When you're trying to grow your property management business, perfection can feel like the standard… but what if chasing "perfect" is actually what's slowing you down?

In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull unpack the hidden cost of perfectionism in business. They break down why striving for 100% accuracy in tools, systems, or team members leads to frustration, stalled growth, and constant "shiny object" switching. You'll learn how to evaluate mistakes the right way, when to keep a system versus scrap it, and why imperfect action often scales faster than polished hesitation.

They also dive into the six core functions of a healthy business, the danger of over-optimizing the wrong areas, and how to free up your time so you can focus on what actually moves the needle.

You'll Learn

(00:00) Introduction to DoorGrow and Perfectionism

(05:24) Optimizing Business Processes Without Perfection

(11:07) Scaling Beyond Personal Limitations

Quotables

"Perfect businesses are out of business."

"There is nothing in this world that is going to get 100% accuracy 100% of the time."

"Perfectionism is usually born out of an insecurity and discomfort in ourself and we have to get comfortable with things not being perfect in order to scale a business." Resources

DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind

DoorGrow Academy

DoorGrow on YouTube

DoorGrowClub

DoorGrowLive

Transcript

Jason Hull (00:01)

All right, five, four, three, two, one. We are Jason and Sarah Hull, the owners of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry.

eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let's get into the show. All right. So what are we chatting about today, Sarah? Perfection. Perfection. So this is a big challenge in business is that especially for early stage entrepreneurs, they want everything to be perfect. They judge, we judge ourselves so harshly. We're so worried.

We have imposter syndrome and where we feel like people are gonna figure out that we don't know everything and that we may not know something they know. There's all these early stage entrepreneur concerns that a lot of people go through. so they have this fear that I need to make sure everything is perfect. And perfectionism can cause some serious problems. And this is a temptation, I think, for most every entrepreneur that I've ever coached or dealt with.

to some degree. So let's talk about this. All So the issue that had come up was just last week on a coaching call with a client and she was saying that, you know, hey, I have this tool that does a specific job and it's pretty good, but it's not 100%. Okay. And it was, she was frustrated that it wasn't 100 % perfect. All right. Right.

And she said, because it's not like sometimes it will miss little things or I think it called a client or a tenant called a tenant by the wrong name. Right. So it might miss little things here and there. she said, you know, I I'm not doing it, but I'm having my team member just kind of watch over things.

And so she said, and I'm looking for an alternative because I just don't feel like that's going to be the solution. It's just not where I want it to be yet. So I said, I totally understand where you're coming from with it. ⁓ My bet, my best advice on it is not to try to strive for perfection because truthfully, it really doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it's a tool.

a system, a process, a software, a team member, or ourselves that's doing a particular thing, there is nothing on this world that is going to get 100 % accuracy 100 % of the time. So if that's what we're striving for, we're going to be let down at some point, and we're going to consistently feel frustrated. And then we're to jump from thing to thing or person to person looking.

for this magic solution that does 100 % all the time. And it's just, it's not possible. If you ask yourself, have I ever made a Sure. Who hasn't? What technology hasn't messed up from time to time? What computer hasn't messed up from time to time? What even AI sometimes you'll ask it a question and it gives you answers that you know are not correct. And then you have to correct it. And then it goes, I'm so sorry. You're right.

Here's now the correct information. first time it gave you incorrect information. Right? So if we're striving for, no, this thing in order for me to use it has to be perfect all of the time, otherwise it's not worth it. And now I have to go look for something else. That puts us in this loop of consistently we'll forever be searching. will forever be searching for something to be perfect. My rule is if,

If you're using some sort of system, whether it's a tool or a software or AI, if it makes a mistake, and it will. So when it makes a mistake.

If the same thing was done by a human, would this be an immediately fireable offense? Yeah. If a human made the same mistake that the system or tool or AI did, would you go, I immediately have to fire this person? Most times the answer is no. And if the answer is no, then why would you be looking to immediately be getting rid of that tool or stop using that AI or stop using that software?

