Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Stacey Salyer Show, the podcast for property management leaders ready to think bigger about growth. I'm Stacey Salyer and the only acquisition strategist in this industry who sat on all sides of the m and a table. I've been the buyer acquiring a 370 door competitor during COVID using seller financing.
I've been the seller building and exiting a seven figure business. And I've been the corporate evaluator as director of acquisitions, assessing over hundreds of companies nationally. That means I know exactly what you're thinking, what you're missing, and what actually works when it comes to buying and integrating in this space.
On this show, we dig into acquisitions as a real business tool. Not luck, not someday. You'll learn positioning, strategy, numbers, and integration from someone who's actually done it all. Let's go.
Stacey Salyer: All right. Well my [00:01:00] friends, welcome back to the Stacey Salyer Show where I teach everyone while boomers retire, you Acquire. And today I have one of my dear friends on the show with me. We actually only met a year ago in person. At least I think we may have interacted online. I know.
Mark Brower: Wow.
Stacey Salyer: I know it's only been a year. Yeah. And which I feel like we go way back, so maybe there's, I don't know, past lives involved. Yeah,
Mark Brower: for sure.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Who knows where we're gonna go with this episode? Actually, I do know where we are. Gonna talk a little bit about my one day event that Mark Brower attended in Las Vegas in January.
And then we're gonna talk a little bit about what acquiring may look like for him this year. As well as some other nuggets that he has. So welcome to the show mark Brower. I'd love to.
Mark Brower: Yay. I'm so happy to be here.
Stacey Salyer: Yes. Well, good. I'm, I'm happy to have you. You're a very fun person to talk to and learn lots from.
So
Mark Brower: Likewise. Thank you.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. So do you want to share a little bit [00:02:00] about who you are, where you are?
Mark Brower: Sure. My name is Mark Brower. I have a creatively named property management company, mark Brower Properties in Phoenix, Arizona. And I've been building this business for 15 years. I think of myself as a serial entrepreneur at heart.
I love starting new things. I get really excited and I can rally the energy and the people around a new idea. But fortunately I've also stuck with this one long enough for it to have some momentum and to build into something. I'm a proud father of four kids, ages 22 down to 13, and I love to go fast.
Stacey Salyer: Yes you do. I know we've, I've looked at your culture index, which we've, we've talked about on previous shows, so, right. Yeah. I think we both equally are impatient, so,
Mark Brower: yes.
Stacey Salyer: Yes. So that's probably why we get along so well. Awesome. Well, I thought I would bring you on to talk a little bit about my one day event.
It was the first, my [00:03:00] first annual one day intensive. Just kind of deep diving into all things acquiring. So I guess my initial question would be, you know, this is a pretty broad question, but was there anything that you took away that was like an aha where you were like, oh, I didn't think about that,
Mark Brower: absolutely. In fact, I've got the spiral bound notebook from the session and I've got it at home, like out in the open for reference. There's a lot of good nuggets in there. One of the things that struck me was just the overall idea of growth through acquisition and how important and how powerful it can be.
I think. For most of the last 15 years I've thought if I got a good business, I don't need to grow through acquisition. You know, people should just be flooding through my front door, wanting to do business with me. But what kind of shifted my thinking a little bit is when I realized how cost costly, how much money, how much resources I can put to [00:04:00] growing organically versus.
Somebody's already got the trust built with a few hundred people, right? And we can bring that in. That's really compelling. The other thing that I realized, actually, one of my big takeaways was I already have spare capacity in my current staff and in my current system. So the opportunity cost of me not bringing revenue in with that spare capacity.
Is significant. if I added another 200 doors I wouldn't have to hire anybody. So all that money, like you might think well it's a lot of money to, to pay somebody like two grand to per door to buy 200 doors. You know, it's, what is that
Stacey Salyer: Let's see. I don't, I don't do math in my head, but let's say 200 times 2000, that's 400 K.
Mark Brower: 400 k bad.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Brower: But if I paid 400 K and immediately I had $20,000 a month falling to the bottom line.
Stacey Salyer: Right. I
Mark Brower: mean, I'd be crazy not to do that. Right. I'm gonna get all that money back within two [00:05:00] years.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Plus then, I mean, I, I love that you bring up the point that you know your company as well as you do to know that your staff already has capacity to where if you did dump, and I always say dump 200 doors on your company it wouldn't like explode.
So, not at
Mark Brower: all. Not at all. Yeah. That's
Stacey Salyer: awesome.
Mark Brower: We, we intentionally built in spare capacity. And you know what, that's a really interesting idea in general. I remember going back and getting my MBA in 2008 and learning, 'cause a SU has a really good supply chain management school and this idea of the difference between capacity and utilization.
like I used to think oh, if I'm not running my business at a hundred percent, if I'm not as close as possible to a hundred percent utilization of my capacity mm-hmm. I'm a bad operator. I'm inefficient. Mm. What I learned through that process and that program was actually the, the optimal utilization for most systems is around 80%.
