Speaker 1: Welcome to tiff Talks Tech, the podcast where we unravel
Speaker 1: the mysteries of multifamily marketing tech, making it not just understandable,
Speaker 1: but dare I say enjoyable. I'm your host, Tiffany, a
Speaker 1: season multi family marketer turn tech expert, here to guide
Speaker 1: you through your daily tech challenges with ease and a
Speaker 1: sprinkle of fun. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode
Speaker 1: of tif Talks Tech. Today. I'm excited because I have
Speaker 1: a repeat guest who's a really good friend of mine,
Speaker 1: Robert Turnbull, and we're going to be talking about why
Speaker 1: operators aren't actually in control of their tech stack. It's
Speaker 1: the founder of Multi Family CONSORTI and I'm really excited
Speaker 1: to dive into this. But before we do, can you
Speaker 1: just give us a little bit of your background. I
Speaker 1: know you've kind of give me the full one before,
Speaker 1: but maybe just how we got to this point and
Speaker 1: why you ended up focusing so deeply on tech stacks
Speaker 1: and operations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly, thanks for having me on again. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Always fun to check. Yeah, twenty six years multifamily started
Speaker 2: a lot of solutions and products. Learned early on that
Speaker 2: you need to have integrations, right, So you get to
Speaker 2: have integrations, and you got to play well in the sandbox,
Speaker 2: which is important if you're going to serve the management company. Truly,
Speaker 2: we realize that property management companies were having these challenges
Speaker 2: integrating with and identifying technology solutions that did play well
Speaker 2: in the sandbox, whether it be marketing, operations, and technology.
Speaker 2: So that's what kind of led us to multi family consortium.
Speaker 2: We just realized that rather than going out starting one
Speaker 2: more technology and solution, why don't we solve what they
Speaker 2: already have and see if we can improve what they have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we hear this all the time that people
Speaker 1: are overwhelmed with the amount of things that are out there.
Speaker 1: Can you give us some context into the kind of
Speaker 1: things that people come to you with and the challenges
Speaker 1: that operators are mentioning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I had I won't I won't say her name,
Speaker 2: but she was a pretty high all executive and well
Speaker 2: fairly well known management company and she's a said. I
Speaker 2: just got yelled at by my CFO, and I said, well,
Speaker 2: what for? Because our stack, our tech stack and arrow
Speaker 2: stack keeps going up fifteen percent year every year and
Speaker 2: I can't really explain why. And so I kept hearing
Speaker 2: that over and over, like they're getting bloated and they
Speaker 2: can't really figure out exactly what's causing all of this.
Speaker 2: They think they're scaling back and that goes up, and
Speaker 2: so there's this inability to actually visualize and see what's
Speaker 2: going on. And so that's kind of what led us
Speaker 2: to today, which is, look, we're all about innovation adoption,
Speaker 2: but man, we can't get innovation adoption until you figure
Speaker 2: out clean up your house. Get your house clean, we
Speaker 2: can start helping you get some really innovative solutions in place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely here all the time that things are just
Speaker 1: kind of fitting together, very clunky, and that's something we
Speaker 1: want to avoid. But when people are saying, oh, we
Speaker 1: have too much technology, what are they feeling in their
Speaker 1: day to day? Are they overwhelmed? Are they feeling like
Speaker 1: they lost controller? Are you hearing anything else?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, And one of the ways you can tell,
Speaker 2: there's a litmus test to figure out when they're overwhelmed
Speaker 2: the moment that they are spending more time managing their
Speaker 2: tools and technology at the property versus dealing with people.
Speaker 2: It's tipped when there's when they're not answering calls and
Speaker 2: they're not dealing with renters in front of them because
Speaker 2: they're plugging something in somewhere in fifteen different dashboards. It's
Speaker 2: a problem. We need to we need to use technology
Speaker 2: to free their time up, not to enslave them. And
Speaker 2: that is exactly what's happening right now, all these disparate systems,
Speaker 2: not dated systems.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I remember working on site, anytime we did a rollout,
Speaker 1: they were just like, no, please, no, please, no more technology.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're screaming, they're begging for less. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: don't think they mind using certain technologies as long as
Speaker 2: it's actually helping them do their job, not taking them
Speaker 2: away from their job.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It can't feel like just one more thing they
Speaker 1: have to learn, one more dashboard that they need to
Speaker 1: figure out, like they need to be able to streamline
Speaker 1: at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally agree.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how often is the frustration less about having technology
Speaker 1: and more about not being able to shape the stack
Speaker 1: in the way that they actually operate.
Speaker 2: I think that, well, this goes to a really big
Speaker 2: question and problem. So I'm just going to be blunt.
