From 0 to 240 - Achieving the Impossible - with Tony Cline

We share how a brutal health breakdown turns into a two decade-long lesson in habits, tracking, and grit that translates directly to building a stronger property management business. We connect marathons, DNFs, and a 240-mile finish line to practical leadership tools like KPIs, continuous improvement, and solving problems without blame. 
• starting where we are and taking the first small action 
• building habits that compound over time 
• tracking progress with metrics and KPIs 
• changing identity through goals and follow-through 
• using community to normalize bigger outcomes 
• practicing with intention rather than just showing up 
• reframing failure as required feedback 
• doing an autopsy on what went wrong instead of blaming 
• committing to relentless forward progress when plans break 
• fixing small issues before they grow into crises 
• visualizing success when discomfort spikes 
• helping others succeed even when it costs us 
• asking what our “impossible” is and naming our fears 
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Transcript

Welcome And The Big Promise

Tony Cline 0:00

Welcome to the Property Management Success Podcast where we interview this to uncover the secrets to profitability, efficiency, and achieving true freedom, whether it's your time, money, or lifestyle. I'm your host, Tony Klein, and I'm here to help you build a wildly successful property management business. Let's get to it. I want to share a presentation that I did at a national NARPAM event uh a few years ago. The reason I want to share this is that there are some really good business lessons on how to run a business, what it takes, the determination, the grit, and it's the intersection of my two worlds. So it's the intersection of running, and it's the intersection of property management and running a business. There's some really good lessons in it. There's some storytelling, and I have continued to over the years get really good feedback on this presentation. So I wanted to share it with you. Hopefully you enjoy it.

