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_05 0:11

Hello, hello, hello. And welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

What is up, Micah?

SPEAKER_05 0:23

Man, I am chilling, Stevie Stacks. How you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Oh, you know, hustling every day, trying to do it, trying to trying to come up, trying to grow the company. What about you? Getting getting cussed out?

SPEAKER_05 0:35

Yeah, getting cussed out, trying to grow the company as well, trying to uh add more properties into the portfolio. And uh yeah, has its challenge. Yeah, that's what I've been up to, man.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Sometimes that happens, right? You call them up, let me buy your house, and you get a get a mouthful. Yes, sir. Well, this is episode 227, Micah, of your favorite Airbnb vrbo, booking.com, short-term, midterm, long-term rental podcast in the world. Coming at you from Arlington and Fort Worth, Texas.

SPEAKER_05 1:07

Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

We got a guest today, Micah. We have a special guest named Rose Tipka. Who's Rose? Well, Rose is the owner of your family's place. It's called Your Family's Place, a boutique vacation

Six kids in nine years trying for a sister

SPEAKER_02 1:22

rental company in Ohio that focuses on large homes on expansive properties. They focus on multi-generational families and groups traveling together. Guests can expect an open and go vacation that is actually relaxing. Rose and her husband own and manage all of their properties. Their life is a balance between growing their company and raising their big family with six kids. Life is never boring. Welcome to the show, Rose.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Yeah, six kids, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

What's going on there? Things got a little out of control. But but I, you know, I just gotta be honest. I had um, I had my daughter first, and I have a sister, and uh, I really wanted to give her a sister. And uh then I had five boys in a row. I had five boys in nine years. Um yeah, so that's it. I'm done. I tried.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

No sister for you.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Nope, nope, five brothers, but no sisters.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

Wow, thank you. He's going until he has a boy and he he's uh he's striking out.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Well, there's something in the water here, I gotta tell you.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

We need to move to Ohio, that's it, man. We gotta move. I'm a I'm a huge Ohio State Buckeyes fan, so I'll be right at home.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Yeah, absolutely. They're pretty big here, they're pretty big. Nothing happens on Saturdays while Ohio State's playing.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

That's right, that's how it should be. So let's we have so much to dig into because I I love how you mentioned on your um in your uh bio that you have a singular focus, and that is on a boutique vacation rental company, of course. Large homes on expansive properties. Can you go into what that means?

14-person minimum: large homes on expansive private acreage

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Absolutely. So, since we have a big family, we found it so difficult to find a big enough home that was also nice and family friendly and pet friendly. And so, you know, the best ideas are problems that you have yourself. And so we figured if we were having that same problem finding big homes that were still nice, because sometimes family friendly is code for not as nice, um, and also would accept our dog. So we decided to build that ourselves. So when we say big properties, our smallest property accommodates 14 people. It's a log home, it's called Mount Pleasant Lodge, and it has 15 acres. And those acres are totally private, it's surrounded by woods. So once you go up the driveway, you don't see anybody else. It's just you back there with the property to yourself. Um, we actually have enough property there that we put in our own disc golf course, which is pretty exciting. We have enough space to do that. Um, and that property is designed to feel like summer camp. Nostalgia is an important part of our brand, and so we design all of our properties trying to hit those nostalgia notes. Um, our next property um is a new build. We built it ourselves, and um, that has a main house that accommodates 14 and then a guest house for six more, so 20 people. That property is 19 acres, and it has a completely private stocked lake. And we provide all of the lake fun that you need: canoes, kayaks, paddle boards. The lake is stocked. We provide the fishing rods, we don't provide the worms because they but um we have everything there so that a big family like ours, they can they can show up, they can bring grandma and grandpa, they can bring their cousins, they're all in one place together with everything that they need to have a vacation. You don't need to throw your kayak on the roof of your car, you might not even have one. We'll provide it for you. Um, we are also now under construction on our biggest

The million-dollar build: 32 acres, two lakes, a waterfall

SPEAKER_01 5:16

property yet. It's a million-dollar property. Um, it is the main house is going to accommodate 16. There's an apartment above the garage for six more, and then we have a very special couple's cottage that's separate. And that property has two lakes that are connected by a waterfall, and it has 32 totally wooded acres. Um, we sourced a property that had never even been timbered before. So we started with a come, it's not a blank slate because it's full of gorgeous trees, and uh, we put in the ponds and uh all the rocks around the waterfall, and we are just creating this magical area. It's called Middle Haven, and it's designed to feel like uh like an English woodland cottage, and uh and yeah, we're really we're really going for it here.

SPEAKER_05 6:07

No, what size are these homes like how many beds and baths are in these homes?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

So on our in our biggest home, there's a total of seven bedrooms and six bathrooms between the three spaces, and uh so and we we try not to do, we try not to cram all the beds in there because when families are traveling together, sometimes people like their own space. So we have a total of seven bedrooms at this new property. And um at our uh cottage at Maple Pond, we have six bedrooms, and then at Mount Pleasant Lodge, we have four. So each property kind of steps up to the next size, and that also helps us when we encounter potential guests. We can direct them to the property that meets their needs and is at their price point.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

No, you said oh, go ahead, Micah.

SPEAKER_05 6:54

Well, well, one real quick question because like these are really huge, huge homes with a lot of amenities. So, like, what's the occupancy rate on something like this? Like, yes, often are people coming to you

