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Jason sat down with young entrepreneur Malcolm Keith to explore how teens can develop leadership, confidence, and entrepreneurial thinking much earlier in life, long before most people ever consider that path. In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth expert Jason Hull and teen entrepreneur Malcolm Keith discuss how environment shapes mindset, why exposure matters more than pressure, and how parents can give their teenagers a powerful head start by surrounding them with the right opportunities and conversations. You'll Learn (00:00) Why Every Entrepreneur Wishes They Could Start Earlier  (00:45) Malcolm Keith's Early Exposure to Entrepreneurship  (02:00) How Environment Shapes an Entrepreneurial Mindset  (03:50) Discovering the Power of Being in the Right Rooms  (05:00) The Isolation of Young Entrepreneurs (and How He Solved It)  (06:10) Building Teen Mastermind: From Idea to Community  (07:30) Taking a Shot: Trying to Get on Funnel Hacking Live Stage  (09:00) Turning Community Into Real-World Experiences (Live Events)  (12:30) Designing Events for Growth: Community, Action, and Fun  (18:30) Advice for Parents: How to Raise Entrepreneurial Thinkers Quotables "It wasn't my parents who were directly telling me like, you need to be a business owner. This is how being an entrepreneur works. It was the people on stage that were selling me on the idea of entrepreneurship."  "If you don't ask, the answer is always no."  "I never knew it become this big and we'd be doing live events. I just created it because I wanted a friend group."  Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) All right, five, four, three, two, one. Welcome everybody. I'm Jason Hull, the owner and founder of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we've brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses.   We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let's get into the show. All right. So today this show is going to be all about giving your teenager the headstart that you wish you had as an entrepreneur. Don't you wish you could just go back and like help yourself out. So I'm hanging out here today with Malcolm. Malcolm, welcome. Welcome, Keith.   Malcolm Keith (00:56) Hey, thank you.   Jason Hull (00:59) welcome to the show. So I'll give you a little bit of background on Malcolm. At just 17, Malcolm launched Teen Mastermind, a growing community of more than 60 teens dedicated to leadership, entrepreneurship, and building a meaningful legacy. Now 19, Malcolm has taken that vision even further by bringing the movement into the real world with Teen Mastermind Live, a three-day immersive leadership experience designed for both teens and their parents.   In a time when most conversations about young people revolve around screen addiction and disconnection and lack of direction, Malcolm represents a powerful counter narrative. As a young leader himself, he's helping teens step into confidence, develop entrepreneurial thinking and strengthen family relationships around shared purpose and growth. So Malcolm, welcome to the DoorGrow show.   Malcolm Keith (01:53) Awesome. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.   Jason Hull (01:56) Cool, cool. So now tell people a little bit, how did you get started doing this and how did you kind of start your little entrepreneurial journey yourself?   Malcolm Keith (02:09) Yeah, so my parents got married and opened their dojo the same year. And so I've been in the entrepreneurial world my entire life, about as long as I've been on the mats doing jujitsu. And so those two go very hand in hand in my journey. ⁓ And so I think when I was when I was nine years old is when my parents, they've been going to a mastermind for ⁓ martial arts school owners. And so they've been like, you   Jason Hull (02:17) Thank   Malcolm Keith (02:38) One parent would go while the other parent would stay home and take care of me and my little sister. But one day they were like, why are we continuing to do this? We, we homeschool and we have the ability to just take the whole family together and it kind of sucks when the family is split apart. So why don't we just, so they made a commitment to always take the whole family on every trip, on every business trip. And so we got to sit in the meeting rooms.   and learn from these entrepreneurs. At first we were like little kids just playing with our toys quietly in the corner, reading a book quietly. But ⁓ as a little kid, you're a little information sponge. And so eventually we actually started listening and taking notes. And then I think it was probably when we went to some of Russell's events, like Funnel Hacking Live and Unlock the Secrets was when I was like, this entrepreneur stuff is super cool. And it wasn't my parents who were   directly telling me like, you need to be a business owner. This is how being an entrepreneur works. It was the people on stage that, so my parents put me in these rooms where there were people on stage and they were the ones that were selling me on the idea of entrepreneurship. And so that's how, that's kind of how I got into this whole world.   Jason Hull (03:56) You had entrepreneurial parents and they put you in some amazing opportunities and rooms to be exposed to think differently. And man, that's like the best homeschool education ever, right? It's a real education that actually leads you making money instead of just being a really good employee somewhere maybe. cool. And your parents are doing, have the martial arts school and doing the martial arts thing. And do you do martial arts? ⁓   Malcolm Keith (04:08) yeah.   Yeah, I've been doing   it since I I learned how to walk and talk on the mats. So I've been, yeah, whole life.   Jason Hull (04:26) Yeah, okay. So   right. I mean, don't let the glasses fool you. This guy could probably kick your butt. So, all right. So very cool. So Malcolm, and you've been doing this mastermind, you've got this event coming up. So tell people about like, why did you decide to start this and get this thing going?   Malcolm Keith (04:47) Yeah, so I've been going to these, like, there's been, we've been going to Russell's events for a while and I would sometimes meet a couple of the teens there. ⁓ There'd be occasionally a few teens, but we would never stay connected. And ⁓ as I was homeschooled, we were part of kind of a co-op. And so I still had like classmates that I would meet with every week and it was great.   But every time I'd come back home from these events, I'd come back to class and talk with my classmates there. And they just didn't understand it, this whole world of entrepreneurship and being a business owner and having a big vision and actually knowing that you can achieve it. so they didn't get exposed to that world ⁓ the same way that I did. And so ⁓ that felt a bit isolating. ⁓   Jason Hull (05:32) Yeah.   Yeah, yeah.   Malcolm Keith (05:44) It was at like, I think it was Unlock   the Secrets that I saw that, there are actually other teens that ⁓ are not only interested, but doing business already. But then I kept going to those events and we would never stay connected. ⁓ And so eventually it was ⁓ Unlock the Secrets in Paradise in 2024. And I realized, and I made the decision like, okay, this time is going to be different.   Jason Hull (06:01) Yeah.   Malcolm Keith (06:13) I'm going to make a Discord server and invite all the teams that I meet there. And we're just going to make a commitment to stay connected. Then we had, so I invited everybody there that I had met. We did our own little like in-person mastermind ⁓ during like one of the off sessions during the event, which is super fun. And then ⁓ one of us had the idea to start doing a call every week. So that's how that started happening. We could stay connected, keep each other updated on.   what we're all doing with our businesses. And that's how that started. Eventually the idea came along to, ⁓ we had this idea to try to get on the FHL 10 stage. And it's crazy idea, like, cause only the best of the best get on that stage. But.   Jason Hull (06:44) Yeah.   So   let's pause for a second. So I wanna explain to people listening. So he's mentioning Russell. We're talking about Russell Brunson. He's like the sort of the founder of ClickFunnels and brilliant entrepreneur, probably one of the greatest marketing minds ⁓ period of this generation. And ⁓ that's how we met you and your parents is we're in Russell Brunson's inner circle. ⁓   which is not an inexpensive thing to be part of. So getting access to that as a teenager is pretty amazing. So really awesome. And you were wanting to get on stage at Funnel Hacking Live, which was like this massive event. I think they have like sometimes 5,000, 6,000 people at these conferences, these events. And you're like, how can we maybe get on stage at this event as teenagers? So I love it. All right, so continue.   Malcolm Keith (07:53) Yeah, biggest marketing business event   like ever. So rock concert for entrepreneurs. ⁓ So we had this idea, what if we try to get on stage? It's probably not going to happen, but you might as well try. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. So, yeah, we put together a video made sure to include as many little like nods to all the stuff that Russell says to show that you actually listen to him. ⁓ And he re

In this episode, Jason sat down with Brian Seidensticker of Mount North Capital to unpack one of the biggest growth constraints property management business owners face: access to capital at the exact moment opportunity appears. In today's show of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth expert Jason Hull and investor Brian Seidensticker discuss how strategic funding partnerships work, what makes an ideal market and operator, and how property managers can scale faster by combining capital, systems, and the right long-term investment mindset. You'll Learn (05:01) How Mount North Capital helps property management firms with funding: This is the heart of the episode: what they actually do and why it matters.  (06:26) Partnership models for property managers and investors: Defines the structure of the opportunity, how both sides work together.  (08:45) The win-win scenario for property managers and investors: The philosophy behind the model; why this isn't just financing, but alignment.  (09:58) Ideal property management partners and market criteria: Who this is really for, and who it isn't.  (11:19) Market selection and geographic focus for investments: Critical filter: where this strategy works in reality.  (12:48) The importance of systems and scaling in property management: Without this, everything else breaks. This is the operational truth.  (14:29) Overcoming growth ceilings with the right mindset and resources: The deeper constraint isn't capital, it's capability and mindset.  (16:39) Evaluating deals in secondary and tertiary markets: Where the actual opportunity lives, beyond obvious markets.  (19:17) Advice for property managers ready to grow: The moment where theory turns into direction.  (21:46) Partnership requirements and collaboration with DoorGrow: The non-negotiables, this sets the bar for entry into the model. Quotables "The reality is most would never even if they knew what you were doing, most wouldn't even do it. Like most people don't implement. That's just reality in life."  "The best scenario for property managers is to manage their own portfolio."  "One of my requirements is we do want to scale on a significant level." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) Five, four, three, two, one. All right, I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we've brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management businesses, the business owners,   and change their lives. want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let's get into the show. So today's episode, our guest is Brian Seidensticker of Mount North Capital. We're going to talk about one of the biggest challenges property management entrepreneurs face having access to capital at the exact moment opportunity strikes. So   If you've ever been presented with an incredible acquisition expansion opportunity or growth moment and you wish you had immediate access to funds to confidently move forward, we're going to unpack that today. And that's what we're going to chat about. So welcome to the show, Brian.   Brian Seidensticker (01:18) Thanks Jason. Thanks for having me. Thanks having me back, right?   Jason Hull (01:21) Yeah. Yes,   it's good to have you. So cool. So let's get into let's get into this. So ⁓ let's give everybody a little bit of background first. And ⁓ what what you know, what do people need to know about Brian that have listened to this? This is the first episode first time.   Brian Seidensticker (01:47) Well, think maybe a brief history of ⁓ how myself and we, which is ⁓ Mountain with Capital, came to be. I'm actually an engineer by trade and I'd say in a different life, Jason, I would be reaching out to you for help on how to figure out this business that I randomly went off and ⁓ created and then found myself eight years later going, man, this is outgrown my capabilities. What do I do? ⁓   I got a similar help in the form of a group that I joined called Entrepreneurs Organization. And it's been transforming, getting that help from somebody that knows how to take what you build to the next level. So.   As part of that, really what we ended up doing is we went from a data software company that had reached a ceiling. We had a really unique data set and then we built a fund, is Mountain with Capital, around the ability or really the model of using that data and acquiring assets in certain markets where we felt with this analytics, we could buy properties that have   really great discount, right? Using, you know, not only the platform, but then the style of auctions that we attend. But a key component of that was the partners that we worked with, right? And still work with today. And we were very successful in building partnerships with boots on the ground and folks that knew what to do with these properties. Because we, A, we had a great way of identifying and we had the capital available to acquire those assets, right? At the time, these are auctions that   Jason Hull (03:28) .   Brian Seidensticker (03:28) that required cash,   right? And that's the hard part. And it worked out really well. We went from, you know, a million dollar, you know, proof of concept fund. Last month, we were about 58 million of assets under management. And so it's, it's been great, but it certainly has also uncovered other opportunities for us along the way. The typical partner that we work with is kind of a fix and flip strategy, right? But   Jason Hull (03:47) Hmm.   Yeah.   Brian Seidensticker (03:55) we felt a lot of the opportunities that we were seeing is much more in the, I'll say fixed to buying rent, right? It was the long-term hold strategy where we had an excellent avenue of acquiring, right, and getting them there, right? But what we were looking for and lacked is really the property managers that we want to partner with in those areas. our   I don't want to give away all of the special sauce or we can dive into the details, but that's really what's led us to where we're at today is we're kind of at this pivot point and we've built a couple relationships with great partners in a couple markets and now we're wanting to grow that, right, and find more partners in more markets.   Jason Hull (04:40) Yeah, we want all the special sauce, Brian. Give it to us. I'm just kidding.   So, I mean, the reality is most would never even if they knew what you were doing, most wouldn't even do it. Like most people don't implement. That's just reality in life. Right. Like a lot of people like what's how's door grow helping people grow? I'll tell you, I give away free videos that teach you like what we do. But until they join our program, they find it difficult or hard to figure stuff out on their own. They just they don't do it. So.   So awesome. So Brian, obviously you believe in mentorship and coaching and you've gotten, you you have had resources that have helped you get to where you're at now. So let's get into the topic at hand. So let's unpack. How is Mountain North Capital helping property management business owners unlock strategic funding solutions that fuel growth, right? Like, how do we do this?   Brian Seidensticker (05:37) Yeah, I think, you know, kind of thinking out loud here a little bit, right? But, you know, I'll, I'm a big fan of, you know, it sound cliche, like win-win, right? Is we're not sick. We're not a bank, right? It's like, Hey, I got a better rate than you do. And we're not in it, you know, purely for ourselves. And so everything we go into, we, we look at it as a partnership, right? But it also has to make sense for the folks that we're going to partner with. And so, you know,   Really what we are looking for are, and the partnerships that we found to be very successful are scenarios where ⁓ if there's a property manager or I guess a property manager that will.   maybe wants to get into the business, You know, an aspiring property manager, if you will. ⁓ And they have access to a, you know, either it's a deal or a market or a ⁓ portfolio, right? Where maybe they don't have the ability to take that down themselves, right? because I know full well, right? Why would you partner with somebody?   you know, for the capital access, if you have the ability to buy it yourself, it always makes sense to buy it yourself, right? And so really what we're looking for are folks that maybe have, you know, scenarios or deals that come across, right, that would allow them to grow their portfolio that they're managing, right, grow their business, right? ⁓ Especially if they think of it as a business, ⁓ but maybe don't necessarily have the capital stack that allow them to   to pursue that to its fullest, then we might be a partner, and it is a partner partnership, to help them grow that business really with a different tool in their belt than they maybe have ever had before. And that's really, know, when we were talking with, I'll say potential partners, you know, on this concept initially was, hey, we were only interested in the acquisition and the   you know, get it ready for rent. then Mount Norris typical model was let's refinance or sell it out. Let's get it out. We get out of the fund as quickly as possible. And we had success in doing that. But a lot of times, you know, the partners that we're working with, we really, they wanted to build, do that, but they wanted to keep it in their portfolio, make it a rental, right? Hold it for the l

