Latest / Epic Entrepreneurs / Real Estate Cycles Change But Housing Always Wins with Jeff Mayorga & Eli Miller, Encompass Property Management

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Real Estate Cycles Change But Housing Always Wins with Jeff Mayorga & Eli Miller, Encompass Property Management · Epic Entrepreneurs

0:45
SPEAKER_02: Hi everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: I am Cliff McRae with Action Coach Business Growth Partners, where we work with local business owners to turn big ideas into real scalable growth.
0:57
SPEAKER_02: Today I'm excited to be joined by Jeff Moyorga and Eli Miller with Encompass Property Management.
1:03
SPEAKER_02: How are you guys doing today?
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Doing great.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having us.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great as well.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
1:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay, great, great.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're really excited to have you.
1:13
SPEAKER_02: So we'll go and explore the story, challenges, and growth behind this property management business.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: So thank you guys again for coming in and let's go ahead and jump right into things.
1:22
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
1:23
SPEAKER_02: All right.
1:24
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, Eli brings more than 20 years in real estate while Jeff understands buildings from construction and pest control.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: How did those different backgrounds become the encompass model?
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll I'll start on my end.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Started back in the early 2000s and had a pretty big, pretty big boom in real estate.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: I did real well with the builder and things like that.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: But when we hit the the great recession in 2008, I had a lot of people reach out to me and said, Hey, I want to sell my house.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: Can you help me out?
1:55
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Of course, do you have$100,000?
1:57
SPEAKER_00: And for most people, that answer was no, because they were upside down on their properties.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: So I gave them their options of short sale, foreclose, or rent their property out.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Most people didn't like the other options, so they asked if I could help them on the rental side of things.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: I did that, got into property management.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: It at the time I was still big into sales, got a little bigger than at the time I had wanted.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: I had my dad come and he took over that part.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: But in 2017, I started my own brokerage, Encompass Real Estate Solutions, with the idea of being able to encompass everything that a client could possibly want or need.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: So when you're talking about the sales side, the buyer side, property management, having teammates and things like that on the mortgage, mortgage side, pest control side, and inspections, et cetera, just sort of everything all under one umbrella.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Property management came back as a forefront to me.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: And that's sort of where Encompass Property Management started and developed because of that background.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: And I can pass it on to Jeff there for his portion of that.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: Oh my.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: So I come from Florida.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: This is actually my second year here in Virginia.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: The I was actually working at the time as a car salesman where I met my current fiance that I'm getting married to next month, actually.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: She introduced me to her dad, who owned a pest control company up here.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know it's pretty cool, pretty sweet.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: The um introduced me to her dad, who's got a pest control company.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: Me and him hit it off.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey, you're good at sales.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, yeah, I can I can sell stuff if I want to.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: And I was looking for something a little more the car industry.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
3:38
SPEAKER_01: It can be a little unique, rounding up to our previous conversation before.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: So the I decided to take a new path, starting to sell the pest control instead.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: And I did very well my first few months.
3:53
SPEAKER_01: After a few months, he put me in charge of the property management slash real estate side of the business.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: After a couple months of that, he decided I don't want to do this anymore.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna sell.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, wow.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: I got to learn a lot of these property managers' jobs, and I kind of liked their jobs more than what I was doing.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: So then I used some of my connections to reach out to somebody that would be interested to basically give a young guy a chance in the business, and that's where Eli came along.
4:26
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
4:28
SPEAKER_02: Now, and this one is this one's more specific for Eli, but Eli, after seeing the boom bust foreclosures in the current market, what lesson about rental property has stayed true through each and every cycle?
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Everybody needs a place to live.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Rental properties are always gonna be an appreciating asset.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: I I come from a background in college of financial planning.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: So that's sort of the part of real estate that I really enjoy.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: My personal thought is that everybody should try and own at least four rental properties because you can do that under, you know, it's based on mortgages and things like that, not to get in the weeds.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And so I like to think about it as an appreciating asset that then can become something that you use for finances in the future or even further in the future as retirement income to help supplement your retirement.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Because as most of us know, there may not be much there when it comes time for for us to retire.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's that's how I see things, or how uh it's always been the same.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: It's it's an investment, it appreciates.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: People are always renting, rents increase.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: So eventually you're gonna cover your even if your costs are or you're not making much on the property, you're eventually going to make money on the property on that aspect, but you're always getting a appreciation, mortgage buy pay down, things like that.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's an appreciating investment.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's it's been consistent for 25 years, even with a a major, major, major downturn, it's still recovered.
5:57
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, yeah, okay.
6:00
SPEAKER_02: Now, this one's more for Jeff.
6:02
SPEAKER_02: Now, Jeff, your background includes construction, pest control, and even MMA.
6:06
SPEAKER_02: I saw is that.
6:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
6:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:11
SPEAKER_02: I um yeah.
6:13
SPEAKER_02: I forgot about that, but yeah, yeah.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: How how how do those experiences change the way you handle property problems in difficult situations?
6:20
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I mean, there's there's no one that can really uh okay, so let's just put it this way the when you sign up to step into a cage to physically assault somebody else under contract, there I don't think there's anything other than going to war actually for your country that can deter you mentally the way that can.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: Because so when I kind of handle day-to-day situations, nothing can affect me as much as that can.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm a pretty baseline person in that matter.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: And when somebody is yelling at me, I'm still thinking about how we can come up with the best solution to where everybody wins.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: And that's that's really where the MMA comes in, is that that mental fortitude.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: I think that background, I think that background for me is is has been a major, if not the probably the biggest positive for Jeff's position for me as somebody who who hired him.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: I I tried for a month to deter him from taking the job because I had learned that I don't need to hire somebody with the skills or know-how.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: I can teach that.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm I was hiring toward a mental fortitude, and Jeff persevered better than anybody I've ever ever spoken to.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: And I now see that, you know, I've dabbled a little bit, but nothing like Jeff, that I I think the people who are are trained to to fight are actually trained more in in peace and calmness.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: And so, like he said, he's able to take those hard times, take those difficult situations, and he's he's looking to not be violent, so to speak, or not to be aggressive as somebody who's trained in in martial arts.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: They're they're looking for that that calm, peaceful interaction.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's benefited him significantly.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's that's gonna be a reason, a major reason for his his his success in this business moving forward.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
8:19
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
8:19
SPEAKER_02: Eli and you actually just answered my follow-up.
8:21
SPEAKER_02: That was actually my follow-up question there is kind of which lesson from fighting translates best to business.
8:25
SPEAKER_02: You kind of answer that there.
8:25
SPEAKER_02: So over there you go.
8:27
SPEAKER_02: Um, what does Encomp yeah yeah, yeah, you already answered it.
8:31
SPEAKER_02: So what does Encompass handle for owners today and what type of property or investor is the best fit?
