In this episode, host Steven Pesavento sits down with Stacey St. John, a former corporate executive turned successful Airbnb entrepreneur. Stacey shares her transformative journey from a high-stress corporate job to building a thriving short-term rental business. Tune in to hear about her inspiring pivot, the lessons learned along the way, and her strategies for creating a fulfilling and financially rewarding career.
Key Takeaways
Resources Mentioned
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About our Guest:
Stacey St. John is a seasoned real estate investor and Airbnb entrepreneur. After a successful career in the corporate world, where she led client success and business development for a global consulting firm, Stacey made a bold decision to pursue her passion for real estate. Starting with long-term rentals, she quickly pivoted to short-term rentals, finding her niche in beachfront properties. Stacey's strategic approach and dedication to continuous improvement have enabled her to build a flourishing business, helping others create unforgettable vacation experiences.
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00;00;49;06 - 00;01;00;22
Steven Pesavento
Today I've got Stacy Saint John in the studio. How are you doing today, Stacy.
00;01;00;24 - 00;01;03;11
Stacey ST John
I am awesome. Thank you so much for having me.
00;01;03;15 - 00;01;22;14
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you, Stacy, because I think you have a story that can resonate and a lot of people can relate to being that you were in the corporate world, and you made a decision to go and build a business and focus on a different strategy, and that pulled you out. And you love what you do and you really enjoy it.
00;01;22;14 - 00;01;38;29
Steven Pesavento
So I'm excited to talk about kind of the journey of getting there and all of those things. And of course, you're an expert in Airbnb. That's your strategy and your business niche. but before we get into all of that and what you've been doing in the investing world, let's start out by taking a look back earlier in your life.
00;01;39;01 - 00;01;44;11
Steven Pesavento
What events or influences from your childhood shaped who you are today?
00;01;44;13 - 00;02;08;18
Stacey ST John
What a great question. First of all, and again, thank you for having me. The other thing I'll just say really quickly is I made a decision, and that is such a really important point that a lot of people don't think about. So I just wanted to highlight that. I love that you said that. So wow, what part of my childhood influenced who I am today?
00;02;08;22 - 00;02;12;03
Stacey ST John
How much time do we have on this podcast? But.
00;02;12;05 - 00;02;13;06
Steven Pesavento
00;02;13;08 - 00;03;00;19
Stacey ST John
No, I will say a couple of quick things. I grew up in a very small town in Indiana, and my family life growing up was very much like the cleavers. Okay, I had a set of amazing parents, who were tremendous role models as husband and wife. for me as, as a child, I really got to experience firsthand what having a, wonderful family ecosystem, how that can build character in you as a person and how that can influence how, you become a parent and a wife or a spouse yourself.
00;03;00;22 - 00;03;34;13
Stacey ST John
one thing that resonated with me a lot, as I've realized as an adult didn't realize it as much as a child, is how much vacation's meant to me. and that's one of the reasons why I just love what I do, is because I have the ability to help other people create lifelong memories together on vacations. I didn't realize it at the time, but our annual family trips to either Disney World or the beach have stuck with me.
00;03;34;13 - 00;03;43;21
Stacey ST John
My entire life. And it's really, you know, brought me a lot of joy in helping other people do the same. So.
00;03;43;24 - 00;04;03;20
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it's funny how those experiences when you're young, you don't really recognize it or appreciate it when you're a kid, but those experiences and the memories that come from them, you know, are very meaningful. Obviously, everything you know, it's all about the little details that happen every day that really shape us. But those moments are moments that we can absolutely look back on.
00;04;03;20 - 00;04;16;26
Steven Pesavento
So let's fast forward. You know, you're working in the corporate world. What were you doing? And more importantly, what was the point where you realized, hey, I might want to go another direction?
00;04;16;28 - 00;05;04;15
Stacey ST John
Well, I was actually at the at the time working for a global consulting firm. I led our client success and business development team had a very, very, incredibly busy schedule. I served on the leadership team for that consulting group as well. So I had a lot of responsibility and with a lot of responsibility came a lot of stress and I, you know, again, I go back to you mentioning that I made a decision there became a breaking point where I was getting up at 4:00 in the morning and working from 4 to 7 to just try to get work knocked out.
