Kajabi Edge Podcast - Annette Grant and Sarah Karakaian
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[00:00:00] Hello everyone. And welcome to the Kajabi edge podcast, where we talk to real entrepreneurs to give you an edge on Kajabi. I'm your host, Jared Loman, vice president of customer experience. And today I'm joined by my friends, Annette grant. Sarah car Kan from thanks for visiting. So thank you for visiting us today.
[00:00:35] you're welcome. Thanks for having us. Yes, I'm I'm always excited to get two people on at, at a time that makes those are kinda some of my funnest interviews. Um, but this one in particular is actually even more fun because. This is kind of a full circle moment for me for, for a couple of us, because Annette, at least you and I, you were actually one of the first customers, at least the first customer that I remember that I ever encountered during my employment with Kajabi.
[00:00:59] Um, we met at our customer summit called impact, and I think I was no more than maybe 15 days in employment. And I remember meeting you, helping you with a, a little project or something. And I remember, I, I think this is. You were so excited. You're like, can I give you a hug? And that was like pre pandemic.
[00:01:15] So that was still okay. I probably did. Yeah. Cause truthfully, I, I hadn't even really started using Kajabi yet. I was trying to import a email list that I had with the current, uh, with the past provider into Kajabi. So I could start sending my emails. Out with it. So I love the, I love the fact that I was your first customer, but I hadn't even earned a dollar yet on Kajabi, but I was at impact trying to figure out how I was gonna make an impact.
[00:01:42] I love it. Kajabi say I love it. Yeah. And this was over what? Three years ago? I wanna say it was now. Yes for sure. I can't wait to hear more about the kind of the three year journey for you and, uh, hopefully get an understanding of where you're at today. Um, but in the meantime, let's kind of just get things.
[00:01:58] Not everyone else has the same context that I do. So let's start by just kind of giving your 15 second elevator pitch on who you are and what you do. Yeah, so Sarah and I, uh, we run a business called thanks for visiting. And we are in the hospitality short term rental industry, and we are here to up level what it means to be a host.
[00:02:16] So we educate other hosts from around the world, on our platform on how to be better host AKA short term rental host led to people like to call them Airbnb host. And that is our mission. I love it. Uh, before I even go down the next path I have to ask, because we were talking about three years ago, we had the pandemic, which impacted the hospitality industry.
[00:02:36] What on earth was it like starting this business during that period? It led to some really great and interesting content. So , um, that was wonderful during the thick of it, but honestly, COVID, there's a lot of terrible things to our world, but, uh, it surely reshaped the travel. It allowed people to truly work from anywhere, which is actually a really nice segue into Kajabi.
[00:02:58] Um, but also, uh, drivable destinations became incredibly popular in 2021 people weren't flying, you know, to other countries, you know, from the states to other countries. So those of us with properties here in the states, um, did quite well. And so whether it was how to get out of something that was really tough, um, back in, you know, 2020 to how the heck to handle all this influx of, of bookings and, and these prices that just have no ceiling to now, when we're talking about, you know, the normalization of our market and making sure people aren't panicking, there's, there's never a shortage of content in the real estate or hospitality industry.
[00:03:34] Okay. Okay. So a little bit of silver lining in. For a lot of people. That's. That's great. So, um, let's get kind of, just to your Genesis, like how you got started in this field, it sounds like maybe you started about three years ago. What were you doing before and how, what led you to this? Uh, these are great questions, Sarah.
[00:03:50] Uh, I'm gonna let Sarah go first. Okay. She has a great story background and then we'll segue into my, so Annette and I have a very different. Um, background and it led us to meeting three years ago. So prior to three years ago, I lived in New York city. I was a performer. I was working in hotels and restaurants between gigs.
[00:04:07] She was on Broadway. She didn't, she doesn't wanna say all that and HGTV all bra for her. no, I did. I did make a lot of money as, as a performer and an actor and I was quite business savvy. Like I was my product and I took it really seriously and I was obsessed with real estate. I don't remember how I, I, I read rich dad, poor dad and sort of my husband and.
[00:04:26] We just loved interior spaces and houses. And so we, even though we lived in the most expensive real estate market, you know, in our country, um, at the time and probably still very much so I wanted to own a piece of it. And so I figured out how to own a tiny little piece of Queens. And it happened to be at the same time that Airbnb came to be a platform that you could download on your phone and use it.
[00:04:46] Wasn't quite yet a household, you know, name that everyone knew about. But if you were in a big city, you probably had heard about it. And so instead of. Having actor, friends rent our basement little apartment. I said to my husband, you know, there's this app where we could let people book a stay with us. I worked in hotels, I worked in restaurants.
[00:05:02] I could, I could figure this out. Um, and I had a knack for, I mean, I had some professional training, um, with interior design. And so my husband was like, absolutely not. It didn't take long for me to convince him cause I'm very persistent and, uh, sooner, rather than later, we had our very first guests from chili.
