The Secret World Of Operations

Jay Richardson [0:00] If the team knows why they exist, how they're going to behave, where they're headed, and what's most important right now, then a lot of those conversations do kind of take care of themselves, for the exceptional conversations, there's probably something there that's worth exploring, and then that's where, you know, the coach mindset, the active listening really comes into play.

Speaker 2 [0:25] Hi, I'm Sabrina West, your local mortgage expert with guaranteed rate. We provide you and your clients real talk in real time. I am a mentor, investor, and money mortgage expert that provides you with customized consultations with a behavioral finance approach that helps you build wealth through real estate. We believe in clients for life. So reach out today for your customized consultation. All right, so I'm gonna highlight that one more time, because that's actually really exciting. So we do have a special update. and guest appearance from someone that's gonna give us an update on short term rental based on all the hot topics going around Asheville.

Next, we will have Ruiz Report, the famous Ruiz Report Market update. Then, of course, table discussions, so y'all can continue all this amazing conversation, and we will go through the secret world of operations with three expert panelists talking about and digging into how they run their day to day operations. Your business is only as good as your systems, right? So it should be amazing conversation around that. And next, of course, we have audience Q&A. And if you've never been to a meetup, Please know we invite and love questions from the audience. So be jotting those down or stick them in your memory as we continue. So, that lady, crazy lady, that's me. Hello, hi.

I am Ray Ray Hicks, and I work with AVLmeetup. And if you would like to volunteer. Please let me know. I'll get into that in just a second. So, and now that I've introduced myself, let's introduce y'all, y'all are the Ashevillees, Movers and Shakers, and that's what we do. We bring everyone together, specializing in bringing all the movers and shakers in Asheville together, to connect. And we are about that net profit philosophy. So for those of you that have been here, you know, we're all about the net profits, and how we actually put that together is we specialize in networking, education, and transactions.

Everything we do tonight and when we are together is focus around those three topics. Focusing on your gross is just gross, right? So net profit is where it's at. So first, networking, y'all are clearly experts at that. So much we couldn't even start to. tonight. So, networking is obviously something we want to bring everyone together to do. You can be as strong as possible with the best relationships that you can make, and maybe even it is one of those relationships you can build tonight. So, how many realtors do we have in the room? All right, all right. And how about investors? Raise your hand if you're an investor. All right, good amount. This is growing. This is exciting.

And lenders, can I get lenders, raise your hand? All right, all right, you can see all the money, all the money's here. The people want to spend it. And service providers. Do we have any service providers? All right, all right, look at that. And end reps. What's an N rep? I'm so glad you asked. That is a non real estate professional. So raise your hand if you're a non real estate professional. Awesome. We love to see all of those numbers growing, so tell your friends, post about us, tag us. We love to grow, as I said, the movers and shakers. So, stay connected, of course, amongst yourself, tag us there. It's a great way to connect as well. We live in a world of social media.

And I touched on this briefly earlier, but we are looking for volunteers. So I do this every time I'm on stage, but I cannot tell you how much we do, truly appreciate the volunteers that arrive early, set up all the chairs, set up the tables, facilitate some of these conversations, and also greet at the front door and let everyone know as they're coming in what's going on tonight. So can we get a quick round of applause for those volunteers? And if you would like to volunteer, please see me, but there's also an exciting new process, speaking of which, there's a new volunteer application, and don't let that application word scare you.

It's very, quite easy, and it will take you right to see the man, see the man? Hey, volunteer. That's exactly all you need to do. Once you're signed in, you can actually go to upcoming events, and click on the man and go ahead, and you get to choose what you'd like to do. So we have setup, breakdown, facilitator, and sign in tables. And you get to see some of that behind the scenes while you're here, and of course, before you even arrive. So once you hit that volunteer button, you can choose what you'd like to do. These are the time frames for it. And then after that, easy peasy, right? Thank you for applying, someone from your team will be reaching out, and that someone is me.

So I will reach out and answer any additional questions you have, and, of course, keep in touch. And education. So everything we do is around, like I said, networking, education, and transactions, education. Take a look at that. Over 3,500 hours spent educating movers and shakers on a variety of topics, from expert panelists as well, right? So, of course, we go into the market, but we also have expert panelists come in on those specific areas and teach. So it's very exciting. We had an awesome panel last month to add on to all the awesome panels we've had before. And transactions.

So I did this poll last time, but can you raise your hand if you've made a good relationship or done a transaction with someone in the room? So take a look around. That's pretty good. And that number is growing, right? So, um, that's something we do take seriously, and because we take it seriously, we're making it even easier to build on that. And how we are helping you build on that is three different ways. Not one not two, but we are doing three. So first is the member directory. So if you go in and you can go to AVLmeetup.com, you can create a member profile. Easy, couple quick questions, ask me about, about you, and I'm here too. So, easy to fill out, one, two, three.

And once you fill that out, it of course, lets our system work for you a little bit better. So second, we have matchmaker service, and this is a newer service, and it's actually really cool the way that it works. So, once you're here, you can actually go into deal matchmaker. Now, this is important, because you have to fill out the survey. And I know we have a survey when you sign in, but we actually use that information to help you with that transaction portion. So once you come in, this is what your phone screens will look like, it's pretty easy, right? It looks like you're looking to buy, sell, borrow, so on and so forth.

However, once you come in, and fill that out, it only works, when you're here at the meet up. So please make sure you're signed in, you fill out the survey, and you can find out, literally, who's in the room right now that can help you accomplish your next transaction, who can help you accomplish that next relationship to move your business forward. And next is have wants and needs bored. So that is exactly what it... That is exactly what it says. So what do we have? What do you have? What do you want, or what do you need? And that is pretty self explanatory, so you can post a want, right?

So fixer uppers, looking for Madison County, looking for real estate owners who need cost segregation studios. So you can see here you can submit any have that you have to offer any want or any need there. And I would like to highlight the last time we had something posted was February 8th. So we're looking to grow this, right? There's no cost, there's no monthly fee to our members, to those of you that have profiles. This is truly to help engage the relationships around Asheville to help you promote your business, get what you need, posted, and also fill whatever business aspect you're looking for. So, long story short, help us help you. And let me do a quick introduction really quick.

So we have, as I said, a special guest here. So for short term, short term, uh, rental update, we have Matt Allen.

Unknown [8:37] Thank you.

Zac Ruiz [8:39] Is there a click for? Is there a clicker somewhere? Okay. Well, maybe someone could advance. Oh, there it is. Luca. Very appreciative to Zach. He called me at 730 this morning and said, Do you want to come talk about Bunkin County STR proposals? I'm like, hell yeah. So thank you so much, Zach. to be here. And just a little bit more about me. I'm the director of professional development and government affairs at the Realtor Association. We have 2100 Realtor members across Madison, Bunkum, and Transylvania Counties, and try and be quick, 'cause my time is limited.