Speaker 2: Property management company executives have lost their power. They really have,
Speaker 2: and they don't even know it. It's been usurped from them,
Speaker 2: and then quite frankly, they've given it over and it's
Speaker 2: happened over time. So what I mean by that is
Speaker 2: they want to use the technology, but they camp because
Speaker 2: it's not integrated with something or it cost money to
Speaker 2: integrate with the foundational solution, whether it be their their
Speaker 2: property management software or the CRM or whatever it might be.
Speaker 2: They don't have data and insights that they can get
Speaker 2: from all these disparate sources. The data is often wrong.
Speaker 2: The brand, they've lost control of their brand. They aren't
Speaker 2: actually able to select the renter journey that they want
Speaker 2: because they're once again enslaved to these foundational solutions. So
Speaker 2: I think that's contributing to all of this.
Speaker 1: Right, and then at what point does a tech stack
Speaker 1: stop being supportive and then start becoming operational debt to
Speaker 1: the team.
Speaker 2: That's that goes right back to the original question, which
Speaker 2: is when they're spending too much time doing this right,
Speaker 2: talking to their properties and look, they'll be I mean
Speaker 2: you can see this, I believe in the anthropological exercise
Speaker 2: or some consultants in our industry. I think they're doing
Speaker 2: the right thing. They're looking at tech stack, but they're
Speaker 2: also actually visiting the properties and they're watching these leasing
Speaker 2: agents and they're just thinking, oh my gosh, they're spending
Speaker 2: so much time, it's insane. And the leasing agent has
Speaker 2: been saying it. Sometimes people are just start listening, right right.
Speaker 1: So in thinking about how the stack is broken in
Speaker 1: your experience and what you've seen, where is there more redundancy?
Speaker 1: Is it like in their marketing stacks or leasing operations
Speaker 1: all of that, Like, where are they seeing that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all of it quite frankly, Yeah, I can
Speaker 2: answer it a little bit differently in that. So part
Speaker 2: of what we're doing is we're actually grabbing all their marketing,
Speaker 2: operational and tech stacks and we're putting it into a
Speaker 2: visualization tool and go, hey, for the first time, there
Speaker 2: you go, why are you having three different products do
Speaker 2: the same thing for these two properties? Do you know
Speaker 2: you're paying for product you haven't used in two year?
Speaker 2: Do you know that you have four gaps of solutions
Speaker 2: that are out there that you don't even know about.
Speaker 2: We're having them addressed. So what's happening is it's just
Speaker 2: this frank and signing of solutions they're putting on that
Speaker 2: don't necessarily integrate and they don't always have the time
Speaker 2: to spend to do the due diligence to know, well, hey,
Speaker 2: it integrates, it doesn't integrate, it's AI. It's not AI.
Speaker 2: Like there's all these claims.
Speaker 1: And what is integrate? Like what level of integration?
Speaker 2: Exactly? Right? Oh, because you can download a file at
Speaker 2: the end of the night. That's not a true integration
Speaker 2: at least not the one that you need for whatever
Speaker 2: it is. So they really need they need an intermediary,
Speaker 2: someone who has a multi family CONSERTI we have people
Speaker 2: that have been on the property side, supplier side and both.
Speaker 2: They need someone who's going to go and I say, look,
Speaker 2: we get what you're looking for. We're going to help
Speaker 2: provide some basic solutions and information so you can make
Speaker 2: a determination of your own. Just more informed will.
Speaker 1: Help you do that, right, because a lot of times
Speaker 1: the teams don't have the time to just sit there
Speaker 1: and evaluate every little thing that they're using on a
Speaker 1: daily basis. Yeah, and do that work? How often do
Speaker 1: you think the chaos stems from, like the site teams
Speaker 1: not being involved in any of those decisions and not
Speaker 1: having a say and what gets kept and it's oh.
Speaker 2: So okay, there needs to be a symphony of information
Speaker 2: sharing between the highest level COO down to the leasing
Speaker 2: agent and everywhere in between. If you do not, if
Speaker 2: you do this in a vacuum, and you do not
Speaker 2: incorporate these various levels and true due diligence, then you're
Speaker 2: ultimately going to disable disenable, I think is the word
Speaker 2: those folks. And you're really ought to be talking and
Speaker 2: listening to the leasing team because that's the people that
Speaker 2: are they're their front, your front users. So there needs
Speaker 2: to be a chorus or a symphony of understanding between
Speaker 2: each group and someone who's tying all that together the
Speaker 2: decision making.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I can think back to experiences on the corporate
Speaker 1: side where we've had executives mandate tools where they didn't
Speaker 1: do any research on it, like, hey, you guys are
Speaker 1: going to try this tool. Okay, I've done lots of
Speaker 1: research actually, and I don't think this is a great option,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't really matter. You're going to use it anyways.
