Speaker 1: 0:10

All right guys. Welcome to episode eight of its personal and entrepreneurs podcast. We're very, very excited. Today we have Reggie Johns, the founder and CEO of local company book that condocom be wears many other hats as well. Reggie, we're super, super happy to have you join us. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 0:29

I appreciate you guys invited me over.

Speaker 1: 0:31

Yeah, reggie is one of those people that every time we get together I leave with some new information is always very interesting to listen to, so I'm sure you guys are going to enjoy this. But really I just want to start by asking you a little bit about you know obviously it's called its personal podcast. What's a little bit about your personal journey to getting to what you're doing now and what got you into that space and kind of just that whole, whole transcending to that point?

Speaker 2: 0:59

Yeah, I will tell you, I was the kid that grew up poor. We just didn't have a whole lot, lived on a farm up in Washington County and my dad had a 10th grade education and worked in construction. He was a trucker and we were we live very meager. We lived what we grew for the most part. And I just said at a young age that's not what I want to do.

Speaker 3: 1:24

You know, I've been very proud of my dad because he's a blue collar hard worker.

Speaker 2: 1:29

But I wanted more. I wanted to be able to travel, I wanted to be able to have more income. So as I was going through high school, I just one day decided I was going to join the military. So in the in the army, you could join the reserves, the National Guard, at 17. So I went to basic training between my junior and senior year, finished Army boot camp and then went back to and finished my senior year.

Speaker 2: 1:59

Then three days later I was back at Fort Benning, georgia, finish AIT and during that time I decided, hey, maybe I'll go to college. So I started in college and I think the one thing I can when you look back, persistence, never giving up, continue to push forward. And so during that time I continue in the college and after getting three years of college, the army says, hey, you can go to officer, can at school before you graduate from college. So I went to OCS and we started out with 103, graduated, 24. And I tell you, at the end of the first, there's three phases and the first phase I was second from last in the order of merit list, but I ended up graduating eight because I worked really hard throughout that process.

Speaker 2: 2:49

Of course the attack officers just stayed on me. They just stayed on me and they tried to get me to quit, but I was like I'm not going to quit, going back to that word persistence and pushing through and learning for the most part how to deal with stress, because they push you to the limit. They expect one day that you possibly could be on the battlefield leading troops. So they want to push you as far as they can to see how you function. And so I finished a Oscar can at school and had a good career in the army.

Speaker 2: 3:23

I spent 14 years in the army and then one day woke up, says I don't want to do this anymore. And I was getting out and was going to go do something different. And then come to find out the Air Force had a green to blue program. So I took me a little while but I transitioned. I was a captain at the time and transitioned from the Air Force to or to from the army to the Air Force. Okay, so I tell people I woke up. Woke up green, went to bed blue.

Speaker 3: 3:50

And right after that, 9, 11 hit.

Speaker 2: 3:53

So when 9 11 hit, then all of a sudden we had people moving in different directions and and I was on active it was recalled, active duty at that time and spent a good portion of my young career because I had not been a captain very long in the Air Force and then in 2003, got a special duty assignment to the to Baghdad working for the coalition provisional authority. It was like a special duty assignment through the State Department and they sent me over to set up a mass grave action plan and got over there and hit the ground. My boss was an attorney for the State Department. Look up, I got 42 staff members from eight different countries going in different directions. I need a chief of staff. So you're my chief of staff. So I originally I guess I'll back up for a second Originally they sent me over to set up a mass grave action plan to repatriate all the bodies that Saddam had sent. So I carried a word, two hats for a while there, setting up the mass grave action plan and managing being the chief of staff, managing all the staff members 42 staff members from eight different countries and the office of human rights and transitional justice.

Speaker 2: 5:10

So it wasn't long after that that the Iraqi governing council announced the ministry of the formation of the ministry of human rights. So a lot of things that we were doing in the office of human rights and transitional justice the two sides are human rights and then transitional justice we were writing the statues for the special tribunal. They announced the ministry of human rights and says, okay, we need a, we have appointed a minister, now we need an advisor and a senior advisor. So my boss was the senior advisor and my job was the deputy senior advisor to the ministry of human rights. So we we work long hours, many days, nearly seven days a week consistently. It wasn't uncommon to be up north working with the Kurds and in the morning and be back in the office in the evening time there in Baghdad, working, you know, until one, two o'clock and then going at it every day.