Goals For Life And Business

Rock Bottom Sparks A Restart

Habits Tracking And Small Gains

A Marathon Changes His Identity

Community Makes Big Goals Normal

SPEAKER_01 0:53

All right, thank you. Um so I'm gonna switch gears a little bit and uh talk about something that is not necessarily property management related, but I hope that at the end of my presentation you're able to take what I'm talking about, the tools and techniques, and implement them in your business. But before I do that, I want to raise your hand or make some noise if you were at the PM Health 5K this morning, got out. Yeah, right? These are my people. I mean, you're all my people, but those are my special people right there. Um, let me let me jump into it. So we're gonna talk a little bit about uh going from zero to 240. And you may think that means doors, it doesn't, but it's gonna mean something to you here in a little bit. So I want you to look at this here. It says, this is a quote that I live my life by. One does not find your limits until you search for them. And the harder you search, the harder they are to find. What I've learned is the harder you lean into something, the more you you aggressively try to find your limits, the more they elude you. And I want you to to really pay attention to that as I talk about my journey. So I'm gonna talk about my journey, but I want to take you along and I want you to put yourself in my shoes as we go on this journey. Okay. I'm one of you guys. And then I also have a running group called Cult Runners. It's only slightly relevant to this group, but the reason that it's relevant is we have a community where we get together and we help each other, we help elevate each other, and we help bring everybody that's in that group and we help them bring out their potential. So they told me when you start doing public speaking, you start to you're supposed to talk a little bit about your family to build some rapport. So I'm gonna share my family with you. Um, this is my dog Moose. Who who in this room knows my dog Moose, right? There's a lot of you. Yeah, look around. Moose has his own Facebook group. Uh, he's a celebrity in his own right. He runs uh 50K's with me. He had an accident and uh not running related, but he had to have his hip removed. And uh so he's overcome some of his own challenges. But uh and he's and he's so cute. Okay, just a few more here. Um and then here's the rest of them, and then that's the rest of my family. Um, but so I got my two lovely daughters, that's Michaela and Isabella, and my wife Pam, and uh that's me after a long day, and then that's my son Cody. He works for us in the business as well. So here's what I plan to share with you guys. I plan to share how to start where you are. We all learned something, or we're going to learn something in this conference over the last uh day or the next couple of days, and we're gonna want to try to implement that and we're gonna try to figure out how to go back to the office and put it into play. And uh it's gonna be challenging, but I want to I want you to start where you are, how to set yourself up for success, and then uh how to set, commit, and crush your goals in business and in life. Okay, so here's why I'm qualified to speak on this topic. I already covered uh some of these, but I started in the lowest of lows. So you sometimes you get speakers up here and they're super polished and they look like they've never had a bad day in their life, and they come up here and you can't relate to them. Hopefully, you guys can relate to me as I tell my story. Uh I'm in the same business you are. I already talked about that. I know the struggles you guys are going through, I know the legislative issues you guys are facing, I know the consumer demands that you guys are facing. So I get it. I get what you guys are going through. And then I'm an open book. If you ask me, I'm gonna tell you. Um, that's just the way I am. I have a hard time doing anything other than that. So let's let's start with my story. And again, I want to take you on a journey with my story. So uh back in 2006, 2007, running my property management business, living life, and I wound up getting sick. Had some pretty serious health issues. Uh, doctors couldn't figure out what it was, and uh some of my organs started shutting down. I mean, it was that kind of thing. Super simple to treat. Uh I have a celiac disease, which just means I have to eat gluten-free. So I'm not one of those trendy guys that's like, is it keto or gluten-free? It's like, this is like life-saving stuff for me. So I have to eat gluten-free. But they couldn't figure it out. And the more they misdiagnosed me, the sicker I got. And so there was a day in 2011. I'm laying, I go to a property, and I'm in this property, and we're doing an inspection. I got tenants moving in tomorrow. Uh, I really shouldn't be at the property, but our staff was busy and I wanted to make sure that it was ready. So I'm at this property, and the pain just gets so bad that I just can't handle it. And I'm like, all I got to do is get through this and get back home. I don't know how I'm gonna get home, but I just need to get out of here. And I couldn't. So I wound up crawling into the closet in one of the bedrooms in this rental unit, shutting the light off, shutting the closet door, shutting the bedroom door, turning off that light, and the light was still too bright. The pain was still too too challenging for me to even be able to focus. And at that point, I'm like I don't know how, but I need this pain to stop. And frankly, I don't care how it stops. I just need it to stop. Like I every breath was a struggle. So I I the reason I point that out is I'm gonna talk to you about some growth that I went through, but I don't want you to think that I'm just oh, that's that's lucky Tony, he just was was born with some breaks. So that's my uh start of the story. I talked a little bit about the health issues, but what I decided to do was I decided I was gonna take some action. I got out of there and I said, I just can't live like this. And so I went to the doctors, they ran a whole bunch of new tests, and they're like, Yeah, everything came back normal. We we don't know what's wrong with you. Maybe you just need more exercise. And I was like, nope, I I'm not the exercise guy. Like, I just don't I don't exercise. But they're they're like, that's that's all we know. So I woke up the next day and there's a park around the by my house, and there's a a six-tenths of a mile loop around this park. And so I got up that day and I started and I did a six-tenths of a mile walk around that park by my house. And guess what? Nothing changed. I took action, but nothing changed. And so I did it again the next day. I did it again the next day, and I started developing those habits. And you know, habits determine your life. It's it's not about how much you can accomplish today or tomorrow, it's about how much you can accomplish over time by implementing the right habits. And so I took action, started walking the six-tenths of a mile lap around around this park by my house. And the reason I know that is I had an app. I started tracking it, and we'll talk a little bit about that. But I created incremental progress over time to where one day I had walked eight miles before work. I became a morning person. Like, first of all, I don't exercise and I don't get up early, and all of a sudden I'm exercising, walking eight miles before work, and I'm getting up in the morning listening to the birds sing, I'm seeing the the uh sunrise, and I'm like, this is actually pretty cool. But eight miles before work has taken a long time. So I uh I called the doctors and I said, Hey, uh, what do you think? Do you think I could start running? And they're like, Well, how do you feel? I said, Well, I feel pretty good. And they're like, Well, why would you change anything? I said, Well, okay. Hung up the phone, never talked to those doctors again. And the next day I ran five minutes, then walked five, ran four, walked four, ran three, walked three, you get it, all the way down to one. And that was the most I could do. I mean, that was it. That was, I was spent. That was a good day for me. But it was a start. I put action and uh principles into play where I started developing these habits. So I'm gonna sprinkle in some keys to success and highlight those for you guys so that you can kind of try to pull out these nuggets and figure out how to apply to business. So the key to success to start with is just get started. We're all on our own journey, and it's really easy to compare your progress or where you're at, your status, to somebody else. And that's just stupid. Nobody else is on your journey with you, it's your journey. There are gonna be people who are further ahead on their journey, there are gonna be people who are further behind on their journey, but it doesn't matter because it's your journey. The next thing is as you start to make progress, and this is super important, track your progress. And as as we uh will see in some of the vendor um exhibition or the vendor trade show, you're gonna see there's a lot of people in there that can help you with KPIs and different types of metrics. So, in your business, as you start making progress, track that progress because it's super important to look back. There's a book called The Gap in the Gain. And who knows the author of that? You guys remember? Uh uh is it Dan Sullivan, I think. Yeah, Dan Sullivan. So he writes this book, it's called The Gap in the Gain. And some people look at the gap, like how far they have left to go, and some people look at the gain, how far they've come. And it's really important to see how far you've come. And then the last thing on this is to