How To Go From Everything's an Emergency to Calm, Organized, Proactivity. (REPRISE)

Join Linda Bucher, a seasoned life coach, as she hosts Tina Larsson, an expert in co-op and condo management, in an illuminating episode of the podcast "Conversations Worth Your While."

This conversation is worth your while if you'd love to get out of the emergency/reactive mode and feel calm and organized.

During this podcast, they discuss:
- The costs for businesses (and people) to be in reactive mode
- The benefits of being proactive and organized
- How to move from reactive and unorganized to being organized and proactive


Guest Bio:
Tina Larsson, a co-op and condo expert at The Folson Group where they help homeowner’s associations cut costs and run more efficiently.

Want to get in touch with Tina? You'll find her:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinalarssonli/
Website: https://www.thefolsongroup.com
ENJOY THESE FREE TOOLS to get your board in a proactive mode at https://www.thefolsongroup.com/free-tools

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello and welcome to Conversations Worth Your While, a show in which I chat with really cool people about interesting topics to spark and inspire and motivate personal and professional change. And today I have the pleasure of being joined by Tina Larson. And it's uh fascinating. Our topic today is really about how to get from everything's an emergency to calm, organized proactivity. And um, it's fascinating because uh I'm a life coach and Tina is a co-op and condo expert, and you're probably thinking, what do they have in common? Well, this conversation is worth your while if you would love to get out of that emergency mode, out of that reactivity mode, and into um this proactive, peaceful, very organized, ahead of the game mode, which I think uh can benefit everyone. So, hi Tina. Um like how are you today?

SPEAKER_01 1:07

I'm great, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. You're very welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

You're very welcome. I'm looking forward to this. Yes, me too. Me too. So um, so why don't you just quickly tell me, like, kind of what you do and who you serve and why this topic is worth your while to speak with me about.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Okay, so uh I'm Tina Lorson. My company is the Folsom Group. I'm the co-founder and owner. We're based in New York City, and we work with co-op and condo boards to cut their expenses and also the expenses of their capital projects. Think of us as the McKinsey Company for residential homeowners associations. But McKinsey and Company, the difference is McKinsey and Company, they go into huge corporations that pay charge millions of dollars to consult them on how to increase their profit margin. We work on a contingency, so we share our client savings. But bottom line is that we want them to run more efficiently. And in doing so, it takes a little bit of coaching.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yes, good business consultants are also coaches in many, in many ways. Um, absolutely. So it's interesting. Um, you were mentioning when we were talking earlier about some of the difficulties that um, you know, that they're volunteer positions, people that are you know on co-ops and condo boards. Um, and I just want to share really quickly. So I moved into a patio home community in June. Um about a month later, we had the annual um homeowners association meeting. And I had a glass of wine, I had some more d'oeuvres. The next thing I know, someone vi someone nominates me to be the vice president of the HOA, and then I second the motion, I third the motion, whatever. And before known, it's unanimous. Linda is now the new vice president. And I'm like, what does that mean? What do I have to do? They're like, oh, don't worry, you don't really have to do anything. That's what they said to me, right? So I don't really know what my responsibilities are. And I, you know when I'll probably find out? When there's an emergency. Something is a big issue.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yes, that's exactly what you're gonna find out. That's my guess, too. Yeah, yeah. No, it is. I mean, in in most in business, you have a job description for the employees, you have a job description for everything that you outsource. And in most cases, you have, or in many cases, you have a job description for or some kind of responsibility of the board members or the advisors in a co-op and condo board. If there's a job description for the super, you're in luck. So it's it's not run like a business and it becomes either overwhelming, or in the case where you're told not to do anything, then it becomes the you only operate in an emergency mode, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Right. And you know what else? I know my mom was on the board of her condo association in Florida, and she after just one term, she's like, I've had it. I can't. This is, I think because things were kind of like up in the air and nobody knew who was supposed to really be doing what, there was a lot of egos and a lot of not my responsibilities and a lot of power struggles. And um, you know, she was just really trying to do her best for the 170 doors that were in her section. And um she hated it. Oh, she did. Yeah. And um, and I think it has to do a lot with, well, first of all, you want to do what's best for your community, right? That's that is the ultimate goal. That's why there is a board. It's to handle all the things for the community, right? Um, but um, you know, people aren't are inexperienced. Many people have never been on a board before, they don't know about property management. Um, you know, they're they're disorganized. Um, I know um, you know, maybe there's a property manager, but that's not the same as running an organization, a business, the board, you know. So say a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, no, so the difference is that so the board is really there to make the decision on the behalf. It's it's like a it's like politics, it's like the a government, that they're the ones who are supposed to govern, and then they hire, or maybe it's already in place, a property manager who is supposed to run the day-to-day operation. And they do that to some capacity, but one of the problems is that it's that we see is that it's a third-party person, and that person might have a big staff behind them, but that person has eight buildings. So think about it. If you're running one organization, and and very often a homeowners association comes, even if it's very small, unlike in your in your HOA, it's a very small organization, it still takes the same amount of services, it still takes, it's still very complex because it's not only to run that you have the governments, you have different codes, you have fire codes and water boards, and you have all kinds of uh so it just becomes a very different a very complicated um organization. So, for think about it, if you are on a board of one business that's run like a business, they tell you what you have to do and how it's done, and all of this, and you're probably selected because it's your expertise. In this case, they you're serving because they convinced you, and so you don't really have it in you to do the best, and then you it's very complex, and there's no documentation saying what is what and when things are due, and what's next. What happens if what happens if there's a leak? What do we do? There's no documentation saying these are the procedures.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah, yeah. So and I don't blame your Obama at all. We hear it all the time. People they volunteer and then they're like, yeah, no, I couldn't take it anymore. So then they stop.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

