Jeremy Werden on hurricanes, flood insurance and VRMA

Quick Summary

Helene came ashore in a remote part of Florida's Big Bend, so Jeremy turned off the news and went about his weekend. By Monday the footage from Western North Carolina said otherwise. His houses came through, yet his cleaners went dark for a week and his pool guy in central NC for two, so the pools went green anyway.

So look at flood insurance even without an ocean nearby, and check on your team before you check on your buildings. He kept his own prices down while displaced families booked. If you're sizing up a coastal market with that in mind, BNBCalc Markets has the comps.

Key Points

• Helene made landfall in Florida's Big Bend, which Jeremy was relieved about because so few people live there, and the worst of it landed inland instead. His guests in Western North Carolina kept power, water and internet the whole stay, while towns roughly 30 miles away, Chimney Rock and the Asheville River Arts District among them, were not what they'd been a month earlier.
• The houses held up and the team didn't. His cleaners were unreachable for a week, and his pool guy in central North Carolina for two while he ran supplies back and forth to family out west. The pools went green at properties the storm never touched.
• He kept nightly prices down instead of raising them into evacuation demand, which he says plenty of hosts do. Guests leaving Marco Island booked a week at his places, and others arrived after going a week with no power, water or internet.
• Look at flood insurance even if you're nowhere near an ocean, he says, because a creek counts too. The driveway at his Sylva property washes out all the time and came through this storm fine, which is exactly his point about how random these events are.
• VRMA attendance was down 30% from last year and 30% from the year before that. The explanations he got on the floor were property managers who never adapted selling out, older ones retiring or getting acquired, and a program built for the old guard rather than younger operators. Vendors are rebooking anyway, since they've already paid.
• Every company there had some AI angle, though the useful work happened between the booths. At the Marriott Homes and Villas tent he found out he can't connect because Hospitable hasn't integrated yet, so he walked over to Hospitable, and their product manager took notes on the spot. The actual deals get made in the follow-up emails the week after.
• An influencer stayed with her family at Kyle McLeod's Wisconsin barndominium, a property Jeremy invested in, and posted a video that Airbnb liked a comment on. By his count it drove $20,000-plus in bookings inside 24 hours. He won't call that the future of rentals outright, yet it beats competing for the same Airbnb search results as everybody else.

Full Transcript

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Jeremy: We are live with a solo episode of the Short-Term Rental Pros Podcast with your host, Jeremy. And guys, the last week, the last month, today, have been absolutely crazy.

I'll start with today. Not every day does your fiancée go on a running interview with vice presidential candidate Tim Walz two weeks before an election. And do you help by running in front of them and filming them, dodging pedestrians, bikers, Secret Service, you name it. And all the logistics and background checks and all that jazz that go into being able to be at something like that. So I'll get into that one. Kate's actually going to come because we haven't really had a chance to recap that.

But bring it back a week. The last week I went to Chicago Marathon, went to VRMA, Vacation Rental Management Association. A lot, a lot to unpack there and a lot of takeaways. And then came back to New York the other day with, admittedly, a few days at VRMA at these conferences where I was not sleeping as much. There's a lot of events that go on. It's a lot of fun. But I had to get well rested, because today was a very eventful day.

But bring it back even farther. The last month, we've had two hurricanes that impacted pretty much every single one of our properties. The first one hit Florida, then came up towards Western North Carolina. We have one property in West North Carolina. We did have a second property in Maggie Valley. We happened to have sold that property back in January. We had no foresight that a hurricane would come ravage that area, because I'm not sure if the road leading to the house that we sold is even accessible to this point.

Maggie Valley, a lot of Western North Carolina towns got impacted, especially the towns that are kind of valleys and have rivers or streams running through the middle. The Asheville River Arts District, Chimney Rock, a lot of towns that kind of check those two boxes are not what they were a month ago. So super sad. I'm sure all of you guys have seen the footage. It's absolutely horrendous. Western North Carolina is not a place you think that's going to be impacted by hurricanes, but that's the reality of the world we live in.

So just take a step back today. I want to talk to you about the last month, what I learned from the hurricanes, the lessons that I learned and things I'm gonna be thoughtful of moving forward. I'm gonna tell you guys what I learned from the conference, from VRMA, what my mindset was going into a networking event like that on behalf of myself, as well as on behalf of BNBCalc, our company. And then I'm going to have Kate on and we're going to talk about today, because that was totally nuts.

Jeremy: So going back to the hurricanes. Admittedly, when I saw that the first hurricane, Helene, was going to hit a relatively remote part of Florida in the Big Bend region, I was relieved. We have two properties in southeast Florida. Didn't look like they were going to get impacted. And also was happy that it was just going to hit an area where not a lot of people live, because that's really about what you can hope for when a hurricane comes through.

So Friday night came, I think it was, yeah, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the storm hit. Saw that this area was getting hit. It hit, didn't look like it was too bad, kind of turned off the news, went about my weekend. And then Monday, Tuesday, it really started coming to light that Western North Carolina was, frankly, obliterated by this storm.

We had guests at our property during that time and nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the last day when they sent us a message. "Hey, by the way, had a great time at your house. We went down to the Cherokee Casino and a lot of people were talking about how bad this storm was. We've had power, internet, water. Everything's been fine, but there were some flooding and some trees down. But it looks like 30 miles or so from here, things were a lot worse."

Monday, Tuesday, the footage started coming out. Things were a lot worse. Weather's crazy, that 30 minutes one direction, it can be not just rain, and then 30 minutes to the east, you can have six months worth of rain in 24 hours. So that's what happened.

