Special Announcement: Crane

Welcome back to Owner Occupied, listeners. Today we have an extra special episode. This is not part of our normal weekly release, and you're going to see this pop up in your podcast player at an off day. I've got a special announcement today. I'm here with Wolf live. Say hi, Wolf.

Hey, how's it going, everybody?

So for those who don't know Wolfgang Kroski, he's become a little bit famous in the property management world for his systems and process expertise. I think a lot of people think I'm like the systems guy. No, I'm not the systems and process guy. Wolfgang is the guy I learn a lot from and who he's, who I go to when I have a weird problem with Zapier or like LeadSimple process. I want to hook it up in some, do something strange. So he and I, uh, are here together on this call with some exciting news. We're launching something brand new. It's called a crane. And it's a private paid community for experienced property managers. So if you're managing 100 doors or more of third-party single-family or small multifamily residential rental units, you're going to want to listen up because this is all new. This is going to be a fairly exclusive community for people who are serious about taking their business to the next level. Wolf and I are going to kind of peel back the curtain on our own operations and systems and Zaps and processes. We're going to make that available to the members within the community. There's a bunch of other really exciting stuff that we're, that we're putting together for this community as well. So we're going to get into the details and explain why we're doing this, what the vision is, how it's all going to work, how you can apply, the cost, all that good stuff. Um, but let's kick this off, Wolf. Um, why did we decide to do this? What's the issue with, with what's available today? For a serious operator who wants to grow their property management business?

Well, I think to, to sum it up, it's noise. You have a couple areas that you can go to as a professional property manager right now to try to network, gain insight, figure out what's going on in the industry, new tools, etc. But all those solutions have a lot of noise around them. So the first one are Facebook groups. I think they're great. I've met a lot of great people across the U.S. from those groups that then later on as we go to conferences and conventions, get to meet them in person and develop those relationships. And it's, it's great. The hard part is there's definitely a lot of noise when it comes to social media. There's a lot of sometimes negativity. There's, you know, just things that prevent you from just getting help, meeting new people, and building your business. The other hard part with Facebook groups is there isn't really a great way to archive resources. So sometimes, and I'm sure you've, you're, you I don't know if you or your listeners have had it where somebody shares something like, oh, that's great, I better remember it. 2 weeks go by and you're like, man, where was that post? And you're just scrolling through all the noise trying to find that one post because somebody posted a link to a great forum or whatever and you can't find it. The other one is, what if you don't use social media? You know, there are a lot of great, very smart, well-experienced operators out there that purposely stay off of social media. So how do we connect with them? How do we benefit from them? How do they benefit from us? We realize that social media is too much noise. It's not organized and it's not accessible.

You also have a really broad range of experience levels and, and areas of focus on these groups, right? You've got folks who are brand new. Hey, I'm just starting. I need to pick a management software, right? How many times have you seen people ask that? And then you've got folks who are very experienced and you got folks who are focused on short-term rentals or brokerage or various other things. So we wanted to create a place for a place that was set up not for people who are new to the space. There are a good number of resources who are resources for people who are new to property management, how to get started, how to get your first 50 doors, stuff like that. We, we were envisioning how can we create a place where people who have been in the game for a while, they have some employees, they have some units under management, and they're ready to keep things going and take it to the next level. That's kind of the vision we have, right?

And it's, you know, part of that comes back to, you know, the concept of the mastermind, right? If you, if you've read Think and Grow Rich, you've been introduced to that. It's a very tried and true concept. I'm part of a couple, I love them, but between our sessions, it's me by myself. And, you know, how do I still engage? How do I get resources, etc.? So some of them will have Slack channels that you can be part of and there's ongoing communication, but a little bit of noise. Again, resources aren't organized. And so we've really thought about, you know, what is the best way to build this group? Do we, do we use a Facebook and just heavily monitor it? Do we use Slack channels? Do we, you know, just not have any tech? And what we boiled down to is that we need tech, but we need to make it accessible. We need to make it organized and we need to make it very easy to access. And so we're using a different tool called Circle that allows us to accomplish all that, cut out the noise, stay organized, foster a mastermind-type mindset, but more importantly, build that sense of community so that you, those that are going to be joining Crane, you actually have what you need to build what you're working on with your business.

