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Creating Synergy in the Workplace
7 Plays25 days ago
🎧 Welcome to Thoughts For Rent — the podcast where real estate gets real (and local)!
Hosted by Jenni McKenna, a Las Vegas born and raised seasoned broker, and Owner of McKenna Property Management, this show is your inside look at what’s really happening in the Vegas property management and real estate world. With over 20 years of experience herself - Jenni brings not just knowledge, but heart to the conversation.
Whether we’re talking market trends, property tips, community happenings, or just the everyday quirks of Vegas living, this podcast is all about keeping you in the know.
💬 Real talk. Local stories. Professional insight – provided from a company who has their boots on the ground and hearts in the community.
In this episode, we’re covering how we what we do in our office to create good workplace synergy. By making the work place fun and enjoyable we believe it will create better service for clients and longevity for our coworkers.
Link to Ben Kinney 15-Point Plan: https://winmakegive.com/15-point-plan/
McKenna Property Management, proudly managing Las Vegas homes since 2005 (and loving every minute of it).
Hit subscribe and comment down below to join the conversation! 💛
✨ Stay connected with us!
Instagram: @mckennapropertymanagement
Facebook: McKenna Property Management
TikTok: @TheMcKennaTeam
Website: McKennaPropertyManagement.com
Phone: 702-434-HOME (4663)
Owner/Broker: Jenni McKenna B.29819
#ThoughtsForRent #McKennaTeam #LasVegasRealEstate #JenniMcKenna #PropertyManagement #MarketTrends #PropertyTips #Community
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Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real. I'm sure you know by now, but I am Ireland, and over here is Jenny McKenna. How is everybody?
00:00:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
Happy Friday or Tuesday or whatever day you're listening
Boosting Team Energy with Fun Events
00:00:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
to this. We had a fun, fun Friday today. We did? Yeah, we'll talk a little bit about that on our show, on some of the fun things that we do to create synergy, but I had a really good fun Friday today. She was hosting it, and she did a little family feud challenge for us.
00:00:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
We always do ah fun Friday activities where the 10 minutes like from 8.50 to 9 before our phones start, we get together and we'll play a game or we'll do a little trivia challenge or something. So.
00:01:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
We did Family Feud today. like to get everybody's energy really up because Friday is one of those days, I think, in an office where um you're excited about the weekend, but you're just dreading the hours that you have to put in before the weekend.
00:01:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
So what I like to do is get the team really pumped up with some energy So that the first half of the day, they can live off of that energy. And then usually the second half of the day, they're so excited about the weekend coming. They just keep that energy going.
00:01:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. I always try to, I don't do it every Friday, but if I if i really need that pick-me-up, that's usually when I'll try to do a little Starbucks or Dutch Bros. I was just going say, yeah, Ireland likes to do it by caffeine. So it's Dutch Bros or Starbucks or anything that can give her that caffeine boost. Monday through Thursday, I'm...
00:01:48
Irelynn Zurflueh
stuck at the Keurig in the office with just creamer and normal coffee. And then Friday I get to celebrate with something that a barista makes for me. So that's how I get through.
Enhancing Workplace Synergy
00:01:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
But ah today we're just, it kind of loops in exactly what she was saying about the fun Fridays. We're going to talk a little bit about how we keep synergy amongst the team.
00:02:07
Irelynn Zurflueh
Some of the things that we do to try to keep energy high, to keep people engaged and make work not feel just like work, but maybe also throw in a couple little fun things here and there.
00:02:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
And longevity. I think that when I sit around in business my masterminds, They always say that, you know, hiring and firing costs so much money to the business. And I'm 100 percent. I agree.
00:02:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
So they ask me and and they ask everybody. But what I've always found is if you create this synergy with your team members or your business associates,
00:02:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
I do believe that they will stay longer. It doesn't mean that things in their life won't happen. They'll get pregnant, they get married, they move, whatever. But I think that they won't go out searching for another job if the synergy is here within the office space. Yeah.
