Episode 20 - The Creative Equation: Family + Business + Design with Brianna Amigo
Welcome to another episode of The BreakThrough, hosted by Stephen Husted. In today's episode, we are joined by Brianna Amigo, an interior design expert specializing in short-term and midterm rental properties. Brianna shares her journey from corporate marketing to becoming a leading voice in interior design for investors. She delves into balancing work and family life, the evolution of her business, and her approach to creating standout rental spaces that attract and delight guests.
Takeaway 1: Mastering Work-Life Balance Brianna discusses the continuous challenge of managing time between family and her business. She emphasizes the importance of being intentional with time management and the benefits of having supportive systems, like help a few times a week, to maintain productivity both as a business owner and a mother.
Takeaway 2: Strategic Interior Design for Rental Success Understanding the market is key to designing spaces that not only look good but also perform well financially. Brianna explains how she uses strategic design to enhance guest experiences, achieve higher reviews, and ensure properties stand out in competitive markets.
Takeaway 3: Growing a Business Through Systematization Brianna talks about her efforts in scaling her business by implementing systems and processes that allow her to work on her business rather than in it. She plans to expand her team and utilize her online presence to reach a broader audience, educating them on effective interior design through various digital platforms.
TRANSCRIPT
∎ Teaser / Highlighted Clip
[Brianna Amigo] (0:00 - 0:06)
There was high pressure at stake because they spent a lot on that nightly rate to stay there for that holiday.
[Stephen Husted] (0:06 - 0:07)
Yes.
[Brianna Amigo] (0:07 - 0:44)
So absolutely understand the anxiety that comes with being a host and managing issues that might come up. But I think it all comes down to choose like if you have a really strong team locally that you can depend on and that are trustworthy and that are going to answer your calls when they too are in the middle of something and they're managing other parts of their business as well. I think that's key.
You have to have a really good local team on the ground to support you because at the end of the day, you're not there.
∎ Podcast Intro:
[Stephen Husted] (0:44 - 2:38)
Welcome to The Breakthrough with Stephen Husted. The show that takes you behind the scenes with successful entrepreneurs, real estate investors and other movers and shakers in the business world.
In each episode, we'll sit down with our guests to explore their personal and professional journeys including the challenges they faced, the breakthrough moments that propelled them to success and the strategies and the tactics they used to get there. Get inspired by new ideas and strategies and get to know our guests on a deeper level. Join us for candid conversations, powerful insights and plenty of breakthrough moments.
Please help us grow by subscribing and sharing the podcast and welcome to the show.
∎ Guest Introduction:
Welcome to another episode of The Breakthrough. Today, we're chatting with Brianna Amigo about interior design and starting a business.
Brianna runs a cool interior design studio that specializes in making short and midterm rentals look amazing. Her journey is all about juggling family, work and the changing world of real estate. In our chat, we'll find out how Brianna handles the ups and downs of running her own business while being a parent.
We'll talk about how she balances running a design company with taking care of her family and she'll share some thoughts on staying mentally healthy in finding inspiration in everyday life. We'll also talk about how Brianna uses digital stuff like Pinterest to get creative and grow her business in today's world. So stick around to hear Brianna's stories, tips and what she's planning next.
This episode is full of helpful advice and stories for anyone trying to mix their passions, work and family life. Let's get started.
∎ Podcast Proper:
Hey, Brianna.
[Brianna Amigo] (2:39 - 2:41)
It's very cold. Hey, how's it going?
[Stephen Husted] (2:41 - 2:43)
It's good.
It's California cold, huh?
[Brianna Amigo] (2:44 - 2:49)
It is, yeah. We're going through a little polar vortex is what I heard.
[Stephen Husted] (2:50 - 2:54)
I know, it's kind of funny. We're such babies in California.
[Brianna Amigo] (2:54 - 2:55)
I know.
[Stephen Husted] (2:55 - 3:01)
You get up in the morning, you see like frost on the roof. You're like, I'm not going out there. And everyone's like, what are you talking about?
[Brianna Amigo] (3:02 - 3:14)
Yeah, yeah, I know. We're definitely a little bit of a wimp when it comes to anything like below 40 degrees out here. We're like, no, we're not going out.
[Stephen Husted] (3:14 - 3:30)
Yeah, it's huge. I went on a run this morning and I started at like 7.30 and I was like gearing up, like I'm going out into Tahoe at 20 degrees. But it's like 40, I think.
Is it, are you down in LA?
[Brianna Amigo] (3:32 - 3:41)
Yeah, I'm in LA. So, I mean, I think we're also hitting like, this morning it was like 38 when we woke up.
So that's cold for us.
[Stephen Husted] (3:41 - 3:43)
It's definitely cold for us. We're not used to that.
[Brianna Amigo] (3:44 - 3:44)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (3:44 - 3:46)
How was your year last year?
[Brianna Amigo] (3:46 - 3:53)
It was good.
I mean, it was an amazing year because we welcomed our second baby.
[Stephen Husted] (3:53 - 3:53)
That's what I heard.
[Brianna Amigo] (3:53 - 3:55)
I had a baby girl in March.
[Stephen Husted] (3:55 - 3:56)
Congrats.
[Brianna Amigo] (3:57 - 4:13)
And thank you. Yeah, it was personally an incredible year. We had, you know, just a little bit of some time off away from the business to kind of spend time as a family of four now.
And so, yeah, I can't complain. It was a great year.
[Stephen Husted] (4:14 - 4:17)
So you have a boy and a girl, correct?
[Brianna Amigo] (4:18 - 4:23)
I do, yeah. I have a six-year-old and an almost 10-month-old.
[Stephen Husted] (4:23 - 4:38)
So how's that been for you to, as far as like just time management and intertwining with, because you own your own business and that's a little different scenario because there's a lot of different moving parts.
How's that been for you? What have you had to make as far as adjustments?
[Brianna Amigo] (4:40 - 5:53)
I mean, a lot.
