Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Live Let Thrive, a podcast about the Airbnb life, the share economy, and everything in between. Here are your hosts, Micah and Steve.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive. What is up, Julie George?

SPEAKER_03 0:24

I can't believe I'm back again. You've let me come back. It's uh what an honor to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Yeah. Micah couldn't make this one, but we're gonna have some fun with Miss Julie George, the million million dollar host. And uh, real quick, episode 262 of your favorite short-term,

Julie George: million-dollar host turned world traveler

SPEAKER_01 0:41

mid-term, long-term rental podcast in the world coming at you from Fort Worth, Texas. And our special guest, as we said uh a second ago, is Miss Julie George, the the awesome Aussie over there, you know, kicking butt. And she really she took over the short-term rental industry a few years back and cashed out and made a buttload of money. And now she travels the world and drinks uh tequila. So that's pretty much what she does now.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

So it's a tough life, but someone's gotta do it, Steve. So I'm heading your way tomorrow. So I'm in Australia today. Uh, it's Friday already, so we're a day ahead. Um, but tomorrow I'm heading across to Los Angeles down to Cabo San Lucas, and I get to spend eight days over there teaching. So according to the tax man, um, it will be a work trip. Uh so if you see me by the swim up bar um with a cocktail in hand and probably a tequila shot in the other, it is work, and I am probably talking about short-term rentals in some form, but um it's a tough life.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

That is a tough life. Um, so this is like your third time on this show on Live Let Thrive. Your favorite, your favorite podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

It is, it's still my very favorite podcast, and I'm putting it out there, folks. I still remember the day, gosh, it was years ago now that we first recorded that our first episode, but it was just a hell of a lot of fun. We dove deep into um the million-dollar secrets, and I just remember really connecting with you, Steve and Micah. Uh, now we have all caught up in person. Um, I have had your children climbing all over me. I've had Micah's children, so I am the auntie from Australia. Um, and you know, it's isn't it amazing how far we've all come from the days of just yeah, initially connecting?

Why the short-term rental community rejects a-holes

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah, yeah. I love the I love this um podcast world because it does it does bring people together from all over the world. And it and it's so funny because like our community, it seems like we all know each other, right? And and we're like the the movers and shakers in this short-term rental world, and we're we all kind of we're not, I guess um there are some a-holes out there, but for the most part, we all kind of support each other and we and we look at each look at it from uh an abundance mindset.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

You know, it's really there's very few a-holes out there, and they don't last really long.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

They don't last long.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

They don't last long because it unless you're a um, yeah, you're community spirited, you're supportive of each other, you're collaborative. If you if you're not like that, we actually don't accept you. Sorry, you're out. Um, but the ones that do come in and play nice in the schoolyard, we are like the cool kids. Um, and I just I just love it. Like I really have never seen an industry like this before where it feels like we've just created a big friendship group and it's like a great big virtual hug every time we have a mastermind online or or when we get to see each other in person, we all sit at the dinner table as one big family.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

And it and it's no um surprise that a-holes don't make it in this industry, really, because this is the hospitality industry, right? And if you're an a-hole and you just treat people like crap, and then you're not your business ain't gonna last very long. And so the ones that do stick around, we we do love um treating people nicely, we do love making their stays memorable, you know. We do love um supporting each other too. Hey, someone needs a stay. Can you hook them up? Because my places are full, vice versa. I mean, it's it's like it's hospitality. You can't you can't approach this uh from a scarcity mindset or or a cutthroat mindset because you won't last. Everybody will find you out and and kick you out, like you said.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Yeah, and there's enough work to go around for everybody. So let's share the love, let's put our brains together, let's help each other out. And you know, and I think that really is important in times like I know just recently the regulations and bands and that type of thing that face some of our communities, like you've seen personally. Um, look, if we can help band together, educate the community, it's a one, yeah, a lot of a you know, a lot better outcome.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Nothing but love, Julie George. So I know you've you've told your story twice on this show already, but you can give like a brief synopsis for someone that's just uh seen you for the I mean everybody's seen you already, but I'm sure there's maybe a couple people on the planet that don't know who Julie is.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

If you are the one person tuning

From one property to $8 million in two and a half years

SPEAKER_03 5:16

in now and you haven't heard this Australian accent, uh let me give you the brief 60-second overview. So my claim to fame is that in 2016 I started a short-term rental business in Australia, just with one property, with my own property. Um I discovered the potential for property investors through doing it myself. Um, I then created a property management company, scaled to 130 properties and over $8 million in income in two and a half years. Just prior to COVID, I looked into my crystal ball and saw that there was something coming and I sold my business. So I had a knock on the door, and at that stage I had million dollar host out, um, which is in Steve's back uh I reckon you've just stuck that up on the wall just for today. Um Million Host was out 2018, went bestseller, and then of course there are other opportunities, and my love really had grown for uh coaching and and educating and being able to help others replicate that same success that I had seen. So that's what I get to do now. I get to travel the world, I get to speak up on stages, uh, and I get to do amazing podcasts like this where hopefully one or two tips that I can give today or some advice might just help somebody fast track their own success in short-term rentals.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

And and your book is great, it's an inspiring one. Uh I want y'all all to go get Julie's book, uh, go to Amazon and and she gets all the money from it. No, I'm just kidding. Amazon gets quite a bit.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

I do on this one, but these two hospitable hosts, the second and third book that I'm in, all money goes to a charity. So it goes to the children's hospital, St. Almonds, uh, and the War Child charity. So um, but selfishly, the one in the middle that comes to me, and that will help help uh at the bar in Mexico next week. Buy Julia Shot, buy her book.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yeah, um, so so I wanted to tell you something because uh I just recently read a book and it's kind of and I've heard about this book for a while, and uh I'm so upset that I didn't read it earlier. It's called The E Myth Revisited.

