From Corporate To Host: An STR Success Story

Welcome back to the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the tips and most importantly, the confidence to go out there and get some direct bookings. My name is Liam Carolan, I'm Mark Simpson's co host and today we're diving behind the host. We're going to find out how this host has started their hospitality business, the tools that they use and any of the tips that you may, you may be able to implement into your business to help you along your hospitality journey as well. So today we've got Fouad Bazi. Did I pronounce that correctly?

Perfect.

Lovely. Fuad is from Detroit in Michigan, usa. He's a super host and he's sharing his, his journey today all about creating your own path and controlling your time. He's got some wonderful properties worth going to check out and they're in Scottsdale and in Huntington Beach. So quite a long way away from, from where he is at the moment. And we're going to talk about how he manages that from afar. So let's, without further ado, let's say hello. So welcome along.

So excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me, Leon.

Well, thank you, thank you for spending your time with us. So let's dive into the business. Obviously we've mentioned where in the world your, your hospitality sort of business is and that you're all the way in Michigan. But what I'd love to know is what sort of model that you use. Do you first of all give yourself a little introduction but then dive into what sort of model that you use? Is this investing, is this management? Is this rental arbitrage?

Yeah, so it's investing. We were all ownership. I'm a 21 year corporate banker, finance background, so I'm a numbers guy at my core. And having been in corporate for 21 years consulting banks, I was traveling quite a bit and I was on the road a lot. In 2019, we had our third child and it was time for me to kind of, you know, give up my, my, my airplane. I would say I give up my, my, my days on the airplane and my nights in hotel rooms. God, that's only doubled since I got into this business. But it's optional, it's selective, and now it's on my own time, which I love. My wife is an attorney here in our local market and she runs her own firm. So it was very easy for me to kind of give up the corporate world, come to being a dad and turn into the investor that I've Always wanted to be. But I love the McDonald's model, which is ultimately invest in really expensive, nice real estate and have, you know, your, your cash flowing business on top of that, that's paying for your assets and then you build up the generational wealth that way.

Love it. And that is, I mean there's a lot of things we can dive into there, but first and foremost, the history that you've mentioned there. How did it feel when you gave up the, the sort of corporate job and can you talk us through the steps that led you to. I think, I guess why short term rental? Out of all the choices and lots of places to invest, but why short term rental?

Boy, I can get long winded here if I wanted to. You know, it was, it was, it was amazing and it was scary as hell leaving corporate. Right. I had built a 21 year career. I was on a pretty good path and I knew that I would continue to climb in my journey. But you know, regardless of how well you did and how well you performed, your cap was, was limited and measured by somebody else. And that just didn't feel right for me. I knew I was made for more. I knew I could do more if I controlled my own destiny. And so I trusted myself and I also trusted if I failed miserably in entrepreneurship, then I'd be able to go back to corporate anytime. And so I gave my boss an eight month notice, did it the right way, not a two week notice. But I cared deeply about my clients and mighty and the relationships that I had built and I wanted to do it the right way. And that, that's really led me into the kind of the entrepreneurial path that I've gone to was I knew that long term rental kind of stuff wasn't for me and real estate because I'm all about relationships and you don't really build relationships in the long term rental game. It's about adhering to a contract and holding your people to paying you on time and all that other stuff. But on the short term rental side, I get to build relationships with my guests. They've already paid. I don't have to worry about the money part, but I get to be a part of their journey and really help them just have a wonderful experience on their vacation. And that's, that's gratifying for me.

That's cool. And so take us back to that very first one. What, which one was your first one? Because we've mentioned obviously Scottsdale, we've mentioned hunting the beach. What made you settle on that first One. And how did you feel setting up?

