Dear Billionaire

When I think of a successful, live-in staffing scenario, I can only come up with Alice from The Brady Bunch.

Fast forward to today and real-life situations…I’m not sure live-in situations are a good idea. I’ve seen many bad examples lately of House Managers losing their livelihood and housing – and not being prepared with a Plan B.

If you think about the most stressful situations in life, aside from death and divorce, a new job and moving are at the top.

In this episode I share:

- How the employer and employee/tenant relationship can be tested

- The upsides for homeowners

- Real talk when it comes to the selling point of "free housing"

- My best suggestions for live-in employment

- An alternative arrangement for homeowners whose focus is rental income

PLUS: When it comes to private service professionals, I also share things to look out for in these employment + housing arrangements.

Thanks for listening!

Here's the blog post Kelly mentions in this episode, on setting healthy boundaries with household staff: https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/blog/when-staff-become-family-here-is-how-to-set-boundaries

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In the past, I have written and spoken a lot about Unicorn Employees (i.e., required tech skills for house managers, world-class service goals, leadership requirements, system-building skills, and team building).

If you Google Unicorn Employee, you’ll find numerous articles that outline the ideal candidate or employee. But, if you Google Unicorn Employer, you’ll come up with NOTHING.

Let's change this.

In this episode, I define a Unicorn Employer, share the associated benefits of reaching this status for the homeowner and what it takes to reach it, and outline 9 Red Flags that an UHNWI is not on the path to becoming a Unicorn Employer.

The sooner you start climbing the Unicorn Employer ladder, the faster you’ll reap the benefits of better candidates, longer staff retention, and world-class service from those committed to serving you and your family.

Thanks for listening.

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I did a Coffee Talk about a month ago on what private service professionals need to do to keep a principal’s secret as a secret. Today I'm going to talk about what the homeowner – the principal, the employer – needs to do so that their secrets aren't divulged to their household staff.

We keep secrets from other people. But if a homeowner is constantly pressing their staff with statements like, “What do you know about this?”, and they're constantly needing to process their words before they say them so that they don't divulge the secret, that can cause within your staff members:

- anxiety,

- depression,

- eating disorders,

- sleeping disorders,

- overspending, and

- all sorts of addictions to cope.

So it's not just a simple thing like, “Hey, I've got a secret. My housekeeper knows it. What's the big deal? She's got a non-disclosure agreement.” That's why we're talking about this – it goes so much deeper than that.

Don't push the boundaries of your housekeeping staff's professionalism to put a secret in their lap.

Realize that they're going to listen. They're going to smile. They’ll say that they're going to hold that secret. And a little part of them is going to die inside knowing now that they are burdened with that information.

Do not take that as loyalty. Take that as fear. And that's not a good situation. Remember, we're here to build long-term, sustainable, win-win relationships.

Some of the framework for this episode is based on Michael Slepian's book The Secret Life of Secrets. Find it here on Amazon.

Thanks for listening.

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Dear Billionaire,

You need an ORG CHART for your household team.
Yes, you do!
I know you're rolling your eyes, but listen up....

Whether you have a small housekeeping team or a family office, in this episode I explain the benefits of this important one-page document. (Or use Post-It notes!)

And...drum roll, please...I have a free org chart template to make this task a little easier. You can get it here: https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/household-staffing-organization-chart-template-optin

Thanks for listening.

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This week I thought I would walk you through a property assessment and why these are so important to any homeowner – but especially if you're new to the property.

I was on a site visit last week at a house where the homeowner had purchased it within the last 6 months to a year. They have had full blown renovations happening since they purchased it, and they purchased it as is. However, nobody did a full inspection of the property.

In this episode I share what I found, what's critical, and how I put this property assessment together.

Thanks for listening.

Get your FREE Property Assessment Report Template here: https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/property-assessment-report-template-optin

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At midnight on Sunday, I was awakened by my phone vibrating. Not in a standard, silenced phone call way; more like an Amber Alert.

Without my glasses on, I dismissed it and went back to sleep. Minutes later, I heard one of many tornado sirens blast – longer than their average weekly testing. After the third or fourth round, I couldn’t ignore them. I got out of bed to look outside and check the weather; dead stillness. However, there was a hazy yellowish glow in the sky. The American flag that flies over the nearby bank’s rooftop – my visual form of a weather vane – was utterly still.

Sirens were still blaring. I checked the weather app on my phone. High winds were headed our way. I checked Tulsa Weather on Facebook, which confirmed exceptionally high winds were expected.

What happened after this was truly amazing. And even though I had long lists of emergency preparedness procedures and supplies for this exact situation, living through it gave me a different awareness.

