Managing Multiple Businesses: Systems, People & Priorities with Alex Ward

Jeff McLarty (00:07)
Ever wonder what it really takes to build a business from the ground up? Welcome to Owner’s Roundtable, where successful business owners pull up a chair and swap stories and lessons from their own adventures in business. From surviving their first half-baked business plan, the time they almost went broke, the time they got lucky, and the strategies and tactics they used along the way. This isn’t about a polished success story on the Company About Us page, it’s about the real story behind the business. The pain, the people, the setbacks, and the big break that changed everything.

Each episode, you’ll sit down with the owners who’ve been in the trenches, built something meaningful and lived to tell the tale. Whether you’re starting out, scaling up, or just curious what it takes to go the distance, there’s a seat at the Owner’s Roundtable for you. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I’m Jeff McClarty, seasoned entrepreneur, executive coach, and business trainer, and I want you to have your own seat with us here at the Owner’s Roundtable. Real owners, real stories, real insights.

Jeff McLarty (01:09)
Hello and welcome to Owner’s Roundtable. Today at the table is Alex Ward, multi-office real estate broker, owner of Maxwell Devonshire Realty, managing partner for the Attaboy Property Inspection Franchiser and franchise owner of the newest addition to his portfolio, Overtime Athletics.

Today we’ll be talking about people first leadership, multi-business ownership, mindset and more. So pull up a chair and join Alex and I as we discuss his journey to earning a seat here at the Owner’s Roundtable.

Jeff McLarty (01:35)
Welcome back to the owners round table. We’re here with Alex Ward and I’ll let Alex tell us a little bit about himself Yeah.

Alex Ward (01:42)
Well, thanks so much, Jeff. It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m an ex-banker turned entrepreneur. So it’s truly an honor to be on the Owner’s Roundtable because it means you kind of made it as an entrepreneur when you get invited onto a podcast like this. So thank you so much, Jeff. I have a variety of businesses. I own a real estate brokerage here in the Edmonton market and we service Edmonton and Sherwood Park and Lethbridge. As well as I’m a part owner in a franchisor, a home inspection franchising business, Attaboy Property Inspections Canada. And then I’m also a local franchise owner for Overtime Athletics here in the Edmonton market.

Jeff McLarty (02:26)
So you got a real serial about that serial entrepreneur thing.

Alex Ward (02:30)
Yeah, I still love helping people buy and sell properties. That’s actually probably the most fun out of all of them is being able to enjoy that pure bliss moment when someone removes conditions on their first home or is either able to upsize or downsize. Yeah, it’s all great times and it’s all lots of fun.

Jeff McLarty (02:50)
That’s amazing. Well, I’ve got lots of questions I want to ask you, but to start off with, let’s go back to how you made the jump from banker to entrepreneur. You got tired of watching it from the outside and decided to jump over the fence, or how’d that go?

Alex Ward (03:02)
I wish that was the answer I could give you, um but the truth of the matter is I absolutely loved my time at the bank. I came to work every day with a smile on my face and I just absolutely loved it. I was on path to be executive or in executive or high senior manager level position. My support network was severanced all at the same time. New people in did not have the same vision for me as my previous support group. And so thought about what I wanted to do. People management is a huge piece of my leadership style and my enjoyment of jobs. So I thought, what could I do? All my friends were mortgage brokers or investment advisors. So I thought I would go down the real estate path and become a real estate professional. But I knew that I wanted to be in control of my destiny and had a vision for how my real estate career would go. So I created a three year plan to create and open up my own brokerage. And exactly three years later, I was provided with an opportunity to buy an existing one and I took it and life has been bliss ever since.

Jeff McLarty (04:16)
It’s amazing how often if you actually take a road map with you, you end up where you’re trying to get to. Make a plan and go there.

Alex Ward (04:24)
Being able to future plan and keep a vision in your mind of what you actually want, I think is a huge thing. And being able to visualize is something that can kind of separate successful entrepreneurs by the try-hard entrepreneurs. Because there’s always going to be roadblocks in the way and there’s always going to be challenges or new opportunities. But if you’re-have a strong vision and it’s cemented in your third eye, you’re gonna make it happen.