Wedding venue partnerships drive occupancy in rural Ohio

SPEAKER_05 7:06

know, some some place that sleeps 20 people.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yes. So we are actually we we are rural locations, but we are only seven minutes from the interstate. And the area of Ohio that we are in, we are two hours to Cleveland, two hours to Columbus, less than three hours to Cincinnati, two hours to Pittsburgh. So we have there's about 14 million people, if you count all of those metropolitan areas that are less than three hours away from us, and they can get to our properties with only seven minutes and two turns off the freeway. So we pull from a really big area of people that are looking to get away from the city and have a more rural stay, but it's still very approachable, and they can still be at the grocery store in five minutes. So they have that good balance. We're also in an area that is loaded with these incredibly high-end wedding venues. Um, one of our local wedding venues just finished building a four million dollar wedding venue, and they're pulling brides in that are spending $20,000, $30,000 on a wedding. And they have four, 500 people a wedding, and they have three venues there that they're doing three weekends, three, three days. Oh, they're doing three week three weddings a weekend in three different spaces. We have another wedding venue that's only seven minutes away from us, and again, those brides are at you know a $20,000 to $25,000 price point. They're only seven minutes away from us. We work directly with those wedding venues. And when they have a bride or their families are coming in, I provide them with little, they look like wedding invitations. And through developing those relationships, the wedding venues are putting my cards right into the hands of the people that are booking their spaces. So when it comes to occupancy during the warmer months, the about the middle of May through the end of October, we are booked almost every single opportunity we are. Um, once it gets a little cooler, we are booked every weekend, every Friday to Sunday. Midweek stays not so much. Um, but we have we have an impressive occupancy for the area that we're in, for the price point that we're at, but we also have some guardrails in terms of our lifestyle. Um, we do not do any same-day turnovers because we have big properties that take a long time to turn over and to do it absolutely right. So um 100% occupancy is not our goal that puts too much wear and tear on the properties. Again, we own all of our own properties, and so we protect that asset to make sure that it's in excellent shape for all of our guests.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

I think that's gonna be a theme throughout the show. You have your goals and your focus, right? And so, yeah, you know you're not you're not aiming for 100. You don't want 100.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

If you're at 100, then you're not priced appropriately.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yeah, yeah. I because we want to flow income, we we want that money in the bank, but the real asset that's appreciating over time is the property itself. And if you're at 100%, you're not at the right price point, and you're putting wear and tear on that asset and you're not taking proper care of it.

SPEAKER_05 10:26

I love that. Now, with these properties being so big and you have a very unique style that you're going for, are most of your bookings or reservations coming from the wedding venues, or are you do you have these places listed elsewhere?

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah. So we uh we try to have a really broad base of where our reservations are coming from. Um, we don't want to have too big of a percentage of reservations coming from one source, because if that source dries up, then then you're out of business. Um, so we have a wide base of where reservations are coming from. We have ones coming from the wedding venue. There is a uh a baseball facility very close to us that has um uh baseball training camps and baseball um not leagues, but like competitions. They have 2,000 people a weekend, 40 weekends a year

Why Rose refuses to list on Airbnb

SPEAKER_01 11:17

there. So we get people coming for that. We list on verbo. Um, we have a book direct website, but notice there was one thing that we don't use.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Airbnb.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Do not use Airbnb.

SPEAKER_05 11:30

Um, I love that you don't because I do have a bunch of questions. Absolutely. Why want Airbnb? I want to hear that.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Why? Well, when we first started off, we we were still learning what we were doing. We were getting our feet wet and we just listed on both. And we gave ourselves the time to figure out what was going to work best for our business. And across the board, the quality of the guests that we were getting from Airbnb was lower. And as we continued to scale and we had bigger properties and more expensive properties, that risk wasn't worth it to us anymore. They always wanted to, they always wanted a deal. And as you guys probably know, the guests that ask for a discount are the worst guests. Um, so we were able to fill our calendar as much as we desire it to be filled using verbo and then doing the actual work to bring in those direct bookings. It's actual work. And we were willing to do that because it made sense for our company and it was bringing us the quality of guests at the price point that we needed to make our company successful.

SPEAKER_05 12:42

What was that work like? Well, what work did you guys do to get those direct booking?

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah, there's a lot of work. It's things like setting up those sales funnels with wedding venues and with baseball venues and and reaching out to funeral homes. Um, there's funeral homes in the area, and we might have midweeks that are open and they need people that are coming in that need accommodations midweek last minute. That's great for us. Um, you know, I I know it's not funeral homes, it's not like but but I mean, those are people that probably already have family in the area, they may be returning, that kind of stuff. I mean, it's it's it's a lot of work, it's hustle. You got to make those connections. You have to have that network of people that are saying, Well, I know so-and-so at the chamber of commerce, and this would be a good person for you to know. And you make that connection and you thank that person who connected you to them, and and you just you work it, you run it down. Um, what's nice about Airbnb is it's easy. Um, but that comes at a price, and that was not we were I was willing to do the work to make it happen.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

That's a huge reward with easy.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Now, one one one question real quick, going back to weddings. Do y'all plan on throwing weddings yourselves on your property?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Oh, we've had some people host small-size weddings, especially um kind of in the throes of COVID. There aren't a lot of people now that are doing that as much. I'm certainly open to it. If people have rented the space and they are within our occupancy limits, what they would like to do with the property, I think that's great, and I'll be glad to help you with it. Um, and what I've also found with people who have gotten married there, um, they then come back over and over again. And so that is uh a guest that made wonderful memories and wants to revisit them. If you got married in a really large venue, chances are you're not going back every year to visit it. Um, but they are when they're getting married in our space. And so I'm open to that.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

That is cool. I love that. Yeah, we there's so many questions.

$1,200 summer peak rates vs $400 winter midweeks

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Um you give us a lot of information. So um, real quick, because I I, you know, here's a selfish question for me because I I'd love to um give my family a cool, like uh snowy, you know, white Christmas type deal or something like that. Is how what is the pricing in the in the wintertime when it's cold when there's snow on the ground?

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Yeah, actually, December is one of our busiest months, and especially those um two weeks around Christmas and New Year's um are priced very aggressively, but we also have regular people now that come to our places for holidays year after year. Um, they come for Thanksgiving, they come for Christmas, and those are very coveted dates. And I'll have other people trying to, you know, well, I'll book 2024. Like I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna book out from under somebody who's been with me for years and is a great guest. Um, you know, during the winter time, um, like January, February, it depends on the property, but we are certainly at about half as much as we do over the summer. Um, our summer rates are are higher. Um, so the cottage at Maple Pond usually is between six and eight hundred dollars. And in the summer, on some of our peak weekends, we can be up to twelve hundred, fifteen hundred dollars a night. Um, Mount Pleasant Lodge is in that four to six range, and then in the summer, um on holiday weekends, we're in the eight to a thousand dollars a night.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

So, real quick, Micah, I've noticed three themes throughout this show, and uh automatically, if you follow those three things, you're you're gonna be successful is goals, focus, and relationships.

