January 22, 2023 • 45 mins
Ali Nichols is the Co-founder of Getaway. Prior to founding Getaway, Ali spent over 4 years as an executive at Bungalow, a technology enabled residential real estate company.
During her time at Bungalow, Ali ran numerous business functions including, Operations, Growth, Marketing, Sales, and Real Estate. She spearheaded raising and operating a $700M real estate fund focused on acquiring single family rentals.
Prior to Bungalow, Ali was a Strategy & Planning Sr. Manager at Uber and a Consultant at IBM. She holds a Bachelors of Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Don't miss out on this episode as we discuss key things relevant to being an entrepreneur and making sure you have the right tools to "Chase your dreams."
Our tattoos, balls, and beards are part of who we are, so why not make sure you take care of them!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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Episode Transcript
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Dustin Steffey (00:00):
Jaden, there's a couple of important things in
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Jaden Norvell (01:18):
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today. That's everything that Ihave for you guys. I want to
dive right into the fun part Ihave a special guest on we have
(04:37):
the pleasure of having on allyNichols. Her accolades include
being the co founder of get awayand before that she spent four
years as an executive atbungalow. She was strategy and
planning Senior Manager at Uberand a consultant of IBM am her
(04:57):
education includes a BS degreefrom Carnegie Mellon University?
Allie, I'm excited because I'veseen you a couple of times. But
we couldn't connect now you'reon. So welcome.
Ali Nichols (05:13):
Super excited to be here. Thanks so much for having
me. You're
Dustin Steffey (05:16):
welcome.
Absolutely. So I know I gave youkind of the like, awesome
introduction. But there's moreto you than that. So let's dive
right in. Give us a little bit.
Ali Nichols (05:29):
Yeah. So honestly, my journey, I think, in how I
ended up at start foundinggetaway really started when I
was a kid, I used to, everySunday after church, go through
the local Oregonian newspaperand circle, open house with
(05:49):
things in my neighborhood andbegged my parents to take us all
around to be retails. And thefunny part was, I would always
like, try and pitch them on whythey should trade out of their
house and move into this one,based on the characteristics of
the neighborhood, or the schooldistrict, and so forth. And so
(06:11):
there was this piece of reallyloving, you know, residential
real estate and optimizing thedeal. That's been a part of me
since I was like a little kid.
But I went off to college. Andof course, you know, followed a
lot of trends, where it's like,I don't know what I know what I
want to do with my life. I lovereal estate. But I don't know if
I want to make that a careerstarted out in consulting, as
(06:32):
most people do when they'relike, I have no idea what I want
to do, and ended up in SanFrancisco, and got bit by the
tech industry bug, like everyonearound me was working at these
amazing startups and all ofthese companies that like,
really were new and changing theworld. And so I got back with
the idea of Uber, it was justaround the time where like, Uber
(06:57):
was becoming popular, peoplestarted actually having it on
their phone. And I was like, Ineed to work at this company,
like this company is so cool. Ifonly in college, I had the
opportunity to like, press abutton and get a ride home
safely. Oh my god, that wouldhave been a game changer.
Dustin Steffey (07:16):
The opportunity in college to just invent Uber,
we would be billionaires. So I
Ali Nichols (07:25):
missed that one.
But I did basically everythingin my power to get a job at
Uber, I think I applied to over50 roles. was really just like
gung ho on getting in therefinally got my opportunity after
like six months of trying. Andtook took a role there had an
amazing experience. It was myfirst time really in like the
(07:45):
tech startup world and saw howfast paced it was how awesome my
colleagues were. Not only werethey like, so excited to be
there, and what they wereworking on. But they all loved
hanging out with each other. AndI was like, Oh, this is like
such a unique environment. Iknew I wanted to stay in the
startup space forever. So afterUber, coming back to that real
(08:08):
estate, you know, bug, Irealized, like, is there a way
to combine my passion for realestate, with the tech industry
and being a part of somethingbuilding new ideas through
technology. So I landed at bombawhich is a prop tech startup.
And I was joined really early,when they were in a seed stage
(08:32):
and around the 10th employee, sogot to see than building a
company from the ground up. Andreally, you know, being in a
role where you wear every singlehat, you just figure out like,
here's the biggest problem inthe business, go solve it, go
figure it out, like you know, ifyou need to build out a customer
support, or if you've never donethat before, just go make it
(08:54):
happen. So, so spent four and ahalf years there getting to
really lead and build teamsacross almost every single
business function, includingtheir real estate, arm and real
estate business line, andlearned a ton got an amazing
experience. And realize, youknow, it's time to fly the nest
(09:14):
and try something on my own. Andso have now founded getaway,
which is a real estate investingplatform for everyone to be able
to get access into short termrental assets, things like
Airbnb properties at a reallylow entry price. And then
investors are cashflow andappreciation on their ownership
(09:36):
here, as well as the upside ofbeing able to use the entire
portfolio of properties at adiscount. So it's an investment
vehicle for you know, buildingwealth over time, but also an
investment in your lifestyle,and spending time with friends
and family.
Dustin Steffey (09:57):
So a couple of questions came out of that For
sure, but I don't want toinundate you. So, first and
foremost, your journey, yourjourney is awesome and
interesting and impactful, likeexperiences. So the first thing
that I wanted to do was kind ofask you like, was it already
already kind of predeterminedfor you, too want to be in
(10:20):
entrepreneurship, you are justtrying to take the smart kind of
approach and learn before it hitme in entrepreneurship, or it
kind of just happened that way.
And that's where it's at.
Ali Nichols (10:32):
Yeah, I think my whole life, I've always dreamed
of having my own business. Ididn't know really where that
would leave me. But I had thisidea that I wanted to be my own
boss. Like, there's suchempowerment in that. And then
after, you know, entering kindof the tech industry and seeing
how Venture Capital Work, thestartup and the founder
(10:55):
ecosystem, I realized, like, Oh,this is my opportunity. Now, how
do I work towards buildingtowards that? And, yeah, it's
like, I think my experience atBongo really gave me the
opportunity to see so manydifferent facets of the business
and start to get comfortablewith the idea that I could do
(11:16):
this on my own. And, you know,there's areas that I can cover,
there's areas I can hire for,but I had a better understanding
of like the full business end toend and kind of the business
equation that I feltcomfortable, like finally taking
the leap and doing it solo.
Dustin Steffey (11:32):
So Ali, were you were you fully committed in your
prior roles? Or did you havekind of this getaway, kind of in
the in the coals and you wereworking on it as a side hustle,
and it turned into aentrepreneurship gig? Like, how
did that work for you? Did youjust cut the job? And then all
(11:53):
of a sudden, boom, you're inyour new one? Like, how did it
work?
Ali Nichols (11:57):
Yeah, that's a great question. So throughout my
whole career, I've been doingsome real estate things on the
side. That have kept me busy.
But when it came to get away,the idea came, like while I'm
while I was working at bungalow,and so I, I put on the side, I
(12:19):
became obsessed with it like,Okay, how do you actually make
this happen with thefeasibility, I'd be working on
it with my co founder on theweekends. And, you know, at
first is a fun idea that we'vestarted to get more traction, we
like, oh, let's start, you know,testing some ads and see if
there's demand for this, andthen kept getting more and more
(12:41):
signals. And it finally got tothe point where like, we need to
do this, like we have enough,like conviction and traction,
that we should just go for it.
And so at that when we got tothat point, we're like, okay,
we're going to transition out ofour current roles, and go 100%
(13:01):
On for this goal of fundraisingfor getaway.
Dustin Steffey (13:05):
So it's really interesting and really cool. At
the same time, I asked thisquestion to a select few people.
And the answers are alwaysawesome. So for you, you, you
kept your normal income comingin, while kind of testing the
waters with it until you finallydecided to go all in, which is
awesome. You still burn theboats and got it, but
(13:29):
everybody's different, right? Sothere are some people that will
leave, put their back up againsta wall and hope that they
succeed, which I don't, I don'tfully like right off that
approach. But at the same time,I don't fully support it,
either. Because if you havefamily or I don't know, mortgage
(13:50):
or whatever, like you need toresponsibly be able to pay your
bill style, you know, yeah.
Ali Nichols (13:57):
Yeah, I don't think there's any right or wrong
answer when it comes to thesethings. I really think it's so
entrepreneur specific. And a lotof it you do it like, right
timing in the market, as well oflike, you know, is this a
product that people haveconviction for right at that
moment in time, that makes itpotentially easier to fundraise
(14:21):
versus not? Like, you know, weyou can look at the fundraising
environment, you know, the pastsix months compared to the
previous and like the marketseems nificant. So I think a lot
of people that did raise capitalpreviously might not be able to
at this point in time and so theshifting dynamic, there's so
many things outside yourcontrol, there's never a right
(14:43):
answer, like a blanket answer.