In this episode, I share 10 things I learned from this experience that will help you prepare for emergencies. To implement your family plan, check out our How to Manage a Mansion™(HTMM™) Emergency Preparedness module: https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/shop/p/htmm-emergency-preparedness

Thanks for listening.

For more information, visit our Linktrees:

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If you employ staff in your home, you are likely already using a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). And if you do, you probably have stipulations in it like the following, to which your staff have signed their understanding:

- They will not be involved in the preparation of a book, article, story, video, or film about the homeowner, their family business, their business interests, or their personal lives, interests, assets, or properties.

- And they will not disclose confidential information on blogs, Wikipedia, social networks, virtual worlds, or social media.

The problem? Even with specific language like this, your NDAs can have "gray areas" which, if they are not addressed, can lead to questions and conduct from the private service professionals you employ that go against the privacy level you expected when staff signed your agreement.

This episode of the Dear Billionaire Podcast sheds light on some NDA gray areas to look for to best protect both your family and your staff.

Thanks for listening.

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When it comes to hiring new staff, does it ever feel like you’re jumping off a cliff into the abyss? Like you and a private service professional are getting married without knowing each other really well?

I can tell you from experience as a former estate manager, and from the estate managers and house managers I speak with, that this feeling goes both ways.

The solution to this for both parties: a 90-day trial period

Use a 90-day trial to:

- Allow everyone to see each other when they're tired.

- Flush out some stressful situations.

- Reveal everyone’s truest personalities, allowing you to see if they work together, or don’t.

- Ask your estate manager to outline what you're going to receive in the 90 days

- Have them walk all of your properties so that, later, they can be effective in answering your questions as well as questions from other staff and contractors, and in making decisions on your behalf.

- Have them conduct both one-on-ones with your other staff members as well as team meetings so they can understand how staff interact with each other.

- Have them gather key contractor information so they are set to react efficiently while minimizing your risk if something goes wrong, is not on schedule, or is over budget.

- Write staff and contractor memorandums of understanding and have all staff and contractors sign them.

- Have your estate manager start providing weekly property summaries, one-page documents detailing what was completed, what's ongoing, what's coming up next week, stuck projects, and any staff updates.

- Have them capture all the above information in a system, preferably a project management system with a phone app, so that, in the event that this person doesn't last beyond 90 days, your next candidate won't have to dig so deep -- saving you time moving forward.

Thanks for listening.

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It’s time to look at household staffing differently

When a homeowner decides they need staff, they:

- hire people,

- sign the paychecks, and

- assume they’ll get the service they need from those employees.

Then, when staff questions overwhelm them – when the homeowner doesn’t get the service they desire, and they feel frustrated with the lack of control over their day and the lack of privacy within their homes – they often reduce the number of staff and ask fewer people to maintain their homes and provide personal services.

But…

When systems fail, or if there’s an emergency that no one is prepared for, the household staff gets deemed inadequate, often labeled “not a good fit.”

The staff gets fired, and this cycle repeats itself with new staff.

The frustration with training new staff and them not “getting it right” continues to the point of the homeowner wanting to downsize.

If this sounds correct, we’ve got answers.

My team created an eBook to address these issues related to:

- Why you want to become a good employer

- Knowing all that it takes to maintain your property and provide service to your family

- Capturing your preferences and pet peeves to share with everyone who works in your home

- And addressing whether you need a house manager

We’ve entitled this book The Ultimate Guide for Hiring Staff and Maintaining Your Luxury Home.

This 16-page document provides quick and actionable solutions to your toughest domestic staff challenges.

This eBook is free if you schedule a call with me (https://calendly.com/estate-management-systems/demo).

Or, for a very small fee, you can download it from our website at https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/shop/p/ebook-the-ultimate-guide

I think you’ll find that it will address 99% of your household staffing challenges. And we think your staff will thank you, too.

Thanks for listening.

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From the first day I stepped into my role as an estate manager, I had an idea of how I thought it should be. I had been working on luxury properties for more than 20 years, but not in them. And I felt like I had hit the jackpot when I was hired for this very demanding role. One that I felt I was 110% suited for.

I thought that by being employed by a high-tech giant that I would walk into a world of professionalism and sophistication that I hadn’t experienced in the landscape construction world (and I worked with the best contractors available). But, I was wrong.

Thanks for listening.

Find out the full story, plus details on what an ideal day for an estate manager looks like, here: https://www.estatemanagementsystems.com/blog/ideal-day-in-the-life-estate-manager 

For more information, visit our Linktrees:

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