Behind The Leasing Desk . Com

In Memoriam

2011-07-10T18:31:38Z

I've been so blessed in my professional life to have mentors and friends who cared deeply for me. These people are irreplaceable role models in my world - and I have recently lost one such soul. Greg Taylor, who served as a district manager for UDR out here, and who spent countless hours volunteering time to our local apartment association, passed away recently. It has taken me sometime to compose my thoughts on Greg's death, and seeing as how he admitted to me that he was an avid reader of my blog, I cannot think of a better place for these words and memories.

Greg was an inspiration, a mentor, an ally, but mostly Greg was a dear dear friend.We started conversing through the magic of connections that only an apartment association can provide, and once we got past the shop talk, Greg and I realized that we had a lot in common - a mutual love of fine arts, music and theatre, a sense of realistic humor about the world around us, and a desire to make the world a better place for the people in it.

Greg had the rare ability to bring out the best in everyone. I never sat in a room that Greg didn't make a better place to be, simply by entering it. He carried a sense of humor about the world that was not only contagious but could change your perspective on a situation with a single sentence. Greg knew how to give a boost to someone when they needed it the most. Genuine to the core, when Greg told you that he believed in you, it left no room for doubt in your own mind. Greg said to me once that he was watching my career with great anticipation and interest, and I'm not sure he ever realized exactly how much that meant to me. When things grew complicated and frustrating, I could turn to him and, even if he disagreed with me, he always made me feel validated, but more importantly, he always made me feel valued. Knowing that he's still watching makes me want to perform at the level I know he would be proud of me.

I wish I had thought to tell him how much he meant to me when he was still here.

I will miss his smile. His contagious laughter. I'll miss the way that he would greet me with the biggest of hugs. And most of all, I will miss the gifts that he brought to this world - an example of kindness, leadership, love and generosity that I will happily follow in the footsteps of. And though I mourn Greg's passing, I celebrate the amazing things that he brought to my life and the lives of those around him, and I will carry his spirit with me on my own path through this world.

Open to Interpretation?

2011-07-06T22:43:57Z

It’s okay to change your mind, but it should probably be less often than you change your underwear.

I’m not a fan of Mike Arrington over at Tech Crunch. For those of you who don’t have time to waste on the drama of tech blogs, he’s usually the guy at the center of that vortex, stirring the pot between Google hating Facebook, Tech lawsuits, patent claims, Twitter beat downs, and Apple hating …well, anyone who doesn’t worship their products or the man in the turtleneck.

Arrington writes whatever he thinks will get the most attention in the second that he pushes the post button. He’s the reason when faced with the choice between subscribing to Mashable or TechCrunch on my new Kindle, Mashable gets my $2.99 a month.

Arrington lacks credibility. His views are based on nothing more concrete than which way the wind blows. I’ve seen the man flip flop on the same issue/discussion at least three times in the same day. That kind of inconsistency makes me wonder how many voices his head houses on an hourly basis.

I’d wager a bet that sometimes your residents think that about their onsite management teams too. As a renter, I even run in to this issue with the management team where I live from time to time. When I call with a question, the answer I get can often depend greatly on who answers the phone or what time of the day I call, even if I’m calling about something as simple as a community policy.

How is it that we have policies that we don’t enforce equally, at all, or that we don’t all agree on the interpretation of? First of all, if we aren’t enforcing them equally to all residents, regardless of who answers the phone, then we can run into Fair Housing Hell really quickly. On top of which, we’re failing to present a unified front to our residents. It’s similar to a situation that any of you who were ever teenagers can relate to – if one parent is more likely to always give in then that’s the one who you always go to for questionable things like staying out past curfew…or waiving late fees.

Policy should be common sense and should be pretty firm. It should have the best interests of the customer relationship with the company in mind. It shouldn't be so convoluted that you need a supreme court justice to interpret it. When this happens, then people quote things wrong – like pet policies, fees, rules – and you’re left cleaning up a mess that could have been headed off by simple clear communication.

If you’re not all on the same page, then your residents pick up on the inconsistency, and they will either exploit it or become frustrated by it. Either way, it’s uncomfortable for people on both ends when it looks like our policies change hourly.

I walked into a door

2011-05-24T20:25:18Z

Have you ever gotten that call from a resident with something broken but they won't tell you what happened or why it's now busted? I know why. First hand.

I have moments in my life where what little senses of grace and poise I usually have abandon me fully. One such moment was about two weeks ago, when, while hosting a surprise birthday party for a dear friend, I made my way to the grill on the back balcony and didn't realize that the screen door was closed. I was walking at full speed and thinking, and when I think and walk at the same time I often close my eyes to focus on my thoughts. I am aware of how weird it is. It's just something I've always done.

One moment we had a fully functional screen door. The next...not so much.

In my defense, it was dark out, and I thought the door was open when I started towards it. The embarrassment in the moment was quite cringe-worthy, but in the light of the next day, when it became apparent that we would not be able to fix the mangled frame of mesh and aluminum ourselves, I had to face the additional humiliation of calling the office and putting in the work order.

Me: I'd like to put in a work order, please

Office person: Okay, what can we help you with?

Me: I need a new screen door for my back balcony.

Office: May I ask why?

Me: It's broken. And I'm pretty positive this can't be fixed.

Office: Mmm-hmm and what is the nature of the damage?

Me: It's bent ...and um... off the track... and uh...look, it's just broken.

Office: (Long Silent Pause and then...) And how did this happen?

Me: (Deep sigh, because under direct questioning, I'm not going to lie) I sort of...walked into it.

Office: Hold please.

Me: You're putting me on hold to laugh at me, aren't you?

(I know it's tempting to laugh at your residents when they do incredibly ungraceful and stupid things, but resist the urge while you're still on the phone with them.)

Office: (Returning to the line) Okay, we'll have someone there on Monday or Tuesday. They might have to order parts, so it might not get fixed until Thursday, but we'll get it taken care of for you.

That was almost two weeks ago and my screen door isn't fixed yet. I'm irritated mostly because of the fact that it's still sitting there, a wide gaping bug access hole on my back porch. I'm fully aware that I am the one who broke it, but I live in an apartment, which means I pay for my problems to be someone else's problems. Since that Sunday morning conversation, I have called the office three times to check on the status of my work order, and each time, I have been told a new time line that postpones it by a few more days.

I was already looking for houses, but everyday I look at this bent screen door, I want to move out more. Before my lease is up. Satisfacts is right: this work order has only been outstanding for two weeks and I'm so annoyed I can hardly stand it. It's a daily reminder of three things:

1. I was a clumsy moron
2. The office told me it would be done a week ago
3. (and this is my resident perception glasses here since I have yet to see a maintenance tech enter my apartment) The office lied to me and doesn't care about me. And I am paying them $1600 a month for this treatment.

Don't give residents false time lines. Before you promise a time that a work order will be completed, chat with your maintenance team. Because a resident will always remember that you didn't deliver on what you promised...even if they somehow manage to suppress the memory that they broke the screen door in the first place.

I don't care what your policy says.

2011-04-11T18:17:00Z

Almost every morning, after I check my email and take care of anything that's pressing, I open up Facebook. It's kind of like my morning newspaper - with the stories I actually care about. Yesterday's top story: A dear friend from college, whom I've not spoken to in a while, is suffering abject misery at the hands of his apartment community management.

Now, call me a crusader if you will, but this stuck in my craw. I shot him a message and asked if I could help in any way and he gave me a call back. It seems that his cats are under attack. He had one when he moved in, and when he was thinking about adopting a second pet, he went to the office and asked them if he needed to pay a second pet deposit, or if they needed any paperwork on his second cat. At that time, they told him, no, they didn't need anything else.

Jump ahead 8 months. He goes in to ask them about transferring to a new home and if his pet deposit will transfer. When they mention that it will depend on how much damage there is, he tells them that there isn't much because both of his cats are de-clawed. They clarify that he has multiple cats, grab his file and then tell him that there's no record of a second cat. He reminds them of the interchange 8 months prior and they reply with, "Well, no one in THIS office would have ever said that to you. Get rid of the cat."

Now, maybe behind that leasing desk or management desk, this doesn't seem like a big deal, because we're just following policy. But on the other side, in the resident's shoes, this is a VERY big problem. You've got a resident who has bonded with this animal, and they remember that your office told them this was okay. Even if you win this one because "It's what our policy says," you still lose.

When a resident remembers talking to someone in your office about something specific, you're pretty stupid to dismiss them with a statement about how no one in the office would say that. In my experience, someone did. And what's worse, the resident can't prove it... but neither can you - odds are, a person who gave them the wrong information about your pet policy isn't exactly on the ball about recording resident interaction in your resident logs. And just because you, "don't need to prove it - the lease stands firm," doesn't make you look like any less of a horrible management/landlord when word of mouth starts to circulate about you being a total jerk over a misunderstanding that REALLY, in the large scheme of things, doesn't make a huge amount of difference to people who don't work in the industry and don't care about your stupid policy.

They are our renters. Our customers. When you, or someone in your office drops the ball - or it's a likely probability that they DID, even if you or the resident can't prove it - take the hit to your ego and move forward, finding a solution for both of you that works. Otherwise, within three seconds of leaving your office, the tale of what a horrible person and what a terrible place to live you are will be hitting Apartment Ratings and Facebook. The fact of the matter is that I don't care what your policy says. And neither does your renter. Do right by them, and they will do right by you. Why is this such a hard concept to understand?

