A Podcast | Deb Newell:

This transcript may contain errors.

Pete Neubig:
Welcome to the NARPM Podcast and thank you for joining us today. However you may be listening. IHeartRadio, iTunes, YouTube or through any of the podcast platforms. Thank you for being here. I'm your host, Pete Neubig, and we have a great show today. We have Deb Newell with Real-Time Consulting, formerly of Minnesota, now in Utah. And today we're going to discuss implementation and how people have a hard time implementing when they go to a conference. So Deb Newell MPM RMP and now an MBA owner of Real-Time Consulting services and broker and owner of Real-Time Leasing located in Minneapolis. Deb started rehabbing investment properties as a hobby in 1998, although that sounds like she I think she's much younger than being able to invest properties in 1998. But as a result, like many of us in 2000, she began real-time leasing a property management company for almost twenty-one years now in Minneapolis, and in 2009 she became a licensed general contractor and launched a separate maintenance group. So Deb's one of them go-getters. Seems like everybody I have on this show is like a type-A go-getter personality. She's a self-described fixer, entrepreneur, strategic leader, consultant. Deb offers one on one consulting for the property management industry, and Deb has also given back to NARPM. She served as an RVP. She served on a governmental affairs, and she's a vice chair and chair for other committees for NARPM. So I look forward to speaking to Deb here in the next few minutes.

Pete Neubig:
But first, I want to talk about our hot topic of the day or as I like to say, the hot topic. So what my biggest gripe, when I go to these conferences or all these people that go to conferences, they get hammered. They try to hook up or whatever they try to do. They don't go to the day. They come in late to the, you know, to the breakouts or they don't show up at all. They're not meeting anybody. They don't have any strategic goals unless you call hooking up a strategic goal. But they don't really have anything going on and then they go home and they're like, Well, I had a great time, but you know, the conference offers really no value. And then they don't go to conference or they just go just to go and have a party or go - That's called a vacation to me, right? - So I won't go on vacation. I love my friends, but I also want to learn from them. So I want to go on vacation with my family and like my buddies, my high school buddies, my college buddies, right? So I love you all in all from people, but that's not what I'm there for. So when you go to a conference, you should have what I call smart goals, right? They should be specific, measurable, action-oriented results, results-driven and time-specific, right? So think about this.

Pete Neubig:
Like if you were going to buy a Toyota 4Runner, you're driving down the highway and all of a sudden all you see are Toyota four runners. Well, they were always there. But now they're there now because you've seen them, because you are noticing them, because you have this at the top of your mind that you're going to buy a Toyota 4Runner. It's called RRAS (reticular activity sensors). And now that you're thinking of it, you're attuned to it. Right. So when you go into any kind of conference or seminar with these smart goals, now your brain is ready to go and it's going to be in tuned for what it is that you're trying to accomplish. So this way, when you hear somebody talking about something that you have a smart goal about, you're like, Oh, and you get gravitate towards that conversation, right? Or you're going to a specific event because you have a specific smart goal. Now, every time I go to a NARPM conference, especially or any conference, that conference costs a lot of money, right? You got airfare, you got hotel, you got food and you got the conference itself. So I always wanted at least have at least one item that would make that conference pay for itself, whether that's, you know, a new program, a new fee, a new process, or maybe it's just a new vendor. You can reduce costs, reduce expenses, whatever it is.

Pete Neubig:
But that conference had to pay for itself. Now, what I used to do is I'd go to a conference, I had my smart goals and I take all my notes in the front of my notepad. Yes, I'm old school and I have note pads and not iPads, but I would have tasks and I would put the tasks on the back of the page and a task could be reading a book. The task could be meeting, you know, three people following up with the vendor, whatever it was. And I have all these tasks. And at the end of the conference on the plane ride home, I would prioritize the task. Some I would get rid of and some I would prioritize one though whatever. Fifty-seven, however many tasks I had. Now what I love about the NARPM from conferences is that you have one in April, you have one in October. So I'd have all my tasks and I would try to accomplish all the tasks before the next conference. Now, a couple of things that happened was I had too many tasks, too many ideas that I wanted to do, and I overwhelmed my team. And hopefully, Deb and I will talk about that a little bit. So you don't want to overwhelm your team, but the main thing is you want to do something. So a lot of times people create all these tasks, have all these grandiose plans and ideas for their business, and then they get into the office, they open the door and get smacked.

