⁠30 - She Was In Labor Answering Guest Messages — Here's What Changed with Marisa Grover

In this episode, Adam and Micah sit down with brand designer Kayla Morrill to unpack the full process of building a visual identity for The Wesley — from mood boards and font debates to a final brand kit that's now physically on the walls of their hotel in Page, Arizona. In this episode, they explore why great branding is about evoking emotion, why AI falls short, and what boutique hotel owners should think about before hiring a designer.

Connect with Marisa: 

Find her on Instagram: @marisa.grover

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Connect with Micah:
Instagram: micahinvests
Tiktok: micahinvests1

Connect with Adam:
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LinkedIn: adaminvests1
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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

So I want all of my guests to feel my personal touch, to feel my level of hospitality. And AI isn't there to provide that quite yet. We live in an AI world. Let's create human experiences.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Hey everybody, I'm Adam Walls, and I'm here with my co-host Micah Thomas. We're short-term rental operators who made the jump into boutique hotels. And we're in it right now, raising capital, renovating a 50-room property. We're figuring it out as we go.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

This is the Boutique Hotel Secrets Podcast, and these are our secrets.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Welcome in, Boutique Hotel Nation, to another episode of the official Boutique Hotel Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Walls, and I am the co-founder of Comeback Hospitality, a organization that's looking to acquire, reposition, and relaunch, rebutify boutique hotels across the nation. It's not just me, luckily. So let me bring in my mister from another sister, Micah Thomas. Micah, how are you doing? How's room seven doing today?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Man, it looks like it did in 1990, and that's the most exciting part. So excited to be here. Happy birthday, by the way. I think it's your 21st birthday or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

I buried the leader. It was very nice. My dad actually just called me in the last hour, so it's great to kind of catch up to him. Turned 45 today. My dad also turned 45, so we're like brothers that way. But it's awesome, man. Uh, a few more gray hairs, thinking a light about life a little bit differently. But man, I've loved the past year and I'm really looking forward to what the next year, the next couple years have in store, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

So appreciate the well-wishes. Yeah, we got a lot of excitement coming up. I feel like these next few years are going to be very adventurous for us, and we're going to make a big change and pivot in our life. So I'm very excited to see where that goes. But talk about who we have as a special guest today. Really excited to dig into one of my favorite topics and that being operations and just automation and how you can create systems that scale so you can grow your business and your portfolio without having to answer every single phone call that comes in at 2 a.m. Yeah, just excited for our special guest today and ready to hop right in.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

I love it. And so let's maybe get into a little intro. So we've got Marissa Grover uh on the line with us here today. So again, she's an operation systems expert. She lived the life, man. She went from one to 70 plus Airbnbs, almost burned out, pruned the portfolio, built a great team, built systems. Now she educates, teaches other people. She's got, I think it's over 110 episodes uh on her uh what is it, Hello and Welcome podcast. So, anyways, uh she's been spotlighted, featured on STR Secrets. Uh, I want to say no vacancy. So, anyways, you Google her name, you're gonna find her. She's a wealth of knowledge and an open book, which I think we really appreciate as people that are building in public. Again, kind of going from man, we don't really know what we're doing to experts over time. So she's a little further ahead of us on that journey, but we actually used her as part of the Wesley. So we want to welcome her in here today and maybe, yeah, welcome Marissa. Let's start there. And again, maybe for those who don't know your story, maybe we can kind of get background origin story and just how did you find this space?

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me. You guys are some of my two favorite people on the internet. Your reels are flawless, and I love watching you guys grow and develop your businesses in it like from starting from scratch all the way to where you're going. I think that's something that we don't see very often is we just see the end result online. And so it's been so beautiful and refreshing to watch you guys create this in real time.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Let's go. I in preparation for this, I listened to your STR Secrets episode. I think that was back in 2024. Two kids growing a business. You were doing everything. It sounded like I unfortunately could relate too much to this. Even Micah, last week I was down at InPage with you. We had an investor there, and I was having to step out to put out fires and manage different parts of my business. So I don't have the systems that that I'd like to have in place, but maybe just walk us through again. How did you go from one to 70 plus and where are you at today in terms of achieving not burnout, but more of a balanced life?

