Multifamily Women® Podcast
The Multifamily Women® Podcast explores insightful discussions on the importance of not only elevating women in leadership but also becoming mentors and helping shape the future of the Multifamily industry. As technology advances at rapid pace, you will hear from top experts on the ever-evolving roles women play in multifamily organizations, how they got started in the industry, roadblocks they’ve faced along the way, and what they’re doing now to build and strengthen their current organizations.
Multifamily Women® Podcast
Embracing Change and Leadership in Multifamily with Laura Khouri
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Ever wondered how an unexpected start can lead to a thriving career in leadership? Join us as we sit down with Laura Khouri, president of Western National Property Management, who began her remarkable journey in 1985 as a "gal Friday" and rose to the top by 2010.
Laura shares her inspiring story, emphasizing the vital role mentorship and continuous learning played in her ascent. She provides invaluable insights into leadership, navigating responsibilities across human resources, risk management, and training, and the critical importance of supporting her team during challenging times like the pandemic.
In this episode, we also explore the forward-thinking strategies that have modernized Western National Property Management (WMPM). Laura discusses the company's transition to a new learning management system, their ambitious rebranding efforts, and the importance of cross-department collaboration.
She highlights the value of participating in industry councils and shares her excitement for her upcoming keynote at the Women's Summit, which focuses on innovation and leadership. Laura's insights demonstrate how WMPM is staying ahead of the curve by embracing change and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
Lastly, we delve into the lessons learned from leadership mistakes and the power of vulnerability. Laura recounts a pivotal early-career mistake that led to significant company policy changes, illustrating the importance of owning errors and learning from them. We highlight the company's successful employee retention strategies during the pandemic and their dynamic marketing partnership with the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, showcasing how creative approaches can drive both business success and community impact. Listen in to discover how fostering innovation and collaboration can build resilient, thriving careers and businesses.
Connect with Multifamily Women®:
Multifamily Women® Summit: https://multifamilywomen.com/
Carrie Antrim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrieantrim/
Be a Guest on the Podcast or at the Summit: https://apps.multifamilywomen.com/speakingrequest
Multifamily Women® Leadership Series: https://apps.multifamilywomen.com/join
Career Journey Through Mentorship and Leadership
Speaker 1Welcome back. We are so excited to have an amazing guest here today, Laura Corey. She is the president of Western National Property Management. She is a Multifamily Innovation Council member, as well as a Women's Summit speaker, and she will be our keynote this year. We are so excited to have you here today, Laura.
Speaker 2Absolutely my pleasure, Lauren. Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 1Of course. And so what got you into multifamily?
Speaker 2I fell into it. I answered a three-line ad in the local newspaper in 1985. The internet hadn't been invented yet, right, and so the way that you found jobs was through the classified ads. And I answered the ad, I got an interview and I was hired 20 minutes into it as a gal Friday. That was my job title. I know they don't have those anymore. What is that? It was a fancy name for gopher file clerk. Just do whatever is asked of me. You go to the bank, you make deposits, you type a letter on an IBM Selectric typewriter and if you want copies you had to put carbon paper in. If you made a mistake, god help you. And so that was what I was hired to do.
Speaker 2As a gal Friday, I was working for the office manager, and three months into my employment, the secretary because that's what they were called in those days was let go for the then president and he decided he wanted me and he called me Linda. For the next three months I just answered to anything you know, and I was his secretary. Fast forward, I don't know, about a year or so and I become the office manager and I'm the worst boss you could ever ever imagine. You know, I've got three people. I've got no leadership experience and I've got the mail clerk and I've got the receptionist right and I've got the I think the loan payment gal right was working for me and so long and short of it I've had a lot of people help me along the way, a lot of mentors. I didn't recognize it at the time but I became a vice president in 1996 over operations, and so I come from the inside out of property management, corporate office, that sort of a thing, and then took on all kinds of responsibilities. Human resources, risk management created the risk management department originally because it didn't exist back then. We were a small firm at the time we had about 5,000 units, maybe 500 people maybe, and today we've grown to about a thousand people and 23,000 units all in.
Speaker 2But again, I fell into it and everything I learned I learned on the job, Sought education when I needed to right. And sometimes in your career, when you're with a company for so long and in case you were calculating that'd be 39 years, you have that written you have to stop and reflect and if your path is going down a path that you're not happy with, you go out and you get extra education, and I did that in California and I'm sure it is with every state. But you have to become a broker if you want to manage for third parties and that sort of thing, and I had applied for a position that I didn't get internally and that just propelled me to go out and get my education. And, of course, today, companies utilizing my broker's license right. Never knew that at the time, wow, but I became the president in 2010.