Pete Neubig:
Or, as Mike Tyson say, punched in the mouth. And what happens is life gets in the way, works gets in the way. And those tasks, those ideas, those plans go into a drawer, never to be seen again until the next conference. And then now they have tons and tons more of things that need to do that they need to do. One of the examples that I put out there, I was at Texas State Conference. I went out there. I had an I had a smart goal of I wanted to make, you know, I wanted to create a couple of fees that would pay for that conference and make me more money. And that's when I learned about the risk mitigation, and the pet guarantee wrote them down within two weeks. I implemented them. So I'm an implementation specialist is what I call myself at Empire when I owned it. That's what I do. I implement. But what I realize is not everybody's wired that way. And most people have a hard time implementing. So, Deb, let's bring you in. That was my hot topic. You know, by the way, I had to tell NARPM we have to have a little deal that says that the opinions of Pete are not necessarily those of NARPM. So, so have you been

Deb Newell:
Consulted, one of those medical pharmaceutical ads that I see on TV and they have that fast-talking person at the very end with a little small. Yeah, I really like the car companies because you have a stroke or, you know, get pregnant or whatever it is. That's right.

Pete Neubig:
So, Deb, you've been consulting for a long time now. You've been in this business a long time. And when I ask you, what did you want to speak about today, you said, I love implementation. Let's talk about implementation.

Deb Newell:
So I think it's important to actually also clarify that there is a difference between an integrator and an implementer. So people get those often confused, right? So you want to make sure that you understand that the implementer is, you know, besides the fact that it kind of sounds like being an integrator. They're very different. So you mentioned that you're like the implementation person when you work with Empire and that's what you did. It's all about implementing that whole business and the operating piece of it. And so that's, you know, making things kind of move forward. So the integrator really is that person who's going to take the ideas from, like, usually the owner of the company, the guy who has like all this vision of what they do and they drive that execution, but they don't necessarily implement it into action. I don't know if that makes sense.

Pete Neubig:
Well, and I find that most business owners are the visionary.

Deb Newell:
Sure, They are. There are some that are both the visionary and the integrator, meaning that they're going to envision this. They have a great idea. They've gotten that idea and then they're going to integrate it, but they can't implement it. So they've kind of started the action path. But what they've done is they really just dumped it on somebody else and they're like, OK, now they're great delegators, right, abdicated that what it is or delegate,

Pete Neubig:
Right? well delegate means that I'm going to manage it. Abdicate means I have this idea and I just dump it on you and then I go away.

Deb Newell:
Good point. Good point. Yeah.

Pete Neubig:
I think great abdicate and my business partner named no names to be named.

Deb Newell:
So I think, yeah, the reason why I like implementation is because it's the biggest roadblock for companies to become successful and change. So the challenge is, is that you talked a lot about going to these conferences and you are very rare. By the way, having a plan like that, that's not common now. I think people do have ideas when they go to these conferences in the back of their head, they're like, You know, I really hope I can learn X, Y and Z. They've looked at the agenda. They're looking at the sessions and they're saying, I'm going to go to this breakout session because they're one. I like the speaker or two this is a topic I really want to learn about. So I think after they've looked at the schedule of events, then they kind of decide this might be my plan.

Pete Neubig:
Yeah. Is which is a great, great way to do it.

Deb Newell:
Right. Well I even say take it one step further. If you're bringing anybody from your team to any of these conferences, especially like the National Conference? The team should never sit together. They always go to different sessions and they each have to bring back to the rest of the team or to the or even if you have a small team when you go back to work, essentially that you have a meeting and that you altogether digest what each other has done because, you know, sometimes there's like four of them at one time and you're like, I want to go to all four, but you can't do that. So it's really divide and conquer, and that's the best way to do it. So even if you don't necessarily pull away a vendor or you don't implement a fee right away, the biggest thing is networking and listening to other people and hearing how they do it. It's more of a mentoring. At that point, it's peer-to-peer mentoring and realizing that you're not the only one that struggles through all these things and going through all of this that other people also... And this is how they solved it. So it may be one little nugget that you took away that solved the problem that you were having. And that was a game-changer for you. And that, I think builds upon other things because then the next conference, you're like, OK, that solved that problem. Go to the next conference with talking to your team, saying, Hey, give me a list of like five things that we need to work on, and let's see if I can find some answers for that when I go and network with other people.

Pete Neubig:
I think that's...

Deb Newell: Well, you call it hooking up. I call it networking.

Pete Neubig:
I think that's brilliant. Asking your team if they're not going, Hey, what are the top five issues challenges that we're having so that we can then go ahead? And now they're part of my smart goals. So everybody goes like Mike Tyson famously said, Everybody has a plan till you get punched in the mouth, right? So how do you consult with your, with your customers, your clients, when they have all these like, they're overwhelmed, especially if they first go to a NARPM... Go for the first time at a NARPM conference, they get overwhelmed. All this information have all these things they want to implement, and then they get back to the office and they get punched in the mouth, right? There's four hundred and seventy-three emails and twenty-two, you know, owners that want to, you know, chop their head off and you know, there's always a challenge out there.

Deb Newell:
There's a couple of things I think, you know, Todd Ortscheid. I am dropping a name, I guess, but he's part of NARPM. He actually said something a long time ago where he said, you know, it's something that he actually does is he takes a couple of days off and I know a couple of other people that do this as well. But he takes a couple of extra days after a conference at that location, wherever the conference is at and he will spend time going through, like you're saying, do it on the plane. I think the minute, the minute you hit that plane, you go to the airport, you get the plane. Everything else kind of is put on the back burner. You may take those couple of hours on the plane and kind of look through it. Or you just may go to sleep because you're so exhausted

Pete Neubig:
From drinking, from drinking all week...

Deb Newell:
Well, yeah, right. That's always a good time. But I think it's important, however you decide to do it, whether you do it, how he's doing it or you do it the way you've suggested is taking a little bit of time to... this is your business. So I think you have to make the time and not just jump right back into it. It can wait one extra day for you to, like, go through and say, OK, I need to map this out. What's overwhelming to people is that you do take away a lot of information. It's sometimes it's almost more tiring to go to a conference and get all of this and you're sucking it all in and you're like, I'm exhausted. I don't know where to start. And that's where a lot of people struggle is like, I don't know where to start. This is all great ideas. I heard this. I heard that. Write it all down and then just take three things. And that's it. Three things you don't have to tackle the entire list, but prioritize them by comparing to what your team has said is the issue. What you know are things going on in your company and three things that you know that you can execute in three months. So that's...

Pete Neubig:
That's your time based. Yeah, because if you can't execute it, it's going to take a year to execute. You're going to kind of lose steam.

Deb Newell:
Yeah, exactly. Well, you get discouraged, right? I think that's what it is. You lose steam, you get discouraged. And so you have to give yourself... Property managers are notorious for actually being very poor time management people because we have so many things going on. We're very great at multi-tasking, although I think I say that loosely because multitasking also isn't something I would promote very well. I don't want to say I'm a great multitasker because that means I can't finish one task.

Pete Neubig:
Right.

Deb Newell:
Right. So multitasking means...

Pete Neubig:
Multitasking means you don't have any focus,

Deb Newell:
Right? We all have ADD at this point, so which is fine. I can multi-task...

Pete Neubig:
I know. I looked at my phone four times while you were talking. Just kidding.

Deb Newell:
So I think that...

Pete Neubig:
So I like that. So number one is basically ask the team what the challenges are and use that as your smart goals. Number two is take an extra day after the conference and prioritize and just pick the top three things. And so when I prioritized, I looked at like importance, you know, and also I looked at what's easy to do, right? What's the easiest thing to do.

Deb Newell:
That's why I say, pick three things and then take three months. And then when you're like, Oh, I can do that and maybe you'd finish it sooner than three months, and that's fine.

