Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches.

We’ll discuss investing in real estate, but with a specific focus on short term rentals.

Quick, actionable items to acquire, manage, and scale your portfolio.

I’m your host, Tim Hubbard.

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Well, welcome back everyone to the Short Term Rental Riches podcast.

I’m really excited today to have an expert guest on the show.

When I say expert, because he truly is an expert, he’s been in the industry for a long time.

He’s been doing a lot of different things.

I’ve known him personally for years, and he is a CEO and founder of FreeWild, which is an amazing new brand that he’s been building, really crushing it.

Eric Moeller, I’m really excited to have you on the show today, brother.

Welcome.

Yeah, man.

Thanks for having me.

And just for the record, I paid you a little bit extra to add that expert piece into my intro.

So thank you for that.

But no, man, I’m pumped to be here.

It’s been a long time coming for us to do a podcast.

Yeah, I know, like we’ve known each other for a while.

I was actually in a mastermind that you created years ago and got a ton of value out of it.

So you’ve been doing a lot of things.

Why don’t you tell us about FreeWild?

Yeah, so FreeWild actually came about during COVID.

So it’s been a few years that I’ve been working on this behind the scenes of everything else that I was involved with leading up to FreeWild.

But it’s an experiential based hospitality brand.

So we, of course, we’re in short term rentals, but we’re buying old vacation rental cabin communities in nature locations.

We’re bringing them through incredible designs.

I’m sitting in one right now called Ursus.

Each cabin is a fully designed, high level materials.

It’s all brand new, but it has a bit of soul in each one of these cabins.

And our properties have multiple cabins on them.

But we’re really focused on…

The main thing is really helping people disconnect from technology when they come to our properties.

So all of our properties are in nature, but about two to three hour drives from metro areas.

And our guest avatar that we’re focused on is bringing people from the city out to nature.

And we have experiences in the property to help them disconnect from technology while they’re here.

And that’s our whole thing, man, is creating these amazing design forward nature cabins that are helping people rewire their relationship with their cell phones when they’re in nature.

I love it.

I mean, we know that there’s lots of different ways to work with short term rentals, right?

And you’ve worked personally in the past with lots of different types of properties, big and small.

And so I love this unique experience.

I’m down here in Brazil at the moment, and I took a little trip a few weekends ago to get away, you know, and for those of you that aren’t watching the video, I did the little air quotes there because it’s hard to get away these days, you know, it really is.

And I remember thinking, I’m telling the team, like, hey, I’m taking a few days off, I’m going up in the mountains, there’s gonna be no connection.

And of course, there was a connection, right?

So, and sometimes it’s hard to turn off.

So I love the concept, and you literally have a way to turn off the connection, don’t you?

Yeah, so the whole, it’s kind of crazy because this idea came about when we were at the height of COVID, we were at the height of all the civil unrest that was going on in the country and around the world at that time, and we were at the height of elections, right?

And I’m starting to feel like this deja vu that’s happening right now in the state of the world.

And with elections coming back up, at that period, three and a half years ago, we were living in California, my fiance and I, and we wanted to get out.

No one was really traveling, so short term rentals and hotels were really, really cheap to stay at.

So we jumped in our truck and we drove around the country for six months, staying in different Airbnbs and short term rentals, the most beautiful experiences.

And what I recognized was where this idea came from is we had some friends come out, we were staying in Park City, Utah, in this gorgeous mountain chalet, overlooking the mountains.

I lit a fire, super stoked that all my friends are there.

And as I’m sitting down, just taking in this aha moment of like, wow, this is an incredible experience.

I look around and everyone’s sitting around the fireplaces on their cell phone, head down on their cell phone, looking at something, Instagram, the news, the elections, just all the stuff.

And I recognize like, we can fly and go to like a different part of the country and create these experiences.

But unless we are intentional with disconnecting from our cell phones, these things are always going to be attached to us.

Like they’re a part of us now, right?

And that just like really bothered me.

That really pissed me off.

And I was just so sick of just like all this.

I just wanted to disconnect.

So I found this box inside the house and I went around the fire and I literally took everyone’s cell phone.

I threw it in this box, took the box, I locked it in the closet inside, came back out and I just said, I’m like, all right, y’all, we’re in wild mode right now.