So we, we didn't have a choice. We had to have number one in Huntington Beach. And I say that because my daughter, who is now three at the time, had severe nut allergies. And the number one food allergist in America is in Long Beach, California. And so we were going to have to be there every two months to visit her doctors anyways. So rather than bearing the cost and the expense of renting every time we go there, we said let's just buy a house and put it on Airbnb when we're out there and then we'll use it when we were there. Right. So but simultaneously with getting that one under contract, we had one in Phoenix and one in Scottsdale under contract at the same time. So we went from 0 to 3 all at the same time, which came with all kinds of stress and panic attacks and all that other stuff that you see. But, but you know, it's worked out nice and we've scaled up to six here pretty quickly.

That's cool. I mean, there's two things I want to touch on. First of all, there'll be people listening to this, most likely hosts, but there'll be a lot of people listening to this who have still got full time careers and they, that'll really resonate with them. You know, leaving the worry over leaving a long term career and getting really into short term rentals, which you know, that you've done there, which is amazing. And then also the aspect of instead of viewing something which is important to you, obviously you needed to be there, that that's where the doctor was. It's important for family health reasons. Instead of viewing it as, hey, we're going to have to cost ourselves this in terms of staying somewhere, let's actually turn this into an opportunity and an asset. And that kind of, I guess thinking is what allowed you to, you know, then have an asset. You can use it when you need it, you can let it out when, when you don't. And that's one of the nice flexible things around doing short term rental, isn't it? Is is that you've got that flexibility to do what you need to do.

It's true.

So right now you're full time in the business. Does anybody else help you? And I guess what are the, the day to day roles now that you've got six?

Now I've got a team in the Philippines, four colleagues that, that handle all the administrative side. When we get our bookings, they're the ones that are getting Our rental agreement signed, getting our electronic guidebooks out to our guests, you know, making sure that the guests are going to be welcomed and unworted correctly. Boots on the ground. We've got three team members, we've got a property manager, we've got a maintenance partner, and we've also got our cleaning team.

Amazing.

What I really have found in Scottsdale is the leverage of having multiple properties in one location is key because when I call any one of those three, you know, I'm not somebody that's just got one property with them where they don't care if I fire them. Right. I've got, I build some clout and some leverage with them and, and they, and they appreciate and respect my approach with them and my partnership with them. So they take care of me as equally as I take care of them.

That's cool. And so two questions coming on to that from your team aspect. First of all, how would you recommend that somebody listening who hasn't got a virtual assistant, you know, somebody based in the Philippines or anywhere else in the world. And the benefit of, obviously for people who haven't necessarily heard of virtual assistant is the fact they can do anything that you can do on a laptop from anywhere with an Internet signal and help you with your hospitality business and of which there's lots of tasks. But I guess the question is, how did you find yours in particular? And then after that we'll dive into another aspect of your team as well.

Yeah, I just used, you know, onlinejobs ph, which is, you know, a shameless plug for that website. But you've got to have a membership there and you can find anybody from just entry level all the way up to former Airbnb employees on that website. So very experienced in that sense. They're very affordable, they're very grateful and they're very accountable. And the two things that I look forward in a teammate is are you grateful and are you accountable? Because if you have those two things, you can teach anybody to teach to do anything. That's how we found our virtual assistants. Forgot the second part of the question.

Second part of the question is, so your properties, are they managed by a property management company or is it somebody that you've employed?

Yeah, I've employed. I mean it's all self managed. You know, I'm kind of an industry kind of contrarian when it comes to hiring out and even the tech stack. I mean, I don't have a single tech tool. I mean we use 100% Airbnb and VRBO. We don't have a property management software, we don't have dynamic pricing tools, we don't have any of that stuff. I've invested in the who Not How. It's a great book and we built a team by implementing that model.

That book is one which Mark Simpson literally lives by, which is the who Not How. If you find the right people, you don't necessarily need all the other stuff which can go with it. Like you say, there's a lot of focus at the moment in hospitality on the tech. And the trouble is that, I mean, I've got a lot of tech in my short term rental business, but it's one of those things. But if you don't have the right people at the end of the day who are overseeing the guest experience, people don't buy from tech. Tech people buy from people and the feeling that those people give them. You know, if, like you say, if, if they're aware that when as a guest they book with you that there's somebody on the end who is grateful for that book and pleased to have the custom and able to fulfill the service, then you're going to do well straight away. So how did you find a good property manager or any of the stuff? How do you find good staff?