Speaker 2And that was after running our multifamily ancillary division where we sold renter's insurance. I've been an insurance agent, we did utility billing, so I've had this expansive experience with Western and again I fell into it. But it wasn't until later on in my career that I was exposed to all these different people, these different ways of leadership, and I am a product of bad bosses, right. I just know that I was not going to do what was done to me, if that makes any sense at all, absolutely.
Speaker 1That's how we learn, isn't it? Yes, true, I mean, we're all just kind of fumbling our way through, trying to. You know, we talked about this. I did the same thing. I jumped around HR, training, when do I fit? What's my skillset? And that's how we learn. It's just trial and error.
Speaker 2It is, and what I loved best about that career climb was the HR, the training, the risk management, the dealing with people. We have a joke If it weren't for people we wouldn't have any problems. But working with people was probably the best blessing I've ever had at Western.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah. And obviously you're probably a mentor to many now, I would imagine, because, having been given mentorship which to me in my career, that was the best thing that could have happened was somebody to mentor me through a lot of that. I think you are the perfect person to be mentoring people. So do you mentor people? I do.
Speaker 2Yes, I do, and I think it is incumbent upon any leader that has gained any type of status, even as you're starting out, if you have that first title or that first responsibility, that it is important that you impart that wisdom on anyone who wants to learn. You can't do it for everybody because they don't, but, yes, my door is always open to whoever wants to come in and mentor with me. We'll take an hour that kind of a thing and our CEO does the same thing. We mentor all of the officers. And again, the mentoring is not you need to do it this way. Mentoring is about asking questions. So how do you see it? What do you think is the right thing to do? It's so funny you say that it is.
Speaker 2I know that nobody really wants to talk about the pandemic anymore. We're kind of done with that, but it was during the pandemic that the mentorship really came out for us. We're all segregated. We are an essential business. I have my site teams out there, and how do you stay connected to them?
Speaker 2Right, I started sending out a daily email to each and every one of them, right, sending out a daily email to each and every one of them. And it started out with. Here's the new eviction moratorium law for Ventura County and here's the one for Santa Ana, and here's the frequently asked questions that we have now uploaded on our intranet. But then, after a while, there was no more legislation to talk about, and that's when I discovered memes. I didn't know what a meme was before 2020. I, you know, I didn't know.
Innovations and Collaboration in Business
Speaker 2Yeah, and then, every day, for 587 days, I sent out an email to the entire team about life, about here, funny memes, you know, and they were all like themed. Right yeah, it was. It was great, because what happened was the team members all the way down to our entry-level porters, would email me back about what I said, that sort of a thing. The CEO, mike Cate, who also happens to be my husband, wasn't about to be undone and he would send out a daily video to everybody. He would go search in the internet and find videos, and he's kind of an old rock and roller, right yeah, I love that kind of a thing. And so that's how we kept our culture and still mentored with people, even though it was through Zoom, but that's how we kept our culture.
Speaker 1That's incredible. I mean. I think a lot of people had to get creative at that time. Really, I mean, you think about it. We talk about this a lot. Where you're, we're very successful, Our companies are very successful, so we haven't really felt the need to necessarily innovate very much until you're forced to. Yes, and COVID was the perfect example of that right For the pandemic, everybody's kind of scrambling to innovate all of a sudden because we have to. So one of the things I like about about your company is that you guys seem very innovative already without having to have a pandemic to be able to make those changes. You're part of the council and you're also attending the summits this year, which is amazing. So what innovations is Western National Property Management doing that you're excited about?
Speaker 2So I think we have three major strategies for this year. The first is that we're actually replacing our LMS. So we've had a learning management system in place for a while and it's grown antiquated and hasn't kept up with our needs, and so we're literally going to flip that switch next week on a new system which is more intuitive and much easier to utilize. I'm trying to think I can't recall the exact number, but something close to 20,000 classes a year between all of our associates and what they take.
Speaker 2It can be live. It could be online learning at their own pace. It could be via Teams or Zoom for orientation it depends but we've got all those modalities in this new system. That's a big deal, because that requires collaboration from I can't tell you how many departments are working on that. It's a team effort, group effort, Absolutely. The next thing that we are working on is the fact that we are actually rebranding our image. Western has been around for 65 years and while we're proud of that number you hear that number you go, wow, you're really old. You're old. Thank God the company is older than I am, but we've had a very conservative look and you could always count on it. And now it's time to take a fresh look at that, Because we have grown with the times. But you can't tell by our website. So we're working on that. It'll come out probably in the next, maybe 30 days or so. That's another one that requires a ton of collaboration between all departments to represent them and what they want to share with everyone.