Speaker 1: And I think that's where the workflows can break because
Speaker 1: you're not taking the feedback of the people using the products.
Speaker 2: Totally agree, absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about adoption versus
Speaker 1: accumulation when it comes to tools, why do you think
Speaker 1: multifamily just keeps adding more tools instead of fixing the
Speaker 1: workflows that exist already.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so here's another one of those comments that made
Speaker 2: a land really well, lack of expertise to evaluate and
Speaker 2: quite frankly in some cases slid out laziness. I will
Speaker 2: say that, yes, there's some products and services that don't
Speaker 2: live up to the height. Maybe they'd misrepresented themselves, but
Speaker 2: that's just a function of not doing the due diligence
Speaker 2: this proper to do that. So let's just stick a
Speaker 2: band aid on the problem, throw throw another solution in
Speaker 2: there that'll solve the problem really, rather than going back
Speaker 2: and looking at the foundation of all of it. And
Speaker 2: it's getting to a point where things are just breaking
Speaker 2: and we've done as we've gone as far as we
Speaker 2: can with and now we need to go back to
Speaker 2: the drawing board and we need to look at foundational
Speaker 2: review around your technologies, your solutions rather than just throwing
Speaker 2: dandide solutions onto it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. Is there cost that's associated with that and
Speaker 1: without adopting the tools that actually make the.
Speaker 2: Most sense a cost you mean, oh well, okay, if
Speaker 2: you're this is something I see from time to time. Well,
Speaker 2: we don't want to pay for that solution, so let's
Speaker 2: just budgeting. Here's a great one. So yeah, let's just
Speaker 2: get a boot camp together. Let's get all our people
Speaker 2: for a week or two, and we'll spend all this
Speaker 2: time doing budgeting. So on the line item, it doesn't
Speaker 2: show any software that you're using. Maybe you're using Excel
Speaker 2: for these things, right, you just spend how much time
Speaker 2: flying people in and doing boot camps? So much that's
Speaker 2: tends upon tens of thousands of dollars and lost time
Speaker 2: and cost. It isn't showing up on a P and
Speaker 2: L necessarily, but it's costing you a fortune. These are
Speaker 2: the areas that's so one of the things that we
Speaker 2: look at is we actually look at when we're evaluating solutions,
Speaker 2: is okay, it may not be on your P and L,
Speaker 2: but how much time are you people spending And we
Speaker 2: calculate that versus the product. You realize, my gosh, that
Speaker 2: product has one person could take two days to do
Speaker 2: this versus fifteen people two weeks. Well there's your answer, right,
Speaker 2: So you've got a factor in all.
Speaker 1: The maths, all the dollars totally. Yeah, that's a great example.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of thinking about when a tool fails in
Speaker 1: the eyes of the corporate team, how often is that
Speaker 1: the real issue of the process or is it the
Speaker 1: product itself.
Speaker 2: I can only speak really for myself for the because
Speaker 2: I've been a supplier, if you will, for three years.
Speaker 2: We do have other partners at Multi foun Consertion have
Speaker 2: been on the property and I think that they will
Speaker 2: say it's fifty to fifty. Yeah, some of it's the
Speaker 2: management company and just the proper improper training. We see
Speaker 2: that playoff. What's funny because where we sit, we're in
Speaker 2: the middle. So will help someone adopt a solution, and
Speaker 2: then the management company is saying the product didn't do
Speaker 2: what it says, and then products going they didn't do
Speaker 2: the training we told them to do, and there's this disconnect.
Speaker 2: So we're kind of funny. We're in the middle watching
Speaker 2: both and they're both kind of right and they're both
Speaker 2: kind of wrong. So what we're trying to do is
Speaker 2: via intermediary to help improve the process at the property
Speaker 2: management company, but also provides some really good feedback to
Speaker 2: the solution to the supplier.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just recently did an episode about why tech
Speaker 1: rollouts fail, and I feel like that's kind of goes
Speaker 1: along with that, where it's like the whole team did
Speaker 1: not adopt the process and they're not really going along
Speaker 1: with it, so oftentimes that's why they fail.
Speaker 2: But and then you have to ask why are they
Speaker 2: not following the process, Like, what is it? Why are
Speaker 2: they not following the process simply just they didn't have
Speaker 2: the information, or they're resisting something and rather than forcing
Speaker 2: that we've seen this too, we'll just do it. Well,
Speaker 2: there's a reason why they're there pushing back because you
Speaker 2: have to have fourteen clicks to do something and you
Speaker 2: should only really need one. And so listening to their
Speaker 2: feedback is so important and honestly, they'll solve a lot
Speaker 2: of your problems if you just listen to it and
Speaker 2: try to understand why they're pushing back on something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And then kind of along those lines, having
Speaker 1: a messy stack, how does that affect the daily reality
Speaker 1: of the Onze team?