My Fair Housing Haiku Collection

2011-04-04T15:10:00Z

Some of you may have seen this on my Facebook Page, but I was told by several people that it needed to be reposted to my blog in honor of Fair Housing Month. I post this collection in it's current condition, but if you want to watch it grow, you'll have to keep track of it here. You can also subscribe to my page on Facebook and, for the month of April, you'll find that I'm posting a FH haiku each day. (Did I mention that April is also National Poetry Month? It's nice to combine these two... like chocolate and peanut butter!)

Also, bear in mind that I started this on a Friday afternoon when my brain was fried, AND I blame the fine folks at Grace Hill for the whole thing.

And now, for your reading amusement, my Fair Housing Haiku Collection

Though I might wonder

There are things I can't ask you

Due to Fair Housing

Where did you come from

is a question I can't ask

Inside I wonder

Race is protected

Can't tell the WASPs "No"

Got to rent to them

Green stands by its self

the only color that counts

in Fair Housing Law

Worship Potatoes

It does not matter to me

Still will rent to you

Disability

Most violations filed

Be mindful, people

Family status

Can't kick kids out of the pool

Successful Lawsuit

Guys and Dolls - Good show!

Protected classes for us

Gender should not count

If you can pay rent

and pass a criminal check

your home is with us

*Bonus Stanzas*

In Advertising

Please show some diversity

Or HUD will get you

Stay off HUDs hot list

Not a good place to reside

They don't bring cookies

Fair Housing Month

Why don't we have a ribbon?

Someone get on that

SM Step Three: Going from Info Intake to Action

2011-04-01T17:00:00Z

When you’re three and your mom tells you not to touch the stove because it’s hot, you touch it anyway. And then you never touch it again, because in your moment of tactile petulance, the nerves in your fingers sent a lightning fast signal to your brain that said, “HOT HOT HOT!” and your brain told you to move your hand and not ignore your mom the next time. And to go get some Bactine.

It’s a pretty simple interchange. And yet, amazingly, the same interchange attempts to happen online every single day between companies and their consumers, and many companies neglect to move their hands off the scalding stoves.

When I watch something like Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits on Facebook, I often have to laugh. This is a page that has almost 613,000 “likes” and the wall reads like an ode of praise to garlicky carbohydrate Gods. It’s full of people who are telling Red Lobster how much they rock because of biscuits. And I’ll admit, those biscuits are pretty darned tasty. But the Lobster Nachos made me sicker than a dog the last time I was there, and when I posted it to that page shortly after eating them, someone with admin rights to that page deleted my criticism, illustrating my point that just because you have 613 THOUSAND fans who will click a box on Facebook doesn’t mean you’re actually interacting with them. It just means they like bread.

Interaction and Engagement on line is about more than people who like your product. It’s about the people who hate it or who have had a questionable experience with it. Yesterday, I talked about the Domino’s social media debacle involving a less than flattering video being released to YouTube and spread about the virtual community. When the feedback to Domino’s started flowing on a national level, they were able to pick out the most important thing from all of it – their food was terrible. So what did they do? Unlike my comment to Red Lobster, the voice of a single person, Domino’s was not able to ignore the mass or intensity of the criticism flowing in.

I suppose they could have. 10 years ago, they probably would have, as would any major brand. But social media has caused a shift in the way that products and companies are perceived. It’s no longer about a company and its product. Now, through feedback and responsive company actions, the products have bent to the will of the consumer, even before they purchase them.

Domino’s threw away their recipes. Granted, it’s pretty simple to throw out Grandma’s Fruitcake recipe – no one liked it anyway – but when you’re a company with THOUSANDS of stores who have been doing things the same way for years, shaking up even the order you put toppings on a pizza can be a catastrophe. And, yet, Domino’s went far beyond that – they changed their crusts, their sauces, their cheeses, their produce, their meats. They shifted their marketing into the hands of their consumers – the very people who said that the food was terrible – and asked for more feedback and customer photos. We’re talking about a company that reminds you to please rate the success of its new chicken recipe on the top of the boxes. That’s dedication to receiving feedback that goes beyond a little “How Are We Doing?” card or survey that few customers, if any, will ever fill out.

And because they were willing to hear the truth and ACT ON IT, Domino’s has gotten a second chance in the marketplace – something that doesn’t come easily. Those of you who have been through a name change at your community know this lesson all to well. You might change the name and tweak the brand, but that old nasty reputation still follows you like a mewling cat that demands tuna. Lock a cat outside to try to ignore it, and it will sit there and get louder and louder until you just finally give in and open the can.

Only, when it comes to our reputation, it’s not as easy to fix as opening a can of tuna. It takes deep dedication to the process, open ears, and a willingness to do business differently. It takes throwing away the recipe we’ve been using for 20 years and pushing for feedback from the people who matter: our customers. Then it takes the scariest thing of all - Acting on the information.

After all, if you’re not going to do anything with the feedback, what’s the point in collecting it in the first place? Until you've decided to do something with what your customer's opinions are, then you're just wasting your time on Facebook. It's about putting the plan in action before you even click your mouse to create a "Like" page.

SM Step Two: Listen Like A Chick

2011-03-31T17:00:00Z

*Warning* This post relies on stereotypes of men and women. I tell you this upfront so that we don’t have to have a comment section fight about it later. Plus, there’s a grain of truth in these stereotypes…admit it.

Men and women do not speak the same language. This is not a bombshell to anyone. If you are not a master at observing communicational patterns, let me break down for you exactly what I mean.

When most men speak, they pretty much use exactly the words they mean. They usually mean the denotative meaning, and regardless of the tone of voice they use, the words are the most important part. They’re all about the text. If a guy says he’s, “Fine,” then it’s a pretty good bet that he’s actually fine.

Most women, on the other hand, are all about the subtext. “Fine,” when spoken by a woman can mean anything from, “Fine,” to “I’m going to throw this bottle of laundry detergent at your head and not apologize for it.” We’re not so much about the words, but do we ever love to dwell on things like tone of voice, nonverbal clues and “the real message.” We add a lot of sugar to the pot if we have serve up bitter coffee, and because of that, when we receive an email, we try to figure out what it’s really saying and what the person really wants, because, CLEARLY, what the person means isn’t what they typed – it’s revealed by what they left out and what words and phrases they used.

Is it any wonder why a lot of men think that women are insane and a lot of women think that men are jerks? The irony being, of course, that men, as a general rule, are actually a bit more clear than women are when it comes to the interpersonal arts (but don’t tell Oprah I said that or she will send people repossess my ovaries for a lack of feminist sisterhood solidarity!).

Well, as insane as it sounds, when it comes to listening to feedback online, you’re way better off if you learn to listen like a chick. In a universe of text, subtext becomes both increasingly important and more difficult to be sensitive to without the assistance of nonverbal cues.

Am I saying that you should go searching for the drama points in a review left by an angry resident? Heck no. No one wants drama (not even chicks!). But what I want you to do is understand that what they’re really talking about when they list 5 things that, “Completely Suck,” about your community isn’t always just those 5 things. It’s almost always the common threads between those 5 things – problems like bad customer service, no follow through, poor maintenance, being disrespected, etc. Put them all together and they seem to flow into each other until they create this oncoming loud rush of a river of complaints and we can’t pick out the real problems anymore.

Listening like a chick means that you’re hearing the feedback for what’s actually there. Domino’s Pizza is one of my favorite brands when it comes to examples of listening like a chick. In 2009 two employees made a video of themselves doing unsanitary things to the food in a Domino’s restaurant and then released that video to YouTube, where it subsequently went viral and spread faster than H1N1. While I don’t commend the way that the company initially handled the situation, what I do love about this story is the way they took the feedback. Wading through all the “Gross” and “Unsanitary” comments that were left by the social media viewing public, Domino’s zeroed in on a pattern of comments that indicated, “with employees like these it was no wonder that their food is terrible.”

Their food was terrible. In college, we called them Death Discs. We still ate them, because cheap pizza is cheap pizza when you’re a college student, but it was by no measure, “Good Food.” Until recently, Domino’s recipe never really changed, no matter how terrible their edible creations were or what people thought of them. The feedback for the last 20 years on their pizza has been the same, but the difference is that when it came attached to that video, they were forced to start actually listening to it.

And they did. But that part of the story is really for tomorrow, when we start to talk about Step Three.

SM Step One: Open Your Ears

2011-03-30T21:13:00Z

So, you finally want to go “Social?” You’ve sat back and watched to see if it works for other companies and properties in your area before taking the leap yourself, but now, you’re pretty sure that this Facebook thing isn’t going away. Time to suck it up and deal with this mess, right?

There are a lot of people who are being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the social media world, and if what I said above is your take on this situation, you’re right about one thing. Barring a worldwide shut down of the internet, Facebook isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But is Facebook really where you want to start?

I say no.

Granted, when I’m working with a company that wants a social media presence, a Facebook page (NOT PROFILE) is central to that development. But it’s not step number one or even step number two. You have to learn to walk before you run, and Facebook is a marathon to which we all have yet to see an ending ribbon.

Step number one is to learn how to listen online. It sounds simple right?

Most people can’t even master really actively listening in person, and now you’re adding a filter of technology over the top of that? Simple isn’t quite the word I’d choose. Let’s address that filter of technology and the tools that are out there.

I’ve talked about Google alerts before, and in my opinion, they are still one of the best tools out there for monitoring your brand and reputation online. If you go to www.google.com/alerts you can set up an alert for ANYTHING. Try your own name if you want to see how it works. For your property or company, I’d recommend setting up two different alerts to start with – Your property/company name and the common misspellings of your property/company name. Anytime someone posts something about your property or company and the Google spiders find it, they email you a link to the posting.

Next, if you haven’t claimed your YELP! listing yet, you’re behind the times and really need to get on that. Yelp is fantastic because it provides a mobile platform accessible forum for feedback. People aren’t waiting until they get to a computer to rant about poor customer service anymore. They’ve got an app for that.