When building a business, have you ever felt like working harder should be the answer, but the more you push, the more exhausted, misaligned, or stuck you become?  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, Jason Hull sits down with Sean Patton, former U.S. Army Special Forces Commander, executive coach, and leadership speaker, to unpack what entrepreneurs can learn from military leadership, self-leadership, and mission-driven culture.  They discuss the dangers of hustle without recovery, why so many business owners never learn to lead themselves, and how clarity of mission, roles, and outcomes can transform the way a team operates.  Jason and Sean also explore why the military is far more collaborative than most people assume, how strong leaders facilitate input without losing ownership, and why mission dictates culture in both combat and business. Along the way, they dive into personal purpose, team alignment, trust in sales, and the mindset shifts required to build a business that creates both impact and freedom instead of burnout. You'll Learn (00:00) Introduction and Guest Background  (01:15) Sean Patton's Military and Entrepreneurial Journey  (04:16) Leadership in Difficult Situations: Military vs. Business  (08:29) Dispelling Myths About Military Leadership  (10:35) Collaborative Decision-Making in Special Forces  (12:56) The Role of Extreme Ownership in Leadership  (16:08) Culture as a Mission-Driven Concept  (19:16) Aligning Mission, Culture, and Outcomes  (20:51) The Power of Mission and Vision in Business  (25:41) The Why Behind Business Success  (29:24) The Entrepreneurial Hierarchy of Needs  (35:19) Applying Military Clarity to Business Operations  (37:31) The Importance of Clear Roles and Responsibilities  (41:37) Closing Remarks and Contact Information Quotables "Leadership isn't a title, it's a person you become." "Sometimes the loudest voice in the room isn't the smartest voice in the room." "Mission dictates culture." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) Five, four, three, two, one. All right. Welcome everybody to the DoorGro show. I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGro, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we've brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry.   At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now, let's get into the show. All right, so I have an awesome guest today. I'm hanging out here with Sean Patton. Welcome, Sean. I'm going to brag about you a little bit. Thanks for being here.   Sean Patton (00:53) Yeah, alright, you go for it. Thanks for having me, man.   Jason Hull (00:54) All right. All   right. So Sean is a former U.S. Army Special Forces Commander, Meta Performance Executive Coach at Novus Global and a leadership keynote speaker. Sean helps leaders accomplish seemingly impossible and thrilling visions through transformation. This is your bio. As a former U.S. Army Special Forces Commander, Sean brings a rare combination of battlefield tested leadership, real world business ownership.   and success back to human performance principles to every stage and coaching session. His work is grounded in one belief, leadership isn't a title, it's a person you become. As an ICF certified executive coach, host of the No Limit Leadership Podcast and author of A Warrior's Mindset, The Six Keys to Greatness. Awesome. Sean, so glad to have you here. Welcome to the show.   Sean Patton (01:48) Thanks, man. I'm excited to be here.   Jason Hull (01:50) Cool. So Sean, for those listening, I'd love for them to get a little bit of background on you. I gave a little bio, but tell them a little bit about how did you get into entrepreneurism? When did you wake up and go, hey, you know what? I'm an entrepreneur.   Sean Patton (02:04) Well, it took a little bit. was maybe a little late to the game. I originally went from a small town in Kansas. I went to the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduated and then spent 10 years as an active duty officer in the army. So I was an infantry officer and then a special forces officer in the special forces group commanding two different Green Beret attachments. So it was a busy time. I feel like I crammed a lifetime of   leadership lessons into those 14 years, right? Like West Point is most intense leadership training that our nation has. And then, you know, was a rifle platoon leader and sniper platoon leader in Iraq. Then I was an Afghanistan with my team. So I was doing really difficult things and complex things with elite performing teams. And, you know, despite all of that and 22 months in combat and 30 months to point overseas,   I was never really the gun guy or the gear guy. Uh, it was all, it always about the people and the problems that we were solving. And so in 2015, a little before that, I decided that I was going to get out of the military in transition. And I just had this entrepreneurship itch that I wanted to scratch. Plus, you know, I want to check out with this freedom thing that I had been hearing about all these years was all about. And so I decided to try it and.   Jason Hull (03:04) Yeah.   Yeah.   Sean Patton (03:31) It was a rocky start. I had a lot of, I think I had some strengths coming out of the military and those experiences, but also some real gaps. And one of them was a, I think my risk tolerance was so high from things I had been doing. then also   Jason Hull (03:33) Yeah.   Yeah.   Sean Patton (03:59) The answer in the military so often, at least in the units I was in was when things got hard, right? When the, when the darkness came, when it seemed like the weight was unmanageable, the answer was just go harder. Like, you know, like the mission is going to end, you're going to redeploy, like you, know, the sun's going to come up, just keep going, keep going, keep going. And what I didn't appreciate was when you get into the entrepreneurship space is that in the military, even in those units, there was this like,   Jason Hull (04:11) Okay, yeah.   Yeah.   Sean Patton (04:28) mechanism around us almost protecting us. Like they had honed us into this machine that could push ourselves to these extreme limits. But they told us when it was time to turn it off and when it was time to refit and when it was time to recover. And then I got in entrepreneur space and when things got difficult and you know, I made some really bad financial decisions which we can get into and all of that. I found myself with all of that weight with the only answer I had was just go harder.   Jason Hull (04:52) Yeah.   Yeah.   Sean Patton (04:59) And so   three years later, I was in the hospital ⁓ and I had stress hives and my appendix almost burst and all these health issues and going through my first bankruptcy or my only bankruptcy, but bankruptcy after three years. And so it was a rough start to the whole thing. I had to learn a lot of lessons about myself in that.   Jason Hull (05:07) Wow.   Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, early stage entrepreneurism, there's some similar patterns I've noticed because, you know, I've talked to thousands of entrepreneurs. I've gone through this sort of journey. in the beginning, yeah, we do a lot of stupid stuff. Like we make mistakes and that's part of learning. You know, we believe weird things like I just like your first hire should be a clone of yourself. If I could just clone myself, I call it the clone myth. Like we believe like   You know, we think we can do everything ourselves. it'd be cheaper if I just figure out how to do it myself. If I just read the right book, watch the right YouTube video. And so we do dumb stuff like we don't get support. We don't get help. We don't get mentors. like it. had to things had to get really hard before I started getting mentors, getting help, getting coaches, getting support. And I had to be humble, you know, before I was willing to do that. And.   And yeah, and so I see, I see this, you know, a lot of people play out this journey and then early stage as an entrepreneur. Yeah. We're, we're, it's almost like the hustle's glamorized. And so we go through this process of like, I got a hustle. I got to work harder. That's what you do if you own a company, if you're a CEO, if you're a boss. And so you just burn yourself out. I remember I was at end of a sales call trying to wrap it up.   I was in so much pain because I like I think I'd slipped some sort of disc or was bulging in my back. And I was like by the end of the call and doing this call, I was laying on the floor and I ended the call and I was like, and I was in so much pain. I wasn't able to work and had to lay down for like two weeks. Yeah. And then I realized because I hadn't been eating, I'd been just working. hadn't been sleeping.   Sean Patton (07:04) my gosh.   Jason Hull (07:11) very well, I'd been just working. I thought I just need to work harder, work faster. And I didn't realize that probably I was like probably operating at like 10 % of my effectiveness mentally. I was being stupid. And I thought, I just need to work harder, I gotta hustle. And I wasn't taking care of myself. And then that's when I realized, if I don't take care of my body, I don't have a vehicle to achieve stuff or to get results. And I'm not even really present.   Sean Patton (07:23) Thank   Jason Hull (07:40) when I'm there with people because I'm hungry and I'm tired and I'm I'm every

When trying to grow your property management business, have you ever thought to yourself, "Man, it would be great if I just had more leads?"  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull discuss the Leads Myth and how "just having more leads" will not actually help you grow your business. We talk about the importance of exposing yourself to something unique and different to escape your current rut of thinking. You'll Learn (00:00) Exploring Meow Wolf: An Immersive Experience  (02:34) The Importance of Thinking Differently  (05:36) Discovery and Exploration in Business  (08:18) Unlocking Hidden Opportunities  (09:59) The Joy of Problem-Solving in Business Quotables "Sometimes we just need to put ourselves in an environment in which we're going to be exposed to something unique, different, in order to get us out of our current rut of our current level of thinking." "Our current level of thinking is what's causing us to stay stuck or to stay trapped." "Business should be a problem that we enjoy working on, because I think that's the secret to happiness is to have a problem that's fun." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason & Sarah Hull (00:00) All right, welcome everybody to the DoorGrow show. So we're going to skip all the lengthy intro, just know DoorGrow is awesome and you should be working with us and we've helped hundreds of property managers grow their business. So we're going to do a quick episode today. So Sarah and I just got back from Las Vegas and one of the cool things we got to do, got to do a lot of cool things over there, go see some shows. But one of the cool things we went and did is Meow Wolf.   So what is Meow Wolf? God only knows. I don't know how to explain this at all. It's a combination of like a museum, an art gallery installation, I don't know, an art exhibit maybe. ⁓ Sort of like an escape room. of. It's not like you're locked in there. you're out puzzles and Yeah, there's like puzzles along the way to figure out. And also there's a story. Yeah.   So it's not, you you go through like an art exhibit and you just look at things. This is interactive, this is immersive. You are meant to touch things and interact with them. ⁓ And there's a whole story that you're trying to figure out and solve the mystery if you want to. If you don't want to do that part, then you don't have to do it. You can just walk through and go, wow, that's cool looking. So it's that.   So Meow Wolf is- How would you explain it? I don't, I don't know. That's pretty good. That's why you make me explain it? Yeah. Okay. I just like watching you struggle. don't know. that's okay. That was on camera, ladies and gentlemen. Recorded. right. So- my evidence. No, she actually described it really well. So Meow Wolf, ⁓ I think they have like maybe five locations that like we've been to. This was our third one that we went This is our third.   And each one is designed on the surface like something normal that we're used to, right? Like the one in Vegas is designed as a grocery store. Another one was a radio station and another one was a house, like a family's home. But as you dig into it, you can like open up things you didn't think you should be able to open that become better doors into secret areas. It gets really weird once you get past the surface level.   and things get even stranger. And it's just, it's really kind of a magical place where you really get to focus on discovery and exploration. And it really gets you to think differently. And so we're like, what should we talk about on today's podcast? I was like, let's talk about Meow Wolf and how important it is to think differently or to expose ourselves to something new or different from what we've been doing. Cause this is what we do with our coaching clients. A lot of our stuff is very   contrary to what they've been told or what they've been taught or ⁓ what they think they should be doing. And so we focus and get into, you know, different ideas, different ideas of how to do pricing from what everybody else is doing, different ideas of how to do growth and build these growth engines than everybody else is doing. And sometimes we just need to put ourselves in an environment in which we're going to be exposed to something unique, different.   in order to get us out of our current rut of our current level of thinking. Because our current level of thinking is what's causing us to stay stuck or to stay trapped. And this is why I value a lot getting coaches, getting mentors, joining masterminds, joining programs, because it exposes us to new ideas and new things and gets us to think differently.   And it challenges our current thinking, allows others to challenge our current thinking. And they can see things that we can't see because we're too close to the fire sometimes to see it. And I can tell you how many times I've had one of my coaches give me some advice or point out something should have been super obvious to me. And I thought that's exactly what I would have told the client to do. And I'm just like, just kind of kicking myself. And   but it's good medicine and it's really helpful. like, yeah, that makes sense. Let's do that. So, um, yeah, we'll feel like you might open up the refrigerator in the house and find out it is actually a hallway that leads into a whole different area. Um, if you're in the grocery store, you might open up one of the, the refrigerator freezer door sections and the whole thing opens, including what you see in the glass door. And then you can walk into a whole different area. And so,   It's just, there's multiple floors in each of the ones we've been in. there's like stairways and elevators and it's just pretty wild. And the deeper you get into it, the weirder it all gets. And it gets really, really weird. And so it's totally outside of your current normal reality. In fact, that's kind of the idea between all the three we've been to is you're kind of stepping into, there's always this theme of alternate realities.   and multiple realities and sometimes weird alternate life forms and non-human creatures and things are just really strange. it's really fun to get into because you don't know what to expect. so what I thought is brilliant is it puts you into a state that we usually only experience as children, which is this state of discovery and this joy of exploration and of discovery. And I feel like that's where we should be as business owners, but business gets hard.   and we learn through pain and we have a lot of trauma as business owners. And so we start avoiding, we start avoiding like new things and discovery and getting excited about making changes. And this is something I think we've been really good at at DoorGrow is bringing this newness, almost like they're starting their business fresh with a new lens and a new set of, you know, ideas to...   look at their business and it's like starting a business, which is over again, which is the exciting part. And so that's my challenge to everybody listening is make sure to expose yourself to new ideas. It doesn't have to be us. It doesn't have to be door grow. I think we're the best in the industry at doing this. We're very different, very unique, ⁓ but get something, get something ⁓ that's going to inject some new ideas and some new life into what you're doing.   