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The Scariest Hire of my Life, and Two Tools.

We're hiring for a COO at RL Property Management. I've never hired for a role this senior before, and it's frankly terrifying. I've gotten some outstanding advice & input from folks in my network and on Twitter, so thank you anyone who made suggestions or is just following along and giving encouragement. Two important tools I'm using to de-risk the process as much as I can:

1) The A-Method For Hiring (Who). Many of you have probably heard of (or even read) the book "Topgrading" by Bradford D. Smart. It was published in 1999 and became something of a gold standard for how to hire well. More recently, his son Geoff Smart wrote an updated and expanded book called "Who". It had been recommended to me many times and I finally decided to read it ahead of this important hire. It's fantastic and lays out an easily-approachable framework for how to hire top talent. I'm essentially following this process verbatim.

2) Predictive Index. If you haven't heard of it, Predictive Index is an assessment tool similar to the DISC profile or Culture Index. There are a bunch of these kinds of tools used in business for hiring & management; honestly I think most of them are very similar. Predictive Index came recommended to me by several others in my line of work and I really hit it off with the consultant that was referred to me. Plus, their technology platform is best-in-class. I worked with my consultant to develop an ideal profile for our specific COO role, and candidates are being assessed against this baseline. Here's my profile for anyone interested; it tells me I have a "Captain" profile:

Conferences: SMBash and Sales Mastery Live

SMBash

Sam Rosati, Brandon Laughridge, and Matt Hinson are hosting a conference in February called SMBash, for folks buying, operating, and investing in the SMB and Micro-PE space. I'll be there (it's in Orlando) and can't wait to meet up with any of you who might be attending as well. Other investors and operators in attendance include: Nick Huber, Tim Ludwig, Rich Jordan, Alex Bridgeman, Nick Haschka and Steve Ressler. I have to share 3 tweets from the conference organizers that have me most excited to attend:

Sales Mastery Live

I'm also attending (and speaking at) Sales Mastery Live in Ft Lauderdale next week. Day 1 is all about real estate investing, and Day 2 is all about property management sales skills. The conference is organized by Jeremy Pound & his company RentScale. Jeremy and RentScale changed my life in a very significant way by showing me the power of (and helping me hire & onboard) our first full-time salesperson. I've shared before that our company has taken off ever since we hired a salesperson 18 months ago. If you're on the fence about hiring your first salesperson at your property management company or small business, I highly encourage you to take the leap. And I'm happy to talk with anyone who has questions about this process; just reach out.

The Best Real Estate Underwriting I've Ever Seen

Written by "Real Estate Simpleton" - A detailed analysis of valuing an 18-unit property in Pontiac, MI listed for 1.45M. I can't speak highly enough of how great this writeup is. If you have even a passing interest in how to evaluate a potential real estate deal, I highly encourage you to read this. I rarely see this level of detail. I don't know who this guy is "in real life", but he is the real deal. He has a great Twitter account too - here's another gem from him:

New Podcast Appearances

• I was a guest on The Fort podcast episode 182 with Chris Powers. We do a deep dive into the operations of a residential PM business. I discuss his thoughts on Airbnb entering the PM space, what technology the PM industry needs, and how I bought & valued 2 PM companies.

• There's a brand new special episode of my podcast Owner Occupied. I take the mic solo this time, and answer a few great questions that came in over Twitter about my property management business. Give it a listen if you haven't already. Part 2 is coming soon, too.

That's it from me today! Thank you again for being a subscriber.