Episode 16: Saving Squirrels and Building Bold Brands with Julie Gates

So I think you've got to know your strengths and weaknesses. And I feel like one of my strengths is my weakness and that I look really dumb and I sound really dumb, but I always get my way and all I care about is the end result.

Wondering what small business Savannah and squirrels all have in common. You have got to meet one of my business best friends, Julie Gates. Julie, I am so excited that you are a guest on the podcast today.

It's an honor, Krissy. I can't even believe you want to talk to me about anything smart. But I am here for you. If I can be of service, I'll have something to say about it.

Well, let's talk about your small business. I want to hear about all of the things that you're doing, how you got started. Tell me your small business story.

Okay. I make money being weird, and I've always been a little weird and I always embrace that and I like to have fun and I'm always trying to have a good time with stuff. And so I started a property management business for my own portfolio many years ago. I'm a real estate investor in Savannah, Georgia. And at the time, my son Joshi was running a squirrel rescue and the first squirrel he ever rescued. Her name was Sid, and we just loved her so much. And so I started looking at real estate. Everywhere I went around Savannah, I'd see a squirrel and I'd be like, oh, there's Sid. You know, I used to say that all the time, mostly to entertain myself. So I got really frustrated with my own property manager. And I said, this is ridiculous. I can do this. And so I started a property management company just for myself. It was. There was no intention of managing for anyone else at all. I hadn't even thought that thought yet. And so I was just naming the company for my own entertainment. And so I named it Sid was here after the squirrel because I love. I just love Sid. So anyway, turn around a few years later and I'm now like the fifth or sixth biggest property manager in Savannah with the crazy name. Sid was here. And people are always like, well, who's Sid? And I'm like, well, it's. I. Obviously it's a squirrel. I mean, who doesn't name their company after a squirrel? And anyway, I get a lot of feedback on that, but it's also very memorable and it's kind of weird. But also I'm in the short term rental space as well as many other asset classes. And in short term rentals, if you can be unique and stand out, you Actually make more money than the guy down the street that has a white house with, you know, gray floors and white bedding and absolutely no color, you know. So, um, my personality is probably a little bit unique and I'm okay with that. Like, I just don't like boring people and I don't like boring business names. So I named my company after squirrels and I continue to do so even to this day. So.

Well, Julie, what I love about you, you don't take your yourself too seriously. You're willing to try new things and do things in a different way. And you are so unassuming. Savannah is a giant real estate market with a huge short term rental market. And so here you are continuing and just quietly being the lady that named her company after squirrels. But not just you don't just run a good business, you run a valuable business. And so I would love to hear some things about your organization. I also want to have the conversation about between the two of us, being underestimated sometimes is something that happens a fair amount of time. So would you like to have that conversation with me? We can talk about how we first met and kind of how we've continued to grow our businesses while people just kind of don't always take us seriously.

Yes, absolutely. I am fairly tall and I have blonde hair and I'm from the south. And people always assume I'm an idiot. And so I just go with it.

No, not true. Far from it. Oh. So tell me a little bit. When you first decided you were going to get into the short term rental business, what was the line of thinking around it? What put you in that journey, in that space?

Well, when I first started buying rental properties, um, the honest truth is that I kept running out of money. It is very hard to come up with that down payment for a property. And so, you know, we saved up and then we would buy a property and it was a long term rental. And then we saved up again, bought a property as long term rental. And I was like, man, this is just tough. And you know, this was after the great recession and we had actually started, we had started our investing in 04 here in Savannah. So, you know, five, six, seven years later, I'm now trying to pick up rentals. And I mean, great pricing, but still you have to come up with that 20%. I had never stayed in a short term rental. I really didn't know much about the space. And then I heard about it. And something important to know about me is that I'm not an idea person. I've Never, maybe, rarely had an original idea, but I'm a very good implementer, so if you give me an idea, I'm the girl that can take it from zero to cash flow. And so when I heard the idea of short term rentals, I was like, huh, well, that's kind of interesting. And I have a pool house at my home and it was already fully furnished. We would put our guests there. And I had never once thought of renting it ever, because we didn't want to. But then when I heard about short term rentals and I thought, well, that's not terrible because they only stay a few nights and then they leave. I'm not stuck with them. We definitely did not want a long term renter, you know, right in our backyard. And so I thought, well, I don't know that anyone would want to stay on my property. I really didn't because we live on a bit of acreage. It's not exactly, you know, on the river in Savannah or anything. So I said, I told my husband about it. And of course his first reaction was, no, absolutely, I don't want strangers. You know, it was not a normal thing.

