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New Year, New Me.. But Still Keeping It Real
7 Plays4 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 New Years and New Years Resolutions. We talk about how Jenni and Irelynn handle New Years Goals a little differently.
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 to Thoughts for Rent
00:00:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
Hi everybody, welcome back to Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real. My name is Ireland, Las Vegas, Nevada Realtor, and with me I have Jenny McKenna. Hello, Jenny McKenna, owner-broker of McKenna Property Management, licensed since 1993. and property manager since 2005. Can you believe we celebrated 20 years last year? i know, which is crazy because that's that's just property management, right? That's just property management, correct. 1993 is when I actually got my real estate license and signed on to be a partner with my dad, Tim McKenna. That's crazy. So yeah, 20 full years of property management and then like collectively between Tim McKenna and Jenny McKenna. There's like 50 years of real estate in there. Oh yeah. Cause dad got his license in 1978. So 1978 and he's still licensed today. He's more retired.
00:01:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
We had him on our podcast a couple months ago. That was fun having him on, but yeah, he's definitely not as active as when we were a partnership. Well, I always loved being in the MLS. Like my, my,
00:01:23
Irelynn Zurflueh
public identification number for my realtor status, I think starts in like the threes or fours. And then i sometimes I'll look at certain people's and they have like four zeros in front of their number. And I'm like, whoa, that means you've been here a while. Yeah, I'm one of those actually. My broker license number has got a lot of zeros in front of it. yeah That's when Las Vegas wasn't as big as it is right now.
00:01:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
Las Vegas has grown and it's growing.
Las Vegas Rental Market Insights
00:01:50
Irelynn Zurflueh
I can tell when I'm on my 215 driving into work, there's more and more people on the freeway, which is good for us because we need people coming into Las Vegas so that they can eat up all of the available rentals that we have. And then once we eat up all the available rentals, then we can start asking little bit more in our rent, which is really a good thing because most of you guys know property management is usually based on a fee schedule that is a percentage of whatever we collect in rent. Yeah. So let's get those rents up, I say. 2026, the rent. Up the rent. I'm just joking. We can only up the rent if the market can justify it. Well, we used to say for 2024, we used our like big chant was more in 24. And then I think we came up with jive. No, thrive. We're going to thrive in 25. And I don't know if we've been able to figure out 2026 one I know what it is. You ready?
00:02:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
Let's fix 2026. Okay. Let's fix it and let's get those rental prices up. I like
New Year's Resolutions and Finding Your 'Why'
00:02:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
that. Well, we're going to talk about something where I'm going to keep it ah real with you guys today. and say that this category is probably the category that Jenny loves a lot more than I do. i kind of fall into a little bit of a hater category with this, but we are going to be talking about new year's resolutions today. I don't even like to call them resolutions.
00:03:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
I've call them fixes. Yeah, we could call them fixes. Why not? We're in 2026. Uh, like to think of them as, cause you know what? 17 days into January, most people,
00:03:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
have failed at whatever goal they have set. I mean, that's just a statistical data number. And that always depresses me because it's like you get excited, you set these goals or your resolutions and then you know, middle of January, you haven't done anything different. And then boom, you start going into the rabbit hole. You know, you start feeling like I'm a loser and I should have been doing this. and But you've got to be realistic in in the aspect of you can't wake up on January 1st and then all of a sudden do things a bunch, you know, totally different. Your life is still your life for the last 365 days.
00:04:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
So you know what I like to look at it as? I like to first figure out What really drives you? What's your why? You know, what is it that really makes you happy? Is that a day reading a book on a comfy sofa where you don't have anybody calling you? No emails?
00:04:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
Is it Doing charity work? Is it going to church? There's a lot of things that are kind of this abstract why. But I think if you find your why first, then you can go
The 'Big Why' and Effective Goal-Setting
00:04:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
backwards. And the funny thing for me is i found my why years ago when I joined Keller Williams. And I was being kind of mentored by Gary Keller. And he had this big day-long, we'll call it seminar if you want. And I had never heard this concept of what's your big why.
