivational books, but it's important that we not minimize the impact that motivation has on a property management business and on an entrepreneur. See, The Magic Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz changed my life. Just the first chapter causes you, To have motivation that lasts beyond your job. See, Jamaal, what you're recommending doing or what you're seeking to do in this email is to start a business and get it to a certain point so that you can quit the job. What I'm concerned with is that you're gonna stop once you get to 50 doors. Or you're gonna stop and nothing really exists in a state of just constant static. It's either growing or it's decaying. So you have to think about what you're going to do. Begin with the end in mind and build that vision, build that motivation. Think about where this could go someday and aim high. So another thing that's in this book is what I call excuse itis. And in fact, it's what David Schwartz calls excuse itis, too. Once you understand excusitis, and if you are a high-driven, like high functioning kind of professional, then you may relate to this as well. But I hate excuses. I don't accept them from myself. I don't like hearing them from my team. I don't like hearing them from clients. I don't like hearing them from family. But the reality is everybody has the same resources available. Everybody has the same brain. What you do with it depends on your programming. So what you do with your life, you can justify it away, your lack of success with excuses. And that is a cancer on your success. And we have to recognize the importance of the way we speak and how we get out of things. See, excusitis is what's going to cause people to be very comfortable in their uncomfortability. There was a dog sitting on a porch, and every now and then it would cry out. I was sitting on the porch with my friend, and I looked at the dog, but then it seemed okay. A couple minutes later, it cried out again. I said, what's wrong with your dog? He seems like he's in pain. And he goes, he's just sitting on a nail. What? He goes, it just doesn't hurt enough for him to get off of it. But he's still gonna complain. See, we get so like comfortable in positions that are uncomfortable. Jamaal, you didn't email me last week before your layoff. You emailed me now. Because it's unbearable and you recognize something needs to change. But imagine you did it while you still had a job last week. What if your motivation was there? And you might say, Well, I didn't have time. I was busy. I had a job. Well, it's 2 a.m. and you're sending this email. Do you have time now? In the same way, excuse it leads people to justify away their failures. And ultimately, I want you to be successful. I want all of my listeners to be successful. As successful as your excusitis will allow. Now we can we can beat the excusitis. We can get in the gym every day. We can eat healthy. stop accepting excuses from yourself. Moving on. The next one is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. but read the magic of thinking big first so that you have motivation to make it all the way through this book. I read this book years ago and I felt like it was so dry and it took so long to get to the point I didn't want to read it a second time. But I'm glad I read it. Okay. Think and grow rich. Puts that emphasis on your mindset. It's a difficult book to read. But I would say, you know, like reading a motivational book first is going to help you make it through this whole book as well. Now, since you did Actually, Jamaal, now I'm thinking like you're in IT security. You're probably used to reading boring things all the time. And you went to Princeton. So you'll probably eat just fine. Anyway, the next one, and this is not about motivation. This is another mindset thing. And I'm gonna hang out on this one for a little while because I feel like people are gonna think of me as a loser if I don't explain myself. Okay. Now, yes, this is self-help. That's the genre we're talking about. The book is called What to Say When You Talk to Yourself by Dr. Shad Helmstedder. See, Jamaal, the power of life and death is in the tongue. And the power to reprogram your mind is in your tongue. And people don't realize this. But it's neuroscience, it's current neuroscience. And the researchers are still finding out the truth of that statement that there's power of life and death in the tongue. I'm gonna try breaking this down for you. In his book, Dr. Shad Helmsteder describes a young person's brain like Central Park when it was nothing but grass. you've got an acre of just grass. It's a meadow. And there's no trees, there's no boulders, every stimulus leads somewhere. So in the brain, there's a stimulus, and it might be, your finger getting burned. So that stimulus produces pain, which goes through your brain through a neural network. And the result is you pull your hand away. Your brain develops neural networks as it develops. The things that people say about you, the things that you say to yourself, they are a stimulus, and your mind has to do something with that information. And it's going to follow. A pathway. As you walk across a meadow one time, you've just trampled down some of the grass. This is almost what we could call a pathway. As you do it 50 times, now you've trampled down the grass so much that it's died. Now you've got an area of that pathway where there's no grass, it's just dirt. If you do this enough, it's worthwhile paving this or putting in some gravel. And now you've got a pathway that's a lot more finished and manicured. You do this enough. You follow this neural pathway from