I guess I got lucky. I mean, well, I shouldn't say lucky. First off, having been in corporate for 21 years, I can identify good skills and traits pretty simply. We're trained really well in corporate to do that. But this individual, I found her, she was on my design team on the very first property that I launched in the Phoenix and Scottsdale market. And she didn't have enough hours to keep her interested and busy there. And I was talking to my designer one day, she said, well, what do you think about, about having her on your team if you're going to really scale this market? And she was bored and didn't really need the job. They're financially stable, she and her husband, their one daughter is off at college, so. But I can tell you she's the most important and key team member I have. I was kind of reluctant at first. Do I really need her? Is that just overhead that I'm taking on and no, I'll tell you, she's become so pertinent to the process. She cares about those assets. She's in and out of those assets all the time and they are assets. I mean, this is not just, you know, I always have to help people remember that we are not just a hospitality industry. We are, that's a service we're providing but at its core, we invest in these assets and we have to manage these assets. And if these assets crumble from underneath our control, if they fall apart from a quality perspective and start getting bad reviews and we're constantly having to maintenance them and pour money into management and not, not being proactive and caring about them, you know, what are we doing this business, the numbers just won't pencil out that way. Right. So she ensures that, that these assets are always proactively cared for and taken care of. And that's, that's, that's been just amazing.

I think it's a really important point to view. First of all, the business, short term rental is a business. It is, you know, the, the numbers have got to work and just having somebody looking after the actual asset, particularly in, in your model, if you're investing and if you're owning these, these properties, you know, you've got the income, the good income, but it is actually the asset is increasing in value, you know, in good markets and also maintaining that, making sure that you're not leaving things like showers or baths to, to get worse for where you know that the general maintenance which will keep the investment of the refurbishment at the start, going for longer is just so important. And that saves paying twice at the end of the day, doesn't it? Just having somebody come in and keeping the property in the state that your guests would expect it. And on the flip side of that, the reviews as well, people are going to, you know, if it, if it looks fresh all the time, then the reviews are going to be fantastic.

Quick break from the podcast to let you know that the two boostly books that we brought out, the Book Direct Playbook and the Book Direct Blueprint are two of the top rated and the best selling in the hospitality category on Amazon for just two pounds. You can grab both of those books right now. The foundations and the structures that you need to put in place is in the blueprint and then for 101 marketing tactics that is in the Playbook. So go and grab a copy on Amazon now. Just type in Book Direct Playbook or the Book Direct Blueprint and we'll see you on the other side.

So let's dive more into from a guest perspective and the marketing side of things. Who would you say is your perfect guest avatar and what amenities do you think appeal to them most?

Yeah, we're high end. We always provide enough amenities and buy the type of home that command us to be in the top 20% of pricing. And we did that specifically what we're Experiencing now you hear a lot of hosts in this date right now with the recession or the pending recession or whatever term you want to use. We hear a lot of our bookings are down year over year and all that kind of stuff. We're not having that issue. And the reason is we modeled ourselves after the Ritz Carlton and the Four Seasons. When I got into this and I knew we were a hospitality business, I knew that the best of the best are those guys, the Ritz Carlton Four Seasons, these guys have R and D departments that are way deeper than anything that you or I could think of. They're way smarter than us. They know their markets, they know the color palettes of every market that brings, that attract people. They know the rates that people are willing to spend at a, for really high level quality. And so I knew that by catering to that market and that clientele that even in a recession or a pending recession, that we would not hurt our clientele would still be traveling. And keeping in mind, we're not a million widget sales company, right? We are. We have 365 rental units out of the year. We have a three bed minimum stay. So I need 120 guests maximum every year. So I don't need a far reach, I need a deep reach. And so we came after the luxury, we came after the people that had high income levels and we catered to them with our furnishings, with our pallets, with our amenities like heated pools that we don't charge for, hot tubs, I mean we charge for. It's built into our rate, but we don't have additional fees. Right. It's just built right into our rate. We have $3,000 coffee machine at every home with that's a whole bean grinder and we source locally roasted high quality coffee beans. So we just, we kind of go the work to provide all the shampoos, the shower and the shower washes and all that other stuff. So you know, we're all in, we're all inclusive and we make it easy for our guests.