Yeah, so, you know, Wolf and I, this is something we've been working on behind the scenes all year And, you know, we've had weekly meetings, we've had a bunch of work sessions. We've been, uh, we're gonna talk about some of the exclusive content we've already produced and recorded exclusively for Crane members. But as part of this, we really looked hard at a bunch of different platforms and tried them out and, and asked around what, what's the best place for this community to live, right? Should it be in Slack? Should we start a Facebook group and make it private? Like how do we, actually set this up. And we looked at, you know, we want people to engage, right? It's, it's no fun being a part of a community where no one ever logs in and, and posts anything. But we also need some of the features of being able to have stuff organized, right? That the things that Wolf and I are creating, we need you to be able to find those things easily and reference them, or the things that other people are sharing, right? So the, the platform Circle is set up for exactly this purpose. It's like the best of all worlds with Facebook, Slack, the ability to save and archive, billings incorporated right into it. Um, it also has the ability for live Q&A stuff, like kind of a Zoom functionality built in. So it, it's a purpose-built product for private communities exactly like this. So after messing around with a bunch of other ones and testing 'em out, this is where we landed and we think it's gonna be a really nice place to, to kind of call home for this community.

Yeah, and that, that's really when it comes down to it, it's more than just, okay, let's convene a bunch of like-minded people together and hang out, right? Because that, there's lots of places where you can do that. You know, there's conventions, there's conferences, there's, you know, live Twitter chats, you know, but we wanted to build a community and then have resources. So, you know, those resources are not only having that, that mastermind community being moderated and Peter and I posing questions and trying to build the engagement. It's, this is for us, it's not a passive type community where we're wanting to, to push. We want to maybe put you out of your comfort zone a little bit. And sometimes we have to, you know, we'll ask questions and, you know, get that conversation going. But we're also part of this group. We're going to have monthly live Q&A sessions where where it will be Peter and I, but we also may bring in other experts from the industry or, you know, companies that are excelling in specific areas. So, you know, if we're seeing that a common trend, for example, Peter and I were just talking about some HR issues in our own companies. So maybe we're not the true experts on HR, but because of our connections, we can get somebody and bring that exclusively to our community. So those monthly live Q&A sessions will have great resources, and they'll all be recorded. They'll be archived, so you can— if you can't make it live, you'll easily be able to go and watch or listen to that monthly, uh, that call. So really excited about that. We'll also have, you know, our own secret sauce, for example, you know. So these resources that, like, these are our working Zaps or our working documents, or in Peter's case, like, working Notion that we we will make available to the group. And as more content and more tools become available that we implement ourselves, we'll then share. So it's not like, hey, I saw this cool thing at a conference. I'm gonna throw it in Crain. But like, if we're gonna share something, it's something that we've either already implemented and we've found that it's good, or hey, I'm personally gonna try this new thing in my company. I'm just letting you know about it. I'll check in in 6 months, let you know how it's going. But like, we're not, we're not promoting, there's no paid promotions. You know, it's not like a vendor took us out to dinner and said, hey, you know, can you pump my product? It's things that we believe in that we're implementing and that we can't be bought.

Yeah. I think you guys know, you know, most of you probably know me if you're listening. A lot of you probably know Wolf. We're, we're pretty straight up guys in terms of we're going to give it to you straight. We're going to give you our opinions. We don't hold back on what works or doesn't work because we're both practicing property management company owners, right? This is by us, for us, for people like us. We're not someone from outside the community. We're not even a vendor, right? We're not even, you know, just a vendor who's trying to stand something up for the sake of it. This is like we're in it, right? So I'm going to be sharing real-world stuff that we're struggling with at my company. Or real-world successes that we're having at my company. That's the other half of this. You know, I'm planning for this to be a place where we can be vulnerable as business owners and as humans and share some of the things that we wouldn't be comfortable sharing on social media or on a podcast recording. But within a private community where you have that discretion and you know that part of the rules of the community is what's discussed in there stays within there, um, is part of what's going to make this really powerful for everybody. And Wolf and I developed kind of a set of standards, codes of conduct that we're going to hold members to. Nothing crazy, but we want this to be a place where everyone can feel safe and welcome, um, and isn't something that's going to be dominated by one or two loud voices. So we've thought carefully about how this could work for everybody and be, be successful. The idea here is we want you to get 10 or 100 times the value out of this from what we're going to charge. And that's something I try to bring to everything that I'm involved in.

Yeah.

So go ahead.

No, I was going to say, you know, and it's that when you say 10x the value, for some people it's not about increasing the checking account 10x. Maybe it's increasing their free time 10x or quality of life 10x. And that's For us, you know, when we talk about— when you're wondering like, well, what the heck, why did you come up with crane? Why didn't you just say like PM Mastermind?