But I did want to talk, briefly, about what the county is proposing, because it would significantly impact your ability to having short term rental in the unincorporated parts of the county. And because my time is limited, I think Zach's gonna share my information later, so you can reach out to me for follow up questions. Happy to answer those. But, um, you know, these are just some of the proposals that are on the table. It really will operate. I'm not exaggerating as a de facto ban on short term rentals.

allowed in commercial districts, which is not a lot of the county, subject to special requirements, open use is the vast majority of the county, and you'll only be able to do it if you have at least three as a vacation rental complex, and then go through and get a special use permit through the Board of Adjustment. Not allowed in any other zoning district. allowed to continue as a legal, non conforming use. There's been a lot of back and forth on this, still up in the air. The last meeting, the indication from the planning board was, yes, we want that. But then there was some discussion on requiring grandfathered in STRs to come into compliance on certain items.

So, once again, I'll just mention a couple of things they're proposing. Um, no more than 10 people at a short term rental. Max 4,000 square feet for a home, only allowed in detached buildings. So no more in any sort of multifamily duplex. Home stays, maybe on the chopping block. Okay? So, again, this will be, in a lot of ways, even more extreme. How do I put it, than Asheville's ordinance? Okay. I do want to just point out this does only impact, or would only impact, the unincorporated parts of the county. So if a municipality has any rules, Asheville, Woodfin, those would control. Okay. So, what do we have coming up?

There is a listening session at AB Tech, Ferguson Auditorium, on March 18th. Please come. Share your comments, share your stories about how STRs are a benefit to our local economy and to your livelihood. Currently, April 22nd is when the planning board will vote on recommendations to send up to the commissioners for adoption into local law. And we don't have a date on that yet. Could be as early as May 7th. It might be at their meeting later in May, but, again, it feels like they're rushing this through, so I'm telling people May 7th. Okay, so what can you do? The QR code on the far left is an RSVP for the March 18th listening session.

The middle QR code is a way to reach out to the planning board, and the far right is a way to reach out to the commissioners. It's not too early to send them a message about how you feel about these proposals. So with that, thank you so much for the platform, Zach. Thank you, everybody, and hopefully, you know, I'll hear from you on this. at some point in the future. Thanks. Get that.

Unknown [13:14] Awesome.

Zac Ruiz [13:16] Who's ready for data, all right? Let's do the thing. All right, so this month is actually a pretty cool month. You'll see there's a little Easter egg. Right? So my name's Zachary. I run the Reeze Report. This will be the 48th month that we've been covering all the data. And so we're gonna go over Buncombe County tonight. But first, so you read here on April 12th, what was it? 2006. I went to Iraq for the very, very, very first time. And this is Young Man Zach over here at the bottom right. I just turned 20, like, days prior, so I didn't get to go on my first appointment as a teenager, but whatever. Um, right?

But I went with one of my best friends, this guy named Josh, what we call Gogo Argote. And there he is. He's up there at the top left, right? There's another picture of us. You'll notice that I have positive control of my weapon with my finger straightened off the trigger, and he's holding it like, God only knows what's going on there. Right? Um, but as many of you know, if you know me at all, I play the long game, all right, I play the long game. So, Josh is a tile master. And he's in my bathroom right now helping me get this tiled for my wife, my family, so I've been investing in this renovation since at least 2006. Yeah. All right?

So if you wanted to buy anyone a drink tonight, that's Josh. He's over there, he's gonna raise his hand to be embarrassed. Um, there you go. If you're in the Raleigh area, definitely check out gradsport, gradsport.com and now to the data. All right, so at the report, our mission is twofold, right? So basically, we want to give you all the data with this report, and then we want to give the best training you can find to become the local economist of choice. Right? We're gonna start with the graphs. We're gonna start with the graphs. So, as I like to say, it's just the pretty shapes and colors, all right? So even though Conan was putting his glasses on, you got this.

All right, so basically, this is how the graph works. On the far right, you'll notice it says march here. That's the report month. So the graphs we're gonna show her for February. Then you're gonna notice on the left that the same month has a little red box around it. And so that's year over year. That tells you what's happening the last 12 months. And then you'll see there's two months leading into it, so that kind of gives you an ability to say, well, this same time last year, this is what was happening, what will happen going forward, right? And every single graph follows that same pattern. So congrats. You are good to go.

Right off the bat, we're gonna talk about volume and activity, and the height of this bar is just how much real estate is happening. The red bar is the total activ listings, so it's how many homes are available for sale at any given time. Whether they went under contract and came back, doesn't matter the total amount. And then the green bar is those that went under contract, and those that closed. And together, as long as you ignore, uh, withdrawn and expired, that's all of the real estate that happened in that month. And so all we're seeing is that the height of this bar is much higher, or, you know, significantly higher, proportionally, so this time last year.

Again, that interpretation, this time last year, you saw it was going down, and then, basically, as they say, spring has sprun, so it looks like, maybe this year, that will happen, but let's keep that in mind as we keep going. The next slide, my favorite slide of all, this is the listing and pending slide, and this slide tells the story of supply and demand. So we're gonna sit here for a second. When the red bar is above the green line, then that means you added more, added more supply. The green line is the homes that went under contract. So that's what was taken on in the month. And the red bar, or the new listings for that month, so that's what you put on.

When it's below the green bar, that gap, the area, under the curve, as they call it, that is what was reduced from supply, right? Supply was not replenished. It was reduced in this month. Right? So if you look at this chart, you'll notice my head, and you'll also notice that we have been consistently adding supply every month for quite some time now, and we have not been doing that for the past three years, basically, almost four. Right? So, we're noticing that, uh, we're consisting Adamly Supply, and some curious things are starting to happen. And this is kind of the main takeaway for tonight. So these are home prices, all right?

The red line is the average, and all that means is you took all the homes that sold, divided the total amount by how many homes sold, and congrats. There's your average. So, really expensive homes, bring the average up, and that's why the average line is above the green line. The median line, the green line, is if you took all the homes and lined them up from the least expensive to the most expensive, and you grab the middle one. And that's your median, and that means 50% of homes were at least this expensive. So, the pro tip on this slide is, you know, unless you're flipping a homie, you're trying to get in and out in a month or two, don't look at month over month changes.

Look at longer terms, right? So that's my tip for everyone not to freak out when they see his graph. So if you look at the trend line, you'll see that the average is still up to the right to some extent, but you'll notice the median is really flattening out. The median is really flattening out. And if you look from about May or June, excuse me. It seems, like, prices have been taking a hit, pretty consistently. One thing to keep in mind about a home sale is that the home closed, maybe in February, but it went under contract in January, December, maybe even November, depending, right? So this is a lagging metric. This is telling us what happened when that deal was made, right?