I mean, it's something that I'm working on like every single day is finding balance and time management and being intentional with my time. But I really think it comes down to being intentional, finding time within your day where you're focused on this is time to work and be focused on the business. And then, you know, at a certain point, I need to sign off and put my laptop away and this is my time to be a mom.
So I'm just managing my calendar, asking for help and, you know, raising my hand and be like, I know I can't wear all the hats and do all the things. And so we definitely have help, you know, a few times a week so that I can be engaged on the business and focused on meeting with clients and so forth, designing and managing our team that we work with. But yeah, it's always a work in progress.
I'm not gonna say I have that down perfectly. I do a lot of late nights and being an entrepreneur, it's definitely not, it's hard. It's definitely, it's a hard thing where you're not working a nine to five anymore.
You're working around the clock, so.
[Stephen Husted] (5:53 - 6:15)
Yes, yeah, I was talking on a podcast recently and I was talking about the struggle I have with, you know, I could work from nine to five, leave my office, then go home and then my daughter's home, my wife's there and then I'm still working or something's still on my brain. You know what I mean?
[Brianna Amigo] (6:15 - 6:16)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (6:17 - 6:36)
Disconnecting from work, even though I'm at home, it's really hard. I've been trying and I know what I have to do.
It's just really hard to just do it. And it's just, I think it's just an ingrained habit at this point. I don't have the solution.
I'm still trying to figure that out. It's really hard.
[Brianna Amigo] (6:36 - 7:03)
Yeah, yeah, it's hard.
But I think as long as you know it's something that you need to continue to work on, you build new habits, figure out ways to tweak what you do, your processes, whatever that might be, just to continue to be better at it. There's always like room for improvement on all fronts, professionally, personally. So that's just kind of my mindset is like, what can I do better this month versus what I did last month?
[Stephen Husted] (7:03 - 8:44)
And just continue to grow and hopefully just be a better boss and mom at all at the same time. Yeah, that's it. You know, that's a really good point.
I think we, I think us humans like to put a lot of pressure on ourselves in a lot of ways. And at the end of the day, if you take baby steps and you're just putting a little bit of effort, I mean, you're winning at the end of the day. As long as you have everything that you're trying to achieve and you know, your goals are to, you know, how you time manage it, all that.
If you're just doing a little bit, that's what it's all about. I think people put a lot of pressure, you know, on ourselves for trying to just do so much. It's crazy.
So how, it's funny. You were the first person I've talked to in 2024. I think it was last week, Tuesday or Wednesday, I started talking to contractors, agent, you know, you name it.
I was just making phone calls, we're prepping up and everybody was like, oh my gosh, that was the toughest year I've ever had. And I was like, I agree. That was one of the hardest years I've been through.
And I don't think I felt this before. I think the last time I had a really, really tough year was when the market crashed, but then I was in a different place at that point. I had just got my real estate license.
I didn't have all the different things going on business-wise. And so it, yeah, it felt crazy, but nothing like last year. I felt like it just was just grinding it over time.
So, yeah, did you get that feeling from a lot of the investors that you work with and just what people are doing?
[Brianna Amigo] (8:45 - 10:52)
Yeah, I mean, I think it added an extra layer of pressure on the investors that we work with, you know, because just the landscape of the real estate market, the rates of it, you know, that they were acquiring these properties for, it was like they had to be successful or else this deal would have been completely a bad decision to move forward with. And so that pressure, you know, then kind of reabsorbed some of that because we're gonna design the property and get it to a point where we think it's going to help the property stand out from the competition, be a scroll shopping design, created by unique, you know, stellar experience.
And that's gonna be on our shoulders to hold for that client. So the pressure was definitely there. And then the element of education too, of like trying to help these investors understand that we're a pivotal part to your success.
And so it might feel like kind of a heavy cost on the onset and it might not be something that you were definitely planning for. And I always try to educate in our content that we put out there, you know, a designer, professional design fees, furnishing budget, kind of a miscellaneous CapEx budget. All of that really needs to be overinflated when you're running these numbers to make sure this deal is gonna make sense for you.
Because things are gonna happen, you know, things are gonna take longer than you expected. Things are gonna be more expensive than what you expected. And so the education piece and having meetings with clients and consultations was increasingly important last year, helping them understand what our value is.
And then, you know, once we did, you know, work with the client, helping them understand that we're kind of a pivotal piece to their overall success in running their short-term rental business, because, you know, they sometimes overspent on a lot of these properties that they acquired last year.
[Stephen Husted] (10:52 - 10:56)
Oh, really? That was, so they were overspending?
[Brianna Amigo] (10:58 - 11:02)
Yeah, I mean, you're overspending in not only the purchase price, but your rate.
[Stephen Husted] (11:02 - 11:04)
Oh, yes, okay, I know what you're saying.
[Brianna Amigo] (11:04 - 11:30)
Their mortgages were, in that sense. And so you have to be successful when kind of putting forth a short-term rental now, not only because the competition has thickened and some of these markets are, you know, getting more and more saturated, but the design is gonna be really that key piece to set you apart and help your kind of bookability, your marketability in that market.
[Stephen Husted] (11:30 - 11:39)
Yeah, absolutely.
So for the audience, not knowing what you do, give us a little background on what you do out there.
[Brianna Amigo] (11:41 - 13:10)
Yeah, so I'm the owner of Brianna Michelle Interiors, and we're an interior design studio that's focused on short-term rental design, mid-term rental design. We do residential, primary residences throughout the year as well, primarily locally here in Southern California.
And then we're also doing our first, we've done one motel project, we're working on our second, and now doing also our first commercial space here in Southern California. So we kind of have a wide net, but we are primarily focused on the short-term rental, mid-term rental investment space, where we work with clients like yourself, who are investors or are in the property management space or doing rental arbitrage, that are looking to design or redesign their investment property. And so they work with us, and we kind of take that off of their hands and fully put together a curated, I like to call us like mixologists almost, so we're curating the perfect cocktail of a property so that we are achieving higher nightly rates, more five-star reviews, more marketability, more competitive advantage.
So it's not only about beautiful spaces, it's also about strategic design. So that's really kind of where we come in and we can take that kind of burden off of our clients' hands.
[Stephen Husted] (13:11 - 16:00)
And I know firsthand, you do an amazing job.
I have to say, you know, well, here's the thing. I think sometimes people take content for granted. And what I mean by that is a lot of us put out, you know, value pieces or things, insights or things we've gone through.
And it's funny when you get backlash for the things you do, but I've been following you for so long and you've literally taught me how to design. And you know what, you forced me into it because you and I had a conversation back in April of 2022. We were getting ready to buy a property.
We closed on it. And within two weeks of closing on it, our first guest checked in the day we closed. We had a plumbing issue.
That plumbing issue turned into a $10,000 plumbing issue right off the bat. So our budget to bring you on was gone. We ended up spending all our money in the very beginning on the non-sexy things.
You know, we had, it was, believe me, I did not want to fix plumbing. That was like the last thing I wanted to do on my cabin and the smoke was the plumbing. And we had a plan.
We knew what our plan was. I said, look, I could probably design this out. I've designed out midterm rentals before.
I could pull it off. But I didn't really want to spend my time on that part of it. And we flew out there and we were going to take photos and do all the things that you wanted, you needed.
And then the plumbing happened. So we were there during the plumbing issue. So we basically got the cabin.
We took all the, you know, all the bad signs and all the things out of it. We did the best we could with a very small budget in the very beginning. And it's just been one of those things that it's like, it's a project in the making.
Like we're constantly doing a little bit more and now it's all down to design. Like, you know, we got the hot tub a month ago. Now it's about just making it look the way it should look.
Man, it's been a, and I don't know if, I'm sure you go through this with clients, but if it shows good online, you're just going to get emotional reaction. It's, and it's not only about a short-term rental, midterm rental, you know, boutique hotel. It's almost the same thing as staging a house to go on the market.
You get them emotional, they're going to book. They like everything else about it and it shows good. And it's just well-designed.
They're going to click that button and they're going to book. It's that simple.
[Brianna Amigo] (16:01 - 16:02)
Right.
[Stephen Husted] (16:02 - 16:06)
You know, and I see what you do. Like I save them all.
[Brianna Amigo] (16:06 - 16:07)
Oh, I love this.
[Stephen Husted] (16:08 - 16:14)
I love this color pattern. I like how you mismatched the furniture and the bedroom. You know, it's like.
[Brianna Amigo] (16:14 - 16:15)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (16:15 - 16:28)
Yeah, so kudos for you for all the, you know, you do really great projects. How did you, what I'm curious about, what were you doing like your first careers and how did it lead into this part?
[Brianna Amigo] (16:29 - 19:45)
Yeah, I mean, I didn't start doing this. I mean, I spent about nine years in corporate marketing. So that's my background is I went to school for marketing.
Initially I did go to school for interior, for graphic design. And so there was this element of like, I knew I wanted to be creative. I knew I had that in me, but I eventually kind of moved down like a more stable path is what I thought.
And I went through business school and I got my degree in business marketing. And so I applied that for nine years. I had a great career doing that.
I was very successful at that. I did a great job, but I just always felt like there was really something missing for me. So in 2019, I actually decided after designing a few of my own homes and families and friends and for clients just kind of under the radar, I was designing.
And I decided, well, let's just kind of formalize this a little bit and start a side hustle doing this and really not really think much of it, had very little expectations. But in 2020, once we kind of got, when there's the short-term rental market, there's Airbnbs, there's investors out there that don't know how to design properties. It's when I kind of realized this is a space that I wanna learn more about, educate myself about and eventually become a short-term rental investor myself as well.
And so that's what we did. So I, in 2020 started kind of niching the business a little bit instead of so much residential, I started doing more short-term rentals. And I would do that after my nine to five, I would work throughout the day and I would work at night on projects.
And I wouldn't take very much of the time. I was just kind of, again, doing this as like a little side gig and seeing kind of where it took me. And it started doing well and like picking up steam.
And I was like, if I just had time, I could probably blow this up a little bit and really make a career out of it. And so in probably, I think a few weeks before I spoke to you in 2022, I decided, I think it's time, let's just see where this goes. It was a very scary decision, but I decided to leave my job and I admitted to my corporate life what I was doing.
They had no idea. They were like, wait, you design homes? They didn't have a clue.
And yeah, and so I was like, yes. And I've been doing that for quite some time without you knowing, but it was kind of a bet on myself. It was a scary decision to take that leap of faith.
But I knew that if it didn't work out, I'd figure something out. And it's kind of led me down to this path where we're doing well. And we have done like over 130 short-term rental projects since then.
So it's been the best decision that I've made.
[Stephen Husted] (19:46 - 20:36)
Yeah. And I think it was a perfect timing too, because it was like that COVID and social media and short-term rentals.
And it just felt like everything was really escalated during that period of time. You know what I mean? People were at home and people wanted to try new things.
And a lot of people were trying new things, different careers. They were just pivoting in different ways. And I think it really blew up a lot of different industries and pushed people forward.
Do you think that making content and connecting with the right investors, like the Robinsons, really kind of catapulted you into getting a lot more business and kind of forcing you into like, okay, this is really what I'm doing. Because you were kind of all in at that point.
[Brianna Amigo] (20:36 - 21:38)
Absolutely.
Yeah. I was all in and definitely making those connections with like the Robinsons. It definitely helped in the sense where I knew that with their reach too, that there was opportunity out there.
And that there were people like themselves that were looking for help in this space. And there really wasn't really a lot of designers in the space that were doing that at the time. And so I felt like almost like an early adopter as far as what niche we were focused on.
And I think just throughout time, I've learned so much through our clients and their challenges and their stories. And then in my own experience too, me and my husband, we are investors as well. And so just learning about the ins and outs and the hardships that come with that has just made us better at what we do and have just kind of a different lens when we serve our clients.
[Stephen Husted] (21:40 - 22:12)
So walk me through how you started to kind of put the business together. So you go out there, you design a couple of places and you're like, oh, this is cool. You probably get excited, it's artistic.
And it's that, you got a phase one, two and three and then it's done. And it's like, oh, I love it. And then so how did you scale that into making it into a business?
What did you have to put in place? Did you save a bunch of websites? Did you contact a bunch of vendors?
How did you systemize that out?
[Brianna Amigo] (22:14 - 24:57)
Yeah, I mean, to be honest, in the beginning I was wearing all the hats. We were, you know, I was the designer.
I was, you know, I would take on all of the consultations. I, you know, we would manage all of the finances. We would manage social media.
Everything was on our own. I quickly realized I'm just gonna, you know, completely burn out if I continue down this path. And so that's when I realized we need to have more of a system in place.
We need a pooling, some support. And so just one piece by piece, I've just been slowly working at that. And it's not been all at once.
I mean, we've really been focused on like, okay, this is who we need to help and support us. And that's what I'm gonna go seek out. And that's what I've done.
So we've kind of outsourced a few pieces of our business, like social media, it's increasingly important. And I know that. But when you're running a business full time, you're designing all the time.
You're talking to clients like to step aside and create content to post something, create a reel. I just don't have that bandwidth. And so I quickly realized that's something I need to outsource.
And we are, you know, slowly adding to our design team as well. And that has been, you know, something that I'm kind of quickly learning as well is that I need to kind of give up the reins a little bit and be able to like delegate and to focus on, you know, mentoring and cultivating kind of strong relationships, not only with our clients, but with the people that we work with as well. And so just creating roles and on the team and who does what and time management and blocking out certain times on my calendar.
This is the goals of this hour block. This is what I need to get done. This is what I need to achieve.
And just making sure that my team, myself, we're all kind of staying on track. And so it's a work in progress. This system is definitely not a fully well-oiled machine yet because I'm still wearing a lot of hats.
But that's kind of what I'm focused on in 2024. And it's automation and some of, you know, creating communication automation has been really key for us. And so when people reach out, there's different communications that are being fired off.
You know, six months ago, I was writing all those communications very manually. So it's kind of a slow, you know, learn as I go kind of process. But it's definitely been important because I think we want to build something.
I need to not be so much in the weeds every day. I need to kind of step back and work on the business versus so much in the business like I am now.
[Stephen Husted] (24:58 - 25:50)
Absolutely.
And it's interesting. You go through the same things I go through. We're in different businesses, but we're entrepreneurs and it's the same.
We go through the exact same things. I could tell you what you just said, I go through. It's very, you know, it's a work in progress.
I always feel like I'm behind the eight ball on everything. Like I feel like I got so much to do and it's endless. And then it's interesting towards the end of the year.
Usually a couple of weeks before the end of the year, I start to reflect on the year and I go, God, you know, that I felt like I was grinding in and out. But, you know, we got it. We achieved a lot.
We put a lot of things in place. There's a lot to do still. But we made some big growth moments.
And it's, and I think that's, it comes, always comes down to that, it seems like. So it's interesting to hear it from you. You know, it doesn't matter what field.
[Brianna Amigo] (25:51 - 25:51)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (25:51 - 25:53)
Entrepreneurs go through the same thing when you're growing.
[Brianna Amigo] (25:55 - 26:34)
Exactly.
Yeah. The growing pains of building a business, definitely not for the faint of heart. It's definitely, it's a hard gig.
And I learned that over time. It's like, you think you're kind of trading in this nine to five. You're working for someone else.
You have the time, freedom and et cetera. But it's a lot of pressure and it's a lot to kind of manage, but it's well worth it. The outcomes, the positive impact you have with your clients and their lives and how it impacts your own personal life.
It's well worth the work and the grind.
[Stephen Husted] (26:34 - 26:51)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. I've just noticed lately, I'm trying to be a little bit more clear on my timing on things and trying to just time block more and, you know.
[Brianna Amigo] (26:51 - 26:51)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (26:52 - 27:42)
Carving out things that matter to me. Here's a good example.
This morning, we had a pod, typically we do the podcasts on Tuesdays. And so this almost threw me off for a little bit. And I know every morning, if I got to do a podcast, I have to run before the podcast.
I have to clear my head. I have really bad anxiety. And so I know that I need to get out there and do what I have to do before to get in on a podcast or taking care of myself moving forward.
I think last year, I let myself go in some ways just because I was so busy and I was going through so many crazy scenarios last year that, you know, I'm making a decision to be a little bit better with my timing. We'll see where that goes, you know, just little baby steps.
[Brianna Amigo] (27:44 - 27:45)
Absolutely.
[Stephen Husted] (27:46 - 27:52)
You, don't you have, you have properties out in Big Bear? Do I remember that?
[Brianna Amigo] (27:52 - 27:52)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (27:52 - 27:52)
Okay.
[Brianna Amigo] (27:53 - 27:53)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (27:53 - 27:54)
Still have them?
[Brianna Amigo] (27:54 - 28:12)
We have a property in Big Bear. Yeah, still have the cabin up there. And yeah, I mean, like probably like many other short-term rental hosts, you definitely saw a little bit of a slowdown last year.
And so navigating that has been interesting too.
[Stephen Husted] (28:13 - 28:14)
How's that going?
[Brianna Amigo] (28:14 - 29:39)
We're kind of trying to, it's good.
I mean, we still love it and it's still performing really well for us. But it's definitely not, you know, like it was in 2022. And when we first, first launched, it was doing really well back then.
But there's just, there are a lot more cabins up there. You know, the climate changes things too. You know, we've had a really dry season this year.
And so that's been, you know, hard to navigate too. Just bookings are coming through really last minute. You're competing on price a lot.
And so just interesting kind of challenges there as well. But I think what we've been focused on and going into this year is like diversifying that portfolio a little bit and kind of investing in other property types. And so right now we're in escrow on a long-term, on a property that we're going to kind of run as a long-term rental for a while and kind of sit on it because there's a lot of activity happening in the area.
That is kind of going to help that increase the value of the property over time. And so long-term, mid-term, hopefully again another short-term in the near future too. But we're just kind of putting our eggs in a lot of different baskets right now, which I think is important in this real estate game.
[Stephen Husted] (29:39 - 31:24)
Yeah, absolutely. You can tell that the yard cabin out in the Smokies, I mean, it was just so slammed. There was never a, it was always booked.
And then this year it's been definitely challenging. And we feel like we're doing more and more to it. You know, we're always tweaking it out, trying to add little things of value.
You know, we put fishing poles in the cabin because we have two fishing ponds. That wasn't expensive to do and our neighbor did it and he got a really good review because a kid showed up and said, oh dad, there's fishing poles. It went down, you know, went down to the pond, the local pond and caught fish.
Like there's your memory. And it was really cool when he told me this. It was a memory that I had growing up and going to this lake in California called Pinecrust and went fishing there one time with my dad.
And we hit a little, we hit a little, just we caught, I don't know, 20 trouts together. And it was amazing. I remember it to this day.
So when he told me that, I'm like, okay, get some fishing pole. That's not expensive to do. Or a little s'mores machine.
He gets reviews on s'mores, his little s'more machine. It's crazy. So we're trying to do these little things, but yeah, we don't want to end up racing the price to the bottom, which I feel like I'm seeing out in the Smokies as well.
And I don't know, maybe that what's, maybe that is where the pricing was. Pre-COVID. I don't know, but it's definitely been an interesting time.
And it's, yeah, a lot of last minute bookings for sure.
[Brianna Amigo] (31:26 - 32:34)
Yeah. I mean, you bring up a good point though.
It's like, it's going to take continuous improvement of your property. Like, you know, after launching, your work isn't done. It's, you know, you continuously have to improve, add amenities, add, you know, other pieces of the guest experience that, you know, your ideal guest is looking for.
And so we often see that too, or, you know, clients will come to us after being live for a few years and they're not seeing the numbers that they were used to seeing. And so we kind of come in and we can help improve the design, improve that guest experience, you know, recommend amenities that they may not be already including, take a look at the market and seeing what's kind of popping. Like who are their top competitors?
What are those competitors doing that this client is not? And making sure that we're recommending all the pieces to help them stay competitive and hopefully outperform them. But it's definitely a work in progress.
And yeah, it's not something that you could just kind of, you know, invest in and think it's going to be a passive business.
[Stephen Husted] (32:35 - 34:56)
Definitely not. And we just got Superhost status at the cabin in the Smokies, which took a year.
The reason it took a year was when we bought that cabin, the owner had like a hundred reviews on Vrbo and 4.9. And with Vrbo, when you close escrow, you can transfer that from the original owner to the new owner, which you can't do on Airbnb. So we had a hard time booking because we were so booked on Vrbo that we couldn't get anyone on Airbnb. And then the first or second guest we had on Airbnb, we got a bad review, got a two-star review.
And that just shot us down and we've just been clawing out of it. So we finally got Superhost status last week, which was good. Thank you.
But you know, I know this is, I'm going to be posting this this week on Instagram. One of the things I'm trying to, there's another thing I'm trying to do this year. I get people reaching out to me on Facebook, just DMs on Instagram, like, oh, it looks like you crushed it this year.
Oh, you had a great year. You had this. And I'm like, I worked really hard.
And no, the year wasn't as great as you think it is. So this year, what I'm trying to do is really bring in the good, the bad, the ugly is what I'm calling it. And tell people really what's going on behind the scenes, because I don't want anybody to think that it's just so easy to do all this.
And it's so glamorous and we make a ton of money and it's easy. It's definitely not at all. Or either that or I always back it up and go, I don't know, maybe I'm not good enough for all this.
You know, even though I've been working in real estate since 2008, I do question myself in what I'm doing a lot, especially last year. But, you know, the one thing going back to the whole Superhost, I wanted to post the Superhost status like, oh, look at it. I got Superhost.
Oh, that's great. Everyone's gonna be happy. But then I'm gonna make the next short stories video about how much anxiety hospitable has caused me in my mornings.
[Brianna Amigo] (34:56 - 34:58)
Yeah. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (34:58 - 35:00)
Do you know where I'm going with this?
[Brianna Amigo] (35:00 - 35:01)
Do you know what I'm talking about?
[Stephen Husted] (35:01 - 35:02)
Yeah. Oh, gosh.
[Brianna Amigo] (35:02 - 35:02)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (35:03 - 35:29)
Okay.
I'm glad that you do because this is serious and it really have. So I wake up in the morning. So the cabin's out in Tennessee.
Some of these people come from the East Coast. If they contact you at, you know, five in the morning, it's different time zone. So I wake up and the first thing I'm thinking about is, am I gonna see that red app lit up?
[Brianna Amigo] (35:30 - 35:31)
Right. Right.
[Stephen Husted] (35:31 - 35:54)
What am I going through this morning?
What issue am I dealing with? And it, I think it caused, you know, some serious anxiety on me, which I didn't realize it until last year where it ended. I was like, okay.
And I think we've taken care of all these small little things that we're adding up just over time. We just kept just going out to the cabin, fixing things, getting it more stabilized.
[Brianna Amigo] (35:55 - 36:34)
Fingers crossed it's running a little better, but it definitely stressed me out.
You know what I'm talking about on this? No, absolutely. I mean, yeah, if you're self-managing, you're gonna be woken up in the middle of the night and get a text from your guest or get a phone call or on a holiday.
And where you're having guest stay at a premium rate and something bad happens, it could completely change your day of Thanksgiving or Christmas with your own family because you're dealing with a guest issue at the time. And there was high pressure at stake because they spent a lot on that nightly rate stay there for that holiday.
[Stephen Husted] (36:34 - 36:35)
Yes.
[Brianna Amigo] (36:35 - 39:06)
So absolutely understand the anxiety that comes with being a host and managing issues that might come up. But I think it all comes down to choose if you have a really strong team locally that you can depend on and that are trustworthy and that are going to answer your calls when they too are in the middle of something and they're managing other parts of their business as well. And I think that's key.
You have to have a really good local team on the ground to support you because at the end of the day, you're not there. And yeah, all you can manage is the communication piece and kind of working with all the different pieces to hopefully fix whatever the issue is. Yes, absolutely.
Out in the Smokies, I have to admit, they have it dialed in out there. I mean, they do. I mean, you can get anybody out there.
We have three of everybody. Handyman, plumbers, electricians, chimney, you name it, cleaners. And it's just really good, honest people out there for what I've experienced.
It's, I don't know, sometimes I call places and they're just so nice and they have that Southern hospitality to them. Like I am from California. I talk fast.
I got to slow it down. Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, it's different.
What markets, so I'm curious, what markets, tell me where you've been designing. I mean, I know some of them, but have you been going into some markets that are just really unique and you're like, oh, this is kind of cool. Like, do some of these projects catch you off guard?
Like location wise? Sometimes, yeah. I mean, yeah, sometimes they're in small towns and I'm like, I've never heard of this area.
And especially for the midterm stays, they're not always going to be in major metropolitan areas that I, you know, are major tourist destinations. But we design everywhere. I mean, we used to do a lot of Smokies, but I'm seeing more and more now where we see Florida pop up a lot in different markets.
We're doing a ton in Denver right now. Colorado has been a key market for us. We did a lot of projects there last year.
And then we're doing some in Branson right now, Missouri.
[Stephen Husted] (39:07 - 39:07)
Yeah, that's a big market.
[Brianna Amigo] (39:08 - 52:02)
There's really, yeah, there's a lot of markets that keep popping up, but I'm always surprised by, you know, like right now we're working on Michigan, Traverse City, Michigan. And, you know, never done a project there before, but it's a market where there's a lot of new development, new condos. And so we're seeing short-term rentals, midterm rentals go in the kind of markets where there's just a lot of new construction, new development happening.
And yeah, we pretty much design everywhere. And I'm always like surprised and I always feel like I'm learning more and more about the U.S. by just the different areas and cities that we hear about. And I have to do market research.
I have to see kind of like, why do people visit this area? You know, what are the attractions? What are they coming here for?
And what are the type of people that visit? What's the demographic and what do they, you know, like to do? And what are their hobbies?
Just so that we can make sure that when we're curating that design, it's going to speak to them. It's going to appeal to them and that we're going to add some natural, you know, kind of, you know, local flavor of that area with the design pieces, with the art, with the coffee table, with all the styling pieces really have to translate well in the area that you designed in and that our clients invested in. I was just going to cue you up on one of our newest projects.
And I was just curious about like how, when you take on a project, what are your initial steps of when you deal with a client? You know, what are you first starting to do besides the design? But it seems like you're first doing some more market research type of people.
What's going on locally? And that's first and foremost. And then after that, how do you start the design process?
Like for you, you need to first see the photos, the measurements, and then kind of start to get a visual. But once you do that, are you starting with the bigger pieces in a home, anchoring that and then kind of working from there? Like how do you go through a whole design?
Like what are you first trying to figure out? Yeah. So, I mean, I identify which rooms we need to prioritize.
Where are going to be the money shots in the property? When I think about the carousel of images on your listing, where do we think you need to spend the most of that budget? Where do we need to kind of add some value?
And if that's going to be common spaces, living room, game rooms, if that's going to be the outdoor space, then I'm going to start there and kind of work my way throughout the property and go room by room. But definitely, I need all of the pieces of seeing the property through photos, videos, having those dimensions, because it's not always just about picking out beautiful furniture and pieces. It's really about the functional space planning aspect too, as well.
Do you have enough walk space for your guests to get around between point A and point B in the property? Is there enough seats at the dining room table or in the common space of the living room or game room for everyone to hang out and enjoy time together? So, we are focused on all of those pieces as we're designing.
But I used to go and pick out, back in the day, all of the bigger pieces and think through that. But what I've noticed is that I'm starting to kind of focus on room by room and prioritize my time, the budget, against the rooms that need the most value and that are going to draw that potential guest in with those money shots. So, we're going to focus there and then kind of work our way through the rest of the property.
That's interesting. So, the reason I bring that up is we closed on a duplex out in Kansas City and I'm turning into a midterm and it's literally walking distance to KU Med. You can see KU Med from the back of the house.
And it's just this really cool property and we're on a budget. So, of course, I'm the one taking over. So, I'm downloading, like, what's Brianna doing?
Let's just go through her whole profile. Okay, she did that. Okay, she's mismatching the furniture there.
This is a good color palette. I'm saving, saving. Then I'm going to Pinterest and I'm trying to put together these.
But I started with one room at a time and just kind of anchored some pieces, tried to come up with color palettes. And I know this is probably not the best use of my time, but this is what we have to do right now to get this property up and running. And then I was thinking, I'm like, all right, at the end of this, and the same thing I'm doing with the cabin, at some point I could just bring you in and have you go, hey, overhaul this and just tie it.
Put it to a home run. That's it. Get it from where it needs now.
Find the holes that I missed and make it look a little bit better. But right now, just from what happened last year, it's kind of carrying over into this year a little bit on some of our projects. Right.
Timelines, interest rates, that whole thing. So we've been on a budget and I had to take on this project. I really don't want to, but I'm being my best.
I'm being the best interior designer I can with the help of you online and Pinterest. Yeah. And that's the best approach.
If you're doing it yourself, collecting all of the inspiration that's out there. They're really like, we just have an overload of visual examples online through social media, through Pinterest, through Instagram, TikTok. You could find inspiration anywhere, even walking through a coffee shop.
And so just being able to keep that in mind and save down things that you're inspired by and the colors that you're inspired by, you can definitely come up with something that is going to stand out and that is going to appeal to your ideal guests and the different use case for that property. So if it's a midterm, I always like to try to help our clients understand too, with midterms, you're not necessarily going to spend less because it's a midterm. That's really not always the case.
It's a different way of designing because you're thinking about comfort, having all of the amenities, everything that they would find at home needs to be at their fingertips at your midterm rental. They have more time going to be able to dissect that experience that they had there because they are going to spend a lot of time there. So the experience, the amenities, the durability, all the pieces that you have at that property have to be really thoughtful and thought through.
So you're not going to have some crazy mural maybe at a midterm, but you're going to think through the technology pieces. Do they have a workspace? Do they have, if they forgot their charger, are there USB ports on the nightstands?
Are they on the desk? Just thinking through the connectivity of that property too. It's just a different kind of method of designing.
So midterm rentals and having a designer support you in that is still really important. Even though it's not a short-term rental and that can be used in that case, there are some other elements that you need to think through when designing. I agree.
I think they're both, honestly, they're relatively the same in my books. I mean, our first property that we had bought a loft in San Jose back in 2015. I designed it out and it was going to be a short-term rental.
They put in regulation. We couldn't do short-term rentals in there. And I'm like, okay, now we got this property that's fully furnished.
What now? And back then, 2015, it was corporate housing. It wasn't midterm.
That wasn't even a term then. So I'm like, all right, well, let's do fully furnished. And I learned about insurance companies paying the lease.
I learned about traveling tech workers because this was in San Jose, so Silicon Valley. Traveling doctors, nurses, all that kind of... We got a good dose of that back in 2015 and learned a lot of interesting things then.
You know, when you've got a new guest, tenant, whatever you want to call, staying in your property, you know, some would be like, are these sheets brand new? Did you change out the sheets? You know, or what about this?
You know, there's all these... And so we've learned all these really cool things over time. And it's interesting now that we're going to carry it into these properties out in Kansas City.
You know, scale it out a little bit bigger. But I love the balance between the two because I think the midterm, from what I've experienced with it, they're in there longer. Sometimes they're in there, you know, 90 days to six months.
It just really depends on what they're doing, what's going on in their life. And I like that part. It almost feels...
It's just a good balance between a long-term and a short-term in my eyes. And I've already experienced that. So hopefully it could...
Maybe I don't have the same kind of stress level I've had recently on the Smoky property. But yeah, so what other plans do you have for this year? Do you have anything that you're trying to work on or anything that you have your sights on business-wise or anything?
Anything in your life that you have planned out that you want to do that's cool? Yeah, I mean, I feel like we're doing a lot right now. We just engaged with a business coach.
And so she's working with me on helping to kind of build the business, build some more systems and processes in place that will help create more balance. Again, help me work on the business so much more versus so much in the business like I am now. I want to grow our team.
I want to be able to have support in all of the different facets of our business. So that again, I'm not wearing all the hats that I am now. And we're redesigning our brand and our website and hoping to kind of expand our marketing channels and not just relying on Instagram and looking at email marketing, Pinterest marketing.
I am kind of nervous about doing TikTok, but maybe doing TikTok eventually and just having and just a little bit of a wider net as far as social media reach and ways of engaging. I'd love to have some more like long-form content developed to on our website, just so that we are continuing to serve value. And some people want to keep some of that nugget of information, that valuable information to themselves and be able to kind of monetize that.
But for us at least, I like to share what we've learned over time. And be able to share that with clients or even just people and connections that we have online that may not have the budget right now to work with us, but can still lean on us being kind of a thought leader in this space when it comes to design. So that's what we're working on this year is scaling the business, being able to create more balance so that we can kind of do bigger things when it comes to content and adding value to people and their businesses as well.
I look forward to it. I think that Pinterest, it's such a great idea. I think Pinterest would, I think that's a great spot for you.
Yeah. I mean, we as designers, we go to Pinterest. We ask our clients to create Pinterest boards every time and for inspiration.
And so if we could be the source of that information and that inspiration for clients or even for complete people that are not even in the short-term rental space, but just wanted to visually see how to create a mural or how to incorporate a wallpaper design into a bedroom or a living room like that, they were able to pull that inspiration from us and learn more about our process and what we do for clients.
So I'm definitely think it's going to be an exciting channel for us this year. Yeah, definitely. That's really cool.
So how has it been raising your kids? Is it cool? You enjoying it?
Yeah. I mean, I love it.
[Stephen Husted] (52:02 - 52:02)
Yeah.
[Brianna Amigo] (52:03 - 58:08)
So it's awesome. I mean, we have a first grader and he's in school and when I'm not working and I have time, I'm volunteering at a school and kind of learning that and understanding the ins and outs of making connections even with other parents and learning about other kids in his class. And just having a kid in a school age, I guess, time is a little bit new to us.
I feel like he was a kindergartener last year and now he's a first grader and then we have a baby at home. So it's like we're almost going to have to do this all over in a few years. And but it's fun.
We love it. It's definitely my favorite and best role of my life is being a mom. So I can't complain.
Yeah, that's cool. Angel beforehand was like, oh, do you know that Rihanna has a boy and a girl? And the first thing I thought about was my daughter, you know, when she was a little girl and it's like, I think you start to have kids and time speeds up so quick.
She's 17 now. And I'm just like, it just blows me away. Or she'll say something that, you know, it's like like a little like a little adult, you know, so it's every time I hear other people having, you know, a little girl, I'm like, oh, it's so cute.