00;05;04;22 - 00;05;33;24
Stacey ST John
And then I would get ready for work. I'd drive into the office, I would take phone calls on my way into the office. I would leave the office, take phone calls and call my team on the way home. And then I would get home and I would work. And there became a time where I was absolutely exhausted, and I started thinking about what are my other options.
00;05;33;26 - 00;05;58;22
Stacey ST John
This no longer serves me, and I really want to think about what my other options were. And quite candidly, I felt very constrained by the golden handcuffs. I earned a very healthy living and again, I was very grateful for that. But I was challenged to go find something else that really could afford me the the same lifestyle that I was, accustomed to living.
00;05;58;25 - 00;06;12;20
Stacey ST John
And I had started dabbling in real estate investing. Actually, I got started in real estate investing by accident. And, that's maybe a story for another episode, but.
00;06;12;23 - 00;06;44;27
Steven Pesavento
I think there's a really I think there's a really important thing here is that you're working in a consulting firm, you're making a lot of money, you've got a really good life. The irony of success is that oftentimes it can feel limiting when we're in it, because now we're accustomed to a new way of living our number of what it cost us to live that kind of life increases, and it feels like a lot more risk to go out and try something different or transition into another sector or space.
00;06;44;29 - 00;07;04;07
Steven Pesavento
one of the things we like to talk about on the show is your number, like what it cost and what it takes to live the life that you want to live. And I can imagine if you're working in management, salting, that number, you know, you're probably accustomed to making quite a bit of money. So you're making a, what, a couple hundred thousand dollars a year or 2 or 300,000 more than that?
00;07;04;09 - 00;07;07;16
Stacey ST John
no, I was making just under 200.
00;07;07;20 - 00;07;17;23
Steven Pesavento
So you're making just under $200,000 a year. That's like right, right around 12 to $15,000 a month. That's pretax. Right.
00;07;17;26 - 00;07;18;13
Stacey ST John
00;07;18;16 - 00;07;36;12
Steven Pesavento
Awesome. So you're making a great living and you live in the Midwest. So it's an unbelievably great living because the cost of living in that area is lower. in your personal situation do you have a spouse. were they working as well?
00;07;36;14 - 00;07;51;14
Stacey ST John
I do, my, my husband and I are celebrating 30 years of marriage, this year. I got married when I was four. so, yeah. So my husband, was working and still is working in the corporate world and.
00;07;51;14 - 00;07;54;05
Steven Pesavento
Similar type income or higher or lower?
00;07;54;07 - 00;07;55;13
Stacey ST John
Yes. Similar.
00;07;55;13 - 00;08;17;10
Steven Pesavento
Similar income. So you have two incomes. You're in like a really strong place. And you get to this point where you're feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, you know, you have a family, you've been married for 30 years. Like there's more to life than working in a in a career that maybe isn't fulfilling you anymore. How did you go about looking to replace that income?
00;08;17;10 - 00;08;47;00
Steven Pesavento
Because traditional rentals, obviously you'd have to have quite a bit, that you've been able to build up. But it sounds like you made a different pivot over to more of an actively operated kind of business in real estate. So, you know, great opportunity. Let's hear about kind of the Airbnb space and what led you there, and how did you feel comfortable knowing that you could walk away from, you know, 12 to 15 grand a month to be able to go do some different?
00;08;47;03 - 00;09;17;06
Stacey ST John
Yeah. Well, I was investing in long term rentals. And when Covid hit, there were all these eviction moratoriums that were popping up all over the country. And, I had really, really enjoyed it. Real estate investing. Again, I got started by accident, but then I actually learned, you know, all the strategies and tactics about how to become a savvy real estate investor.
00;09;17;06 - 00;09;42;14
Stacey ST John
And I loved it. And, we were getting ready to buy another long term buy and hold investment. And again, all these eviction moratoriums were popping up, and my husband and I sat down and thought, well, if we purchase a short term rental, you know, we don't have the risk of if somebody doesn't pay their bills, we don't have any recourse.