Interesting. 'cause we have these spikes, and we know this, we have seasonality, we have different things that come up. All of a sudden [00:06:00] the crap hits the fan and it's and if you were already running at a hundred percent, everybody's burned out, working overtime, et cetera. So, we're probably running like 65 or 70% capacity.
Okay. But but yeah, you should never try to run at a hundred percent capacity. it's kind of like Warren Buffet. like historically, I think I saw this video one time. It showed like it was a pie chart. What percentage of his holdings were in cash at any one time over a long period of time.
And it was like a rapid like timeline. And it showed, the average was like 20 to 30% in cash all the time. And I think holy crap, you've got billions of dollars sitting there doing nothing, right? Just sitting in cash, but. if you are positioning yourself to make like an incredible, like unicorn acquisition, you have to have capacity for that, right?
Stacey Salyer: Oh, yeah. Yeah. You do. Yeah. It would be very difficult to go out and acquire 200, 300, 400 doors and not have. staff or I guess depending on what you're buying now, if you get lucky and you buy something that maybe has good staff that then you can incorporate. But [00:07:00] then, you know, we talked a lot about that and that challenge because you have your team and you know, mark Brower properties like everybody's been hired, same vision, same mission statement, all that, where you bring new staff in, there's a lot of turmoil that could happen that way too.
So yeah, for sure. You definitely have to have capacity and I think just as a leader. Like you said, you'd be doing your team a disservice if you didn't have like already built in capacity.
Mark Brower: For
Stacey Salyer: sure, especially during the summer times, is Summer a busy time for you in Arizona?
Yeah. Is that okay? Mm-hmm. Okay.
Mark Brower: Yeah. Yeah. I think one, one of the other takeaways I had was just that as we were working together, going through the material which by the way, the time passed very quickly. I don't know how long. It was like five, six hours at least, and it was like, yeah. Wow. This went really fast which means it was really good content.
One of the thoughts I had was as we were going through different segments of your content, I noticed the things that were coming [00:08:00] up for me that were probably the most important were like, I was confronting my limiting beliefs. Hmm. Like one of the limiting beliefs is ah, there's just not that many people willing to sell.
Well, I. As we were talking about it, I'm thinking like, well, no, like I remember back when I was a land broker and I was calling a hundred different landowners all the time just to stay in touch with them, and at any given time there were like three to 5% of them that were like, yes. I'm like, definitely considering selling so that, that kind of helped disabuse that false notion for me.
The other one was well, I just don't have the money for it. Well, you shared a story. Yeah. Or you didn't have the money for it and you did it, you can find a way. and then we talked about how there's actually like virtually unlimited different ways that you can structure a deal.
Like you can do terms, you can do cash, you can do financing, you can do all kinds of things. so I think the most important outcome for me from the one day intensive was a shift in my thinking away from. Like fear and scarcity [00:09:00] and
like this just isn't gonna work. Like to more, more willingness to spend time on it.
Stacey Salyer: Oh, that's awesome. That actually makes me feel really good because that is really what I want to be teaching. you know, obviously there's the tactical piece of it but really it's more about the transformation. Of yourself where you walk in the door and you are an operator, you're an owner of a business, and you walk out the door.
Now you're an acquirer, right? And so that's cool. That's awesome. I'm really glad that that landed for you.
Mark Brower: I love how you frame that. I'm reading the book Atomic Habits right now, and then we're talking about three different layers of habits, and one was outcome like based oh, I wanna start running.
the layer that's a little deeper. The second layer is. Process or structure. Like I have the process and the structure to run. Like I have a coach, I have a running group. I have you know, the gear for it and I have the routes around my house. And then the third layer, which is the deepest layer, which is what you just said maybe think of is, is the [00:10:00] identity.
Once you come to think of yourself as a runner, or to use your word, an acquirer.
Stacey Salyer: Yep.
Mark Brower: If you take on that identity, like this is who I am. Then it becomes intolerable not to have the structure, not to have the behaviors, because it's how you see yourself. And so I think one of the most powerful things that happens to me when I get into Intensivess or when I'm going to conferences with smart people it starts shifting the way I.
See myself.
Stacey Salyer: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mark Brower: And everything flows from there. That's a deep leveraged activity is changing my own identity.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Oh, I love that. In fact, I focus a lot on identity. Back in the day, I used to feel like, oh, you know, oh my gosh, I'm changing my identity. People are gonna think I'm a fraud.
But as I grew and I read books like that, or you know, I work in different like coaching programs, I realized that you need to evolve into your new identity. You know, [00:11:00] former Stacey is not gonna get current Stacey. Future Stacey wants to be, right?
Mark Brower: Yes.
Stacey Salyer: You know, and I can be thankful and grateful for former Stacey.
