“The problem with following the crowd is it’s crowded.”
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you've joined the apartments on the gold podcast with your hosts, Courtney smith and matt rue linger. We've got expert advice from the industry's biggest stars with insights to trends, best practices and manageable actions you can use for your career today. This this is the apartments on the go podcast. Hey Courtney, how's it going ready for another exciting episode of apartments on the go. Always ready matt, how are you? I'm doing fantastic as we're bringing this to you from the aim studio and round two of this attempt of my butchering of names today but I'm so excited to Welcome one of my very good friends, Tara see it right this time, Samuels Tara is with trash Butler's, she is self described networking junkie is a veteran to the multi family industry and prides herself on relationship building. She spent the last two decades learning everything there is to know about the apartment industry is working as a leasing consultant, assistant manager and property manager, she's currently applying this knowledge in her role as a regional director with trash butler, where she works along beside her husband rob as the founder and chief networking officer of AMP which stands for apartment management professionals, a professional networking group. Tara bridges the connection gap across the multi family industry. The AMP network group has been hosting virtual and in person networking events as well as a virtual book club since 2013, permission is to help apartment management professionals AMP up Their networks one connection at a time. Tara, welcome to this show. Hey, nice to see you all. Yeah, I was just in your backyard yesterday. I was in fishers in Carmel Indiana, wow. Yeah, I know we were trying to connect and just couldn't make that happen with all the craziness that's going on now. I know we're all busy but you know indiana is just a couple hours away from me, so it's nice to go back to the midwest roots, you know, and I'm so happy you came on here because we talk about networking a lot and I think sometimes it's generalized but you really honed in on what it takes the network and kind even got a little landscape here for us of ways that we can build genuine connections with our residents and the communities. So what kind of turned us over you let you kind of start this conversation? Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you highlighting this topic. I mean I feel like I have a black belt in networking, so I don't know any karate but I'm going to say that I have a black belt in networking and coming from on site many years ago, I feel like I definitely have some really good applicable knowledge that can be used today to just build more genuine connections with your residents. So on this quick show, I'm going to give you five tips to do that. So do you want me to just jump right into the first one. All yours. Okay, awesome. So the first thing that I want to share is don't expect your team to get to know your residents if you don't even know your team. So what do I mean by that? If you think about it, be real with yourself and ask, you know, how well do I really know every person on my team, whether it's the maintenance technician, the leasing consultant, the regional manager, etcetera, we get so caught up in the day to day that sometimes we don't even really know under the surface our own team. So the only way that your team can build those genuine connections is if you really kind of know them through, you know, asking questions. So I've built the library of 200 plus questions that I would be happy to share with your listeners. But you know, for fun, it's just nice on a regular basis as a team to get to know one another and you know, ask them, you know what song puts you in a good mood. Do you have any talents or hobbies outside of this 9 to 5? Although I don't know any property that runs just 95 so maybe right 107 +927 whatever it is. Do you even know why they joined the apartment industry? That's a big one because you know, Courtney, I'm sure you noticed too. It's, most people fall into the industry like I did and or maybe it's the memorable, like most memorable vacation. So I would just really strongly suggest that you do this exercise with your team first because once your team knows that they are appreciated and you actually know them beyond what their job title is and their job duties are that will carry through that energy will carry through to the residents just so you know, well before you go next, I love that and think that's really something you don't even, you don't hear a lot, especially you said like what got you into the industry and I don't know, and I'm sure you don't wanna sit down like belt them with 200 questions at one time, but you can slowly really get to learn a lot of somebody and probably find a lot of common interests and so you build even network and friendship. So I think that's fantastic. That's a great one. Yeah, absolutely. And then just kind of piggybacking on that when I was on site, I launched a book club, which is why I decided many years later to do that. And the best part is now is you don't have to do the work so you can steal my platform and