stimulus to results. Enough, you're going to pave a six-lane highway. So the things that people say about you growing up, well, you were an academic. people probably said you were smart. Your teachers, and I know at least one of my teachers said this, might have said, Jamaal is a bright young man. He's got a good future ahead of him. He's going to succeed. That guy can probably go to Ivy League College. People said these things and you acted on it. Why? Because you believed it. The more you heard it, the more you believed it. it's possible that the first time you heard it, you didn't believe it. Now, maybe people said the exact opposite about you, Jamaal Maybe they said that guy's an idiot. He's dumb. And you used that and you said, No, I'm not. I'm not dumb. I'm going to prove them wrong. So that was your motivation for going to an Ivy League school, for excelling academically. Do you recognize, though, that that's the power of self-talk? That you said, I'm going to prove them wrong. And so you said these things to yourself. I'm going to prove them wrong. I'm going to prove them wrong. I am smart. I am bright. I'm going to make it through college. I'm going to go to the best college. Those are the things that you said to yourself. So in your neural pathway, in your meadow, what you're doing is going from a stimulus, that's what you just said, to the result, which is the actions that follow from it. You're now programming into your brain the neural pathway, and you're doing it so many times that you are paving a road. And before long, it's the only way you know. So people said Jamaal is bright, Jamaal is smart. Who knows? Maybe you also learned that Jamaal's not good with girls. Jamaal is a little weird. Jamaal's a little quirky. Jamaal's a little bit of a nerd. you may have believed those things, but we believe the things that we continuously hear, whether they are true or not. And that is why the power of life and death is in the tongue. So if we have a firmly established neural pathway, that is a Highway, a six-lane highway going from stimulus to result that says, I am an IT security professional. I am an IT engineer. I am an engineer. Here's what you need to change the mindset. What you need to say. Jamaal, nice to meet you. My name's So and So. What do you do? You say, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a business owner. That is a new pathway. You may have never said this about yourself before, but you need to start to believe it. Because if you do this, Jamaal, you're going to be in front of people, in front of potential clients, and they're going to ask you, Who are you? Tell me about yourself. Tell me about your business. And you need to be genuine. Which means Jamaal needs to believe that Jamaal is an entrepreneur. So what you say to yourself, When you speak to yourself, it's very important because now you're creating a new neural network and your old one is being abandoned. Now, when people ask you who you are and what you do, you're not saying I'm an IT engineer. That now, like five-lane, six-lane highway is going to start not getting traveled. And what happens to a highway that's not being traveled? It's not being maintained. The city's not going to put money into something that's not getting used. So cracks start developing in the asphalt. Grass starts growing up through the cracks. Those roots and that structure falls apart. And now, many, many years down the line, when somebody says, Jamaal, who are you? What do you do? you're not going to say, I'm an IT engineer. You might say, I used to be an IT engineer. I'm currently an entrepreneur. I build businesses that matter. I build properties into six figure properties. I take clients from being unsuccessful to being successful all the time. And Jamaal, I hope you can understand this all comes from the proper mindset, the proper motivation. And that's what's going to get you there. That's what's going to get you to freedom from your job. that's what's going to get your clients to be successful. And when your clients are asked, how did you become successful? And they say, Well, Jamaal's team got me there, they're not going to realize that it was the power of the words you were speaking to yourself that made you possible. They're not going to realize that it's the motivation, that it's the, urgent versus important balance. not going to realize that it's the principles of success that caused you to make their property successful. So now that you have the proper mindset on success, here's some more practical reading. Now, short-term rentals, property management, it's a sales thing. And this was one of those things. I didn't think that I was a salesperson. Getting into short-term rentals, getting into property management, I knew I could build a business, but I didn't think that I was a business person per se. I just thought I could start it and it would organically grow. Well, I've learned a few things. And here's one of those things that helped me. Go givers or sell more. This is a book by Bob Berg. Now, you may have never sold anything, but you sold yourself. Being in IT, you've probably gotten a new job every two to three years. Those interviews, that's a sales process. And you might not realize it, but that's what property management's going to be. you're good at interviews, Then you can be good at sales because what are you actually selling? You're selling yourself, you're selling your services, and you're selling a pathway to success that you believe in. So go givers sell more. From my experience, it's all about being a generous salesperson. In our pipeline, when I talk to somebody about