Let’s just be present.

And it took, everyone was like uncomfortable at first.

It took a few minutes, but after a while, like music is going, we’re singing, we’re drinking, we’re eating, we’re laughing, we’re telling stories, we’re doing this whole thing.

And before we knew it, like none of us were on our phones.

For like a few hours and it felt so freaking good.

And I realized, I’m like, we gotta create these experiences because prior to that stay, I went and then stayed at a few off-grid properties and they’re cool.

They’re really cool for what they are.

But after a day or two, it gets freaking boring being fully off-grid, unless you’re like fully immersed in it.

And after a day or two, I’m like, I just wanted to watch like a Netflix movie and just like share something on Instagram, whatever it was.

So that moment came to me was like, we’re not an off-grid company, but we also need this concept, that we need this way to help people disconnect.

So we created something called the Wild Switch.

And it comes with two modes, Free Mode and Wild Mode.

When it’s in Free Mode, so right now I’m sitting in one of our cabins and it’s on Free Mode.

I’m on Wi-Fi, our TV is on in the background, like lights are on, all this stuff.

And you’re kind of plugged in to the matrix, right?

For lack of a better term.

But when you and the people that you’re traveling with decide to go into Wild Mode, you just want to disconnect, you literally flip the switch to Wild Mode, it shuts off Wi-Fi.

Yeah, and it unlocks a part of the house that you only have access to while you’re in Wild Mode.

And we’re developing this now for the new cabins that we’re building, where you can literally, you’re gonna put your phones in a box, in a shelf, you lock that shelf, and then another part of the house unlocks that rewards you for being in the space.

Right?

And then we’re building in programming around the entire property, where you only have access to certain amenities when you’re in Wild Mode.

Right?

But at any moment that you want to plug back in and share on Instagram or watch Netflix or do whatever, you just switch back into Wild Mode, grab your phones and you’re back in.

We’re not trying to force people into Wild Mode.

We’re trying to invite them into that experience.

And once they’re there, then we want to reward them for doing that.

So we have our short term rental side of the business, but then we have our guest customer experience side of the business.

And they’re both getting each other.

And that’s our one thing that’s just driving every decision we make in this company, is helping more people disconnect from technology.

I love it.

Yeah, I wish I had a lever at the last cabin I was at.

I would have definitely pulled that lever.

Yeah.

So I’m curious, we know that short term rentals that offer unique experiences can really outperform the markets, right?

Or outperform their neighbors.

And so it sounds like this is an investment.

So I’m sure you had that in mind, but there’s also a personal aspect to this, where you just wanted the freedom side of it.

I mean, what do you think’s the mix there?

And I guess, how do you determine if you’re too unique and maybe you don’t have a good market fit, potentially jeopardizing the investment?

Yeah, I mean, that’s a great question.

I mean, it came from a personal need, right?

And, you know, like you, of course, you’re an entrepreneur, you run businesses, like you know that you’re plugged in all the time.

And I knew that I was plugged, I’ve been plugged into, you know, my businesses every single day, every single hour, you know, for years.

And it’s like, I needed to recreate some type of experience in my life to rewire my experience or relationship with devices, right?

But I love technology, I love what I can create with these devices and the access I have with these devices.

So I’m not trying to fully, I’m not trying to demonize it, I’m trying to rewire it, right?

And then I recognize that everybody experiences the same problem, everybody.

When I share this story of like, hey, we are an experiential based hospitality brand that helps people disconnect from technology, no matter the age, from grandparents to teenagers now, they’re like, I need that, I need to just unplug for a moment.

You know, everyone’s always addicted to it.

So I recognize that there’s definitely a need in the marketplace.

And I think that’s really important is whatever the experience that you’re creating for your guests, there has to be a demand and a need for that.

There needs to be a pain point around it, right?

It doesn’t have to be as unique as what we’re trying to tackle with, you know, relationships to devices when people are traveling.

It could be, you know, unreasonable hospitality.

I just had another…

I was just in Alabama, of all places, for the Good Morning Retreat.

Michael Gooden and Will Slickers put on a small mastermind, and they held it at one of the most incredible hotels I’ve ever stayed at.

And I’ve stayed at some awesome hotels around the world.