I like that. And I want to draw everyone's attention to a couple of key points in there, which is first of all that when you've got a short term rental, if you've just got the one, you're right. It isn't like you've got unlimited. It's not like you're creating a digital product that you've got an unlimited amount where you can carry on selling it here in short term rental. When you've got a property because of time, you've got 365, you know, nights that you can sell. And like you say, when you're breaking it down to actually what's your minimum stay? Well actually the 120 stays is, is that is your stock, that is what you're looking to sell. So you don't necessarily need that, that depth. This is what I like about what you've mentioned there is, is that you don't as a short term rental host, we kind of just think, hey, we just put it on and you know, we've got unlimited nights, you know, from now until forever. But ultimately it is a per year is, you know, what is your performance going to be during this, this tax year or whatever. And this case of having thinking about this day of, of what you're after first of all and thinking who is going to spend that money and what's going to appeal to them is so important. It's something that Mark Simpson talks about in his book Direct Playbook and we're constantly talking about that. When you get an idea of who comes to stay, then you've really got and why, then you've really got a good business there to be able to create. And of course the more properties that you have, the more important it is that you're going to niche down into that. So people start to think, hey, when I go and stay in one of these properties, I could go and stay in another one for the next year. I can recommend friends and family to come back and stay in them. One of my mentors said that when you niche down you ought to go or when you think about your target avatar, you want to go basically an inch wide and a mile deep on that avatar, which I always think of whenever I think of marketing I go, who is, you know, let's be really specific. But let's really dive down into what their needs are. And like you say there about the pools being heated and that you're not charging that extra charge, which some hosts I see in the communities are talking about all these extra charges which for your guest clientele they might see that as a bit mean, a bit penny pinching. Whereas if you're just saying it within the rate, it changes the feel, doesn't it? It changes the expectation, which is cool. So I guess one of the things we've mentioned is that you don't use tech within your business. So let's talk more about the OTAs and which ones you use and how you get them to work best for you or tricks and tips that you've found to get that target avatar. What would you say? Which, which ones do you use and how do you specifically try and use them to the best of their ability to attract your, your target guest avatar?

Yes, we use Airbnb and VRBO both. I had a direct booking website as well that I took down because what I learned is that 100% of my direct bookings were coming to me via social media anyways. And I really didn't have a very attractive website. It was hard to maintain, hard to add listings to, and it was very clunky. We had, I think we measured, it was 16 clicks from entering the site to booking a property. It was just way too much. So we just took that down and we relied on Airbnb and prbo. And there are plenty of eyes and customers on those two platforms. If you can't fill up your property using those two, you got to sit back and ask yourself why. Now, if you can fill up long term by building a brand and organically driving the traffic, then that's great, replace those. But if you're hoping, if you're just building it on hope, your, your direct website, it's a, it's a cost, right? So we use Airbnb and vrbo. We've been very good about how we manage the listings. We're very active managers in the listings. We've every month we've got specific tactics that we take and how we're rearranging the photos. And there's all kinds of hacks and tricks out there that you can, you know, find on the Internet on how to keep your, your listing fresh. But one of the things that we always say is, you know, if I had to give a couple tips, I would say, you know, don't, you know, I see all the time in the listing name, you know, four bedroom, three bathroom, beautiful home. You don't need that because they've already filtered to how many bedrooms they and they need. I mean, they already know how many bedrooms they needed. That's what they put in their search box.

