Click to play episode
"every relationship I'm in is a 50-50 dynamic. And so if it's not going well, 50 % of that is my responsibility too
Key Takeaways
- ◆Corey and Adam matched their intrinsic skills to build the partnership: Adam identified real estate opportunities and ran them successfully, while Corey took people and applied processes to scale, which became their competitive edge.
- ◆Complete Realty moved from 100 percent outsourced construction and maintenance to doing it all internally, which improved cost structure, speed, and quality while creating a secret sauce in the market.
- ◆When buying distressed assets in North County St. Louis, the extra mile in craftsmanship and quality costs about the same mentally and financially as cutting corners, but yields less turnover, happier residents, and stronger long-term relationships.
- ◆Complete Realty runs a monthly Culture Callout system where any employee can nominate any other employee for living out a core value, with winners receiving a bonus on their paycheck.
- ◆Corey operates from a flat leadership style where his job is to remove obstacles for people, create growth opportunities, and review outcomes without outcome bias by asking whether people need upskilling or if the process itself is broken.
- ◆Tell your team the why behind high-level goals, not just the what, because telling someone to paint a clown without explanation means they might paint Bozo while you're picturing Ronald, leading to dramatically different outcomes.
- ◆Start solving business problems by taking 50 percent responsibility for every dynamic, especially when something is new to you, because that moves you past blaming others and unlocks the bigger issues you keep hitting.
Go deeper
The 1% Problem That Costs Everything
Read the articleFree Resource
Download the 3-page practical guide
About this episode
Corey Boxx on scaling a $100M company without losing the culture that built it.
Frequently asked questions
What does 'vertically integrated' actually mean in Complete Realty Solutions' business model?
Complete Realty Solutions brings construction, maintenance, and property management entirely in-house instead of outsourcing to third-party contractors. Corey explained they used to outsource 100% of construction and maintenance, but the slow turnarounds and quality issues forced them to build those capabilities internally. Now they control the entire process from asset acquisition through construction to ongoing property management, which lets them move faster, control quality, and take on heavily distressed properties other firms won't touch.
What is the Culture Call Out program Corey mentioned?
Culture Call Out is a monthly recognition program where anyone at Complete Realty Solutions can nominate a colleague for living one of the company's core values. Winners get recognized publicly in front of the whole team and receive a bonus. Corey says it helps the team focus on the positive in a business where property management and problem management are basically the same thing, reminding everyone that 99% of things are actually going according to plan.
What does Corey mean by a 'flat leadership style' and how does it work in practice?
Corey describes his role as working with his team rather than above them, saying he largely works for his people by removing obstacles and creating growth opportunities. In practice, this means Complete Realty Solutions doesn't make unilateral decisions. When someone identifies a problem, they bring it to a team meeting where the group triages it together, develops procedures, and figures out how to measure success. Corey focuses on tracking the leading and lagging metrics while his team owns the day-to-day execution.
How did Adam end up partnering with Corey in the business?
Adam was Corey's real estate agent starting in 2016 and agreed to manage Corey's first few rental properties. By March 2020, Adam had to either fire Corey as a client or officially start a property management company by hiring employees. He chose to hire his first employee right when COVID hit. Later, when Corey wanted to scale his personal real estate portfolio, Adam proposed they partner instead. Adam would focus on acquiring assets while Corey would manage the growing team, combining Adam's real estate expertise with Corey's background in growing people and businesses.
Full transcript
Show
Chad
Welcome to Process Over Pressure. I'm Chad Paris and today's guest is somebody I've had the pleasure of getting to know before the show. A guy building something really special in St. Louis that I think is going to resonate with a lot of entrepreneurs and operators in the trenches. He's the CEO and co-founder of Complete Realty Solutions, a vertically integrated real estate investment and management company with about 50 employees. Over a thousand units under management and a spot on the Inc 5000 list for 2025. What struck me about Cory Boxx is the way he talks about people, culture, and doing the right thing, even when it's hard. Cory, welcome to the show.
Corey Boxx
Chad, thank you so much for that wonderful introduction. And so great to connect with you today.
Chad
Yeah, we're really excited to have you. know, when I've had the pre conversation with you, I was like, you know, this is going to be fun. This guy gets it. He understands he's, you know, he's been there, done that kind of guy. Not an older guy, but he's, he's, he's been through a lot. And, and I think he's, I think he's doing something really cool. And I thought, you know, people out there need to hear this story. That's my passion. We're process over pressure. Strong believer in that. that pressure comes from not having the right process in place. And so I think today's going to be, you know, it's going to be fun. And as we get dive into this, so I'm going to fire away some questions and we'll just dive in and get to know each other and really hope our audience gets to know you and about you and your company and what you're doing up there in St. Louis. It's a beautiful area by the way. love St. Louis. So, so to court.
Corey Boxx
Let's go on the journey.
Chad
Yeah, let's do it. So Corey, tell me back to the beginning, you mentioned you and Adam were investors first, that's what you did, before you started building CRS. And what did that look like? What was going on in your life at that moment when you decided to say, hey, you know what? I'm betting on myself.
Corey Boxx
Yeah, so Chad, full transparency. I wish I could tell you I had a master plan. I knew at seven years old this was the path for me. I had the fortune, my father-in-law, he basically built a life through real estate. The gentleman didn't graduate high school, but built an incredible, beautiful
Chad
Wow.