consciously search for ways to improve your performance. They're out there, constantly be looking at little ways to tweak. You don't have to, you don't have to make huge progress overnight. You just got to make little incremental progress. Incremental progress over time equals incredible results. All right, so okay, back to back to the story. So I had started running a little bit more and a little bit more. And uh, you know, I was the guy that my my wife would get calls around the holidays and they'd say, you know, is Tony coming to dinner for the holidays? And she'd be like, I don't know. I'm not sure if he's feeling up to it. And I was known as the sick guy in our family and the sick guy in our our circle. I didn't want to be known as the sick guy anymore. I wanted to be known as the guy who could run a marathon. I didn't know anybody that could run a marathon. Those people are idiots, right? Like you you you intentionally go out before the sun's up and try to run 26 miles. Um, but I had been sick for so long that I wanted to change my identity. I wanted to be known as the guy who could run a marathon. So here I am. Um I wanted to make sure they got good pictures of me. So I wore super obnoxious clothing. So you can see I'm the guy in the yellow there, or the green, or whatever that is. Uh so that's me starting, and then uh that's me finishing. And you'll see I'm holding up a sign. I carried a sign, it was uh printed on cloth, but I carried in that my that in my pocket for 26 miles. And at the end, as I crossed the finish line, it says, I love you, Pam. We did it because it was a team effort that got me across that finish line. She allowed me to train, she allowed me to put in the focus, and it was a team effort to get me across the finish line. So if you look, here's a kind of a zoomed-in picture of it. This is a picture with two stories, though. As you see, I have my sign, it's kind of a sweet little love story for me and my wife saying it was a team. But if you look a little closer, uh I've got bloody nipples. So I finished, right? So that's the second part of the story is I finished, but there is no victory without sacrifice. Uh, there was things I didn't know that I learned, and you know, you're you're gonna go through some struggles. It's gonna get a little bloody, it's gonna get a little messy. And then that's the picture my wife's like, change your shirt and I'll take your picture. So that's the picture of me finishing the Colfax marathon. So I finished that in uh like four hours and 28 minutes. Not a great time, not a bad time. It's just kind of the time that it took. But um, I was a one and done. I'm like, okay, change my identity. No longer the sick guy, I'm the marathon guy. And then I came to a Narpum conference and uh, you know, raise your hand if you know Brian Birdie or Scott Abernathy. You guys know those guys? Yeah, troublemakers, right? So I I walk into the room and they were kind of out here greeting people as they came in. And one of them turned to the other. I can't remember which was which, but they're like, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't know, I'll do it if Tony does it. I'm like, yeah, sure. What is it? And uh and so that's where I got tricked into uh running the Little Rock Marathon. Now they picked the Little Rock Marathon is because apparently, I think it was according to Scott, it had the biggest marathon metal on the circuit. So uh I'll show you a picture of the metal, but that was the only criteria was we wanted to get the biggest metal. So I went from being a one and done to a guy that runs a marathon, but these are all signs that were made for me. They kind of had a little surprise party, a send-off as I was gonna travel out to Little Rock. Uh, but these are all signs that were made for my by my staff for me in the office. But what I really want to point out, uh a couple of things. This one is it says, good luck, Tony. You are an inspiration. And I gotta believe that. I gotta believe that my staff took the time to print that out and stick that on there. There are people watching you as you are trying to achieve your goals, and you're motivating people to feel inspired to achieve their goals. And then the the second thing here is it says you can't win a marathon without putting a few band-aids on your nipples. That story stuck with me too. Um but uh it was great to see you know my staff getting involved, our team. And um, so anyway, so here's the Little Rock Marathon. The nice thing about this is I was able to go back and just through repetition and practice and learning and getting involved with the community, I was able to improve my time, cut quite a bit uh time off. And then as promised, here's the uh the the the metal, right? Not too bad, not too bad. Uh I haven't eaten off of it yet, but I've heard you could. So thanks. Um okay, so here's the keys to success. Define what you want to accomplish, but be honest about where you are now, and uh and then start chipping away at the difference. You know, a lot of us we have these big goals that we want to accomplish, and we're not sure how we're gonna get there, but it doesn't really matter. It's kind of like driving a car at night. You don't need to see from here to the destination, you just need to see a little bit further out in front of where you are now. And then acknowledge your accomplishments while striving to achieve the next goal. I think that's super critical. A lot of us don't stop to take the time, whether it's in business or life, we don't stop to take the time to say, you know what? I'm actually all right. I actually did a pretty good job there. I'm not done, but I did a pretty good job there. And then the next thing is believe in your ability to recreate success at a higher level. And uh Seneca, I tried to find a picture of him on the internet, but um apparently they didn't have pictures of him back then. But it says, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. You know, be as prepared as you can because as Scott, who was in here for Scott's presentation just a few minutes ago, there is opportunity galore coming our way. So let's get prepared and let's be as prepared as possible because that opportunity is going to be there. All right, so I said, you know what, I did a couple of of uh marathons. I think I could do a 50 miler. I think I think I'm good enough to go out and knock out a 50 miler. Had no idea again, had no clue that people could do 50 run 50 miles or that they would want to. Like these just didn't make sense to me. But what I figured out is if you want to run 50 miles, you start hanging around people who run 100 miles because it normalizes that. Like 50 miles is is half the distance of 100 miles, but it's not even half the effort, really, because at 100 miles, the effort starts at 50, right? So just like in this room, y'all are here, and I know there's a whole bunch of first timers, which is super exciting. You first timers, when this when today is over and we're done with the trade show, do not go back to your hotel room. Like I forbid it. Like hang out in the hallways, find people that have badges on, introduce yourselves to them because this is the community that can expand your mind. And I know we're talking about running here, but it's the same thing in business. You start hanging around people who do and have done what you want to do, and it normalizes it, it makes it possible. All right, so here I am lining up at the the San Juan Solstice 50. I I picked this off the internet because it was Trailrunner magazine said it was the hardest 50 miler in the country. Turns out a lot of races say that, but I believe them. This is a this is a hard race. So I'm lining up, don't really know what I'm doing. There's like 11 river crossings. It starts at 10,000 feet above sea level, goes up to 13,000 feet above sea level, which is about 10,000 feet above where we are right now. I line up and uh here I am crossing the finish line. So super exciting, right? It's almost like the Boston Marathon. Like, look at all those people. Yeah. Not there's not a lot of people. There's not a lot of people here because when you start performing at a level like this, there's not a lot of people that are there. These a lot of those people that were there, those were family members, friends, people that drove up to the event so that you didn't have to drive. So as you get better and better with what you're doing, you're going to realize that there's fewer and fewer people at that level. But the people who are at that level are more and more committed and more and more dedicated and performing at a higher level. So I'm like, I finished the San Juan Solstice. That was a 16-hour cutoff. I finished in 15 hours and 38 minutes. So I barely, barely made it, right? But it finishes a finish. You know, you guys are the only ones that know that I didn't like crush it. Um, but I'm like, I did that and actually I didn't die. Like, what could I do if I trained a little bit more? So I went back and I ran the Run Rabbit Run 50 Miler. This is in Steamboat. You guys know the you've seen that race yet up there in Steamboat? Yeah. So it's a beautiful course. You actually start and you run up a ski slope to start. But beautiful course. So in this this race, I did this the following year, and I went back and I finished it in 11 hours and 38 minutes, almost exactly cut almost exactly four hours off my time. And the reason I say that is because it's all about continuous improvement. It's all about putting in the effort and knowing what your next goal is gonna be. And the more you do it, the better you get. So here I am finishing this. I didn't know we had sound. You have to hug the bunny at the end.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