I mean, gosh, back, I mean, former Stacey was super scrappy and you know, no holds yeah, okay, I don't have any money. I'm a single mom still of three. But yeah, you wanna sell your company, I'm gonna figure out a way to do that. And you know, and then, you know, of course you can still carry pieces about that identity, but then realizing oh.
This is who I am now and this is who I serve. So I think that's cool.
Mark Brower: Very cool. I used to get hung up on this identity thing, like thinking well I gotta be true to myself. I gotta be authentic. And I really conflated that with like staying. Where I was. Mm-hmm. who you are today is not your truest identity.
Stacey Salyer: Right.
Mark Brower: Your truest identity is some future cast, like intentionally building super person. that if we can see them clearly or if we dare to believe that they really exist or they're sort [00:12:00] of pulling us through our present and and toward them, and there's a lot of intentionality that can , go into that.
I used, the other misnomer I used to have about my identity is the way I feel is my self. And, and, and that's just at least in my life experience, while, while I trusting our gut and having that that, that body mind, that helps us really like tap into our truth. While that's really important stuff, often how I feel is just a byproduct of maybe my chemical, you know, go, what's going on in my brain or my lack of sleep, or what I ate or whatever else.
And I think you know, being true to our true identity isn't assuming falsely that we are our feelings in the moment and we have to act accordingly. It's, it's, hey my, my highest and best self is up and back and out of this stream of thoughts and feelings that just kind of come through my life and I can see them and I can choose the ones [00:13:00] that serve me because I'm super intentional and clear.
About where I'm going. So that's, it is a little bit esoteric and maybe deep, but this idea of identity is so powerful. And if we think of ourselves as acquirers, we are property management acquirers.
Stacey Salyer: Yep.
Mark Brower: And we sort of leave behind what we used to think of identity, which was No, no, no.
It's baked in already. It exists. And whatever thoughts and feelings come my way, I have to be true to those. And that's my true identity garbage.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Oh, I agree. I agree. I love that. Yeah. You should do all my marketing for me, get all that out there. But no, I yeah, I spend a lot of time like on myself, like that identity piece of it as well.
You know, 'cause it can be very uncomfortable. To realize that you are no longer the former version of yourself. I had a little bit of that last year. you know, 'cause I come from property management. I've been in it, what, 22 years now? This year. And I don't currently own a property management company, but I was going to [00:14:00] conferences as a new, you know, now I'm a strategic acquisition strategist is what I call myself, but.
You know, last year I think I bumbled around of wait, who am I? I don't really fit in the like property management business owner group and I don't know, like it, yeah, it was very interesting. And it wasn't until kind of toward the end of the year where I really was like, wait a minute, This is who you are. Now. You've, gotten all these great skills and you're here to serve others and teach them. Hey, you can also move through into a new identity. Go from operator to acquirer and, you know, grow yourself and your business and, you know, grow your wealth and, you know, whatever goal you have.
But it's an interesting journey, especially when you're really kind of aware of it and you kind of. Dive deep into it. Have you felt like that before?
Mark Brower: Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. Like I, I'm shifting right now. A big shift is going on for me with my identity from small business owner to CEO. I used to kind of have this imposter [00:15:00] syndrome I can't use that title.
Like I'm not a CEO, like what, you know, you have to have a hundred million dollar business to have a CEO. But, I think what's true for me is, is I'm not going to have a hundred million dollars business until I start adopting the behaviors.
Stacey Salyer: Mm-hmm.
Mark Brower: Yep. Of someone who has a hundred million dollars business, and that's not my goal necessarily.
It still feels pretty audacious to think of a hundred million dollar revenue business right now, at least. But the most important thing, I got really clear last year about what, what the biggest possible win could be in my business, and it was to find. My integrator to find my second in command to find my COO.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah.
Mark Brower: And I started pouring all my energy and focus into that. And I talked to the smartest people I could find. I asked them all kinds of questions about it. I read a lot of books about it. and by the end of the year in November, I [00:16:00] found and hired my COO. And now my whole identity is shifting.
I am building the team that A CEO would have.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah.
Mark Brower: And it's kind of exciting, but a little scary at the same time. And people, when I go to conferences and I, and I talk about how awesome my COO is, what do you think the first question is that they ask?
Stacey Salyer: Let's see. Do they ask you?
Well, what do you do all day?
Mark Brower: Yeah, no, they should be asking me that. They asked me, they're like, well, how did you find her?
Stacey Salyer: Okay, that was gonna be my other guess.
Mark Brower: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. What do you do all day? That's a great question. I talk to Stacey Salyer. We podcast, we read books.
Stacey Salyer: Right? Yeah, exactly.
Mark Brower: Yep. it's a great life.
They say, how did you find her? Mm-hmm. And my answer has been. Respectfully, that's not the right question. The, the right question is how did you become the leader she would wanna follow?
Stacey Salyer: Yes.
Mark Brower: and you know what's interesting, and it actually happened at your one day intensive, Brian.
