From Classroom to Keys: Building a Balanced Property Management Business with Brad Swensen

In this episode, franchise owner Brad Swensen of PMI Soda City shares how he transitioned from 23 years in education and coaching to running a short-term and long-term property management business in Columbia, South Carolina. He talks about why he chose a franchise model, what he would do differently if starting over, and how networking—especially through BNI—has driven more growth than paid marketing.

Brad opens up about work–life balance, designing his business around family time with his young daughter, and setting boundaries with owners and guests so he can be both a great dad and a successful operator. He also discusses lessons learned about efficiency, planning, ongoing education, and the power of “giver’s gain” in networking.

Listeners will hear practical advice on growing a franchise, building genuine referral relationships, preparing systems so you can travel and still manage properties remotely, and why Brad sees his future in residential and commercial property management—especially the underserved commercial niche.

Guest contact info:

www.pmisodacity.com

bswensen@pmisodacity.com

Thanks for Listening. You may contact me or our team at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!
Bill

Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review,  and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com or at https://billgilliland.biz/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Hi everyone, welcome to the quick episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I'm clinical crazy and for Bill Golden with your local business training and coaching firm, Action Coach Business Growth Partners. I'm excited to have Brad Swenson with PMI Soda City as the focus for our Epic Entrepreneurs podcast episode today. So, Brad, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself and your company and what primary products or services you offer the community.

Short-Term Rental Focus In Columbia

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Yeah, great. Thank you for having me on the show today. Brad Swenson, as you said, I'm part of a franchise, a PMI franchise, and our local owned businesses in Columbia, South Carolina, PMI sort of city. Really the focus for us when we first started was uh short-term rentals. So we do a lot of um, you know, guests traveling here for government work, uh Fort Jackson, and then of course, you know, SEC football games and um, you know, parents coming and visiting their students here at the University of South Carolina. We have uh expanded into the residential and commercial long-term rental properties as well. We manage those, but really the largest portion of our portfolio is the short-term rentals.

What He’d Do Differently Starting Out

SPEAKER_00 1:57

All right, perfect. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, so if you had to start from square one in your business, what would you do differently?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

That's a great question. Um I I think I made a good decision as far as a franchise because I was not a previous business owner. I was in the education business for 23 years as a teacher and a coach. I think the probably the biggest thing that I would change up is that I wouldn't spend so much on outside marketing and third party vendors trying to, you know, get leads. I would spend more time networking and trying to build relationships within the community and grow the business that way because I found more success that way rather than um you know with those third-party leads um vendors. It just wasn't very successful. And I spent a lot of money on doing that.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Gotcha. So that that would be the main thing that you would do differently. Anything else?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Yeah, I think to start. Um you know, I think probably also um in my in the first year, um, I I think it would have been more advantageous to talk to more property managers, um, especially short-term managers outside of the PMI franchise and get their perspectives and really kind of learn from them a little bit more about the industry um and get a different perspective rather than just a you know one-sided um perspective from PMI about how to run short-term rentals.

Franchising As A Playbook For Beginners

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Gotcha. No, I love that. I love that. That's good advice. So, what have your what would you say have your biggest learnings been as a franchisee owner since you started it?

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Well, at least for me, um, you know, I would say the the biggest learning curve for me would be that, you know, the franchise is a is a is a great thing for me because of the coaching background that I came from and the teaching. So you give me a playbook and I go after it. So, you know, I think for those of those, for those people that are not, you know, business-minded or entrepreneur-minded, it is a good alternative to get into a franchise and let them show you kind of the way of how to get into business and kind of working. So at least for me, because I didn't have that business background, I think that was huge for me. And I've learned a lot about business in the last, you know, three years, not only from you know the franchise, but also from the BI networks that uh chapter that I'm in, and talking to, you know, having a one-on-ones with those people and learning more about just how to operate a business and and um understanding of being an entrepreneur and getting out of like that small-mindedness and really growing and thinking bigger.

Networking Wins Over Paid Leads

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Okay, okay. Now you now you threw out BNI uh out there. Are there any other networking groups that you attend that you would recommend for small business owners?

SPEAKER_01 5:28

I haven't gotten too involved in too many. We have a couple other, you know, BI members that kind of started, you know, kind of some things that um brought other, you know, B and I chapters together and trying to help that networking. But really, BI has been so successful for me personally, um, that I really haven't had to do much more than that, other than the BI chapter.

Misconceptions About Time And Workload

SPEAKER_00 5:55

That's awesome. That's awesome. So, what are some common misconceptions, would you say, about running a business?

SPEAKER_01 6:02

I mean, I guess that kind of my misconceptions going in was, and this may seem um, I guess contradictory, is that it takes a lot more time than what you're used to or what you're used to. In my case, coming from the coaching education, you know, especially like during the season, I was spending 100 to 110 hours a week. And so I I especially at the beginning, trying to grow my business and build it, I was like, man, I mean, I'm home by like 4:30, 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock. Um, you know, should I be out there doing more? I mean, I feel like there's, you know, other things that I should be doing. So I think if you are efficient and you're you're organized, um, then I think that you it's not as difficult to start your business as you might think it would be. Now don't get me wrong, there's definitely, you know, I had lots of late nights where I'm doing you know back office work at you know nine, 10, 11 o'clock after I put my daughter to to bed. But if you are organized and you're efficient and you really um take advantage of the time, you don't have to, you don't have to work 80, 90, 100 hours a week to grow your business. You don't have to.

Employee Mindset To Entrepreneur Growth

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Okay, okay. So do you think you are a better entrepreneur or employee in why?

SPEAKER_01 7:34

I think I'm a better employee um right now. Um, I think I'm getting to the point where I'm gonna be a better entrepreneur. But right now, you know, I have that I have a couple decades worth of you know being that employee and just, hey, just tell me what to do. I got this, you know, I'll be great at it. You know, I'll be I'll take it to the next level. Um, so I'm still learning on how to like run the business and and um you know be better at it in the entrepreneurial type thing. But I say if if I'm saying right now, I would say up, yeah, I'm I'm kind of you know, that good employee. Um, and I'm working towards being a better entrepreneur and understanding reading books, listening to podcasts, those type of things, listen to people that have been doing this much longer than I have, you know, for just a few years.

Vacations, Systems, And Remote Ops

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, no, I appreciate that honesty. That's that's really good of you to be completely honest with that that answer. Um so how do you handle taking vacations while running a business?

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Yeah, that's uh that's a great question. Um, you know, I feel like I have more free time now than I did prior. So, you know, for instance, you know, last year my wife had a um a conference with her work in um Minneapolis, Minnesota. So basically I knew leading up to that, um, and I could see like my bookings and I can handle so many things, you know, remotely. And then on the long-term side, at that point, you know, I only had five or six long-term and a couple commercial properties. So anything that would have come up during those four or five days that we were in Minneapolis, like I can pretty much handle everything, make a couple phone calls, whatever, and and get it through until I get done. I have good housekeepers in place. I had good inspectors that could inspect the properties before, you know, pre-rival um inspection before guests came. And then, of course, when guests left, they would get there, make sure the asset is safe for the owner. I had already walked them through that. So I'd kind of put those pieces in place. So when I do go on, you know, vacation, we go up in the mountains on the 4th of July. Um, I'm able, I'm gonna have some bookings here in Columbia. Um, so I'm just able to get those things out of place and kind of or into place. And then when I leave, be able to run things from all my software remotely.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Oh, very nice, very nice. What part of the uh the mountains are you heading up to?

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Uh we usually head up to Asheville, where uh my in-laws have a place up there.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Very nice, very nice. Beautiful, beautiful area.

unknown 10:31

Yeah.

Guarding Evenings And Work-Life Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 10:32

All right. So how do you balance your personal life with the demands of running a business? Are you um are you the type of person? I mean, you said you got more free time now, so I think you might have answered this a little bit earlier, but uh are you typically uh 5 p.m., I'm done cutting everything off, or are you working late? You kind of answered this a little bit uh, you know, prior, but let's dig into that a little bit more. How do you balance your personal life with demands of running your business?

Revenue Reality And Lifestyle Choices

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah, I would say that um the reason I got into the business is because you know, my daughter was born. And for the first two years, I never really saw her. So I wanted more, more freedom. So work life balance is really huge for me. She's five now. And um, you know, I would have been a good, I would have been a good dad as a teacher and coach, but I I don't want to be good at anything. I want to be great. So I knew like I needed more time. And so right now, like at six o'clock, like I have, you know, my watch, my phone, everything, it goes into you know, silent mode. So I can spend that time with my daughter. You know, we have dinner, you know, all that stuff. We put her to bed. Now, after I put her to bed, I can I can do some work or whatever. Um, but I'm much more aware now with my daughter about the work-life balance. And, you know, obviously when being an entrepreneur, you want to make, you know, you want to make a good amount of money. That's what we're in for, right? But at the same time, like I don't take on certain owners now. And I'm not very big, you know, I'm kind of a small property manager comparatively, but there's some owners that I won't take on because I know they're gonna micromanage, right? They're gonna be calling me at eight o'clock, nine o'clock. And in fact, I did have some of those. And uh my wife was finally like, hey, you're falling back into the same things of, you know, you're sitting here prepping for practice tomorrow, you know, prepping for games and stuff. And I'm like, you're right. So I kind of tweaked that, pulled that back. And so I just really um I get about 60% of my referrals and stuff from BI. So I really work that. And then during the day, I work hard, and then I tell people, you know, if they call or whatever, I say, hey, look, you know, I'm spending time with my family, whatever. I haven't had anybody ever owner whatever have an issue with that. Now, when you have guests, right? Some of those things come up, you know, an Airbnb or VRBO, you got to respond at like nine o'clock or nine thirty and not say, hey, just a minute. Guest is having trouble with XYZ. I got to go take care of it. Usually it's like five, 10 minutes, and then I come back. But it's not, you know, taking, you know, 30, 40 minutes out of my time. So um I think to me, the most important thing is work-life balance, is what I got into it. If I get super rich, great, you know, but I just want to be able to have a nice income and be able to spend time with my family and not be working 100 to 110 hours and have some freedom um with that work-life balance.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

I mean, you're exactly right. I mean, I don't think anybody on their deathbed ever says, you know, hey, I wished to work more when I was younger, right? You always say kind of, I wish I spent more time with my loved one when they were younger or whatever the case, went to more of their games, went to more of their events, you know, whatever events they have going on if they're in dance class or whatever, you know. That's what you want more of, not so much more of just working more. So I totally agree with you on that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Yeah. It it feels good to be able to do that, but at the same time, you know, to be able to, you know, provide for your family. Like I said, I'm still in the in the early stages. I'm in year three now. And so a smaller property management is I'm not, you know, think in 2024, we brought in, you know, just under 300K in revenue. But you know, I have a lot of expenses too with you know, franchise and whatnot. But um, you know, I'm not making, you know, millions of dollars, but at the same time, like it's just the I just have such a better work life balance than what I did before. So I love it.

Drivers Of Growth And Personal Traits

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah, no, get it, get it. So what uh you know, in getting into this and and kind of you know personal life and and the business and everything, what have you attributed to the growth of your franchise so far?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

I mean, I I would say there's uh several factors, of course, right? I would say one, for me, the franchise was a good fit, like I mentioned. B and I, B and I, the membership fees and what I pay for that is so much less than you can pay for the advertising that I would get in return as a return on investment. So those are great. I think what I bring personally is because I had in the education and coaching field so much, so many different um things on my agenda that constantly moved up and down in the priority list. I got really good at letting that be fluid and being efficient with my time and saying, this is gonna have to be put off till tomorrow. This is gonna have to be put off until you know later on today. And so I became really efficient and organized and making sure like these are the processes I can do and I can control. And I've got, you know, 13 things that have to be done by this time. Boom, I can get those things done. And then, of course, being one an athlete and then a coach, the drive for me to it, it's not to succeed. It's I don't want to be a failure. I don't want my family, I don't want friends, I don't want to look at me and be a failure. So the drive to not fail, it just is always in the back of me and that competitiveness to what I can do to be better. You know, who can I talk to? Who can I learn from to get better?

SPEAKER_00 16:55

So, what qualities do you look for in potential employees? Do you look for any personality traits or anything like that?

Hiring For Soft Skills And Care

SPEAKER_01 17:02

I think in property management, for me, when I'm when I get to the point to where I hire my first like assistant property manager that I'm gonna be in there and you know, helping me manage, they're going to have to have good soft skills of dealing with people and being able to build relationships. Because what I see in the property management is people who don't re property managers who don't return calls, property managers who say, hey, this is the way it is, tough. If you don't like it, go somewhere else, right? Um I feel like if you can find someone who really does care about residents, who really does care about owners and has those soft skills to kind of work through, hey, there's there's all these different, you know, parts and pieces, you're gonna have to be a really like personable person and be patient to work with it. Those that's what I would be looking for in my first hire. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Perfect, perfect. So for those employees or for those people that you'll be working with, you know, how do you go about fostering a positive and productive work environment for them?

SPEAKER_01 18:15

I mean, I'm gonna have to go lean back onto you know what was successful as a coach, right? You build those relationships, you're constantly like teaching and coaching them on in a positive way. The negative way never is really um helpful. It just isn't. Um, if you can be positive and you can encourage it, you can get those employees and make them feel like they are an important aspect to what you're doing in your business, then they're gonna want to do, they're gonna want to show up every day. They're gonna want to help you out. You're gonna be building a strong relationship that they're like, man, I gotta be there for Brad today. You know, it's not just a paycheck, like, hey, man, I I've got to be there for this resident is having a problem with, you know, pouring or whatever. I want to make sure that that person is taken care of. So I really think like strong, positive relationships is the best way to be a leader.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

No, I agree. I agree with that because I mean it's you always go back to like what you just said. You know, you think about, man, you know, I want to work hard for this person. I I like working with this person. I want to work hard for them. And you go a little bit more of an extra mile for a person you actually enjoy working with, right? Whether it's somebody who, oh, I I don't even want to come to work today, you know, I'm just gonna do what I need to do to get out of here, and that's it. But if you enjoy working with the person, you'll probably put a little bit of extra work and a little bit of extra effort into actually getting the job done correctly, right? Because you actually are trying to make that person look good. That's that that's your leader. So uh I definitely agree with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

100%. I, you know, the head coaches that I worked the hardest for were the ones that were, you know, they trusted you to do your job. And, you know, obviously if you did something wrong, they come to you and they talk to you, but they were positive and you had a friendship with them. The worst ones, the worst head coaches to work for were the micromanagers and the ones that always had something negative to say. They were never happy, horrible to work for, you know.

Quick Fire: Education, Planning, Inspiration, Commitment

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Yeah, oh definitely agreed, agreed. All right, so yeah, I appreciate you answering those questions. Now we're gonna head into what's called the quick fire round. Um, and how this works basically is I'm going to, I'm going to say one word, and basically you're going to respond with the first thing that comes to your mind in regards to running your franchise business in regards to that word. So yeah.

unknown 20:48

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

The first word is education.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

I think education is crucial. Um, you know, even after you know, 23 years in coaching, I would go to clinics and I'd always try to find like one nugget, something that some coach was teaching or you know, talking about that I could grab onto. You know, always always looking and reading. So same with you know, your business, like always continuing to educate yourself means you're going to continue to improve and stay up on the trends. If you're the person that says, hey, I know everything, you're gonna get left behind. You you should probably get out.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Next word is planning.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Planning. Yeah, planning is so important. Um, you know, every day, you know, every week actually, I kind of look at what my next week is gonna look like. You know, I plan out, I've got my schedule, I try to fit things in and make sure that I'm efficient and give myself enough time. But, you know, I'm I'm consistently looking at my calendar throughout the day and seeing, hey, where can I plug and play in these things and get this next thing accomplished or or you know, finished up.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Next word is inspiration.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Inspiration. I draw a lot of inspiration from you know, my my daughter. I want her to see that there's a better way to live your life, you know, like we talked about work life balance. And then also I want I don't want her to be the person that's working 80 hours a week for somebody. I want her to see that you know she can build something with her. Two hands and I want her to have that entrepreneurial, you know, ideas in her head. If she doesn't want to, that's fine. But I want her to have her dad, I want her to see that in her dad and be able to say, you know what? My dad did that. I could do that.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah, no, no, I love that because yeah, yeah, I see what you mean. And I have to I have to actually say something in regards to this because, you know, for me growing up, I I didn't have that, right? Both my parents, I grew up in actually low-income house, you know, low-income neighborhood. And both my parents work 50, 60 hours a week just to make ends meet. And um, and it and it's tough. And it's like I would have loved at a younger age to have seen, you know, more ways out, like entrepreneurial and stuff like that. And it and it gives you a sense of that earlier on in life rather than you having to come up and then learn it the harder way, kind of go through some bruises, get get, you know, get set back, get back up, and then learn that way. So yeah, I totally agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