So looks like number 543, Razvan Lazarano.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Alright, so I run a couple of 50 milers.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Number four minor.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

That was pretty fun. That was exciting. So you run a couple of 50 milers and then that expands what's possible. So here's some keys to success for you. Find a community that shares similar interests and similar goals and has done what you want it to do. I've already talked about that. You guys are so lucky to be in this room right now. There are people in your in your community that are in your industry that are it's just a normal day for them. You guys are here with the best community in property management. You have the opportunity to network, you've got the opportunity to go to some of these classes, you've got vendors over here that are gonna help you improve your business. Like you could not be in a better place. So while you're here, take advantage of every minute of it. And again, for you first timers, if you go back to your hotel rooms, we're gonna send in squads to knock on your doors and pull you out. All right. So it says if you want to go fast. Go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And I really believe that. There are some great people in this room, and uh they are willing to help you get your business to the next level wherever you want to go. Next key to success. All right, who knows who this is? Who is it?

unknown 24:05

Ted Lasso.

Failure At Mile 72

Redemption Training And Tough Weather

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Ted Lasso, yeah. So I don't know if you guys have seen this, and I don't if we have the volume, we don't necessarily need it. We can we can turn that down. But basically, he says, if you're hurt, you're hurt. If you can't practice, you can't practice. And this this is a a great rip on uh a scene. But this is actually Alan Iverson does this exact rant and he goes on and talks about practice. But he says, we're gonna talk about practice. We're gonna talk about practice. Not the game, not the game, not the game that I go out and die for every day, but we're gonna talk about practice. And basically, what he's talking about in here is practice. But the reason he's talking about it is people show up to work. People show up and they practice, they put in the time, but are they really practicing? It's not practice that makes perfect or perfection, it's not practice that makes you perfect, it's perfect practice that makes you perfect. And I think a lot of times we get into this routine where we show up and we put in the time. We go to work because it's time to go to work. We leave because it's time to go home. And you you all know what it's like, like the day before you go on vacation, most productive day you have all year, right? And it's because you've you've got this mission. I gotta do this, I gotta do this, I gotta do this, and you knock them all off, and then you're like, it's 3 30. I'm done. I'm going home early. So it's it's not about showing up, it's about showing up with intention and doing the right things and practicing with intention. All right, so of course you guys have to have guessed this by now. I did the 50 milers a couple of times. I'm hanging around with people that are doing 100 milers, like these people are super weird, uh, super great people, very caring, very giving, a lot like the people in this room. So I think, okay, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna train for the 100 miler. So in 2019, September, I line up at the Bear 100. Look at these, look at look at my face on there. You can't tell it, but I'm actually happy, right? So I'm happy there, but it's early in the race. It's early in the race, 2019. And um I uh I run all I get up at 6 a.m. The race starts at six in the morning. I get up and we we take off. And uh there's about 6,000 feet of elevation gain in about the first five miles, and really working hard. Get up, run all through the day. And uh about 4:30, starts getting cold, starts to to uh sun starts to go behind a mountain, and uh it starts to rain. And so I stop, I take off my vest, I've got a little rain jacket in there, I put my rain jacket on, and then it stops raining. So I take it off, put it back in my pack. I do that three or four times, and then I finally I'm like, this is dumb. It's gonna stop raining. And so I just didn't put it on, and it rained for like 40 minutes. And at this point, the sun has gone down, and uh I made some mistakes, and uh I learned a lot. But here's here's what happened. Around mile 72, it's dark, sun has not yet come up, it's about 3:30. They call it the witching hour. It's like the the the worst time to be out running. Um, I know you guys believe me, right? Who runs at 3:30 in the morning, especially in the woods. But um, I'm out there, I'm running, and I'm running with a guy who slips and falls, and he stops at the the aid station to go into the medical trailer. Now keep in mind he's in this nice warm trailer getting checked out. I'm waiting for him, which is which is a mistake. I should have been running my own race, right? I should have been focused on what I need to do to get to the finish line. But I was I didn't know. And so I wait for him, and while I'm waiting for him, the wind starts blowing sideways. Uh, it's still cold, it's raining, and I I make the conscious mental decision at mile 72 to DNF. They call it DNF, did not finish. I dropped from the race. And a lot of people, a lot of people wouldn't include this in a presentation like this. A lot of people would skip over that failure. But the reason I include this is that success is built on the foundation of failure. If you can't accept failure and learn from it and improve from it, you'll never be the success that you were meant to be. Success is a part of it. Anybody that tells you that they succeeded without failing, they're either lying or they're lucky and they were probably lying. Because you have to where you learn your best lessons is through failure. So that was 2019. 2020, I go back, but during that whole year, uh, we got a little uh all right. Okay, so this is a part of the the ultrarunner's mentality. You have to keep going no matter what happens, right? So it doesn't matter that the screen's not there, I know what's going on. So in 2020, I I went back to the Bear 100 because I needed redemption. I needed that for myself. And while I was out there, from from the time I DNF'd, I had to sign a form that said, you know what, I quit. I I drop out, I withdraw myself. So from the time I signed that to the time I went back in 2020, every training run I went on, I was thinking about this is for my redemption. Every hike I went on, if it was bad weather, if it was raining, I'd be like, this is good training. This is good training. I only have to be out here for an hour or two while it's raining. So I'm gonna use that time to learn how to run in the rain. Because in a real life race, it's probably gonna rain if I keep at this. Uh if I've got a bad stomach, if I've got a head cold, it doesn't matter. It's good training. And the reason I bring that up in here is as property managers, property management company and employees or team members, we go through a lot of junk. But if we keep in mind that it's just it comes at us in small snippets, it's good training. Right? An owner's mad, we do our best, and then we let it go. It's good training. Tenant calls are being unreasonable, do our best, let it go. It's good training. So I go back in 2020. Uh the cutoff to finish the uh the race is 36 hours.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

So I'm I'm going across the finish line. This is me.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

I'm like, I I think I'm like, yeah, let's go.

