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Welcome to the Podcast Emily
14 Plays2 months 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 meeting Max's Executive Assistant Emily! We get to know a little bit about her job, what she does, and who she it. Jenni and Emily also talk about their recent time they had at the 2025 Keller Williams "Family Reunion" Convention that was hosted here in Las Vegas!
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 of Hosts and Topic
00:00:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
Welcome everybody. This is our podcast, Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real. And I am so excited with my co-host today, and we will get into that a little bit.
00:00:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
I am Jenny McKenna. I'm the owner broker of McKenna Property Management. And who is next to me today? hi Jenny. My name is Emily Ezel, and I am the Director of Operations for the Real Estate team in McKenna property management. So the McKenna team at Keller Williams.
00:00:48
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'm also Max Zerflew's executive assistant, and I've been a licensed realtor for three years. so What I like to say is Emily keeps Max on track. So a lot of you guys have heard Max and I, when we've done our podcast, Max is not here today because I wanted to have Emily here so that we could have our conversation about um attending the Keller Williams family reunion that was in Las Vegas.
00:01:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
And a couple take backs are actually the big take back that you and I really liked a lot. So yeah, Emily is, she's being very humble. I am actually going to tell you a little bit more about Emily. Emily is so sharp.
00:01:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
She is spot on. In fact, she made a um video which turned into one of my reels for Instagram and yesterday with her creative mind.
00:01:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
And she is just, I can't even tell you all the talents.
McKenna Team's Achievements
00:01:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
And one of the things we found out a couple days ago is the McKenna team with Emily on it. You, why don't you tell everybody what you were rewarded?
00:01:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
I believe that we were ranked the one hundred and ninety ninth team in Nevada. So that's, there's a lot of teams. Pretty darn amazing. So this last quarter, she's in the top 200 of every licensed real estate agent, commercial, residential, doesn't matter. And they got that award a couple of days ago. So congratulations. Thank you. I think there's from I think Melinda checked yesterday. There's about like 16,000 licensees. So it was cool that Max and I got that. That right there just tells you how talented she is. Thank you. And I wanted to bring her on because i think Emily and I have this understanding of a lot of things that when we hear somebody, we gravitate to the same thing.
00:02:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
We get um excited about what we can do to bring it back into the business. I being in the property management world, Emily being in the sales world, and listing
Keller Williams Family Reunion Experiences
00:02:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
worlds. So, well, I say we dive right into it. Sure.
00:02:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we attended Keller Williams um family reunion, which is really just a bunch of like crazy. It's like Disneyland for realtors, but like a bootcamp because you're there, you're excited. Everybody's like, oh like, let's look, we got some keynote speakers, but boy, it's a bootcamp.
00:03:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
It's a lot. It is a lost lot. I walk out of there and I'm like, I need to take a nap. My brain is yeah overload. Yeah. But the thing that was interesting for Emily and i is Gary Keller, the owner-founder of Keller Williams Realty, he had a session where he talked about 10 bold truths.
00:03:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I loved it.
Insights from '10 Bold Truths' by Gary Keller
00:03:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
Me too. It was my favorite. Yeah. So let's and and we'll put this in our show notes. So we're only going to talk about a few of these. yeah But I am going to have all of the 10 bold truths in our show notes. And you can always reach out to us and we'll give you a copy of them.
00:03:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
But why don't you start off, Emily, and tell everybody what these bold yeah truths are? um And I also wanted to add to this was Jenny and I's first one together. i had been the previous year with Max, but I had never attended with Jenny.
00:03:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
So after this 10 Bold Truths, what was it seminar in the morning, like 8am, we both were like, Oh, this is awesome. So um I'm just going to read them right off the page. So number one, happiness is a choice.
00:04:07
Irelynn Zurflueh
Number two, life is an inside job. Three, what you focus on expands. Four, the path is in the math. Five, there is no try. Six, life is not fair.
00:04:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
Seven, you fail your way to success. Eight, where belief lives, fear can't. Nine, no one succeeds alone. Eight, And 10, love is always the answer. So he pretty much, Gary, went through every single bold truth and kind of expanded on it because it doesn't really make, some of them don't make sense right off the paper, but and it was really insightful. So what we decided to do was bring that back to the office and start doing Bold Truth Wednesday, where either Jenny, Max, or myself will talk about a bold truth, show a video.
00:04:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
we've been doing it since February, every Wednesday. And I like unpacking it in on those Wednesdays because you can pick a video that kind of relates to it. You can use your own story, your own experience. But I think it really brings the team together.