Right? So a lot of times what I've noticed is we have a lot of grace when it comes to humans and we have very little when it comes to technology, including AI. Yeah. We've almost none. We expect perfection all the time. You're a supercomputer. You should know everything all the time and never make a mistake. And that is fantastic in theory. But in practicality, it's

probably just not realistic, even if it is a supercomputer and it's infinitely more intelligent, even than we are, it's still going to make mistakes sometimes. So if a human made this mistake, if you would look at that and go, yes, I immediately need to fire this person, then you're probably on the right track by getting rid of that tool or system. But if a...

human made this same mistake and you would just chalk it up to, hey, they need more support or hey, they need more training or hey, you these things happen from time to time. It's not a great situation, but I'm not gonna fire them over it. Then I also don't feel like it's worth scrapping the tool for the same reason. Okay, yeah, I agree. So I think ⁓ perfectionism is a big challenge. So one of my mentors,

Alex Sharfin, shout out to Alex. said, he used to say perfect businesses are out of business. And I think one of his mentors told him that. So the idea is when you are trying to make your business perfect, you aren't focused on a lot of times the right things. ⁓ One of the books he recommended to me, a great book, it's called The Goal by Elihu Goldratt. And in this book, it talks about how if you optimize each thing in the business, the business actually becomes less efficient.

So he uses this story uses an example of like a factory and there's different stages in this process. Just like in any business, there's different stages. And if you over optimize one particular stage that leads into another, the challenge is it creates inventory or it creates like more work or it creates excess. And so everything needs to be moving in concert towards the goal. And anything that's not moving the entire business towards the main goal.

can actually become a distraction. So it's very easy for operators in business to over optimize a piece or to spend too much time on something or to put too much attention on making the perfect onboarding process or the perfect system. And it actually makes you less money. It like brings you less client retention. It brings you more headaches and more problems. It makes you need more staff. And so we have to be really careful about

optimizing or making everything perfect. Elon Musk talks about how one of the biggest mistakes made in business is optimizing for the wrong things. And so we need to make sure we're optimizing towards what the actual goals are. And a lot of times also clients get our clients that we coach, they get so focused on making sure their clients have such an amazing experience while neglecting the lead gen and the growth of their own business, which is the lifeblood. So it's like, I want to take care of everybody that

is paying me, but I don't really care about taking care of myself and my family, and paying myself is what it kind of plays out to be. And so this is why we look at things through the lens of what I call the six core functions. Lead gen, nurture, conversion, delivery, lifetime value, and financials. And so these are like six little kids you gotta take care of in the business. And a lot of business owners focus on one that is their favorite darling child.

and make sure that they're fat and happy, and then they have at least one or two that are starving in the corner that they're neglecting. They're like, And usually, lead gen is the one that's being neglected. find, and delivery, taking care of the client's experience, delivering the product is the fat one. And so this means you're being a bad steward in your own business. You're not making healthy decisions.

And here's the thing we teach when we have our clients rate these on a scale of one to five, five being best, each of these six children, these functions in the business, ⁓ it's impossible for all six to be a five at the same time. That's impossible. Perfection is impossible because if you ramp up lead gen and nurture and ⁓ conversion, sales are those three. Sales is ramping up.

Now you have constraints and now you need to hire more people, build out your team. And once you build out your team, you have more expenses, then you need more leads. It's a constant juggle of figuring out which one needs the attention right now. But you're always leveling up, it's impossible for them all to be perfect at the same time. Because it's always relative to your current progress. Like our versions of a five now are very different than my versions of a five in previous history. Like our ones now, nowadays, Indoor Grow,

when we rate things, I would have dreamed of having as, it would have been fives for me in the past in terms of how much money we make, leads, like, et cetera. And so, yeah, like early Jason entrepreneur wouldn't have even have dreamed of having a business as big as this is and being able to live the lifestyle that we live. And so, ⁓ that's important to take note of as well when looking at this that.

Perfectionism is usually born out of an insecurity and discomfort in ourself and we have to get comfortable with things not being perfect in order to scale a business.