Stacey Salyer: Oh, really?
Mark Brower: Brian [00:17:00] was sitting there and at the end of the day I was talking about my COO. I think I said, oh, he's the one that helped me clue in on this. he said, you know, mark, your COO wouldn't work for me. Mm-hmm. I'm not yet the leader that, that she would need. And it was a very humble like statement, but also a statement of great clarity.
And I thought oh my gosh, One of the reasons we need to be really deliberate about who we're becoming is because the only way we could achieve our grandest dreams and visions is to be able to assemble people around us that can do exceptional things, and the people that can do exceptional things.
They need a certain level of leader to, to want to follow and to be willing to follow. And, and by the way, it's not just about money. It's not just about can I afford these people? That's not it. That's, that's not even the, the primary second or third thing. That's the most important thing. that would allow you to assemble a [00:18:00] team
Stacey Salyer: Right.
Mark Brower: To do really great things. It's, they want to follow someone. That inspires them and, and, and all the other things that a leader can deliver.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Yeah. Kind of that know like, and trust. that's really astute and that was a really cool observation by Brian. yeah.
And I don't think he was like dogging himself. He's just
Mark Brower: No, not at all.
Stacey Salyer: It's, it's yeah, and I think that's really cool. I think one of the reasons I really enjoy talking to you is 'cause you are so introspective. Like you, you know, love to analyze yourself and I, you know, I kind of do the same thing.
So it's I think people like that kind of come together. But I know for me it's a lot about, yeah, again, like the identity of even myself two years ago is not going to get me to where I want to go. Right. And Being in the right rooms has really been kind of a big aha moment for me. You know, learning from others and you know, 'cause I've, I've shifted my business.
I mean, I'm now like an online B2B [00:19:00] basically is kind of what I am business to business, online, digital, and, it's different. I'm not technically in property management anymore, and I think that was like a really hard shift for me last year. You know, I, I'll still say oh, I'm in property management.
I've been in for 22 years, but I'm not technically in it anymore. And that's when I finally had that moment of clarity of oh, I'm not really in it anymore. I'm now shifted my identity and now I'm in this different space, and who can I meet? Like I, you know, to get to my new goals. Now it's okay, now I've got to be in different rooms and listen to different podcasts and meet different people.
So, yeah. What about you? Are you finding. Any, like some things like that for you as well? A
Mark Brower: hundred percent. Yeah. So I'm active in entrepreneur organization in the Arizona chapter here, the Phoenix chapter. I've actually come up through, they have a, lower level called the accelerator program, which is [00:20:00] companies under a million in revenue.
Okay. And then they have eo, which is. Over a million in revenue. And I remember I was in, I was in the accelerator program for six years, and when I joined they said, Hey, we gotta get you over a million in revenue in three years or you're out. they didn't kick me out. I stayed in, it took me six years sometimes of a slower learner.
But I remember thinking at the time I had this, this weird construct, which maybe isn't so weird for people that are like me. I had this framework that. It wasn't actually true, but I thought of myself as in a certain, like position in the social hierarchy, just in life in general.
Mm-hmm. And there were people that I didn't qualify to like associate with. And there were, and there were some people that I did qualify to associate with and some that, weren't really worth my time. Like it was a really kind of messed up. Like it wasn't, it wasn't accurate. And by the way, I've abandoned that.
I think everyone is, is my teacher. I think I can learn things from everyone. I don't think of. I try not to think of myself as [00:21:00] above anyone. And consequently, since I've jettisoned that false notion, I also don't think of myself as really below anyone either. Good. That's been hugely transformational for me because as now the people that I used to think oh my gosh, they're so much more successful than I am, they're so much smarter than I am.
I'm not worthy of taking up their time. I'm not worthy of association with them, and if I try, I'm just gonna make a fool of myself and be embarrassed and also waste their time. This was my mindset a few years ago, and it has completely shifted. And what's really delightful about that, Stacey, is that now when I, and I'm going to an event tonight and I have another EO event tomorrow, and it's so cool to be able to rub shoulders with people that have a $10 million annual revenue business or a 20 or a [00:22:00] $40 million annual revenue business and basically that becomes my new normed reality. These are my peers. These are my friends.
Stacey Salyer: Yep.
Mark Brower: I deserve to be here.
Stacey Salyer: Yep.
Mark Brower: and you know what? Frankly, if my personality doesn't mesh with somebody, it's cool. I'm good. They're good, I'm good. I don't have to feel unworthy or awkward about it.
It's, there's enough connections that are available that I just go find my people. It's not me trying to climb the, you know, the, the corporate ladder or the social hierarchy or trying to like move up in life. It's just people are people and if I am around really smart, successful people, often enough, I norm to their reality and it just opens things up for me.
Stacey Salyer: Yep. Yeah, no, I love that. Yeah. I had I had a recent experience. I attended a women's event, a retreat, first time I've ever gone to a women's retreat. It was a two day retreat in Nashville. Oh yeah.
