After experiencing the difficulties of hiring and retaining qualified staff while running a community association management organization, Rob Buffington of Gordian Staffing became his own first customer when he deciding to scale his business using remote team members. Now, five years and 300 employees later his company is focused on helping other community association management companies address their staffing needs with remote team members. Guilty By Association cohosts Shelly DeAntonio and BD Snow pick Rob’s brain on all things staffing, how to get the most out of a remote team member, and the best ways to set new employees up for success. 

In a change of trajectory, Vantaca CEO Ben Currin went from serving as a nuclear engineer on an attack sub in the U.S. Navy to piloting the rocket ship to the moon that is Vantaca. Guilty By Association Co-Hosts Shelly DeAntonio and B.D. Snow spend time with Currin chatting about his time in the military, the transition to civilian life, and what attracted him to Vantaca and the community association management industry. Currin also discusses where he sees certain trends in the industry going and Vantaca’s vision, along with some great book and podcast recommendations.

Balancing the Old with the New

How do you balance processes that have worked in the past with new emerging technologies that help a community run more efficiently? Ricky Zilem, VP of Business Development with PS Property Management in Austin, Texas, stops by the Guilty By Association studio to chat about the questions community management associations are asking themselves, and new tech solutions emerging in the CAM industry. Cohosts Shelly DeAntonio and BD Snow also become the interviewees when answering Zilem's questions about how Vantaca approaches our relationship with community association management companies.

Vantaca Customer Success Manager Stacey Kruse joins Guilty by Association: The Vantaca Podcast to chat with co hosts Shelly DeAntonio and BD Snow about her experience with Vantaca both as a customer and an employee. Having personally experienced the implementation process for Vantaca while working at a community association management company, Kruse talks about how understanding where our clients are coming from has helped her in her role as a customer success manager. The Vantaca team also dives into change management, working through the different laws in each state, working remotely, and the best HOA violation she's seen.

Customer service can mean many things to many people. To Chris Morales, Director of Workflow at Heritage Property Management Services in Atlanta, Georgia, customer service is of the utmost importance when working in the community association management industry. Guilty by Association cohosts Shelly DeAntonio and BD Snow sit down with Chris to chat about her career journey, her customer service philosophy, and the importance of education in the CAM industry at every level—from community managers to homeowners and board members.

On this episode of Guilty by Association, cohosts Shelly DeAntonio and BD Snow are joined by James Bradley, Director of Business Development Strategy with Association Prime. Having spent time in many sectors of the community association management industry, banker Bradley provides his unique look at the trends and insights around the relationship between community association management companies and their banks.

Guilty by Association: The Vantaca Podcast is available for streaming on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, and More!

Anyone who has spent time around a Vantaca employee will tell you -- we're big on company culture. Vantaca Director of People and Culture, Graham Elmore, stops by the Guilty by Association studio to chat with hosts Shelly DeAntonio and BD Snow about the lengths to which the Vantaca team has gone to build that winning company culture and the importance of finding the right people. As someone who was previously an elementary school principal, Graham also chats about his path to Vantaca and how some of the people management strategies he learned in the classroom apply to the corporate world as well. Learn how Vantaca employees like Graham strive to embody our core principles of: win as a team, always growing, responsibility starts with me, an unwavering commitment to the customer experience and no big company BS, each and every day.

Guilty By Association and host Shelly DeAntonio have a special guest on this week — Vantaca co-founder Dave Sweyer. In addition to being the co-founder of Vantaca, Dave is also the co-owner of CAMS, an industry leader in community association management since 1991. CAMS is headquartered in Wilmington, NC, with locations across the Carolinas. An engineer at heart, Dave chats with Shelly about everything from what led him to the CAM industry, to the founding of Vantaca and valuable lessons learned along the way about facilitating change management, building successful teams, and the importance of asking the right questions.