Cut The Tie Podcast with Ben Wolff
What if the biggest tie holding you back isn’t your job, your routine, or your comfort zone—but a habit you thought was helping you cope? In this honest and energizing episode, Thomas Helfrich talks with Ben Wolff, a former McKinsey consultant who walked away from the predictable path to build one of the most unique hotel brands in America.
Ben is now the founder behind Onera and Buya, two wildly creative hotel concepts that merge outdoor hospitality, storytelling, and marketing in a way few have done before. But his journey didn’t just require business savvy—it demanded personal reinvention, including getting sober and redefining what success really means.
About Ben Wolff:
Ben Wolff is a hotel developer, operator, and marketer known for creating immersive, story-driven hospitality experiences. He is the founder of Oasi, a marketing and revenue management company, and the visionary behind Onera, a luxury treehouse-style hotel brand in Texas Hill Country, and Buya, a tropical resort concept launching in South Florida.
In this episode, Thomas and Ben discuss:
- Building brands people want to photograph
Ben breaks down the marketing principles behind his viral, highly “Instagrammable” hotel experiences that make people say “wow.” - How to hit 80% direct bookings through storytelling
He shares the content strategy that helps his hotels bypass OTAs and capture guests directly, driving profitability and loyalty. - The real risk of choosing the wrong partners
From early mistakes to current success, Ben outlines how critical it is to only work with A-players—and why urgency is a non-negotiable value.
Key Takeaways:
- Sobriety created space for real transformation
Once Ben stopped drinking, he gained the clarity and control to build something meaningful and sustainable. - Marketing is storytelling—and emotion matters
Visual experiences and emotional resonance beat generic messaging every time in the hospitality space. - Your team determines your trajectory
The wrong hires drain momentum. The right ones accelerate growth and create alignment.
Connect with Ben Wolff:
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/
🌐 Website: https://www.stayonera.com/
🌐 Oasi: https://stayoasi.com/
Connect with Thomas Helfrich:
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfrich/
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 InstantlyRelevant.com: https://www.instantlyrelevant.com
Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast.
I am your host, thomas Helfrich, and I'm on a mission to help
you cut the tie to whatever itis holding you back from success
, and success has to be definedby you, or you're chasing
someone else's dream.
So that's the first step tofind your own success.
Today, I'm joined by Ben Wolfe.
Ben, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Doing well.
Thanks for having me on, Thomas.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
My pleasure, not yours.
You can't have pleasure here.
This is all for Thomas.
It's all my pleasure.
Take a moment, introduceyourself where you're from, what
it is you do, sure.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, I'm Ben Wolfe.
I am a hotel developer operator, now marketer, and we've
created some pretty coolproducts in the Texas Hill
Country and we're actually thenext hotel we're building is in
South Florida and we manage andmarket and do revenue manage for
hotels across the country.
I actually started inshort-term rentals, so Airbnbs.
(00:52):
I had a short-term rentalmanagement company and then
progressed to hotels andbuilding hotels and we've
created some prettyone-of-a-kind treehouse hotel
properties in the Texas HillCountry under the brand Onera.
So we have two locations One is28 keys, the other one is 35
keys.
We actually just opened anexpansion to the one in
(01:15):
Fredericksburg, texas, in Julyand we have some units that
you've never seen before, rightLike a 40 foot cantilevered tree
house, totally wrapped floor toceiling in glass and a number
of other cool unit designs.
So that's probably what I'mknown for most.
But I have a marketing andmanagement company called Owasi
and we are now starting a newbrand in South Florida called
(01:38):
Baya, which is a tropicallandscape resort and think of it
like a mashup of agritourism,wellness, tourism and this you
know, tropical hotel vibe thatyou might find in Bali or Costa
Rica, but bringing it 45 minutesto Miami, plus alligators Plus
alligators.
Yes, we're in Alligator Alley.
(01:58):
Just you know stones there fromthe Everglades for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
All of a sudden, the cabana over water.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
We got a question's going on there it's like there's
an alligator crawled up in heretonight anyway, I I'm still
doing it, just so you know.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I think I saw you had a post or something.
That's something.
This is how we connected tojust giving people advice out
there.
Sometimes you'll see a contentand actually comment and be like
hey, I want to interview youand people say yes, so don't be
afraid to ask.
Yeah, I usually ask thequestion what makes you uniquely
different and why people pickyou.
I don't think I have to askthat.
It's pretty obvious.
You guys have come up with yourown ideas and brand.
I will ask how old are you,though?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
How old I am.
I'm 37.
I'll be 38 in October.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So you're very young, you don't feel it, but you are
Dive in, so dive into some.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I want to get into your journey, a bit of how you
got there, you know, and howyou've created all this kind of
cool stuff.
But start with how you'redefining success.
Yeah, I think we're reallytrying to build products that
the modern traveler wants andspeak to the modern traveler,
right.