That's right for everybody.
Dustin Steffey (14:47):
It's it's funny, because each time you and I like
build on this, it brings up andpicks another question. So you
bring up the term fundraise,right? So if if I'm getting
there So right, and you cancorrect me if I'm wrong, you
probably put some of yourcapital in to invest in, in your
own company. But you you,essentially what, fundraise some
(15:11):
of the money to be able to openthe business? Or how did that
work?
Ali Nichols (15:16):
Yeah, so we fundraise from venture capital,
and we were fortunate to raisewith seed round to kind of like
the first round of funding fromVCs, which has really enabled us
to move faster build a team, beable to spend on marketing and
things like that. And so that'sthe fundraising I'm referring
(15:39):
to.
Dustin Steffey (15:40):
So it's different from than taking out a
loan? Correct? Because I mean,many, there are many different
avenues to owning your ownbusiness one being you can take
out a bank loan, right, and hopefor the best and make a profit
to be able to hopefully pay thatoff. You have angel investors
that you went after ourinvestors per se, correct?
Ali Nichols (16:02):
Yeah, exactly. And so the process works is
essentially they are purchasinga percent ownership of your
business, that we they we soldoff that to venture capital
firms and some angel investors.
Dustin Steffey (16:17):
That's awesome.
See, that's, that's stuff wehaven't dove into yet, which is
funding your entrepreneurialjourneys. So that I mean, it's
an advanced topic, in myopinion, it let's not put the
cart before the horse, right.
But in the same token, a year ofepisodes for my podcast, it's
probably time to start talkingabout investment within how do
(16:41):
you how do you run your ownbusiness? So that's awesome
nuggets right there, Iappreciate that. You make me
want to get away actually, withthe name. It makes me want to
like, Yeah, let's go, let'slet's invest, I'm Baroque, but
let's do it.
Ali Nichols (16:59):
That they will like to make it accessible to, you
know, the widest that people aspossible. So you can start
investing with a little amountversus historically, you know,
to invest in real estate, youneeded at least 20% down for a
down payment, you know, if thiswasn't your primary. So that's
(17:24):
our goal is really to open upaccess to real estate investing
for everyone.
Dustin Steffey (17:28):
I think that's an awesome goal. And there's
more that you and I are going totalk about offline for that. But
I think that that's awesome. itbodes a question that I can ask
now. Right? Before when you andI were going to interview I
wasn't sure. But interest rateshave gone up. Everything's
inflating right now, what doesthat do for you as an
(17:50):
entrepreneur, especially withinreal estate?
Ali Nichols (17:53):
Yeah, so it just creates directly impact our
business like there's no and, orbuts about it. The reason we,
you know, there's, there's somefactors in the terms of the
asset class that we're goingafter, that make it so really
attractive. So in the short termrental space, oftentimes, you
(18:14):
can generate a lot more rentalrevenue, if operated well, and
then you know, a desirablemarket has a lot of poor influx.
So the ability to generatehigher kind of revenue, and then
yield exists within this assetclass. So that's a plus for us.
(18:34):
Which means that even withraising interest rates, were
still able to create a premiumor cash flow on top of the
mortgage payment or the debtservice. That's like one piece
of the rising interest rate.
Also with rise, the other marketdynamics that make it an
interesting time and advocateadvantageous time for us is,
(18:56):
with rising interest rates.
There's less competition fromother buyers. So people are kind
of sitting this one out, theywant to see what's going to
happen, and so forth. So you'restarting to see the market turn
from you know, the last two anda half years has been a complete
seller's market, likeeverything's been going up up,
(19:17):
again, like crazy bidding wars,no contingencies, things like
that. We're now starting to seeit shift back to buyers having
power and being able tonegotiate better field and
perms. I will say like, likecorrection to kind of the
inflating housing market we'veseen over the last couple years.
(19:39):
So as we go into 2023, we'reexpecting to see a bit of a
softening from a purchase priceperspective, which makes it a
great time to buy if you do haveaccess to the capital. And if
the deal is tenfold. So you knowfor us the deal still cancel.
We're looking at it as a greatopportunity to buy And then the
(20:00):
way that we structure ourbusiness, it's a great
opportunity for the individualinvestor, because you might not
be able to purchase something onyour own right now. But you
can't with through us, you couldpurchase 5% of a property 10% of
a property, whatever is likefeasible for you at the moment,
but you can take advantage ofthese market dynamics, this
(20:21):
purchase
Dustin Steffey (20:22):
that people put in through your company, is it?
Is it cash, like upfront? Or isit finance kind of like a
mortgage? How does it work?
Ali Nichols (20:32):
Yeah, so if you can think of the product is very
similar to like an investmentaccounts, like whether you're
putting money into Robin Hood,or Wealthfront, or one of those
other platforms. So you'reinvesting cash upfront to buy an
equity stake, or the equity partownership of the property. And
(20:54):
then you own that piece of theproperty ongoing. So then you'll
make the rental income as apercent ownership of the
property. And then theappreciation, one property sold
as well.
Dustin Steffey (21:06):
So that begs the next question, which is, you
said that people that invest areafforded the ability to kind of
go to different properties? Howdoes that work? If you have,
like, for example, what I'mthinking is, is you're
successful, right? So you have aton of people that are invested
in isn't there cross traffic ofpeople trying to go to the
(21:28):
certain rentals, or whateverthat you have?
Ali Nichols (21:31):
Yeah, so so you can be invested in one property and
you get access to the entireportfolio of homes. And the with
that, it, it really does work alittle bit on a first come first
serve booking basis. But we viewit as membership tiers, for our
members. So very similar arelike analogous to an airline
(21:54):
miles program, you know, themore you travel, or the more
you're invested, the bigger thebenefits are. And one of the
benefits for the higher tiers isthe booking calendar opens up
earlier for them. So, you know,you get kind of, quote, unquote,
like first access to booking,but in general, it's very much
(22:16):
like, book the date you want andtake advantage of your discount.
By staying in the property.
Dustin Steffey (22:23):
It kind of reminds me a little bit and no
offense, right. So I know whatyou're gonna say. It reminds me
of a timeshare. Right, yeah.
Which, which is a dirty term touse. It's so dirty, because
people hate it. Right? I mean, Iused to own one, two, and it
just, it sucked my money dry.
(22:46):
Right? The difference betweenyours and a timeshare, though,
is these investors are makingmoney back. So hopefully, that's
money that, you know, islucrative enough where the
investments worth, in myopinion, right?
Ali Nichols (23:03):
Yeah, no, that is like the biggest thing a lot of
you know, when we were coming upwith the idea and testing it,
and so forth, it's like, howdoes the timeshare industry
still like that? Like, they'refundamentally, it doesn't make
sense to me from an investmentperspective. And so a lot of the
(23:23):
things we're thinking throughare like, how do we make this
like, better for the customer?
Like, how do you get to takeadvantage of, you know,
traveling and going to theseplaces you're excited about, but
it's an investment. And, youknow, you're getting a return on
your dollar, and you're reapingthe rewards of appreciation over
time, but you just don't getwith the time. Like you're
(23:45):
buying the right views. You'renot you don't own any of the
assets. So for us, it's reallyimportant that we view it first
and foremost as an investmentvehicle. And then the travel
benefits are like, a totalcherry on top, like, make it
exciting for the consumer toinvest with
Dustin Steffey (24:06):
us. Yeah, sorry to bring up the dirty term.
Ali Nichols (24:11):
So I'm like, how do you we always joke we're like
this, not your mom's timeshare.
Like we're trying to likeactually help people build
wealth.
Dustin Steffey (24:21):
And that was the worst thing that I ever could
have signed my name on washaving a timeshare because for
those of you that don't know howtimeshare works, you there are
two approaches right? It can begifted to you or you go after
buying a timeshare for a lumpsum. And then you have to pay a
yearly maintenance on it whichthose fees
Ali Nichols (24:44):
people Yeah, they're quite expensive, too.
Yeah, I
Dustin Steffey (24:48):
started at 800 bucks in mine mine ended at like
1000 Plus, right it's it'sinsane and there's no return on
it with Airbnb. be coming outand all these different ways of
traveling. A timeshare to me iskind of obsolete, plus,
depending on the timeshare, soI'm not talking Hilton where you
(25:10):
can go everywhere. Like there'sspecific timeshares for just
that place only and it's hard tobe able to go anywhere else. So
it gets boring if you go thesame place all the time.
Ali Nichols (25:22):
Yeah, totally.