8:37
SPEAKER_00: We handle absolutely everything.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: We are a a full service, one of the first people I ever worked with back in 2008, give or take.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: Don't remember the exact situation, but he was effectively stuck on a ship off the coast of Japan for two years.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: We we worked with I worked with him for for almost 16 years before he eventually sold the property.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: But he he got he was one of my favorite clients in that we built such a level of trust that all he really cared about was seeing the money in his account each month, and we handled absolutely everything for him property maintenance updates, uh, it's the the tenants and everything.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: We we really try and be very proactive.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: This is this is somebody's a lot of the people we get, fortunately or unfortunately, are are military who are sort of forced to rent their property out.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: They've bought in the last couple years, they don't have enough equity to sell the property, and it's it can be a bit of a tight financial situation.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: So you know, my my thing to them is I'm I'm here to help you with that.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: We are here to help you with that.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: We're here to make sure that that we do everything possible to build that that that's now business.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: You now have a home as a business or a rental property as a business, and we're gonna do everything possible to make that that profitable for you.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot involved with that from the background checks of tenants, not just being a basic credit poll, but checking criminal histories and and there's a lot of fraud with people's creating fake pay stubs because they know they need to make a certain amount of money and things like that.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: So Jeff's actually very good at going back, checking, looking those things up, searching the internet to see if it's legit, calling, calling past rental references and making sure they're actual real people and not just false things.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: There's there's a lot that people do, and and we're I we continue to add processes and things that look out for our customer on that on that full service basis.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: We're constantly going through or changing over contractors.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: I've worked with amazing handymen who were by themselves amazing.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: They look to grow their business.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Next thing you know, they've got additional crews and and whatnot working for them.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: They increase their prices, but those crews don't do as good of a job because that handyman's not there watching over them.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: And so the quality goes down, the price goes up, and we we move on to to other people.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's a constant process trying to make sure we're doing everything possible for that for that owner.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Now Jeff, did you have anything?
11:07
SPEAKER_00: Did I miss anything there?
11:08
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I felt like I lost track a little bit on that question, but uh Jeff, can you think of anything there I missed?
11:13
SPEAKER_01: No, that's that's pretty much it without getting into like the nitty-gritty of it all.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: I think that was pretty good.
11:20
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
11:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
11:23
SPEAKER_02: Now, what is the biggest challenge the business is facing right now, would you say?
11:29
SPEAKER_00: I would say it depends on what business you're in.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, inflation has had an issue.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: I I was once called by a friend a serial entrepreneur, and and my business coaches have had to try and rein me in.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: So I've I've owned a trucking company locally.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: I've I've I was in the restaurant business for 13, 15 years, 13 years or something before that went south.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: And and I say that went south, it was very successful for give or take a decade, but you have something like COVID that hits, and unfortunately changes your business model.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: The uh trying not to get political, the state changed their several policies, let's say.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: So uh just for instance, and this is something for small business that that this is just how how things work.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: The state decided to go from$7 an hour to ideally$15, but to$12 an hour in minimum wage.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm all for increasing minimum wage, but I think it should be done at a certain pace, and whatever that may be, whether that's at the rate of inflation, whatever, regardless.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: But they did it, and because of COVID, they delayed it.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: They jumped from seven to nine to ten to twelve, and then instead of doing it over a five-year period like they planned, they did it in like 18 months.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Now that might sound, and that sounds great for for workers, and again, I'm all I'm all for that.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm all for people getting paid more.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: But from the business side of things, I had high school kids working, washing dishes a couple hours a week for the time$7 an hour, and other people making now$12,$15 as my as my higher paid employees, and that was great.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, all of a sudden there's sort of an artificial change due to policy.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Now my$7 person has to make$12.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, what do you do with your$12 to$15?
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Now they're making$15,$18,$20,$25 an hour.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: I was in the pizza business.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: That's that that almost tripled my labor costs.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: When you're looking at the business model, I can't, I can't increase the price of my pizza enough to cover that that difference.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: So I would say the the biggest things affecting we're in a very transient area.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: We have we have a lot of business, there's a lot of people in and out, so we are somewhat insulated from a lot of macroeconomic situations.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: I I would say that that the issues are more policy and and legislature based for small businesses.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: And I would say labor is is very, very difficult.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: I I have noticed since COVID that people have changed.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Mentalities have changed.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: It's you don't have as many people out there trying trying to work hard.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: They they want to do as as little as possible for as much as possible.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: There's sort of a new state of mind, I guess, that people have that make it, I think, very, very difficult for employers and especially employers who have lower wages.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: Not that it's you know that's an issue, but with the because we have we need all levels, but things have changed there.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: So I I think I think the mentality of of employees has changed, and that's a very significant issue that that employers have to have to deal with these days.
14:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that answer.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: I love that answer.
14:45
SPEAKER_02: You're very right.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: Right.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: And trying to be you know diplomatic with my with my answer there, but that's that's you know Yeah, I've been in the trenches.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: I've I've seen it firsthand.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: I I I I agree with increasing the minimum wage, but it put me out effectively put me out of business.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, yeah, no, I get it.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: I get it.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: Now, what do you believe is preventing the business from reaching its next level right now?
15:08
SPEAKER_00: The current business with encompassed property management is getting out there now.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: So I I've we've spent a lot of time of building the base.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: So I've I've been in business a long time.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: I've taken a lot of coaching and classes and and things like that, and I've learned the hard way of being sort of top heavy and it can it can fall over.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: I did that with the trucking company.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: It was we kind of chased profits and things, and but didn't have the the structure built.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: You got you got to build your foundation, right?
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Before you build the rest of the building.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: So we've been working very hard building that that foundation.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: That foundation is is now built.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: So I I think the next phase now is is I've as a company, we've put together a few things.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: We have an option that I don't think anybody else offers in the property management business.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: So now the the next step is getting it out there in the market to take us to the next level.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: Now, what are the biggest frustrations you have with your own business right now?
16:07
SPEAKER_02: You know, the things that consistently make ownership harder than it should be.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: People.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, so we're we're dealing with and and so Jeff gets the day-to-day of it.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: I get the the very, very high end of it, but people we tenants want things fixed all the time.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Owners don't necessarily have the money to fix things.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: Things happen and owners lose some money.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: It's just it's managing the people.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: And I think maybe Jeff might have some some more insight to that on that day-to-day of managing expectations and and what is realistic and things like that from people.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jeff?
16:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I I say the um an owner's perspective, it's it's the repairs, what they're basically it's like sometimes when they need a um that we tell them, hey, you need to replace the roof, or hey, you need to do this because you're leaking.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: There's there's leaks in the house.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: Or and then the tenants, hey, I need to replace the the smoke detectors, or when we go in for inspections and the the filter hasn't been changed in three months.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
17:20
SPEAKER_01: And then two weeks before that, the AC went out, and now you know why.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: It's it's just the day-to-day stuff that you'd expect a normal person to know.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: You have to put that put that in front of them prior to them leasing from you so that you can set that expectation rather than assume that they know what they're doing prior to renting out a place.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: You have to assume everybody is a first-time renter.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: And for owners, you have to kind of assume the same, and if unless they they show otherwise, you know what I mean?
17:54
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's that that back and forth communication of like talk to one person, then talk to another, and then go to the case.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: I think the short answer to that is customer service.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're psychologists for peep for both sides, and and customer service is absolutely every single business.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Ours is just just amplified.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: And actually, before I I didn't answer what our ideal customer is.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: I'd say I I we tend to specialize or currently have a lot of people who sort of need to rent.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: So your your individual property owner who is moving and it's maybe their first rental, but we are set up and and we've we've managed buildings as as many as 16 units and and things like that.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: So, really, really any investor who who needs, and I I am a proponent that every investor should use management.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: They they they need to be out of it because people will will try and get over on owners, they'll try and pull the heartstrings.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: We treat it as though it's a business, and so you you need that backing for you.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: Plus, it's a lot of work.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to, and there's a lot of litigation and and laws involved.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: So, for instance, we had a whole bunch of new laws come down July 1st that your average homeowner isn't gonna realize came through.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Whereas me, as part of Realtor Association and our local MLS, there's always attorneys and things.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: We're always I'm always getting the new information.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: So we we stay on top of those things that a private owner doing it themselves, they could miss that and really put themselves up for liability.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: So I think really anybody who owns a rental property should use professional management.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: Now, about how many hours a week are you all working in and out of the business right now?