Speaker 2: 6:04

But it was fun and I learned a lot. Her role pretty much was setting policy, going out, getting donors. My job was mostly the logistical side. So there wasn't a district in Baghdad that I didn't drive through looking for a place to house this new ministry In the meantime, why we were positioned in the coalition provisional headquarters, which is the Republican palace. We put the ministry of human rights and the ministry all. So we're on the south of Baghdad. The ministry of human right or ministry of all, is on the north side. So I made that trek through bag many times, many, many times and I learned to not use coalition vehicles. My my driver, who was just such an awesome guy he was a my translator also. His name was side betron. He was a Lebanese.

Speaker 2: 6:55

He went down to Basra and bought a old BMW and, uh, it's probably we would drive around and I would always say so I'd be back here to 900 or whatever time. So run primary route, run two alternate routes and then we'll leave. You know, pick me up here at the palace. And that's what we did. We transferred, but it wasn't just that route. We, we were all over it. I worked with a USA ID and they helped me get a um. Once we found a building, they get a grant that I awarded a contract to oversaw the construction, the renovation of about a 50, it's about a 54,000 square foot building and um. From about October through February, construction pretty much went on every day and uh, so, um, and and you kind of oversaw that to it I oversaw all the construction side of that.

Speaker 2: 7:49

So during that time I said you know what I kind of really enjoyed doing this work. Yeah, um, not just the construction side, but we, we built that ministry from the ground level up. I wrote a $25 million budget for the ministry, wow, uh, pulled a lot of our programs over and uh, and then oversaw the moving the minister in. I just got so many stories I could tell you guys. But uh, it included. We're setting up Jersey of areas around um buying weapons. I bought I think it was 29, um AK 47s from Georgia, jordan, in a box. I paid $79 a piece. They're brand new, never been fired. Just for the minister's detail, just some of the little tidbits. But um spent um seven months of just just to the wall every day and pushing it and had a young family at the time.

Speaker 2: 8:45

So after the inauguration my boss left and I spent the next two weeks working with the British Foreign Service office to do a relief in place where the things that we were doing we were handing over to the bridge. So I can tell you the the day I left was February 29th, leap your day and and I worked all night non-stop trying to get all the programs sitting in my office, get everything turned over, got up, you know I didn't never even sleep. I didn't sleep for two days Just trying to get all this work done. Went back to my room, was trying to pack everything up and I Realized I didn't have a suit, another enough a footlocker for all my stuff. So I had to. I gave a bunch of my stuff to my roommates and and then I went to, went over to the PX, got a, got another footlocker loaded up, jumped on a armored convoy rent to Baghdad International on the the backside and we sat there, waited forever. Hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. Well, that was about I'm praying to say about 10 o'clock. Well, the aircraft is supposed to pick us up at 1 1300, come to find out it was broken, so they're trying to fix it. And then three o'clock comes around. They said we still don't have an aircraft. Well, by Five they said we'll bring a new aircraft in from from Basra. So they brought a C 130 in and the aircraft came in and it's dusk and if you know anything about being in combat arms, the stand to stand down is the most probable time for the, for the immediate attack.

Speaker 2: 10:21

So it comes in and C 130 does a corkscrew Over. It comes down and we're all in a ranger file formation and Aircraft never stop. Hit the FLS, drop the hatch, we shuffle out, jump on front-end. Later, drops, drops. Our gear pulls out. We pull off the FLS hatch goes up, we corkscrew up. About the time we hit a platform. I'm watching the two load masters. They're both hooked up looking out the port holes they're looking at. All of a sudden we start doing these evasive measures. Aircraft breaks. These two guys do back flips, fall in their back. I'm watching the flares activate. We're doing a hard break, hard bank, and I feel like the aircraft's about to crash. Holy moly, broken half Anyway. So Sam goes by a surface-to-air missile. They lay the aircraft back open. We're moving about 30 seconds. These guys are back up looking same thing back, pivot, fall, aircraft through banks, players activate, another one comes at us. Man, I'm praying now yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:31

I'll tell you. So anyway, lay it back over. Week I fly down to to quay, and a week later I'm able to come back home.

Speaker 3: 11:39

So when it came back home.

Speaker 2: 11:41

So I'm gonna do something different. So I went into the Air Force reserves and Decided to get my real estate license. A friend of mine and in destiny was retired Colonel. It was kind of a mentor when I was on active duty says Panama City Beach and this is 2004. Now Panama City Beach is booming. Get your real estate license and get over there and start working for a developer. Oh well, the company he worked for Never hired me. So I got in my my car and I drove up down Panama City Beach and I stopped by an office at the Lake Town Wharf and so happened. The broker was there that day, hired me on the spot.

