#33 - Building ResMan: A Story of Resilience with President & Co-Founder Elizabeth Francisco (Part 1)
Elizabeth Francisco: Once you meet her, you never forget her. Her energy is infectious and she is one of the most resilient people I know.
Elizabeth is the President and Co-Founder of ResMan, a property management software for multifamily. She has over 25 years of experience in the multifamily industry both as an asset manager and software executive.
When life pivots and you don’t get what you thought you would, how do you adjust?
Elizabeth graciously shared her story and I know you’ll love it. You’ll find hope and inspiration from her “never give up” attitude in facing life’s challenges and chasing your dreams.
This blog is all in Elizabeth’s words and only a tidbit of all we talked about! Listen to the full episode below, on iTunes, or Spotify, and prepare to be inspired!
I promise you’ll love this podcast episode.
Let’s kick off with how Elizabeth Francisco ended up in property management
I will admit there were times in my life I was a little ashamed of my background, and I had to overcome that. I also had to realize that it's our past who makes us who we are. You know, I saw a saying once that said, ‘the butterfly doesn't look back in shame because it was a caterpillar.’ And I loved that. When I read that, I thought, that's so true.
I've been working since I was 12. I helped support my mom and my brother. So my work ethic started really young and I knew that I wanted and needed to go to college, so I knew I had to get myself in.
Relationships happened and I had two children while I was going to college. So my college years kind of were extended and I loved it. But then I found myself single overnight and unfortunately there wasn't going to be any child support coming in to help. There wasn't really a family on the other side to step in either, there's just me, Grant, Jordynn, and of course my mom. It was an overwhelming moment because I do not think I had any money in my bank account the day that it happened.
Somebody in college was telling me, you should think about the apartment industry. They were a leasing agent and they got a discount on rent and said you need a break because you’re going to have so many expenses. So that's really how it started.
The years before Resman: The path to building a lasting career
I ended up in a series of companies that saw my potential and were willing to invest in me. They saw I was struggling with things, they really pulled me through and pulled me up and that's what helped me navigate my career. I figured out pretty quickly to come in and absorb, learn, master what's in place today, and maybe it's the science mind that makes me quizzical, but I want to answer “what could it be, versus what is it?”
The wrong thing to do is to come into a new environment and think you have all the answers.
You have to give credit to whatever's in process and any new role, any new position in your company you come into, recognize that there's already been lessons learned and you need to be respectful of that and take in that information. Once you understand and have mastered what they have today, if you think you can bring more to the table, make it better, make everyone more effective to get better results, go for it. People have been more apt to hear me out when I said, “Here's where we are today, but this is what I think we could be doing.”
the role of passion and emotion in a career
I can tell you I'm a pretty passionate and emotional person. I know there are conversations about whether that's good or bad in the workplace or in business, but that is who I am.
I also think it's that passion that drives me to push harder than other people. If you’re passionate, you’re going to have emotions. I don't know that I agree there's not a place for that in business. It’s helped me to drive myself.
Women’s superpower - A lesson learned in communication
I had to learn about communicating. One of my big lessons, when I worked with ECI out of Atlanta, was how to communicate when you feel very passionate about something.
I'm sure people that are listening have been in a situation, especially if you're still onsite, that something's come down from the corporate office that you know darn good and well is not the best decision for the asset. With your onsite perspective, the results are not going to be what they expect and you feel real passionate about needing to push back on it.
If you don't know how to communicate, or understand the art of the delivery, if you don't know how to take a step back and figure out how to make the argument, if you just come at it from a place of passion or gut, you won't be heard. That's what I had to learn. My biggest lesson was learning how to communicate in a way that I would be heard. It’s not just about the problem, you have to bring the solution, and then get results. I needed to be able to back it up with data and that was probably the biggest lesson that I had to learn.
What helped me at the end of the day, I ran it like I owned it. I think that passion can be a woman's superpower. I also think women tend to have a higher degree of emotional intelligence which is important.
Get to the core of the problems & Stop treating symptoms
A little background: Elizabeth relates how she helped her team during the recession by asking “What do you guys need?”.
What it came down to was they needed more face time with residents to create an experience that they loved and would make them stay for years.
With the team in mind she created ResMan, so community managers could get back to the good stuff - connecting with residents.
“I don’t think you guys know what you’ve created. You should sell it.”
Resman comes to market
The only reason our software ever went to market was because of a wonderful manager we called “Mighty Jet”. Her name was Mary Alice Kelly in San Antonio, Texas. Years ago her property was up for Property of the Year, and when the touring committee came through for the tour, they were really impressed by the physical condition of her asset, which was classified as an A asset because it was right at five years old, but the amenity package they put in, that was a B-.
In addition, her property was performing well during a recession. She had the most loyal residents because the property was always immaculate. Why? Her entire staff chipped in on everything, they would even go out and pick up trash. When they asked her how they have time to do that without getting behind in the office, she said, well, it’s because we use ResMan.
She literally took them in her office and showed them what was then the desktop-only application of ResMan, which wasn't even that sexy at the time. (Trust me.) But with ResMan, they had time to do the things that really mattered.
She showed it to them and then somebody came back and told me, I don't think you guys know what you've created. You should sell it. And that's how it all started.
There is so much more to this story. We’ll be releasing part 2 in a couple of days where Elizabeth shares how she got funding, found mentors, and the hard talk you might need to have with yourself. Stay tuned.