The E-Myth Revisited and why SOPs matter

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Have you heard of that one? Yes, okay. Oh my god, it's so good. And what I love about this this writer, he he tells he tells the story, like he's talking to a lady running her little like cake shop or whatever. So it's he tells it in like uh in a story, like telling her, uh, you know, this is what happens, you know. Most most people uh when they try to start a business, this is the things that they do, and then they fall into and they act, you know, and they it just becomes a mess, um, because there's no structure, there's no systems, there's no um what's it called? Business, yeah, just business structure in general. And um what what's so what what inspiring I mean was it's funny at first because if anybody has started a business had done a business for a while, and you go and read that book, you're like, Oh shit, everything that he talks about, we did, you know. I'm saying we started up, we didn't have roles in place. Uh, we hired the first person, and then just they did pretty good. And then we start, oh, they could do this and this and this and this, and and then then they you know it's too much for them to juggle because and it's just it just goes on and on. And so, what what I of course, what I drew from the book, the most important thing is to have your SOPs in place and to have your business structure. So, I really want to dive into that today. You know, we talk about short-term rentals all the time on the show, but if you're gonna start if it's short-term rentals are addicting, so you're gonna do one, and you're gonna do it well, you're gonna do two, you can you can do you can get up to three or four by yourself or five, maybe, then it starts to get a little hectic, and you need to hire somebody. It it's gonna happen, right? And and our listeners probably already there or or getting there, but you need to really seriously uh think about learning some some business um structure for your business and your um SOP standing standard operating procedures. Please help us, Julie. Help us build our businesses correctly.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Oh, I tell you what, this is the one secret that I will always say to people is that yeah, the you just need to have a really good framework and you need to be able to start planning your business right from the start, as if you are going to be running an empire. If if that is what you sorry, I get excited because I think that

Getting your business out of your head and onto paper

SPEAKER_03 9:28

that everybody wants to run an empire, but perhaps not. But I I would say even if you're only planning to structure for five properties or 10 properties, if you want a small boutique, I would still say get your framework in place, look at your old chart, your organizational chart, have a business plan in place, have systems and operating procedures ready to go. And just make sure that the business does not rely wholly and solely on you. Because what will happen is that if you are ever sick or unfortunately get hit by a bus, I don't know, but let's think worst case scenario. How is your family going to pick up the pieces if everything that you know about the business is inside your head? So get it out of your head, put it in black and white right from the start, take that time. Now it does take time to put all this together. So that is the one warning that I will have for people is that um, look, it might feel tedious and it may feel unproductive when you're sitting there writing out procedures or processes and you're creating looms for other people to follow that may be frustrating to you. But I promise you that in the end, just like writing a book, you'll do it once and then you'll never have to do it again. It's there for life. And then you can just hand it out. Every time somebody comes in, a new cleaner, give them the cleaning checklist that you've just created. So um, yes. So as I'm talking to you, I'm trying to find some documents because I want to share some stuff with you on this because it's um it is something that if you can get this right, you can then scale it a business to the point where you're working on it, not in it. Uh, and you can sell it as well. So you're building a saleable business, but you've got to have that structure, you've got to have the business um down in black and white.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

And that's what I like, because as the book mentions that you you want to build, well, he I think he said franchisable business, a business you can sell, and you might not not ever want to sell your business, but it's really it's it's really important to build it like something that you could sell, you know what I'm saying? And and that's like and like you mentioned, where you like if you're sick or you want to go to take a month off and go to Cabo and drink tequila, you could do that, and the business will be all right. Um, so and you mentioned something else the the tediousness of these SOPs. There's nothing glamorous about this crap. And I'll tell you right now, you know, uh me and my partner Federico and the and our just have been, you know, we've been doing this for going on three years. He's gonna he's gonna move on and do some other ventures now, and I'm taking over the business full time and and kind of he's passing all this knowledge over to me and our lead manager. And and now I and I I read this book at the perfect time, right? I read this book at the perfect time because I am setting up these SOPs that that might not be there already. You know, there might be there's a bunch in place, but there's some that are uh other things that I want to be able to take off my plate. And I'm like, and you sit down, and it took me like let's just say um an onboarding guide to a new client, you know. I I was I was it took me like three days for this stupid thing because I'm like, oh, I gotta remember this, I gotta remember, oh, I gotta explain this, you know, a quick start guide, and then I go in there in more detail, and I'm like, wow, you know, three days to to do one thing that you know, theoretically, I could sit down with uh uh a new uh client and and you know, in 20 minutes or so I could I could you know walk them through and onboard their property, all that stuff. But you can't think like that because those 20 minutes, 30 minutes, they add up and your whole day is is full of those, you know. So you gotta it takes three if it takes three days to get that 30 minutes off my plate, then it's worth it. Do it.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

I promise you, and that is the one thing that I see a lot of uh property managers or business owners struggle with is to take time out of the day-to-day, to put the effort into creating that that system, that process. But you've got to take that time out, they've got to invest that time, um, and it will come back to you tenfold. I promise you. That's the one thing that I can absolutely guarantee is you take that time, um, and it's going to, yeah, it's gonna reward you m more than you'll ever believe.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

So so when you started your business, because I know you're a business genius, like you you were born a business genius, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:43

So I don't think so. Have you read my book about how many failed businesses I had?

SPEAKER_01 13:49

I you know, it's yeah, well, you sorry, continue a question before I so I want to know because you

The day Julie made 17 beds and hit her breaking point

SPEAKER_01 13:57

started just like we started, you know, we started with one short-term rental, and then you got another one and another one and another one. And and so you you had to figure it out early on. And what were some of the mistakes you were making? And how did you rectify those?