And a lot of these towns, I mean, a couple of my mentees had a property in Asheville River Arts District. I had helped go set it up. They did all the work. I just kind of went and hung out and gave moral support. They had just luckily sold a couple months ago and reinvested proceeds elsewhere. But I grew up going to Chimney Rock, going on hikes. A lot of these small towns I would pass through on our way to our property that we still have in Sylva. So emotionally took its toll.

We got lucky with our properties. However, our cleaners, our handyman, our electricians, our plumbers, a lot of them live in these towns closer to the rivers. So we didn't hear from our cleaners for a week. Even in central North Carolina, didn't hear from our pool guy for two weeks. Apparently he has a lot of family in Western NC and was going back and forth dropping off supplies. Obviously, I cannot fault him at all for that. I'm just happy that him and his family are OK. But our pools went green in central North Carolina. So even if our properties did not get directly hit, we were impacted.

And then the guests that we had during both hurricanes were largely folk escaping either storms or escaping the conditions afterwards. So we wanted to make sure all our team members were OK. Reach out to them, even if we didn't need an electrician, we didn't need a plumber. Let's just reach out and make sure everybody's OK, see how we can be helpful.

We've been hosting a lot of people. We kept our prices down. A lot of people, I think, go in and when stuff like this happens, they raise their prices because they know they can get bookings. That's not how we operate. So we have a lot of grateful families in our properties who booked our property saying, "Hey, we haven't had water for a week. We haven't had internet for a week. We haven't had power for a week. So thankful that you guys are providing us this housing." So moments like that make you feel like you're doing a good thing, and is what it's all about in hospitality.

To the second hurricane. That one hit the Tampa area. My co-founder, Parker, BNBCalc, his family literally has a house on top of the water in Tampa. Totally, well, first of all, an awesome house. Second of all, quite susceptible to storm surge. Have a lot of folk that I work with in the mastermind with properties in Tampa area, Seminole, Clearwater. So just praying for them, praying for their families.

And it did seem like we got a little lucky with that one, too. Not personally, but just southwest Florida as a whole. It did not hit the most populated areas, Tampa, St. Pete, as badly as it could have. It actually did a reverse storm surge, so the water went out of the bay versus into the bay.

But still, these hurricanes, hurricane season is time of year I am not going to be looking forward to ever. I mean, this year is not even over yet, so I want to knock on some wood and hope we get through. Not just us, but everybody gets through the next few months without having another one.

But I guess it's something to think about. And even places like Western NC, nowhere is safe, really. And you never know what's going to happen. So it's just kind of a reality, I guess. For you guys listening, look at flood insurance, even if you don't think you're near like a river, creek or ocean. Maybe you don't think you're near an ocean, maybe you're near a creek. Look into your flood insurance and see if that's something that maybe you should get for your property. The property we have in Sylva, for example, the driveway washes out all the time and didn't wash out on this storm. So these weather events, they're just so unpredictable. And it's crazy, and it's random.

So that was the last month, just kind of dealing with that. Takeaways: you got to just roll with the punches. When things happen, people evacuate. When storms come, people evacuate. If you aren't directly impacted, you're probably going to get booked. For example, Florida, they evacuated southwest Florida. We had guests come from Marco Island, stayed at our places for a week there. But your team members are going to be affected. So it's not even about you, about your property. You run a business, you have an operation. Unless you're physically there, you probably have team members. So know that they might get affected, and do what you can to support them in their times of need.

Jeremy: This week, what was my takeaway from the Chicago Marathon? Well, first of all, my friend Eric, he is one gritty son of a b*tch. He had posterior tendonitis, had not ran for the last month, and he got a Boston qualifier time. He had never done a sub-three-hour marathon. He did two fifty-four.

I saw his feet after. Don't ask me why. That probably sounds weird. Maybe edit that one out. I'm just kidding, we're authentic here. I was helping him out because he literally, I mean, he had like three people carrying him, and took his shoes off, and it wasn't a pretty sight. So he gave it all he had.

And the human body is capable of anything if you put your mind to it. I did, about a year and a half ago, run an ultra marathon without any training and with also the wrong sneakers. And I would not say the human body is capable. I would say love makes you capable of everything. I wanted my fiancée to hear that, because I ran that ultra marathon for her. So that's another takeaway. The human body and love makes you capable of anything.

Jeremy: Takeaways from a VRMA conference. Well, first of all, I flew in to Chicago on a Saturday. The marathon was Sunday, and then flew out Sunday night to Phoenix, Arizona, which is hot as hell. Oh, my goodness. I got off the plane, walked out the airport, and I thought I was in a sauna. It was like 95 degrees. And got there that night because the HostGPO pickleball tournament was the next morning.

Awesome event. Jeff, who was in the seat across from me a few months ago on the podcast, did a great job. Such a good pickleball event. We got smoked. The team that won brought in a top 50 player in the world, Boostly. Mark Simpson, if you're listening, who I've had on the pod, honestly, I respect that move. Got to bring in the ringers, get the dub, do whatever it takes. Great event. Mattie also helped put on that one.

So the events were awesome. A lot of times at these conferences, you have the actual conference and the actual speaker sessions and the booths and all that. And then you just have events that go on at the same time. What I realized is you actually had a lot of people who just went to be there at that time, who only went to the events. They didn't even go to the conferences, because the events are where a majority of the networking is and a majority of the fun, if I'm going to be completely honest. So there was parties on parties on parties.

My guy Patrick, my good friend, and Josh, his business partner, were there, so we stayed in the same hotel as them. Patrick, who I've had on this podcast probably four times, I commend him. He goes to so many conferences and has taught me the importance of going to them from a networking standpoint. But he knew everybody, so it was fun to be with him. I know a lot of people at this point, but he knows everybody.