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Yeah, I love this question. Okay, so I started my journey 2019-2020 is when I started getting to into it. My son was six months old. So we my family had moved out of state. I grew up in Utah. We moved to Texas so my husband could get a doctorate. And we had all this family that wanted to come visit us and see my little six-month-year-old. But we lived in this house that we could afford, which didn't have room for all the family. So eventually a short-term rental entered the scenery. And now they had a place to come and stay. And my family said, okay, if we buy this, we need a local person to manage it and operate it. Would you do that? And I was like, Oh, yeah, I'm staying at home, not a big deal. So I started with that and it became so popular and rented so much that they now couldn't use it. They couldn't stay when they wanted to stay because it was booked all the time. So that turned into two, three, four. Next thing I know, I had this full-blown management company of all these units that I was running. And I remember being in a position so grateful that I got to work from home with my kids. Through this time, I had my little boy and he was going everywhere with me. We were staging homes, we were dropping off toilet paper, we were driving all around, and I got pregnant and was in labor with my second child and was just sitting there in labor and got some messages from a guest and was responding back and forth. And then I remember thinking, I don't think I want to be working while I'm in labor to do this.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Are you busy? Do you have a second?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Yeah, I'm in labor, but what can I help you with? Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Can I check in early today? I'm like, oh, let me check. No, and then it's 15 back and forth messages, and it's been an hour, and I'm like, okay, this is not what I wanted to spend my time doing. So that was my first moment of this. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, right? And so I went home and I had this newborn, and I was just like, okay, we've got to figure out how to make this better. And you know what? The cold hard truth is it didn't get better. Because just because we wish for things to get better doesn't mean they actually get better in that moment, right? We actually have to do something to change that. And that I had to learn that the hard way. I was just like, I uh what are we gonna do? Anyway, so we went like that for a little while, and then I remember a coach reaching out to me and they were telling me about all the different things that they offer. And I sent them this message and I had I screenshotted it years later, but it said, All I want in my life is to be able to take a nap on a Sunday. All I want is to eat dinner with my kids when my family's eating dinner at the table and not step away. All I want is these were basic human things that I was asking for. And I just was like, this is all this is the only thing that I can dream of right now. This is my biggest dream. I just want to go swimming in the pool with my kids and put my phone down. And that was the second straw. And I was just that was sending that message, crying in my closet, being like, I don't know how I trap myself in this place. That was the moment that I was like, I am going to change. I am going to change, or I am going to stop doing this altogether because there's no world where this is working for anyone. And so I hired my first team member. I started writing systems. I spent all of my time instead of operating the business, documenting the business and changing how things ran. I hired a second person, I hired a third person, I brought on a local operations person. I was like, this is do or die, and we are doing it. And so that's my story into how I got to where I am today.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

That's remarkable. The fact that you made a stand and you said, I'm gonna start, and because what I've learned that when you start to build systems, that's actually the hardest part. When you have to go from just a cluster of ideas and things that you handle one at a time to actually putting systems in place, that's the hardest part. Once the systems are in place, everything is pretty much free rolling. But when you have to document everything that you do and say, Oh yeah, actually, I do answer the phone when I don't want to. How do I put a system in place so that somebody else answers the phone for me? What should they say? And the list goes on and on. But it's just remarkable that you actually made the stand. You says, This is definitely going to get harder before it gets easier, but you pushed through, you made that happen, and now you have, I don't even I can't probably can't even name and count how many systems you have in place for multiple businesses. But that brings me to my next topic. You helped us source not one but two VAs, and we went through that process. So I would love to talk more about your business and your VA sourcing and how you have an entire system in a different country that you rely on to help source VAs here in America and maybe in other places as well. So could you tell us a little bit more about that?