Jeff McLarty (04:50)
I think you’re 100 % right about that. And you do have to be adaptable, but having a clear direction and purpose, I think helps a lot in entrepreneurship when it’s constant new chaos getting thrown at you every day. It’s easy to get off track if you’re not clear on that. And we’ve little bit before about being a people first leader. Do you want to share your leadership style and kind of your insights about what makes a good leader?

Alex Ward (05:12)
There’s lots of great characteristics that make a good leader and I think there’s different leaders for different situations. So not all leaders can lead all situations really well. My philosophy on being a people first leader is by putting people first, you will always have a support network with you and it is a lot easier to get the buy-in and help you instill the will to win in whatever direction you’re wanting to go.

So if that was at the financial institution, that would be hitting our goals. That would be helping them achieve champions or top employee status, In real estate, it’s helping them grow their careers, helping them champion them to being the rock stars that they wanna be, helping them achieve their vision for themselves. At Attaboy, it’s giving them the tools, tactics and support for them to feel confident enough to go out and drive their business. At Overtime Athletics, we’re still so new, but I can see a time where we’re going to always be hiring a lot, and so empowering those people to feel like they can make the right decisions want to stay with us is going to be important.

Jeff McLarty (06:25)
That was something I found as well with different organizations I was with. You really have to make sure your management style matches the type of people you’re working with. Early in my career, I went from managing professionals who wanted to be there, didn’t need external motivation to do their jobs, to managing retail employees who were there on their way to somewhere else. They were needing money to buy food and I think that’s a very different management style. Is there one thing you do that you think the team move froward? Like, how do you actively engage with your team to help keep them pointed in the right direction?

Alex Ward (06:59)
What I, well the one thing I think that has been really beneficial with the brokerage was I record a video every Monday through a platform called Bomb Bomb and it’s a compressed email in or a compressed video in email form. And I record myself giving an update, just talking and then send it out to all of our associates and our key partners. I think that’s been really beneficial because it’s allowed everyone to see me on a weekly basis and hear from me. And because it’s video, they also then get to see my facial expressions, see how I’m empathetic to what’s going on in this scenario, or I’m really enthusiastic about what’s happening, or I’m serious about something that needs to be addressed and potentially needs to be changed. So I think that’s really been a great way of connecting. And then from that have built in, because real estate is a very individual industry or its transitioned that way, and bringing purpose to come back into the office and create moments of connectivity and really have focused on making us feel like a team, even though we’re all individuals, though we compete against each other, we still can collaborate with each other.

Jeff McLarty (07:56)
That’s a good insight. One thing I’ve always wanted to ask a realtor is their opinion on what marketing works and what marketing doesn’t. cause I don’t know any industry that spends as much on marketing as realtors as a whole probably do. Do you have any thoughts you’d like to share with the audience about how to approach marketing, especially in an industry where there are so many options, how do you set yourself apart and what tools make sense and what doesn’t?

Alex Ward (08:38)
Yeah, that’s a great question. It’s the million dollar question that literally every single real estate professional asks themselves when they first start is where there’s a thousand different ways I can spend my money. How am I actually going to spend the honest truth is there’s no one way that works. It’s such a personal business. The goal is to create personal connections. Whether that’s doing it body to body, whether that’s doing it through social media platforms and creating a presence and being able to connect that way, whether it’s through email and you’re a fantastic communicator through email and being able to build that way. There’s no one way to do it.

My coaching philosophy in real estate is about four things. I call them the four pillars. It’s staying top of mind, instilling trust, providing value and following up, which kind of carry over to all sales roles. But if you can do those four things, you’re going to have a long-lasting, incredibly fruitful career. Three of them, you’ll still be knocking out of the park. Two, you can be successful. One, you have one good year, but it’s not sustainable. And that’s what we saw in COVID was a lot of people that were relying on one or two pillars and market changed, or the environment around them changed, and they completely collapsed. But the ones that had three and four pillars set up, they just absolutely crushed it post-COVID, or coming through COVID, because everyone just knew them and trusted them and knew that they were in good hands working with them and they were able to engage with their database and go from there.