But in Auburn, Alabama, there’s a hotel called The Laurel, which is a 28 key boutique hotel.

But they are so focused on unreasonable hospitality, that as I’m pulling up to the hotel, I haven’t checked in, I haven’t talked to anybody.

I roll down the window, and the valet greets me by my last name.

Hello, Mr.

Moeller.

That’s awesome.

And the general manager comes downstairs and walks me to the front desk, checks us in.

There’s a whole staff there with food and champagne.

Mr.

Moeller, how was your trip here?

I noticed that you flew in from Estonia.

How’s FreeWild going?

I see that you have these cabins.

They knew exactly who I was and why I was traveling to this location, and they made me feel like I was checking in at home.

And that’s a pain point in the hospitality space.

So they’re going all in on that experience, right?

And it just completely blew my mind and made me rethink the way that I’m delivering hospitality in my own business.

So to answer your question, I think for me, it came from a personal pain point.

But then I’m constantly asking, how do we continue to invest into this experience with the customer in mind, right?

At the end of the day, it has to be all about the guest and their experience.

And so far, every dollar that we’ve invested into the redesign of these cabins, the build of the brand, and the tech and experience wild mode, we’ve gotten that investment back.

Like people freaking love it.

Our properties are booked out consistently.

We’re at 80 plus, 89% occupancy.

And our RevPAR is 102% above market.

So it’s like people are desiring what we’re creating.

So it’s like, all right, let’s keep investing into this.

And we’ll find where we’re over-investing for sure.

And we’ll dial back.

But as of right now, I think we’re still early enough to, like we’re in that discovery phase.

Yeah, so it was a pain point for you, but it was pretty obvious that it was a pain point for a lot of people.

And so people really appreciated that.

Your story there about Laurel, the hotel, I mean, that’s one of the things a really good hospitality does, right?

Is it spreads the word.

I mean, you’re here telling us on the podcast, thousands of people be hearing about the Laurel now, because they came out and greeted you by name.

And so, it’s hard sometimes to measure.

On this show, we’re talking a lot about investments, quick action tips and ideas, you know, a lot of times to maximize our investment.

But most of the time with our short term rentals, it comes down to the hospitality, making sure we’re having a good guest experience, right?

And so a couple of really good things come out of what you’re doing is one is that I’m sure you’re probably getting repeat guests, right?

Or you’re getting direct bookings.

Can you talk a little bit about, you know, what that unique experience is doing in terms of where you’re getting your bookings?

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

Our goal is to get to 70% or higher in direct bookings.

Right now, we’re about 60-40, maybe a little bit higher on Airbnb.

Airbnb is just like, we’re just crushing it on that platform.

And yeah, so we’re just crushing it there.

But we are putting a lot of effort for direct bookings, and we’re putting extra effort to converting all of our bookings, regardless if they’re direct or from Airbnb, into a lifelong customer of FreeWild.

We’re getting our guests to identify with the brand, right?

Where they continue to seek out our cabins and our brand, but also to this point where we’re starting to notice that our guests are not only re-booking with us and coming back and staying at our properties, they’re going through, they’re trying to stay…

We have guests that are looking to stay at every single property, because each one is a different experience, right?

And if they do that, then there’s a whole reward system for them that we’re creating now.

You stay at all our cabins and you become a wilder with our company.

And that means that you get different perks and things like that.

But now our guests are also taking the wild mode home with them.

And we’re getting messages saying like, hey, this is the first time that me and my partner have had dinner without our cell phones or had any experience on the weekend with the kids without cell phones.

So we created this thing called FreeWild Fridays, where we have this ritual that we help people go through at the end of the day, and lock their phones away at home in the wild box, put on music, cook some food, do the whole thing at home.

And people are starting to adapt that into their everyday life, which is amazing, right?

So that’s our approach.

We have this grander vision.

It’s like, yes, we’re this modern short term rental company, because we’re not running this as a boutique hotel.

We don’t have a front desk.

We don’t have a staff that’s on the grounds.

It’s all self check-in.

A majority of our communications is done virtually.

Our team will only come to the properties and interact with the guests if they need us, right?

So we’re not necessarily a boutique hotel, although we have multiple units on one property.

We’re more short term rental operational that way.

