The Hotel Investor Playbook
Welcome to The Hotel Investor Playbook, hosted by real estate investor and hospitality operator Michael Russell. Michael is the co-founder of Malama Capital and Howzit Hostels, and has built a personal real estate portfolio exceeding $20 million.
With an operator-first mindset, Michael brings a practical perspective to hotel investing. On the show, he breaks down what it actually takes to scale from short-term rentals into boutique hotels, covering deal sourcing, operations, capital strategy, and risk.
Each week, Michael shares real lessons from the field as he builds toward a $400 million real estate business, giving listeners an honest look at the decisions, challenges, and strategies behind the growth. Subscribe and follow along as he documents the journey in real time.
The Hotel Investor Playbook
What It Takes to Build a Revolutionary Hospitality Business | Brian Meyer E21
What if your next hospitality investment didn’t sit on land?
In this episode, Mike and Nate sit down with Brian Meyer, founder and CEO of Flow Home—a luxury floating home rental business redefining waterfront living. We explore how Brian turned a niche concept into a scalable brand, how he raised capital, overcame regulatory barriers, built vertically integrated operations, and is now expanding into floating communities and resorts.
If you’re a hotel or STR investor looking for what’s next, you’ll love this conversation on innovation, scaling, and why the future of real estate might just be on the water.
Connect with Brian:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmeyer5787/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flohom_ofc/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weareflohom
Website: https://flohom.com/
Connect with Michael on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Email Us at info@hotelinvestorplaybook.com
Visit the Hotel Investor Playbook Instagram
What if the next big real estate opportunity isn't on land? What if your next hotel investment floats? In today's episode of the Hotel Investor Playbook, we're talking to Brian Meyer, founder of Flow Home, a luxury floating home rental brand that's opening up an entirely new lane in hospitality. We dive into how Brian took a wild idea and turned it into a scalable business model with multiple revenue streams, creative capital raising, and some seriously innovative operations. If you're curious about new asset classes that could unlock massive upside, this episode will stretch your thinking and give you real tactical insight. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Hotel Investor Playbook, your guide to building wealth and freedom through boutique hotel ownership, hosted by Mike and Nate. Get in the game. Brian, welcome to the show.
Brian Meyer:What's up, guys? My Hawaiian brothers. I'm excited to talk story with you guys.
Michael Russell:Yeah, aloha. How's it? Right. Brian, we're pumped. So we met you um about a year ago and you really inspired us because you've got a unique business model. And let's dig into this a little bit. I want to know what is your vision for Flow Home and is this a scalable business model?
Brian Meyer:My vision for Flow Home is really creating this first of its kind ecosystem around connecting people to water. Um, you know, right now we're focused on the hospitality piece of that. But um in our future, we're you know looking to create floating communities where people can live on the water, socialize with each other, you know, paddle board, foil, kayak, and it also has commercial aspects of as well. So floating special event centers, saunas. So really again, creating this new lifestyle around on-water living. Uh, you know, in the US, it's it's pretty niche. There are a couple of areas in the US that have kind of somewhat of a community that I'm describing. But if you look, take a global uh perspective on it, you know, there's some really interesting concepts being developed around the world. And, you know, I, you know, my team and I confidently confidently believe the next real estate asset class is on the water. And from our early success, we already have a leading brand. And um, you know, we're gonna continue to grow that and and really sky's the limit. It's it's really what we want to do. I mean, there's so much opportunity. Uh, there's still so many challenges and complexities to come, but what we've accomplished so far um, you know, really gives us the ultimate confidence that we're gonna uh make that vision a reality.
Nathan St Cyr:I love that. I love that you're really creating a lifestyle brand, right? And when I think of um, you know, making money investing in hospitality assets, uh, there's obviously a large component to that here. But I think a lot of our listeners, um, you know, the the the part that really they're wanting to gain value from is the concept of moving from, hey, I might have a short-term rental or a long-term rental or a few of them. And then how do I go and grow? How do I go and scale? And so whatever their vision is, I think that that's the next level for them is recognizing that that to do that, there's a business component, not just the hospitality stay side, right? To to go and really grow and scale, there's the growth of the business that has all of these unique complexities to it. And that's the part that that I really wanted to dig in with you is to understand how you took this concept of almost this short-term rental on the water, this original concept, and then the complexities that are taking place in you growing. So, can you just walk us through really how many of these homes do you currently have right now? And then ultimately, what are the challenges that you've been finding in growing this business?