[00:05:18] I'll never forget them. And they, like, we could hear them check in downstairs and we kind of just like squeezed our, our hands and just like hoped for the best. It's like either we're gonna get murdered tonight or this is gonna be great. We're not really sure. Um, turns out it was really lovely and um, and we never looked back because we not only paid our mortgage, but we cash flows.
[00:05:36] Meaning we, we covered all of our expenses. Plus we made money and we had fun. It. And we took a lot of pride in welcoming people to our, our nook of, of New York city. And that just spiraled into this obsession of owning more real estate and leveraging short term rentals as a way to two X, three X, our, our income moved to Columbus, Ohio so that I could.
[00:05:56] Afford more real estate in New York city is possible, but it was just gonna take us a lot longer than we had the patients for. So a quick stint on HTTV eight episodes of actually flipping a beach house, um, a vacation rental in front of a national audience. Um, I knew that I had found my new calling. I hung up my tap shoes and, um, moved to Columbus, Ohio, and I just so happened to meet this one, Annette, at a city council meeting.
[00:06:20] And I'll let her take it from. Yeah, Sarah and I met at a city council meeting. They were wanting to put some rules and regulations, which we were very, we are here for that. There should be licenses. We should be paying taxes, but they were running to limit the amount of nights that we could have guests stay in our properties.
[00:06:34] And that basically would've, would've our businesses would've been no longer because the, they were very strict minimums, but luckily, um, our voices were heard along with a lot of other hosts that band together and were showing up at those city council meetings. But, uh, Sarah and I became fast friends and.
[00:06:51] Started, uh, a podcast because we would sit and chat for hours about all the things, you know, what type of amenities do you give? What talk about sheets and towels and laundry and all the guests. And we were like, wait a second. If we are having this much fun chatting and we're answering so many questions, our, our friends, our family, our acquaintances we're asking, it was like, there's probably a bigger.
[00:07:13] Than just ourselves here. So we started the podcast, um, and I'll let you know that this was, this was, um, after I had gotten quit, I like to say from, um, a company that I, I had equity in I'd helped build the organization, but my thirst for online entrepreneurship started at this. Company prior, um, we sold apparel online and it was like, what?
[00:07:35] Cuz I had come from home services earlier where like we were outside of people's homes. Like the weather dictated, if we could work, um, were our subcontractors and contractors gonna show up and it was like dealing with them and the homeowner. And then I went to this online world where wait, people order things from all over the world and then we ship them to them and it doesn't matter what the weather is and you know, we can take the whole weekend off and we just don't have to focus.
[00:08:00] Teeny tiny, you know, zip codes that were in. So the world was open to me through that business of selling apparel online of like holy smokes. There really the whole world is truly potentially our customer and that opened my eyes. And when I got quit from that job, which was in, was devastating, but ended up being the best thing ever.
[00:08:19] So if there's any listeners out there that like might have recently lost their job, I promise you it can be. The best thing that'll ever happen to you, but why I wanted to do something in the shared economy. And I was like, I'm not going back into the office. I, I was someone that I had to go to the office for the past 15 years, every day.
[00:08:35] That's the only way my work could be done. You know, my computer was there. Our teams were there, there was no working remote. Um, so I was like, I just don't wanna go to the office. Anymore. And this was probably around like 20 16, 20 17. And I was like, I'm gonna be a part of the shared economy. I was like, I didn't really wanna be an Uber driver.
[00:08:52] And I had a friend that, um, is a property developer and I was like, let's partner together. He had lots of, lots of extra, um, apartments that were wonderful. And he was like, Hey, let's. Let's try it with one. Did it work again? Columbus, Ohio. I'm like, who comes here? Let's just try it while I was gonna test out my other businesses.
[00:09:08] I wanted to start, I didn't know what those were, but I wanted something flexible. Started one. It was a huge hit he's like, do you wanna do another one? I'm like, sure. You're gonna do another one. Sure. Do another one. And then all of a sudden we had a whole slew of them. And again, like I said, it's the number one thing my friend's family, you know, acquaintances would ask me about.
[00:09:25] And, um, I was learning about. The online space. And I, I went to an event actually in Southern California, where I learned about Kajabi and we had a little lesson and her, um, shout out to Shelene Johnson. She had, we had a homework assignment where during the session, she was like, when you leave here, you're gonna have a new business.
[00:09:41] And who, what is, and it's gonna be from your phone and it's gonna be something that people ask you about. You're an expert at something and you don't even know it yet. So I started writing down, what do people wanna pick my brain about? What do they ask me? All these questions. And I had a whole slew of things, but it kept coming back to short term rentals.
[00:09:56] It kept coming back to Airbnb and that's why I was like, well, that's what this product is gonna be. And that's why I sat down with Sarah. I'm like, let's start a podcast. We've gotta get an audience. If you know, if we're gonna have, um, if we're gonna sell anything, we need to create that audience. And I wanted to.