Speaker 1I love. You really want to be in that room. I love rebrand. I get all excited about it.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, and we've got. You know, we have our. We have colors or like a Pantone 34, blue and you know, and a gray, and like no, no, no, no. There's no reason we can't utilize colors like these. And, you know, get a little bit imaginative, maybe we'll be your inspiration. You are absolutely my inspiration.
Speaker 1Feel free to run it by me, because this is totally my thing, I love it Well, amazing. And being part of the council too, do you feel like there's a lot of innovations that you bring to your team, or that you're kind of getting out of that that you're bringing back to your group?
Speaker 2Right now, because I'm fairly new to the council, I love sitting back and watching others. Again, as a mature organization, we've been through some of this. I never want to come across as you know. I know what I'm doing and you don't, right, so I just listen to the dialogue and what's being said and I'll pop in if I feel I can be helpful. Having said that, though, what I've taken back't see it, um, on the board, but it was the norm storm reform. We were talking about it a couple of weeks ago, and if I've misquoted I apologize, but I'm writing it down. You know furiously and I mean I love that, um, I love about hearing what other people are doing. Right, and because you know what, you take a little bit from everyone that you meet, um and make it your own.
Learning From Leadership Mistakes and Successes
Speaker 1That's totally right, and every company is different. Yes, we respect that. We, you know, we own that, and we pick the pieces that work for us and we breeze by the pieces that don't. I love that, and so you are now also going to be our keynote at the Women's Summit this year.
Speaker 2So very excited.
Speaker 1What are you going to be talking about, or what gets you excited about, being a part of the Women's Summit this year, so very excited. What are you going to be talking about, or what gets you excited about, being a part of the Women's Summit this?
Speaker 2year. So I said earlier that when I first learned about this I didn't know that it existed, and since that time I actually attended a women's conference just a couple of weeks ago. What I loved about it was the energy and the vibe in the room. And I didn't. I just didn't know that that existed.
Speaker 2But for this particular one, not only am I honored to be presenting a keynote, but again, it goes back to when you reach a certain level to impart what you've learned on others who want to learn it, and I'm happy to share that story. And that story is full of a ton of stumbles and falls and mistakes and embarrassments. Is full of a ton of stumbles and falls and mistakes and embarrassments. And I think people can relate to someone who's vulnerable and willing to say, yeah, I totally screwed up. I was the worst boss ever back in 1987. You would not have wanted to work for me. Because what I think makes people want more out of their lives is to see what other people have done and to say, oh, wow, they're human, that we're all human, we all make mistakes and you know what? There's hope for all of us.
Speaker 1I love that. If you don't mind me asking what are some of those mistakes that you've learned from as a leader or rising leaders right now? What would they want to hear? That maybe learn from mistakes you've made or wins you've had?
Speaker 2I think when the first ones I've ever made and it's so old and every single person in the company knows this three months into my employment, so back in 1985, there's no orientation period, there's no pre-employment testing, there's no HR department, there's nothing right. And it was the Friday before Fourth of of July weekend and, um, the boyfriend I was seeing dumped me. And you know what? I had nothing to do. And so for Friday lunch I took two other girls and we went around the corner to the little seven 11 and we bought ourselves a four pack of Bartles and James and I don't think they sell that anymore, the wine spritzers is what that was and so for lunch we each had one. We just had a liquid lunch and we came back to the office, we had one left over, and at break time later in the afternoon we didn't want to drink it in the break room because we didn't have to share with everybody, so we took it in the bathroom, the ladies' restroom In walks, a regional manager at the time and she said oh boy, okay, would you like some?
Speaker 2And she said no, no, no. And my date used to be Ripple. We had no idea what that was. Well, she leaves and she goes and she tells my boss that the girls are drinking in the bathroom during working hours on a Friday afternoon before 4th of July weekend. My other boss was the office manager. She was on vacation. She came back two weeks later and we immediately get called into her office at 830 in the morning and we got grilled why were you drinking on the job? I'm like, okay, I didn't know, we couldn't you know.