Mark Brower: Andrea was there. I saw the
Stacey Salyer: pictures. Yeah. Well, no, this [00:23:00] was a different event. I didn't know anybody literally.
Mark Brower: Oh, interesting.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Walking into the room. It was a women's, women who have online B2B businesses, it was really mostly about messaging, but the focus was, you know, finding your voice and feeling good about being seen. And you know, when you're walking into that room, I mean these women are.
Badass, like high power means some are doctors, you know, there's this one woman who handles financials for some of the most powerful, families in the country. I mean, these are like people that. You'd look at it and you're like, wow. But I did not at once, ever feel like out of place because I also know that I had a lot to contribute and you know, it was cool.
Like we talked a lot about like identity and, you know, again, voice and being seen and it was, yeah, it was a really neat, neat event. So, and I, yeah. Kinda the same thing.
Mark Brower: I have a question for you about that, if I may. Yes.
Stacey Salyer: Yes.
Mark Brower: This feeling. [00:24:00] Or knowledge or confidence that you had a lot to contribute, where does that come from?
Stacey Salyer: You know, I think I kind of, it really just comes from, I mean, honestly within, but I think it's really getting, you know, right with yourself and understanding that you may have like outside influences of people. Who, you know, maybe over the years have told you certain things about yourself, but ultimately, you know, not believing those, 'cause you have to have it from within.
So, you know, I don't know, I don't know if I have the best answer or like all the aha moments, but, you know, I think it's a practice. You know, it's something like personally, I, I would say I practice or also, I just look at everybody around me. I mean, kind of like you, I look at everyone around me has something to contribute.
It doesn't matter if you're a kid or 90 years old or a janitor, like I can learn something from you. I know there's something that you can teach me. And so [00:25:00] same with me. You know, I can also contribute to everybody as well.
Mark Brower: I love that. I love that. And the reason I got curious about that is if we can walk into a room, if anyone can walk into a room.
and Feel confident that that I can contribute here. That's a really powerful position to come from. it completely leapfrogs or dodges this notion of I don't deserve to be here. I shouldn't ask any questions. I should play small. I'm not worthy of anybody's time. we, we flipped it and we've said I deserve to be here because I can contribute.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah.
Mark Brower: And that's a beautiful thing. And, and I, you know, that I'm very spiritual and religious, and I have a strong faith in God. And I, I go to church every Sunday and one of the things that is a powerful truth in my life, I believe, is that when I come into a situation mm-hmm, maybe I started by feeling like a little imposter syndrome.
A little bit intimidated, a little bit fearful. But if I focus on contribution.
and feel confident about my [00:26:00] contribution, and I do contribute according to my gifts and talents with confidence. Then it feels like God is working through me to bless the people. That I'm contributing to. And when that happens, like some of his light and power just lifts me up.
And then you're also building tremendous goodwill with people. I remember Alex, her once said invested. It was, somebody's gonna fact check me on this. It was like 30 grand sure. To join this mastermind. And he had this incoming class of four other people that kind of came into this group at the same time.
And in one of their like orientation meetings or whatever he remembers, one guy was like, okay, how do I get my return on my 30 grand? What, you know, what are you doing for me? And what's next? And like, how am I gonna get, how am I gonna receive, you know, you know what I, what you guys promised me.
And Alex, her was reflecting that. He had a completely different attitude. he thought, you know what? I'm really good at writing sales [00:27:00] scripts. Mm-hmm. So everybody in my group that I came in with, I'm gonna offer to look at their sales script and completely rewrite it for them because I'm really, really good at it.
and he did that for everybody like Nobody asked him. He wasn't compelled to do that, but he had a contribution mindset. Right. And then he said, and he knew. Not that, not that this is the only reason he did it, but he knew that he then had a blank check in his back pocket for all those people that he helped, that they had gifts and talents, and that they were wanting to contribute back to him.
And so not only does that help us overcome our imposter syndrome and help, you know, God's energy flow through us, which makes us better, but it also creates, you know, significant feeling of reciprocity.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. You
Mark Brower: know.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there, but I do believe that we are stewards of the gifts that are given to us.
So whether you're religious and you use the word God, or you use the word universe, source, whatever it is I do believe that we were given [00:28:00] specific gifts and we were put here. On this earth at this time for specific reasons. And we probably don't even know why necessarily. I mean, you know, those of us that are like moving forward, checking our identity and you know, contributing, you know, I think we're getting closer to maybe finding out the why.
Maybe we never need to know the why. It doesn't matter. But I think that, you know, the sooner that somebody can come to that realization of, oh, these are my gifts and this is why I'm here, this is my purpose, this is what I'm here to do, and I'm the steward of this. I think it's kind. Cool.
Mark Brower: Love. I love that so much.