[00:10:10] To do the podcast. But I think the key here is that, you know, I came from this physical product and I was like, wait, I wanna figure out how can I sell something digital? Because I had been through the inventory of like, you know, we've gotta spend hundreds of thousands of do millions of dollars on inventory.
[00:10:25] And then once somebody orders it, we have to ship it out. And I was like, what is I, I already am like, loved online. And I'm like, how can we do online, but not have inventory. It's digital know it's knowledge, commerce. And I was like, this is the next frontier. And so that's when and Sarah, we, we have operations background, we have hospitality, but we were really going to unchartered waters with this, um, new frontier of knowledge commerce.
[00:10:50] But we were ready to, to take that on because we, you know, we just know how many host. Meet us out there. And so we were like, let's, let's do that. But yeah, we had these storied story pass, like, um, 20 years in our other, you know, careers before we started this. Oh yeah. I feel like we could have an entire episode dedicated just to the back story to this mm-hmm maybe someday we'll have a follow up, but yeah.
[00:11:12] Um, to kind of like, get this. Compressed into the timeframe that we have. I, I, I'd love to just kind of get a better understanding first to zone in on the podcast and how you use that for audience building. Can you tell us a little bit about that journey? Was it successful? How did you actually build your podcast audience?
[00:11:28] I maybe Netty was way more calculated and smart, smarter than I was, um, back when we started it, but it was really just a way for us to, for me to just like share what I knew. Like it really was, I didn't have a calculated, like, okay, in three years, we're gonna. Start getting sponsors and then we're gonna sell a core, like I had no idea that that was gonna be what our future was.
[00:11:48] Um, I just wanted to share what I learned and help with other people. And I'm a performer. I like talking, I'm not gonna lie, you know? And, and, and, and being an expert in something we all kind of like to do that and share. So that was my whole purpose and, and share stuff that was. Sustainable and shared things that were safe and like good quality education and learn from my mistakes and that sort of thing.
[00:12:07] So, but it was truly a nets idea. I was a blogger before this. Um, but I didn't love writing. So I always had this friction. I wasn't sure. I didn't even think about like, Speaking what I wanted to say, but this one over here had had, I don't know where your podcast dreams came from, but I just, because, um, when I was leaving my last career, they really, they were super motivational for me.
[00:12:26] I would listen to podcasts when I was working 12 hours a day. And, and, and they just meant so much to me. And they weren't even anything about work. They were like health and fitness and wellness. It wasn't even anything about business, but, um, they really impacted me and I can be honest, um, and tell all the listeners, like I used to be super scared of video.
[00:12:44] So I was like, okay. A, that's an easier hump for me to get over, to, to get our mission out there and start talking that felt a lot more natural to me than doing like YouTube or, or video. So I was like, let's start with audio. That's something I felt comfortable more comfortable with. I kind of knew myself and where I would stop myself.
[00:13:04] So, but the, the, I just knew how devoted I was to podcast. The podcasters I had listened to. And I was like, it's a very intimate, um, experience, you know, when people, they normally have a method of, when they listen to a podcast, they put their headphones on, they put their AirPods on, they're doing something very specific.
[00:13:22] And so it's different than just scrolling through social media. You can get a very, very dialed in, um, intimate experience with that listener. Yeah. And I love how, just even with podcasting, it's just like you and I, right now, we're having a conversation here too. And I think that really transforms or translates over to the listen.
[00:13:38] As well, because they're able to get, uh, kinda some details and some nuances that you probably don't get out of, uh, you know, a fully, you know, heavily production, uh, oriented event. Mm-hmm um, well, I wanna, I wanna, I guess, get an understanding as much as you can of like, kind of, where was your, it sounds like you maybe both had a real estate ish business.
[00:13:59] Um, like kind of, where were you at in that journey when you decided to start the podcast, just to kind of give our listeners a feel for like, one of the big concerns is you also had, undoubtedly was like the financial security associated with moving on from wherever you were. So just kinda give us a perspective of where you're at when you started this journey.
[00:14:17] Mm-hmm yeah, so I had just moved to a whole new city. We didn't. Soul here in, in Columbus, from New York now. I mean, I had just met Annette. She actually diced me for a couple months. She didn't respond to my email and I was like, I don't know anybody. And so I was just my husband and I had a business in New York and we tried to restart it up in New York Columbus, but it was hard to, to get that going.
[00:14:35] And actually it feels like it was right at the moment when I met Annette and we were talking about doing this podcast that people started asking me to manage their homes for them. And it felt like a. Safe, financially responsible thing to do, uh, is to do what I was already good at doing. And if people were asking me for this service that was booming in our market, I was like, I should do this.