Speaker 2And later that day a memo was typed up and put on everyone's desk. Remember, no internet, so nothing coming in the inbox, right? And I am responsible for the no alcohol policy at our company. How hilarious I just I am. Who knew? Now, I survived that and that's the whole point of the story. Okay, I made a mistake. I was 24 years old. Who knew it was all embarrassing? But I lived through it and if it's okay to accept what you do as mistakes, you're going to be fine. Sometimes we can't live with that embarrassment. We want to be the victim. No, I did that one all by myself. And here I am today to tell you the story. So that was one of the first mistakes public mistakes I ever made.
Speaker 1Yeah, I love that. Well, you don't think about it, you know. You might think hey, it's lunch, I'm on my break, right, I can have, you know, a glass of wine. I can't. I'm a lightweight. If I have one glass of wine, everybody knows. But if you can do that normally, you know. So that's hilarious, first and foremost. But thank you for sharing that with us. No, you're welcome, it's just a great story.
Speaker 2Thank you, but it's stumbling along the way and making mistakes and if you learn from them and you're not afraid to talk about them to other people, right? Yeah, I think that helps others learn. They're always going to have to go through their own experiences, but I think it's good to know that other people make mistakes too and they survive it.
Speaker 1Yeah, you said something really compelling earlier that made me think you're just an amazing leader and you probably don't even know you said it but the best boss I ever had. I came into her office. I was her assistant at the time. I had a problem and I brought it to her, but I didn't bring her solutions or optional options and she just looked at me like just blank stare and I thought, you know, like the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean when he paints eyes on his eyes and he's actually asleep and you don't really know. You're like hello.
Speaker 1She did that to me. She just blank stared at me and I kind of panicked and I just started solutioning live in front of her. I was like, well, I guess I could do this or I could do this or I could, okay. And I came up with my own solution and I walked out of her office and I was like that was intentional, it was 100% intentional. And you you had said what do you think we should do? And you're immediately handing someone back their power and saying if you're going to be a leader, you're going to have to take it a little bit further and come up with some possible solutions and then bring that to the group Right. Yes, it's so smart.
Speaker 2So in multifamily, you know we live vicariously through what happens on site and we could all write a book about the goings on and the problems and the issues and the catastrophes that come up With my team. I am not a micromanager. They have. They know that one of the first rules of thumb, it's a cardinal rule. If it's have, um, they know that one of the first rules of thumb, it's a cardinal rule. If it's fire, flood or blood, they just report it. They don't have to have the solution, they don't have to have.
Speaker 2You know how, what happened. You know if it's going to be newsworthy, if you know media is going to show up, you know we just have to know at the executive committee level, right, and then I give them. I've been through that, I've had that position, but it's up to them to figure it out. And they come to me and my job is to provide them the resources of what they need, not to give them the answers. There are times when the toughest questions, the hardest situations, they come all the way up and you have to decide what to do. But for the most part my team is so capable of they know what to do, they've got it handled. I try not to second guess them. So yes, it's about asking questions and listening, as opposed to just giving directives.
Speaker 1That is such a breath of fresh air. I've worked a lot of different places where you know that micromanagement doesn't serve a lot of people. It doesn't serve anyone really. It's stressful for the managers to feel like they need to be that on top of their people and it's stressful for the people to feel like they have to adhere to exactly what that person wants and needs. So it's not really serving anybody. And you hired them for a reason. You've screened them, you saw potential, so let them fly. A reason you know you've screened them. You saw potential, so let them fly a little.
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely. We have, um, we've participated in mystery shopping for years and years and years, Um and uh, our mystery shopping company. I get a copy of all of the onsite shops in my inbox. So of the 300 emails I get a day, that's one of them. And when I have an onsite staff member that hits a score of a hundred or more cause you can earn bonus points, right, I reach out to them and them alone. I don't copy anybody and I just say this is so outstanding. You know, congratulations, Lauren, I'm so proud of you. Keep it up Right. And I think that goes a long way when you're trying to do, you do it right, that someone actually says thank you and you're doing a good job. This is a personal touch, that personal message, Right, and we forget that because sometimes we're so busy doing, doing, doing, we stop, we don't stop and say thank you. That was terrific.
Speaker 1I love that. That's wonderful. Well again, great mentorship opportunities. You're going to get probably 100 DMs. Hey, can you be my mentor please? On that note, a lot of our listeners always want to know if they're newer in their career. What do you think it takes to really ask for those opportunities that present themselves?