Well, we've definitely had triedto stay as far away from that
negative connotation aspossible. But take out the
pieces that like, were a hugebenefit that did draw on so many
people. In terms of the concept,and one thing I just want to
(25:43):
clarify with with our product isyou make your initial investment
and kind of like buying,analogous to almost buying like
shares in a company or dock. Andthere's not ongoing fees, like a
timeshare that that doesn'texist on our platform.
Dustin Steffey (26:00):
Now, this definitely is interesting. I
know I have a lot of listenersthat invest in different things.
So this is definitely a positiveinvestment. Hopefully,
hopefully, it's yielding goodmoney to those that are invested
right now, but it's definitelypositive. So just so you heard
it here, guys, this is not atimeshare. It's a dirty word.
(26:24):
We're not a dirty word anymore.
So this is definitely aninvestment that advantageous Lee
pays you in dividends based offof how much you've invested. So
again, not a timeshare notherquestion for you, I kind of
wrote it down. So hasentrepreneurship afforded you
(26:45):
the ability to have more freedomwith your time? Has it allowed
for you to do the things thatyou've wanted to do? Or has it
been so crazy, where you reallydon't have time? Because you're
so invested into the businessand trying to make sure it's
successful? With running yourown business, obviously, there's
(27:05):
obstacles and stuff like that.
So kind of just walk me throughlike, what's, what's been an
entrepreneur afforded you? Ah,
Ali Nichols (27:16):
definitely the ladder and the two. So I think,
you know, one thing I alwaysdescribe as a characteristic,
you need to have be anentreprenuer, to kind of be
obsessive, because you'reobsessing over your process your
business like 24/7, like, I wakeup in the middle of the night
(27:38):
having like, readings about, oh,we should do this? Or is this
how we didn't have to handlethis problem. So I would
definitely say, you know,starting this company, and
following this path has becomean all consuming task. And so
when my family and friendsbrought me because they're like,
(27:59):
We haven't seen you in months.
So I would say, it's definitelynot for the faint of heart, in
that sense, at least from myexperience. But the flip side of
that is, I have never learnedmore as quickly, like you're
faced with a new problem andchallenge every day, and you
just have to figure it out. Andyou learn so fast. And I always
(28:19):
joke, like, the thing I thoughtthe things I thought were a
crisis. You know, the first weekthat we started doing it,
compared to now I'm like, Oh,that was like, Why did I even
get upset over that that was sosilly compared to the challenges
we're dealing with that soyou're, you kind of build up
this like tolerance for handlingbigger and bigger challenges and
(28:42):
bigger fire drill. And youlearned so much like I think
that this is just like a crashcourse in your field in your
industry. And so if that'ssomething that people are,
you're going after, personally,I'd highly recommend it. But no,
it does at the sacrifice of someother things in your life, and
(29:03):
you have to set thoseexpectations with your loved
ones too.
Dustin Steffey (29:09):
Yeah, that's something I wanted to reinforce.
So mostly most people that go orwant to go into entrepreneurship
think that you know, you canbuild the business and then it
runs itself and then you haveall this free time and you know,
there are there areentrepreneurial journeys that do
act in that way. But more oftenthan not, you're sinking your
(29:33):
blood sweat and tears intosomething so you can chase that
success. And you have to kind ofbe 100% present so like you
said, being an entrepreneur isnot for the faint of heart at
all. It is a lot of work and alot of hours I can be one to
attest to it because I haven'tburned my boat yet for my normal
(29:54):
job. So I work my normal job.
And then I do this as well.
Sleep is like, what is that?
Right? So yeah, there's no suchthing and time. And stuff is, is
really important, you have to bereally good at managing time. I
mean, it's, it's what 10 toeight here. So I'm scheduling,
I'm scheduling podcasts before,for recording, going to work,
(30:19):
editing and after or evengetting another one in. So it
literally is a all day and nighttype thing until you can burn
the boat. Now, I mean, the oneadvantageous benefit is as an
entrepreneur, you could makegood money, but you don't have
(30:41):
time to really spend it, whichis why most of these
entrepreneurs that aresuccessful invest in they have
more and more money. So
Ali Nichols (30:51):
yeah, totally. It is something you have to be, you
have to love what you're doing.
Like there's no way around thatbecause it is very demanding.
And so at the end of the day, ifyou're not like, satisfied and
what you're doing all day, itwill burn you out way too
quickly.
Dustin Steffey (31:13):
Yeah, I agree there. I love podcasts. And I
love technology, like you and Ihave already brought up and I
love. I love every element ofit. But it's tedious at the same
time, right? Because I'm notjust recording this and then
posting it right you and I, youand I have to arrive at okay,
how are we going to market thisout? To get more people to
(31:34):
listen and get visibility? Howam I going to edit this to make
it in a way where it looks good?
How much equipment is going intoit? How much? You know, there's
there's a million things andthen I go to bed at night
sometimes when nightmares like,Ooh, what if I mess it up? And
then this is out in the universenow and I look like you know
crap. But you, you know, likeyou You and I both know, like
(31:58):
all these questions come up andkind of develops a thick skin in
my mind of how to be anentrepreneur.
Ali Nichols (32:08):
Definitely. I don't and they don't watch you.
Dustin Steffey (32:11):
They don't teach you this stuff in school are
their ally like you and I areeducated people. And I'm going
through my textbooks. And I'mlike, yep, that wasn't in the
textbook. There was that therewas that? Like, what the what
the heck, what am I doing? Like,what did I pay 100 grand plus
for my education for?
Ali Nichols (32:30):
Totally. I had one last thing about it, too, is
like, it can be really lonely.
Like I don't think, you know,going into this experience and
like leaving kind of working atstartups with teams and things
like that. The early stages, atleast for for our company, like
we're such a small team, andlike everybody's very focused on
(32:52):
their own specific like areathat you don't have as much
like, you don't have a ton ofpeople to bounce ideas off of
there have that like, you know,kind of like workplace chatter,
things like that. So there aremoments where it's like, you're
on doing this on your own, andthere's no one. There's also not
(33:15):
no one to tell you like, Hey,you're doing a good job. Like if
you have to find all of thatfrom yourself. So those are
things that I didn't, I didn'tthink about before I started
this journey that I'm like nowlike, Oh, that makes total
sense. But I just didn't put ittogether before going into it.
Dustin Steffey (33:35):
Listen, first and foremost, if you get lonely,
although I know you have asignificant other I'm here for
you. I'll take that applicationfall on that sword. I got you
here. But no, seriously, you'reso right. Like, even for me for
the podcast. Like I'm I'mfortunate and lucky, right?
Because I've sought after otherpodcasts, right? And I've made
(33:58):
friends off of them. So there'llbe like 1010 in at night calls
to some people where it's like,hey, does this sound good? Is
this all right to you? Do youthink? What should I do like
bouncing ideas? But that took abig thing too, which people
forget about which isnetworking?
Ali Nichols (34:20):
Definitely.
Definitely. Definitely. I can'tlike overemphasize, like how
important building out a networkis and a support system.
Dustin Steffey (34:31):
Did you net work quite a bit for getting this
business up and running? Or howdid that work?
Ali Nichols (34:37):
Yeah, so I was super fortunate that my co
founder and I worked togetherpreviously. So we had we had
already like a standingrelationship. We knew we love to
work together. We knew wecomplemented each other skills.
So that pizzas was reallyawesome. But then when we
decided that we wanted to takeoutside capital, we literally
(34:58):
like hit the night. admit interms of meeting as many people
as we could, starting to, like,you know, get our idea out
there. And kind of our ownbrand, so to speak. And I think
in the period of like, three anda half weeks, we did over 75
(35:21):
meetings, thing likeconnections, and it was just
like, constant zoom call, thiswas still in the period of like
everybody meeting on Zoom, andjust back to back to back to
back to back to back all daylong. I'm tired my life. But it
worked. And we made some reallyamazing connections, we found
(35:41):
our investors, whether theywere, you know, firms or angels.
And then from there, all ofthese people are now super
helpful. They're like, your, letme connect you to this person.
Oh, you just talked to thisperson for this role. And so
it's been really awesome. Butyeah, it really has really hit
the pavement and networkingsense. I would
Dustin Steffey (36:03):
imagine with your, with your diverse amount
of experience, you're a pro atnetworking, so you kind of
learned how to network and whoto reach out to. So I would, I
would like to think that you hada leg up on that. Whereas me, I
did not like podcasting. Itwasn't even a thought I didn't
even know honestly, between youand I, how to video edit, how to
(36:27):
edit audio, I didn't know whatneeded to go into it. I didn't
know anything. So my first sixmonths was like fire drill. It
was, Wow, I sound terrible. Tofix this, and, and you know, I
go back and listen to some of myearlier episodes. And I'm like,
sound like a retard? Like Dane,like not good. I sound super
(36:54):
sound super not crisp. I don'thave the technology back in me.