Pete Neubig:
Then in the next three things,

Deb Newell:
And look at that list again, and sometimes you'll look at that list and go, Oh, that's actually not as important as something else. So what I do when I work with companies is they always tell me the symptoms. They're always like, my team is complaining, they're overwhelmed. All of this is going on. I can't do it. So I look, I'm hearing the symptoms from everybody. I'm taking the time to meet with everyone here. What's going on in their position, what their role is, what their functions are, how they're handling everyday processes. And then I'm looking to see what actually is the root cause of all of that. And it could be a person. It could be a lack of a process. It could be the wrong technology. It could be a myriad of things or it could be a combination of a lot of things. So my role is to kind of go in and that's where I kind of take it all apart before I build it all together again. So it's like Legos, I'm going to just mash it all up and then I'm going to build that foundation better again. And so I take I look at this as I'm not emotionally attached in anybody's company. I don't have any emotional attachment to your team. And that's a good thing because I can objectively look at what's going on. And usually, the owner knows that, you know, especially when I tell them what's going on, they're like, Yeah, yeah, I kind of thought so. I was hoping you didn't notice that or, yeah, but then I have to kind of take all the people out and then build everything how it should be running based on how they want it to run and then implementing all of those changes. I always say, if you don't change as a company, you're going to die as a company

Pete Neubig:
And you know what's funny? For a couple of years, I was trying to solve challenges at my company, and I would call them like cosmetic changes, right? So I would maybe implement property mail, big stuff. But still, when I finally solved my major challenges, the issue was not particularly people, but it was the organizational structure. And some people were not in the right seats. They were the right people on the bus. They just weren't on the right seats. And to tear down and rip down the organizational structure is not an easy task. And it's very hard to say, you know what? I don't have this right structure. I'm going to go ahead and do it. And so, you know, it's sometimes when you get back and you and you want to implement something, you realize that you're just kind of putting Band-Aids on, you know...

Deb Newell:
Exactly.

Pete Neubig:
...on a broken ankle, you know, like the bones sticking out of your skin and you're like, Oh, I'm going to put some Band-Aids here, right?

Deb Newell:
Yeah. So that's actually that's a really good point because I go in there and I kind of find I'm really able I have this talent where I can go in and I can discern people pretty quickly. And I can tell that there are, like you said, they're a great asset to the company, but they're just not succeeding in this position. The other thing I also do is and I see this happen is people go, Oh, but they've been so great as a maintenance coordinator, I'm going to throw them in as a leasing person because I'm struggling in that area. I'm like, Don't do that. Keep them as if they're successful and they're the expert and maintenance. Keep them in maintenance. Don't move them just because you love - This person's loyalm they're always committed - because what's going to happen? That person is going to burn out, hate that job and quit. And now, where are you at?

Pete Neubig:
Right. And now you lost two good people, one that was doing the maintenance. And yeah, I was literally talking to somebody about this two days ago where we're talking about the Peter principle, where they promoted the point of ineptitude. And I found as as a growing small startup company, I have people that I was loyal to when I actually outgrew them. Right. And so I would keep promoting them, and they just couldn't do the job anymore, like whether I promote them or not. We were just outgrowing them. But anyway, so to get back to this implementation, so now I'm this busy business owner that I'm maybe probably most likely spending 90 percent of my time in the business, 10 percent on, and I just spent my week on the business at the conference. Right? So now Tyson comes in, punched me in the face. I got these three things that I want to implement. What are your recommendations? So I take some time off I won't implement. But now I'm telling the team who is overwhelmed and they're getting punched by Tyson, too, that, hey, we got to do some extra work here. Not only do you have to do your job. But we have to make some change.

Deb Newell:
So now so before you even do that, I think I made that mistake years ago as well, and my team always hated it when I went to conferences.

Pete Neubig:
Mine too.

Deb Newell:
They were like, Oh great, she's going to come back and everything's going to change. And I learned that that's not the best thing to do. So you need to find somebody on your team that's going to be that person that can help implement all of this. You have to have oversight. So I say delegate because you still need to kind of know what's going on.

Pete Neubig:
Absolutely.

Deb Newell:
Again, you can't just, you know,

Pete Neubig:
You have to get buy-in from the team to right. You have to tell them why we're going to do this.

Deb Newell:
True. I think there's a balance on buy-in as well, because again, notoriously teams hate change. It's very difficult for them and some don't do it very well. And people, that's a personality thing. Some people just can't handle change and that's why they're always, you know, they'll always be that position of...

Pete Neubig:
I still only drink Coca-Cola. I don't drink Pepsi. I don't like to change.