Right.

So tell more about the home and the amenities or use Google Trends to understand why are people actually coming into your market and use those keywords in your title or in your description? That's what we focus on. So we do that. And then we obviously use a nice launch strategy with our pricing from when we launch it to how long it takes us to get to our optimum pricing and our target pricing. And we use great reviews. So a combination of all of those things have helped us stay near the top two or three pages of all.

Of our searches, 100% that tip of, you know, don't include the amenities that somebody's filtering. You know, like there is a massive debate at the moment around should you include. Because people often search for stays in name of the location. So there's a lot of people saying well you should include the name of that location at the start of that of the start of your title. But the trouble is they already know mostly where they're going a lot of the time. I mean I know some people use, you know, the I'll be willing to go anywhere and that side of things but most times people are still going down that route of, of searching a particular location. There's a reason why they want to come stay in the area. Whether it's, you know, something been recommended or you know, they've got a particular reason for, for going to that place. I certainly still search like that. I have to have a reason that I'm going somewhere. When it comes down to the, the direct bookings, obviously Boostly is about direct bookings and one of the things which you mentioned there is you've got to have a really good direct book and website. If that's a strategy you want to go down, you don't have to. And this is one of the things we're always clear with people is that direct bookings isn't necessarily for everyone. It's a case of decide if you want to go down that strategy but don't do it on a WIX own built website. You know, if you're going to do it, do it with you know, usually usually a PMS which will either give you a website or use a developer to, to do it. And there's lots of videos that you can find if you listen to this around what you need on the website. There's great reference to that in the book Direct Blueprint from Mark Simpson's best selling book which talks about all the aspects of a website you need. Obviously we'd love you to come and buy one from Boostly but at the end of the day you can go through that book and get all the aspects of that that you need. One thing I'd love to ask is what would you say has been the biggest wow moment so far for your business? Obviously you've kind of gone from this corporate world into investing in hospitality which must be quite different. What has been the biggest wow moment so far for you?

I'd say the abundance and the relationships just in the real estate industry alone. You know, you think about local Restaurants and local gas stations and local retailers and how competitive most industries are trying to steal customers from one another. And what I've learned in my real estate journey path is the relationships you've built with your peers, with the ones that are doing exactly what you're doing, that are more than willing to just pour out and say, hey, here's my game plan, here's my playbook. Go, go replicate it, go do it. Because there are plenty of people traveling and you can steal my guests. I can't steal your guests. We're both going to get guests, right? And I think that's probably been, you know, one of the things that, that's driven me to, to say this is not just going to be an investment thing, this is what I'm doing for the rest of my life because I enjoy the people that I again not compete with the people that I'm in the industry with. And then also the guests, I just really enjoy being a part of their journey and creating memorable experiences and, and, and, and then hosting them again, which we've done several times already. So it's, it's just been an all around there. You know, there's no stress in this industry. It's always, it's a lot of fun.

That's cool. That's cool. And you know what? I, it's something which resonates with me because I, I come from a retail background and retail management and hospitality, you know, there are, there are moments where I feel stressed. I don't want to say that I don't ever feel stressed. But ultimately compared comparatively with other industries, you know, it's our job to help people already have, have fun. Do you know what I mean? Like most of the time they're already setting out to have fun in, in the, the properties that we provide. So, and we're in the same way that when you're sort of at a bar with a friend, you know, saying hey, you should go and check out this restaurant. You should go and you should know, check out this new theme park or whatever it is. That's kind of what we do all the time, isn't it? For you know, our guests. We, we are there, we are their local knowledge on, on, on the ground for when they arrive somewhere which they may have never been before. Which. Cool.

