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Stability, Profitability, Scalability...Led with Humility

Oct 22, 2019

The episode today is nothing short of awesome. It's packed with nuggets of wisdom all throughout. We sit down today with a remarkable individual and business owner who's brought his company to the Inc. 5000 list 10 times. Yep, 10 times! Imagine that. He’s also been named as Executive of the Year in Real Estate for 2019. Of course, successes as huge as these don’t happen overnight (like I've repeatedly said). Find out what Kevin Ortner did to make that happen and what he continues to do to ensure stability, scalability, profitability of his business all the while maintaining their culture of people-first. Bring out those pens and notepads and make sure to jot down important pointers that will surely be useful in your own business.

 

Key Takeaways

  • You can’t paint a mural on the wall and hope that everybody will like it.
  • Don’t grow just because there’s more money behind it.
  • You can’t just write your culture down on a culture planning map and then have that end up being your culture one day.

Show Highlights

  • [03:00] Kevin gives us a quick rundown of his humble start.
  • [07:12] Why investing in people first is the greatest thing Kevin did with his business early on.
    “We took off the ones that we weren’t great at or didn’t like and gave it to someone else.”
  • [09:51] Sharing responsibilities when there's more than one visionary in the leadership.
    “We knew where our strengths lay with each other and played on those.”
  • [11:40] A big pothole Kevin faced and how they got through it.
  • [14:02] How Kevin grew and fused their culture over the years as they were ramping up.
  • [17:06] Alissa shares the same firm belief with Kevin.
  • [17:59] How fast did Kevin's employee growth go?
  • [18:42] Where else is Renters’ Warehouse expanding to?
  • [20:00] The pros and cons and some insights on scaling and whether to franchise or be a corporation.
  • [24:30] The one thing Kevin wish someone had said to him when he was just starting.
    “Surrounding yourself with the right resources, the right people, who can help you out and be supportive of you I think is really important.”
  • [26:00] Alissa's stance on getting a coach.
    “You cannot read the label from inside your own jar. That’s the reason to get a coach.”
  • [27:40] Kevin's podcast and where to find him.

Resources