Starkey is delighted to have a relationship with Luxury Portfolio International (LPI), the Ultra Luxury Home Division of Leading Real Estate Companies of the world to share our private expertise with those LPI member real estate professionals who serve the High Net Worth. I along with Mr. Tollison, our Marketing and Strategy Officer here at Starkey were invited to present at their conference in March in Orlando, Florida. Mr. Robert Frank, author of Richistan and the High Beta Net Worth, and Senior Editor of the Wall Street Journal moderated Realities of the High Beta Rich and a panel with Mrs. Starkey regarding high-end staffing, Luxury Realtor Joshua Saslove of Aspen, Colorado, Todd Ballenger known for Financial Services, and Anthony Cutugno who is a luxury marketing expert.
Mr. Frank spoke to this very elite group of 250 Luxury Realtors about the future of real estate on a world stage, about the different styles of high-net worth, how they made their money, the volatility of the market and its effect of the availability of money, how we are on another 2 year bubble, about how the smarter investor has become more conservative in their spending habits, and finally how to create added value for those clients when purchasing homes and estates in excess of $8 Million with the availability of quality staff to support their lifestyles. It was high for me to be in the same room with so many type A personalities making it happen in the world of real estate. I also delivered a Presentation on Serving the High Net Worth. My 30 years in service has taught me much in who they are, how they think, and what quality of life typically means for them. If you have not read The High Beta Rich, it’s an excellent read.
All of us at Starkey are thrilled to share with you that we had the opportunity to play with the well-known comedy team of Randy and Jason Sklar. Learning Service made fun as we bantered back and forth our service perspective. Our feature, produced by Left/Right TV is part of a special Sklar Twins series and is called “United Stats of America.” It will air on The History Channel in February. The Sklar Twins are most intelligent and humorous; the show features a Colorado gold mine, the Denver Mint, the Frugal Millionaire, and Starkey International. It has a witty but serious undertone about learning what service is, and looking at the US and our attachments to money. They discovered what we already know; Graduates of Starkey are “in the house but not of the house!” Catch the Sklar Twins by visiting the following link. http://www.supersklars.com
Starkey International will appear on United Stats of America on June 12th for the episode “Money Talks”
http://www.history.com/shows/united-stats-of-america
Tagged with the title “The First Lady of Service”, I am often asked by the media, by our applicants, and by our Principals “Why education?” I wrinkle my forehead in disbelief and respond, “We must educate if we are to be a profession!”
Why is it that there are those who think that their working experience cannot be challenged to succeed at a much higher, more demanding, level?
How is it that currently the profession of Household Management does not demand educational know-how, yet still ethically expects to earn that $100k plus per year salary? Is this a throwback to the perception that service is still servitude?
How is it that there are some who think so little of themselves that they fail to obtain professional education for their benefit as any other professional would in any other professional field? It makes their lives easier and helps them take on those highly sophisticated roles required of today’s Household and Estate Managers. Today they are really required to be the Chief Operating Officers capable of creating and implementing comprehensive service management plans to adeptly oversee, support and work with a the staff, vendors, and resources on their Principals’ behalf.
Who are we cheating when we don’t fully educate ourselves? I believe that both the employer and the employee lose.
Today’s world requires that all professionals, in all professions, need to be educated. Consider the advantages of having Private Service terms and language unique to our Profession just like other professions have! Do you know that having a specialized language gives our Principals the opening to realize that you have an expertise that they don’t have?
Consider what professional ethics are essential to Private Service so that our counterparts do not ruin our collective reputations and bring down our salaries.
Consider having real management tools unique to and expected in Private Service, which have been tried proven over many years by others in our specific roles of Household Management. Management Tools provide the means to no longer operate in crisis mode.
Consider what service in Private Service really is: can you define it? Can you list the essential components, and easily put them in place? Do you know what is missing when your efforts are not succeeding?
All professions, in order to be considered a real profession, must stay on the leading edge of their industry’s knowledge so that they are able to consistently compare our abilities to what others have learned. We must constantly nourish ourselves with new ideas and ways of succeeding, and to keep our focus on what our profession really is. This is why education is essential. It is the foundation of our ethics, our management tools, and our ability to serve not only our employers, but ourselves!
I tell my clientele, “I do not care who you are interviewing, if Starkey has not trained them, they will ultimately be on their own agenda, not yours”. After 30 years of placing Professionals in Private Service, and 20 years of educating them, it is clear that this skill is the hardest ability to teach, the most difficult for Service Hearts to take on, and is the real art form of service to master.
When untrained, egos lay in abilities, and how they accomplish tasks. Our Grads ego’s lay in their ability to be on their employer’s agenda, knowing the best of the best, while always fine tuning what they do, and always doing the task their employer’s way. This is a subtle, but huge and essential difference in the Profession of Service. Education does indeed make all the difference!
Here at Starkey, we strive to teach the most important lessons of Service Management. We know that two of the most essential abilities of a Household Manager are:
- The Pattern Factor: Seek out and identify procedures and patterns that are regular “ways” of doing things within a home. Follow them until you find out whether they are the real requests or preferences of the family or are “ways” of default established by a prior staff person. Once defined as a preference, make them a written procedure; if they are not, then seek out the preferred way and only then change the pattern by communication and example until it sticks.
- Creating Quality of Life: Task Sheets defined are the list of tasks performed or completed daily or weekly, or even seasonally by staff member within a home. While following established Tasks is essential, it is the role of the Household Manager to be sure the task is appropriate for that day. For instance, if the weather is unseasonably warm, and the stated Task is to “turn on the space heater every morning in the sun porch” you must remember to come back after an hour or so and turn off the space heater as the added heat is no longer needed. Always be in the moment, as your ultimate goal is creating creating Quality of Life!