But we’re also taking this unique hospitality approach of creating, helping people identify with the brand.

That’s the type of traveler that we’re looking for.

So we’re putting a lot of effort into doing that.

So yeah, long story short, Airbnb is just crushing.

We put a lot of focus on optimizing our listings there daily.

Next is direct bookings.

And most of our direct bookings are coming from what we’re doing on social.

And then we have a pretty strong email list that we’re nurturing and we have specific content that we send out to them.

So as of right now, that’s where we’re at.

The goal is eventually, and we’re doing some ads, a little bit of ads, media buying.

The goal is eventually to get 70% or higher direct bookings.

Yeah, that’s awesome.

That’s an awesome goal.

I know it’s hard to compete with Airbnb, right?

I mean, they spend hundreds of millions of dollars to market the best properties and make sure they get booked on their platform and not someone else’s.

And then they don’t easily share the guest information and stuff.

So we know we have some ways around that.

But I’m curious just to hear your thoughts on, you know, we hear a lot of people talking about, oh, you got to have your Instagram profile for your properties and do all that.

But I’m wondering how much impact that actually has on the booking conversions.

If you weren’t starting with a large email list, for example.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on that.

Yeah, we didn’t start with anything.

And we don’t have a large email list right now, but it’s growing slowly.

But back to what you said on Airbnb, of they’re spending millions of dollars to acquire the guest, but they’re also spending a lot of money and focus on listing the best properties on that platform.

So that goes to saying that you have to be the best property on the platform.

What we used to do back in the day with Arbitrage and just getting clean properties and tossing them up on Airbnb and just doing mediocre hospitality with mediocre designs and all that stuff, that game doesn’t really exist anymore.

You can still be profitable in it.

There’s still some players in there, but where we’re trending towards, especially on Airbnb, is being great if you’re a professional host, being great at hospitality, but then also having the best properties in the market.

Because we’re seeing Airbnb are pushing those to the top and then match with a good revenue management strategy, your revenue is through the freaking roof.

So it’s like you gotta be the best in your market on those platforms.

As far as how important social media is, I think we’re investing a lot of money and time, most importantly time, into creating our social media.

And right now, we’re just focused on Instagram and Pinterest, just those two.

Those are the most natural for us.

The third is going to be YouTube.

You can leverage that with Search and SEO, and it’s a longer form content that people can connect with over time.

So we’re investing quite a bit into that, and I believe through the small email lists that we have, and just our Instagram, that’s where we’re getting that like 30 to 40% direct bookings.

That’s where that’s coming in.

But it takes time, it takes a strategy, and it takes really good content to create consistently, right?

So you have to enter, only enter into it if you’re willing to play the game.

If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, then you know that I’ve been managing my properties virtually for years and years.

My team and I have managed thousands of guests.

We’ve learned a ton, and I’m really happy with the progress and the growth we’ve made.

In fact, we’re now big enough to help manage your properties as well.

Our team has a ton of experience, from the inner city apartment to the large lakeside retreat.

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If you’d like to find out if your property fits with our program, just head to strriches.com.

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Again, that’s strriches.com.

Just click on the property management button and we look forward to chatting with you soon.

Yeah, it’s a lot of work, isn’t it?

It is a lot of work.

Yeah, I immediately hired some of the best people I can find to take it on.

And I’m leading the vision, but they’re doing the heavy lifting.

And yeah, it’s awesome.

But you’ll see like there’s a lot of hospitality brands, short term rental brands right now that are focused very heavily on social media.

And the game is pretty simple.

It’s you find really good content creators that are not influencers, not look at me type of Instagram accounts.

It’s more of look at this type of Instagram account, right?

That are centralized in your marketplace, right?

So we’re finding our properties two hours outside of San Diego and LA, right?

So we’re in SoCal.

So we seek out these content creators that are focused on Southern California, that have millions of followers and we’ll bring them to our property.

We’ll comp them one to two nights or three nights.

And then there’s a whole list of deliverables that they give us, right?

They give us professional photography, professional videography.

But then the agreement is that they also share content and tag us, the whole thing on their accounts.

And then we also negotiate a giveaway on their accounts, where they are giving away two nights for free at FreeWild, right?

And that’s really the game, along with creating world class content that people want to connect, right?