And it is a volunteer position, and you know, our priorities as humans are our ourselves, our own work that we do, our families, our, you know. So um that sometimes when something's got to give, it might be, you know, what you're supposed to be doing on the board, especially if it's disorganized and you're feeling overwhelmed. And um, so you know, we our our little topic today, how to get from everything's an emergency mode, right? To like calm, organized, proactivity. So from being reactive to being proactive. So there's a lot of costs of reactive mode, um, whether, you know, if it's you're a person who's got a responsibility of a board, or even if you just have the responsibility of your own family, your children, right? This reactive trying to catch up all the time, um, it puts a lot of stress on our minds, a lot of stress on our relationships, a lot of stress on us so that we can't even perform at peak performance in the things that are important to us. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you notice that that are are the costs of reactive mode when it comes to board members and and the community of a condo or a co-op?

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Yeah, so when it comes to so whenever there's a change in law, when there's a deadline, so a couple of years ago, they had all buildings in New York City, they had to install something called a door-like monitor. And it had to be installed, and they gave them like 10 years warning. And then they had to do this during these 10 years, and it was due, I believe, January 1st, 2020, so two years ago. And what happened was that we sent out articles to all of our clients and our prospect clients and everybody in our database, and we said, you know, it's two years until the deadline, so we should start looking at it now. The fourth quarter, just because before they had to do this, all the elevator service companies, I mean, that installed double in price in that quarter. So two years before it was half the price, and then we tried to speak with them and they were not interested, and they went like, yeah, it's not until 2020. And then all of a sudden, in the middle of the summer, half a year before, they all needed this done, and it became very, very expensive for them. And not only that, I mean, also you can risk fines for not adhering to various spilling codes, fire codes, etc.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

So you can the association might get fined because they didn't do things in time. Um also then maybe you're panicking. You said, Oh, just call the attorney. And as you know, attorneys charge several hundred dollars per hour for advising boards. So there's that fee. Um, there might be late fees if things are not paid in time, which we see frequently. Um, yeah, so there's a lot of cost associated with being reactive as opposed to being proactive like a business owner, like a successful business owner. They operate in a, they said, okay, so what are we doing next year? What are we doing three years from now? What are we doing five years from now?