SPEAKER_03 14:10

Yeah, look, I I'm gonna tell you the story of actually how I discovered that I needed to um get it together. I had I when I was taking on these properties, I was a little excited kid who was taking any property that I could get my hands on. But of course, I was doing it all myself, right? So I was doing the cleaning, the communications, I was running the whole thing, as we all do when we start off. And um, and if you don't, actually, there you go, if you think that you can start this business and not be hands-on in the beginning, think again. I believe everybody should start off cleaning toilets, making beds, and really getting hands-on with this sort of business to fully understand what you are then going to employ somebody to do. Um, so I had made 17 beds in one day. At the end of that day, I was like, holy shit. And I'm going to swear on your podcast because I know I can get away with it. Holy shit, whose stupid idea was short-term rentals. Who, you know, like this is crap. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm either going to go and get a job tomorrow and go back to a cubicle working for a boss. What was I thinking? Um, or I need to get some help and I need to get some processes in place and I need to employ somebody. And so it was that very next day. It's amazing how things all come together. The very next day that I sat down with a former colleague of mine, Glenn. Glenn is he was 70 years old at the time. He had just um retired officially from the corporate world. We had both worked together selling Yellow Pages ads. Now that's showing how old I am. Um, because if you know what a Yellow Pages is, that's our old version of Google. Yeah, see, you're old too. Um but uh he had gone come to the end of his

Glenn's $6,000-a-month franchise managing 10 properties

SPEAKER_03 16:00

advertising career and he said, Jules, I don't want to retire. I want something to do with my, you know, with my time. I want to still earn an income. And I said, Glenn. Here's some laundry, Glenn. Here's some laundry. I said, have you got a smartphone? Have you got a mop, a bucket, a vacuum cleaner, and can you make beds? And he said, yes. And I said, well, here's 10 properties. I'm going to give you a portfolio and I want you to be my co-host on all of these properties. You're going to look after communications with the guests. You're going to meet and greet them. You're going to do the cleaning, do the laundry, report back on any uh any damages, and I'm going to pay you a 6% commission out of the 25% I was charging homeowners plus the cleaning fee. So that really, what that equated to in terms of income for Glenn was about $1,500 a week in income. So um, so $6,000 a month he was earning on a portfolio of 10 properties. He was ecstatic. He got to look after those properties like they were his own. So suddenly he had pride in his work. He was had unlimited earnings. So he was driven. He was um he was just out there to make sure that people stayed longer. He responded to bookings really quickly because he was on a commission. He took um, he looked after those properties like they weren't there his own, in that he knew if he walked in and there was a coffee mug that was broken or a mark on the wall, he was able to get that claim in and get it rectified with Airbnb immediately because he it was like his own properties. So it was like a little franchise that I had given him. And he has only just recently um quit. So he at 76, I think he's now given up the tools. Uh, but I just think, gosh, for six years, this man has been able to take a little franchise, take a little portfolio and run with it. So um, but sorry, that was my long answer to how I actually discovered that I needed some help.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Real quick, were those first 10 properties, please tell me they were known as the Glen 10. I thought you were drinking when I gave split my tea everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 18:16

The Glen 10. Oh, she's okay. They will now know be known as the Glen 10.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Um I'm clever. I'm clever, Julie.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

You are so clever. I mean, you know, I'm bloody clever. Compensates for the looks, I guess. But folks, there you go. That just shows you how good a friendship that you can form with um people that yeah, in this industry. So yeah, it's just wowerising myself. But um, actually, let me can I share with you the organizational structure? Because what it does, and this folks is something that so the documents that we're talking about, the paperwork when you initially set up the structure, the policies, the procedure, I actually have all those things, and I do not keep those secrets to myself. I actually am happy to share them with others.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

So, real quick, before you pass uh these 10 to Glenn, you you made processes first, or you just how did what happened?

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Well, it all kind of happened very much at the same time. I thought, wow, okay, I am running this business all based out of what was upstairs in in between my ears. Um, I need to stop that. So when I when Glenn then came to me and said, Oh, I'm looking for this opportunity, and I thought, well, I need you as well. I I think I spent a good few hours at home punching out a contract, certainly, a job description and a manual. Um, because I needed to make sure that he understood my standards. And that's something that I think you've got to get really clear on. What are your standards? What is your vision for your company? Put it in writing, what are your values as well? Uh, and make sure that you can pass that on to the person that's coming on to help you, whether it's a cleaner, whether it's a handyman, be very clear with them about what it is that your expectations are, what you are expecting from them, and then what is the goal that you're trying to achieve? Uh, so I know I I didn't have anything. When I had this conversation with Glenn, I was like, oh crap, now I have to go home and actually get this organized. So um, so yeah, it was very quick.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

All right, she's gonna share her screen. Uh, if y'all check it out on check it out on YouTube

The organizational chart: franchising co-hosts by location

SPEAKER_01 20:32

because you'll get the full picture. But she's gonna be uh she's a great storyteller, you know, she'll be explaining it as she goes.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

