Massive Business Scaling With 2.5 Kids & NO Bootstrapping

Bri West, co-founder of Somerled, shares her massively successful intersection of business and parenting. 

Somerled has used market research and data analysis to design 700+ short term rentals that surpass the competition and maximize cash flow, with results that average 30-50% increase in revenue. Bri dives into her journey from long-term to short-term rental investments, the importance of asking for help, and the challenges of scaling a service-based business. They discuss financial management, pricing strategies, and the dynamics of working with a spouse. Bri also opens up about her plans for maternity leave and her dreams for her family and business.

About Bri West

Bri West is a co-owner of Somerled Designs with a strong background in marketing. From her experience in the marketing industry, she has the expertise to identify the right target audience and design tactics that will truly make an STR property shine.

Throughout her career, Bri has spearheaded countless impactful marketing campaigns, resulting in significant revenue growth and increased brand visibility for various organizations. Her exceptional ability to analyze market trends, target specific audiences, and come up with innovative solutions consistently delivers exceptional results. Now, Bri brings her expertise to the STR world, treating each design project as an opportunity to drive a higher return on investment for STR investors.

Bri is also an STR investor herself. Having purchased, set up, and managed over 10 successful STR properties, Bri understands the investor's point of view. At Somerled, she caters to these needs by focusing on efficient design for quick setup and cash flow, streamlined processes to accommodate busy investors, and smart furniture choices based on Bri's understanding of guest wear and tear. Her goal is to ensure that STR investors have a seamless and profitable experience at Somerled.

Overall, Bri is results driven with a proven ability to design STR properties that stand out from their competition, attract more bookings, and generate more revenue.

somerleddesigns.com

@somerled.designs

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Transcript

Kaila Sachse (00:01.799)
Welcome to the bringing up business podcast where we talk about business and parenting. Whether you have an idea for a business, you're planning a family, you're stepping into the upper echelons of business leadership, or you want to overall level up your existing situation. Our goal with this show is to empower you with more confidence. I am your host, Kaila Sachse, toddler mom and owner of a marketing and creative agency called Yumari Digital.

Yumari Digital supports business owners with form and function from branding to websites to marketing campaigns. Today, we have the honor of learning from Bri from Somerled. Somerled uses market research and data analysis to design short-term rentals that surpass the competition and maximize cashflow. Bri and Jordan, the co-founders, have combined their experience in STR investing

marketing strategy and professional design, and they have implemented design strategies for a whopping 700 properties. That's so impressive. With results that are even more impressive, they drive an average 30 to 50 % increase in revenue. Just insane. Like imagine having a short-term rental and then all of a sudden you're making 30 to 50 % more because you've worked with Somerled. Just incredible. We will also get to know

Bri's parenting journey and what that has looked like while taking the helm at Somerled. Bri, I'm so excited to get to hang out with you and welcome to the show.

Bri West (01:41.282)
Thank you, Kaila. I am so excited to be here. I love this concept of business ownership and talking about parenting and how those two are very intense, but you can do it together. And I'm not perfect. No one's perfect at it, but I'm so excited to share my journey and kind of where I'm at today with it.

Kaila Sachse (01:54.27)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (02:02.748)
Yeah, yeah, see, it's that part. It's trying to steer away from this unattainable idea of perfection in both business and parenting and having to juggle it all, especially as women too. We have so much pressure and that's the goal of this show is to try to relieve that pressure and just share simple advice, simple tips while also inspiring and showing, hey, it is

possible to do both.

Bri West (02:34.604)
Yeah, I love that because there's also not like a one, like one road for everybody. There's going to be different routes and depending on your situation, depending on, you know, your partner, all these different factors. And so I love that it's just tips and tricks and it's like, it with a grain of salt. I'm not perfect, but yeah, excited just to talk about what has worked, what I'm still trying to figure out and all the above.

Kaila Sachse (02:41.309)
Mm-hmm.

Kaila Sachse (02:51.838)
Exactly. Yes!

Kaila Sachse (02:59.517)
I'm so excited to learn from you. Okay, so let's go ahead and dive into how you met Jordan because Jordan is also the co-founder of Somerled. You two are the foundation of this business. So how did you two meet and what prompted you to start the business?

Bri West (03:15.99)
Yeah, great question. So things came about very organically for Somer led, we didn't know that we wanted to start this business until we were really actually doing it. And then we're like, maybe we should start a business. So I mean, I'm to back up many years to kind of the beginning of the entrepreneurship journey. So my husband and I, we got married pretty young, we met our freshman year of college. And that's actually where we met Jordan's husband too. So really relationships go back to

18 years old when we're in the dorms. My husband and I dated for three years and at the age of 21, we thought we were so mature and let's go ahead and get married. So got at 21 and like we had dated for three years. didn't, we knew we wanted to be together and it's worked out. It was kind of crazy. Now looking at 21 year olds, I'm like, ooh, you are still figuring out life. But what it gave us was the opportunity to grow together and my husband and I

Kaila Sachse (03:44.477)
Wow.