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Right, yeah. And so there's the cost of waiting. And in my business as a life coach, the cost of waiting is really the um the quality of life, quality of life, quality of relationships, um, the putting off of your dreams, the settling for the same, you know, like what happens to your dreams if you never make a change and you always just settle, right? And the resentment that builds in relationships when you don't um improve them, do what you can to improve them, um, which is actually fascinating that you can improve a relationship without the other person even having to do a thing or knowing that you're doing it. That's like a that's like a like, whoo, really? That's true. Swear to God, that's true. Um, so there's a big cost to waiting. Um, and and in my business, there's a cost to your soul, there's a cost to your genuine happiness, and there's the cost to the example that you set for your kids and your family members and the other people in your life. Like, oh, just settle, just wait, just you know, I mean, you're it's really a cost to them because that's the example you're setting. You're leading by example all the time, whether you believe you are or no, you are not. You always are. So, what is the legacy that you want to leave to your children? Um, you know, that you want to leave to the people that you care about, that you want to show your friends, listen, I can if I went out on a limb and I did what was best and what was right for me, you can do this too, that inspiration and and motivation that you can share and gift to other people when you don't wait so long and stay, you know, in status quo, because um everybody is holding back in some way. Everybody. So there's definitely cost. The longer you wait, the more costly it is.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

And if you if you uh don't operate on a proactive mode, then it's panic, it's stress, it's it's not peace of mind. I mean, you want peace of mind. You want to you want to know, okay, so how are we doing this and how are we gonna get from A to Z in three years, in five years. You want you want to play.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

I mean, that's just it's just yeah. It's like personal goal settings the exact same way. Yes. Right. So, you know, for as a person, you might say, okay, I'm not, I'm not entirely happy with the work that I'm doing in this world. And so I want to get a different job and do something different, but I don't know what it is. And so instead of just waiting until I'm fed up and quitting and go, what, what next, what now? You know, I'm gonna make a plan to discover what it is that is my, I call it find your wow that I do with my clients. What's your wow, right? How do we map a plan and a path to it? How do we um discover your strengths so that your wow, you you're not gonna dismiss it right away. Like, well, I'd love to do that, but I'm not qualified. Like how we can find, discover exactly how you're qualified, right? So there's so much to be making that pathway forward. You know, I have a session that I I give to people that is really like I call it, and for people who are young, they won't get it, but a trip tick, you know, the trip tick for the AAA used to give you was like page by page, now go here and turn the page, now drive here, turn the page. Um, and uh, so it's really like, what is where do we want to go and how do we get there? And then you map it out in a way that feels like you have all you have time. It's it's it's easy time-wise to say, first we're gonna do this, then we're gonna do this, and there's never gonna be a rush because we're always just staying on the path, on the process. So uh I love that you said that um, you know, boards need to run like a business, and that's what businesses do. They are forward-looking, they're not saying, oh, how do we catch up? You know, they're a good business says, hmm, how am I gonna create demand for my product five years from now? What's gonna go away, you know, and people aren't gonna be interested in anymore? Like, you know, I'm not, I'm I don't think people are gonna buy abacuses anymore. Hmm, and they're just guess what? They're not even buying calculators anymore unless they're college students because everyone's got it on their phone. What can I do differently now as an electronics company? What can I do differently? How can I find, you know, change my business or meet a protocol that's going to be happening down the road with you know peace and in a nice pace that is not overwhelm? And how can I do that when I don't have the expertise to even know how to do that?

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

So what do they do?

SPEAKER_01 15:34

They call us. Yeah. I mean, a lot of our business, even though our the the way that we make money is by reducing their expenses.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

I pay you to reduce my expenses. The way that we get that done is that we do a lot of coaching. I mean, we have a lot of phone calls, we have ex have to explain, and the board can be complex. I mean, we have the smallest board that we have right now, they have four individuals, and they're pretty much on board to move forward. So they're a very proactive board. But the largest one that we have, I mean, it's eight people. That's a big organization. I mean, that's like a community board. I mean, it's like a community board. I mean, that's a a lot of wants and wishes and inactivity inactivity and making decisions, and then the and then if there are a lot of lawyers, then nothing gets done. They are risk, not all of them, of course. They are risk averse, and it's always more difficult for us. If there's more than one attorney, if there's one attorney, that's fine. But if there are many attorneys, it's normally more difficult to get things done.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Which we find interesting. Very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Well, many humans are naturally risk averse. Um, true. And um, because it's really the fear of the unknown. They're making an assumption that the risk is not going to pay off instead of making the assumption that it is going to pay off. So, right then and there, it stops them from really thinking through the positives. They only think through what could go wrong. That's what they're focused on. What could go wrong? We can't do this because what if this and what if that, if what if this? Um, and uh, you know, I love doing, well, you probably know the what if up exercise, right? Yes, that's a good one. Isn't that a good one? What if you did this thing to solve your problem? What if you did that thing? All these positive, focused, solution-based ideas, right? I think that would actually kind of be a really fun exercise to take a board through, um, you know, to to so there's no naysayers allowed, because it's really like, oh, what if we did this? What if we did that? What if we did this? It's positive solution-based ideas.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