But yeah, there’s no one way that wants the short-trick answer, but it’s figuring out what your personal skills are, figuring out what your personal budget is and executing on it. The worst thing someone can do in real estate is start one sort of marketing campaign and then quit, whether it’s a mailer, a bus bench, anything where you can be seen. Cause as soon as you stop it, people just automatically assume left the industry because the turnover is so high within the industry.

Jeff McLarty (10:48)
And how, if somebody’s trying to figure out what’s right for them, whether it’s in realty or in a plumbing business, how do you measure what’s being successful? Like how do you decide, this is working or this isn’t working? Do you have advice on that?

Alex Ward (11:03)
I guess it goes back to what your original goals were for something and whether or not they truthfully are attainable goals, given the activities that you’re willing to put in. So if someone wants to be a million dollar agent but doesn’t want to work past nine to five, going to be difficult. As a residential realtor, potentially as a commercial realtor that is it’s possible just because they only work nine to five. But residential realtor? That would be really, really tough.

So I think it would be going back to what your goals are and then aligning your plan to achieve it is and actually see if you’re doing the activities. You might think you’re doing them.T here’s lots of people that just work to look busy but aren’t actually busy doing anything. I sent off five emails and it’s like that’s not busy. It shouldn’t have taken you five hours to write five emails. What were you actually doing?

We have an internal document. It’s a Daily Habits document that we send out to our is available to our realtors and can use it and it has like phone calls and it’s activity point system. So that then say like if you could continuously achieve X number of points in the day, you will be successful. There’s no doubt about it ⁓ because it is purely activity based.

Jeff McLarty (12:20)
One thing I got to mention while I was doing pre-research for having our discussion today, I discovered you’re number 34 on the real estate influencer list for Edmonton. Don’t know if you know that or not. Congratulations.

Alex Ward (12:32)
I do not. is that?

Jeff McLarty (12:39)
I found it on a website called FeedSpot. They’ll connect you with influencers to promote your thing. And you came up as number 34 on the realtor influencer list. So congratulations. Yeah.

Alex Ward (12:47)
Well, there you go. So um Jefff and I are in a BNI chapter together. I announced in our BNI chapter meeting that I’m going to do 90 posts for 90 days on all across all social media platforms with a variety of topics. So we’re now on day 64/65. So maybe that’s why. That’s what’s driven me up those standings is the consistency of posting something on social media.

Jeff McLarty (13:13)
And I think that’s one thing that a lot of people… they’ll set up a Facebook and then make five posts and then they’re not happy that it’s not working. A lot of it’s about consistency and driving good content and-

Alex Ward (13:29)
Yeah. That’s why I talk about what are the goals before because there’s so many people that come into real estate specifically, but that every industry has it. And they’re like, well, you need social media. And it’s like, well, you don’t need social media if you’re not going to do anything with your social media. It actually can almost be more of a deterrent. If they can see you on there and they can see one post and then nothing for a year and then one post and nothing, you actually look like you’re not busy at all.

In that case, you would be better off served to have never created it. So if you’re going to create it, it’s something you have to use. And truthfully, what people don’t really know is that they should be using their Google Business as a social media platform and actually actively posting on it and creating blogs and write ups and updates. They should be using that one more than a Facebook account and more than a Instagram account because that’s where everyone’s searching. And if you can organically grow SEO or your value to Google through there, you’re just naturally going to search higher, which then pulls you up in the ranks of Facebook and Instagram and stuff like that, right? So, yeah, consistency is key. You got to do it across all the platforms and each platform has its different niche market. One’s more directed to video, one’s more directed to text, one’s more directed to business-related content, one is more directed to fun and pictures and all that. So it’s understanding who you’re trying to target as well.