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Yes, I love this question. I am probably the most passionate person about VAs that you might encounter in this life. I think they are the coolest people in the world. And I love watching them be able to grow and develop with people that want to grow and develop them, right? I love watching people become leaders and employees become lead trainers in their companies. I think it's just the most amazing thing. Anyway, when we're thinking about hiring VAs, I know this is a topic that a lot of people are talking about. There's three ways to hire a VA that I think of, okay? The first way is to hire off of posting a job posting. So you can go to Indeed or any other workspace and you can post your job. And this comes with a lot of risk because there's no vetting. You could just get anyone that you want to apply, and that's wonderful, but it also means you might have to look through a hundred different candidates. You might have to filter and take a lot of your time. So that's one way. The second way to hire is to go through an agency. And so an agency will break the agency into two different models, right? So a traditional agency is someone that you reach out to, they place a VA with you, or they hire a VA, they're paying the VA, they're like your HR, they're handling all of those types of things. Agencies are really great and oftentimes really credible. So they have great VAs, and if there's any problems, that's the first person that you go to. The challenge is that this is more expensive than people even realize because a lot of times the VAs are making like $3 an hour, but the agency is charging you seven or eight dollars an hour for every hour that VA is working. So you end up paying $700 to $1,000 a month to someone that's not working for you, right? Wow. And so that can be really expensive. The way that we built this is we do have an agency, but it's a placement agency. So this is the third way to hire someone. And I believe in this wholeheartedly because I think VAs should get their whole salary, the whole salary that they agree to. So what this is a direct placement model. And so we charge a one-time fee to go out and find the VA that you're looking for, someone that meets your skill set, someone that has your company culture in mind, someone that's going to meet all of your requirements. We'll go out and find that person and bring them to you. And then you pay them whatever hourly rate you guys agree on. If that's $3 an hour, four, five, six, seven, whatever you agree on, that's what they get paid per hour. Some people like to do this per month. So pay you $1,500 a month for 40 hours a week or whatever that looks like. But the VA knows up front what they're getting paid, and there's not a middleman taking a percentage of their income. So that's a little bit about my placement agency. Something else that we do that I think is really cool is all of these VAs meet up once a month if they want to. They're all invited to meet up, I should say it this way. So they get together and they share what's going on in your business. You did you have to answer the phone? Oh my gosh, what did you say? How did you handle that? And I posted something on Instagram and they're like, How did you post on Instagram? My my employee doesn't share the password with me. And so they're all able to bounce ideas off of each other and grow together. Because if you think about it, people listening to this podcast, we're trying to grow too, right? So we're in rooms, we're in masterminds, we're connecting with one another. The people that are supporting us, they need that same level of support in order for them to grow. So those are some things about VACE.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

I love you breaking it down. Yeah, three different levels, different risk profiles, different price points. And again, we didn't just hire one, we got two, right? So Jelene and Daniel, shout out to you two. And we got to interact quite a bit with uh, I think it's Juan in your business, chief operations officer over there. So, anyways, we had a phenomenal experience, but it was interesting going through the just the process, right? We didn't have to look at thousands of resumes, we just kind of looked at three, four at a time, picked out who we wanted to interview. And actually, I would say like our hiring criteria sharpened as we went through the process. So, anyways, I feel really good about the outcome and the process that we went through with you. I guess one of the questions in the back of my mind is thinking about what do you think changes when you jump from Airbnb's kind of single family houses or a portfolio of properties over to the boutique hotel space, right? Because I didn't have a VA in my Airbnb business. I probably should have, by the way. If I would have met you five years ago, I think I probably would have had a better systems, better teams on the Airbnb side. But as more and more investors like Mike and myself are making this leap over to the boutique hotel space, what do you think changes or what have you learned as you start to interact with kind of this new hospitality platform?

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Yeah, I love this question. And I what it reminds me of is I think a lot of people so often are hiring based on the wrong criteria, right? I think the most important criteria for anyone hiring, whether you're in hotels or short-term rentals or whether you just want a personal assistant, right? The most important criteria is the culture that you're trying to build and how you want to treat the people that walk through your door at your hotel, how you want to treat the people that call. What are the words that we're gonna say to them? How are we gonna make them feel? Do we want them to come back and stay with us again? Like all of this really matters. And that's the type of person that we're looking for. Someone that can resemble you and be an extension of your right arm, right? Other things that are really important when hiring is critical thinking, the ability to think and act critically. We're in a position, Micah talked about this too, was like, okay, here's how you answer the phone, here's what you say. But guess what? We can't have every SOP documented, and I am living proof of that. I have so many SOPs, and still things happen. Still things happen. And I'm like, oh we found a situation in the bed that I'm not really sure how to handle.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

And now we gotta think through that.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Thinking critically, like having someone that's okay, I can jump on this and I can act the way that Marissa would act, or by working through her, I've been able to be like, let's be polite as possible, let's accommodate their requests and let's work through this. And then being kind. Right? I want someone that is kind that that is gonna treat my guests with respect and that is gonna treat my business with respect. That's passwords and that's a me, and that's showing up on time and just being aware of other people. In my business, I won't let them call a plumber and say, Oh my gosh, we need you right now. I want them to call a plumber and say, Hey, Mr. Plumber, this happened. When is the soonest that you'd be able to go? And if you can't go, that's okay too. We'll call someone else. And that's really important to me.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah, that's really good. And just to hit back on the culture development for a new hire VA, I believe we created something like a four-week onboarding program for our VAs to allow them to learn what we do. This is Adam and Micah. You've probably met other operators before, but you don't know Adam and Micah. You don't know our story. So, what is the best way to teach you what our goal is? Our goal is three hotels in five years. We want you to see that. We want you to see us as individuals, we want you to see the business where we're going from. We came from short-term rentals, we're going to a hotel, and then learn our software. That's Notion, that's Open Phone or Quo, and the list goes on and on. But really, we didn't give our VA any job-specific task outside of learning everything about the business for about a month. And it wasn't until that point until we said, okay, now that you know a little bit more about how the operations for us work, now we'll give you an actual task to do inside the business instead of learning about the business, which I think is really big on building the culture. And I think it's paid dividends for us because it allowed our VA Jelene to be very comfortable in tasks that she had to do, especially because she's working, it's 7 a.m. in the Philippines, but it's overnight for us. So essentially, she's the only line of defense through the night when a guest calls or messages or has something come up. And we wanted her to be really comfortable in that role. But this leads me to a question, and I have an opinion about it, but I would love to hear yours first, Marissa, about AI. And what would you say to someone who thinks that you can just put AI in place to replace that VA overseas to handle these day-to-day systems? Do you think that AI helps the VA, or do you think this is something in a few years AI actually takes the place of that VA?

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Oh, I love this question. So it's gonna sound like I'm anti-AI. I am not. I use AI every day. I think we we're getting to the point where most of us do, right? But I think there's so much real value in a lot of the things that AI can do for us. But I think us as hosts and business builders are somewhat looking for this easy button, right? Oh, I'll just press this and my business will get easier. And I don't think that's how AI, I don't think we're there yet with AI, right? I think that there's so much that I want, so I want all of my guests to feel my personal touch, to feel my level of hospitality. And AI isn't there to provide that quite yet. We live in an AI world. Let's create human experiences.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

If you're getting value from this, follow the show and share it with one person who's ready to move beyond short-term rentals.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

And if you want to learn more about the boutique hotel secrets community, the link is in the show notes.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

On the flip side of that, I think so many people are relying on AI to build their businesses for them. But we have to understand that we still have to monitor the AI, we still have to teach it what to do. It's not replacing you, it's not taking you out of your business. It should be there to help strengthen your business. And when you're only relying on AI as a whole, you're actually weakening your operation.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Yeah. I and my opinion is I think AI is here to allow us to do our jobs more efficiently and it transitions what the VA can do. So it allows them to, if AI is answering phone calls or responding to messages, and that VA is giving a better experience to the guests in our line of work when they do talk to somebody or when they are curate and experience. So I guess my thought process is AI doesn't necessarily take jobs away, it just changes what the actual human is able to do with that customer or that clientele. And now you have a better experience or better outcome for the guests because AI can do the routine tasks like checking credit cards and IDs and things like that. So that's just my one two on AI.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Yeah, I love that. And I think that VAs can do so much for you. And in the right VA and the right AI is an immaculate team. But just relying on AI, uh, I think is a mistake that a lot of people are making. AI doesn't take a messy operation and make it strong, right? Neither does a VA, to be completely honest with you. A VA doesn't take a messy operation and make it strong. But if you have a strong VA and you're able to train the AI or give it some of those routine tasks, your now strong VA can do even stronger and higher level tasks, making you freed up to do things that only you can do. Getting investors, signing, like welcoming your guests into your hotel, finding a new project to take on. Those are super important. And you can't do that if you're doing everything else.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

Yeah, I love that. And I think most real estate investors, business owners would completely under understand this point around leverage. We Micah, we just had a chat with our GM today about how we can develop and how how we can raise the standards for her, for the property, and grow with us together. But that means transitioning from $5 tasks to $50 tasks or $50 tasks to $500 tasks, right? Everyone kind of gets to move up the ladder if we're using the tools in the right way. So I guess this brings me to a question around you've worked with lots of people like Adam and Micah that that say, I want to get my first VA or I want to get my 10th VA. I'm curious about if you're detecting or noticing any patterns specifically about what are some of the mistakes people are making. So either with VAs or either with AI as they're building out their systems, like what mistakes kind of have your attention right now as we record this April 2026? Where do you think people are screwing this up?

SPEAKER_03 21:57

I think a lot of people, I guess this. One of my soapboxes. A lot of people hire VAs or AI, whatever the tool is, whatever they're using, to think I'm this is gonna get me out of my business. This is gonna change my business for me. This is the reason I'm gonna retire on the beach. We had a business recently that came in and hired 10 VAs. They're like, we want 10. And then we're gonna be able to walk away from our business. I don't think any business worth building is a business that you should be aiming to to try and walk away from without you, right? There's so much me, my heart, my soul, and what we do. And if you take out the Marissa, it's not the same business. If you take out Adam and Micah, it's not the same hotel, right? We put our heart and our soul into what we're building. And so just trying to get out or get the quick fix isn't the answer. Also, another mistake is people don't want to lead their team. They want to hire their team, have all the systems and all the operations running, and then not be a part of it anymore. Kind of like I said, like walking away, but they don't want to be the one that's saying, okay, let me correct and have these hard conversations. Let me teach and show you things that I want to improve and change and where we're going. Let me dream big so we can attract the right customers and build the right brand. We have to have this component of leadership and vision casting in our businesses, or we're missing a mark.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

That's amazing. I don't think I could have put that any better, but it's such a good point in the world of hospitality. We are in the business of managing people, whether that's our staff or if that's our guests that come to the hotel or the Airbnb or whatever the case is. And I think first you have to have some level of skill with being able to manage individuals and not micromanage, you need to do this, you need to do that, but just to facilitate success in other individuals or facilitate an experience in other individuals. I think it starts there, and that might be a characteristic that a lot of people discredit or think that they can do without, but I think that's really an important one that we need to focus on. But for somebody who's listening to this and they're like, maybe I need to hire my first VA or I need to offload some of my tasks, what would you say to them and how would you go about doing that? Knowing that it's probably gonna be a little bit more work and a little bit more time consuming on the front end, and you got to bite the bullet for a little while and you gotta iron out a few wrinkles. It's not gonna be perfect on day one. What would you say to that person who's on the edge of getting or hiring their first VA or assistant, but they maybe just don't know where to start?

SPEAKER_03 24:35

Yeah, I love this question. So the first thing that I will say is hiring a virtual assistant or hiring anyone has changed my life. My my whole life and my business. I always say my VA saved me. I was in a dark place that I never want to go back to. And because of the team members that I've been able to pour into and been able to build, I'm so much happier, healthier. I just had my third baby. He is only 14 days old. I'm back at work, but I was able to take that time off because of my team. I no guessword message during labor. So different experience.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Third time's a charm.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

It did take three times for me to learn that lesson. But for someone thinking maybe it's time, it is. It is time. We I didn't hire till I was at 30 properties, which is why I wasn't in the best space, right? I wish I would have hired sooner. I wish that I would have developed someone and poured into someone. My soul comes alive thinking of this person that I've been able to curate into something that they're proud of. I'm proud of, and our business is better because of them. There's so many things a VA can do to help you. So it doesn't have to be guest messages. It could be scheduling doctor's appointments. My VAs have planned my kids' birthday parties. There, there's so many wonderful things that if you give someone the chance, they can really make a difference. The first place to start, though, would be looking at this is what people skip. Look at what you love doing and look at what you hate doing, right? And let's start the list with what we hate doing that's taking the most of our time. And keep the things that you love doing. We don't need to pass this off. If you love posting on social media and engaging with people, keep doing that. Just because somebody else can do it doesn't mean that you like you have to pass that off, right? But if answering your emails is taking a ton of your time and you hate doing it, that's the first thing we should start with. And so record yourself, make a Loom video or a Zoom video or take a voice note. Voice notes are super simple and record yourself doing that task. And guess what? They get to watch you and listen to you work through that in your mind and learn how you think and learn how you sound and the different things that they need to do to execute that. And that's their your SOP. So, Micah, you talked about starting writing SOPs is the hardest part. Just make it fun for yourself. You're already gonna do the task anyway. So record it for your team so that you're not just writing this document thinking about stabbing your eyes out, right? Make it fun.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

I love that. That's that's awesome. And it's so much of this conversation, again, we can get lost in the tactics, but it's very clear talking to you that you've got a strong mindset. So I'm just curious about mentors, mastermind, people people that you're learning from. And one of the predicaments that Mike and I have right now is we're if you're not careful, the Wesley project one can take up all your time and attention. At some point, we know that we have to transition to hotel two, but it never feels like the right time, almost like having a kid, right? It's never a perfect moment. So I'm just curious with your with your mindset, with some of your mentors, like how do you think about scaling and growing, even though sometimes it's uncomfortable? Just penny for your thoughts on that topic, because very real for us right now.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

I love this. I struggled a lot. Okay, so we're gonna go back to my origin story. So you said that I had 70 properties. Now I only have 50. Only 50, only 50 houses to maintain and care for and schedule lawn care around and filters and all of that, right? But I really struggled because I found myself in these communities and talking to people that had 70, 100, 150, 300 all of these properties. And I just was like, I could do that. Why am I not doing that? I should get more properties, I should build more. Should I enter a new market? This market's not producing as well as it should. Should I go do something in a different state? I should, by the way. I really should. But regardless of that, and I just found myself thinking, like, I'm not enough. I'm not good enough. And then one day I was like, you know what? I like the market that I'm in. I like this many properties. I don't want more than this. And it's okay, it's okay for us to take our own goals into consideration in our own lives. I feel like I just popped a balloon, right? This is yeah, this is really scary because we're in this world where more properties, more hotels, more employees, more is better.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

That's the drumming.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

But sometimes we have to stop and think, what do I want? And when we build what we want and what we're passionate about, you have a better business, you have a stronger team, you have a happier life, right? So in 2026, one of my goals was I'm gonna do something for me. I'm gonna do something this year that's just for me. And so this is so silly, but I bought a 3D printer. I bought a one I I bought a 3D printer, and that was my thing. And I was like, this is just gonna be my hobby. I'm not gonna sell anything, I don't need the money, and I'm just gonna do something that is just fun. So I made you guys can't see this, but I made a little younger my kids. We make like little toys all the time, and it's just a hobby. And that has been something that I've had to I've it's been four months, and I've just been like, it's okay to have a hobby that has no practical purpose in my life other than bringing joy, and that really has helped my mindset. Just let's do stuff that we love.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