00;09;42;17 - 00;10;07;19
Stacey ST John
We actually are going to have this person pay in order to get in the front door. Right. And so that's how I made the pivot into buying my first short term rental investment. And then once I bought it, it was an oceanfront property, small condo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I discovered, oh my gosh, I love this. Like this is fun.
00;10;07;19 - 00;10;24;06
Stacey ST John
Buying property on the beach is something that again, was nothing I would ever have dreamed about. because again, I grew up going on vacation to the beach and I love the beach. So,
00;10;24;09 - 00;10;41;11
Steven Pesavento
It was you buy that property? It's a small condo. What? You know, what was the for example, like, what was the mortgage on it? You know, how much percentage did you have to put down? And then, more importantly, you know, what is that that asset create for you?
00;10;41;13 - 00;11;26;08
Stacey ST John
Yeah. Well, to give you an example, I had, purchased two properties at the same time. And at the time during Covid, you could you could snatch oceanfront properties for under $100,000 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. So my first to investments, I bought one condo for $79,000 and one condo for $90,000. I renovated them light Cosmetic Rehab held them both for just over a year, sold them, and doubled my money on both of them.
00;11;26;10 - 00;11;45;15
Stacey ST John
And that allowed me to do a 1031 exchange into a condo, which will end up being the property, one of our properties that we retire into. but I was able to buy that property with no money down because I took two little small investments. Bottom ugly. I love buying ugly property.
00;11;45;18 - 00;11;52;17
Steven Pesavento
So you bought those with cash, it sounds like. No, you bought it in the wrong place.
00;11;52;19 - 00;12;11;02
Stacey ST John
Yep, yep. Had to put down a 25%, for both of those properties. And then, spent about 5 or $6000 upgrading them. Nothing. You know, Earth shatteringly expensive.
00;12;11;04 - 00;12;31;14
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. So I think the key thing to underline here is just the idea that when you're going to go in, you know, do something different, you're going to have to step out of your comfort zone and go out. And when everyone else is not taking action, everyone else is fearful. You went for it and you went and you took advantage of what was happening in the market.
00;12;31;14 - 00;12;57;08
Steven Pesavento
A lot of people are sitting back there waiting. They're not sure what's going to happen. You move forward. You bought a couple properties. You didn't even Airbnb or rent those out. You literally just flip those properties, held them for a year, turned around, created a little bit of additional income, and then you were able to buy a property that was maybe, you know, even a better fit for, for you long term, but also, you know, has some income potential.
00;12;57;11 - 00;13;26;02
Stacey ST John
Yeah, it I did rent those out during the year that I held them. I did rent those out. They performed very well. but again I'm all about continuous improvement progress over perfection. I did not just wait until I knew everything about, you know, short term rentals. I dove in, I decided to to dip my toe in the water, dove in, and again discovered I absolutely loved it.
00;13;26;04 - 00;13;55;16
Stacey ST John
And I just started buying more property at the beach. So within the first year, I bought and rehabbed eight condos at the beach. but again started thinking about how can I continue to improve my portfolio and level up. Right. And so that's why, when I saw the market take, a shift and I saw the prices starting to raise, I thought,
00;13;55;18 - 00;14;17;15
Stacey ST John
You know, there's an opportunity here where I could take these properties, that I originally purchased. I saw what they were selling for. I knew how much I had invested in them, and I thought, gosh, if I just, you know, go ahead and sell these. I can purchase a property that I would have never dreamed I could afford.
00;14;17;22 - 00;14;41;09
Steven Pesavento
And what was the motivation on those two to get rid of them versus just hold those forever? I have to imagine at, you know, $80,000 a unit, they had to be maybe not in the best of the best area. And so what you did, it sounds like, is you traded up, you made some money in something, and then you traded up to something that's more of a long term, you know?