property management, step one is figuring out what they want that I can help them with. I'm listening. This is a consultation. That's what we call it in our pipeline. Step one, after the lead comes in, I'm booking a consultation. I want to speak with this person and find out what they need and how I can help them get it. Go givers sell more. It's about giving. And there's plenty of situations, okay, where I've just offered to help people without being their property managers. And that's what I do through this podcast. I'm just looking for a way to help my listeners learn a little bit more about property management, a little bit more about the Poconos, a little bit more because that's what they want to know about. That's why it's question answer. I don't just want to sit on the other side of this camera and talk about whatever I feel like talking about. I want to actually answer real questions. So, go givers or sell more is all about finding out what their need is. They came to you for a reason, but there's a deeper reason behind that. There's a deeper motivation. You have to find out what those things are and be generous. Be generous with your time. Be generous with your resources. Because at the end of the day, Helping them might only be a learning experience. You might never earn a dime from that consultation. And that's okay. every networking opportunity could lead you to more experiences, more education, connections that you can use later on. There's been times when I've just networked with our competition. And tried to build them up and motivate them to feel better, to do better. And that that catches them off guard. we gotta stick together, right? We gotta build each other up. Just because somebody's competition doesn't mean I need to tear them down to win. We can win together. And that comes from reading this book. It's a small little book. But here's one that's even smaller. It's called Go For No. Yes is the destination. No is how you get there by Andrea Walls and Richard Fenton. Guys, this book changed my life. I know. I'm going through a whole bunch of books here that changed my life. My life has changed so many times, just in the last like five or six books. But like it bears repeating. Your perspective will change everything for you. And so that's why having the right mindset is so important. And that's why I'm going through my favorite books. It's because my books have created the mindset that I'm using today to run this organization and to promote success across the region and not just in my 140 doors. I'm looking to promote success regionally. And at some point, hopefully soon. I'll be creating success in another marketplace as well. But here's where we are, Jamaal. Go for no is about getting no's. The one key metric when it comes to sales is getting a no and getting it fast. You want to get to that as quickly as you can because only have so much time in your day. I'm not on that consultation call to convince this person to accept me as their property manager. What I'm actually trying to do is to figure out if this is a good fit. If they have a need that I can fill, and if I'm the best one to fill it. I was on the phone with somebody named Raj last week. He's got a beautiful four bedroom house in one of my favorite neighborhoods. I don't think I can help him that well. I just don't think I can help him that much. But I said, Raj, there's like four or five property managers out here that I would feel comfortable pushing you towards. and I know who recommended you to me. And they probably recommended these other two. And both of them I think would be a good fit for your property. Here's what to know about them. Go give or sell more. Here I'm telling him no. Don't you know? Raj starts like trying to convince me that I want to manage his property. And I'm like, no, no, no. I don't need to manage your property, Raj. I've already got enough that I'm doing. Like, I would like to help you in some other way. You know, maybe we can be your cleaners, maybe we can be your handyman, whatever. Jamaal, I don't mean to focus on that story. It's just in this sales process, you're just going for no. If you tell the client no, sometimes they try to convince you that it is a good fit. that happens too. but in this book, you're gonna see, like in a sales strategy, in a sales environment, just looking for that rejection helps because if you know your ratio is like one out of ten, then you're trying to get nine no's so that you can get to that one yes. Right? Because your success is built on the yeses. But here's the thing, it's built on no's as well. So sometimes I'll actually lead with when I'm in that consultation. you know we are the most expensive property managers in the Poconos. We are the best, but we're also the most expensive. And I can't really give you A Bugatti at Ford prices. No offense to anyone. I've got a Ford. I don't have a Bugatti. But No offense to anyone with a Ford. I own a Ford too. But this go for no strategy, it changes your mindset on rejection. Because once you realize that, between you where you are right now with three doors to getting to 50 doors, you've got to get 47 yeses. And to get 47 yeses, you probably have to have 120 noes. That's just The way it is. Not only that, you're gonna get a bunch of maybe later. And that's frustrating and annoying. But just, you know, put it in your CRM, put it in your calendar to follow up with them in six months. Sometimes people just aren't feeling the pain enough to make a switch. And that happens. You know, sometimes they've just got to sit on that nail and yelp a little bit and just complain about their