Speaker 2: Redundancies more time spending time, yeah, versus talking to people.
Speaker 2: You know, you just see that that's a feedback loop. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a feedback loop. Yeah, And I highly recommend to
Speaker 2: everyone sit down. I'm not a big fan like dropping
Speaker 2: cameras and necessarily and viewing this very big product, but
Speaker 2: maybe you should just to see how much time they're
Speaker 2: spending doing ridiculous, unimportant work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how often do you think like having a fail
Speaker 1: of a product? Do you think that impacts morale and
Speaker 1: turnover on the site level as well?
Speaker 2: Absolutely used to be the worst. The worst attrition rate
Speaker 2: in the industry is retail. Retail is about forty percent,
Speaker 2: you know year every year. Multifamily, depending on the type
Speaker 2: in the markets, between fifty and seventy three percent. Now, yeah,
Speaker 2: ask them why. Ask them why? Because they're they're being
Speaker 2: tasked to do too much for maybe what they're getting
Speaker 2: paid or just doesn't matter what you ban. There is
Speaker 2: getting tasked to do too much. That number that tells
Speaker 2: you a lot of what you need.
Speaker 1: To know right there, right, Yeah, I agree. When there
Speaker 1: is a messy stack, do you think that the renter
Speaker 1: or the prospect feels that pain as well?
Speaker 2: They do. They don't know why, but I'll tell you
Speaker 2: dropped conversations. Hey are you going to call me back
Speaker 2: about my application? Hey, I didn't get an email on Hey,
Speaker 2: you know, So why is this happening? Because there are
Speaker 2: maybe eight twelve fifteen disparate systems that the leasing agent's
Speaker 2: having to use and coordinate. They should not be doing that.
Speaker 2: It needs to be tied together and a unified solution
Speaker 2: needs to be walking through that, and there are solutions
Speaker 2: that can help do that very thing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, why do you think it's so hard to
Speaker 1: achieve that unified experience?
Speaker 2: Oh this is okay, Remember you're I'm going to keep
Speaker 2: saying some of these because I feel like I've broken
Speaker 2: a record. Some of the tools and solutions that we
Speaker 2: have relied on over the years simply have not kept up.
Speaker 2: They're using technology from nineteen ninety seven. They have not
Speaker 2: retro fitted, if you will, there's their products to keep
Speaker 2: up with today's open source solutions, agentic and so forth,
Speaker 2: and so we're seeing this failure rate occur. Can I
Speaker 2: just share something that is This just strikes me. This
Speaker 2: just strikes me. These companies that I'm talking about have
Speaker 2: opted not to retrofit or improve and modernize their solutions.
Speaker 2: So it costs a lot to integrate with them. That
Speaker 2: they're passing that cost not off to them doing it.
Speaker 2: If they're passing it off to these new innovative solutions
Speaker 2: that are people that are charging to fit a solution
Speaker 2: that doesn't really work today. You see that it's a
Speaker 2: bit of a racket. I mean they're not paying the
Speaker 2: money to fix it and modernize, so they're making it.
Speaker 2: Everyone else paid for the problem. And I have a
Speaker 2: hard time with that. It's killing innovation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, killing innovation absolutely. Kind Of along the lines of cost,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about measuring what is most important
Speaker 1: and when operators are looking at the cost as a
Speaker 1: starting point, why is that not the best starting point?
Speaker 2: Okay, so this goes back to our conversation around if
Speaker 2: you're just looking at cost, If you're just looking at cost, man,
Speaker 2: you haven't focused on integration capabilities, data abilities customizable to
Speaker 2: affect your brand capabilities. You're not looking at the people
Speaker 2: costs that are going to have to factor in now
Speaker 2: to fix the fact that you have. So if you're
Speaker 2: looking at cost, just cost, like the tag, the price tag.
Speaker 2: If you haven't, and I have a hard time believing
Speaker 2: that they're just looking at them. If you're doing that,
Speaker 2: then you need to move on to another job. But
Speaker 2: you really have to factor integration as data capabilities. Future
Speaker 2: state future proofing all that into your total cost in
Speaker 2: addition to whatever the price tag is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point, and I think that's why,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned the example of the budget boot camp,
Speaker 1: that can also be kind of a difficult place to
Speaker 1: be because you're sitting down, you're just looking at the
Speaker 1: price on the line item and not necessarily Okay, what's
Speaker 1: the impact, what's the benefit? How much are we saving
Speaker 1: with this product? Like that cannot always be the best thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how do you help operators determine if a tool is
Speaker 1: costing them money or if it's helping make them money,
Speaker 1: or if it's just contributing to the noise.