Speaker 1: 12:18

From that day for was it really anything other than just that advice that made you want to do real estate and specific? You would say, you know.

Speaker 2: 12:28

I had the philosophy the harder you work, the more money you can make. And, yeah, being in sales Was one of the things I wanted to to do, but I also wanted to learn how do you build high-rise condo. So there's kind of a two-fold situation makes sense and and I did, and I, I worked there nearly every day. I'm, with exception to go on a church on Sundays, when when Lake Town was built, that one was.

Speaker 3: 12:52

It was pretty big time at that time.

Speaker 2: 12:54

I'm here 10 million dollar project, 765 units and over 200,000 commercial space. So I was there every day, yeah, and I got to know the, the, the builder, the, the, the project manager, and so anytime they would bring the bank in, I would give them a real estate report. And so they had the confidence. Well, the market did really good until, yeah, hurricane Katrina hit in August 29, 2005 and it was just like you went to a faucet and Turned it off and it just started trickling. Real estate sales just started now. In other parts of the country, people were saying, well, 2007, 2008, in Palma City Beach, there was so much inventory you're talking about over 10,000 new condos behind yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:44

Yeah, and the people that were buying are flippers. So guess what? They put these 20, this 20% down and they decided hey, it's in my best interest to try to get out of my contract when I'm walking.

Speaker 2: 13:58

So, of all the project, all the units that I sold, the Lake Town Wharf not one two years later Closed and I will tell you that that was a. It was a learning point for me because during that time I sat my investments, I was taking signature loans, I took a helot come my house just to sustain for that year and a half to two years until these properties what you were seeing on the other side.

Speaker 2: 14:24

Yeah, because I had. I had over 50 properties under contract in the Lake Town and then I had over 150 on one end of bluxy that we were building and correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 3: 14:35

Lake Town Wharf there's no shores yet.

Speaker 2: 14:39

Right, there's no shores yet now Late town and and the shores came up around kind of the same.

Speaker 3: 14:46

But then the bank got the FDIC or the government ended up doing something with shores of them.

Speaker 2: 14:51

They got Laketown to horse bank was, was the primary lender and the and I can't remember what year, but 2007, 2008 2008 course bank took over and see course, it wasn't long that the FDIC took to go.

Speaker 1: 15:08

Oh yeah, so you essentially had like 200 contracts to that contracts didn't turn into. Yeah, did any of them close? Not one, not one.

Speaker 2: 15:18

So it was a lesson learned for me. Wow, yeah, in the future Don't look at just one source of revenue so during that time that's crazy.

Speaker 2: 15:28

I went to work for another broker In hopes that some of that will close. I had a chance to that time in the reserves. I had gotten promoted, I was working at the air combat command and Lingley Air Force Base in Virginia had a chance to go to Afghanistan and On a really sweet assignment that I was going through Interrogator training and, yeah, okay, but started to say the course and in real estate and during that time I I spawned this idea of setting up my own vacation rental management. Yeah, and that's where book that condo was spawned.

Speaker 1: 16:05

What do you think? Kind of like gave you that idea initially.

Speaker 2: 16:11

With my experience of when I was on active duty in the Air Force, I managed lodging okay, which has a little. I make some of the same alignment In Baghdad building the Ministry of Human Rights. So building some from the ground start up. I'm taking that experience. And then when I was at Langley Air Force Base, I was the command lodging officer, so I had 14 bases that I managed.

Speaker 1: 16:34

So taking that Experience with the education that I kind of had already done like lodging logistics to a correct yeah, I Decided I was gonna do something.

Speaker 2: 16:44

I wanted to build an unconventional business model, and and was? I wanted to get into vacation rentals and I figured I could build inventory quicker than other companies by going with a flat fee model versus commission. Now, years later, I changed because I realized there's more money in the commission base. Yeah, sure, but I use VRBO. No one during that time was there. They had a rotation system. They were using print ads, had a database of people who have stayed with them before. So for me, using VRBO, I could start marketing properties individually, whereas they were use a rotation system and they would only market. So VRBO.

Speaker 1: 17:23

When it started, was it not like a website booking platform? It was more like a inbound call.

