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🎧 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 our own personal ideas about goals. Are you an impossible goal kind of person like Jenni, or do prefer small stepping stones like Irelynn?
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! 💛
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Facebook: McKenna Property Management
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Website: McKennaPropertyManagement.com
Phone: 702-434-HOME (4663)
Owner/Broker: Jenni McKenna B.29819
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Transcript
Podcast Reunion: Ireland and Jenny
00:00:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
Hi everybody, welcome back to Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real. I am here, Ireland Zerflu, with me is Jenny McKenna. That's me. And I think this is the first time in a while we're not doing a Zerflu takeover. We're officially back in the in the office together again. i know, thank you for covering. There were just a couple big things that were going on and I was like, I wasn't going to be able to do a podcast and I hated it, but I'm glad we're back doing it now.
00:00:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
Ireland and Jenny team. Always excited to do that one. And for anyone that's listening, Ireland's last name is Zerflu. My married last name is Zerflu. So that means that Ireland is my daughter.
Debating Goal Setting: Ireland vs. Jenny
00:01:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
and today i wanted to debate with her. She doesn't even really know what I want to talk about. i want to just get her true opinions on this because there might be somebody out there listening that feels the same way that Ireland feels or they feel the way that I feel.
00:01:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
But I kind of wanted to approach this topic and get your opinion, Ireland. Are you ready for this? I'm ready. You would think that after 18 years of being told not to talk back, she would never want to hear my opinion again. But I guess, you know, 27 years later, she finally wants to hear it. It's for the podcast. What can you say? I'm going to sacrifice for the podcast. No, the funny thing is I used to always tell Ireland that she's going to grow up to be an attorney because she's really good at debating. And you'll probably see that here.
00:01:48
Irelynn Zurflueh
So Ireland and I have a ah a fundamentally different view on goal setting. I think of of a while ago, we talked about goals. It was the new year. Is goals something that you should do or is it kind of a waste of time? And Ireland, you told the truth and you said what you feel about goals. So share that with us. Yeah, I just said that sometimes they confused.
00:02:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
counterproductive for me. Like sometimes I feel like i have a goal that's to save money, but then I also have a goal that is to be more sociable. And it's like, well, and usually in order to be more sociable or to even have hobbies, you have to spend money. So it's like, how can i accomplish that goal along with my savings goal? Also similar concept of like, oh, hang out with more friends, spend more time with your family, but also go on like a health journey that can be usually counterintuitive as I think most people will agree they usually meet family around outside activities or outside dinners and restaurants or even just around a table in general and so sometimes it feels like you either have to hone in on one specific goal rather than having multiple small goals throughout all the parts of your life that you're wanting to improve And I don't disagree with that. I agree with you 100%. And I think sometimes those goals that you set and you're not able to accomplish it, it depress it depresses you. It sends you down the rabbit hole making you feel like, oh, I'm not worthy and I'm not successful. And why can everybody else do this? And I can't do this. So I totally understand where you're coming from.
00:03:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
But I have a thought. I have a thought that set an impossible goal. That's right. and yeah Impossible goal. sounds super fun. Well, it might not sound fun, but you know what? There are some really good things that come from setting an impossible
Impossible Goals: Concepts and Stories
00:03:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
goal. So I, being in real estate, I listen to a lot of podcasts with fellow real estate agents. And there was a real estate agent that about a year ago,
00:03:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
so put on the podcast that she was going to write a book. And she has always wanted to do it. And it was one of those things that she threw out there. And then this is where it became real.
00:04:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
She threw it out there with a timeframe. She said, I'm writing a book and it's going to be released in February of 2026. And then I forgot about it. I mean, she threw it out there, you know, about a year ago and then talked a little bit about it in her podcast about how busy she's been. But never, I never really knew anything about it.
00:04:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
she accomplished it. And i was listening to her today and I was just so impressed with the idea of her impossible goal. she She really did believe that she wasn't going to be able to complete writing a ah book. And she shared with us some of the things that helped her accomplish that impossible goal. And as I heard her speaking, it related to some of the things that I've done in my own life, whether it be personal or business, and maybe it's a debatable thing that I want to talk to you about. So right away, Ireland was like, oh, impossible goal. That doesn't sound all that great.