Brian Meyer:Well, I'll start by saying it really started when before we even created the company is is how did I want to go about this? Did I want to go about it by myself or did I want to find a team that was going to help me, you know, bring that vision to life? And, you know, while I've had success building businesses, I knew that this was a special opportunity and something that was going to take me to levels that I haven't experienced before. So I made the decision to bring on two co-founders that have tremendous entrepreneurial experience and success. Um, you know, one of my partners built one of the largest uh hospitality parking companies in the entire United States. So this is someone who's been to the top of the mountain, has exited, and is in investing in startups. And, you know, when I even got the opportunity to pitch him the idea and he loved the idea, not just as an investor, but saw that he could, you know, help me, is really when you talk about scale, it's like, do you want to go about it yourself or do you want to build with people that you you trust and enjoy hanging out with? And that to me is the best part about scaling, is the team that you surround yourself with. Um, you know, this type of company, while there are like unique niche cases of people that are kind of doing similar things that we are, but not to the to the vision or the scale that we're doing, is you know, that involves raising capital. It it it there's there's so many complexities and why I've raised capital before, not to the level that we are going to. And so, you know, one of my partners really helps um on the networking and capital fundraising. Uh on the other side is we didn't go about this uh being the builder, uh building the flo the phloams ourselves, but we we became the builder out of necessity. And, you know, my I don't have any building experience, so I'm not swinging hammers, you know. I'm I I you know I kind of do all everything else. And so my other partner is the one that's leading our production side of the business. Uh, we kind of joke about it that we have already three kind of separate businesses that we've created this early in the process, which has created a lot of challenges and complexities. But again, it goes back to the team and the experience that I've surrounded myself with that has allowed us uh to get where we are today. So, I mean, we we're still early on. We have six flow homes open um this past four months. We really set ourselves up for success in scaling our production. So we're about to open five to six more flow homes in the next couple months, and we're just going to continue to ramp up from there. And, you know, I I guess what I would say to your listeners is I think the most motivating per thing for me is that I don't really look at it from a financial perspective of like, hey, here's you know, here's how my short-term rental is performing. I really focus on the guest experience and making sure our guests have an absolute amazing time because I just I knew that by doing that, that the financial success would come because we have a robust marketing platform that has allowed us to grow, but just simply from word of mouth and people just truly loving our experience has really allowed us to be successful this early on and has allowed us to get to this point where not only are people wanting to stay on flow homes, and we'll get into this, but people want to own the flow homes, and we can talk about what that means for Flow Home because that's just like a whole nother part of the business that we've recently started, and it will be a key to our scaling success.
Nathan St Cyr:Awesome. Well, um, I I think first of all, when we view uh scaling and growing a hospitality company, we we put things in these four different pillars, right? So we'll look at, well, you got to acquire it, and then you got to fund it, then you've got to operate it, and then you have to um obviously market it. And and we've seen you do some really good things in a couple of these areas. You've already you've already hit on marketing, and you just talked about the guest experience first and foremost. If you started there on the operational side, let's focus on hospitality, the rest happened. So we'll dig into those things. But I want to go back to because this was to me, is gonna ultimately have a huge impact on your direction and ultimately your success. And that was the choosing of of partners. And so you said that there's three co-founders, correct? Correct. Can you kind of break down what the what the difference is in skill and personality of each one of you and why you felt like in the beginning and building this, okay, here's who I am and what I bring to the table as strengths, and here's where I could use some enhancement. Can you just kind of because I think that that's a lot of a lot, that's a huge step when people start to scale is okay, do I scale on my own? Do I partner? And then if I'm gonna partner, what am I looking for? So can you walk us through that?
Brian Meyer:Yeah, you know, I think creating the team, the co-founding team create you know, uh was created organically. Like I didn't set out necessarily to find certain people with certain skill sets, it just kind of they just came along the way, and we just realized that we are very fortunate that we all have our strengths and things that we can get better at. And, you know, when I look at building businesses, I mean to me that's the most important. Like, I'm not trying to be the all-in just leader of just trying to do everything myself. I mean, building businesses is about having fun, it's about building, you know, a lifestyle and finding your purpose. And, you know, what motivates me every day is being able to do the things that I love to do. Now, I do a lot of things that I would rather be doing something else, but you know, it's never like one of those moments where I like, I really hate doing this. Um I knew because Flow Home doesn't really exist anywhere, that it was going to be very hard to raise capital. So I needed to find someone that had the network and the ability to help me raise capital. Um, and that's my partner, Jerry uh Selle. Um, I mean, this guy is a serial entrepreneur. I mean, he grew up in the projects of Annapolis and built himself to be a successful entrepreneur, one of the few black marina owners in the state of Maryland, um, has really just been done amazing work, gives back to the community, and he's boots on the ground. He's he's been a commercial and a residential builder for 30 years. And we knew that while we didn't set out to be the builder at first, we knew that we would be getting into building at some point, and so we needed that skill set. I'm 37 years old. I stay on the forefront of just emerging technologies and pretty tech savvy myself and my partners are older in age, and they're kind of more I'm not old school, but they're kind of a generation above me. So again, we learn from each other, and I think that's what's really special about our team dynamic. And I think for anyone looking to start a company and really thinking about scaling, is I'm I'm a true believer in team and that you know, I think one of the things that when I talk to people about building companies, like the first thing that they talk about is equity. And it's like if I get a couple people on my team, I'm gonna lose you know a certain amount of equity. I'm I would much rather take lower equity to be able to be a build a 200, $500 million company than rather you know be a solo founder and maybe get it to you know 30 or 40, right? Because I personally, I mean, obviously I'm driven by financial success, but it doesn't like run my life. And I focus on finding my purpose and passion, which is building businesses around the water. And I found myself in a position to do that at this scale. You talk about focus, like I'm focused. I've gotten rid of everything in my life that is not important to me, which is business, water, and family. Everything else I've gotten rid of. I am solely focused on this mission of building this company because I know by doing that, it's gonna open up a world of new opportunities to continue, you know, growing, learning, and being a better business leader.