[00:14:54] And it, and I, I knew that I could share that content with our, you know, the time was just my mom listening, but with our listeners so that, um, yeah, so that the content could be really rich. And I think at the same time, Annette actually almost had like a. Experience you were maybe deciding to not work with that person anymore?
[00:15:12] Yeah, I, um, this was once I like my, my entrepreneurial journey has been like a Rocky road. I'm not gonna lie. And I didn't, I mean, sometimes I look up, um, I'll be honest, Sarah and I just. Started a payroll recently. And like, we haven't done it for year. Like I'm like, I don't even know where money has actually been coming from for the past couple years.
[00:15:32] I've been fine. I know nobody wants to hear that, but like I was doing a lot of side hustling. I was doing, um, I was doing the properties and what I was doing with that, um, real estate developer, I was doing profit sharing. So those profit sharing and I was starting a couple of other businesses. So I was really.
[00:15:48] Testing the waters. Cause I had all my eggs in one basket before and I was just unsettled and didn't know. And so it was a huge leap of faith. Um, trust me, there are times I'm like, do I just go get a job? Like what do I need to do? And it was just, there was something stirring in my. Soul that was like, I have got to try to do something, um, like on my own AKA with Sarah, but what, what am I gonna find?
[00:16:12] And I did try a couple of different things too. I want the listeners to understand that, that, like I had a couple of other businesses and I was maybe consulting for some people. I was actually helping a couple of other people, like build their Caja sites. Like I was really just trying to figure it out.
[00:16:25] And once we started to focus more on, thanks for visiting, our revenue has grown, but I will be honest. We did not. We still do not fully, you know, 100% just focus on thanks for visiting our podcast and our membership site. We still have other things, other streams of revenue coming in. So I do want all the listeners to know that it's, um, it has not been, um, you know, this like gold PA paved, um, road, and we're still working hard every day, but the more we do focus on it, the more our revenue does grow.
[00:16:53] And I would say now in year three, I spend about 40 hours. I would, I would say 30 to 40 hours at thanks for visiting mm-hmm and then another 34 hours. we, I also flip houses with my husband and manage properties, 36 of them. So like I work two full time jobs. Uh, not because I have to mostly because I want to, and it's fun and I'm also, I like to work.
[00:17:13] it's. So, um, yeah, you'd have to listen like who you are, you know, what, what is speaking to you? What, what feels secure, but also be willing to take some sacrifice, cuz there's definitely gonna be some sacrifice as you leap out into your own thing. There's no, there's no safe. There's no safety net, no matter what you do, honestly, a job or, or entrepreneurship.
[00:17:30] So you've, you've gotta believe in yourself and just know that, um, you've made it this far. And so you'll figure it out kind of no matter what happens for sure. Well, look, even in this like short conversation that we've had so far, we've talked about acting, we've talked about the typical. Job. We've talked about flipping houses.
[00:17:45] We've talked about Airbnb. Like we went through probably 10 different items and what's so cool about that or what's I think so important about that is for so many people who are considering taking that leap. I think about this, even just through the lens of myself, like, you feel like you have to commit to one thing, but the reality is, is it's a journey.
[00:18:03] To get to where you're wanting to go. So, um, maybe you could share a little bit about like, kind of where you're at in this journey today, especially as it like relates to kind of your, maybe your membership kind of your digital product, your journey on Kajabi, if you will, for sure. I, every day that Adette and I build one more building block on our, thanks for visiting online business, I become more enthralled, more excited, doing more to, to find that focus now, you know what I mean?
[00:18:29] Like I, I think it's really hard to focus when you. Don't know, maybe you just got quit or you are changing your career. And so I think it's, it's, it's a good thing to throw last spaghetti on the wall and see what makes you tick. And now that I, I see where I'd like to go and to see how big we can build this thing because of the people that we can help and just the things that it allows for a net night to do and experiment and have fun with that.
[00:18:52] I am fighting myself. Focusing more and more every day on, on making this my, my main priority, cuz what you focus on does expand. And the more we dedicate our time and our resources and our knowledge to this, to, to thanks for visiting and our, our membership, the figure it's getting. And it's so fun to watch it grow.
[00:19:10] And that's where I'm at with it. Yeah, I think, um, one of the things that Sarah and I, we were trying a lot of things in the beginning. We actually tried too many things. Um, we were like, okay, we had a ebook. And then like we had, um, you know, we did some like consulting calls and then we did, um, a six week course.
[00:19:28] And then we were like, oh, but people want this product. So we created another product and we spent all this time recording it and professionalize. And then like we had all these products and we didn't really have any funnels built. We didn't, we called it a strainer. We still. Drainer, like we're still working on bringing our funnel in, but it was, it wasn't until last year when I listened to a podcast and I was like, look, sell one thing to one per you know, that person, your ideal client until you get to like six figures and then seven feet, like keep perfecting that one product.