I love it. Yeah, that's the whole point of why we're in business and why we're investing and we're creating teams around us and investing in real estate, is because we want to create the life that we enjoy. But if we're constantly in this monotony and we're not happy and burnt out, then you almost have to step back and ask yourself, why are you doing it? What's the purpose of doing it? So, like you said, you almost pop the bubble, but you want to make the life that or the goals, you want to have a life and reach the goals that you want, not somebody else, not for another purpose, but for your purpose. So totally hit the nail on the head with that one, and just so excited to hear that you finally are getting into hobbies that they may not mean much to anybody else, but they mean so much to you and your family. So, 3D printed Yoshi, would I want to have one? Of course. I'm never gonna say no to Yoshi, but yeah, it's just amazing. So I think the last thing I want to touch on or ask for advice from you is what would you say to someone who has no properties or does not have a hotel yet? Is there something they could do on the front end to streamline their operations even before they jump into this space? Would you give any advice to them or somebody who's in the space who, again, they may be looking to hire their first one, but they're like, no, I'll just continue to stay in the monotony and do it all myself because I don't want to take on another line item that's an expense. So anything for the novice or the experienced operator that is still resistant to uh adopting a VA.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

Yeah. Okay, so my advice again, I'm just gonna say what's on my mind here. But I have two things. I have two things, and I'm gonna hold the second for a minute later because that I'll have more to say there. But the first thing that I'm gonna say is a shocker. And I think that, like I said, we live in this world where there's everyone's searching for more, right? Everyone's searching for the next best thing for the for more and more. And that even comes down to coaching. And I love coaches, I have had amazing mentors and people in my life, but I have also put myself in a position where I have got too much information. And my one coach said this, and my other coach said this, and I read this on Instagram. And what am I gonna do? Right. And that created a lot of overwhelm that affected my mindset, that affected my employees, that affected a lot of things. So I would pick one person if you can. I would pick one person that you feel pretty aligned with 80%, maybe 90%. You agree with what they're saying, their lifestyle is what they want, what you want. They're building something that aligns with what you want to build and try and follow them. You can have your own ideas, you can look listen outside information, but sometimes when we get information overload, it's not actually helpful and it doesn't propel us forward. And so listen to one person, take their advice, follow their path. And then once you feel like you've peaked in that person, maybe choose a different person and follow their path for a minute. Maybe start with someone in operations and then someone that can teach you about sales, and then someone that can teach you about scaling. And I find that's how my brain actually works best. The second thing that I think is really important is community. Put yourself in a room with people that are doing or that want to be doing what you want to be doing. We have a community for people that are looking for a place. We've purposely made it really affordable because I felt like I had to sell my kidney to get support and help when I needed it. So I wanted a place that people that want advice, that want operations help, that want connections could have it and not feel like it if they didn't, if they couldn't sell their house or put sign up for a new credit card, they couldn't get help because I think that's I think that's a miss in our industry.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

That's good. My last topic. So some gems in there. Thank you for that. And then I want to try and my last topic is this whole building in public thing. This is a relatively new muscle for me. I used to just kind of have my whatever 500 Facebook friends and just kind of post there. And then Mike is like, we can take this up a notch. I'm TikTok famous. And I was like, Oh so, anyways, we're considering putting out weekly newsletters, we're doing this podcast. So it's very clear, you've been very consistent, very deliberate, very successful, kind of creating a brand. So any advice, any kind of hard-fought wins, lessons, learnings that you would give to either your past self or two guys relatively early on in this kind of content creator space.

SPEAKER_03 34:51

Yeah, I could probably talk about this for a whole episode, but a few quick wins is and a few quick tips is don't share your Instagram or Facebook password with anyone ever. Please don't. Yeah, nice. My my Instagram was taken offline for eight weeks. I lost $30,000. Yeah, it was a big thing because I gave my VA in the Philippines access so she could post. So don't do that. Learn from me.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

External posting tools are the way to go. So we use Metro Cool, but there's a thousand others that work really well. So that's one. Second, going viral isn't the answer, in my opinion. I I hate to say that, Micah, because you're the pro here, but you know what? I have posted a few reels, like three in my whole life, that have gone viral. And you know what? I didn't feel so good about myself after because people are mean.

unknown 35:45

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

The internet is very evil. They say all types of things. A lot of times, I think purposely to demean you. So that's a really good point.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