00:05:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
I agree. It sounds daunting, right? thats But what if you accomplish it? it wouldn't be impossible. And that's okay. That's just a word. That's just a word. The outcome is what you're looking for. And better than the outcome, what about the journey?
00:05:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
The journey that you have when you're trying to do something that in your mind is daunting and impossible and maybe a little scary, the journey would be different if you set something that was just simple.
00:05:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then the journey is what makes you. So what do you think? Sounds like a lot of Kool-Aid that I don't love drinking. Because i unfortunately in that sentence, you did not actually give me any advice on how to accomplish the goal. You just told me lot of fluff. I'm not going to give you any advice on accomplishing the goal. The impossible goal is something that you have to set out there.
00:06:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then you have to be very strategic about. So that's the other part. You can't just say, I'll use the example of an ultra marathon. So at one point I was, i started off running a 5k. These were years ago.
00:06:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
I ran the 5k, thought I was going to die. My friend said to me, oh, you should run 10k. I'm like, oh, Did that. Then half marathon. After the half marathon, a couple half marathons, I got motivated to do the impossible goal in my mind, which was a marathon, 26.2 mile treachery. Oh my gosh, never going to accomplish it.
00:06:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
But then I put strategic things in place. I read about What do you have to train for? How do you have to eat? How many days a week do you need to recover? All about sleep. La, la, la, right? Strategic.
00:07:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then the journey happened. And on the journey, i learned so many things about myself. I learned i can get through hard things. I learned about how to schedule things.
00:07:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
my day. Because if I'm going to prioritize running, I have to have a certain amount of the day that I have to make sure that i you know, plug out for it. It changed me as a person by going through the journey of something really hard.
00:07:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then the crazy thing is i never, ever would have said that I could have run a 50 miler. And then that 50 miler became another impossible goal.
00:07:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
And through that, honestly, there's nothing in this world that scares me anymore because once you went through that journey, Now, a hard business meeting or firing a client or a really bad day at work, it's not that big of a deal anymore because of what I got to experience heading for that impossible goal.
00:08:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
Does that still sound like fluff? Yeah. Really? Yeah. Because you never actually thought that running was going to be impossible. it was just going be hard.
00:08:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
Oh, no, no, no. Ireland. When somebody said, let's do a 50 miler in my brain, I was like, that's two marathons. There is no way.
00:08:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
The way I felt after running a marathon, there was no way I really believed that I could do another 20 miles on that. And so I had to just get strategic.
00:08:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
And yes, I had to get in there and say, do the plan. do the plan, live the journey, and then hope that that was going to be something that would be the outcome and got lucky and it was the outcome. But even if I didn't finish all 50 miles,
00:09:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
What I learned in the journey, the way that I changed my day, the way my thoughts were when I needed to get through hard things, that's what made me who I am today.
00:09:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I would have never gotten any of those skill sets if I didn't set an impossible goal. You don't think you had those skill sets prior to running your ultra? No. Not like I do now.
00:09:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
I ran that like April 1st, what, about six or seven years ago? Okay. Yeah. I... You had all those qualities prior to six or seven years ago.
00:09:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
I might've had qualities that would have gotten me through a marathon, but I did not have the qualities or are tuned into the skills to run 50 miles. 50 miles is a whole different set of skills than what the marathon was.
00:10:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
And so that's why I'm such a believer in these impossible
Applying Impossible Goals to Work and Life
00:10:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
goals. And i I set some for our office. Like I have a ah group that I work with and we call ourselves the Rainmakers. Why do I call myself the Rainmaker, Ireland? Because you want to rain money.
00:10:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
Make it rain. Oh, make it rain. Make it rain. It came from a John Grisham book. The attorneys go out, they get their clients, and so they call themselves the Rainmakers. So we have a group, we call the Rainmakers. We're basically client acquisition team. I went to them, ah was it now a year and a half ago? And I said, we need to be at 1,500 accounts.