So what you see in front of you here, and folks, what I'm showing Steve for those listening in only is just a property management organizational chart. What I had to do is get very clear on where uh where I was headed with this business. And really what I'm showing Steve at the moment is where I was at at 130 properties and um and who I hired when I hired them. So down the very bottom, Steve, on the left-hand side, you'll see a property host and it says 10 properties. Now I'm gonna try and make that a little bit bigger so that we can see. Um, he was that was Glenn. So I'm up the top in the green as the CEO. Glenn 10 is there on the bottom on the left. Um, he was the second person. And then I then realized that what I had put together with him as a co-host, as a little franchise portfolio, was that I could do that over and over again. So the third, fourth, and fifth person that I took into my business were also co-hosts. And they're and they ranged. I had one lady who just wanted to have a couple of properties. So I gave her five properties to look after. She had three little kids. The next lady that I bought on was an absolute entrepreneur beast. So she wanted 23 properties. Now I said to all of these people I will give you properties dependent on your capabilities. And your skill level. If I can see that you are reaching the targets, the KPIs, the key performance indicators of five-star reviews on Airbnb, and you have the capability to take on another property, I will assign that property to you. However, if I see that the reviews, the guest reviews are coming back with maybe a four-star rating, three and a half for cleaning, I will retrain you with those standards that we've put in place with the manual that I've created. But then I will take that property off you if a bad review continues. So it was a real reward and punishment system. And I don't like that word punishment, but I really had to make sure that it was almost gamified, this franchise model. But it worked. And I can tell you that it's what it allowed me to do was that I could focus on what I was really good at. And that was getting properties from homeowners. As soon as I was able to onboard a property, I could pass it off to a co-host. It wasn't until I had 50 of those properties that then I employed somebody. So these co-hosts were all contractors and they were all running their own business essentially. So I was taking them on as a contractor. But then at 50 properties, I could actually afford an employee. And that's when I took on a property manager. And you'll see that on for those people looking, uh, it's in the blue. And I did it by location. So eventually I had two property managers working for me on salaries. And those people were overseeing the property hosts, but they were also then um assigned with the task of talking to homeowners because by 50 properties, I was sick of homeowners. I know that's really bad to say, but I couldn't deal with them anymore either. So yes, you get burnt out with guests and home and property owners. But uh property managers came on, they then started doing the appraisals, going and having a look at a property, putting it together an appraisal report, doing the onboarding, and then dealing with any homeowner issues. So at that stage, when I had those people in place, I had a guest, I had somebody who was a guest-facing um person, and then somebody who was a homeowner. Uh, and for me, this structure is very different to other structures you'll see in the industry where they have a cleaning department, a maintenance department, a marketing department, a guest services department. For me, I wanted the least amount of touch points as possible. If a guest was coming to one of my properties, I wanted them to deal with one person. If a homeowner was giving me their property, I wanted them to deal with one person. So that's how I saw it. And then what did the the girl, the blonde up the top in the green in the you know, what was she doing? The CEO, counting the money and watching reviews. That was it. So um, so that so folks, if you're just looking at that, then that's my um organizational chart. And actually, that is available on my website if anyone wants a copy of that. But um, but Steve, I think what you've got to do is right from the start, think about long term. Uh, so as you said, it might not be to long term to sell, but if it's long term to set up, because I think you know, a lot of us aren't getting into businesses to create a job for ourselves, we're getting into a business financial freedom and to create a lifestyle for our family. How do we do that?

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Exactly. And and you're brave also. I just want to put it out there that you're brave for sharing that screen with all your tabs exposed. And luckily, there's no porn tabs there.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Thank god I had them on and I shut those down.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Thanks for telling me now. I was looking, I was searching. Okay, she's good, she's good. No, but that's cool. I how you I mean, yeah, it's cool how you built that because um it looks like a like a a real organization chart, but you you kind of started you started with the bottom levels first, right? Because you were giving the people the the properties to manage, and then it got so big that you had to add a middle level. So you kind of did it in reverse, but it was it's still it still worked. I mean, I I really like that. I really like that approach because you didn't want um and you mentioned, you know, like the way um some companies, a lot of companies are set up, they have different divisions doing different things, and it's just uh it's cumbersome. It's cumbersome, right? And and and if you if you look at and and what he mentions in that book, the the emyth, um, is he he loves he talks a lot about McDonald's and how how uh the vision of the Ray Croc or whatever the the one of the founders um was to get these um entrepreneurs to to open these stores and run them and then get another one and get another one. People, you know, he he didn't he wasn't gonna try to build a corporation to build a million McDonald's, he was getting entrepreneurs to open their own McDonald's, and of course, he was getting a piece of every single McDonald's, and that is saying it's kind of the similar to what you did.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

And you know, I always see myself as the matchmaker, um, literally, because I try and matchmake every single person in um the industry, but the matchmaker between a uh a homeowner wanting a piece of the short-term rental industry, so they're desperately wanting to get in, but they don't possess the time, the skills, the know-how. And then I'm matching them with a budding entrepreneur who just wants an opportunity. So there's a lot of us out there that want to own our own business, we want to be our own boss, but we don't know where to start. So if I can create an opportunity for somebody, and it may be this is where I would always be on the lookout for it, a server in the restaurant or a customer service person at a retail shop. If I found somebody with that get up and go, that real entrepreneurial vision, they're driven, they really want their own business, they've got great eye for detail. I would actually grab them and say, come with me, I have an opportunity for you. Here's a portfolio of properties. Off you go. And of course, it just worked every time. So all I was doing was I was looking for opportunities

Matching homeowners with budding entrepreneurs

SPEAKER_03 28:14

on both sides. Homeowners, entrepreneurs, boom, put them together. And you think about these big companies, that's exactly like what you just mentioned: McDonald's franchises, entrepreneurs, business opportunity, boom, together. And you take a little piece of the pie in the middle. It's exactly what Airbnb is doing. They're matching homeowners with guests. They don't own property, but they're making a hell of a lot of money by being the marketing engine and the matchmaker in the middle. Sorry, Australia's burning down by the sounds of that.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Oh no. Um, man, it's it's it's so funny because I I I've always considered myself the same kind of person, a matchmaker. You know, it seems like I know what people will go good together, and then they'll they'll end up staying friends for like forever or or working together forever. And it's it happens all the time. I I don't I see myself as a facilitator, and and so uh and that's um it's so inspiring when I read your book about how you were you were able to do that. How are you able to get you know put people in uh to to manage these properties for you, and then you got a percentage, and they got a percentage and they were happy and they took pride in their work and all that stuff. Whereas if you just keep hiring employees to run your business, uh you know, it could work, but how they clock in, they clock out. Um, they're not gonna get any more money, unless you have to set up bonus systems, you got to set up all kinds of things to make incentives. And and does that work? Maybe I don't know, kind of sort of. But these people had these this like the Glenn 10, he had those properties, those are his babies, and he was gonna make sure that they were gonna, you know, make as much as they could and be as good as they could. So that that's very that inspired the heck out of me.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

I just want to say you've got to give people that um, you've got to empower them and give them a chance to actually prove themselves to you. And you know, I think one of the things I see with property managers is a lot of them are very guarded and they're very much uh no one's gonna ever be able to do this job as well as I am. You've got to let that go. You've got to actually realize that you can recruit, you can um, you can give out those those tasks to somebody else and delegate and trust, you've just got to trust that they're gonna do it just as well, if not probably better, than what you can. And I can tell you what, Glenn can clean a toilet better than I can clean a toilet.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Well, I I need to hire Glenn. Give me his number.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