Speaker 2: 17:28

No it was a website. Okay website and you've gained placement based on the number of photos that you bought. If you bought up to 24 photos, that gave you the Highest place and through the years they evolved and they went into this different tiered system where you could buy. You start out as a bronze and you can go all the way up here.

Speaker 1: 17:46

I'm fair.

Speaker 2: 17:47

Then they started working using this thing called an algorithm and yeah, rhythm chains a lot now it's all about placement. There's 24 characters that you have in their algorithm and, as a property manager, that's what we we make right ahead. Yeah, we're costly measuring those to try to maximize our exposure for every makes sense.

Speaker 2: 18:05

Okay, so anyway, going. So I started, booked that condo, I did express check in express checkout. I would sit there in office at this resort and I would watch people stand for hours Trying to get a key and snaking through trying to get a card key and I said you know what, if I can simplify this process, I'm gonna make it a lot easier. Well, if you'll look at what's going on today, most companies are using express check in express checkout.

Speaker 3: 18:30

That goes back to right before we started on air today, with the kiosk at the airport. Yeah, yeah, that kind of correlates to that same thing.

Speaker 1: 18:37

Yeah, literally it's just finding ways to cut out like that extra little that inconvenient of I'm on vacation.

Speaker 3: 18:44

I don't want to spend the first hour and a half of my vacation.

Speaker 2: 18:47

Waiting in line to get a key, or yeah, yeah and so you know simplifying processes is so critical, because when a family comes on vacation, they're doing two things they come to make memories and they also escape the rigors of the life. Turn off, turn it off. I'm down here and, as a property manager and vacation room manager, it's our job to get it right. I had an all staff meeting yesterday with my staff, yeah, and I hammered that home that it's our job to get it right the first time. If there's a problem, let's minimize it, fix it quickly. Let's don't sit back and try to to get into this analysis by proud or process. Do you get it, get it done. And when you put a customer for a, for go with a customer first approach and everybody buys into that, then you really start to see the effectiveness of your company. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 2: 19:42

Yeah, so through the years we evolved our. I think we've gone through For we've gone through four websites that we have built, because our industry is constantly evolving Three property management software systems, because we're always wanting to be at the cutting edge. One of the things I will say I do I make a lot of investment. My employees, we. When I built this company, I wanted to be employee centric and I keep hammering that home as well. So I sent, I spent several thousands a year sitting my staff out to conferences. I want them to network with industry professionals, I want them to fill this as a little mini vacation and I want them to get educated on the newest trends of the market. Yeah, then bring that back to the office, to the office, and when we have our next staff meeting, explain and help everybody understand. So we now we're bringing new ideas to the table and we're constantly evolving as a company so that we can be at the edge and be the company that that is known in Palma City Beach.

Speaker 1: 20:48

Oftentimes I feel like, yeah, empowering people to come up with like kind of their own opinion helps everyone evolve, helps the company evolve. Yeah, thanks a lot, so I.

Speaker 2: 20:59

Continue to emphasize the word in employee centric. You, when you make it about the employees, you don't necessarily have to worry about profit, because the production will bring you that profit. Yeah, and, and retention is another good thing. You know, one of the things I did last year was I brought on healthcare, healthcare insurance program for my staff because my goal was the lowest. I wanted my lowest paid employee to be able to To a little afforded live life yeah. Yeah, so that they don't.

Speaker 2: 21:30

They don't have that stress and that you know they look at working at book, that condo as a profession, not just coming to do a transition to whatever I'm gonna do next Absolutely. I want them to grow because you building on organizational history that employee was with me last year. In the year before we take those lessons learned and we move forward with that so that we're not having a high turnover. When you have high turnover you lose that organizational history and you start all over again.

Speaker 2: 21:59

Yeah, this turnover costs a lot of money to and it costs money and and so investing in employees. You know some of the things that we do. I bring a chef in on Thursdays, yeah, and the chef cooks for my entire staff. That's pretty cool, and the reason we do that is we. You are in our building. If you've been there before, you've got the Call center on the front, all the admins on the front. In the back you have the operations, which is maintenance, housekeeping, floor cleaning, the the front of the house didn't really talk to the back of the house because they're doing different jobs.

Speaker 3: 22:32

Yeah, now.

Speaker 2: 22:32

I can bring everybody to the cafe. We sit there, we break bread. They get to know each other on a personal level. Yeah, so now you build that fabric.

Speaker 1: 22:41

Absolutely communicate about that. That's it.