Jeff McLarty (14:59)
I’ve been recently diving down the SEO rabbit hole and I actually read Google’s guide for how they think about designing their search. And you know, everybody thinks that they’ve got to come up with these crazy strategies about how to get Google to rank them and Google’s whole approach is: we’re trying to figure out how to give search results that are trustworthy and valuable to searchers. And here’s how we decide what’s valuable. And honestly, if people just put content out there that is valuable to people, I think that’s the first step in good SEO, but I think you do have to have some technical knowledge, but keeping it about providing value, think, is probably the first step in any marketing strategy.

Alex Ward (15:30)
100% and using other Google products So like blogger if you’re gonna write a blog write it on blogger, right? It’s free. It’s a Google product. If you’re gonna post videos post them on YouTube. It’s a Google product, right? So if your goal is to increase your search optimization within Google Why would you not be using Google products?

Jeff McLarty (15:38)
I think there’s a tendency in business, not just in marketing, but for people to want things to be complicated, because it feels hard, so it should be complicated, where some of the best businesses just do really simple things really well over and over again. Do agree with that?

Alex Ward (16:11)
100%. Success is just doing the mundane consistently well. That’s what separates those that achieve from those that don’t. Like, look at the world-class athlete. They do the basic training every day regardless of whether they feel like it or not. The best sports team still do the basic training practices and basic drills every practice to make sure that they have it mastered. Going out there and posting 10,000 photos of randomness, inconsistently, all in one day, but not doing it for the 10,000 straight days is way worse. Yeah, yeah,

Jeff McLarty (16:40)
I like the way you said that where it’s about doing the mundane things even when you don’t want to. I think a lot of people wait till they want to do it, but sometimes it just has to get done.

Okay, well we’ve kind of drove down the marketing hole a little bit. I wanted to talk to you about…so you built up a real estate business and then you thought I don’t have enough work to do so I should probably start getting into other companies.

Alex Ward (17:12)
Anything time management related always reminds me of my time when I was at the financial institution. My peers all were getting email access for after hours. I asked my manager, my branch manager, hey, can I get this? And he looked me dead in the eyes and said, if you can’t get your job done in the eight hours you’re here, then that means you’re not doing it effectively.

As a tool as don’t let your don’t let work just drown you outside of here right? Have a life figure out how to optimize your daily activities. And i took that to heart. So i learned through that how to prioritize what’s actually important, what’s not important, how to delegate isn’t doesn’t fit my skill set that i would not be able to achieve in the reasonable amount of time or just really don’t drive any value to what I’m trying to achieve. So able to carry that forward into real estate, to figure out what the end goal is and then what are the actual key metrics to be able to achieve it. And then literally only focus on the key metrics and allow everything else, if it still needs to be done, do it, but it doesn’t take priority in the if that’s what waits, that’s what waits.

So then that’s how I grew my real estate business, then took over the brokerage, decided the first year that I didn’t want to also sell, because I wanted to show that I was broker, learn everything about being a broker. Realized really soon I had capacity to do both. both. So nine months in, I was like, I’m now going to also be selling and brokering and it’ll give me a different value prop when I’m talking to potential new realtors to our office, because I’ll still be able to give them a perspective of an and be able to coach on how I was successful.

So then that was the first layer of adding in two businesses. getting out of COVID, realizing a lot of efficiencies were created during COVID. So in 2022/ 2023, partnered with the founder of Attaboy. And then just figuring out what are the time commitments going to How would those impact what I’m currently doing and how would I be able to add them in. Then just timeblock. Put on what’s the priority of the day, what’s the priority of the end then learning what doesn’t need to be done, going in that.

And then three years later, created enough efficiencies in that there was another additional amount of time, add in another business saying, ok, how is this gonna fit in? And realizing that they can all actually be done in conjunction with each other and they can be blocked down from each other. It will amaze people to know I do not use a home computer after 5 p.m.

Jeff McLarty (20:03)
And you still keep all of that organized?

Alex Ward (20:06)
Yeah, now I have my iPad, my phone, so I’m still answering phones, text messages. I will use my computer if there’s something like in the moment that has to be done, like writing up an offer or reviewing an offer or those like main main things. But otherwise, if it’s five, I’m at home. I am reactive to the day because I was able to be so well planned and proactive in the day ahead of time.