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SPEAKER_01 31:07

I'm doing this little but you know, errrr. But you know, after uh nothing hurts anymore. After 32 hours and 45 minutes, this is a lot of effort. But for a year I focused on this finish line, crossing this finish line again. Look at look at the crowd. The crowd goes wild. Yeah. So he asked me right here, he says, uh, yeah, any any last words? Good job, Ba. Good job, yeah. Woo! Any last words? Any last words? I'm hungry. I'm hungry. Yeah. So I I went back, got, got my uh my biggest physical accomplishment of my life. I went back and finished the Bear 100 in 2020. I finished it in like 32 hours and 45 minutes, and uh the cutoff was 36 hours. So I did, I did pretty good. I had had a little bit of uh of room there. And then I'm like, I think there's room for improvement. I think if I keep at it, I'll get a little better. And so I went back in 2021, and for this race, they give you, and it goes back to for ultra runners, it goes back to horse racing. It all kind of started. People doing these hundred-mile races started with uh guys running horse races and their horse pulling up lame. And so they finished the the finish. And in the horse races, they give you a belt buckle. They don't give you a dinner-sized medal, uh, they give you a belt buckle. And and in 2020, I got what was called the at the Bear 100, it was called the Black Bear buckle. Oh, that's pretty cool, right? But if you finish in under 30 hours, you get a grizzly buckle. And right, uh grizzlies are way better than than black bears. If you're a black bear fan, I apologize. But uh grizzlies is where it's at. So I'm like, I'm going back in 2021, um, and I'm gonna improve and try to get that that grizzly buckle. So again, uh I just can't get over the excitement of the crowd here. I mean, it's just fantastic. But I go back in 2021 and I finish the the Bear 100. I didn't get my under 30 hour finish. And here's why. Just after mile 51, there was a runner that was out on the trail. And this is like life or death type of activity. Like you're out in the middle of woods, you know, miles from anybody. And I came across this runner and he was he was struggling pretty good. And uh so I stayed with him from mile 51 to mile 68 just to keep him moving. Gave him some of my fuel, which is liquid calories. Uh it's a sexy word to say potato chips, you know, if you're at the aid stations. Sometimes in life, when we're on the way to our own goals and we're on the way to our own destination, sometimes it makes sense to stop and help somebody else out, even at your own expense, because you never know when something like that is going to come back and uh and be a benefit to you. And even if it doesn't, it's the right thing to do. So I finished in 30 hours, 47 minutes, but it was still a great, great race for me. So here's the keys to success. Seek continuous improvement. I keep saying that, but it's because it's true. There's every day you go to work, there's a way to tweak something to make some small improvement. You don't have to change overnight, you change over time. And then this is something that I put that motto up on the first slide. This is probably uh a very close second for me. Be content, but don't be satisfied. A lot of times we try to compare ourselves to other people. We try to compare ourselves to where we think we should be. As long as we are on a path of continuous improvement and we have goals out in front of us, be content where you are, be happy. And then just don't be satisfied and stop. Continue to improve. And then don't stop when you face adversity. So in 2019, when I ran the Bear 100 and I didn't finish, I DNF'd, I could have said, you know what? I'm pretty good at running 50 milers. Like, I mean, I it's twice what a marathon is almost. I'm pretty good at 50s. Let me just kind of dial it back. Let me dial back my expectations. Let me say, you know, 50s. I mean, who runs who runs 50 miles? That's crazy. So I could still have my identity tied up in in running and be uh okay with 50 miles, but that's not that's not what's inside me. And I don't think it's what's inside a lot of you guys. You you have things that you want to try to accomplish. When you face adversity, you can't stop. You can't stop. We already talked about the fact that success is built on the foundation of failure. So you gotta keep going. And then we talked a little bit about this already reframing failure as a component of success. It's a component of success. It has to be included. And then perform an autopsy when things go wrong. So when things go wrong in your business, I'm I'm this is something that I'm super strict about. I don't find blame when something goes wrong in our in our company. We want to solve the issue. I don't care who's at fault. I'm at fault. I'm the business owner. I'm at fault for whatever happens under my watch. So now that we've established that, let's solve the issue. It's a it's a safe place for people to say, this is what happened, and this is how we're gonna fix it. So I like to call it an autopsy. You know, let's open it up and uh and see what's going on inside, as opposed to doing the finger pointing. Okay, so here's here's where the 240 comes in from the uh the title of the presentation. So I'm thinking, okay, I've run a couple of hundred milers, I didn't run one. Let me step up and see. I heard about this race called the Moab 240. It's 240 miles, a single loop through the desert of Moab, Utah. You run up over the LaSalle mountain range, again up around 10,000 feet. And I think I think that may be something that I could do. So here I am at the at the start line. I'm dressed in all white because I think it's gonna be super hot out in the desert, so I need to dress in white to stay cool. Um, starts in the dark. I'm starting amongst some high-level athlete. I mean, this is high-level athlete stuff. These are there are like really professional, like athletes, serious athletes. I don't belong here. I don't know what I'm doing. I've never done this before. But you have to be willing to be a small fish in a big pond. You have to be willing to be comfortable being uncomfortable. So here's the uh, I just said that. I'm gonna say it again. Be willing to be a little fish in a big pond, right? As we grow in our accomplishments, so does the the challenges that we face. And I like to say that our our obstacles uh or our goals to find our obstacles, right? Uh so the guys that the the people that ran the 5K this morning, um if if you had a little rock in your shoe and you're like, I need to get that rock out because I still have mic's oh there we go. Um I need to get that rock out because I've got three miles to go. Well, I'm focused on that little rock. But if I say I'm gonna go and run 20 miles, that little rock, you know, I may say I need to get it out now, or I may need to just run with it. Like the goal that you're trying to accomplish, um it makes the little obstacles just kind of disappear. You have to focus on the big things, and then you have other people that help you work on the uh the small things. So get comfortable being uncomfortable. I said that too, but I really believe that. I actually don't know who this Neil Donald Walsh is, so if you look him up and he's a horrible person, forget I quoted his name, but I I wanted to say something like this, and that was the the closest quote that I could find on the internet. So uh life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Comfort is a trap because life, the the the current of life is always moving. There is no neutral. So if you stop, stop trying to achieve your goals, and and your goals can be something as simple as spending more time with your family. You know, it's measurable, whatever that goal is. But if you stop moving towards it, the current of life is gonna pull you away from it. So get comfortable being uncomfortable, stay focused on your goals, and you have to get out of your comfort zone. And then frame challenges as good training. I already talked about that too. You know, if you're if you're working on something and you get challenged by an owner or you get challenged by a tenant, it's not gonna last forever. It's not. So it's good training. All right, so at Moab, we start, we're off, we're at mile nine. And at mile nine, everybody's happy. It's like seven dwarves, you know. Everybody