00:02:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I think it also correlates back to our belief of elevate because L stands for love what we do. So in order to love what we do, we all we have to be good to our clients and our owners and our residents, but we also need to sometimes just have some fun.
00:03:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
And also think that when your energy's up, you actually give better service to whoever's on the other end, whether that be you're talking to an owner, a resident, a vendor, um in in the case of real estate, your buyer, your seller.
00:03:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I really, I'm a firm believer that the energy around the office needs to be fun spirited um Behind us is a mural. You guys can all see this. This is because this is how I feel. I feel vibrant and excited and a little crazy and weird every day. And that's why this mural was painted, because it represents basically the feeling of McKenna Property Management.
Post-COVID Team Retreats
00:03:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. So um one of the first things that I think we just kind of started doing, I think it was post-COVID, so we've only been doing it a couple of years now, is actually our team retreat. So that's what we call it. It's basically the same thing of a staff development day, but we just take some time.
00:04:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
We close the office for a day and then we'll do an activity and ah people get kind of put in charge of it. So we have the heads and every single year it's fun to see what other people come up with. And so the first year we actually ended up doing some group bonding stuff. And then we went to a winery in the middle of the desert.
00:04:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then another year we ah again did team bonding, but then we actually went and did some charity work for a horse sanctuary. And that was really fun. um And we actually made stalls.
00:04:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
We actually put together the stalls, all the mats in the stalls for the horse sanctuary. We all worked together. I really liked that part. Yeah. And we were, so it was like, think it was May or something. So we were sweating out there. Oh, yeah. I was ready for my Diet Coke. Let's just say that.
00:04:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then ah most recently this year, we actually ended up, again, doing some team bonding. And we ended up going to GOAT yoga. um And the reason that we did GOAT yoga was for the acronym Greatest of All Time.
00:05:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we wanted to celebrate being in the GOATs. and with some goat yoga. But what was so fun about it, Ireland was actually in charge of that. And it was, it was Ireland and Melinda. So kudos to both you guys.
00:05:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
um They hid little miniature goats throughout your office. And it was so fun to go find them. And it was weird because I have this bird feeder behind my desk and I saw a goat on the bird feeder. And I'm like, well, this is weird.
00:05:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
Who the goat on my bird feeder. And then when we had some of the of events or the activities, it was to go find the goats in the office. And that was really fun.
00:05:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
And we followed it up. with goat yoga, which if you haven't done goat yoga, highly, highly recommend it. I did more laughing than I did yoga, but it was the best. And the coats are so darn cute.
00:05:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
They're so cute. It was really fun. I think one of my favorite things about the team retreats specifically, and obviously we do holiday parties and things of that nature, which aren't necessarily unique to us but with Synergy. But the reason I like all three of those things is because we have some field agents who they're just always driving. They're always going to these properties. They don't really live in the office.
00:06:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
So during these team retreats, we make them spend a day with us. And sometimes we feel like we have to drag them in here, but they always have fun. And one of our field agents, his name is Phil. He's like in his like late 60s or like early 70s.
00:06:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
He did a full- Handstand during goat yoga. And we were all kind of just staring at him. And then when he got off of the handstand, we were like, where did you learn how to do that? And he, I quote him. He said, I've been around.
00:06:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I have no idea what that means. It was so fun. It was so fun to see a side of him that we've never seen. He's a great guy. We've all laughed with him. But when he did that full on headstand and then goats were on top of him on top of the headstand, it was insane. was like, I couldn't even. We were shocked. We were shocked.
00:07:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. That one blew my mind. And that was a really fun time. He did it so nonchalantly. And I was like, who is this man that I've been working with for like four years? No. comes into the office. So we always like doing team retreats because we're not a full office staff.
00:07:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
So one of the ways to continue to get to hang out with people is to just kind of bring everyone in for that day of gathering. So that's specifically for just
Creating Safe and Fun Office Events
00:07:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
the team. And then we also try to do things for our clients and our team as well. Because same thing, our clients may not know our faces or know who we are because a lot of it's through email or phone calls.