You know, one of the, real quickly, just one of the epiphanies just, just carrying that on is what I, what I learned. I learned this in corporate and it's carried on here. You know, things are stressful, they be only because they're you're not, you know, they're not planned for, right, the toilets back up or whatever it is. But your guests don't expect perfection. They expect extreme response. Right, Respond. Just be ready for them, have a good channel for them to communicate with you on and, and be ready to respond to them at all times. And as long as they know that you're on it, they typically forget pretty quickly that there's a problem because you've made it right pretty quickly and you've attacked them. You showed them that this is not just this pass thing, that you're. You don't care about their experiences, you can finish your golf round, you care about them. And so that's, that's what I, that's what. When I say no stress, I just mean it in the sense that it's a very collaborative industry, both with your peers and with your guests.

I think that is a great sound bite as well. You know, like, you're absolutely right. That extreme response is, is something which I'm going to take away from this and something which I am going to share with my team as well. Because sometimes there's that fear around, hey, you know, what if there's a problem? Well, actually, if there's a problem, great, there's a problem. Let's show how good we are at actually solving this issue about being ready or you've already said proactively by having a property manager. Most of those problems don't come up by having somebody check properties and by doing the stuff you need them to do proactively, which is cool.

So if you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start, then I recommend you go and book in a call with Boostly and our team right now. We can walk you through exactly what we're offering, how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only your niche, but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increase their direct bookings. And if you are interested, then all you need to do is go to Boostly. B O O s t l y.co.uk forward/call and booking an appointment with one of our sales team.

Let's flip that question up then. So instead of looking at wow moments, what would you say is the biggest challenges so far within your hospitality business?

Oh, you know, challenges. It's a tough one for me because challenges I always look at as opportunities to improve, you know, so, you know, We've been lucky. I, I mean, God bless it. I would tell you to, I mean, if I had to pick a challenge, I would say it's really more that I want to, you know, I, I want more off market deals. It's not really with the, with the hospitality industry. It's really more on the real estate investing side than anything. It's just, just how do we scale at a more rapid pace and a faster pace? Because we know what we're doing is working. We know that our guests are really happy, we know our investors are really happy and our properties are performing really well. So I think it's really more just how do I scale at a faster pace. That's my biggest challenge. That keeps me up every night.

That's cool. And that speed is so important and certainly it resonates with me. I mean I'm from, from real estate sort of property and it is finding deals and then finding a system to plug them deals in. You've got that system now. It's just plugging more deals in which is, which is so important. And it's a great thing to, to mention here because so many people focus on the, the micro, whereas if you're looking at, you know, what you're building here, you're building a business which is growing. You know, a business is never a business if it's stagnating, is shrinking technically, isn't it? You know, like with the market changing all the time. So just by finding data deals and plugging them in, the business is going to grow and it's a great time to ask what is the future for your business?

You know, so we're, we're actually opening up our third market now. We're going to get into the Dallas Frisco market in Texas. From there we're going to get into the beach market of northern San Diego. So not San Diego proper, but the outer markets that, that, that, that border it to the north. We really like the Sedona Arizona markets. We really like the Breckenridge and Northeast America kind of getting into the ski markets. So we want to provide, you know, on again with, with our goal of getting to, we don't do many direct bookings today, but our goal of getting to a very deliberate function of where our brand is bringing back our previous customers. We want to be able to provide them ski, Sun, Beach, Mountain. We want, you know, actually just yesterday I'll read it to you. Just yesterday I wrote the rough draft of my new vision statement. You know, every year I'm a Big fan of your vision, your mission, and your core values constantly being revisited to make sure that they continue to align with your growth. And so I wrote the rough draft. I don't know if this is the final one yet, but it's to offer our guests a presence of retreats, experience in every form of mother nature, sun, desert, snow, peach, urban and beyond. So, I mean, that's the goal is we want to give. Our ultimate goal for the company is to get to a $50 million real estate portfolio and sell it to private equity when we get totally vertically integrated without owning our cleaning team and everything else that goes along with it. So do we get there? I don't know. But by building it with that goal in mind, I know I'm going to build something way bigger than I could have ever dreamed of.