[00:19:58] And that was a hard thing for Sarah and I, cuz we had, we'd had some success with all these like products that we'd been launching and we're like, okay, let's try to launch. The same product for a year and see where we can get with that. Instead of every couple of months, just building something new and selling it, building something new and selling it.
[00:20:15] And that has been the game changer for us because the other products sold every that's what what's. Kind of what amazing. I will say. Every single thing that we've ever created has sold, and I'm not say one of them maybe sold a thousand dollars worth our ebook, you know, at like $20 a pop, but like everything sold, but it wasn't until we like zoned in on one thing and really.
[00:20:38] Listened to, you know, got a, a beta group of people in and built it with them alongside them. We were, we were creating products before talking to our audience and that's really been a game changer for us is like not, not building what we think people want, but really listening to them. Um, we wouldn't have had a membership actually that was not on our radar at all.
[00:20:57] We were gonna do all courses, you know, they could just purchase them and do them themselves. And once we started interview. Our, our customer, well, our community, we were like, wait, they want a community. Want, they want a community. They wanna me like, so they actually told us what they wanted and that has changed the game.
[00:21:14] And it was like, if Sarah and I would've just continued to build what we think people wanted. Um, who knows where yeah. So, so that is something I would tell everyone is people. Um, if you have a community and your community can be five people, I'm, I'm telling you, you can, we started with zero people on our email list.
[00:21:29] Like we started at zero. So, um, and you can really just ask those few people. I think sometimes a smaller community is actually a stronger community too. You can really dive in and get deep. With them sounds like the kind of the lesson learned from that was you, you, you honed in on, uh, I guess a profile or, or who your audience actually is, and that's what enabled you, cuz it sounds like you're still kind of experimenting.
[00:21:50] You're still growing and you're still doing new things, but it's a result of having kind of a focused audience. We are more focused than ever. And the, the amount of times you can refocus your focus. Is actually interesting, astonishing, cause even our product now, which is doing incredibly well, we even see ways that we like, no, we could cut that.
[00:22:08] That could be a whole other product that we can upsell down, whatever, all the cells. Right. But like keep it honed in. Um, it's really a fun, uh, not even experiment, but just a fun thing to. To explore to see how dial did we can get for our, for our audience to give them the really need. And then, you know, if we've got someone who wants to do this thing in our industry, then okay, they can buy, they can add on that.
[00:22:30] Or, you know what I mean? They can really a cart, their own education. Um, it it's. It's limitless and that's what makes it really exciting. Let's talk about, uh, this differs for everyone, but like, and usually there's no, it's like, nobody gives me a definitive answer on this, so I don't expect you to do so either.
[00:22:44] But like when did you like kind of realize or feel like you hit that first? Like you hit success, if you will. Hmm, for me, it probably was. We decided to invest in, in a, in a coach. Um, and she had this thing where like, I think it was a six mile, whatever. She was like a six month thing, but she was like, but if you can, she kind of promised like, listen, I'll have you meet making 10 K a month by month three.
[00:23:07] And if you're able to, you can pay this off early and save your. Self significant money. And I never thought that we would, you know, make 10 K months, three months in to when we started from like said zero, if we would just do the work and follow what she said, and, and it was very Sage advice and, and we did, and then it was like, whoa, like that did not take that long.
[00:23:25] And it took intense focus when we literally locked herself into a hotel room for two days with, um, with, with our, uh, I hate to call her our VA, cuz she's so much more than that, but our integrator, if you will and um, and the match we create by that intense. Guess it was for, for me, that was like the game changer that first three months of really focusing in, on creating a stellar webinar that we could really just give some solid education and then really have an exciting invitation to join our community.
[00:23:55] That changed the game for me, mm-hmm I think something that changed the game for me was I had a conversation with my friend and it was, we were talking about pricing and selling and you know, it just kind of always felt like be before, this is not me now, but like selling felt sleazy, you know? And I was like, I don't wanna be a salesperson.
[00:24:13] And it was just like, he was like, Selling is serving. And I was like, oh my gosh, you're you're you're so like that, just like, like my head would like explode. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like, and I'm not selling, I'm just making them an offer to join us. And either they say yes or they say, no, I took the emotion out of it.
[00:24:28] Cuz it, it felt very personal. Every time we would like make they an offer and people didn't wanna take us up on it. And now I'm like, I wanna be the best at sales and marketing. Like it's fun. Like people need our product. So what happened for me was like, just switching over that, like the, the selling is actually the best part.
[00:24:43] It's it's the most. Part, instead of the part that I used to like dread, you know, like, oh, we're doing, doing our work. We, we even call it a workshop cuz we don't wanna call it a webinar. You know, like, Hey, in our workshop, like our pitch or whatnot, we're like, Hey, we're just gonna make them an offer. And it feels like maybe you could buy our thing if you want to.
[00:24:57] No, we don't have to, as our, you know, as our competence has grown, when we do our workshops, now our revenue that, and I'll tell you the last time when, when we're on our, um, when we do our workshop and we. Take a deep breath after it actually goes off without a hitch, which, you know, you're, you are gonna have tech issues.