Corey Boxx
life for himself, Father, my wonderful wife and... I just always admired how he cared himself, how he cared for his family, what he had done to become his own boss. so fast forward to a place in life where my wife and I were fully entrenched in our W-2 jobs. I was working as an executive for an ad agency, ad technology company, and she's a food scientist by trade. And we just started thinking about retirement in the future. And so had an opportunity to... connect with Adam and he was as passionate about, you know, looking at diversifying your income, planning for retirement, buying some real estate. And, so, you know, he was my agent. He started walking properties with me. I look back now and I realized I was that pain in butt, client. I'm, kind of define myself as I'm that high action threshold person, which can be, it'd be a lot for some people in a sense of like, I need a lot of information before I feel comfortable making a decision. I'm a very, I'm not an emotional, action person. So logic drives me the
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
more data I have. feel. And so I liked real estate, you know, from an asset class, what the wealth that's created for people in this world, the meaning of what it does, providing housing for people, I always thought was like, you know, cool. And so Adam helped me walk up, you know, I don't know, probably 20 properties, which is a lot as an agent, especially in my 2016 market was steady and good, like he had other clients to work with. But he was just, he was, you know, good enough in the sense that he was interested in getting started real estate and he was patient with me. So end up buying, you know, my first asset with Adam and I kind of turned to him and just said, hey, you you own a property right now with a four family at the time that he managed for himself. So would you be willing to own mine or manage mine? And he was kind enough to say yes. And I always make the joke that Adam's probably the best salesperson I've ever met because that was 2016. And I kept buying real estate and I guess he had a long angle on me there because while I asked him to manage my first couple of duplexes, I guess somehow in his mind he knew down the road. we were going to partner in business and he was going to get me to manage not only my own properties but his too and ones for others as well. you know so basically over he did he did and you know it came
Chad
He flipped the script on you.
Corey Boxx
down to strengths right I was used to
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
growing people developing people growing businesses managing teams. And he paid his dues in real estate. So really learned how to buy real estate with no capital and networked around our market to really get to know people and build a great name for himself. And so when you look at what intrinsic skills you have between the two of us, his was identifying opportunities, running those opportunities and success as it relates to real estate. And mine was taking people and understanding a greater goal and then applying that to processes of people. So it was a match made in heaven. And what I mean by that is it almost didn't make at the heaven. So 2016, I buy my first property, he has his first property. And you know, I keep buying, I go from one my first year, I buy two my second year, and then I buy three, these are duplexes, right? So my numbers are growing. And ultimately, I get to where I'm in 2020, I have like 18 units that I own. And I just happen to, luck plays a huge factor in things, right? Fortune, you know, called God's plan, called the universe, whatever it is that you know, you resign
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
yourself to. ultimately led me to a place where I just, the market kept getting better, the rents kept going up. And so I was able to take a real look at how I was spending my time and my purpose and kind of what I want to accomplish in life. And through that, I realized like, if I really wanted to like go all in on something, you know, give opportunity to others and just basically not compromise on anything like in terms of my vision or my morals, my values, I had to do it through my own business, right? And so
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
I started planning that. So in 2020, interestingly enough, Adam was at a crossroads. He was going to either fire me as a client and only manage his own properties, or he's going to have to decide to hire somebody, right? And actually incorporate and start officially offering third party management. And so he did that. His first employee hired, interestingly enough, was at March, 2020, which if you guys can all remember, think back to that time period, things were fine until they weren't, right? World shut down and he has
Chad
Yeah, I am.
Corey Boxx
his first, I know, employees paying and he's a father of four girls. young girl so you know he had he had his overhead and responsibilities too and and took that risk and just about the worst time he possibly could right or least as scary as time and and somehow
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
you know like with many things right it worked out i think hard you know hard work and consistent hard work over time smart work pays off. so fast
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
forward, you know, they, went from the, you know, the call like 60 units that made up his portfolio of mine, to 2022, when I was really getting serious about like knowing I wanted to go more into real estate and I had the opportunity basically to walk, not needing a day job at that point. The real estate was going well. so I, I approached Adam said, Hey, I want to get serious about real estate. I'm going to skim my portfolio. and he said, I got a better opportunity for you. What if we partner? business that I've been building. We manage about 200 units right now across six people and you know I would love for somebody to come in and basically take on that management of those people and developing those people. You have a history doing that. And I focus on buying the assets and helping us build up, know, scale our portfolios together. So fast forward to 2026, we now employ over 50 people, you know, that make up our greater team, the vast majority, 95%, 97 % of them are here locally in our single market. And we manage over thousand units, which is a little over a quarter billion dollars in assets. And we become this vertically integrated solution that I think kind of differentiates us in the market where we can control the whole solution basically from beginning to end and you know that has helped us and helped others. Lots of times people come to us with heavily distressed properties or big challenges. They've just had bad experience, they were self-managing or they had bad property management before. and we're able to help them out of those situations. And then on our end, we went from those properties we own to now we own over 150 properties and we're getting ready to close on 102 unit apartment buildings. So it'll take us about 250 units between the both of us, which would represent about a quarter of our portfolio. So while that's all excellent, the truth is like what gets me out of bed, what I enjoy most days is I have a really great team of people that I work with. You know, they hold me accountable just like I hold them accountable and a lot of folks
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
are just big on Our kind of our basis is look, we hire good people that help basically, you know, create good homes so we can, you know, provide housing to good families. And, know, that's the crux of our business. And every day it seems like our goal is just helping folks. And most of my clients are either residents who want good housing for themselves or their family. It's landlords who are just like me, they want diversification, maybe in retirement, little extra cash flow, you know, or they're passionate about getting into real estate, right? And so how do we help those folks? So that's our business, Chad. That's what we do. That's all
Chad
Well.
Corey Boxx
the way fast forward to April 1st today.
Chad
Wow, that's quite a story, quite a journey you guys have been on and to come from where you did and really have a vision. I believe in Devine and the good Lord as well. To navigate that to this spot, you always look back and say, man, there's no way I could have done this on my own. Great story. think you have 50 people now that you employ.
Corey Boxx
Yeah.
Chad
one of the challenges that's out there and real estate and any business is hiring good people. How have you done
Corey Boxx
Mm-hmm.