even the book that I'm reading each month with the industry and at least you have a place for people to go. A book has already been selected. I do the work and the hosting, but this is a great way for you to bring, not just your team, but your residents Included on conversation relevant topics. The books I pick are not always about the apartment industry. In fact the next one we're reading in June is what we're in June June 24 is one of your pot show podcast show guests. Guess words are hard today. Words are really hard, really hard clint palmer. So he, we are going to be reading his book. I love it here. So one way that you can apply that to your resident bases create a contest. Everybody that pays their rent before or on the first of the month put them in a drawing to win the book. Maybe you give away a book per floor, a book for building. There's lots of creative ways that you can really engage your residents and your team kind of simultaneously. So I don't mind if you steal and work alongside my book club because it's fun. Yeah, I love this. How did you really get started with the idea? I think I was so captivated earlier, I was ready for more and more and more. How did I get the idea for the book club or the networking group or just the networking group? Was that a passion of yours? Yes, So I've always been in the apartment industry, I would say the bulk of my life and I don't want to give away my age, I already feel old because I have a daughter in high school, but I realized that when I was a property manager there was a stigma about and back then I'm going to say facts. We were faxing our weekly market surveys, but nobody wanted to return them because they were like, well, I don't want to give you my numbers. I don't know you, I don't I don't know your personality, I don't know anything about you. So I was like, well, let's let's get rid of these brick walls. I'm going to fix that. So I went and created a networking group and it started really small and it started just in the suburbs. But the premise behind it was to peel back the layers, get to know the people that I'm working with because by the way your competitors are your peers, whether you like it or not, you're not always going to have an apartment for everybody. So you should get to know the people in your community, the people in your area and build that network. And you'd be surprised how many facts as I got back after I started these little events and I did a monthly or bi monthly, whatever I had time for. So really Kourtney just, it was about peeling back those layers and bringing back the approachability to networking and hence AMP was born. Oh, I love that. Yeah, I think that's awesome. All right. Let me jump to jump on the two. Alright, so embrace the quirky you guys, I'm sure you can tell, I don't take things that seriously, there has to be fun. You have to laugh. So what do I mean by embrace the quirky. So it might be difficult for a leasing agent or anybody who's showing an apartment to come up with ice breaker questions or even conversation. So I love having quirky artwork or fun thrill pillows that have sayings on them. Like in my living room, I have a pillow that just has the word laugh. Imagine if you're leasing agent is walking into the model and they see the word laugh. They might say, hey, prospective resident, tell me about something that makes you laugh. When was the last time you really had a good laugh. And it it's just natural ice breakers because we don't want rehearsed conversations because those are not authentic. Another great way is I'm sure that residents, somebody living in an apartment community might be a photographer by trade or as a hobby. What if you enlisted that resident who is a photographer to take some really fun, quirky artwork in lifestyle photos for your models and for your hallways to just kind of make them more fun and silly. So maybe it's a resident sitting down at the dining table or the breakfast bar and they've got a noodle, like a spaghetti noodle hanging from their chin with some sauce. And it's just fun photos that can be worked into the floor plan and the model of your communities and you could even, you know, if you got so bold to use them as fun, quirky pictures on your website, something more lifestyle and engaging in real like when was the last time you had spinach in your teeth, right? Like have fun with it. So then you're engaging your residents and when they feel engaged, they're more likely to stay. So just be quirky with it. That's great because you're right. I mean everything is just, you know, it's like, so stock photo, right? I guess you could say a lot a lot of things are, and just to show to show your human side that's uh, you don't see that. And so, and I love the idea of the like little placements that you could put down to help remind you like the questions they ask. So it doesn't sound so rehearsed. You know, like I've got to say what makes you laugh, you know, so you don't say so I like, I like little things like that. So that's, that's great. I think that's uh some pretty awesome ideas and pretty inexpensive because I'll bet that photographer that, you know, is going to do that for in kind because they need the exposure. No pun intended or maybe that is a pun