So yeah, so that was my that was kind of my thought or take on it. I think one of the cool things about Meow Wolf is as you're kind of walking through it, there's these seemingly normal items or objects that don't function as you would think they would. They're actually a portal or a secret door or there's more to it than you would think.   For example, the first one we went to in the house, you're walking through and you see the laundry room. And there's normal items that would be in a laundry room, like a washer and a dryer. And I think they had a sink and some detergent and things like that. And if you didn't ever stop to look or really stop to explore, you would have looked at it for surface value and went, OK, washer and dryer. Yeah, cool. Laundry room, whatever. Let's move on to the next thing because I don't know why we're supposed to be in here.   if you actually stopped to explore it and you opened the washer and the dryer, they were both actually this way, it was one was a slide and one was like this tunnel that you had to like crawl through. You remember like when McDonald's used to be fun as a kid and you'd have all the like nets and the tubes and slides and all, it's that. It's not that extensive, but so one was a slide and one was like this tunnel that you crawl through and then it takes you to a whole.   different area and a whole different room and that's kind of their alternate universe is back through that way and that's one of the many ways that you can reach that alternate. But if you don't actually stop to explore it and really check it out instead of just looking at it and thinking ⁓ this is useless okay why is there a washer and dryer here and that's stupid well then you would miss the whole other part.   that you would only find if you explore it. So really, it's like this whole secret world back there and this portal that can transport you to somewhere else. And I think there's a lot of things in life that are like that. How many times have we looked at something, I do this all the time because I'm a J and Myers-Briggs, I look at something and I go, useless, stupid, not worth my time. This is an important, I don't need this. I don't need to worry about this. We all do it in different ways and in business, it's one of them.   Right? How many times did you hear an idea or research a tool or you know think about something, doing something a different way and then go, yeah I'm not gonna do

When starting something new in business (sales, leadership, outreach, or growth strategies), have you ever caught yourself thinking, "I need to figure everything out before I try this" or "I don't want to look bad if I'm not good at it yet"  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull explore why every entrepreneur begins at what they call "Level Suck." They discuss why many business owners resist feedback, avoid practicing in front of others, and stay stuck repeating the same actions instead of improving through experimentation.  Jason and Sarah break down how humility, rapid testing, and consistent feedback are the real drivers of mastery, and why the fastest way to grow is to be willing to start imperfectly and get better through iteration. You'll Learn (02:05) Practicing New Skills and Getting Feedback  (06:10) Ego, Humility, and Why Growth Requires Both  (10:30) Sales Mastery: Volume, Testing, and Iteration  (15:10) What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Children  Quotables "Anything new that you start with, you're not going to be amazing at it right away." "This is the worst that you're ever going to be." "It doesn't mean that you're bad. It just means that the test failed." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason & Sarah Hull (00:01) Five, four, three, two, one. All right. I am Jason Hull. This is Sarah Hull, the owners of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry.   eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now, let's get into the show. Today's episode, what we're going to be talking about, our topic is, we all start at level suck. All right. Where do we start? We'll get rid of this. level suck. I'm sucking right now, I guess. Here's a good example. Okay, we all start at level suck.   Anything new that you start with, you're not going to be amazing at it right away. And a lot of times we don't even want to start because we want to figure everything out first. want to figure out how to be amazing already because we don't want to fail or look bad or not know what we're doing. And so most people are unwilling to fail. And one thing I've noticed about children is children just try stuff. They just do shit. They just want like they'll just   play and it's experimentation and it's fun and they learn incredibly fast what works and what doesn't work. so a lot of a lot of people don't don't act like children in that way. And so we've this is one of the things we coach clients on is be willing to suck. So that's the topic today. So we've been teaching BDM. So what are we noticing? Well, today was the first time that they actually got to practice.   and role play. they weren't that bad, actually. It's not like they started at suck. The first time they looked at the script. Yeah. But for the first time ever saying it out loud and practicing it in a semi real mock situation. Yeah. You know, it's not like they were so horrible. And then we went, wow, this is to take you a really long time.   figured that out. No, they weren't. I mean, they were not amazing at it. But for their very first time ever trying it, and I was throwing a couple curveballs at them. Yeah. They were they were doing they were doing well. They were handling themselves decently well. And it wasn't amazing. But I said to them, this is the worst that this year ever going to be. Yeah. That's great news. This is   the first time that you're doing it and this is as bad as you are ever going to be at this. Yeah, they were willing. They're willing to do it. And yeah, you can see the trepidation or that it was a little awkward at first to step into that and get started. So. But we've all felt that we've all I felt awkward for them. I'm like, ⁓ let's see how this goes, right? And they did fine, right? The first time, like you said, this is the worst you're ever going to be.   is what you told them. So that's the good news. You're going to get better at this. And ⁓ they did OK. And then we can give them feedback. our goal initially, my goal was to encourage them, because you don't want to be like, you're the worst. I can't believe. No. So we want to be encouraging and point out the good they did, and then offer some constructive ways they can take things to the next level or step up. And that's the other piece to this is.   You have to make sure that you are willing to suck in order to in front of others in order to be able to get the feedback you need in order to improve consistently. so a lot of a lot of people we coach initially, they don't want to. Look like they don't know something, even though they're here to learn.   They don't want to look bad in front of others. They don't want to give us a call recording of their sales call. They don't want to, know, and really what you're saying is I don't want to improve. I want to improve if I can figure out myself, but I was already trying to figure it out myself before I came to you. So I'm not going to be able to figure it out. And, and I've learned that one of my most valuable ways to get as much out of a coach or a mentor as possible is to say,   Here's honestly where I'm at. Here's what I'm dealing with currently. Here's the challenges I'm experiencing. What feedback do you have for me? And sometimes if you're opening yourself up to feedback, it can feel pretty uncomfortable. It can, but that's, think, really how we grow is, all right, don't sugarcoat it for me.   Don't tell me I'm amazing if I'm not because I won't be able to improve. If I already think, ⁓ I am so good at this. I'm so amazing. This is going to be awesome. it doesn't leave any room for improvement at all. If you already think, hey, I'm amazing at this. And if you actually are amazing at it, great. Then you'll get the results that you want. But if you think you're already amazing and   the results are telling you a different story, but you still think, I'm so good at this. Then there's a disconnect. And if you're not leaving any room for growth or improvement, then that's how we get stuck. And then I almost feel like it snowballs because a lot of times I think when people, don't, I don't know why, but I feel like so many of us have been trained to try to not look stupid.   in front of other people. They're like, I don't want to look dumb. I don't want to seem like I don't know something. I don't want people to think that I'm not great. I don't want to be raw and vulnerable in that way. I want everyone to think that I'm amazing. Even if I don't think I'm actually amazing, I want other people to think that I'm amazing. And I understand that. really do. But there does have to be a part of you that is able to separate your ego enough.   You don't have to completely kill it, but separate the ego enough to say, where can I get better at this? Because no matter how good or how bad you are at something, there's still room for improvement. You never really get to the top and you're like, well, right, I'm on the top of this mountain and there's nowhere else to go. You can be amazing at something and still have a lot of room for improvement.   you can still get better. Yeah. So there's a scripture that says pride cometh before the fall or something like this, this truism. And so, you know, a lot of times we in business, we fall prey to our own blind spots. And that's where we learn some really strong lessons. I've experienced that. Many of you listening probably have. And so   The secret to really making progress, to really learning, to being able to grow is humility, which is the opposite. And humility isn't debasing yourself. It isn't putting yourself down. Humility is just recognizing honestly where you're at in relation to maybe others or in relation to the goal, or it's just having a more accurate view. That's humility. I think also humility, we create that naturally by recognizing others' hand.   in our accomplishments and what we're trying to do and in our own success. Because the opposite of humility is like, man, look at everything I did. I did this all by myself. The opposite of that would be, hey, look, God definitely had a hand in me doing all of this. know, Sarah's had a huge impact in helping me with these results. You know, my different team members have, you know, so I can, others hand in what we're accomplishing.   That's how you create humility. And really humility then is just reality. It's just actually getting connected to reality and saying, I'm so great. I did all this stuff. ⁓ And so that means if we are humble, then we're also open to being able to get feedback. We're willing to be able to get feedback from others. If we're not willing to absorb or take feedback, which can be uncomfortable, it means you might feel a little bracing for impact.   Like, hey, can you give me feedback on this? And yeah, it's uncomfortable, but it's good medicine. And then you have actionable ways to improve. And some feedback that you get from some people is not useful, right? Somebody says, well, you're really, you're a jerk. You always do this thing. And you're like, I never do that thing. So they don't know me. Maybe they don't know you. So the feedback's not valid. you got to be careful who you're taking feedback from. Generally, the rule is you take feedback from those that you're paying.   like your mentors, your coaches, or from those that are paying you. They get you paid. And so t

When trying to manage properties, have you ever thought to yourself, "Man, it would be great if I just had fewer emergencies?  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, Jason Hull, founder and CEO of DoorGrow, and Ryan Cadwell, managing partner at Resolute RDM, discuss how property managers can stop operating reactively and start thinking like true asset managers. The discussion includes the difference between market value and investment value, why understanding that gap is key to long-term wealth, how to structure smarter deals to increase returns, and the leadership habits that drive sustainable business growth. You'll Learn [02:06] The Myth of Needing More Leads [11:39] Leaks in Your Sales Pipeline [22:41] The Future of SEO with AI Quotables "Why do we call it the leads myth? Well, the myth is this lie that we believe that you just need more leads. And the assumption in that is that all leads are the same." "The more clarity you have, the less wrong stuff you're going to be doing." "Not all clients are equal, right? Which means not all leads you get are equal. You need to qualify them." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) All right, five, four, three, two, one. Welcome everybody. I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses.   We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let's get into the show. All right, so today's episode, I'm hanging out with Ryan Cadwell, managing partner at Resolute RDM. And we're gonna dive deep into how property managers can stop operating reactively and start thinking like true asset managers. So Ryan, welcome to the show.   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (00:57) Thanks Jason for having us, we're glad to be here.   Jason Hull (01:00) Awesome. So Ryan's going to break down. This is our notes, right? So Ryan's going to break down the critical difference between market value and investment value and why understanding that gap is the key to building long term wealth. And he's going to share why so many investors overpay, how to structure smarter deals that actually increase returns and the leadership habits that drive sustainable business growth. All right. Cool. So let's get into that. So, Ryan, I'd love people to get a little bit of background.   on you, how you got into entrepreneurism and how you got into developing this business and maybe how this connects to property management and then we'll get into everything.   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (01:40) Sure, background is we've been in the game for 18 years. ⁓ Wife and I started it and we started the overall ⁓ idea of it in 08. ⁓ Actually it was 06 when we were kicking it around and perfect time to get into all this, 08 right during the financial crisis. ⁓ Third generation entrepreneur, ⁓ both my dad and my grandfather on his side.   were entrepreneurs. that's, mean, that's how it got drawn into that world. Originally was going to be just an investor. ⁓ but my dad had apartments with another business that he ran and I, I grew up around it. ⁓ I was cutting grass and I was around tenants, ⁓ that whole time. when, we were in the investment world and wanting to grow that, you know, in the ⁓ eight through   Jason Hull (02:09) Yeah.   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (02:36) 2012 market, I started looking for property managers. did some interviews, ultimately. mean, property management has come a long way since then. I know it's been a thing for a while, 30 or 40 years, but I think in the SFR space, it was kind of the Wild West for a while, at least in our market it was. ⁓ And we had done some... ⁓   Jason Hull (03:00) Yeah, it still might be, yeah, in most markets.   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (03:06) And so when we had done some interviews with some property managers, turned out, I think, like, we were like, why don't we just build it? Like, we have enough experience. I grew up doing it. So that's what drew us into the property management world. And then it gradually grew, turned into a few hundred doors. And then we fluctuate. We fluctuate with market times. We're a boutique firm, and we really focus on   adding investor value ⁓ and then we're adding additional components with ⁓ understanding market trends, understanding what overpayment is ⁓ and trying to help investors get ahead of that. we're not always helping investors that are in a reactive position try to.   Weighed out time so that they're, know, the amount they paid for it can then finally start cash flowing in those kinds of positions. We try to come at it with a, with an eyes wide open, you know, if you buy it here, you're in negative leverage and what that means and how that's going to translate as far as cash flows. I mean, some investment perspectives, that's what they want. They don't necessarily mind the time. ⁓ If they've got cash flow from other things, that might be how they're going to get in. But,   Yeah, that's how we got to where we are in the entrepreneurial world and then in owning and operating a real estate services firm.   Jason Hull (04:38) Yeah, and you said we, meaning.   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (04:41) We   so I mean, I treat anything we do well is it's a team. It's our four brokers. It's our two managers. It's our, you know, contractors. It's all the guys that have helped us get and it's even some of my other partners on development deals. So there's always a we piece. I'd be remiss if I stood up here and acted like, you know, this was me. Yeah.   