SPEAKER_05 16:25

Oh, yes, I love that. That is good. Now, I I have a question for you. Like you're so you these are huge properties, huge acreage. And I noticed you said you guys self-manage all of these. What does your team look like in order to keep up with all of this? Because that's a lot of stuff to keep up with. It is.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

So we have um right now. That's what their kids are for. That's what my kids are for. Actually, my kids clean better at our properties than they do in their own homes.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

Um you pay them, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Oh, I do because, and that's it, you know, you need to take tax and take advantage of all of the tax opportunities in order to employ your children to help them build their credit and all of that kind of stuff. Um, it's also another way of spending down your uh your company's income so you have you show less profit at the end of the year, um, so that you have less of a tax liability. But this, I'm not an accountant, and you should always work with a professional to set all of those things up. So um we do have a cleaning crew. We have people that usually clean the same properties each turnover. Um, they're just part-time. It and um they often have families themselves. They have kids, they bring their kids, their kids also help. We have a handyman that we hired this year who does all of our maintenance, our regular maintenance in between check-ins and then scheduled maintenance and small tasks like that. So when it comes to turning over the properties, that's our crew that we use. I'm on site and I do all of the inspections. We use Breezeway to organize all of our cleaning and stuff like that. And uh that's that's what we use on site for turning over our properties. We use some other things on the business side to free up some time and allow us to act like a company that's much bigger than me and my husband.

SPEAKER_05 18:16

Oh could you go on to a couple of those tools? Oh well.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Yeah, so how did how did y'all um you know stumble

Husband bought 19 acres the day before baby number five

SPEAKER_02 18:25

into this kind of thing? Um what happened? How did this what was the beginnings?

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Well, I have to tell you, this is one of my favorite stories because I always start with the end first. And the end is my husband was right.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

I'm gonna record that and play that for my wife.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Yes, yes, my husband was right. So there was at the time when we when we bought our first property, um, I was pregnant and about to have our fifth child. And he was also the company he was working for was starting to wind down. And so he was trying to figure out what his next phase was going to be. And he brought me this property and said, I think that we should buy this. And I said, Oh my god, I'm about to have a baby. I can't even think about this. What are you doing? Um, and so then he bought it, and then I had the baby the next day, and so it wasn't the right time to tell me. And so then once you go down that path, it's very hard to back out of it. Um, and it was it was a difficult birth and all of that kind of stuff. He's like, maybe now is just not the right time to tell her. And so six weeks later, we ran into our real estate agent who told me, hey, we close on the property next week. And I said, excuse me, what we were then the owners of 19 acres and a private pond and and a house that was a dump and needed a total rehab. But I will say my husband was he was totally right. He knew that the property was special, and he knew that it was the beginning of I wouldn't say the rest of our lives, but the next phase of our life where we took control over our schedule, over our work life, and that this was the opportunity that we were looking for. And so I, you know, I I am um I'm a maximizer. And I once I got over the shock, um, got over the shock of it, um, I was going to make it, I was going to make it a success. And so we jumped in there, I had the place renovated and we we started renting. And within a couple of months, we were like, you know what, this is it. We really feel passion for what we're doing. We're providing other families with the opportunity to have really great vacations. This is what we should be doing. So that was really how we started. And he was right.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

He was right. You hear that, ladies? Uh so this obviously this helped you leave your job, leave your career.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

So I have I was a classroom teacher before we started a family. And once we started a family, I was staying home with our kids.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

He was working um in an office job, and his company was uh the owners were getting close to retirement, and they were sort of wrapping the company up. He has some extremely specialized knowledge in his industry. He was in the oil and gas industry. Um, you guys are in Texas, there's a lot of oil and gas action in Ohio. Um, and he has extremely specialized knowledge of that. And so I was trying to figure out with him what he what are you gonna do next? Like, we got a lot of kids, and you know, I don't want to go back to teaching. Um, and so we when she started our vacation rental business, um, and we really dug into it, we were able to get him to a point within three years that he was able to wrap up that job. And leave it and then work with me. We work together on this as our full-time careers.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Nice, nice. So another question. Um, so so he was able to leave his job. And how are y'all how are y'all able to buy, unless you have a whole buttload of money in the bank, which could be possible too? How are you able to buy a million-dollar property

Commercial loan at 80% LTV with no money down

SPEAKER_02 22:22

with with no job? I mean, you're just doing it to your business.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

We don't have W-2s. So we have in order to build our new property, we have a commercial loan. We went to a local community bank that is very supportive of uh businesses in the area. And our area is certainly up and coming when it comes to travel and tourism. And we had, you know, we have all of our numbers together. Uh, we're a real business that makes real money. And um, it was before interest rates started going up, I will say. But uh we had we went, I went to multiple banks and did a full presentation with our numbers and what we were looking at, and we had multiple banks offer to um do a commercial loan for us. So we went with the one that gave us the best, the best uh rates and the best setup, and we're off to the races building and spending. Yeah, so we we used a commercial loan and we locked in at a fantastic rate, and the bank is our partner in doing this.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Sweet. Now, within a commercial loan, is it is it within the loan that or is there money allowed for renovations in the loan too?

SPEAKER_01 23:28

So this is uh there's two parts of the loan. There's the construction phase of it. Well, it's all a construction loan. There was the purchase of the land, and then there's the construction, and so we also priced in things like the furnishings and all of that. So that's all part of the loan.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

And so it's basically enough to get us hopefully all the way to the end. It included things like uh installing the ponds. You have to you have to dig those out, and so we wrapped everything into the loan. Um, and we did not have to put anything down, and we did use one of the properties that we own as leverage on it, and then we borrowed at I believe it was 80 or 85 percent of the value of what we were able to put up as leverage, so we didn't have to put anything down, and uh they made it happen for us.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

That's beautiful. I'm also gonna make them a lot of money, so yeah, yeah, it's gonna work out nice for them. So that's that real one more thing about the commercial loan because we I don't sure I don't know a lot about commercial loans. So I I can't just go to a house here that just a regular three, two, and get a commercial loan on it. It has to be a speci a specific type of property. What kind of properties can qualify for that?