00;14;41;15 - 00;15;11;08
Stacey ST John
Yeah. Well, it's interesting. I discovered a lot of people getting nervous about buying properties that are condos. Right. something to keep in mind is that in the Myrtle Beach market, or in any ocean market that has condos, oftentimes those oceanfront properties are intended to be vacation rentals or short term rentals. So it never made me nervous about buying a condo specifically.
00;15;11;08 - 00;15;38;26
Stacey ST John
But what I discovered about the building that I had originally purchased those two properties in is that the condo association did not have the level of care, to the building that I wanted. And so what I discovered is my target audience I owned from the walls in right, with a condo. My condos were beautiful, and that attracts a certain audience.
00;15;38;28 - 00;16;11;10
Stacey ST John
And when that certain audience would leave my condo, they would have a very different experience. And so I noticed that there was a little bit of, mismatch between my target audience, the people that I was looking to host and what the actual building or, or property could really support. and so what I again started noticing is the reviews that would come in, would talk about, gosh, Stacy was a great host.
00;16;11;10 - 00;16;18;02
Stacey ST John
We loved her property, but boy oh boy, we wish that we didn't find a dirty sock in the pool. Yeah.
00;16;18;05 - 00;16;40;08
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it's funny how that is like the this is one of the biggest mistakes I think a lot of people make is they sit on the sidelines and they wait around. They wait to try to get everything perfect to know all the information. And yet the best way to learn is to go and take some action and go into it from a perspective of saying, hey, I might have to pay some tuition on this.
00;16;40;10 - 00;17;16;14
Steven Pesavento
It may not go well, but if it does go well, you know, I have an opportunity to make some money, but more importantly, the first 1 or 2 or 10 or 100, whatever it is for that person's individual goals, it's about learning. It's about going in there and getting that experience. Because until you've bought you, you're not going to understand or recognize the importance of the condo association or understanding their books and and how much money they have in reserves or what kind of CapEx is going to be required on that building, or are they going to end up raising the HOA fees, or is there a certain type of person in the building that
00;17;16;14 - 00;17;55;21
Steven Pesavento
makes it difficult to get funding or financing all these things you don't know until you actually get into it, unless somebody else is kind of holding your hand or guiding you there. So I think that that's amazing. So what you really did was you decided that you were going to go and focus full time on real estate, and you were going to use different strategies in order to create the income that you needed to be able to go in and, and make that transition versus just thinking, hey, I can only do one thing, which is Airbnb, or I can only do one thing, which is, but you actually looked at, hey, there's there's value
00;17;55;21 - 00;18;01;01
Steven Pesavento
in understanding all these different pieces, including trading up to better properties.
00;18;01;03 - 00;18;25;01
Stacey ST John
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And you know, you you mentioned the word deciding. Again, I think for me, I had a specific outcome I was looking to achieve. And quite candidly, I didn't know how at the time. I didn't know how it was going to step outside of the corporate world. I didn't buy two properties at the beach and go, this is my golden ticket.
00;18;25;04 - 00;18;49;25
Stacey ST John
I have it now, right? But what I knew was I had an outcome. I was looking for. And one of my mentors, I, you know, there was a very specific time in my life where I went through a lot of internal turmoil, like, again, I felt very trapped by the golden handcuffs, and I was trying to figure everything out in my mind.
00;18;49;25 - 00;19;12;05
Stacey ST John
And I didn't know how I was going to get out. But one of my mentors says, you have to let go, to let in. And so I let go and just really trusted the process and understanding that I was going through a transformation. I was figuring it out, and I had to be okay with operating outside of my comfort zone.
00;19;12;07 - 00;19;44;19
Stacey ST John
And that took that, you know, took some learning. It took some muscle building mentally. but learning how to operate outside of my comfort zone is probably one of the, the greatest assets I've, learned, and have in my toolbox because as an entrepreneur and someone who is now fully responsible of of generating, my paycheck on a weekly, monthly, annual basis, there can still be fear that gets in the way, right?
00;19;44;19 - 00;20;02;16
Stacey ST John
There can still be doubt that creeps in. And learning how to control your mind, learning how to control your thinking and operate again in a space that's outside of your comfort zone is something that I have found incredibly important.