Jeff McLarty (20:33)
I think you struck a good balance between being efficient, getting a lot done at work, but then you also committed to family time and having that balance, I think, because a lot of people have trouble stopping, I guess, at five. They feel like there’s always one more thing they could squeeze in and then it’s seven, eight o’clock before they’re checking out for the day.

Do you have any thoughts on balance you’d like to share? How you balance growing the business and enjoying life at the same time?

Alex Ward (21:03)
I’ve always been a massive believer if you are not having fun in what you do You shouldn’t be doing it. If it doesn’t give you purpose and joy, then you are in the wrong business. You are in the wrong industry. That might be why I was offered the severance, because I gave that advice to my peers back at the financial institution quite a bit and told them they had transferable skills and if they would find a job somewhere else, if they really wanted, that they would probably like a lot better.

As someone who loved their day-to-day job and just like thoroughly enjoyed coming to work, so I didn’t have an issue. But yeah, I’m a huge, massive believer. You have to love what you’re doing. And the second that you don’t love what you’re doing, all you’re doing is killing yourself.

Jeff McLarty (21:47)
I think that’s good advice I’ve tried to live that but it’s always good to have a reminder of if you’re not having fun like why are you doing the thing you’re doing.

Alex Ward (21:56)
Yeah, there’s always another opportunity to make money. The world is abundant in money, and in the possibilities. Like it’s all around you. If you’re open to it, you will see opportunity left, right and center. Abundance is everywhere. So why would you put yourself into a negative situation, eliminating all the abundance because you’re now in a negative mindset, negative viewpoint where all you see is negativity. And then you’re like, the world sucks. Well, no wonder it sucks because you’re viewing it in a light that sucks, right?

Jeff McLarty (22:32)
I’ve always known you to be a pretty positive guy. Is there things that you actively do to maintain your positive outlook on life?

Alex Ward (22:39)
I honestly don’t believe there’s anything negative that happens in the world. Though in the moment it might be perceived as a negative, but there is always good that will come from it. Obviously we’re doing this today on a day where there is potentially a new world war occurring. But On your day to day life? Like, being let go from the financial institution in the moment, it was crushing. It took me a while to get over it. But through it was opportunities that I would never have been able to receive or achieve if I was still there, because I wouldn’t have been able to see them or I wouldn’t have been able to say yes to them.

Jeff McLarty (23:18)
That’s awesome. And I think a lot of people almost want to take the pessimistic view. People want it to be hard. And I think when you change your attitude, which you very much seem like you have, it doesn’t have to be hard. It can be fun, even though it’s work. I think that’s a different way of going through life.

Alex Ward (23:35)
Yeah. You’re in control of your feelings, you’re in control of your perception, you’re in control of how you react to the world around you. So why would you not choose to react positively?

Jeff McLarty (23:45)
I always liked the Buddhist teaching about…things happen and they’re not good or bad. How you choose to react to them makes them good or bad. And I think that’s a lesson that’s well learned is every single thing that happens can be viewed in either light. Like you said, being let go from the bank initially was maybe not a high point for you, but it’s allowed you this opportunity going forward and all the things you’ve built.

Alex Ward (24:09)
100%. And that’s why I love the quote from Henry Ford, whether you believe you can or cannot, you are right.

Jeff McLarty (24:16)
Yeah, that’s a great quote. What advice would you give somebody who is looking to go from their first business to starting to multiple businesses, or move into their second or third business?

Alex Ward (24:30)
If you’re going to keep learning, keep learning who you are and what your skillset is and what you can obtain and what your abilities are. And then see if, though, what you’re looking at diving into aligns with who you are and what you’ve learned about yourself. Because, there’s a lot of opportunities out there that just might not be right for you, and then will put you into a negative position. But there’s other ones out there that you might not think, but they just align with you so well that you’ll absolutely crush it.

Don’t have the thought of, I can make so much if I do this business, because every business can make money. Every business can provide lifestyle. Every business can provide freedom, but every business can cripple you. The yin and the yang is so true in every business.

