From Property Manager to Business Owner

We talk through the identity shift that has to happen when you move from being a working property manager to being a true business owner. I share why staying operational keeps you stuck, how personal identity builds loyalty, and what to do when you feel frozen on decisions like your first hire. 

• The identity gap behind “I just need a PA” 
• The stamina problem of running operations and leading growth 
• Why you cannot outsource vision and direction 
•Support options that keep you steady: personal coach, business coach, peer networks 
• Business identity versus personal identity and the role of vulnerability 
• Loyalty and sustainability built through being personal not private 
• The shift from doer to decision maker and why speed matters 
• Moving from reactive to intentional by hiring before crisis 
• Thinking in direction, building people, creating structure 
• Documenting processes early for future hires and offshore support 
• Letting go of a small portfolio to support the team and build systems 

Call me, DM me, join the PMC Learning Lab, and I can support you with that. Send me through a message or a DM on Instagram, or you can head over to pmcollective.com.au and you can join our monthly membership there.

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Longreach

This podcast is sponsored by PropertyMe.

Australia's #1 Property Management Software. www.propertyme.com.au

Transcript

Why Identity Matters In Business

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I am so excited to get into this topic today because a lot of the conversations I've been having in the last couple of weeks have all been around identity. And I want to talk about the identity shift from property manager to business owner, which is something that I'm seeing a lot of people struggling with a little bit and very, very scared to actually step into that new role. So we're going to have a bit of a talk about that. So what we find is that we business owners at the moment, they're really struggling, I think it's with what they're actually wanting. Because what happens is they're really good at what they do. They start a business because they are good at what they do. And ultimately, at the start, it's always about like lifestyle businesses. That's sort of what we're wanting. But it quickly turns into a business that's needing that little bit of extra support, just that one person. And it feels like I just want a PA. But quite often it can look like an offshore team member, or it could also be an assistant. And that's really where a lot of people struggle with. But I think it just comes down to the identity piece and what people really see their role being. So conversations that I've had, you know, when people don't know what that first step is going to look like, is I always say to them, you know, what do you actually love? Because a lot of people love being a property manager, or some people love being a BDM, or some people just love the idea of being a business owner. So I feel like that is something that is really important to work out what where your area of growth is, and that will help you decide what the second step would be. But the problem is that we do find that people that are in this situation where they're business owners, just you know, small business owners, they do feel like their role is meant to be just property management. And what this does is it leaves them working in a very operational way. And that is fine, but your stamina can't allow it. And the reason why your stamina can't allow you being in an operational role inside your own business is because there are so many other things that you've also got to wear the hat of. So, you know, if you're working for someone and you're a business owner, and if you're working for someone else and you're a property manager, that's fine because growth isn't your responsibility. Business ownership isn't your responsibility. So you've you've got the stamina to do it. But when you do have to wear, if you do have to do the operational side or you want to do the operational side yourself, you don't have any other choice but to be a business owner. Like you're always going to have to wear that hat to a certain extent. And growth, yeah, sure, you could get someone in to do that. So this is where we find you've got the difference between doing the work and leading the business. And I hate to be the one to say it, but ultimately you've chosen the business owner life. You do have to lead the business. Like you can't always outsource the vision and things like that. That's just, it's not really how it works. So this identity shift is something that I'm going to speak about in the next couple of podcasts, but it also is something we do inside our PMC learning lab as well. So a lot of the modules we've got and a lot of the conversations we have are around this identity piece. And just purely because people are very stuck in that. They're stuck in the day-to-day, they're stuck with solving every problem themselves. They are stuck with being in the go-to for everything. And this really is not a productive place for a business owner to be. And it does keep the business small. And I'm sure you're out there probably saying, Well, I don't want my business to be big. That's fine. But we we still we still need it to have some support networks, whether that support is AI, automation, offshore or onshore. Like there is some sort of growth that you need to have because your limitation as a business owner, otherwise, is going to be very, very short. So where we find the moment that things stop working inside these small businesses, where business owners are becoming very operational, is where the growth starts creating that pressure. So we can have a situation