00;20;02;19 - 00;20;28;19
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I think it's really interesting because until you go through those difficult times, that growth, you don't recognize the capability is there within. And I feel like everybody would benefit from stepping out of their comfort zone. But a lot of people just won't. They won't do it. They're there to set in their ways. And you know, when I got started in real estate, you know, over a decade ago, I didn't know anything.
00;20;28;25 - 00;21;06;12
Steven Pesavento
I and and in all honesty, by not knowing anything but making that decision and it actually allowed me to go do things other people wouldn't just wouldn't do. And, I'm curious about your experience in the Airbnb because I was, a super host back in 2013, very early days, very different time, went through, the experience of having local municipalities, you know, banned Airbnb all the way to having them make it legal and seeing the benefits and the downsides of both of those.
00;21;06;15 - 00;21;38;14
Steven Pesavento
and I have great friends who run some incredible properties, including one that, you know, makes 350 to $400,000 a year on one single property. so it's amazing to see the different variables that are there. But there's always risk. There's always risk that something gets outlawed or or, people's vacation patterns change. So when somebody is thinking about adding this type of strategy into their life, what are some of the key things they need to be comfortable and ready for?
00;21;38;17 - 00;22;00;03
Steven Pesavento
when they're going to say, hey, I might go down the path of doing vacation rentals because I think there's a lot of beliefs out there that it's easy and there's a lot of different ways to make it easier. But, you know, it's it's it's a everyday, type experience where people are coming and going on a regular basis.
00;22;00;05 - 00;22;35;24
Stacey ST John
Yeah, yeah, I think there was a time probably 3 to 4 years ago, where anyone could purchase the property listed on any OTA, Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, whatever the case might be, and make money. Right? Because there was coming out of Covid, there was so much pent up travel demand that everybody was, you know, flying out of their their chairs to travel, you know, somewhere.
00;22;35;26 - 00;23;24;11
Stacey ST John
Fast forward to today, when you have a short term rental, it is a very active business and it is a business. It is if you treat it like, oh, I've just got this house down the street that I rent out every so often. That's the kind of result you're going to get, right? If you treat it as a business, and you bring business best practices to, your operation, if you have, you know, values that you operate by as a business leader, if you, build high producing teams, whether they're operational teams or marketing teams, whatever the case might be, if you treat this as a business, it can be incredibly rewarding.
00;23;24;14 - 00;23;51;04
Stacey ST John
But it is not something that you can just purchase a piece of real estate and throw it up on Airbnb and think you're going to become an overnight millionaire. Yeah, I mean, maybe it is if if you know anybody like that, Stephen, let me know. But, it's a very active business and one of the things to keep in mind is that, you know, you don't have to do everything yourself.
00;23;51;04 - 00;24;12;09
Stacey ST John
A lot of people, again, think about, oh, gosh, I don't want to get phone calls from guests or I don't want to, you know, get messages from guests 24 seven, just like any long term rental, with a short term rental, you can hire people. You can bring on team members that manage that day to day for you.
00;24;12;12 - 00;24;23;25
Stacey ST John
But I think, you know, understanding that there is a real estate investment and there is an operation, and you can choose to do one or both sides.
00;24;23;27 - 00;24;43;14
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. That is something that I think way too many people overlook when I hear folks, because I run a private equity firm, we invest primarily in multifamily by 50 to 100 unit buildings, and we turn them and sell them. And, you know, a couple of year period, or we buy 200 plus unit buildings. We hold them for a very long time.
00;24;43;14 - 00;25;12;24
Steven Pesavento
We operate and manage those ongoing. And so what's interesting is I, I have people on my team who are talking to folks on, you know, a daily basis that are interested in investing. And we hear about the experiences of doing different things or going down different paths. And for my experience, Airbnb is a full time operational business. There is a real estate component, and you either own the real estate or you lease the real estate or however you go about it.
00;25;13;01 - 00;25;40;18
Steven Pesavento
But at the end of the day, it's about the operation. So you can absolutely hire a manager to do it. But hiring really great managers is always a challenge. And there's always going to be work that has to go into it. And so in exchange for that work and that skill of building the team and managing the team, you there can be some really great rewards that can come back on a typical short term rental deal.