So know yourself better than anyone else knows you and then find businesses aligned with who you are.

Jeff McLarty (25:32)
Makes a lot of sense. Doing things for money you can do for a little while. Doing things you love is what gives you energy and makes for a good life, I think.

Alex Ward (25:39)
Yeah, which is why all my businesses are people related businesses. And they have lots of change. I have the ability to handle change incredibly well. In fact, when things are just going normal, it almost feels like that’s when something’s wrong, because I’m just so used to adapting to change. I have picked businesses that are always changing, always have people related in them. Because I know that’s what I’d be successful at. Sitting behind the desk number crunching all day would kill my soul. It would just crush my soul. I could not do it.

Jeff McLarty (26:09)
From all your experiences, what’s one thing do you think more people should understand people-based businesses? Is there something that you think a lot of people get wrong when they’re dealing in businesses like yours?

Alex Ward (26:24)
It’s way more draining than you think. You take on people’s emotions, you take on their excitement, you take on their negativity. If you’re not built to be able to do it, you won’t last long in a people-based business, which is why serving is hard, right? The expectation when a server is getting blamed for their meal coming out wrong, and they’re not the one that cooked it, but they’re the ones that deal with it, right?

Jeff McLarty (26:51)
I’ve always thought everybody should spend at least a few months in the service industry. I think that’s good orientation to the way the world works and how to treat people.

Alex Ward (27:01)
People-based businesses can be really emotionally draining, especially when your people…you’re dealing with their finances and their livelihoods too. It can be incredibly rewarding, but very, very draining. And it doesn’t just impact you, it impacts the people that are closest around you. So if you’re married, your spouse, your children, they all feel it too.

Jeff McLarty (27:28)
100%. Is there one piece of advice or wisdom that you would like to share with your pre-entrepreneurial self?

Alex Ward (27:38)
Oof, then I’m going back to when I was like six? What would be a piece of advice I would give myself? Never stop learning who you are and have faith in the vision you have for yourself.

Jeff McLarty (27:51)
I like that. That’s great advice. Well, we’ve covered a fair bit of ground today. Is there anything else you want to share with people or think people should know about business, either with their getting into it or trying to grow to a multi-size operation?

Alex Ward (28:06)
Reach out to a professional coach like yourself.

Jeff McLarty (28:09)
Well, I appreciate props there.

Alex Ward (28:13)
Yeah. I’ve been, I will be transparent. I have never had a business – a hired business coach. I’ve had lots of mentors in my life who have helped guide me and have always been there to support me so I can use them as coaches. But I, if you’re not fortunate enough to have that in your life, when you’re starting out, hire someone like Jeff.

Jeff McLarty (28:39)
I appreciate that, Alex. And, I mean as much as it may seem like shameless self-promotion, the reason I was able to build businesses is because other people mentored me. And not everybody has that in their life where they can just call somebody who’s done it before and say like, I have this staff problem, what do I do and how do I move the business forward? So I think one way or another bringing mentorship into your business either by approaching others that have been doing it longer, working with a business coach or leadership development person is well worth the consideration. So thanks for that.

Awesome. Well I really appreciate you making the time. I know you’re a busy guy and it’s always fun to talk business with guys who have gotten into many businesses like yourself. Thank you very much for coming on the podcast.

Alex Ward (29:13)
I’m hoping after this it bumps me up to 33.

Jeff McLarty (29:28)
Yeah, we’ll get you right to the top. We’re going to drive you to like influencer number one.

Alex Ward (29:32)
Perfect, perfect.

Jeff McLarty (29:34)
That’s awesome. Cool. Well, I think we’ll wrap it up there, but thank you very much, sir. We’ll talk to you soon.

Alex Ward (29:39)
Have a great day, Jeff.

Jeff McLarty (29:41)
That’s all for us here at the Owners Roundtable. If you’re looking for more support for your business or your own ownership journey, you can contact us at www.focalpointedmonton.com. Thanks for pulling up a chair, and don’t forget to like and subscribe so you don’t miss out on great success stories, misadventures, lessons and advice from real business owners just like you.