Speaker 3: 22:44

It makes it easier for Susan up front to call John on the back and say, hey, just got this. I need you to.

Speaker 2: 22:49

You know this, this and that, so we have built, really built, some, some major, major dividends off of just simple things like that. Last week we did family bowling. It's important for me not just to focus on the employee but focus on their families. Yeah, bring the families in, give the kids their lane, the employees. Then we, you go through a Gamer to a bowling and then we give out awards. In the meantime we feed them and, yeah, it is just the camaraderie.

Speaker 1: 23:18

It's building, fulfilling, to be absolutely creating something like that. I think it's like Dave family.

Speaker 3: 23:23

It's like Dave last time, you know he said and I've kind of this one, for whatever reason, has resonated with me. He said find you resources for the humans in your office. Don't make the humans the resources. It's right yeah, and that's sat with me for a while, then and you've explained that in the last five minutes is you wanna find ways to make them comfortable so they can express themselves personally and professionally, To get a better output for your business?

Speaker 2: 23:52

That's correct, and it just starts with a mission statement. What is the mission of our company? I want everyone to buy in to. What is their mission? Then? What is my vision as the owner of the company? Where do we wanna be next week? Where do we wanna be next month? Where do we wanna be next year? Where do we wanna be in five years? So it's my job to convey that to the staff by setting that vision. And then your core values. Who are you? What shapes the culture of your company with your core values? And one of the things that I do is I care around. Gift cards, Starbucks gift cards, Just something simple. Walk through the hall, stop an employee. Hey, what are our seven core values?

Speaker 2: 24:33

They know that I've got these gift cards it's amazing what they learn through learning these the mission learning, the vision learning the core values.

Speaker 1: 24:43

Well, I mean, life is a lot about mindset. I truly believe that, like what you good or bad, what you think about the most and what you put into your head, even opinions about yourself or others, is pretty much projected out into the world through your attitude and how you live life, and so even just making a fun game like that that makes an employee think about those core values certainly transcends and then interacting them out throughout the day with the products.

Speaker 2: 25:08

It's the little things, just a recognition. We have a young maintenance tech that works for us. He's 18 years old, or just our 19. And we've got, when the reservation's got a call. She was calling to follow up on a war quarter. A guest had a concern and the guests just talked about this kid Cole, about how wonderful he was and how he would. Before he left, he wanted to make sure if everything was good for them. Well, by they taking that and conveying it to the reservations, the reservations shooting an email out to all the managers about hey, look what Cole did. Look at Cole, yeah. So I took that screenshot and sent it to his mom last night. What did that just do, not? We're just praising Cole, but taking that to his family. Do you think he was excited about coming to work today?

Speaker 1: 26:03

The graduates yeah, wow, Just something.

Speaker 2: 26:05

His mom was one of our, my original staff members. She was one that helped me when I first started the company, Wow. And now her son that's pretty cool, you know 13 years later is working for us and he's just a little shining star and just that little bit of gratitude absolutely goes in such a long way. It does you know.

Speaker 1: 26:27

How many properties do you guys manage now?

Speaker 2: 26:29

We have a little over 200 properties and all Okay, and from the book, that condo side. And then I also undone Realty, which is a long-term property management company. We have about 150 there. In addition, I own a portfolio, a real estate management group, and that's a real estate brokerage that we focus on the investment property sales more so than just the bread and butter, I think, investment property, yeah, and does most of that.

Speaker 1: 26:59

the brokerage is business.

Speaker 2: 27:00

come from property management, would you say it does and the concept was a spoken hub concept when book, that condo, is kind of like the biggest economic generator but you have other properties that other businesses help mutually support. You don't have to turn away opportunity necessarily that's right, and last year we started our own floor cleaning company because that makes sense hey, these units.

Speaker 2: 27:28

Well, I started looking at the number of invoices I was sending out. We still use other companies. I try to spread the wealth but we were sending all this. Looking at these invoices of what we're paying out and like, why would I not want to bring that in house? It helps for two reasons. Number one, it's a revenue generator, but number two, it helps me schedule these in a timely manner and have control over it. Having control, but, like on Saturdays when you have a big turn day, I never know when I'm going to be able to get a floor cleaner in from one of our vendors. But having control of it, we can schedule it ahead of time.

Speaker 1: 28:01

What about laundry? I imagine laundry is kind of like a similar situation, right, Because that's got to be a high invoice item.