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Well, I'm not sure if I have the information for you on that one. Um, but we when we purchased the land, it was it was empty land, it's not empty, it was full of trees, but we had um architecture plans from our architect. We had bids on all aspects of the property that we could do, and so we took that to our bank loan officer, who also conveniently was the vice president of the bank. It's good to go right to the top and talk to the people who can make the decisions. And um, the the bank, it's a local bank, it's first federal, and they are very passionate about investing in our community. And that was so our interests were aligned. You know, they know that our area is up and coming when it comes to tourism and that our company is doing that right now, and so they were they were eager to make that loan along with a couple of other local banks.

SPEAKER_05 25:34

Love this partnerships, like Steve said earlier.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Yes, yeah, relationships, yep.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

And now his network is my network, and so when I need a connection to somebody, I call him up and I say, Hey Scott, I need an introduction and he makes it happen. And when he needs when he whenever I have a success, um the bank can share it as look at what we're doing, we are investing in these people. So, like for example, I'm one of the lead authors on the next edition of Hospitable Hosts. Oh, so I'm very excited about that. It comes out next year. Um, I called him up. I said, I'm gonna be a published author. Like, I can't believe how far you've taken this. I said, add that to your marketing material.

SPEAKER_05 26:19

That book is on my book reading list too. Hospitable.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Wonderful, wonderful. Julie George. Uh says our SR buddy. Um, yeah, you have any questions, Mike? I got I got more questions.

SPEAKER_05 26:34

Yeah, oh

Finding a project manager: will the electrician text them back?

SPEAKER_05 26:35

no, no, no. Well, you said you're building, you project manage a million-dollar home, right? Yes. Um, I'm gonna tell you one struggle I'm having with uh how do you what do what should I look for in a project manager? Because I have a couple of rehabs. I have a property I might be closing on here in a couple of weeks, and they all need work, right? What should one person be looking for within a property manager?

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Um, so are you talking about as a project manager for construction or property managers on rentals?

SPEAKER_05 27:05

I'm sorry, project manager for construction.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Um, I think two things are very important. The first one is connections to the people who are actually doing the work. Can they call or text an electrician? And will that electrician answer their phone call? Will their electrician text them back? That's very important. Um, I have developed really great relationships with all of our subs over time. And I have a fabulous contractor who I've known for 15 years now, and we have a very close relationship, and that helps us understand what the vision of the project is to get it done. So that's the first thing is does that person have the connections that the the trades that you need? Will they answer the phone when they call? That's the first thing. The second one is oh man, you got to be persistent. You it and I've been accused many times of being persistent. Uh and people use it in in that certain way, but you know what? I got us to the table, I got the project done. Persistent is still polite, but persistent is persistent. And that takes a special type of person to do that.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

I love that. I you know, it is funny because I that that alone just will they answer the phone call or the text back. I mean, I I sometimes, you know, back when in the earlier days, I was looking for contractors to do things, you know, uh fix something or plumbers, electricians, whatever it is. And there's so many, you know, it's still like a fragmented industry. I mean, so many numbers I would call and they wouldn't have any kind of no one to answer it, it would go straight to voicemail, it would be a cell phone, it'd be like, What is going on here? If you just paid somebody like a minimum wage just to answer your phones, you would get so much business, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:51

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

Some people just not good at that, they don't care. Maybe they have enough business, maybe five jobs a week's good, they're done, they don't want to get any more work. I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah, but then once I develop that relationship with somebody, then they do good work, they answer the phone when I call. I'm always gonna take my business to them. And when I take my business to a company, they're gonna make a lot of money, and so that's the development of that relationship over time, and so it it's a two-way street, but um, and that that takes time, and sometimes you go through a couple of different, you know, vendors for things, but when you find the right person, you're gonna you're gonna pay them a lot of money. So it's worth the time, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

And so okay, so the big question, how do you balance the the working and the the business the with the having six kids? How do you do that? How do y'all do that?

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Well, first of all, it's not glamorous, and I don't always look put together

Work-life balance with six kids: the best you can

SPEAKER_01 29:48

like this. And all of my kids are downstairs right now watching a movie. Um, but so here's the thing, and and I've read a lot of books about how people manage work-life balance. Um, and across the board, the answer is the best that they can. And that's not a glamorous answer. People want to know what what trick do you have? What system do you use? All of that kind of stuff. And here, here is the real truth. Everybody is trying the best that they can. Everyone is is finding the system that works for them. It might work for them, it might not work for you. It's not glamorous and it's not easy, but you have to, it goes back to that persistence. You have to see what the bigger vision is. Um, we homeschool our kids on a Monday afternoon at 3:30, when people aren't done with their work, it's not glamorous. And you have to remind yourself of what your goal is, what your vision is, and try to keep your eye on that. Um, one of some of the things that I do just to make life as smooth as possible for us is making decisions ahead of time on things that are time sinks, like our menu for the week. It's it's unglamorous stuff, but I plan every meal for the entire week on Sunday. I have everything I need, I'm ready to go. I make a schedule for my husband and I of who's doing what. Um, I do three-hour time blocks and we plan our week out that way. It's not glamorous. Um, but that's the thing, is everybody is trying their best. And some weeks are better than others. Um, some weeks we crash into Friday and we go, holy moly. Um, so I guess I don't have a perfect answer because I don't think that that perfect answer exists. I think everybody is just trying their very best to do that.