And here's our takeaway for tonight. If you're taking notes or you want to, Hey what did I learn tonight? For the first time since I've been running this, 48 months, right, the average and the median price, year over year, are lower. That hasn't happened once in Buncombe County. This is the first time that the year over year price change is a negative number. All right?

Unknown [18:37] Hmm.

Zac Ruiz [18:37] So, another curious thing I've noticed is days on market. So the days on market is I put the sign in my house and I go under contract. How long does that take? And we do that for the month, right? So you'll see my head again. There's a big, big spike until last month, and then it went down drastically, right? So, prices were, or rather, days on market, we're going up and up and up as prices were coming down and down, right? That's your lever. If you're not priced correctly, it'll take longer for you to sell, but look, we had a precipitous drop, as you might say. So maybe, maybe, sellers and their agents got the message. You never know. But something's happening, right? Hmm.

So, how does this look in real time? So these numbers are as of today. So if you go to rmc.co, you can get all this, you can look up new construction, all sorts of fun stuff, but we're just doing residential, so what you think of as a home, more or less, in Buncombe County, between $5,000 and $600,000. So, basically, that average price. So if you'll get all of the active listings, the median days on market is 68 days, right? 41% have had a price reduction, averaging $45,000. That's, like, 10%, basically, right? So, that's real. So 50% of active homes have been listed for 68 days or more, or another way to put that. Is 50% of the homes that have not sold yet?

They haven't come to an agreement with anyone. have been listed at least 68 days. So is the market tanking, right? Are we seeing this happen in front of our very own eyes? I think, confidently, we can say no, and I'll tell you why, because last month, on this stage, that metric was 93 days. The market is doing its thing. It's correcting itself, right? If you go to the median under contract, excuse me, so the under contract homes, they came to an agreement. You don't know what it's gonna close at, but at least they're under contract. Right? And that means 50% of those homes did it in a month or less. Right? So 32 days or less. Again, last month, that was 64 days.

That's basically a 50% reduction, month over month. So the market is correcting itself. It's happening, right? Maybe sellers and their agents got the message. I don't know. So the markets does seem to be correcting itself. That was a lot and it was fast. So if you want to learn more about this or get training on this, we provide the training videos. Gratis, totally free. Resport.com. Every slide has a five minute video about how to interpret this stuff, and by the end, it'll just be a broken record. You don't know exactly what I'm talking about. So let's recap, right? We had our first year of a year drop in prices, both average and the medium. Right?

Day on market is down significantly month of a month. That's a fun thing. Sellers and their agents seem to be adjusting to market realities. Remember, it's the same thing on both sides. These are buyers now going, oh, this is great.

Speaker 2 [21:19] Hi, everybody. My name is Kimmy with American Eagle Home Inspection. We are your local one stop stop for all your home inspection needs in Western North Carolina. Do me a favor, pull out your phone. Find us American Eagle Home Inspection on Instagram, give us a follow. You know what? There's only so much I can tell you about us in 30 seconds, but I promise you, you will not be disappointed if you check out our content. It's very entertaining. It's going to tell you all you want to know about us. So check us out on Instagram, and we'd love to be your one-stop shop resource for your home inspection needs in Western North Carolina. Check us out.

Zac Ruiz [21:51] All right, so talk amongst yourselves for 10 minutes, and here is your table question. All right? Have we reached the peak of home prices in our market? And if you want an extra question, try to throw it in with short term rentals or what's happening, is this even good for the market, given that it's correcting itself? Starting clock now. All right, guys, so we're gonna go ahead and get started with our panel here. First off, thank you all so much for being here. We're really excited to dive into the secret world of operations. Just to get things started.

If you could just introduce yourself, maybe explain what you do at your respective companies and we'll try to do each person in, you know, 30 to 60 seconds. And we'll dive into the details afterwards. Yeah, Susan, go ahead and's ready.

Susan Aplin [22:42] Hi, everyone. I'm Susan Applin, and I'm the CEO of Katie Button Restaurants and Lifestyle Brands. So Curate, La Badega. We have Curate Travel. We have Curate at home. We have a wholesale business that we're launching, and we have Curate Wine Club. And thank you for having me.

Carolina Cole [23:02] I am Carolina Cole, and I am with Vest Appropriate Management. We are appropriate management company for rental properties, long term, um, and that's what I did.

Jay Richardson [23:15] Hey, I'm Jay Richardson, currently serving as COO of Burial Beer Company here in Asheville. We have 2 tap rooms here, one in Raleigh, one in Charlotte, and we've been around for about 11 years.

Zac Ruiz [23:29] All right, so we'll go started off with a good challenging question. And with operations, lots of moving pieces. So how do you describe what you do to your friends and family? What does it actually mean to be CEO of burial, for instance, Jay? And we can start with you.

Jay Richardson [23:47] Well, it depends on which members of my family. I'm answering the questions. There are some that, you know, just want to know on the surface and then I just say that I'm, I'm in charge of making the beer and that usually suffices. But our son, who's 19 lately, has wanted to know more what do you really do? Um, and so for him, I say a bit more about, you know, leadership and trying to provide clarity and removing hurdles and making the workplace feel, um, like a place of compassion, a place you want to go to every day. awesome. we'll just go right back down the line.

Carolina Cole [24:31] So I would say that, um, I manage properties, but I do all the heavy lifting that real estate investors don't want to do. I deal with all the problems that real investors don't want to do, or don't want to deal with. Um, I give landlords freedom, so that they can focus the resources, whether it's time or money or whatever it is, to focus on accomplishing their goals. That's what I would say.

Zac Ruiz [25:06] Everybody needs a Carolina, right?

Carolina Cole [25:08] Yes.

Susan Aplin [25:09] Um, and I um, love to tell my family and friends that I get paid to eat great food, drink great wine, and travel. Seriously, though. Exactly. Don't come for my job. Um, I, um, you know, I think every day is, um, I tell them I'm the coach. essentially for our companies and our brands and our business units. And just like Jay, it's about removing hurdles and setting people up for success and supporting them. So that's how I would answer that.

Zac Ruiz [25:46] Awesome. So if we could just keep coming back down this way, along the very same vein, excuse me, what's like a Tuesday look like for you? What are you doing on Tuesday? Not specifically, necessarily, if you're a very regimented person, but like what is a day in the life?

Susan Aplin [25:57] Tuesdays are a really important day of my week. It's when I have my one on ones with my direct reports. So intentional leadership is a big part of how I approach my role, and that means being present. That means listening. That means giving people the time and space and the grace to come to you with their issues, and work through challenges. It also gives me an opportunity to check on key things that are going on in the business. So I stay up to speed. But that is what my Tuesdays look like, almost back to back all day. Amazing.