Did he have all the horror story thoughts of, like, someone's going to murder us in our sleep. Like, what was the. They're going to come, they're never going to leave. Just, I don't want to deal with people.

No, he just does not want people around. Like, he just really purposely doesn't. He's always said that he, we live on some property and for a reason, he likes his privacy. And I stayed on him. I stayed on him. I said, look, this is. What do we have to lose? It's already furnished. It's not like I needed 80 grand to do it. Okay. I'm a very unique case in that I already had a house sitting there. And so he was like, all right, let's try it. So we changed the front door, we added a keyless lock, and that was it. That. That was literally my investment. And within a few months, I had several thousand dollars in my pocket and I was hooked. I really enjoyed customer service. The guests did not bother me. It was never perfect. But very quickly I was able to come up with my next down payment. And I was like, I'm on to something. So instead of buying long term rentals, that flipped me into buying short term rentals. And again, this is way before anyone knew it was in existence. And so everything I had just kept filling up, filling up, filling up. And I also noticed that I had a ton of People going, hey, can I rent your house for two, three, four, five months? The answer was always no. It was my backyard. I did not want them there for that long. And I said no. And so I added a second one on my property. And then when it came down to the third house, I said, you know, there's this travel nurse thing that I didn't know existed. So I went and bought a house very close to Memorial Hospital. That's our largest hospital. I did my research. I said, where are the travel nurses coming to? Where? Who's hiring them? It was a memorial. I found a $50,000 house in Savannah. This is my third short term rental. Okay. My third furnished rental, I should say. And I got it under contract and I said, this is going to be for travel nurses. Now, I knew that you could not legally do short term rentals at this property. I was very well aware of that. But I also knew because I had the other two, that there was a need for longer stays. And so, you know, it was. I had no research. It was just really my gut that I was going with. So I got a very good price point, bought that house. My family and I rehabbed it with our own hands. I always have done that. I decorated it. And ever since then, that house has. Cash flowed like crazy. When I bought it, it had been renting for $650 a month as a long term rental. This is years ago. And within once I had it fully furnished, it started bringing in between two and three thousand dollars a month. And I was like, I'm off and running. So that's kind of what got me just really juiced up about furnished rentals.

Involving your family in your business is something that I think we both have done. Over time, your kids have gotten a little bit older. But can you tell me some of the benefits and the joy and maybe some of the pain points too around having your family help you with some of those things as you're growing your business?

Yes. My children don't know any different. And so they never realized they had a choice.

Neither do mine. So that's great. Okay, good point.

It's never an option. It's very much like this is what's paying the bills. Let's go. It's time to go.

Do you want to go on vacation? This is what we're going to go do today.

That's right. Exactly. Yes. Well, and the crazy thing is, dawn and I started our first business when our oldest was 2 and our youngest was maybe 2 months old. So these kids have grown up Hauling stock, helping me at the office. I'm always on the phone. Like, they were already trained that mom and dad are self employed were part of that too. They already were there when I started in real estate. But it was great because all of a sudden they were doing sheetrock repair, they were doing plumbing. My children can rewire your home, change all of your light fixtures. I'm very good at painting, like, just really great skills. And so whenever I would buy a rental, you know, one day of the weekend, it wouldn't be the entire weekend for the kids, but it would always be one day each weekend for maybe two or three weekends. We would go, hey, Sunday is all hands on deck. And they knew there was no socializing, There were no friends unless the friends wanted to come. Friends were welcome, yes, but we would take them. A lot of times these yards would be just horrendously full of weeds and trees and bushes. And so it became a family project. And I promise you, I would not have what I have today if it were not for my husband and children. And of course they grumbled, but we paid them, we fed them, you know, like, I appreciated them. It was not like a stressful thing you saw get this right? You know, we were just, we just went in and got it done. And my children are now 20 and 22. They still help us a lot when they're around. They're not around quite as much, but they have both told us separately, like, my friends don't have any skills. And we're just like, yeah, you know, they, they really. These are lifelong skills. And this is crazy, this is years later, but my little one, when he was 14, he didn't have a driver's license. He had never driven a car. But of course we live on property. He had driven our golf cart. You know, we had driven around the property, but he had never actually driven. I had a guest in my pool house and she said, hey. She texted me. She said, hey, my. My car died. Is there any way you could give me a jump? And I said, I'm 45 minutes away. I'm so sorry. And I said, my 14 year old is at home with a friend. I said, he can drive his daddy's truck over to you. It's literally 100ft. I said, he'll drive the truck over to you. Do you have jumper cables? Do you know how to do it? She said, oh, yeah, I can take it from there. Well, I never heard back. I got home later, I said, joshi, did you help the guest? Thank you so much. And he Said, mom, she didn't have a clue how to use jumper cables. And I said, well, what happened? Because he had never used jumper cables, right? He knew the concept, but all I wanted him to do was drive the truck over. He said, oh, mom, I just got on YouTube just like dad showed me and I learned it. And then I got her jumped. It was fine. He goes, she gave me 20 bucks. He was so excited to get that 20 bucks. And I cannot tell y', all, for my child, my 14 year old, to have that ability to just solve that problem and fix it when an adult was standing there going, I don't know, like, I was really proud of that. So I think of everything that we taught those kids, it was the fact that if you don't do it, it's not gonna get done. So figure it out. And they both have a lot of common sense and a lot of skills and if they don't have them, they know where to get em. And I cannot say enough how proud I am of that.