00:07:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
yeah And a lot of our clients are out of state. That's true. But the residents that have been, i mean, residents of ours for 10, 11, 12 years, ah they do get to know you with the repairs and then paying the rent and then the renewals. And so What we did last year, which we're going to do again this year, um we had just finished a really big office renovation because we decided to stay in this space for another seven years.
00:08:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
So in doing so, we got rid of the open bullpen. We created a conference room and we really were able to make everybody's office kind of a private office. So Shay, who's in charge of our marketing, she came in one day and she's, she's reporting about things and she's, a she said something like, what are going to do about Halloween?
00:08:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I go, oh, I want everybody to decorate their office however they want. They just can't destroy the walls. I was like, you cannot put anything up that's going to destroy the walls or ruin my new paint, but come in with your own personality and let's have everybody decorate the office.
00:08:48
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. And Shay looked at me and she said, I don't think we're going to get everybody to participate in that. And I said, na and no, no. Yes, we will.
00:08:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we created not just, oh, you decorate the office. We created a full on boo bash. And this boobash had the sweet trail and we did S U I T e trail.
00:09:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
Cause everybody's a sweet, like an office is a sweet and everyone gave out their own candy. Everybody decorated the they the way they wanted and nobody would have not decorated because they would have looked completely silly through the sweet trail when we invited the entire community to come to the office.
00:09:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
And so it was like peer pressure. And I think everybody had a blast. We also had a reward. We had an inner office ah who we felt like ah deserved like first place.
00:09:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
But then we also had everybody that came through. They got to vote on their two best and with little eyeballs, these really ugly eyeballs that they put in the bucket. And then we counted up the eyeballs and the winner of the office decoration got a reward. Yeah.
00:10:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
It was really fun. It was a good time. we We started the sweet trail, I want to say a little after like one o'clock. So we still did the morning. And then we had kids who were getting off of school, stopping by. we even had people who they were doing some work in the actual like office. And some of the vendors who were working at the office came and did the trail.
00:10:23
Irelynn Zurflueh
And we had people like clients come in we had other companies who we share this office space with come in and do the trail as well so it was really fun um and I do think it was really cool to see everyone's different personalities Max and Emily won they were a mad science lab oh and they kind of stole the show it was insane they were so funny I hope they do that again this year But you know my favorite part was?
00:10:48
Irelynn Zurflueh
I loved seeing everybody's personalities on their offices. But we had quite a few people that had started when school got let out and they came through and then they would go grab their friends.
00:11:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
They went home, talked to their neighbors and said, oh, you guys have got to go to this boob bash. And they would bring they would come back again. we would see them and then they would have their friends with them.
00:11:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
So um I just thought it was such a success. And not only was it a success from the standpoint of giving to the community, because I really feel like I like to give kids at Halloween the safe areas to trick or treat.
00:11:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
I've always did that even with you when you were a kid. I got nervous about just doing it random. in certain neighborhoods. So I really wanted everybody to know that this was a safe place.
00:11:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
A lot of different, i mean, we have what, 10 different offices. So 10 different yeah mini haunted houses, if you want to say, nothing too scary. um so it was just a really good opportunity for the community to be involved in something that was safe.
00:11:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. It was really cool. I'm excited to do it A second year. I know that Alyssa is heading that up this year. so I'm really excited to see what she comes up with. I know. And I'm actually her co-chair. Yeah.
00:12:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it'll be Alyssa and I for the boobash. And again, that brings that synergy all month long. So the month of October, i set up my little Halloween town and everybody loved that. And then somebody would decorate their office one day and we would all go in and go, wow, you know, and then somebody would want to beat the office that just did it. So all month long,
00:12:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
It created this team synergy. Yeah. And there are some people who share offices too. And I think that was really fun to see them come together to decorate just like Max and Emily decorated one room. we have a couple other people who share offices and they, they both bring in decorations and it was really fun just to see the office mates kind of try to beat out all the individual suites.