00:10:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
And the 1,500 accounts is just step one, because really we want 3,000. So I used it kind of like the marathon to the ultra marathon, right? So we need to think like we're getting 1500 accounts. We need to do actions. We need to have a strategy. We need to follow the game plan to get the 1500. And then once we get the 1500, we've already got all those skills and procedures in place.
00:11:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
Should be much easier to get to the 3000. So now be my favorite debater. Tell me, knock holes into that system.
00:11:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
Of like you wanting 1,500 accounts? Of saying, ultimately, I want 3,000. I want the impossible goal. I want 3,000 when right now we're only sitting at 1,300. I think I would just, the whole is that, ah again, it's like not impossible.
00:11:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
To me. It's not impossible. And also like there's no time frame on it. I don't know what your smaller goals are.
00:11:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
I feel like, yes, you're valuing the journey. Are you being strategic? Like what's the smaller plans for that? Well, the smaller plan is the 1500. Okay. okay what's ah How are you getting to that 1500? And what have you changed since you went to them and said, I want 3000. What are they doing now that they weren't doing before that? Good question.
00:12:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
Because I set such a high goal, knowing that we needed to go even more, we set up a new software system where we monitor every single lead that comes in. And we weren't doing that before. If a lead came in, we worked it. And if it signed a property management grant, great. If it didn't, no big deal. Now, there is not one lead that comes in that is not monitored, touched, and systematically put into our system.
00:12:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
Okay. What about the fact that we also do extensive marketing as far as our podcast, our um new website, our Google reviews so that we can have a higher organic presence in the- You are doing all of that more. Like the software, you're right. And the podcast, you're right. But all of the other stuff you were doing prior to that. Not with the accelerator, not with my foot on the accelerator. It was a thought. It was, hey guys, let's get some Google reviews on our website.
00:13:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
And it was like, that's great. But now we formulated an actual plan that we're all involved in so that we can see the results of that. So again, and and ah and when you just said before that 3,000 is not an impossible number, Ireland, we have been sitting somewhere in the ballpark of around 1,000 for years. thinking- so to me what changed Well, I would hope that the trying to go for that $1,500 and putting a strategic plan in place is what's changing it. Our mindset, making sure that our community around us is supporting that $1,500. So you didn't see like any growth prior to a year and a half ago when you launched this?
00:14:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
not Not a lot. I mean, we did we always had a little bit of growth. Like, obviously, you don't get to 1,300 in 20 years without growth every year.
00:14:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
But I don't think that it was. It was more about luck. It was about the market. If the market was going to give us a lot of accounts, we were here to take them. But we weren't strategically placing ourselves with monitoring leads, making sure we were out there, that we were answering questions, that we were formulating a good campaign. None of that was really necessarily in place.
00:14:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
So 3,000 to me is an impossible goal. I'm glad you don't think it is. I'd like to ask you why you don't think that that's impossible. Because other people have done it. How many people have done it?
00:14:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
Aren't there like... Like mind management probably is not that. that doesn't count. They're a franchise that goes around and just, they have a franchise of it. They're not like a true mom-pop company being ran without the technology of nationwide. We are in Southern Nevada. We're not outside of Southern Nevada. Yeah.
00:15:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
And when you talk about those franchised companies, they're all over the United States. So they might have one that has 50 accounts in Timbuktu over here and 50 accounts over here. And then you add it all up and they get to count it.
00:15:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
There is maybe. Sounds like your impossible goal should be to franchise. what um Do I am I passionate about that? Let's talk about that. If you're going to set an impossible goal, don't you want to be passionate about it so that you stay motivated and, you know excited?
00:15:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. I don't know if franchising would make me excited. Would that make you excited? It'd get you to your goal faster. It would get me to my goal faster. I would absolutely agree. I think it would also give me more headache on the way.