that made the commitment to show up, they're all happy. They're kind of dancing, and you know, it's like they're singing and whistling like seven dwarves all going to work. But it's really easy to make the commitment. You know, people will will January rolls around, a bunch of people will sign up for the gym. It's really easy to make that that payment to the gym, especially if you're on one of those$10 a month memberships where it comes out of your account and you don't have to go, but it feels good because you got a membership, right? So that's kind of like what it was like at mile nine. Everybody was happy, everybody was committed. But be mentally prepared to face and overcome challenges. Because what I'm going to talk about next is here is the plan that we put together. And you can't really see this, and it's it's basically irrelevant. But this I've got across the top, it's how many hours I think it'll take to finish 96, 97, 98. Down the side is a list of aid stations. So you see the first line there in yellow is that the AMASA aid station, and it's the first time I get to see my crew. So mile 17, uh, there's an aid station at mile nine. I already talked about that, but then there's an aid station called AMASA. First time I'm supposed to be able to see my crew. And you saw me, I said I was dressed in all white. I thought it was gonna be super hot. You go to the desert, it's supposed to be hot, right? But uh the whole first day it rains. So you're out there in the desert, you're out there in the mud, and uh I come into mile 17, I'm soaking wet, I'm really excited to see my crew, they've got some extra clothes for me. And I get there and they're not there. So I don't have the extra clothes. I don't have that little mental pick-me-up, but it doesn't matter. I've got this goal, I'm crossing that finish line at some point. So commit to relentless forward progress. You're gonna come across things as you're pursuing your goals, as you're doing your work on a daily basis at the office. Commit to relentless forward progress. A little progress is progress. There are days where you can only make a little progress. That's okay, but you have to commit. You you can't get sidetracked by things that that go wrong, that people that let you down. It doesn't matter. My crew had an issue, they figured it out, but I couldn't let that sidetrack me. And then adjust your strategy and tactics to the current situation. They weren't there, so I wasn't gonna get the dry socks. I was gonna have to run in what I had. I had some people at the aid station help me fill my water bottles, got a little of that extra sexy ultra-runner fuel potato chips, and headed out. And then document your why. One of the things that we talk about a lot is in business. Every one of you is is in this business for a reason. Every one of you have something that you're trying to achieve, some legacy that you're trying to leave, whatever it is. And when things get tough, you have to have that in the back of your mind that you can lean on because this is a crappy business. You guys, I don't know why you're in this room. Like it's a hard business. Um, but it's rewarding and it's it can be incredibly satisfying, but you have to remember your why when things get tough. It may be for you, it may be providing opportunity for your members on your team, providing opportunity for your children, helping your landlords build generational wealth. But um, we're gonna move it along a little bit. So now I'm at mile 72. This is the next time I can see my crew. So I get to mile 72. You talk about community. Uh, there's the gal in the purple shirt there, and it's kind of hard to see, but the top two pictures are I get into the aid station, my feet are a mess because it's wet, and I get into the aid station, and uh she this this gal here has volunteered to be a medic. She's a she's in the the medical profession. She volunteers for four days to sit there and help runners continue on, and she's volunteers, and it's a lot like the people that put this conference on. I don't know if you guys know this, but NARPAM's a volunteer organization. And the people that put this conference on, they didn't get paid to put this conference on for you guys. All right. Yeah, so there are people that are in this room that are sacrificing for months they've been sacrificing to put this on for you guys. It's it's a lot like Jenny here popping. So she's popping my blister, and you can see, I don't know if you can see in that far picture, but uh she's taking a picture of my foot because at this point it's the the the biggest worst blister that she's seen of the race so far. And she's taking a picture of it uh because she thinks it's funny. And then my crew is taking a picture of her taking a picture because they think it's funny. So I put it on the slide because apparently it's funny. And then this is the first time I'm able to now pick up a pacer. So this is somebody that heads out on the course with me. So now I have somebody that can be with me for the rest of the race. And that's a lot like you're gonna find vendors in this next room over here. And some of you guys are, and I get it, I get it. I did this in the beginning too. You're gonna walk right down the middle, not too close to this side of the vendors, and not too close to this side of the vendors because you don't want to talk to anybody. So you're gonna try to walk like right down the middle. That's the worst place you can be. Engage with these vendors, they're here to help you out. They've spent money to come here to help you improve your business. Yeah, and you may have to give them a business card. That's how they follow up. But uh engage with them. They have solutions that you need in your business, and you need to engage with them. All right, so here's here's the key to success. I'm gonna I'm gonna bounce back a little bit. So around mile 60, I'm I'm out there, it's starting to get dark. I carry a GoPro with me so I can kind of document, do a little uh documenting to myself, a little voice recording. But around mile 60, I start to feel something going on going on in my ankle. And uh I'm like, I think it's okay. Um I had I had just run that bear 100 that I ran in 2021. I had just run that 11 days before showing up to Moab. So my legs were swollen. I had on, I had on these compression calf sleeves, and that was supposed to help with the swelling. And then because it was raining, I had on what what they're called gaiters. They're basically like little umbrellas for your feet, and they're supposed to keep the water out. And then these shoes that I had had like a plastic tongue on it. And so all three of these things were were grinding on my ankle. And uh around mile 60, I'm like, that's starting to hurt. Um, I think I can make it to the aid station, think I can make it to 72, let them figure it out. I knew I should have stopped, but I was tired. It was the race was wearing on me. And uh I should have stopped. I should have stopped because you're gonna see it it caused a lot of problems. Um, but you're gonna have things in your business that come up. You're gonna have things that you know you need to fix, solutions you know you need to implement, things you need to fix, owners you know you need to fire, but you're like, I'll do it after tax season. There's a lot of stuff coming up. I gotta get through tax season, and I gotta get through leasing season, and then it's the holidays, and maybe maybe I don't want to deal with that employee issue because it's a holiday. Like, you know, there are things that in your business right now that you need to fix. Fix them now because they don't go away. And then I already talked about this, I'm gonna say this a lot. Commit to your goals early and often. You should have them top of mind, especially you business owners. Like everybody in this room should have a list of goals that they're working towards in their company, your KPIs that you're working for. There's vendors over here that can help you set up your KPIs, but commit to your goals early and often. And and this, I truly believe people don't quit big, they quit one small compromise at a time. I talked about those people that that signed up for the gym. They signed up for the gym on January 1st or whatever it is, and they they go for 10, 12 days, whatever, every other day. They're super excited about going. And