 In today's episode, I'm going to tell you exactly what you need to do to make your mark in the multi-family industry. You want to be a maintenance man? Well, stick around. I'm going to tell you exactly how to succeed. So you want to be a maintenance man, right? Okay. Well, I got a few things I could tell you about that. First thing you want to do, if you want to be in the maintenance trade, well, I think it's going to help that you have some kind of mechanical ability. If you don't know how to turn a screwdriver or know the difference between a straight head and a Phillips, this might not be the trade for you. So I'm just suggesting that get a little bit of knowledge behind you. I think the maintenance industry is very rewarding. And by that, what I mean is that when you are out there fixing things, you get a sense of accomplishment for it or with it. And I think that's the reward that you get. You've made somebody happy. Remember, when you're in the apartment maintenance industry, you are working on people's homes. This is where they live. Now granted, a lot of them live like pigs and there's nothing you can do about that, but it's still their home. So if you can go in there and fix something for them that they want to be able to use, then you're fixing has definitely given you a sense of accomplishment. So you got that reward part of it. Also, if you want to succeed as being a maintenance man, there's certain things you need to do. First of all, you can't be scared to go out there and do things that you're not comfortable doing. If you don't know how to replace a compressor on an air conditioner, first thing you want to do is follow along with somebody who is doing the work and watch and take notes mentally. And if you have to physically take notes, then you can do that too so that you can reference back to that. But I think it's very important that you take note of what's going on in that process. And then later down the line, you don't have to be afraid to try it yourself. Hey, if you fail on certain things like that, you can start over and do it again. So you need to take risk and do things that you're not comfortable with in order to succeed. Be the guy that's always first in and last out. Keep your surroundings clean and clean up the clutter that's around your shop. When you pull a motor out of a box to replace a fan motor on an air conditioner, that box, it needs to get discarded. So you definitely want to discard that box and keep your shops clean. People notice things that you do. If you go the extra step in doing your job, people notice that and they take note of it. And when it comes time to be promoted, you're going to be first in line. So be sure to go the extra mile, take that extra step and do the little things that need to be done in order to show people that you are responsible and that you care about your job. That's the biggest thing, is showing that you care about your job and that being enthusiastic about doing things is going to go a long way with your supervisors. Next thing I think you need to do is concentrate on getting some good quality tools. You don't have to go out and buy those tools all at once. You can pick up a couple of good screwdrivers. Myself, I'm a Klein man, so I like using Klein tools. So I didn't buy all of my Klein tools all at once. Here and there I bought pieces and moved the old stuff out of my tool bag to make room for the new quality, better tools that I have now. It's taken me many years to put together some good quality tools that I feel comfortable using and I've used them for so long now that it makes a big difference when you're using a quality tool. You know you got something good and you can have these tools last you for many, many years. So take some effort and try to invest in some good quality hand tools. And with that we're going to expand a little bit more on a few things. So let's take a little break right now and I'll be right back. I want to start off this segment by letting you know how I got started in this business. It's a pretty funny story actually and I can still remember it like it was yesterday that I was working for a moving company at the time. I think I was probably 17 years old and the moving company's business was kind of slumping. They weren't they were basically just getting started in that business. So there wasn't as much work to keep a full crew busy all the time. So I had gotten laid off and I had the pleasure of having my own apartment at 17. Had a little what they called at the time an efficiency apartment. Now they've given it a better name and calling it a studio. That's really fancy isn't it. But you know it was my little apartment. I was proud of it and I didn't want to lose it you know and I definitely didn't want to move back in with mom and dad because I had had a taste of living on my own and at that time I was pretty stubborn and pigheaded so I didn't really want to follow the rules that they had set. So I figured go out on my own and do what I want. And I found out soon enough that you can yeah you can do what you want but you got to pay the bills in order to be able to do that. So well I found myself without a job and an apartment to pay for and it turned out that the apartment community that I was living at needed a groundskeeper. Not like I said I was 17 years old so I was kid. I'm just a kid. So I had gone in and applied for the job and you know they kind of pushed me around a little bit and and you know you don't really know anything about the apartment industry. You haven't done this before and blah blah blah and so I took the job. Well I'm