Kaila Sachse (03:53.01)
Whoa.

Bri West (04:13.078)
are very interlocked in our businesses. So that's kind of a story too. But at 21, we were sophomores in college and we both decided to drop out of college and we went on to the entrepreneurship route. I was in marketing and doing a lot of contractor work, started a little website agency. He was doing sales. And so I just grew that marketing knowledge and backgrounds kind of on my own, a little bit without a degree, but you know, learned as I, as I went and

Fast forward then to when, know, it about five years into marriage, 2020, we decided to invest in short-term rentals. We had been doing long-term rentals before, and we were intrigued by the short-term rental space. We had seen some influencers out there sharing their numbers, and we're like, okay, that is pretty crazy. you know, compared to what we were seeing in long-term rentals, we're like a little skeptical. We're like, can you really cashflow that much? But we decided to take the leap.

and jump into two short term rental properties in Phoenix, Arizona. And I was really excited about it because long term rentals are boring. There's no marketing effort needed. Like you actually probably shouldn't spend a lot of money into the home. It's just going to be rented by a tenant. You don't need furniture, great photos or anything, but short term rentals. I'm like, this is a different side of real estate where I saw that there really could be a big impact. And in 2020 things were heating up in the short term rental space, but

still not as competitive as they are today. Year after year, more competitive. But anyways, I went in with the mindset of, I'm going to treat these properties like a business. I'm going to brand them. I'm going to understand my competition. I'm going to write up a strategy for them, set myself apart from people, really just cater to an audience, not to what I think is cute. So I wrote all this up and I created the plan. But I am not an interior designer. I love creative.

But I didn't come from that background and I was like overwhelmed. like, this is a lot, a lot of decisions. so kind of back going backwards, we met Jordan's husband when we were freshmen. And then once they started dating and they got married kind of around 2020, we, I was introduced to Jordan and she went the route of interior design and was designing, high end vacation rentals in park city, Utah. And so was like, okay, maybe I'll reach out to her. She might be able to help me here. And luckily she said yes to helping me with the full thing.

Kaila Sachse (06:10.267)
Hmm.

Bri West (06:37.386)
and working on her weekends and that really sparked the relationship and just like, this is so fun to work together. And she came to Phoenix and we set everything up and it was a good time. So then from there, my husband and a guy named Michael Elefante started working together in a coaching program for short term rentals. And there were some students of theirs that needed design and they were starting to ask, okay, your properties are performing so well. Like, what are you doing? And

I'm like, oh, well, we kind of did it myself. And they're like, well, can you help me? So I was like, Jordan, do we want to help these people? And still she had a full-time job. But she's like, yeah, let's just do it. Let's just see kind of where that goes. And so that is kind of like the start of Somerled, where it was just helping people organically, charging them very little, just to help them out and get their revenue up too. And then we started getting more people coming our way.

we had to of had to make a decision more so her cause she had the full-time job. was a mom and kind of on my own entrepreneurship. didn't have many ties, but she had to make the decision if she wanted to jump in fully with me, which I tried not to pressure her. I'm like, you know, that is a scary note for a lot of business owners to give up that nine to five and that, you know, security, but to do that in 2022. And we've, you know, it's been about

Kaila Sachse (07:48.293)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (07:54.586)
Yeah.

Bri West (08:00.738)
three years now is Somer led and today we've grown in our team. have over 60 individuals on our team and we design up to 50 projects every single month and we're staying constantly busy and looking to just grow beyond that and kind of change the the landscape of short-term rental design.

Kaila Sachse (08:20.354)
my gosh, I am hearing so many things. So first of all, courage, right? Because you went from something that you knew well, which was long-term rentals, into short-term rentals. And sure, it may sound like they're similar, but they are two very different offerings with two very different operations. And so there's that jumping into a new world. Now let me ask you, you decided Phoenix,

Why Phoenix? mean, were you living there or what was the decision there?

Bri West (08:53.878)
Yeah, great question. So we live in Utah. And there's not many great markets in Utah, we did do our research. And we're like, okay, there's Park City, Park City is extremely expensive. There's St. George, Southern Utah, which it's really hard to get permits. And then Salt Lake, there's no, you know, permitting. And we're just like, it probably doesn't make sense. We wish we could have just stayed here and been local. But Phoenix was kind of the jump that was close enough and still a vacation market where

we could operate and get a permit for a short term until.

Kaila Sachse (09:25.978)
That makes sense. So the logistics had to line up there and it sounds like you did your research, you figured out what the markets could offer and how they would work for what you wanted to do. And I'm also hearing more courage because now you have properties that are a state away and that's that or yeah, no, two states away. I don't know. I don't have my geography map on. It's like one down. Okay, yeah. So it's like that's a leap of faith too, right?

Bri West (09:46.83)
Yeah, just one down. Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (09:55.435)
A lot of real estate investors or non-investors who want to get into investing, they're afraid of having a property that they can't just walk down the street to and check on every five minutes. So yeah, that's very brave. And what I'm also hearing is how you reached out to Jordan to ask for the design help because that was something that was a component that you needed help with.

Like that's brave too, right? To ask for help. what, Like sure, she was showing that she had that capability, but like what gave you the oomph to be able to reach out to her? I mean, was that like something that comes naturally to you or is that something that you're practicing? Like what does asking for help look like with you?

Bri West (10:41.678)
my goodness, no, I'm bad at asking for help. Like I, I feel like the stars aligned because that's not natural for me to ask that. yeah, I, it actually was, we, we were setting up our properties, we bought this home in Phoenix and because we were flexible with where we could live, you know, just owning businesses, we moved our family down to Phoenix, we closed on the house and I didn't really have the plan yet. We were just living there.

Kaila Sachse (10:45.847)
You

Kaila Sachse (11:10.84)
Wow.

Bri West (11:11.242)
with our two kids. had two kids at this point. it was right around right when we closed on the house, there was the Waste Management Open. And my husband's a huge golfer, Parker Jordan's husband's a huge golfer. So they came down just to visit us, see the house that we just bought, and go to the Waste Management Open. So from there, I'm like, Jordan, I felt so bad. like, can I pick your brain? I know you pay people to do this. But like, what do you think I should do here? And then she's just she's the most kind person.

Kaila Sachse (11:19.686)
wow.

Bri West (11:40.94)
She really just made me feel comfortable of giving me all the advice and not, it wasn't stingy or kind of like she didn't have any attitude or anything. She's like, no, whatever you need. And so then I felt confident like, well, actually I do want to pay you, but could you come help me with the whole house? I don't want to just mooch off of our friendship anymore and keep asking you. So yeah, that's how kind of I worked up the courage to ask again, stars aligned that they just came out.

and we're there in person to just be there.

Kaila Sachse (12:15.158)
I love that. you said that you felt bad for asking her for help because that is something that she normally charges for. And I feel like that's a roadblock that many people get stopped at. Maybe they don't have the capital or they're just not sure how to pay someone in exchange for their time and their expertise. And so they just kind of give up. They don't ask for that help.

But what's interesting is that people, especially Jordan, right? They're more willing to offer advice than you would expect. And all it takes is just to ask, right? Because the worst thing that could happen is that they say no. That's it. That's it. And now all you have to do is just like go out into the world and find another resource, which there are plenty out there. So, okay, so you start this thing, you and Jordan are like,

full steam ahead, the market is telling you that it loves this offering and it wants more of it. How did you decide to hire on a team and what did that look like?

Bri West (13:27.692)
Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, that was hard. In a sense, what we do is a really kind like an unscalable business. It's hard to scale and it can be done and we've done it and are still trying to scale it. But when it's a service industry, especially design that every design is unique. We start from scratch with our strategy and our design every single time we're not selling templates. so yeah, there was manpower needed.

in another life, I'll do software or something. Although I know there's hardships with software. There's there's cashflow things. It's all kind of, you know, there's different pros and cons to all the things. But this one is like, you need the people. So it was Jordan and I doing everything. We were selling people, we were designing, we were going out to projects and doing project management, which was fun and adventurous. I'm a mom and I two kids. I'm pregnant with my third, so soon to be three.

But with two kids, I mean, my husband's also very supportive. We parent pretty much 50 50. And so I was able to go out, but I knew that wasn't sustainable. It was that and Jordan doesn't have kids. But I was very transparent with her, like the project management and going out is going to have to be the first thing that goes. So but actually before, So that's what we were looking towards. Okay, how can we bring on a team member to take over project management?

But at the same time, we were connected with a girl named Allie, and she was our first hire. She reached out to us that she was also a short-term rental designer that was feeling burnt out. And she's like, I just want to go work for short-term rental design, not do it on my own. And she had so much knowledge about the space that she was a good fit to take over our calls because we were getting a lot of leads.

Kaila Sachse (15:14.518)
Mm.

Bri West (15:17.046)
We created partnerships in the beginning, first with Michael Elefante and his growing coaching program and some other property management groups and another coaching program. was kind of like the marketing that we did in the beginning was just referrals, which is a really strong source of marketing. But Ali took our consultation calls. And so it was like that load off. And then our next hire, we did find someone for project management. And then from there, it was just growing and

kind of deciding what is the cadence of design projects. Because we knew our investors, our target audience, they want to be really clear on budget. They need to be really clear on just all the expectations when it's going to be done. Because they can't make those decisions and go through a design process that just keeps dragging on and on and on. So we knew we had to kind of structure things in a way that we could sell the service.

of here's this flat rate, here's exactly when your design is going to be handed off so you can feel confident in your investment numbers and that you will start cash flowing, you know, by X date. And so we decided to design every two weeks that we started a fresh set of designs on Monday, handing them off on Friday. And then from there it kind of snowballed into, how many teams do we need? What are the team structures to scale this? And kind of where we're at now is we've figured out a good kind of rhythm.

where our design teams, actually our teams in general, are grouped by five projects. So we have a design manager and six designers, and then a client success manager on a team, and that's five projects. So every time we grow, we usually grow and open up five more spots and have another team in that structure. So that's kind of the way that we have scaled a really hard to scale service industry business.

Kaila Sachse (17:10.045)
Yeah. How did... So I have to ask about the capital that's behind this because you have to pay people. What did that look like? Is this all bootstrapped? Did you do funding? How did that look like?

Bri West (17:23.95)
Yeah. I mean, luckily our marketing efforts, we didn't need any paid marketing for leads. And when projects, when we sell, we collect funds upfront. Well, we collect a 50 % deposit and then 50 % at the end. So cashflow was not an issue as long as we were selling and then had the people, you know, of course we do have to pay labor. That's always going to be our biggest expense as a business, but we, the cashflow, we didn't do any fundraising, any bootstrapping.

It was just from the start, because it was Jordan and I too. Like if we didn't pay ourselves, we didn't pay ourselves. But it was that point where we felt comfortable. We did have enough cash flow that we brought on one team member, then two, and it grew from there.

Kaila Sachse (18:07.285)
Got it, so it wasn't like, okay, I wanna hit 700 properties this year, I need to hire all these people now and then hope that the sales come in. You're kind of working in a way where the market's paying you first and then you can scale and take on more people. Yeah, that makes sense. So let's talk a little bit more about referral marketing. What is that? What does it look like? How can somebody do that for their own business?

Bri West (18:13.806)
Yeah.

Bri West (18:22.7)
Yeah, exactly.

Bri West (18:33.582)
Yeah, I mean, think we tried in the beginning, we figured out, know, what are the hot buttons for first, like the investors that we're selling. And on our consultation calls, we don't just sell it like we don't sell design in the sense of like, we're great designers, it's gonna look so cute and so pretty, and you'll love it and blah, blah, blah. It's not so much emotional that they care about it looking good, they care about the returns. And so we created a consultation that was very much

Here's an analysis and investment analysis and showing you that if you're an average property and not investing in design and you don't have great amenities, you're going to fall in the average range and here will be yeah, you're going to invest less like you won't buy a hot tub maybe and you won't have as much cost and furnishings because you're doing the bare minimum. But here's what your return will look like versus if you do up your investment and you add a hot tub and you add a sauna or whatever the market warrants.

and you're investing more in furnishing and a design fee, you'll get to the 75th percentile at least in your market. Our clients are usually in the 90th percentile or above, but showing them those numbers. So that's how we sold the direct consumer. But then with our referral marketing, we had to figure out how it benefits them too. so management companies made a lot of sense because they make their money on revenue. They usually take like 20 to 30 % of the revenue.

And so showing them that not only will we convince the clients for you that design's important, because that takes a lot of times, a lot of property management companies will have those conversations with their owners, like we need to go in and redesign it, but that's time consuming and we can do the convincing for you and their property is going to increase in revenue, which is going to make you more money. And then on top of it, we'll give you a referral fee. it feels a lot like a no brainer.

And yeah, just depending. So that's kind of our pitch then to the referrals. Same for coaching programs. Like you, your students are going to have way more success and want to renew or want to refer you out if their properties are performing well. And you'll also be able, you know, because if you have an underperforming property, they're going to be up your ear more of help me. It's not working. I'm freaking out. yeah. So it's just a benefit. You know, we needed to find those.

Bri West (20:59.937)
wins all around.

Kaila Sachse (21:01.48)
I love that. I love the idea of creating business deals that are that win-win because sometimes a business owner can get stuck in the what's in it for me mentality. And to be frank, that just doesn't work or that can only work for so long before people are like, hey, well, wait a second. I'm getting shortchanged too. it's important to find that win-win. And I can also see a little bit of social proof going on too in the referral marketing where

If someone is being led to you, they're being led by somebody that they trust. And so they are more likely to trust you more. And that's just, that's going to help support the sale. yeah, and I also love how your sales approach is very tactical, logical. It's saying like, look, these are the actual numbers for what you want to invest versus what your predicted output is going to be.

Bri West (21:38.156)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (21:56.18)
So let me ask you, how do you find those predicted output numbers? Like where do they, where do those come from?

Bri West (22:03.212)
Yeah, luckily, there's a lot of data because you have Airbnb and VRBO where the data is out there, their nightly rates are posted. So there's a platform called Air DNA that scrapes all that information. And it's an analyzer for short term rental investors to use. So we go in and we go to a specific market, we filter out bad comps. Like let's say you're in a beach market in the

the investors properties, not beachfront, we don't want to compare it to beachfront properties because that's like something that we can't control. So we filter out bad comps and get a good size group of comps. And then from there, AirDNA does put them into categories. We can go over a two year, we go at least two years and it'll show you the different percentiles. So we have our own spreadsheet and an investment analysis, but we download the data.

and take averages. Okay, if you're in the 50th percentile, here's your average daily rate, how much you're charging, and then here's your occupancy rate. So then you go 365 days a year, times that by the occupancy rate. So that's how many days they're getting booked, times that by the daily rate, and then you're getting their revenue. So that's how we're looking at the numbers for the 50th percentile. Then we do the same thing and say, the 75th percentile is conservative, that you'll at least get there.

There are other factors than just design. You need to be a good property manager. You need to have a clean home and good reviews. So we can't control those, but 75th percentile still very safe. You'll usually get above that if you have a good strategy and are branding your property in great design.

Kaila Sachse (23:36.829)
That makes sense, that totally makes sense. So a lot of business owners get stuck at charging enough, right? You'd mentioned at the beginning of your journey, you were just trying to help people and you were charging bare minimum. I get that and a lot of people can get stuck there though. And over time they look back, they're like, my gosh, I'm not making anything from this business, let me just scrap the whole thing and go do something else.

How did you decide to change your pricing model in a way that made more sense to sustain a business?

Bri West (24:13.568)
Yeah, no, great question. The nice thing is, we don't feel slimy in our pricing, because we know they get a return, they're paying us, and they're going to make more money later on. So that feels really good. One, and then two, we but we still to make it make sense. For we need to be fair for the investment, we looked at I mean, we run hundreds of investment analysis per week, because we're doing all these consultation calls, and making sure that

Kaila Sachse (24:24.978)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bri West (24:42.802)
in most markets, when you plug in that design fee, they're still getting a much better return on spending more because they're investing in design investing in more furniture than if they weren't going to do it. So that was kind of our first step was to feel good about our number that we're not ripping people off and they're going to make more than you know, they're going to buy their are in our design service will get paid back within two to four months is our goal. And then from there you just

off to the races. But yeah, but then we had to run, you know, some in-depth analysis of payroll and expenses and make sure we're covered there and our profit margin is healthy.

Kaila Sachse (25:24.102)
Yeah, yeah, that's extremely important. You bring up a fantastic point. You have to look at your financials to know that you are continuing to run a healthy business. Who is the watchdog for your company in that?

Like what type of measurements are you looking at to make sure that your financials are healthy? Like what does that look like?

Bri West (25:50.018)
Yeah, yeah, right now I am the watchdog, but we are looking to offload that to actually today I had a final interview with a fractional CFO and to be bringing somebody on soon. I probably should have done it a lot sooner. But we are, mean, keeping up with the books is so important to be up to date current. And our standard is that by the second week of the month, the past month is done.

Kaila Sachse (26:00.742)
Nice.

Bri West (26:19.02)
good to go. You know, we have in those first two weeks, a few questions that our bookkeeper may have or still reconciling some accounts, but then we're always reviewing the month before and we do have metrics. It's more like our customized chart of accounts that we're like, okay, labor costs and service fees and how does that profit margin work? Yeah, I mean, I feel like I've kind of created a tailored system, but I'm not a financial expert. So I'm excited to be leveled up.

via fractional CFO. think what I've been doing works, but there's more insight and strategy to be had.

Kaila Sachse (26:55.663)
Yeah, no, I love that. That is so common and it's understandable for a business owner to DIY as much as possible until you get to the point where you're like, okay, I'm overextended, the business can no longer scale, I have to bring in outside help. So, for example, the books, you have a bookkeeper to help you with that. Now it's time to bring in a fractional CFO to help oversee the books, right? The bookkeepers still doing book 

keeper stuff, but the fractional CFO is looking at the final reports and saying, hey, healthy, not healthy, here's a red flag, this is all good. For the listener who doesn't know what a fractional CFO is, what is a fractional CFO? What do they do?

Bri West (27:42.734)
So Fractional CFO is more on the strategy side of finance. So if you had an internal CFO, which that would be great too, but we're still, kind of in this growth phase where it probably doesn't make sense to have that person in house. So Fractional CFO is a consultant and they take on a few clients. But yes, they're looking at the number story and they are helping set those goals and metrics and tracking. And they work closely with the owners typically.

to say exactly what said, the flags, they're looking to the past and making sure we're healthy for the future, but also looking for opportunities to grow or maybe opportunities to combine roles or look at your payroll. What we're interested right now in our Fractional CFO, and we ran interviews with a few companies, is looking for somebody who can bring in other revenue streams, because we've been so focused on growing this service, which

It's a lot of operations. was a lot for the past three years to grow it to where it is today. But now we have in a given year, over 500 clients. How can we add new revenue streams to that through software, through products, through other things that will one help diversify our revenue, but also increase the value of our business? So we're looking for that strategic partner in a fractional CFO.

Kaila Sachse (29:03.984)
Absolutely brilliant. I love it. So switching gears, you mentioned how in the early years you had been working with your husband, managing the long-term rentals, eventually the short-term rentals. How does somebody work with their spouse? How do you run a business or an entity with your spouse?

Bri West (29:25.102)
question, because Somer led is my biggest focus. Like I've spent a lot of my nine to five in Somer lead. But I have another, we have our portfolio, which is our other business, my husband and I still, you know, run together. So we are at 32 short term rental properties now and continuing to grow, we set up about two new properties per month in our portfolio. And it's called West Properties. So we have that together. But

I think we have felt like figured out a good rhythm and we're very different, but in a good way where it balances in their strengths. So my husband is, I call him the sprinter. He's the big ideas guy and the big, just get it started guy. I am like the operational, like long runner. And so we kind of work together that way, but he's helped me a lot in just feeling confident again, in that kind of like initial just jump. Like there was a time when we were

But when we were dating that I was working at like a Brazilian steakhouse where they come around in the meats and they shave it off and we're dating and I'd go home and I'd smell like meat. And he's like, this is so gross. Like, and I hated my, I was kind of doing some graphic design and stuff on the side. And he's like, why don't you just quit? Like he was running the numbers for me. If you just took on this many clients or you did this, you know, you could supplement and he's like, just do it. And I hadn't had that influence in my life before.

My parents were just your typical salary. Like my dad's worked at the same company. So the way that we work together is really just that. in our, be exact with our properties, he is the initial, like run the numbers, find the property, work with the real estate agent, work with the lender, get the deal done. And then I come in with my team. And what's nice is I do have a team behind me.

that does the strategy and the design and the project management. I oversee a bit just because I want to make sure like it's got our flair and it's really the best of the best, but my team does 99 % of that. So I'm like the middle sandwich. And then he has some employees that he manages for property management on the back end. We self-manage technically, but we have employees now that we are under us to really do the messaging. Neither of us are.

Bri West (31:50.624)
able to message guests at this point. So we're kind of a little sandwich. I think really the strategy that we have is work together, but separate, like have our separate responsibilities and just trust each other in our own realms. And then just pass it off to the other person. Then it kind of goes back to him.

Kaila Sachse (31:59.087)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (32:07.97)
Yeah, man, you sharing that totally reminds me of how my husband and I also operate. We each do our own sides of the business. So you know, I own Yumari Digital, but he and I own together a separate manufacturing business. And in the early days of that, we both found ourselves doing the sales, doing the graphic design, like doing all of the things.

It was so squishy, like having to work around each other. And we got to the point where we're like, okay, we have to segment and call out the responsibilities that each of us is responsible for. That helped tremendously. So it's like, each person stays in their own lane. That's how we're able to keep the engine running and keep everybody at peace without, I don't know, the weird.

I don't know, there's something like, I think there's maybe like a comfort level that I have with them where I'm able to express fully how I feel about something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like no diplomacy. it's like, okay. Yeah, we're all in our own lane. So, okay, so you're handling, okay, which came first for you? have to ask, business or babies?

Bri West (33:11.502)
Yes.

Bri West (33:28.126)
my gosh, good question. Well, because I started some business, yeah, business actually, but not business together. I was doing some graphic design work, then I developed it into more of website design and development. And he was doing sales and running a sales team. So that was in our early 20s and that's why we decided to quit college. We're like.

We're good. We don't need two more years of college. We don't need these degrees. I don't know. I'm not saying that's advice. That's not my advice. That's just what we decided to do. And it has worked so well.

Kaila Sachse (34:00.983)
I did the same thing, if it's fair. I did not finish my degree. was like, let me just go try out the world and see their success. But yeah, anyway.

Bri West (34:07.214)
I'm like the real life experience was a better option. So that was 20, let's see like before we got married 20, 21 and then we had kids at 23. And so the kids 23 and my two daughters are 16 months apart. So it was 23 and 24 and we had kids.

Kaila Sachse (34:26.534)
did you have any fears stepping into motherhood, into parenthood as, you know, as a team, you and your husband? Like what bubbled up for you, if anything?

Bri West (34:38.964)
Yeah, I mean, I think we were young and naive and that helped us to be like, well, here's a new adventure. Now we're pregnant with our third and like, we were a lot more thoughtful about it. And we really need to plan and prep and have a good situation.

Yeah, I guess my fears weren't so much work related because I didn't have employees. I didn't have a team. It was just me doing work for some businesses. And I'm like, can scale that back. I can kind of control that time. Now going into my third with this entire company and team, it

While I feel like I'm in a good spot that I'm hands off on a lot of stuff. We have some great managers and directors It's like I don't really have a choice to scale back. I'm not gonna scale back I have to keep it at capacity and hit some of our growth goals in Q4. So that is a little bit different

Kaila Sachse (35:35.435)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I could see that. Maybe feeling a little overwhelming or, you know, that's a lot to... There could be a little bit of pressure there. What is your plan for maternity leave and giving yourself that time with your newborn and that healing time too?

Bri West (35:55.264)
Yeah, yeah, I've had to write up the whole plan recently. So I'm due like mid September, it's coming up in like a month and a half now. So yeah, the full plan is written and given to our team. Also my plan with my kids written and given to my mom and my nanny. But here's kind of the short

the version of it. So I will have a C-section because I had C-sections with my first two, they both were breach. And so that will be a thing in recovery, like you said needs to be accounted for. So I mean, what kind of scares me is there's variables I can't control, like what if the baby is born early or has my second had to go to the NICU? And so what if that happens? Or what if my body isn't healing well? So I'm trying to be flexible.

But let's say we have a great C-section, the baby goes home on time. I'm recovering. am doing a nobody talk to me for two weeks. Nobody talk to me and everything's validated. I do have an executive assistant, which is phenomenal. And she'll be in my inbox, even though I'll still have a message that goes out letting people know I'm out, but she'll still be managing things. And then my business partner, our directors, our COO, they've got it. After two weeks,

Kaila Sachse (36:52.62)
Yes.

Bri West (37:14.07)
I will honestly go a bit crazy if I'm just watching TV because we have a nanny who will take care of our kids and our kids will be back in school as well. So I'm going to be here in my basement. I have a basement office and living room set up and little kitchenette. And it's either for me and like watch TV or just work on some projects like that I wanted to get to with business. So my plan is to jump back into projects.

But not like put too much pressure on myself. Just be like, this is nice. I am not in meetings. I don't have to respond to people and I can just sit down and focus and work. And I'll do that for about a month and then kind of evaluate, do I start picking up some internal calls and meetings and things? So yeah, little tenet.

Kaila Sachse (37:58.123)
Yeah, yeah. I'm hearing a few things. So it sounds like you have your villages set up, right? You've got your home base. You have your nanny. Your mom has a plan too. School is also part of that village to help take care of your two older children. So that's going to be holding down the fort at home. And then with work, you have your executive assistant and then everybody else who just understands like you are not to be contacted for the first two weeks.

Bri West (38:04.502)
Mm-hmm.

Kaila Sachse (38:27.635)
And then you can have that month of flexible play out time. And then after that, you're just going to touch base and figure out how you wanna spend the rest of, yeah, move on with the rest of your business. I had a very similar plan. I actually had a note on my door for the first, I think it was the first couple of weeks where it was like, look, don't knock unless you have a broom in your hand or you're ready to wash dishes or you have food. If you're not here to help.

Like I don't want any outside anything. And then I had a three month plan of being out of work. I could only last two months, which was like the bare, like that was the final edge. Like I was going crazy without doing what I love to do. So yeah, like I love your approach of like staying flexible, honoring yourself and also having that backup team. That's really cool. And so is...

Bri West (38:58.37)
Yeah.

Bri West (39:17.902)
Thank you.

Bri West (39:25.997)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (39:26.883)
Is your husband going to be taking leave too? What does that look like? Or is he just going to keep working?