Chad
that? How have you managed hiring good people and what has been your secret sauce, so to speak? Because managing is one thing, but hiring the right people first is the real challenge.
Corey Boxx
Yeah, I would have to give a lot of credit. I really admire my business partner and I think, hopefully he would say the same thing about me, but him and his wife are just have some of the best hearts. They care
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
about people a lot and they always lead with that first. You know, I wish I was as good as him. I think, you know, I operate under a similar operating system in terms of mentally how I want to take care of people. I care a lot about folks and it's always kind of driven me. you know, sometimes I'm also, you hey, I've always wanted to be a people pleaser, make my parents happy, you know, and
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
make sure the people that I'm working with feel like they're taken care of and they're valued. And it's just so... It's intrinsic to both of us. We just care about people and that ends up like, you know, the old adage is like, right, take care of your people, they'll take care of your customers and then the profit will
Chad
Absolutely.
Corey Boxx
take care of itself. And so just focus on that. Like, treat people how you'd want to be treated. I like a flat leadership style. Today's world, it does not serve well to that top-down leadership to maybe like the 1950s where
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
everyone's scared of the CEO or, your boss.
I
work with my people and largely I work for my people. My job is to remove obstacles for them, create opportunity and growth for them. And so just keeping that forefront of your mind, like how do you make their jobs easier? Like by just improving how they do things and like, you know, basically it's just us helping each other. And so as a result, you know, we've just, we've, we've created this environment where we don't get hung up in outcome bias so much. We kind of look at what can we review in terms of what went wrong, what went right. It, brings down to people and processes, right? We need to either upskill
Chad
Always.
Corey Boxx
somebody. and help them develop or there's a bandwidth issue and there's a missing link in this infrastructure or this process is inefficient. In my opinion, a lot of time it is our business is whack-a-mole in some ways when something else is going well, like sales are going great, right?
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
Operation needs support. And when operations are going great, you want
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
to scale up with sales to take care of those people in terms of compensation. So
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
the way we've gotten to have a good culture is just largely just doing that with folks. We were very intentional on the front end of what's our purpose and what are our core values and we run a monthly kind of internal nomination system. It's called the Culture Callout and basically anybody in the company can recognize somebody else for representing one of our values and they just kind of give them the
Chad
I like that.
Corey Boxx
anecdote or the parable about what they did that represents that value. They get entered into a drawing and they just get a bonus on their paycheck. It's just a great way for all of us to stop.
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
focus on the positive and focus on each other and recognize each other. so you just, you start in our business, property management and problem management are kind of interchangeable, right? Buying assets and scaling businesses is wrought with issues, know, challenges and stresses. So focusing on the positive has been a way that like we realized that like 99 % of things are going according to plan. It's the 1
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
% that we can either amplify in our minds or amplify as a culture that can really kind of like dictate how we all feel. things like that, just making sure we reinforce like when people do well and try not to you know get down on people when they don't you know I think it's just largely being being good to your fellow person just like you would you know friend family neighbor
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
right your colleagues are those same folks for you.
Chad
Yeah, it's so true. know, myself have been an executive for 15 plus years and hiring people and leading people and coaching people. You know, one of the things that's missed a lot in businesses is that there's a lot of money that's spent, you know, areas of the business. And one that usually gets the least amount of money is on the people and developing those
Corey Boxx
That's right.
Chad
people. It's not usually looked at. And I always tell people or clients that I have when talking through them is that, you know, if you, if you, your people are a direct reflection of your company and your, and what you stand for. so if they're not presenting themselves in in a way that you want your company to present or feel like, or people to get that feeling about that, that's a big issue. So that's, that's key. And I like to hear that you're doing that. And, mean, it's, it's, that's a good deal. so, yeah, yeah, I mean, it is right.
Corey Boxx
On the nose, Chad. I just said on the nose, yeah.
Chad
Yeah. And so it happens all the time. I see it all the time. Companies are like, well, we're struggling. I'm like, well, I always ask the question when I, when I meet with them, it's like, well, how much are you investing in your people? like, well, we, you know, we give them bonuses and that. And, and look, money and compensation is great. They have to eat, they have to provide, they have to do all those things too. It's important, but it's, deeper than that. It's a, it's a
Corey Boxx
Mm-hmm.
Chad
sense of connection to the top and what you're trying to do inside that company. That's going to be the. the focal point because they're going to be the people out there carrying the message. They're the ones carrying the mantra, not you. You got it. You got it. They
Corey Boxx
That's right. Yep.
Chad
got to do it. Right. so, you know, one thing you, you know, you grew up, look, you grew up in, North County, St. Louis, you know, that's home for you. You born raised right
Corey Boxx
Yeah.
Chad
there. and now you're buying and renovating in that area. And, and, so, so you're, you know, where you probably pay, play tee ball and, basketball and been in part of the community and have probably tons of friends over there. You've got a kind of full circle moment here. Now you're giving back to the community and investing in property there. What does that feel like? It has to feel good that you're doing that in your community. So, you know, what is it like and what does it mean to be from North County, St. Louis?