SPEAKER_05 31:36

One thing I noticed about you, you said you make decisions ahead of time. I'm reading this book called Extreme Ownership, and that is one thing he's really big on. You have to be decisive very quickly in order to really keep things going and be successful. So, yeah, I'm working on that. And I also do the Sunday thing. That Sunday thing helps, like just plan out your whole week on Sunday. And then my wife, she started noticing it too. She's like, I plan out everything the day before. She goes, Now that I do it on Sunday, I have more time during the week. So yeah, that that's huge. Being absolutely nice.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

I like that answer. This is not a perfect answer, it's what works for yeah, what works for you, right? And um, and uh here's the thing too, you know, I come from a uh a family, you know, divorced family, it's it happens, it's common, right? And and they just worked a bunch of hours at a job and weren't ever home, and you know, it just kind of fell apart. So I even though you are, you know, they see you working a lot. I'm sure y'all are working a lot with those with those houses, but it's you're there. They I mean they're you're there with them. That's cool. I mean, that's a big thing right there for whatever they need, you know, mama's there or dad. And so it's it's yes, you're you're be working or you're on a call and you can't, you know, get to them right away or something like that, but you're there, and that's the that's the biggest part of it, just being there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

And they're part of the journey too. They have they feel ownership with the company as well. And if in the future they wanted to be involved with it, that's fine. But I don't, I don't really um don't necessarily feel that family businesses are not always the glamorous thing that people make it out to be. Um, but also, you know, the the opportunity to be able to grow

Ownership LLC separate from management: built to sell

SPEAKER_01 33:20

our business to a point that we are financially secure and um then helping helping move it on to the next phase. Um, we separate the ownership of our properties from the management of our properties. We have different LLCs for that. We sign rental agreements with ourselves right now by and by having that rental agreement, we are creating value right there that in the future we could package our properties together and sell. We could also package the management and the brand your family's place and sell that off in the future and keep the ownership of the properties. We're trying to set these things up now so that in 15 or 20 years we can say, do we want to keep doing this? Do we want to sell off a portion of our assets and we can go in the direction that we want to?

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Wow, built to sell. That's that's cool. That's important. I mean, a lot of people say, I'm never gonna sell, but you never know what the future brings, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Yeah, you you always need to have. I mean, nobody wants to say, like, you know, something bad's gonna happen and you're gonna need to sell, but you should always be thinking about what could your out be. Um, and you have to have that in your mind because you can't be naive in thinking that things will always be this way. So we did a lot of work with branding of your family's place and what that means and what that experience is. And so that as the future, as we grow that, they we create value with the brand itself. We actually have the trademark on that so that we can expand outside of Ohio into other markets, but with that same brand. It also gives us the opportunity to franchise it in the future if we wanted to. Um, it just opens a bunch of doors for what happens, what happens from here.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

I love it. The big vision. And so, how many, how many properties do you foresee y'all, y'all doing this at?

SPEAKER_01 35:14

Well, I think I I have to tell you, I am really hot on the Michigan market. And part of it is because I have wonderful memories of going on vacation up in northern Michigan. And that plays into that nostalgia aspect of our brand. And I would like to be able to expand the brand, your family's place, into other areas where we think that are really primed for that old-fashioned family vacation. Um, Northern Michigan is a great place to go on vacation. Um, you know, you have in the summer, you have white sand beaches, like you're on a you're in the Caribbean, and it's not packed full of people like you would see in Florida. Um, in the winter, you can go skiing and the snow machines are huge there. There's a lot to do in the winter in Michigan. I think it's a lot more seasonal than we might think that it is. Um, so I would like to be able to create that branded experience of your family's place in other locations so that when someone is introduced to our brand, maybe they stay at one of our properties in Ohio. When they're looking for their next vacation, maybe they try one of our properties up in Michigan. And so we're creating that branded experience that's consistent across properties. So that's sort of um where I see us going forward. So once we have somebody within the brand, we can provide that same type of vacation experience in different locations.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

We're gonna we're gonna link you up with a good friend of ours who's in northern Michigan, who's going who's who believes in it as much as you do. And and her name's Sarah Glidewell. You heard of Sarah Glidewell.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Um from the Carwells.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

The Carwells, have you seen?

SPEAKER_01 36:58

I actually, yes, actually, I recorded with them a couple weeks ago, and my episode comes out on the 20th. We talked Michigan. But there's Huron or Lake Michigan side. Where does 75 go up?

SPEAKER_02 37:10

You know, up here. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

We got our hands out. Absolutely. Absolutely. They just uh closed on a really amazing property in Cadillac. There's a little town called Cadillac, Michigan. Um, and they just closed on an amazing property up there. So they they get the northern Michigan vibe, they get it, and they were there first, and you know, they they know that it's

Northern Michigan expansion: white sand beaches, Furnished Finder demand

SPEAKER_01 37:34

a very lucrative place to be.

SPEAKER_04 37:36

Oh, yeah, oh yeah. Start looking then is everyone in northern Michigan. You better start looking.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Yeah, I know. I and I know a lot of people say, Oh, go buy in Florida. Well, gosh, everybody's bought in Florida, let's do something different, okay? Um, and you know what you can get for your money up in northern Michigan is amazing.

SPEAKER_05 37:54

Yeah, see, and I know it's gonna hit because you just said white sand beaches. I would have never known that in northern Michigan, but if you organized that, that is huge.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

Absolutely. The area around sleeping bear dunes was rated one of the best places to go on vacation in America by Good Morning America. And after that, these subsequent years, every year was busier every year. Our quiet vacation spot got busy because everybody found out about it. So I'm gonna put a plug-in for Sheboygan, which is on the Lake Huron side. It is a very quiet town, it's only 15 minutes from Mackinac Island, and what you can get for your money in a place like Sheboygan is astonishing. People need to be looking in that area for making investments, and with only being 15 minutes to Mackinac Island, I mean, that place they print money over there in the summer. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

Wow, I've always heard it's beautiful up there. I need I need to get out there. Um, I've uh a friend of ours, someone we we manage uh one of her places here in Dallas. Um, she she has she has places in Wisconsin on the other side of the lake, and so from Michigan, and so um with the she's showing me these places that I'm like I'm blown away. This this beautiful places uh right by the lake. I mean, I mean, gorgeous for for dirt cheap. I'm like, holy crap, I need to invest over there. But I don't know, nothing. I mean, she's telling me it's it's a great place to invest, so uh maybe we'll get in there before everybody gets there.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Yeah, it is, it is, it's a great place, it's a great place right now. You can buy an entire island outside of Alpina, and it has its own lighthouse and it has a lodge that sleeps 10 people, your own island.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Yeah, it's insane. Yeah, uh this one she was showing us was like in this little town, it looks like a Hallmark movie, right? And so I was gonna do, I was like, Oh, we can make like a whole Hallmark movie theme, you know, Airbnb or you know, short-term rental, whatever. And and then it, I mean, it has everything, the clock tower, all that stuff. I was like, holy smokes, this would this would be a killer as a short-term rental. But yeah, yeah, so much, so much cool stuff up there.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