00;25;40;18 - 00;26;01;25
Steven Pesavento
Everything obviously really depends on location and property type and size and things like that. What type of return on investment should somebody be looking for on an annual basis on an Airbnb? If they're going to go and buy something, let's talk mid-tier. Let's talk super high tier, high luxury.
00;26;01;27 - 00;26;20;18
Stacey ST John
Yeah. Well, candidly, I up until this point I don't operate high luxury properties, so I'd probably not be your best person to to throw those out or to share insights about that. I would say my properties are mid-tier and upscale, but I'm not ultra luxury.
00;26;20;19 - 00;26;26;10
Steven Pesavento
So you're hitting that middle market kind of the widest group. People want a little bit of a nicer place, but still.
00;26;26;15 - 00;27;13;05
Stacey ST John
Exactly. And and creating standout properties in any market, in any tier, it's how do we make our properties stand out? Yeah. very early on I was looking for a 30% cash on cash return. Right. That was that was what I was very easily able to get early on. those numbers are very difficult to meet today. with the way that the real estate market has shifted, with the competition in the market, you know, a lot of folks who and I'd love to get your perspective as well, a lot of folks who are investing in, you know, long term rentals might look at an 8 to 10 to 12% cash on cash
00;27;13;05 - 00;27;46;13
Stacey ST John
and say, gosh, that's that's pretty decent, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, back in the day, I mean, again, just a few years ago, it was incredibly easy to hit some really, really strong cash on cash numbers. Now, if you're buying on the MLS, if you're not buying through Creative Strategies or, you know, directly sourcing properties from sellers, you know, seeing something around 15 to 20% cash on cash is still feasible.
00;27;46;15 - 00;27;51;00
Stacey ST John
but again, it's going to, you know, you're going to work a little harder to get those.
00;27;51;00 - 00;28;12;15
Steven Pesavento
Numbers and just to double click on that when you're saying 15 to 20% cash on cash or 30% cash on cash, you're talking about the income that comes off the property, net of expenses and net of management costs and net of your your personal costs.
00;28;12;18 - 00;28;13;03
Stacey ST John
Correct.
00;28;13;03 - 00;28;21;17
Steven Pesavento
But you're also putting in your time, effort and energy. And that's not included in that 30% number.
00;28;21;19 - 00;28;22;17
Stacey ST John
That is correct.
00;28;22;23 - 00;28;32;10
Steven Pesavento
Got it. And when you're hiring an outside manager paying, what, 15, 30% sometimes as high as 50 for an outside manager.
00;28;32;12 - 00;29;01;23
Stacey ST John
Yeah. I mean, for third, for a third party property manager co-host, market. You know, you'll probably see very between 15 to 25%. and if you are in a scenario where you're investing in a resort and you're using some sort of on site management, those can be 35, 40, 45, 50% sometimes. Yeah.
00;29;01;25 - 00;29;22;09
Steven Pesavento
So that makes that makes a lot of sense. Right. So I think that's the key. You can make some phenomenal money doing Airbnb. But the key to making that money is you have to find a way to love it, to love the the effort that goes into it, the the experience, the the checking on people and making sure they're having a great experience.
00;29;22;09 - 00;29;57;15
Steven Pesavento
Those little things that go the extra mile to not only get great feedback, but also find out about what things aren't going well at the property, because sometimes your manager will not look as closely as you. Well. So, it can be a great way. Just just for a little, funny nugget, as a comparison to what it's like today, when I was doing Airbnb, I was renting apartments for 1200 bucks a month, and during the busy season, I would make an average of 75 to $8500 a month per apartment.
00;29;57;18 - 00;30;22;15
Steven Pesavento
And on a 12 month average, it was right around 4500, per month on a $1,200 rent. Obviously, there's some other expenses in there and other things like that, but it's wild to see what happens in a market when things start to get saturated and when other people start finding out about this opportunity. Because back in 2013 is a zany idea, who's going to rent out their house?