19:34
SPEAKER_00: Jeff, you go first.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh my God.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: Dude, probably like if I had to put an hourly amount.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: So that it's it's weird because it's very seasonal.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: So during the wintertime, it's more um working on the business rather than for it.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
19:53
SPEAKER_01: But during the summertime, like we are right now, we're talking probably 60 to 80 hours a week, just making sure we're taking care of the volume correctly.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's it's it's a seasonal business with volume spikes and drops.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: So one of the benefits in this in this business, or for Jeff or for the employees, is you can kind of work around your schedule.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: If he wants to go to lunch with his fiance or something, he he can do that.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: If he he wants to spend the morning with his daughter, he can do that.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: But he might also be handling phone calls and issues at 8, 9, 10 o'clock at night based on need or when he wants to work his schedule and things like that.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: So there's there's pros and cons to the number of number of hours, and they can fluctuate very drastically, even from week to week.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: We might have a week where it gets super hot and we get a bunch of air conditioners that go out and just got to put in a 70-hour week dealing with work orders and things, but then a week later, there might not be a whole lot of work orders, and it's it's a lighter week where he's uh catching up on a few things, but can can get back to life a little bit.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: So, and I'd say on my end, I've I've been working since I was 13.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: I've been in this business for 24 years or so.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: I've been trying to cut back my hours.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: I've I've done the the 60, 70 hour weeks for the majority of of my career and have promised my family that I at least my wife now at this point, because my kids are grown.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: And again, one of the benefits to this business though is even though I might have put in a 60-hour week when my kids are growing up, I did it strategically.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: So I never missed, I missed my son played hundreds of baseball games as a travel baseball player.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: I missed, I think, three games or something like that.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: My daughter was a competitive gymnast.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: We would take long weekends to go travel and go to gymnastics, and I would drive her to gymnastics practice for her three and four hour practices four days a week.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: And while she's at practice, I would sit there and work, and then I'd drive her home.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: So I was able to manipulate my my schedule around my life somewhat.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm I'm attempting as as the owner to to grab back some of my time and uh let Jeff let Jeff put in his time and then uh hopefully get him to where I am.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: But I I still will have the same thing, only I push it to like 35 to 50 hours now instead of forty to sixty.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: So or forty to eighty.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: So okay, okay.
22:18
SPEAKER_02: Now, Eli, what what is your greatest strength as a business owner, would you say?
22:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know if I should answer that or if Jeff should answer that.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: His great strength as a business owner.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: He uh he knows uh he you know how some people are good at their jobs and some people are good at managing people doing the job.
22:39
SPEAKER_01: Eli Eli's really good at managing people, which I think is like a really it's a really good asset to have when you own a business is because that that's kind of your job, you know what I mean?
22:50
SPEAKER_01: Like as a business owner, you're you're handing off all the responsibilities to people that you trust, and you're in a way kind of manipulating their morale to make sure it gets done correctly.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: And because I feel like it's a because I've I've owned my own uh pool construction and maintenance business before COVID hit and kind of decided that it wanted to do its own thing to it.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: And I got to see the other side of that for a couple years, trying to manage people, and I got to learn that side of it so I can appreciate how good he is at it from both perspectives.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: And I would say that's something that has developed over many, many years.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: I have worked for the the crazy, insane people.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: I actually almost got into a physical altercation with a broker of mine before a six, seven, three hundred-pound man pulled me back because he was just yelling and berating me and things like that.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: So I've I've sort of learned what not to do on that respect.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: And I I feel like I'm a pretty personable person.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: And you learn that at as a business owner, you have to delegate.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: I learned that significantly through the restaurant.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Learned actually some of the hard ways.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: You also have to be in the in the job too, otherwise, you know, things, things can go awry.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: So your people are your business.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: And keeping your making sure they they understand their job, but are happy in their job is as much as possible.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, just getting yelled at by a tenant or something like that.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: There's only so much I can do to mitigate that.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: But on the on the flip side of that, you know, we we talk about how how that how to handle it, how to express it, how to that type of thing.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: And that that really has become uh my focus here recently with with the business is is my people, because I know that that's how I'm gonna grow and how I'm gonna grow the the the greatest is by having strong people around me who are happy.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: You you can't they can't be good at their job, they're not gonna stay.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, just because of the business, I like I said, I had a good bit of turnover early on, and I was constantly having to then jump in and do the do it myself and retrain people, things like that, which is why I took a long time to hire somebody before I hired Jeff, because I was looking for the personality that could handle the stress of the job and still be okay and it still be a great career for them.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: But for anybody who ever, if nobody takes anything else from this as an entrepreneur, read the e-myth, e-m Y T H.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: So the entrepreneur myth, short book.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: But the the main takeaway from it is working in the business, working versus working on the business.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Too many entrepreneurs get stuck working in the business, in the weeds, in the day-to-day.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: And I kept getting stuck in that.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: And having understood the e-myth, I knew that that was not the way I was going to grow the business.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: So I needed to develop people and put people in place to run the day-to-day so that I could work on the business.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: And now, if you ask Jeff, I'm out, I'm building relationships.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: That's that's sort of always been my thing.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of I've I've been here since 1996, went to college here, so I know a lot of people.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Building relationships is is a lot of what's what's been building our business and what's going to continue to build the business.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: So I need to work on the business.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: We've we've we've added a resident benefits package that has been great for auditing insurance and things like that.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: So when we add things, we you know we're looking to improve the business, make things run better, make it easier on the on the team.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: And that's actually one of the things we've talked about.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: We've we've got another threshold once we hit that threshold.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm working with my team to decide what the next hire would be and what that looks like and how that would best affect their life.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: So we're we're looking at probably like somebody who, like a showing agent kind of thing, because they're busy, they're so busy right now running around all over Hampton Roads showing properties, it takes away a little bit from the other aspects of the job that we can kind of hire that out at some point and make their lives easier, make their lives better.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: But I want to know that from them.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: I I they know that they can come to me with any question, any issue, and any suggestion.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: And I I may not take the suggestion, but I'm gonna talk it through with them and they're gonna understand if I don't do it or don't accept it or what have you.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna understand why.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk it through.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm never gonna get mad about any and it, and even if they have something you know negative, hey, Eli, you didn't do this, you should have done this.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm open to that criticism, and I'm never gonna get upset with them.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: I wanna I wanna sort of build this, I want to build the company as a team with with strong core players.
27:26
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
27:28
SPEAKER_02: Now, now we're gonna head to the flip side of that, you know, kind of talked about what you do well.
27:31
SPEAKER_02: Now, what is something, Eli, as a business owner, you still need to improve on?
27:36
SPEAKER_00: I'll kick it back to Jeff afterwards, but I I sometimes shy away from the difficult conversations briefly.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: Not with my team, but with owners.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: I just it takes me an extra couple hours to think things through.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: So I guess it's more so I I overthink things.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to think through every way a conversation could go when I I usually could handle that no matter what, but I sort of overthink the conversation.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: So I'll I'll slowly you know, instead of responding today, I might respond tomorrow morning kind of thing, just because I've I've spent so much time overthinking the the conversation, but trying to make sure that it goes it goes absolutely perfect.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Trying to think if there's anything else.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Jeff, what do you think?