A lot of folk, it's cool. I joke, my fiancée, she's big on social media, especially in New York. We go on the West Side Highway, people look at her and go, "Oh, my gosh, that's her. That's the running interview girl." However, when I'm at a vacation rental management conference, that's where I get that same sort of, "Oh, my God, what's up, Jeremy? I listen to your podcast," social media. And I love when people come up and I'm like, "Hey, what do you like about what I have to say? What can I be doing better?" I love that. I love the real life seeing the faces and getting feedback. For those of you guys listening who saw me there and said what's up, I appreciate you guys, and everyone listening. I appreciate you all and hope that we get to meet in person, maybe at a conference, maybe at our office, whatever it may be.

Just going to go in and say it's great that I feel at this point very networked with a lot of the software founders in this space. For example, even on this podcast, I've had Jeff again, Jay from HostBuddy, Andrew Kitchell from Wheelhouse, Shahar from Boom. These are all folk who are pushing the industry into new directions, new heights, and I have a personal relationship with them. A lot of it being, honestly, from having initially an hour-long conversation and getting to hear their story, which is awesome.

I'm actually advising startups now in the short-term rental space, which is cool. I make intros. I help out where I can help out, give ideas, give product feedback. That's awesome and that's new for me. It's something that I enjoy, and I want to advise startups in our space and then maybe other spaces over time.

Jeremy: Why was it important to go as Jeremy Werden, the property manager? Obviously, any tips or tricks I can pick up are huge. Admittedly, I would say that VRMA, the material isn't the juiciest, I must say. For example, there was sessions on trust accounting, which is very important, but there wasn't sessions on how to leverage social media to drive direct traffic to your clients' listings. I only say that because that was actually one that was recommended by a friend of mine. She said she recommended that session to them, and she had a whole presentation ready, and they wouldn't let her do it. Instead, she did it at her booth, and I actually went to it. The one session I actually went to was not a session that the event put on. I went through, I looked at the list of sessions. A lot of it was things I'd already heard before or I'm familiar with. The actual sessions at the conference, I couldn't tell you guys about those, because the only one I went to wasn't even an official session.

However, marketing partnerships. BNBCalc, we want to make our footprint on the web as big as possible. All these other companies also want to make their footprint on the web as big as possible. Great connecting, seeing how we could post about each other, how we could share the love of one another's products.

Data partnerships. There were a lot of data providers at the conference. A, companies that all they do is data, and then other companies that maybe do pricing software, maybe do market data. They sell their data in different ways. What we've seen is that a lot of these data providers are more and more willing to sell and partner and provide their data, which is great. I think that's pushing the data of the industry as a whole forward. Also, with AI machine learning, you need more and more data. In order to receive data, you need to be more giving of data. It's cool because BNBCalc, we are not a data provider. We are effectively an aggregator, and then we contextualize and create use case for the data. It's great for us that more and more folk are willing and generous to partner with each other and partner with us. That was great to see.

A lot of people, frankly, don't talk. You meet, you talk, you get a drink, you hang out, shoot the sh*t. You don't really get into specifics of like, "Oh, we're going to do a partnership, and we're going to give you X, and in return, we're going to get Y," at the actual conference. It's really just for getting to know one another. The following week is when you send your follow-ups. Today, even though we had this Tim Walz thing, I woke up early. I drafted up all my follow-up emails this morning, and then I sent a lot of them after the conference. Honestly, at the conferences, you meet people, you put a face to names, put a face to companies, but a lot of the business and actual work comes after the conference.

Jeremy: What am I seeing in the space as a whole? Well, apparently the conference attendance is down 30% from last year and 30% from the year before. Honestly, my biggest takeaway with that is, holy crap, this conference must have been huge two years ago, because it was still pretty big.

Why is it smaller? I ask people, why is it small? People would say, oh, this organization has been around 30 years, and there's been a lot of change the last couple of years, and a lot of these property managers who haven't adopted this change have sold their business. Second, so older PMs are retiring or getting acquired.

Also, I just think the conference as a whole caters to these, frankly, older folk, like the old guard of vacation rentals, and they don't really cater to younger entrepreneurs. I mean, I had nobody come up to me and be like, "Yo, Jeremy Werden, thank you so much for coming, would love to, if you want to spread the word." None of that. No one came up to me and talked.

Honestly, the only time I saw the representatives for this organization, it was really weird. It was like I was in a Black Mirror movie, because we were standing there in the conference hall with all the vendors at their booths. We would go around talking to all the vendors, potential partners and whatnot, partners, potential partners, and up we would see there was five people, generally elder people, with binoculars in the window above the venue looking down. And they would look down and they'd find somebody who was, I don't know, for example, I heard of companies who didn't have the right carpet, and would come down and would fine companies for not having carpet. And I saw one example where the company was like, "Hey, our carpet's actually in an Uber right now. It's on the way." And they said, "Oh, too bad. It's not here right now. Here's your fine."

So frankly, it seemed like they were mostly concerned with fining people versus being like, "Thank you guys so much for coming. Do you guys have everything you need?" There wasn't a lot of hospitality from the actual organizers of the conference. But honestly, I asked a lot of the vendors there, "Are you guys coming back next year?" And they said, "Yep, we've already paid," because it is the biggest conference. It's been around the most, it's been around the longest. It will forever and ever still be the industry.

So you gotta take the good with the bad, I suppose. It was still great. That's my takeaway. Even with all the issues it seems like the hosting organization is having and probably will continue to have, it was still awesome. Even at the conference, and the event itself was not as good as it could have been. I definitely had ideas, not that anybody asked.

The parties were great. The businesses, the companies, the service providers that were there with their teams a lot of time, a lot of these companies are remote. This is one of the only times during the year that their companies actually get together in person. And they threw bangers. So even if the actual event itself wasn't great, the ancillary parties were epic.