Michael Russell:Hey guys, quick break from the episode. Look, we're always looking to bring you the best content here on the Hotel Investor Playbook. And honestly, we'd love to hear from you. We want to know what you want to learn about. Is there a topic you're dying to hear us dive into? Or maybe you know someone who'd be an awesome guest, someone with a great story, unique expertise, or insights that would bring value to all of us in the hotel investing game. Shoot us an email at info at hotelinvestorplaybook.com. That's info at hotelinvestorplaybook.com and let us know. We read every single message, and honestly, it would make our day to hear from you. Your feedback helps us make this podcast better and more relevant for you. So don't be shy, reach out and help shape the next episodes. All right, back to the show.
Nathan St Cyr:I love that. So it sounds like when the partnership organically got created, you looked at, okay, here, I have this unbelievable vision, but I recognize that I'm limited in my growth if it's all on my shoulders. And so then you you went out and you really said, okay, well, uh I might be on the forefront of technology and have this unbelievable vision. But man, if this thing's gonna get big, we're gonna need capital. And I'm gonna need somebody within our network that's gonna really have that as a strength. And then from the operation side to be able to build this out, there's the construction side of it and just the boots on the ground operations that to be able to depend on somebody to actually do a lot of and build a lot of the things that need to be done. Those were some of the components that could really help you go from just doing everything on your own to amplifying your uh amount of growth. Yeah, you nailed it. I guess compressed time a little bit.
Michael Russell:I want to echo that a bit because I speak with a lot of people who are inspired by what we're doing. And when I ask them based on what they're passionate about, oh man, I see her. I recognize an opportunity where they could pour into and do something. A lot of times this idea of limiting beliefs comes in and then they come up with the reasons why they can't do it. Oh gosh, I could never raise capital. I don't have the network for that, or I don't have the know-how or experience to do X, Y, Z. And what you just simplified there is you said, look, I don't need to know everything. I'm gonna go partner with the people that have experience in the areas where maybe I have some shortfalls. And then collectively, we're gonna be better together as a whole. And that, you know, that limitation doesn't exist once you start to think about it from the perspective of, well, I don't need to own and do everything myself. I can share the responsibility. And maybe from a financial perspective, it might seem like I'm not able to make as much because I'm sharing the wealth. But in the reality is, if you grow the company to be a much bigger organization, then you're all gonna benefit more. And I think this is something Nathan is extremely bad. He reminds me all the time of this. And it's just reiterating my own mind like you're right. Like this is an example. You are demonstrating, presumably for a lot of listeners right now, that yeah, this is a point. You know, I don't have to be an expert capital raiser. I can go find someone, or I don't have to be an expert contractor. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. Hats off to you. I I really appreciate that that that input.
Brian Meyer:I will add something else to that is that the people that you surround yourself, and while they're important to you in those moments of building this business, those people are gonna be around you for the rest of your life. So you're just creating more of a team that, you know, when I, you know, when if and when there's an exit, because this is the type of thing that could just run the rest of my life. Likely there will be one. It's like, well, what's next? Well, I'm like, all right, well, I got, you know, I got my guy Jerry, Sally, and the rest of my guys. Like, you know, what are we gonna do next? It's about the people that you surround yourself with. You know, there's just it provides a lifetime of opportunities to do stuff together. And I think that's what's the most fun about building a business.