Speaker 2: Well, so what's interesting is there are four primary categories.
Speaker 2: Corporate optimization, so that's it's like corporate. Then there's lead management, right,
Speaker 2: so if we're moving down the funnel, then there's move
Speaker 2: in and application. Then there's living so you can kind
Speaker 2: of fit, and then there's now there was fifty two,
Speaker 2: there's fifty six subcategories under that, Like there's a lot. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: there are some that I call mission critical, and there's
Speaker 2: some that are kind of close that they don't even
Speaker 2: have factor it's blank. So there are things and solutions
Speaker 2: out there that are solving problems they don't even know
Speaker 2: anything about. So we're trying to surface that to them
Speaker 2: and say, did you know that this is available to
Speaker 2: you and heard of that company? Well, this is what
Speaker 2: they do. Like, that's great. Some of these can generate
Speaker 2: revenue for them. Some of these can can mitigate costs
Speaker 2: and risks on many levels. And so when we look
Speaker 2: at a stack, we don't look at just what you're paying.
Speaker 2: We're looking at what you're not making. You could be
Speaker 2: generating revenues in other areas too, which we have to
Speaker 2: factor into the delta. Once you've cleaned up your stack.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. How do you know what are
Speaker 1: the things you look at when you can tell it's
Speaker 1: actually a healthy, supportive stack.
Speaker 2: If you have a up in your product that does
Speaker 2: other things really well and you're not using it, we
Speaker 2: recommend that, Like, we don't want you to just tear
Speaker 2: stuff up. To tear stuff up, So let's evaluate that
Speaker 2: a lot of times they didn't realize that their solution
Speaker 2: can do multiple things. If a solution is doing multiple
Speaker 2: things but is not the best at it, and there's
Speaker 2: other solutions that are far better, we also need to
Speaker 2: make them aware of that. Well, it's all part of
Speaker 2: the stack that we're already offered, and you know, it's
Speaker 2: all these excuses like hold on, time out. You need
Speaker 2: to look at a future facing solution that's going to
Speaker 2: grow with you. So we try to evaluate what you
Speaker 2: have and then without and I'll tell you one other
Speaker 2: thing that we really I think is really important is
Speaker 2: you can make eleven recommendations. When do you see this
Speaker 2: eleven specific we only want to start with the highest
Speaker 2: quadrant ice value, quickest turnaround. Let's just start with that,
Speaker 2: because people see this stuff and they go, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: this is a lot of work. No, no, no, hold on, relax,
Speaker 2: hold on. We're not recommending all of it, but we
Speaker 2: are saying that this is based on our criteria, this
Speaker 2: is the highest concern, this crazy the high value, and
Speaker 2: less time to do it. So let's start with one
Speaker 2: and then work ourselves through it over the next six, nine,
Speaker 2: twelve months till you've got to cleans to clean up
Speaker 2: modernized deck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that absolutely makes sense. What is a mistake that
Speaker 1: we run into that company's make when they're trying to
Speaker 1: clean it up themselves. Is it like that price point
Speaker 1: where they're just looking at the price committee. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good way.
Speaker 2: This whole committee thing. We have an innovation committee. I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, that's great. How's it working out for you?
Speaker 2: And not like we thought it was gonna work out.
Speaker 1: So many cooks in the kitchen.
Speaker 2: Yes, so one person comes in because they're championing it.
Speaker 2: Everyone listens. Is there really go any further? This is
Speaker 2: not me saying this, This is me listening to them.
Speaker 2: And then and so you get to how do we
Speaker 2: integrate it? And then and the people kind of go
Speaker 2: off from the respect of cubicles in area and it
Speaker 2: doesn't seem to go anywhere. So we're like, you, guys,
Speaker 2: there's a reason for that. You all are really busy
Speaker 2: when you go back. This is what we do. We're
Speaker 2: kind of your outsourced innovation group. We're going to help
Speaker 2: you think through that, and we're going to take the
Speaker 2: time to manage through that and then help you with
Speaker 2: the project and change management if you need.