Speaker 2: 28:06

linen styles it is it is and we've been with the same laundry company for several years so I've been able to try to balance that. But we do some laundry and house but for the linens and the terries we outsource that. My long-term goal is to build our own laundry laundry facility. Probably when we hit our 300 units then I'll start looking at it. Our facility is set up for to have industrial laundry facilities. But it will probably end up being another building just because we've outgrown our space. We have an 8,000 square foot building.

Speaker 1: 28:41

We're pretty much already outgrown it because and you just renovated that basically two years ago, two years ago, we moved into it and it was a start in us, have you started a good drought now.

Speaker 2: 28:50

Yeah, I'll just tell you that when I going back to the evolution of Book that Condo, I will tell you that I was working on this real estate company and when the BP oil spill hit, everything dried up. Now we had just come out of the drought, 2009 was good, 2010 was doing real well, so I'd made a good rebound in the real estate sales. Meanwhile it already started Book that Condo, but we were kind of more of a test phase. So when the BP oil spill hit, everything dried up and I had some really good contracts and I was like man, what am I going to do now?

Speaker 2: 29:32

So a friend of mine who he and his partner had started these Haswap or these schools to train these Haswapers, to get them certified so they can go out on the beaches and work for BP and some of the contractors they have. So they came to me and said, hey, you're military right. And I said, yeah. I said, well, we need instructors. We've got these schools and we've got plenty of students, but we just don't have enough instructors. I said, well, let I teach most anything. If I can learn the subject matter, so let me. I looked through their course guide and I was like you know I can teach this. I said let's do this. I said let's go, let me go to class for two weeks and I'll teach on the third week. And they said, great, so we'll pay you $1,000 a day if you would teach. Wow, that's pretty awesome. So went through, went through the school the first week and said you know what, I don't need to go the second week, I can teach this now so the second week one of my closest friends.

Speaker 2: 30:31

She's like another mama to me. Ms Kathy Barr took me around. It was at the BP hub where the classroom was, and she took me around and introduced me to all the managers that BP had sent down here. By the end of the second week I had the contract to house BP, so anybody that they were bringing in. Panama City Beach, even down to Destin. I would set them up for their lodging while they're here.

Speaker 1: 30:57

Well, in the meantime, basically in one of the ones you were managing well, I didn't have but a few at that time.

Speaker 2: 31:02

So yes, I was used. I think I had three units at the time. So this is in the middle of summer, panama City Beach. There's nobody here.

Speaker 3: 31:12

The media- had really, you know, scared everyone away kept everybody away.

Speaker 2: 31:16

So I went up and down the beach asking these resorts can you give me 15 units, can you give me 20 units? And my job was pretty much sitting in my house coordinating getting people in, getting them out. They did all the cleaning and I built an override. So I was, you know, just, I was making a lot of money. You're rigging it. Yeah, that's crazy. So that gave me the seed money really to take book. That conduit to another level.

Speaker 2: 31:40

So we've got an office and I hired a small staff and we just kind of started it from there. And then today we employ full-timers, we probably have about 35 employees, and then contractors is anywhere during the season we hire up to 80 different contractors.

Speaker 1: 31:59

What are you doing in maintenance? What do you consider season?

Speaker 2: 32:05

I consider, well, our season. You know Panama City Beach is a seasonal resort market, yeah, so it goes in cycles. So you have right now we really deal with three major income producing seasons. Okay, that is spring, summer and fall, used to fall. After Labor Day I didn't have a lot of activity, but when, when a lot of these schools went to a modified school schedule, we started seeing a lot of schools from Kentucky and Tennessee coming down and they would stay and those long weekends now in like October Long weekends.

Speaker 2: 32:39

Well they would. They'll take a whole week off, and usually it's around Columbus Day weekend.

Speaker 3: 32:44

They take advantage of whatever that Friday Monday vacation day is. That's correct, and but some of them will stay Sunday, yeah, and just go ahead and keep it.

Speaker 2: 32:52

Right. So we, you know the we get about six good weeks of spring break. It starts the the first to second week of March and it goes to wherever Easter falls. This year Easter's early, so we'll pick up an extra week and then we go into what is called the shoulder season, and that's usually from where Easter falls about the first or second week of April to about mid May.