So we're trying to create thesehighly shareable,
instagrammable, one might sayRight, these very unique
experiences that leave you withstories to tell, right, leave
you with memories that you'llcherish forever.
(03:09):
And that is, if we are sort ofreaching for that goal, then I
think we'll create some prettyamazing stuff.
One benchmark I'm oftenevaluating the hotels we build
on is like, if I bring somebodyout to the property, does the
property itself make them go,wow, once we create the units,
are they blown away, right?
Do they have this autonomicresponse to whip out their phone
(03:32):
and take a video or a photobecause it's that cool?
So that's what we're shootingfor, um, and I think if we can
kind of do that for ourselves,then then you know it often
follows for guests as well.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So so the uh, the metric of success is just do
they say, wow, I'm like I'mgoing to see here?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
first.
Do we blow them away?
Yeah, I think at like a highlevel, more sort of subjectively
, quantitatively.
I mean we love looking atdirect booking percentage.
So are we getting 75, 80%direct, often through social
media content?
So we're really good at videostorytelling.
It's one of the specialties ofmy marketing agency, awasi, and
(04:09):
when we apply that to theseone-of-a-kind properties we can
often drive 80% of bookingsdirect, which is for those of
you that don't know hotels,that's very high, typically
short-term rentals.
Direct booking rate it might belike 20% if that, and hotels,
if you're lucky, maybe it's 50.
So 80% is very high and we areattracting a high paying guest
(04:31):
right.
Our occupancy numbers are up.
Our rate numbers are up At bothOnera properties.
Our ADR, which is average dailyrate in the hotel world, is
anywhere from the mid 400s tothe mid 500s and occupancy is
typically all over 80%.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And I think that's the people that should realize
that when you book direct book,you're saving what?
20, 30%.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
We say conservatively it's about 15%, but some of the
platforms it's closer to 20%.
So you're still going to pay apayment processing fee either
way.
So that's a few percent.
But once you deduct that fromthe 18% to 25 percent that a lot
of the OTAs charge, it's rightaround.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
you know, high teens, low 20s yeah, I mean it's
fantastic Talk about yourjourney a little bit and what
was the biggest, you knowmetaphoric tie to cut, to kind
of achieve where you've definedyour success today.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah.
So my journey, myentrepreneurial journey, I think
probably started in high schoolor at minimum college.
In college, me and a businesspartner that went to college
together we started this partypromotion business where we
would like bus kids to and fromthe school to the local bars and
clubs and stuff like that.
And we took a cut of the doorkind of thing and and you know,
(05:47):
the venues wanted to work withus because we were packing them
out.
So that was probably my firsttaste for entrepreneurship.
But I guess also hospitalityand marketing.
When I think about it right, itkind of encompasses all of
those things and those have beenthe areas that I keep seemingly
coming back to entrepreneurship, hospitality and marketing.
So I did, I worked at McKinseyfor a little bit out of school.
(06:09):
At that point, you know, justgraduating college, I didn't
have a business idea or a teamthat I was ready to like fully
press, go on, you know, to tofull send, and I think I was
there for about two years, whichwas it was good experience, but
but pretty soon realized Iwanted to start my own thing
again.
I started another hospitalityevents company, did that for a
(06:30):
few years and then really fellinto Airbnb and the short-term
rental world.
So in the mid 20 teens, airbnbswere still pretty new.
I was working for a short-termrental management company owned
by a buddy of mine and I startedbuilding my own portfolio on
the side so mostly what peoplecall lease arbitrage where you
(06:51):
lease a townhome, apartment,building, whatever and then you
rent it out a short-term rentalstyle and so I started doing
that in 2016 or so by 2018, Iquit my full-time job and
started growing that portfoliofull-time and started managing
for others as well.
So that was when I really tookthe plunge about seven, eight
(07:14):
years ago now and I've beenfully on my entrepreneurial
journey since then.
So initially it was growingthat short-term rental portfolio
from about eight units to 200under management in about a year
and a half by the end of 2019.
Covid hit and that totallyrewrote the story of urban
short-term rentals and all ofour bookings got canceled
(07:37):
overnight.
It was a total mess, but we didmake it through and that really
pushed me to pivot a bit andstart focusing more on outdoor
hospitality, more unique stays,which led, you know, which led
to Onero, which is truly what Ilove to do Building these
landscape, one of a kind, hotelsI'm way more passionate about
it than I am about a cookiecutter apartment in some random
(07:58):
city.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Well, I mean it also.
You just saw the problem isover the pandemic.
Those become super valuablebecause people want to get away
For sure.
Now they're long-term metals.
You're going to charge a shh,yeah, the, uh, the.
You know.
But what was the big tie,though, like you know, was it,
was there a?