Unknown [26:33] Is cool.

Carolina Cole [26:35] Similar for me, in the morning, 1st thing I meet with my director report, and we go over the 1st 3 things. The most important things that have to happen for the day, if he has any questions or anything like that, we also touch, we have the week distributed for different topics around the operations. So Tuesdays happen to be vacancies and leasing. So we talk about all the vacancies and how we are doing and where in the process are we to get them filled? And then after that, I go on with my day to work on my daily and my weekly goals. I do have my other meetings on Monday. So that's where we set my goals.

And then before the end of the day, I meet again with my better report and kind of go over the day, see what he was able to do by himself, if he has any questions, or anything like that.

Jay Richardson [27:39] First part of the day is checking all the inboxes. And then, and then the calendar, and then really that just frames what free time I have, which is what I really look forward to, and that's where the impromptu conversations have on the, uh, mainly on the, on the brewery floor, sometimes in the warehouse, sometimes in the tap room, um, really just in search of something that's just under the surface that um, I might can help with.

Zac Ruiz [28:08] I have to ask, how many inboxes are there? 3 right now. and growing, I'm sure. So obviously neither of you all or none of you all started in the positions that you're currently at. If you're looking back on the journey that you had to get to where you're at, Is there a specific role or a previous employer that you had that you felt was really formative, that kind of set you up for success and maybe you didn't even know it at the time?

Jay Richardson [28:42] Yeah, probably with when I was with New Belgium, I had been with New Belgium Brewing. In Colorado. I was with them, started as their IT director, and then our head of production at the time decided to step down. He wanted to become more of an engineer. And then my boss, the COO at the time, asked me if I would serve in that role just in the interim. And I explained that, you know, I was flattered, but, you know, I have no brewing expertise. And she said, oh, they don't need a brewing expert. That team just needs a good leader. And I had never really thought of myself with that, you know, kind of skill set.

And so I would credit her and that opportunity for opening my eyes to a different thing to do at work.

Unknown [29:37] All right, girl enough.

Carolina Cole [29:39] Um, so a couple of things that I've done in my life. So the 1st one, I would say, going to law school, where I'm from, I'm from Colombia, I went to law school there, graduated, all of that, then I'm here. So that helped me with the strategic thinking that I necessarily have to have on the daily basis to be a property management. Um, the 2nd thing that I would do or credit is being in the real estate investment industry as, um, lead manager for Asheville cash buyers, and, um, also helping on the transaction management as well, that helped me, uh, of course, knowing the area, the industry, and the people that live here.

Um, and then the 3rd thing is I'm also a landlord, which is very important, uh, for what I do, because I've done there. I've done that. I've been there, and I can, of course, relate with my clients, and the positions that, you know, they often are.

Unknown [30:46] Susan?

Susan Aplin [30:48] Um, I think for me, when I look back on uh, one of the roles I had, um, I, uh, I think about uh, Staples. I was with Staples for about 4.5 years, and in fact, I was at Staples with Sander, who's our head of supply chain 30 years ago. I was in a mergers and acquisitions role, and so I was spending a lot of time working on acquisitions in the U.S. and really doing the due diligence on those. But then I got to get involved on the international side. So we had a company in Canada, and we had one in the UK, and we had one in Germany. And the reason why I bring this up is because I really was focused on the due diligence, but then I got asked to stay behind and lead the operational integration.

And for me, that was my magical aha moment, that I'm moving now out of these finance, more centric roles, strategic roles, and into this operational role. And that really opened up the whole world for me after that throughout my career.

Zac Ruiz [31:52] Very cool. All right, so the title of the Secret World of Operations came from, so I have a finance background, someone recommended that I read this book called After the Trade is Made, and it's like this thick, and like 4 people have read it. so you nodding your head, maybe you're one of the four, but like, I didn't make it, right? But it was just shocking that, like, you think of these stockbrokers and everything, like, oh, yo, buy, buy, sell, sell. But then what happens? How's the trade executed? How does it go all the way through? And so I love that everyone brought up the leadership aspect of doing this?

And so basically the next question is to that effect, what does the team look like to make the operations happen? what do each of your teams look like?

Susan Aplin [32:29] So, um, for us, on the operational side, we have a manager of restaurant operations and underneath Nathan, we have general managers, and then we have back of house managers, front of house managers, and our head chef, our CDCs. On the corporate side, though, in operation Sander, who's here with me tonight, oversees the supply chain operations and our pickpack and ship fulfillment and order management. And so that's what it looks like, on the operations side for us.

Carolina Cole [33:05] For us, we have, um, the visionary, which is Rodrigo, so he's the one that, you know, is creating the vision, working, expanding the business, then, um, I have, uh, 2 direct reports, one of them works, and it's the relationship with, um, our clients, our residents, clients, um, and is also in charge of coordinating all maintenance and making sure that things are getting fixed and people are on time and all of that kind of thing. Then the other direct report that I have is somebody that is dedicated 100% to finances. So rent payments, owners, um, reimbursements, all of that. And then there is me. That's it. Small team.

Jay Richardson [33:59] Burial has 2 main breweries, so there are, as a head of brewing at both of those facilities, they lead the teams that actually, you know, start with grain and end up with a beer that is fit to drink. Then there's a packaging manager who leads the team that puts that beer into either kegs, bottles or cans. And then in a supporting role, there's a quality manager. for all aspects of the beer making beer making process and a head of maintenance, which is leading a team that tends to all of the equipment and the facilities.

Carolina Cole [34:37] Oh, I forgot to say, we also have a full-time in-house maintenance tech, and we are actually looking for the person. So if you guys know somebody. Please let me know. Nice plug.

Zac Ruiz [34:52] That's a great segue. So like every good team has to be built. What's your approach to hiring, firing? Do you look at close relationships, friends, family, or do you try to stay away from that? You know, you can take that question whichever direction you want to go.

Unknown [35:07] We'll start with you, Jay.

Jay Richardson [35:12] For hiring, it I would like as very much as it is possible to approach it as a get to know you process so that so that each, so the candidate as well as, you know, the hiring manager can determine together how good of a fit that person is with the company's values. You know, assuming that they have at least enough experience to be to learn the position.

If there's training on the job that's needed for, you know, expertise, um, that doesn't, that doesn't really scare me as long as that person is, um, a fantastic fit for the, for the company culture, uh, in the, it reminds me of the, in the book Essentialism, which I think came out about 10 years ago, there's a chapter on hiring, and the author suggests, um, giving yourself enough time to start over. If you get to the end of the process, so to speak, and you can't say that you would love working with that person, start over. Start the search again. We don't always have that liberty.