getting ahead of myself. I kept going back to the office and basically begging them to put me on put me to work give me the job because I needed to work and I didn't know how I was going to pay the rent. I didn't I didn't have any money coming in. Didn't know how I was going to eat. So it was it was getting pretty tough. So like I said at least two three times a week I would go in there and beg them basically to give me that job. And after about a month they finally relented and gave me the job. So I started out as a groundskeeper in the apartment industry at the age of 17. It wasn't very long after I got that job that I was I was still doing grounds but I would pick up a work order here and there and go take care of a work order and this is like I was saying in the first segment. When you do things that are that are out of your comfort zone people notice especially if you're successful at it and if you're not you can keep at it until you are. But I would I would go out and do work orders when I wasn't doing the grounds and they noticed that and it wasn't probably three to four months after I got that job that they had asked if I wanted to be a maintenance tech just a general maintenance guy. You know I was doing little small work orders like light bulb replacements and that's been so long ago now but you know the little tedious jobs the little small jobs that that air conditioned heating guys don't really have time to do but they need somebody to take care of the small stuff. You know if you go glue a piece of laminate back on a countertop or or change out a light fixture or you know just little things like that. So that's the stuff that I was doing also turning apartments that's that's really the place where I shined at that time. So as a maintenance tech now after four months of starting into this industry I started doing apartment turns and got really good at it to the point where they were like this is awesome you know we've never had anybody turn an apartment like you do you know and it's the attention to detail that I would take I wouldn't cut corners on let me get in here get out and be done with it and move on to the next project you know if it took me an extra 10 15 minutes to cock a bathtub the proper way then you know I took that time and I did it and again like I said that kind of stuff is noticed and it's noticed pretty quick because when the resident moves into that apartment and they see the clean lines of your caulk you know your all your outlets are or straight and clean even down to the smallest detail of making sure the screws on your outlet plates and switch plates are all in the same direction where you're not just turning them in you got one cock-eyed to two o'clock and the next ones that were 10 and you know I would always make sure that my screws were the slots were turned straight up 12 and 6 12 and 6 that was just the mainstay I I got to be pretty anal about that as a matter of fact so like I said those little attentions to detail got me a lot of recognition and it really made people's eyes light up and notice that hey you know Dan's doing a really good job for us here he would probably be the next guy we would promote to you know maybe a lead tech or at that time they were doing a lot of level one level two level three technicians and I was a low grade level one at that time I'd probably say that I was in there for maybe six more months as a as level one tech and I'd been punched up to a level two tech which meant that I was going out and doing a little bit more intensive electrical work and maybe a little bit more of the harder plumbing type work I was no longer turning apartments except for when they needed a backup I would go in and fill in for somebody but it was more going out and doing the work order part of the of the job you know and we've all seen that where there's certain work orders that certain people can do and the certain people that can't do certain work orders so I was the number two almost a lead tech at that point and it wasn't very long that I got moved up to be a maintenance supervisor now like I said now I'm probably hitting 18 years old and being asked to be a maintenance supervisor on a property granted it was a small property it was probably only 150 to 180 units or something like that and spent so long ago now I don't remember the I know the name of it but and I won't go into that but again it's it's the attention to detail it's the the willingness to want to go out there and put yourself out there to to do things that you're not comfortable doing and then and then you know once you get that under your belt where you've done this job that you weren't comfortable with to start with now you're getting comfortable at it and you can do it and you can perfect it you can get better at it you you can find ways to do it faster and still do a good job at it that's the thing that gets you noticed so if you want to be a maintenance technician in the apartment industry and in the multi-family business you have got to do things right I you know I I always harp on this you know I don't like cutting corners on any kind of a job because it's just going to come back and bite you in the butt later so that that's one of the things that is most important is to make sure that you're doing a good job and that you're doing that job to the best the absolute best of your ability and to do it right and if you don't know how to do it right you know you can find ways and find out how to do it and not have to cut the corner just to get in there and get out I'll be right back welcome back one of the things that I've