And that's what we try to bring to them. Yeah. We haven't we haven't tried a what if, but maybe we should.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

It's kind of a fun, it's kind of a fun exercise because it really gets the ideas flowing. Um, although I bet you the attorneys might not want to be like, yeah, well, but we've been conditioned to what if down? What if this other thing goes wrong? Because we have to recon we have to make sure we plan around it or plan for it, which is their job. I absolutely understand that.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Um, you know, but but some of the measurements that we do could be as easy as we had one building, they had 20 phone lines, so we went through their phone lines and we canceled 12 of them because they were never used.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

So they were paying for them, but they were not used. I mean, that's a pretty simple. So some when it comes to restoring facades or elevator this way or that way, I can see how they could be a little risk-averse when it comes to simple measurements like canceling 12 phone lines. What's the worst thing that can happen? You call up Verice and you order more phone lines. It's not the end of the world.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, maybe not everything's quite as risky as we think, you know, as people think that that it is. Yeah, very fascinating. Very true. Very true. So the benefits of being proactive are is you never really, it's the opposites of being reactive, right? Um, the benefits that you're reducing overwhelm. So therefore, you're probably increasing your effectiveness, you are reducing your costs, um, you are increasing your peace of mind. Um, you have less stress because you have a better, easier pace and a plan. Um, and it's in your case, it's better for the community. In my case, it's better for the individuals and all the people around the individuals, all those relationships and your effectiveness and efficient efficiency at work, um, whatever work that you do. Um, when you reduce overwhelm, you can keep all those balls in the air with much more finesse. As a matter of fact, you actually there's not as many balls as you think. So you've reduced the balls, like you're saying. Like, well, we don't have to deal with so many things. When when you can be efficient, you deal with less things and you deal with them more proactively and at a nice, easy pace. It just makes life easier. Um, and so I love when we have these conversations worth your while and we find something that seems like we have nothing in common with our work and what we do, but we find that there's parallels all over the place in the business world to you know what I do with humans on an individual basis, um, because it's humans that are running the business world. So um, when you have inner peace and less stress and less balls in the air and less overwhelm um and more clarity and a pathway and a goal, and you're excited to move forward and you're proactively living your life, then when you show up on your board of directors or at your job, then you show up a different person. You're your best self for those people around you.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Bingo.

unknown 21:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

And if you think about it, most people, whether they need your services or they need my services, in most cases, when they go to work and do they do they perform their work, they do all of that as part of their job, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

So in your case, it's on their personal level that that might not. And in our case, in my case, it's their board volunteer position that they don't.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

So it's kind of interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Right. Thank you. Okay, so Tina, thank you so much for being on Conversations Worth Your While. Um, do you have anything that you would like to share with our audience, you know, um, or a tool or something that they you can give them or a way to contact you?

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Yes, so my contact information. Well, we have a website, it's www.thefulson group.com. That's t-h-e-fol s o n group.com. If you're on the board or live in a building that has a board, so you might be able to introduce me, that would be great. And we also have some free tools on our website. And I bet that Linda is gonna share the links to those. I'm gonna share them with her. And we have three different tools that will help you organize to get your building or your board to operate in a proactive mode.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Right, beautiful, which will save you money as a homeowner. So, yeah. Beautiful. Thank you, Tina. And yes, I'll definitely put Tina's gifts and contact information into the description so you'll be able to get to that. So I'm Linda Booker, and my gift is synthesizing wisdom and knowledge and making a soul connection with my clients. And I love helping people to get clear, to lighten their load, to nurture their passions and unleash their gifts on the world. And if you're watching this, uh please open to the description where you'll find out how to contact us and the free tools and the resources that we're gifting you. And once again, I want to thank you, Tina Larson thank you, my audience. Uh, thank you for sharing your time with us today. And until next time, make sure you've made this conversation worth your while by fueling the spark that it ignited. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Linda. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome.