The Real Chaos Behind Setting Up STRs ft. Kim Fitzpatrick

April 15, 2026 00:34:25
The Real Chaos Behind Setting Up STRs ft. Kim Fitzpatrick
The Short Term Show
The Real Chaos Behind Setting Up STRs ft. Kim Fitzpatrick

Apr 15 2026 | 00:34:25

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Show Notes

On this week’s episode, Avery is joined by Kim Fitzpatrick. Kim shares how she went from being a PE teacher and single mom to launching her first Airbnb with an air mattress, eventually scaling into multiple investment properties across markets like the Smokies and Montana. She breaks down how her hands-on experience renovating and setting up properties led to founding Launched Host, a service that helps investors go from empty to guest-ready in just seven days. The conversation also highlights the realities of launching short term rentals, the importance of systems and guest experience, and how simplifying setups can reduce stress and improve long-term success.

How to connect with Kim:

Launchedhost.com 
https://www.instagram.com/launchedhost?igsh=dnNhYXpjbGZsbHBm&utm_source=qr 
https://www.facebook.com/share/1K5wTTDLjP/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

How to connect with Avery:

The Short Term Shop - https://theshorttermshop.com/

Short Term Shop Plus - stsplus.com

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Join the Short Term Shop Facebook group

Check out the Short Term Shop on YouTube

 

For more information on how to get into short term rentals, read Avery’s books:

Smarter Short Term Rentals - Buy it on Amazon
Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth: Your Guide to Analyzing, Buying, and Managing Vacation Properties Buy it on Amazon

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to the Short Term Show. The show about short term rentals and long term wealth with real property owners hosting real properties who are crushing it in the vacation and short term rental space. And here's your host, Avery Carle. [00:00:29] Speaker B: Hey, y'. All. Welcome back to another episode of the Short Term Show. I'm your host, Avery Carle, and today we have what will probably be a familiar face for a lot of you. But she's never been on the show before. Surprisingly, we have. Kim Fitzpatrick started out as an investor, but she's recently, I guess not that recently anymore. In the past few years, started a cool company called Launched Host, which we'll get into in a minute. But first, how's it going, Kim? [00:00:57] Speaker C: It's going great. You know, I'm in Destin, so not very far from where you are. Enjoying the crazy snow slash sun that we're getting. [00:01:07] Speaker B: It's cold out there today. Not. [00:01:09] Speaker C: Not what I moved here for. Right, Exactly. But you know, I'll take the sunshine, so. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it is. It's always pretty, even when it's cold. [00:01:18] Speaker C: True. Yeah. [00:01:20] Speaker B: Well, Kim, why don't you start off by kind of introducing yourself to our audience and telling us a little bit about how you got into being a short term rental investor. [00:01:29] Speaker C: Oh, boy. It's been a long journey, but I will try to keep it brief. I know some of you know the story and some don't, but I was a PE teacher for 17 years before I quit my job. And I quit during COVID because teaching PE to a bunch of black box zoom camera is not ideal. So when they said come back to the classroom, I had developed launch toast and had been doing. Doing really well with it and I was like, I don't have time to get back to the classroom anymore. So, yeah, I'm a divorced single mom and launch toast is empty to guest ready in seven days for new investors that are buying properties. And the seven days wasn't some miracle business science. It was honestly my parenting schedule. So when my kids were with their dad, I would go launch a property and when they were back home with me, I wanted to be their mom. And so that's how we started part time. And now they're 19 and 20 and out of the house. And I have been doing this full steam ahead. [00:02:35] Speaker B: Oh, wow. 19 and 20 and out of the house. [00:02:39] Speaker C: A dream, really, Honestly, I'm sure for you, but I actually cannot wait to see my kids again when I get the opportunity. [00:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I know. It's not a dream for me. I want mine. To be stay little as long as possible. I was just looking at my oldest yesterday. Like she's gotten so. She's just 7, but she's gotten so big. I'm like, oh no, stay, stay little. [00:03:01] Speaker C: It's. They, I mean, I, I love my kids more than life itself. They're the best gift. [00:03:08] Speaker B: Oh yeah, totally. We are on the same page there. So I want to hear about how as a divorced single mom, to use your words, how you got into investing in short term rentals. Like that's a big bite for anybody. [00:03:23] Speaker C: Oh my gosh. Yeah, I, I call. Well, I. People have called me an og and I'm like, oh, I guess I am. But when I got divorced, I moved into an apartment for a while, just trying to get back on my feet and my parents both passed away and when they did, they left a little bit of money for me and my three sisters. And I chose to use the inheritance to put a down payment on my first home. And when I was looking for a home, I wanted my kids be put in a really good middle school. It was more important their middle school education than their high school for me as a teacher because I watch middle school kids and how they start to separate from their parents and make their own choices. I wanted them to be around good influences, so I want to put them in a good school. And that meant that I could not quite afford that neighborhood. So I was like, well, I'll just rent out the third room of the bedroom. My kids were little. They would share a bedroom. I slept in the third smallest bedroom of the house. And we rented out the primary bedroom and bathroom and I tried it on Craigslist. Scary. Just don't, don't do that. That was, it was, it was. It felt like I was being cased. People would come into the house, look around and be like, okay, I'll let you know. And I'm like, they now know what the inside of every part of my house looks like. This is weird. But then I learned about Airbnb and I decided to give it a try. And it was amazing. Honestly. I wanted my kids to be in a really good neighborhood so that we they could attend what I felt was the right middle school. And I wanted to be able to keep them in after school sports and this whole airbnb thing. I had an air mattress on the floor of the bedroom that I rented out and I started at 25, $35 a night. I really pushed it up to 42 times, I remember. But yeah, that's how I got started. Whoa. [00:05:29] Speaker B: So people would rent an air mattress on the floor in your spare bedroom? What city was this? [00:05:34] Speaker C: Portland, Oregon. And this was way back, like, in, I think, 2017. Ish. [00:05:42] Speaker B: Wow. [00:05:43] Speaker A: We're hiring realtors. This show is brought to you by the Short Term Shop. Join our exciting team in the best vacation markets in America. We're currently hiring agents in Gulf Shores, the Poconos, and Outer Banks. Email us at careers the shorttermshop.com. that's careers@the shorttermshop.com. [00:06:13] Speaker B: so how much were you able to make, like, monthly or yearly doing that for 25:42. [00:06:21] Speaker C: In the beginning, we rented out every night. I wanted to. The only reason we wouldn't rent it is because maybe my kids and I were just kind of tired of guests, and I blocked a night and I. But we would rent out almost every night that way to the point where. And then I just started eking prices up. I started learning, like, I started watching YouTube videos on, like, how do you really do this for real? And then someone said, put a charging station next to the bed. And I was like, oh, okay. Give them two towels instead of one. Oh, okay. And I just started, like, eking my way up, and I just. I just kept climbing that way. But, yeah, actually paid the mortgage, the whole entire home mortgage while we were still living in there. Yeah. It became really wildly profitable compared to what I was expecting. [00:07:12] Speaker B: How do you have any horror stories from having somebody in the house at the same time that you are? Because, you know, guests can be tough when you're not in the house with them. [00:07:20] Speaker C: You know, I will say there's a few, like, oddball situations, but honestly, I loved the guests more than I thought I would. They became like family. And what was really great about them coming through the same front door as the rest of the family is they would. They would say, oh, wow, I really love this. Or that, or, thank you for this, or, you know, do you have this? And it really shaped my understanding of what a guest was looking for because they would ask me face to face where they might not bother to say something on the app. But I got to know my guests really, really well because of face to face interactions at the beginning and really understanding what hospitality looked like. So a lot of times, people shared their stories with me. We had people coming into town that their daughter was getting. Having a baby, and they didn't want to be in the house with the daughter and inconvenience the new baby household, but they wanted to be nearby. Or we had. I was again From Portland, Oregon. We had a Nike cross country athlete stay with us for four or five months during COVID That was really cool for my kids to see what a professional athlete lives like. We got lots of fun stories. A guy from Canada wanted to learn English, so he would talk to us, try to learn English. He was a French speaker. So, yeah, great stories. [00:08:48] Speaker B: That's awesome. No, no scary ones, no annoying ones. Nothing. [00:08:51] Speaker C: I mean, I had somebody hit on me in front of my children, which was super awkward. But nothing. Nothing scary. But, you know, occasionally people are weird, but. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Yeah, people are weird. [00:09:08] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, I'm weird. So. [00:09:11] Speaker B: So me too. So, I mean, I. I would just imagine somebody walking into my house, walking past what I'm watching on TV and thinking, wow, this girl is crazy. So. [00:09:23] Speaker C: Well, Avery, what do you watch on tv? True crime. [00:09:25] Speaker B: True crime all day, every day. [00:09:27] Speaker C: Oh, see? [00:09:28] Speaker B: No, I. [00:09:29] Speaker C: No, no. Nothing scary ever. Ever. I am such a scaredy cat. No, no. [00:09:35] Speaker B: So I would be the scary one in that scenario. [00:09:38] Speaker C: But let's. [00:09:38] Speaker B: Okay, let's move on. So at what point did you end up investing in your own separate houses? Because you have investment properties now. So at what point did you make that jump? [00:09:52] Speaker C: So I was like, wow, this is really profitable. And if I bought another house or a condo or something, then I could make more money. And so I bought a condo a quarter mile away from where I lived. And this was before COVID And I was sure that because it was so quick and easy to clean and change the one bedroom and bathroom, that I was sure that this one bedroom condo, that I repurposed the dining room and created a second bedroom out of it, that I could come home on my lunch break and quickly clean the condo and do it myself again. This is way back in, you know, 2017, 18. So I tried that for about three times and died. I was like, no. I teach PE all day. I have two little boys at home. I do. I am not cleaning this whole condo plus the other bedroom at the house. It got to be too much, like, on. By the third cleaning. But, yeah, so I bought that condo. And then I learned about investing far away from home and that your own backyard may not be the best investment. And I heard about this place called the Smokies, and that became. And then I treated the condo that was a quarter mile away from my house as if it was the Smokies in preparation to invest far away. So if the smoke detector chirped and I could go over there and change the battery, I thought, what would I do if I had to fly there and how would I handle it that way? And so that's. I just trained myself using that one where I had the safety net. If I can just run there and punch the door code and help somebody in. But how would I do this if I couldn't run over to the condo? [00:11:35] Speaker B: So that was really wise because so [00:11:38] Speaker C: many people, they're like, oh, I'm going [00:11:39] Speaker B: to invest in something close to home so that I can. If something happens, I can be there. I'm like, like, what if. What is going to happen? That you need to insert yourself. [00:11:47] Speaker C: And it's true. [00:11:49] Speaker B: You can micromanage a property and bug your guests when it's nearby. So I like that. Treat the close one like it's far away. [00:11:56] Speaker C: Yeah. And what was interesting is I had a. It was a one bathroom condo and the toilet tank cracked. I didn't ask questions. I don't want to understand why a toilet tank would crack. Let's just fix it. But what I realized is I had to fix it immediately. And I have never replaced a toilet and I didn't have the skill to do it. So even though it was a quarter mile away, I still had to call somebody and come fix it the same as I would as if it was across the country. So I, it started to become really obvious that across the country wasn't going to be as hard as I felt like it was. So. [00:12:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:33] Speaker C: And then when I did invest, what I learned is you don't go over there and fuss with it every day, every weekend, you know, and you actually spend less time on properties far away than you would if they are, you know, within a short drive distance. Yep, yep. [00:12:51] Speaker B: How did you get over the idea of, okay, I'm used to, if I need to, I can get over there, but I'm not going to be able to see, like, okay, the work was done the way, you know, the toilet crack is fixed. They replaced it. How did you get over the hump of being able to go look at that and then just having to trust [00:13:09] Speaker C: that it was done? Well, I, I just learned from groups that I was in, like, how they handled it. And I just pay attention to how people deal with situations that I haven't yet dealt with and thought, oh, boy, how, how are, what are the comments like in the Facebook groups when somebody poses a problem and other people offer questions and, and what do I think I'm gonna do? So honestly, I would ask for pictures. That being said, I've since learned very well that sometimes pictures can hide the things that really need to be shown. And so it is good to have a trusted person on site and not just rely on pictures because it's amazing what goes on in the background that you don't see when they're taking a picture this way. [00:13:55] Speaker B: That is true. [00:13:56] Speaker C: That is true. [00:13:56] Speaker B: And back then, what really was like the golden age of helpful Facebook groups. Now everything's just full of like trash and complaining and, and promoting and selling. And it's just, I've, I'm over Facebook groups, even my own Facebook group at this, at this juncture. [00:14:16] Speaker C: I mean, there's still some good to be had. I know. I, I try to help when I can and if I have something insightful to say, I try to say it. Occasionally I find myself making a comment about something I really don't know and then I just delete it. I'm like, stop. Don't talk about things you don't know. You sound silly. You don't know. Back it up, Kim. [00:14:38] Speaker A: The real estate market is always changing. Covid is long gone, prices are down and properties are sitting on the market. The short term shop sells houses in all of the best vacation markets. And we'd love to help you purchase your next vacation home. Join [email protected] the shorttermshop.com let's find you a deal. [00:15:06] Speaker B: All right, so you bought one in the Smokies and I know you either had or have had one in Montana that you were working on for a long time. Tell me about that one. How did you end up there? [00:15:20] Speaker C: Yes, I still, I have that one. And I have one in Destin that I was going to sell and now have decided not to. But the Montana one. What? I, I have this investment thesis that because my kids are mountain bikers, I'm in the mountain biking community. I see the money that these people invest in the bikes alone. And even when I drove a little 2014 Kia Soul, the money I had on the back of my car was worth more than the money that the car costs because of my kids mountain bikes. And they have used mountain bikes, but other people do not. And so I thought, man, this mountain bike community is full of people that travel, that have money to spend, that need places that are not hotels. It's really hard to pack your mountain bikes into a hotel. Trust me, we've done it. It's awful. Especially when the room is upstairs. So anyway, I thought it would be great to invest along my kids mountain bike race circuit in the Pacific Northwest. So Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana. And my mom Is from Montana. She was born and raised in Billings. Billings, Isn't that scenic? So we opted for getting closer to Whitefish, which is near where my kids favorite mountain bike trail is. I couldn't quite afford Whitefish, but I found this place called Lakeside, which has a ski resort of its own, A small local one. It's right near the lake and it also has a big mountain bike park. So those are the three traffic drivers that made me decide that was the place. [00:17:01] Speaker B: All right, and what did you. When you say you couldn't quite afford Whitefish, like what were the numbers there versus where you ended up buying? [00:17:09] Speaker C: Oh, well, you would get so much less square footage for the price. So I ended up buying a $500,000 house in Lakeside. It is 2,000 square foot