Property Management Growth with DoorGrow DGS 323: Team Member Departure: Lessons on Hiring
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 TranscriptJason 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 tweaks to update the processes. But it's every team member's job to keep updated and maintain their processes. So this is why it's very important to have a process system.
that is intuitive and easy enough for everybody on the team to use it. And this is why we use what used to be called DoorGrow Flow. We use Flusos and ⁓ F-L-U-S-S-O-S. And it's kind of that in between, it's like flowchart software. It's visual, it's super intuitive and easy. Our team can drag and drop things and build out the process and then they can actually use that process and run it and like work through the workflow.
And so it's kind of like a mashup between Lucidchart, Revisio, and Process Street, or Asana, or any sort of checklist system. And checklist systems are not enough. They're just not sufficient enough. They're not clear enough. And ⁓ they're too linear. And there's issues with those. And so we found that this is a superior upgrade from what we used before, which was like Process Street.
So having that system that Sarah, who doesn't like tech very much, will go in there and loves using it and updating processes. Maddie can go in and update her own. Giselle and her team can go and tweak or change her process. anybody on the team, and I actually don't even log into it. I don't have to use it, which is the first process system. And we've had several that we've ever used where I don't have to live in it. I don't have to work in it. We've set it up so that if anything needs to be assigned to me, it goes to a role called Jason's assistant.
And then the assistant comes to me and says, hey Jason, we need you to do this thing. And so I was able to get myself out from not just having to manage and control and make every process and get really nerdy and build logic and things to hide and show and to the point where I didn't even understand it a year later and then would have to, if it broke, I had to get into it and fix it or weird connections to Zapier and stuff like this. Yeah, it just makes it so much more intuitive.
drag and drop and that's been a game changer. So that's something else we realized through this process. It's like we're not really freaking out or concerned. You know, just a little sad Matty. So, all right. So ⁓ anything else? Well, speaking of things that are game changers, let's hear from our sponsor. ⁓ yeah. So today's sponsor is cover pest.
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To learn more and to get special DoorGro pricing, visit coverpest.com slash door grow. All right. So that's our sponsor. right. So other lessons or things that we're realizing. ⁓ One, another reason we don't have a bunch of anxiety is that if we ever need to replace a team member, we have an amazing hiring system. This is one of our proprietary pieces of IP that's been a game changer for ourselves.
and has allowed us to be able to take care of all of our clients and help them replace entire teams if necessary, help them get that key team member they need that's going to be the game changer to get them to the next level. And that's DoorGrow Hiring and our DoorGrow applicant tracking system. And so this has been a significant tool that we've used for lots of clients and for ourselves to build out our team. And so we confidently know, like we've got a system that's going to get us somebody that is a
good culture fit for us that shares our values, which means they won't steal from you. It means there'll be a personality fit for the role because we understand and have engineered the job descriptions for ourselves and for all of our clients so that it attracts or creates interest in the person that is the right personality fit for that particular role. And then skill fit. We have assessments and tools to figure out are they going to be able to
develop the skill or do they already have the skill so that we can make sure that we're getting the ultimate hire because one bad hire is easily a 10 grand minimum mistake and probably three months of your time wasted. So being shot in the foot trying to train them and then they leave or you have to fire them, right? So we're really good at BDMs, which is a big need of our clients. We're really good at operators, which is a big need for our clients.
so they can get out of the day-to-day operational control of the business and make sure the business is moving forward and build out what we call our super system, people planning a process. So these are some key things that make it not so big of a deal if we lose a team member. We're confident we can get them replaced pretty quickly. We can get them up to speed quickly because of our process and we're going to make a good hire. So, and we're able to get that system built out into our clients' businesses as well, which is
A game changer, if you listen to us and you start adding a whole bunch of doors, then that can cause a lot of constraints and issues in your business to come to the forefront. And if you have our super system hiring the process, planning all built in, planning is DoorGrow OS. If you have all these things built in, then your business becomes infinitely scalable and you're not going to get stuck. You can just continually keep growing and adding doors. So cool. ⁓
Any other lessons or things about Maddie? We could, I would say so many good things about Maddie. So I think one of the things too that it just kind of shows when you put the right person in the right role, the results that you get because clients always tell us, Maddie is so great. Maddie is so great. Wow, Maddie is so great at what she does. Wow, I just love Maddie. Yeah. So.