[00:25:15] I just wanna tell everybody that just anticipate them when they happen. You just punch a couple things and then move on . But, um, that it changed for, for me when we would actually do our workshops and people would purchase before they were over. And we would like go to Kajabi after. And like there were sales there I'd be like, oh my gosh, they they're buying before they even, like, they didn't even have to think about it.
[00:25:34] You know, that was like so exciting. And. People want what we have to offer. And it was just, it was, that's a light bulb moment too, when it's like, before you even close out, people are per, you know, close outta your workshop or your webinar. People have purchased what you're offering. So super cool to see that.
[00:25:49] I love this. I gotta get your thoughts on my feature request that I wanna get in there. I want like the mobile app to have a, like a Chaing, like a cash register sound every time there's a purchase, like, will that be, will that ever get old? Okay. Wow. No tell, let's tell the Airbnb has it. And it is a game.
[00:26:03] Every a post knows the. B and B ding. Okay. Okay. It's like, I bet you it's. It makes a different noise. Um, and I actually, I, again, I come from e-commerce and like, uh, there are other e-commerce sites. They have it too. Where when you get the notification, it has a different whether it's a cash register or a ding.
[00:26:20] Yeah. It's. It's real. So we, we will second that support you. We'll second and third about that. Yeah, we gotta get that one in the queue. um, and it's exciting every time. Yeah. Whenever freaking gets old. I can't imagine ever getting annoyed by that sound. I can tell you that much. I would end up setting it as my alarm to kind of counterbalance it or something.
[00:26:38] yeah, no, it's it's we talk about it in the hosting world all the time. Like the, the first time it happens, you're like what? And it's still exciting. Every time you get a booking. Yeah. Same as every time you get a sale, I bet. Well, I'll take it back into like the little bit darker territory, if you will.
[00:26:52] Like, I wanna know, like for our listeners, like, let's talk about the biggest challenge associated with getting this business up and running. Um, if you can narrow it down to one or two, maybe. And how did you overcome that? We're still working on it, honestly, probably always be working on it. Yeah, I think getting comfortable with that.
[00:27:08] So you just nailed it. Sarah is being comfortable that we will always be working on our product. We will always be working on our funnel. We will always mess up a email. like, um, just really learning that you're gonna mess up the tech. I mean, tech is tech and we, we have some team members that help us now.
[00:27:27] But man we've built sales pages for hours and then they've disappeared. Not on anybody's fault, but our own I'm. Sure. And I mean, just hit, hit our, you know, hit our chins a few times with some tech. I think this is one industry, you know, the online industry where you could maybe, and I say this with a lot of caution, maybe set it and forget it for like maybe a few months.
[00:27:48] But I don't know because people try to teach this in the short term rental world, too, that they like open up the Airbnb and they go travel and they drink passive income. Yeah. They're sitting on the side of a mountain and everyone's just running their business for them. And like, yes, I guess that can happen once you're getting ready to sell your business or you have a board of director, so, and you have all these things in people in place.
[00:28:06] But, um, you know, we do this cuz we love it. And we are trying to up level every day. Um, we're learning and we like to share that knowledge every day. So that means we have to tweak our product. And that means we have, we want to now we wanna meet people at live events. And so we're working on that and like, you know, how can we bring more coaches in there so we can get of more diverse.
[00:28:23] You know, educational, um, a platform to offer people. I mean, it's just exciting. And so we really love what we do and I don't see us never not tweaking. Yeah. There's and there's constant. There's constant. Like I said, like, um, you know, when we started, we didn't even really know what a funnel was and like we're working on our funnel every day.
[00:28:41] And like, you just heard Sarah say like, Down, sell upsell, cross sell. Like we don't even do any of that stuff. Like there is like, we have a huge list of things that we would like want to do and like to do, but we're like, man, we gotta make sure just our fundamental, what we're selling and how we're deploying it and making sure everyone can log in.
[00:28:58] And that we are uploading our coaching calls. You know, there's just, there's um, getting our processes down. That's been a really, that's been an interesting thing too, but, but just knowing that there's pretty much becoming comfortable with issues and just knowing they're they're. There, it's not against you.
[00:29:13] It's actually with you and for you, it's, it's helping you grow and learn and, um, and problem solve. I think as a business owner, you're always gonna be problem solving and you have to look at that as, as a positive. Yeah. Let's, uh, I, I mean, I kind of know the story, but I guess I kind of don't um, as well, like I wanna understand like how Kajabi came into the picture, where it came into the picture and how you ultimately kind of built this into your, your.
[00:29:36] Yeah, I, um, I will shout out another, I, I used to use Shopify for my, uh, apparel business and I like just thought Shopify was amazing. And when I wanted to learn how to sell digital product, I was like, who, who is that in the industry? And I came across Kajabi and, um, at, at, at another event, um, where, where the, um, host uses Kajabi and actually Kajabi had a booth there.
[00:30:01] And I was talking, I had nothing to sell and I was still talking to the captain. I'm like, oh, Cool what he do because I did have the eCommerce, um, the other eCommerce background. So I was very familiar and, and just chatting. I was like, oh my gosh, like, this is an amazing platform. I wish I had something to sell on it.
[00:30:17] Um, so really it was seeing Kajabi at other my other mentors events. And like, okay, this is how they're using it. Um, it was funny. I didn't even realize how many Kajabi courses I had purchased from other people until I downloaded the app. And I was like, holy smokes. Like all of these were on Kajabi and I didn't even realize it at the time that I've actually been a user of Kajabi for a lot.
[00:30:38] Longer or, you know, a customer through other people selling courses on it, but we just, we kind of, um, those live events kind of maybe have tunnel vision and we didn't even look at any other platforms. We were aware of them. And, you know, we, we have some other friends in the industry that use them, but we kind of just went, um, tunnel vision and we liked the interface.
[00:30:56] So I was like, let's, let's just stick with one thing and learn this and not even waste time shopping around . So I guess from that perspective, Did you solidify that you, I mean, cuz if I, I don't know when, what the exact timeline was, but like we didn't have a podcasting feature, for example, I imagine when you started your podcast, like, did you know that you wanted to sell, you were going to sell a digital product?
[00:31:16] No matter what I think so. Yeah. Um, and, and when I say digital, it was like an ebook that was like, you know what I, the thoughts of it. At the time is maybe like some digital downloads, you know, something like that. Not, not where it is now. No, the podcasting feature wasn't there. And honestly, I don't even know if we knew we would really get our customers from the podcast.
[00:31:35] It was just a way to build an audience. It was kind of haphazard. I'm not gonna lie. I wish I could say it was more calculated. Um, but it wasn't, it was more like let's try some things, um, and see what works. It's funny how often, I mean, I, I don't know how many of our listeners listen to every single episode like I do, cause I'm obviously there for 'em, but like the trends associated with.
[00:31:53] Uh, I think probably 90 plus percent of the people that we speak to on this podcast. It's a little bit more of a haphazard journey than it is a calculated journey. Uh, no doubt. Yeah. I think that's life, right? Like maybe you go in school when you're little and you wanna grow up to be a teacher, but then you take.
[00:32:08] Some summer camp and you, someone makes you be the lead in the play, and then, then you wanna be an actor like, you know, like, and then for me, like I was an actor for years and years and years. And I, if you would've told me even seven years ago, five, five or six years ago that I would be doing what I'm doing now, I would think you are insane because I was so dedicated to, to theater and to musical theater.
[00:32:28] And that's all I've ever done and thought I'd ever do. And I live in New York city forever. When you. Allow yourself to listen to, I guess, the universe , um, and your gut, and you allow yourself to pivot magical things can happen. And I think I was just practicing that ability to pivot and to just allow things to happen and let go of control.
[00:32:48] And that will tell you I'm, I'm incredibly type a, a little uptight, I like rules, but allowing myself to learn how to pivot and just say, yep, let's try it. Or, yep. Let's dump that. Like that's been game changer for, in our business too, and things just aren't working. We drop it, do something else. You know what I mean?
[00:33:04] Like let's and not dwelling on that decision process and just going for it. I highly recommend that. yeah. And we see in our world, um, I'd say, I mean, every single one of, um, our students are members in our membership. They didn't grow up. I wanna be. Short term rental host, Airbnb host like same with them.
[00:33:22] It is total and they're making tons of money and they absolutely love it. Um, and it's like, they completely, you know, everyone likes to say they're accidental host. I don't. And when I say haphazard accidental, I don't think anything is accident or haphazard. I think it's all meant to be, it plays out the way it should, but it's the same with our community.
[00:33:39] Like no one in there, you know, went to college to be, you know, they do have hospitality background, but not to be a short term rental host, you know? So I think we see. We're so conditioned and we see it every day by people that have like completely changed, you know, lanes in their life and they're thriving and they're, they're loving it, but yeah, for us, it's, uh, we're, we're still figuring out we're, we're getting, we're even more excited now than when we got started.
[00:34:02] And I think that's an important, that's an important part too. It's like enjoying the process. Mm-hmm um, and just really, if you don't enjoy the, like getting in there and doing the work, then you're not gonna enjoy the success either. You know, so you have to really, I know it's cliche, but you really do have to enjoy the process.
[00:34:19] You really do. Uh, I feel like, like, I know the answer to this one all the time, but like what, what for you has changed as a result of this journey? Like what would you be doing otherwise, first of all, would you still be on the stage and would you be, you know, working a day job and like what's changed as a result of you taking this kind of this entrepreneurial leap.
