The Next Three Steps

Why we are talking about this

We have a good course that nobody can work from

Last week we decided to manage our own properties instead of hiring it out. Doug was not extended, Tyler quit, and nobody is managing Phoenix. That means the course is no longer just something we sell. It is how our own team is supposed to run our houses.

The trouble is, it does not work that way yet. Carrie and James were asked to set up the LR and Butcher Block houses the way the course teaches, and they could not work from it. Not because the steps are missing. Because they are buried in long PDFs, and there is no way to ask "what do I do next?"

"Dad, there's too many words. It's too many pages."

James, as David retold it on Monday's check-in

"I don't even know if that piece is referenced in the course. If they miss it, or if they actually followed it. I don't think anyone's following it."

David, Monday's check-in

So this is not a question about rewriting the course. It is a question about how a person gets their next step, and about what the course has to become now that we are the ones running the houses.

Where we are going

A supply chain with the right people in the right seats

This is the bigger thing David keeps coming back to. Every job we need done, from mowing a lawn to managing a house to underwriting a deal, written down with what it includes, how often, what it pays, and how you prove you did it. People who have shown they can do the work pick up the jobs that fit them. Nobody has to be chased, and nobody has to guess.

"Here's the roles and responsibilities and the defined pay for executing said responsibilities. It's clear, it's specific. Here's what the role is. Here's the deadlines and what's included. Here's the spec. And we know how much we're gonna pay for things."

David, voice journal, August 23, 7:32 pm

"We really need to line out the roles and responsibilities. We definitely need to do that. And then publish it so that it's clear."

David, voice journal, August 19, 7:53 pm

The hard part is not the software. It is finding the right person for each seat, which is the thing every company struggles with. David's answer is to make the seat itself clear enough that the right person is obvious: here is the job, here is the standard, here is the pay, here is the proof. If we can build that for ourselves, it is also the thing other operators need most.

Two audiences

One standard, two groups of people

The same content has to serve two very different groups, and that shapes everything we build.

Inside: our own team

James, Carrie, the lawn crew, whoever manages a house, the subs we hire.
They need the next step, not the whole lesson. They need the pay and the proof rules attached.
Some of what they see is team-only or under NDA and never goes to a student.

Outside: people who buy the course

Students and operators in other cities who want to run houses the way we do.
They need the lessons and the resources, cleaned up and on brand.
Later, some of them become part of the team through the same system.

"Hickory, the Hickory area is our proof of concept. And then we rinse and repeat into your community and into our investors' communities and to the other communities across our entire country."

David, voice journal, August 14, 1:22 am

That quote is the whole plan in one line. Prove it here with our own people, then hand it to others. The course is the standard both groups work from. What differs is which parts each person can see.

How we get there

Build it for ourselves first, then open the doors

Marketplaces usually die on the same problem: nobody joins an empty side. We do not have that problem, because we are the customer. We already have the jobs and we already know the first people by name. So we can build a small version that is useful on day one, use it ourselves, and open it up once it works.

Sort the course. This week, David and Lacey go through every editable resource with the four buckets (publish as is, small edits, rework but publish with a note, pull it out). At the same time, every piece gets a label: student, team-only, or NDA. One place for how we do things, with different people seeing different parts.
Build a course brain. Not the company brain. A separate one built the same way, with only the course in it, where each role sees only its part. A person asks "I'm setting up the LR house, what are my next three steps?" and gets three steps. Prove it on James and Carrie at LR and Butcher Block.
Write this month's real jobs as cards. Lawn care, the house setup punch lists, the Phoenix and Mobile Lane cleanup. Each card: what is included, how often, what it pays, the Drive folder for before and after photos. Hand them to people we already know.
Let track record build the scorecard. Someone earns a seat by doing a small job well, with the proof in the folder. Licenses checked where the state requires one. That gives David the scorecard he asked for without building it separately.
Open the doors. First the student view of the same content. Then operators who want to run our way. Then the marketplace David described: subs bid on jobs, deposits and penalties, Subto and Owners Club people joining the team.

The order matters

Steps 1 through 4 are weeks. Step 5 is months and needs everything before it. Nothing built early gets thrown away: the course brain becomes the engine inside the portal, the job cards become the marketplace listings, and the track record becomes how outsiders qualify.

Four choices that change direction

The questions we have to answer, and what each answer causes

Not twenty questions. These four. Each one is a fork, and picking one side has a cost we should go in knowing.

1. Who is this for first: us, or everyone?

Building for ourselves means a small circle of people we already know and moving fast. Building the marketplace first means contracts, deposits and strangers, and nothing works until everything works.