You know, this brings a lot of purpose kind of feels, yeah, make things complete in a lot of ways. And it makes you want to work really hard and, you know, try to just be better human and be able to take care of them and take them places. You know, it's just it's really cool.
So. Absolutely. And yeah, I mean, it goes by so quickly and just trying to soak in all the moments where, you know, our our 10 month old, she's going to be one in a few months, which is crazy to me to think that a whole year has passed, but it just flies by time.
So just kind of soaking in all the moments that they're they're little and they want to hang out with mom and dad. And so we're definitely kind of trying to make the most of it and do all the things to provide kind of like an amazing childhood for both of them. Yeah, that's really cool.
What does your husband do? Yeah. He works for the government.
He works nine to five jobs. He gets government benefits and all of that. And so we're not ready to kind of give those up.
His idea is to hopefully one day be able to to, you know, leave his nine to five and help grow this business and his own. And so I think real estate is going to be our ticket out of that and so that he could hopefully be home with me and and just, you know, building our businesses together. And but, yeah, that's that's what he does.
And he loves it. But I think his end goal is to to hopefully step aside from that. It's good to have a family member with the W-2, the nine to five, you know, with like the the health insurance and just some of those.
That's like my wife. She does. She's a nine to five W-2.
And it's just good to have that like backbone, you know? Yeah. Like last year, last year was a tough year.
Real estate wasn't as great as it was years prior. So it's just good that she's making the same amount of money no matter what. You know, same health insurance is coming in.
So it definitely, definitely helps. So do you do you guys travel up to Big Bear a lot? You guys stay at your cabins?
Are they cabins? Are they what do you have? Do you have an A-frame?
We we have a gambrel style cabin. It's small. So your occupancy is six.
So just as a family, we can all stay there. But like if my family wanted to come, like my mom and my sister or my in-laws or anything like that, it's not that big of a cabin to have all of us there. But as a family, we try to go up a few times a year.
But just overall traveling in general, we're we definitely love to travel and like to make a point to do something at least once or twice a year. And yeah, the cabin is a nice destination. It's only a few hours away from us.
So are you big on Disneyland? We love it. My son loves Disneyland.
We do go to Disneyland a few times a year as well. And I love it as well. But we haven't gotten to the point where like we're ready for like a season pass or anything like that.
We kind of will visit once or twice a year and we get our fix. Yeah, that's good enough. Do you go to...
Are you going to any summits? Have you been invited this year to summits? Are you speaking anywhere?
I am speaking at the Robinson Summit that they're having in June in Denver. And I don't know how much they've promoted it yet, but they definitely have a date set in late June, I believe at the Gaylord Hotel. And yeah, I'll be speaking there.
And we have a ton of clients in Denver. So we're going to kind of make the most of that trip and visit properties that we've designed, visit some clients and hopefully create some content out there too. But that's another goal of mine too, is just to be able to...
I was in a newborn kind of bubble last year, not really wanting to go and travel and leave my kids. But now I feel like she's at an age where she can get on the plane with us and we'll do some more speaking engagements and more in-person events and networking events this year. Great.
I can't wait to see it. I've just been following you for so long and I've just appreciated your content. And I really mean it that I save a lot of it.
That is the power.
[Stephen Husted] (58:09 - 58:09)
I love that. I can learn.
[Brianna Amigo] (58:09 - 1:01:02)
If I can't afford to pay for you right now, what do I got to do? I have to lean on someone. And all I do is send my assistant, like, look at this room, check out this.
And so I really appreciate you doing what you're doing and putting it out there, teaching people. It's very valuable. It's helped me out a lot.
Where can the audience find you? Yeah, I follow us on Instagram, Brianna Michelle Interiors. And we'll hopefully include that here when we post this.
BriannaMichelleInteriors.com is our website. And yeah, I mean, we try to put a few pieces of content throughout the week and hopefully support people that not only are our clients and working with us actively, but those that are looking just to do it themselves and figure out how to design a space and get inspiration, and, you know, get tips and tricks on how to put a space together. And hopefully we're kind of curating that content and providing that value on an ongoing basis.
So I'm glad that you're finding value in it. And so, yeah, that's where you guys can find us and follow along. One last thing.
So I have a client who works in tech, and he had a short-term rental in Southlake, had to sell it 2021 because they changed the rules and you can do short-term rentals. So he moved, bought another property by Northstar. And I told him about you and I said, hey, you should hire.
He's like, oh, we're buying all brand new furniture. He shows me this place. It's like all chocolate.
You know, it's just not designed out. And I'm like, dude, you need a professional designer. I go, it's going to make a world of difference on your property.
I promise you, you want it to look a certain way and you'll get more bookings. And especially in that market, especially because it's shifted everywhere, not only in the Smokies. And, but I think that he's going to be reaching out to you, too, because it's slowed down tremendously.
I'm like, hey, just let her do a little bit. A little bit can go a long way. So yeah, we'll see what happens.
We can work with what's existing and I'm always going to give my honest recommendations and what I think needs to go, what needs to stay. And yeah, I mean, we can work around if something's already kind of been curated and already purchased and hopefully add and maybe swap a few pieces out to help kind of differentiate it. Awesome.
Well, I really appreciate you jumping on in the beginning of the year. Thanks a lot for all your content.
[Stephen Husted] (1:01:02 - 1:01:03)
Thanks so much for having me.
[Brianna Amigo] (1:01:03 - 1:02:09)
Yeah, and I'm actually, I'll be reaching out. I think my assistant is going to be emailing you because I think that I'm going to have to bring you in on this midterm at the end of it. I'm pretty sure I can get it to 90%, but I don't know if I can have 10%.
I think I want the tie. I think I need you for the tie in. I want to call it.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know where to find us, where to call me. And yeah, would love to work on some projects with you this year.
Awesome. All right. I appreciate it.
Well, thanks a lot so much for coming on to the podcast. You have a great day and I'll talk to you really soon. Sounds good.
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