Speaker 2or word level up, because the keynote is climbing that ladder of success, wearing four-inch heels right, and leveling up to that next step. One of the first things that we'll talk about is you've got to show up, and you have to show up in a manner that people are expecting you to right. Showing up means you actually do dress the part, you are on time right. You do more listening than you do talking, right. We have a saying at work that says, oh, they radiated with brilliance, meaning they just went right and they didn't say a word and they didn't answer the question.
Speaker 2Yeah, but initial steps in the career are just watch, look and listen, right. How much can you learn and absorb from those around you? You're already looking around to say, oh, I like that trait of that person and I, ooh, I want to get to know that person a little bit more. Now you have to have a basic skill set to do the job, but what I'm talking about are the soft skills that get you noticed. You, you volunteer for everything, and there are plenty of ways to volunteer, whether it's a committee because we're piloting a new program, or whether it's a volunteer committee for a charity after hours. Um, those are the first steps that you would take to level that to level up when you're starting on your career and you latch on to someone who you think can sponsor you and get you where you need to go.
Speaker 1Yeah, I love that and I think that those human skills are going to be so important in the future. When we're talking about things like AI, automation all these things coming in right, human skills are going to be the new value for everybody. Right? The ability? And when you think about even our site teams, they're the ones that are interacting with the residents in their home on a daily basis. So I've heard a lot of people say that that is the first thing I look for. I barely even glance at the resume until I've seen that that person can read a room, can tell when the resident comes in who maybe doesn't want to be spoken to, just wants to go about their business, but then the residents that want to sit there and chat for an hour. There's both. We've all been on site. We know how that works. The ability to read people and have those skills. It's just beyond important in our industry.
Speaker 2It absolutely is. In our training new hire, new orientation training we actually teach our leasing consultants how to be a leasing consultant. They go through intensive training leasing 101, leasing 102. A big portion of that training is that initial connection. How do you connect with that person that you don't know anything about? How do you read? What do you you look for? Where are the micro expressions? What's their body language saying? You know, and we do.
Speaker 2We teach them how to do that and make that connection, because I think that people live where they feel most comfortable. It's not necessarily price, it's not necessary location, it's. It's like what maya angelou once said right, people don't remember what you said or what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel. And that's what our training does is really connect with that resident. Now there is a sect of a generation out there that would rather just lease online and not talk to anybody. We get that right. So how we respond to that is be very responsive in email or text or DM or whatever the case. However, they want to communicate with us. That's their way of connecting. But we teach all of those different methods.
Speaker 1That's smart too, because you're listening. They're telling you how they like to be spoken to. It's the best thing you can do. I'm going through some leadership coaching right now and they're saying that's exactly what they say's just tell people how you like to be communicated with. It's very simple. Don't make them guess. It's okay to you know. Stand up for yourself. I prefer to be texted or I like to just be stopped when I'm walking by. I mean, everybody has a preference, right? So, really smart. So what are you excited with in the future for a Western? What's kind of on the forefront? What's on the horizon? What keeps you excited?
Speaker 2So we are in expansion mode right now and moving to other states where we've got agreements, penciling agreements and that sort of thing, and what that means for us is we are not going to be the biggest and the baddest. We're not going to do that. We're not going to be the smallest either, but we have created a culture where it's all about the job right, it's all about wanting to come to work because you know you're appreciated and that what you do contributes to the overall success of the company. And it's slow expansion. Anytime you do fast expansion, it doesn't necessarily work. We don't want to make those mistakes.
Building Careers Through Innovation and Collaboration
Speaker 2So that's all part of the rebranding and the opportunity for our team in the field we have a program that our vice president of training and marketing created. It's called LEAD and basically it's teaching our community managers the next step and how to become efficient leaders, to get to know everyone in the corporate office, and so when they take that next step they've already got a leg up, as it were. That's really what's on. Obviously, we've got some always looking at new innovations no doubt about that and software programs and that sort of a thing, but for us this expansion just means more jobs and we didn't lay anybody off during the pandemic Not no one.
Speaker 1I'm giving a round of applause for that one.
Speaker 2That's incredible. We kept and obviously you know we people left by attrition and you know they moved out of state or whatever, but I had committed to them I think it was on March 20th that I'm going to do everything I can to save your jobs, and we did. And having done that, now it's like okay, people have the opportunity now to expand and learn and grow, so that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1That's amazing. Longevity, what a concept. I mean amazing. And how secure for your associates to just have that feeling of they've got my back. I'm not expendable. I mean, you can't pay for that kind of security, right, you can't.