intended, but you're right matt. Like it's just don't take it so seriously, everyone just runs and bias artwork. But what if you made your residents your artwork, obviously they're not everybody's gonna be willing to do it. But if you get a few participants, you can have a lot of fun and leave it as really low cost and it's it's an engagement tool, awesome. Number three you wanna hear number three? Yeah, we don't want to stop this train. I alright, so I can say this was not in my bio, but I am a professional word dissect er so what the heck does that mean? I have this weird thing that I do where I look at words and I dissect them. So where I really took hold of that is the word apartment on my networking website. Every interview that I've ever done, I asked the question, what sets you apart and why are you meant for this industry? So the same goes for the word networking. So right in that word is work. So guess what? Networking takes work is not easy. And so maybe as an example you might be talking to your team and they're like, well what do you mean? I I reached out to Julian apartment 106 and I asked her when her birthday was and what the name of her dog was. I networked. No, that's actually fact finding that's not networking. So it's really understanding that it takes work a commitment and consistency to actually network. And so a lot of people are afraid of all of those things and so they just back off and they're like, I don't want to do it because I don't know how to do it. So one way to stay consistent is to set a calendar reminder. I'm actually one of those old fashioned people that uses a pen, a pencil, an eraser and a calendar that you write on. Oh my God, if you set and your team take baby steps, if you set calendar reminders, whether it be once a week, once a month and create a mission of what you're looking for to get out of the networking with your residents. But if you do it consistently, maybe it's as simple as just sending one fun question to all of your residents. Something unexpected. It's not about their rent or a work order, it's just something fun to get to know them and create a spreadsheet with those answers so that you can keep them in the resident file and really get to know them. So that's one thing that I think works really well. But it works if you work, I like that works at work. Yeah, you gotta work. The fourth one is outreach marketing does not require any Gps and you might be looking at me like what does that even mean? So I'll give you a quick story when I was on site. The first thing that I thought I should do is go outside of the community too outreach market. I went to the hair salon, the car wash, the local restaurants, even an ice cream parlor. And I asked like, hey for our residents, can we have a V. I. P. Discount card? You get the placement and in exchange, can we have a percentage off of services for our residents? Well you might be thinking, well that's really good. That's not a mistake. Well the mistake that I made and it took me years of life experience to figure this out is I should have started with my community. So think of all of the residents that are currently living at your community, maybe it's that photographer that we talked about. There could be a yoga instructor, maybe it's the person who is a dog dog groomer hairstylist. Those people are probably willing to give some sort of discount to their neighbors in exchange for the exposure of their business or their hobby. And you have now just created another engagement tools. So you definitely should go outside of your community, but start with the people who are currently living there because they are the ones that are your bread and butter. We all know the statistic of how much it costs to find a new resident versus keeping one that's already there. So I mean, you get the idea, but I bet you there's residents who are willing to advertise, so to speak and in exchange for just that exposure. And then bam you've just created another resident engagement tool just by networking and asking questions. And that was something I got asked a lot during the pandemic was well I can't leave my, I can't go into these businesses or I can't leave my office. And so this is brilliant. That's a great point. I didn't even think about that. I mean, that's a great way to apply to what we're doing now. And I mentioned that I was in in indiana the other day, there are so many people who still don't want you in their offices. So this is a great way that even when the pandemic is kind of loosened up, you can still kind of carry this exercise throughout future times. It's future proof. I love it. And it would be a lot easier to implement because now you mean you're talking to your residents there profession, so they're going to be the ones to go in and if you're gonna work a deal, work out with the business versus you having to, it's probably going to also give you a list of a lot more businesses and quicker. I mean, so it's almost like a 3 60 approach of just simplifying that whole, the whole concept. Yeah, I love how you guys have broken that dump. See, I learned something today, I was waiting. You're supposed to learn something new every day. So it only, you know, I have learned you ready for number five, you're on the edge