Jason Hull (05:06) It's all Ryan, yeah.   So, but this started as like kind of you're in the family business of entrepreneurism, it sounds like, so.   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (05:14) Yeah, and we could talk about that too, how to work with your family. How to work with your family and how to get ahead of that too ⁓ so that you don't damage the relationships and those kinds of things.   Jason Hull (05:18) Yeah, that could be a challenge.   Cool. let's chat about this because property managers, they are a lot of times reactive. They're just reacting to everything. They feel like they're not going to react to everything that every tenant calls them, every owner calls them. They're just managing, putting out fires all the time. how do we start getting to think like true asset managers and get them out of this?   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (05:38) Mm-hmm. It's a reactive business.   I think the goal is to be an asset manager because at that point you're planning decisions ahead of time. Property management is always going to have a reactive piece to it. You're always going to have emergencies. You're always going to have things that need to be done day of. The real answer to that is a lot of those things don't need to be reactive.   They could have been planned, proper expectations could have been set. ⁓ Having conversations like the way you onboard, the way you train, you educate and how you communicate in the time, know, the times that they're gonna receive statements or anything you get on a repeat basis, it just needs to be kind of be walked through. Now, if you haven't started your clients out in that, I mean, we're.   We've learned that the hard way we've had to kind of modify some of some of the things when we onboard. So we've got, you know, we have clients that, that were raised in our old ways that we've had to kind of push out educational pieces, marketing pieces that are here's how we operate. Here's what we do and, send out reminders. Hey, you know, this is when stuff's happening. So to get proactive, you've got to start looking at all the things that you do, all the things that.   Jason Hull (07:11) Yeah.   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (07:21) they need and then start educating them ahead of time. And you educate them ahead of time, knowing that they're not going to read everything. They're not going to pay attention. ⁓ And then you just have a gentle reminder. the, and you know, our, ops staff is way better at this even than I am. I, I was way more reactive and figuring it out on the fly and   Jason Hull (07:33) Yeah, people generally don't.   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (07:48) And they were always like, there's no reason this is this stressful. How do we get ahead of this? How do we start educating? ⁓ Your statements will come out on this day. Your payments come out on this day. ⁓ Here's the way that our system works. If you've got an emergency, here's what to expect. and by the way, here's what qualifies as an emergency. That's another thing too. ⁓ But no matter what, it's still a people business.   Jason Hull (08:11) Mm.   Ryan Cadwell, CPM (08:16) It's still, you're still going to have people that aren't going to necessarily follow all of your patterns. And sometimes, sometimes you got to decide whether or not that means they stay as a client or, you know, you work on that relationship. See if you can't kind of get them in line. Other times you're going to part ways with that client just because it, it's going to be better for both of you to do that.   Jason Hull (08:40) Yeah, so some of the things I'm hearing is like, you know, there's things that could have been planned. having good planning, setting expectations, having good onboarding, defining what emergencies are, setting boundaries. Right. And if they're not willing to play ball, then firing some clients for sure. Cool. So tell me about that. What's the difference between market val

When you don't hit the goals you set for your property management business, it's easy to fall into frustration, self-doubt, or the feeling that the year was a failure… but what if you're looking at it the wrong way?    In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull break down why entrepreneurs often focus on the gap between their goals and results instead of the gain they actually made.  They share how to process the disappointment of missed targets, how to recognize the real progress you achieved, and why your biggest breakthroughs often come after a year that felt like a setback. They also discuss the difference between a default future and a created future, why most business owners stay stuck repeating the same results every year, and practical mindset and planning strategies to help you reset, regain momentum, and build a stronger year ahead.   You'll Learn (00:50) Setting and Achieving Goals  (08:03) Recognizing Progress and Wins  (13:36) Creating a Positive Future  (17:17) Rewiring Your Mindset for Success Quotables "There's really only one thing you can do with a feeling, and that is to feel it."  "Your default future for 2026 is your 2025, which was probably also similar to your 2024."  "IFocus on the progress that you had made instead of that gap between, I didn't make it to where I wanted to be." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:00) All right, here we go in five, four, three, two, one. We are Jason and Sarah Hull, the owners of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses.   We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now, let's get into the show. All right, so the topic we decided to chat about today is...   Oh, okay. So she was talking with one of our clients named Jay and he was. Oh, I remember now. Okay. Then what is it? We were, we were going to talk.   in 2025. Yeah, because, know, this is a common theme for entrepreneurs. We have big goals. There's a book about this. There's a book called The Gap and the Gain. And the idea is we're really good at looking at this future that we want to create. We're visionaries. We can see and create the future in a lot of instances. But sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomach. Sometimes we see this big picture of the future we could create and we don't we don't achieve it.   And sometimes our goals are just too big for us and we don't, we grow, we learn, but we fail or we just learn as I call it. And so if we don't achieve these goals, it's really easy to get discouraged. It's really easy to beat ourselves up. It's really easy to maybe think we're not enough or put ourselves down. And so a lot of you just wrapped up 2025. We're recording this in January. This will go live a little bit later, but   You may be thinking, man, 2025 was not the year that I wanted it to be. I really wanted it to be bigger. It's just, I didn't achieve what I was hoping to. I got derailed. There were so many things that got in the way. So we're going to chat about that a bit today. How do we get past that hurdle? First of the belief part of like feeling like putting ourselves down or thinking we should do better. And then how do we actually set goals and   big dreams and hit those targets. And how do we have a better 2026 than our 2025 or a 2024 or a 2023? Maybe you haven't been making progress over the last several years. So we'll talk about that. Where should we start? Okay. I'm dying. So one of the things that I think is really easy for us to do, especially as business owners is to   focus on, I set this goal, I wanted to be here, I fell short of it somehow, in some way, and for some reason. And it could be a multitude of reasons. My team quit, the market shifted, all the clients sold, some crazy competitor came in and started stealing on clients, whatever it might be. So if you didn't hit the goal for whatever reason it is,   I think it's so easy to just kind of dwell on that and to get caught up in the, I didn't do it. And it's that disappointment. It's a little bit disheartening. It's, you know, you're just feeling bound out that I was hoping I would be here. I didn't know how it was going to happen, but I just had faith and did what I could do and man, I missed it. So.   One of the things that is really good, and it is mentioned in the Gatlin game, is instead of focusing on, this is the goal that I had and I fell short of it somehow. Look to the beginning and look at all the progress that you have made. Yeah, look at the game. Right. So instead of saying, I'll just give you an easy example. If you started the year 2025,   with 100 doors and you said, all right, I wanted to add another 100 doors. So at the end of the year, I would be at 200. And you didn't get to 200. Maybe you added some, you lost some, you added some, you lost some, you're in that, you know, kind of up and down cycle. And by the end of the year, you ended up at 145. So lots of us would look at that and go, wow, I wanted to be at 200 and I'm only at 145. Wow, I fell so short.   It's not even like, ⁓ I almost hit it. We were so close. That's pretty far short. Yeah. So it's very easy for us to just get trapped in this cycle of feeling badly for ourselves. And for some of us, maybe many of us, to be a little bit hard on yourself and go, you know, was it me? What did I do wrong? What could I have done better? Did I make some mistakes? Where did I mess this up?   Was I not the leader that I needed to be for my team? Did my clients not like working with our team? Are my processes not good enough? Are my prices not good enough? What is it? And it's so easy to go internal with that. And instead of looking and then concentrating so much on that, first, I feel like you do need to acknowledge it. You don't need to feel it for long time.   But it is important to acknowledge, hey, I'm feeling disappointed. I'm feeling disheartened. Maybe I'm feeling like, I kind of got the wind knocked out of me a little bit and I just wasn't expecting to be here. I really thought we were going to pull it together. I thought this was going to be our year. So it's important to at least acknowledge the feeling that you're having.   but then don't dwell on it. Don't get stuck in feeling badly for too long. So just identify whatever feeling it is that you have. Allow yourself to say, it's okay that I feel like this. And then you have to get yourself out of that loop. So an easy way to get out of that loop is to go, right, well, I did add 45 doors, right? So that's progress.   I didn't end up with less than 100 doors. So I didn't start with 100 and then at the end of the year, now I only have 70. Right? So you still did make some progress, even though it isn't the progress that you wanted, you still made some progress. But what else happened? Because a lot of us just look at the KPIs and metrics that are associated with the goal itself that we had set, which would be doors. what else had happened in the year?   Did you make changes to your team? Did you make changes to a system? Did you make changes to processes? Did you either expand into a new market or change your pricing? Did you shift things dramatically inside the business that would count as progress even though it didn't directly yet lead to doors? Did you develop yourself as a leader?   huge progress and many people never even get to do that. So perhaps you didn't get the 200 doors that you wanted. Now you're not at 200, you're only at 145. But if you can say, all right, well, I made shifts to my team. I let things go that needed to be let go. I brought people in that needed to be brought in. maybe shifted people around. implemented a new software. I started working with a new coach.   I learned a new growth strategy. made new connections. I grew myself as a leader. I grew myself personally. There was some growth and some learning and some personal development there. Does that directly equate to doors? Yes. It's just that it didn't happen yet. So it will. It just didn't happen yet. So 2026 might be the year.   that all of that work and all of that growth and that foundation building, 2026 might now be the year that allows you to have that growth and expansion that now you're ready for because of the shifts that you had made the prior year. So focus on the progress that you had made instead of that gap between, I didn't make it to where I wanted to be. Love it.   I have a bunch of things I want to share, but first I'm going to do a quick word from our sponsor, Blanket. So, and you're going to like what I'm going to share, so stay tuned. So Blanket is a really cool tool. I recommend everybody uses it. That's not part of the script, but I've also it is very cool when we're talking about, right? We added doors and I lost some doors and I had doors and I lost some doors, which is very normal. Blanket's a retention platform. Business ever. So those doors that you lose.   get Blanket and you won't lose them. Yeah, yeah, so I'll read this. So Blanket is a property retention and growth platform that helps property managers stop losing doors and add more revenue and increase the number of properties they manage. Wow your clients with a branded investor dashboard and an off market marketplace while your team gets all the tools they need to identify owners at risk of churning and powerful systems to help you add more

When your property management business isn't growing, hiring a salesperson might seem like the obvious solution, but what if that's actually where most owners go wrong… In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull break down why most BDM hires fail, the critical mistakes owners make with commission-only roles, and the exact systems required to make a salesperson successful. They dive into DoorGrow's Three Fits framework, the three non-negotiable ingredients for BDM success, and tease a game-changing new growth model designed to help property managers scale without burnout, bad leads, or broken systems.   You'll Learn (00:00) Introduction: The Three Fits for Hiring (01:16) The Challenges of Hiring a Business Development Manager (BDM)  (02:42) The Three Key Ingredients for BDM Success  (04:40)  Mistakes in BDM Compensation: The Commission-Only Pitfall  (05:40) The Three Roles of a BDM and the Problem with Buying Leads  (09:54) The "Door Machine" Teaser: The Easy Button for Growth  (14:39) Advanced Community, AI, and Final Thoughts  Quotables "A BDM has zero chance of success if you hire the wrong person."  "If they're not all three, they will fail. Or you'll fire them. Or they will leave you because they're not making enough money."  "If you do not have the right system to plug a BDM or a salesperson into, you can hire as many of them as you want, and they will still not work." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason & Sarah Hull (00:01) Five, four, three, two, one. All right, we are Jason and Sarah Hull, the owners of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses.   We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now, let's get into the show. All right, you can probably hear our dogs losing their mind in the background. Maybe not. It was perfect time. Yeah, great time. You started the episode and then they decided. And then they started barking. Well, somebody's outside. That's why they're barking. Okay, they're protecting the house. All right, so what we wanted to talk today about is protecting you a little bit. And so.   One of things that's been going viral lately all over social media is this Molt book. So if you haven't heard of Molt book, it is a social network, supposedly. It's a social network created by AI bots. It's basically just only people that have access to it supposedly are AI agents and they go in there and they're talking about their humans. And this is this new AI tool that was originally called Claude, spelled like a claw, which is not the Claude.   by anthropic, ⁓ but it's different Claude bot. And then they got sued by Claude for name infringement or confusion. And they changed their name to something else and then to something else. And now it's called open clock. But basically there are these, it's like an AI tool that you can build or put on your computer and it runs locally and it proactively tries to do things for you.   There's a lot of security risks with this AI tool because it has access to all your stuff and it can figure things out and start to buy things for you and like do things for you. And so ⁓ it has access to all your stuff. And so you got to be careful with this. However, there's been a lot of false hype and fear mongering around multbooks. So we wanted to chat about this. And so if you've seen these scary posts about multbook, this AI social network, here's what's actually going on. So   what this social media network is. you been seeing posts? Have you heard about this? Only from you. I don't follow any of that stuff, you sent me a post that was talking about all of these AI things, I guess, and the chat room that they created, and they were talking to each other and interacting with each other and asking each other questions and kind of talking about their humans, human...   users, I guess, so to speak. And I went, yeah, I don't know if I'm believing all of that hype. So I had asked chat, Chippy Tea about it. And it essentially said, no, AIs do not work on their own. They are human prompted. They are user prompted. So if there is such a thing, it might exist.   