Nathan St Cyr:I freaking love that. I mean, I no, I I really do because that is like, okay, it happens to be this, like this thingited our passion, and we're growing this. But then the concept of relationship and team, and man, we could go do we can go do anything together. Like, dude, this can translate. I mean, the reality is these skills that all of us are are learning along the way, they really do translate into um, you know, baby universally over, you know, business. And and that's the that is really the exciting part as all of us continue to grow is we're building these skills and it's gonna continue just to translate. And so if we can take not just skills, but also relationships and teammates and networking and all of that, uh, and just to keep doing killer stuff in life, uh, that's that's an exciting, that's an exciting future. So I love that you brought up that that next that next phase as well. I think that that's uh extremely valuable. So I have a question that when you have this really unique vision like flow home and you're growing, there's capital raising and then there's also funding from financial institutions. And and I'm just wondering what you found from um working with financial institutions, how they view what you're doing. Because whether it's flow home or whether it's someone out there that is developing, they've got this killer concept of a unique micro resort with these, you know, unique capsules or whatever it is that they're creating, you know, the funding side of it becomes this it's part of the it's one of the pillars, right? How do you go and do that?
Brian Meyer:Well, I'm sure as people could imagine trying to sell a bank on providing uh you know loans and and funding assistance to houseboats um is not the easiest. And um so yeah, it just goes back to being strategic around that. I mean, I go back to my team having you know someone uh like my partner Jerry that has had tremendous relationships with financial institutions while building his previous company um Sally the same, and then really collectively going to the institution and and really just sitting there and then sharing the vision and how we're gonna do it and be confident in what we're going to do to give them confidence because again, something like what we're building that doesn't really exist, um you know, if I if I didn't have the team and the confidence, like phone probably it would not exist or not be where we are today. And you know, really just um making sure that the institutions believe in what you're doing, they obviously still think of it as risk as we're still a startup, but you know, they see my passion, they see the work that I'm doing, they see the the results that we're generating, and they get excited about that. You know, we're our institutions that are backing us are local banks that are in um the state and the cities that we're operating in. So they want to support local businesses. And you know, you just gotta find the right institution. I mean, um, you know, when we were at the um Unique State Summit uh in Austin in September, I mean, you know, we were all sitting around sharing those stories, and you know, Ben Wolf, um, you know, from Monera just was like, you know, I went to 30 banks and you know, I got 29 no's, and then finally someone said yes. And I mean, it again, it sucks going to a bank pitching, getting no over and over again. But again, if you truly had belief. That you can pull it off, that someone's gonna take a bite and then you're off to the races.
Nathan St Cyr:So at the end of the day, although there is risk, you're a startup, all of that, your vision, what you guys are doing, there has been at least some appetite with local banks to maybe not, it sounds like maybe not fund you as much as you'd like, but have uh been willing to provide some sort of funding.
Brian Meyer:Yes, yeah. Um actually, because we raised uh two and a half million seed round, um, which got us to um you know six six flow homes, and you know, we're currently building flow 14 right now. So, I mean, without the financial institution backing, you know, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing right now. So, yeah, it was a pivotal point in getting that relationship going to continue our growth. Um, you know, I I will say though, and you know, that again they're starting to wrap their head around it, um, because these are boats technically, but they're used as floating hotel suites or homes. And so um while there isn't a crazy amount of data out there, there is true data that shows that in a certain asset type of houseboat in the certain location that these are appreciating assets. And again, it's kind of hard to get the bank to understand that, but they're starting to come around to it. And so now when they understand that, it's less risky knowing that um the worst case happens, you got to sell the asset. But that's another thing interesting about our business is that we're vertically integrated. We're the builder, we're the operator, and we're also becoming the real estate owner. And we're a licensed boat dealer. So there's so many different ways that you know we can shift around our business model to keep going or to support the bank and what they need. And so that's just the benefit of this vision that we're creating is that we have these different business lines that we can shift around assets to support the different business vertical.
Nathan St Cyr:I love this. Can you just describe for us what um what somebody can so that they can envision what a flow home is?
Brian Meyer:Yeah, so think of a flow home as a luxury uh floating suite. So our models range from anywhere from 450 to 850 square feet of interior space. All of our flow homes have fully ducked out rooftops, which is another you know, 400 to 800 square feet. Um, typically houseboats are are pretty narrow. Ours are ours are wider, so our bigger flow homes are 16 feet and um you know they're fully glass paneled all the way around for the incredible views. And um, you know, from a design aesthetic standpoint, you know, we we buy the you know the the nicest um furnishings to really create um an amazing experience. And it's like uh it's got the perfect mix, I think, of a home and a boat. It's not too boaty, it's not too homey, it's like right in the middle. Um, and that's what I love about it because I've been on other um similar houseboats or floating homes that are either too much of a boat or too much of a home where it didn't even feel like you were on the water, and it kind of lost the appeal to me about the overall experience.
Nathan St Cyr:And are they for season? Because you mentioned in Maryland, are these things accessible all year long?