28:23
SPEAKER_00: What could I do better?
28:24
SPEAKER_00: What could you do better?
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:28
SPEAKER_01: I mean you're welcome to say I'm amazing, but uh your your greatest strength is that you're so good at your job.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: What could you improve in?
28:41
SPEAKER_00: I try to be available a lot to my team.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to think if there's anything that every business owner could always do something a a little better.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: There's sometimes task paralysis where I got something I need to get done and I I put it off a little bit, especially when it comes to the more mundane things.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: So I I guess as systems, we've built systems really, really well so far, but it's taken time.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: I think maybe fine-tuning some of the systems, again, not that I don't do it, just might be a little slow to it because I don't like those those mundane tasks of going in and I don't know, changing our templates and and rewording contract verbiage and things like that.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: So okay, okay.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: It's it's good to not hear anything from Jeff though.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: I was hoping to hear I was hoping to hear some Eli, here's what I really think.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh you could you have to hit at the gym a lot more.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, man.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: It was I I I do need to hit the gym more.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: I I I that's that's uh number two.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: I need I need to get to the gym a few more days a week.
29:44
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that's a that's awesome.
29:47
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you really can't think of anything, that's that's a good thing.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: That that really is.
29:50
SPEAKER_02: Because I mean, if you've got to really go in your brain and think about something that you can improve on, it's probably not much.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: So that's I think it helps that I've focused.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: Before I was, I like I said, I had multiple businesses and I wasn't focused.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: I and I I've now really put my focus.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: I got rid of my other businesses.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: I have this in a sales team.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: And even with my business coach this morning, I was telling her, look, I'm I am mostly in on property management right now.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: I need to do just enough to keep the the sales team going.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: But property management is is my focus and has and it has been for the last year and a half.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was going to change here recently, but I've decided it's not gonna change.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: It is still gonna be my focus for the foreseeable future.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: And I think that helps me be better at what I'm doing because I'm I'm focused.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Because I have the ability to sometimes I take on too many things, I get distracted, I do other things, have having the focus on the business and really having one determined factor here.
30:45
SPEAKER_02: So okay, okay.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: Now, where do most of your customers come from today?
30:52
SPEAKER_00: Right now, it is highly referral-based.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: I've I've created a system with a large local real estate company, and so I I they actually got out of property management.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: They have 400 plus agents, but you you really have to be intentional about property management.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: A lot of businesses have it as sort of a secondary thing, and I I think number one, that the clients are hurt by that, and number two, the business could be very hurt by that.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: It's a very litigious business.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: So you have to, you know, dot your I's, cross your T's, you have to be on top of things, you have to be on top of those law changes.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: And so they actually got rid of their property management because they didn't have they didn't have that, they didn't have that foundation built.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: They were top heavy, they were falling over.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: And when I got and looked into it, there was, you know, I did an analysis of their business, there was there was a lot of issues.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: So they decided it was better for them to to fold it and then just refer everything to us.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: So I've now put together a program to to try and build that with other brokerages and teams who who sort of do the the same thing.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: And it makes it much easier to uh attract the clients and to sign the clients, so to speak, because they're coming, they're coming over very warm.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: So we we've got a lead service, for instance, where people hit something on the internet and ask about property management.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, those, like any other lead service, they're they're difficult closings.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're you're paying, you know, for costs per acquisition, things like that, which is a big thing for entrepreneurs.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, how much does it cost that acquire a customer, and you try and drive that number down.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: So there's there's effectively no cost other than you know, maybe maybe marketing lunches, things like that, just to get my my name in front of the people who work for the company.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: And they're much warmer.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: So I I've I've had a couple conversations recently with a couple agents who've gotten used to referring our business and have now gotten feedback from their clients.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: And so you know, initially they they send us one and they they don't really, they don't know us, they don't know how good they are, but they're like, Yeah, here's here's my person.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, now that we've gotten to the point where there's agents who have sent people, and then those people have been happy with Jeff's work, because Jeff does all the day-to-day.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: And I tell people this, I said, Hey, I'm gonna work with you until we get you signed up, but then you're gonna have my team on the day-to-day stuff that that's gonna handle things.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: But when I get one of these and just just one of the ones I got the other day, it's basically like, hey, I'm told you're my gonna be my property manager because you're amazing.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's just sign up.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's it's not, and I'll I'll go over what we do, but it's it's I'm not competing against other companies and and things like that.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: Even though I have we we've we've changed our pricing structure and things to it, which reduces our profit margins, but I I think overall it makes our clients happier.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: And I I think just in the end, the ease of our our pricing structure is is so much better for the clients that it it helps us get more.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: So in the margin that I'm losing, I think I'm making up for significantly in the volume.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: So and it's a better customer service.
34:00
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
34:02
SPEAKER_02: Now, uh when a qualified lead comes in, how confident are you that it becomes a customer?
34:09
SPEAKER_00: On the on the management side, very and I'm I might be overconfident.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: I I'll I'll tell people when I'm having the conversation, but if if it's one of these these qualified leads from a referral source, I mean I'm 80% or something, like it's it's it's it's extremely high conversion rate, and which is part of the reason I I want to push that more because on on the lead side of things, it's more like 10 or 20 percent.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: So but I I guess part part of being an entrepreneur and part of part of having a business is you need to be confident in what you've built.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: And that confidence is gonna come out in your conversation with people.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: So when I have a conversation with people, uh most of them sign up with this with us because I'm confident in what we've built, I'm confident in who we have working.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I know I I know that Jeff is gonna do an amazing job working for them once it gets to that day-to-day stuff.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: I know that we have the systems in place.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: I know that we have, I know that we have their best interests in mind.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: I I know all these things as as the as having built it from the ground up, I I I feel it.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: So I want to have these conversations.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: I I think that that comes out.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: And so our our our conversion rate, my conversion rate is is is very, very high be because of that.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: I Jeff, I don't know if you have anything on that, but because because they'll they'll get some of these leads and things as well, sort of, sort of coming in, but they see that once it gets to them, I've I've already locked it down.
35:35
SPEAKER_02: So anything to add, Jeff?
35:37
SPEAKER_01: Or yeah, I mean, the to the previous question too, I feel like a lot of the the owners that are referred to us, there's like two types.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: There's either the the major ones that are coming in or the investors, and people who have bought a house in this area that are in the military and they are being stationed somewhere else and are going, oh, now what am I going to do with this house?
36:03
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's one thing.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: And to add to the to the product thing, yeah, I mean, and property management in general, just taking a look at other people's and working with them, he's Eli's managed to simplify the product to where if you put without without even speaking of the people that are in the business, like not talking to anybody, just putting the product, the service, ours versus somebody else's, he's found a way to separate it from the bunch so that if you don't even talk to anybody, you can go, okay, this is a no-brainer.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: And on top of that, we do, I have the team and I do it.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: We we know a lot of our I know a lot of our competition.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: So when I'm talking about our service, I say, here's what we do, here's what you know, and and there's plenty of times that people are talking to multiple companies.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: And I say, so when you're talking to this to other companies, here's probably what you'll find, or here's what you'll get, here's how we do it different, because a lot of companies do things a certain way, and there are several there's certain points that we do it differently, and I I kind of point those out, and then knowing the competition and knowing those those differences helps significantly because then they they get to that point, maybe that somebody else's presentation, they're like, Oh, well, I heard another person does it this way, and they're like, Well, that's not how we do it.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: And most of the time they like the way we do things or the way we've decided to do things better.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: So so pointing those those differences out and having made those small changes makes a makes a huge difference in my mind as well.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: Know your competition.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Did he mute?
37:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
37:41
SPEAKER_02: I thought yeah, you you're right, you're right.
37:44
SPEAKER_02: Sorry about that.
37:46
SPEAKER_02: Let me make a note here for the editor.
37:47
SPEAKER_02: Sorry about that, so we can cut that out.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Let me Yeah, I was wondering about that.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: I I was I didn't know for sure if you were able to uh if if you were editing things out or if it was just a straight go.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: So good deal.
37:57
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, yeah.
37:57
SPEAKER_02: No, I definitely make notes here just in case we do stuff uh have stuff like that happen.
38:01
SPEAKER_02: Let me make a note.
38:01
SPEAKER_02: Okay, sure.
38:02
SPEAKER_02: Edit out.
38:04
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
38:05
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, tell us a little bit about the team that's supporting your business today.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: The team as in like like Jeff or Yeah, yeah.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: Do you I mean, do you have any other employees besides Jeff or is it just Yeah, so we've got Jeff and Lilia.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: Lily Lily is uh a licensed agent, so she's able to take uh some of the things that that Jeff's working on getting there, and he'll be he'll be licensed at at some point soon as well and can can do everything.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: But I think I think we have a real good balance with with the two of them on a lot of the the day-to-day things.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: They they kind of have their their strengths that they play off of each other, so I think we've we've done real well there, and I'm I'm super excited about the team I have now.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: And then I've got a I don't know what what you call him, my my CFO, my backend, my accountant, my something.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: He's uh effectively a virtual assistant because he or a virtual worker.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: He he doesn't live here, he tends to travel and live somewhere three months, six months at a time.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: And but he's he's amazing.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: I initially found him on not Fiverr, but whatever the other one was a long time ago, and looking for somebody because I I I knew what software, what software programs were let's say the three best for property management.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: And I got one of them.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: And I started digging into it and I tried to do it myself, and I immediately realized and very, very luckily that I don't, again, working in the business versus working on the business.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: This is not something that I need, this is not part of the business that I need to be doing.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to be entering debits, charges, rents coming in, writing checks for every single vendor that we need to pay out that once you scale is massive amounts and things like that.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: So I went looking for somebody who knew the software and that aspect of the business and and found somebody who's who's been with me from the beginning who does an absolutely uh amazing job on that that backend stuff uh for for the team and for the company.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: And so not only do we have let's say my portfolio or our portfolio and that team, I also have independent agents who who work for the brokerage who have their own portfolios of properties that they manage.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: And then they tap into those those systems and those people.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: So Jeff and Lillia will assist with them.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: Hendrick is who I'm talking about, who who does the the back end and and all the finances and everything.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: He he assists them with their business.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: And so that's sort of the the team in place right now.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: And as as we grow, the team will will grow.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: And like I mentioned before, there's there's good, we'll decide on on which positions next are what we need.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: But that's the the main team are those three key players.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: And at one point I had three people doing what Jeff and the Lee are are doing.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh I didn't need three people, I needed two good people, and and now I have two very, very good people, which is gonna unlock opportunity for them.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: I uh not having to pay somebody else similar to them allows more money and more opportunity for them moving forward.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: And we've we've had that conversation as well.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: Like I want to see where they're at, where their heads are at, where they want to be with the growth of the company.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: And I I I see Jeff being a part of this company as as long as it's around and hopefully filling in in my shoes at some point.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's that's the main team though.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
41:31
SPEAKER_02: All right, so we're gonna head into what's called this or that.
41:33
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I'm gonna give you guys two two choices.
41:36
SPEAKER_02: I want you guys to choose one and then kind of explain why you chose it.
41:39
SPEAKER_02: Nice way to kind of get to know a little bit of your background personally and stuff like that.
41:43
SPEAKER_02: Some of these are personal, and then some of these are a little bit more business oriented.
41:46
SPEAKER_02: So uh let's get into it.
41:48
SPEAKER_02: All right, so Netflix or YouTube for the both of you.
41:53
SPEAKER_01: Oh, YouTube.
41:56
SPEAKER_01: Easily, not even close.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say YouTube also.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm a huge Netflix fan, but YouTube I have I've learned is now become a university.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: I so I also I I learn a lot, I learn a lot from YouTube.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: I I watch a lot of financial things.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: I've I learned how to fix my boat the other day, something was wrong with it.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: And instead of taking it in and spending hundreds of dollars, I realized it was a three-dollar fuse from good old YouTube university.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we'll go with YouTube.
42:22
unknown: Okay.
42:24
SPEAKER_02: Beach or mountains?
42:26
SPEAKER_02: Mountains.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: Mountains for sure.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm I actually uh was in Tennessee for a family vacation or reunion, and we went on a summit hike, you know, five miles or something, but the first half of it's straight up.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: I love I love the mountains, I love trees, I love nature.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: I actually read something recently that there's the trees give off uh some sort of chemical, but that actually helps heal the body.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: So I love the beach for the most part, but I don't like getting sanding myself.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't like having to try and cover myself from the sun the whole time.
42:59
SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty fair skinned, so yeah, I'm definitely there's a time limit, you know what I mean?
43:03
SPEAKER_01: Like I I got one hour at the beach or else it becomes dangerous.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: I can spend weeks in the I can spend weeks in the mountains.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
43:11
SPEAKER_01: Yep, yeah.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: Coffee or tea?
43:15
SPEAKER_01: If I had to, like hanging off a cliff, I would say probably morning time, I would say coffee, nighttime tea.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say the exact same thing.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: Morning coffee, afternoon, evening tea.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: There's definitely some healing properties in various teas, uh phenols.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: Got into mushroom teas and things as well.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: So, but there's also mushroom coffees.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: So but not not much pizza, a nice cup of coffee in the morning when you really want to have a cup of coffee in the morning.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: So oh yeah.
43:47
SPEAKER_02: Apple or Android?
43:49
SPEAKER_00: Apple the dark side, Android all day.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: I I just uh it's what I've always had, and I definitely don't want to change because I know it.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: And that's not that's one more thing I don't want to have to learn is a new phone.
44:06
SPEAKER_01: So that's the generational gap right there.
44:09
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of that's always a touchy subject.
44:15
SPEAKER_02: Truck or sports car.
44:17
SPEAKER_01: Ooh.
44:19
SPEAKER_01: I got a Tesla, so I'm gonna go sports car.
44:23
SPEAKER_00: I I have to say both.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: So I I can't I I can't pick one because I have a Tesla and I love driving it like a sports car and it pretty much is.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: It's yeah, it is.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: And then but I also my other vehicle is uh a Ram 1500 because I tow a boat and I go camping and I go fishing and I do stuff like that that isn't conducive to a sports car, but um so I I guess if I had to only have one, it would have to be the truck because it it's it's one of my hobbies, but it's practical.
44:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: God, do I love driving the the way the car should be driven?
44:59
SPEAKER_00: Sounds cute.
45:01
SPEAKER_02: Early bird or night owl?
45:03
SPEAKER_01: How about both?
45:07
SPEAKER_01: Like I like my I do really well in the morning because you know when you wake up, you get that initial cortisol hit to where everything is functioning really, really fast.
45:16
SPEAKER_01: But then that there's like that afternoon crash, and then at night, for some reason when the sun goes down, I I have like a second wind.