Speaking of being able to scale the business, let's have a word from our sponsor. Yeah, let's share. Okay. So our sponsor today is Cover Pest. So Cover Pest, they are the easy and seamless way to add on-demand pest control to your resident benefit package. So residents love the simplicity of submitting a service request and how affordable it is compared to traditional pest control options. Investors love knowing that their property is kept pest free.

and property managers love getting their time back and making more revenue per door. Simply put, CoverPest is the easiest way to handle pest control issues at all of your properties. To learn more and to get special door grow pricing, visit coverpest.com slash door grow. Okay. That's our sponsor. All right. Thank you, CoverPest. So, yeah. So when it comes to perfectionism,

How do you get clients past that? What do usually tell them? So I have a rule that if there is some sort of software...

member that can do a particular thing so that I don't have to be the one who's doing it. If they can do it even, even like 60 or 70 percent as good as I can do it, ⁓ I'm going to make that trade every day of the week. Why? Because at some point if you're trying, if you're holding on to no I will never settle for 60 percent, that is unacceptable, then you very quickly will hit a limit to where you can scale.

and you will no longer be able to grow. Yeah, you hit a limit in your capacity because you only everybody has a limited of what we call the five currencies, time, energy, focus, cash and effort. That's what you have to invest. And your most important or valuable resource, I believe, is time. That's your life. Like you're going to die. And so you're giving away chunks of your life and.

You know, if you're going to give away chunks of your life, it might as well be towards things you actually enjoy doing in the business and not holding on to all these things you think you have to do because your ego says you're the best and nobody else can do it better. Let me tell you this. This is the humbling thing I learned is that if you don't love doing those particular things in the business, there is always somebody that can do it better than you. Because if you don't love doing it, somebody else would and they would easily surpass your level of expertise in that.

and your ability to perform in that and show up consistently well in that. And so you gotta find the people. Another thing early stage entrepreneurs don't understand that I didn't early on is they don't understand that there's somebody out there that loves doing everything that you hate doing. The big mistake we make in the beginning is we think we need to find a clone of ourselves. I just need to clone myself. I call it the clone myth. The reality is it takes about 10 or 12 people to clone you.

So just find, you just got to find specialists, experts, and they will be better at these things than you. And you can stick to the stuff you love. Cool. if they're not better at it than you are, if it can still be done well enough that you won't lose business over it, that is a trade that I would make every day of the week. So I might do something and have amazing results and someone else might duplicate. Let's just say sales. Let's say that I can close nine out of 10 deals.

but I really don't like doing sales. And I'm doing it because I have to do it because I want to grow the business, but I don't actually really enjoy doing it. And then I can find someone who I can have do this for me, but maybe they only close six or seven out of 10. Well, easy math will tell you, hey, I'm going to be closing less deals. That's not a good trade. But really it is because you're getting somebody who's doing a decent enough job.

so that you're not losing business, you're not costing yourself anything crazy, it's not like all of your clients are going to leave you. They're doing a decent enough job to continue to move the business forward, meanwhile you're able to stop doing that thing and then go focus on doing something else that you actually enjoy and very likely with that extra time you will be able to find

Ways to make more money that you did not have time for previously because your time was being eaten up By whatever thing that you can now replace with either a person AI or a tool So even if it's not perfect even if it's not going to do everything the way that you want it to all of the time And it's just not as good as me If you're going to hold on to that belief that it has to be as good as you otherwise it cannot be used

then it will hold you back in your business and you will very quickly hit a ceiling on the capacity of doors that you can enter. Okay, the one problem with that analogy is that most business owners, if they're doing the sales in their own business, they're only doing it part-time. They're not full-time. And so your part-time results might be the equivalent of their full-time results. And so you're not really giving up something if you get somebody full-time, they take that off your plate.

They might even surpass you because it's really hard to compete if you're only putting in an hour to a day to actually grow the business and you've got somebody doing it eight hours or six hours a day. They easily will eventually be beating you in terms of results, especially if you don't like it and they love it. So all right, cool. Well, that's our episode for today. If you are I'm trying to find my outro script here. I can't find it. This is a mess.

Oh, there we go. I lack the carriage return. All right. So if you have ever felt stuck or stagnant and you want to take your property management business to the next level, reach out to us at doorgrow.com for free training on how to get unlimited free leads. Text the word leads to 512-648-4608. Also join our free Facebook community just for property management business owners at doorgrowclub.com. And if you want tips, tricks, ideas to learn about

our offers, subscribe to our newsletter by going to doorgrow.com slash subscribe. And if you found this even a little bit helpful, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. We'd really appreciate it. Until next time, remember the slowest path to growth is to do it alone. So let's grow together. Bye everyone.