Wendy Bartley Career Background
What is your biggest career achievement?
- My most significant career accomplishment involves establishing a streamlined structure with my team to centralize the most crucial members in the student housing sector, Portfolio Sales and Marketing Managers (PSMs). Centralization was driven by the need for consistency amid portfolio growth and increasing client engagements. This structure allows PSMs to focus exclusively on leasing and marketing, fostering creativity and driving performance. The restructure was implemented in September where we introduced new workflows, resources, reporting mechanisms, and refined job descriptions that we've been working on since January. Notably, the initiative has resulted in fewer underperforming communities compared to previous years, demonstrating the success of our centralized approach in achieving organizational goals and optimizing the performance of our student housing portfolios. Having a centralized team that solely focuses on leasing and marketing KPIs and strategy, we have been able to attract a handful of new business as well.
Given your past experiences, what event/ project or moment would you revisit and how would you go about it differently based on your current frame of mind?
- My first leadership opportunity came right after college. I got offered a Community Manager position to oversee a 609-bed community in downtown Phoenix that served 4 universities and targeted a wide array of different demographics. This community had an established team, was not performing in leasing, and was pretty run down. I remember feeling happy and excited to take on a challenge, but also scared of failure. I was thinking "Wow how did I get this job?! I am only 23, what if I'm too young?" I remember on my first day I wanted to make sure I picked out the perfect outfit so that I could earn the respect of my team right off the bat. I came in confident and started delegating. However, the team didn't need someone to come in and start bossing everyone around, they needed someone to come in and care about them. Ask them how their day is going. Months later, I realized this through trial and error and began to focus on building each unique, individual team member. I am grateful for this experience and would not change a thing because this has made me the leader I am today.
From your perspective, what is the industry lacking to support the modern renter and how do you plan to help supply that need?
- Our industry is lacking empathy- it happens every year. At the end of every preleasing season, the beginning of every renewal/spring season, every move-in day, and every red light call for communities that are not performing, we are always asking what is missing. Occasionally, we get too into the weeds and believe that there is an external, extensive reason why a community is not performing in leasing and why we are not attracting the modern renter.
Customer service and personal, meaningful conversations will never stop trending. More than ever, modern renters care about living in a place where they feel comfortable and know that we care. Living in a brand new building certainly has an impact on where they want to live, but when there are 5 new communities in the market, what sets them apart from all the other competitors?
From the moment they walk into the door to interact with our team members through taking a tour, follow-up calls, move-in day, residents events, etc they need to know that our team cares! At Cardinal, we will prioritize adequate training and continuous reminders through multiple touchpoints to ensure our teams know how powerful empathy can be.