Corey Boxx
Yeah, so you know, St. Louis has gone through quite a cycle in my lifespan alone. You know, I think back to when I was a kid and like the, know, 95 to 99 when the Rams just came to St. Louis and all that, right? St. Louis is really at the peak. The Cardinals, the Blues, the Rams, right? We had the greatest show
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
on turf. You know, was such an incredible community to be a part of and it still is, but there's been some shifts, you know? You know, St. Louis has made national news over the last 20 years and it's starting to turn, but for some not great stuff. know, some of
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
the challenges around safety, some of the challenges around some of the impact to our downtown area. And so that is like one of those things where like you kind of have, it tells you who you are. Like, are you going to be a person who leans into it? You're going to be an agent for change, or are you going to be a person who's just going to say, I'm going to pack up, you know, my bag, I kind of got what I've got out of this place. I'm going to move on. So I was door number one. And, know, for me, North County is the area of St. Louis that it won, like you said, a lot, lot of sentimental value. My parents still actually own a home in St. Louis and a large part of our portfolio growth has been in that area. And what I look at is like those individuals have been a backbone of our community forever. You know, the Ford factory used to be over there. Boeing is over in that part of St. Louis and
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
employed a lot of people, but they started changing some of those jobs. And so the economic structure has changed. And so these houses were, you know, people got hit really hard in that area in 2008. And so you've
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
got, had a couple of things come in, right? You have a lot of people. who are disconnected from the community who own those assets and they might have given that community like a slum war type of name, Folks who
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
are looking at just simply as a way to make money. You got the other side of things where just people don't have the ability to afford and really like even represent themselves in a way to like create change and so...
We
wanted to go in, buy these heavily distressed assets, turn them around entirely, turn them into beautiful homes and put good people in them. you know, I look at it this way, it's like, you kind of nailed it with the folks. like, I think everybody at the very least from, you know, from even a third party perspective, like knowing the news and media is probably aware of some like rich, miserable people, right? People have done very well for themselves
Chad
yeah.
Corey Boxx
and they can't seem to be happy. And so it was pretty transparent or apparent to me when I was young that Ultimately, like money is certainly no end all be all. It is largely how you feel about what you do and who you help with it. That's kind of your legacy and how people associate with you and the influence you carry. so, know, I look, I'm certainly by no means the largest, you know, landlord in our community. We're probably the biggest in terms of third party management, but even in that space, we have a lot of work to do. that's it. I feel good going home, thinking about I'm buying one house at a time. I'm buying one apartment building at a time. I'm turning them into nice homes, right? Where people are commenting on how good the craftsmanship, the quality, right? We try to put ourselves in people's shoes and offer solutions for them to improve the experience. So, you know, this is either a stopover for them, you know, in their lives, either into something that's even bigger and nicer, or it becomes a stopover
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
before they own their own home, right? And hopefully, you know, we're creating, we're leading by example and just building something that folks are like, this is what it looks like when it's done right. Now, I want to be transparent, mistakes happen all the time. Our business is always problem management. I tell folks, I won't hear from them for most of the year. Typically, we
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
only interact when there isn't something going wrong. But I encourage everybody to let us know what those things are. We take them seriously, and we continuously review our processes and look to improve where we can. The truth is, I'm tied to these assets for a long time, right? I don't have any desire to go anywhere else here in St. Louis, so it's all the home to me. So, you know, I'm making the bet I have to lay in. So, you know, if you let me know, I'll do my best to turn it around.
Chad
No, it's good. And I think people, know, in today's world that we live, most people make decisions unaformed. They
Corey Boxx
Mm-hmm.
Chad
don't know, right? And they make assumptions and they make, know, for example, you know, when you look at, look at kind of what you do, and let's say you're going in, you're buying some assets that are in an area that, you know, maybe has been there a long time. And there's always people that's negative, right? It's going to say,
Corey Boxx
Mm-hmm.
Chad
You're just taking away from homes and they're not informed, right? They're seeing it out of a lens that's maybe blurry. They don't understand that property value and taking these assets maybe in some areas that are little underprivileged and revamping them and making them nice places to live is really, it's kind of the backbone of starting a change in any city that we're in. for the good.
You're
nailing it.
Chad
It's so much and I think people don't understand that because look, if you dress nice or you put, and when I say nice, I'm not talking about a million dollar suit, but when people change the way they dress or put on something new or it feels good, they feel good about themselves. Same thing with homes, right? You see new, you see change, you see some nice color. It's a reflection and it makes people feel good and it feels like, you know, I'm in a great community. This is a great community. And nobody wants to ever go, well, I live in a terrible community, right? Everybody wants to be in the best community they can live
Corey Boxx
That's right. The home for everyone is it's area of reprieve. It's sanctity for them. It's where they bring and their families. It's where it's ultimately, you know, it's a central human need. And so providing that and giving people that like a step one is foundational to being able to focus on other things in life that allow them to repel themselves forward. You know, I just, my parents are, know, saltwater great people, you blue collar folks. My dad's still an electrician, right, commercial electrician. And with that being stated, it's like, you know, I think about some of those things like, I I'm so fortunate that I had the folks that were abundant with love. But, you know, they had some things go their way. They were able to own a home, you know, in a time period when it was easier to get into it. But that was foundational to where I am. And so, you know, that's how I learned the values. to prioritize time with me, you by having those things
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
in order. so I just, it weighs a lot on me to make sure that we're doing the same things. I hold any of our landlords that we work with to that same level of accountability. I'm aware we can't build the Taj Mahal, but I also, I don't think there's a reason we, if we can improve efficiencies, why not make the additional investment? It's about the same amount of money to cut a corner when you mentally have to put the legwork in and thinking about how you're going to get away with that as it is to go the extra mile. When you actually look at the long-term investment of that extra mile, you get less
Chad
Yep.
Corey Boxx
turnover, you get less upset individuals, you feel like people are getting a better value, the relationship feels better. That's dividends that pays. So it's just a simple, it's a prioritization thing. It's a wisdom thing by no means do I have all the answers, but that one is pretty clear to me.
Chad
My grandfather was a World War II vet. I remember growing up, the thing that he used to say that I love, he said, if you're going to do something, do it right. And if you're going to do it right, do it all the way right. Don't just partly do it. And I'm like, you know, that's so true. Like, why don't we cut corners? Let's just do it right. You know? So...