situation, but they're not motivated enough to change anything. And that Would be a no. When somebody says, call me back in six months, that's a no. Count that as a no. Okay. That's a win because you just got another no. Between here and 50 units, you've got to get in front of enough people to qualify them to get enough no's that you can get to 50 properties that you're managing. Now, the next thing, before I get into this next book, I'm gonna explain to you why I'm recommending this. you were very successful academically. The book is called Why A Students Work for C Students and Why B Students Work for the Government by Robert Kiyosaki. Now, even if you don't read this, you're probably gonna understand. A students follow the syllabus. They wait for the approval of the teacher. They move forward with deadlines, with plans already laid out. They never start a business because that's not part of the syllabus. They're almost addicted to that success. Some of the A students that I know are doing nothing with their life because nobody's forcing them to. They've got boring jobs. They're very philosophical and they can think through things and play chess and they're very smart. But without an academic environment, they're not succeeding. There's nothing for them to push for except for maybe another degree. And then what am I going to do with my degree? Well, working a job for them is usually motivated by bills. I can't just stay living in my mom's house. She's going to kick me out. That might make them sound like losers. They're not losers. Don't get me wrong. They can be incredibly successful, as are you, Jamaal. You're incredibly successful. You just don't like your mind-numbing job looking at computer screens. You know? But if you can get this mindset, then you can break out of this book what it's actually gonna take for you to become successful as an entrepreneur. See the reason why those C students start businesses because they're not afraid to fail. Because perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good enough. And when you start a business, you just need it to be good enough. You just need to get out there in front of enough people that you can get your services off the ground, that you can get started. So, Jamaal, now that you are motivated and you've read a couple books about how to sell and got the right mindset on sales, it's time to build your systems and your people. And this doesn't start with the nuts and bolts. I'm not getting into that today. This starts with the mindset. The mindset of systems and people is leadership. Everybody has worked for somebody that's just a manager. And managers tell you what to do. They don't. Lead you. Everybody who's ever been managed by a manager would rather be led by a leader. I think we can pretty much guarantee that that's true. Now, maybe there's some people out there who are just like, I don't want anybody telling me what to do. Okay, fine, whatever. You're the exception. But for most people, we just put up with managers sometimes our entire lives. So Leadership 101 by John Maxwell. See, being a leader. Is how you attract and retain the best people as a leader, but not as a manager. See, you need to get away from like the corporate mentality. The corporate mentality well, in my opinion, they pay people really, really well so that they can treat them dirt poor. So they can always have them at risk of losing their job, of being fired. And that's just terrible. Recognizing that like you're working this high-paying job at risk of being fired at will is kind of ridiculous. So My mentality towards people and towards hiring people is to hire people who want to be led. I hire people who are good at their job, right? Dave Ramsey, I'm a big fan of Dave Ramsey. entree Leadership is a podcast I recommend you check out. Dave Ramsey says, We hire thoroughbreds around here. And sometimes a donkey slips through. But Then we quickly find out that they're a donkey and we let them go. We release them to be donkeys. We're not gonna try turning a donkey into a thoroughbred. Well, what happens if you hire thoroughbreds and you don't treat them well enough and then they leave? And Jamaal, to make this even more important, recognize that you may never even need employees. You could be outsourcing everything to technology. To other 1099 contractors, to cleaners, to handymen. But here's the thing: you need to lead them too. Which brings me my next book, Start with Why by Simon Senek. See, you can't just expect people to do their job because it's their job. You have to treat them like volunteers. Treat them like they have some dignity, Some self-determination. See, every cleaner that I work with, I recognize that they can go somewhere else and get a job. Unemployment's at 3%. That's not a sign of a strong economy. That's a sign that entrepreneurs are struggling. We've already hired everybody who's worth hiring. And then the other two percent as well. I think that, you know, the job market is just not competitive enough. There's not enough people looking for jobs, but there are people who are offering jobs. So with that in mind, you have to begin with why. I hire somebody in the interview process. I'm asking them what they want to achieve with their life. What are their dreams and goals? What's your favorite place to travel to? What's your favorite place to vacation, to holiday, as they would say in the UK? I want to know what makes them tick. What's their motivation? What's their dream? Why? Because I want to attach their dream to my dream. I want to attach their dream to success in our business. When I can show somebody, and I'm being