then one day something comes up and they're like, I think I went yesterday. I went yesterday. Yesterday was good. I went yesterday. I don't need to go today. I think it'll be okay. I think I'm not, it's on my calendar, it's in my plan, but I think I'm gonna skip today. You just quit. You have to be diligent about protecting your plan to achieve your goals. People don't quit big, they don't show up, they don't wake up and go, you know what, today's the day, everybody. Today's the day I quit the gym. I'm doing it, I'm quitting today. Nope. They they make these small compromises and it whittles away at what they're able to accomplish. So you have to protect your goals and you have to commit to them early on in the process and often repeatedly. Okay. I talked about some of the issues that I was having. So I'm I get to mile uh 121. Again, keep in mind it's 240 miles. So I get to mile 21, top of Shea Mountain. Hardest part of any race I've ever done, climbing up this the Shea Mountain in the dark. I get here, it's about 2, 2:30 in the morning. Ankles jacked up. The skin is split open now. It's swollen, swollen so much that the skin is split open. It's oozing. And I get I get here, and these are medics here. I'm I'm in the red sitting down. They're those are the medics. And I'm like, and I'm being honest with you here. I'm halfway, and I know I still have just as far to go. Halfway is really hard, guys. Halfway is like you, you still have as far to go as what you've come. And so you have to be super protective of what you're trying to accomplish. And in this moment, I and I I'm just being honest with you guys, I'm sharing this with you. I was hoping they were gonna pull me. I was hoping this medic was gonna say, yeah, your leg is bad. We we medically I need to pull you. Because then I could have quit with dignity. I could have said, Yeah, it's not my fault. I pulled in. I was I was actually doing pretty good. I came into Shea Mountain, hardest part of the course, and uh they pulled me. Well, it wasn't my fault, they pulled me. But uh he looks at his uh at my leg. I've got this pitting edema where you can basically put your fingerprint into the leg and skin doesn't bounce back because it's swollen so much. And he looks at me and he goes, Yeah, your leg is jacked up. But I've seen worse. He's like, You got a crew car here? I'm like, Yeah, my crew met me here. He's like, go lay down in the back of your crew. You're 12 hours ahead of cutoff. He said, Go lay down in that crew car for two hours, put your legs up and let them drain, and then get back out on the course. And I love that guy for that because he was honest with me. Yeah, it was I was in a bad spot. He could have very easily enabled me and said, Yeah, it's time to quit. Time to pull the plug. But he didn't. It was a little tough love. He knew what he was talking about. So I laid in the back of this crew car for two hours, and during that two hours, I did two things. I whined like a little baby, and and I visualized myself crossing that finish line. I had people take off work. I had people take off an entire week to come out and support me that were a part of my crew. You have people in your business that are counting on you succeeding at your goals. You can't let them down. I couldn't let my people down. I was a wreck. I mean, you could see the despair on my face. You could see, I mean, it's just I'm I don't know how I'm gonna keep going. But I had people that were there that were counting on me to keep going. So for two hours I laid there, I whined, my legs would spasm, needles would be shot through my legs uh as they would drain. But for two hours, I'm like, how am I gonna cross? What time of day is it gonna be? Um what am I gonna do with the finish line? Like different, just all these different scenarios. I had to get my mind out of the pain and focus on the goal, focus on the finish line. So I already said this, I'm saying it again. Commit to your goals early and often because it's that important. There are gonna be times when you want to quit. There's gonna be times when you should quit and you can't quit. All the things are gonna line up and you're gonna be check all 10 of these boxes, gives me permission to quit. But if your goals are that important to you, you just can't quit. And uh I know Tony Robbins is a little played out, but uh he he says if you want to take the island, you need to burn the boats. And essentially what that means is you just have to eliminate all options of retreat. You have to move forward. And then you need to visualize success. Um, there's been a lot of studies, psychological studies, that talk about people that line up for a free throw line or three-point line. They practice visualizing over and over hitting that three-point shot. And they have the same success rate as the people who show up and and uh practice on a daily basis making that shot. So, not that one is more important than the other, but they're both super important. You have to put in the work, but you have to visualize seeing yourself being successful with that, and then take action even when you don't want to. So, a couple of slides ago, I had the two pictures of me sitting in the chair, and then there was a picture of me at the bottom, uh, steam kind of rolling off my jacket. It was 17 degrees. You think you go to the desert, uh, but I didn't realize you go to the desert and then you go up to the mountains, and it was 17 degrees, and getting out of that truck and getting back on the trail is the hardest thing I've done in recent memory, at least. Uh making that commitment to get out of the truck and carry on. And so you have to take action even when you don't want to. All right, so I'm back out on the trail, I'm feeling pretty good, my legs drained a little bit. I get to uh, so this is this is uh called Pole Canyon Aid Station. I roll in there, I get to get some sleep. I finally get to get a little bit of sleep, I get to eat, my pacer's with me. He takes my pack, fills my pack, I lay down on this cot, another volunteer, I'm totally wiped out. Uh my pacer says what I need. I lay down on the cot, they take my shoes and socks off, they drain my blisters. I mean, it's I won't get into the details, but there's a lot of gross stuff that these volunteers put up with, not unlike here. And um, you know, they they drain my blisters, they put on fresh socks, they get me all the food I need, and uh and I get out and I'm feeling really good. And there's gonna be times in your business where you feel really good and you take your eye off the ball. And and right here, you see me, I'm kind of rubbing my face. So at one mile 184, I'm feeling really good, and I start running pretty fast. And around mile 187, I take the worst spill. I've been running since 2011 now, and I take the worst spill that I've ever taken, like in the history of me running. It's one of those, have you guys ever, you know, you're walking and you trip and you kind of do this little Superman dive? I did that like three times in a row. So now I'm basically horizontal and I'm just picking up speed and I just can't recover. And I go down, smack my face, I land on my arms, I'm trapped like this. Uh I got uh I busted my GoPro, I busted one of my bottles, uh, scratched up my glasses, scratched my watch. My arms are trapped underneath me, like I said. And when I busted that bottle, uh, it started squirting up like this. And I'm, you know, I'm tired. I've been running for like over three and a half days now. And I'm thinking, oh my God, I'm bleeding out. You know, it's just squirting up like this. And uh, you know, Randy comes over and he he kind of helps me get up. And and I just had the worst fall I've ever had. And I'm thinking, it actually gave me a burst of energy. I'm like, this is the worst thing that's ever happened to me, and I'm okay. I'm all right. I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna do what I set out to do because it can't get much worse. I mean, maybe if the leg fell off, which is not out of the picture yet. But I'm like, I've hit bottom. So sometimes when things are really bad, if you can just keep your head above getting sucked down into the suckiness of how bad it sucks, and say, you know what, I'm I'm making it. I might be making it one breath at a time, but I'm making it. And I'm gonna overcome this. And once I overcome it, I'm stronger for it. So