00:04:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
And he talked to the class and he's like, guys, if you want to have 1,700 rental properties or you want to close 100 deals this year, whatever it is that you do in your business, by setting that number is not going to help you get out of bed and get motivated. That's just a number, right? And he translated it into... It's a stepping stone to the why. But lot of people think the stepping stone is... the why and that's what trips that's what trips you up and that's what makes it to where you're january 17th and guess what you haven't done anything towards what your resolution or your goal or whatever was so he did this thing where he said look
00:05:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
My wife and I, we want to go to the Grand Canyon and we plan this trip to be together to the Grand Canyon. We know that it's this many miles and I'm just going to throw out miles. We know that it's 1200 miles to get to the Grand Canyon. We know that we're going to have to fill up our gas tank. at every 400 miles, right? We also know that we're gonna have to eat, we're gonna have some lodging, and it's probably gonna take us three days or whatever.
00:06:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
And he translated those things into mile markers, which is the why is the Grand Canyon. The why is the memories with his wife, the experiences, the photos, the conversations of getting there. That's the why, that's the motivator, right?
00:06:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
but the mile markers are where you stop to get gas, where you stop to sleep. You have to have those. Yeah. If you didn't have those, you wouldn't make it to the Grand Canyon. So what I like to look at when it comes to a new year or even a quarter or even in the month, whatever you want to do, find out what the why is and then just find out what your mile
Managing 1,500 Properties: Motivations and Challenges
00:06:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
markers are.
00:06:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
So McKenna Property Management, one of our mile markers has always been 1,500 properties. Even when we were at 250 properties, I always said, I want to get to 1,500. But 1,500 is not what gets me out of bed. yeah What gets me out of bed is realizing what 1,500 properties will do for the team members, for the profit share.
00:07:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
for some of the rewards that we can do within the company, right? So that's why i think i like I like using the mile marker analogy rather than resolutions or goals.
00:07:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
What do you do when you're ready to set a goal or a resolution for the year? Nothing. What? How do you get moving and excited about whatever it is that you're doing? I know. I feel like I struggle with goals like that maybe because I haven't found the why yet. i think my big thing is a lot of, i don't even know. I feel like it's so hard to set goals when I walk outside after I've gone to work and it's dark outside. It plays such a factor. I think a lot of times my goals have been like, okay, will I go to the gym or be more physically active or whatever, drink water, do this, do that, cook at home more. And I love that idea.
00:08:14
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then I just get off work at five and it's dark outside and I'm like my day's over. So then I've tried the opposite where like I try to do a lot of goals that kind of in the morning and create a better morning routine. And I've had some success here and there for sure. i mean, I will always have more success when there's some kind of reward. I know last year I really wanted to be consistently on time for work. And I said, if I successfully show up to work 90 days in a row, I'll buy myself a hatch alarm clock. And that was actually, i I accomplished it. And then I bought my hatch and that was my reward. And then on day 91, when I didn't have a new reward, I immediately like had lost it. So it's I definitely think that the reward system works. And when I have used it before, I've been very successful. But what ends up happening is then I kind of get that reward. And rather than pushing myself for like a new
00:09:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
accomplishment or like a new award, I kind of just fall back. And that's like the hard part too, is like, I don't want to always, I mean, but I guess that's, I don't want, I didn't want to always have to spend money when it came to my goals. And so I kept thinking like, well, if if every 90 days I'm buying a hat or I'm buying and Alexa or I'm buying whatever, then like every 90 days I'm spending money. But one of my goals is to like, not Spend money. Spend money.
Staying Motivated: Rewards and Consequences
00:09:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, I've definitely had good years. I've had bad years. I'm also probably a little sour right now because I pulled my back trying to take down my Christmas decorations. And so now I'm like, oh I don't want to do anything but just – And she's behind because she wanted her Christmas decorations to be done. And so you're feeling like, oh, crap, I'm behind on the eight ball. It's freaking January 2nd. already behind by my plans. But you know what? I do like your idea about the reward. It really does make a difference. So if anybody's out there and they want kind of a – a cheat sheet or a trick to it.