Deb Newell:
Yeah. And people who know me know that I'm very much the same way, right? If I go to a restaurant and I say, "Can I have a Diet Coke?" "No, I got a Diet Pepsi?" I'm like, "I'll take water". That's the time I drink water. So the thing is, is that you have to. Yes, you need buy-in. But remember, you're kind of sharing with them all these things that you learn, you're kind of giving a very CliffsNotes version.

Pete Neubig:
I know you're hearing it secondhand, right? They didn't hear it from...

Deb Newell:
The context isn't there, and they don't understand the why. So I love Simon Sinek because he explains the why. You have to explain the why behind your doing something and why you want to move towards that change. I'm not changing it. Guys, hey, I just have an idea. We're going to look at possible solutions on how to get there, but this is why we're doing it. You have to explain that because if they don't understand when you do make that change, what happens is they become empathetic to the wrong people. For example, if you want to implement a new fee and it could be to an owner or it could be a tenant. If it's to a tenant, and they've never had this fee before and all of a sudden you're like, we're going to now start charging one hundred dollars for this, for admin, whatever it is and you start doing that, you tell your team you have to do this now it's in the contract. We're going to do this. Then tenants start complaining and then your team is like, I know, I don't know why they started doing this. I'm really sorry that empathy comes out and they're not loyal to...

Pete Neubig:
Right. They're loyal to you. And they don't charge it...

Deb Newell:
So the way to implement that is to, yes, get their buy-in, but explain the why. So before you make the change, you literally have to map it out for them. Some of the things I've done before is I've actually... what I'm always amazed at is that teams don't really understand all it takes to actually run a company. And so they get confused because they're just kind of stuck in their own little lane and they see other lanes and they're like, Yeah, I really don't want to do that, but I'm happy here, but I don't really understand why the owner keeps making all of these changes. One of the exercises I've done before is I've actually gone into offices and I've literally mapped out very rudimentary of just saying, Here's the income that comes in. This is it, guys. This is it. Management fees, placement fees. Here's some renewal fees, maybe a late fee here and there. You know, all of these things, it's very little. And here's all of our expenses. Like they don't realize the cost of the software cost of employees that, you know. And I usually just take an average. I'll say, you know, we're just going to take we'll take a median salary of forty-five thousand, you know, and there's ten of you and you know, so they can see the picture and literally mapping, like writing it on a whiteboard and having them look at it, they understand now why change has to happen. You wanted to raise. Well, guess what, in order for you to get a raise, I have to make some changes. I have to implement new KPIs and new metrics, and in order to do that, I have to do this. So again, it's what we don't do is we don't take the time to explain the why behind all of it. And so all they see is you making a change and miserable and...

Pete Neubig:
And there are going to be more phone calls. They see you making a change and...

Deb Newell:
All they see is the fallout. Like, Oh, now I'm just going to get a call. I don't know what to say. We don't spend the time to train them on how to handle these difficult conversations and they handle conflict.

Pete Neubig:
Yeah, I think that's brilliant. You have to relate it to them, right? Because all they see again is the negative phone call coming in. And one of the things that I used to do would be something like that. But I would talk about like, Hey, if we want health insurance here, this is what we need to do. We need to make some money. We can give you guys health insurance. So when we would implement new fees or anything like that, we would talk about what the benefit is to the company and to them specifically. And I think that's how you get them to buy in and that's how you get them on board. I think that's well said.

Deb Newell:
Yeah, And where I was going with the buy in piece again, it's a fine balance because whenever you want to introduce something and you want their buy in, they're also going to try to persuade you not to do it right. Oh no, no. I'm fine, I don't need you to implement this new software, I'm totally great, I don't need to do it. They've created all these workarounds. They have their own little system if they get hit by a bus. Heaven forbid. Now what? So again, explaining the why, Well, we have to do it this way so we can be cross functionally trained so you can take some time off like put a positive spin on it, right? So don't you know, hey, something happens to you with COVID now, you know, people can be out. You can have two or three people out of an office at a time and who's going to do what? The reality is, you have to tell them we have to do this in order to grow. Everybody comes to me like, I want to grow. I want to grow and grow. That's it. Growth will come as long as you have the back office fixed. If I can fix the back office growth will just naturally come. I don't even have to go out and get it. It's just going to come to my door. So but you have to have your processes in place. And if you want to grow and your team is telling you, I am maxed out, I can't do anymore. That's your opportunity to say great. This is what we're going to do to change that. I'm going to take some of this off your plate. I'm going to give it to so-and-so or I'm going to put in a new technology, and that's going to help you be more efficient. But we've got to learn how to do that. And then there's a cost to it.