[00:34:36] Confidence in myself has changed knowing that I can create, I create, we created we, and I always joke we created this at a nothing we just like made it. And then now we're making a lot of money and that is so empowering. It makes my confidence just soar and know that I can truly do. And people say that, and you read that on the Google, you know, when you search inspirational quotes, but really I'm serious, you can do anything
[00:35:00] And that is that's empowering when you actually. See that come to fruition and, um, selling your knowledge that that's, that's empowering, especially when you feel like you've. I know there might be some listeners out there, like, well, I've got nothing to sell and I'll never forget listening to Amy Porterfield.
[00:35:13] Um, I don't know why I loved her podcast. I just did. Cause I was interested in marketing and I was children. I find myself and she just talked about selling your knowledge. And I remember like Annette thought, like I had nothing to sell and here I am running short term rentals. Like they're like it's easy peasy.
[00:35:26] And always people, you know, have, are having issues. Their, their rentals becoming profitable. It's like, you really have to dig in and know th self to see like, what is possible in your life. But having the confidence to just trust yourself is what this has done for me. I I'll piggyback off that, the confidence and just like, literally whatever you can dream up is possible.
[00:35:44] Like I, every day I'm like, oh my gosh, is this. Wait, like yesterday I was on a walk, like getting coffee and I'm like, this is like, what is my life right now? Like, what do you do for no? Right. Like, it's kind of it's, it's still like, you know, we're still like living that of like, wait a second. If we make an offer and it's good, people are gonna buy it.
[00:36:04] You know, like that's still, like, we can really create whatever product we want and we feel pretty confident now that people will buy. And guess what, if they don't, that'll just get us to the next, um, product that will sell faster. So we're so the confidence and. So much not afraid of failing, failing, used to be really negative to me.
[00:36:21] And I would like kind of like defend against it, of against all costs. And now I'm like, okay, let's bring that on. Because once we fail at something, we'll just get there that much quicker. So I don't like ward it off, like, you know, I used to in the past, so, and yeah, it's exciting. Just create, um, create over consumption.
[00:36:35] So it's exciting to create things for people that pur and they purchase. 'em it's wild. That's such a great segue. Um, I guess like, as, as you go through this. What's coming next for you? Uh, anything like, first of all, anything in the near future or anything, you know, coming down the pipeline that we should make our listeners aware of.
[00:36:51] So we, if, if your listeners are at all short term rental enthusiasts, you know, we invite them to, to listen our podcast cause we are getting ready to, um, not pivot in our podcast, but add another episode to it and ask me anything. Um, cause we get DMS all the time on our Instagram, like just advice. And we'd like to share that advice with not just the one person who's asking it, but.
[00:37:11] Anyone who's involved in our industry. We have a, a, a workshop that Annette mentioned that we conduct, um, right now every month that we'll be going evergreen soon. So you can just pop on and watch that whenever you'd like a live event is on the way. Ooh. Um, so that's cause we, our community, our hosts, they love like, it is lonely.
[00:37:30] You may not think it, but, um, a lot of what we do, people remote hosts, they Reho, they live. On Idaho and their properties in Florida. And not there, aren't a lot of people who like, understand what it is that you do. And so getting them together is just really excited. They're begging for it. So we're gonna, again, we're listening to our audience and we're gonna give it to them.
[00:37:47] Um, anything else in it? Yeah, we ha we, we are gonna start doing some more upsells on our current offer. Yeah. Which, uh, yeah, so we're just, um, we've been focusing on that one, one, like we said, that one product for, well over a year now, so we're ready to start to. To add on to that. And, and we're listening to, we're listening to our current customers.
[00:38:06] They want, they want a next step, so we need to give them a next step. I love it. Well, as always, we will have your information in our show notes, but also just for like anyone listening who may not be there, like tell us, uh, how do they find you really like. Quick. Sure. Uh, you can find us online. We're at WW dot.
[00:38:21] Thanks for visiting.me. And then we are on Instagram is probably where we're the most active and that's at thanks for visiting underscore. We're also on YouTube. Thanks. Uh, youtube.com/thanks for visiting. And I mean we're on anywhere. You listen to podcast. Thanks for visiting. We're there every week. So we'd, we'd love to have you email us DMS.
[00:38:41] Um, we will, we'd love to talk about Kajabi, Airbnb. All the things we're here for, for anybody that has questions. I love it. Well, instead of my usual call out, asking our listeners to come leave us a review, I'm actually gonna do the opposite. Go listen to thanks for visitings podcast. Leave them a review.
[00:38:56] Give 'em a comment. I'm sure they love it. Just as much as I do. If you happen to have time, of course leave us one as well, because I read them all and enjoy them. with that's. Said, thank you guys again for joining. It's been a ton of fun today. Thank you so much for having us well. That is all we have for you today.
[00:39:11] We will look forward to seeing you next week on the Kajabi edge podcast.