And so you learn over time to inmy opinion, I mean, you can, you
can be outfitted with the bestthings and still not have
quality. And that's kind of thepoint I'm trying to drive home
right is you, you have the toolsand resources for yourself to be
(37:16):
able to function and run yourbusiness. However, it was
putting the puzzle piecestogether. And I'm sure there
were a couple of times where youwere like, I'm not gonna make it
or whatever the case may be. Butyou learned and you kind of
excelled in that sense.
Ali Nichols (37:33):
Totally, I'm so curious, like, what inspired you
to get into podcasting? Youknow,
Dustin Steffey (37:39):
you're gonna laugh at me, and this might take
my application off the table foryou. So I have my PhD, my
doctorate degree. And I justdidn't quite know how to apply
it right, because there's noaccess of CEO openings at all.
And that's kind of where myeducation is. And so it started
(38:02):
to kind of inspire me a littlebit as to how do I give back
what I've learned in the form ofhelping others. Plus, for me
right now, with the educationsystem, I believe strongly in
education, I just don't believestrongly in the debt that it
comes with. And more and morepeople, honestly, would be
better off going to a tradeschool or being an entrepreneur
(38:25):
or kind of, you know, taking astep back. Because education
isn't always where it's at, it'smore or less into, like,
educating yourself, which wehave all these mediums now like
podcasts and books andeverything to be able to educate
yourself, and then actuallydoing it, you know, so for me, I
(38:47):
didn't grow up saying I'm goingto be a podcaster. But here I am
doing it and it takes art andcreation and craziness and
networking and all of that to beable to kind of have one solid
episode, for example, like oneepisode to post and put out into
the world probably takes a good234 days of true editing. Yeah,
(39:14):
yeah. So it's a lot of time.
Yeah, it's a lot of time andyou'll see it as we post this
one for you. Like you'll see theamount of social media presence
that goes into it, the amount ofplanning the amount of just
working together to arrive atthe same thing because a podcast
doesn't build overnight either.
Like I don't know about you, butI'm not Joe Rogan. I think I'm
(39:37):
definitely like, like betterlooking maybe. And sorry, Joe
Rogan in advance. But I'm notI'm not to his level of
influence, right? Yeah. He islike the godfather of Yeah. And
I'm like the little like, kid inpodcasting, right. So I'm trying
(39:59):
to build that
Ali Nichols (40:00):
Dreams that aspiration Yeah, yeah. Cuz he
Dustin Steffey (40:03):
he makes great money off of it. I mean he, he
had a head start because of hisprior careers right. He was
already a newscaster he wasinvolved in sports, I believe.
So he already had the influence.
He already had the builtaudience and everything. So it
made sense for me. I'm just asmall town country boy, like,
(40:24):
people don't know me. I mean,they do now. I mean, a year in
they do now, but they didn'tbefore. You know, I was just a
country boy now doing tiktoks,and snaps, all these different
things in my numbers are goingup and the influence is going
up. And people have never eventhat are like, Hey, this is
(40:45):
cool. You know what I mean? Soit's a fun, fun, dangerous
journey that I'm on. Totally
Ali Nichols (40:55):
well, you should be really proud. That's like, so,
so impressive to see that much.
Except in just a year and likefrom a, from an idea, like
taking something as an idea,bringing it into the world, like
that's what it's all about. So
Dustin Steffey (41:09):
good. It's just getting more people to find it
right, and be able to relatewith it. And of course, keeping
it interesting, right, like youand I were talking about pre
roll, we were talking about allthe plans that I have for this
year, which are awesome plans,but they need to be executed
still.
Ali Nichols (41:30):
Yeah, well, there's a lot of fun things in store on
this show. So everybody shoulddefinitely stay tuned.
Dustin Steffey (41:38):
And I have my book coming up here soon, which
will be nice release in that.
And I do blog posts as well,too. So I become a writer as
well. That's awesome. Because mydoes my application meet for
you? Like when when we hang out?
Let's go.
Ali Nichols (41:54):
Exactly. We gotta get you down in Miami.
Dustin Steffey (41:57):
I'm down I have.
My mom is in West Palm Coast. SoI'm pretty certain pretty
certain I can visit you.
Perfect. I love it. So I want tohave a fun question. Because
it's time to have a little bitof fun, right, which is we've
we've we've kind of gotten to gothrough your entrepreneurial
journey. You've talked a lotabout things pitfalls, and
(42:21):
obviously wins that you'vecelebrated. If you were to give
back like one key golden nugget,as I call it. So one key piece
of information to keep peoplegoing in entrepreneurship and
kind of educate them. What wouldthat be?
Ali Nichols (42:37):
I think I mean, I simplified it down to even just
one word like perservere. Andlike, Jeff, there's going to be
so many things that knock youdown. So many challenges, so
many roadblocks that come up.
But if you can just persevereand like, hold on to what you're
trying to build and know thatwhat you're bringing into the
(42:57):
world is going to be awesome,then that will get you through.
Dustin Steffey (43:05):
Shut that down.
I think you just came up withthe title. Oh, yeah, you know, I
tried to pull out something funand you got it. So is there if
people want to get a hold of youbecause investing is important.
I've always talked to mylisteners and said hey, listen,
if you're not diversifying,there's no point in investing
(43:26):
you don't invest in just onething. You diversify your
portfolio. How do they get aholdof you?
Ali Nichols (43:33):
The easiest way is they get on LinkedIn aged me add
me on LinkedIn. It's ALi nickelad getaway. You can email me
really easy li at getaway dotbell. And then if you want to
check out investing, just checkus out@getaway.com
Dustin Steffey (43:54):
Listen, if LinkedIn ages you then you and I
are both older because I useLinkedIn.
Ali Nichols (44:00):
And let's say number one channel let's be
realistic
Dustin Steffey (44:04):
here. I mean if we're looking at comparing both
you and I and age you definitelylook better than I do.
Ali Nichols (44:11):
Great.
Dustin Steffey (44:13):
So awesome. This was this was awesome. Very
informational. Our informationNo, I'm sorry. Very informative.
I enjoyed it. Is there anythingelse you wanted to add at all?
Or?
Ali Nichols (44:26):
No, this was super fun. And like I mentioned,
that's gonna have a lot of funstuff coming down the pipeline.
So make sure to stay tuned overthe next couple months.
Dustin Steffey (44:36):
And who knows you might see ally on again.
Yeah, because I might be inMiami with her
Ali Nichols (44:42):
to do live episode.
Dustin Steffey (44:44):
Oh, I'm down.
I'm down. You'll make thatepisode. Look. I'd have to try
harder. Ally. Thank you. Thankyou for coming on. Thank you for
just being vulnerable and kindof what your journey was, I
think Sometimes, pride gets inthe way of a lot of us and we're
not as vulnerable and thereforepeople aren't learning what
(45:05):
truly goes into being anentrepreneur. So, really, thank
you so very much.
Ali Nichols (45:13):
Well, I appreciate you having me. This was super
fun.
Dustin Steffey (45:15):
Absolutely. And just think Miami fun. It's right
around the corner.
Ali Nichols (45:21):
I love it. See you soon.
Jaden, there's a couple of important things in
(00:02):
life that you and I've beenover. What do you think those
are? Faith friends and family?
Where do balls land in that
Jaden Norvell (00:09):
in every category?
Dustin Steffey (00:11):
Exactly. You got to protect the family jewels to
be able to get more family inthe world
Jaden Norvell (00:17):
in any faith in a product to do that. So yeah,
Dustin Steffey (00:20):
write something that's made for men and makes
men smell good. So the women areflocking after them. Right? So
let me ask my friend when shegot DERM do.com That is DERM
do.com. Our boy drew over therehas developed some awesome
products. Whether it be theorgasmic sack wash the beard,
guys make shampoo amazeballs,refreshed spray or happy sack he
(00:43):
has a solution for tattoos,beards and balls. Head on over
to DERM do.com today and getyour products to make sure you
are looking good. Feeling good,smelling good, and you're ready
for the ladies. Gentlemen, donot hesitate. DERM dude.com
Let's get those balls, the beardand your tattoos looking and
(01:07):
feeling good.
Jaden Norvell (01:18):
Welcome to your top rated business
entrepreneurship selfdevelopment and smart investment
podcast. This podcast is hostedby creator and founder Dr.