where we're getting lots of growth in, but we haven't really had time to think about what that next step is. We have got when the workload becomes unsustainable. And the thing with workload as a business owner is there is like you could easily work till midnight every night. I'm sure every single business owner in the world has had to do that. Maybe they're still doing it. Because you can just keep on going and going and going, and you've always got to have that growth hat on. Like at the end of the day, you might not be in a growth mode, but you need to have enough business to survive as a business owner. So when I talk about growth, I'm not talking about like huge growth to create a team. I'm talking about growth just to maintain what you need as a business owner. We can also find that things stop working when the business owner has a team and they start depending on the business owner too much. That's another whole part of workload that we haven't always allowed for. And these are just like all, I guess, the subtle things that people don't take into account. And you can't possibly do it all. Like, even people with the best of the teams, and like I've got a pretty awesome team. Like, I mean, I'm not gonna say they're 10 out of 10, but they're a they're a solid eight or nine out of 10. Like they're good. They still take time because they still're good employees, but they still have personal stuff that happens on the day-to-day that you've got to sort of work through or support them through. Like it doesn't even have to be anything to do with you, but they get sick or they've got their own stresses in their life. There's a lot that goes on. And so this is a really nasty cycle, like this business ownership. If you don't have this clear plan of what your next person's gonna look like from a support point of view, you're just gonna spiral. And this is where I always say you sort of need to have either a lot of people think business coaches. I actually think that sometimes people need a personal coach. So a personal coach to sort them out, you know, as a whole. Um, sometimes it's a business coach if it's business things, but quite often as a leader and as a business owner, we actually need support for the whole lot. We need support for our life. Like I need, I need support for to get the personal stuff right so I can get the business stuff right, and vice versa. So that's really, really important. Or the other option is if you can't afford that, then then looking for support networks like coffee and conversations are a really great place to find other colleagues that have been where you are to help talk you through and work you through those next stages as well. So it doesn't always have to be paid. You can definitely seek that support through PM Collective, yeah, in your area with those coffee conversations. So we've got this identity shift that really starts happening, and a lot of people are not paying attention to it because I have had so many conversations in the last couple of weeks with clients and with people around this personal identity and their business identity. And everyone has this really good, strong business identity. Like all of the good business owners out there have got it, and it's who you're known for. It's like Michelle from BI, Ash from Soko, you know, Beck from LJ Hooker. Like you've got those types of attachments to your name, which is very, very common. You might have one, but what it what it does is it really attaches that business owner identity to us, and that can get really, really exhausting, and we lose track of where we are as a human and um we don't showcase our personal identity as much. And so having a personal identity or being focused on, you know, creating that and having that in your world does come with vulnerability, and it comes with vulnerability towards uh people that might see you on socials, your clients, and also for your team as well. And I I mean the way that I see it is that like I've got a strong team and my team, they see me as a person. So I'm very much, I've got a good strong personal identity with my team. So when it comes to business and when it comes to me needing their support, and I've you know had um some recent resignations where they've needed to step up, I've not even like some of them, you know, I've asked, and when I've asked for some support, they have jumped absolutely straight away and gone, absolutely will do that. And then I've had other people message me to say, Ash, what can I do? How do I, you know, how do I need to support you? So having that strong personal identity within your team is incredibly important. And this is really where you're gonna get sustainability with a long-term team and a long-term business. But what I see is that we have these, you know, business owners, and I am gonna pick on the sales that direct us because they are the ones that I'm seeing the most of, the majority. But what happens is we see these business owners or this upper management, and we only have a business identity of them. And I'm not suggesting that everything needs to be personal, but there because there's a difference between private and personal. So my team don't necessarily know a lot of private stuff about me, but they definitely know personal stuff about me. And they know my values and and they know, you know, enough to definitely understand who I am as a person. But what can happen is when we work for these larger corporations, lots of upper management, lots of management layers, and we don't necessarily know people as a person, as a human, they're not gonna know you as a person or as a human either, because it works both ways. And if there's no vulnerability being shared between the two, you're not gonna find that there's a lot of loyalty in between. And so that is