And it’s not cheap to do that, but it’s been working really well for us.

And I’m seeing a lot of short term rental brands doing this very successfully and being 100% direct bookings because of that.

Gotcha.

So you guys proactively reaching out to content producers that you think could be a good fit, offering it up to them, and then they come and it just sort of builds on top of each other, the more people you have coming in.

Yeah, exactly.

And you got to measure what you can afford to do because the really good content creators they have packaged in, you know, and you’re spending a few grand per content creator plus the nights that you’re giving away.

So that affects your ADR, that affects your performance, you know, all that stuff.

But we just did this really good collaboration with a content creator who’s actually in Nashville, but they’re called Journey More, and they have a few million people on their Instagram, and they stayed at one of our cabins for two nights.

But they gave us the most incredible content, and like we have a month’s worth of like beautiful content, photos and videos.

Plus they did a giveaway, plus they did some sharing on their accounts.

So we had this huge bump in our following of people who truly are interested in our cabins.

And this is why you don’t want to get like a pretty model that has like a million, two million followers on Instagram, but all the photos are is like of him or her, you know, sitting in a place.

Because like their followers are only following that person versus Journey More is about this couple that’s traveling around the world saying these beautiful cabins.

So people are following them to find the next place for them to stay.

We learned that the hard way.

You got to be strategic who you bring in.

But it cost us a nice amount to get all that content.

But it worked out great for us and we got a few bookings out of it so far, right?

Yeah, it’s good to hear and it’s a solid strategy.

It’s hard to say exactly how much value you get out of it, right?

Because a lot of these things are sort of building on top of each other.

But we know obviously, if you guys get to 70% direct bookings, there’s a ton of value in that in so many ways, right?

And not being as reliant on Airbnb, for example, if something happened.

And just the value of the property too, I think sometimes people forget that, if we have a short term rental and it has amazing reviews and it’s making a lot of money and we go to sell it and we don’t have any sort of direct bookings coming back in, like let’s say they sell it and they don’t sell it with their Airbnb account, the new buyer is pretty much starting over, right?

And so the value of that property is way less versus someone that has a list and has 70% direct bookings coming in.

Dude, 100%.

And I really do believe that’s the game that we’re entering into now, right?

Eight years ago, nine years ago, the game was to just rent a whole bunch of properties and list them on Airbnb and make money, right?

And then it moved into this professional management, operational side, good communication, good cleaning, all of that.

Now it’s going into professional hospitality brands.

Like I think that’s the biggest opportunity in this space.

And I think we’re going to see the mom and pop operators that lead with our heart and host with our heart and their identity and their properties do really well.

And then I think the hospitality brand is going to do really well, right?

Because I think that’s just the consumer is what they’re seeking.

Do you know Live Oak out of Waco, Texas?

I don’t think so.

So a guy named Isaac French, we’ve become friends over the last few months, got to know his story quite a bit.

He built a brand, short term rental brand called Live Oak, where he built out a handful of cabins around this man-made lake in Waco, Texas, right?

It’s not a major travel destination, but he focused on the same strategy that we did, where he developed a brand, cool experience, and then he put a lot of effort into building the social followings.

And very quickly, his account blew up.

He got a few million followers.

His video started getting a lot of traction, and he got to 100% direct bookings through his social accounts.

He ended up selling the property about a year ago at a crazy amount of profit.

So it was just like really, really amazing to see what he did on that.

But also the firm, the company that bought him, also valued his social and his brand at $2 million, which is he had one property, he didn’t have hundreds and hundreds of properties, but he had a social account with following and an email that directed to direct booking.

So he was able to sell this property at this crazy multiple because he built out a book of business and then he had this following that they valued at $2 million.

This is all public, he talks about this, so I’m not sharing any secrets.

But crazy, crazy story, and it also gives everyone some focus that if you do take that route and if you do it correctly, there is value there.

Yeah, for sure.

Let’s say someone’s out there and they’re like, I love Eric’s story.

I want to start my own short term rental brand.

I’ve got this thing that I’m passionate about that I want to incorporate with my rentals.

But I’m not really sure how much additional money I could make.

I don’t really know what the possibilities are out there.

What would you say?

And I know that there’s not like a clear cut answer to this, but you guys mentioned, for example, you’re earning over 100% more RevFar than your competition.