Jeremy: What was the big talk there? AI. AI talk was big. I mean, that's to be expected. Every company had some sort of AI angle. A company that a year ago I saw at another conference that did X now does X with AI at the beginning or at the end. Will be interesting to see which companies actually do pioneer and lead. For example, HostBuddy, had them on I think last episode or two episodes again. My friend Jay, I think they're doing great things. I'm excited to see what they do, but there was a lot of other AI companies there too. And it seems like they're all focused on unique use cases for AI.

The OTAs were there. Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, Marriott Homes and Villas. The only one I'm not on is Marriott Homes and Villas. So I went up to the Marriott tent. I said, "Hey, I filled out your guys' form a while ago. I haven't heard from you." And they said, "Oh yeah, we think we know you." And then they looked me up. They saw me. "Jeremy, well, yeah, Jeremy Werden. Yeah, you use Hospitable. Because you use Hospitable, you can't connect with Marriott Homes and Villas. We haven't integrated with them yet."

And I said, "Why is that? Is that on you guys or on them?" And they said on them. So then I walked up to Miles at Hospitable and I said, "Yo, Miles, I was just at Marriott Homes and Villas, and they said that we couldn't connect. They said that I should be able to connect with them, but I can't because your software doesn't allow it." And he went over to the product manager, the product manager came over to me, took some notes and said, "All right, we're gonna work on that."

And I said, "You know what, Miles? I appreciate you guys. When I have complained in the past, I use Hospitable, I've used them since day one. When I complain about things, you generally have taken my feedback and done what I asked. So I appreciate that."

So it's cool, though. You can walk over to one booth, talk to somebody, then, oh, okay, I'll talk to so and so. You go over to another booth, talk to somebody else. You can only do that in person at conferences. Otherwise, you're playing a game of email, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, which is not as fun.

Jeremy: So based off this, what do I want as a whole? Well, this is something I think about a lot. What do I do with my time? What do I prioritize? These are all questions that I ask myself on a daily basis, pretty much. Or if I don't ask myself for enough days, I have to go, wait up, hold up a second. I need to sit back, I need to prioritize.

So for me, the properties, my short-term rental business created time freedom. That was my goal initially. I needed to get out of my job. I needed to be able to use my day to my liking. And in order for that, I needed a cash-flowing business that did not take me a zillion hours to run.

Then, out of necessity, but also by having resources and time, I built BNBCalc. It was just a tool. I felt like it was a missing part of the ecosystem. And it was something that I wanted to help me grow my own portfolio. And I thought other people could use it to grow their portfolios. Last month, we had an all-time high user growth, revenue, all that jazz. So I wanna keep growing BNBCalc. Want to see who we can partner with, whether it be data providers, companies, to create value for our underlying user base and the industry as a whole.

BNBCalc, we have thousands of paying customers, but obviously I can't talk to thousands of people on the regular. So we built a mastermind, BNBPro, where we could actually help people one-on-one to accomplish their goals. We could host 35 people at our office in New York City. We have folks a couple of times a year here, which is awesome. And I have a personal relationship with everybody, frankly, which is awesome.

And people are doing crazy stuff. Dylan, who we've had on the podcast, just got five more co-hosting clients yesterday. And then today, I actually borrowed a football from him to get signed. So Dylan lives in New York and I knew he had a football. He's also a friend of mine, but he's also in our mastermind. I asked him if we could borrow a football because Kate was doing a video with a former high school football coach. If you guys, for your information, Tim Walz is a former high school football coach. I left out that detail. But then Tim Walz signed it, and then I gave it back to Dylan at the end. And I think he blushed. Mikey, did he blush? Was he happy? I think he was very happy. I also FaceTimed my grandma during the run. I think she was happy. We'll get to that when Kate comes over here in a second.

But yeah, so help other people. First, honestly, my friends. Andy Gillespie, childhood best friend, full-time with short-term rentals, Blake Holden, Dylan, others. But then also, frankly, people who listen to the podcast, follow me on social media, who reach out and say, "Hey, this is my goal. Can you help me accomplish my goal?" Sometimes, depending on the goal, I say, yeah, that's not a goal that I can help you with. But people ask for some weird things, I must say, when you put yourself out there.

But there are a lot of goals, especially pertaining to those leveraging short-term rentals to build income and create time freedom, I am uniquely suited to help with, as well as those who already have short-term rentals who are looking to optimize and further automate their business, do revenue management, or wanna be around a network of like-minded people working towards common goals. Those are things I help people with.

My fiancée, she's gonna come on in a minute, but I would say one of my biggest things and things that have brought me personal joy has been seeing her reach her potential. I've always known that she was super creative, had an amazing skill for storytelling, hard worker, ambitious, great values. But it's amazing now seeing her day in and day out show the internet, show the world, show them her truth. And honestly, I feel like today was, frankly, the culmination of almost as long as I have known her, the work that she's put in. Not to say that a vice presidential nominee for president is what the goal was on day one, but I'd say that's a pretty good milestone.

So Kate, who's coming in here right now, quit her jobs about one and a half years ago. Did not quit her job, I guess, indirectly, maybe through short-term rentals a little bit. You can make the argument. Well, so I'm saying that quit, I was talking earlier about how it's my goal to help people create time freedom to do what they want with their lives. And I believe short-term rentals is a great avenue for creating that time freedom. I gave some examples of like Andy Gillespie, childhood best friend who's quit his job and surfs a lot. You never were into short-term rentals except for supporting me, but I don't know, maybe I'd make the case that by me having time and resources and energy helped me give you energy and time, which then helped you kind of do your thing.