Brian Meyer:Uh most people didn't think that that would be possible, but we've made it work, and yes, they are truly four season. Um, you know, they uh the way that we build them and the uh the AC and heat uh uh appliances installations that we have in them uh make them super comfortable year-round. Uh now there are some challenges, as I was mentioning to you guys uh prior to to jumping on, is um this winter has been um uh the temperatures have been extremely uh cold compared to to years past. So there's been a couple instances where um the pipes from land that we get water from during the winter. Let me just kind of explain because this is kind of the uniqueness of being a boat in a marina, but like especially in the mid-Atlantic or in the Northeast, marinas, the utilities marina give you are electricity, water, and waste removal. During the winter time, the water and waste removal shut down because historically it used to get as cold as it did this winter, where they couldn't keep the water and the waste removal running because everything would freeze and burst. So they shut everything down. So what we have to do is move the boats, you know, being boats, we can move them around the closer to the shore so that we can then connect to on land water supply. And then for waste removal, we're lucky in Baltimore, there's a private boat pump out service that actually services during the winter. So that's how we get our waste removed. But because the temperatures, this actually this week, you know, they were getting into the single digits, and uh, you know, the our infrastructure, the on-land infrastructure can't even deal with that. So the water froze, which created complications because we're booked year out. Um, it's not like we're just a seasonal business, you know, we're we're running at like 60, 70% occupancy through January and February, which is like the slowest time of the year. And um, it happened in January. We we were all being at the first time it happened, it kind of freaked out. I was like, oh my God, what am I, what were we gonna do? We had to you know cancel reservations, shift people around. And and again, when you think about the guest experience, every single guest understanding of the situation came away super happy. I mean, I was putting people in hotels, and it was just a mess. This time around, even though it happened, is that we never we didn't have to cancel or refund a single person. People stayed on the phones without water because we just repositioned the experience as luxury glamping. Now, we obviously made up for it and gave them a discount on a future stay, but like they still loved the experience in 20-degree weather in Baltimore, Maryland, in the dead of winter with no water, and they still had a five-star experience. And I was just I was told people, I was like, this is just an example of problems create opportunities that then create solutions. And this is just an example of how you can take any situation and find a solution for it.
Nathan St Cyr:I I love that. So I'm really intrigued by this concept of how how you really, you know, you went through the vertical, vertical opportunities that you have within this business. And one of them is that you are producing these, you are the builder. And so in your business model, can somebody buy a flow home from you, or are you just owner-operator of each one of these?
Brian Meyer:All the flow homes that we have opened today, actually, I'm let me the first five flow homes that we opened are all corporate owned. So we use the the seed round capital to to buy those and own them, owner operate. Um, and that was our initial plan was to build a fleet of all corporately owned boat uh flow homes. But then, you know, people were loving the experience and started getting emails and follow-up messages from guests being like, hey, like, you know, can I own a flow home? What does that look like? And I was like, uh, interesting. And um, you know, I remember it was in December 2023. Just talking to my partners, and I was like, you know what, guys, I'm gonna just create a sales inquiry for them and just throw it out there and kind of see what happens. And the thing just blew up. And uh, I was like, all right, I think we have something here. And um, you know, it was a long process. Um, you know, one of the big why it was a long process is finding financing for people to get, you know, finance these. And um, but yeah, we uh Flow Home 6 is our first partner boat, and actually the next uh thrust are opening our are partner flow homes. And so the way to think about it is we're definitely not building a property management company because that is something I do not want to do. But I do want to find people that believe in our vision, that want to be a part of our story, that have the opportunity to buy, you know, not just one, but a whole fleet of them one day and be a true partner. And so um we've started out actually the first flow home that we sold was from a guest um who stayed on one of our flow homes and a month later uh signed the contract to be our first partner. And what's interesting is that flow homes are because they're boats, um, they there's some interesting tax benefits uh that people can take advantage of. So again, I'm not a real estate professional, but I've learned a lot over this year about that. Like bonus depreciation uh is a big thing in the real estate world. And because flow homes are deemed equipment by the IRS, uh, you know, people can take advantage of bonus depreciation. Um, there's also a capital gains uh strategy there as well. So we're still in developing this whole program and what that all means. But um again, when you think about scale, we originally were like, we're gonna have to go raise a bunch of money to go build the business. And now we're like, well, man, we got this partner program. It's like, well, you know, if we sell X number of partner program boats and flow homes and then still, you know, build our corporate owned ones, we can use you know the sales from our partner flow homes to help capitalize the rest of the business. And so we're still figuring out what that right mix is, but you know, again, that's something that just happened organically. We weren't even thinking about that at the beginning, and now that's like a key part of our our business and our growth plan. I love that.
Nathan St Cyr:So, where do you build these and what's like a what's the production cost of a flow home?
Brian Meyer:So we build these in Baltimore, Maryland. Um, we're very fortunate to have a waterfront production facility uh in downtown Baltimore. Um, and I can't give up the secrets of how much it costs to build, but um, you know, I would, you know, the building philosophy is is more of like a modular build. So um, you know, we're building them modular just like a modular home. And then um, you know, we don't manufacture the halls. We have a hull manufacturer that um will make the halls and then ship them to our location where we'll assemble it and make it into a boat. But what I will say, um, the cost of a flow home is significantly less than what it would cost to buy a waterfront home. And from the short-term rental or hotel uh performance return side, um, you know, the returns that we get are uh you know significantly more than what I would even think like a waterfront home would get, um, depending on the size of the home. But like it the it's just what's interesting because again, if you apply being on the water, which has tremendous value, you know, the flow home asset and the furnishings and the aesthetics has another value, and then the operations and the guest experience has another value. So when you add all that up, I mean our rates compare to the four seasons or you know the most expensive hotels in any city. And if you read our guest reviews, all of them be like, this is a better experience. So, you know, we're actually still trying to find our price levels. Uh, we're still in discovery mode because we just, you know, people just keep loving the experience and like, all right, well, let's let's, you know, if we're 99% occupancy, well, I think we need to raise the rates a little bit. And then the next month, we're still at 90%. I was like, all right, we need to raise them a little bit more. And you know, we're again, uh we didn't set out to build, you know, quote unquote, this like luxury kind of super expensive experience, but I've just come to realize that it's what people value the experience, and that's what it's really all about. What do the guests value of what we're creating? And so the price is representative of what people believe our experience is is worth. I love this.
Nathan St Cyr:So now what's what's next?
Brian Meyer:What's next step for us is scaling production. Um, and you know, we have done that uh so far. Um, you know, our production facility is jam-packed. We just changed our, you know, turned our building uh next build cycle. You know, we have several frow homes, flow homes uh that are about to open. And you know, and and that comes with a lot of challenges. But I mean, it's you know, a human capital, it's like getting people to help us build these. Um, it's the operations of of making sure that we maintain the quality. And up until this point, um, all the flow homes are in our kind of local network, you know, within a 45-minute drive. But we're now in the next uh you know month and then for the rest of the year starting to expand out of state, going south into Virginia Beach, Florida. Um, and so again, that's going to present new challenges. And and actually, I don't know if you guys have experienced this or heard of this, but we actually just onboarded into EOS entrepreneurial operating system. Um, my business partner Jerry has done it multiple times in his businesses. And, you know, I was scratching to get into this platform for a long time because I just knew we needed that structure. And we we onboarded about a month and a half ago, and it's made a tremendous difference in really focusing on what's most important and creating that structure. But most importantly, creating transparency and accountability for all stakeholders to make sure that everyone is doing what they need to do, and if they aren't, that they're going. We're gonna see that and we're gonna talk about it and how to solve that. And I think that's super important for scale because you kind of get lost in the do and you're not working on the business, and you kind of have to do two at the same time to really, you know, scale.
Nathan St Cyr:Mike can weigh in on this one. I just think that this has been huge for us. You know, we recognized exactly what you said. Like we we hit that part where we needed through, we needed that system. And so we did. We hired a business coach and we've integrated EOS, and it's been game-changing as far as really what it's been able to do to um increase our infrastructure and prepare us for uh the next step. So as you look at this next step though, what is the biggest bottleneck moving forward?
Brian Meyer:Well, I think for us, because we've created these different businesses, you know, we have our corporately owned, you know, short-term rental or you know, hotel operations business, then we have our production business, and then we have, you know, our partner, I guess you could call it property management of sorts. So um the challenge is keeping pace with all of them because how our model works is you need production, you need placement, placement meaning putting them in marinas and sales. So you have to have all three humming because if you're behind production, then your sales are gonna drop. Or if you don't have the placement, like if you don't have the best marinas to put them in, then you could be building all day long, but then you have nowhere to put them. So you you have to keep all of them at the same level to to scale efficiently. And that's really I mean, we're solving for it. Um, but that that's just the constant challenge to stay ahead of for us.
Michael Russell:I've got a question. So uh this is a unique concept and it's new to market, but let's say this thing takes off and you start to gain some competitors. Uh I mean, what are the barriers to entry here? Since uh you rely on an arena and there could be regulations, there could be limited space. I'm just curious from your perspective, when you look at scaling this brand, what are some of the uh potential challenges that exist to continuing to scale the size of this business?
