The Pandemic's Wake-Up Call
[00:00:00] Gordon: You know, to be honest with you, the biggest wow moment actually became during the first three weeks of the pandemic. And so, you know, after, you know, the first week or so, when we realized that all of my reservations for that year were going to be gone very shortly, and we lost about 80 percent of them, I went to my cabin to refocus.
[00:00:21] Gordon: You know, after, you You know doing like everybody did in this business cry for two weeks Uh, I went and I refocused and I came back and it was like no one is gonna save you Like it was just this feeling like what the government is offering To for you to sit in your apartment for two months or you know, however long Is not going to save you no one's going to save you.
[00:00:44] Gordon: No one's going to be, you know Just kind of picking you up and if you're going to get anywhere, you've got to do it on your own You know, you really got to get out there
Introducing People, Places & Things
[00:01:10] Liam: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Boostly podcast. And I'd just like to say a big thank you to Hostfully for sponsoring this episode. This is where you can get the tools, the tactics, the training, and most importantly, the confidence.
[00:01:21] Liam: So you can go out there and get more bookends. We have a mini series on this podcast where we interview interesting hosts from all over the world. We. I'm a firm believer that you can learn something from every single host and every single person out there. And this is a great way to learn as a community to, to hear other people's stories, find out what motivates them, who they serve, how they serve them, their systems, all of that cool stuff.
[00:01:44] Liam: Let's dive in. So we've got Gordon Martin. He is the CEO, um, With a traveling CEO of People, Places & Things Incorporated. I'm going to dive straight in and let him cover all the details of his business. And I'm excited to find out more about it. So welcome along Gordon. Thank you for joining me.
[00:02:03] Gordon: Great.
[00:02:03] Gordon: Thank you, Liam. Um, yeah, very happy to be here. You're based in Canada. Um, and so People, Places & Things Incorporated. Um, and we're actually based in Newfoundland, Canada. So, Newfoundland is the most easterly place in North America, and we're only about a five hour flight to, uh, to England. We, uh, are a vacation rental experience company, um, and, um, you know, that's, uh, a part of what I want to talk about today.
[00:02:37] Gordon: Um, how we're defining ourself and how we are, you know, setting ourselves up for the future. Um, and, uh, we've been in business now, this is our seventh year in business, and we have, uh, about 27 properties and growing under management right now.
[00:02:54] Liam: For hosts who are listening to this for the first time, what would you like them to remember most from listening to your story today?
Defining Your Business and Client Base
[00:03:00] Gordon: Yeah, I think the most important thing is really defining who you are and what is it that you're trying to accomplish. Um, a lot. I've been listening a lot about, you know, defining the ideal client, right? The ideal guest and, and I've always struggled with that and I still struggle that with, you know, managing a lot of properties.
[00:03:24] Gordon: From two people to 10 people that they host. You don't always know how to define that ideal guest, but it's also trying to define your ideal client and defining how, um, you know, who you are for the marketplace. And I think this, this winter I've really gone through a. Kind of a light bulb moment in that in really making, uh, figuring out exactly who we are and how we want to position ourselves in the marketplace.
[00:03:54] Gordon: Uh, and I think that's, that's really, I think, one of the key things that I wanted to focus on
[00:03:59] Liam: You mentioned this 27 units. So what kind of model do you use? And, uh, is it 27 sort of management use units? Are they owned? Are they arbitrage? How does that kind of work?
A Business Model of Managed Properties
[00:04:10] Gordon: Yeah. So we own one property. We started with one property, which, which was, is an owned property and we still have that property.
[00:04:17] Gordon: All the other properties are, we use the management model. So we are, we are managing these properties for owners. Uh, they are, um, all shapes and sizes of properties, um, and we are in a lot of different communities around our province. So we, over the last 37 years, over the last seven years, we've been in 30 different communities, um, and right now I believe we're in 15 different communities, and they are, I guess, the furthest range away from each other by driving is about a, A five hour drive away from each other, you know, from the furthest property away.
[00:05:00] Gordon: So we, um, Yeah. So that's really what our model is at this point.
[00:05:05] Liam: Um, when did you start this business and what was your, what was your driver for it?
How It All Started
[00:05:10] Gordon: So the business got started on August the 25th, 2017, and I was two years post divorce. Um, I was two years kind of out of my main career that I had had for 20 odd years.
[00:05:29] Gordon: And, and I had a cabin in the woods on a pond and I needed some extra money. And, you know, it was something that was trying to hold onto a place that had been in my life for 30 years. And. And I had been, and I'd stayed at an Airbnb. Uh, I was a pharmaceutical sales rep for 23 years, and I'd been traveling all over my province, number one, and all over the world and, you know, really in a lot of different kinds of situations.
[00:06:03] Gordon: So I'd been in a lot of different kind of interesting places and I'd stayed a lot of really interesting places, uh, you know, um, places to stay, uh, from the really beautiful ones to their very, to the very crappy ones. Um, and I, you know, long had given up, I'd even drive through some towns where I live because I didn't like the hotels that were in the town.
[00:06:28] Gordon: I'd look for the kind of unique places. Anyway, 2017. I went on a flyer and really put my cabin on Airbnb. Uh, two hours later, I got a booking for the next day. And, you know, this place had been a bachelor credit pad for a couple of years. And so it, you know, it was the first 12 hours was spent cleaning the place.