That's part of one of our content pillars is um I call it small town adorable because we live in one of these adorable small towns in Ohio, and that's that's a very interesting content pillar that people like to interact with because we all have that idea in our head of like the Hallmark movie of small towns. Um, I had uh an influencer stay with us, uh, Instagram or stay with us a couple weeks ago. And she said, Well, uh, I I want to go to barbecue. And I said, Okay, I'm gonna send you to Sublime Spoke. Taylor is the bar manager, she'll be there, she'll greet you, she'll take care of you. Well, I really like coffee shops. All right, you need to go to sugar fuse. Scott's the owner, he'll be there decorating cakes on Saturday morning. You need to go there, and that that kind of like small town adorable experience, it's it's blew her mind.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

So you know everybody at the shops.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

Yeah, yeah. That's my job to do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:55

Next question. So, how did you build those relationships? Because that that's one thing I'm working on because I have places in smaller towns. I want to be able to, like, hey, this is where you go for your coffee. And I want to I don't want to go to Starbucks, go to the you know, the local place. How did you build those connections?

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Well, I drank a lot of coffee. Um, so I started with that. I drank a lot of coffee. Um, actually, I involved my kids in it a lot where we would go on quests and we would try all the coffee shops in the area and we turned it into a quest. And we also love coffee. And then it was who do you know? Who do I know? If you live in a small town, you know that relationship. When you meet somebody new, one of the first things that we do is try to figure out who we know in common. Um, and so then you work that way. And then if you have a question about, you know, what's the best pizza place to go? Well, I'm gonna ask my friend over here, you know, where do you go for pizza? Where do you recommend? And you take their recommendations from there. Um, it's something that definitely takes time and effort. Um, there are people within communities that are certainly connectors, and if you can figure out who those connectors are, their network becomes your network.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

Do you know who Mark Simpson is? What was that? You know who Mark Simpson is? I do, yes. I did uh Boosley Behind the Host back in May. And um, as a really fun side note, the name of our company is your family's place. And I actually um heard that in an interview that he gave, I think it was when he was on Things for Visiting. Um he said, you should tell your guests that you want to be their go-to place for vacation. You they want to be your family needs to go to Mark Place. And those words kind of were a salad in my head, and it came together. We want to be your family's place for vacation.

SPEAKER_05 42:38

Yeah, you're you're you and Mark have that very streamlined vision connecting people. That is awesome. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Yep, yep. Because you uh one of his sayings is that your network is your net worth, it is, and that continues to pay off over and over again.

SPEAKER_05 42:56

Oh man, this is awesome. This is good stuff. I've taken so many notes over here.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Now you're gonna want to come to Ohio and northern Michigan, yes.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

So see, you see you saw this from your own eyes, like what you wanted in a place to do vacations when with your you know, big family, and not a lot of places accommodated that well, right? And so, what are some of the things that you know? I know we're not gonna host as big families here in some of the three twos that we have, you know, in Dallas Fort Worth area, but well, how can we make a place like stand out from all the other houses that are on, you know, Airbnb, VRBO, whatever, to make it, you know, family friendly, uh baby friendly, stuff like that. Stuff that we're like, oh, we'll we'll choose that one because it has this, this, this.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

One of the things I think is really important for families is having accommodating check in and checkout

Flexible check-in times and PlayStation game rooms for families

SPEAKER_01 43:47

times. This is also something that plays into our policy of not doing same day turnovers. If you're traveling with little kids and check in is at four o'clock, that might be really tricky for them. And if you can get those guests in early before Nap time, that's a huge win. Or maybe they need a little bit of flexibility on checkout time. You know what? I always try to say yes as much as I can. And having that, you know, no same-day turnovers allows me to take better care of my guests. One of the things that we did almost by accident is design all of our houses without all of the little Nicky Nanky things that kids pick up. Because when parents are in spaces with all of those things and their kids are touching them, they start to feel a lot of stress that their kids are going to break something. And so we tried to design beautiful spaces, but without all of that little stuff so that parents could actually relax and not worry about what their kid was going to break. That was a really important thing for a lot of our guests. And we've surveyed them and that's come up repeatedly. One of the things that we do in all of our properties across the board are huge game rooms. We put PlayStations and Nintendo's and arcades and air hockey machines, big giant TVs, all of those kinds of things. And oftentimes the kids end up downstairs in their own little fun world while the adults are having some actual adult quiet conversations upstairs. And so being able to be together but separate helps the adults have an even better vacation. They're not hovering and all of that kind of stuff. Those would be my best tips for how to really attract families to your rentals.

SPEAKER_05 45:34

You said something very important there very quickly, but it was very, very you heard it. Okay. You said you surveyed your guests.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

I did, yes.

SPEAKER_05 45:44

Now, how do you go about doing that?

SPEAKER_01 45:46

Okay. Well, I do it a couple of different ways. One of the things that we do is we leave a comment card in all of our properties. It's a paper card. I make them myself on Canva. And there's three different questions on the comment card. Uh the first one is, how did you find us and what were you looking for? I want to know what search terms those people are using, what websites, or you know, did they get a referral from somebody? I want to know what they're looking for so I can be in that space. Also, if they're a referral from somebody else, you better believe I'm sending that other person a thank you because they just keep coming. So that's the first question. Where did you find us and what were you looking for? The second one is do you have any comments or suggestions on the property? And by having that, I flush out any potential problems that a guest might have had. I think a lot of the reason that some gifts guests give less than five-star reviews is because they want the people to know that something was wrong. And so if you can give the guests that opportunity to tell them, tell you the light bulb is out, or um, you know, the light in the refrigerator isn't turning on, they'll give you that information so you can act on it. For example, I had a repeat guest who told me you need to have hooks on the back of your bedroom doors. She checked out on a Sunday, and on Tuesday, my handyman installed hooks on the back of the door. Um, then the third question is what was your best memory from this trip? That that number one tells me how they used the space, what and number two, what amenities were the most important to them. And then it also ends their trip with a happy memory. They're going out the door thinking about what was the highlight of my trip. So that's that's the first way is with my comment cards. The second thing that I did was I hired a professional copywriter and she um sent out an email to everybody on my email list asking for former guests who would be open to doing an interview. And she she scheduled phone interviews and Zoom interviews with them and had a whole list of questions, and she really dug deep into that and she interviewed them and then compiled an entire report for me with the information from my past guests. Wow, yeah, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

It really was.

