Chapter 51

This was Thursday, the day I had planned on being in San Antonio, but was talked out of it by Jim, the new Assistant Regional Manager. I had just spoken to Julio about how he was going to begin handling the increased workload while being observed by the Assistants in my office as well as Georgia, Donte, and Vicki.

I looked at the ladies and didn't have to ask what was going on. They were typical women and told me.

The two Foxworth women were sitting there with their feet up on the conference table. Danny said, "Mooney is throwing money around as if it's toilet paper today. You know us women; we go through a lot of toilet paper."

Danny rearranged herself, and said, "Tell you what, Snuggins, I want the job managing the office that handles all these condos. Chica wants the Sales Manager job, and knows that she can plug in and become the richest crazy babe in the system. This is it, Brad. You have two dedicated people willing to take over this new venture. This is bigger than San Jose that Kelly wants so much."

My cell phone rang and I noticed that the area code was for San Antonio.

"Johnson."

Jim's voice came over the phone, "I'm sending you a picture of the first sale for this office. We have processed it and its being checked by Finance. We have the Title Office already working the order so that the closing can happen quickly if everything checks out. We're now a viable office. Hurry, come see what all we have accomplished."

"Does that mean tonight, tomorrow morning, or Monday morning?"

"Monday sometime would be good. We should be processing more sales from the weekend by then."

"Well, Jim. It doesn't make any difference how many you've sold. What makes a difference is that you're involved in the local economy. Now, make sure your man is home with his wife tonight. You do the same. Go back out and bring in more sales tomorrow. This is what Mooney does."

"I want to re-emphasize this, Jim. I know that you're excited about opening this experimental office, and I also know you and your people will be successful there. You do have a 'home' with a wife, and home office that needs your oversight. You have to be there at least one day a week, and two would be even better. This is how to grow your Assistants. Take one with you to see the experiment and keep taking pictures. I'll send this off to Indy so that they can dance around their pot of gold. Remember, though, take care of home first or all the regions in the world won't be worth anything."

Jim said, "You're right. I heard the near panic in my Assistant's voice because he's still unsure of himself. I also heard my wife's voice as she's becoming strained that I haven't been home. Maybe I should take her with me some of the time."

"Now you're talking, you're making enough now to fly her first class if you want. Those tiny percentages don't seem like a lot, but you're talking some heavy bread if you take a tiny percentage of several hundred million. I'll send you to someone who does some major investing and trading when your bank account begins to bulge. You'll have even more money to spoil your wife with."

"Okay, okay, Brad, I'll let these guys be on their own this weekend, and let Don be their leader. Between Jack and Don, they should be able to find another sale or two. Jack now has seven salespeople and is giving a class on finding listings as we speak. He says these are all secrets and techniques he learned from someone named Chica. I'll have to come out to LA and meet some of these people. Thanks for keeping my head out of the clouds. This is all very exciting."

I hung the phone up and sat back in my chair, hoping that I was able to get my point across. Chica was now sitting up, and said, "That's how Andy and our wacky cousin have had a successful marriage. The man insists his people have time with their families and he's always doing something with his crazy wife and kids. That's why he doesn't want to be a Regional Manager. He's afraid that he might lose some of the crazy happiness he has. Danny and I want that when we finally find our soulmate. You would have been a good addition to the Foxworth clan. I think that we would have lightened up your intensity. Maybe not, but I can tell you that there is an overabundance of sexy Foxworth women who would have joined up to give you a harem."

Kelly was laughing when she said, "The man already has a harem. His two wives and their toy are truly amazing. He's virile enough to have gotten all three pregnant. I wonder if that's another of his strategies."

Danny sighed, "Be still my heart. A bunch of Foxworth women are itching to find the guy who will gather them all and give them babies to contribute to the clan. I think several are going to get together with a cousin who may become the most fucked man in California."

"Girls, Girls, watch your language. I have to be concerned about Georgia's, and my sweet driver, Vicki's innocent ears."

Chica grinned and winked at Vicki as she joked, "Do you mean you haven't whomped the slant-eyed chink? I guess your women haven't given her the taste test yet."