And, and the other thing that I really like about what you just said. Is, and I believe this is, this is this part of my truth too. I believe this, that, that, that we came here with certain gifts and talents that are sort of inherent to who we are, which is a really beautiful thing because it doesn't mean that we have to spend a bunch of time.
Earning the right to [00:29:00] contribute or earning the ability to contribute. Now, that's not to say that we can't invest in ourselves and make ourselves increasingly more valuable to other people. That's of course true. But just fundamentally and, and innately we are here with things that were just granted to us that we.
Use without any qualification. And that, that's important to me because I spent a, a good deal of my professional life thinking that I hadn't earned the right yet. Ah, to be in certain rooms. Yep. In certain circles, right? Yep. But this notion that we inherently have gifts and talents that are automatically valuable to others if we're just willing to show up and try to use them, is a beautiful thing.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, same. I know, I mean, I remember being, you know, a newer like owner broker and going to like npa, broker owner conferences and you know, sitting in the back of the room and feeling very much oh, I don't know. You know, I mean, yes, I belong here, but also do I really belong here? I don't [00:30:00] know if I know everything that all these other people know, and.
You know, and sometimes honestly, being a woman on top of that adds a whole nother layer. But yeah, it was just, as I worked through, I was like, I mean, I've worked through that, you know, over the last few years. It's you know, I just came to the realization of no, I mean, everyone, even, even a brand new owner, broker, whoever, you have something to contribute for sure,
Mark Brower: you do.
You do. And some people ha get in, get in this like head trash about creating content. Which, which I think we're all creators, like the, the ability to express our gifts and talents and our own unique perspective at this moment in time with, with our own unique experience is a gift that, that we all can give, right?
Mm-hmm. And we can give it, more generously. As we learn to write and create content. And so I remember one of the sort of limiting beliefs, and you and I have, we've been working on this, like our content creation like game. And it's, it's, it's a wonderful journey and it's really fulfilling and it's, it's really exciting and [00:31:00] fun.
one of the limiting mindsets I used to have that I heard somebody else articulate was it was like, well, who am I to say something? Everything's already been said. You know, there's people way smarter than me that have already said any ideas. I have way better than I could possibly say them.
ergo like, why, who, who am I to? Try to create content? And then I remember somebody once like sort of answered that question. They said in the New Testament. There's Matthew, mark, Luke, and John all talking about the same thing, same timeframe, same general experiences and ideas. But guess what?
They all had different perspectives and we all care about the different gospels. People care a great deal about the Gospel of Stacey Salyer, or about the perspective or the idea, or the lived experience just a phenomenal idea that each person can contribute their voice and we're barely [00:32:00] scratching the surface with the content that exists now, the story has not been told.
It's nowhere close to having been told, and you have a really important voice and voice in contributing to that story.
Stacey Salyer: Oh, well thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, and I, I think that a lot of times people like to assign titles to things and then sometimes people will take those titles and use them as a negative.
I look at it as a positive. I am a content creator. I am an influencer. I'm an influencer in our industry. Yes, a hundred percent. So are you, I mean, I'd really actually say anybody is an influencer. I just think some of us like to also create content and so we. Or the visible influencers, let's say that.
But, you know, I don't look at anything as being negative. I know sometimes people will, you know, throw it around like it's a bad word like, oh, you're a content creator, but I'm like, heck yeah, I am. Thanks.
Mark Brower: Yeah. Let me see your content. Let's go.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, honestly, I, I do it 'cause I want to provide [00:33:00] value.
I hope somebody is maybe scrolling at night and they're like, oh. Gosh, I didn't know I could buy a business. I thought you had to be a millionaire. I thought you had to be wearing a power suit and walk into a meeting and you know, I thought you had to have PE funds or whatever. And, you know, I'm out there to dispel myths with my content and create, you know, new acquirers in the business.
So, yeah, I think it's important and it's important to share our message. I mean, that's part of our stewardship and some of us were given those gifts to share, you know, maybe if you wanna go back to the Bible, I went to Catholic school, so I, I know the Bible. I just don't probably know it as well as you do, but you know the stories, right?
You know, that's, that's how people shared information back in the day with stories. I mean, really wasn't Jesus a content creator?
Mark Brower: Ooh.
Stacey Salyer: Right.
Mark Brower: He was, he was, he didn't actually write anything down. He had a lot of people writing his stuff down for him, which is great. [00:34:00] He, he had the who's, he already understood who not how.
Yeah. You know, writing his stories down.
Stacey Salyer: Right. I know. So, yeah, I mean, there you go. You heard it on the from Slayer herself calling Jesus the content creator. But yeah, no, I think that's, I think that's cool and I think it's, it's really important. You know, I, I would love to see in our industry too, some more tr leadership development and that kind of thing, and the mindset.
I think that we have beaten operations to death.
