Introducing Kim 

I have really enjoyed sharing with you our ‘Origin Story‘. There will be a lot that has been left out, and there are plenty more stories to tell.

This week, I want to introduce you to Kim Metahysa. I segwayed into this with Automation. When I talk about automation, I am not necessarily talking about electronic automation – I am talking about automated processes. This is about streamlining every single process in a remote working real estate agency to ensure efficiency. Kim is REALLY good at this kind of thing. 

Just before I kicked off Independent Agent, I had a lot of decisions to make, but before I even did this, I had already reached out to Kim. 

Kim and I had worked together previously at Paul Reid’s apartment trading business, Iconicity. She had a sales administrator / office administrator role there and I was quite struck by the way she could organise our chaotic boys club and then rule it with an iron fist. A very kind, iron fist. 

Kim and I had stayed in contact and tended to talk about once a year. Kim had left Ionicity, started a family, and done some volunteer work during her early parenting years. When I approached her in 2019, her twins were heading to school and she thought she might be ready to start some work. She didn’t want too much work and I didn’t need anyone for too many hours in the early days. 

Perfect! 

I tend to work in a kind of disorganised chaos. I blame the artist in me. At any one time my desk might have a stack of bills that were paid six months ago (on top of the keyboard…), a surfing mag, an inspiring piece of pottery, and a few guitar picks. 

Kim’s desk has a keyboard on it. 

This is a reflection of how we both work – it extends beyond our desks. I am flying off doing this and that, starting projects and jumping to the next, exploring ideas and giving up on others. The thing is, I was well aware that in order for Independent Agent to be a success I needed the support of someone who would be able to turn my disorder into order, and also hold me accountable. 

Kim is able to do that. Because I wanted Independent Agent to be reeeeaalllly good, I needed to accept that without people who can keep this show in order, we would fail. 

I am unable to say ‘Kim’s real strength is’ because her strengths are so intertwined. Here is me having a go: 

Kim is able to find order in events, record them and order them into a process, and then make the process workable, shareable, and understandable. This is because she is an exceptional communicator. Kim is also incredibly kind and understanding, so communicating these processes is always done in a graceful and patient way. At the same time, Kim is really firm. She is tough on me, and demands that I do things properly, correctly, and (as I often try to do) don’t undermine the system by making one off exceptions to our rules. 

Kim is also a bit of a tech genius – she is able to drill down into our technological issues, problem solve and find solutions. If a solution gets hard to find, she married well. Kim works from home, often sharing an office with her husband, who just happens to be a Software Engineer. A lot of our tech solutions come from the home office of Kim and her husband Elfie.  

Kim has made it her mission to understand and document every process in our business. With many of our systems, she was the first one completing these tasks in our business so she has been able to form the process, and add to it as we have grown. 
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As I am writing this, Kim is working on one of the few processes she has not worked in – trust accounting and paying out salespeople. I was doing this initially, until we grew to the point we needed to hire someone. That someone is Leanne Prinsloo, who I will introduce you to next week!