So what would you say to someone out there that really wants to build a unique experience, but they’re not quite sure how to guesstimate around what they might earn?

Dude, I had no idea what we were going to earn.

I had no idea.

You’re supposed to have the answer, Eric.

Because I’m the expert.

I had no idea what to expect as we were going through this.

And I spent a lot of time.

My steps were, I spent a lot of time developing the brand and the identity of the brand, making sure that I got super clear on who we wanted to serve.

So I knew that I wanted to serve young professional couples that live in and around the metro areas that were looking to connect with nature and just disconnect from technology.

I spent a lot of time cultivating that avatar, that guesst avatar that I was seeking.

And then I spent a lot of time developing the brand, right?

And making sure that the brand itself told that story.

And when you came across the name and our website, the whole thing, that you felt that.

And you knew right away who we were and that you connected with this brand.

And then I spent a lot of time getting very clear on the asset, right?

Because like the early days and when I got in Short Term Rentals, I just said yes to everything that came across the desk, right?

I had studios down in Mexico and multimillion dollar mansions in San Diego.

Right?

And it’s like in Colorado and all these other places.

We had no real identities.

Like our properties were doing well, but no one was like really connected.

We didn’t have a brand, right?

At the end of the day.

So I focused a lot on the brand.

And then I spent a lot of time selling that vision to people that can help me make it happen.

Right?

So selling that vision to the right investors.

And we just found like the perfect investor for this, who’s just like trusted us, like saw something in us, believed in the idea, wanted to ride this journey with us, right?

And invested heavily into the real estate.

And then I brought on the right people to help us develop this.

So as I was going through this renovation, I’ve never done anything to this level.

Like one day when you’re back out here, I would love for you to stay at these properties, because we invested a lot in every single detail.

And as I was going through this, I was really, really concerned if we were going to make our money back or not, because we paid top dollar for the property.

This was right before things started settling, or you know, it was at the peak in this market.

The market that we’re in is not known for these high design experiential based cabins.

Like it’s cabins in the woods, like 200 bucks a night, 100 bucks a night.

Like there’s nothing fancy or high level about this.

But I believe by talking to enough people that there was a big demand for what I was creating.

And I also measured like, hey, we’re two hours outside of LA, outside of Orange County and San Diego County.

There’s tens of millions of people within a two hour drive, or millions of people within a two hour drive from here.

And I’m sure enough of them are seeking this asset.

So yeah, man, we didn’t know what we were gonna generate until we got into this.

And before we started recording, we started talking about our revenue management service and how that came about.

It was because of that complex ingredients of like, we just took on millions of dollars to build this brand.

We just hired some people, we’re investing a crazy amount of money into the design and experience, how do we make this work?

And then we started realizing, literally with our first booking, just blew the expectations out of the water.

And since then, average, our property is, RevPAR is 102% above market, top of the market.

One of our units is trending at 167% higher RevPAR than the top comparable unit in the market.

So it’s a mix of it all, right?

It’s a mix of the brand, the design, the hospitality and our revenue management strategy that’s driving the results.

Yeah, that’s awesome.

Yeah, I guess, you know, there’s certainly…

No, that’s helpful.

I think what I took out of it is that like, hey, yes, there’s more risk to this, right?

You know, we didn’t know.

These were all plain Jane cabins, and we had an idea we wanted to run with when we believed in it.

And we knew that there was a big market a couple hours from there.

And so you guys went for it, right?

I mean, you guys, it is a little more risky, I guess, than, you know, buying the cabin in the woods and not spending the extra millions of dollars to do it.

And so with the risk comes a little more reward, right?

If we play our cards right and we do it.

And the cool thing with having such a unique experience, like we’ve been talking about, is that you guys are building this brand and that brand doesn’t just go away, you know?

That brand’s gonna consistently build upon itself, assuming, you know, your hospitality hasn’t changed and it’s really kind of endless, right?

I did an episode not too long ago on this hotel in London that charges like $10,000 a night and they’ve been around for decades, right?

And I was watching a documentary on it and I’m like, I don’t know, it was a unique property, right?

But they just had the hospitality piece down there, like down pat.

So I love the story, Eric.

I think it’s exciting.