"Alright you two, enough with being vulgar. This is still a business office. We've already screwed around enough to have half the day go by. Danny, find out what the status on the first condo complex next to the country club is. Chica, see if you can find the first six months production of the last ten offices Mooney opened. I want to know the number of custom, inventory, and pre-owned sales. That's a tall order, but it will have some good information. Joan, check on the progress of getting the infrastructure complete for the new north office, as well as the three condo properties we'll be offering. I need to have the demographics surrounding the other two properties to see if they might be candidates for some ultrahigh-end homes.

I spun around to look Kelly in the eye, "You should have the status of the San Jose office construction, as well as the four properties we're planning on opening with. You need to have a plan on how you're going staff your office with the key people. You're still three to four months away from opening, but now's the time to start looking around for people."

I grinned at Georgia, "Can I look at the daily summary for the regions we're working? I have this feeling that I'm missing something."

The woman said, "I took all the offices and put the items you look at most in a spreadsheet. There are three offices that have excelled the past two weeks. I highlighted them, but their numbers show what's important. They were stronger this past week than they were before, and they are really going crazy this week."

I looked at the spreadsheet and whistled. Seattle, Reno, and San Francisco have all gone ballistic. I knew Taz in Reno was really building his sales, but not as high as he is showing. The man had his personal problems in hand and was managing his office the way a Manager should and that's why I wanted him to become an Assistant Regional Manager. Kenneth Martin in San Francisco had come in to an office in disarray, but wasn't bothered by it and began doing everything I suggested. The results were showing and it was easy to know that the San Francisco office would be posting numbers up near LA soon.

Kurt Hosto in Seattle wasn't necessarily a surprise, and was showing how he planned to increase sales in all areas of his business. The spreadsheet showed the number of sales, the average sales price, and broke the sales down into custom, inventory, and pre-owned. His custom sales were extremely high whereas the inventory home sales weren't the usual percentage.

He was my first call. "Hey, Kurt, I wanted to congratulate you on your sales numbers. You've surpassed what the office was doing before it went rogue on us."

Kurt said, "We're doing well, but the inventory home sales still suck. We're busy enough that our crews are busy building custom homes. If you've watched payroll, I have three new decorators and two new architects. Do you have any suggestions for my inventory home problem? They weren't built well, and still need to be cleaned up. The salespeople don't want to show them. Give me a hint."

"What I did in LA was to hire a handyman company, and have them fix all the problems, one home at a time. The handymen can do some work to doll up the house to make it more appealing while they are at it. If any have basements, and they are unfinished, make them a combination family room, laundry room, and a partial workshop. Make sure you put a bathroom in down there too. Make the garages look like a living room with sealed floors, a nice workbench with good lighting, and make sure all garages have automatic doors with remotes. Redo the landscaping to rival your models. You'll be jacking the price of the home up another ten to fifteen grand, but so what. You'll be selling them so that you can build more inventory homes. Make sure you have one of each model you like best when you build them."

Kurt said, "I'll begin that today. That's a good idea, because I can charge that to the house and not payroll, and get it all back when we sell the house. Let me work on that and see how it works."

I told the man, "I'm going to have Taz Stribling, my Assistant Regional Manager, stop in to work with you. The man knows more about running an office than most. Let him listen to you, and then see what his suggestions are. Anyway, I wanted to call you and tell you how great you're doing, and I think you're on the edge of doing even more."

Kenneth Martin in San Francisco was my next call. "Hey, Ken. I wanted to give you a call to compliment you on your increases in sales. According to the sales sheets, you're selling a great balance between custom, inventory, and pre-owned homes."

Ken said, "My secret is easy. I focused construction on increasing their crews with good men so that we could keep up with the custom orders and be building more inventory homes at the same time. I took your advice and have been really making the inventory homes special. This has been a great learning experience for me because inventory homes that now have all the extras are selling faster than those left fairly plain. I also had that lady from Oakland come over to give us some classes on listing pre-owned properties, and that really helped. She kept bringing some real good-looking women the second week she was here. I've gone out with a few of them so far, and I have to tell you that the Foxworth women are a lot of fun to be around. I'm going out with three of them this weekend. I'll bet I laugh for two days straight."

