Peter Lohmann's Podcast
00:50:48 · Bri Leichliter
[00:50:48] S0: And I... You can't expect somebody to, you know, take your advice on everything. And I think the other thing is, like, when you sell a business, you only know what you know from the buyer in the couple of meetings that you've had getting to know them in their business. What is reality might be completely different than that. You know? That and and that part of it, you don't wanna have regrets on who you sell to, of course, and I don't have any regrets on the sales process. But I do wish that I would have learned more about how their operations functioned. I think we would have been able to do handoffs better. We would have been able to kind of prep a little bit more. And I feel like, you know, I built... I'm very process oriented. I built all of my processes and instructions out in LeadSimple. I've been with LeadSimple since 2022. And that structure for my team was huge. And I'm in a situation where some of what I've put together or a lot of what I built is kind of feels like it's going to waste because those systems are no longer used or at least they're not used right now. So that was a little bit soul crushing, to be honest, because I... That was, like, the part of the building. Right? I got to a certain point, I got the outcome that I wanted, and that's great. But I don't want all the hard work I put in along the way to just... You know, it was for something, but I kinda want it to live on. You know what I mean? I spent all that time doing it. I want it I want to be able to continue to, you know, have that available and whatever. So so that that was a difficult part for me. I do think, you know, everybody's different in what they're gonna be attached to and what they're not. You know, I wasn't in such a bad head space where I needed it to be gone, you know, for major mental health reasons. I mean, sure, I was stressed and felt like I couldn't shut off, but I think that's any business owner in general is gonna feel that no matter what kind of business you're in. And I do remember when I was talking to my boyfriend, Jake, about selling the business, and we were talking about the price. And I I said to him, I said, what price is... You know, what do you think? And he's like, zero. You could sell it for zero, and I'd be happy. He's like, because it's not worth your mental health.
00:53:14 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
And, you know, and that's when you know you found a great partner, of course. And and then I was like, you're out of your mind. Like, I'm never gonna give it away. But, you know, it was... It it... He obviously saw the the toll that the business had on, you know, my mental health in general. And I I don't think we talk about that enough in the industry and in small business as a whole, how difficult it is and how lonely it feels too. I didn't have a business partner, so I was making decisions on my own. And thankfully, I have a great, you know, friend circle that is in the business, and that's super helpful. But there are a lot of people who don't. So Only there was a lot [00:53:57] S1: community of people.
00:53:57 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:53:57] S1: community of people. [00:53:59] S0: If only one existed. Imagine that. But... Yeah. I mean... And it's true because I did pick up... I mean, Peter's obviously referencing Crane there. But I did pick up the phone, and I called a couple of Crane members along the way and to talk through things because I had that support system that understood my challenges. And I've called other PMs that are non Crane that I know have done acquisitions. There is... There's a company in Denver that I've met at broker owner and am still friends with, and they treat acquisitions like they're the most fragile thing on the planet. And they put so much time and effort into the people in the transition that I'm like, man, I'm a little bit jealous of that. Mhmm. Right? Like, they they take so much care of the staff that's coming in, the owner that's exiting, you know, like, they take transitions and make them six months because they wanna do it right. So, you know, thinking of that... Those kinds of things, I think, is Yeah. What I kind of reflect on at this point.
00:55:08 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:55:08] S1: Well, I really appreciate you being vulnerable there over the last few minutes. I think you're exactly right. It doesn't get talked about enough. You know, of course, at these conferences, everyone puts on their best face literally and figuratively. We talk about unit counts. We talk about how little we have to do in the business. We talk about how profitable things are and, oh my gosh, I have this great new hire and everything. But Mhmm. You get in the smaller circles, whether it's in Crane or just people that you've gotten to know where, like, you're able to text them and just pick up the phone anytime. And then you start getting the real real, and you know... And you learn. The more you do that, the more you understand that there are highs and they're great, but they're more the exception. And everyone experiences the pain and the suffering and the self doubt and the just grind that is this business. And if you feel like you're alone in that, you're literally 0% alone because everyone who's built any kind of business has been through that and continues to deal with that no matter how big they are. The problems just get bigger. [00:56:13] S0: So... Yep. [00:56:15] S1: Yeah. I'm I'm, like, on a mission to help people understand that that's normal, and it's not a personal failing of theirs. It's not a something they did wrong or a wrong hire. It's just... It never goes away. I mean... [00:56:29] S0: Well, yeah. And it's not like an if it's gonna happen, it's a when. Yeah. You know?
00:56:29 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
[00:56:29] S0: Well, yeah. And it's not like an if it's gonna happen, it's a when. Yeah. You know? [00:56:34] S1: So we're getting toward the end of the hour here. Kinda zooming out for a second, I want you to answer like two questions. Is, what are you really happy that you did in terms of the whole business sale process? Like, what's one thing you're really happy that that you did it the way you did? And what's one thing that you would do differently next time?
00:56:56 · Bri Leichliter
[00:56:56] S0: So there's... I mean, I feel like I I did fairly well in my negotiations on the sale. I'm actually pretty proud of what I've been able to do there. And the couple of things that kinda stand out to me are I wanted to stay in the business, and I wanted to maintain my relationships with my clients. One of the things that I did not really touch on when we were talking about staff is my mom, I moved her here from Pennsylvania, and I negotiated to guarantee her a job for a year. That was an important personal piece for me. So, you know, I know a lot of people have family in the business that that might be something that they need to think about. And I really think in the grand scheme of the entire process, although there were a lot of things outside of my control, I did everything that I possibly could to facilitate. I didn't take a backseat. I did everything in my power. It didn't go as perfectly as planned, and that's, you know, that's never gonna happen. It's not... There's you can't expect perfection when you're doing something in property management in general. But I do feel like I gave it my all, and I I made myself available and did everything that was in my power to do. Yeah. And there is a point where you just gotta let go and realize it's not. And I really needed to, like, get to that headspace. But really, if I was gonna do anything differently, it just would have been the the implementation of the system changes I would have delayed. That was the biggest thing for me. I think from a staffing perspective and the staff retention, I think that's a huge piece of it. You can't expect everyone to just go start working for someone and have no training as they're getting into it. So that would have been my biggest do different part there.