LIVE from Panama City Beach: In The Trenches with Michael James as He Launches New Business

Alex Husner: 0:02

Welcome to Alex and Annie the Real Women of Vacation Rentals. I'm Alex and I'm Annie.

Michael James: 0:42

And I'm Michael.

Alex Husner: 0:43

And we're here today from the top of the world at Ocean Reef in Panama City Beach. What a beautiful day guys.

Annie Holcombe: 0:50

Yeah, take it any better than this. I mean, the winter it's cold, chilly, chilly. It's really windy the year is gonna get a little messy, but it's okay. Sorry, Michael, if our hair gets messy.

Michael James: 1:00

I don't have enough to mess up.

Annie Holcombe: 1:02

Well, Michael,thank you for coming over from 30 A where you live, to talk to us, we're really eager to learn from you. And one of the things that I told you about is Alex and I are very cognizant of the fact that education is very important. And we want to be able to share people's knowledge and share people's experiences and share like the true meaning of being a vacation rental being the true stories. So we wanted to talk with you because you are somebody who had a business and decided that you wanted to get away from it. And then you know, you decided you wanted to come back with kind of a twist. So why don't you tell our listeners, first of all, who you are, where you kind of came from in the business and where you are now. And we'll go into that.

Michael James: 1:40

Sure. So I have been in the 38 area since 2004, my wife and I moved down there in that timeframe. And I'm still located in that market. And that's the market that we launched a vacation rental company in 2013. And I don't know if you want to me to go into that in detail if you just want to hear about it. Yeah, so we we didn't know any better. We just assumed Oh, if you're going to start a vacation rental company, of course, you're going to sit down and do a business plan go through the entire just like you would any other business. We had no idea so many people got into the business by accident, or started with one or inherited next thing you know, they were in the business and then got good at it and then became a company. So we actually did the opposite. So we sought out a mentor who was somebody that worked on 30. A for many years with front of house, the back of the house, they have a lot of knowledge, so they work more in consultant. So in 2013, we started a vacation rental company went to Verma and Nashville in 2013. And we had one property at that point we had just gotten an under contract. And effectively from there we just grew organically, slowly. But in that process of actually building and adding that's when you know, after 18 months, my consultant called me and said, I haven't heard from you what happened.

Alex Husner: 2:51

I'm busy. I've got my business. Now I've got my business, I'm off to the races

Michael James: 2:56

that people know I mean, once you've been in the trenches for a season, I mean, you learn a lot of other things will come up and it's nice to have somebody to lean back on. But effectively, I had a small business that I had to run ironically the way people are doing it now whether they're grabbing an Airbnb, and they're doing it themselves. That was very much like how I started the business. So I did it very thoughtfully, knowing I couldn't afford a commercial space of 30. A, I went through the entire idea of like, How can I do this remotely? Yeah, I would still have boots on the ground. But I needed to do everything went on and also remotely 2013. Anthony did remote back then. So you were already we couldn't afford the commercial. But we wanted to be able to provide the vacation rental experience. Initially it was for my wife's real estate clients only. Okay, so we were trying to figure out how to do that. So I had to think about all the things that everybody thinks about today. But we did have a company vehicle, which people would see. So they thought we had commercial space. We had a logoed vehicle. And a couple of times people go like y'all, I've seen all your people up and down 38 Well, it was going back and forth. Yeah. But anyway, as it grew, and as the years went on, I was lucky enough to enter into a mastermind group, which allowed me to like, share more and more information. And that's really where I started to realize that so many of us are in the trenches. I was listening to other podcasts at the time. And I realized I was like, there's so much knowledge out there. It's just not getting shared. You know, you guys have done a great job. I've listened to pretty much from your first episode and everybody you've had on. And like I even now even when I was out of the business, technically I've thirsted for more information. And I just see such a need for more learning for people that are just getting in and for the ability for them to actually just like I saw at the Women's Conference where there was mentorship groups going on. That's exactly what this industry really needs to grow. Yeah.

Annie Holcombe: 4:44

We're very passionate about that aspect of the education and the mentorship. So tell us you started out with one unit you signed on with streamline I believe with one unit which must have completely blown their mind that you were ready, thinking that far ahead. How many units did you ultimately get to before you decided that you wanted to take a break and get out.