something that you might recognize. I mean, the the sales led directors are not the ones listening to my podcast. If you are, feel free to send me a little share, share the podcast and say hi, but I'm pretty sure you're not. So, but I know there's a lot of you listening that are working for those people. And and that's really where you're going to find the problem, is that you might be feeling a little bit in like not valued as a person, not supported when it comes to personal life. And if you have a think about those that do feel valued and do feel treated like a human, what you'll find is that that leader or that boss of yours, you also it reflects that it mirrors. So it's reflective. So you're gonna know that about them. And then this is how we create loyalty. This is really honestly how we create that sustainable business and the sustainable leadership in between. But vulnerability has to be shared. I did a private BDM dinner in Perth, Brisbane, and Melbourne recently, and I underestimated how the vulnerability that would be shared inside these in these tables. It was so incredible. And it the questions that we asked, and we held one conversation around the table and we held sort of vulnerable questions. And not necessarily, I mean, of course, we talked about work, but we actually talked more about our personal um side. And it was so incredible, like all the people that came along to get to know people on a real, on that personal side and that vulnerability shared, honestly, it can completely connected a lot of people and it made us understand why each other were doing what they were doing. The stories were absolutely incredible, and I think that when that gets shared, even with clients as well, to know why you do business or your for your team to know why you do business is incredibly powerful. And that shift from personal identity and from business identity to personal identity would be an absolute game changer, not just for your team, but also for your clients. So I really want a bit of focus to be held with that. You know, again, this is exactly what we do inside the PMC Learning Lab. Like my members, they get access to have one-on-ones with me. We have um modules around this topic, we have fortnightly Q ⁇ A's, monthly masterclasses, weekly 1% emails. And this type of conversation is really what we're having to help people really shift into that sustainable business and that sustainable growth, whether that growth is personal or team or business as well. So, really good conversations that need to be had. And hopefully, more of you after listening to this podcast can start having more of these conversations with each other as well, even if you've got your own microcommunity inside your area. So, one of the identity shifts we definitely do find with property people that are soloprunters, going from property manager to business owner is going from that doer to decision maker is a really big thing. I mean, I know you're listening and I know you're struggling with it because you know you guys call me, message me with these things. It's really, really hard because all of a sudden the decision making is all on you. And what if you get it wrong? What I will say, honestly, I rarely see people get it wrong. Like everyone does something completely different, but rarely do they get it wrong. And you know, even when it comes to bringing on your first uh employee, whether you decide that a VA is going to be your first option, or whether you decide outsourcing inspections will be your first option, or maybe you decide to get a BDM, or maybe you decide to get a property manager, it honestly doesn't actually matter who your first person is. I've not seen there's no right or wrong. There's absolutely no right or wrong because you'll just make whatever decision you make right. So there's a benefit for all of them. So people get too caught up in deciding what that's going to be instead of just doing. And the quicker you can make decisions, honestly, the faster you can either make mistakes or you can progress. But the longer that you take to make that first decision, you're just absolutely wasting time. Making quick decisions is probably one of the biggest gifts that you can make, you know, give yourself inside your business. Because, like I said, if you're going to fail, you might as well fail quick. So then you can move on and no one will even notice. So that's something I think that if I could pass on any word of advice, that would be what I suggest. So we recently have just had a couple of resignations, all I mean, all of them for genuine reasons. Like there's never a couple of change of careers and and nothing that's been a result of, you know, anything. I've not, you know, taken anything personal. It's just uh things that happen like that in a bit of a wave. And I have a pretty good run most years. So uh to get a couple in a row is no big drama, but it's a little bit stressful. But what we do is like same day, because generally I know what my next step is anyway, with every with all my team and where they're at, but making a quick decision, same day, I've made a decision with what that next step looks like. So the quick step that our quick decision that we made internally is that we are going to absorb the portfolios with our existing team and we're going to increase that capacity. And so that decision was made straight away, same day. Spoke to the team members we needed to, no problems at all there. And and then over the next two weeks, we'll start transitioning into those larger portfolios before the property manager finishes up. Quick decision. Do you know what? Might be the right way, it might be a fantastic way, it might be the wrong way, it might not work. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter because I'll just always keep looking for another property manager to you know have there as a backup just in case. Like things work out. So I just I can't, I can't stress enough how important it is to move quickly, and it's always worked for me. So that's my big tip for today. Moving from the the other thing that we need to do when we're talking about identity shifts from property manager to business owner is moving away from that reactive to intentional. It's very hard to move from a reactive point of view if you're getting to a point where you're too busy. So you really need to make this shift sooner rather than later, and not make this shift when you are amongst it and you're being very, very reactive. Make these intentional choices early on. I would rather you get someone in before you actually need them. Having someone in three months before you need them is always in an ideal business world the perfect way of setting it up. Yes, it's going to come with a little bit of a cost, but this is a risk that you make in business. When you have a business, you need to take some risks. Now, not many people are having business loans, and I don't want to give you financial advice with all of that, but you need to have a little buffer. And if you had a buffer to be able to do this, business is going to move a lot quicker, a lot sooner when you can get that started earlier, be intentional, have someone coming in to do that operational stuff while you start working on that business and creating new systems from day one. And these shifts are going to be very uncomfortable. It's very, very uncomfortable to make that decision. Having someone a bit earlier, it puts pressure on you. Is the growth going to continue? Am I going to be able to afford, you know, afford them constantly? This is why people are resisting in terms of making that decision and they're just not doing themselves any favors because we are afraid of losing. We're afraid of losing control or certainty inside the business. We now have other people we've got to support, not just ourselves. You know, we can take the risk for ourselves, but not for others. There's a lot of personal stuff that comes into it, and that's why I say you don't always need a business coach. Sometimes it's actually a personal coach to have confidence to actually do that. So now just talking about what a business owner actually thinks like. So a business owner, as you as your new business, sorry, as your new identity from property manager to business owner, you really need to start thinking more in terms of direction and not the tasks. So if you know where your direction is, you will know what tasks need to come along. So that is something really, really important to do. And if you don't know what direction that you've got, then you need to speak to someone, whether it's speaking to me or a colleague or coffee and conversations. But genuinely, like generally, you will know what that is. The other thing that business owners will be doing is building the people and not just managing the work. So building the people is really important. And this this it might be a really bit brutal to say, but this is the problem. A lot of business owners come in and they don't actually want to really build the people, but that's what you do as a business owner. And this is probably when you're going to say, well, that's why I only want to work on my own and just, you know, be a solopreneur. And that's totally fine. If that's a business direction, that's absolutely fine. But that doesn't necessarily involve a VA. It maybe you're better off having more automation and tasks so that you've got a better, you can manage a good amount of properties with that automated support, would probably be my recommendation. You would need to, if you do want to move from property manager to business owner identity, you're going to want to want to create more structure instead of carrying everything. So the structure needs to happen at the very start. And the decision making is based on the future and not today. So I'm working with a couple of solo businesses owners at the moment with their processes. So basically, when we catch up with our one-on-ones, we're just having a look and documenting their current processes, and then at least it gives them something to work on in regards to creating videos for training for an offshore team member. They might not get an offshore team member for the next, you know, for six months or 12 months. But what we try and encourage them to do is start the process now. Start creating those process maps now, create those training videos now, save them in either a system that you've got or Google Drive. So at least they're there and it's not going to be as much of a stress when the time comes. So that's really how people inside the PMC Learning Lab training, changing that thought pattern to be more of a business owner as opposed to an operator. So it's really good to see people stepping up to the mark with that. And at the end of the day, I mean, let's say you don't end up ever getting anyone. I mean, it does, it's good to have those document um those processes documented anyway. But to be honest, most will definitely have an offshore team member as a bare minimum. So that's why those processes are good to document early on in the stage. What property manager to business owner identity looks like in property management, it looks like letting go of being across every property issue. We are working with someone at the moment, and I spoke to her the other day about how so she still manages a small portfolio. And she I think I'm encouraging her to pass that on to her existing property manager because I don't think she should be managing anything at the moment. But where I feel as a business owner she should be is still supporting the