Well, Julie, I love that story. I love your kids. Cause I've had the opportunity to meet them. They are wonderful young men. But I will say this. I mean, you've taught your kids how to rewire things, how to jump. I mean, we've taught our kids. I mean, we're in HR and insurance, so it's how to have an awkward conversation. So we're at some point in time, if we ever have to play Survivor, I don't know that our kids will make it, but they'll at least be able to tell people how they're feeling or how it didn't work out. Well, I mean, I guess they can read rules and regulations. So maybe we need some more practical skills in some of that space. So as you're growing your business, you're building things, you're using your family. What are some other key strategies that you've used to kind of keep growing? Because the one thing that I have always noticed about you, Julie, is that you've said you're a good borrower of ideas and a fantastic implementer. But the other thing that I've noticed is you don't ever sit still. You are always doing something, growing your business, starting another business, pulling another idea together. So what are some of those strategies that you use to kind of keep yourself engaged and keep moving forward to grow your business?

Well, I've been told many times that it's ironic that my company is named for a squirrel because I am very much like that dog, you know, in up. That's always going, he'll be like, talking about something squirrel. And I get bored very easily and I am a very high energy person. I've always, I've never just had one job in my entire life. I've always had three or four. You know, like I, I do like to kind of be busy and go. And you know, my husband is great about that too. He's very energetic and we're always doing fun things. But I have to say, you know, I've been self employed for a long time. I do own quite a few businesses and I have a lot going. But my best skill in my opinion by far is just that I have this theory in life that if you don't, if you don't laugh about stuff, you're gonna cry. So I really try to keep laughing and having a good time with everything. And when you make everything that you have going on into kind of a game or you think of it like, this is freaking insane. I can tell all of my friends later and they'll have a laugh about it too. And that really kind of gets me going because now as an almost full time property manager, I mean we deal with stuff that would make most people run away screaming, you know, and it's my job to walk in and handle that and not just handle it and be pissed. I have to handle it with a smile and be like, it's no problem, Ms. Guest, we'll handle all of this feces for you. Like that's my job. So I've got a smile. Photograph Snicker about it later. Like I just say, anymore I get paid in stories. It's not actually cash. Like I have millions of dollars worth of stories that I love to tell and I really do enjoy that aspect of it. So you just kind of have to have fun with it because it's tough. It really is tough to be self employed and it is extremely tough to be a property manager. And I'm really proud. You know, we're doing a service for people that they don't want to deal with the stuff that we're dealing with, you know, so we try to have a very good time with it.

So you're not quiet, but I will say you are very unassuming in that you have a quiet presence about you where people don't always realize that you're as successful as you are. So how do you use some of the things like your knowledge and just being unassuming? Does it help you to get into different rooms? Does it connect you with people in different ways? I Know, for me, one of the strengths that I tend to pull from is being quiet and so. And just being a listener. And so oftentimes people think because I'm not talking that I either don't have an opinion, which is never true. I always do. You just have to ask, or I'm not qualified to answer the question, which is not generally the case either, but it depends on the situation. So tell me how you use being unassuming and kind of people underestimating you to your advantage.