Jeremy: So indirectly. So with that, I'm gonna go over a couple more points I had here on my bullet list, and then we're just gonna get into today.

But talking about my goal with short-term rentals moving forward, obviously, again, we're booming. BNBCalc, we're booming, we're building, making it better. Mastermind, same thing, more great people. We only wanna work with good people, that's important. My portfolio, it's been really cool. Kyle McLeod, who I've had on twice, the last property I invested in was with him, the Barndominium in Wisconsin.

Kate: There's a bit of sand in the basement.

Jeremy: Yeah, the sand's a little sketchy, but apparently it's clean and sanitary. But it's not only been cool because it's kind of full circle, like Kyle reached out to me whatever, a year, a little bit ago, I've helped him, now he has seven, and I was able to invest in one of them. It's also been cool because I get to learn, I get to see firsthand what he's doing, give my advice, recommendations, but also just see how he's executing and learn from him.

So, for example, he does a lot of direct social media, like I think I showed you that video.

Kate: That video was so cool.

Jeremy: It was, yeah.

Kate: That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Jeremy: Your videos are cool, but that one was also pretty cool.

Kate: His are cooler, that was cooler. For like our social media brains, you guys would like the video.

Jeremy: It was sick. But essentially I had a social media influencer come stay with her family. She wore a cowboy hat.

Kate: Oh, I was wondering that. I was like, are these models? Like, who are they?

Jeremy: She, I mean, she was beautiful too.

Kate: Yeah, she looked like a model.

Jeremy: And her family was beautiful.

Kate: Yeah.

Jeremy: So in a way they were models.

Kate: Yeah.

Jeremy: But killed it, perfect sound. And what I saw was she made the video, great video, did really well. Airbnb liked a comment on the video.

Kate: That's cool.

Jeremy: And I saw that that video led to like probably like 20,000 plus dollars of bookings in 24 hours. I was like, holy crap, that's crazy. I mean, I'm sure she got paid well, and she does a lot of his barns. So she'll go do one, she'll go do another. It's a long-term partnership. It's not just a one-off thing. But that was eye-opening. I'm like, oh my gosh, social media content can lead traffic towards a unique value proposition property. That's cool. I don't have that with my other property. So that was eye-opening. So in terms of the future, I really think that's kind of the future of...

Kate: Rentals and stuff.

Jeremy: Yeah, it's like if you have to compete with everybody on Airbnb, you're only gonna go so far as how Airbnb lets you go.

Kate: I agree. I think unique stays have always been really cool. There's a lot of places, and there's one place that I've always wanted to go to with you, that's like the Glass House in upstate New York. And you can tell, I think it's a short, I mean, it is a short-term rental, like you can rent it out, but they have a unique booking site for it and people love it. So yeah, that makes sense.

Jeremy: I think they're both good. It's good to do both. It's cool to also market your property as like a luxury boutique stay. I mean, the Barndominiums are really unique. And what I've seen, or what I think is different, is that there were a lot of, like you've shown me a lot, and I've had Isaac French on and Ben from Onera, but a lot of those are like two-person couply stays, which I was like, obviously that makes sense. You're gonna watch with your, Kate will watch a video and see, oh, Jeremy and I can go stay here, like send it to me. But this is really the first time I've seen these massive houses that sleep like 24 people.

Kate: You've always been into mega properties, so.

Jeremy: Yeah, so it's like mega property plus social media. It's like mega property times unique stay.

Kate: Yeah, exactly.

Jeremy: So that's what they call it, unique stay, right, on Airbnb, isn't it?

Kate: Yep, exactly. I passed the Barbie house the last time I was in LA. It was really cool.

Jeremy: So the Barbie house is Kate's example. Mine's big, big, big barns. I also like yurts. Remember I was obsessed with Under the Canvas after I went in Zion. So cool.

Kate: You did, you did.

Jeremy: Love, love, love the tents. So I think that, to me, I'm not gonna say it is the future. I'm just saying it's great that I can kind of watch and I help. I go in, I mess with the pricing. I do length of stay discounts. I provide support and help. But also it's an opportunity to like witness, when you work with other people like, Kate, for example, seeing what she's doing and all the experiences that she's having. And Kate's now hired several people.

Kate: Yeah.

Jeremy: So let's talk about today, cause that's the fun stuff. We really haven't, like, today was great. I mean, that was one of the crazy...

Kate: It was crazy. I feel like...

Jeremy: Probably one of the craziest days of my life. I don't know about you.

Kate: No, it was crazy. I feel like I was on set. Now I'm kind of like mellowed out, which is nice. I feel like I took a beta blocker.

Jeremy: Yeah. My Celsius has definitely came down. Kate was getting so mad at me earlier because I was amped on Celsius. Let's set the stage for everybody listening. I think you kind of did before, but basically what happened was...

Kate: Well, should we give the context first of like...

Jeremy: Yeah. You got emailed.

Kate: Well, we can give the, yeah. The context was, I guess, I wish I had my phone cause I could tell you whether, I think it was maybe April, I got an email, POTUS, president of the United States, times Kate Mackz. And I was like, wait a second, is this what I think it is? I was like, that certainly is the POTUS Instagram handle. So I was like, oh my God, they want me to do a video with Joe Biden, which they did.

So that was the first email that I got from the social media team at the White House. And then it quickly turned from being President Biden to being Jill Biden, his wife, who's a big runner. And Jill was on my calendar twice to do a video. And just like, I mean, these people especially are so busy, and it was the craziest week. I had her on my calendar, got rescheduled.

Jeremy: A lot of logistics goes into them doing anything.

Kate: A lot of logistics, yeah. And even then, like, day of, anything can happen. And then the video's canceled. And literally that was the case for Jill and I. The second time it was scheduled was, it was...