Brian Meyer:I mean, there's tremendous, tremendous um challenges and and that people look at what we use what we're doing, and and they're like, oh, I want to go do that, or it looks easy. And as you guys could probably figure out with me, is that it definitely wasn't easy, and you have to be all in to make it happen. So just a couple of things. Number one, production. We became the builder out of necessity because we originally found a builder that we thought was gonna be a good partner and they didn't work out. You know, I keep a I keep an eye on all the all the builders that are out there you know building similar things to our we are, and no one's building it scale. So that's why we're focused on building a scale. Uh the other thing is placement. Um, most marinas will never allow a houseboat in their marina, most certainly for you know what they would call Airbnb or short-term rentals. Um, you know, we had to work extremely hard to convince our first partner marinas to allow us to do this to then prove that we can be good tenants, good neighbors, and can run a high quality operation. So anyone today that like, oh, I found a houseboat, I'm gonna go put it in this marina and Airbnb it, 99% of the time they're gonna be told no. Thirdly, um, you know, as you all know about the regulatory landscape, especially in short-term rentals, it's very restrictive, especially in these urban areas where our flow homes are located. So we're actually not a licensed short-term rental in anywhere, uh any jurisdiction. You know, in some areas we're a hotel, some were exempt, some were a charter. So again, you got to understand how to reach out to the city, talk to them. So, you know, between production, between placement, between regulatory, I mean, those three barriers to entry right there are gonna stop pretty much everyone in their tracks. Now, the people that do break through to that, they still have to compete against us. And as you guys can probably figure out, there's no person that there's no person out there that's more that's more passionate than I am about this. And so you're gonna have to compete against us. And I have yet to see someone that's gonna be able to do that. So, not to say it's not gonna happen. I'm sure it will at some point, but again, we've created it already a leading brand. We've created true trust with our our customers, and even when there are people that come into this space, I I truly believe that we'll still be at the forefront because of what I just described, and most importantly, the lifestyle that we're building, because people are looking at this from a financial opportunity. I'm looking at this from a lifestyle. I started this business because I personally wanted to live on the water full time with my family, and this is just the way for me to do that is build the business first. And you can't compete against that.
Nathan St Cyr:There you have it.
Michael Russell:I love it. All right, so let me pivot into the customer-facing aspect of this. You're essentially creating a new category in hospitality. So, how do you educate the market and get customers on board with this new concept?
Brian Meyer:Well, it comes down to marketing. You know, I'm as an entrepreneur, I've taught myself how to do a lot of different things. But just if you ask me what I'm truly most passionate about, it is mark, it's visual storytelling, it's creating content. And um, I knew that we had such an interesting concept that if we could just get high quality content out there and utilize social media, just like you know, some of the other unique stays, experiential companies out there, you know, that are doing it, you know. Obviously, most you know, most people maybe have heard of Isaac French. You know, he he did it really well. And you know, we basically are running a similar playbook is utilizing social media, creating high-quality short firm, short form content, and you know, our accounts have exploded. Um, you know, social media is the next marketplace. I mean, I don't know the exact numbers, but the amount of people that are on Instagram every day compared to on Airbnb is like night and day. So, you know, there's a lot of processes and strategies in place to get your content out there, but um, you know, that's another thing too, is that you know, 72% of our bookings are direct through Flow Home. Um, and that's you know, primarily because of our marketing. So we capture the people from the marketing, so they book, and then there's such an unknown where a boat, you know, they just don't know what to expect. And that's where then it comes in to it created very detailed, guided uh playbook to get them prepared for their stay. Um, everything is curated to the absolute last detail. Um, and And just really create an amazing experience for people to be like, wow, I have to come back. I have to tell my friends. And, you know, it's just worked wonders. I, you know, I I um am a true believer in owning your own, owning your, not owning your customers, but owning the relationship so that you can dictate how you want to treat them as your customer, your guest, and and where you want what do you want them to do? Where do you want them to go? And I think you guys understand this because you're doing the same thing, but the next generation of hospitality companies are us. It's what we're doing because we're not building on someone else's land. We're not reliant on Airbnb, VRBO. And while we're on there and we appreciate that and we respect their platforms, is you know, they're just a piece of what we're building. Yeah.
Michael Russell:I'm curious, when you first came up with this idea, I mean, did you always envision this as a scalable business, or did that realization come later?
Brian Meyer:No, I knew it from the beginning. I mean, I I I look back at our first uh presentation deck, and I I had the whole vision mapped out in the different business verticals. I have the whole vision mapped out on the customer journey on what that would look like. You know, I'm a visionary, I think big, I'm a huge risk taker, but I'm also an executor, I'm an operator. Uh, I build processes. Um, so I think um not everyone has, not everyone can do that. And I uh again, I didn't go to school for business. Actually, you know, my first I mean that that's why kind of we have this connection because I went to school in Hawaii. I certainly didn't go to school in Hawaii for school. I went there to surf, but I did attend class. And um, you know, the experience of Hawaii really transformed my love for the water. And actually joining an Outrigger Canoe Club in Waikiki really changed my life because it really introduced me to paddling, which my first company that I started was a paddleboarding company, which was my first kind of MBA of learning how to build a business. And then I took that experience and started another business. And I took that, and then now I started Flow Home. And so um, yeah, it's it's I had the vision from day one. Um, but again, it's a vision's just a vision. You got to execute and and make it happen. And that's the quality I have as well, is that I'm you know very focused on making that happen.