That's a great question. Well, first off, I've always been raised, you know, that you don't need to. You need to tell people. You don't need to compliment yourself to others. I think that's a Solomon quote, actually, from the Bible, you know, that let others say good things of you. There's no need for you to say good things about yourself. Like, and it's really important at the end of the day to know who you are. And I know who I am. I know I'm a good person. I don't need anyone to think I'm smart or successful. I. I'm proud of myself. And what they think of me doesn't. Is really none of my business. But I do probably every week I get people that go, you know, when I say something, and then they go, oh, I didn't know you knew that. Thank you. You know, that was an intelligent comment. They're always, like, so shocked. And when I lived in California, this is true, I had already lived all over the world. I go to California for grad school, and I walk in the door with my Southern accent, and they honestly, you know, this is the Beverly Hillbillies era. Like, they really thought that everyone from the south was barefoot, had no teeth, and, you know, did not have a brain. And I kept saying, I'm in the same grad school as you. Like, how in the world am I not. Are you talking to me like that? But, you know, the other thing, though, is they never see me coming. And so I do a lot of negotiation. That's part of my job. I'm very nice about it. That's also part of my job. But also, they always just. They never really realize that I'm coming for them. You know, I'm just look kind of dumb. And I'll be like, yeah, we're gonna need another $5,000. And they'll be like, okay, like, I'm not like that. In your face, aggressive. Give me everything you've got. Kind of a girl. I'm this more like, well, what about this? Well, we're also gonna need this. Oh, I already found this. And then, you know, I'll kind of stair step them down. So I think you gotta know your strengths and weaknesses. And I feel like one of my strengths is my weakness and that I look really dumb and I sound really dumb, but I always get my way and all I care about is the end result.

Yeah. And that stair stepping down. I think what everybody needs to know is that you get exactly what you wanted.

Absolutely.

Without any question. And usually people say thank you as a result. So that's something that I've learned from Julie Gates is how to give people feedback in a way that is direct. But even when it's difficult, they say thank you and they appreciate it. So I, you and my dad are probably the two people that have been on the planet that I can say, if you give me a backhanded compliment or tell me something that's awful, I'm still going to say thank you. So it's, it's a superpower that you have.

Well, I think of it like an Oreo cookie. Like, you understand, I'm a property manager. I give bad news all the time. It's. I have to say no, you know, all these horrible things, but you always say a nice thing and then the, the truth, which is not good. And then another nice thing, you know, like, Chrissy, you look beautiful today. Your shirt is ripped, but I really like that color on you. That's my best example. Like, it's an Oreo cookie. You know, you put the hard stuff in the middle, and if you're kind about it, you know, and you don't punch that person in the nose, you're more likely to get a better result out of that.

No, completely agree. Never. Boring is another thing that I've heard you say about what you do and your job. You do a lot of the same thing every day, but it's never boring. So how do you keep things fun and engaging in your business as you're doing certain things? I mean, because you've got doors that you're turning, you're doing with, getting guests in and out, and that's something that's constant over and over and over. So how do you maintain the fun with the rest of your organization and your staff? Because you have a team, too, of people that are helping you. It's not just Julie.

Yes, I have a huge team. And again, I'm the leader of the laughter. When something crazy goes down, I'm usually the first to point out that it's really funny. And. Oh, we're gonna laugh about this later. I was cleaning up after a drive by shooting during a hurricane a few months ago, and it was brutal. I can't even tell you how much I say that again.

You were cleaning up from a drive by shooting after a hurricane?

During a hurricane?

During a hurricane.

During, like, the rain is pouring and we're hauling furniture and we're wiping up blood and patching windows. And I mean, it is my job to go in during the hurricane and handle these things. That's my job, you know, and I had my staff with me, and they didn't want to be there and I didn't want to be there. But we just had to have a really good time with it. I mean, we really did. And we kept discovering new ways to get a bullet through multiple walls. You know, we kind of made a game out of it. So, like, when you're the leader and you're having a good time and also thanking them for their hard work, but, like, you just have to make it fun because it's gotta get done. And it can get done really stressfully or it can get done. We're like, oh, my gosh, I can't wait to tell everybody, hey, let's post this on social two weeks later. You know, stuff like that.

So tell me. So we go from property management, growing your business. Let's talk a little bit about networking, because you, in my opinion, Ms. Julie, are one of the master networkers. You have built an amazing local network of people within Savannah. You've built a large network outside of different property managers that you can kind of pull resources from. But then also, the thing that I enjoy about you is that you've built a network of other women, too, to kind of encourage each other be strong business owners with. So can you give the listener who's kind of in the process of continuing to build their small business and may not be at the same space where you are right now, but they're. Julie, 10 years ago, what would you tell them to do to continue to keep building their network and keep growing as a business owner?