Michael James: 5:02

So what happened was we got to 30 by about 2016. And then we were in that uncomfortable space where people would sell and then we'd have to get more and sell and get more. So ultimately, we on boarded about 70 properties. But when we sold, we had 41. in that timeframe, we actually lost one owner. So when I got with Brookfield inventory, he was looking at the numbers and he was like, This can't be right, like nobody, nobody has I have zero like this is gonna put into your marketing like you guys. And all of our owners said had always said the same thing. It's like Michael and Eddie treat the property like it was their own. And that was when I started the company. I worked at Disney. And I wanted to put that touch there. Yeah. And even with like, Will from the dorm conferences. keynote was so good. Oh, yeah. So the unreasonable hospitality I had been doing just because of what I learned at this. Yeah. So I didn't even know it. So I immediately was like, Oh, my God will is doing exactly what I used to do. And it just felt so good. And so right, because it was like, I didn't know that others were doing it to that capacity. We had 41, when we sold in June of 2022, I was exhausted. Yeah. And over the timeframe, in the last 18 months, I've thought a lot about all the different things that I should have done, but you're so busy in the trenches, and time just keeps going forward. It's so hard to do a reset. So I've had time to think about what I would do differently moving forward if I was to start over again. And that's where I'm at now.

Annie Holcombe: 6:22

And that's an interesting segue that we just talked about this before. Like it could play in the trenches, what a great way to put it, right? Like you were working in the business, not on the business, like probably doing pretty well with it. But it's like you're grasping for air at the end of the day, we're going to be showcasing Michael's journey has me now launches this new business than doing the quarterly updates and just hearing how things are going literally in the trenches because what you're doing, you're actually approaching it from a different perspective than before, right? You're looking at doing an investment based approach where you read the purpose, Bill. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Michael James: 6:57

Very much like CJ Stam. did. Yeah. And the north Georgia mountains. Yeah, it is a little bit different, because I'm going to focus more on accessibility, okay, so that it's not just for wheelchair, it's universal design. And Annie actually, one thing LinkedIn, once again, LinkedIn, an amazing source for our business to connect with others. So I'm working with somebody that's going to help me design some of these homes that would be accessible to all so it works for wheelchair, but it also works for just everyday for everyone. So my clients, hell is not necessarily going to be onesie. twosie owner, yeah, it's going to be more like managing a hotel where it's an asset. And that's the difference, right? So it's really managing an asset. Yeah. So it's a little bit of a different mindset from that perspective. And CJ did an amazing job at Doran talking about how the owners actually give short to the house. Yeah. And I took that to heart when he said it because I was like, Well, I never thought of it like that where you really have to be calm as the asset manager, the one that puts some flavor into the house because the owner usually provides that yeah,

Alex Husner: 7:58

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Annie Holcombe: 9:40

So out of curiosity, so this angle that you're taking this approach, does it come from something in your life personally that you've experienced? You have someone in your family that has a disability that you felt like this was where you needed to put your heart and soul into? Yes.

Michael James: 9:55

So in the last 18 months of my wife's mom's life she just passed In October, and she was unable to travel because she was stuck to a wheelchair, she could move around a little bit with a walker. So she wasn't fully disabled. But she had a lift to go up the chair and effectively was unable to go to airports alone, unable to travel alone. And I had when I was running the business had a few ranches that I manage. And I would have so many phone calls from people who either had they were disabled here, or they had a son or someone else that had a surgery. So eight to 12 million people at any given time, the United States will temporarily say yeah, so vacation rentals are not conducive to them. And I saw this and it really hit me home as I was going up and down the stairs. We were cleaning out the condo. And I was like, it is so unfair, that that was a restriction that they can't multi generational and grandma can't come Yeah, it becomes a property that's not great. So I just looked at this, like multiple things happened over the last two months. It's like wife keeps putting the same problem in front of you, right, and it's your visual assault. And finally, I'm like, I can't ignore this. I am I'm being called to action on this and got laid on your

Annie Holcombe: 11:06

heart. You got the flu like example. That happens, it's just to give so much in addition to your your own mission. Exactly.

Michael James: 11:14

So it's now I'm gonna go from the business side of it. Because it has to be done from a business perspective to make a difference on enough people.

Annie Holcombe: 11:22

It's interesting, we interviewed it Rose, Rose, Rose Marie reset, she was the one that I had to talk to him. And I won't remember the stat so apologies. I was worried. But she shared a lot of sense of it. It started to make sense, because I'm going through some situations. And Alex's mom is Cynthia, we both have some personal situations that our parents that like there's just disabilities not being able to get around and just aging. And she shared about the boomers getting to the point where you know, they still want to travel, they have the money, but they can't because there's just not the accessibility, like you said they can go to a hotel. But if they want to go with their grandkids, they're not going to read 10 rooms to go anywhere. It really kind of stuck with me like this is my future, we all need to be thinking about it. Because there was the numbers of millions of people that she said, we'll be aging into that type of traveler is just phenomenal. And it's going to hit everybody like a ton of bricks if we're not prepared. And I think we're already at that booking. So you're gonna have a lot of opportunity ahead of us. It

Michael James: 12:19

actually is kind of like you have a graph where the people that have traditionally been vacationing or about to hit that downslope. Yeah. And really, the supply isn't there to meet the demands. Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why I'm looking to do this because it's only going to get harder as each year goes by more and more numbers are going to be hitting those circumstances in life where they don't have the ability. Yeah, I know