But it does speak to the weight of finding people that are aligned with the values, the things that you just don't are, the things that are not up for debate at your company. If a natural, if a person is naturally lining up with that, then now you're in the neighborhood of a good hire.

Carolina Cole [36:41] Yes. So I agree with that. Um, on addition to that, we do, um, clearly the person has to be a good fit for a culture, um, and most than that it has to be a believer. We have to hire a person that believes in what we're doing, believes in us, in our business. We are not interested in in hiring hiders, which are just people that are interested in collecting the parent and be done. For that, we have different processes. Of course, you know, we do their job add. It has a description, and we do have a tweak there. We add specific instructions to apply. So, like, it'll be silly things like send me, you know, your resume to this email, and in bold red color, tell me your favorite color.

And that's like the 1st filter. We don't get as many. And because people don't read and they don't follow instructions. Um, so that's the first, you know, it's a 1st indicative for us to be like, okay, well, we start good. After that, if they do that, we schedule a phone interview, which we go through a scorecard. So like we have questions and it kind of like gives points to what we're looking for, skill set and kind of like the profile of the person that we're looking for. And if it all goes good, um, we set out an in-person meeting, and then kind of, by then, we should have a pretty good idea whether we're a good feed or not.

Susan Aplin [38:12] So for us, you know, we see hiring and exiting people as some of the most important decisions will make. Um, and that we spend a lot of capital and time, um, in both of those directions. So, um, we don't speed date, um, we we take a very thorough approach to hiring. There are a lot of people involved in that decision, depending on what position that is and what level. And we do, we do look at, um, candidates who embody our values, that kind of off paper thing. Um, but what's really important for us is that we're putting people in, um, the bunker with us that, um, that know how to fight the battle.

I think the last thing for our growth rate at this point is that you want to be in the foxhole with someone who needs training on how to load the gun and fire it. So we want everybody stepping into that position with experience under their belt, a proven track record, and someone who can drop in and execute day one. And then on the flip side to that, on the firing, it's the same thing. It is a long process. It's not speed dating unless someone has done something really unethical. It's not a surprise. We work through it. And we do it as a team, and there are many people involved in that.

Zac Ruiz [39:40] So, let me chime in. So I got I was a server at Kuda to back in the day, 2011 maybe, right when you guys opened. And we had to take like a written test. I think I got interviewed by 4 people just to get on the floor. I remember it being like a very intense process. So, yeah, I remember that I sweated a lot. There was a lot of studying just to memorize wines and whatnot.

Susan Aplin [40:03] And you decided not to stay in the field?

Zac Ruiz [40:05] Because of the testing. yes Yeah, I'll give a shout out.

Susan Aplin [40:09] Theo, our head of HR is here tonight too. And it's more than that test today. People come into the restaurants. They literally have to go through a 90 day on boarding, and we make it so clear what they're signing up for, um, that people, a lot of times, self select out, which is what we want.

Zac Ruiz [40:28] Well, so on the other end of that, as a lowly Ashvillian, with a foodie wife, I can't get a reservation at Kurate. Right? So whatever you're doing is working. A little too well, maybe, but that. So, the one thing I didn't... We might be able to hook you up. Shameless plug that way, too, right? Um, so, uh, just fun side note, the one thing we did mention, so Go Go and I, we're both in the Marine Corps infantry, so we deployed front lines doing the thing. It's like, I love all these references to being in the bunker in the foxhole. It's good. Fighting the good fight. So on those on that line, right? So the team is built, you've hired, you've got the right culture going and everything.

So now you're sitting further and further back where you get this strategic overview. How do you manage other people's problems and their priorities so that you don't take on that level of urgency that they have since you're maybe one or several steps removed, I guess, just coming back again.

Susan Aplin [41:21] Um, calming influence. I just think it's part of how I've approached the job for so long that I try to let the noise stay where it is and keep people focused. I do think every opportunity like that is an opportunity for you to coach. What seems like the house is burning down to someone is not literally the house burning down from and helping them understand that perspective. I think is hugely important. So I think that is how I do it. And I also, we have a three year plan. We know where we need to be in 36 months, where we need to be in 24 months to make that, and we know where we need to be in 12 months. And the management team was a part of putting that plan together.

And so pointing back to the plan is very helpful. You always have that thing that removes the personal side out and just point back to the plan. Great answer.

Carolina Cole [42:24] Um, for me, it's a little trickier. I say because I interact with so many stakeholders. Um, you know, I have owners and one and vendors. I have residents. I have potential renters. I have potential owners. So, to everybody, it's like their problem is literally the most urgent thing that has to be my most urgent thing. So handling that I've come to the realization, and it was a very, it's a skill that I'm still trying to master. Um, but what it's very helpful to me is have a list of priorities that align with what you're saying, like, with the business, right? This is the purpose of the business. This is our goal. My priorities have to be aligned with that goal.

So that goes from like, what do I do 1st thing in the morning? Do I do this or do I do that? And so that, you know, like having that list, gredient in front of my desk allows me to make decisions when sometimes my heart wants to go one way, but I was like, uh, no, that can't wait, and it's, it is hard, but still working on it.

Jay Richardson [43:42] Yeah, just agreeing a lot with what's been said already, if the team knows why they exist, how they're going to behave, where they're headed, and what's most important right now, then a lot of those conversations do kind of take care of themselves. For the exceptional conversations, there's probably something there that's worth exploring, and then that's where, you know, the coach mindset, the active listening really comes into play.

Zac Ruiz [44:11] So, obviously, Asheville, housing is something that's top of mind for everybody, uh, with, you know, 2 of the 3 of you all being in the service industry, how often does housing come up with conversations with current employees, potential employees, ex-employees, et cetera. Is that something you guys navigate at all? so, how? And if not, you know, what's your feel for, you know, how to interact with that from, from your position?

Jay Richardson [44:39] Yeah, in fact, just this morning, burial had its 1st all staff meeting about, uh, living wage and cost of living adjustments and how burial was approaching those decisions. Um, burial has has been a living wage certified employer. And so working closely with just economics, and those familiar with that organization and that wage have seen it go up 10% year over year for the past 2 to 3 years. And so that was the main topic in, you know, talking about burials, financials and how the payroll line item, what does it look like, how has it grown? So at this point, it's very much something that burial wrestles with and we continue to strive to be a living wage certified employer.

And we were able to just be real honest with coworkers about, you know, the long-term difficulty of doing that. And it turns into a really rich conversation with, I think a lot of additional understanding on both sides of that coin.

Zac Ruiz [45:58] I have to have a follow-up question on this. That sounds like a very challenging conversation. And I would love to know if, like, you have any insight that you could add on how to have those challenging conversations before we move on. Just what's the approach? What's the mentality? How do you set the stage well for, you know, I'm sure people walked out, disappointed, and some people walked out well. How do you do that?