Michael Russell:All right. So looking ahead, what's your vision for Flow Home over the let's say the next five years? Do you see any potential to expand beyond floating homes to maybe some other innovative hospitality concepts? What's the vision?
Brian Meyer:No doubt. Yeah. Um, I mean, we not that this is a core part of our business, but we've already built a uh a floating shower house for Marina. So again, it goes back to the next real estate classes on the water. And, you know, as you all know, building real estate, operating real estate, um, it's it's very challenging. There's a lot of regulatory hoops that you have to jump through to get, you know, even a permit to build something. Um, you know, the water is pretty gray area. Um, you don't really have that. And so, yeah, I mean, you know, the flow homes as they are uh today that we run them out uh for short-term lodging, you know, we're gonna have floating communities. Um so we just purchased somewhat recently our first marina, and we'll continue to acquire real estate as well to create floating communities, also float, you know, resorts that have a hospitality and commercial concept. Because what you all are seeing on land is I'm seeing that, and I'm like, well, how do I apply that to the water? And so, you know, creating this resort-like experience where there's food and beverage, there's lodging, there's a special event space, there's wellness amenities, all that can be built on the water. It exists. There's, I mean, I've seen companies that are building all sorts of crazy stuff all over the world. It's like, all right, well, we want that, we want that, we want that, and we want to put it all together and we want to create this amazing experience. And so, you know, flow home will be so much more than what we are today. And again, it goes back to the lifestyle is that you know, there'll be a flow home residential community, there will be a flow home resort. Um, there'll still be flow home scattered around in Premier Marinas, you know, all across the US, maybe, you know, maybe internationally as well. We'll see. Um, but you know, when people talk about the on-water hospitality experience, it's going to be flow home. Love it.
Nathan St Cyr:So I want to wrap up with this. In the building of this unique, I'll call you the early adopter, right? You're leading the charge out here. If you can take what you've learned to this point and say, you know what, there is a now that I have this experience, here is a change that I would have made along the way, or here is here's a big lesson that I learned in growing this um that could have value to someone else, what might that be? That's a great question.
Brian Meyer:I don't know if I'd have anything to change because I think we've run the playbook pretty well up to this point. Now, again, there's a lot of stuff that have happened that at any point in time I've could have said, I give up, I can't handle this, this isn't gonna work. But if you truly, truly, truly believe in something and you really want to create that what I call you know success. I mean, I have it's funny, I have success, uh, I have a tattoo on my chest, and it's it's love, strength, and success. Those are my just models of life. And it's just like to truly build something purposeful and quote unquote successful, is that you have to go all in, and there's gonna be times that you're like, I don't know if I'm gonna figure this out. And again, that's why it's super important to have a team of people that are there with you to figure it out together, because if it was just me, I probably would have given up. But is just stick to what you believe in and don't give up. And again, worst case scenario, it doesn't work out. As we mentioned before, you got your team, they see how hard you work, they see all the passion you put into it. Not every idea is going to work out, that's just the nature of life. But that doesn't mean you are a bad business entrepreneur or a leader, and so start over and figure it out. But an important thing is is have a team, do it together, and you'll find a way to make it happen.
Nathan St Cyr:I love it, Brian. That's freaking gold. Uh that's a a perfect sentiment to to end this episode on.
Michael Russell:Yeah, Brian, this has been inspiring. Thanks so much for being on the show. Um, hey, listen, if our listeners want to follow you or otherwise stay in touch with you, how can they do so?
Brian Meyer:Yeah, so our our website's flowhome.com. So flowhome is spelled flo h. Most people think there's an e, but that wasn't available as a domain, so drop the e. Um, we're obviously on social media, flowhome underscore OFC. And then I'm also on social media as well. I primary primarily am on Instagram. Um, I'm not like a content creator of sorts, but I just do like to share what I'm doing in my life, share photos of my family and my water sports adventures, and you can follow me on there, uh, underscore uh Brian Meyer. And um, you know, I'm happy to have a conversation with anyone that's interested, um, just to talk ideas, learn more about Flow Home, and uh, you know, look forward to hearing from your audience.
Michael Russell:Awesome, man. Appreciate it. Awesome. He's Brian Meyer. We are Mike and Nate with the Hotel Investor Playbook signing off for this week. We'll catch you again on the next episode. Aloha. Thanks for hanging out with us today on the Hotel Investor Playbook. If you got even one good nugget of wisdom about hotel investing, do us a favor, hit that subscribe button and leave us a five-star review. And hey, if you're feeling extra generous, drop a quick line in the review section. Something like Mike and Nate are the go-to hotel investing guys, or best podcast for anyone looking to crush it in hospitality, or you know, whatever feels right. Those little shout-outs go a long way in helping more people find the show. And they pretty much make our day. All right, appreciate you guys. Catch you next time.