Speaker 1: Right, So, like, speaking of the change management piece of things,
Speaker 1: how do you handle that without burning people out even
Speaker 1: more if you're trying to make those changes?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So people, I think when they when we initially
Speaker 2: talk to us. They just see the sign on our
Speaker 2: forehead it says more work. Yeah, and we're like, hold on, yeah,
Speaker 2: what you're experiencing right now is more work. We actually
Speaker 2: want to say less work. We're going to go in,
Speaker 2: we're going to do the deep dive, we're going to
Speaker 2: do the we're going to do the analysis against a
Speaker 2: library of fifty five to one hundred different solutions that
Speaker 2: we've looked at against your current stack. We have an
Speaker 2: AI engine that goes in and starts to make recommendations
Speaker 2: around that, and we overview that. So we actually are
Speaker 2: doing a lot of that hands on work. We've done
Speaker 2: the analysis, We've done the vetting so that you can
Speaker 2: just come in and say, oh, I've never seen my
Speaker 2: stack before. That's what it looks like. Yeah, and this
Speaker 2: is what it can look like tomorrow. That right here
Speaker 2: is so aspirational and fun. When they see that, you
Speaker 2: can see, wow, it can become this modernized stack. But
Speaker 2: the few changes here and there, it's not impossible. You
Speaker 2: just have to see it. Once you see it, you
Speaker 2: can work towards it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. Do you think this will be a disruptor
Speaker 1: in any way of like companies might get upset that
Speaker 1: you're showing people a better way.
Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, if you're not in it, yeah, it's either
Speaker 2: gonna Look, our goal is innovation adoption. That will not change.
Speaker 2: If you're not innovating and you're not keeping up, then yeah,
Speaker 2: it's absolutely going to show that. Yeah, if you are,
Speaker 2: then we want to We want to showcase companies that
Speaker 2: have your future in mind, not theirs. Yeah, and there
Speaker 2: in lies the difference. We don't We're not interested in
Speaker 2: companies that just want to stay status quo and keep
Speaker 2: their revenues. We are interested in companies that are solving
Speaker 2: today's problems and tomorrow's problems right now. Yeah, yep, yep.
Speaker 2: A few people might get at other feathers ruffled.
Speaker 1: I like it you. Yeah. Let's talk about leadership and
Speaker 1: strategy a little bit. What role does leadership play in
Speaker 1: creating the chaos when it comes to this stack? I
Speaker 1: know we kind of touched on that a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a that is an often overlooked factor,
Speaker 2: and what we realize is leadership. It's this cliche, but
Speaker 2: it starts with that.
Speaker 1: Ye.
Speaker 2: Look, it's change. We need it. Here's why change management
Speaker 2: is powerful. If you have a leader that says everything's
Speaker 2: a messed with some ago clamor and they're not really
Speaker 2: putting resource behind it if they're giving you an understanding
Speaker 2: of why they're doing it. And look, folks, it's going
Speaker 2: to be a little painful, but we're going to get
Speaker 2: it done and we're going to be better off at
Speaker 2: the end of it. It's not project management we're more
Speaker 2: concerned about, because we can do that all day long.
Speaker 2: It's change management. But that company, I've used them for
Speaker 2: years and I'm really good friends with them. Hey, we'll
Speaker 2: take them to dinner next time you're in town. But
Speaker 2: their product isn't doing any favors, right, So we kind
Speaker 2: of come in in an objective way and show the
Speaker 2: data so that it gives them excuse license to walk
Speaker 2: away from a product that deep down they probably know
Speaker 2: that they should, but they're a friend. That's a hard
Speaker 2: one because our industry is very relational, for better or worse.
Speaker 2: So we want to come in and be that middle
Speaker 2: ground that says, hey, you know what, let us show
Speaker 2: you the data and you can make a decision based
Speaker 2: on that and keep your friendships, but it's time for
Speaker 2: you to move on to a better solution.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a great way to get buy
Speaker 1: in across all the departments. When everyone has their favorite
Speaker 1: thing that they work with, showing the data is really
Speaker 1: going to tell the story?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it should at absolutely should.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what mindset shift needs to happen for operators to
Speaker 1: move from owning tools to orchestrating an entire experience.
Speaker 2: Oof, that's a you know, I'm going to defer to
Speaker 2: people like you actually who have been on the I'm
Speaker 2: actually curious to know how you would answer that because I,
Speaker 2: unlike you, Tiffany, I've never been on the property side
Speaker 2: of it. So you having been leasing and being in corporate,
Speaker 2: how would you answer that question.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think, like we said earlier, just listening
Speaker 1: to the on site teams or listening to others around you,
Speaker 1: like that was one thing I wish I would have
Speaker 1: had more of, is like people listening to me and
Speaker 1: my experience with certain tools instead of just mandating things
Speaker 1: of like, hey, I did a lot of research behind things.
Speaker 1: Why are we going this direction? So I do think
Speaker 1: that we just need to be open to listening more
Speaker 1: and more.
Speaker 2: Why do you think that they weren't open?
Speaker 1: I think it's like one of those things where like
Speaker 1: you said, everybody has their favorite person that they work with,
Speaker 1: so someone may have gotten to them first and not
Speaker 1: they didn't do the research behind it, and a lot
Speaker 1: of times they'd end up with really expensive products that
Speaker 1: weren't really doing what they thought it was going to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, I've benefited from having friendships in this
Speaker 2: industry to have helped, but I recognize it truly. That
Speaker 2: should get you in the That can get you in
Speaker 2: the door, but that's not what should keep you there.