Corey Boxx
your grandfather says, my father says real quick is my grandfather, my father always says, do it, do it right and be done with it. so that like, it's, funny. They're bar
Chad
Yeah, see ya.
Corey Boxx
from it, some same type of logic. So I grew up in a household of that. So I appreciate that.
Chad
It's, it's nice. It's so true. So you said something, we all are pre-call. were talking and just kind of, know, about the podcast and you said something that kind of stuck with me and I wanted to bring it up and let you kind of talk about it. I thought it was really interesting. You said, you said, let's see the business is a reflection of all the flaw of all your flaws, not just your strengths. When did that hit you? Talk a little bit about that. And when that that's, I think that's a pretty profound statement there.
Corey Boxx
You know, I think one of the things I'm fortunate with or blessed with is the fact that I have some sense of self-awareness and what I mean by that sense of self-awareness is I realize that everything in my life, you kind of think two things, right? Either everything happens to you or you make everything happen. I think you got to decide what camp you fall into. And so all the good stuff and the bad stuff I've made happen in my life. And then also the same thing, every relationship I'm in is a 50-50 dynamic. And so if it's not going well, 50 % of that is my responsibility too. And so I look at those things, the first place you gotta start, and especially if you wanna see real change in your business or your dynamics with individuals, is like, what? Did I not do what, what, is to be reviewed here? Cause we can't go backwards in time, but we can look at commonly, what is, what is my responsibility in this? And sometimes, you know, the simple thing is if it's new to you, round up, take a responsibility for a lot of those things, right? Because that, that ultimately will end up unlocking for you. Some of the bigger issues that you find yourself at the end of the day being like, so and so can't get it right. Or if just this one thing could, you know, this person could just understand, or, know, I can't believe they quit, you know, it took another opportunity. There's a real operative, you know, that's the window for you to look internally and say, if I did things differently, what would they be and how could that have possibly changed the outcome here? And so when you talk about just yourself, it's like, you know, all the things that you value prioritize, your team's going to look where they know you're looking and where you don't, right? Their eyes are going to get, they won't put as much time and attention there. so take
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
understanding those things, taking a feedback loop approach. I was looking at it as like, you know, everything we do, no one has a the ball right I'm up there. can't hold my team account for judgment calls when they're trying stuff, because it's all hypotheses, right? We're gonna try it out, right? Out of that, we're gonna test, right? We're gonna see how that works out. We'll all kind of know did it work or not, right? And then we just feedback that in. Do we need to build that into a process? How do we refine this process? And just keep working on that constantly. Being patient with yourself and your team, that if you work through that,
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
you will lift people up with you too. That's the other part is like, everyone thinks that somehow they just need to get into the right room, or there's this one person around the corner that if they get to know them, right, and that grass is greener mindset robs you of
Chad
Yeah. Yeah.
Corey Boxx
your current joy and your current upskilling of yourself
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
and your people. And so, a huge part to the, just super Evan to me is like, it's not them to know what is in my head. It's me to help them figure out what my vision is and then help them get there. What do I need to do to bridge that gap? And so.
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
Anything that anything that you know, a of a lot of CEOs a lot of people in our society today We got this cool to personally going on a little bit I think everybody's kind of seen it, you know in different ways but it's like, know, they're gonna take credit for all the wins I would also make sure that they take all the credit for all those losses too because Otherwise, you're just gonna hit a wall or ceiling, you know, you're not gonna get better You'll be it you'll be on your own to know no one will have you won't have the respect internally or externally you need to validate You know your your journey
Chad
Absolutely. see, I see, you know, look, one thing I'll say, you know, people being a CEO or being an owner or being a founder or running a business is, you know, there's a lot of pressure on that. Right. And the wins, the good things makes us feel good. And very often a lot of, a lot of CEOs, they love to talk about the wins and they like to, you know, I did that or I did that. And I don't, I don't take that as a lot of people take that as a negative, but I think, think it's a mentality because it makes us, it reassures that we're doing the right thing. But I think what you said there and think so important is even in those losses can be great victories. And so saying to those people like, we messed up here and I own that. And here's how we're going to address it. It makes you, makes you feel natural to your people. And like you're actually got it here. You're listening to them and you're not. You're a human being. You're not going to get, I promise you,
Corey Boxx
Yeah.
Chad
you're not going to get a hundred percent perfect. Not happening. and just
Corey Boxx
Yep. Yep.
Chad
owning that. I tell leaders all the time and I've talked to them is like, vulnerable. That's what people want to follow is a vulnerable leader. Somebody that's, that's okay to say, we tried this. didn't work. And you know what, it was my decision, but we're to go in a different direction. That's okay. don't always have to be the good guy. I want everything. I want everything. Cause that doesn't make you authentic at all.
Corey Boxx
No, to your point there, it accelerates trust and buy in in a lot of ways. One of the things I look at commonly If you give people the sense that they can't fail without punishment or that they're like somehow there's going to be recourse for making mistakes, then you're going to find people trying to those things covered up. Then they get real defensive when those
Chad
Absolutely.
Corey Boxx
things do get brought up. So if you want an environment where people are getting, they're proactively thinking about it you want your people thinking about how they can get better and improve your business, right? Because the role of CEO is not to be the, business shouldn't flow from them entirely. It should flow through them in a lot of ways.
Chad
I know. That's right.
Corey Boxx
with that being the case so like you're that means that you need to give Clear goals and expectations, right? Look into it with them, dig ditches with them, help them understand where they're at, right? And then guidance and coaching to get there, right? To like continue refining that. You know, I had a leader in my life always say, the challenge with telling people, you know, kind of high level stuff or just like, without giving them the why is like going to be saying, Chad, I want you to paint me a picture of a clown. I could be thinking Bozo
Chad
Heh.