I'll he'd be over in a flash. Actually, funny story about Glenn. Um, and because I'm sure he'll listen to this at some stage and and hate me for telling this, but he because he was my very first co-host, I of course then one of the other policies and procedures is that you should always then get that person to train the next person coming on. So I had two young, impressionable, lovely girls in their early 20s go out with Glenn because I thought they were my next um team members to come on board. And Glenn showed them how to clean a property. But his strategy and his processes was to clean and then do the showers last naked. Well, that was the end of those girls. They high footed it, hot footed it out of there and never to be seen again. So thanks, Glenn. Uh like allow the yeah, don't don't do what he did.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

I'm sure he'd say, You're welcome. You're very welcome.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Yeah, yeah, he would too.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

That that that is the the Glenn 11, you know, 10 fingers and then something else. Um systems, systems, systems. Uh so so could you show us uh maybe give us an example of a of an SOP that you created for something that was um giving you a lot of trouble and you like you find you made a as a SOP to make it work better.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Yeah, yeah. Actually, let me show you. I'm gonna show you a new document that I've just put

The onboarding checklist every property manager needs

SPEAKER_03 32:04

together. Actually, nobody's even seen this yet. So you're you're special. You already knew that. Clear those tabs.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Clear those tabs.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

Um look, an onboarding checklist because one of the things that I find is that a lot of um let me just make sure that you can read this. Uh a lot of property managers get to the point where they get asked to look after another property and then they go, crap, what do we do now? Like what is the process? How do I? And this is really important when it comes to having homeowners micromanage you. You've got to start setting the boundaries. You need to set expectations, you need to put everything in writing right from the start. And you need to be the boss, you need to step up and take pride and say, Well, I'm the professional, you're employing me because I know what to do. Um, but look, I'm I'm gonna quickly take you through this, but I'm gonna talk you through it at the same time. I'm gonna share this document as well, because I'm realize that some people are listening. It's an onboarding checklist, and this is for property managers um uh taking on a property from the start. So, firstly, I or firstly, I talk about doing a physical inspection of a property. You need to actually get out and have a look at a property because what you're doing then, you're not only looking at the property, you're meeting a homeowner for the first time. You you need to test both. Are you happy with the property and are you happy working with the property owner? Um, you're looking for, of course, things like you know, uh how many bedrooms, bathrooms, location, all that sort of stuff. But is the property up to scratch? Um, and you know, is it something that you would want to stay in yourself? Um testing the property owner. So one thing I always like to do, and folks, this is something I would suggest you do, is when you're going through that property, you want to bring a floor to the attention of the homeowner, something that needs changing, something that needs spending money on. Um, Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner, that artwork that you have on the wall is probably not appropriate for short-term rentals. Or we need to buy a coffee machine to get the best that optimize the money coming. A sofa bed will get us two more people. Can you spend $2,000 on a sofa bed? Now, if there is any reluctance, if there's any um fight that is put up there, red flag. Uh, you may not want to take that homeowner on. So, anyway, that's just a little tip for you. Um, creating an appraisal document, following up with the homeowner, then the paperwork and the logistics. Now, this is so important. Having a property owner's agreement in writing is where you set those boundaries and those expectations with the homeowner. You need to, so, and this is I've got it up on screen for those people looking. That document needs to have, we need to be able to see that they've got insurance. Do they have uh pool safety compliance, um, CO2 detector? You want to be able to go through and make sure you've got everything on that property that you need to know about. But then also in that document, you want to talk about things like future bookings. If they are to take that home back off you as a property manager, what happens to future bookings? Safeguard yourself with that. You also want to talk about things like um uh what should be in the property when it's uh and like a shopping list. Give them a shopping list as a homeowner. Now, if they can't provide that, you go out and provide it. You need to be very clear on your clear on your fees and your charges as well.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Um listeners out there, you're gonna want to go to YouTube and look at this because she's just giving away tens of thousands of dollars of information right now. Seriously, and you can take some screenshots and then go do you know, do your business. Anyways, back to yeah, back to the free stuff.

SPEAKER_03 35:49

Come on, bring it, bring it. Actually, and now I'm gonna show you that actual document. So, this this is what you want screenshots of. This document here is where we say, Welcome, Mr. Minister Homeowner. We would like to, we're gonna take management of your property, we're going to prepare it for holiday guests. This is the shopping list. So, this is actually the document that I used, and this is one that I sell as a template online. But if you're very clever at taking screenshots,

The shopping list and property owner agreement template

SPEAKER_03 36:14

you can copy and paste. Um, but I want to I want to say to people, look, we need cutting knives and cutting boards, and we need um a vegetable peeler in the home. If it's not there, I'm gonna go out and buy it. But I've got that in writing. I'm gonna talk about what I'm providing as a homeowner, the consumables. So, what is it that you're including in your management fee? Um, we're going to ask about how many keys that you need, how many swipe cards, remotes. Uh, we're gonna talk about Wi-Fi. If the Wi-Fi fails and you're managing this home on behalf of a homeowner, you want to put in a dongle, one of the Wi-Fi devices, but you're gonna charge them for it. Pets, what happens with pets? Um, personal use. Okay, now this is where a homeowner may think that because they're giving you their property to manage, they can come and go as they please. No, wrong answer. They need to give you, and in my case, three days' notice, but then they're also gonna pay for a cleaning fee. So don't be um, don't get yourself involved with a homeowner that says, I can clean, I'm a really good cleaner. Uh-huh. Up to the standards of Airbnb, guests, I'm afraid. Then cleaning. Now, this is really important to put in black and white what a guest clean entails. Because when a guest is paying for a clean, they're not paying for you to clean the light fittings, do the air conditioning vents, clean behind the refrigerator. So you're going to put in what it involves. Then you're going to talk about what we call spring cleaning. I'm not sure if it's the same term over in the US.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Deep cleaning, deep cleaning.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