SPEAKER_05 48:20

You went deep into getting the intel, absolutely here is how you run a short-term rental company. I'm loving every bit of this. This this is true, true, really, really good gyms. And what was what was the third way?

SPEAKER_01 48:32

Oh, so so there's there's that. So um, how am I knowing what the guests are using? Um, I will I do send a lot of um, I I have an email list

In-property comment cards and paid copywriter guest interviews

SPEAKER_01 48:46

that I work on and I send out emails every, you know, two weeks, every month. And I'm always asking my guests to give me feedback on things, giving them small decisions to make to kind of get that engagement up to build that relationship with them so that they feel when they stay at our properties, they're not staying at a stranger's place, they're staying with a friend, right? They're staying with someone that they feel that they know. And so when they do that, they can tell me things that I need to know about the property.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

Nice. That is cool. Um, wow, so many, so much good information today, Micah. Yeah, it is. He's he's typing away, taking notes over there. Yes, so another thing just popped in my head right now. You have a place with like like what like 19 acres?

SPEAKER_01 49:38

Well, how many acres was uh we have right now we have a 15 acre, a 19 acre, and we're building on 32.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

That's a lot of acres. That's a lot of acres. Here you could put a million houses on on one acre, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 49:51

But that's the thing though, but that's not what I'm selling, and I'm pricing for privacy, and I price it that way. And a lot of our guests, since they're coming from more urban or suburban areas, they don't want to be right next to somebody else. They already their regular houses right next to somebody else, and so I'm pricing that way. I'm pricing with privacy in mind.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

That is awesome. Now, do you have you thought of doing like um putting some cool teepees up or tree houses, stuff like that?

SPEAKER_01 50:18

Yeah, I mean, those are interesting things, but if they're not big, they're not bringing in the nightly rate to make it worth my time, to be honest with you. Um, when you have things that aren't you aren't renting for the higher nightly rate or for bigger groups, you still have a lot of those same carrying costs. You're still mowing the grass, you're still, you know, you're paying electric and all of that kind of stuff. And for us, it didn't make as much sense to constantly be turning over smaller units when we could just do, you know, three turnovers and have three sets of guests on the weekend and make four times as much. It was about the the best use of our time for the greatest return.

SPEAKER_05 50:58

You're very stuck to your brand. I love it. You are razor focused on that brand. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Yeah, yeah. That's that's what I that's what I'm I want our guests to feel that way. I want them to feel like they have found a place where they can go year after year and make those memories. And uh, and that's that's how you start. And you have to take care of them, you have to take care of those guests. Not all guests are great, and you know, let that let that go. There's gonna be bad guests, move on from that. That that person won't come back, and that's all right. Focus on the ones that will come back.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

Beautiful. Now, now going back to the um getting the loan and stuff like that for a property like that. You mentioned something, so you had several different banks uh approve you, you know, want to work with you. Um, and then you got to choose the lowest interest rate. Now, everybody here is like, well, the isn't the interest rate the interest rate, you know, we're buying a house, that's what they're doing right now. It's what all the banks are given, and isn't that the same thing?

SPEAKER_01 51:56

There was actually quite a bit of variation in the interest rates that our the local banks were offering us. Um, there was a spread of about a point and a half at that time. So I was I was kind of surprised by that too, because I thought it would always be the same, but there was actually a substantial spread. So we went with the bank that was not only giving us the best rate, but I felt like they understood the vision of what we were trying to do and that they would be really the most accommodating and easy to work with.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

I love that. There's uh it's always room to negotiate, right?

SPEAKER_01 52:27

There, well, yeah, every everything except for my nightly rate is up for negotiation.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

Can I get a discount? Come on, come on.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

Yep, just I can always charge you more, right? Isn't that what we're supposed to say? I could always charge more.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

I love that. Oh my gosh, the art of negotiations. Man, this has been a great podcast. We thank you so much. How did you find us, by the way?

SPEAKER_01 52:51

Uh, we're in the same Slack channel with Mark that Mark set up.

SPEAKER_03 52:54

We are there you go.

SPEAKER_05 52:55

We are, we are. You look familiar, there we are.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

Yes, I'm having major FOMO right now of everybody going to Miami to have a good time, and I'm watching a backhoe dig footers, but it's a glamorous life we live. It's a glamorous life.

SPEAKER_05 53:12

See, you would want connector of people. Mark is a connector of people, he really is.

SPEAKER_04 53:16

He is absolutely well.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Thank you. Where can people find you?

SPEAKER_01 53:21

So, um, our website is yourfamiliesplace.com. We're also on social media at your family's place. And if you want to reach out to me and send me an email, rose at your familiesplace.com.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

Easy enough. Well, thank you so much for hopping on, Rose. Uh, we look forward to watching your progress and and learning from you also because we want to do things big time like you, you know, we're we're little babies, we want to grow up. When it's and uh yeah, thanks for hopping on and dropping so much good knowledge. Uh, Mike, any closing words?

SPEAKER_05 53:53

That is it. Thank you for coming on. Um, I really realized I don't even have a short-term rental business after talking to you. I'm running a playground. So I'm uh definitely, you gave me a lot of good tips, pointers, and I and you of huge value to the fans out there. I hope you can probably grab something from this because I did, and I've been doing this for six years.

SPEAKER_01 54:14

So thank you. Well, I'm glad that I I that is always my hope is that other people that are in our position can learn something from what our experience has been. I'm not here to sell a product. Um, I would love if people wanted to come to our properties. We're be glad to be your family's place for vacation, but I'm not trying to sell you anything other than do your job very best that you can, and that will always pay off for you.