Likewise, even though the usage penetration is less than 10% of the American population, Twitter is a platform that should not be ignored. Besides the fact that 80% of Twitter users are on the mobile platform (using an app, just like YELP!), those who have embraced the platform and who are active users make up a very vocal sector of consumers. These users have taken Twitter and made it a customer service platform – whether the companies choose to embrace it or not. There are good examples of companies who have embraced it (Check out @Comcastcares), and there are horror stories (“We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of company…”), so listening here can have a huge payoff.

And, everyone’s favorite rant site, Apartment Ratings, also needs to be part of your plan to listen. Yes, I know – we all hate it, it’s unfair and biased, why should we have to pay to respond, people post to be vindictive, etc., but at the end of the day, no matter what our objections to the platform are, it’s still there, and people are still posting to it and checking it before they call us looking for a new lease. Since we can’t dispose of it (and I’m not advocating anyone hire a black hat hacker to get rid of the site…tempting as it may be.), we shouldn’t ignore it. Consider paying for manager access on this site so that you can respond to the unhappy residents who post here. I know it’s a burr under the saddle to pay someone so that you can deal with the complaints, but if you can save just one lease from walking out the door or encourage another lease to walk through because you’re talking WITH your residents, not just AT them, then it could all be worth it. AR can also be set up to email you when new comments or posts are uploaded to your property’s profile, which helps you stay on top of potential issues.

These are just 4 basic tools that you can use to start reputation monitoring and listening into what people are saying about your brand. Once you start hearing what people are saying, you have to learn to really listen – the topic we’ll cover tomorrow!

"Growing" Doesn't Always Mean Going Up

2011-03-29T17:46:00Z

You’ve got a good job. It pays your bills, you’re not *too* stressed out, and, for the most part, you like your boss and coworkers. Heck, on most days, you even enjoy going into work. If you move up, you’re going to have to deal with a new boss, a new office, maybe some new staff. Add in to that the new responsibilities, and about 20 more ways to get yourself into deep trouble and stress out, going after that promotion right now might not feel like the smartest move. Think you’re alone and that only a crazy person would pass up the professional elevation?

Think again.

When the economy went through a bit of a reset last year, people started taking a good look at their priorities, evaluating what was really important to them. Many lost the thoughts of “movin’ on up” in the corporate world while they tried to keep what they currently had in tact through layoff after layoff. No one particularly enjoyed the recession or the effect that it had on our budgets of patience, finances, and growth. But people have come to appreciate some of the gifts that a recession brings. Billboards like this one started popping up with Recession 101 lessons. People lost the disposable income to purchase happiness and had to find a way to synthesize it on their own for a change. They re-prioritized what mattered in their lives.

And many of them found that they’re actually quite happy, right where they are.

I have a friend who is an excellent example of this mentality. He’s a very smart guy, and overall, he’s pretty driven. He has a job that he “doesn’t hate,” and his only complaints are the occasional stupid policy decrees that are handed down from the head office. If they would stop messing with the dress code where he works, he’d be exceptionally content in his professional life.

And it drives me nuts.

Maybe on some level I’m jealous of his ability to find such a peaceful balance with the universe. It could be that I’m holding on to an antiquated 80s era ladder climber mentality while he’s successfully embraced the 60s hippie I’ve always wanted to be, deep down.

But, I think at the heart of it, it comes down to this: He’s prioritizing growth in other areas of his life, and I’m prioritizing growth in my professional life. We’re both in that (gulp!) just-turning-30 age range, having left the keggers and LAN parties of our early 20s long behind us (Okay, maybe not the LAN parties…). We’re both successful adults in stable relationships who work hard, and we both happen to share our homes with insane dogs. But while I’ve thrown my energy into growing my business and gaining clients and credibility this last year, he’s put his energy into… I think Call of Duty 4, most recently. He has prioritized being content, and has achieved that task BEAUTIFULLY. As a general rule, this is a guy who wants what he has.

And, the truth is, many days, I envy him for that.

Then I look at all I've achieved and learned in the last year and realize that I wouldn't trade all the hard work that I've put in or the growth I've been through for anything. The process of becoming who I want to be is of infinite value...and I always have time later to make that contentment thing happen.

So which one of us is right? It turns out both of us are. What’s important to a person is never a matter of right or wrong. It’s just a matter of priorities. The next time you’re looking at that rising star leasing consultant who doesn’t want to take a job as assistant manager because they, “just enjoy leasing,” or you’re speaking with the area property manager who wants to take a step back to, “spend more time with her kids,” don’t think less of them just because their priorities aren’t in line with yours. If they are meeting the needs of the job that they’re in, then don’t hassle them if they’re not growing on the schedule you had planned for them. This just might not be their professional growing season. After all, Call of Duty 4 IS a pretty good game.

Salesmanship Lessons from Blue Buffalo

2011-03-25T18:33:00Z

As important as price is to the buying decision, it’s not everything.

It turns out that corn and a lot of other grains are not good for dogs. As anyone who’s ever had a toddler can tell you, humans can digest a lot of very interesting things. Dogs are not quite as lucky. Harsh grains are really tough on their systems, and some of those corn heavy foods have recently been linked to bone cancer in dogs. Naturally as a concerned pet parent, I care about what I feed my dog – within reason. I will not feed Fox better than I feed myself, so he’s going to have to put his desire for Porterhouse steaks on hold. (And look at that face! It's hard to say no to that face!)

When Alan and I went to our local Petsmart to look at what “quality” dog food costs, we were stunned. Food that doesn’t have “corn” or “bone meal” as part of its major make up is EXPENSIVE. We knew that quality food would cost more, but didn’t expect that cost to be almost $60 a bag. This was going to have more than a slight impact on our budget.

As we stood there, comparing and contrasting brand by brand, Blue Buffalo, who’s food I’d previously dismissed as expensive and ridiculous because of their commercials, surprised me, but not because of their food – because of their sales rep. There was a BB rep in the isle that day, and he was willing to help us look at different brands of high quality dog food, and never mentioned the BB brand until I asked him, despite the logo on his apron.

As a sales professional, I was impressed with his ability to show restraint and really try to meet our needs first. When we entered that isle, I had already dismissed mentally the product that he was selling, and I had told him so. He still helped us. And we walked out with a bag of Blue Buffalo Meat Treats and Chicken Flavored Wilderness Blend that our dog, Fox, loves.

Why did we buy? In looking back and analyzing, there were SEVERAL reasons:

Because he took the initial no to his product as a “Proceed with Caution” sign rather than a bright red “STOP” sign. He cared enough to take a moment or two to actually assess our needs, who we were, and figure out that all we wanted was the best food for our dog and the fairest price.
He didn’t push his brand – he had confidence in it. Sales people who push-push-push their products don’t have confidence that, if left alone, the customer would choose it on their own. Instead, he shared his knowledge of canine nutrition, telling me about how dogs’ stomachs work, what works, what doesn’t, what he feeds his own pets, etc. It was one of the best demonstrations of the “consultive” approach that I’ve ever seen in practice.
When the conversation went quiet, he let the conversation stay quiet. When Alan and I were having one of those silent conversations with our eyes and thinking, he didn’t feel a need to fill the void. Instead, he just watched or busied himself with something else until we asked another question.
And finally, he made me feel like I really was making the right choice for my dog, not because I was feeding him Blue Buffalo, but because I was choosing to spend a little more for quality food. He would have wished us the same good will if we’d left that isle with a different brand. His motives were to promote better canine nutrition, not just Blue Buffalo. He had a passion for it, and passion, when focused in the right direction, can make a sales person unstoppable.

So, next time, before you give up on making or a closing a sale, stop yourself and figure out if you’ve gotten to know the customer enough to REALLY meet their needs. Your customer comes first, your product comes second. It’s a delicate dance, but if you learn the steps to it, you might just convince someone to waltz out of your place of business with the equivalent of a $60 bag of dog food.

Get The Data- I need your help!

2011-01-27T19:59:00Z

I'm currently working on a writing project about "Pay for Performance," and I need your help! To write a really good piece, I need some data from you, so if you could take about 3 minutes and take this quick survey, I would be VERY appreciative!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PP6MLNY

You Look Like Satan

2011-01-26T21:03:00Z

I came across a really interesting article in the Seattle PI from the 11th of January about the massive rental hikes that are expected and being handed out in the Belltown area (and all over the rest of the Seattle Metro area as well). More interesting than the article were the comments that followed. There is a TOTAL disconnect! I can tell you that, yes, unless you get VERY lucky, it's going to be a rental increase this year when you renew. However, the cited $400 leaves not only a bad taste in a renter's mouth, but ...well you look like Satan.

Yes. You are now the Rental Prince of Darkness. Because you tried to make a profit.

Look, we're all here to run a business. We're all here to make money and we're here to increase the value of property. But, and I prepare for the onslaught of people's hateful comments as I type this, YOU DON'T HAVE TO RECOUP YOUR LOSSES OVERNIGHT. Housing is a long term thing, people. An increase of 8% works. An increase of 20% in the current climate...not so much. You might as well break out your horns and pitchfork when you deliver the notices.

The last two years weren't happy times for ANYONE. Not just for the owners and operators of the buildings, but for the renters as well. Pushing and pulling rents is like trying to toss a softball in to those bushel baskets at the county fair: it's always a game of skill and luck. You've got to find a happy middle ground. And I'm going to ask you right now - How much common sense does it take to realize that $400 in a rental increase is going to piss off your renters, who, might I remind you, rented from you when the market was tough...when you were having problems finding residents...or watching residents break leases every other week...when your books weren't balancing quite so well and your reports were written mostly in the red...