Speaker 2You can't, in fact. And there are people who leave us only because, well, not only, but let's just say that they want more in a career. So they will go to a competitor where they might just level up immediately into a new position. And we don't have those positions because people stay with us and it's that tenure that can kind of be that double-edged sword, because everyone loves what they're doing and so the only way for new opportunities is to expand, bring on more clients, move into different states, that sort of a thing.
Speaker 1And so now you're doing that. Yes.
Speaker 2For just that purpose.
Speaker 1I love that. It's listening, and it's listening to your people and what they need and trying to hold on to them and keep them around, which is just really amazing. Truly, how to value someone, yes, is to show them how you can help them grow Amazing. Well, we're very excited to have you at the summit, to have you as a keynote this year. Is there anything else you want to leave our audience with?
Speaker 2as just a Well, if I had anything at all, I would encourage everyone out there to sign up for the Multifamily Women's Leadership Conference. I'm super excited to be there and bringing a team with me. Having said that, there's so much to learn, and one of the things that you can never stop learning and doing is connecting with others, and this gives you an opportunity to do both right, to create those connections, those lifetime relationships, and so that's what. That's what I'd like to say Please come, I can't wait, I'm so excited.
Speaker 1I'm excited for everybody attending. Who's going to come up to you and say, please, mentor me. Um, I, it might be me Anytime, honey, anytime. Definitely going to be me. I'm not going to lie. Um, I just think you're, you've had an impressive career, you have an impressive career and you've accomplished so much, and I'm just excited to see what else you do.
Speaker 2Thank you so much, and so I've made a new friend today.
Speaker 1I know. I mean, I feel like I know you. I've known you for years. That's how this industry works, though, isn't it? So where can people find out more about Western and if they want to work with you, those those?
Speaker 2pieces, okay, well, um, you can find us at wngcom, and mine is one of two email addresses on the website, so I'm I'm directly there, um, or wnpmapartmentscom, so that they'll showcase all the apartments that we have right now, and so that's where they can find us. Also, they can find us at duckslivingcom. That's our recent strategic partnership with the NHL and the Anaheim Ducks hockey team.
Speaker 1Okay, I was about to end the podcast but now I need to understand.
Speaker 2What is this? What is this? What is this? So the Anaheim Ducks approached us last year and said listen, the NHL is allowing us to partner with people and put their logo on our Ducks jersey, and are you interested in doing that? We thought, well, yes, but nobody knows our W. You know, you? Look at our W. Who's that right? Yeah, our W.
Speaker 2You look at our W. Who's that right? Except that what we had the opportunity to do was create a website and a whole marketing campaign and strategy around Ducks Living, where you pop on duckslivingcom and it goes to all of our apartment communities and you can rent an apartment through Ducks Living and you get all kinds of Ducks swag right. The Anaheim Ducks fans are. They are wonderful fans and they are crazy. But you get, you know, things like a $300 gift card that buys you a Jersey and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2But the cool thing about that in fact, we were just on late night, keenan had a Jersey and was showing our W, and so that we just posted that on our social media. Here's the real deal. So, uh, during the first period, we are able to showcase, uh, in the arena, our communities. Um, the other thing, too, is this partnership created for us the ability to give away roughly a hundred thousand dollars a year to a charitable organization of our choice. So, between the ducks and Western national, western National last year we actually accumulated, through the wins and that sort of a thing, a hundred thousand dollars. We gave it to Laura's House, which is a domestic violence agency in South County. Yeah, it's an amazing thing. So it's a three-year contract and it's a great, great marketing strategy. We get leases through it. I mean it's just, it's wonderful.
Speaker 1Everybody needs to do that. They do. Everybody needs to do that. Yes, yeah, this is when we talk about being creative. You know, we talk about location, location. Yeah, this is location, location, location.
Speaker 2It is. It is we know the actual demographic of those fans who attend and and if you've ever been to a hockey game, there's so much fun. And we actually had our company kick off this year in the arena. We were able to rent out the arena just for us and we had a couple of teams and Wild Wing, who's the mascot for the Ducks they were there. But we love the partnership that we've got with the Anaheim Ducks and they're so creative and they, too, are very innovative and we've just had a wonderful time. So we have two more years of that and we're focused on that as well.
Speaker 1Okay, that's one of the coolest stories I've heard and I your marketing, I'm, I'm, I'm a big fan, big fan. You guys are doing incredible things. We're very excited to have you at the summit. We were so happy to have you here today. Yes, thank you. We'll see you then, of course. Okay, and thank you all for listening, get your tickets for the Women's Summit at multifamilywomencom and we will see you on the next episode.