Pete Neubig:
What is it? One step back to take two steps forward

Deb Newell:
And there's a cost. Nothing's free. I said this so many times on so many different podcasts, but you know, we pay for so much to run our business and yet we charge so little to manage a property. And there's a huge discrepancy there and we are not charging for our value or for what we are worth. At some point, there's going to be some big coup that's going to happen, and we are all going to learn that we need to raise rates and that people are just going to have to know that that is exactly what is going to happen. We spend, you know, owners as you know, who we manage for spend the least amount of money on babysitting and property management. And they're their two biggest assets in their life. They're the most valuable and they spend the least amount on those two things. And it's not because they're really trying to be cheap. It's just because no one set the bar for what that value is.

Pete Neubig:
Right. So I come in from the conference now, I have all these ideas, I have kind of a team meeting, right? I explain, you know what we're going to do?

Deb Newell:
And you are going to explain those three things? Remember, you're the only one that's previewed to that entire list. Share it with you. Do not share it with your entire team that also will overwhelm them

Pete Neubig:
That'll overwhelm them. Yeah.

Deb Newell:
Yeah. So they're going to be I mean, they'll be like throwing up their hands going, I'm just going to go. I'm quitting.

Pete Neubig:
Exactly. Ok.

Deb Newell:
And with the talent shortage that we have. That's the other thing that you have to be careful. Too much of this is going to they're worried, will I have a job like you have to. This is still a people industry. Yes, you still have a job, but here's what's going to change. So only take those three things and share that with the team. And maybe what they'll do is they'll help you prioritize. Wow, we need to do that first. So if that's that's the piece where they're going to have the buy in and they'll feel accountable, they're going to have now goals.

Pete Neubig:
Now, do you recommend that? Do you recommend that this happens right after I get back from the conference?

Deb Newell:
Well that depends. If it's a Monday? The answer is no.

Pete Neubig:
Within the week, within the week and the week?

Deb Newell:
And it should be at your team meeting. And now that brings up another good point. If you don't have a team meeting, that should be your number one thing you implement right away. If you don't do team meetings every week, that should be your first change. You don't even have to say, Here you go, here for you.

Pete Neubig:
And I was going to ask you, like, should it be...

Deb Newell:
You should have to go to a conference for that one.

Pete Neubig:
I was going to ask you should it be part of your quarterly goals, like if you're not doing a quarterly goal meeting, do you recommend quarterly meetings as well?

Deb Newell:
I do recommend quarterly meetings, but see if you can find something company size.

Pete Neubig:
Not with the team though, just with the executive team.

Deb Newell:
The executive, your executive team like, who are your decision-makers within your company. And for small companies, there'll be like, well, there's just three of us. So it may be that you have an off-site with those three people and make it a little bit of an event. So it's not all about just because you're strategically planning. I've worked with companies where I've done this full strategic plan for them for the whole year, but I map it out in quarters so that they don't. So again, my favorite poem, one of my favorite poems, is by Shel Silverstein. I don't know if you remember him from when we were kids.

Pete Neubig:
I don't.

Deb Newell:
It's the white cover and he had a big whale on the front of it. And one of the poems was that you can't eat a whale all in one sitting. You have to take it small bites, right? That's how you eat a whale, essentially.

Pete Neubig:
I've heard that. What an elephant. Yeah. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Deb Newell:
Yeah. It's the same thing. Right? And it may have been an elephant for a long time since I read the poem, but it's the same concept, right? So you have to take it in in very actionable and measurable steps. And so every quarter, which is every three months, that is actionable.

Pete Neubig:
Now, I'll say, for those that you do have, like quarterly rocks or quarterly goals and you come back and you have these three things you really can't jam them in, you might have to wait for next quarter, or you might find that you have an answer to a rock that you already have or you might have to replace a goal.