Dustin Steffey and also hostedby coach, music producer and
influencer yours truly Jadenrush Norville, we are blessed
for many accolades such as beingnominated for the People's
Choice Award for Best BusinessPodcast, as well as raising over
(01:38):
$5,000 last year for the CysticFibrosis Foundation as well as
for the Boys and Girls Club,spending a global reach or
podcasts in the top fourdownloads in four countries.
Without further ado, welcome thechopping wood fire ladies and
gentlemen, let's chop it up
Dustin Steffey (02:01):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of
chopping wood fire. You'rejoined with your host today
Dustin Steffey I am excitedbecause we're three four, we're
about three to four episodesinto the new year and already
seen some positive resultsagain, please keep up on all
changes with the podcast as itis different from last year.
(02:23):
There are a lot of new elementsthat have been added in. So the
best way to keep in contact isto head on over to your favorite
social media platform and add atchopping with fire, with the
exception of Twitter Twitter'sat chopping fire. Everything
else is at chopping wood fire.
So we do have Facebook,Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik Tok,
(02:43):
which no I'm not doing dances onthere, but we are posting stuff.
Snapchat, LinkedIn, and ofcourse, our powerful website
which is www.ch o p p i n withfeiyr.com, which houses our
guests profiles, our patreon fordonating to cystic fibrosis, and
(03:05):
of course some other funelements like videos, blogs and
behind the scenes. So please, ifyou haven't done so already
support us. Go on to yourfavorite social media and our
website and take a look andcheck it out. Also YouTube, we
do post full lie or full we willhave full live but four episodes
(03:30):
on YouTube. Starting in the newyear that was a new change. So
please head on over to YouTubeand like and subscribe to help
us out please. Also we will behaving a live event here soon.
Our sports series that we'regoing to be bringing up will be
live and in person. So pleasetake a look at that make sure to
(03:53):
take a look at our schedule andget that all book. Lastly, we do
support cystic fibrosis on thispodcast please. If you haven't
done so already, head on over toC F F dot o RG forward slash
Donate today please any littlebit does help. Cystic Fibrosis
for those of you that do notknow is like breathing through a
(04:17):
small straw. So imagine poking astraw through your lungs and go
on to run a marathon probablywould not work out very well. So
please, if you haven't done soalready support cystic fibrosis
today. That's everything that Ihave for you guys. I want to
dive right into the fun part Ihave a special guest on we have
(04:37):
the pleasure of having on allyNichols. Her accolades include
being the co founder of get awayand before that she spent four
years as an executive atbungalow. She was strategy and
planning Senior Manager at Uberand a consultant of IBM am her
(04:57):
education includes a BS degreefrom Carnegie Mellon University?
Allie, I'm excited because I'veseen you a couple of times. But
we couldn't connect now you'reon. So welcome.
Ali Nichols (05:13):
Super excited to be here. Thanks so much for having
me. You're
Dustin Steffey (05:16):
welcome.
Absolutely. So I know I gave youkind of the like, awesome
introduction. But there's moreto you than that. So let's dive
right in. Give us a little bit.
Ali Nichols (05:29):
Yeah. So honestly, my journey, I think, in how I
ended up at start foundinggetaway really started when I
was a kid, I used to, everySunday after church, go through
the local Oregonian newspaperand circle, open house with
(05:49):
things in my neighborhood andbegged my parents to take us all
around to be retails. And thefunny part was, I would always
like, try and pitch them on whythey should trade out of their
house and move into this one,based on the characteristics of
the neighborhood, or the schooldistrict, and so forth. And so
(06:11):
there was this piece of reallyloving, you know, residential
real estate and optimizing thedeal. That's been a part of me
since I was like a little kid.
But I went off to college. Andof course, you know, followed a
lot of trends, where it's like,I don't know what I know what I
want to do with my life. I lovereal estate. But I don't know if
I want to make that a careerstarted out in consulting, as
(06:32):
most people do when they'relike, I have no idea what I want
to do, and ended up in SanFrancisco, and got bit by the
tech industry bug, like everyonearound me was working at these
amazing startups and all ofthese companies that like,
really were new and changing theworld. And so I got back with
the idea of Uber, it was justaround the time where like, Uber
(06:57):
was becoming popular, peoplestarted actually having it on
their phone. And I was like, Ineed to work at this company,
like this company is so cool. Ifonly in college, I had the
opportunity to like, press abutton and get a ride home
safely. Oh my god, that wouldhave been a game changer.
Dustin Steffey (07:16):
The opportunity in college to just invent Uber,
we would be billionaires. So I
Ali Nichols (07:25):
missed that one.
But I did basically everythingin my power to get a job at
Uber, I think I applied to over50 roles. was really just like
gung ho on getting in therefinally got my opportunity after
like six months of trying. Andtook took a role there had an
amazing experience. It was myfirst time really in like the
(07:45):
tech startup world and saw howfast paced it was how awesome my
colleagues were. Not only werethey like, so excited to be
there, and what they wereworking on. But they all loved
hanging out with each other. AndI was like, Oh, this is like
such a unique environment. Iknew I wanted to stay in the
startup space forever. So afterUber, coming back to that real
(08:08):
estate, you know, bug, Irealized, like, is there a way
to combine my passion for realestate, with the tech industry
and being a part of somethingbuilding new ideas through
technology. So I landed at bombawhich is a prop tech startup.
And I was joined really early,when they were in a seed stage
(08:32):
and around the 10th employee, sogot to see than building a
company from the ground up. Andreally, you know, being in a
role where you wear every singlehat, you just figure out like,
here's the biggest problem inthe business, go solve it, go
figure it out, like you know, ifyou need to build out a customer
support, or if you've never donethat before, just go make it
(08:54):
happen. So, so spent four and ahalf years there getting to
really lead and build teamsacross almost every single
business function, includingtheir real estate, arm and real
estate business line, andlearned a ton got an amazing
experience. And realize, youknow, it's time to fly the nest
(09:14):
and try something on my own. Andso have now founded getaway,
which is a real estate investingplatform for everyone to be able
to get access into short termrental assets, things like
Airbnb properties at a reallylow entry price. And then
investors are cashflow andappreciation on their ownership
(09:36):
here, as well as the upside ofbeing able to use the entire
portfolio of properties at adiscount. So it's an investment
vehicle for you know, buildingwealth over time, but also an
investment in your lifestyle,and spending time with friends
and family.
Dustin Steffey (09:57):
So a couple of questions came out of that For
sure, but I don't want toinundate you. So, first and
foremost, your journey, yourjourney is awesome and
interesting and impactful, likeexperiences. So the first thing
that I wanted to do was kind ofask you like, was it already
already kind of predeterminedfor you, too want to be in
(10:20):
entrepreneurship, you are justtrying to take the smart kind of
approach and learn before it hitme in entrepreneurship, or it
kind of just happened that way.
And that's where it's at.
Ali Nichols (10:32):
Yeah, I think my whole life, I've always dreamed
of having my own business. Ididn't know really where that
would leave me. But I had thisidea that I wanted to be my own
boss. Like, there's suchempowerment in that. And then
after, you know, entering kindof the tech industry and seeing
how Venture Capital Work, thestartup and the founder
(10:55):
ecosystem, I realized, like, Oh,this is my opportunity. Now, how
do I work towards buildingtowards that? And, yeah, it's
like, I think my experience atBongo really gave me the
opportunity to see so manydifferent facets of the business
and start to get comfortablewith the idea that I could do
(11:16):
this on my own. And, you know,there's areas that I can cover,
there's areas I can hire for,but I had a better understanding
of like the full business end toend and kind of the business
equation that I feltcomfortable, like finally taking
the leap and doing it solo.
Dustin Steffey (11:32):
So Ali, were you were you fully committed in your
prior roles? Or did you havekind of this getaway, kind of in
the in the coals and you wereworking on it as a side hustle,
and it turned into aentrepreneurship gig? Like, how
did that work for you? Did youjust cut the job? And then all
(11:53):
of a sudden, boom, you're inyour new one? Like, how did it
work?
Ali Nichols (11:57):
Yeah, that's a great question. So throughout my
whole career, I've been doingsome real estate things on the
side. That have kept me busy.
But when it came to get away,the idea came, like while I'm
while I was working at bungalow,and so I, I put on the side, I
(12:19):
became obsessed with it like,Okay, how do you actually make
this happen with thefeasibility, I'd be working on
it with my co founder on theweekends. And, you know, at
first is a fun idea that we'vestarted to get more traction, we
like, oh, let's start, you know,testing some ads and see if
there's demand for this, andthen kept getting more and more
(12:41):
signals. And it finally got tothe point where like, we need to
do this, like we have enough,like conviction and traction,
that we should just go for it.