Speaker 1: No. Yeah, your product can stand up on its own.
Speaker 2: It has to stand up on its own, and if
Speaker 2: it's not, then then you have inherent issues.
Speaker 1: Right. And so then with that said, like I wish
Speaker 1: someone would have listened to me more. As leaders, how
Speaker 1: do they give their teams more autonomy without creating a nightmare?
Speaker 2: I think you need to give teams time.
Speaker 1: Up.
Speaker 2: When you're running around and you're doing all these disparate
Speaker 2: systems and you're trying to solve these problems and you're
Speaker 2: not taking critical time, people often say, well, see you
Speaker 2: sitting at your desk, you're not doing anything. You know,
Speaker 2: sometimes that's the best thing. Yeah, So they can think, yeah,
Speaker 2: so they really need to have a little bit of
Speaker 2: time to think, and I don't think they have that
Speaker 2: time right now.
Speaker 1: No, they're just going from past to task.
Speaker 2: So I keep throwing that out and my solutions to
Speaker 2: be honest on that is, there are solutions through a gentic,
Speaker 2: semantic AI and so forth that are starting to surface,
Speaker 2: the idea that it can tie in all these disparate
Speaker 2: systems or many of them, so that the human isn't
Speaker 2: having to do all of this manual work. Agentic which
Speaker 2: is agent can handle a lot of this, but not
Speaker 2: all of it. It's not going to replace your best people.
Speaker 2: You're going to keep your best people. It might replace
Speaker 2: some of your lower performers. Yeah, but that's not a
Speaker 2: bad thing, and it's a force multiplier. It will give people,
Speaker 2: especially your best performers, their time back so they can
Speaker 2: do what they do best, think and work with their
Speaker 2: prospective owners.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think people underestimate how much energy it
Speaker 1: actually takes to give a tour to I mean, at
Speaker 1: least for me as I'm an introvert, but like to
Speaker 1: give a tour to talk with somebody like you, Really
Speaker 1: it takes a lot of your energy and so they
Speaker 1: don't need to spend that time doing menial things and we.
Speaker 2: Menial, low reward, repetitive tasks. Yeah, we can, we can,
Speaker 2: we can do better. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Do you think that the future of multifamily is
Speaker 1: fewer tools, better tools, or just better control of the journey.
Speaker 2: I think it's the proliferation, and it's the it's the
Speaker 2: proliferation that you see with tools and technologies because it's
Speaker 2: actually easier to generate and build new ones, and then
Speaker 2: it'll just kind of begin to reduce.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that agentic will start to eliminate the need
Speaker 2: for some stuff, will incorporate other stuff, and will not
Speaker 2: be able to touch various things. And so I do
Speaker 2: think with agentic you are going to see less proliferation,
Speaker 2: more consolidation. Through the Agentic solutions. They are not a
Speaker 2: solve all, but they should be acting as a solution
Speaker 2: that ties these together on the Renter journey.
Speaker 1: Do you think it so?
Speaker 2: I think it will be less.
Speaker 1: For any company to own every piece of it, Like,
Speaker 1: do you think it's possible for all to be consolidated
Speaker 1: consolidated into one? Because I have my own opinions on it,
Speaker 1: but I want to hear what you think.
Speaker 2: It will never be able to tell I don't think
Speaker 2: so either. You can't. I'll give an example of turns,
Speaker 2: make radies right returns. Well, software can go in and
Speaker 2: actually know when someone's moving out and maybe schedule some stuff.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, you've got to
Speaker 2: have someone that walks into the property, sees everything that's
Speaker 2: going on, actually starts to do the labor. And the
Speaker 2: work was funny as AI isn't replacing the blue collar workers.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're actually the safest people, your plumberge electronics.
Speaker 2: It's the white collar folks is actually getting it for
Speaker 2: the first time through this type of bottom I think.
Speaker 1: More like the software is like the yards, the real pages,
Speaker 1: like the very big, big guys in the industry. I
Speaker 1: feel like in the past they've tried to take all
Speaker 1: of the technical pieces of it, but I just don't
Speaker 1: know how well that works.
Speaker 2: Well. It depends. If you acquire something and fully integrate it,
Speaker 2: good for you. If you acquire it and bolt it
Speaker 2: on like Frankenstein, not good. I'll let people make their
Speaker 2: own opinions as to who's doing what. But yeah, integrations
Speaker 2: is key, and you can quickly see when they're not
Speaker 2: fully integrated.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, if you could give operators one rule for
Speaker 1: adding or removing tech from their stack. What would that be?