Jeremy: It was right when he dropped out.

Kate: It was right when, it was scheduled for the same week that there was the attempted assassination on Trump and Joe Biden had dropped out of the running. It was like over those kinds of several days. And then the Jill Biden interview ended up getting canceled.

So fast forward until a couple of days ago. I am still hopeful that at some point I'll have Jill on. I do think I will. I think that Jill's a runner. She's been a lifelong runner. She's very interesting. I feel like we would get along really well. I think she would be like an amazing fit for the show. So fingers crossed that we get Jill eventually. I think we will.

But we had somebody reach out from the same team that represents Tim Walz literally two days ago. And they were like, Tim's a big runner. And it was actually kind of funny because I had had somebody DM me before, one of the girls that I'd ran with, Brett Chody. And she was like, oh my God, you have to do Tim, he's a big runner. And I swear she manifested it for me. Shout out Brett, because we ended up getting a message from their team two days ago. Tim's gonna be in New York City on the 21st. Are you free to do a video? I was like, absolutely.

Jeremy: And we weren't getting our hopes up because we knew. And just to be very clear, not excited from a political standpoint, but more, Kate is a storyteller. And it could be a congressman, a senator, a governor, a VP, a P, a president. You'll tell their story. You're excited to tell their story and learn about them.

Kate: Exactly. Politics aside, it really is. It's like with anything, it was just such a cool opportunity to be able to share somebody who's lived such an incredible life, like their story, or even just get a little snippet of it. And anyway, so today with Tim Walz. Well, first they emailed us what, Friday, Saturday?

Jeremy: Saturday. A couple of days ago. Today's Monday.

Kate: Yeah, Saturday. And anyway, so we had basically Saturday, we were out with family, but we prepped a little bit there. Well, first they said, can you fill out this form? Cause you need to fill out a form for Secret Service. And then you need to answer a variety of questions, random miscellaneous questions, not either Secret Service or for the campaign, I don't even know. But you got to go through a lot of logistics just to...

Jeremy: The funniest thing...

Kate: Like be cleared. Yeah, there was a lot of hoops that we had to go through to be cleared, but it was fine. I mean, they made it all pretty seamless for us, but yeah, you had to submit a lot of stuff.

Jeremy: Yeah. It was so efficient.

Kate: Oh my God, I'm like so calm right now.

Jeremy: They said Kate had like 20 or 15 minutes.

Kate: First it was 30.

Jeremy: First it was 30 minutes, which we did end up getting. I think we got 20.

Kate: I think it was probably 20. We probably got 20 minutes. It was such an efficient 20 minutes.

Jeremy: Yeah, it's amazing.

Kate: They were like, you're going to stand right here. So they gave us exact GPS coordinates to meet at.

Jeremy: Yeah, GPS coordinates. They gave us the exact coordinates. And then there was a little bit of an audible. We moved like 10 feet over for the start. And they were like...

Kate: Well, they're very specific.

Jeremy: Honestly, it was the perfect interview for him because, I guess the way they operate is with anything, when a big public figure like a Biden or a vice presidential nominee or Kamala, they're out and about, they have to keep moving forward. They can't stop. They don't want you to stay still.

Kate: Yeah, and I'm like, well, this is the perfect interview because we are going to be moving forward the entire time. But it was wild because they were being very specific about the way he walked out of the car and our first interaction.

Jeremy: Where they drew the exact X for where you would meet him. They were like, position things this way because we don't want him standing back over the cars. And it was wild because the way they roll up. And if you've been in New York City when a president's in town...

Kate: They roll deep.

Jeremy: Or in a different city, they roll up with like four black SUVs, like the luxury XL Ubers.

Kate: Bunch of guys with headpieces on.

Jeremy: Bunch of guys with, yeah, just Secret Service. They're all in suits, whatever.

Kate: And it was wild to hear them coming because they were like 15 minutes late. And I was like, how are we gonna know they're here? And they were like, you'll hear the sirens.

Jeremy: Well, they said, you hear the sirens? That's them.

Kate: And I was like, oh, I guess they would have sirens. Yeah, sure enough. Then they all pull up.

And it was honestly like such a crazy, it was a crazy experience, because never, I've lived in the city for almost 10 years. I've witnessed like a handful of times roads closed down for Trump when I was in college, or Biden landing, or Obama coming in was when I was interning, whatever. And I was familiar with, now that this happened, this time the streets weren't shut down. But I know what the entourage looks like, of the four cars pulling up and whatever it may be. And it was so cool because they were rolling up to me.

Jeremy: Well, yeah, first of all, the sun was like behind them because they were rolling up from the South and the sun was directly to the South. So you turn and you see these four cars and the sun like behind, and then these figures are getting out, like these mystical figures with the headpieces are getting out, and they go, okay, we need to move up four feet. They were like, it was so precise. And then they walk up to you and they're like, okay, how are we? Nice to meet you. This is your thing. We've laid the map out for you.

Kate: They're so lucky it was me too. Like I know Central Park. I guess a hundred people is like [inaudible] people out of the way. I have to shove a few people. Luckily, I'm used to that, I know how to dodge. But I mean, I felt like I had to protect Tim a little bit. So I'm like, he's running next to me. I'm like, oh my god, I shoved so many grown men out of the way because I thought the Secret Service was going to be up in it, but they were kind of running behind it.

Jeremy: They were behind, and I definitely have a newfound respect for Kate. I mean, we obviously prepped. We prepped Kate, memorized. She had certain questions that...

Kate: I don't really memorize questions. I'm more so, the way I prep for anything is I just have an understanding of what I want to talk about.

Jeremy: Sure. And we definitely nailed it, I would say.

Kate: Yeah.