mile 187, I I get up and I continue forward. So here's the the keys to success. Set intermediate goals as you're going. So all these little aid stations, sometimes people celebrate when they get into an aid station because they've finally made it, they've been running out. You know, in Moab, there's some of the aid stations are 20, 25 miles apart. And I finally got past the uh an aid station. But I don't, when I get to the aid station, I don't celebrate. I celebrate when I leave. Because the only time you can drop at a race like this is at an aid station. Because if you're out 10 miles between aid stations and you go, I think I quit, nobody cares. Like there's nobody there to quit to, so you you can only quit at an aid station, right? So set your intermediate goals and then be excited, not when you hit it, but when you exceed it and when you move past it. Okay, and then bounce back from setbacks. We're all gonna have setbacks. We all have setbacks, and uh, you need to just be comfortable and prepared to bounce back from that. Okay, and then look for the positives. They're out there, they're out there every single day. And now that I said look for the positives, we get to mile 224. It's the last time I can see my crew. Randy runs me in. Randy always runs me in. He's he's my pacer that takes me to the finish line. I get to mile 224, it's starting to rain again. The wind's blowing sideways, it's dark. I have a pacer with me. Uh, a lot of you guys know Albert Lopez, he's with uh well, he's Kristen's husband. Uh, she's with Rent Scale, but he was out there pacing me and he did like 12 miles, but he just wasn't prepared to be able to take me in through the end of the race. And so I had to drop him there. I had to make the decision that it was the right thing to do to go on alone. And it's windy, it's raining, it's pretty uh uh pretty horrible conditions, but I had I had work to do. So again, crew wasn't there. Something goes wrong, keep going anyway. I'm close, I gotta finish. And then work hard to achieve your goals even when nobody's watching. So I was by myself that last stretch. Could have been really easy to back off the gas, start making complaints, start making excuses, and uh you just can't do that. When you're that close, you gotta keep going. And then sometimes it's easier with somebody else. So I'm I'm almost done. I got probably 10 miles to go, and I'm running. And keep in mind I've been running for four days at this point, and there's somebody behind me, and he's as he's coming up behind me. Uh I kind of noticed, so he's like 50 yards, 75 yards behind me. And I'd run, he'd run. I'd walk, he'd walk. And uh again, not that this is right, but where I was with my headspace, it was starting to annoy me. Like, why if he wants to pass, let him pass. If he doesn't want to pass, like quit shadowing me. So I just kind of stop and and wait for him. And he comes up and he's like, hey man, thanks. Like, thank you. Like, I just need some visual cue. Like, I'm so tired, I'm so far gone that I just I need something to cue my mind on so that I stay on course. And so we made a pact right there that there was like seven miles to go. And uh it turns out I'm a better trail runner than him. So for the then there was like three and a half miles of trail and then three and a half miles of road to the finish line. And so I set the pace for that next three and a half miles, and he fell in behind me. And then when we hit the road, he's a better road runner than me. And so he set the pace for the the last little bit. And so here's the the finish line. So when I first started running, I couldn't even run for five minutes straight. Right, and after running for 99 hours, 42 minutes, 43 seconds, I crossed the finish line of what was the greatest personal accomplishment of my life. So a week ago, I had to send my slides in quite a while ago. And up until about eight days ago, uh, this is where I would start to wrap up. But I added a couple of things. Enjoy your success. At every step of the way, you you're going to achieve, you're going to inspire, you're going to help other people accomplish. Enjoy your success. Because that's really all we have is the experiences that we create. Help others succeed. There are people in your business, there are people in your community, there are tenants, there are landlords that rely on you for their uh enjoyment, happiness, safety, security. Help others succeed. And then keep reaching for new goals and expanding your belief in what's possible. So, what's next? That was that was last summer. That was in 2020. So I want to show you this is the guy who who won the race. I finished in 99 hours. This guy finished who's with me. He finished in 55 hours. He had two full days. He went home, he went back to his hotel room, took a shower, ate a bunch of meals, like slept a bunch, came back out, and then was there at the finish line with us. Uh, his name's Mike McKnight. And uh I'm like, I need to know that guy. So I found somebody in that community that was doing what I wanted to do at a high level, and I hired him as my coach. And so I'm gonna, this is really, really brief. Um, but I went back this year, I just finished eight days ago, finished the Moab 240 in 2022. Last year, I finished like 92 out of uh 168 runners. This year, I think it says, what's it say? There was finish 167 finishers after out of 250 starters, I finished in the top 10. And it's because thank you. Okay. But but honestly, I attribute much of my success. Obviously, I played a part, but much of my success I contribute to my coach Mike. I found somebody that was doing what I wanted to do, that was doing it better, that had the systems, had the tools, these vendors. I found somebody that could help me achieve at the level that I wanted to achieve. So here's what's next, right? I gotta keep expanding, gotta keep expanding. In 2023, I registered for what's called the Triple Crown of 200s. It's 658 miles of racing over three races over four and a half months. I may make it, I may not, right? You gotta expand your goals. You gotta be, you gotta be constantly pushing if it's something that you're passionate about. So I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna try to accomplish this race. Not only because I finished ninth out of out of the 250 starters, I now have this whole new mindset open up where I'm not just showing up to run it. I'm going there to compete. I'm going there to win the triple crown. And what they do is they combine the times of all three races. And then if you have the fastest combined time, you win the triple crown. So I want to leave this with you guys. This is what I want to leave with you. I got a couple of questions for you. What's your impossible? I know you're not into running. I know this isn't everybody's thing, right? But hopefully it was relatable where you could see I started laying in a closet, not being able to move, not knowing if I was gonna walk out of there. And I was able to constantly make small incremental improvements over the time. So, what's your impossible? What's the thing that you want to accomplish? And then what's your greatest fear? I'm gonna leave you with my two greatest fears. The first one is that I will die with unrealized potential. How sad will that be? To know or to find out that I could have been better and I settled for less. So the first one is that I will die with unrealized potential. The second fear that I have, and of course, this is after you know making sure my family's taken care of and all of that, but my second personal fear that I have is not only will I die with unrealized potential, but I will wake up one day and realize that my best day is behind me. And that's gonna happen to me. It's gonna happen to every one of us. At some point, we're gonna wake up and our best day will be behind us. And I want to put that off as long as possible, and I hope you do too. That's all I've got. Thank you.

Tony Cline 1:05:58

Thanks for tuning in to the Property Management Success Podcast. We'll be back with another value-packed episode to help you level up your property management game. If you've got something valuable out of today's episode, please share it with a friend or colleague. And don't forget to subscribe and leave a review so you never miss out on future insights and strategies and tactics. Until next time, it's your success.