"It's good to know you're progressing so well, Ken. Kelly says that you two talk often, and I heard that you've been talking to Sheila in Salt Lake City too. It's smart to keep learning from other Managers. The only thing I'd like you to do is to start training one or two Assistants because we're going to need more people out here. Your city is close to needing a second office, and you know the San Jose office will help stir up even more business. Find some new talent for Mooney."

"I'll do that, Brad. I've been so focused on building sales here that I've let some other things go. I'll get someone started right away."

"It's been great talking to you, Ken, and congratulations again on your sales. Keep increasing them and you'll have a very happy office."

I took a bathroom break and filled my coffee mug. Kelly said, "You need to consider feeding the office today," when I came back to the office. "Everyone thought that you'd be gone today, so the place is nervous and jerky by you being here."

"Do the Subway thing, and bring me something. You know I'll eat about anything."

Kelly grinned and left the office to talk to Connie at reception.

I needed to talk to Taz, so I dialed his number. The receptionist was all smiles over the phone and said that she thought he hadn't left for lunch yet.

"Hey, Brad. Just the man I wanted to talk to. Kurt from Seattle just called to ask me a question, and said I was going to be his Regional Manager now. Give me a clue, my man. What's the deal?"

"That's one reason for my call, Taz. First is to congratulate you on the increase in business. You've really turned that office around. You have your business sense back now that your personal problems are resolved."

Taz said, "I got rid of one problem and now I have another. This crazy woman you hooked me up with is demanding that she move in with me. I told her I only had a tiny one bedroom apartment, and she said that would be fine. She told me the only space we needed was the bathroom and bedroom. I asked her if she wanted to get married and she dressed me down like I was some Army buck private. She told me that she wasn't marrying me or anyone else until she was properly proposed to. I did the whole thing. I bought a ring, took her out to dinner, took her to a beautiful tourists' park, and did the whole getting on one knee and showing her the ring thing. She laughed at me, Brad, and then climbed all over me and we ended up making love on the ground in the park. Why we didn't get arrested is beyond me. Rose is one of the craziest women alive. Her sister, Sheila, came up to visit and wanted to share me. I ran. Her mom came up to visit Rose, and was as nutty as her daughters. Rose won't marry me, but she's insisting on us cohabiting. What do I do?"

"You can afford a bigger place now if you want to, so get it and let her move in. She may want to see how compatible you two are before she puts the final seal of approval on the joining."

"The other reason I wanted to talk to you is to have you work Seattle, Portland, and Salt Lake City for me. You'll receive the Assistant Regional Manager's commissions and bonuses, but you would mostly be helping these people learn how to increase sales. You know how to do it and are proving it. Seattle is really showing some awesome increases. You can help Portland get up to speed, and since you know Sheila in Salt Lake City, you can work with her and Rebecca. Use your company credit card for air travel, and don't stay out more than two nights a week. Now's the time to increase your dependence on your Assistant. Maybe a second Assistant would be good as well."

"Thanks for your confidence in me, Brad. You've helped me more than you'll ever know. I'm excited about the opportunity to do more with Mooney. I'll have to hogtie Rose and take her with me if you decide to move me."

"You may not have heard, but the company gave me the South Central Region, in addition to the Northwest and California/West Coast. What else you may not have heard is that they failed to tell me that we're opening an office in San Antonio, and I've been busy getting that ready. I thought of moving you down there, but I knew that you were just beginning to spin your office up, so you're better off there and can get a taste of being a Regional while working your local office. So as you can see, having those extra Assistants is a good thing. Go see Portland next week. Give them a call today or tomorrow to tell them that you're coming. I'll give them a call to let them know that you'll be acting as my Assistant Regional. I'll have Connie send you all her applications that will feed you information on your offices so that you'll have it at a glance. It's something to look at every morning to give you something to talk to your Managers about. Have your secretary give Georgia a call so that she can help you out with some inside information. Your secretary and your receptionist will be good intelligence gatherers. That's why mine are always calling."