45:23
SPEAKER_02: Yep, that's me.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: So I guess both.
45:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: If night owl becomes like nine o'clock at night, but uh you used to be late nights going out and having a good time, but I I I move slow in the morning.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: I wish I wish it was more the morning, but I I get I get up and answer text messages from my bed initially initially sometimes, but uh I just moving a little slow.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: I'd like I wish it was more I I I want to be early bird, let's just put it that way.
45:49
SPEAKER_00: But I am not necessarily so you gotta do some grounding.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: I gotta do something.
45:53
SPEAKER_01: Go outside, get some sunlight in your eyes, connect to the ground, do a little bit of stretching, move around, squat, and then in 10 minutes you'll be good to go.
46:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: I just gotta get from the bed to there.
46:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and the night owl thing could get a little weird, right?
46:08
SPEAKER_02: When it's like obviously during summer, right?
46:10
SPEAKER_02: It gets dark at nine o'clock, right?
46:11
SPEAKER_02: So you get that second wind at nine, but then in the wintertime, you get that second wind at five o'clock because it gets dark early, right?
46:17
SPEAKER_02: So it's like I don't I noticed that I I go to sleep early because I'm a night owl.
46:21
SPEAKER_02: So I go to sleep earlier during the winter when it gets dark at five o'clock than in the summer.
46:25
SPEAKER_02: Summer, I stay up way too late too too often.
46:27
SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of my thing.
46:28
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: I can see that.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
46:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
46:31
SPEAKER_02: Because I get that second wind and it's like, man, I gotta wind down.
46:33
SPEAKER_02: And in the wintertime, when it gets dark at five, I can wind down and at least get to bed by a decent time.
46:37
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully.
46:38
SPEAKER_01: Dude, imagine imagine how confused I was moving here from Florida, where it's the same thing year round.
46:43
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, where's the nighttime?
46:45
SPEAKER_01: What is why why do I only have seven hours of darkness?
46:48
SPEAKER_01: What's happening?
46:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's true, it's true.
46:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're so far from the equator because Florida's right there.
46:54
SPEAKER_02: I'm actually from Florida too.
46:55
SPEAKER_02: What part of Florida are you from?
46:57
SPEAKER_01: South Florida.
46:57
SPEAKER_01: Originally from Peru, actually.
46:59
SPEAKER_01: Like I was born and raised in Peru until about 11, 12 years old, and then I moved to Florida.
47:04
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm headed to uh Cape Coral next week.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: Wife and I really love that southwest part of Florida.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to figure out how to spend snowbird time there one of these one of these days.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: So I'm a huge, I'm a huge Florida fan.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: I I I looked at uh my closet the other day to my my long sleeves are on the top row and short sleeves on the bottom row, and I went to go grab a shirt and I saw the top row and I was like, I don't want to wear any of those sweaters or anything like ever again.
47:31
SPEAKER_02: All right.
47:31
SPEAKER_02: Well, I know the answer to the next question then.
47:33
SPEAKER_02: The next question is actually gets into that summer or winter.
47:37
SPEAKER_02: And that's up here, not not down in Florida.
47:39
SPEAKER_01: Oh winter, winter for sure for me.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
47:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm summer.
47:44
SPEAKER_00: That the the daylight thing, I get I get that sort of seasonal.
47:49
SPEAKER_00: I I need I need more more daylight, more time.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm an outdoor person, I'm a physical person, and when we have the cold and the dark, and I just all I want to do is sit inside.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm not me anymore.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: So I I play competitive softball.
48:02
SPEAKER_00: I travel up and down the East Coast playing playing softball and stuff, but you know, especially around, especially in the winter, other than unless I go all the way to Florida, there's really no really no softball, so I'm off from that.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm less motivated to go to the gym.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: So summer, summer for sure.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: I like to go skiing or something, but like if if if it's gonna be cold, it needs to snow, and I need to be playing in the snow.
48:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
48:25
SPEAKER_02: I agree.
48:26
SPEAKER_02: I agree.
48:26
SPEAKER_02: I agree.
48:27
SPEAKER_02: If it's gonna be cold, snow.
48:28
SPEAKER_02: At least give me something to look forward to.
48:29
SPEAKER_02: I just hate when it's cold and it doesn't snow.
48:31
SPEAKER_00: I hate that.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: Around here, it's cold and rainy all the time.
48:33
SPEAKER_00: Like we just missed the snow.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: It'd be 35 and raining instead of 32 and snowing.
48:37
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, yeah.
48:38
SPEAKER_02: Dogs or cats?
48:41
SPEAKER_02: Dogs.
48:43
SPEAKER_00: Dogs all day because I'm highly allergic to cats.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh so yeah.
48:46
SPEAKER_02: Pretty easy.
48:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
48:49
SPEAKER_01: Cook at home or eat out?
48:52
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I cook at home, man.
48:54
SPEAKER_01: I don't for but for me, it's like it's to the point where I don't, I'm a very, I'm very health conscious when it comes to food.
49:00
SPEAKER_01: Like my diet consists of mostly ground beef, fruit, and eggs, raw milk.
49:07
SPEAKER_01: So for me, I I can't get what I feel I need to stay 100% at a restaurant anymore because everything's covered in, they cook everything in seed oils.
49:16
SPEAKER_01: They cook everything's got preservatives.
49:18
SPEAKER_01: I can't, I can't manage the quality of the food if I eat out.
49:21
SPEAKER_01: And to be quite frank, if I were to eat out, it'd be a steakhouse, and I feel like I make a better steak than Outback.
49:26
SPEAKER_01: Just saying.
49:28
SPEAKER_00: Which which you just influenced my decision, Jeff.
49:31
SPEAKER_00: So I I was I I've had I've I've gone out to some some nicer meals recently.
49:35
SPEAKER_00: Like went to Vegas a couple months ago with some friends, and we we went to some really nice meals, and I was I was kind of enjoying, yeah, I don't need to go to to I don't know your typical Applebee's or something like that.
49:48
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't interest me.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: But I I got into going out to to some nice meals, giatas, but you're right, even in a steakhouse.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: I think my wife makes a better steak.
49:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, granted, she's the one that cooks most of the time, but that's obviously a lot less expensive.
50:01
SPEAKER_00: And then I've gotten into smoking meats and things, so working on my smoker, trying to do some more fresh.
50:07
SPEAKER_00: So when I go fishing, I've been trying to keep fish, freeze them, cook them myself, things like that.
50:11
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'll put that at home as well.
50:14
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
50:15
SPEAKER_02: What kind of smoker do you have?
50:17
SPEAKER_00: Traeger.
50:17
SPEAKER_02: Hello.
50:18
SPEAKER_02: Traeger, okay, yeah, I got the good one.
50:19
SPEAKER_02: Good.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: I got a couple good uh good recipes and things I've gotten recently.
50:24
SPEAKER_00: So I got a couple specialties.
50:26
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, yeah.
50:27
SPEAKER_02: I I just recently got into smoking meat too myself about two years ago.
50:30
SPEAKER_02: So I love it.
50:31
SPEAKER_02: I love smoking meat, man.
50:32
SPEAKER_02: It's just so much better, you know.
50:34
SPEAKER_02: And like you say, like you're waiting all day, your mouth's watering, and you finally get that thing off the off the grill, and it's like, oh man, it's just amazing.
50:40
SPEAKER_01: So have you done a brisket yet?