00:16:01
Irelynn Zurflueh
But to Ireland's defense, she's on the right track. When you are thinking this impossible goal scenario, you've got to think outside the box sometimes. And that's one of the things that they say.
00:16:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
If you set your goals small, which small goals are great when you're trying to get to your impossible goal, but small goals don't get you skillset necessary to maybe get you that impossible goal. That impossible goal makes your brain think unconventionally, think differently than if you were just to set a yearly goal of how many properties you want.
00:16:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
So you're right. You're saying to me, okay, Jenny, you want the impossible goal of 3000? You may not be able to do it the way you're doing everything right now.
00:16:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
You're kind of defending my impossible goal philosophy. Sure. Yeah. Because you have to think differently. By thinking differently, then you're going to put in actions that you wouldn't have done with the smaller goals. And so therefore, you are strategically aligning yourself with that impossible goal.
00:17:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I haven't heard too much of the debate on your end. i thought for sure you would knock me down big time. I'm not going to make you feel bad about the goals you set. No, no. I mean, just about the concept in general, about having this impossible goal concept.
00:17:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think that if you're setting a goal that won't actually be able to be accomplished, all you're setting yourself up for is hurt and failure. And then I think that's going to bring you back to just a defeated sense of self.
00:17:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
I think that You have your big goal of 3000, but I also know that you have monthly goals and you have weekly goals that you've set as well. I think. i think you like to talk about the big picture. I don't think you can have a big picture without the tinier pieces. I agree with you.
00:18:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
But those tinier pieces are much bigger than what they would have been. Because if you are going to get somewhere to 1500, then you've got to look at what you're at right now. And you've got to say, okay, so how many leads does that mean per week? How many new accounts per month? And that number has to be bigger than it would have been if I hadn't had this impact. impossible goal.
00:18:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
But even your impossible goal of the ultra, you started with 5Ks. I did. So even though you had this goal of going ultra, you still started at the bottom. And I think that it's okay to set impossible standards for yourself. But if you're just setting an impossible goal and you're not doing anything else, you won't succeed in it.
00:18:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
100% agree with you. 100%. So why do we only ever talk about the bit? Like, why do we always make it seem like it's this big, important fabulous, tragic thing that we have to do when it's actually not. It's just a lot of smaller things that we have to do. Because I don't think that you would set the smaller things if you didn't have the bigger thing looming there.
Building Towards Bigger Goals and Learning from Setbacks
00:19:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
So for instance, I never did want to run an ultra when I started the 5K. I just wanted to start running. I wanted to have, I wanted to lose weight and I wanted to get some cardio. So I started the 5K, then went to the 10K, then went, oh, well maybe I should do the half- You know, half marathon. I didn't even think about the ultra or put that out there until I accomplished the marathon. So again, all those small things didn't really, i didn't have this big impossible goal at that point. It's the little small things that got me thinking, maybe I could go bigger.
00:19:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
You know, when I opened up McKenna Property Management, I didn't think $3,000 the day I opened the door. You know what I thought when I opened the door? What? Please just let's hope we can pay our bills. That's what I hoped. I was like, I hope we can pay the assistant that I hired. I hope that we can have enough that we can pay vendors when the vendors invoices come in because the owners paid us on their capital contribution. I mean, that's the kind of stuff. It was like survival in the beginning. But then, so you could look at that as that 5K. And then when you get through that, then you go to the next level, which is, okay, now let's hire more people to be specialists. So what do you tell people to do if they're just surviving right now, if that's where they're at?
00:20:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
What do you tell them to do in this situation? Set or not set an impossible goal? I don't think it would hurt anyone to set the impossible goal. I know it could be more daunting to them if they are in that 5K stage to go, hey, what about setting a ultra?
00:20:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
Because they're going to look at you and go, i can't even run 5K. Why are you telling me we should set the goal for the ultra? But what will happen is your subconscious will look at that 50 miler, the ultra, And for whatever reason, it starts clicking. It's not going to say it likes it, wants to do it, is passionate about it yet. But when you're running or training the 5K, somehow you go, well, I got to get through this because if I'm ever going to run an ultra, I got to get through this. Then I got to get the 10K. Then I got to get the half marathon. You just keep moving. You keep going to whatever it is that you set your mindset to.
