Kevin Weishaar

▶0:05IntroWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we highlight the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Now, let's Let's get started and welcome our next guest.

▶0:34HostToday on the Built By People Podcast, I'm excited to have Kevin Weisar. Kevin, thanks for joining us today.

▶0:39GuestAppreciate it. I'm excited.

▶0:41HostTell me a little bit about your career journey, maybe some unexpected turns, what ultimately led you to leadership.

▶0:47GuestYeah, you know, pretty much everything in property management is unexpected. You don't really set out in that path, but got started actually after college, was in banking, and then, you know, a friend recruited me and started I just kind of got thrown right into it. Actually, it was affordable housing initially. And you know, you just kind of start doing files, figure it out, and worked my way up, had my own region. I'm in the Northwest and had properties there. Within a couple of years, I was actually working directly for the owner the whole time. Started out on the maintenance side, even did that at a property, 440-unit property in North Las Vegas, and then had my own region. And within a couple years was the director of operations, had properties all over the West. And it was, it was really exciting. Just had, I I think 19 lease-ups across those portfolios, which means brand new buildings everywhere, market rate almost entirely at that point. And then for 10 years did, I was for the largest affordable housing in the, in the company, owner-manager nonprofit. And that was really exciting. So about as complicated as it gets, rural development stuff, HUD tax credit, and just about every local program as you can imagine. So all the way and then just, you know, throughout it all, all kinds of leadership stuff for all the shared services that go along with that and just every part of housing that you can imagine. So yeah, really exciting.

▶2:06HostTell me a little bit about your top priorities right now as you look at your business.

▶2:10GuestYeah, it's been great. You know, just building leaders and doing the best you can to really just cut through the noise of data and trying to figure out things in this world of ever-changing AI and regulations and as much as you can as things are evolving to be able to still make it about the people and inspiring people and, and yeah, leading the best you can with, with a personal touch. That's great.

▶2:37HostWhat's one initiative you rolled out recently that you're really proud of?

▶2:40GuestYou know, I guess what comes to mind probably is one of the AI initiatives we had. At least AI is kind of the name of the game these days. And so getting that going and having, you know, buy-in, it's, it's, it's something that takes a lot of work upfront and getting folks engaged and a lot of change in management is a big part of it. But once you can kind of show the benefits that there is a lot that it can do to make, you know, those mundane tasks go away, those, you know, capture a lot of the things that may slip through the cracks can, can still be captured and be a part of making people successful and making their numbers better and getting people housed, which is the name of the game and what we do. It's been really, really rewarding getting some of that stuff off the ground. So it's been great.

▶3:23HostWhat's one area where you're trying to improve the engagement through better communication, or how do you approach making sure employees actually see, understand, act on the information that you're sending out?

▶3:33GuestYeah, you know, it's, man, it's, it's, it's almost generational. There's, it's, it's tougher to get people after COVID, just getting people in the room together, getting people to pick up the phone, getting people to turn on their camera sometimes. And so when you've got initiatives, it's about making sure that You know, you, you either, whether it's building, especially with disparate properties and teams, making sure that they've got touchpoints, whether it be team building events or getting, you know, a regular community groups together and then having kind of that reinforced through teams groups or, you know, trainings and things where they've got kind of a regular, and it just ends up kind of evolving into text threads and things, but making sure that folks are, are just engaged with each other and the people that they feel comfortable with. And then, you know, having, having boots on the ground from your leadership perspective, touching base and making sure that you've got those touchpoints. Ways that you, you can just, you know, ask simple questions that can be canaries in the coal mine to see that, you know, what's, what's top of mind and what are the big initiatives are still resonate in, in ways when you have a simple conversation, you know, as many ways that you can make the, make the mundane personal as you can, you gotta find 'em. Absolutely.

▶4:39HostWhat tools or platforms are most essential for your operations today?

▶4:42GuestWell, in our world, I mean, everything kind of revolves around the, the RealPage and the RDE stuff. Like I said, at least AI is, uh, you know, it's the, is the kind of the, the buzz one. But I mean, for me, you know, personally, everything is It's ChatGPT and Gemini and Copilot and Claude and Perplexity and Comet AI and, you know, and 8N and Zapier and all that fun stuff. So yeah, I think it changes every single day. You've got a Notion AI and all that stuff to be able to stay on top of it, figure out where it fits within almost the portfolio of different tools that, you know, as they, they ever change and this one works for this and this works for that. And that's kind of slowing down on being a really helpful productivity tool, whereas this one's now a, you know, can't miss. And so, yeah, it's, there's, there's a lot out there for sure. And staying on top of it is almost a full-time job. No, absolutely.

▶5:30HostIt's crazy how much new tech is just coming out constantly. If we sat down 12 months from now, what would you have hoped has changed most in your organization?

▶5:40GuestOh man, I would just say that, yeah, people are, you know, continuing to be more interconnected and, you know, more feel like they're part of a team and that there is Yeah, that better communication, like you said, so that they feel like, I mean, that's, that's really how you get things done so that if there's that trust built, people feel like they've got somebody they can reach out to, then they can make decisions faster. They can get answers quicker, then they can support their, their teams and their residents better. And that's really what it's all about.

▶6:10HostKevin, if you could leave one piece of advice for our community, maybe something you wish you had known earlier in your career. Or just advice in general, what would it be?

▶6:18GuestI would say relationships are more important than accomplishments. I think if I look back, you know, those, those big wins in the moment are, are important, but they may get you some points on a quarterly review. But in the long run, building those relationships, those, those people you can count on, people that'll pick up the phone and, you know, either answer a question or folks that'll be on your team for the long run. Those are definitely the things that you're building towards in your career more so than that. That quick win in the, in the short run. So building relationships over time is definitely the thing that I would say. That's awesome.

▶6:52HostWell, Kevin, thanks for your insight, your perspective, and joining us on the Built By People podcast today.

▶6:57GuestAppreciate it. Thank you.