SPEAKER_02 54:39

Love that, lovely. Well, thank you so much, Rose. We'll chat at you later.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 54:44

See you, Rose. That man, I learned a lot from that one, man. I I don't even have a short-term rental business after talking about that. Like sending surveys, like that's

Debrief: goals, focus, relationships, and VA delegation

SPEAKER_05 54:55

how you really run a business, man. Like, she ain't on Airbnb, and she even if she has big, huge acreage cabins and ain't listening to them on Airbnb because air and I've always said Airbnb, they have shitty guests. Let's just be honest about it. She knows it. She's like, I'm not even gonna list with them because they're gonna bring bad guests. I mean, I've and I've said that time and time again. It's funny because I'm in the point now where we're reaching out to insurance clients, and uh now I gotta start reaching out to people locally because man, this is huge. I love that this is awesome, man. This was that was an awesome podcast, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 55:29

So, so goals, focus, and relationships. That's the things like I said, stuck out to me. And we and it takes work, man. It ain't takes work, and like I've uh there's times when I'm like I find like a cool little like in our Dallas properties, right? There's like a cool little uh Italian joint that's been there for a hundred years, and I I tell people about it, I send them a thing, and whenever they you know, if we if we go back and forth back in the day when I was doing messaging, but we go back and forth and say, Oh, did you hit up that Italian? Nah, did we didn't get time? Blah blah blah blah blah. I'm like, man, if I I should take some time to get to know the owners of these little cool little businesses, yes, and say, Hey, will you give my guests a discount? You got a coupon or something, and they're gonna hit them up and they're gonna love it, and they're gonna, I don't know. It's just, but it takes time to do all that stuff, right?

SPEAKER_05 56:16

Yeah, no, it doesn't. I already set up my telling my VA to go do that right now. Just got my V VA has open phone now. Call these people and let them know, hey, we're in the area. Yeah, man. You got hey, one thing I did notice, and this is what I've been noticing. You know, I've been talking about I pushed everything off my desk, man. Uh, and just really focused on getting more properties. One, I've found out I'm way more, we in mahogany are way more successful at getting properties. Like, you know, we got a couple appointments this week. We're getting some killer ass deals on some houses, man. Um, but it also helps me to focus on what I can give my VA to help grow the business because now I'm not in it, but I still needed to grow on the short-term rental side. And he's now doing things to help grow that business, man. And there's certain certain things we sometimes have astigmatism like towards like, ah, they can't do this. Fuck it, let them try. You know what I mean? So, like, I don't send do phone calls like, hey, call these local businesses and see, uh, you know, uh, see if we can partner with them. Like today, he he was actually calling insurance companies and having success. Yeah, they said, Hey, well, send all your properties to this address, this email address, and we'll go ahead and get some insurance clients sent out to you. Man, work your VAs, man. Trust your team. Once you start like really putting trust in your team, everything will manifest. Everything will manifest, man.

SPEAKER_02 57:38

Keyword trusts, yeah, trust, man.

SPEAKER_05 57:41

You gotta and build a team trust, man.

SPEAKER_02 57:43

Straight up, man. That's the thing. I mean, and then you don't be afraid to let them fail because that's what they learn, right?

SPEAKER_05 57:47

There you go. That's if you're holding their hands so they won't fail, your company ain't gonna grow. Yeah, straight up, man. And it was another quote I wanted to say when she was talking about family, and I noticed you said too about your family, and you know, they were always gone and things like that. This is one quote that came to me today that I started to notice about people. Poor people relate love to money, rich people relate love to time. That is what I've been starting to really notice with people. People will always say, 'Well, uh I ain't got enough money to do this, or I got this, and I can't spend time with my kids because I ain't got money. Give them time, man. That's where that's what it's really all about. It's time. That's the number one thing. There you go, man. And I noticed that I'm like I came from my family, not my family, but just the generations of my family, they're usually poor. You know, my family's from the deep south, you know. My dad's from one of the poorest counties in Arkansas, but he made it out, you know. But once you start really getting on, you start time for money, and then you start thinking the only thing you do to your kids is just give them money or you know, take care of them with money, but you don't give them the time. So remember that, y'all. We're doing this for more time, not for money. Money, money's gonna come and go, but that time that's not that's irreplaceable, man. Never get it back, never get it back. We went deep on this show, yeah. Yeah, man. I I love talking to her because she has a vision with her family, and that that just really opened a lot up a lot to me, man. And yeah, I'm about to uh my VA's about to get some tasks pushed to him.

SPEAKER_02 59:20

That's one thing we just glossed over. Not only is she running this this big, you know, successful business, not only is she married and has six kids, she's also homeschooling all six of them kids.

SPEAKER_05 59:31

Yeah, because she has the time, man.

SPEAKER_02 59:34

Oh my god. I just most people love the fact that the kids go to school and they regret summers because what am I gonna do with these kids? You know, for the whole summer, I gotta have them, I gotta do something with them. I'd rather give them give them off to the school for eight hours a day, and and then they get to teach him whatever they want to teach him.

SPEAKER_05 59:52

She said her son's learning Chinese, like that's you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_04 59:56

He can choose what he wants, you know what I'm saying? And everything's online now.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:00

You can you can sign up for any course online, you can learn Chinese on fiber, hire somebody, you know what I mean? So the world's just been we're in a place where knowledge is just right there. We just have to tap into it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:14

Yeah, takes discipline though, takes discipline.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:16

Yeah, takes discipline. Like Mike Tyson said, if you have discipline, don't have a discipline, you don't have nothing.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

Like yeah, very cool, brother. Live that thrive at gmail.com, live that thrive.com, hit us up, Instagram, Facebook, all that fun stuff. R hey, our just rentals, hit me up, I'll manage your place. We'll manage your place. Me and Federico and Cher B hit up Micah. He wants to buy your property for 220.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:41

Dang right. Uh, yeah. If you have anybody that is uh selling properties, needs to sell foreclosure, pre pre-foreclosure, divorces, all that hoarder houses, we buy them all. So yeah, hit us up. You can hit uh hit me up on Instagram, send me a message, it'll come through. But you know, I'm off social media, but it'll come through my phone. So uh yeah, hit us up and yeah, thank y'all for continuing to listen. Steve told y'all where to find us. Hit that link tree. If you need all of our information, also hit the subscribe button and remember to leave us a review. We're gonna start shouting out y'all reviews on the podcast. So uh thank y'all, and we are out. Peace later.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:17

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.