How quickly we forget.

I know you want to recoup your losses, but don't kill your good name in the process. Because... You look like Satan.

Uncharted - Courage to Ditch the Map

2011-01-24T19:56:00Z

"I'm going down,
Follow if you want.
I won't just hang around
Like you'll show me where to go.
I'm already out of fool-proof ideas
So don't ask me how to get started,
It's all UNCHARTED."
-Sara Bareilles, Uncharted

Exploration is a natural human urge. People climb Mt. Everest simply because it's there, knowing full well they might die in the process. Humans had to find out what was across the Atlantic Ocean, traveling with a boatload of smelly people and living on salted meat and other disgusting vittles the whole way over. Heck, even the US government legislated our urge in the form of "Manifest Destiny" in the 1800s. So, why are we so resistant to exploration in a professional setting?

It's that whole "risk management, we have a responsibility to our shareholders, we have to do business a certain way," attitude that is prevalent in business. It's that same attitude that stilts our growth, creativity, and innovation.

Years ago, I made the purchase of a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I had wanted a Jeep for many years, and when my previous car began leaking fluids from ever conceivable orifice, it seemed the right time to trade up. As soon as the newly dubbed "Green Machine" was in my possession, I promptly took it off-roading in a pasture. Not because I needed to, mind you. I had, again, just simply always wanted to.

The freedom was amazing! I was having the time of my life, and being quite needlessly reckless with both my new vehicle and myself, when my fun was cut unexpectedly short by running over a tree-stump and poking a big hole in my muffler. It definitely could have been worse. The Green Machine still ran just fine, except that it was just a little louder than it had been before.

"Though I may be going down, I'll take in flame over burning out,

Compare where you are to where you wanna be and you'll get nowhere" - Uncharted

7 years later, I still off-road, except the vehicle I use now is my career and professional life. It's a bit riskier than the Green Machine, but I have a complete and total need to question any roadmap that someone gives me. Sometimes, it bites me in the tush, but for the most part, always questioning has paid off for me. There is no innovation, no new ideas, and no new growth in our professional lives if we're too afraid to blaze a new trail.

On the road, following the lines on a roadmap will allow you to get from point A to point B in relative safety and you'll see the exact same scenery that everyone else who's gone before you has seen. To see anything new, you'd have to add your own path to the map.

You might fail and poke a hole in your muffler. It's a risk. But is that possibility more frightening than always watching someone dilute anything you've ever had that's close to a real spark of innovation? You'll never progress in your career if you're content to sit still and watch the world moving around you. It's not about waiting for the opportunity. It's about making the opportunity.

It's about going somewhere Uncharted.

*This image is used under the Creative Commons License from Flickr User Larry Wentzel

Does Your Social Media Policy Cover This?

2011-01-13T19:11:00Z

Many of you may remember my rant about fingerprint IDs at my local gym that I wrote earlier this year. My unwillingness to submit my thumbprint causes the people at the front desk approximately 45 seconds of work time. While I realize that 45 seconds per person might add up to a lot of time, frankly my opinion is that you work the front desk, so do your job.

The story has thickened. I recently took about a two month break away from the gym during the holidays, partially due to time constraints, and partially because I got tired of the bullying that would happen each time when I'd decline the fingerprint ID. This last week, I've begun my swimming and lifting regiment again and my first two evenings, the attendants were excellent. They didn't try to pressure me in to using the system and they just took my ID number and entered it in the computer while looking at my photocopied ID.

Last night was not so good. As I entered and handed my ID tag to the attendant, he looked at me and said, "We don't take those anymore. You can do the fingerprint ID."

Error #1 - Don't lie to your customer as a bullying tactic. Never smart.

I replied, "The thumbprint ID is voluntary and I choose not to do so."

Error #2 - He turned snotty at me. Don't get snotty with your customer even if they're snotty with you. You work in customer service. It's your job to deal with this.

He said, "If you won't do it then you have to show me a valid Photo ID."

Now, according to my contract, which I've never received an addendum to, a photocopy ID is acceptable. If you want to have a contract, the legal binding goes both ways people. You want to change the rules, you better send out an addendum and have people sign it.

But I happened to have my photo ID with me, so I gave it to him. He put it in the computer and I walked away. This should have been the end of the story. But, of course, it's not.

When I got home, there was a NASTY email in my YELP in box. At first, I thought it was anonymous spam. Then I clicked on the sender's profile, and, behold - Guy from the front desk. WITH A PICTURE. I captured screen shots of his profile, the email, and the large good resolution picture on his profile page. Then I thought, "Heather, maybe you're wrong. Maybe this isn't that guy." So I showed the picture to Alan without telling him about the nasty message. He took one look and said, "Isn't that the guy from the gym?"

Gym guy's nasty-gram started with the caveat: "I'm not representing any entity except myself..."

Error #3 -I got news for you, people. If the only time you've ever had an interaction with someone is at the place where you work, and you hunt them down through Social Media to harass and insult them, then you're still representing the company.

And when I called their corporate office this morning to report the incident, they were none too pleased about this act of representation. When I disclosed that I had the screen shots and a photo of the guy, they were even less pleased. In fact, the only person who was pleased was the facility general manager, who, by the way did an amazing job handling this situation, when I dropped the screen shots on his desk and he realized he had a chance to smooth over this situation before I went totally public with it. I'd like to commend him on how he handled me as a customer, and the reward for that is that I'm NOT posting those screenshots to my blog, facebook, twitter, and adding them to the bottom of my YELP review.

As a customer with a unique viewpoint, I realize this wasn't the work of the company against me. It was the work of a rogue agent within the company, who didn't realize that with social media, you don't get a free pass.

I know it's hard to be in a customer service job some days. People can be rude, snippy and sharp with you for things that aren't even your fault. But resist the urge to tell them what you think of them, via social media or any other communication, because the only person who loses is you. This guy might have been having a bad day. Or maybe he wasn't happy that I didn't do the ID thing. Or maybe he's just a jerk who thought that a single caveat would protect him from professional repercussions.

It doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, what's left is a potentially volatile situation and a good possibility of losing your job.

So how does your company plan to handle the occasional "rogue agent" that crosses the line with social media? It can happen to anyone, and I'd love to hear your policies!

Days of Appreciation - Day 15

2010-12-15T16:00:00Z

It's a new twist on an old standby tool for Leasing Consultants - A digital tape measure. If your property can't afford to invest in a Lay-It-Out set or in the wall cling couches from, for a fraction of that cost, you can purchase one of these little beauties.

I found this nifty little gadget on Think Geek for around $25. They come in black or white and they have 16 feet of tape in them, which is more than enough to show someone how their couch, if standard sized, will fit on the wall. It's also a fantastic tool for people at properties who haven't yet ordered floor plans with measurements on them.

Days of Appreciation - Day 14

2010-12-14T21:01:00Z

I'm still on Post it Notes today. I love them, and, though I have the luxury of an office that other people never see, I still feel guilty when it comes time to sift through the tens of them that ring my monitor on a regular basis. I never just want to throw them away or straight away recycle them - It just seems like such a waste.

I'm not advocating time wasting at work with these ideas, by the way. What I am advocating with the fun gift ideas is a chance for people to de-stress and take a moment to step back and breathe. Often, when faced with a major problem, if I busy my mind with an alternative activity (usually one that uses my hands) the solution will present itself quickly. So while these gifts are not only fun, it's important to see them as also useful tools in the workplace that additionally boost creativity.

Anyway last Christmas I discovered this cute little book on Amazon called Sticky Note Origami. Like yesterday's gift idea, this book gives you 25 different little creatures and designs that you can make with your notes, and I think it's a bit better in value because it's not just one pad of notes, but a book that can be referenced repeatedly. Currently, it's under $8 on their site, and I think that's a pretty good deal, since you can only get about 2 packages of yesterday's notes for that price.

Days of Appreciation - Day 13

2010-12-13T16:51:00Z

Injecting a sense of whimsy and enjoyment in to your day doesn't have to be difficult. For example, if you're going to use post it notes in your office anyway, why not make the occasional pack of them a little more fun?

Think Geek has these cool little notes that come complete with origami instructions on them. Once you're done with the task, take a moment and celebrate your accomplishment by folding it in to one of those cool flapping cranes. They run about $4 a package, so they're obviously not an every day item, but they could be a very fun sporadic surprise for your office staff.

Days of Appreciation - Day 12

2010-12-12T16:44:00Z

With the nasty business of evictions or skips, it can often fall to our maintenance team to clear and clean out that apartment. Show them your appreciation this year with a set of Fork Lift straps. This set, again from Amazon , is currently under $15 and that's a heck of a lot cheaper than paying for a chiropractor's bill down the line when one of your team members forgets momentarily to lift with their legs.

I know of a lot of properties that currently have a set of these in their maintenance shops and find them useful for hauling things like hot water heaters, stoves, and washers up flights of stairs...and hauling the replaced units back down. Several of the maintenance professionals I've talked to at those properties tell me that it's one of the must have things for their jobs now.

Days of Appreciation - Day 11

2010-12-11T15:34:00Z

Today, I want to give you a cool little gift that can make your maintenance team's outdoor maintenance projects go a bit faster. One of the most annoying parts of those Cap Maint projects is the clean up. We send out our techs or porters to pick up all the nails and screws that would otherwise end up in the tires of our residents. It can be an annoying, but necessary task.

I found this cool little wrist band on Amazon by Magnogrip, and, provided you don't run your credit card across it, it's super useful to save clean up time on a lot of projects by allowing the nails and screws that we use to just stay attached to it by virtue of the heavy magnets inside. Best of all, it's currently less than $15 on Amazon .

