Whilst it doesn’t read for a traditional journey into a career in strata management, it was a love of horses and then a dangerous fall one day that led to Steph finding her dream career and her role to date as Strata & Communities Manager for NSW.
“I had been working with horses since leaving school, about to start a new job doing pre training of racehorses, getting ready for my first day I said to Mum I’m nuts doing this – one hit to the head and I’m done and that day I had an accident and did exactly that.
After taking some time off after the fall, my gut was telling me I can’t do this anymore as its too dangerous.”
At the time, Steph happened to be speaking with a horse industry contact who owned a strata management company. The contact was looking for a replacement worker and Steph was eager for an office job and the rest is history.
“The very first question I had was can you actually tell me what strata is!”
From there, Steph’s natural ability to form great relationships combined with the pride she naturally takes in all aspects of her role meant that after completing a number of legislative certifications (combined with years of recognised prior learning), Steph was able to add Class 1 Strata Manager to her qualification list.
With consistently great feedback from Owners Corporations, residents and colleagues – when asked what it is that makes her so great at her job, Steph remarks that it’s probably because she genuinely cares.
“It keeps me up at night, if I know that I haven’t done something by a deadline, or if I’m getting close to the deadline, or if someone isn’t happy with the service they’ve been getting.
So I think for me, the biggest thing is that I just genuinely take a lot of pride in what I do to make sure that the clients are happy.”
The varied nature of the role is what Steph finds the most interesting, and the numerous hats she has to wear.
“Whether its an expert in finance, being a handyman or even a quasi-psychologist – at the end of the day the biggest part for me is the relationship piece. I will do whatever I can to assist.”
Steph has been with Clublinks since 2019 and when asked what is it that Clublinks does well, it’s the fact that things are done refreshingly different in terms of industry norms, that she appreciates the most.
“The focus is on real relationships, so it means I can take the time and sit down with clients to have discussions. That combined what the community engagement side – being a part of planning events and seeing kids and owners enjoying their community, that’s really great.”
Steph heads up the Strata Management side of the Clublinks business and is based at Bingara Gorge Community in NSW.