So sorry, I didn't mean that for full.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

But uh, yeah, that kind of made me think of my childhood and how I I would have loved to have seen that growing up because I I I feel like I would have gotten uh far ahead in life a little earlier. Um yeah, it is what it is. But yeah, the last word is uh commitment.

Advice: Givers Gain And Referrals

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Commitment. You know, when you're running your business, it's a commitment. You know, uh there's never really some time off. You know, you're constantly are thinking about how I can grow the business, and it really is a commitment to where, hey, I've I've invested so much in it that now, hey, what can I do now that I've committed to this? What can I do to keep keep committed and keep educating myself, be persistent and keep growing the business? Because, you know, again, all that you've invested in it, you don't want it to be for naught. And in my case, I just I'm scared of failure. Scared of failure.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Okay, perfect. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, what and you could be as candid as possible on this question here, but what words of advice would you offer to other business owners who are looking to grow?

SPEAKER_01 24:49

I I have to fall back on, you know, what I know is you know, BI network green. And if you really want to grow and you want to get out there and network, and you really want your business to achieve whatever goals you have set, you have to have that giver's game. Like you really have to be willing to help out other people. And when I first started, I was like, really? People are gonna help other people out. And I have a lot of great referral partners with property managers. There's enough business to go around, right? There's enough business for everyone to go around. You just have to be willing to make those connections and be a trusted referral partner and be willing to give. And those people are gonna want to help you out, and they're gonna want to help you grow your business.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Okay, okay. All right. So, what would you say is the next big thing for PMI Soda City?

SPEAKER_01 25:50

That's a great question. Thought about this, and you know, I really want to grow the residential side um and the commercial side because it gives me much more of a steady income and it's not as labor intensive as the short-term rental, but there is a lot of intrigue, especially in the commercial side and managing that because um I think that's where I think that's where the growth can really be. I thought it was short-term, I thought it was long term, and those are great, but I think for me, like I really kind of want to get into that niche niche of commercial because you know, one, there's a lot more money in commercial. And two, I don't think that there's a lot of great property managers that are in the commercial. They're they're taken over by big corporations. So I think if I can get in there and really show that my strengths and the personality and the personal care that I can take for your commercial property, I think I can really help some people out grow their business as well.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

All right, perfect. And lastly, what's the next uh what's the best way for someone to find you or get in touch with you if they need to?

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Yeah, I would say just go to my my website. That's probably the best way at PMI SodaCity.com. Um and you go on there, you can you can reach me. You'll have my cell phone will be on there, our office phone, um, email address, all of those things. You can also, you know, book vacation rentals if you're or you know, short-term rentals as you're coming into Columbia. Those are all ways in which you know you can get in contact with people.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Perfect. Any social media?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

I mean, I do, I'm on Facebook a little bit. I really don't do a lot of social media. I know it it's an area that I need to grow, but on Facebook, um, you know, I do post on my, we do have a PMI sort of city one, and then my personal, uh, but my personal one, I just, you know, basically do kind of the business stuff. So it's it's not any of my personal stuff. It's just, you know, geared more towards short-term rentals and property management. Same with the PMI sort of city uh Facebook account.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Okay, okay, perfect. Fantastic. Well, yeah, thank you so much for being a part of the community and for all that you're doing. We certainly wish you continued success. And I really appreciate you coming on the podcast today. I felt like we had a great heart to hearts of conversation. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah, I really appreciate you having me. I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

All right, have a good day.