It's—

we wanted something not connected to PM. But when you think about a crane that's used to build buildings, and then the animal crane, you know, the bird, you know, the bird, if you've ever watched a crane, it will stand perfectly still, laser focused on its target, and wait for the opportune moment to then strike and catch the frog or whatever it's getting. But it is very focused. You then have the crane that helps lift heavy loads, but it's building something, and that's setting the foundation close to you.

Yeah, yeah.

What are you building? So if your goal is, I want to increase revenue by X amount, crane can work for you. If you're happy where you are revenue-wise, but you're like, you know what, I only want to work one day a week, I want to do other things, I want to join a service club or go on vacation, whatever it is, crane is for you.. If it's, I want to build, you know, something that a business that can be generational, Crane is for you. So it's really what are you building? And this community is going to be the community that can help you get there.

Yeah. So just to recap, we're going to get into kind of the timeline, how you can apply, um, pricing. I want to recap what you get. So it's a, it's a moderated mastermind community. So you get access to the private community within Circle. Monthly live Q&A with Wolf and I. So we're going to be live available for members only to jump in, ask us anything. We'll have kind of a fun discussion going. Uh, we're putting together exclusive resources. So these are things that are not going to be shared broadly on the internet or in other groups. These are things that are only going to be shared within Crain that Wolf and I think you would find valuable. Um, and, and this will be built out over the course of the year. Uh, this isn't something where on day one, that's how it is forever. It's gonna be evolving. It, it'll be a living tool. And then the last component is premium content. So to kind of share a little bit about what we're doing behind the scenes here, Wolf and I have recorded, um, so far two podcast episodes that are only gonna be available for Crane members. One of them, Wolf interviews me on how I take a month off every year. And the other one, I interviewed Wolf about how he does everything that he does, cuz a lot of people don't know that Wolf does a whole bunch of other stuff besides running a management company. And he's got all kinds of tools and, and automations and fun stuff. So I, we kind of dug in on that. So that's the type of content we think CRANE members are gonna find value in and we're making it available. Uh, we're also each putting together kind of a mini course. Um, I'm doing like a little mini course on pricing. Wolf's working on a mini course around AI and property management. And again, these are things that are only going to be available for Crane members because we think they're going to be high value. And this is a kind of a fun thing that he and I are able to do and share with a, with a community that's going to enjoy it but also give us feedback on like how it can be better. So, um, let's talk about requirements. Let's just review briefly, Wolf, what are the requirements to, to apply and be approved?

Sure. So you gotta be a third-party manager. Um, you may have 100 doors that you or an entity you're part of own. That's great. I celebrate you, but we're looking specifically for third-party managers have at least 100 doors under management. And the reason for that is we're trying to not stay out of the newbie realm and people that have already kind of been in the trenches, they've experienced enough, they've had enough, like, oh, that's interesting. Scenarios with different types of tenants, owners, etc., that they can build upon that. They need to have at least one full-time employee. Can be a remote team member, could be, you know, boots on the ground, that doesn't matter. But you need to have at least one full-time employee. And then we are focusing specifically on managers that do single-family and small multifamily rentals. If your bulk of your experience and portfolio is HOA, great, maybe, uh, start another community. But Crane is single-family, multi-family. If you're heavily in the commercial, same thing, great. But this is Crane. We're like the bird, laser-focused. And this is a group that we know that we can find success and help people build what they want to build.

Yeah, so we, uh, you may have seen— some of you may have seen, you know, I shared this in my newsletter and a couple other areas And so applications have been open for about a week now, and we have about 48 applications already as of this recording, which is August 8th. It is Tuesday, I think. Yes, Tuesday. So we are really excited about that. And just, you know, kind of briefly sort of perusing the applications, amazing group of folks, right? We've got anywhere from 100 doors under management to, I saw in the thousands from, one or two of those applications. So if that sounds like a peer group you want to be a part of, let's talk about pricing. Wolf, how did we decide to price this out? Sure.

So we do have a special right now. It's going for $2,700 for the year. Um, really excited about that. We are normally going to be offering this opportunity to people for $3,000 a year. The cool thing is if you're saying, you know what, I have a business partner, or this is really, you know, great, but I want to have this business partner with me, half off on that second membership in Crane. But we do ask that that person be a business partner or from the C-suite of your company, not, you know, front desk or a property manager or anything like that. It is, is that higher, higher level of the company. Yep. And the deadline for applications, you know, so applications are open, but the deadline is August 15th. And we will be communicating people's acceptance, uh, into CRANE, uh, around August 18th.