Speaker 2: 33:18

And the slow season of slow summer season starts about May 15th and goes up to about the second week of June Now when the Gulf Coast Jam came in. Now we're seeing a shift where first week was always slow. The Gulf Coast Jam has picked up and helped cover that. So that is actually becoming in high demand. So we will put we can say that that would be a high summer week, but your biggest summer weeks is usually the second or third week of June to the third week of July.

Speaker 1: 33:49

That is peak, yeah, that's like that, like five to six week period.

Speaker 2: 33:55

And then you see it taper off a little bit.

Speaker 1: 33:57

I actually think at my short term rental my single unit, I think I probably do close to 45% of my revenue in those six weeks.

Speaker 2: 34:08

I was just calculating yesterday it's real busy and then it starts to taper off. And then you get to the second week weekend of August and then it just falls off. Yeah, you'll see a lot of weekenders that come in or people that don't want to be around a lot of people, other people they'll come in during that time and it will stay pretty stagnant until you get to Labor Day. We have a good Labor Day weekend and then people that come down here are much like those who come in middle of August they just want to come to the beach, it's still warm, but they don't want to be around a lot of people. And then fall break for Georgia normally starts about the last week of September. Okay, then first two weeks of October is when Georgia I mean, I'm sorry, when Kentucky, tennessee and Ohio and you'll see a lot of those that come down.

Speaker 1: 35:04

So talking more about like just like the nitty gritty of like short term rentals because I'm sure there's a lot of people that are going to listen to this that are going to be looking for like information in that regard. Like what are, what are the? If someone obviously what you're doing is on like a pretty big scale, right, but for someone who wants to get into short-term rentals or even short-term rental management, like what are like the number one things that you feel like they should be aware of, or like nuances or things that people are just getting Into it just completely unaware of that, you would give.

Speaker 2: 35:36

Well, I will say this it is a loosely regulated. Loosely regulated industry so anyone can get in. And you know my philosophy is our market is so big that everybody can have a piece of the pie. If they get in, they want to be an entrepreneur. I will tell you, there's a number of new companies that I have helped get off the ground, just as kind of a Quasi consultant to give them. You know the lessons learned that we took through the year or save them, give them some of them gave us a.

Speaker 2: 36:06

But I tell you what. There are some consultants that are out there. They're in my industry that have worked for other companies or they've worked in the tech industry. That pretty much this is all they do now, as they help new startups. That would be. My first recommendation is contacting one of them and seeing how they could help them construct their new companies so that they don't go through. You know, for us, we all those lessons Learned.

Speaker 1: 36:31

We were just talking about that this morning even just with, like Honestly, just like regular real estate or all the development stuff we're trying to do, is, unfortunately, the only real way to start doing anything really worth doing. No matter how much you educate yourself or like look into it, it's to start doing it, and you certainly yeah make a lot of mistakes.

Speaker 2: 36:51

I'll tell you I spent about a year and a half just working on the business plan and studying other markets, you know, and seeing what they do and try to take the best little nugget out of every company and then assemble that together. Yeah, um, that that is something I would tell people, you know. Start with a website, you know. Obviously you have to get licensed through the state, through the DVPR, register it with the division of hotels and restaurants, not the division or real estate, because, though we have a operating, a trust account, we're not governed by the vision real estate, where you have to have an escrow account. Okay, and the, as you, they screw you and real estate company, a real estate school.

Speaker 2: 37:34

You hear you have a negative balance. You can have your license revoked, whereas in our case you have an operating account, you have a trust account, but you can a lot of times in the office season, you'll see, you know we did as a young company, we would have to dip into our trust in the offseason to help flow through the season now I don't have that.

Speaker 2: 37:55

I built contingency fund and I'll never, do that again because that just gives us security from the company. Yeah, doesn't help you sleep at night. It does not help you sleep your revenue? You're just kind of teetering along. Yeah, revenue, but you know as you grow that that is one thing I will say. It is so important, it's to build you a good contingency fund.

Speaker 2: 38:19

I'll tell you here's a little nugget when, when Covid hit All my competition, one of the larger, the largest company here furloughed all their employees. They had 995 Properties. Yep, they furloughed there they're all their employees. Because I had built a contingency fund. I put a couple hundred thousand dollars into a fund that just let it set there. I brought all my employees in to the office, put them in a circle in the parking lot and said guys, I got good news for you. We got enough money to continue to operate. I'm not gonna cut one one position. I'm not gonna cut one hour. So go home, tell your family we're gonna keep working and everything's gonna be okay. Well, thankfully the government, you know, brought the PPP and it short us up.