Days of Appreciation - Day 10

2010-12-10T17:44:00Z

To cap off the week, I want to give you 4 reading suggestions for your maintenance team members, starting with "Sustaining Knock Your Socks Off Service " by Zemke, a great book about how to keep high level service in the for front of everything that we do. People underestimate how important your maintenance staff can be to not only a smooth running property, but to resident retention and NOI as a whole, and by encouraging them to be efficient and delivering great service, you're not only helping your bottom line, but you're helping to foster pride in their jobs.

It is for the same reason that I also love the book put out by J.D. Power the 4th, "Satisfaction ," as our maintenance techs are satisfaction agents. This book talks about listening to the voice of the customer, and since our techs have the advantage of being in the customer's home, there's no better place for them to hear that voice. This book also presents larger business concepts, beyond just the on site interaction world, in easy to understand languages that is engaging.

"What Got You Here Won't Get You There ," by Goldsmith is a great book for anyone who is in a position to try to move up in the management chain. He teaches you to recognize and cure some of those self and promotion defeating behaviors with a simple, though blunt, approach of, "just stop doing it." It's written in common sense language that almost anyone can embrace and it keeps the reader's attention.

One of the most valuable career skills is being able to work with all of the different people types out there in the workplace. "You Want Me to Work With Who?" by Jansen is an excellent resource for dealing with those people you would swear were only put on this planet to push your buttons. She puts out 11 keys to workplace harmony, and lays forward a road map to reducing your career stress while still being able to make sure that you can reach your goals.

Days of Appreciation - Day 9

2010-12-09T16:00:00Z

Books for the manager. I could list at least 35 books here that I think most managers could pull good information out of, but, as promised, I'll stick with only the 5. I've tried to give a good cross section of book topics here.

Start with a short little read I love called "Managing to have Fun " by Weinstein. One of the great secrets to boosting your bottom line NOI in any work place is to run a workplace where people WANT to come to work, and a great manager is all that makes the difference between hiring someone for a "job" and inspiring them to have a "career." Matt's book has great practical suggestions about how to boost productivity in your team while inspring a culture of fun that helps you retain your employees (and we know when that happens, we also seem to retain residents better too!).

I also love Keith Ferrazzi's newest book called "Who's Got Your Back ?" which is all about building a support network around you in your professional life. Mentors and supporters can make a world of difference in how successful your career is, and Keith's easy to read style will suck you right in. I read this book in one sitting, cover to cover on a 4 hour plane ride and LOVE it. I credit it and "Never Eat Alone" with a lot of my success, personally, because they cemented for me how important relationships really are. And they made me take stock of what I have, which has given me an amazingly grateful heart, every day.

"30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers " by Katcher and Snyder might be a hard read for those who are a bit self aware and will be able to see their own actions reflected on the pages, but it's a worthwhile read. This book tells you what your employees won't, or can't find the words to articulate. It's full of amazing research and they've used the data in a manner that isn't boring and dry.

In fact, in that last book, a common complaint that they recorded from employees was a lack of trust and control. "ZAPP! The Lightening of Empowerment! " by Byham and Cox gives you both a pursuasive argument for and a game plan to empower your employees. It's a move that results in not only higher resident satisfaction, but higher job satisfaction as well! And it's a short book... the kind you could probably read over a few days of lunch breaks.

Finally, I suggest to you one of my favorite leadership books of all time - "The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership " by Steven Sample. It challenges the old notions of leadership and goes to the roots of common leadership fears, explaining that there isn't a hard and fast law of leadership to follow. My very favorite guide line that he talks about is knowing which hill you're willing to die on and then having the common sense to keep its location to yourself.

Days of Appreciation - Day 8

2010-12-08T21:01:00Z

Books for the office staff are great, but what about books for your maintenance staff? I have here 5 more great recommendations for Maintenance Supervisors.

I start with "Love Leadership " by John Hope Bryant. This book is great for the new leader or for the experienced. It helps people connect with why they wanted to lead in the first place, and and Bryant's 5 rules for Love Leadership are great guides for anyone in a supervisory position. Add that to the fact that it's written in an easy flow and very readable manner and you've got one awesome book.

Following on the leadership lead, I also want to suggest "Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service " By Bell and Zemke. This book is a follow up companion to "Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service," and it gives practical advice on how to get your team members to achieve that higher level of service, and how to inspire that change in your team that we're all looking for.

Because communication styles between office and maintenance personnel can sometimes lead to problems, I reccomend "The Back of the Napkin " by Dan Roam, a master of visual communication. The skills in this book can be very useful to people in any region of the business, but I think would otherwise be overlooked for our maintenance teams. Sometimes, you have to just draw a schematic!

"100 Ways to Motivate Others " by Chandler and Richardson is a great overview book on the science and art of motivation. Anyone who manages others should have a good handle on the concepts in this book and it also gives you several great ideas to implement. Above all else, it really does come down to knowing your team as people.

And finally, because our maintenance team members spend as much, if not more, face time with our residents than the office staff does, I heartily endorse "The Art of Constructive Confrontation " by Hoover and DiSilvestro. This book is focused on putting more accountability in to play while reducing actual conflict. It gives great strategies for turning any potential communication meltdown into a constructive moment, which is when the most valuable relationships are often formed.

Days of Appreciation - Day 7

2010-12-07T19:25:00Z

For today, I want to give you 5 book suggestions for your Assistant Manager to help groom them into the amazing apartment industry professional that you know they can be!

Start with "The Art Of Speed Reading People " by Tieger. This book helps your employee hone their rapport building skills, and teaches them to more quickly spot the motives of people so that they can not only excel in sales, but also in managing others, and resolving conflicts!

I also love "Getting Stuff Done " by Allen. It's a short book with a powerful message - execution is paramount! The ability to go beyond being a big picture idea kind of person down to the execution of the fine detail work that draws the difference between an idea and a masterpiece is a skill that not many have, and our industry tends to prize.

In that same thought of management, I want to also suggest "Dealing with People You Can't Stand " by Brinkman. In that assistant manager position, you're essentially being groomed for leadership roles, and anyone who's spent time in a leadership role will tell you that one of the most important skills you can learn is diplomacy and communication with people who...well, people who you can't stand! This book has great techniques for not only dealing with tricky situations but also for learning how to see the good in people through the cloud of frustration they're causing you.

"The Overwhelmed Person's Guide to Time Management " by Eisenberg and Kelly can be a lifesaver for the person who sits at the desk between the front door and the manager. When everything comes across your desk, and everything seems URGENT, sometimes it's nice to have a refresher on how to prioritize your action list. This book offers really great strategies for clearing the mounts of papers off your desktop before 6pm without making you feel like you've forgotten something.

And finally, because I think a bigger sense of the world is important to encouraging growth, I want to suggest "The Tipping Point " by Gladwell. He's an amazing writer, but more than just the style is the message. It's time to look past your desk and start to grab on to higher concepts than just that on site knowledge. Those who excel in this industry do so by growing their knowledge base, so exposure to higher systems of thought and analysis can be extremely helpful to the rising star sitting behind the Assistant Manager's desk.

Days of Appreciation - Day 6

2010-12-06T19:54:00Z

This week, I decided to focus my efforts on gifts for the mind. Those of you who know me in person are well aware that I never travel without at least two or three books at a time. I love getting and giving books as gifts, because I feel that they are an excellent way to express respect for the intelligence of the recipient. So in the next 5 days, each day I'm going to give you 5 book titles for one of the people that you work with. These are all business books, and if that's not your cup of tea, then I completely understand. These suggestions, as with the rest of the ideas in this series, are just a springboard starting point to get you thinking, really thinking, about how to give. Gifts are about shared love and one of the best ways to show someone that you love them is to pay attention to what they like most, so go with what you know about the person. It's ALWAYS the thought that counts.

For today, let's start with my top five book recommendations for leasing agents.

Not just because I love Mindy Williams, but because it's an amazing asset on the job, I suggest first that you look at "Closing Lines That Work" from Rent and Retain Systems, Inc . This book gives you a library at your fingertips of ways to ask for that deposit and close the next lease. When your sales presentation starts to sound like a shpeel, then it's time for some new lines, and this book can help you find them.

Or you could add to that sales vocabulary with one of my favorite books, "Power Sales Words" by Oliver. As I've been told by several people, not everyone has the luxury of being a walking thesaurus, so this can be a great tool for the beginning or experienced leasing agent who you've deemed the lucky soul in your office that gets to post your Craigslist ads, and make them not look like every other property's ads.

Another book that could find a good home in a leasing consultant's hands is "Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service" by Performance Research Associates. It's very easy to read and has a good sense of humor about working in a customer service job, as well as offers awesome strategies for some of those sticker situations that we find ourselves in from day to day. I love that this book spells out how to go above and beyond and gives the reader a sense of it as a "lifestyle change" as opposed to a momentary adjustment.

The last two books I have are for the ladder climber on your list. First, one of my very favorite books of all time - "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi is a must read for just about everyone, but would be so helpful for anyone just starting to get their career off the ground. It discusses relationships, rapport building, and relationship maintainable, all three of which can make or break a leasing consultant.

Lastly, I love the book "So Smart, But..." by Allen N. Weiner. Subtitled, "How intelligent people lose crediblity- and how they can get it back," this book is another of those hard truth/take an objective look at yourself kind of books. It's an easy read, and it gives great advice for those of us, myself included, who ARE really smart people, but might not always realize when we're acting outside of the acceptable social norm. It focuses on things like Leadership Potential and Communication, which are two of the things that you can never fully develop enough!