Jay Richardson [46:19] Yeah, I was able to catch up with a couple of our maintenance technicians later in the day just to hear what their reaction was to the conversation, and they, you know, they were honest that they were, they were bummed that, um, you know, we thought you were going to announce the cost of living adjustment for 2024. And, uh, in essence, what we announced was that decision is going to have to be made in a few months from now when we have a better feel for, you know, how our financials are progressing through the year. But then he said, he said, so that was a bummer. And also really appreciated how honest you all were.

So I think authenticity, you know, can go a long way, especially when you're sharing, you know, certain aspects of the financials of a company, especially a privately held company.

Zac Ruiz [47:07] Yeah, thank you, Jay. Carolina.

Carolina Cole [47:10] Um, Dad. I don't know that I can give an opinion on that necessarily, as I shared earlier, we are hiring currently, our full person, full-time person and full person, hopefully. Um, but most of my team are virtual, so they're not here, so I don't have to necessarily fight that battle. Um, sorry, yeah.

Susan Aplin [47:37] So for us, um, we became living weights certified, um, after the pandemic, um, that was something very important to us as a company, um, and strategically, we have, um, made taking care of our employees, one of the the center post of our uh, plan going forward. So for us, living wage, our employees, they will start at that living wage, but on top of that, we also have paid PTO for our employees. We have 401 K for employees who haven't been there who are there for a year or more. Um, we have wellness programs. We have subsidized benefits. But to answer your question about the impact of the cost of living continuing to go up. It does put a burden on companies.

You know, at the end of the day, our job is, my job always is, make sure the company is in great financial standing, and we have sustainable business, and our employees are taking care of. But, you know, we have to keep the company moving forward. And this is an area I think we would love to see the more work done on the part of the city and economic development.

Zac Ruiz [48:56] If you know anyone from the city, if anyone knows anyone from the city, we have a lot to say to the city, and we're constantly talking at them. We would love to talk with them. Just quick plug. So on that note, are there any takeaways that you guys gained from the obvious change that business had to go through during the COVID times, during the lockdown or anything? Is there anything from there that now that things are back to more what we call normal that you continued doing that you found were actually boons to carry on and even normal business times?

Susan Aplin [49:23] Um, yeah, for me, it was, um, really honing in unintentional leadership, and, you know, for those of you who remember, um, being on Zoom screens and meetings, and you have employees that are distributed now, not in front of you, and you don't know what they're going through. You don't know the challenges that their family's facing, if they have kids or someone lost their job, or, or what's sort of happening, I think going through that and really focusing on and listening and being present and not being distracted and giving your employees that grace and space to bring that to the table and support them. That is something I've carried forward.

I didn't know if I would go back to moving a little bit more faster, but when it comes to our team, I think it's really important to take the time out and give people the time and space. So I think empathy and leadership was always important. I think we learned during COVID. It was even more important in post-COVID, it is definitely something that I take forward.

Carolina Cole [50:30] Um, I do agree with you. with the tweak that we did state like that. So, again, most of our team is virtual, me included, I work from home most of the week. I go to the office, I stated, and, um, it's the importance of that, like building, um, closeness when there is not really. Um, and creating the space for our employees to feel comfortable, to share whatever they're, you know, going through, um, on the other side of the screen. And so that's very important to us. The other 2 things that really improved our processes in our systems are, we are on a daily basis, discovering new tools, new programs, new apps, new everything that make our lives easier.

So that is really cool, and then the other thing is, um, just, getting in that same boat, residents and owners with, it is, it can be tricky, but, you know, it is possible. So, all those are, you know, cool things for us.

Jay Richardson [51:48] I feel like the pandemic shined a light on a unexpected dynamic of a healthy team and that team members were coming to work even when they were sick because they didn't want to burden the rest of the team. They thought by coming by coming in, they were like, you know, not putting extra work on their teammates. When in fact, they were infecting all of their teammates, which ultimately shuts the whole team down. And so I think the pandemic gave, you know, businesses, organizations an opportunity to say, to reinforce, hey, you're actually doing your team the best service by staying home. If you don't feel well, stay home. And that conversation is just much easier to have now after the pandemic.

Zac Ruiz [52:38] All right, so we're going to move into a little bit of a lightning round at this point. Quick answers, as much as possible. First question, you know, we'll work through it, see how quick you can go, but throughout your time in different organizations and through different positions, have you been able to find a specific area inside of the company or organizations that you're like, I can always find ways to add value or improve X? And what is X? And we'll start with UJ. Time savings, cultures, cost.

Unknown [53:11] Culture.

Zac Ruiz [53:12] What is that way?

Jay Richardson [53:16] That was lightning, man.

Zac Ruiz [53:19] Bingo night. Boom.

Jay Richardson [53:22] There's multiple lightnings in this thunderstorm. I think it, yeah, it's just doing, you know, creating an environment where, um, people feel safe at work physically and psychologically and that they're able to go home with some degree of fulfillment about what they accomplished in the day. Cool. Awesome. Thanks, Jay.

Carolina Cole [53:46] For us, that's our bread and butter. We are it's an everyday thing. We have so many processes, so many documents, and we encountered issues, like, down the road with different people. So we're always updating our documents, our processes using different tools. Why? Because it's more efficient, because we want to get the best results with the minimum effort and minimum resources. That's why.

Unknown [54:15] High performing team culture.

Zac Ruiz [54:19] Culture for two. Two for culture. All right. Awesome. Next question is a little easier to lightning. I don't think there'll be a misinterpretation here. Do you have a favorite, like task management tool or management tool that helps you move fast?

Susan Aplin [54:31] Um, Me personally or our teams? Both. Oh, I think our teams, you know, depending on what area creative uses a sauna, I think operations uses ERP and Excel spreadsheets and things like that, within that, um, day minus schedules, you know, things like that.

Unknown [54:52] Asana.

Jay Richardson [54:55] For personal productivity, the getting things done by David Allen.

Zac Ruiz [55:02] I had a feeling after you were saying. I check the inbox and do the things, though. All right, so this might be your answer as well, Jay, but has there been a foundational book or course that you've gone through that, you know, it's been pivotal for where you're at today?

Jay Richardson [55:18] Yeah, specifically for healthy teams is The Advantage by Patrick Lyncione.

Unknown [55:24] Great. Rocket Fuel.

Susan Aplin [55:28] Good to great, but I would say where I've probably picked up most is not a book or a course. And I would just say that throughout my career. having worked for so many great mentors.

Zac Ruiz [55:39] Another great book, so good to great rocket fuel, and Patrick Glancione, the advantage. Great books. Everyone should read all those. All right, so last question. So, I'm from Miami. There are lightning storms with a bunch of strikes and no like thunder, so this one can take a little bit longer, right? What's the most exciting problem that you're working on right now?

