I'm Ken McElroy partner in companies.
Hi, I'm Ross McAllister, one of the principles of MC Companies.
Well, I started out because of financial freedom, I wanted I wanted time.
That's what I wanted.
It's my life's work.
I consider what we do a mission, and that is to provide
high quality, affordable housing to all of our residents
and to positively impact the communities that we own and operate in.
So Ross and I met on a board called the Arizona Multi Housing Association,
and we were both board members and he had his own company
and I had another company and I said, hey, let's meet for coffee.
And we ended up merging.
Oh, we knew each other from we've known each other since 1990, probably.
I think we were on the board of directors of the Arizona Multi Housing Association.
When he started his firm here in the Phenix area
and I was located in Tucson, we would talk periodically about what challenges
we were each facing because we were in different markets
and got to be good friends between those two.
Well, I think it works because Ross and I have very,
very different roles, so he is in charge of tax and legal and construction,
and I handle operations and I'm more
the growth side of the business in acquiring deals, et cetera.
And so he likes to deal with the loans, and I like to deal with the equity
and the investors.
And so I think we've found ourselves in our own lanes and kind of moving along.
The company is growing rapidly.
And and we have an incredible culture.
And I think that's largely because we don't get in each other's way.
I think it works for for several reasons.
One, we we we have total respect for each other's abilities.
We are totally aligned in the way that we evolve we want to accomplish.
I think one of the reasons it works is because we live in two separate towns
and we don't get in each other's way.
And we have no choice but to rely on each other
and to give each other the space they need to do what they need to do.
So we have disagreements all the time,
just like any relationship or any partnership,
whether it's marriage or work or whatever, and but they're always respectful.
So in other words, whenever whenever
we have something that we want to do or don't do, we're listening.
We're actually listening. We're not too fixed on our positions.
And and I actually believe in Ross and I believe in what he's saying.
And I don't necessarily always agree with him, but I respect
where he's coming from, because I think he's always got a very good point.
And so and I think he does the same thing.
So so we have an incredible relationship because we both listen to each other
and we both respect each other.
And overall, it's gone very, very well
in the entire history of 15 years together.
I can count on one hand the times where, you know,
we both have basically haven't come to an agreement.
We have disagreements all the time.
Again, we never have any disagreement about the big things or rarely do.
And we've been known to yell and scream at each other.
But we also, like I said, we have mutual respect for each other and how we feel.
And that never we never let that waver through all of that.
We discuss, figure out how to go forward from there.
I think what happens with most people as they get into partnerships too quickly,
so without knowing the expectations of the other person, I've seen this over
and over and over and over.
It's very, very hard to find a good partner like I have.
And we have and and I think that
what happens is people they are super focused on the money
and they're super focused on the sales piece of it.
Yeah, we're going to do this. We're going to do that.
Then when it comes down to it,
expectations are met.
So, in other words,
you know, somebody that's in charge of sales isn't selling
or somebody that's in charge of the profitability or the accounting,
you know, isn't handling that well.
And so or perhaps maybe it's buying things inside of the partnership,
new cars, new houses, new this, new that, the direction on the cash.
And I think with with Ross and I, we were very aligned around that.
You know, this isn't my first partnership.
It's not Ross's first partnership.
And so you have to be aligned and you have to ask a lot of really
tough questions and and deal with those before you get into a partnership.
But I think what happens is a lot of times
they it's like it's like a beginning of any kind of a relationship.
When you meet somebody for the first time, it's all great.
And then, like a lot of relationships,
if if if things aren't met during the course of the relationship,
then it gets worse over time of communications or et cetera, things erode.
And and so the you have to find somebody
that's one I think very different than you and likes
to handle things independently and and also does them.
And and then meet regularly.
We have this saying in our company that, you know, frequency of interaction
is very, very important to to any kind of a relationship.
And so I think Ross and I are very, very aligned.
So before you get into any kind of partnership,
make sure that you grill each other and that you're not pushing people
outside of their comfort zones as well.
I think you have to realize that people are people and that they have
their own feelings and abilities and they have their own things going on.
And you have to respect all the time.
You have to be able to give them that space.
You have to trust that they're going to do what they say they're going to do.
I think it's important to be in partnership
with people who are different than you and have different abilities.
If you don't have different abilities, then you learn.
You learn how to augment that and support it in another way.