Days of Appreciation - Day 5

2010-12-05T16:30:00Z

The opposite of yesterday's treat of cold hands, today's idea might be a great way to thank anyone on your staff who's without an ergonomic keyboard, or who has wrist and hand pain from repetitive motion tasks. With today's intensely computer centric work places and ever increasing dependence on text messaging, arthritis and joint pain in the hands is more and more common, even for people as young as 20 years old. (It turns out that typing with your thumbs is not great for your hands... who knew?!)

If you have a member of your staff who you know is dealing with a bit of pain in their hands, one of the most thoughtful things you can do is to ease that pain. Thermacare, long known as a solution for fixing your neck after sleeping weirdly on it the night before, makes a similar great heating pad product that goes on your hands, just like a carpal tunnel wrist wrap. I've used these before and it can make such an incredible difference in less than an hour.

As a long term solution to someone who has chronic issues with their hands, these aren't exactly ideal, since you only get 2 of them for about $16, but if you know someone with occasional pain, introducing them to this product might be the best thing you could ever do for them.

Days of Appreciation - Day 4

2010-12-04T16:30:00Z

While it's true that snow isn't so much fun to mess with when we're trying to clear a parking lot and de-ice sidewalks, it can be a fun treat for your staff to play with then it's time to decorate for the holidays. As a special gift to your staff, why not give them a chance to play with snow this year? If you can't get the weather makers to work with you and produce snow the natural way, then it's time to turn to the scientists, or at least the people who make things that are "AS SEEN ON TV!"

I found this stuff at my local Fred Myers, but I'd bet you can buy it at any of those big mega stores. You can also find it on the "Snow in Seconds " website. There are a lot of these kinds of products out there, but this is the only one I could find that you can actually stick in the freezer and sculpt with! It costs between$5 and $15 dollars depending on what you order. Imagine the memories that your staff will carry with them of an impromptu snowball fight on a random Tuesday afternoon.

Down the road, on a day when things are stressful and everything's falling apart, you'll be able to look to your staff and just mention a snowball fight to lift their moods. Sometimes the best gift you can give someone is a fantastic memory to reflect on.

Days of Appreciation - Day 3

2010-12-03T16:00:00Z

Maybe I'm becoming an "Old Person", but sometimes simply stepping out of my heels isn't enough to make my feet stop throbbing these days. For those of you out there who can't find total relief with my gift suggestion from yesterday, I'm going to share one of the essential pieces of my "Conference Attendance" kit. This single product has made everything from NAA, to Brainstorming, to even walking from Navy Pier to the Roosevelt St. Station in Chicago bearable in dress shoes, and while it might not be the easiest thing to stick a bow on with a straight face, it's something that, once the recipient tries it, they will express much gratitude for!

Gold Bond Pain Relieving Foot Cream.

Even though it sounds like something you might buy for your grandfather, this cream can be the difference between sitting behind your desk, or having the nerve to jump up and open the door for a potential new resident. It doesn't just make your feet better - it makes your first impression better!

You can get this stuff pretty much everywhere, but if you like to shop on line, you can order it from the fine folks at Amazon for less than $7.

Is it too weird to give to your co-workers? That depends entirely on how long you like to listen to people complain about how much their feet hurt. This one isn't just a gift for them... it's also a gift for your patience levels.

Days of Appreciation - Day 2

2010-12-02T20:59:00Z

Yesterday we talked about cold fingers, so today, let's discuss your toes! When it's hard to make it through the day in your ultra pointies sometimes, or, maybe you thought it would be a good day to "break in" those new shoes but instead found yourself not sitting down for the first 6 hours of the day, don't let the pain in your feet kill your good mood, or the good mood of your staff! You don't have to tough it out and wait until you get home to find relief for your feet.

Instead, I recommend this gift for the female manager or leasing consultant that, for today at least, just can't stay in those high heels any longer:

Dr. Scholl's makes an ingenuous little product now called "Fast Flats" which are, simply, a pair of little black flats that fold up in to a cute gold bag that fits in the average sized purse. These things are total life savers! They provide relief when you need it the most, and still are passable as decent looking shoes.

You've gotta love modern foot technology!

On top of that, they're just under $10 when you order them off of Amazon right now. You can also find them at your local Walmart, Fred Myers, or Walgreens, though the prices to buy them in person can range up to $15.

Either way, if you can figure out your co-worker's shoe size, this is a gift that tells them you care not only about their productivity, but also about their comfort!

Days of Appreciation - Day 1

2010-12-02T20:06:00Z

Kicking off the holiday season, let's begin with the practical gift. If you're in a colder climate right now, like much of the United States, it's easy to get the blues, and I'm not talking about depression. I'm talking about the beds of your fingernails!

Cold weather slows down the circulation in the human body. This effect makes us cranky and irritable, among other things. But if you're working a garden style community with some vacancies, you can't afford to pass up that chance at a rental, so you've got to take the tour!

How does a smart manager reward or encourage her team to brave the cold wind outside? Add a little warmth!

I found this cool little product on Think Geek (a site I frequent around the holiday season) and I think it's just about perfect for this situation:

It's a reusable hand warmer! Better than a pack of Hot Hands, this gel filled heart, selling for less than 7 dollars, is activated by a chemical reaction. The website explains:

"Seriously, the pretty red gel is a supersaturated solution. Bending the disc starts an exothermic crystallization of the gel (i.e. it goes opaque and gets hot). "

When it loses heat, Think Geek says you just wrap it in a towel and toss it in some boiling water for about 15-20 minutes and the hand warmer resets itself.

What a great way to remind your associates that "Warmth is the key" and to make them feel quite warm and cozy in their work!

31 Days of Appreciation

2010-12-02T20:05:00Z

(This post was supposed to launch Dec 1, but was delayed due to my duties in judging WMFHA's exciting new Emerald Awards. I love you all, but for now, you'll have to deal with a doubled up couple of posts! I'm counting on your generous holiday spirit to get you to forgive my procrastination!)

Some will be for the heart. Some will be for the mind. Still yet, others are for the soul. And some, well some are just to clutter your desk.

Gifts.

Yes, it's THAT season again, and, if you're a gift giver, one of the most annoying things to try to decide is what to get the people that you care about. Gifting to your property management family is no different. After all, these coworkers are the people that you spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with (and that's when the pipes don't freeze and burst, sounding the emergency pager! I know how much you all love that kind of quality time!)

So my gift to you this year is a daily post, each day, for the month of December with a different gift idea. They're not all work related, and they're not all for everyone... but like the uniqeness of your team memebers, each has it's own special charm to be appreciated!

You Can't Afford to Skip the Shot

2010-10-26T17:14:00Z

Whether it's the cold and wet weather that weakens our immune systems, or it's the fact that we're constantly hugging and sharing food and drinks with others, or maybe because those welcoming, professional handshakes are carrying more than just sweat these days, this time of year is a breeding ground for catching the strain of crud de jour. I've seen an increasing number of Facebook statuses mentioning how bad this year's strain of the flu is, and there are quite a few of us out there who weren't in tip top shape to begin with. When a nasty strain of the flu hits someone like that, it doesn't matter how much orange juice you drink, you're going to be out from work for a while. Of course, that's after you infect the rest of your team.

Part of the problem is that due to the poor economy, 50 million people don't have insurance. In fact, according to Kaiser Health News , the number of people covered by employer-sponsored coverage dropped to 55.8 percent last year from 58.5 percent in 2008. On top of that, those with health coverage are skipping the little procedures and cutting costs where they can. And despite the CDC advising that each and every American should get one, an easy choice of those little costs for people to skip is a flu shot. Like having a plastic prize at the bottom of the cereal box, the CDC reports that this year's shot is even laced with protection from the 2009 strain of H1N1. You know things are getting pretty bad when they have to up the marketing on VACCINES.

So what can you do about it? Well, here's an idea that not only will help keep your team healthy this year, but also eliminate some sick days and general malaise from your staff, while making them feel appreciated: buy them their flu shots this year. Whether you chose to have someone come in and do your flu shots on site (which, if you can get the cost reduced for your residents is an awesome resident retention service to offer!), or you choose to buy the Walgreens gift card of $30 that is specifically earmarked for a flu shot, you're telling your staff that you care about their health at the same time you're thanking them for their hard work. And if you think $30 per staff member is a lot of spend, let me ask you to consider exactly how much you've built in to your budget for this year's loss of productivity, staffing costs, and lost rentals because you were understaffed or had to use a temp while your rockstar team was out sick. Costs for a well trained and qualified temp in some places can hit $35 to $45 dollars - PER HOUR. For less than the cost of an hour of temp work, you can protect the people you prize: Your Trained Team.

So I guess the only real question is how can you NOT afford to get your team the flu shot this year?

The Law is for Him

2010-10-11T17:48:00Z

Today is National Coming Out day. For those of you who aren't working on a student property where the world is more cushioned in liberal arts tolerance teachings, this is a day where people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual,and transgendered are encouraged to "Come Out" of the closet and live their lives as the people they really are.

Today is a very awesome day. It's also a pretty scary day for many people.

I grew up in the Midwest and was proud to go to college at Kansas State University (GO WILDCATS!!!). We had a fairly vocal and active GLBT alliance, and they were even responsible for helping the local high school students start their own chapter. These people were beyond amazing, and I remember always being in awe of how comfortable these people were in their own skin, where as me, the white strait chick - I could hardly be myself when it was just ME in the room. I'm not saying I blended in to the woodwork, but I wasn't as much my own person as many of my gay friends were at that age.

I was 19 and it was early August. At the time, it didn't mean as much to me as it does now, but I had a really good friend who was looking for apartments. He asked me to go with him - remember, this was BEFORE I ever worked in the industry - and help him pick out a place. I knew he'd been looking for a while, and when I asked him why he hadn't found a place yet, he just sort of muttered, "Just haven't found the right one."