00:12:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
And this year we're going to even try and extend it to the medical center that's next door to us. They're new to the complex, so they didn't see us do it last year. But we happen to be really good friends with the owner of that um doctor's office.
00:13:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we might make it even longer sweet trail if they're open to decorating some of their office, which I think they would be. I think that would be really fun. It'll be fun. i'm So what's another thing that can create this synergy amongst team members within a business environment?
Fostering Teamwork through Goal Challenges
00:13:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, I know that one of the big ones that you've been doing even before I started working here was goal-based stuff. um So Jenny obviously loves her goals. She loves making those rewards and those accomplishments.
00:13:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we've every single year since I've been here, we've done a different like goal challenge or goal breakdown um throughout the year. And that's something that I think is really unique because it's the first place I've ever worked that does yearly goal challenges. So what was your favorite? What have you liked from that yearly goal challenge since you've been here?
00:13:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
Liked is a tough term. Ireland might not say liked to any of my goal challenges. She doesn't because there's a reward. But yeah, liked might not be the right word. I do This isn't necessarily the yearly goal challenges, but we also do um some review challenges just trying to get our name out there on Google and on Yelp.
00:14:14
Irelynn Zurflueh
And those have usually been either quarterly or maybe monthly goals. I have really enjoyed those because when we celebrate those, we are celebrating them as a team. So we're usually celebrating them at our team meetings and everyone kind of gets, if you get a shout out or if someone had name dropped you, I really liked the chance to be able to celebrate with everybody.
00:14:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
um The last one we went to, the big one was Din Tai Fung. yeah yeah we Yeah, we actually had to do three separate tables of six, I think, because they wouldn't accommodate such a large party.
00:14:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it was really cool to have throughout the restaurant, these three different tables with all different personalities, we would kind of come in there and bop in and say hi. And then they would come over and say, what are you eating? And I mean, din taifung, that's great food. So yeah that I really, really liked. That was a hard one to accomplish. That was a big milestone.
00:15:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. For our Google reviews. Um, So those that was my favorite. And then you're the one who always does the year one. So you can share your favorite on that one if you want. Yeah. So last year, i really liked challenging everybody to Ben Kinney's 15 point plan. So if you have never heard of Ben Kinney, if you're a realtor, you probably heard heard of him. If you're Keller Williams, but absolutely.
00:15:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
Very successful realtor out of the Northwest, but he has expansion teams. He does a podcast called Win, Make, Give. And if you go to win, make, give, you can download his 15 point plan. And i think this is the secret of getting out of a rut.
00:15:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
So once in a while, I'm a very high energy girl. I love what I do, but I will get into a rut at times. And when I find myself getting into a rut, I will go back to Ben Kinney's 15 point plan and I'll do it for 30 days.
00:16:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
And it literally gets you out of it. I think in a couple of days, but So just to kind of, I mean, I want you guys to all go and check it out yourself, but some of the things that you do, and this is every day and you mark it off every day, you can go 13 out of 15. You can make your own goals, but I made the team say they had to do 13 out of the 15 every day, five days a week.
00:16:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
So if they missed it on a week day, they had to make it up on a week end. Um, so it was five days a week, at least 13 of the
Overcoming Ruts with a 15-Point Plan
00:16:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
15. And, um, if you did it and they had to graph it and they had to mark it and they had to get signed off on it, then you ended up with a big reward at the end of the year. Do you want to tell everybody what that reward was?
00:16:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
It was money. And I didn't get a single penny because I didn't accomplish a single week of this challenge. And there were a couple of us. And Max was like three. It was me, Max, and like somebody else that didn't do a single week of this.
00:17:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
know. But a lot of other people in the office really gravitated towards it. it was um Five of them actually did it. Yeah. At the very beginning of the year, Jenny actually gave everyone in the office journals because one of the points in the 15-point plan is to journal every day.
00:17:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it was a really great way to kind of start. And then a lot of people really gravitated towards these points. They're... Drinking water, laughing, working out, journaling, taking your vitamins and shot of va bull serving yep hobbies. So a lot of people were really digging it. And some people did all like 50 weeks in the year because you also gave two.