Jeremy: But I would say, and I was there to like, a lot of times if I'm there and I'm helping and I hear something, I'll be like, oh, maybe ask about this or touch on this point. But admittedly, I was looking behind the film and then I would look ahead.

Kate: Jeremy's not used to running interviews.

Jeremy: Everything happens so fast. I am on the running interviews. I'm just not, like, I'm running usually behind you and I'm just listening.

Kate: Yeah.

Jeremy: I'm not responsible for being like an offensive lineman. Normally I'm like filming, taking some random, and I don't go with Kate on every interview. I definitely...

Kate: You've been on a handful.

Jeremy: Yeah. And generally it's the ones that I think are a little bit more, you know.

Kate: This one was cool.

Jeremy: Cool. And I would say this one definitely was up there. But generally I'm not running ahead, and filming behind me, and also dealing with like three 12-year-olds on their bike.

Kate: You know what the craziest thing...

Jeremy: Coming at me.

Kate: The craziest thing was they had, the cars were all following us. Did you notice that?

Jeremy: Yeah.

Kate: That all the SUVs were following us.

Jeremy: I thought that what they should have done is had one of the SUVs in front of us. I'm sure they have reasons for what they do.

Kate: Yeah.

Jeremy: I don't have to go into how Secret Service should do their job.

Kate: Next time, Tim.

Jeremy: All I know though is I didn't anticipate, literally, because the thing is, normally in New York, if people are coming the opposite direction from you, they'll just move out of the way, or you move out of the way. But this...

Kate: The park's a little bit different because you do have to kind of bob and weave, because people are going at different paces in the passenger lane. Because if you know Central Park, there's the bike lane and there's the...

Jeremy: The runner lane.

Kate: The runner lane, and the two do not mesh.

Jeremy: But the difference was this, because imagine from their perspective...

Kate: Bikers love their lane.

Jeremy: They look out, they see me with a camera up front, they see you with another camera, they look next to you and they go, oh my gosh, is that Tim Walz? And then they go behind and they go, oh, is that a bunch of Secret Service people? So everybody, instead of just moving out of the way, they like stopped and got out their camera. So I didn't even know.

Kate: It's so funny because I did notice...

Jeremy: That's what I'm saying. Kate was so focused.

Kate: I was so focused. I'm like, I got to get my questions in. I got to keep this guy entertained. I'm also like, I only have literally like minutes left with him. I'm like a mile, and we're running fast. I'm like, I got to spit all these questions out, you know?

Jeremy: She was locked in, and she only got 15 minutes and every second, every minute was utilized.

Kate: It was, yeah. But there would be people, I'd be like, hey, excuse me, can you please move to your right? Like please, please...

Jeremy: You got a few people out of the way for sure.

Kate: And then people would turn, they would start moving, and then they'd go, wait a minute. And then they would just turn around entirely.

Jeremy: I wish I could have watched.

Kate: And like stand there.

Jeremy: I wish I could have watched.

Kate: And I was like, oh my goodness.

Jeremy: Because it was a scene. Also the ending was a scene too. The way the two cars pulled up and they're kind of crossed so that nobody can get to where we are. Like we created a little bubble. It was so cool. I mean, they said it's going to end exactly, I mean, they drew it out. This is exactly where it's going to end. Kate's going to do one and a half miles with him roughly. They're going to say goodbye here, and then he's going to keep going from here to here. I think they probably went back to where they started.

Kate: I think, yeah, I think they did go back to where he got, where the cars were.

Jeremy: Yeah. The other cars.

Kate: Wow. That was crazy.

Jeremy: It was crazy.

Kate: It was just so cool because, as somebody that, I mean, it was pretty crazy. It's amazing. I was able to film, I was on the Today Show. I filmed an episode of the Today Show in Central Park, and like today running with Tim Walz in Central Park. And it's funny because Central Park is such a special place to me, because I've been a runner for so many years, and running was something that I did literally, guys, every single day when I was in college. That was my thing. I was very independent in college. I wasn't somebody that had a huge group of friends. I was like a hyper-focused kid. I don't know, I was kind of weird. I was always working, and I graduated college early. I was very obsessed with school.

Jeremy: She was motivated.

Kate: So one of the things that I always did in college was run marathons, right? And half marathons, I loved that. And so I would literally run the Central Park loop every single day. So I know it like the back of my hand, and it's a very special place to me because running is very cathartic, right? It's a very cathartic activity. I would always think about things when I was running.

Jeremy: Hey, and I before we dated would even go run around the loop around Central Park.

Kate: We would.

Jeremy: Oh my God. I've had your little brother kick my a*s running around that loop in Central Park.

Kate: When we had some tough conversations, we had them at the Rock.

Jeremy: Oh my God. Literally right next to where we started with Tim today.

Kate: I think it was literally that same rock.

Jeremy: I think so too.

Kate: Oh my gosh. That's kind of crazy.

Jeremy: Yeah. Because we had to stand on a rock. That was where they drew for us to wait.

Kate: Yeah. That's a long story.

Jeremy: Wow. We've been on that rock before.

Kate: Yeah. This is weird. All right. Are we in a simulation?

Jeremy: I don't know. Today was crazy. Today just goes to show that if you put yourself out there and you do something that's very true to you, like good things, and you're consistent with it. Because consistency, everybody talks about being consistent. Consistency is very easy when you're doing something that you genuinely like doing. It's going to be very hard to be consistent with something if you don't like it. So that's my life advice to anybody.

Kate: And I think what's been really cool to see with me and Jeremy's business is we're consistent, but it's because it's easy to be consistent when you're doing something cool that you like doing. And today was a great example of that. Our team got to meet Tim Walz, and that's a pretty big deal.