Love that. I love that. Because first of all, all them seasons is, you know, you're covered, there's income coming in across the year. But more importantly, the, the guests who stay with you during the summer may go and check out your places during the winter because of that branding, which, which makes sense. And then just the idea of scaling and, you know, selling it as, as well is, is something which resonates with me as a property manager. So, yeah, it sounds really good. I'm excited for you. And one question I'd love to ask as we start to bring things towards a close would be if you could go back to yourself and give yourself some advice at the very start, before you know what you know now, what would that advice be?

Start younger. You know, I can get philosophical about this, but I just, I wish real estate investing and taking control of your own path is something that our school curriculum started teaching us at sixth grade, but they don't. They teach us to go get a job and work in the hamster wheel and work for the government and do all this other stuff, which are all great things for empaths for the right individual, but I wish it would, I wish society would really train us to start younger at our investing journey.

I think it's so important and just to sort of segue into, into the next part of that question is what resources would you recommend that somebody listening to this. It certainly speaks to me the, you know, the, the education system needs to do so much more, but what resources, either books, podcasts, or even movies, documentaries, would you recommend that people listening to this go and check out?

Well, I'm a big Robert Kiyosaki fan, obviously. Rich debt, poor debt, the cash flow quadrant, tax free wealth. But invest in masterminds. I mean, getting into a real estate mastermind, whereas you're around a lot of other individuals that have been investing for years and doing all the things that you want to be doing. Surround yourself with those people and ask them what they did to get to where they are and just follow their journey.

I think that's such a good point. First of all, that, that book recommendation is a classic. But when it comes down to masterminds in general, what would you say you felt you get out of Masterminds? Because there's so many people I talk to go, hey, there's no way a mastermind's worth this much money. Or hey, I don't feel like investing, you know, however many dollars it is. What would you say to them and how has it helped you in particular?

I'll tell you, I. Last year alone, I spent, I invested $75,000 in three different masterminds and I raised over $750,000 in those rooms. So from a, just from a sheer math perspective, it's already paid off. But beyond that, and way more important than that, is a relationship capital. And the mentorship and coaching that I've been able to build and partner with in that room is just lights out. It's leveled up my relationships, leveled up my vision, my knowledge way faster than, than anything that, that I could have gone and learned on my own. I would have taken making multiple and more expensive mistakes to learn what I was able to learn just by sitting around like minded individuals.

I like that. Yeah, and that's, that's just so true. I mean, for anybody who's gone through masterminds, I've gone through masterminds and being at the table with the people who are at the forefront of their expertise in their particular area. I mean, the truth is you can't be good at everything all at once. So ultimately, just being in the room with people who have honed their skills and their traits in their particular area of expertise, we're able to pick up that information so much faster. And also, you know, the person to go and talk to when you've got the problem, who can solve that area of expertise. So like you say, mathematically, you've already said that you know, what you've invested, you've got back through opportunities and investments and that side of things. But then also from a personal level, you mentioned, you know, being stress, stress free, which part of the way that you can reduce the stress is to be in these masterminds and around the people who have solved these problems before. You and I just feel that certainly resonates with me. So thank you for that share. So as we reach the end of these, we love to just do a couple of fun quick fire questions and these can be short or long answers as you like. So do you prefer working from home or prefer working in the office with others? And why I'm at home right now.

I'm not even wearing pants. No, I'm just kidding. I'm definitely wearing pants. But I got an office in my house and this is where I work. I do like to switch it up and go to a coffee shop once in a while, but I get to walk over to my coffee machine anytime I want. I get to go do a few exercise sets anytime I want. I can get up and walk around while I'm on the phone and I don't have to worry about who I'm disturbing. This is an amazing so for fee.

That's cool. That's cool. What are you most excited about at the moment? Doesn't have to be hospitality, but just generally what you're most excited about.

