Wendell’s Weekly Wins and Whiffs

🏆 Win of the Week: Momentum on Multiple Fronts

This week was not glamorous. It was a heavy admin and fire fighting week. But here is the thing: that is part of building. Not every week looks like a highlight reel. Some weeks you just put your head down and move the pieces forward.

And we did.

The Red Rose 32-unit property management transition is in motion. New management agreement is being reviewed, the outgoing team is being held accountable through the transition, and we have the right people involved now. Crisis to controlled process. That is a win.

Deals are moving. Stegall is waiting on the survey to lock in final plans and pricing. Dellinger just needs the plat map to kick off financing. Our finished Barrington new build project is close to the sale date. Not everything closes in the same week, but forward is forward.

The thing I am most fired up about this week though is Beyond the Build. We recorded three episodes and I genuinely love doing it. No script, no talking head performance, just me being real about what it actually takes to build businesses and a portfolio. Entrepreneurs need that. There is enough polished, filtered content out there. My show is not that. Our social media team is already working on the first batch and I cannot wait to see where this goes. Even if it never blows up, I love doing it. That matters.

The real lesson: Some weeks the win is just not losing ground. Staying in motion is enough.

💨 Whiff of the Week: Letting Someone Go and Why It Never Gets Easy

We had to part ways with one of our cold callers this week. And to be clear, it had nothing to do with her performance. She was good at the job. The business just does not have the volume right now to support two callers in that channel. It was a business decision, not a performance decision.

Still hard.

We were as transparent as possible with the whole team, made sure the transition was handled with care, and immediately started introducing her to people in our network who were looking for cold callers. I think she already has something lined up. That is what you do. You take care of people even on the way out.

But I will say this: letting someone go does not get easier. I do not think it is supposed to. If it ever stops feeling heavy, that is probably a sign you have lost something important. The discomfort means you care about the people in your orbit. Own it, handle it with integrity, and keep moving. That is the job.

🎯 Tactical Tip of the Week: Build a Culture Where People Actually Talk to You

This one came out of real conversations this week.

We are intentional about culture at Tide and Timber. That means a few things in practice.

First, we invest in our people. Not just with pay, but with growth. We share what we are learning. We are transparent about where the business is going and why decisions get made. We ask for feedback and we actually listen to it. The people on our team know they have a voice.

Second, we hold meetings that matter. Not status update theater. Real conversations where people feel like they can bring things up without walking on eggshells. You want your team to surface problems early, not sit on them until they become expensive.

Third, we operate with an open door policy. There is still a chain of command and there is still respect for that structure, but nobody should feel like they cannot bring something to the table. If someone on your team is afraid to tell you something is not working, that is on you as the leader.

Servant leadership is the frame. If you are constantly asking how you can make your team better at their job, how you can remove the things slowing them down, and how you can grow them as people, most everything else falls into place.

Culture is not a perk. It is the foundation.

🔦 From the Field: Driveway Drama and the Wild West of Municipal Approvals

This one is too good not to share.

We are wrapping up a fix and flip on a hillside property and needed to pour a new driveway. Simple enough, right? Wrong.

The house sits on a big upward slope, which means we had to figure out the maximum allowable grade before we could pour concrete. Plus it is like a 70 foot driveway, you do not want to pour and then get told to rip it out. So we did what you are supposed to do: we asked the experts.

Contractors. Inspectors. GCs. Builders. Every single person gave us a different answer or no answer at all. The city office bounced us around for what felt like forever. First contact forwarded us to someone else. That person forwarded us to another. Then another. Classic government experience.

Finally we figured out it falls under DOT jurisdiction, the Department of Transportation. They sent us a document that basically said the first ten feet of the driveway off the road have to meet specific requirements, but beyond that it gets a lot more flexible depending on your site conditions.

End result: we need a survey, a grading plan, and approval submission before we can pour. The funny part? None of this requires a permit. Nobody was technically required to enforce any of it. We probably could have just poured and nobody would have noticed.

But that is not how we operate. You cut that corner and all it takes is one complaint from a neighbor, one curious inspector, and now you are ripping out a driveway and absorbing that cost. We are hoping to get approval and pour next week.

Every deal teaches you something. This one taught us how driveways work apparently.

💰 Passive Investor Opportunities

We have a lot of great deals moving through the pipeline at Tide and Timber Ventures right now and these opportunities fill up fast. If you have ever been curious about passive investing alongside our team, now is a great time to have that conversation. Reach out directly and we will make it happen.

🐝 The Hive CLT Entrepreneurs Network

We have an upcoming event at The Hive CLT and you do not want to miss it. This community keeps growing and the conversations in that room are the kind that actually move the needle.

RSVP here: Meetup Event Link or visit jointhehive.co to see all upcoming Charlotte area events.

🎤 Final Word

Heavy admin week. Deals in motion. A podcast I love making. A hard but necessary personnel decision handled with care. And a driveway that taught me more about municipal bureaucracy than I ever expected to know.

Not every week is a highlight reel. Most are not. But every week you show up, handle your business with integrity, and keep the machine moving is a week that matters.

Let's get it. 💥

Keep growing or die,