00;30;22;21 - 00;30;39;29
Steven Pesavento
And to me, like that was incredible. And it's hard for me to think about going into something at 15 to 20%. But the key thing that I think you're underlining is the importance of of having a team, to be able to manage that stuff.
00;30;40;02 - 00;31;12;01
Stacey ST John
Totally. And, you know, I could not do what I do without having an amazing team in place. I, I think for me, it is incredibly important to build teams of people that align with my core values that, you know, have a dedication to guest experience. Again, in my world, that's incredibly important. We are in the hospitality business right when we are managing short term rentals.
00;31;12;04 - 00;31;30;23
Steven Pesavento
and how much time do you think you put in personally? Like, this is an active business, you love it. You get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Is it a this is a full time role, 40 to 60 hours a week? Is it a part time role I'm spending, you know, 20 hours a week. What what does that typically look like for you personally?
00;31;30;27 - 00;31;57;06
Stacey ST John
That's a that's a really good question. And for me personally, again, I run a property management company. I do co-hosting as well. And I also, you know, have my own properties. So I have a business that not only manages my own properties, but manages for other people. So I have intentionally built, my business with a team based model.
00;31;57;06 - 00;32;25;17
Stacey ST John
Again, when I first started building this, I was still working full time, and so I had to build a business that relied on other people's knowledge and skill sets. So from the start, I have personal only, only worked in my business about ten hours a week. That being said, I have people that work round the clock nonstop. to take care of, the day to day.
00;32;25;20 - 00;32;27;06
Stacey ST John
And my guests. Right?
00;32;27;09 - 00;32;27;27
Steven Pesavento
Yeah.
00;32;28;00 - 00;32;55;08
Stacey ST John
So I have a 24 seven concierge team. I have an operations manager, a revenue manager. you know, I've got people in place around me, and what that allows me to do is quite candidly, operate in my genius zone, which I think is incredibly important as an entrepreneur as well. and be able to leverage their my team members skill sets and their experiences to elevate my own business.
00;32;55;08 - 00;32;58;13
Stacey ST John
So delegate to elevate, as they say.
00;32;58;15 - 00;33;17;26
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. I think that's the thing to understand is like, realistically, you're going to spend at least ten hours a week in the business, on the business. And even if you build a great team, it's still going to take some dedicated effort and brain space. But then, you know, without the team, you're going to have to, you know, be interrupted more often.
00;33;17;26 - 00;33;41;04
Steven Pesavento
But obviously when you're getting started, maybe that that can work. If you aren't working a full time job or you're looking to kind of build something different. So let's pivot off of this a little bit and talk to me a little bit about, well, before we do, you are at $16,000 a month pretax. Have you exceeded that just on the Airbnb rental side on a consistent monthly basis?
00;33;41;06 - 00;33;58;11
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. So you've been able to replace your income and you built another business that now is supporting that and you get to do what you love. So I mean, I think there's really nothing better than building a business around that zone of genius, around something that you're excited about, that you get to share with other people and just lights you up.
00;33;58;15 - 00;34;18;17
Steven Pesavento
And so from an investment portfolio standpoint, before you got into this, was your primarily, primary portfolio, your 401 K and stock options, like the traditional stuff with a couple rentals, or is there anything else that you were doing before you got into this space?
00;34;18;20 - 00;34;45;01
Stacey ST John
No, I mean, again, we had we had a handful of long term rentals in classy neighborhoods. we had, you know, investments when it comes to 401 K stock, things like that. But I was never really proactive about managing those. It was like, okay, it just, you know, 6% went into that account and we'll see what it looks like, you know, in 20 or 30 years.
00;34;45;01 - 00;34;50;23
Stacey ST John
So it's never taking a proactive approach to that. if that makes sense.
00;34;50;24 - 00;35;05;12
Steven Pesavento
Oh, it makes perfect sense. And then since kind of going in this direction, building this business, would you say majority of your net worth is gone into this strategy, or are you still allocating to a variety of different things?