Our pick: us first. The cost is that it can sound like shrinking the vision. It is not. A supply chain has to work for one company before it can work for a hundred, and the marketplace is the same thing with the doors opened later.

2. Do we start with the jobs, or the people?

If we start with the jobs, the first version looks like a task list with pay attached. Not exciting, but useful on day one. If we start by recruiting people, we are asking them to sign up for work that is not written down yet, which is exactly what went wrong with Doug and Tyler.

Our pick: jobs first, handed to people we already know.

3. Where does "the way we do things" live?

The outcome we want: when anyone on the team needs to know how we do something, there is one place to look, and it matches what David actually wants today. When David changes a rule, it gets changed once, and everyone sees the new version.

Our pick: the course files are that one place. Every piece gets a label saying who can see it (student, team, or NDA). The student course and the team's course brain are both views of the same files. Dollar amounts and contract terms sit beside the course as team-only files rather than inside it. The cost is that the labels have to be right from day one, because the files carry things students never see.

4. How does someone prove they belong in a seat?

David named three ways: show a license, test into a skill through a video series, or build a track record by doing jobs well with before and after proof. Tests first means building tests before anyone can work. Track record first means someone qualifies by doing a small job well, and the scorecard falls out of it for free.

"So tell me where you're the most amazing. And where you're terrible. We want to be strengths-based."

David to Loretta, retold on Friday's check-in

Our pick: track record first, licenses where the state requires them, tests later once we know from the evidence what a good job looks like. The cost is we cannot say "certified" to outsiders yet.

Everything else follows from these four: the pay model, the deposit and penalty contracts, when outsiders come in, and what a student sees versus what the team sees. Those get decided once these are settled, not before.

What a job card looks like

What the lawn crew would see

This is David's own example from Sunday night. The crew's piece of the course says what the job is, how often, and what it pays. Every seat gets cards like this, and this is what a person is asking for when they say "what are my next three things?"

Lawn care, standard house

For: lawn care crew

Mowing includes: Mow all the grass, then weed eater around the edges: along the driveway, the sidewalks, wherever there is edging.
How often: Up to once a week in the growing months. Up to every two weeks in the in-between months. Once a month or every six weeks in winter, or just one winter visit.
Edging: Once a month, or every six weeks.
Hedges and bushes: Trimmed once or twice a year. Big trees only as needed.
Pay: "And here's the pay for that." Listed right on the job. David sets the rate.
Proof: Before and after photos in the job's Drive folder.

"What are the next three things that need to be done that could be assigned to me? I have two hours available and you have my skill sets."

David, voice journal, August 23, 9:58 pm

What it takes

What we already have, and what we would have to build

Already in place

The whole course as plain files we own: 22 modules, 89 lessons, 159 resources from the May build. We will check it against what the live course shows students before leaning on it.
The way the CCLP brain is built. The course brain is a copy of that approach, not the company brain itself.
Different levels of access for different people, which Addi already does today.
Monday boards for tasks, Drive for photos, Buildium for the houses. The first version rides on these rather than replacing them.

To build, in order

Visibility labels on every course piece (student, team, NDA). Done during this week's sorting.
The course brain, answering "next three steps" for one role. About a week for a first version, two to three weeks for every role.
Job cards for this month's real work, with pay set by David and a Drive folder each.
A simple scorecard fed by completed jobs and their proof.
Later, for the marketplace: accounts, bids, deposits and penalties, and paying people through the system. Months, and only after the above works.

What we are not doing

Not buying a course platform or a learning management system. David said it plainly: "instead of investing and spending more money on a Skool group or a salesforce.com or a big learning management system software, what if that's just incorporated and built into our CCLP brain?" And not moving the course out of GHL for students yet. GHL stays the storefront. What changes is how our own people get their next step.

The estimates above are Mufaro's, to be confirmed. Nothing changes in the live course without sign off, and whatever we write has to make sense to a paying student, not just to our own team.

After today

What happens this week

The review sheet. One row for every editable resource, sorted into David's four buckets, with the student, team or NDA label added. Filled in where we can, judgment calls marked for David and Lacey.
The gaps as placeholders. The things the course does not cover yet, added as coming soon entries: senior care, assisted living and sober living; the 30 days notice clause and the zero vacancy routine around it; the property manager handover checklist; the "before money goes hard" checklist from Eastmont; the tenant self inspection program with house dollars; roommate matching; the scorecard; and how we hire and pay subs.
The comparison. Lacey's idea: everything David has said in meetings, texts and journals about how things should be done, set next to what the course actually says. First pass: the top ten places they disagree or the course is silent.
Then the build plan for the course brain and the first job cards, laid out step by step for review before anything gets built.