00:10:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
The reward is great. You definitely don't need to go crazy on the reward. I mean, she bought something that was very ah specific for being on time, which is great. But I used to do rewards with just buying a sports bra.
00:10:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
I would be a runner and I'd say, okay, if I actually worked out these many days this week and I did it the way I was supposed to, not, you know, half, you know, half assets or anything, then I would buy myself this new sports bra or I would buy, you know, the new shoes if I did it for three weeks in a row.
00:10:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
It is something that I would, that I needed anyways. And so I would make the reward something that I needed and then kind of correlate But I think you are forgetting the other part of it. which is the punishment. And I know, I hate that word. I don't really like using that one. That's a better word. Deliverance.
00:10:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. The consequence is better. So like, for instance, if I didn't work out the four days that week or three days, whatever i set my mile marker to be, then I had to do something I didn't like doing.
00:11:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
yeah And for me, it's laundry. I don't know why. so Everybody else, like I know, they love the fresh, clean laundry, taking it out of the dryer. And oh, everything's, for me, it is an absolute drudgery. I hate it. So that would be one of the things. If I ended up not doing it, whatever it was, then I would have to do black the the darks and the whites. Right. And that's two loads each that usually takes a couple hours and whatever.
00:11:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
But, you know, thinking about what you said, i also feel like a lot of people kind of set themselves up to where you did the 90 days, you accomplished it, you got your reward. And then what's next Ireland? Yeah, it's almost like you accomplish it. So then what happens next?
00:11:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think you've got to think really big, big picture, big picture like crazy. That's why we're still not at 1500. I picked a big number to be that mile marker from a kind of property management because i never, I needed little mile markers to keep going. And those little mile markers, you would reach it, but then you'd need to go to the next one and you need to go the next one. If you only did two stops for gas on your grand Canyon,
00:12:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
then you're done. So you don't want to make your goal, I'm going to go fill up my gas tank at mile 345. Because then you fill it up and then what do you do? You don't think towards the future. yeah You don't think towards the Grand Canyon. So maybe in your case, you could have gone for a full year, a full year of that, and then 90 day increments of mile markers. Yeah, of just those mile markers. Because let's be honest, it's hard. Like you said, you walk out the door, it's dark outside, you're not very motivated.
00:12:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
If you know that that's a factor for you, maybe during lunch, you go down to the park yeah and you walk around the park for a little bit so that you get what you would normally get when you walk out at the summer.
00:13:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
Because during summer, you walk out and you've got another, what, three hours of light. yeah You feel like you can go play pickleball, you can... you know, hang out at the park. You can go do an outside dinner, which is so great in Vegas for our weather.
00:13:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
But yeah, if you know what what makes you depressed, then just kind of flip it, flip it the other way.
Company Initiative: Weekly Challenges for Teamwork
00:13:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
We're doing something really fun and it and Ireland doesn't know this. So when she hears about it, she's going to think it's funny that i I kind of curtailed it to her. I know Ireland doesn't like setting quote unquote goals. Not sure why, because she's from my DNA and I am a huge, huge goal setter. I have been since I think I came out of came onto this earth at birth.
00:13:56
Irelynn Zurflueh
But what we did and what we're going to do is we have 52 challenges this challenges this year and we're doing it as a team. And all I did is very, I mean, I even chat GPT most of it, went in there and said, give me 52 weekly goals that are not too over-compassing and can be done, you know, relatively easy.
00:14:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I did have to tweak it a little bit. But what we'll do is we are going to have a challenge on Monday morning. We're going to pull out a little poker chip that has a number on it. That number correlates to a poster board that has 52 challenges. And so even if you're not a goal setter or resolution setter, Ireland will be challenged with 52 little goals throughout the week. So you get your goal on Monday, you just have to accomplish it before the next Monday.
00:14:56
Irelynn Zurflueh
And if Monday's a holiday, we'll pull it out on Tuesday. But the idea is You accomplish it before the next work day on Monday. And some of them are to cook two recipes throughout the week.
00:15:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
very doable. Just make it a priority, set it up, make it happen, right? I think one of them is no spend day throughout the week, right?