Corey Boxx
the clown and you could be thinking it the clown. And that's two different dramatically outcomes. So the guidance matters,
Chad
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Corey Boxx
but your people have to trust that you're going to give them the guidance and you're going to own that out. You know, they have to trust that they can tell you they messed up so you guys can really actually dive into the root cause. Otherwise you get into a self-preservation scenario.
Chad
I think a lot of times, absolutely. think a lot of times I think people get so caught up in the day to day and trying, as a leader and an executive, you have board members that you have to present to and appease and make happy and all those things. That's real world, that's true. But
Corey Boxx
Mm-hmm.
Chad
I think sometimes we get so focused on those things that we forget. I tell people all the time. When I meet with CEOs and business leaders and executives, say, don't forget the, we go back to the block. I call it the block. I'm a sports guy. love blocking and
Corey Boxx
Yeah.
Chad
tackling. Like those little things that we do that sets us up before we get to those board meetings. What have we done in those times to help us be successful? think, you know, look, there's only so much time in a day. And as a business owner, you got to really understand where your time's being spent. Is it, it, and I think that's where AI has been, is a useful tool is what is being spent in your day that's taking away from you to be able to develop the company and develop a company means people, means the process, means redefining the wrongs that's not working and how to make them right. All those things is what a leader should be thinking of two steps in advance for his people to flow. And that's,
Chad
That's a big killer for a lot of companies because they're not able to do that. They're too involved.
Corey Boxx
Completely agree. Completely agree. You know, obviously you want to decentralize everybody be thinking like you do and be able to self solve that that gives your folks a sense of confidence to sense of self worth, you know, and what they do. And just, you know, be part of your legacy, right? In today's world, few folks are going to stay at the same company for 40 years, right? And into retirement pension. So they'll be
Chad
yeah.
Corey Boxx
with you, you know, five years, 10 years, 20 years, maybe all the way the whole journey, but they will probably have another boss and have someone before you. Are you going to be the person they're going to speak highly of that, you know, credit for helping them in life? you going
Chad
Absolutely.
Corey Boxx
be the person that they would say, I got PTSD. I never want to see that, you know, work with in that type of environment with that type of person ever again. So.
Chad
Yeah, absolutely. So another question here I have for you, you're kind of moving into this. You you describe yourself as a fully vertical, not common in your space, not very common at all.
Corey Boxx
Yeah.
Chad
Most people kind of focus on their lane and do one or the other. why did you decide to do that? your model is very different than the norm of out there.
Corey Boxx
Yeah, you know, it's funny. always sell folks a lot of things that we do now was out of necessity, but certainly not a desire. So what I mean by that is desire to create a good product, desire to create a good service and experience, Desire to build a, you know, basically give your team a lifestyle race too, right? Like to let some of the pains subside, right? You'd be improved upon. So, you know, we were, and most people in my space, right? They partner with folks and they outsource certain elements of the business in maintenance and construction. the big one in our business but You know, you don't have to pay attention to the news to understand there's a big demand in the skilled trade labor and as a result, right, there's a becoming a resource constriction that we had to look at really like, how do we get competitive with this, especially to ensure that our residents are having a good experience, our owners are they're asked that they're performing, our teams not kidding, how that. So we went from outsourcing, you know, 100 % of our construction maintenance and now we do that all in house. And so what that allowed us to do was, you know, we can, we can improve our cost structure. So we pass those savings on to others, right? We improve our speed and turn around, which is obviously the second biggest thing, right? When something breaks,
Chad
That's big, yeah.
Corey Boxx
people want it resolved and then quality,
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
right? To be able to warranty and provide quality solutions that you can see behind proudly, right? Cause when it's all disjointed and that kind of that shrink of time that happens from, from baton passing to baton passing, you know, it goes outside of your ecosystem. I can't tell somebody else how to run their business. So we built it and you know, it's one of those things where it has had its challenges. It wasn't my background. I obviously understand business and infrastructure, understand people, process development, but I don't know code on HVAC or... or plumbing.
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
So you had to identify people who were competent in those areas to come in and then be able to provide those solutions and just take some chances out folks. so, you know, that really was... a giant inflection point in our business where we realized like, we built this, we have this like secret sauce now, this competitive advantage in our market where we can do stuff that nobody else can do. And so we can take down heavily distressed assets. We can help people out of scenarios. Cause we can control this piece of our business. so it, know, people buy differences, not similarities is one of my favorite things to remind myself of. it not only differentiated us in our space, but for our own business, it makes it attractive to, know, our, anybody who's of talent who wants to come into an industry like hours working a business like ours and it ensures basically our success and longevity. know, are our values and our mission can expand beyond just what was our initial industry and go to others and so we just wanted to build that in one area and it just basically came down to the element of what does a great business look like, what a great businesses do and and those things became evident. so fear is a bit of a liar. know, the most things you don't know how to do, you know, prepare your research, ask people who've done it before. And then ultimately when you're ready, right, take that step. You never feel like you're entirely ready, but take that step. And you realistically, you look back and you only thing you really kind of think about and ask yourself is why did it take me so long to make those changes? So, you know, that was the biggest element. So, so it just, it's,
Chad
Hear that all the time. Yeah. Hear that.
Corey Boxx
it's just improved us tremendously. Our, our, our, our quality, speed and confidence in our team that we can help has just gone up tremendously as a result.
Chad
That's so good. So I'm gonna kind of shift in a little bit more about you a little bit on this. So this
Corey Boxx
Sure.
Chad
next question. So, you know, look, you got 50 people that work for you. You've got 250 million in assets. You're Inc. 5000. You're about to close on another 102 units, making it up to 250 properties. the next 45 days. So, you know, people listen to this are like, well, how does the even time have to have time to breathe? So what, what, does a wig actually look like for you, Corey? And, and, and kind of walk me through that because obviously you've got a lot going on and you're very successful and it's you and a partner. So,
Corey Boxx
Mm-hmm.