on. What is it, like a half an acre, third of an acre, I don't remember now, large yard, let's say that with incredible views of Flathead Lake. Whereas I could spend more money to get a 1970s looking condo that looks like every other 1970s looking condo in the Whitefish area. It. I don't know, I. I wanted the. I wanted a home because I wanted to do the work myself. So I put in a lot of sweat equity on that house. I called it the ketchup and mustard house when I bought it because the house, the house's colors were literally red and yellow like ketchup and mustard. It was owned by a bachelor who didn't treat it well. And clown house. What's that? [00:18:10] Speaker B: It sounds like clown colors. Like Ronald McDonald. [00:18:13] Speaker C: Why would he choose that? I don't know. It was just like a lot of started and not completed DIY projects all over the house. So I undid a lot of the work he did and redid and reconfigured a lot of things. Moved walls and doors and changed literally every surface that you would touch. And now I'm really proud of it. And I did a lot of the demo work myself, but when it came time to Reno, I was like, oh, this is a little harder than I thought. But we made it through. [00:18:46] Speaker B: So would you say that that was launched host was maybe born out of that particular project because you learned how to do a lot of that stuff on your own and you kind of learned how to be able to do some of these things for other people. [00:19:01] Speaker C: Yeah, it was kind of done that way. It honestly. Okay, so this is your part of my story. Truthfully, this is the real. This is the real story. It was kind of haphazard. Like I would go and set up my own homes in a week and have to get back to my kids or like the Montana one if they were with their dad. I would go to Montana for a week and work, and then I would come home to Portland, Oregon with my kids, learn about the next step of the reno, and then go back and apply what I've learned. And that was kind of how I did that for quite a while. But in this process, I was also part of a mastermind with Bill Faith, and he presented a super team full of industry leaders that were really good in their chosen fields that would help people get started getting rental properties. And one thing I noticed is that initially it was all men. And I thought, oh, boy. People were commenting on it and they were like, there needs to be a woman on this team to represent part of his followers and whatnot. And I was like, okay, so who's the woman going to be? She has to have a skill that's not always. That's not already represented. I don't know if you remember, but he invited you to the Mastermind retreat, and he didn't tell us who it was. And I was like, I'm guessing Avery Carle. And I did have a second guess, but you were my first guest. And sure enough, you were a member of the super team. But through that, I thought, okay, I can provide value to people starting their properties. If I did, how would that look? I'm not a realtor. I'm not a broker, a lender, a tax person, a lawyer. I'm not any of those. But you know what? I can build the heck out of some furniture. I work really hard and I can do a lot of physical labor. And that is sort of how it became about where we take properties from empty once they've already purchased it and we get them guest ready. [00:21:02] Speaker B: I think that's a really good hole in the industry to fill because so many people are like, I don't have time to go to wherever across the country and wait on a bunch of Amazon packages to get there. And then things don't get there. And then I've got to do all [00:21:17] Speaker C: these things and I've got a job [00:21:18] Speaker B: and I can't do all this. So I think that that's a really useful business to be able to knock some of these things out for people. And it's very stressful, too. So aside from just like taking care of a task, I think it's taking care of mental health, especially for people. [00:21:35] Speaker C: I think so too, because I think you don't really understand the scope of work until you've been in the thick of it and gone, oh my gosh, this is so much more than I expected. Like, even if you think you know, you really don't know until you're standing with this mountain of boxes and you're like, oh my gosh. And then you learn. I don't really know how to do that as well as I thought I did. I don't. Oh gosh. I. I mean, hanging curtains seem simple. Why aren't they level? Why, why did I run into a stud here and not over here? And it, like it. So it does get complicated. And when people get stressed, I say that we, through our launches, we save marriages one launch at a time. Because I have heard the war stories, unfortunately, of married couples when they go to launch a property together and just the stress that they're under. [00:22:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And the, the, the limitless, like endless trips back to Home Depot or Walmart or whatever you have. Oh gosh, I forgot this one little tiny thing and having to go a hundred times for things you never thought you would need to go get. [00:22:39] Speaker C: Right. One, One little thing breaks one little part. I can't tell you. We went looking for like a. This weird obscure part that came broken in the kit and we had to go to like four different stores and we're like, we need this exact broken thing, like putting it together, trying to piece it together at all the Ace Hardwares and Home Depot's