My kids, I mean it's. I got an 8, 7 and 3 year old and everything I do is for them. I teach them real estate investing. We're launching our own mastermind here locally in Detroit. A good friend of mine and I and a big component of our mastermind is going to include kids and workshops for kids and teaching kids how to invest. So we are all in on building and relationships and including our kids in our growth path.

That is something 100% I can get behind and I'm sure people listening that'll resonate with them. Because if we can teach, I mean it's time, isn't it? If we can teach our kids what we know now as quick as we can, that gives them such a better basis of growth, doesn't it? And this is just for fun. If you could pick any, if you could be like any superhero from Marvel or DC Universe, which hero would you most like to be like? And why Batman?

I mean it's not even close, man. I mean that guy spits so much game during the day in the suits and in his glasses and then he just kicks ass at night. So he's just Batman. Love it.

Love it. And finally then what would you say is your mantra or saying that really resonates with you?

So I'm going to give you two if it's okay. One is the time is now. And that comes from my mentor. The time is now and don't wait, don't Think just the time is now and it really leads to my second one, which is done is better than perfect. So too often people are trying to perfect the idea of perfect the strategy. I'm not going to go till it's perfect. I'm not going to buy until it's the right deal. I'm not going to this, I'm not going to that. Well, you passed up a bunch of singles and doubles waiting for a home run and you never found the home run. But you could have had 13 singles or eight doubles by now, right? So that is better than perfect. I've never found anybody that probably launch at perfect and then, and then we're done. Because even when they launched they figured, oh well, that needs to be improved and that needs to be improved and we need to add this and do that. So there's really no such thing as perfect. Just go, just get it done and then, and then, you know, build it as you go.

It's one which particularly we talk about a lot of boostly which is done is better than perfect. Because that is just so true, isn't it? At the end of the day, every time I see a task and I'm just taking a little bit too long, I've procrastinated or I'm proud of trying to get it a bit better, I just get to the point where I'm just like, oh, hang on, done is better than perfect. It literally comes into a head. I send the email, I, you know, do whatever it needs to be done. If there's then a problem or if the feedback, then you can always go back and you can correct it. You learn from it, you then know for next time. And the quicker that feedback loop happens, the faster and better your product, your business, your service yourself will be, which is so important. So what a great way to bring things to a close. So one thing which we've got to ask is and offer the floor open to yourself now, which is how do we get in touch with you? How can we come and see your properties? Where's the best place to come and find out more?

I'm an Instagram junkie. If you jump on Instagram, I'm at Fuadbazi Underscore Airbnb. That's F, O, U, A, D, B A Z Z. I underscore Airbnb. If you click the link in my bio, you'll be able to go to my link tree. You can schedule 15 minutes. Let's chat. I just love getting to know people, meeting people in the. You can see my set of properties there. And then we also have a page for Crescent retreats at Crescent Retreats, but either one just DM me and look forward to hearing from you guys.

Thank you so much for sharing with us today. I think the message I've taken from this is, first of all, hospitality and any business is about relationships, building those relationships you mentioned. First of all, that's what you enjoy about hosting, is the relationships and then also from an investor standpoint and you know, the wow moments from the investors from, from everybody around you, the masterminds that you're building these relationships and something ultimately which is. Is bigger than ourselves, which is. Is amazing. So I'm excited to see, you know, how things go in the future. And yeah, was there any last, any questions I missed or any last thoughts before we close things off?

I'm grateful for you guys. Thanks so much for having me and really love the book and, and it's driving, it's driving my future vision towards direct booking. So grateful for what you guys add to the industry.

Thank you so much. And yeah, we, we look forward to hearing more from you. So thank you again. If you're listening in on the Boostly podcast or watching on the YouTube channel, we know there's lots of places you can put your attention and we really thank you for spending it with Boostly. This has been behind the host series on the Boostly podcast and we look forward to seeing you on the next one. Thank you very much and bye for now.