And so at that when we got tothat point, we're like, okay,
we're going to transition out ofour current roles, and go 100%
(13:01):
On for this goal of fundraisingfor getaway.
Dustin Steffey (13:05):
So it's really interesting and really cool. At
the same time, I asked thisquestion to a select few people.
And the answers are alwaysawesome. So for you, you, you
kept your normal income comingin, while kind of testing the
waters with it until you finallydecided to go all in, which is
awesome. You still burn theboats and got it, but
(13:29):
everybody's different, right? Sothere are some people that will
leave, put their back up againsta wall and hope that they
succeed, which I don't, I don'tfully like right off that
approach. But at the same time,I don't fully support it,
either. Because if you havefamily or I don't know, mortgage
(13:50):
or whatever, like you need toresponsibly be able to pay your
bill style, you know, yeah.
Ali Nichols (13:57):
Yeah, I don't think there's any right or wrong
answer when it comes to thesethings. I really think it's so
entrepreneur specific. And a lotof it you do it like, right
timing in the market, as well oflike, you know, is this a
product that people haveconviction for right at that
moment in time, that makes itpotentially easier to fundraise
(14:21):
versus not? Like, you know, weyou can look at the fundraising
environment, you know, the pastsix months compared to the
previous and like the marketseems nificant. So I think a lot
of people that did raise capitalpreviously might not be able to
at this point in time and so theshifting dynamic, there's so
many things outside yourcontrol, there's never a right
(14:43):
answer, like a blanket answer.
That's right for everybody.
Dustin Steffey (14:47):
It's it's funny, because each time you and I like
build on this, it brings up andpicks another question. So you
bring up the term fundraise,right? So if if I'm getting
there So right, and you cancorrect me if I'm wrong, you
probably put some of yourcapital in to invest in, in your
own company. But you you,essentially what, fundraise some
(15:11):
of the money to be able to openthe business? Or how did that
work?
Ali Nichols (15:16):
Yeah, so we fundraise from venture capital,
and we were fortunate to raisewith seed round to kind of like
the first round of funding fromVCs, which has really enabled us
to move faster build a team, beable to spend on marketing and
things like that. And so that'sthe fundraising I'm referring
(15:39):
to.
Dustin Steffey (15:40):
So it's different from than taking out a
loan? Correct? Because I mean,many, there are many different
avenues to owning your ownbusiness one being you can take
out a bank loan, right, and hopefor the best and make a profit
to be able to hopefully pay thatoff. You have angel investors
that you went after ourinvestors per se, correct?
Ali Nichols (16:02):
Yeah, exactly. And so the process works is
essentially they are purchasinga percent ownership of your
business, that we they we soldoff that to venture capital
firms and some angel investors.
Dustin Steffey (16:17):
That's awesome.
See, that's, that's stuff wehaven't dove into yet, which is
funding your entrepreneurialjourneys. So that I mean, it's
an advanced topic, in myopinion, it let's not put the
cart before the horse, right.
But in the same token, a year ofepisodes for my podcast, it's
probably time to start talkingabout investment within how do
(16:41):
you how do you run your ownbusiness? So that's awesome
nuggets right there, Iappreciate that. You make me
want to get away actually, withthe name. It makes me want to
like, Yeah, let's go, let'slet's invest, I'm Baroque, but
let's do it.
Ali Nichols (16:59):
That they will like to make it accessible to, you
know, the widest that people aspossible. So you can start
investing with a little amountversus historically, you know,
to invest in real estate, youneeded at least 20% down for a
down payment, you know, if thiswasn't your primary. So that's
(17:24):
our goal is really to open upaccess to real estate investing
for everyone.
Dustin Steffey (17:28):
I think that's an awesome goal. And there's
more that you and I are going totalk about offline for that. But
I think that that's awesome. itbodes a question that I can ask
now. Right? Before when you andI were going to interview I
wasn't sure. But interest rateshave gone up. Everything's
inflating right now, what doesthat do for you as an
(17:50):
entrepreneur, especially withinreal estate?
Ali Nichols (17:53):
Yeah, so it just creates directly impact our
business like there's no and, orbuts about it. The reason we,
you know, there's, there's somefactors in the terms of the
asset class that we're goingafter, that make it so really
attractive. So in the short termrental space, oftentimes, you
(18:14):
can generate a lot more rentalrevenue, if operated well, and
then you know, a desirablemarket has a lot of poor influx.
So the ability to generatehigher kind of revenue, and then
yield exists within this assetclass. So that's a plus for us.
(18:34):
Which means that even withraising interest rates, were
still able to create a premiumor cash flow on top of the
mortgage payment or the debtservice. That's like one piece
of the rising interest rate.
Also with rise, the other marketdynamics that make it an
interesting time and advocateadvantageous time for us is,
(18:56):
with rising interest rates.
There's less competition fromother buyers. So people are kind
of sitting this one out, theywant to see what's going to
happen, and so forth. So you'restarting to see the market turn
from you know, the last two anda half years has been a complete
seller's market, likeeverything's been going up up,
(19:17):
again, like crazy bidding wars,no contingencies, things like
that. We're now starting to seeit shift back to buyers having
power and being able tonegotiate better field and
perms. I will say like, likecorrection to kind of the
inflating housing market we'veseen over the last couple years.
(19:39):
So as we go into 2023, we'reexpecting to see a bit of a
softening from a purchase priceperspective, which makes it a
great time to buy if you do haveaccess to the capital. And if
the deal is tenfold. So you knowfor us the deal still cancel.
We're looking at it as a greatopportunity to buy And then the
(20:00):
way that we structure ourbusiness, it's a great
opportunity for the individualinvestor, because you might not
be able to purchase something onyour own right now. But you
can't with through us, you couldpurchase 5% of a property 10% of
a property, whatever is likefeasible for you at the moment,
but you can take advantage ofthese market dynamics, this
(20:21):
purchase
Dustin Steffey (20:22):
that people put in through your company, is it?
Is it cash, like upfront? Or isit finance kind of like a
mortgage? How does it work?
Ali Nichols (20:32):
Yeah, so if you can think of the product is very
similar to like an investmentaccounts, like whether you're
putting money into Robin Hood,or Wealthfront, or one of those
other platforms. So you'reinvesting cash upfront to buy an
equity stake, or the equity partownership of the property. And
(20:54):
then you own that piece of theproperty ongoing. So then you'll
make the rental income as apercent ownership of the
property. And then theappreciation, one property sold
as well.
Dustin Steffey (21:06):
So that begs the next question, which is, you
said that people that invest areafforded the ability to kind of
go to different properties? Howdoes that work? If you have,
like, for example, what I'mthinking is, is you're
successful, right? So you have aton of people that are invested
in isn't there cross traffic ofpeople trying to go to the
(21:28):
certain rentals, or whateverthat you have?
Ali Nichols (21:31):
Yeah, so so you can be invested in one property and
you get access to the entireportfolio of homes. And the with
that, it, it really does work alittle bit on a first come first
serve booking basis. But we viewit as membership tiers, for our
members. So very similar arelike analogous to an airline
(21:54):
miles program, you know, themore you travel, or the more
you're invested, the bigger thebenefits are. And one of the
benefits for the higher tiers isthe booking calendar opens up
earlier for them. So, you know,you get kind of, quote, unquote,
like first access to booking,but in general, it's very much
(22:16):
like, book the date you want andtake advantage of your discount.
By staying in the property.
Dustin Steffey (22:23):
It kind of reminds me a little bit and no
offense, right. So I know whatyou're gonna say. It reminds me
of a timeshare. Right, yeah.
Which, which is a dirty term touse. It's so dirty, because
people hate it. Right? I mean, Iused to own one, two, and it
just, it sucked my money dry.
(22:46):
Right? The difference betweenyours and a timeshare, though,
is these investors are makingmoney back. So hopefully, that's
money that, you know, islucrative enough where the
investments worth, in myopinion, right?
Ali Nichols (23:03):
Yeah, no, that is like the biggest thing a lot of
you know, when we were coming upwith the idea and testing it,
and so forth, it's like, howdoes the timeshare industry
still like that? Like, they'refundamentally, it doesn't make
sense to me from an investmentperspective. And so a lot of the
(23:23):
things we're thinking throughare like, how do we make this
like, better for the customer?
Like, how do you get to takeadvantage of, you know,
traveling and going to theseplaces you're excited about, but
it's an investment. And, youknow, you're getting a return on
your dollar, and you're reapingthe rewards of appreciation over
time, but you just don't getwith the time. Like you're
(23:45):
buying the right views. You'renot you don't own any of the
assets. So for us, it's reallyimportant that we view it first
and foremost as an investmentvehicle. And then the travel
benefits are like, a totalcherry on top, like, make it
exciting for the consumer toinvest with
Dustin Steffey (24:06):
us. Yeah, sorry to bring up the dirty term.