and Lowe's and. Yeah, hours and hours for one little part to finish one piece of furniture. And that's just one item in a sea of items. [00:23:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I remember on like our third or fourth property and we were setting it all up and we were on day three or four and the kids are crazy. I think we only had one kid at the time. She was crazy. And it was just. Had been a day. And my husband just goes, I'm so tired of places. I'm like, I know what you mean. I'm tired of places too. I'm tired of Walmart, I'm tired of Home Depot. I'm tired of having to like drive through Chick Fil A because we're trying to. We've forgotten to feed everyone in our frenzy of trying to get all this. And it just, it really does wear on you after, after a few days. [00:23:43] Speaker C: Yeah, it does. We, we have sort of perfected our systems. We like to think we're always getting a new and unusual circum thrown at us, but we've actually worked that into our system too, is we keep time for chaos. And we have a whole day that is unscheduled because we know the chaos is going to land on the project at some point. And so we just like slot time for chaos so that when it comes we're like, oh, there you are. We were expecting you. Okay, we have a, we have a spot for you. Nothing is disrupted. We'll just carry on and, and we'll handle it. [00:24:18] Speaker B: That is, is very smart and we're, we're getting towards the end of the show. So what I wanted to ask is like, can you kind of walk us through the process of what happens when you're setting up a new property for a client? [00:24:32] Speaker C: Pure hell and chaos and sweat and tears. [00:24:35] Speaker B: No, no. [00:24:37] Speaker C: I mean it's, it's hard work. It really is. But what we do is we bring a team. And I having that pe. I was a two sport college athlete. I coached a lot of sports. Having all background. Basketball is my main sport. So we'll go there as a coach on a basketball team. I need a point guard, I need an outside shooter. I need a post that can rebound. You know, I need like all of these skills. I create my teams with that. Those same skills. Who can lift heavy, who's really good at making beds, who can hang a tv, who can like do all the dishes and organize them. I mean organization is a skill that not all people have. It seems simple. I don't have it. I just, I get frustrated and I'm just like, just put it away somewhere. But there are people on my team that are very, very skilled at organizing. So we, I bring a complement of skills to every project so that we have the whole array accounted for and then we have plans. Like I'm going to give the. My biggest tip is put the rugs down first before you assemble the furniture that goes on top of the rug. Put the rug down first. If you have an L shaped sofa and you are trying to pick it up to shove a rug under it later, it's imposs. Good luck. It's so much easier to kick a rug out onto the floor and in an empty space than it is to try to pick up a king bed and get a rug under the 12ft that are under a king bed that you didn't notice until that rug gets stuck on them. [00:26:04] Speaker B: Oh yeah, these are things I didn't think about. I would totally place the furniture first and then do the rugs and then be pissed off. [00:26:10] Speaker C: Right. Because you want the rugs to stay nice and clean. You don't want to trample Them. But, like, there are other ways to keep rugs clean. Yeah, yeah, we, that's, that's the start. But we have a very long and involved, like, process. And we have an order of operations just like your math teacher had you got to do. Inside the princesses, outside the parentheses. It all makes sense to go in the certain order to save yourself and to save the work and to just really streamline things. I won't get into the weeds about it. It's kind of boring, but it's super, super effective when we actually follow our own plans, when we learn quickly why. Yeah. Yep. So, yeah. But we do everything from safety inspections to home maintenance inspections. Washing all the linens before the guests have that, like, starchy, weird stuff out of the package. We make sure they're all washed and folded, organized, and we put all the dishes away according to how your 80 year old grandmother would probably need the best effort of putting dishes away. They get stuck in the kitchen sometimes. And if they have a big heavy stack of plates, what is the closest available spot to the dishwasher so they're not having to haul them across the kitchen because they won't and your guests won't. And your kitchen will get really disorganized really fast unless you make it easy. So that's how we think of things and how we create our SOPs. [00:27:35] Speaker B: I love an SOP and I love that you think about things like, like how can we set this up so that guests are not gonna make it, not gonna mess it up? Because you do have to just make it as easy as possible so that things stay the way they need to stay. [00:27:50] Speaker C: Yeah. And if it's easy for 80 year old grandma, it's easy for your housekeeper. It's easy for everyone. And it has the highest chance of success when it's easy. Right. [00:28:00] Speaker B: Love that. So, Kim, we're coming to the last three questions of the show, but before we do that, is there anything about your business or your journey that I haven't asked you about that you feel like our listener benefit from hearing about? [00:28:15] Speaker C: I would say that