that tells us, we already know, but it tells us, hey, this was such a good fit for her. She truly enjoys this. She is great at helping people and she's thriving in a role like that. And I know that she will do great at anything that she decides to do. And I think that's one of the things that was so great is kind of watching that growth and development because when she came on,
in the very beginning, was part-time. She was going to school, so she was part-time, and she was dabbling in just little tiny pieces. And then she would do a little bit more, and the hours would increase, and she would take on a few more things, and hours would increase, and then she would take on a few more things. And her role truly developed, and that allowed her growth and development as well, which a lot of times, that's something that great team members are really looking for.
Yeah, in the beginning she was like, how do I get out of this job probably? then she was I think she told you, I only want to work with you for what, a year or something? Yeah, yeah. And then I think she kind of realized, hey, there's good culture, there's good environment here. And then eventually she was like, hey, I'm graduating school, I think I really want to work with you guys full time.
And so that was really nice. yeah. And I'm sure it's not easy working for your dad sometimes. don't know. So, ⁓ but yeah, it's been awesome having her. And it's been, I'm really going to miss being able to just tell everybody all the time. Cause I get to tell every potential client I talk to during the sales process, if I'm involved, I get to like brag on my daughter, my oldest daughter works for me and she's our head of client success. And I get to just be so proud of her. So.
Now I just get to talk and brag about my wife, ⁓ which I always do that as well. So you can't leave too. I gotta be able to brag about somebody. So, all right. I'll stay just so you Just because of that? Okay, all right, good. yeah. But Maddie's amazing, so whoever gets her, who knows, maybe she'll be back. I don't know, Maddie. I don't know, maybe. Maybe she'll be like, hey, know, other companies are just not as amazing as DoorGro. And I didn't realize how terrible most are out there.
and then maybe she'll be back, who knows? You know what will be very interesting is seeing a team member that we have get transferred into a different business just to see how things run because a lot of times that's something that people value a lot more than they even realize that they value is, hey, I really enjoy the support that I get here.
I really enjoy the culture that we have here and the type of environment that we have here. And I really enjoy how structured things are. even if it's your dream job, if the company just doesn't have things together and you step into a role and all of a sudden you go, wow, everything is on fire here. This is awful. It's sometimes very eye-opening to be able to hop into even something that you think
might be perfect. And I think that's one of the things that allows us to keep great people for a long time is really the structure that we provide and the way that we run our company. I would say that that is something that will be interesting to see. I'd like to do a little post interview with her and see how... She'll be like, it's been the best thing ever to not work
Because you know what ours is, right? So how is their onboarding process? How is their training process? How is their assimilation process? What is all of that like? Because when you, and vice versa, when you come from a place that had nothing together and all of a sudden you find a place and you go, wow, thank God they have all of this ready to go. It's already.
built, just feels very solid, feels very safe, it feels very put together and it's an environment in which team members are truly set up for success and to thrive in a role. that's something that I really believe processes as part of that. It's not fun, it's not sexy, I know that, but it's really something that is so important to have dialed in.
so that new team members coming in really feel like, I wasn't just thrown into the mix and told to figure it out. All right. Well, if Maddie sees this, Maddie, I love you, proud of you, and I'm going to miss being able to brag about you, but I'll still brag about you, but brag that you are working at DoorGro and are ahead of client success. So we've got some really big things coming up at DoorGro. We're really excited about the future. We've got a lot of
irons in the fire right now, some big things we're working on that I think are going to be a game changer for the industry. And we're really optimistic, really excited. And so stay tuned to see what we're up to. Anything else you want to add before we wrap up? All right. Well, ⁓ for those of you that ever feel stuck or stagnant, you want to take your property management company to the next level, reach out to us at doorgrow.com. We would love to help you.
For free training on how to get unlimited free leads, text the word leads to 512-648-4608. That's the word leads to 512-648-4608. Also join our free Facebook community just for property management business owners at doorgrootclub.com. And if you would like to get the best ideas in property management, join our newsletter at doorgroot.com slash subscribe.
And if you found this even a little bit helpful, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. We really appreciate it. Until next time, remember, the slowest path to growth is to do it alone. So let's grow together. Bye everyone.
How do I end this? ⁓ there we go.