property manager, and she can still support the property manager by putting out spot fires. Helping, you know, behind the scenes, if anything gets escalated, lots of stuff she can do, but she doesn't have to be operationally managing a portfolio. And she definitely doesn't have to be across every single property issue on that pro and portfolio. She can pass it on to a property manager and then just support the property manager from the background. And this is sort of what I was talking before about supporting the people. As a business owner, supporting the people is what you do. You shouldn't be also managing a small portfolio, in my opinion. You support people from behind, and then you also can support them when you're on annual leave and all of that. I would rather you as if you're currently holding on to a small portfolio, and oh my gosh, so many of you are, because I speak to you all the time, and I probably say the same thing, pass those properties on, like pass them on to the team because you are not supporting your team as much as you could be. And I've showed a couple of you how I support my team. So we've got that the inbox through property me, and I, you know, do go in there if there's any quick emails that I can flick across, I can do, I can keep an eye on anything. If I see someone drowning with emails, I can jump in and I can support them with that. I can give them a lot more support, especially when it comes to escalated issues, than what I can if what I can if I wasn't looking after a portfolio myself. So it's one of the biggest things that I'm currently seeing a little bit, and it's just a letting go issue, but you you can't you just can't get to where you need to a hundred percent if you are stuck in that operational side of things, so it's just not possible, and so until you make that really big, uncomfortable decision, it's it's gonna be too hard to actually get there. So those of you that I've spoken to, you're probably listening. And there's not just one of you, there's about four of you. So yeah, and you're all exactly you're all exactly the same. I just think it's something really to consider, and you might not make that decision tomorrow, but I want you to have a think about it and try and make that decision, you know, over the next couple of months for sure. When you do step back and you support your team, I mean, number one, they're going to enjoy that support more, but that's when you start really building those systems to make their lives easier. And you've got the time to make their lives easier and do that. So that's really where your value add is going to come into play at such in such more value than what it is currently. So the cost of not making this shift is going to be, you're going to feel very stagnant in your business. And you, if you're feeling very stagnant in your business and you are currently managing a small portfolio, so you haven't made that direct shift from property manager to business owner, you've got to shift something. It's not going to shift unless you physically make a very big, uncomfortable decision. And so, again, bringing that back to your personal coach, business coach, or other or other business owners through coffee and conversations, you're not going to get there unless you have that support because that idea needs a new version of you. That growth needs a new version of you. So, what are you doing to enable that new version of you? Because it just doesn't happen overnight. You don't just wake up and and and say, I'm going to do it today. You need reassurance, you need support, and you need confidence. And so that's where, like I said, you get that through those various options. But you do need a new growth. You need a shift from operational to business. The business, the business won't outgrow you. It will only ever reflect who you're willing to become. So I want you to think about that as well. And if you do want more for the business, you want more from you, and you do have an intent, you know, intentional plan that you want to grow from that property manager to operational, to operate property management to business owner, then you need to, you need to shift it. Call me, DM me, join the PMC Learning Lab, and I can support you with that. But at the end of the day, if you're not going to actually be that person and you want to be a property manager and still be a property manager inside your big business, which I don't actually think, I don't think I know any of you that are like that. But if you wanted to be that, that's fine. But just make sure there is someone who is taking control of the operating of the business. I mean, it doesn't make sense, though, does it? Like you don't bring someone in to move the business forward with their vision and all of that. Like that's you. You can't have someone else in that role than you sit and be a property manager because you're better off just going and being a property manager for someone else. So that's probably why I don't see it. But yeah, that that's really just something you just have to shift that. So I want you to really reflect on what we talked about today or what I talked about today. And if you do want to have more of these conversations, then they are inside the PMC Learning Lab. So send me through a message or a DM on Instagram, or you can send or head over to pmcollective.com.au as well, and you can join our monthly membership there. It's just month by month, no strings attached. We do monthly masterclasses, fortnightly QA's, weekly one percenters, and library. I've got a library of modules as well as as many one on ones that you need on a regular basis throughout the month as well. So lots to use and lots to assist with your growth. So love chatting with you all today, and I look forward to seeing you next week.