Chad
just kind of real and raw. What does it look like?
Corey Boxx
You know, so now versus build is always different, right? So I'm transparent
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
about that. So, you know, one of the things I understood, and there's a great book out there like called Getting Things Done, it talks about like a lot of times you have to capture, right, what you want to get done. And then you basically create process underneath that. And then I look at like, you know, basically, how do we measure it, right? How do we track it so we can measure improvement, we can measure decline, right? So we can start, it's kind of man in the mirror stuff, right? Like how do I get better than I was yesterday? And so, data and metrics tracking, trying to attribute data and metrics to it, basically every function of our business that can be, you know, qualitatively measured and try to create qualitative measurement for things that are hard, right? Like how good is an email, right? Like, measuring those things. And so
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
started doing that. And once I got that kind of in place and the team kind of knew that was a formula for scaling anything, they started doing it. They started coming up with tracking measurements and they started documenting procedurals. And so when they knew that they would influence and improve. I always tell folks, We don't make unilateral decisions in this business, even myself, right? mean, push come to shove. Ultimately, I guess I wear the hat where I could just say, it's my way, it's how we're going to do it. That never works long-term. That does not improve buy-in. It does not help people like basically feel empowered to make those decisions. So our team knows when there's something that's wrong, they bring it to a team meeting. It's almost like an EOS, like kind of hybrid in a sense, you know, the level 10 type meeting. Bring those problems. We triage those problems. you know, ultimately once that project is green lit, the team then works on developing procedures. procedures, roll it out to the graded team so we can talk about how it impacts downstream, and then how do we measure and track that? And so then once
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
that became the process and the way everybody thought, A lot of my meetings just became, how do I high level keep an eye on the leading metrics and the lagging metrics, right? To know if we're moving in the right direction so things don't get too far away from us, right? But then how do I help my team understand how that translates to the work they do? And so now, you know, I meet with them to see what they're accountable to themselves for and where they're at with those progresses. And there's high level stuff that gets escalated that obviously it's an opportunity to not do anything alone, right? Do that with them and help them understand how do I think through this and how do I solve this problem?
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
And then that way they start doing those same things. so that's been, I meet with my internal team a lot. I'm also big on vetting owners and landlords and clients on the front end. My thought out of that is... If I put my team in a place to work with somebody who's not going to treat them professionally and be respectful to them, and we've all seen that, we all see people punch down on other people, I'm allowing outside factors to create a negative environment and not to say we can't take feedback. Our business is a lot of
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
times dealing with managing emotion. So we get a lot of folks who reach out to us and they need us to help them. Um, with that, just ultimately think to myself, okay, I can't, if I don't align with these people from a value standpoint and they don't understand what we provide in its entirety and I don't even set up those expectations on the front end, I'm opening myself up to this ultimately coming in and costing us more in the long run. Right? So you spend more time in firefighting. takes three times the resources to fix a problem than it does so avoid it on the front end. So I meet with those clients. I meet with my team to keep my eye on the day to day, make sure I'm working, you know, making time to create bigger visions and where like from a, from a, you know, abstract esoteric higher level view, do we go where, where, where's the next opportunity for our business? And that then it takes just like knowing your people and what their goals are and how do you align with their goals to help
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
them realize them inside your business. And so that's, that's where the time goes.
Chad
Yeah, it's, uh, I know for myself, you know, personally, I'm a, I'm a, think you, I'm going to say this. You've come across this way. And if I'm, if I'm miss it, that's fine. You can correct me, but you're a lot like me. I'm a perfectionist. I like things to be good. I like things to be done. Well, uh, you know, kind of, kind of, I'm built that way, right? I think that's why I
Corey Boxx
Yeah.
Chad
was probably really good being an executive because I was attention to details also comes with some flaws in that. me personally as well
Corey Boxx
Sure.
Chad
as sometimes we have too much on our plate or we don't like to hand it off. I'm sure you don't do that. bet you don't have any of that problem. you?
Corey Boxx
Probably my greatest flaw as a leader. I'm a bit of a perfectionist
Chad
Yeah, me too. Me too.
Corey Boxx
to your regard.
Chad
I'm a perfectionist man. I'd like it to be done right. I want it to be good. And I'm sure if you believe that way, I think you do. You know, sometimes I'm bad about taking stuff off my plate and giving it to other people. spend time on things I probably shouldn't do. Do you set fair to say you probably the same way a little bit?
Corey Boxx
I think that we have an issue. All of us think the picture is just what we see right here and you got to basically zoom out. A lot of times my practice is for you, and I don't know if you want the long answer, the short answer on that one, but my practice is I write down all the things that are plaguing me, right? That are better, like seem like they're eating up a lot of my time or that aren't going the way I want. Right. And then I also write down what, and I use a remarkable, right? So it does go to the cloud. have a record of this. And I write down what I should be spending my time on, right? What are my key focuses and what are the most important things I could do right now? make the biggest move in my business. And you cross-reference that list and then you basically have to look at like, all right, I mean, it's almost always simpler than we think it is. And how do we delegate to some of those other people or potentially maybe it's no longer value in our business. And we need to look at just like mixing that as a process. So that's how I kind of go through that audit.
Chad
It's so true and it's hard, right? It's hard to, because we want it to be done well. And I hear this all the time by leaders like, might as well just do it because I want it done right. And they miss a great learning opportunity for their people when they do that, because you're always going to, if you have that mindset, it's easy to listen, it's easy to say that. And we do it. And then what we're doing is we're robbing our people of an opportunity to... to step up or give them a chance to step up. I talk to leaders and work with CEOs all the time, owners that, know, it's just, look, this is my business. I'm passionate. I love it. It's mine. I want it to be perfect. And they just, it's easier and quicker sometimes for them to just say, I know how I would done. I'll just do it. And that's, I understand it and I get it, but if we keep doing that. What we're doing is we're hiring people that's really just sitting there doing nothing because they're not learning anything. We're taking it away from.