Susan Aplin [55:55] Gosh, we have so much going on from a growth perspective across the business, but I would say the number one thing that we need to get right this year is our high performing team initiative. And everything, that lifts everything up. So no matter what business unit is growing, It is all about the 11 elements of high-performing team and moving the needles. So we just started that process. We use the Bane capital model for that. It's a really good one, if you're interested, where I'm happy to share it. But we just went through that launch and process. Every salaried employee went through that. And we did our baseline survey. It starts there.

We know where those results are, and that'll feed into an action plan this year. And then we'll survey every quarter, and that'll give us a really good gauge on where people are. Very cool.

Unknown [56:47] Very cool.

Carolina Cole [56:47] Um, we outgrew coal rail, which was our like phone management tool. now kind of like, we're not very hateful relationship. And we're moving towards dial pad, which offers way more and better features. It is a pain to move because so many regulations about texting for small businesses and just, it is pain. But we're doing it, I'm very, very excited about it.

Jay Richardson [57:20] Well, I can't claim either of these initiatives. I'm really excited that burial is doing them. One is a healthy leadership development program all year, and the beginnings of a financial literacy across the company education. Yeah.

Unknown [57:41] It's really good.

Jay Richardson [57:43] Awesome. Yeah.

Zac Ruiz [57:45] That could even tie into better.

Jay Richardson [57:48] There's another good book. The Great Game of Business.

Zac Ruiz [57:50] Oh, oh, very cool. All right, so we're going to do Q and day now. Today, we have a new addition to the Q and day. We have our little catch box, so we won't have to repeat the questions. You'll just have to be able to catch the mic. Fair enough. All right, so whoever has the first question, raise your hand, we'll lob it at your head. All right, here you go.

Unknown [58:10] Boom.

Zac Ruiz [58:13] All right, hopefully the mic's on. Oh, this is the mic?

Unknown [58:18] Testing?

Zac Ruiz [58:20] Thanks to our friends at Catch Box over there. Let's see.

Speaker 2 [58:24] Talking about leadership and investing in leadership, at what point did you decide to invest, and when you made the choice to whatever resource you chose, why did you choose that resource?

Susan Aplin [58:42] The question for me? All of us. Um, so let me just repeat the question to make sure I got it. Um, If we decided to invest in leadership, um, what resource did we invest in and why? For us, that's a great question. So when I got to KBR, we had a management team, we have a management team in place, but we needed to expand that. So the very 1st position, that I identified was the head of marketing. So we needed to bring someone on who really understood multi-business unit marketing, but who also understood e-commerce, wholesale, um, and dealing with um, a media company with a TV show and cookbooks, et cetera. So it was pretty broad. So I'd say that was the 1st one.

And hopefully after this weekend. We'll have that person on board.

Speaker 2 [59:43] Let me get more specific here. you hear me? Let me get more specific. What attributes, what behavior did you notice between the dynamics of teens and departments for you to then decide to invest? What attributes?

Zac Ruiz [1:00:02] Like, why did you decide leadership was necessary? I'm assuming, right? Was there something happening in the company that you're like, oh, we really need to pour into leadership? Yes.

Susan Aplin [1:00:10] Oh, investment into leadership. Oh, yeah. So when I got there, the great thing about KBRs, it's a great company. And so the job, my responsibility, is really take it from really good to really great. So we have a lot of leaders in that company. But how do we get those leaders aligned? So we are investing in high performing team this year? And that is all about leadership and clarity and roles and responsibilities.

And one of the very first things I did was take the team through an investment into three year strategic planning, so long range planning, which started first with Katie Felix and I, talking about where do we want to go, what's going to bring us joy over the next five years, and so we made that investment, and we've taken the whole team through that, and we have that plan now. Those were two big investments that we're making in leadership.

Unknown [1:01:06] Um, Oh.

Zac Ruiz [1:01:08] If you, yeah, if you wanted to chime in, you're welcome to. we'll go.

Carolina Cole [1:01:12] Okay. So for us, it's on a daily basis, I say the biggest investment for us is time, right? Taking the time with our small team to see me, the time that I spend with Rodrigo, like strategically thinking and planning, it's the most valuable resource that I can have. a hand on. So that's number one. And then number 2nd thing that we do, we joined a mastermind for landlord, for property management, companies. So they're always available, ton of resources. All of that.

Jay Richardson [1:01:53] It seems to be pretty common for most organizations, especially those that are that are growing quite quickly for coworkers that are successful in doing a certain thing, then get promoted to leading people that are now doing this certain thing they used to do. But more times than not, they don't get trained on how to lead. And so they oftentimes feel stuck because they all they know is what they used to do, which is now being done by someone else. And now they're trying to figure out how to add value to those people. And when I joined burial, I started learning that that seems to have taken place to some degree.

And so the owners of burial decided that, well, this is not healthy leadership and so we need to we need to teach people how that's done. So that was the trigger for them.

Zac Ruiz [1:02:52] If you want to invest in the service. So, all right, so local service. Let's go to another question. I don't know if you've ever heard of the, has anyone heard of the Peter principle by any chance? So the Peter principles you get promoted to the level of your incompetence, right? And maybe the solution of that is investing in leadership, right? So that's an interesting thing. All right, next goal. It's Mr. Crumb. There we go. So Carolina just said that time is your most valuable resource, right? On that note, are you guys, I don't want to hear from all three of you. Are you good at managing a good work-life balance? If you are good at it, how do you do that? Hard hitting questions.

Jay, why don't we start with you and we'll just go back down the line. Fifth Amendment fully.

Jay Richardson [1:03:36] Well, if I might be so bold, I think work-life balance as a noun is a fallacy. I think it's balancing work inside your life. Like work is just a part of life. And depending on where you are in your life stage, then that balance is going to look different. If you're straight out of college, you're going to probably be leaning heavier into your work than you are maybe the personal aspects of your life. If you are a new parent, then the opposite of that is going to be true. And so I think it's constantly realizing where you are, what's most important to you right then and then prioritizing your time accordingly. And if you are working for a compassionate employer, they'll know.

They'll get it and they'll support you. Great answer.

Unknown [1:04:29] Great answer.

Carolina Cole [1:04:29] Yes, yes, to all of the above. And also, I want to be, um, like, mention this prioritizing. Like, I have to be okay with not doing stuff on a day and learning that is hard. Like not just beating myself because the day wasn't, you know, like the time wasn't enough. I didn't get this done. I didn't get that done. I have to be okay with the decision that I made, and I have to be at peace, that I made the right decision by prioritizing whatever I got done that day. And then.

Susan Aplin [1:05:04] So, um, we look at this as, um, work life, um, harmony. Um, and just like Jay mentioned, there are these cyclical periods that people navigate. But we like to give all of our people room and space to sort of navigate what's going on in their lives. For me, to keep me honest. I got three of my members back there. How am I doing? Am I doing okay? Okay.

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All right. Thumbs up. There's 2 questions right behind you, Ray Ray. You gotta throw it. Boom. Good catch. What role does standard operating procedures play in your business and how do you think about or how do you balance the rigidness that often comes with them with empowering frontline employees and lower-level managers to make good decisions in their role? These are great questions. Susan, why don't we?

Susan Aplin [1:07:11] Um, critical. I would marry SOPs if I could. Lean into the work of work life. Got to lean into that. You know, with, um, we have 6 different businesses, so distributed leadership and decision making is incredibly important to us for, for what we're doing to work. And so standard operating procedures. They're typical throughout our organization and we are focused on keeping them enhanced throughout this. And we don't really see them as bureaucratic at Curate.

Carolina Cole [1:07:46] Yeah, same. Like, we have procedures for everything, and I think you ask about training, so I don't know if I heard the right...

Zac Ruiz [1:07:57] I think it was, how rigid are you with making sure people always follow them, or are people allowed to deviate from them as needed if they've got a situation?

Carolina Cole [1:08:06] Okay, yes. Very. Because while we do, um, can we make decisions that are that affect people's life. So, we have to be very careful with following all the rules that apply to what we do, and the only way to do that is following the same process every time, that gives us certainty, and that allows us to feel good with the decision that we made. For example, whenever we pick whatever resident for whatever unit and why we picked him or her, Um, it is because there is a procedure behind it, and not because we just said yes. Um, and we like the person. So we are very, very loyal to our SOPs.

Jay Richardson [1:08:58] It's the same at burial, thankfully. especially when you when you work in an environment where people can get hurt. they're absolutely necessary. At the same time, the business changes, processes change and so burial also relies on its coworkers to propose changes to the SOP so that they're always accurate.

Zac Ruiz [1:09:21] Alright. So we have a, as everyone should know, if you've been coming. We have a strong commitment to get you out of here at 7.30 if you want. We're looking at 8 minutes here. So we're going to go to the next questions. Yeah, they're going to be lightning round questions. Lightning round questions. Okay.

Carolina Cole [1:09:35] So I was curious about for intercompany promotions and noticing talent within a company. Do you guys host any sort of social event like this? where I've worked for a few different companies where it's very divided and different departments don't get to oversee each other, so you never know if someone would be good in a tech position when they're in an entry level position that you hired them in.

Susan Aplin [1:09:58] And I'm curious, do you guys offer opportunities like that to your all your employer employees, where someone who is in a higher management position can meet someone new in a different department, but realize that there's potential there?

Zac Ruiz [1:10:15] To summarize the question to make sure we're answering the right one. You're asking about companies who offer opportunities to kind of let the talent shine, right? So that you can get these opportunities outside of your normal role to see that you may be fit for a better role or a higher different role?

Susan Aplin [1:10:30] Kind of like here where everyone's able to intermingle regardless of their status and what they do for a living. I can take that first. I mean, we do a lot with our full company. Um, so we probably have four, maybe five, all company events, and those are different from the holiday party to a summer. I think we did kickball last year. I don't know what we're doing this year. But we're there. Katie and Felix are there. We also do a number of things throughout the month. So we, um, on our birthdays and promotions, when we promote someone, Theo just got promoted and we did a big event at La Badega to celebrate that. But everyone is invited to those.

So in our company, there's a lot of access and engagement with all of us.

Carolina Cole [1:11:23] For us, we are a very small team, but we have the tech there to where all of us are accessible or, you know, we can always call each other, um, jump on a video call, uh, text, email. So we're always available for everybody at any given time.

Jay Richardson [1:11:43] At burial, there's one day a year where everything shuts down and everyone gets together, and then throughout the year, there's team building activities, there's an internal social media platform where anyone can talk to anyone, posting pictures of your pets, those kinds of things, these little things make it safe for when someone does run into the CEO. They feel more comfortable just striking up a conversation.

Zac Ruiz [1:12:15] Do I have any questions over here? In this general direction? All right, cool. Who else? Who's next? Who wants to catch the mic? Going once? Going twice. All right. All right, awesome. If we can get a great round of applause for the speakers for tonight. So we're gonna have a follow-up email on Tuesday with all the show notes and kind of the main takeaways and things people mentioned and when I can find the clicker and when the clicker decides to obey. There you go. Bomb. So next up, we have local growth stories. So we actually have Ben Colvin of Devilfoot's Brewing Company, the place you're at right now.

Kimmy McBurney, they're American Eagle back there, and then behind me, is Josh Valdez from Tripolator. If you're not getting your coffee there. You're wrong. Awesome. So again, thanks for coming out. Pardon me?

Unknown [1:13:08] Cool.

Zac Ruiz [1:13:10] See you guys next month. you. Hey, guys, Rodrigo here. Wanted to say thank you for taking the time to listen into this month's panel conversation. We hope that you join us in person at next month's meeting. You can find out more at AVLmeetup.com. We primarily meet on the 1st Tuesday of every month, but be sure to check out our website, AVLmeetup.com. You can also watch this conversation on YouTube at AVLmeetup. Also, I have a quick announcement. We started a property management company called Vesta Property Management.

So if you're looking for 3rd party management for long-term rental, we'd love the opportunity to talk to, our goal at Vesta is to turn houses into homes and investments into returns. If you're looking to work with a third-party management company that will allow you to have peace of mind and experience freedom around rentals. Reach out to us. We can help make that happen for you. That's the PM.com. What's going on, everyone? Zach here to close it out before you sign off for the day. If you liked the data-driven portion of today's meetup, then I'd love to take a moment to tell you about the Ruiz Report and REMC.co.

If you're a real estate professional, then you know that you should become the local economist of choice, but you're probably unsure of how to learn the skills required. That's where the Ruiz Report comes in. We offer customized marker reports to promote your business, training videos so you learn how to interpret the market data, and monthly quizzes to keep you sharp. Learn more at Reesreport.com and sign up for a free account to watch all of our training videos at no cost. If you're more interested in the live data and some data and analytics dashboards, then I highly suggest you check out ramc.co. REMC.co is the 1st of its kind, data and analytics dashboards for the real estate industry.

Now you have to be an active participating member of the MLS in order to sign up, but it is unparalleled data on every market participant, whether that's an office, a listing, or one of the realtors. Again, you can find out more about REMC.co at REMC.co. As always, thanks for listening, and we hope to see you at one of our next meetups. If you can't make it and you still want to be part of the Movers and Shakers, then sign up for a free account at AVLmeetup.com and get yourself into our member directory. Thanks again, see you next month.