00:05:07
Irelynn Zurflueh
And we utilize it in our vocabulary. So like when something happens and it really sucks, well, we go to the bold truth, which is life is not fair. Or you fail your way to success. Or yeah, or we could do the failure. Usually they're they're complaining about something like, oh, somebody did this and somebody did that and we always go well remember life is not fair or happiness is a choice they they apply to like every situation which is great Emily is doing exactly what we do in the office we really try and live by the bold truth so that we're all on this foundational um road so that we can kind of remember to be just a better person and have a better outlook on life so I know one of them is your favorite it's number four
00:05:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah, number four, the path is in the
Favorite Bold Truths and Personal Stories
00:05:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
math. I had never heard that before um until this family reunion. And the way he explained it, I'm very analytical. I need reasoning and I need something. I can't just, you know, happiness is a choice. It's okay, whatever. I need...
00:06:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
reasoning and so this is how he explained the path is in the math it's it's very analytical which i can it's easier to grasp um from the moment our alarm clock goes off in the morning until the next morning alarm goes off again numbers and math play a key role in our lives so what's a number a number is a mathematical object used to count measure and label it represents the quantity of something and is present in all areas of math And what is math? Math is actually a language with four basic operations, add, subtract, multiple, and divide.
00:06:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
Pretty simple. And then he expands on that. So numbers and math are not the same thing. Numbers are the building blocks of math. Math is needed in every step of our life. And fundamentally, there is no math without numbers.
00:06:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
To live your best life, you must know your numbers. So when I heard that, it was kind of like, what are my numbers? If I want to operate at the highest I can, what are my numbers that will contribute to the math that I'm trying to replicate, if that makes sense? You know, Yeah. So what's one example that you went back to your life and you said, this is the number that I need for whatever it is that you were you wanted to accomplish?
00:07:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
So pretty broad. I know from just growing up in school and work that I need to be in a good headspace and I need to have a good attitude in order to produce and to work. So recently, i know that that's my number. If I want to math,
00:07:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
I need to make sure that my head is clear, that I'm in a good attitude, and I also need to know another number. What's going to set me off? What's going to put me in a bad attitude? And that's actually helped me with my positivity and looking at things differently because I'm constantly reminding myself, okay, if I'm not here, I'm not going to elevate or I'm not going to produce, so let's fix that. And just breaking it down like that has really helped me. Other small things, okay, I know a number. i I know that I need to wake up earlier.
00:08:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
I can't have 20 minutes to get to work. It's going to ruin my day. I'm not going to able produce. That's a number. So that's your alarm clock. yeah That's a number. Yeah. Straightforward things. And it's 20 minutes to get to work. So that's a number. So I'm starting to see here that throughout the day, Gary's not lying.
00:08:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
This is a bold truth. And there is math in it, like the numbers, okay, your commute, how much this, but it's also ah mentality too. What are your numbers going to be to produce math? Math is your best life.
00:08:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
So again, my attitude, okay, I know that's, I need to have a good attitude. That's my number math. I'm going to produce, you know, that's really a good way to look at it. I looked at it from the standpoint of and property management, there's a certain number that we had to have,
00:08:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
in our portfolio in order to pay all the bills. Yeah. So that's a number. Well, that number came from the number that it costs us to operate. So that's a number. So in my mind, I'm not as analytical as Emily and Max. I'm a gut feeling kind of girl.
00:09:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
um So I liked it from the standpoint of hit this number, you get this hit this number, you get this. um But it's good to have that that number. like you know You have your numbers of how many properties you want to get. We have our number our goal that we set, and it's good to see that, the big numbers, and then taking a number off when you close a property. and It helps motivate and produce math.
00:09:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
It's the path. It's the path of where you want to achieve. Well, I love that you like number four. So one of my favorites, and I'll tell a little story, is the number eight. So number eight is where belief lives, fear can't.
00:09:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I decided many years ago while I was running my first marathon ever, 26.2 miles, mile three. i'm at mile three I have my running buddies with me who happened to be Brian and Carolyn at the time. They trained.
00:09:56
Irelynn Zurflueh
We were training for this, so so we were all ran together. I looked over at Carolyn and Brian as I got my first photograph um the on the trail, and I said, hey, guys, why don't we run a 50-miler sometime?
00:10:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
yeah Don't know why. i think I was probably in like. Runner's high. Runner's high. And we got done. We accomplished the San Francisco marathon. We all did it. And it was great.
00:10:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
We got back and b Brian said, hey, remember that 50 miler thing you talked about? I think I'm interested in that. That's something I want to do. And I kid you not. In fact, I just got goosebumps because I remember when he said that to me, there was like my stomach just dropped like on a roller coaster.
00:10:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I'm like, what? I almost died at 26. I mean, I didn't want to tell him as I crossed the line that I was like literally feeling like I was dead. Like there's no way i can do 50.
00:10:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
So what we did, and this is, it's just amazing when you're around great people and Carolyn and Brian were great people, ah still are great people. um They said, Jenny, don't be afraid. Let's just do it. Let's do the training.
00:11:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
Let's get into it. Let's believe that we can do it. Every time we run a little longer, that's just going to reinforce your belief. And there is no fear. You're going to prepare for it. And there is no fear.
00:11:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
And we did it. We accomplished Hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. Yes, there were moments that I cried while I was running. Yes, I was putting Band-Aids all over my feet because feet were bleeding. I felt like a ballerina. Every part of my foot was bleeding. But when i accomplished it, and I'll never want to do it again, but when I accomplished it, that bold truth lives in me in every aspect of my life.
00:11:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
You cannot... allow fear into your life. You can't. Fear will stop anything that you want to accomplish. So the easiest thing to do is believe it.
00:11:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. And Gary explained too during family reunion, and it it makes sense. Neurologically, fear and belief can't exist in your brain at the same time. They're different feelings. So the moment that you start to fear something, your brain can't accept fear.
00:12:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
belief. So you're either fearful or you're believing in something. They can't exist. It can't be two things at once. um So if, you know, where belief lives, fear can't, you So I know a lot of people that listen to our podcast, listen, whether they're realtors or property managers, um but also some individuals that are thinking about stepping out and doing their own business.
00:12:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
Sure. And I can tell you that That's scary. It's scary. But the advice that I give is believe that you can do it. Prepare. I think prepare is always important.
00:12:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
to Prepare, but believe that you can do it and don't let fear overrun it. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, that was my favorite one. So yeah I believe that's number eight. So what's another one for you?
00:13:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
um My other one that I love, or is it? Oh, seven, you fail your way to success. I like that one. And Gary, I'll go into it, but Gary explained it and it stuck with me. He said, you don't succeed your way to success. If you succeed, you don't.
00:13:23
Irelynn Zurflueh
That's, you know, and he said the people that do or that does occur, they're just lucky. Yep. you fail your way to success. So he said, it appears that success without any failings at all is extremely rare, if not literally impossible.
00:13:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
The reason is because success always involves overcoming challenges and setbacks along the way. In fact, it is commonly said that anyone who succeeded without failing was lucky. It would seem that the reason why there is a popular belief that says success never comes without failing is because except for maybe that incredibly rare exception, any success at something is a combination of all the failings it took to get there. Amen.
00:14:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
I love that one. And I have had to learn this since I started working here. When I first started working before I was licensed and we would have an escrow fall through or something that, you know, happens a lot. I would be so upset and I would, what you know, I would be like, this is, it's over. And Max was like, it's okay. Like, well, it's, we're going to get it, you know, sold again. it happens.
00:14:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
And so now, you know I don't care anymore. yeah We're failing our way to success. So every failed escrow or every failed listing, every failed buyer is pushing us to something better. And I had client, I think about two years ago, right when I first got licensed. And this was before the big BBA thing. And I was showing her houses, whatever.
00:14:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
She ended up going and working with another buyer's agent, never responded to me. And it destroyed me. You took it personal? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was so destroyed. And Max was like, it's okay.
00:15:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
You're going to have so much more. And then I think about a month later, I sold my first house. And then two weeks after, i sold three. yeahp So it was that one list or that one buyer I lost. And then I gained these four, you know, closing so quickly after I was failing my way.
00:15:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, and whatever ended up happening, you realize that maybe you should have gotten a buyer's broker agreement signed to protect you. So you end up being smarter oh yeah on the next buyer because of what happened yeah with that one. And having the conversations too. What happened with that?
00:15:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'm protecting myself now because we failed so much yep and we're protecting our business. And I love that one. And I like it when Gary says, you know, when you've When you succeed at something, you do the end zone dance.
00:15:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
Oh, yeah. But what did you really learn? You didn't learn anything. You just got lucky or maybe that preparation worked for you. And yay, we get to do the end zone dance and we accomplish what we accomplish. and But I can tell you every single failure or every single thing that didn't go quite right that you know, kind of was a hiccup or a bump in the road.
00:16:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
Those are the ones that are life lessons for me. Totally. That's why I'm sitting right here today yeah with a property management company over that we manage over 1300 properties. We didn't do that by success. did that by a lot of failures.
00:16:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. yeah And because I did not go to college to learn to be a business owner, it i have actually said that I have i've gone through the college of hard knocks because every single thing that I started that I messed up on, learned from it and then I did it better the next time. And i learned from it and did it better the next time.
00:16:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
yeah So I, yeah, I'm a believer in failure way to success. It applies to and work, relationships, anything. And in the moment, it's hard if you fail at something or if a friendship falls out, relationship, where something doesn't go right. It's hard to look at the big picture. and But having that mantra and that bold truth, if something happens, you can remind yourself, I'm failing my way to success.
00:17:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
And that bold truth doesn't say, oh, yeah, quit. no It says, keep going, baby, just like Dory. Keep on swimming. yeah keep Keep on failing. yeah that's Keep on failing. That is absolutely a good mantra to have.
00:17:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
Keep on failing.
Implementing Bold Truths in Life and Mindset
00:17:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I wanted to just talk about the other one that I really liked, which is um what you focus on expands. So I know for a fact that when I wanted to buy a certain car,
00:17:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
I never realized how many of those cars were on the road. But then all of a sudden when I had it on my mind and I was focusing on it, focusing on, is it good gas mileage? Does it, you know, is it something that I, my family can fit into all of those things?
00:17:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
I swear all of them were on the road. I came home one day and I was like, Max, can you believe how many of these cars are on the road? And he's like, well, honey, I think they've always been on the road. You just are now seeing them.
00:18:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
So that's an easy explanation of what you focus on expands. And that goes into your personal life, your friendship. It goes to the goals that you want to set.
00:18:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
I actually wake up every day and I think in my head of exactly where I want to be in a year, yeah where I want to be in five years, because what I'm focusing on will expand.
00:18:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
And whatever needs to happen in my life, the people that need to come into my life, I personally believe that if you're focusing on it, it miraculously happens. Those people pop in at different times when you need them.
00:18:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
You may not have been so open to it if you hadn't really been focusing on it. 100%. Yeah. So when Gary Keller talked about that, um i was just like, He's so right. He's so right. So many times I went back in my life and I'm like, he's so right. Now it can go the other way too.
00:19:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. It can go negative. Yeah. I have a couple of really lovely people in my life, but I call them Eeyore. Because they never focus on the good. They're always focusing on the bad.
00:19:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
And this one wonderful person, i called them up and I had recommended a particular vendor to fix something in their house. And I wanted to find out if it turned out okay, you know, because I recommended this person.
00:19:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
They get on the phone. And so I'm like, hey, how did that go? Oh, it was great. And I'm like, oh, wow. You already turned the corner. And I'm like, okay, great. She said, yeah, everything went great. and We fixed the leak.
00:19:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
ah He was great. He was wonderful. um Yeah, thank you for the recommendation. And I was about to say, oh, good, and hang up. But noon no, no, no, no. Now the focus on the negative happens.
00:19:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, you know, this is probably not going to last very long because the other one only lasted five years. So I think this is only going to be a couple of years. And I don't know if that guy's going to stay in business. I mean, there were a couple of weird things that he he said on the phone with his front office. It doesn't sound like they're a hundred percent.
00:20:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I'm thinking, how in heaven's name, can you turn something that was such a good thing into such a focus of negative? Yeah. And it's funny because this particular person, since I'm so close with them, everything goes bad for them.
00:20:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. I'm not kidding. because they're shifting in a negative way. So they're attracting, they're looking at the negative. Yes. Even if something good happens, there's so it's still bad their mind.
00:20:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I mean, and it really stuff does happen. Like if the tree branch is going to fall and hit anybody's house, it hits this person's house. Oh my goodness. Yes. If there's going to be a weird leak, it and I really think that's because they focus on negative and therefore that's what happens. Well, you're attracting it.
00:21:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
There you go. it Because if you're not in the headspace, like my yeah explanation of path is in the math. If I come to work and I had a bad day yesterday, and I'm going to be negative. I'm not going to be producing. and you know Everything's going to tick me off. But i if I come in fired up and I'm focusing on...
00:21:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
growing our company, looking at our goals, I'm going to have better results. Like that's just the path is in the math right there. yeah Like I'm going to have results if I come to produce. And what you focus on expands. one hundred percent 100%. So I love these bold truths. emy and Emily and I are absolute believers in this. We will definitely put them all in the show notes below. we just kind of gave you Our favorite.
00:21:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
and They're all my favorite. I like all of them. They are great. And hopefully we'll have another podcast where we'll talk about some of the others too. ye And one of the tricks is is bring it into your personal relationships. Bring it into your office.
00:21:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
um Get everybody on board with this. And then your vocabulary always goes to the bold truce. Sure. And that's one of the secrets that I got that, you know, incorporate it fully into your life. It then becomes ingrained in your brain. Yep.
00:22:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
Ingrained in your brain. I love that. Yeah.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:22:14
Irelynn Zurflueh
10. Love is always the answer. You know, if you're being hateful, that's just, that always pops into my brain. Love is always the answer. Point blank. It just becomes ritualistic kind of. yeah Same with elevate.
00:22:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yep. I'm sure you've talked about that too. Yeah, exactly. Well, I loved having you as a co-host. Thank you, Jenny. And as always, we are so thankful and grateful that you guys listened Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real.
00:22:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
This is our episode. If there's anything that ah you would like us to talk about, feel free to notify us, get hold of us, let us know. If you want to share this episode, we would love that for And subscribe.
00:22:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we'll catch you next time. And remember, real estate's about more than keys and contracts. It's about mindset, growth, and keeping it real. Couldn't have said it better.
00:23:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
Thanks, Emily.