of your seat. I know it, so my number five tip is to stop following the crowd. So I have um I'm a professional home Stager. I've been doing that for years and I've also staged apartments and one of my favorite pieces of artwork literally just says the problem with following the crowd is that it's crowded. So what are some ways as a community, as a team that you can stand out from your competition? So one thing that I will say that I have been using recently because email is a little bit stale is turn your emails into females. So that was v like victory. So what does that mean? There's a new tool that I've been using that this would be, and I hate this expression that I'm gonna do it. Anyway, it's a game changer for our industry, for any industry and I'll give you an example. So, um, it's a tool called sales mail. So I was running around the apartment communities yesterday in indiana and if I didn't get a chance to meet with the person I was looking for, I grabbed their business card, go outside of the building, stand there to take a video. It was basically like taking a selfie in front of their own community or sign. And I would say, you know, hi, this is Tara Samuels. I'm so sorry, I missed you. I really, you know, look forward to the chance of getting to know you. I'm running this networking event. Like whatever your business is, whatever you're talking about and bam you send a 32nd video to their email. You guys. Everybody opens it, everybody opens it because they send you statistics about the measurement of your success. If I send an outlook email, I don't know if they've opened it. I'm not going to be the guy that puts the receipt on the email. But what if your prospects who have just toured? They come in, they have now left there probably touring 2 to 5 different apartment communities to make their decision. What if that leasing agent who just met with Susie jones send Susie a video email and just says Susie, I really loved having you here today. It was the best part of my day. I hope that you enjoyed your tour at Grand Reserve apartments. I'm making something up here is, you know, a special note. I mean you just make something up, bam. You hit send what a differentiator for your community is. You get a video rather than just a stale email. I also do this in conjunction with cards. I still send the old fashioned thank you cards, the stamp the envelope. I'm handwriting them. Also, if you do that in combo, your personality, your gesticulations, everything's coming out in a video and I have one rule about it though. No retakes, mess it up. They want to know who the real you is. Like I'm Tara. I mess up words, I laugh, I'm silly, I want them to see that. So there are apartment communities that could use this and really change the way that their engagement level with prospects who hopefully become future residents. It'll be a big winner for them. So those are my five tips And I can see how you connect the dots because if you go into the community and you know, you talked about, you know, showing the spaghetti hanging out your mouth and they can see that personality, you know, they can see that, you know, you're asking questions, getting to know them and when they leave they get that video. I mean, it really kind of makes the 360 approach and gives an overall so I can see where, you know, you need to kind of implement the plan if you will the structure and not just, you know, be here and there, but I think that's just, that's a neat way. And actually, like you said, a simple way of showing a personality of your community. Absolutely. And why not? I mean, and guess what? When they're touring 4 to 5 communities, I'll bet you they're going to remember yours. Yeah. So we hope that, I mean, I feel like we can just keep you on over already at a time, unfortunately. But I know you said you got 200 questions. You've got a lot of information. So we will put all the information that Tara wants to provide for you at the in the show notes, and can you tell our listeners the best way to connect with you. Sure. Absolutely. So there's two ways if you're looking to reach out to me about networking and my upcoming events, you can email me at hello at ampere network dot com or the website is ampere network dot com. I'm always putting my upcoming events, the virtual book club. If you want to talk about how I can turn trash into cash, you can reach me at tara dot samuels at trash butler dot com and lengthen by the way, One extra tip. I use the audio messaging constantly. That's another great way I'm on linkedin all the time. So I just learned about this Lincoln audio. It's still fun. It is, it's really fun. If you haven't learned about it, go check it out right now. Yeah, the one. I love it. I love it. Yes, Thank you so much Tara. We really appreciate it. I know that our listeners definitely got a lot out of your five tips as well. Thank you both. I appreciate it. Have a page, full notes, pen and paper notes. Okay, awesome. Wall Courtney, you want to close this out on this? Yeah, absolutely. You know how this part always goes. You know, Sheriff with a friend chat with a coworker about one of our episodes. We love to hear from you. So leave us five stars. Send us some feedback and we'll talk to you soon until next time