Mark Brower: Yes. Thank you. Thank you for saying that.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah, you're welcome. And. Trust me, I love operations. I mean,
Mark Brower: there's more operations genius to come out, let's be clear. but this is what we're talking about most of the time at conferences.
It's the how. Yep. and it's like, who you become and the identity you, you take on in that journey.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah.
Mark Brower: The how happens, you know, that you, you can figure out the how, if you can change you as a person.
Stacey Salyer: Absolutely. I [00:35:00] know. So clearly that's a sign you and I need to put on our own thing or something.
We'll, we'll talk offline about
Mark Brower: I'm, I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Yeah.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. So, you know, 'cause I do really believe in that. Again, you know, operations are important, but you know, that whole mindset shift you know, obviously I teach more, you know, going from operator to acquire mindset, but that leadership development.
You know, you becoming the leader where it, you gave yourself permission finally. To go find the CO that you needed, right?
Mark Brower: Yeah.
Stacey Salyer: So you now have permission to move into your, your new identity and then beyond, so Yeah.
Mark Brower: Yeah. It opens up all kinds of additional opportunities for contribution. Sometimes I feel really spoiled, Stacey, that entrepreneurship is just like the dream job of all dream jobs.
Because as we grow our companies, we can increasingly hire people to do the things that we. Hate to do that. Drain [00:36:00] our energy and what we're left with is just the sweet spot of everything that's invigorated and exciting about business. It doesn't mean it's easy,
Stacey Salyer: right?
Mark Brower: I mean, no. Growth and learning is easy, but at least we get to grow if we do it right.
And we pursue this freedom that the, that this entrepreneurship journey can bring us. we get to grow doing hard things that almost perfectly intersect with our gifts and talents. And it's that flow state and it's that state of being in the zone and it's contribution at a high level.
it's so fun and exciting and exhilarating. Why would you ever wanna stop doing this? I think retirement's a dirty word. Like I'm, I'm gonna do this forever. Somebody, somebody like 20 years from now, pull up this clip and, and see if I was actually being honest, like I think I'm never going to retire because.
Why would I wanna stop loving people? Which is actual work, in my opinion, is loving. It's using our time and gifts and talents in the service of others to improve [00:37:00] their lives. Why would I ever wanna stop doing that? And the fact that I can also make money at the same time doing it, it's a beautiful thing,
Stacey Salyer: right?
It is. It is. And I think the other piece of it too is that you get to empower other people, right? So you're creating jobs for people who now get to do things they love to do. I mean, there are people out there that love to do bookkeeping. I'm not one of them, but there are people out there, you know, and how cool is that as well?
I, yeah, I kind of look at myself. I don't know if I'll ever technically retire just because I love being able to do what I do. I mean, I don't even, I mean, it sounds cliche like, oh, this doesn't really work. But it's fun. It's, it's fun to talk with other leaders and work with them and help them move to their new identity and grow their company or reach their goals, whatever it is.
But it's fun.
Mark Brower: It was super fun. I don't know, I, I can't remember what book I read it in or who said it, but somebody once said when you're doing something and you get the [00:38:00] chills. that's a sign that you're doing the right thing or you're, you're doing the right kind of work. And, and I will tell you that, that I resonate deeply with what you just said is, is when I help somebody move along their leadership journey it's so invigorating. It gives me so much energy and excitement, and I often get the chills in doing it. So I, I relate with that.
Stacey Salyer: That's cool. I love that. Well, so far we've kind of talked a lot. We've gone gone pretty deep, although we probably have go deeper, who knows? But just to kind of like circle back around yeah.
As far as your personal goals this year, 'cause it's 2026.
Mark Brower: Yeah.
Stacey Salyer: It is the year of the fire horse. I dunno. Have you, you probably know that, right? Let's,
Mark Brower: let's go, let's go. You've
Stacey Salyer: seen that on the internet?
Mark Brower: Yeah.
Stacey Salyer: And they say that you should have, you know, a couple like main focuses you have. Would you like to share with anyone what your main focuses are?
Mark Brower: Yeah, my [00:39:00] personal or professional, let's keep it professional. Because I'm, I'm going through some personal stuff right now for sure. The professional is honestly, and it might seem oversimplified. Support my CO. Mm-hmm. Remove her roadblocks, give her what she needs, be highly responsive to her needs, and really foster a high trust aligned relationship there.
I think there is so much potential in the relationship I have with my new COO. I see her as a future partner in the business, and so I'm very enthusiastic and excited about that. And then of course we want to, we're in she and I are aligned that in this stage of the business, it's, we want to solidify operations.
So solidify the team, right people, right seats, right controls, right things being measured. And she's doing a fantastic job. She's been on just over a hundred days and she's really dialing those things in. And as we do that mm-hmm. Get obsessed [00:40:00] about client experience and then start growing again. Love that.
And so, so that's what we're working on.
Stacey Salyer: That's cool. Well, that's very focused. Yeah. Yeah. I think that sounds really good.