"Wow, there's a lot to learn, isn't there, Brad? I'll learn and I'll report the way you report on your visits with me. I like the way you're so open with me and probably all the Managers. It does make sense, doesn't it?"

"Let me give Portland a call to let them know that you'll be coming. Call me if you need advice on anything."

I called Portland and talked to Phil Mackey, the Manager. He was happy to know Taz would be coming as he had a lot of questions for him. I told him to never wait to ask questions. That's what telephones and e-mails were for.

That was done, so I took a restroom break, washed my hands, refilled my coffee mug, and sat at the conference table to eat my Subway. Kelly wanted to know what my thinking was for her and Sheila. She said, "I heard what you were talking to the Foxworth girls about, and I know that you want to move Sheila. Who's going to go where?"

"I don't know yet, Kelly. I'd really like to keep you close so that you could go to the North LA office, or maybe take on the condo office, which will be the biggest office in LA. I think that office will actually become the highest volume office in the company. The overall responsibility is almost overwhelming. You will probably have close to two thousand residents just in them when all four towers are built. I'm figuring about another two thousand in the smaller buildings, and about a thousand apartments for caregivers, housekeeping support, and first responders. There will probably be sixty-four businesses on the outer buildings if there are eight per block. More vendors and a couple of small eating and drinking establishments will be inside the complex for residents. That office will manage the upkeep for all the buildings and complex, manage security, and also be collecting the rent. Add to that the management and administration of the other condo complexes that we will have throughout the area, and you're talking a really big job."

"That is big," Kelly said, almost in a whisper. "How will you compensate a Manager for all of that?"

"First of all, that Manager would have people in charge of each group or function. They would need to have a constant reporting system for numbers and information. This would be a case where remote maintenance people would have to report each day. We will have a Maintenance Supervisor Instead of a Construction Supervisor. The sales office would be focused on condos in our complexes and any other condominiums in the area. You would have to figure on about twenty percent of six to eight thousand units annually changing hands within our own complexes, and then the turnover in maids, cooks, butlers, chauffeurs, and possibly bodyguards. Sales will be for new condos when we can find the space, and pre-owned condos. We won't be selling pools, but we will be selling insurance. The Title group will be just as busy, and Finance will be selling money the same as they do now."

Kelly asked, "What kind of volume do you think that office will have?"

"Everything that Connie has researched for me and made projections on is too far off the wall to plan on yet. I'll have a better idea when we begin selling units."

Kelly was sort of sprawled in her chair with a look of confusion on her face. She told me, "The new north office has been started. The permitting went right through, and Julio has a lot of men working there. He says he can have a duplicate of this building up in two months, so that office will be opening right after San Antonio, and may possibly beat San Jose by a month. Julio told me that the infrastructure for the developments has already been contracted out and it's being done right now. He says that we should have models and inventory homes in two months."

Joan had come in with a binder and laid it in front of me. "This is today's current listing of all Mooney's Managers, along with their bios and appraisals. I put all the Regional Managers in the first position of each Region. You have the binder with the Assistants in it, and your secretary and the receptionist will keep both binders current. Since you promoted Taz Stribling to Assistant Regional today, that will have to be added. I couldn't find anything in the company's directives about an Assistant Regional Manager. Where is that defined?"

I laughed as I said, "I made it up when I needed to make Jim less than a Regional Manager, but more than one of my Assistants helping me out. I sort of figured their income level should be a percentage step down from mine, but would have to be adjusted up or down depending on their performance. Dorothy will pick it up, but the big guys won't even notice. It seems like the perfect thing to do while you're trying to make up your mind whether or not the person can do the job. The other thing it does is let that person figure out how to handle the position and manage his time. You're only responsible for your office one day, and then you have four or five other offices you need to teach how you want them to run the next day. Those people learning to be Regional Managers need to slowly learn how to do the entire job instead of just dumping them into it. I've hopefully made a way for this to happen."