50:42
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
50:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we did a brisket last 4th of July, I believe.
50:45
SPEAKER_02: Nice.
50:46
SPEAKER_02: And it was great.
50:46
SPEAKER_02: Came out there.
50:47
SPEAKER_00: I started doing my own beef jerky because beef jerky is crazy expensive.
50:51
SPEAKER_00: So I do my own beef jerky now.
50:52
SPEAKER_00: So that's a good one.
50:53
SPEAKER_00: On the smoker, comes out really good.
50:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
50:57
SPEAKER_02: I haven't done that yet, but I I definitely have seen some some recipes to do it.
51:00
SPEAKER_02: So it does come out good, nice and smoky, perfect, like it does like a dehydrator.
51:04
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
51:05
SPEAKER_00: Yep, okay.
51:05
SPEAKER_00: Comes out.
51:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh I so I give it to friends, family, and they they like it better than most of your store-bought jerkies.
51:11
SPEAKER_00: Those those tend to be a little chewier.
51:13
SPEAKER_00: I I do mine a little, I want to call it meat snack, but not quite as not quite as chewy as your your store store-bought stuff, and and people seem to, and I include myself, I really like that better.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
51:25
SPEAKER_02: 100 new leads or 10 rockstar employees.
51:29
SPEAKER_02: Wait, what?
51:31
SPEAKER_02: 100 new leads, yeah.
51:33
SPEAKER_02: 100 new qualified leads or 10 rockstar employees.
51:38
SPEAKER_01: Like 100 closed leads, like new, like 100 portfolio in your lap.
51:43
SPEAKER_01: Here you go.
51:43
SPEAKER_00: I would say even if even if it's 100 closed, even if it's 100 doors, I I still would go with the 10 employees because we can get the 100 doors and build around the 10 employees.
51:53
SPEAKER_00: That the the 10 employees are the hard are the harder to get, in my mind, by by a long shot.
52:00
SPEAKER_00: But that's from my from my point of view from the top.
52:03
SPEAKER_00: So Jeff, what do you think?
52:07
SPEAKER_01: You know what, yeah.
52:08
SPEAKER_01: Kind of like like the winter soldier program in Marvel, you know what I mean?
52:12
SPEAKER_01: Just get 10 rock stars that can control the country.
52:15
SPEAKER_01: But a hundred leads would be good, you know what I mean?
52:17
SPEAKER_01: It would be great.
52:18
SPEAKER_00: It would be great.
52:18
SPEAKER_00: But with 100%, that's the little punch we pay there.
52:21
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but we can we can land those next hundred leads.
52:23
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
52:25
SPEAKER_02: And then the last one is uh dream vacation or dream home.
52:30
SPEAKER_01: Oof, dream, dream home.
52:34
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't go out much, and I'm a hundred percent okay with it.
52:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm gonna say dream home only because my home would basically be my vacation.
52:43
SPEAKER_00: A dream home would be on the water on a canal or something in Florida with a pool.
52:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, I got my pool, I got my my my fishing boat on my dock or whatever.
52:51
SPEAKER_00: I I don't need any, I don't need to go anywhere necessarily because I have have my vacation at home.
52:56
SPEAKER_00: I love to travel.
52:57
SPEAKER_00: I'd really love to travel, but if if I don't have the choice, it's definitely the dream home because effectively I'd I'd be on vacation every day.
53:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
53:04
SPEAKER_02: No, I love that.
53:05
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
53:05
SPEAKER_02: And like you said, we're we're in our home so much.
53:07
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's that's you know, that's a vacation is only what a week or two, and that's it.
53:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
53:12
SPEAKER_02: You know, your home, you're there for the rest of your, you know, hopefully for the if it's a dream home, it's probably gonna be the rest of your life.
53:16
SPEAKER_02: So right.
53:17
SPEAKER_01: And probably gonna be there anyway.
53:19
SPEAKER_01: Like just put it in the vacation location.
53:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, you're right, you're right.
53:24
SPEAKER_02: Now, what's next for encompass property management?
53:27
SPEAKER_02: You know, where do you where's the company headed in the near future?
53:32
SPEAKER_00: We are we we're now working on on building a door, Calic.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: So we've we've got that that base created, we've got referral program and some other programs created.
53:42
SPEAKER_00: So so now it's getting out there and and aggressively adding the to the door count.
53:49
SPEAKER_00: So let's say we're uh on our portfolio, let's say we're 150 or something right now.
53:54
SPEAKER_00: The the the goal is to as quickly get to 500 as as possible.
53:59
SPEAKER_00: And so that's the the next focus, the next push is to is to try and get there.
54:05
SPEAKER_00: That sort of changes the the level and the dynamic of the company at that point.
54:09
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's the goal, that's the push.
54:11
SPEAKER_00: Foundation's built, people are in place, things are good, now it's uh full speed add add to the business.
54:20
SPEAKER_00: And though I'm I'm sure from from Jeff's point of view, uh I think we'll we always have to stay on top of of any of that foundational situation.
54:29
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, definitely definitely growth.
54:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
54:33
SPEAKER_00: Agreed.
54:34
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
54:35
SPEAKER_02: And you know, and I want you to kind of be as candid as you can on the answer to this, you know, kind of one of these follow-up here questions.
54:41
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, let's say, you know, because we have a we have a pretty good-sized entrepreneurial audience that listens to the podcast.
54:48
SPEAKER_02: A lot of small business owners still listen to our podcast.
54:50
SPEAKER_02: So let's say a small business owner is listening to the podcast episode today, and let's say they're just having a tough go of 2026, right?
54:57
SPEAKER_02: They're just, you know, they've unfortunately had to lay some people off, so to lay some of their employees off because they just have a lack of work, they're feeling stuck or overwhelmed, things just aren't working with the business.
55:07
SPEAKER_02: What's a piece of advice you'd want them to hear from you today?
55:12
SPEAKER_00: Stay the course.
55:14
SPEAKER_00: Every entrepreneur has failed, every entrepreneur has had setbacks.
55:18
SPEAKER_00: You can't get anywhere, you won't get anywhere, you won't be successful without them.
55:23
SPEAKER_00: Part of it is how you learn.
55:24
SPEAKER_00: So analyze why you've had to maybe let people go or why your sales are down.
55:32
SPEAKER_00: But but build the base, get back, get back in and uh really analyze what's going on.
55:37
SPEAKER_00: But but trust yourself, trust your product, trust your system.
55:40
SPEAKER_00: If if you believe in it, then it's it's a good product.
55:43
SPEAKER_00: If you if you believe in it, you're gonna and and stick with it.
55:48
SPEAKER_00: You you should be successful.
55:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, not everything is successful, you know, I can't guarantee, but but but stick with it, learn from your mistakes.
55:55
SPEAKER_00: I I can tell you people ask me all the time how I I learned certain things or got where I'm at.
56:01
SPEAKER_00: I said I've I've made countless mistakes that have cost me tons and tons and tons of money.
56:07
SPEAKER_00: And when I make a mistake that costs me money, I learn it really, really well.
56:10
SPEAKER_00: So if if things are slow, there's issues, evaluate, research, figure it out, use it as a learning experience, and build back better.
56:20
SPEAKER_00: Jeff, any thoughts?
56:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I haven't built a huge business, but I've been around guys, especially like my father-in-law.
56:28
SPEAKER_01: I've watched him grow his, I watched him sell his pest control company for I think it was$20 million.
56:35
SPEAKER_01: So I got to watch him make mistakes and do stuff.