Mark Brower: Yeah. Thank you. How about you?
Stacey Salyer: Oh gosh. Well, yeah. Well, I mean, my main focus this year is really you know, I have two. Programs. So I'll have a 12 month program where people can come in and work with me side by side.
It's a group program but they will learn everything from, you know, how to go out and acquire all the messy middle to how to close it up. And then I will have a six month aftermath program. I haven't officially named it, but kind of the acquisition aftermath of, okay, well I'm going to be closing, or I just closed on an you know, some doors and now how do I, you know, be strategic about that transition plan. So really, you know, getting those out there and, you know, [00:41:00] getting people into, you know, from that operator mindset to acquire mindset and kind of deploying people throughout the United States to go out and, you know, grow themselves and their business.
So,
Mark Brower: so great. So great. Yeah, I think there's a few really talented operators that really excel at growing their businesses organically. I think there's others that we've seen that have really excelled at growing their businesses through acquisition. And you know, I think I had this subtle mindset blocker that, well, I gotta be worthy of the new business.
I gotta be able to grow organically. And you know, that doesn't have to be true. in fact, there's a lot of right things about growing through acquisition and and I don't know why I had this little limiting belief like, well, you know, do I really deserve it if all I'm doing is bolting on other people's trust relationships?
It's you know what, maybe. [00:42:00] Maybe what we're building here or probably what we're building here delivers a lot more value mm-hmm. than most other operators. And it's a massive win to bring other people into this ecosystem, you know, through acquisition because immediately we enrich their lives and, I'm impatient anyway, so let's go.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. No, I love that. I think, you know, I think that has been kind of the mindset of just maybe the industry or maybe kind of the rooms that we've been in is 'cause I used to feel that way too. I actually felt like a little bit of a. I don't know if I wanna use the word fraud, but even kind of like, oh, do I deserve to buy this company that's in my market?
You know, who am I? Right? Who do I think I'm, yeah. You know? And that's really what I'm working toward is trying, you know, that's. Dispelling that myth of everybody's worthy. And the other piece that I really want to teach everyone is you're actually honoring somebody's life's work and that you're getting out in your community and you're having those conversations and you're finding the [00:43:00] person that you know either wants to exit, you know, because they just don't like it anymore.
Or they wanna exit because it was their life's work and they do wanna go retire on a beach And how cool is it that you can take that legacy and what an honor it is that you get to take it on that. That's how I look at it. I look at it a little bit, kind of different.
Not just oh, well, you know, do all the numbers match and okay, that's, you know, that fits my buy box. I mean, that's important too, but really kind of that, honoring their legacy and. You know, honoring their clients and their, their tenants. So,
Mark Brower: mm, I really like that. I'm so glad you said that.
That gives me a fresh perspective on the, you know, noble cause behind mm-hmm. The acquisition is that, I can help continue honoring this deep trust that's been built with these partners, these client partners.
Stacey Salyer: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. See. There you go.
Mark Brower: I love
Stacey Salyer: it.
Mark Brower: That fits. That fits with what [00:44:00] we do here.
Stacey Salyer: Exactly. I know, I know. So awesome. Well, anything else you want to add?
Mark Brower: I mean, we could talk all day, let's be honest, Stacey. Okay. So we should do this again sometime soon.
Stacey Salyer: We should, and
Mark Brower: I'm just honored to have been able to have this conversation and hopefully somebody gets some value out of it.
Stacey Salyer: Yes, absolutely.
I always love talking to Mr. Mark Brower in Arizona. So if you are an Arizona landlord. Definitely look him up. It's easy to find Mark Brower properties.
Mark Brower: Yes.
Stacey Salyer: Yep. And he has a great team and a great outlook, and it would be he'll make your life easy.
Mark Brower: And for all of my property manager friends hopefully we've dispelled a couple myths about growing through acquisition.
We've given it the, the nobility that it deserves, and there is nobody in this business. More focused and experienced on growth through acquisition than Stacey Salyer. So, you know, it's building the right team, building the system that can make the [00:45:00] acquisition work. And Stacey, having Stacey in your corner is vital.
Stacey Salyer: Ah, well thank you. Thank you so much for coming on today and we'll, I'll talk to you soon.
Mark Brower: Sounds good.
Outro: Thanks for listening to the Stacey Salyer show. Here's the deal. You can read about acquisitions anywhere, but you can't learn acquisitions from someone who's done it the way I have as a buyer, a seller, and from the corporate side evaluating hundreds of companies. That's why I need you to subscribe and share this with someone in your network who needs to hear it.
And if this episode landed, leave a five star review. It's how more PM owners find the only acquisition expertise in the space that comes from all sides of the table. And while you're at it, grab my Acquisition Readiness checklist on my website at staceysalyer.com. Then when you're ready to move from Growth Thinking to Growth Building, explore the Built to Acquire program.
Don't leave it on the table. See you on the next [00:46:00] episode.