Ali Nichols (24:11):
So I'm like, how do you we always joke we're like
this, not your mom's timeshare.
Like we're trying to likeactually help people build
wealth.
Dustin Steffey (24:21):
And that was the worst thing that I ever could
have signed my name on washaving a timeshare because for
those of you that don't know howtimeshare works, you there are
two approaches right? It can begifted to you or you go after
buying a timeshare for a lumpsum. And then you have to pay a
yearly maintenance on it whichthose fees
Ali Nichols (24:44):
people Yeah, they're quite expensive, too.
Yeah, I
Dustin Steffey (24:48):
started at 800 bucks in mine mine ended at like
1000 Plus, right it's it'sinsane and there's no return on
it with Airbnb. be coming outand all these different ways of
traveling. A timeshare to me iskind of obsolete, plus,
depending on the timeshare, soI'm not talking Hilton where you
(25:10):
can go everywhere. Like there'sspecific timeshares for just
that place only and it's hard tobe able to go anywhere else. So
it gets boring if you go thesame place all the time.
Ali Nichols (25:22):
Yeah, totally.
Well, we've definitely had triedto stay as far away from that
negative connotation aspossible. But take out the
pieces that like, were a hugebenefit that did draw on so many
people. In terms of the concept,and one thing I just want to
(25:43):
clarify with with our product isyou make your initial investment
and kind of like buying,analogous to almost buying like
shares in a company or dock. Andthere's not ongoing fees, like a
timeshare that that doesn'texist on our platform.
Dustin Steffey (26:00):
Now, this definitely is interesting. I
know I have a lot of listenersthat invest in different things.
So this is definitely a positiveinvestment. Hopefully,
hopefully, it's yielding goodmoney to those that are invested
right now, but it's definitelypositive. So just so you heard
it here, guys, this is not atimeshare. It's a dirty word.
(26:24):
We're not a dirty word anymore.
So this is definitely aninvestment that advantageous Lee
pays you in dividends based offof how much you've invested. So
again, not a timeshare notherquestion for you, I kind of
wrote it down. So hasentrepreneurship afforded you
(26:45):
the ability to have more freedomwith your time? Has it allowed
for you to do the things thatyou've wanted to do? Or has it
been so crazy, where you reallydon't have time? Because you're
so invested into the businessand trying to make sure it's
successful? With running yourown business, obviously, there's
(27:05):
obstacles and stuff like that.
So kind of just walk me throughlike, what's, what's been an
entrepreneur afforded you? Ah,
Ali Nichols (27:16):
definitely the ladder and the two. So I think,
you know, one thing I alwaysdescribe as a characteristic,
you need to have be anentreprenuer, to kind of be
obsessive, because you'reobsessing over your process your
business like 24/7, like, I wakeup in the middle of the night
(27:38):
having like, readings about, oh,we should do this? Or is this
how we didn't have to handlethis problem. So I would
definitely say, you know,starting this company, and
following this path has becomean all consuming task. And so
when my family and friendsbrought me because they're like,
(27:59):
We haven't seen you in months.
So I would say, it's definitelynot for the faint of heart, in
that sense, at least from myexperience. But the flip side of
that is, I have never learnedmore as quickly, like you're
faced with a new problem andchallenge every day, and you
just have to figure it out. Andyou learn so fast. And I always
(28:19):
joke, like, the thing I thoughtthe things I thought were a
crisis. You know, the first weekthat we started doing it,
compared to now I'm like, Oh,that was like, Why did I even
get upset over that that was sosilly compared to the challenges
we're dealing with that soyou're, you kind of build up
this like tolerance for handlingbigger and bigger challenges and
(28:42):
bigger fire drill. And youlearned so much like I think
that this is just like a crashcourse in your field in your
industry. And so if that'ssomething that people are,
you're going after, personally,I'd highly recommend it. But no,
it does at the sacrifice of someother things in your life, and
(29:03):
you have to set thoseexpectations with your loved
ones too.
Dustin Steffey (29:09):
Yeah, that's something I wanted to reinforce.
So mostly most people that go orwant to go into entrepreneurship
think that you know, you canbuild the business and then it
runs itself and then you haveall this free time and you know,
there are there areentrepreneurial journeys that do
act in that way. But more oftenthan not, you're sinking your
(29:33):
blood sweat and tears intosomething so you can chase that
success. And you have to kind ofbe 100% present so like you
said, being an entrepreneur isnot for the faint of heart at
all. It is a lot of work and alot of hours I can be one to
attest to it because I haven'tburned my boat yet for my normal
(29:54):
job. So I work my normal job.
And then I do this as well.
Sleep is like, what is that?
Right? So yeah, there's no suchthing and time. And stuff is, is
really important, you have to bereally good at managing time. I
mean, it's, it's what 10 toeight here. So I'm scheduling,
I'm scheduling podcasts before,for recording, going to work,
(30:19):
editing and after or evengetting another one in. So it
literally is a all day and nighttype thing until you can burn
the boat. Now, I mean, the oneadvantageous benefit is as an
entrepreneur, you could makegood money, but you don't have
(30:41):
time to really spend it, whichis why most of these
entrepreneurs that aresuccessful invest in they have
more and more money. So
Ali Nichols (30:51):
yeah, totally. It is something you have to be, you
have to love what you're doing.
Like there's no way around thatbecause it is very demanding.
And so at the end of the day, ifyou're not like, satisfied and
what you're doing all day, itwill burn you out way too
quickly.
Dustin Steffey (31:13):
Yeah, I agree there. I love podcasts. And I
love technology, like you and Ihave already brought up and I
love. I love every element ofit. But it's tedious at the same
time, right? Because I'm notjust recording this and then
posting it right you and I, youand I have to arrive at okay,
how are we going to market thisout? To get more people to
(31:34):
listen and get visibility? Howam I going to edit this to make
it in a way where it looks good?
How much equipment is going intoit? How much? You know, there's
there's a million things andthen I go to bed at night
sometimes when nightmares like,Ooh, what if I mess it up? And
then this is out in the universenow and I look like you know
crap. But you, you know, likeyou You and I both know, like
(31:58):
all these questions come up andkind of develops a thick skin in
my mind of how to be anentrepreneur.
Ali Nichols (32:08):
Definitely. I don't and they don't watch you.
Dustin Steffey (32:11):
They don't teach you this stuff in school are
their ally like you and I areeducated people. And I'm going
through my textbooks. And I'mlike, yep, that wasn't in the
textbook. There was that therewas that? Like, what the what
the heck, what am I doing? Like,what did I pay 100 grand plus
for my education for?
Ali Nichols (32:30):
Totally. I had one last thing about it, too, is
like, it can be really lonely.
Like I don't think, you know,going into this experience and
like leaving kind of working atstartups with teams and things
like that. The early stages, atleast for for our company, like
we're such a small team, andlike everybody's very focused on
(32:52):
their own specific like areathat you don't have as much
like, you don't have a ton ofpeople to bounce ideas off of
there have that like, you know,kind of like workplace chatter,
things like that. So there aremoments where it's like, you're
on doing this on your own, andthere's no one. There's also not
(33:15):
no one to tell you like, Hey,you're doing a good job. Like if
you have to find all of thatfrom yourself. So those are
things that I didn't, I didn'tthink about before I started
this journey that I'm like nowlike, Oh, that makes total
sense. But I just didn't put ittogether before going into it.
Dustin Steffey (33:35):
Listen, first and foremost, if you get lonely,
although I know you have asignificant other I'm here for
you. I'll take that applicationfall on that sword. I got you
here. But no, seriously, you'reso right. Like, even for me for
the podcast. Like I'm I'mfortunate and lucky, right?
Because I've sought after otherpodcasts, right? And I've made
(33:58):
friends off of them. So there'llbe like 1010 in at night calls
to some people where it's like,hey, does this sound good? Is
this all right to you? Do youthink? What should I do like
bouncing ideas? But that took abig thing too, which people
forget about which isnetworking?
Ali Nichols (34:20):
Definitely.
Definitely. Definitely. I can'tlike overemphasize, like how
important building out a networkis and a support system.
Dustin Steffey (34:31):
Did you net work quite a bit for getting this
business up and running? Or howdid that work?
Ali Nichols (34:37):
Yeah, so I was super fortunate that my co
founder and I worked togetherpreviously. So we had we had
already like a standingrelationship. We knew we love to
work together. We knew wecomplemented each other skills.