genuine, this is not, this is not a way to manipulate people, although you could. But this is a way to show them that there's a win-win here. That if I Bring you into this organization and you do a great job, you're going to be successful in your dream as well. Now that's not always the case. Somebody's dream might be to move, halfway across the world and they're applying for a job, fixing things for you, working with their hands. Now they can't do that from across the world, right? So their dream might not align with what you're trying to hire them for. And that's a reality that can happen. But what I'm getting at is like you have to build that why. Now, in our office, I've got a sign on our mantle that says, elevate the housing conditions of the Poconos. Why? Because that is our mission. That's our vision. And as a leader, if I don't have any vision, then I'm just gonna fall into this rut of managing people. And even when it comes to cleaning services. Maintenance services, repair services. You've got to be nice to the people. You've got to be nice to your service providers. Why? I'm not trying to catch bees, but you do catch more bees with honey than you do with vinegar. Okay? it's about just being a good person. One of my friends, Kurt, he has a local restaurant. Now, Kurt is one of the most friendly guys you'll ever meet. He's very generous, he's very giving. And as a result, he's kind of successful. Kurt had this dream of having his own restaurant, and he cooks such amazing food. He actually made a cake for my son's, third birthday party. Maybe second birthday party, he made a cake look like lightning a queen. Incredible. Incredible guy. And he got paid for that and everything, but like it wasn't his business. It's just a side hustle. So Kurt is such a good guy that everybody wanted him to succeed. That, Jamaal, is where I want you to be. I want you to be the guy who is such a good guy, who's such a giver that everybody in the community wants you to succeed. That is how we bring Honor to entrepreneurialism. That's how we take this idea that entrepreneurs, that business people are just greedy. That's how we get that out of here. Because it's not true. We're not just greedy. We're trying to add value where we can add value. And if you're just getting into this business so that you can quit your job, I'm concerned that you're just gonna make all these moves. just so that can quit your job and you're not going to focus on other people. See, it's not like a classroom. In this environment in entrepreneurialism, you can lift everybody up with you. And as you lift others, they will help lift you. We can all succeed together. And a lot of that comes with vision. It's having a big dream. It's talking with your team and inspiring them. Here's what comes next. I love talking to my team about Florida because they all want to move to Florida, you know, and that may be the next market for me. moving into Florida and starting another organization there because my team is motivated by where we're going as an organization. it's not just about growth, because that's going to be more of the same. And as much as we love our job, sometimes more of that job is too much. Right? It's about balancing. Everybody who's on your team, you've got to think about how do I keep them motivated? How do I inspire them? How do I motivate them? How do I keep them going? the leadership style that's going to work in short terminals is one of generosity. It's one of over explaining sometimes why we're doing this, why we're doing that. As well as creating systems that work well with each other, that don't frustrate people. Don't change property management softwares three times in a year. That's a mistake. I changed twice in one year. That was a mistake too. Shouldn't have done that. You'll learn, just like any of us entrepreneurs will learn. And in our consultation, we'll talk about which property management software to use and why. We'll get into all those nuts and bolts. We'll talk about what licenses you need, what clearances you need, what properties to manage, and what properties to say no to. We'll get into all those different types of things because I love consulting. I love teaching. I love teaching by example. And I'd really like to see you be successful, Jamaal. Not that you aren't right now. You sound like you're maybe a little bit too successful. To break out of that gilded cage. You know, we can get so comfortable in our uncomfortability that we stop focusing on the exit strategy. And if you're gonna do this, I think you understand now what I mean. It's gonna take a focused effort. It's gonna mean putting your nose to the grindstone and not looking up until next September. You're gonna get there. These books are not long. Somebody like you is going to read through these in a matter of one week. then we're going to get on that call and we're going to talk about what to do first, second, third, and what in your situation needs to be next. Because I don't know if you want to start a cleaning service. I don't know if it's possible for you to work your job remotely. I don't know if there's some jobs in the Adirondacks that you can work and still get paid well. I just don't know these things. There's lots of things that you could do, but there's one right pathway. And the things that would stand in your way are mostly mindset related. Because we can overcome challenges if we're prepared for those challenges. And if our mindset is right, then our foundation is set. You can always build from there, no matter what kind of setbacks you run into. So I'm gonna close out with a story about failure. One of the