Deep cleaning. Yeah, yeah. You're going to have to do a deep clean on a property every few months, but you're going to charge for it. Make sure you have a charge in there for it. Um, look, I'm scrolling really quickly on this, but I'm I'm hoping that you get the gist that you need to talk about maintenance repairs, the actual way that your charges lay out because people see that you've got uh a property for $400 a night on Airbnb, they're only collecting $291. Uh, how does that compute? How does that calculate? Homeowners don't understand that there's fees and charges coming out from Airbnb. Termination, change of property use. Now, this is super important that you do get clear on those future bookings. What happens if there is an early exit? You might charge an early exit fee. Um, but just exactly how it's all going to work. Insurance, smoke alarms, pool safety, and then of course the schedule of fees. And this is where you can change this every year if you want to. Put in your management fee, put in your rate that you're going to charge of any duty outside of uh property management. And I what I mean by that is if you're sitting around waiting for an internet technician for three hours to come and fix the Wi-Fi, you need to get paid for that. Uh, if you're going out and you're setting up a home, um, furnishing a home, you need to get paid for that. And then, of course, just a document that collects all of those details like the Wi-Fi, the trash day, uh, the cable details, um, codes to get into gates, that type of thing. Um so that is the actual document. Now, what I was saying before, that process in place, though, that's only that document is one part of that onboarding process. You need to make sure that you've got things like handover, photos, listings, all those sorts of things. Have a process in place for that whole thing, and I promise you, make your life a lot easier.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

It's so you know, we can nerd out on this all day. I love those, I love those documents that you just showed. Oh my gosh, this like it's uh SLP porn. Uh I mean it's uh it's detailed.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

You're so you're so married, you're so easy.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

Oh, yeah. Oh, it's that never mind. Um, so real quick, um I something I just point out real quick. 25 commission. I know it's it's if you were gonna you know start a brand new short-term mental business, would you still charge 25? And the reason I ask is there's so many, especially the bigger companies, they're charging, they're they're offering 10 commission to these people that are saying, Well, what about this corporation over here? They're this company, blah, blah, blah. No, you know, mention no names. They're 10, they're gonna manage my property. And you get what you pay for.

SPEAKER_03 40:38

Um my answer on that because I just and this is where I think you've got to go in with confidence um and simplicity for a homeowner. Homeowners do not want all the added extras with fees, charges, all that sort of, you know, and don't for God's sake, do not charge a homeowner for your software that you are using. Make that that should be part of the the commission, the fee that um so I see a lot of property owners trying to on charge their PMS or their channel manager subscription to a homeowner. Uh no, that's part of your running cost for your business. So um, but I would say, yes, I would absolutely go with the highest amount that I could charge. Uh, and that would be, you know, 25% in my location. But I think what you've got to do is research your area. You know, some areas you might only be able to push 18% or 20%, but you've you are doing a hell of a lot of work. You're 24-7. You are including, in my case, it was the consumables, you are going to be looking after their property like it is your own. You you're offering a great service. And at the end of the day, um yeah, you you really you get what you pay for.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Now, now another thing, because the people you put in place, you know, the franchisees to to to manage this, you know, 10 properties here, 20 here, 15 here, they had to live local to those properties, right? Correct. So, so so you're would your systems work being

Rural hosts: expanding to new markets with a 10% commission

SPEAKER_01 42:16

like a remote host?

SPEAKER_03 42:18

They would, but guess what? What we need to do then, oh, I'm gonna show you another document. Holy moly, I actually think that this podcast, I'm probably giving more details away than any other podcast. I must be in a good mood today. Um, so I am going to show you exactly what you do in that case. And this is um, oh, that's not the right document. Um, what you need to do is you just need to increase the commission. So what I did is I increased the commission to a 20 uh sorry to a 10% payout to that home, uh to that property host. Because what I need them to do is I want them to, and sorry, I'm gonna just find this um uh contract, um a host contract. Um, here we go. All right, here's the here's the gold. Yeah, folks, get on YouTube. If you can copy and paste all this stuff, you're gonna love what I'm about to show you now. So uh rural hosts. Okay, so this is where you could do this same um organizational structure anywhere in the world. But what I want you to show have a look at is this section here, the rural hosts. So, what I would do if they are all rural, I would add another 4% commission to them to pay out. Um, ignore this other stuff here where I'm talking about more than 60 days. I was actually doing it a little bit different there, but I would just pay them 10% of the 25%. But I would say additionally, I would have them sourcing properties. They would have to go out and market and cold call or look for properties to take on into our portfolio. They would be making the initial contact with the homeowners, they would do the appraisal, and then they would um they would then do the onboard. Onboarding of those properties. So they're really doing what a property manager in my traditional chart that I showed you, the organizational chart, would be doing, plus the property host. So they're doing looking for the property, onboarding the property, they're then dealing with the exiting of the properties. And folks, yes, it's true, you're going to have to hand these properties back to a homeowner, whether it's through the sale of a property, they're moving back into the property. But you need to be able to hand it back with everything that you collected remotes, linen, homewares, all of those intact. But you then ask them to also purchase and store the consumables on for those properties. So very simply, yes, but chicken or the egg, do you find the properties first or do you find that remote host first? I would go with the host. Find the right person, identify an area. So let's say, and this is where, as property managers, we can identify where we want to vacation ourselves and we can set up a location so that when we go to inspect those properties, it's all tax deductible. So Carbo San Lucas, I'm heading there tomorrow. Damn, what if I found somebody to manage properties there? I would put them on this structure and I would say to them, I'm going to give you 10%, but I'm going to give you everything you need to run your own little business. And uh, and then you start marketing and you start looking for for properties and opportunities. Um, you know, a lot of people we were saying before that there are entrepreneurs, budding entrepreneurs looking to buy into a franchise, looking to buy a business. In this case, you're not selling a business to them, you're gifting it to them and saying, I have a business for you, a business in a box that I'm going to give you. Uh, you just have to be a little patient because it's going to take us a little while to build up, or or not, you know, you might get five properties in one go. So, um, so folks, provide that opportunity for those budding entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