Jeremy: Yeah. And we will continue to be consistent in all facets. We are going to keep everything moving the right direction. Kate, what is your biggest pro tip?

Kate: That was my pro tip.

Jeremy: Yeah. Usually I ask, well, I'm joking.

Kate: Okay. I'll give a good pro tip though.

Jeremy: Usually I say, what is your short term rental, what is your biggest pro tip? But just give a pro tip, you don't need to get into that.

Kate: My pro tip...

Jeremy: Consistent was a good one.

Kate: Consistent was a good one.

Jeremy: Yeah. I don't think you need to level, you don't need to up that.

Kate: Yeah. But like being consistent by doing something that you love. But wait, I probably have a better one.

Jeremy: I think, Kate, well, what I say is like also, I think a point you said the other day was like, don't let the highs get too high.

Kate: Well, you say that all the time. I just copy you.

Jeremy: Yeah. Meanwhile, while I was in Phoenix at the conference, Kate was in Austin, Texas doing interviews with the Ferrari drivers who won F1. I guess that's crazy too. Jeez Louise, how do we one up this stuff? Tell us about that.

Kate: Sorry.

Jeremy: And then I'll get into what you said there. That was really cool too. Another great opportunity. They got first and second. Kate did an interview with two Ferrari drivers, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Kate: Yeah, them. Charles Leclerc. It was a brand deal.

Jeremy: You had a lot of people standing there for that one too.

Kate: It was literally a live show. I had to do it in front of 35 people. I love working with Open Bank though. They were such a great partner. The hardest part about the brand deal was getting their names right, and I felt like the worst. I'm like, how do you pronounce their names? But whatever, we ended up, yeah. It was so funny because they came in and they're like, it's Char Leclerc. And I was like, okay, got it. So that's what I did. And then of course he introduces himself and he's like, I'm Charles Leclerc. And I was like, oh God.

Jeremy: Well, they did their interview. Go watch the video though, it was cute. And then they happened... I did not watch it. Did you?

Kate: I don't think either of us watched it. I watched my interview.

Jeremy: No, did you watch the F1 race? If you didn't, you just say you didn't.

Kate: No, I didn't.

Jeremy: It's okay. She was busy. She was busy prepping for today.

Kate: No, I was busy editing that video too. I was throwing a bridesmaid's brunch on Sunday, which is why I didn't go.

Jeremy: And in the middle, Kate had her bridesmaid's brunch. And then they happened to get first and second in F1 in Austin this week, which Mikey said was not that big of a deal. Mikey's good because he's like me. He doesn't get starstruck.

Kate: I really don't either.

Jeremy: No, but I think the point, the thing you said, what they said and you referenced was like, you can't let your highs get too high, nor can you let your lows get too low. I think that's a really good pro tip.

Kate: That's the best one. Honestly, I always have to think about that because sometimes, especially with social media, there are lows. There's so many lows with social media.

Jeremy: I mean, that's like everything.

Kate: They can be mean lows too.

Jeremy: Yeah.

Kate: People can be really mean, but whatever. It comes with the territory.

Jeremy: In any industry, if you put yourself out there. Tim gave you advice on that one today. I think it was pretty funny. Can I say the advice he gave?

Kate: Yeah.

Jeremy: Well, he was like...

Kate: Did you ask him if you were going to get heat for this?

Jeremy: Oh, he just said, yeah, you're going to get a lot of heat for this one. He's like, don't worry, it's all Russian bots.

Kate: That's good advice too.

Jeremy: Well, we're not clicking any of those accounts. Let's just assume they're all Russian bots.

Kate: Yeah. Even I'm going to be like, even the people that do at the video and say whatever they need to say, they're not real.

Jeremy: They're AI people. AI.

Kate: Whatever. It'll be fine. I have you. We'll keep each other grounded.

Jeremy: She'll need some, she'll need some.

Kate: I'm going to make sure JonTherapy, JonTherapy better f*cking cuddle with me. This is the one day I need him.

Jeremy: I feel like when he's needed most, he likes to...

Kate: But to be fair, we have reached out to Trump's team and we would love...

Jeremy: Well, political, politics.

Kate: Well, I'm just saying, yeah, yeah.

Jeremy: Not to be fair. I mean, you didn't reach out to any team. They reached out to you. When they reached out to you, you also then reached out, and you're going to continue to reach out to share, to have conversations with anybody who's potential current president, past president, potential future president, whomever, would love to highlight physical exercise, getting outside, moving your body.

Kate: I agree. Yeah. That's what we talk about. We always talk about, I think also pro tip is have a mission in whatever you're doing. I have so many different missions, but the one for the show is something that's so true to me, is I'm on a mission to get the world moving. I don't know, movement has changed my life, and I know it has changed other people's lives as well. And it's cool to inspire people to move their body. So I think whatever you do, people always say it with companies, be mission driven. And I feel like sometimes that can be a lot of fluff, but really figure out what is your mission and go after it. So, so many pro tips guys, but that's a wrap, I think.

Jeremy: And that's why I say, yeah, I'm on a mission to build an STR mega portfolio. I want to get houses. I want to have cool, really cool, really unique, really experiential...

Kate: We should do another podcast where Jeremy and I talk about our goals, where I say, I really want to buy a house. And he says, no.

Jeremy: Okay. She says, I really want to buy an apartment or townhouse in New York. And I go, Kate, let's understand the underlying fundamentals of such a purchase. And she doesn't like thinking about those things.

Kate: I don't like the reality of life, but we should go to bed.

Jeremy: It is late here. Thank you guys for staying up with us, as always. Appreciate y'all. Love you, honey. Everybody stay tuned to the next episode of the Short-Term Rental Pros Podcast.

Kate: Love you guys. Bye.