Speaker 2: One rule to add or remove.
Speaker 1: Like as they go through that process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is gonna I don't know if this is
Speaker 2: exactly the answer you're looking for. The rule is you
Speaker 2: can no longer look at things in a silo. You
Speaker 2: must look at things on a holistic view. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: where we got into the problem we're into. So they
Speaker 2: look at a category and go, all right, solve that one.
Speaker 2: That may be fine for this, but you have fifty
Speaker 2: two fifty six other subcategories and things. You cannot look
Speaker 2: at these in a silo or in a vacuum any longer.
Speaker 2: You must look at this holistically. And and that's really
Speaker 2: why we actually built stack smart so that we can
Speaker 2: help provide that visual So you have to look at
Speaker 2: everything as a whole, no longer in its pieces.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, So I have a bonus question
Speaker 1: that I ask every guest that comes on the podo. Okay,
Speaker 1: for you in your personal life, what is one tech
Speaker 1: tool that you are loving right now? Can be whatever?
Speaker 2: Okay, I know this is going to be totally Hi,
Speaker 2: come on, you gotta love it. You gotta love it.
Speaker 2: You gotta. I mean, it helps me do so much
Speaker 2: right now, I can't tell you the analysis recommendations. I
Speaker 2: will say some folks are like, well, hey, I can't
Speaker 2: do you know, business dollars or something. Yeah, I can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it can.
Speaker 2: It can do a lot of stuff. It's moved faster
Speaker 2: than I think people people realized. Okay, so the the the.
Speaker 1: Aura ring, Yeah, I'm wearing one right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. So I'm getting one, and my
Speaker 2: daughter's used one, and I gotta tell you, man, that's
Speaker 2: pretty cool the stuff that it can do and the
Speaker 2: bio feedback. So I'm not using that one because I'm
Speaker 2: not allowed to use chatchyte apparently, but I will say
Speaker 2: that the ore ring is something I'm very interested in
Speaker 2: because of the biofeedback.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you can actually use your HSA to
Speaker 1: purchase one as well, if anyone's listening in once one
Speaker 1: really Yeah that's what I did.
Speaker 2: I did not know that. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: The data all the time, it's so interesting and my
Speaker 1: sleep scores are so bad all the time.
Speaker 2: Well it's yours.
Speaker 1: Because I feel like I've used up all my tools.
Speaker 2: I've gotten asked this before, you know, Look, I do
Speaker 2: get a little concerned with people's dependencies that they're already
Speaker 2: forming on. Yeah, day, it is a little scary.
Speaker 1: I had that thought earlier today. I'm like, if CHATCHYBT
Speaker 1: just went away, I don't know what I would do.
Speaker 2: I mean, look for people who have started up companies
Speaker 2: and stuff, the work that goes into it. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: ability for me to do what we're doing on the
Speaker 2: scale that we're doing, I wouldn't be able to do
Speaker 2: it if I didn't have And it's an organizational tool,
Speaker 2: so we can take this transcriptor having our conversation that'll
Speaker 2: help extrac certain things I need. Could I have gone
Speaker 2: through and look at it manually? Sure? It just saved
Speaker 2: me time. So people need to remember it's a tool,
Speaker 2: it's technology.
Speaker 1: Leave it at that, Okay, I did actually just think
Speaker 1: of one. The tool that I love right now is
Speaker 1: the tool that we're recording this podcast on. It's called Riverside,
Speaker 1: and I love it. It will clear up. It will
Speaker 1: use AI to clear up the sound, so if someone's
Speaker 1: not using a microphone, it will make it nice and
Speaker 1: crisp and clean, and then you can see the entire
Speaker 1: transcript and kind of edit it. That way, which I love,
Speaker 1: and then it will come up with magic clips that
Speaker 1: you can share on social. So that's what I do.
Speaker 1: Every time I share, I use like the magic clips
Speaker 1: and go in and edit them.
Speaker 2: So hellow it. I can't wait to see our magic clips.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's amazing cool. Yeah, well, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining me. Where can people find you and
Speaker 1: connect with you and learn more about what you're doing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, anytime Robert at Multifamilyconsortion dot com. They can visit
Speaker 2: our site as well as USI the best place and
Speaker 2: a lot of people. Yeah my number, just call me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: perfect chat that always good to always going to be on.
Speaker 2: Thanks TOFF.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you. Thanks for joining Tiff Talks Tech. Tune
Speaker 1: in next time for more candid conversations, actionable advice, and
Speaker 1: a whole lot of tech talk. In this fast paced
Speaker 1: world of multifamily marketing, understanding tech should not be a challenge.
Speaker 1: It should be a conversation.