talked about a couple times is doing things out of your comfort zone and doing this podcast and I'm what I'm going to try to do is a weekly broadcast and a weekly show on different subjects and topics that I think I might gear this more towards the maintenance industry I think that I I've got a word that and some things that I can teach people out there that are in this industry or maybe just starting out and they need some help and trying to figure out what they should do and how they should do things so I may go that route and hopefully I can help somebody you know I have really harped and harped and harped on the fact that doing the job and doing it right is the only way to succeed and it's amazing how much that is so true doing your job right and not taking shortcuts and cutting corners on on projects that are going to come back at you that you're going to have to go back go back into and redo you know that that's just not the way to succeed if you want to succeed as a maintenance technician and if you want to succeed in maintenance in this industry you have got to do the job right it's amazing how many people will notice that and it may take some time it's not going to happen overnight but it's a career choice and if this is what you have chosen to to do for the rest of your life then why not do it to the best of your ability if you want to succeed and maybe move up the chain and climb that ladder of success and and be the supervisor of the property listen this is what my motto was for a long time I like I said way back in the beginning I have I was a very stubborn person I was pigheaded I was headstrong and my dad and I did not get along because I wanted to do what I wanted to do he wanted me to do what he wanted me to do and I was still going to do what I wanted to do so with that that mindset you know from early on I did not want to be told what to do you know in this industry you're always going to be told what to do and I've come to learn that but what I would what I had figured out early was that you know what in order for me not to be told what to do I want to be I really honestly want to be the guy telling other people what to do and what I started doing was going out there and beating people to the punch and that's just when I was a technician I would go do things before I was told to do them because I didn't want to be told what to do but I saw things that needed to be done so I just went ahead and went and did them so that nobody could tell me what to do and then eventually it turned into where you know I want to be a supervisor because I don't want a supervisor telling me what to do and I thought that was going to work and you know I butted heads with a few managers here and there because you know even as a supervisor at a young age I still had that mentality that I don't want to be told what to do and that's another thing that you need to remember you're always going to have a boss you're always going to have somebody telling you what to do and in order to reduce the amount of stuff that people are telling you what to do on just if you see something just do it and that way if they're not telling you what to do you've already done it so they don't need to tell you what to do that's a little bit of a ramble on and on about not telling me what to do I know but honestly that's the the biggest success story that I can tell you on on how to succeed as being a maintenance technician or a maintenance engineer or a service manager of an apartment community or in the multifamily business is to make sure that you're going the extra mile beat beat the people to the punch if you don't want to be told what to do beat them to the punch go ahead and if you see something do it fix it make it right you know and then after you do it you can say hey I took care of such and such I knew it or you can just leave it quiet and let them discover that oh I saw that yesterday and now it's I went back to look at it and it's fixed oh I wonder who did that they'll ask who took care of such and such you know I did no hey great great job I appreciate that that stuff goes a long way you'll get noticed really fast so that's how you're going to succeed you got to go the extra mile you got to do things right you have to take the initiative to do things on your own so that people aren't having to come to you and tell you what you know why don't you pick up that that bottle out there in the yard you know that's something that you should be just doing and and after a while it becomes automatic and you just do it and again people notice that kind of stuff you're going to be noticed really fast so that that is my little quick story on how to succeed in in the maintenance industry if you want to be in the multifamily business it's a fun job to be in you know there's a multitude of personalities that you're going to have to deal with and that can be interesting at times it can be a little frustrating at times and it can be rewarding at times you'll get to know some really interesting people and it's it's just all part of life you know whatever you do in life you're going to have situations that you're not happy with so make it yours own the job that that's another key you know own your job if you are the maintenance technician and it's your responsibility to complete work orders then own that be the guy who owns his job people are going to see you and they're going to recognize that and you're going to succeed in this industry I promise you it may not happen overnight but it's going to happen this is Dan Giles thanks for listening and we'll see you on the next episode