Deb Newell:
Exactly. I was just going to say that you may have to replace something because something that's where your team comes into play and they go, Well, you brought up a good point. We really actually have that issue that we need to deal with. So let's put that into place. And so then you move the other one into a further strategic goal further down the road, map it out a different phase.

Pete Neubig:
And I was like, you know Deb, I would come back from one of these conferences. I would try to implement everything as soon as possible, and literally my team had an uprising. They had to sit me down and basically tell me like, Stop,

Deb Newell:
Yeah, can you not go to these conferences anymore? Yeah. I started inviting them to conferences and then they would become part of the conference, and I think they got it. And then they could understand again. It's that buy in. It's like, how much do you want to invest in your team and how they're the experts in doing everyday stuff? You're the visionary that built this company, yet you're the only one going to conferences.

Pete Neubig:
Interesting. Ok, so you highly recommend that you take one or two team members at a minimum and send them to the conference?

Deb Newell:
Yeah. That's buy in. And it's also job security, because why would I leave a company that is investing in me to learn more?

Pete Neubig:
Interesting. I like that. And then this way, if you would bring your team, then you can go out and go, booze.

Deb Newell:
Then you can go drinking with your buddies like you said.

Pete Neubig:
You don't need smart goals. You give them the smart goals. Now that's an owner. That's what I like.

Deb Newell:
That's a baller.

Pete Neubig:
That's a baller. All right. Well, Deb, I appreciate the time. Do you have any other parting nuggets because we're going to go into the lightning round. I'm going to ask you a series of questions and then one to two-word answers.

Deb Newell:
Okay.

Pete Neubig:
And you to have to think on your feet.

Deb Newell:
Alright. Let's go for it.

Pete Neubig:
Any parting words before we go into the lightning round?

Deb Newell:
No, I think we covered a lot. So I think we're good.

Pete Neubig:
All right. Awesome. Well, thank you for that. All right. Lightning Round. All right, Deb, you ready?

Deb Newell:
I don't know. Now I'm nervous.

Pete Neubig:
No, they're easy, easy questions. This is a family-friendly...

Deb Newell:
But don't ask me boxers or briefs, because you know.

Pete Neubig:
No. What PM software do you use?

Deb Newell:
A Propertyware,

Pete Neubig:
What is your current organizational structure? For the PM side.

Deb Newell:
Department.

Pete Neubig:
Departmental. Do you use VAs, virtual assistants?

Deb Newell:
Yes.

Pete Neubig:
Do you have a BDM?

Deb Newell:
Yes.

Pete Neubig:
I have a BDM. What is one piece of advice you would give someone just starting out in a PM business?

Deb Newell:
I don't know. No, that sounds awful. Know your audience.

Pete Neubig:
Now you target market or what do you mean by I know your audience?

Deb Newell:
Find your niche. Know your audience, find your niche.

Pete Neubig:
Does Pineapple belong on pizza?

Deb Newell:
No.

Pete Neubig:
What book are you currently reading or one that has impacted your business or life?

Deb Newell:
Um, well, one that I feel has impacted is Simon Sinek, Start With Why. And I literally just bought and now I have to I'm literally pulling out my audible. I literally just bought a book this morning that I wanted to read...

Pete Neubig:
See people, leaders are readers.

Deb Newell:
Mm hmm. I read a lot. Oh, I will say this. Another really great book is, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. If you haven't read it, read it.

Pete Neubig:
Love that book.

Deb Newell:
Quick read and it's in a storytelling mode, but that's a really great idea. And that pyramid. Yeah, I'll stop there.

Pete Neubig:
That's a good one. What Disney character do you most associate with?

Deb Newell:
Cinderella

Pete Neubig:
That does not surprise me. What is one challenge you're currently facing in your business?

Deb Newell:
Time management.

Pete Neubig:
What do you prefer dogs or cats?

Deb Newell:
Dogs.

Pete Neubig:
Dog person like myself. Well, see, the lightning round wasn't that bad, Deb. I appreciate that. So if you are listening to this podcast and you want to join NARPM, just simply go to NARPM.O-R-G, narpm.org or you can call them at 800-782-3652. Thanks again, Deb Newell for bestowing some knowledge on us. My name is Pete Neubig, CEO, and co-founder of VPM Solutions. If you are looking for a virtual assistant, go to VPMsolutions.com. Until next time.