Yeah. So I'm gonna try and get this into my podcast feed today or tomorrow, which will be Tuesday or Wednesday, which means you're gonna have about a week to apply depending on when you listen to this. So it could be just as few as a couple days left for you to get the application in. Applications close August 15th, 11:59 PM. Uh, and at that point, as Wolf said, we're going to review those and let everyone know who's been approved within a few days there. And then we'll be going live later this month. So the way we're doing this application thing, um, applications are only going to open 2 or maybe 3 times a year. So this is something where we, we really want to, um, so right now, obviously we're doing a marketing push, right? This is marketing. You're listening to a marketing pitch. Congratulations. So the marketing push though takes effort and is a distraction. And it's not something I wanted Wolf and I to have to deal with continuously, cuz I want to give attention and focus to the community. So we're limiting our marketing efforts to just 2 to 3 times a year, which is gonna allow us to stay focused. And it also, I mean, you guys aren't stupid. You understand that, um, deadlines and urgency drives, drive signups, right? That's just human nature. It's reality. And it, it's honestly kind of exciting, right? To be a part of something. Where a bunch of people are all joining at the same time. You're all entering the community at the same time. If you're listening to this, you're getting access to, to the special pre-launch pricing, which is even more exciting. And that means you're gonna be with a, a group of peers that you're in on the ground floor with, right? These are people who have been there from, from the beginning. I imagine eventually that's gonna be kind of like a badge of honor among, you know, when we do our informal meetups and stuff like that. Yep. Um, but then, you know, 3, 4 months from now when we reopen applications, they'll open up for another 2 weeks, then we'll close them again. Then we'll have our kind of our second cohort come in. That'll be another really exciting time, right? It'll be exciting for those new members who are joining. It'll be exciting for us, the existing members, as we get this influx of fresh blood who are bringing in new energy, new ideas, new engagement. So I really love this idea that we're going to have these waves of members kind of coming in together as a group and you're going to get to know the people who are in your cohort. Wolf and I have, um, plans to do sort of informal get-togethers as part of conferences. So if you're, if you're headed to the NARPM National Conference later this year, I think Wolf and I will both be there. We're going to do like a special dinner for CRANE members only, that type of thing. Um, nothing super fancy, you know, this isn't like a $50,000 a year, you know, membership that— there is stuff you can do like that, but Um, this, this is going to be fun. This is going to be exciting for us. This is something Wolf and I are passionate about is, is giving back, teaching and sharing with the community stuff that we're figuring out, stuff that we figured out the hard way after trying it 6 ways from Sunday.

Yep. Got scars to prove it.

Yeah, absolutely. All right. So we talked about what's in it. We talked about pricing. We talked about timeline. Um, what are some of the questions you think people are going to have that we can try and head off and answer.

So they'll need to go to www.joincrane.co, and that's the website that you can go to. There's an application button right there. There's also the content that we've talked about as far as membership criteria, what's included. You can find that on the website. So it's joincrane.co. It's not a typo, it's just.co. And you can view our content or view view the application and descriptions of the content and the, the community, uh, there. And then deadline is August 15th, so you need to get that. If you're interested in this, go ahead and get the application in as soon as possible.

Yeah, and of course we'll have a link down in the description. If you have questions, feel free to shoot either of us an email, or you can hit me on Twitter. Um, this community is something that is brand new, and we're We're learning as we go, right? Wolf and I don't have experience running an online paid community. We're going to be figuring this out as we go and maybe sharing some of what we're learning as we go. Part of what's going to make this great is going to be feedback from the members on what they want to see, right? What, what do experienced property managers want from a mastermind type community? And we're going to try and provide more of that. Like Wolf said, bringing in expert speakers, or, you know, doing, um, experimenting with new vendors or new software products, doing write-ups along those lines. This is going to be a little bit of an experiment to see what could come out of a bunch of smart, motivated entrepreneurial folks getting together in a, in a confidential setting that's kind of ongoing like this. So I'm, I'm pumped to see where this is going to go.

Yeah, and that's— I think the, the key is the confidential part, because there is going to be, you know, who's had experience with this vendor or this service, and open, honest dialogue about that, you know, uh, people sharing. But let's face it, if you haven't screwed up yet in your business, you're either delusional or you're lying, or you just haven't been in it long enough. But sharing like, hey, we had this massive screw-up, this is what happened, this is where I'm— I'm working with somebody right now that's going through a PAGA thing, which in California attorneys can be deputized by the Attorney General for employment stuff. And hopefully nobody ever has to go through that, but you can share from those experiences, right? So it's, it's really exciting.

Awesome. Join crane.co. Love to see you in there. Thank you for listening. Thank you for joining me in this, uh, in this wolf. We're excited, and we'll catch you on the next episode. Bye.