I think there’s a lot of people out there too that have some sort of passion they want to put into a property and to make it a little bit different, to stand out.

And if we put in the work, we get the rewards, right?

100 percent, man.

And I think if we’re creating something that’s close to our heart and solving real problems, then I think our industry is going through a big shift of going from just standard short-term rental entrepreneurs to real hospitality providers, right?

Because at the end of the day, anybody can create really beautifully designed properties in the woods.

But if we’re not matching the experience with the best hospitality we can provide via short-term rental strategy, we’re never going to continue this trend, right?

So and we’re just seeing it, like the demand for our properties are growing, more and more people are even from Airbnb, or they stay at our property at Airbnb, from Airbnb, then they can learn about their brand.

They connect with Wild World and then they seek us out direct, right, through our website, everything else.

And they’re identifying with the brand.

So now we have grander visions, like we’re trying to buy two properties right now, and every property that we buy will have a minimum of 15 cabins per property.

And the goal is to continue to expand this, as long as we’re continuing to have fun and make profit while we do it.

I love it.

Well, there’s a million ways to run a short term rental, right?

I love the path that you’ve chosen now.

You’ve gone through a lot of the other ones in the past.

Some great tips on social media there, great tips on branding, and I think our audience is gonna find a lot of value in what you brought today, Eric.

So appreciate you being on.

Where can people find out about FreeWild, find out about you guys, everything you’re doing?

Yeah, I just suggest everyone to check out freewild.com.

So that’s freewyld.com.

And then I’m on Instagram and LinkedIn at Eric D.

Moeller.

Awesome.

I’ve got one other question for you too.

And that is the name of our show Short Term Rental Riches, but we know that the word rich doesn’t always have a financial sense, right?

So is there something in your life or something habit or thing that you’ve done recently that’s enriched your life in a non-financial way that you could share with us?

Dude, that’s a great question.

Yes.

So I’m getting married in three months, in October.

Thanks, man.

Yeah.

And that has completely shift my mindset going from this independent solo entrepreneur since I was 18, traveling the world, building things, said like, oh, now I’m building a family now and things have shifted.

And because of that mindset and starting to focus on family in the near future, my relationship with health has completely shifted where it’s more important to me.

Health is my number one priority over my business, where in the past, prior to starting FreeWild, it was the opposite.

It was the company first and entertainment second, and then health was down there somewhere.

So I’ve taken on an entire new identity as an athlete, entrepreneur.

I’m calling myself an entrepreneur athlete.

And it’s just to remind me of the lifestyle that I’m living.

So yeah, I’ve taken on a whole new personal identity of living as an athlete as I build this company.

And it’s been absolutely incredible, man, and how it translates to the success of my business and the success of my relationship right now and relationships around me.

And it’s been amazing.

So to me, I feel like that is the greatest.

Dude, because you know me from my previous businesses, they were very successful and very profitable.

And we were growing them, but I was super unhealthy.

I was depressed.

I was 50 pounds overweight.

I was drinking.

I was eating like crap.

And even though we were on the path of making millions of dollars, when I was looking at the projections, I’m like, man, none of this is going to make me feel any shift, any happiness, anything.

And I’m like, okay, clearly it’s not the money that is the motivator here.

And once I went all in on my health, and that’s a whole other podcast and what I’m doing there, everything just shifted, man.

And I just realized like that’s the most important thing that we can focus on.

And once we own that, for me at least, once I own that, everything else just started falling into place.

Business became easier, chips fall into place for that, my relationships became easier.

So yeah, that’s where I’m getting my riches in life is like all in on living an athletic lifestyle.

It’s necessary, isn’t it?

And that’s great to hear.

I mean, if we don’t have our health, I guess we don’t really have anything, do we?

And this really speaks to your brand too.

I mean, you’re creating a place where people can turn off, and we need to turn off from time to time, especially as entrepreneurs, you know, and living remote lives.

So love what you’re doing, Eric.

Really appreciate you joining us on the show today, and our audience can find a ton of value, and I’m looking forward to seeing where you guys take things with FreeWild.

Yeah, thank you, brother.

And congrats to you on the podcast and everything that you’re doing.

I’m excited for you.

Thanks, man.

We’ll talk to you later.

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