[00:06:53] Gordon: Uh, and then it just started getting booked. It was, what was interesting to me was. At that time, in late August, uh, 2017, that would be like the end of the season, like we would not go to the cabin after that as a family with, you know, young kids, we would have, you know, the kids in school and we typically won't go to the cabin after the end of the season.
[00:07:16] Gordon: August, you know, maybe until the spring. Um, but it just started getting booked. It was getting booked on a regular basis and I didn't, wasn't making any money. I really didn't know how to make money at that time. And then in mid September, I got a booking from Australia for the following summer for 10 days.
[00:07:36] Gordon: And it just like I just was just like that light bulb moment. It's like wow. Oh, oh, this is Possibly, you know my you know something more than I think it is and I was looking for I had been two years out of a Career and kind of not really had my uh grasp yet and I thought well, maybe here's an opportunity for me to to start working with other people and to manage other people's properties and Really?
[00:08:05] Gordon: That's how it began Um, and, uh, I was fortunate to get a, uh, a, um, a contract to work with a small hotelier, uh, in, uh, downtown St. John's, you know, shortly afterwards. And I worked with them for a couple of years, helping him to upgrade his online experience. And that was, Really helped me in the beginning
[00:08:29] Liam: at the moment.
[00:08:29] Liam: What would you say? I'm going to do a two part question. So obviously 2017 What has been the biggest kind of wow moment in in a few sentences for that and then what's been the biggest challenge since? 2017
[00:08:41] Gordon: I think that You know to be honest with you the biggest wow moment actually became uh came during the Me The first three weeks of the pandemic.
Overcoming Challenges and Low Moments
[00:08:55] Gordon: And so, you know, after, you know, the first week or so when we realized that all of my reservations for that year we're going to be gone very shortly and we lost about 80 percent of them. Um, what I went to my cabin to refocus. You know, after, you know, doing like everybody did in this business, cry for two weeks.
[00:09:20] Gordon: Uh, I went and I refocused and I came back, uh, and it was like, uh, no one is going to save you. Like, it was just this feeling, like, what the government is offering to, for you to sit in your apartment for two months or, you know, however long is not going to save you. No one's going to save you. No one's going to be, you know, just kind of picking you up.
[00:09:45] Gordon: And if you're going to get anywhere, you've got to do it on your own. You know, you really got to get out there. And, and for me, that really was this, um, moment of recognizing the importance of my voice, the importance of my. Uh, focus and my effort, um, in not only selling, you know, my business to other people, my, the services that we provide people, um, but also in being, becoming like an advocate within the community and, and a lot of other things.
[00:10:20] Gordon: So, you know, that was, I think my biggest. Uh, wow moment. Um, the biggest challenge for me, I think really came last year. Um, at the, at the tail end of last year, I signed a client who, uh, has a, you know, and he's still a client. So it's, you know, a bit of a challenge here talking about this, but, you know, he has very high expectations for his house.
[00:10:46] Gordon: And. And I didn't believe where the number he wanted we, we could get, you know, and so we started, you know, kind of where I wanted to be and we were doing okay with bookings and then he really pressed on the number that he wanted, which was twice as much as I wanted for people to pay. And I knew like at that moment I was in trouble because we weren't going to get any bookings.
[00:11:14] Gordon: And, and we did, we heard he got any and, and that, and then we lost a number of clients and I think at the end of Every season, um, you know, you lose clients for a variety of reasons, whether they decide to do it themselves, we have a, uh, or they decide to take their product, property off the market, um, for, or they sell the house or whatever, people are always making a decision.
[00:11:40] Gordon: So at the end of last year, we lost a few people, uh, some nice properties. And, and I had invested a lot in this big, this, this new client and I just knew it wasn't going anywhere. Um, and I kind of hit a wall, you know, it was a lot of frustration. I really ramped up to, to be able to have this and, you know, with a lot of expenses.
[00:12:04] Gordon: And, uh, You know, the, the, uh, the cliff came a little bit shorter, a little bit faster that, that fall, and I, you know, I went through, uh, a pretty, uh, low period for a couple of months last fall, and I really thought I was going to pack it up and just like, give it up, you know? Um, so that's really been the, the biggest challenge, uh, for me.
[00:12:31] Gordon: Fortunately, I found my way through it. Um, but that was, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's like six years into the business. It's a, it's a part of that, right. It's a part of, uh, the growth. And, uh, recognizing, realizing some of your, maybe some of the challenges that you have personally as well. So I would say that.
[00:12:51] Liam: Okay, Gordon. So how can we get in touch? How can we find out more about the company?
[00:12:55] Gordon: Great. Um, we are on Instagram at Newfoundland vacation rentals and that's, and, you know, Newfoundland as a word, new found land. Vacation Rentals, that's our, uh, main Instagram account. From there, we have a direct me, uh, link with all of our links on.
[00:13:17] Gordon: Um, On email, I'm at gordon, uh, g o r d o n at pptrox. ca. Um, that's People, Places & Things, rox, r o c k s dot c a. Um, and, uh, really that was, that's, and we have newfoundlandvacationrentals.com. Is our new, um, guest facing site, which is, uh, right now in a re revision kind of stage, but it's a great place just to come in and see kind of, you know, what we're, what we're up to right now.
[00:13:52] Gordon: Um, even in the rebuilding of it.
[00:13:55] Liam: Well, I'm sure people are going to come and have a look. And, uh, of course, if you listen to this on the podcast, those, uh, links will be in the show notes. So thank you so much.
