Meet The Team: Shar Ferrell (she/her)
We’re back for another inspirational interview for our Meet The Team series.
This week we asked our Senior Director of North America, Shar Ferrell, a few questions about her journey to Alfred and how slowing down during the pandemic has helped her to speed up to continue building communities nationwide. A powerhouse female leader herself, Shar has been coined the ‘fairy godmother’ of our community.
What’s your coffee order ?
When it’s cold outside, it is a decaf vanilla latte with almond milk. But, if it’s summertime or hot out, I’ll be sipping on a green tea lemonade.
What’s your walk out song/pump up song?
I am a Beyonce fanatic. My pump up song is Mood Forever, off of the last album that was released. A close second is the new one from H.E.R. called Find a Way.
What’s something you learned during the pandemic?
I learned that I have a green thumb. It’s the second year I’ve been able to garden and I actually have a real harvest! I have tons of tomatoes, squash, herbs and spices. I’ve never been an outdoor person or the person to dig in dirt in any way. But, something about the pandemic pulled it out of me and I really really enjoy it because I can see the fruits of my labor so to speak. When you’re the driver of something, you don’t get to see the benefits of your labor very clearly.
Gardening has taught me to slow down, and understand that things take a process, they take time and there’s different amounts of care necessary so that each plant bears fruit. I think about that when I think about people. You have to pour into them and take care of them so that they bear fruit for the larger organization. All this gardening has actually inspired me to start looking for a large plot of land so I can grow all the fruits and vegetables and never have to purchase from a grocery store again. I wouldn’t go as far to say that my harvest has made me get into cooking, but I am becoming very experimental.
I actually had a cookout for my daughter’s birthday with friends and family this weekend. I was showing off my tomato harvest, and everyone was very excited about the heirloom tomatoes I used on burgers and in salads. In my opinion my tomatoes taste better than anything you buy at the store, it’s 100% organic. Fun fact: If you plant basil with your tomatoes, your tomatoes are sweeter.
Where were you before Alfred? We want to know your journey that led you here.
I think this question is so important because the answer shows the diversity in our backgrounds and hopefully helps illustrate that you can come from a multitude of backgrounds at Alfred and be successful. Before Alfred, I was with Apple for 12+years. I worked my way up from an assistant manager to a market leader in the DC, Maryland, and VA area. I think by helping to launch retail at Apple and be a key player in driving the business I got an itch to see if I could run my own business. So I decided to dip my toes into franchising as a multi unit franchise owner for a blow dry company, Blo.
The main perk for me was being able to help women be successful in their careers and carve a path for women in the hair styling industry. In the hair styling business it’s common that the stylists don’t have the skillset to have their own operation. They have the technical skills for the job, but not the other pieces about owning and operating a business. I was able to provide them a platform to use the talents they did have and shine while doing it. I did that for about 4 years, and unfortunately the pandemic hit, naturally making it difficult to keep that type of business open.
What drove me to Alfred was two things: At the helm, there were two really, really strong women and I was very attracted to the way they were able to kick down doors in and around the technology industry and make a name for themselves…I wanted to be a part of that. I love to tinker, develop and drive in a place where I have freedom to do so. And 2: Here at Alfred you have the freedom to really bring your ideas to the table, ideate and push the business forward.. It’s a unique business in what we’re offering but so necessary at the same time.
Now that you’re here, what is one thing you’re excited to make happen at Alfred?
When I think about the last ~almost~ 3 years that I have been here, the first piece that excites me is that as an organization we made it through a really challenging time, we made it through COVID. We made it through a time when people were very unsure and weren’t comfortable with other people being in their homes. But we were able to recreate ourselves. And how we created ourselves, is that we stepped back to our values and made sure that we were delivering on them no matter what was going on elsewhere in the world.
During the toughest times we were able to connect with people, that phone call or drop of groceries at the front door of someone’s home was the only connection that people had with other people during the toughest times of the pandemic. It’s so amazing to me how we were able to stretch ourselves into new areas. Fast forward to now, when I look at the direction we are going as an organization I am so excited about the growth we experienced and the community engagement that we were able to create. We created the community when our backs were up against the wall, when we had no idea how we were going to actually engage the resident. We were able to burst out of the toughest time we went through as an organization and create this idea of community engagement.
I am most excited about leading a team responsible for creating communities within our buildings and again, turning an industry on its head by building so much trust that we’re entering resident homes to deliver products and services. We’re doing it by changing the way the world is thinking about community in a multi-family dwelling. Alfred is helping building owners understand that by creating community they’ll be able to retain their residents for a much longer time. We’re helping them see that residents are able to come in, engage and want to be part of what’s happening in a building. They’re less likely to move because they begin to think “my neighbor is my friend, my neighbor is my family.” That creates value in the assets that the property owners manage. I feel like in the 7 years we’ve been around, the next 7 will be so disruptive because we’ll make an industry think differently about how they operate because we’re training the industry to put the resident and customer at the center of every single thing we do.
What does community mean to you?
Community to me is very, very important. It means together and inclusion, it means diversity. Community is a place where everyone can come together, support each other, be themselves and do their best work. One of the things that’s very near and dear to my heart is being able to build community. When I think about superpowers, I think mine is being able to bring people together for a common goal and get them passionately behind that common goal. Managing vision and purpose is very important to me because every company has a vision, and as a leader, it’s your job to get your people behind it. By helping them to understand what the vision is they feel their part is essential in making the business successful. The greatest measure of that success is the community you create within your organization.
If you’re interested in becoming a part of our Alfred community, visit our careers page.