So that pizzas was reallyawesome. But then when we
decided that we wanted to takeoutside capital, we literally
(34:58):
like hit the night. admit interms of meeting as many people
as we could, starting to, like,you know, get our idea out
there. And kind of our ownbrand, so to speak. And I think
in the period of like, three anda half weeks, we did over 75
(35:21):
meetings, thing likeconnections, and it was just
like, constant zoom call, thiswas still in the period of like
everybody meeting on Zoom, andjust back to back to back to
back to back to back all daylong. I'm tired my life. But it
worked. And we made some reallyamazing connections, we found
(35:41):
our investors, whether theywere, you know, firms or angels.
And then from there, all ofthese people are now super
helpful. They're like, your, letme connect you to this person.
Oh, you just talked to thisperson for this role. And so
it's been really awesome. Butyeah, it really has really hit
the pavement and networkingsense. I would
Dustin Steffey (36:03):
imagine with your, with your diverse amount
of experience, you're a pro atnetworking, so you kind of
learned how to network and whoto reach out to. So I would, I
would like to think that you hada leg up on that. Whereas me, I
did not like podcasting. Itwasn't even a thought I didn't
even know honestly, between youand I, how to video edit, how to
(36:27):
edit audio, I didn't know whatneeded to go into it. I didn't
know anything. So my first sixmonths was like fire drill. It
was, Wow, I sound terrible. Tofix this, and, and you know, I
go back and listen to some of myearlier episodes. And I'm like,
sound like a retard? Like Dane,like not good. I sound super
(36:54):
sound super not crisp. I don'thave the technology back in me.
And so you learn over time to inmy opinion, I mean, you can, you
can be outfitted with the bestthings and still not have
quality. And that's kind of thepoint I'm trying to drive home
right is you, you have the toolsand resources for yourself to be
(37:16):
able to function and run yourbusiness. However, it was
putting the puzzle piecestogether. And I'm sure there
were a couple of times where youwere like, I'm not gonna make it
or whatever the case may be. Butyou learned and you kind of
excelled in that sense.
Ali Nichols (37:33):
Totally, I'm so curious, like, what inspired you
to get into podcasting? Youknow,
Dustin Steffey (37:39):
you're gonna laugh at me, and this might take
my application off the table foryou. So I have my PhD, my
doctorate degree. And I justdidn't quite know how to apply
it right, because there's noaccess of CEO openings at all.
And that's kind of where myeducation is. And so it started
(38:02):
to kind of inspire me a littlebit as to how do I give back
what I've learned in the form ofhelping others. Plus, for me
right now, with the educationsystem, I believe strongly in
education, I just don't believestrongly in the debt that it
comes with. And more and morepeople, honestly, would be
better off going to a tradeschool or being an entrepreneur
(38:25):
or kind of, you know, taking astep back. Because education
isn't always where it's at, it'smore or less into, like,
educating yourself, which wehave all these mediums now like
podcasts and books andeverything to be able to educate
yourself, and then actuallydoing it, you know, so for me, I
(38:47):
didn't grow up saying I'm goingto be a podcaster. But here I am
doing it and it takes art andcreation and craziness and
networking and all of that to beable to kind of have one solid
episode, for example, like oneepisode to post and put out into
the world probably takes a good234 days of true editing. Yeah,
(39:14):
yeah. So it's a lot of time.
Yeah, it's a lot of time andyou'll see it as we post this
one for you. Like you'll see theamount of social media presence
that goes into it, the amount ofplanning the amount of just
working together to arrive atthe same thing because a podcast
doesn't build overnight either.
Like I don't know about you, butI'm not Joe Rogan. I think I'm
(39:37):
definitely like, like betterlooking maybe. And sorry, Joe
Rogan in advance. But I'm notI'm not to his level of
influence, right? Yeah. He islike the godfather of Yeah. And
I'm like the little like, kid inpodcasting, right. So I'm trying
(39:59):
to build that
Ali Nichols (40:00):
Dreams that aspiration Yeah, yeah. Cuz he
Dustin Steffey (40:03):
he makes great money off of it. I mean he, he
had a head start because of hisprior careers right. He was
already a newscaster he wasinvolved in sports, I believe.
So he already had the influence.
He already had the builtaudience and everything. So it
made sense for me. I'm just asmall town country boy, like,
(40:24):
people don't know me. I mean,they do now. I mean, a year in
they do now, but they didn'tbefore. You know, I was just a
country boy now doing tiktoks,and snaps, all these different
things in my numbers are goingup and the influence is going
up. And people have never eventhat are like, Hey, this is
(40:45):
cool. You know what I mean? Soit's a fun, fun, dangerous
journey that I'm on. Totally
Ali Nichols (40:55):
well, you should be really proud. That's like, so,
so impressive to see that much.
Except in just a year and likefrom a, from an idea, like
taking something as an idea,bringing it into the world, like
that's what it's all about. So
Dustin Steffey (41:09):
good. It's just getting more people to find it
right, and be able to relatewith it. And of course, keeping
it interesting, right, like youand I were talking about pre
roll, we were talking about allthe plans that I have for this
year, which are awesome plans,but they need to be executed
still.
Ali Nichols (41:30):
Yeah, well, there's a lot of fun things in store on
this show. So everybody shoulddefinitely stay tuned.
Dustin Steffey (41:38):
And I have my book coming up here soon, which
will be nice release in that.
And I do blog posts as well,too. So I become a writer as
well. That's awesome. Because mydoes my application meet for
you? Like when when we hang out?
Let's go.
Ali Nichols (41:54):
Exactly. We gotta get you down in Miami.
Dustin Steffey (41:57):
I'm down I have.
My mom is in West Palm Coast. SoI'm pretty certain pretty
certain I can visit you.
Perfect. I love it. So I want tohave a fun question. Because
it's time to have a little bitof fun, right, which is we've
we've we've kind of gotten to gothrough your entrepreneurial
journey. You've talked a lotabout things pitfalls, and
(42:21):
obviously wins that you'vecelebrated. If you were to give
back like one key golden nugget,as I call it. So one key piece
of information to keep peoplegoing in entrepreneurship and
kind of educate them. What wouldthat be?
Ali Nichols (42:37):
I think I mean, I simplified it down to even just
one word like perservere. Andlike, Jeff, there's going to be
so many things that knock youdown. So many challenges, so
many roadblocks that come up.
But if you can just persevereand like, hold on to what you're
trying to build and know thatwhat you're bringing into the
(42:57):
world is going to be awesome,then that will get you through.
Dustin Steffey (43:05):
Shut that down.
I think you just came up withthe title. Oh, yeah, you know, I
tried to pull out something funand you got it. So is there if
people want to get a hold of youbecause investing is important.
I've always talked to mylisteners and said hey, listen,
if you're not diversifying,there's no point in investing
(43:26):
you don't invest in just onething. You diversify your
portfolio. How do they get aholdof you?
Ali Nichols (43:33):
The easiest way is they get on LinkedIn aged me add
me on LinkedIn. It's ALi nickelad getaway. You can email me
really easy li at getaway dotbell. And then if you want to
check out investing, just checkus out@getaway.com
Dustin Steffey (43:54):
Listen, if LinkedIn ages you then you and I
are both older because I useLinkedIn.
Ali Nichols (44:00):
And let's say number one channel let's be
realistic
Dustin Steffey (44:04):
here. I mean if we're looking at comparing both
you and I and age you definitelylook better than I do.
Ali Nichols (44:11):
Great.
Dustin Steffey (44:13):
So awesome. This was this was awesome. Very
informational. Our informationNo, I'm sorry. Very informative.
I enjoyed it. Is there anythingelse you wanted to add at all?
Or?
Ali Nichols (44:26):
No, this was super fun. And like I mentioned,
that's gonna have a lot of funstuff coming down the pipeline.
So make sure to stay tuned overthe next couple months.
Dustin Steffey (44:36):
And who knows you might see ally on again.
Yeah, because I might be inMiami with her
Ali Nichols (44:42):
to do live episode.
Dustin Steffey (44:44):
Oh, I'm down.
I'm down. You'll make thatepisode. Look. I'd have to try
harder. Ally. Thank you. Thankyou for coming on. Thank you for
just being vulnerable and kindof what your journey was, I
think Sometimes, pride gets inthe way of a lot of us and we're
not as vulnerable and thereforepeople aren't learning what
(45:05):
truly goes into being anentrepreneur. So, really, thank
you so very much.
Ali Nichols (45:13):
Well, I appreciate you having me. This was super
fun.
Dustin Steffey (45:15):
Absolutely. And just think Miami fun. It's right
around the corner.
Ali Nichols (45:21):
I love it. See you soon.
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