00;35;05;14 - 00;35;46;17
Stacey ST John
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've we've shifted a tremendous amount of our investments into short term rentals, into the hospitality business, as well. We're currently working on developing, a luxury glamping resort. so certainly all in, in, in the hospitality space. but that being said, I think one thing, again, just to take note of is a, a very keen, proactive approach into building wealth and building our future versus taking a sideline kind of back seat approach again.
00;35;46;20 - 00;36;23;26
Stacey ST John
a regular corporate employee who's just shoveling money off into my 401k and not paying attention to it. And again, I didn't know any better at the time. Yeah, right. But learning that I can be very strategic in the way that I invest my money and have, have a portfolio that lights me up. But also, you know, when, when you're in the room with super smart people, when you are in the room with people who have achieved what you want to achieve, you automatically learn new things all the time.
00;36;23;26 - 00;36;39;22
Stacey ST John
And so I think not only taking a proactive approach to investing, but taking a proactive approach into skill building and learning from what other people have done in this space than in others has just been really, really cool.
00;36;39;25 - 00;37;06;13
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I think there's something really the big takeaways I take from your story and your experience is first, they don't teach generally, they don't teach people to think like an investor. They don't teach them to have the investor mindset. They're not going out and saying, hey, take ownership of your portfolio, take ownership of your wealth, make the key decisions about where that money is going to go.
00;37;06;15 - 00;37;32;23
Steven Pesavento
and, and, and really be able to understand how do you get to that point where you can be totally free. And one of the reasons they don't do that is because, you know, as much as everyone might have the best of intentions, they don't really want you to be free. They want you to stay in the machine so that you can keep creating the output that's necessary for the economy and for the company and for Wall Street to be able to use that money to do the things they do.
00;37;33;00 - 00;38;05;04
Steven Pesavento
But the second thing is that you, you, you took a chance and you went and tried something, and maybe it didn't work out exactly the way you wanted to. You tried a few different things and you built up that experience over time. And I think if you're going to be an active operator, which owning Airbnb is, is going to be active, versus passively investing into a fund that someone else manages, you really have to make that decision for yourself to go all in and to learn as much as you can and really enjoy the process.
00;38;05;04 - 00;38;38;22
Steven Pesavento
But the third thing that I take away from your experience is a great example about how people that build massive amounts of wealth, it's not through diversification, it's through concentration, meaning you've built you've built this new business for yourself. You've gone and acquired a bunch of real estate. You now have other opportunities to continue to build a business using those same resources in partnership or alongside other people in a vendor relationship.
00;38;38;25 - 00;39;03;21
Steven Pesavento
And that's how you really can go from I'm living a good life to I'm creating wealth that I can pass on to future generations and really make a difference. And at some point, maybe you'll switch over to diversification when you're in the preservation phase. But in order to grow, you want to find those key opportunities, those key partners to work with or those key strategies and then kind of go all in.
00;39;03;21 - 00;39;06;13
Steven Pesavento
So tell me your thoughts on that.
00;39;06;16 - 00;39;32;26
Stacey ST John
Yeah. It's interesting to get your perspective on my story because, you know, it's not very often that you get to hear that. So thank you for for sharing that. I think it it is absolutely true. you know, I, I take a look at again, my own path and I have built a business around something that I have discovered I love right.
00;39;32;26 - 00;40;05;12
Stacey ST John
And so again, being very intentional about that and leaning into that is something that, I, I really appreciate and I think going back to your mention of making a decision of being intentional, of being, strategic about what I'm building for my future. I may not have everything figured out right from the start. It takes experience and learning along the way.
00;40;05;14 - 00;40;36;04
Stacey ST John
But, I absolutely, wholeheartedly agree. for for me, where I am in my phase of of my journey, I would never trade any experience that I've had, although they've, you know, so some are more fun than others. But, I think even when we make mistakes or have hiccups, those are opportunities to learn. And so we should be celebrating those mistakes as much as we should celebrate the wins as long as we're learning from them.
00;40;38;08 - 00;40;51;03
Steven Pesavento
Thanks for listening to the Investor Mindset podcast. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and if you'd like to watch another yours one up top. And here's another great video right down below.