Well, I hope my answer isn't too long, but I want to start from the beginning. As I said, my husband and I started our first business in 2005. Again, same theme. I look really dumb. He doesn't. And so we had this business for about 10 years, and I was doing everything but seeing the patients. Okay, he has the MD behind his name, so everyone thinks he's cool and so.

But not as cool as she is.

Owen's amazing. I mean, he's amazing.

He's not as cool as you, though. I'm sorry. He's not.

Literally everything that went down, and we grew this business from zero to hero. And very proud of what we've done here in Savannah, and. And any room we go in, Don is, you know, God. And the guy would be like, so, Julie, what do you do all day? Are you at the mall? You know, I would hear these crazy questions. Oh, do you play tennis? You know, what. What is your. What do you do?

What's your favorite place to lunch? Yeah, exactly.

And I'm just like, it really got old. And so moving into real estate was such a blessing for me because I was able to kind of take something that was actually completely mine. And, you know, no one could really give Don the credit. Although partway through that, even lenders to this day will. They'll ignore me, and they all want to kiss up to dawn, and it's just so fresh, I can't even tell you. And I'm not here to just take credit. I'm not. I've never been out front going, tell me I'm awesome. You know, I don't need that. But when you just dog me like that and just, you know, like, she doesn't exist, this is the guy I need to be talking to. You know, we inked this huge deal. My husband walked in with a pen. I'd been dealing with this dude for months, putting it together, and he acted like I didn't exist. Like, I cried for days. And when that happened, that is actually once. That is what got me moving forward on networking. And I really went after these female networking groups. Not that I'm against men by any means, but I needed support. I didn't need friends to talk about my issues with. I needed business friends. I didn't have any. And I would tell girlfriends here locally, hey, I just bought another rental property. And they'd be like, why? You know, they didn't get it at all, what I was doing. And so I was like, I knew I needed a new group, and so I really sought this out because of my own loneliness. It was, again, nothing against my husband. He. He thought I was great. He appreciated what I was doing. You know, he knew my feelings of everything, but he can't change how everyone else treats him or me. So, you know, that loneliness really launched me into this. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to get friends that get me. And once I did, it's just been A game changer. I've been like a little butterfly coming out of my cocoon, you know, just like, oh, like I need that support. And I think anyone does. I can't even say strongly enough. And so what I'm the proudest of our network that we're in together, Chrissy, is that we really support each other. We're not backbiting. It's just a wealth of knowledge and you're expected to give and it's totally okay if it's not your day and you need to receive. And you go, I've been there, I've cried. I've been like, I have a need. I'm struggling. And I always get amazing advice. And I try to also be that right back for everyone else in the group. So I'm actually very proud of that.

I agree. I love being with other entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs, because oftentimes we have to be problem solvers constantly. And so when you're having a day and you can't solve the problem, it's so much easier to be able to go to a group of people and say, I need help. Can you brainstorm this with me? Can you give me some solutions? And it has been, again, I agree with you, a wealth of information and support and continuing to grow. So last question that I want to leave the audience with. So we always try to get 1% better in our business every day. So what is something that you'd like to leave the audience with that you've either learned or is about your business that can Help them get 1% better in their business today?

My advice is you need to always have something that you're working towards. You don't. The worst thing you can do when you own a business is to stagnate and go, we're good, we're perfect. I'm number six. I'm good. Stop. No. You're either when you own a business, you're either growing that business or your business is shrinking. There is no maintaining at. At the where you're at. So I'm really big in vertical, vertical integration. You know, it wasn't enough to head real estate, I had to add the property management service. Then I added my real estate agent side to that. You know, I keep adding and adding and adding. And now I'm adding another iteration to my business. This year, you know, I'm going to become a licensed travel agents. I do a lot with, you know, travel. You know, things like that. Like these things excite me. They keep me motivated. And my favorite thing is starting a business, getting the right people in the seat to run it, and then I'm moving up a level. So I'm constantly trying to move up, put someone else beneath me, you know, to help manage it. And I'm still overseeing everything. But, you know, as an entrepreneur, that's really my job, is to live five years in the future. I try to be aware of what's going on in the day to day, but I've got to have stuff that excites me, and I've got to have that growth in mind at all times, or else my business is going to shrink.

Julie, thank you for your time today. Thank you for sharing about how to grow, how to not take yourself so seriously, how to negotiate in an unassuming way. This has been a wealth of information, so I appreciate it greatly.

Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me.