And and so that's the thing. So I've always okay, I was like at my job, for example, right? I always bring up my job that I was still there, but I've just got to go. I go a couple days a week. I go a couple days a week, and I keep all my flight benefits and all the medical stuff. So that's why most of the time I'm I'm off, you know, and I just they're even surprised when I do show up, but anyways, um, I give away most of my shifts. But, anyways, um well, people people know me as the Airbnb guy, the short-term middle guy. They ask me all these questions, and and I've been through so many people at my job asking me, and they're like, Okay, maybe this person has what it takes, and then um, and then they lose interest, and they they uh I I I'll even say, Hey, here's some properties over here. I know where there's gonna be some arbitrages coming up. Oh, well, I can't because of this and this. Okay, I guess it, you know. Um, only one person at my job,

Finding entrepreneurs: parents, seniors, and the right mindset

SPEAKER_01 46:52

and I mentioned shout out to Shannon. He's the only one that actually started his first uh Airbnb uh in Shreveport, and he just uh he's killing it. I got him onto the midterm space because I'm big on the midterm. I got the insurance connections and stuff, and and he got his first um like eight thousand dollar booking, so he's so excited, you know. He's he's addicted now. Uh yeah, so well, eight thousand initially is like four thousand a month in in rent. So uh yeah, so there's this it the midterm is is I love that, but he's the only one of all these people, maybe, and that's not the right environment because people want to go to work paycheck, and then they're they're used to the security the security, you know what I'm saying? So, how do you how do you just go find? I guess you can get in Facebook groups as people out there in the in the Airbnb short-term middle Facebook groups, or how do you find people that will that do will actually do the job for you, you know?

SPEAKER_03 47:42

Yeah, and and you hit it on the head. There are two people in this two types of people in this world. There are people that like to be employees and are scared of losing their job and that security, and there are entrepreneurs who are scared of ever having to get a job. So that's they're the two. Now, you and I fall into that second category, although you are still dabbling in the security of a job. Um, but I think what we've you've got to do is you've got to just keep your eyes peeled for those people who are constantly either talking about um being their own boss or or just willing to take that risk and that leap of faith. Now, um a great option is to find somebody who has already dabbled in Airbnb and short-term rentals themselves. And they may have one property that they're running. They just don't have the mindset, the brain, the business in a box that you're going to present to them. But once you do, they're the ones who just get it and they're just going to run with it. Um, I a very good place to look for these entrepreneurs are parents of school-aged children. And I think that there's a lot of lost opportunity there that, you know, the busiest time of the day for us as short-term rental hosts uh is school hours. And so with you know, with that comes the opportunity that maybe there's a parent at your local school or um or somebody that yeah, that has little kids that might just want an opportunity. Uh, maybe they've been out of the workforce for long enough that they've lost that dream of getting back into a cubicle again, and uh, and that they would like to have that flexibility where they can perhaps sometimes take the kids to work with them. And um and that's what we have got. We've got that opportunity to say, here's two properties. I want you to look after everything about these properties. Um, and yes, you can take your children to the properties if you want while you clean them. And I would say to people, I don't care how you clean them, if you clean them yourself, you have your kids help you, or if you outsource that. But my contract is with you uh as a host, and I just need it done. I need the cleaning done, I need the laundry done, and I need it to be at a five-star level. That's it. So very clear expectations, key performance indicators. Um, but look for parents, look for senior citizens, uh, look for people that students that maybe uh studying, but they just want some side income. But you're looking for the attitude, you're looking for the mindset of being an entrepreneur, they can think big, they've got a good eye for detail, they can clean, um, and that they've got good communication. Now, one person I did employ, their messaging was great in the mornings, but in the afternoons they started slurring their words, like they were drinking. So don't employ drunks either.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

Yeah, let's let's not employ ourselves. Uh I wouldn't employ. Uh what do you want? Um yeah, so wow, so much, so much great information. I guess I get, you know, we've been in this industry for a while, right? And and so and we've been on those um Facebook groups and stuff like that. And I'm not that's why I was asking. It's like it seems like it's just a place for hosts to go or host to bitch and moan and say, Oh, Airbnb is unfair, Airbnb's this, and you know, it's so bad, and blah blah look at the you know, that they're just so it's so much negativity. So I'm like, I would definitely not want to employ one of them to run my things because they're just gonna find the negative and everything. So it is it is discouraging to see that out there in those groups, right? And and so um, that's why I was wondering where's a good play, and I and you know, something came to my mind, something came to my mind, you know, and uh ding, you know, and my my nephew has been really, really asking me a lot about this, and he's fascinated by it. And I'm like, you know what? Why not? I can give him some properties, you handle these 100. This is how you do it, this is exactly how you do it. You know, I'm gonna steal Julie George's stuff, and then and then I'm gonna give him some you, I'm gonna give him some properties, and that that's freaking perfect.

SPEAKER_03 51:59

Because there's no there's no cost or risk to you really, like just give people a go and and that's why I set it up this way. When I started my business, I had no money, I had no investors, I didn't have any, you know, I I was you know really risking like I I didn't want to be able to have us have to pay someone's salary. So, but in this model, we can your nephew, for example, can come on, take a couple of properties. You will soon know if he's got the goods or not, because you look at those, all you're doing is watching the reviews. If the reviews come through and he's getting five stars, great, load him up with another property. If it's coming back saying that he's three-star cleaning, train him again, like give him another go because we've got to give people a chance. But if it continues to be bad, sorry, you're not doing the job and oh you're not up to the task. But um, but yeah, folks, Stephen hit it on the head just then. Steer clear of those Facebook groups where there's bitching, moaning, whinging. Go and find people that enhance your life and that make your life like that are a joy to be around and that give you energy when you're around them. They are out there, you just need to find them. And whether it might be a local meetup that you organize in your area, just to meet some fellow hosts uh in the area and just to give them support, like we were saying before, give them that group hug. Um, but perhaps they may be looking for an opportunity to take on more properties. They just need your expertise as the Airbnb guru to to provide that.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

The guru. Thank you, thank you very much. Um, um that that is so cool. And so let's get to the teaching aspect. You're out there teaching, you're out there traveling the world. Uh, tell us all about that fun stuff.

