Here’s the 11th Edition of the Simply Camden blog series celebrating 13 inspirational Camden women. We were recently named #13 on Fortunes List for Best Workplaces for Women, and in this feature, we get to know, Gabby Velkova Mihova from Camden Vineyards in California. 

The Beginning of her Journey

I started working for Camden in October of 2013. My journey started in a very funny way. I was familiar with Camden Crown Valley after working for another company where I had to secretly shop them. I really enjoyed the customer service and if it wasn’t for the fact I was working for another multi-family company I would have definitely rented an apartment there. Bad times came when my community was bought by another company and the new management was so bad that I hated every single second spent at work. I shared my experience with a dear friend of mine. He told me that Camden’s Regional Office in California was looking to hire a District Coordinator to support the two District Managers. I really didn’t have a lot of experience as an administrative assistant but, I decided to try it out. At the end of the day I was really good with excel and this was one of the big “must know” requirements. I always like to be prepared before I do anything and I wanted to make sure I was making the right decision. So I started researching the company and learning about its culture. Just from reading about the amazing things the company was doing for its residents and employees I fell in love and I knew I had to get in and start working for Camden. I applied and after four tests and six interviews I received the longed for call- “We would like to offer you the position”. This was one of the happiest days of my life—combined with my wedding and the day I gave birth to my daughter. That’s when my journey began.

I spent 10 months at the Regional office and then the position for a Community Manager in Murrieta became available. At first, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to go back on site because I was enjoying my time as a District Coordinator so much. One of the District Managers at that time encouraged me to apply. He said he saw potential in me with the knowledge and experience I had. I decided to go for it and at the end of September 2014 I ended up transferring to Camden Vineyards. When I took over, the community wasn’t in its best shape. The team was confused and uneasy due to many changes that took place in the six months prior. It took us quite some time and a lot of team work before we started making progress. It was the day of ACE Awards in California when we came together as one team for the first time. Because of the under performance in 2014, our community was the only one whose name was not mentioned during the award ceremony. Our team was so embarrassed. At that moment I decided a big change needed to happen if we want to make a real difference. As a team, we went to a local restaurant and came up with a strategy of how we could improve. One year later, we were Community of the Year; we received five other Regional awards and won the NOI award on a National level. 

Showing True Leadership

In the country, I come from we have a saying “Challenges are like mornings, they happen every single day”. However, when you have a team of supporters around you, all challenges feel easy to overcome. My biggest challenge was to become the leader I am today. I moved to the United States five years ago. I came here with ten years of customer service and management experience, managing processes and teams, not leading. Don’t get me wrong- I was very successful in everything I had achieved in Bulgaria. I had record breaking results that even today no one has beat. But I was a manager with some moments of true leadership, not a true leader. English is my 3rd language and I speak with a very heavy eastern European accent and I feel this is something I’ve had to work to overcome. I have learned it’s OK and that I’m not alone. My teams, both on site and leadership, have helped me tremendously in improving my English and now I’m confident in speaking. Last year, I even went on stage and spoke in front of 180 property management professionals while presenting an award during the IREM Awards Ceremony.

Becoming a true leader is not easy. Every person out there should know if you want to become a true leader you should start working for Camden. The support I have from my three District Managers and VPs almost feels unreal, like from a different planet. On my first day as a Community Manager, my District Manager at the time gave me the book “Developing the leader within you” by John Maxwell. This was the foundation for my success. My other District Manager worked with me on different chapters of the “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”. All my Managers have supported me so strongly in my journey and today I’m so much better for it. Most recently our WEROC team started working on the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” book. It’s amazing to see how a company invests in their leaders and helps them develop their strengths. In my 15 years of work experience, I can 100% tell you what Camden offers to their employees as support and opportunities can’t be found anywhere else. Even when I speak with friends that work for other companies and I tell them what my company does to help me they all say “WOW, do you guys have any openings?” That speaks for itself.