but it's not something that the AIs are just going and creating their own little community and having discussions as humans would have their.   So let's about the hype. So their mold book is claiming and bragging that they have 1.2 million agents registered, but only 10,000 verified humans using the tool or something like this. And we know like at least a million of those agent accounts came from one guy. He ran a script, he posted about it on X on Twitter. And he said, FYI, this isn't what everybody's claiming it to be.   The MoteBook has a REST API. Anybody can literally post anything they want using that API. So if anybody knows how to use any AI tool now to create any sort of code or software, like using Cloud Code or even Cloud, you can create software in pretty much anything now that has access to this API that can go post there. And so it's not, are there agents posting there? Yes, there are some agents, but some of the articles on there are probably created by,   nerds that think it's funny to create posts that say my user is cap. People are capturing things with screenshots or my, my, my owner is like telling me to do unethical things. And so it's hard to know what, which of any of this stuff is true, but definitely the stats are not true. When this guy sent a million verified accounts he created to the founder of Moldbook who's a human and   said, are these accounts, like here's this security flaw you have, this really isn't legit, but I don't think they care. I think they like the hype, they're getting business from the hype. And so this points out a bigger problem. And the bigger problem is with the advent of AI and with all of the AI slop, as people are calling it, you have to now verify things. People are using AI to create content, to beat the algorithms and to manipulate humans. And so   A lot of posts that you see, a lot of news article posts on Instagram, they're fake. It's sensationalized, it's you AI slop BS, and it they make these sensational claims because sensationalism gets people to go, wow, I can't believe this. This is so noteworthy and newsworthy. I'm going to share it with other people and people aren't verifying this. So these things go viral and it's giving that account.   clout and attention and algorithm and they can use that to make money and they're just manipulating people. And so this is this bigger problem that now things being shared on social media that are going viral are just being engineered algorithmically based on sensationalism, not based on truth. And a lot of them are just complete lies or complete fabrications and algorithms are rewarding fear, they're rewarding outrage instead of truth.   And so a lot of things that you're out or noticing or things that are manipulating you, it's not even true. It's not even valid. And you're in this, get caught up in this echo chamber politically or algorithmically that really is just messing with you and playing with your emotionalism that you have hardwired into it because you're human. So I think it's really important to start to not.   that you have to really question and disbelieve almost everything you see and then verify it or validate it. And this shows up in a lot of ways. Like we were talking about ⁓ all the products that we see for sale on Instagram. That you see. You get targeted. I love the buy stuff. Yeah. I know. It works really well. I like buying gadgets and gizmos aplenty. You know, I'm like the little mermaid. All right. So.   So all of these things, though, if you go take whatever product or item you see on Instagram, you're like, man, that sounds really cool. It sounds like something I would love. I would need that algorithm already knows it knows you. knows everything you slow down on and look at. It knows everything you click on to check out. So it knows you what you'll you'll buy before you know you'll buy it. And it feeds the stuff up to you and it'll feed it over to you or retarget you over and over again until you actually buy the thing. Here's the thing.   a lot of these products that you see, if you go look up the same product up on like amazon.com, you'll find the same product with a different brand name, because they're using maybe the same source in China to like, and then they're white labeling it with their brand name, but you'll find the same product for 50%, sometimes 25 % of the costs that you're seeing. So they're just taking products that are doing well on Amazon. They go and   like find us the source of this product. And then they go do really good marketing and advertising to manipulate people, sell it on Instagram or meta ads, and they are selling it at this insane markup. People think they've got the exclusivity and they're the only way you can get this product. And they're selling it for three times the amount or at least double the amount of what you would pay normally.   And if you go and got it from the source, like through Alibaba.com or something like this, you probably pay a small fraction of that. And so people are overspending on this and they're manipulating you to spend more money. So just another example of how you need to go verify or find these things maybe elsewhere. And so you need to do your own research is the ba

When you set "realistic" goals for your property management business, you might actually be limiting your growth without even realizing it…  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull challenge entrepreneurs to think bigger, much bigger. Inspired by their experience flying a fighter jet and the concept of "impossible goals" from The Science of Scaling, they break down why realistic goals keep you stuck in current thinking, how unrealistic targets activate visionary leadership, and why 10X growth can actually be easier than incremental growth.  They explain how impossible goals shift your brain from grinding harder to thinking differently, why realistic targets often become a yardstick to beat yourself up, and how visionary entrepreneurs use bold thinking to collapse time, find new pathways, and unlock opportunities that logic alone would never reveal. They also share how to handle naysayers, protect your vision, and use doubt as fuel instead of letting it shrink your ambition. If you're ready to stop playing small, stop chasing "safe" growth, and start building something that transforms your market — this episode will challenge the way you think about goals, leadership, and what's actually possible in your business.   You'll Learn (00:00) Introduction to DoorGrow and Unrealistic Goals  (07:37) The Importance of Unrealistic Goals  (15:54) Overcoming Doubts and Limitations  (22:56) Visionary Thinking and Future Goals Quotables "I want to tell everybody to be unrealistic."  "You need to decide, I can do the things that I want to do."  "The slowest path to growth is to do it alone. So let's grow together." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason & Sarah Hull (00:01) All right, five, four, three, two, one. All right, everybody, we are Jason and Sarah Hull, the owners of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses.   We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now, let's get into the show. All right, so today's topic, Sarah wanted to talk about. I want to tell everybody to be unrealistic. We're going to talk about unrealistic goals. She wants you to be unrealistic. I do want you to be unrealistic. And I also want you to clear all of this off. OK.   Yay. Happy. Yeah. Slightly. All right. All right. So one of the things that we got to do very recently is something that I never, never thought we would be able to do because it was seemingly unrealistic. And that was to fly a fighter jet. And by fly a fighter jet.   Yes, it was a real fighter jet. It's an L39 Albatross. For those of you that are familiar, it was not typically equipped with fighter equipment. It was mostly used as a trainer. However, it can be armed and therefore is classified as a fighter jet. And yes, we actually got to fly it. We didn't just go in it and take a look and see. Both Jason and I, one at a time, of course, got to.   fly a fighter jet and do some aerobatic maneuvers. Which was insanely fun. Right. So we took a trip to Australia and to visit my parents in Brisbane. And we saw a billboard that said, fly a fighter jet. And I was like, what? And Sarah's super into flying. So was like, hey, there's a thing. It says this. And she's like, what? I don't think so.   And I'm like, yeah. So it turns out there's, guess, the person there that runs it told us there's three countries in the world that allow you to do this because normally you can't fly one of these planes or go in as a consumer to fly one of these planes because, you know, there's all these rules because it's then a commercial flight and a commercial flight. have all these legal requirements and things you can't in the U.S. They cannot.   You cannot charter or pay for a chartered pay for a flight and then not have all these safety things in place. And this is not like, it's not the same, right? Like he's teaching us at the beginning how to eject. He's like, if we need to eject, this is what you need to do and like do this. And I'm like, what? And so there is not an ejection seat on it. There's no ejection seat. So what we'll do is we'll fly up really high and then you're going to.   do this thing and do this and the canopy will fly off and then you gotta push off. then once you're in the air and you've then pulled this thing, if your parachute doesn't automatically deploy, you wanna grab this. And I'm like, if I don't remember all this, I die? Like what? Yeah. So. It's just two levers. Could you imagine if you're on. It's two levers to open the canopy and he's gonna fly and you don't have to jump.   You're like, have to launch yourself. right, you don't have to launch yourself. You pretty much will just wait for the plane to fall out from under you while you float in parachute. Could you imagine you're like, get herded in like cattle into Southwest and you're like, you're on the Southwest bus, right? And you get your seat. Actually, they're going to have assigned seating now, I guess. But before I was just free for all. you're like, get in and you're like, and they're like, hey, by the way, here's how to.   like find a parachute and here's what all the steps you need to do in case there's a problem. Do you have this down or you die? You ready? We're like, wait, what? Yeah. They're just like, here's a flotation device and your seat and like here's how to use your seatbelt and then breathe in this thing if you need to. And otherwise, like that's it.   But yeah, like parachute down. Because on the airlines, it's like, if you survive the crash, then we'll tell you what to do after that. Don't worry about it. OK, so. Sorry. Yes. So no possible goal. It's very, very safe to fly on the airlines. is. it's it's consistently getting more and more safe. This is slightly different than flying on an airline. This was it was really cool. Super fun.   He let us take the little joystick control and like. The little joystick control. What do you call it? What is it called? The little joystick control. It's between your legs and it's a joystick. Don't get any ideas. just called But you grab this thing and like, yeah, you take the stick. like, do you want to do it? He's like, all right. He guided me through doing, I got to do a barrel roll. Yep. And I got to do a loop. Yep. Which I call a loop-de-loop. Yeah. But I got to do a loop-de-loop.   And it was really, it was crazy. Like I'm like doing, I'm like, and we got a video like on his DJI camera, like a GoPro, like the whole thing was recorded. So there's evidence that I did this. Right. But yeah, it pretty wild. was really wild that we could go do that. And apparently if you spend enough money and you're in the right country, you can do maybe anything. I don't know. There are certain places, upon further research.   There are certain places in the US that will let you fly certain jets. And the Albatross is actually the most common out of the ones that you can fly in the US. The is finding someone that will allow you to fly it. that's a bit different. Yes. Like if you get to control it. Because, yes, exactly. Yeah. And sometimes ⁓ these are owned by private owners. So like if you know a guy and you go, hey, can you...   Can you take me up? They might let you take the controls. might let you do it, you know, but there's also schools. I think there's one. Oh, I forgot where it's called, but it's called like Jet Trainer Center or something like that. The guy that runs it is Larry and they have an albatross is one of them, but I think they have like six different actual jets that you can fly and learn as well, which is   really cool. But then there's schools. So it's not impossible in the US. It's just there's a few extra hurdles that you might need to cross. it's something though that I thought I would never ever get to do. Like when you look at these crazy jets, generally I don't think   you look at it and go, yeah, I could fly that one day. We went to that air show. During any of that point, were you looking at those planes going, yeah, I could fly one of those. Yeah, I wonder what it would take to fly one of those. No, I was not thinking that. right, because you just don't usually think that it's possible. You think, oh, wow, those are probably owned and many of them are by museums.   or by some sort of club that's funded to keep this thing airworthy and maintained and flying, they probably aren't going to let the public fly it. Okay. So why is it important to have unrealistic goals? Well, I think you should be very unrealistic in your goals because if you're realistic, if you go, okay,   I just want to do things that I know that I can do. Then it almost takes the fun out of it, number one. And I think that's, for entrepreneurs, that's half the battle is, it fun? What was the journey like? Or was it something that you can just go, yeah, I did it, but everybody else can do it too. Where's the fun in that? Yeah, Cindy Lauper said girls just want to have fun. ⁓   So we had to make sure she had some fun. ⁓ Yeah, guys, we want to have some fun, too, right? So it was yeah, was super cool to be able to do that. I think the way I view this, I've been explaining the idea of unrealistic goals or impossible goals, ⁓ which we got the idea from Dr. Benjamin Hardy and his book, The Science of Scaling. And we got to hear him talk about this at a mastermind. The idea is that our.   know, realistic goals are

When your corporate job feels "secure" until it suddenly isn't, real estate can become the Plan B that turns into your best move…  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, DoorGrow founder Jason Hull sits down with John Casmon (multifamily syndicator, host of Multifamily Insights, and co-creator of the Midwest Real Estate Networking Summit) to break down how corporate professionals can transition into multifamily investing without becoming a stressed-out landlord. They dive into how John went from corporate bankruptcies to building a multifamily portfolio, what passive investors actually need to know before putting money into a deal, and why trust + clear expectations matter just as much as the numbers.  Jason and John also unpack what this means for property managers: how to align with investor goals, why the best operators project calm control (even in chaos), where syndicators hang out, and how PMs can position themselves to win more multifamily doors.    You'll Learn (00:00) Transforming Property Management: An Introduction  (00:59) John Casmon's Entrepreneurial Journey  (02:56) Transitioning to Multifamily Investing  (04:33) Understanding Investor Types and Property Management  (05:48) The Role of Property Managers  (07:49) Investor Control vs. Trust in Management  (09:33) Challenges in Property Management  (11:17) Aligning Goals with Property Managers  (14:19) The Real Product of Property Management  (17:14) Managing Investor Expectations  (19:50) Syndication: A New Avenue for Property Managers  (23:44) Legal Considerations in Syndication  (26:41) Calmness in Chaos: The Key to Success  (31:40) Partnering with Syndications  (33:54 The Role of Property Management in Syndication  (38:29) Finding Syndicators and Building Relationships  (42:24) Understanding Passive Investment in Syndication  (47:45) Identifying Your Investment Goals  (51:54) Assessing Risk in Real Estate Investments  (55:15) Choosing the Right Market for Investment  (01:00:12) The Three C's of Raising Capital Quotables "The first C is confidence. Confidence comes from preparation." "The investment itself, we got to go out there and execute. But that investor psyche is a completely different game."  "It is not your job to hope. Your job is to analyze the information in front of you and make an informed decision." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) All right, five, four, three, two, one. All right, I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. And for over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses.   We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let's get into the show. So my guest today, I'm hanging out here with John Casman, a multifamily syndicator, host of the multifamily insights podcast and the co-creator of the Midwest real estate networking summit. And in today's episode, John's going to break down how corporate professionals can transition.   into multifamily investing, how to find the best markets, how to raise capital effectively, and what separates successful operators from everyone else. John, welcome to the DoorGrowth Show.   John Casmon (01:10) Yeah, Jason, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Love the intro, your intro, not my intro, ⁓ but excited to be here and share as much as we can on our journey to help all of your listeners reach their goals.   Jason Hull (01:22) Cool. So John, ⁓ it's great to have you. I would love for people to hear about your entrepreneurial journey. How did you get to where you are now? And then we can get into your business.   John Casmon (01:34) Well, the short answer is bankruptcy, right? I worked for a couple of different companies that went through bankruptcy and that really made me consider my other options. You know, I was at General Motors back in 2007, 2008, 2009 when we went through bankruptcy and I was there and I watched what that did to a lot of my peers. I one day in particular when we were going to have a lot of layoffs, I went to work as late as I could. But when I got there, I had a red message, a little red dial on your phone.   for anybody who's worked in corporate and remember voicemails. So I had a red dot on my phone, picked it up, pushed the play button and my heart skipped a beat because I thought maybe I was getting to the can, right? And it was actually a colleague of mine who sat kind of kitty corner in front of me and he had been let go. He, you know, was diabetic. He didn't know I was going to pay for his medication. He just was venting in his voicemail. And I just remember feeling empathy for him, but also   a sense of I just never wanted to be in that situation. So it made me really start to think about Plan B. Eventually I moved to Chicago, realized real estate was going to be that path and learned everything I could about investing. So it kind of took me down that pathway to say, you know what, I need a Plan B because no matter what you do, when you work in corporate America, you do not control your future. You know, there's politics, there's policy, there's a lot of different things involved that you do not control.   And sometimes it does just come down to someone not liking you for whatever reason, or they think you're a threat. And I didn't want to spend the rest of my career navigating those issues. So I figured I had to take more into my own hands.   Jason Hull (03:16) got it. And so you start taking things in your own hands and what was the result?   John Casmon (03:20) Yes. So we landed on multifamily investing, started with small multifamily. My first investment was a two unit building. We house hacked it, which is a common popular phrase now. But back then it wasn't quite as common. But we lived upstairs. We rented out the first floor unit and it worked great. You know, it worked so great that we went to refinance and we had created enough equity in that first investment to pull out a six figure line of credit and go out and buy another property. So.   Jason Hull (03:45) Nice.   John Casmon (03:47) That really got the ball rolling. bought a three unit building, we bought an eight unit building, and at this time I'm still working in advertising, still working in corporate America, and I enjoyed what I was doing, and I just had my second child, but the agency I was working for also went through bankruptcy right at this time. We had expanded, we were growing, and we had kind of combined with a few other agencies and kind of became this little conglomerate, and it just eroded just as quickly as it grew.   I remember again, just sitting there and I've got some real estate. I've got a little bit of cashflow, but not enough to pay all my bills. New baby. And I just realized this real estate thing is working, but the exact strategy I'm employing doesn't allow me to insulate myself from these economic changes and shifts. So I had to change my strategy and that led me to syndication. Since then, we've acquired over $150 million worth of apartments.   We've partnered with busy professionals to buy these properties and give them some passive income. And that's what we've been doing ever since.   Jason Hull (04:50) Got it. So your area of genius really is helping these people that were similar to you, they're in the corporate environment transition into being an investor in real estate.   John Casmon (05:01) Yeah, exactly. And I would say too, it doesn't have to be you're going to quit your job and do this full time. And in fact, most people don't, you know, but most people do want a little bit more control over their life. You want a little bit more flexibility. You want to earn and start building up, you know, your net worth. You want to have a little bit more liquidity. You have to look at your investments to say, what should you be doing? I think most people know that their 401k, their, you know, company issued life insurance.   probably not enough to really get you on the fast track to retirement. So what else could you do? Certainly you can invest in the stock market. Lots of folks do that. But real estate is a proven vehicle. The challenge is, I don't know anyone who really wants to be a landlord, right? ⁓ Certainly you want the benefits of real estate investing, but very few of us want to get those 2 a.m. phone calls. So the shortcut there is, ⁓ hire a property manager. Great solution. But now you have to be able to manage   property managers, right, which is this whole other business. And if you don't have enough scale, then it's hard to get that person really focused on your business. So we offer an alternative, right? You get all the benefits of real estate investing, all the ownership perks without any of the headaches of being the landlord yourself. So it really is a great marriage of being in real estate without having to do the heavy lifting yourself.   Jason Hull (06:15) Okay.   Okay, so ⁓ the target audience of this show are property managers. So if they're not gonna use property managers, then what's the alternative? How does this work?   John Casmon (06:29) Well,   first of all, what we do is not always for that individual. So I think that's the key, right? You've got to understand who you are from a psychological standpoint. So when it comes to investors, there's two types of investors. One wants control, right? They're not willing to be passive. And some people thi

As property management faces rapid technological disruption, what happens to the businesses that refuse to adapt… or the ones that go all-in on AI and eliminate the human element entirely?  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, Jason and Sarah Hull sit down with Joe Oliveri in Brisbane, Australia to unpack the accelerating AI revolution and what it means for the future of property management. With over 30 years in the industry and 16 years as an international real estate business coach, Joe shares why he believes the next three years will determine which companies survive, and which disappear.  They explore the shift from traditional property manager roles to data-driven client relationship managers, how AI can transform processes like lease renewals, the risks of deepfakes and security threats, and why the winning formula will be a strategic blend of technology and human connection.   You'll Learn (00:00) Introduction to AI in Property Management  (00:40) The Evolution of Property Management  (01:58) The Impact of AI on Property Management  (05:35) Integrating AI with Human Interaction  (10:30) AI's Role in Tenant Management  (14:17) The Need for Verification in AI  (16:30) The Future of AI in Property Management  (21:44) Consequences of Ignoring AI  (25:43) Finding Balance: AI and Human Roles Growth  Quotables "If this industry does not change and truly understand AI, we're going to be irrelevant." "Three years is all we've got to make the changes."  "AI isn't something that they can go back to their office and say, we're going to build this AI. Let the experts do it." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:00) that companies will need to be able to make to keep up and really frankly, survive. It's recording.   We can time up. Shifts in layout. Let's count. All right. You think it's going to work there or should we hold that? Well, we'll probably have to do this. All right. Cool. No introduction. Well, no. Just do it. I'm saying not the full intro that you normally do the way you read the entire thing. Just do a quick. You're not going to have all that when we're going to send it. OK. Do an intro, but you're not going to do the normal intro. All right.   Put those somewhere. Hang them on your shirt or do something. Okay. That's very Brisbane. Well you have to fit in. When in Brisbane, do like Brisbane. Right, so we are... It wasn't pretty. Okay. Five, four, three, two... If you can see the camera, it can see you.   Can you see the camera? can. You don't... can. Okay. Alright, you ready? Five, four, three, two, one. Alright, so I'm Jason Hull. This is Sarah Hull with DoorGrow and we are Hangout with Joe Oliveri. And we're in Brisbane. Brizzy. Brizzy, yeah. And you can't see but we're overlooking the beautiful city and the river right now.   And what is this, a wine room? Yeah, this is our wine cellar. Private wine cellar. Private wine cellar. Okay. And so we're going to be chatting today about AI, the future, and how that's going to impact and affect property management. So, Jill, why don't you give people a little bit of background on yourself and who you are and how you got into property management.   Yeah well that's a long story but I'll make it short. So I've been in the industry for about 30 years now so it makes me feel old when I say that. ⁓ But for the last 16 years I've been a real estate business coach and I've been lucky enough to coach people in Australia and the USA so I get a really good oversight of what's going on in the world. ⁓ But you know my focus for the last 16 years has been   where is this industry going and how can we help businesses to get there and what do need to do? So basically, yeah, for the last 30 years, I've been doing property management and yeah, I think it's exciting where it's heading and through that journey, I met you guys, which is wonderful. So yeah, yeah. Yeah, fantastic. We've been able to have you out at one of our conference events and have you speak and yeah, it's been delightful.   ⁓ I know, I mean, in 30 years, you've seen a lot of changes, but it's speeding up. Like we're in the middle of this AI revolution right now. Everything's changing dramatically. And so what are some of the things that you're noticing? And you have a process software called Thrusos, which we use to run our own operational side of our business. ⁓ What are some of the things that you are right now?   thinking are going to happen and you're trying to figure out. Yeah, well, I'm actually concerned about the future for property management in a positive way. If you can kind of like say that. Because what I'm seeing is we are going through rapid change. I remember when I started in the industry 30 years ago, we were just introducing property management software. Everyone was still using spreadsheets and you know.   paper documents and all sorts of things. ⁓ Carbon copy leases, know, that's how far back we go. And there was major pushback on property management software. And the pushback probably took about five years for the industry to completely transition to understanding you had to use software. Well, we don't have the luxury of five years anymore because my belief is it's changing so rapidly.   And it's the consumer expectations that are going to force change that if this industry does not change and truly understand AI, we're going to be irrelevant. So I believe in three years time, we're going to see completely different roles in the way that we do things. in the next, like leading up to that three years,   I believe that in the first year, we're going to see probably about 40 % of businesses starting to struggle and disappear. They're losing managements, clients are going elsewhere because they're expecting AI and seamless processes and interactions and tasking. And then that will speed up. And by the second year, we'll see 80%.   And then we'll only have a small percentages. I know this seems like doomsday, but it's a reality. Only a small percentage of existing businesses that are around today who will be around in three years time. If they do not adopt AI and AI is very broad. So they've got to understand AI, but you know, that's my belief. That's what I'm seeing as well. So yeah, you know, we've got to sit up and take notice.   Yeah. And I think a lot of the things that I've been noticing, some people kind of shift right away and some people are a little bit more reluctant to shift. Yes. And I think the ones that it's almost you need to find the balance. You don't want to go all in and all AI and you don't want to have no AI. You want to kind of find the right balance and that happy medium and really figure out what is the best way to utilize AI.   and have a human component. Because I do not believe it will be able to be all AI. I just, think when it really comes down to it, it is a relationship business. It's a human to human contact business. really when things go wrong, humans want to talk with other humans who understand. They don't want, have you ever been on the phone and you're going, agent, agent, representative, and it's not.   understanding and you're like, just get me to the human. do I, what button do I need to push? What option is it that I the human? And I think that will continue, that will prevail. However, AI is such a powerful tool that I think we just need to figure out what's the most complimentary way that the humans and the AI can interact together to provide an amazing experience so that the tenants are happy and the clients are happy and the property management business is happy.   really be able to figure out what's the best way to do this. And something that you were telling me yesterday, I went, ⁓ she is so smart for doing that. Can you talk a bit about your, ⁓ tell us first about Flusos and what it is and how it works. And then tell me what you were chatting with me about at dinner last night about what you're going in and updating in Flusos because of all of the advancements in AI that are happening.   Yeah, yeah, so you're 100 % right Sarah, you know, there will always be the human element. It's necessary. We're a service business. So people want the customer relationships. They want that person who lets them know, hey, this is all right. You know, we're going well here. But the role of the property manager has changed. There will always be a role for property managers, but not in the way that we see it today.   And that's where we've got to make that transition. But one of the simplest flows to talk about, when I talk about flows, Flusos is workflows on all of the various tasks that we do. To help people understand how AI integrates with the human side of property management is if we look at a tenancy renewal. So when we're doing that renewal, there's so much that AI can do that takes away that   you know, that personal kind of like input ⁓ into the task as in like if a property manager doesn't like a tenant, then you know, like it becomes personal. ⁓ If they do like the tenant and they've built this relationship with the tenant, where the tenant is making them feel like if the rent goes up, that the tenant will lose the home, the property manager gets too involved personally and emotionally.   So to take away that very personal and emotional element and deal in the facts, if we look at, you know, a tenant renewal, AI has the ability, and this is what we're building into Flusos. So AI has the ability to go through and say, these renewals are due. It will then look at the tenant history to say, you know, how's the tenant pay the rent on time? Let's look at the in-resident inspections that we've done and we can see that the tenants   looking after the property, abiding by the terms and conditions. Everything's going great. We can see in the

When you're trying to grow your property management business, perfection can feel like the standard… but what if chasing "perfect" is actually what's slowing you down?  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull unpack the hidden cost of perfectionism in business. They break down why striving for 100% accuracy in tools, systems, or team members leads to frustration, stalled growth, and constant "shiny object" switching. You'll learn how to evaluate mistakes the right way, when to keep a system versus scrap it, and why imperfect action often scales faster than polished hesitation.  They also dive into the six core functions of a healthy business, the danger of over-optimizing the wrong areas, and how to free up your time so you can focus on what actually moves the needle.   You'll Learn (00:00) Introduction to DoorGrow and Perfectionism  (05:24) Optimizing Business Processes Without Perfection  (11:07) Scaling Beyond Personal Limitations Quotables "Perfect businesses are out of business."  "There is nothing in this world that is going to get 100% accuracy 100% of the time."  "Perfectionism is usually born out of an insecurity and discomfort in ourself and we have to get comfortable with things not being perfect in order to scale a business." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) All right, five, four, three, two, one. We are Jason and Sarah Hull, the owners of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry.   eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let's get into the show. All right. So what are we chatting about today, Sarah? Perfection. Perfection. So this is a big challenge in business is that especially for early stage entrepreneurs, they want everything to be perfect. They judge, we judge ourselves so harshly. We're so worried.   We have imposter syndrome and where we feel like people are gonna figure out that we don't know everything and that we may not know something they know. There's all these early stage entrepreneur concerns that a lot of people go through. so they have this fear that I need to make sure everything is perfect. And perfectionism can cause some serious problems. And this is a temptation, I think, for most every entrepreneur that I've ever coached or dealt with.   to some degree. So let's talk about this. All So the issue that had come up was just last week on a coaching call with a client and she was saying that, you know, hey, I have this tool that does a specific job and it's pretty good, but it's not 100%. Okay. And it was, she was frustrated that it wasn't 100 % perfect. All right. Right.   And she said, because it's not like sometimes it will miss little things or I think it called a client or a tenant called a tenant by the wrong name. Right. So it might miss little things here and there. she said, you know, I I'm not doing it, but I'm having my team member just kind of watch over things.   And so she said, and I'm looking for an alternative because I just don't feel like that's going to be the solution. It's just not where I want it to be yet. So I said, I totally understand where you're coming from with it. ⁓ My bet, my best advice on it is not to try to strive for perfection because truthfully, it really doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it's a tool.   a system, a process, a software, a team member, or ourselves that's doing a particular thing, there is nothing on this world that is going to get 100 % accuracy 100 % of the time. So if that's what we're striving for, we're going to be let down at some point, and we're going to consistently feel frustrated. And then we're to jump from thing to thing or person to person looking.   for this magic solution that does 100 % all the time. And it's just, it's not possible. If you ask yourself, have I ever made a Sure. Who hasn't? What technology hasn't messed up from time to time? What computer hasn't messed up from time to time? What even AI sometimes you'll ask it a question and it gives you answers that you know are not correct. And then you have to correct it. And then it goes, I'm so sorry. You're right.   Here's now the correct information. first time it gave you incorrect information. Right? So if we're striving for, no, this thing in order for me to use it has to be perfect all of the time, otherwise it's not worth it. And now I have to go look for something else. That puts us in this loop of consistently we'll forever be searching. will forever be searching for something to be perfect. My rule is if,   If you're using some sort of system, whether it's a tool or a software or AI, if it makes a mistake, and it will. So when it makes a mistake.   If the same thing was done by a human, would this be an immediately fireable offense? Yeah. If a human made the same mistake that the system or tool or AI did, would you go, I immediately have to fire this person? Most times the answer is no. And if the answer is no, then why would you be looking to immediately be getting rid of that tool or stop using that AI or stop using that software?   Right? So a lot of times what I've noticed is we have a lot of grace when it comes to humans and we have very little when it comes to technology, including AI. Yeah. We've almost none. We expect perfection all the time. You're a supercomputer. You should know everything all the time and never make a mistake. And that is fantastic in theory. But in practicality, it's   probably just not realistic, even if it is a supercomputer and it's infinitely more intelligent, even than we are, it's still going to make mistakes sometimes. So if a human made this mistake, if you would look at that and go, yes, I immediately need to fire this person, then you're probably on the right track by getting rid of that tool or system. But if a...   human made this same mistake and you would just chalk it up to, hey, they need more support or hey, they need more training or hey, you these things happen from time to time. It's not a great situation, but I'm not gonna fire them over it. Then I also don't feel like it's worth scrapping the tool for the same reason. Okay, yeah, I agree. So I think ⁓ perfectionism is a big challenge. So one of my mentors,   Alex Sharfin, shout out to Alex. said, he used to say perfect businesses are out of business. And I think one of his mentors told him that. So the idea is when you are trying to make your business perfect, you aren't focused on a lot of times the right things. ⁓ One of the books he recommended to me, a great book, it's called The Goal by Elihu Goldratt. And in this book, it talks about how if you optimize each thing in the business, the business actually becomes less efficient.   So he uses this story uses an example of like a factory and there's different stages in this process. Just like in any business, there's different stages. And if you over optimize one particular stage that leads into another, the challenge is it creates inventory or it creates like more work or it creates excess. And so everything needs to be moving in concert towards the goal. And anything that's not moving the entire business towards the main goal.   can actually become a distraction. So it's very easy for operators in business to over optimize a piece or to spend too much time on something or to put too much attention on making the perfect onboarding process or the perfect system. And it actually makes you less money. It like brings you less client retention. It brings you more headaches and more problems. It makes you need more staff. And so we have to be really careful about   optimizing or making everything perfect. Elon Musk talks about how one of the biggest mistakes made in business is optimizing for the wrong things. And so we need to make sure we're optimizing towards what the actual goals are. And a lot of times also clients get our clients that we coach, they get so focused on making sure their clients have such an amazing experience while neglecting the lead gen and the growth of their own business, which is the lifeblood. So it's like, I want to take care of everybody that   is paying me, but I don't really care about taking care of myself and my family, and paying myself is what it kind of plays out to be. And so this is why we look at things through the lens of what I call the six core functions. Lead gen, nurture, conversion, delivery, lifetime value, and financials. And so these are like six little kids you gotta take care of in the business. And a lot of business owners focus on one that is their favorite darling child.   and make sure that they're fat and happy, and then they have at least one or two that are starving in the corner that they're neglecting. They're like, And usually, lead gen is the one that's being neglected. find, and delivery, taking care of the client's experience, delivering the product is the fat one. And so this means you're being a bad steward in your own business. You're not making healthy decisions.   And here's the thing we teach when we have our clients rate these on a scale of one to five, five being best, each of these six children, these functions in the business, ⁓ it's impossible for all six to be a five at the same time. That's impossible. Perfection is impossible because if you ramp up lead gen and nurture and ⁓ conversion, sales are those three.

When your property management business isn't growing, relying on cold digital leads or hiring a salesperson might seem like the obvious solution, but what if those are actually the biggest time and money sinks?  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth expert Jason Hull breaks down why cold leads from digital marketers are "garbage," why most Business Development Manager (BDM) hires fail, and how he's seen a repeating pattern of busy owners having no time to execute growth strategies. He dives into the Door Machine, a game-changing new growth model designed to help property managers scale with warm, relationship-based leads and a Door Grow-trained salesperson, all with no upfront salary risk and a focus on guaranteed results.   You'll Learn (00:00) Introduction to DoorGrow and Its Mission  (06:50) The Door Machine: A New Solution for Growth  (12:25) Understanding the Cost and Value of the Door Machine   Quotables "When's the last time you actually worked on growing your business instead of just running it?"  "The real path to growth isn't more cold leads. It's warm leads from relationships." "Without the foundation, a salesperson is wasted. With it, a salesperson becomes a weapon." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) All right, five, four, three, two, one. All right, I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading coaching and consulting firm for residential property management entrepreneurs. We've helped hundreds of property management business owners add doors, increase profit, add and build winning teams. Think of us as like bar rescue for property managers. We've cleaned up and rebranded over 300 businesses.   At DoorGrowth, we believe good property managers can change the world and that property management is the ultimate high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. We're on a mission to help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Let's get into the show. So, hey, property management entrepreneurs, I've got a question for you. When's the last time you made a cold call to an investor?   When is the last time you followed up with that realtor who said they'd send you referrals? When's the last time you actually worked on growing your business instead of just running it? If you're being honest with yourself, it's probably been a while. And look, I'm not judging you. I've been doing this for a while. I've been coaching property management managers for over 15 years. I've seen this pattern thousands of times.   and you started this business to manage properties, not to be a salesperson, but somewhere along the way, you became your company's only source of new business. The problem is you don't have time for it, you don't enjoy it, and if you're really being honest, you avoid it. So today I'm gonna share with you something we've been working on that solves this problem entirely. It's called the door machine. And by the end of this episode, you're gonna want to know everything about it. Okay.   So welcome to the DoorGrow show. I'm Jason Hull. And if you're a property management entrepreneur who wants to grow your business and your life, you're in the right place. Our mission at DoorGrow is to help property management business owners transform their businesses so they can have freedom and fulfillment. Today's episode is different. I'm not bringing on a guest. Instead, I'm going to pull back the curtain on something we've been developing that I believe is going to completely change the game for how property managers grow their doors. Let me paint a picture for you.   Okay, it's Monday morning. You've got a list of investors. They are people you should be calling. And there's that realtor you've been meaning to reach out to. And you told yourself, like last week, that this would be the week you finally get serious about sales. Then a tenant calls, something comes up, you have a maintenance emergency.   An owner is upset about a repair invoice. Your bookkeeper needs something. Someone on your team has a crisis. And suddenly it's 6 p.m. and you haven't made a single sales call. Again, sound familiar? Here's the thing. You're not lazy. You're not bad at sales. You're just spread too thin to give sales the attention that it deserves. You've got other fires to put out.   Maybe you're running other businesses. A lot of you are, you're entrepreneurs. Maybe a family that actually deserves your attention is waiting for you in the living room. The last thing you wanna do at the end of a long day is cold call investors or go schmooze at some networking events. So what happens? Growth stalls. You hit a plateau and you stay stuck. Not because you don't know how to grow, but because you don't have the time or energy to do what it takes.   And I've talked to hundreds, maybe thousands of property managers who are in exactly this situation. They know they should be doing more sales. They just never get to it. Okay, now at this point, some of you are thinking, Jason, I don't need to do sales myself. I just need more leads. So you call up a digital marketing agency. They promise you SEO, Google ads, Facebook leads. They show you fancy dashboards and talk about cost per lead.   You write a check every month and wait for the phone to ring and here's what those marketers don't tell you. Not all leads are equal. Digital marketing leads are cold leads. These are strangers who clicked an ad. They're price shopping. They're talking to five other companies. They convert it maybe 10 % if you're lucky. Here's the bigger problem. There just aren't that many people searching the internet for property management. You can prove this on Google Trends.   It's not like HVAC repair where people Google in a panic. Property owners aren't searching. 60 % of them are self-managing and don't even know they need you yet. So you end up paying 200, 300, sometimes $500 per lead for tire kickers who ghost you after one call or ghost you after you send your proposal to them. Meanwhile, the marketing agency keeps cashing your checks and showing you impressions and click through rates.   that don't translate the doors. The math doesn't work. The leads are garbage and you're still stuck. The real path to growth isn't more cold leads. It's warm leads from relationships. This is even going to be more pressing and more present in the future with AI. Human interaction is going to matter even more. There's AI Slop.   So what are warm leads? What are these relationships? They're referrals, they're strategic partners, direct outreach to investors who don't know they need you yet, but that takes time and effort you don't have. So at some point, most property managers realize they need help. They try to hire a salesperson, a BDM, business development manager, to take sales off their plate. You post a job listing, you sift through hundreds of bad applicants, finally hire someone,   who seems promising, pay four to $6,000 per month in salary, train them, wait, hope, six weeks later the salesperson quits or they get fired because they just don't produce. Meanwhile, you've burned 10 to $15,000 with nothing to show for it. Ask me how I know. I've watched this play out over and over again with clients. Here's what nobody tells you. The problem isn't just hiring. The problem is that most property management companies don't have the foundations   that make a salesperson successful. Without the right positioning, reviews, website, pricing, pitch, systems, accountability, and lead flow, even a talented salesperson will fail. And even if you do have all these things, who's gonna train them, manage them, hold them accountable? You? Mr. Busy Person or Mrs. Busy Person or Miss Busy Person? You barely have time to do sales yourself.   let alone manage somebody else doing it. Okay, so I'm gonna take a quick break and then we're gonna get into the solution, but this, I'm gonna tell you about our sponsor for this episode. If you're dealing with maintenance stuff, you may wanna check them out. This episode is sponsored by Vendero. Many of you tell me that maintenance is probably the least enjoyable part of being a property manager and definitely the most time consuming. But what if you could cut that workload by up to 85 %? That's exactly what Vendero has achieved.   They've leveraged cutting edge AI technology to handle nearly all your maintenance tasks from initiating work orders and troubleshooting to coordinating with vendors and reporting. This AI doesn't just automate, it becomes your ideal employee, learning your preferences and executing tasks flawlessly, never needing a day off and never quitting. This frees up you to focus on the critical tasks that really move the needle for your business, whether that's refining operations, expanding your portfolio or even just taking a well-deserved break.   Don't let maintenance drag you down. Step up your property management game with Vendero. Visit vendero.ai slash doorgrow today and make this the last maintenance hire you'll ever need. Okay, back to what we're talking about. Come with me for a moment. I want you to imagine something. It's Monday morning. You check your pipeline. There are three new owner leads that came in over the weekend, all qualified.   all in your target market, all ready to talk. You didn't generate those leads. You didn't make those calls. You didn't do any of the follow-up. Someone else did. You didn't pay to run ads to get them. By Friday, one of them has signed 12 new doors. You didn't lift a finger. Now imagine that happening every month, 10 doors, 20 doors, month after month. And here's the best part. You didn't pay a salary.   You didn't gamble on a maybe salesperson. You only paid when doors actually closed. No salary, no upfront risk, just results.

Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, discusses with Ashton Thomas the concept of marrying private equity with property management operations. Ashton Thomas is a third-generation real estate broker in Central Florida, she got her real estate license right after graduating high school and, in February 2019, opened her own brokerage. She decided to start her own brokerage and grew to about 25 agents, but she realized she preferred property management and did not like dealing with realtors and their recurring issues, and shifted her focus after property management "fell into her lap" when employees from a failing company approached her You'll Learn (00:45) Introduction and Ashton Thomas's Background  (03:46) The Audacity to Start a Brokerage at 23  (07:16) The Marriage of Private Equity and Property Management  (07:42) Benjamin Hardy's "Science of Scaling"  (12:31) Understanding Private Equity and the Roll Up Strategy  (17:58) The Advantage of Property Managers in Roll Ups  (19:10) Advice for Getting into Private Equity  (22:29) Raising Capital and How to Connect with Ashton Thomas Quotables "I've been thinking too small. That's why it's been so hard." "That's like entrepreneurs worst nightmare is to be feeling stuck and feeling like I'm not moving and I'm not getting traction and I'm not accomplishing anything." "The slowest, absolute slowest path to growth is to do it alone." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:00) All right, five, four, three, two, one. Hello everybody, I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we've brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry.   eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now, let's get into the show. All right, so my guest today is Ashton Thomas. Welcome, Ashton. Ashton (00:43) Thank you for having me. Jason Hull (00:45) So Ashton is a client of ours, but she also is a badass. And so Ashen, I would love for people to get to know you a little bit, share a little bit of your background. How did you get into real estate and property management and all of this?   Ashton (01:02) Yeah, absolutely. So I'm actually a third generation real estate broker in central Florida. My granddad started in Orlando like way back in the 60s. ⁓ Both my dad and my granddad, a lot of my uncles, they're all builders. So just kind of grew up in that real estate world. I was on a job site from when I was very little. ⁓ And so I always just had a love for homes, real estate, just   the whole nine years. When I was wrapping up high school about to go to college, my parents suggested, I always had like an entrepreneurial spirit, and my parents suggested that I get my real estate license. And I was like, you know what, it can't hurt to have that. So I went ahead and took the class, got the licensing as soon as I graduated high school. So I was actually a licensed realtor already working before I started my freshman year of   college. ⁓ Real estate has been so fascinating because I've been able to see so many changes over the last 12 years since I got into the industry. I started with new home sales construction, actually working for my parents, ⁓ really learned about what it took to run a sales center. And then I switched to traditional real estate, like what you think of a realtor doing now. ⁓ From there, I ended up opening my own brokerage.   Jason Hull (02:03) Wow.   Ashton (02:28) ⁓ in February of 2019. And then property management really just fell into my lap. There was a company that was going out of business because the owner was embezzling funds. And their employees actually came to me and said, you know, we would like to work with you. We'd like to work for you. And we're bringing these clients. So   I had never written a lease, seen, really even put my eyes or hands on a lease, never. This was two years ago, roughly. ⁓ And like just didn't have any property management experience at all. Figured out that we needed to get some systems in place right out of the gate. And I really took the next year, year and a half.   Jason Hull (02:59) how long ago.   Okay.   Ashton (03:22) to develop those. And Jason, you've been so instrumental in helping us succeed in those systems. You helped us identify the holes in our business and really figure out what we needed to do. ⁓ So at the time that I had brought on the property management side, and when I say property management for us, we do both long-term property management and short-term vacation rental. So I two separate sister companies that operate.   Jason Hull (03:51) Yeah.   Ashton (03:51) So ⁓ at the time I had roughly about 25 realtors that worked for me under the brokerage. I had really developed that, grown that. We were one of the largest Zillow Premier agent teams in central Florida at that time.   Jason Hull (04:13) Wait, can I ask you question about that?   Not very many agents start their own brokerage. What? mean, how, do you mind me asking age here? How old were you you started your brokerage and what gave you the audacity to decide to do this big thing?   Ashton (04:19) Mm-hmm.   I was 23 when I started my brokerage and the funny part was is I actually wanted to buy a brokerage first and I had this is a wild story you'll love this so you know you look back and you say what was I thinking like I had some guts and one of those stories   Jason Hull (04:33) Okay, go ahead.   Okay.   Okay.   Yeah   Ashton (04:55) So I had initially gone to this guy's office, he had four branches, local real estate agent, or a local real estate brokerage. I'd ⁓ developed his brokerage over like 50 years, had over 200 agents working for him. And I walk in and I asked to speak with the broker. He was there, they put me in the conference room. He thought that I wanted to become an agent working for him. Yeah. And I said, no, sir, I want to buy your company.   Jason Hull (05:19) That's the default.   my god.   Ashton (05:25) And   like, this was a total cold call. Like I had never talked with him before, never met him before. I ended up negotiating a price for the company ended up getting securing SBA financing. Everything had lined up so perfectly. And then a couple of weeks before we were actually going to be making it official. He decided that he wanted to, to sell his brokerage to a family member and not go through with me. And so.   Jason Hull (05:53) Wow.   Ashton (05:55) Honestly, in hindsight, that was the best thing that could have happened. I had no business running that large of a brokerage at 23 years old with no experience. ⁓ Over 200. Yeah. And I had secured a price for 2.4 million for the company. So with an earn out and it was just, it was going to be an insane deal if I could have like actually done that. But ⁓ I was   Jason Hull (06:05) How large was it? How many Asians? Okay, yeah, I mean massive, yeah.   Ashton (06:24) You know, everything happens for a reason. coming off of like the adrenaline rush from that not happening, I was like, you know what? I'm just going to start my own. Why not? So that's how I started when I was 23.   Jason Hull (06:26) Yeah.   Yeah.   I mean,   starting your own brokerage at 23 doesn't sound as crazy if you were already trying to buy 200 agent brokerage. Like, I'll just, you know, step it back a little bit.   Ashton (06:49) Mm-hmm.   Yes,   let's like crawl before we run. Oh, so that was originally what I wanted to do was just build up a massive, brokerage with lots of agents. And I thought that in my head was the dream. No, for me, it was not. I had grown to about 25 agents, like roughly like steadily and kept that number for a while. I realized that I   Jason Hull (06:56) Yeah. ⁓   Yeah.   Mm-hmm.   Ashton (07:21) to not like dealing with realtors and their issues over and over and over again, every day in and day out. It became like kind of toxic to me at least. And I went through and slashed a lot of agents jobs here ⁓ because it was either performance issues, attitude issues, whatever it was, they just were not the right fit for us. I ended up keeping a core five. ⁓   Jason Hull (07:32) Yeah.   Ashton (07:47) and they are phenomenal people with good ethics and good business sense who care about their clients and represent me and my company very, very well.   Jason Hull (07:58) What do feel like gave you the clarity to make that transition? Like, did you just wake up one morning or like, I don't like a lot of these people? Or how did you get clarity on what you really want?   Ashton (08:09) ⁓ One of the things was I told my office manager, I was so frustrated one morning, I told her, said, if one more person asks me another stupid question, I am gonna lose my mind. So I was fed up, I just couldn't deal with it anymore.   Jason Hull (08:23) Okay, we're just fed up.   Yeah, yeah. So I know when, when did that fit with you joining DoorGrow? Because I know you had worked on culture and we'd helped you figure out kind of what mattered to you and like, that align with, was that before you came on board? Was that after? When did you let go of all the... Okay. You don't move slow on anything, it sounds like.   Ashton (08:45) I don't want the same time. Yeah.   I try not to. I try not to. Honestly, I feel like that's where things go to die is if you move slow.   Ja

Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of Door Grow, and Sarah Hull, the COO, discuss the professional lessons learned from the departure of a long-term team member. They describe the experience as bittersweet, acknowledging the torn feeling between being happy for a departing employee who has a great new opportunity and not wanting to lose a valuable team member. You'll Learn (00:00) Bittersweet Departure: Empathy in Leadership  (01:03) Maddie's Journey and Role Development at Door Grow  (06:33) Security Through Documented Processes   (11:08) Confidence in the Door Grow Hiring System  (12:44) The "Super System" and Scalability  (15:56) The Value of Structure and Culture Quotables "I think that's the first thing about being a leader is not only wanting what's best for you and the business, but truly wanting what's best for your team." "Having processes documented has always given me a sense of security." "The slowest path to growth is to do it alone. So let's grow together." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:02) Hello everybody, I'm Jason Hall. This is Sarah Hall, the founder and CEO and the COO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we have spoken to thousands of property management business owners, coached, consulted, and cleaned up hundreds of businesses, helping them add doors, improve pricing, increase profits, simplify operations, and we run the leading property management mastermind in the industry with more video testimonials and reviews than any other coach or consultant in the industry. So let's get into the show. All right. So we got some news this past what week from my daughter. I need to get rid of that. OK. We got some news this past week from my daughter, Maddie, that she is leaving. DoorGrow, she got another job offer. And so my oldest daughter has been working for DoorGrow for five years now. Which is wild. And so I remember she called me up from college and she couldn't find a job there. And she later told me the last thing she wanted was to ask me for a job or to work for me at the time. I guess she was just humbled enough that she had to come to me and ask for a job because she's like nobody was hiring around her campus because it was just a college town. Everybody had taken all the jobs and so she asked if she could do some work for me and ⁓ she started doing some graphic design stuff and she was working on her marketing degree and ⁓ she ended up working for us and she's handled all sorts of things. My social media, DoorGrowth social media. graphic design stuff, video editing, podcast editing, ⁓ lots of stuff. Client support. And then we moved her into client success. And so then she was managing client success on our team, helping to retain clients and make sure they're supported. that's, yeah, so she's had quite the journey of growth here at DoorGrow. And she was really nervous to tell us that she was leaving. She was like very concerned about this. And I told her, it's okay, I just want you to be happy. So excited to see her move on to the next thing that she's gonna do. This is like her first job outside of DoorGrow, as far as I know. And so I'm excited for her. ⁓ So we were just thinking like, what are some lessons that we are getting from this experience? And ⁓ yeah, so we thought we'd talk about a few of those things. The first thing is that moment where you go, I'm losing a team member. And you're kind of torn and you're stuck in between, I'm so happy for them and I want this great opportunity for them and I want what's best for them. And also, man, I didn't want to lose them. That happens a lot. And I would say to anyone out there that has experienced something like that, we had a client. Jay Shaw that had an amazing person in his business and this person got their dream job opportunity and came to him and said, hey, I don't know what to do with this. And he did exactly what we said. You have to take it. If you want to take it, want you to take it. I want you to do what you think you need to do and what's going to make you happy and what's going to give you opportunity to learn and grow and challenge yourself and experience different things. Right. So I think that's the first thing about being a leader is not only wanting what's best for you and the business, but truly wanting what's best for your team. Yeah. So that's what, you know, she's my daughter. So of course I want whatever's best for her. Um, one of the things that I realized, one of the things that I've always been particularly good at is identifying personalities. One of the things we wanted to recommend to all of you is that it's really important to understand your team members and their personality. Meaning, like getting to really know what their natural inclination is towards, not what they're skilled at, not what they're already trained at, but where would they naturally gravitate towards if they had had other opportunities. so Maddie's personality type, she's extroverted. naturally. I saw this in her growing up. ⁓ She's very much a feeler. She's ⁓ organized and ⁓ so yeah, so was very clear. Ladybug okay good. I think I on your foot So totally live. All right. So, ⁓ yeah. So what was I talking about? You were talking about ladybug finding, finding the right personality. ⁓ right. Okay. So Maddie and Myers-Briggs would be probably an ENFJ, right? ⁓ they're great at community. They're great at connecting with others. And she was going to school and eventually graduated while working at Door Girl. for like graphic design, marketing related stuff, advertising, and she thought, I'm gonna be a graphic designer. Well, I was like, Maddie, are, like, this is, you're naturally great with people. I'm thinking you should move into client success. We had a team member leave. She started taking over client success and doing the social media and graphic design stuff and things like that and podcast editing. And then, We knew we were gonna scale and so we said, and she knew and she said, well, if I have to pick one role or the other, I think I'll pick client success. And so it's awesome to be able to have that as a father, I think it's super important to understand your kids and to not try to push them into being what you are if you're an entrepreneur, not trying to push them into a certain job or career path in school, but to. move them towards what their natural personality would be inclined to succeed and win at that they would love to do. And so that's what I've done as much as I can with all of my kids. so Maddie, I thought, let's move her into client success for sure. And when we put her into that, eventually she chose that. She really recognized that she had a skill at that and she was really, really great at it. And that allowed her to grow and develop new skills besides just graphic design. ⁓ But yeah, she's learned a lot of different skills at DoorGro. She didn't know how to do video editing. She was very much into graphics and then she started editing our videos for us and figuring it out. And so over the years, she's just developed a whole bunch of skills. She's invaluable, super smart, learns lots of stuff. The other, I think, important lesson that is important, you talked about team members, when they leave and how you freak out. Well, we're not really freaking out. And why? Why are we not freaking out? we're sad to see her go. Sad, happy, bittersweet. A little bit of bittersweet feeling there. we're prepared for any and all of our team members at all times just in case anything happens. And that's one of the things is if they do decide to, for whatever reason, exit their role at your company. we have all of our processes already documented for each of our team members. So now that she's stepping out of that role, it's not like we're back here scrambling going, we have to hurry up and figure out how she's doing things and have her write it down and have her train somebody else and get everything out of her head. All of that already exists, which means that when we hire someone to step into that role, it will be infinitely easier for them because everything that Maddie is doing is already documented. What she does and the steps and the systems and the tools that she uses and how she's doing each thing, it's documented in our system. So that in case a team member or sometimes you have several leave at a time, didn't you have a guy that won the lottery and his whole team left? Somebody called me once. So they lost their whole team because they had an office betting pool with the lottery and they won and everybody quit their jobs. So now you have no team. Yeah. So yeah, very suddenly not likely to happen too often, but no, it is nice. as a, as an entrepreneur, as a founder, as a CEO, having processes documented, which we've had for years and years at door grow.   has always given me a sense of security. There's always a sense of anxiety if you don't have those documented that somebody could leave or somebody could be out or get pregnant or be injured or whatever. And move away. Yeah. Take care of a sick family member. Right. Things happen. Life happens. Humans are humans. And so the challenge is if you don't have these things documented and you want them fresh, you want them being used, you want them documented by the people that are actually using them. so Maddie's leaving, so she went and reviewed the processes. Most everything is documented. There were some, she was like, I think we're missing this thing that I've recently started doing, or this little thing needs to be updated a bit. And so she's making some final tweak