Julie's coaching and mastermind community at $850 per year

SPEAKER_01 53:40

But why do you do it? You don't have to do it, you're a billionaire already. What the hell? Yeah, don't believe everything you read on book cover.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

Um so I'm uh yes, look, folks, I'm out there now teaching people exactly. You've had a little snippet of what I'm I show people um in the last hour. Uh, and in fact, look, you may not even need me now that you've watched this episode, you just need to watch it about four more times and slow it down and screenshot everything. Uh, but I am doing one-on-one coaching with people and I like to dive into their business and go, all right, uh, just rentals. Show me your paperwork, show me your income statements, show me your expenses. I want to be fully immersed. So when I'm coaching one-on-one, it's I'm not the cheapest, um, but I'm certainly not the most expensive coach out there. But I want to work with only five or six companies at a time, and I'm gonna just jump in and help you as if it's my own business. Now, the other thing that I've got going on at the moment, which is amazing, um, if I may say so myself, is a mastermind community that I've just created and it's bought anybody in the short-term rental industry. I'm talking hosts, vendors, software companies. If you've got an interest in the short-term rental space, I have created what I like to call, it's like Clubhouse, our old Clubhouse days, mixed with Slack on Crack. So it's a website, it's an app that you can access 24-7. You can have me answering your questions 24-7. You can have my assistant helping you out. We're sharing all the documents, all the templates that I've just shown you. You've got members in that community like Dr. Rachel Gainsborough, you've got people like Will Slickers, you've got incredibly well-known people in the community that you can reach out to as well. And you've got that positive community aspect. We hold monthly Zoom meetings, and then we just did artificial intelligence. We're about to do one on um on how to be found on Google. So anyone who's got a direct website needs to uh be in on that meeting. And at the moment, I've got a very discounted price of $850 US for the year for that um that community. So, and folks, look, if you want that um, if you listen to this podcast and you'd like in on that, I just need you to either connect with me on social media or send me an email and say I've just listened to Live Let Thrive. I want to um come in to your community, I'll honor that 850 uh for the next, well, let's say the next two months. I'll put that out to any of your listeners because what it will do is it's gonna go up to 3,500 um at the normal price for that in that uh that community. But Steve, I'm gonna be pulling you and Micah into that community as well. Yeah, that's um I would love to see you, but it's it's really a replacement. We used to go to Clubhouse to all connect with each other. Uh now I'm I'm hoping I've created a new platform that you can all just come in and yeah, mix with each other.

SPEAKER_01 56:42

Oh, you should see. Um, I'm not I haven't been on Clubhouse in a while, real quickly. Uh yeah, it is. And and it's just a bunch of drama now. It's just a bunch of people outing these gurus that ripped them off. That's pretty much what it is. And and there's, I mean, for tens of thousands of dollars, they're they're like out there taking these people's money and saying they're gonna give them properties, and it's just craziness going on right now. And so they're all just they're doing actual clubhouses on this. This guru burned me, this guru burned me, all this stuff. You know, it's just listen to Live Let Thrive, you get all the shit for free. What the hell are you going on clubhouse and paying people, you know, a hundred thousand dollars of your money? That's that's stupid, anyways. So, yeah, that's the clubhouse thing. But this is this is cool. The master class, I'm gonna be on there, I'm gonna be on there too, and and you know, I I can help people out too. You know, I love I love helping people too. I'm the facilitator, and that's that's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_03 57:32

So everybody's really helping each other, but you can ask and be vulnerable in there and ask questions like, I don't know what I'm doing, like help me with my onboarding process, right? Well, then you suddenly you've got three people, three gurus uh coming at you and going, here's a document you can use, here's a procedure, here's a um process, here's a video you can watch. You've got that help. And and really, I think that that's so important that we all collaborate. Um, but it's been great. And the the other aspect in the community, we've gamified it. So for every time you interact, there is a leaderboard with points. And at the end of the month, I give out prizes. So we you can win prizes by coming into the community. Little koalas, yeah. Yeah. Well, it's actually cash, but we'll love it.

SPEAKER_01 58:18

Money, that's what's up. Um, awesome. Well, thank you again, Julie, for hopping on the show and and teaching us how to to clean the the bathrooms, uh, showers naked. That's number one thing I drew from this. Oh, yeah. Is there another way to do it? I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 58:35

I don't well always cleaning tip number 101 for STRs. Clean the showers last and take your clothes off.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

That's that's sage advice right there from Miss Julie George. Thank you so much, Julie, for hopping on. Uh uh people know where to find you. They go to Julie George and they'll find you, but we're gonna put you in the show notes too, right? Uh, get her book Million Dollar Host in the House and the hospitable hosts. And um, man, this is so cool. I love having you on because you're just so inspirational and everybody everybody loves Julie. So I can't wait to see you. I've been I've been watching the the Women's World Cup, it's happening in Australia, and I'm like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:13

So it is actually just downstairs from me, and the music just started up because they have bands every day. We I've never seen so many people celebrating in one go, but um, Australia lost to Nigeria last night, which is a little sad. But uh, but I think the Americans are doing pretty good, so um, so watch out. But yeah, we're having a hell of a party down under at the moment, and the um it's great to see the women uh getting the recognition that they deserve in the football world.

SPEAKER_01 59:41

And and Lucy, my my my six-year-old, she can't wait to go to Australia. That's she just wants to go. So we're gonna make our trip over there and see Julie and have fun and have put a shrimp on the Bobby.

SPEAKER_03 59:52

Thanks for having me today, Stu.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

Thanks, Julie. We'll talk to you soon. Adios, bye, everybody. We love you all. Peace. All that awkward dismount. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:02

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Live Let Thrive. Be sure to tune in next week for all the latest in the world of Airbnb and all that entails. Bye bye.