56:39
SPEAKER_01: And it really is just not being afraid to make those changes, to be honest.
56:42
SPEAKER_01: Just from the outside perspective perspective, watching him do it, because obviously I was on the inside of all that there.
56:50
SPEAKER_01: But not being afraid to it really is that, to be honest.
56:55
SPEAKER_01: Make make the changes necessary.
56:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
56:57
SPEAKER_01: Just don't give up.
56:59
SPEAKER_01: Get your hands dirty.
57:01
SPEAKER_01: If you're if you're having that some sort of mental problems, a lot of a lot of men, especially in our generation, they're they're afraid to get help in some way.
57:09
SPEAKER_01: And if they feel like they're struggling in some way, you know what I mean?
57:12
SPEAKER_01: Like find somebody that you can vet to or bounce ideas off of, too, you know?
57:17
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're for, yeah.
57:19
SPEAKER_01: Like a big part of um a big part of my father-in-law's success came from being a part of groups like with other multimillion-dollar pest control companies.
57:28
SPEAKER_01: He would meet with them on a regular basis and say, hey, that did this, I messed up.
57:32
SPEAKER_01: And finding that peer group, I feel like is huge for business owners, especially with people that are at the same level or even higher as them.
57:41
SPEAKER_00: Agreed.
57:42
SPEAKER_00: Learn from others' mistakes, learn from other people, find find those other entrepreneurs.
57:46
SPEAKER_00: That's a great piece of advice, Jeff, and one that I've used.
57:50
SPEAKER_00: I and that I've learned over over time.
57:53
SPEAKER_00: And so I've I've done the same thing and not only learned from my own mistakes, but now interact with other entrepreneurs and try and learn from them so I don't I don't make make mistakes they've already made for me.
58:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's true, that's true.
58:08
SPEAKER_02: All right.
58:08
SPEAKER_02: Now, so the final thing is, you know, you know, this is probably hypothetical, but let's say if there was one thing you could change about your business in the next 90 days.
58:17
SPEAKER_02: Let's say, you know, the next 90 days will probably be around around Halloween.
58:20
SPEAKER_02: Let's say around Halloween, if you could change something about your business, what would it be and why?
58:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to the amount of hours in the day.
58:31
SPEAKER_01: I need that to increase significantly.
58:34
SPEAKER_00: So what I'm hearing you say then is we need to work on our procedures and things to maximize our efforts.
58:41
SPEAKER_00: So that's I guess that's what needs to change in the next 90 days, is we need to we need to sit down and and figure out how we can be more efficient as a company, as a team.
58:51
SPEAKER_00: Because the efficiency would be the same effect as as adding hours to the day.
58:56
SPEAKER_00: So so hearing that from Jeff, I I think that's the that's the change, or that's what we would need to to look at over the next 90 days is is ways to to make them more efficient at the things, especially the things that are time consuming.
59:11
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
59:12
SPEAKER_02: Now, now to kind of follow up with that a little bit more.
59:15
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, let's say if we spoke again in 90 days, because there's obviously a difference between what you want your business to be changed, what you want to change about your business, and what actually will happen, what will be different in the next 90 days.
59:27
SPEAKER_02: If we spoke again in 90 days, what would actually be different?
59:30
SPEAKER_02: Or would anything be different?
59:32
SPEAKER_00: I I would say we would have identified something.
59:34
SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, some some I can't tell you what it is because we haven't looked at it, but but now knowing that we want to make something more efficient, we're gonna sit down as a group, we're gonna figure out what things are either inefficient or can we look into delegating or or that type of thing?
59:49
SPEAKER_00: And and I knowing again, having good people, which is what I have now.
59:54
SPEAKER_00: I now know that.
59:54
SPEAKER_00: So now I can we can have these conversations, figure it out, and implement it.
59:59
SPEAKER_00: I do think I can guarantee something will be changed.
1:00:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't know exactly what it is yet, but something will have changed to make the business better in that respect or that regard.
1:00:09
SPEAKER_00: What do you think, Jeff?
1:00:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's been happening consistently.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_01: Like at pretty much at all times.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:00:16
SPEAKER_01: Especially with all these new laws passing, there's there were there's a whole reroute of how to do certain things, a lot of the things.
1:00:24
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I would say we can if something needs to be changed, it definitely will be 100%.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_00: You need to be aware that every your business has to evolve and it has to change.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_00: And no matter what business you're in, things things change, the the technology changes, people's tastes change, like everything changes.
1:00:42
SPEAKER_00: So you need to be able to adapt no matter no matter what it is.
1:00:46
SPEAKER_00: In our case, it might just be efficiency, but depending on the product you're you're you're selling, you know, for instance, people have become more health conscious, or you know, maybe there are changes to legislation, or you know, there's there's tons of things out there that you need to make sure you're you're always always adapting and and changing.
1:01:03
SPEAKER_00: It's the only way you're gonna stay stay relevant and stay afloat.
1:01:07
SPEAKER_00: Look at technology these days.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_00: Um I mean look at look at AI that is making things so much better.
1:01:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, our communication to our owners and tenants and things is significantly better because we're using AI to assist us in commuting, communicating well.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_00: Jeff's done a great job implementing AI.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_00: Lily's done a great job implementing AI, trying to better communicate with people, not not to automate necessarily, just to make our communications more clear.
1:01:38
SPEAKER_00: It's it's things like that you have to you have to be adapting to.
1:01:41
SPEAKER_01: It's like an like an email that would normally take 20 minutes to write.
1:01:45
SPEAKER_01: You just tell AI what you want it to say, and you have this very well, well written out email, and now you can move on to the next task, knowing that probably conveys your point better than we would have done.
1:01:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:01:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
1:02:00
SPEAKER_02: I love that answer.
1:02:01
SPEAKER_02: All right.
1:02:02
SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, Jeff and Eli, it was a pleasure.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for joining us and for sharing the real behind-the-scenes story of encompassed property management.
1:02:10
SPEAKER_02: You know, to everyone listening, be sure to connect with our guests using the information shared today in the description.
1:02:15
SPEAKER_02: Check out all their social media.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_02: Check us out on social media and follow Epic Entrepreneurs for more conversations with people building businesses and communities every day.
1:02:23
SPEAKER_02: You know, Jeff and Eli, any last words for the audience before we go ahead and sign off?
1:02:27
SPEAKER_02: This was a great conversation.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_02: Stay golden, point of boy.
1:02:33
SPEAKER_00: As an entrepreneur, you know, it's it's stick with it, stay positive.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna learn from from your mistakes, and make sure you got work-life balance.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_00: Something I'm trying to impress upon.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_00: Jeff Jeff came into this business and and is still extremely hungry, extremely driven.
1:02:50
SPEAKER_00: And like me, for 20 plus years, I was able to put in the the the 78-hour weeks.
1:02:55
SPEAKER_00: But you have to have work-life balance and you have to to to do that.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_00: As an entrepreneur, you you can get stuck, you can get sucked into working too much, burning out, letting relationships and family be hurt by that.
1:03:08
SPEAKER_01: So so still wait for that burnout people were telling me about.
1:03:12
SPEAKER_00: I well, like I said, you're young.
1:03:14
SPEAKER_00: Give us some time.
1:03:17
SPEAKER_02: All right.
1:03:17
SPEAKER_02: So this is Clifford McCray with Action Coach Business Growth Partners, and we'll see you next time.
1:03:22
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
1:03:23
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_02: Bye.