Bri West (39:34.72)
Yeah, no, he will too. Especially during hospital visit in the first two weeks. The first two weeks were both just off. I think he'll probably jump back into things sooner, but still be hanging out getting the newborn snuggles, you know, being here with me as well. Yeah. And he's

just just message like we both work and provide like, you know, I don't want to say equally because we're entrepreneurs and all over the place, but both provide there. And then in the in the home too, we kind of have found our good segments. So he is our cook. I like food, but he loves food. And he has a passion for learning new recipes and trying new things and grilling and all this stuff. So he makes dinner every night, which is great. So I'm like, I'm not worrying about cooking.

Kaila Sachse (40:02.482)
Yeah.

Bri West (40:23.426)
and putting our kids to bed and stuff he's good at as well. So he's going to really step it up because there's newborn things. And I'm like, hopefully breastfeeding will go well. That's another unknown with each baby. It could go well in your past, but then with the new baby, maybe they're not like great at like, you know, breastfeeding. So anyways, since I will have to be so much more focused on the baby, he definitely is planning to kind of step up that ratio with the other kids.

Kaila Sachse (40:53.139)
That's awesome. That would be so helpful too. And I love how you mentioned how each kid is different. Each baby is different because that's real. That's real. that by expecting your second born and your third born and so on to be just like the others or like the other, that is unrealistic and that is setting yourself up for failure to be quite frank.

I have somebody in my life who they just had their third kid, their first two kids super chill, third kid wild card and they were not prepared for that. it's, yeah, it's a reality. there anything else? So it sounds like you have your villages for postpartum. also have had, it sounds like had your villages who've supported your family while you've been running the business too up to this point.

Is that, that's fair to say?

Bri West (41:51.982)
No, it is we our nanny started kind of when we made the shift into short term rentals and when I was picking up Somer led more, which I mean, that was a hard transition. I, you know, I think people can relate to daycare or nannies or any child support that you feel that guilt. But honestly, pretty quickly for me, this was my experience. I felt like that was the best thing pretty quick pretty quickly for me and for my kids.

Kaila Sachse (42:00.937)
Yeah.

Bri West (42:20.566)
because mom wasn't like working on her laptop and being like, go get your own snack, go do this. Like, mom was, you know, they had someone fully focused on them. And our nanny has been with us since the very beginning. It's just been one nanny, which is also rare and lucky at the same time. But anyway, she's been with our kids, they love her. And then when I'm off work, I'm off work, like I am not on my computer. And, you know, doing that, it's like they get a better mom.

than like a working mom who's kind of like frustrated and grumpy. So yeah, that was kind of my journey was getting the nanny and then just realizing that it is a really healthy thing for our family.

Kaila Sachse (42:59.207)
Yeah, yeah, that's beautiful. That's absolutely beautiful. So I like to wrap up with your dreams. What are your dreams for your family and your dreams for Somerled?

Bri West (43:11.31)
Great question. For our family, mean, I dream of growing a wealth that helps us feel just the security for one, but also the ability to, to like, retire, I'm going to say retire in quotes, because we're not going to want to slow down and stop things, but the ability to step back. And I'm turning 30 this year. And so is my husband.

And so the dream would be, you know, working hard still in our 30s, but entering our 40s more relaxed and just like very focused with our teenage kids. And then with grandkids, you know, since we had kids so young, we'll probably be grandparents when we're in our 50s. We'll see. But having that freedom is a big dream. I also have a dream of supporting

my kids in their businesses and just being like, yes, let's do it. My kids are young, you know, and but my six year old, she loves art. And right now her dream is to own an art studio and be an art teacher. And we'll see how long that lasts. But I'm like, girl, if you want to do that, you know, when you turn 18, and you're still like, I want to own an art studio, I'm like, I want to support you in that. And let's create a brand and let's do this. So that's, that's kind of like a dream as well. But

We'll see how the kids turn out and what they not turn out, but see what they want to do when they're older. want to like pressure them and say, you've got to be an entrepreneur and business owner, but it'd be cool if they did have like an interest in that and we could support.

Kaila Sachse (44:33.735)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (44:45.543)
That's so beautiful. Bri, where can people find you?

Bri West (44:50.168)
Great, so we're on Instagram. That's a fun place to follow us because we're design. So you see so many unique and fun short-term rental designs. We're Somerled.Designs on Instagram. And then our website, if you want to reach out to us and schedule a consultation call, they're free. And that's when we go over the full investment analysis. You can go to our website at SomerledDesigns.com.

Kaila Sachse (45:15.441)
Beautiful. Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate all of the advice that you've shared and yeah, thank you so much.

Bri West (45:22.722)
Thanks Kaila for having me. It was great chatting with you.