00:15:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
Definitely doable. But the reason I'm so excited about this bingo challenge is because when you come in and you've accomplished that weekly goal, there's going to be a bingo card. And on the bingo card, we'll have Some may, some may not. I mean, we have 52 challenges and you only have what, 25 bingo spaces on a card? Yeah.
00:15:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
Five by five? Oh. I think it's five by five, isn't it? Yeah, right. Yeah, 25. Five by five. And so you'll find it, let's say it was the week of a no spend day and you accomplished it. Then you get to put your sticker on that bingo card. But that bingo card is not necessarily your bingo card. It's just a bingo card. And then when you come in the next week, you will pull a new bingo card. And you'll never know if that spend, ah no spend for that day for the week is on your bingo card or not.
00:16:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
But as everybody does this, when there's actually a bingo, what will it mean for the office or for that person actually? I don't think we were told the person who gets the bingo what their prize will be, but We were told that anyone who helped contribute to that bingo gets something of like monetary value. So I don't know if the person who's getting the bingo is in that same boat or if they get something different, but they get monetary value. They just get a little bit more. okay So they're, they're going to be the bingo, you know, celebration. They were the last square to get the bingo. So they're going to get a monetary value. And then any person that helped them along the way, which would be identified by their sticker is actually going to have a monetary value. Yeah. So the reason I like doing this with the company is because you have people like me that love to set goals and will hold myself accountable. We'll actually have other people hold me accountable. That's why I have a coach. I have a business coach that holds me accountable. But you have people like Ireland who is hugely successful, does things all the time that are little challenges, but she doesn't reward herself as much. She doesn't say, oh yeah, I accomplished that this week because she just didn't make it like that mile marker.
00:17:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
And that's what this bingo will do for some of those. It's just like Like I was looking at a few of them and it's like, again, cook for yourself twice in one week, vacuum your car and wash your car. i think one was like,
00:17:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
I don't know, wash all your mirrors or something like Yeah, one of them was organize all the cabinets underneath your bathroom sinks. Because how many times do we open up the cabinet and go, oh my gosh, I can't find anything. Or you have lotion that's like 50 years old that needs to be tossed, where you just never dive into it. It only takes 15 minutes, but you just never do it. yeah But if it's a bingo challenge and you can put a sticker on that bingo and help somebody or help yourself get the bingo,
00:18:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
then why not, right? Absolutely. And so I think, I do think that I do things like that consistently throughout the year, but because I'm just not calling it a goal, I almost just like call it chore or I like called it an errand. Right. So I definitely think, I think, I don't know, maybe 2026 will be the year i become a goal person. I think the biggest thing is you have to find your why. And this goes out to anybody who is listening to this podcast. This is Jenny being real.
00:18:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
You really need to find what gets you out of bed in the morning. Yeah. Whatever it is. And it can be artsy fartsy. It can be a totally weird concept.
00:18:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
I promise you any concept that you come up with, all you have to do is then funnel it into what you do on a daily
Integrating Personal Motivations into Life
00:19:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
basis. And that can be with your work. That can be with your family. That can be relationship. It can be whatever. I promise you, you can make that funnel in. And then that's where you start setting up your mile markers. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So we're moving into 2026. By the time you listen to this, you'll already be there. Maybe you've set some, you know, resolutions, some goals, some mile markers. Maybe you haven't. If you haven't,
00:19:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
Maybe this is the time to think about it. yeah If you have, maybe this is the time to look back and say, how well are you doing? Yeah. like Like this episode if, just like me, your boss is also holding you hostage to do goals. And then comment on this episode if you actually agree with Jenny and like goals and let us know what your goals are. So like if you're being held hostage and – are a little bit like me and then comment if you're a little bit like Jenny and maybe we can and make sure to subscribe because subscribe either their way. Ireland and Jenny, we are going to be giving you some fun stuff throughout the year pertaining to property management, real life, keeping it real, real estate in general. And we'd love to have you be a subscriber. Absolutely. Let's fix 2026 and we'll see you guys next time. I love it. Bye guys. See you later.