Yeah, and but the things that I post that are just genuine and are just funny in my personality. You know what? I get a lot of new people or old people that just want to just have someone to talk to or learn something. And so posting for the right audience really matters, and posting for the wrong one doesn't matter so much.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Yeah, but that's a really good point. You can go viral and you get all the vanity metrics, the views, the likes, but at the end of the day, I think for us, posting is a way to document our journey to allow people to see what it takes to build and run a hotel for first-time operators. And that's the following that we're building. And although it may not be as many views or as many likes because more people didn't see it, I think the crowd and the viewership that we're getting is more tuned into the type of people who are invested in our type of story. So, yeah, the virality, if you get to go viral, amazing. But I don't think virality is what we're chasing at all. We just want to continue to bring more attention to Adam and Micah as well as the Wesley and Comeback Hospitality and other projects. So, such good points.

SPEAKER_03 37:03

Yeah. And also just give more than you get.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

Yeah, create value.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

So if you're gonna be on Instagram for an hour a day, I hope you're giving two hours a day worth of something that somebody can take.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Love that ratio. I'm conscious of time. You have a two and a half week uh old somewhere behind you. So it is phenomenal to have had a chance to kind of interview you, chat with you on this podcast, to have listened to other podcasts to see all the value that you're creating for your community. You run a school community, you're doing the podcast, you've got newsletters, you got programs and systems, you want a VA, she's got that too. So she's doing all this, but she's not burning out anymore. And I think that's a testament to your ability to be strategic, to kind of lean in the right places and to trust in systems, in people to grow other leaders. So, anyways, it's been a fantastic conversation. Uh, people want to reach out and find more about you, the services you provide, the communities, et cetera. Give you a chance to let people know where to find you.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

Yeah. The first thing I want to say before I say that is overwhelm comes in phases. So I just want to build off what you're saying, Adam. I have been overwhelmed even within the last two weeks. I have a newborn and my business still had to keep running, right? But also in three weeks, I won't be overwhelmed anymore. And it's perfectly okay to have those highs and lows as a business owner. Nobody has it all figured out. Don't think that I have all the answers or that anyone else that you're listening to has all the answers to. They're just learning just like you. So that's helpful for me sometimes, not to compare myself to others. But if you want to reach out and connect with me and hang out with me, I hang out on Instagram. So it's just Marissa Grover on Instagram. Come hang out. If you want help with systems, join our community. We would love to have you. I coach every single week a group call all about operations and systems. And it's so fun to get everybody together and learn what challenges they're having that we can all work through together.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

Amazing. Micah, any last questions, thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Wrap us up. No, this was a great episode. I'm always happy to speak about operations and just automations and systems, the whole nine. So just very glad to have you on Marissa and would love to continue to follow your journey on Instagram because you post pretty much as frequently as we do. So lovely having you on this episode.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Thank you guys so much. Hopefully, I get to come back for a part two someday and watching what you guys are building.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Absolutely. And we'll probably be reaching out about VAs three, four, and hopefully 17 down the road.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Scary to think about, but it's so true.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

I know, but this is part of the path. So again, we said from day one we want to do three hotels over five years. So again, we don't need two in two months, right? But we don't want to wait forever. And again, it's about all about getting in rooms where you respect, you admire, you've seen what other people can do, and that you can learn from each other. So we're happy to add value and share what we know is wonderful to meet great people like yourself, Marissa. So thanks for coming on today, sharing a little bit more with our audience. And yeah, just really appreciate your time. So go be a mom, go do all the things, keep crushing in your business. And yeah, very much would look forward to a part two. So with that, gang, okay, that's it. We're out of here. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you on the next one. That's the button. All right, that's it for today on the official Book Geek Hotel Secrets Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

If this helps, be sure to follow or subscribe and send it to someone who needs that bigger push. And if you want the community or the resource and playbook to find what we're learning, the link is a quick note we're VHS community members sharing our own experience. And if you have questions or topics you want us to cover, reach out and let us know. We're building a skill for operators just like you at Delta.