Corey Boxx
That's right. Yeah.
Chad
So one of the last questions here, we're almost done and I wanted to ask, and I ask this all the time. what is a time when you started this company that maybe you said, Hey, I'm walking away from this. I don't want to do this. And maybe it hasn't happened, but maybe there was a time when you, know, something got hard or whatever. And I think it's, if you've been in business long enough, that's going to happen. So maybe tell a little story about that, about what happened and why you kind of looked at it how it, you know, like work through that.
Corey Boxx
Yeah, yeah. So I'll start with like, basically one of our company values is we're committed to the commitment, which means that like the love for what you do will come and go at times, right? That's everyone, right? You even see professional athletes, right? They're playing a game they love and you know, it seems like they're playing it without the passion they once had. And that's anything, right? You know, I've always had, I kind of adopted a mindset early
Chad
Absolutely.
Corey Boxx
on in life, which is, somebody paid you 40 hours a week, right? To sip poolside and sip cocktails all day long. Eventually you'd start saying, wish it was not so sunny. I'm getting sunburned. I hate drinking.
Chad
How ya?
Corey Boxx
So things start weighing on everybody. If you do anything enough, it stops being a joy. So you got to find the joy in it. you know, the biggest times that the hardest challenge that I've really had is largely been when we lost key people, right? And it couldn't be happier
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
for them, right? Where opportunities present themselves or somebody has opportunities, it's just life changes, you know, folks, you know, in and out of relationships, you know, they're significant, they get a job opportunity that moves them, you know, things like that, right? I've come about and it's hard not to be like, got to, I got to start, I got to climb the mountain again, right? I got to build somebody into this key role again. You know how we're gonna want to do it and do I have the zest to do it and you know There's there's always it's that grief cycle and there's a woe is me period But it shouldn't last more than like a day if it does you really have problem doing audit like what about your business overall is causing that for you to be the challenge
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
You know and I also would say this, you one of the things that I think is important is you got to take care of yourself first. It's one of the things I think that folks are like I'm busy, I'm busy, I'm busy. They work themselves into a place in life where they don't have the physical resiliency they need because The business and the economics of the world will test you all the time. if you don't have a good outlet for your stresses, good support system, right? It does become challenging. You got to take real looks at like what outside of these four walls am I not investing in or that need me invest in so I can be better inside of these four walls. And so I, the specific scenarios
Chad
That's good.
Corey Boxx
are largely just like, you know, having key people leave. You know, it's in our, business, ours, six years now, you know, in third party business, but really a decade. leading people over time. I've kind of found this to be the scenario all the time, which is like a breakup. You you feel it. Those are the biggest challenges. And I think that
Chad
Hell yeah!
Corey Boxx
also speaks to what do you value, right? If you value profit, you're going to hate the accounts
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
left, right? Sometimes I see those things as blessings, right? If you value people and what you're doing as a business, you're going to hate when your people leave. And that's kind of always been the hardest part for me is like, I like the folks I do, but I truly invest in them and I care about them. You know, I'm a bit of a, I'm a serious person here. You know, I work Like I obviously have a warm personality I think that people pick up on pretty quickly and personable but when it comes to work like I lock in I like to do my work here so I work
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
real hard while I'm here and so I can invest some things outside of here when I'm not and what that creates is they might not know that I care but I care about all them you
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
know they gave me they gave me their time where they could spend anywhere else in world they chose to be here and help our business and so I owe something to them you know for as long as they basically will be willing to accept the help I provide.
Chad
That's awesome. Last question. This is it. If you could whisper to Corey 10 years ago before the Inc 5000 and all the property and all the growth that you've had, what was one thing that you would whisper to that Corey back then? Did you know now?
Trust
that it's all gonna work out the way it's supposed to, even if it doesn't.
Chad
That's good. That's good.
Corey Boxx
The things that don't work out sometimes feel really crushing to us, but they typically fall apart for someone else to fall together.
Chad
Yeah.
Corey Boxx
I spend a lot of time robbing my current... you know, self my younger years joy because I was too focused on getting that next destination. And I realized like, you know, you've you basically fast forward through life. You're like that Adam Sandler movie click, you know, and you end up you forget that like this is this is what you always you know, 10 years ago, you wanted this. Just remember that. And so like this, this is you couldn't just think it was only going to be sunshine and rainbows. So that would be it. Trust that I'll work out the way it should. And it will.
Chad
Corey, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure having you on today and talking to you. And I could probably talk to you for hours. And I think, you your story is amazing. I think what you've done there in St. Louis and just the passion you have for that community and what you're doing with your own people. I think it's a breath of fresh air. So I really appreciate your time. So if someone out there was wanting to follow what you're doing or getting contact with you guys, how would they do that?
Corey Boxx
Yeah, you know our website, one of the easiest ones, CRSAgents.com. You can basically go on there. We've got a lot of great tools if you're a real estate investor or you're a resident and you see our inventory of housing. If you're looking to come on board with us as an employee, you can apply through our website or you can schedule time to meet with me directly to talk about either of your investments in real estate or getting started in real estate. So those are the easiest. I'm one of those folks. I'm not huge on social media, but I'm always available. our business you can get old.
Chad
Great, thank you. And as always guys, this is Chad Parris with Stonefly Consulting Process Over Pressure. Anyone hears this today and something resonates and maybe want to work through some scenarios to help your business grow, I'm always here. You can reach me at stoneflyconsulting.com. Thanks and I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Subscribe
Get every article and episode in your inbox
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.