Annie Holcombe: 12:42

in Myrtle Beach, Florida, this was always something that I had really struggled with that a lot of the condos and the resorts you could you could search by Randy capper accessible, friendly properties, but it wasn't guaranteed. This was crazy to me because it was rooms high, but it's like you don't know if you're actually going to get one that was and that was such an issue for us. And it's like if you booked that you should certainly get that accommodation. But I know for homeowners that's something that I always recommend it was if you're redoing your unit put some of these things in place right like have your units equipped with the wider doors with the rails Yeah, the backgrounds. It's not going to take away from this statics and the beauty of the condo of what it will do. You can truly say the word assessable condo, it will differentiate your property among the sea of sameness because there's a lot of homes 30 A Panama City, very similar destin Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island, there's a lot of properties what you can do to differentiate is going to be key especially as we go and just went away for we eyes are more

Michael James: 13:41

complicated. Yeah. And you look coming from dorm and everyone's talking about how can we keep revenue? Yeah, to me this just it's not something that happens overnight. But if somebody's really interested from a business standpoint, this is one of the reasons why my waste like don't share but no. Yeah, no, like no, you don't understand you couldn't build enough of the you right? Yeah, it's what people didn't know how much money can be made. Because the world needs this to actually Yeah,

Annie Holcombe: 14:05

absolutely. Yeah. So as you get started now, I've been so excited to see because one we've been friends on LinkedIn now for a while with him kind of tracking. You see, like you're getting Navy back. I knew what we were I was sure. It's super exciting to Washington. It's like, what is the new business plan? Like what software are you using? What tools are you going to use? Like how many names this is, this is your moment to rewrite everything that you want to do different right? What

Michael James: 14:30

are you gonna do so on that note at Doran I'm talking to COVID CTG who helped me sell this first time and broke festival in Spain he's like, you can always sell your company wants

Annie Holcombe: 14:47

the second time around. The finder's fee.

Michael James: 14:49

I think as a serial entrepreneur, I love it. But to your point, I have some ideas. Now what I'm going to do I actually have been talking with Steve Costigan though. So I have several things in play of like how I'm going to like look at the business model, how I can employ people and make it easier for them. I'm looking at other PMS is so I haven't made that decision yet. Okay, I just last night blocked down some URLs, but I have to go to Sun vis and lock the LLC stuff down. I can't go there. Yeah, but I have made this decisions on. I'm pretty far along. And I'll share that with you. You know, once in the

Annie Holcombe: 15:25

trenches, it's right as we update this, I love that. Yeah, I love that. Well, Michael, thank you so much for coming. For sharing. Thank you for my like invading your life and wanting to do this. I feel like talking about breaking news. Yesterday learn it. And he's like, we're objects you want to come? Or do you like, Okay, I know,

Michael James: 15:44

because I was like, eight o'clock?

Annie Holcombe: 15:49

I mean, it's Yeah, but today, we still wanted Yeah, but I don't think again, we just we've just made it our mission. He tried to share opportunities to educate and find opportunities to educate, I should say. So I think that like it just hit me. Like, here's somebody who's literally starting. And here's an opportunity for us to say like, this is the proper way to do your business. And while yes, you're kind of an anomaly and that you did all the planning for your first business, because yeah, most of us all ended up by happenstance, just where we were at the time. But there are ways to do the right things and get your business set up for success. And yes, maybe you want to sell it in 10, or 15. Business Plan that you did with the first company, clearly, I mean, that worked out well, you're able to exit and you're good position. So having a business mindset and that business plan. I think a lot of people can just learn from that. So lately, it's just getting back to the basics.

Michael James: 16:37

So I will say this is that I actually want my exit on this one to be a slow exit, and a conveyance to employees. So I have so I'm going to Detroit, I'd like I want to make sure as I'm hiring, it's somebody that knows that their time spent in the business hard is going to like, Hey, I got somebody that is so dedicated. They know the end goal was is yours. Next is

Annie Holcombe: 17:02

Lance and Elaine stitcher. And, interestingly enough is like they were the first ones that we encountered that actually that was their business strategy is that they wanted to be able to leave the legacy to the people that had helped them build the business. So their strategy is that when they're ready, that they will slowly move out and that the people that are in their business will be the ones that take it over. And so again, to your point, like when people feel like they have a vested part of your life, the businesses they're going to take care of and not just working for a job for your mission or misplace yacht but is that necessarily I think you're right onto something that really no more people need to pay attention to as they build their businesses. But there's not a lot of that going on in the coast. Here's the thing you need. Again, just appreciate you being open and so we will have Michael back in the front and the trenches, tells us all about hopefully next time we will be at one of your properties they are managing now. We struction hats and walk the ribbon cutting.

Michael James: 18:00

That's awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

Annie Holcombe: 18:01

Thank you. Thanks, everybody.