Speaker 2: 39:07

But but you know that I'm always looking out for your people because you treat them like family. It goes a long ways, whereas these other people that were sitting out there filing for unemployment not knowing what's gonna happen tomorrow. You know, I really felt for them now.

Speaker 1: 39:26

So those are just some of the things that having a contingency fund sitting that little nest egg back, we'll certainly help and listen, at COVID time I had my real estate license and was like kind of part-time selling real estate, but I was still working my corporate management job when it first came and I mean, I kind of ended up being one of those people to a degree and it's one of the reasons I could. I don't think I would ever Go back to doing that but truly and honestly, like they had us do ton of stuff remote, they had us handle all kinds of stuff. I worked like grueling hours and then, when all of those tasks were done, like the very next day, they got us on the call. We're like all right, we're not paying you anymore and I was like one of the most brutal experiences.

Speaker 2: 40:05

I've ever had in my life? Yes, and because? What are you thinking I?

Speaker 1: 40:08

got a house payment. Yeah, I got a family, I got a fee, and how am I gonna manage this? Yeah, I felt used and I was just like very frustrated by the situation.

Speaker 3: 40:17

Well, and in hindsight in your business, covid probably ultimately in those couple of years ended up being good for you in our area, became really good yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:26

I didn't have other companies potion my employees, yeah able to, and those companies that were shutting down. You probably absorbed some of their business.

Speaker 1: 40:33

I took some of their business because we started writing letters.

Speaker 2: 40:36

Hey, we're still here, hey we're still operating and then and I'll tell you something else that we then we're open and boom my employees.

Speaker 2: 40:43

You know, let's just take a reservation is that wasn't answering the phone because really didn't have a lot of business going on at that time. I could put them in the field and we would put them in our properties and we would take these properties to another level. Oh, it's worth making money, but wherever we could do it had the best Return on investment to make that rental better for down time Opportunity to do something that you normally can't do when, yes, yes, you have to just look for those you know it's gonna come back everybody gamefully

Speaker 2: 41:11

employee yeah they might have. We shifted them to different. You know different positions, but they and something else they learn more about the about this reservations don't typically get in these properties.

Speaker 3: 41:22

Well, guess what?

Speaker 2: 41:23

Now they can tell that guess that has a question about that property. Yeah, I remember I was in that condo and let me tell you.

Speaker 3: 41:29

Check this out.

Speaker 2: 41:29

Yeah, so it real. There was a. There's so many benefits of Of what occurred when when COVID hit.

Speaker 1: 41:37

Yeah, From a company perspective so gonna wrap up with like one final question that we like to ask everyone if you had one piece of advice, like personal or professional, or it can be a combination of the two, but just like one thing that you would want to leave with people who are listening, it's like the most impactful I almost call it a legacy piece of advice that you would want to give what. What do you think that thing you would want to leave people.

Speaker 2: 42:04

Well, if I can look back through the few years that I've been on this earth, I Would say, using that one word that I started with, and that's persistence, because a lot of my friends were out partying when I was working and I knew that if I stayed the course, one day this thing would break open, because, no matter the experience that I gained, whether it was in the military or in the corporate world, start, you know, be an entrepreneur, be in, persisted and and taking lessons, learning and Growing from those it has enabled me to be, to reach the success I've had today. So, yeah, I'd like to continue to, to coin that word, just persistency.

Speaker 1: 42:46

Yeah, I can't agree with that enough. In fact, I am the word. It's a similar word, but the word I always talk about here is tenacity, tenacity.

Speaker 2: 42:55

You know the name of my tenacity projects.

Speaker 1: 42:58

yeah, and Trust. Trust me, we've had our fair share of that conversation, dude. We've done plenty of things that haven't worked out, so but you keep going.

Speaker 2: 43:07

Yeah, you can't you to go. It might this avenue might not work back up in a just fire and go to this Avenue, it might not, but if you continue to push forward, you're gonna start seeing doors open. Yeah, because every time you run into a roadblock you've learned something along the way. Agreed, agree.

Speaker 1: 43:25

We're ready. I really appreciate you taking the time to come on. This was super fun and insightful, as always. So that's episode eight of its personal and entrepreneurs protest. We're gonna have Joe Courtney from Wild Marketing on next, so we hope you guys tune in to listen to that episode as well. Again, reggie, appreciate you coming on.

Speaker 2: 43:43

Thank you for inviting. I have to appreciate that.