00:17:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
Bye weeks. Bye weeks. Yes. So a lot of people did all 50 weeks, but then other people, they did a full half year. They were doing 26 weeks. They were doing 30 weeks. And so. So I set it up to, to be kind of like a running chart. So I would do, if you did five weeks and you got a little something as a reward to keep you going, that would represent the 5k.
00:18:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
Then if you did 10 weeks, it was the 10k, a little bigger reward. And then if you got to the half marathon, which is 13, then you got something. And then 26, marathon. And then that's why I used the 50 for that ultra, which is the 50 miler.
00:18:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
And because it was running themed, i I used the metaphor that Max and I were the ones passing out the waters. They were on the sidelines. Sidelines supporting. Yes, you were great supporters. I have to say that.
00:18:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
But if you're ever interested in really checking out something that could get you out of that rut or maybe reset your mind, go to Winmate Give, go to the 15-point plan. I give full kudos to Ben Kinney. He created this.
00:18:50
Irelynn Zurflueh
And when you go through it, there's an explanation of everything that it is like movement, hydration, sleep, nutrition, supplement, influences, journal under each one of those, it gives you a little quick description of, of what that represents.
00:19:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I was really impressed with everybody diving in um, even with you supporting us, but every everyone that took it to their level. And then, um A lot of them were very impressive. 50 weeks. I didn't even do 50 weeks.
00:19:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
I got to marathon status and yeah I did not get to the 50 week status. It was really cool to see everyone kind of just lock in and really commit to this and Every single year it's different. This year we're doing monthly challenges. So currently we're in the challenge of writing down your bucket list and accomplishing a couple bucket list things.
00:19:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
ah Last month was a month of service. um We did a clean out month.
Maintaining Team Synergy with Monthly Challenges
00:19:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
So i really like the fact that with the team and trying to create synergy, we do always try to find something new. Even with the team retreats, we try to keep it a little different based off of who's on the board. I think the boobash is going to look different.
00:19:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
So Something that I like about the synergy is that when we do come up with an idea, we are still spicing it up every single time, which is really nice. the whole purpose of doing all of this, even though it's super fun, we enjoy the camaraderie, the synergy it creates, the bottom line is...
00:20:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
it is to help keep your team members with you because you don't want them leaving to go to your competition, number one. Number two, you also don't want to do the hiring, which costs money or the time that it takes for mistakes.
00:20:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
Because when somebody new comes into that position, you have to know that there's going to be mistakes made. It's just it's the way of life. Fail forward. We just... Emily and I just talked about some of the 10 bull truths.
00:20:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I like to look at it as every time we do any of these things, it's an investment into not only the team, but the individual as well. So I look to it to see what we can do to better their life, set their goals, help them along the way, little tools that will get them out of a funk.
00:21:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
And hopefully, even though we're not doing the 15 point plan this year, all the team members can revisit revert back to it if they ever need to. Absolutely. Yeah. So because we're always spicing things up, if you guys have been forced by your employer to run the head of some kind of retreat, let us know in the comments. Maybe we'll steal some of your ideas. You can absolutely steal some of ours. i highly suggest goat yoga if your town does it because it's one of the funnest things I've done in my entire life. Actually, in the show notes, we'll put a link to the goat yoga that we did because I love them as a company.
00:21:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
We'll also do in the show notes the 15 point plan link so that they can get to that. And then if you want anything as far as ah copies of what we' we're doing right now, we are happy to share.
00:21:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
All we ask is that subscribe.
Encouragement to Share and Subscribe
00:21:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. Subscribe, follow. Yeah, we want you guys to follow us and share. Share this episode with somebody that you think that might find value in it.
00:22:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
And remember, this is Thoughts for Rent. Realtors keeping it real. We'll catch you next time. Until then, keep it real, keep it fun, and keep building that team synergy.
00:22:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
See you guys later.