Always Counting on Camden

One of the many things I love about Camden is they truly care about work-life balance. I had my first ever weekend off when I started working for Camden and I had been a manager for many years before that. I now have the opportunity to spend time with my family and it’s something I will be forever grateful for. A flexible schedule is priceless. For example, if I know our office will be very busy on a given Saturday or Sunday I can opt to work that day and then take another day off when I need it. This scheduling is so helpful with running errands, arranging for doctor’s appointments and supporting your team. I have friends who have to go in during the weekends and they have no options for getting this work time given back to them. Every time we need to travel somewhere or have our company functions the one thing I always hear is “We want to make sure we don’t take away from you and your family time”, everything is organized in such a manner it affects our family time minimally. In today’s fast paced world, this is a valuable perk I wouldn’t exchange even for a million bucks.

There are so many things I love about going to work, but what drives me the most is the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. Even with my 60 mile drive each way on one of the deadliest roads in California, there is always something I’m looking forward to. I love meeting my team each morning and helping people find their new home where they can build unforgettable memories. Whether I’m going home or to work, I’m always driving to a Camden Community. That’s truly exciting because during the day I get to help my residents and when I come home I get to experience on my own Camden’s Living Excellence. For me, in my professional life, it is very important that I love the company I work for. I can’t be a successful person if the company I work for is not a good one. I even joke that when I go to an interview, it’s not for the company to interview me, but more for me to interview the company. I’m so happy and grateful that Camden and I work together. Knowing when I arrive at work I will get to spend the day not just with my co-workers, but with my second family makes my alarm noise in the morning feel like music for my ears. The fact there is always someone who cares, who you can call for support, and knowing that genuine mistakes are welcomed and seen as an opportunity to learn from, is very motivating. When I get to work I always feel the sky is the limit at Camden, you just need to wish for it and it will happen. There are so many examples of the company listening to its employees and making changes for the better. Not many companies would do something like this, but here if it’s for the greater good, ideas come to life no matter who suggested it. Camden is here to listen and make a difference, that’s what makes me get up every single morning and enjoy my drive.

Living by Camden's Values

Our values are not just words on the wall, they are lived and embraced by every single person in the company, beginning with Ric and Keith and going down to the onsite teams. I have never experienced a company whose values mean so much that everything the company does is in alignment with them. If I have to mention every example of how Camden and its employees use the values in our daily life it would probably make this post as long as Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” (world’s longest novel).  My favorite of all is my first meeting with our company’s leadership- it was in Houston during our SRC & DC meeting. First, during the day Ric and Keith invited all of us to see their offices and spent some great time with us joking about whose office is bigger and telling us the story of Camden. Then we went to dinner with Tom Sloan, VP of Operations at a very nice Spanish restaurant. Everybody was so down to earth and it was a memorable experience for all of us. Do you know how many times this has happened with my previous companies? – zero. That’s what’s called people driven, lead by example and always do the right thing and of course- Have Fun! 

The bigger part of my family is back in Bulgaria. Here in the USA, it’s just my husband, my daughter and I. I grew up in Bulgaria. I got lucky to experience both Communism and Democracy. I say lucky because this experience has opened my eyes to so many things, made everything I have, feel so much more valuable and appreciated. I have three brothers so that will explain my competitiveness as I had to always prove myself if I wanted to get something they got. I met my husband here in the States and he was actually the reason why I left home and moved here. He is an IT guy so there is a lot of fun at home. My daughter, Slaveya, just turned 10. She is the love of my life. She is a Gymnast and she was just accepted in the competitive teams.  She is just like me- never gives up and strongly believes that if you want to achieve something even the impossible becomes possible if you work hard enough for it. We all love traveling and every year we try to go to a new destination and explore the world. 

Camden is Family

If it wasn’t for Camden’s understanding and caring I would have probably never been able to go and see my family overseas. The vacation days and the fact that my manager allows me to take all of them at once is amazing. Trips to Bulgaria are long and exhausting. Just the flight time is about 35 hours if we are lucky. I personally have not had any emergencies and I knock on wood it stays this way, but I have seen so many other employees being helped by Camden. I still remember the story our VP told us how Camden supported her and her family when her child had cancer- amazing. Camden’s Emergency Relief fund provides short-term, basic living expenses to assist employees who have experienced a financial hardship caused by a natural disaster or family emergency. It’s comforting to know that if hard times hit my family I have an amazing company behind me and I can always count on its support.

I feel blessed and incredibly lucky to work for such an amazing company. We have several family friends that work for other Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for, but when I hear the horror stories they tell about the company’s culture and what they experience every day I always think Camden has to be #1 in that ranking as it is in my heart.