we are best known for the seven day install from empty to guest ready in seven days. Because that's where we started. But with the increase of demand, people are like, well, how do I get, you know, I have to have all my packages on site when you get there. How can I do that? We now offer receiving service as well as the install service. And then people were like, sometimes people get frustrated with their designer and sometimes they fall short or there's a miscommunication somewhere. We love, love all the designers we have worked with and we know how to work with a multitude of great designers in this industry. But we also have taken design in house as well. So if people want that end to end service, they can get that with us or they can keep with the simple install that we also do. So we try to accommodate a wide variety of people's needs. And also sometimes I just get on a call and talk people through a situation and I just do that because I care and I want people to launch really well. So if you ever need anything from me, DM me and I'm happy to walk you through a situation. Awesome. [00:29:23] Speaker B: So last three questions of the show and then we'll do contact info. Okay. What advice would you give 20 year old Kim if you knew then what you know now? [00:29:35] Speaker C: This feels so relevant because my children are 19 and 20 and out of the house and I give them advice all the time because I mean, mom knows best, right? But one thing I've learned is their way and my way are not always the same way. And they don't want what I want because I, I have a son in the military and I'm like, use your VA loan and get a house. And he's like, mom, calm down. But what I realized is like, I can't be too pushy and demand from my kids and I wouldn't have listened either when I was that age. So I just say listen to the conversation. Listen to the older, wiser people around you giving you advice. You don't have to follow everything you hear, but pay attention and be really proactive. And then the other thing I tell my kids is to before you get that check on that new job, allocate where you're putting it. So save for something important, don't spend it all. Of course, but if you're not used to that big fat paycheck that you're getting now that you're out of high school, you don't need all that money right now. So save it for something better than what you would spend on today. [00:30:47] Speaker B: Great advice. Next question. What advice would you give a new short term rental investor who's looking to get started today? [00:30:57] Speaker C: Well, I would say join the Facebook group chats. I still find them relevant, some more than others. I would say some communities are better than others. But listen again, same advice I would give my 20 year olds, listen and, and hear the stories of the people that have gone before you. But I do kind of agree Facebook has gotten interesting lately and maybe joining an Actual community where people are all invested, as opposed to like a simple Facebook group. But joining a community of other people that are sharing in what your goals are and learning side by side with people, I think is really beneficial for me. I'm an extrovert, so maybe that applies to me more than others. [00:31:38] Speaker B: Like Short Term Shop plus guys, shorttermshop plus dot com. [00:31:43] Speaker C: There you go. [00:31:44] Speaker B: That was not planned. Good job. And last question. What's your favorite book that's impacted your mindset? [00:31:55] Speaker C: Ooh, my mindset. I. I am a nerd through and through. And I do love an audiobook and a podcast. Can I give two? Sure. I would say the first one that I really started following was Storybrand by Donald Mil. And I was like, my business is so awesome. And people like, I don't care about your business. How can you help me? And when I reframe to make my client the hero and put them as, like, let's serve them, that really helped me understand who I was serving and why I was here. And so I love Storybrand by Donald Miller and the Hero's Journey. The other book that I find really, really awesome is Delivering Happiness. And I don't know who the author is, but Delivering Happiness is the company, Zappos the shoes. And it's really, really good about company culture and core values. And those things are really important to me that, I mean, sometimes when you grind it down, it's, we build furniture, and that's really boring. And that's not at all what we do. Just like Zappos doesn't just deliver shoes, they deliver happiness. And so there's a lot more to what we do than just building furniture. And Zappos is great for talking about core values and culture and really helping people belong. [00:33:20] Speaker B: Okay, all great recommendations. And last, if our listeners want to find you, follow you on social media, how can they do that? [00:33:30] Speaker C: So Facebook is where I spend my most time and where I respond to DMS best. And that's just my name, Kim Fitzpatrick. And then you can find me on Instagram under Launch Toast. And then we also have a website, and it's simply Launched Host at what is it? No launchtoast.com that simple. You can email me at launched host gmail.com too. And. And the whole team will check it there. [00:33:59] Speaker B: All right, well, Kim, thank you so much for coming on. And listeners, we'll see you next week. [00:34:05] Speaker C: Awesome. It's great, Great to be here. It.

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