So we set out on the search. My friend had always been more open on the physical affection side with me, but when we stood in front of landlord after landlord I noticed that he was ALWAYS touching me, hugging me, hand holding, or other innocuous physical contact was taking place. I also noticed that he wasn't his usual confident self. He'd look away from the landlord and not make eye contact. He was deferring questions about kitchen space, decorating potential, etc to me, asking ME to ask the landlord for him. Anytime he did talk, his voice was slow and measured. He didn't crack a joke all day, and I didn't laugh all day. It was miserable.

After the 4th place, when he'd written a deposit check for a beautiful 1 bedroom apartment that had kitchen space to DIE for, I finally called him on his behavior all day. I was young, and I was a bit naive, but even I knew something was up. He apologized to me and confessed that he had needed a beard. He explained to me, a little ashamedly, that the reason he hadn't been able to find a place when he was searching before was because he was too openly gay, and the private landlords wouldn't rent to him when he was himself, so he needed a fake girlfriend for the day. Unlike a lot of the other college students, myself included, this guy had amazing credit, didn't throw parties, and was just an all around good person. And he wasn't good enough for them.

I was blown away. I knew that people were racist and that Kansas was no stranger to bigots, but I had never thought about something as base important as HOUSING being denied to my friends who were gay. It never crossed my mind until that moment, and I remember that I cried.

There are a lot of times when I read Fair Housing law and it makes me sad that we have to have legislation to make people play nicely with others. I think about how when I worked on site I just made it an internal policy to treat everyone the same, and I can't understand the need for those laws.

Then I remember that I'm not the one that law is written for. It's for him. Because not everyone thinks he has a right to housing, but he does. And that law is there to make sure he never has to take a beard with him again when he's looking for a place to call home.

Heather's Hashtag Notes from the Washington Apartment Outlook 2010

2010-10-11T17:27:00Z

WMFHA did an awesome job with this year's Washington Apartment Outlook Summit in September! I was there, and the energy in the room was fantastic, optimistic - It was pretty darned positive, overall, which is a change from last year's harsh reality check (one, I might add, that we ALL needed to hear). Thanks to my partnership awesomeness over at TuxTechSoftware , I was able to capture and index my twitter notes from the session, so I've made them available to you at the Hashtag Haven on my consulting site. I recommend scrolling to the bottom and reading up, as I didn't have time to get them put in reverse order yet.

Mobile Marketing in the iTrashFlash World - Written for Ellipse Inc.

2010-10-08T15:51:00Z

The iPhenomenon isn't going away. Having a strong contingent of hard core Linux users as my main group of friends makes it dangerous for me to have made that statement. Oh, how they hate that little once rainbow-happy apple. I hear the complaints all the time. "The products are flawed, they're made for people who don't understand how they work, they're 3 times as expensive as they need to be...insert generic computer nerd comment here." And yet, they remain popular, while most of the people reading this are still trying to figure out what the heck LINUX is.

Schools are buying up and dealing out iPads instead of textbooks. 1.5 million new generation iPhones were sold on the first day. All of this despite the fact that users are locked in to AT&T's spotty service (coverage which, if you believe their commercials, is generated by giant orange satin sheets reaching across America, coincidentally somewhat explaining why their service is so unreliable. If you want better coverage, install taller towers. Sheets do not disperse this coverage very well.). And while Mac phones only accounted for 22% of the second financial quarter market share (BlackBerry had 28% and Android had a whopping 33%), according to the NPD Group, if your target market is people who are under the age of 35, this 22% is very important to you. So important, in fact, that you might need to redesign your website.

Why? Because, as my Linux friends would say, "Steve Jobs hates Flash."

You know that really cool rotating montage of pretty property pictures that you have on your website? Or that neat little animated map of all the local stores in the area? Or the video tour of your property that automatically starts when someone clicks on to your homepage? Those page enhancements are made with flash programming, and they don't show up on mobile devices. iPad users won't be able to see your webpage for the same reason that they can't watch video content from Hulu through their browser and have to download an app to view it - these platforms weren't made to support flash. In all fairness, it's not just Steve Jobs who is the forcing hand in website redevelopment - It's HTML5, who is slowly phasing out the use of flash plug ins on browsers. But it's more fun to blame Steve Jobs because it gets the Mac Fanboys all in a frenzy.

How do you make sure that your website is ready to be viewed on a mobile device? Simple. Try viewing it on one. If you've got service and the site doesn't come up, you have some retooling to do. One of the easiest ways to overcome this issue, if you're not ready to do a whole web-redesign, is to make a mobile version of your website using W3C standard web technologies (such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript) rather than plug ins. On the whole, it's much simpler than redoing your entire site, and best of all, it lets you experiment with the effect that integrating a touch type interface can have on the way that people interact with you online. Touch is a sense that has a high impact on the buying process in the human psyche, so if you can find unique and interesting ways for people to interact with your apartments online, via touch, all the better for your rental numbers!

Convenience Vs. Privacy

2010-10-07T19:00:00Z

The other night, I finally made it back to my gym, 24 Hour Fitness. Between traveling and being slightly under the weather, it had been almost a month since I'd had a chance to go in. While all of the equipment was exactly where I remembered, there had been a definite change in the check in process.

They wanted my thumbprint.

"It's all so very convenient," as they told me. "We just scan your thumb, and then this magical computer box converts the scan to numbers and we store that! All you have to do is scan your thumb and then put in your 10 digit PIN and you're good to go. Don't you love the fantastic, wonderful, amazing world of technology!?!"

As a matter of fact, no, I don't love it.

There are certain people who have every right to ask me for my fingerprints - the police when I'm dumb enough to commit a crime and get caught, Boards of Educations if I'm trying to teach children, the government if I'm doing some covert missions for the CIA in my free time, the center for missing and exploited children if I'm a child who may be missing or exploited, and even an employer who I'm allowing to run a through background check on me - all of these people have a reasonable claim to my fingerprints.

Not my Gym.

Not my apartment community either.

Don't get me wrong, you should be running background checks and sex offender checks on each and every resident, but we all know that you don't need their fingerprints to do that, just an awesome rep from some where like On-site.com to set you up. And while I know you can't stop progress, and I'm usually at the forefront of tech movements, it worries me that I can see a day coming where, when a resident wants to pay their rent, they just come in and you scan their finger and then that authorizes the withdrawal from the account they've enabled.

I was turned off by not only the prospect of the program but also the way it was presented to me. As it was explained to me by the perky girl at the gym check in desk, they're not actually taking your fingerprints. They're, "Just taking the measurements between the lines on your fingers and then storing that as code, which cannot be reversed." The problem with that statement is that measuring the space between your fingerprint lines is HOW THE COPS TAKE YOUR FINGERPRINTS. What do you think a 5 point or 14 point match means? Also, I know enough about coding to know that if data can be processed to go one way, no matter how tight your encryption is, that same data can be processed back to its original format. Rule number one of trying to make people feel all warm and fuzzy about technology is to make sure that the people who are explaining it are ignorant to what it can actually do. Believe it or not, there are some pretty tech educated people out there, especially in the Seattle area, who will not hesitate to call out someone who misrepresents what a company is actually asking for. What they were selling as "convenience" and "security" was neither when you look at it a little more deeply.

Why they're doing this sort of thing is easy to see. Not only does this kind of measure reduce the amount of staff that they need at the front desk, but it also ends up saving the company money because people aren't able to forge an ID and use someone else's membership. And positive growth in NOI is excellent, but the way this situation reads when closely examined is that the company put their profits in front of the customer's privacy.

There is a fine line between us doing something for "the convenience" of our residents versus us overstepping the boundaries of privacy. The next time you're considering installing a system that will, "totally make things way easier for our residents (not to mention our own terribly overworked and constantly understaffed onsite team) through the miracles of modern technology," take a really good look at it through the eyes of a resident who still cares about their privacy. As much as the world is moving towards these sorts of finger scans and retinal scans, I'm not so sure that they need to have a place in our homes.

What do you think? Is my annoyance justified here or should I just pop on a tinfoil hat and move to rural Montana and live off the grid?

Inspiration from Facebook

2010-10-04T18:29:00Z

When I logged on to my Facebook this morning, I came across one of the best status messages that I've seen in a while:

I took off the name and the pic, but the status is just AWESOME. And it makes me wonder - how much more could we accomplish each week if we were more definite in our goals? If we wrote them down? Shared them with our teams to develop some sense of accountability?

Try it this week - What WILL you achieve by Friday? Write it down, make it public and keep your goals in the front of your mind this week. You might be surprised what you can accomplish!

Coffee Sleeve Marketing

2010-09-28T19:36:00Z

We’re coming into the season of the warm drink. Okay, that’s not fair – I live in Seattle, coffee capital of the west coast, so it’s always time for a warm drink out here. But in the rest of the country, the days are growing shorter, colder, and a little darker one by one.

Have you ever considered approaching your local coffee house and asking them if you can buy their coffee sleeves for them? This was an awesome idea I got from one of the members of my CAM class this last year, Jennifer Spears with O’Brien. She mentioned great success with this idea, and I’ve got to tell you, it’s pretty brilliant. But you know me – it’s not enough to know that an idea works; I have to know WHY it works. So I did some digging, and here are the stats that I found:

The average customer spends 49 minutes with a cup of coffee.

Of information on a coffee sleeve, the info recall rate is at 65% of what they read.

6 customers PLUS the purchaser on average will see/read the info.