00:21:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yes, I agree with you. There are times that you might not accomplish certain things and that could get you depressed, but then that is a skill set of resetting your mind. You have to step back and say, you know what?
00:21:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
That didn't work for me. What did I do wrong? And what do I need to do better? What skill set do I need to learn to even, you know, to to get to the next level? But truthfully, if you didn't have that big impossible goal, would you reset your mind or would you just go down the rabbit hole?
00:22:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
Like if I didn't have an impossible goal and I didn't reach it? Well, remember, it the reaching part is what you're achieving. You're trying to achieve it. But the journey is what makes your skill sets work.
00:22:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
That is what, would you reset if you had that awful experience? Would you step up, dust yourself off and say, you know what? I'm going to keep going.
00:22:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
If you didn't have an impossible goal that you would set.
00:22:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
I guess I can't. Yeah, I wouldn't be able to say 100% either way. Because, again, if you're surviving, you can't. You're going to have to stand back up if you're just surviving. But if, like, if I ran an ultra or if I tried to run an ultra and I didn't cross the finish line, I only ran 45 miles, I probably wouldn't try again.
00:22:56
Irelynn Zurflueh
Really? 45 miles sounds like enough to me. But also I'm not. I don't have the mindset or the desire to run an ultra. So maybe it's also about the desire to do the things.
00:23:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, that's where that passion comes in, right?
Passion vs. Pragmatism in Goal Setting
00:23:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
Because if the passion is there, then you think outside the box and you figure it out. And if you didn't make it the first time, you only made 45 miles, then you say, what did I do good? What do I need to work on? And then you make yourself run that 50 miler.
00:23:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
If that's truly what you're passionate about. So I agree. I agree with you that passion needs to be behind the impossible goal. The girl that just wrote her book and she was on, I think she was 15 on the U S bestseller list when it got, when she actually dropped it, which is phenomenal. Um, I think that she had a passion to tell her story. And yes, it was scary for her. Yes, it was tedious and lots of strategic things that needed to take place. Time blocking, somebody to help her proof whatever she was reading. I mean, things had to be put in place. She could just wake up one day and go, oh, I'm going to write a book and I'm doing it all by myself. That's when the community comes and involved. That's when your tribe is there for you.
00:24:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
But she had a passion to tell her story. And I think that's what kept her going. So what are you, what's something you're passionate about? Money. Interesting. So we're going to see an impossible goal maybe that Ireland will set in the future that will have something to do with money.
00:24:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
All my goals have to do with money. Have you got a big impossible goal in your mind that has something to do with money? a number or a thing it's going to buy or something?
00:24:48
Irelynn Zurflueh
You got to buy a house. Okay. And then what happens after you buy the house? I live in it. And is there going to be another goal that you got to go to? Probably. but I'm not going to.
00:24:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
ask I'm not going to set that goal until I accomplish my first goal. Okay. So it sounds like Ireland likes to do the increment goals if she's going to do it. And I just thought that the concept of having that impossible goal out there allows you to still do the increment goals, but that impossible goal might be just the trick that somebody needs to do in order to just keep on going.
00:25:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
that's what i that's was That's my thoughts for today as I was keeping it real. Yeah, well, I hope anyone who sets an impossible goal accomplishes it. And for anybody who doesn't like the impossible goal idea, Ireland's got a good idea. Just keep going with the little increments and getting whatever you need accomplished in life accomplished, but just don't give up.
00:25:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
Keep on swimming is what I remember a little fish saying to Nemo when she was lost. Just keep on swimming. right, well, that's it for today. Hope you've enjoyed some of that. Maybe it made you think about things. That's Thoughts for Rent. Realtors Keeping It Real. I'm Jenny McKenna. And I'm Ireland Zerfloo. We'll see you guys next time. Bye.
00:26:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
Bye. See you later.