things I love the most about the US is that anybody can start a business and there's no consequence for failure. I mean, you do lose sometimes money, sometimes time, sometimes resources. But if I wanna open up a gym, I can open up a gym. And that's exactly what I did. It failed miserably. It did. but did it hurt? No, not really. Why? Because I've set myself up to succeed or fail in a way where the failure isn't final. And that's what I'm recommending for you. Is don't set yourself up to fail spectacularly. Set yourself up to succeed or to fail where failure is not final. So there's some strategy that goes into this, but remember I promised you a story. So I was managing a strip mall. I had my office in one of the offices. It was like 350 square feet. This was years ago. There was another two offices that were open and they were connected to one another. And I said, I need more storage space. I'm growing out of 350 square feet. So what I thought to do is to rent that space. It's only six hundred and forty-five dollars a month. I was able to negotiate that with the property owner. I was the property manager. I was in charge of filling this unit anyway. So I just filled it with myself. So we moved in there. I moved all my gym equipment in there. I was in the habit of working out, but I was working out in my smelly basement. I didn't like it. I didn't like breathing hard while I was down there, but hey, it's what I had. Don't judge. also I didn't want. a membership. So I moved all of my equipment into this gym and it didn't seem like it was enough. So I went on Facebook Marketplace and I bought some more equipment. What did it cost me? A few hundred bucks. Now and then I'd find a good deal on some more plates, some more weights. So I'd just buy more weights. Then I found a bunch of dumbbells. So now I don't have to get the adjustable dumbbells anymore. I can have the set On a rack. It was pretty cool. So I invested into this gym, but it was only $645 a month. And I was earning the cost of three memberships at $50 a month per membership. So I was making $150. And just with the rent, I was losing $450. And that's before counting in that I was spending like maybe $120 a month on electricity for heat and hot water and whatever. Anyway, that was a spectacular failure. After about a year, our organization grew so much. I needed that space for office space. I didn't want to give up working out, but I did have to give up on the dream of owning a gym. Now, one of my favorite clients was like, Jeremiah, this is a distraction. What are you starting a gym for? And I was just like, Look, if I fail, I fail. the business GMG fit went out of business. I was a gym owner for a while and I had, worked out quite a bit. But like the most beautiful thing about entrepreneurialism for me it's what I started with. It's ready, fire, aim. It's taking a step, taking a leap of faith without overanalyzing everything. I said I want this space. It's affordable for me. And I'm going to use it for something. And I'm going to build that something into an organization, into a business. But if I fail, whatever. I don't care. Jamaal, you can look at building a property management service in a similar way. Just as you take steps, try not to overextend yourself so far that failure would be spectacular and final. You don't want to end up in jail. You don't want to end up on the street. But even if you do, there's very successful entrepreneurs that failed their way into being on the street. And they came right back. Right? The world is full of examples of this. So don't be scared to fail. So, Jamaal, while you are waiting for your next interview, while you are getting ready for, that next thing, what you're gonna do is treat these books like your next class. You're going to dive into these things and get your mindset, read them, make notes, read again, get your mindset right as an entrepreneur to build a property management business. And then I think you'll be ready for that consultation. What I'd really like to see between now and then is some movement in that direction. It's getting the domain name. It's choosing who's gonna work with you. It's talking to the cleaners and the handyman that you're currently working with for your three short-term rentals and asking them how they feel about scaling, how they feel about growing with you and what your goal is. It's figuring out ways to partner. It's figuring out ways you could build up some of these systems while you're reading through these books. That is the movement that I'm talking about practically between now and the next time we meet. So, to all my listeners, I genuinely enjoy sharing messages like this. And it's why this is the show where we discuss the challenges as well as the stuff that no one else talks about when they sell the dream of easy passive income. If you're a property manager, an aspiring property manager, An owner, a co-host, or just an investor, then email me at infogalvanizemagement.com. I'd love to connect and learn more about your approach. And if you have a question, ask it. Your question might be the next one that we break down, and chances are you'll help a lot of other hosts in the process too. We win or we lose together. If this episode helped you, great. I'd appreciate a good rating and a share too, so we can keep growing organically. Together. is how I believe we make this industry better. I'd also love to see you follow on TikTok at Galvanized Investments and Facebook and YouTube at Galvanized Management. Until next time, stay steady, keep learning, and keep building something real. This is Short-Term Rental Problems and Solutions.