Pretty ingenious! And then you top off with the fact that you can now get eco-friendly recycled sleeves from places like www.upicoffeesleeves.com for less than $70 for 1000 of them, and it seems like a no brainer.

Oh, and by the way, I’m talking about sleeves that are printed on both sides – one side is their logo, one side is yours. Or maybe a tip about renting, moving, or even your current “Coffee House” special? The limitations here are only your creativity!

So the next time you’re on the afternoon coffee run, why not take a second and do a little outreach partnership marketing as well. After all, the worst thing that could happen is they will say no, in which case, I’ll bet the coffee house down the street would be thrilled to have you trim a small expense from their budget!

Monday Motivation - 5 Things!

2010-09-27T19:31:00Z

“If I just had less stress…”

“If I just made more money…”

“If my boss was just a little nicer…”

I hear this stuff everyday. After all, there are about a billion ways to start the sentence that ends with, “then this job would be worth it.”

Let me tell you, I’ve been there - working twice as hard to make half as much as I did the prior quarter, bringing my stress home with me like an extra briefcase full of papers ready to spill across the floor and ruin the rest of my evening, and all the while feeling about as unappreciated as the gum on the bottom of someone’s shoe.

You know what? As bad as I felt, I’ve come to realize that I did it to myself.

That’s right. It wasn’t my job’s fault. It was mine. I made the choices that had me carrying more stress than necessary, and I failed to communicate that stress level to my bosses (unless you count passive-aggressiveness as communication, which I don’t!). I also let all the little problems stick around and build up in to monsters that I just chose to hide from for the most part. A job being worth the stress if you make more money at it is just a myth. If you let this garbage build up and kill your passion for a job as I did when I was younger, then you’re robbing yourself.

Life is too short not to be happy. Today, I challenge you to make a list of 5, just 5, things about your job that make you happy. 5 things that make it worth coming in to your office or maintenance shop in the morning. I promise you, no where on that list, if you really soul search on this one, will you find, “Because they pay me well.” People who love what they do don’t look at the paycheck, they look at the pay off. Maybe you like to lead others. Maybe you enjoy knowing that you’re good at what you do. Maybe you know that you can do things others can’t. Whatever the reason, odds are what makes you happy about your job are also the same things that make you a great employee.

Save that little list in your planner or some other place that you see everyday (Not taped to your monitor!) and remember to look at it on those particularly tough days, when you’re thinking you should have stayed in bed. Our jobs will do what we let them do. They’re a little like dogs. When you’re training a dog, what you’re actually training is YOUR reaction to what the dog does. Same thing here - we can either let them destroy us, or we can let them complete us.

Today, choose to let your job make you happy. Let it make you feel accomplished. Let it help you feel fulfilled. After all, that’s kind of what it’s there for.

Talking about "Top It Tuesday"

2010-09-24T23:20:00Z

My friend Kim Lee with Community Northwest has often told me about her philosophy on resident event success:

“Feed them, and they will come. Feed them well, and they will come again. Feed them well and introduce them to a friend, and they will keep coming.”

She’s a smart lady. Food is a huge motivating factor when it comes to enticing people out of their apartments and in to a social scene. It’s also a great motivating factor in gaining engagement on your Facebook page.

This summer, I did a contract job with a couple of college student properties, managing their social media and Facebook presence. Those of you who are on student properties might already be cringing, because trying to kick a FB page in to overdrive during the summer when your target residents AREN’T THERE is, needless to say, exceptionally difficult. I started with the usual recipe of localized contend and broad appeal postings, open ended questions, debates that mattered to the students, etc. and the numbers went up just a little. It wasn’t until I enticed them with food that we got engagement elate-ment occurred.

Every Tuesday, I would run a contest called TOP IT TUESDAY, where I would pick a food that required a topping of some sort, be it pizza, Chipotle, Ice Cream, Burgers, etc. and then simply ask the students how they topped it. We would pick one of the people who replied and give them a gift card to get the food de jour. It got massive response and those same people who were participating in TOP IT TUESDAY started responding to other postings on our page.

Why did it work? Well, first, food always works if you know what kind to pick. Chipotle is a hot pick and pizza is a college food diet staple. Run the Ice Cream on really hot days and you’ll get a response, but do it in the middle of winter, I’m not thinking it’s going to work so well for you. Second, pick restaurants local to your area, I know I used Chipotle (and that’s just because I LOVE LOVE LOVE it) but you may want to focus your efforts to a more local merchant because they are going to be way stoked that you’re willing to promote them. Think about it – if all day on your FB feed people were talking about what kind of pizza they wanted, by about 5 pm, you’re going to be craving some pizza. This logic gives you a good shot at not only getting the partnership, but also getting the gift cards donated (costing you nothing but time!). Third, the reason the engagement carries over is due to the idea of unpredictable rewards. Having a weekly sweepstakes is great, as it sets a standard, but you also want to pepper the content of your page with other little give-aways at random to encourage people to not push that “HIDE FEED” button. It’s the same reason we never post our vacant units and prices, or links to our Craigslist postings. Your page is there for the residents, so give them the content they want!

An Open Customer Love Letter to Frontier/Midwest Airlines

2010-09-23T16:43:00Z

I love Frontier/Midwest Airlines! They’ve always done me right as far as getting me where I needed to go and treating me well (which isn’t something I can say of some of the really big names), despite the fact that when it comes down to it, I’m not really anyone important to them, besides just being their customer. Sure, I’ve got my frequent flyer status, but that’s something many folks have. Recently, on my trips to Dallas and Kansas City, they took exceptional care of me.

For anyone who travels, you know that storms in the Midwest can throw airports nationally in to a jumbled up mess where planes sit 97^th in line for take off on the run way while the people inside them get…cranky. On my way out of Dallas on Friday, this was exactly the case. As we started to board the plane, I noticed the time was about 15 minutes late, which is not a good sign. Normally, I wouldn’t stress too much, but thanks to some flight changes by the friendly folks at ORBITZ, I only had 30 min between my two flights that day in Denver. After the plane was loaded, we sat on the runway for, in my anxious assessment of time, what felt like an hour. I’m sure it wasn’t, but that traveler anxiety is hard for a lot of folks to shake.

When we landed, the time on the clock gave me 10 minutes until my plane to Kansas City was set to leave. I was seated towards the front, and my seatmates were kind enough to let me off the plane right away. I’m a chubby girl and sprinting up that jetway was exhausting but when I hit the top, one of their CSRs was there. I blurted out “KANSAS CITY!” and he pointed to an empty gate with an open door. It was a glimmer of hope. I was the last person on the plane and they shut that door behind me. When I reached the bottom of that jetway I looked at the baggage tech who was standing there. I had already accepted that I wasn’t going to get my luggage to KC that night, but it was something I could deal with as long as I wasn’t sleeping in the Denver airport. I jokingly said something to her, and she said, “Oh good, you made it! I sent a runner for your luggage. We’ll get you there, don’t worry.”

I kid you not, I almost cried. After fighting with timing and planes and being exhausted from coming off a week of an intensely mentally and emotionally taxing conference, she told me exactly what I needed to hear. Had it not probably freaked the gal out, I would have hugged her for that.

And sure enough, when I landed in KC later that evening, my luggage, both pieces, was there, waiting for me. With a smiley face drawn on the luggage tags.

How cool is that?!

So there you have it, my customer love letter to Frontier/Midwest. You guys rock, and if I don’t have to, I’ll never fly anyone else! Thank you for reducing my stress and taking such exceptional care of me. It is the little things that matter so much, and it’s the little things that have earned you my customer loyalty.

Why my recent "REALITY CHECK" really rocked!

2010-09-22T20:37:00Z

“If I only had enough money in my budget for one conference a year, Brainstorming would be it.” –Karen @ Kettler Management

This year’s Brainstorming Conference in Dallas was another incredibly well put together and executed event by Multifamily Pro. (My only wish on improvement with this event is that they would move it back to November, in the time frame it was last year.)

Down to the smallest detail, this idea love fest was an ideal experience (save my ride to the event with Crazy Cabbie Guy…but MFP couldn’t really help that!). Facilitating the Brainstorming sessions here and being asked to speak on the Friday idea panel are two of the highest honors of my year, and my time at this conference was AMAZING this year!

I want to invite you to take a look at the transcript of the tweets from the conference and even consider joining us next year. Put it in your budgets now – this is an event that makes CENTS to attend. After all, don’t you want to be in the space where million dollar ideas are flying? My 8 pages of notes from Friday morning’s idea panel hosted by Anne Sadovsky are full of tasty little golden nuggets of good business ideas, and that’s just from ONE session! The class sessions here are on an amazing combination of intellectualism, professionalism, and the newest trending topics, telling people how to implement these ideas in to actionable plans on their properties.

For suppliers, this is also an ideal conference. I know of one supplier member who made more connections and sealed more deals on that resource room floor than they had at any other tradeshow this year. Why? Because the crowd is primed the day before – looking at creative ideas and new solutions. Tami opens up their minds to the new possibilities out there and gets them in my favorite risk taking mood, and then she sends them right to the suppliers, who can finally get a moment of their time to explain how they DO have a great solution. Everyone wins!

Another reason I love this conference is the same reason I love NAA and StuCon and NAAEI – People. I cherish my multifamily relationships beyond a simple point of a hug here and there. Reconnecting with these people allows me access to a deeper part of my creative well because their energy brings out the best in me and pushes me further than I can go on my own. In this industry the cliché holds insanely true – the sum of the whole is FAR greater than the total of its single parts. Living in the creative side of the multifamily mathematical equation is an experience that I have never found an equal to.

So put it in your budget right now for next year and hopefully I’ll see you there next year and you can see for yourself what I mean firsthand.