Was it the stigmatism of youknow McKinsey, if you don't know
out, there is a high-end.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It was kind of the thing you had to really let go
of, or yeah, the limiting belief, I think what, what really got
me to take the entrepreneurialplunge, was this, this wreck,
this realization that what's theworst case scenario?
Right, I'll go out and and haveto get another job, right, it's
(08:42):
like, oh, that's the worst casescenario.
Then I'm much less afraid.
So I think that and I've justhad a number of experiences in
my life where I kind of had mybutt handed to me, right In one
sense or another, and so I thinkthat having my butt handed to
me and then sort of coming backfrom that and being okay and
sort of better for it in thelong run, I think has taught me
(09:04):
that, like, I'm just not asafraid of failure right After
having some of those experiencesand everything from quitting
jobs to getting fired to, youknow, getting kicked out of
school to getting sober, I meanI've had so many different parts
of my journey.
We could, we could talk atlength about it, but that's
probably a big one.
I mean, I got sober 10 yearsago and that has been a, yeah, a
(09:25):
life-changing endeavor.
That's really, you know, led meto where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
That's great.
I mean, on that journey,getting sober is a big one, you
know, as somebody who stoppeddrinking two years ago and
luckily it never was a problem.
My wife might argue at timesbut like you know it wasn't like
owning my life, it just chippedaway at mornings and it made
you sleep a little less.
And you know I get it.
And if it was actually anywherenear a problem it's definitely
(09:50):
something you got to cut back on.
But to do it good for you,because that's like one of the
biggest ties to cut is adependency.
But once you cut that it's likeeverything else probably seems
a little easier to do.
It's like, oh, if I can do thatI mean like I'm all about the
biography in there I can't giveup Starburst, I love them.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's funny.
I just had some Sour Patch Kidslast night.
I won't eat them.
I won't eat them, but if mywife brings them in the house,
it's like I don't have any.
You put a bag of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I mean, I buy a family size thing of Starbursts
and it's Like I'll eat it beforeI get to the car.
I'm like yeah, yeah, no, theyweren't individually wrapped.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, you know it's funny.
I actually think that, likesometimes, food sweets, at least
for me is one of the hardestthings to stay continually
disciplined on and I try, likeI've tried and I've done, like
full hardcore keto before Igained a bunch of.
I gained a bunch of weight whenmy wife had our first kid.
It was during covid.
We all these sweets in thehouse I was, you know, munching
down, we weren't getting out ofthe house much, so I put on all
(10:46):
this weight.
So that summer, after we hadour first kid, I did keto
hardcore and I lost.
I lost like 30 pounds and allthat.
But it's like then, you know,the first birthday that comes up
, it's got some good lookingcake, right, and then it sort of
gets, you know, gets me backinto to be fair, I think
addictive.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I don't think alcohol is actually addictive at all,
it's just a habit to me.
But sugar man, you get realcravings for those.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And I see with my kid my kid's four years old and if
he gets a little bit it's likemore, more, more, more right.
So we have to wait to give himanything until after he's
already fed and day or something.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I know we're on a tangent, but I will tell you, 30
chicken nuggets fromChick-fil-A is about the right
amount before you throw up.
You get from home, fromChick-fil-A to home without
anyone knowing you bought it orate it.
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to leaveyou guys imagining how far did
he drive.
It doesn't matter, but it's alot of chicken nuggets to eat.
Very quickly I'm going to sayright now but don Do you
(11:49):
remember, you know well, maybe Ithink one of the ties I would,
I think a lot of people relateto, and as somebody who you know
, who I call myself anon-drinker, meaning like we
went to Cuba last year and I hada little rum just to try it.
Like if I go to Czech RepublicPilsen, I'm going to have a
Pilsner because that's what wasmade right.
Like it's not, it just has toadd, it has to add real value
for me to drink.
And then I'm not really lookingto get drunk because I don't
(12:11):
want to waste the time, but fora lot of people they find that
crazy, I think.
Do you remember the moment that?
And I'm going to focus on thatone because I think that's most
relevant to so many people who'dlike I'd love to just stop, but
I don't know if I can sociallyor whatever else.
Yeah, do you remember themoment you're like, yep, I'm
done.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I remember that last year.
Let me tell you that last yearwas hell, um.
So I do remember that last yearand it wasn't one moment.
The one moment was probably thegrace that that that I had in
my life, that that somebody youknow introduced me to the idea
of sobriety, right and and andthat was something that, like I
(12:49):
don't know, like I knew it was athing, but I didn't.
I didn't really like I wasn'taware of the sort of help and
support and community that isout there and that, like,
there's a lot of people doingthis and remember, you know,
this is back in the mid 20 teens.
I think that that's sober andsober curious is a little bit
sober.
Oh yeah, this was a lot morelike in vogue today to be sober
than it was, and we're like howmany like non-AOL gears I have
(13:11):
options to now it's sointeresting, right, like when I
got sober, like it wasn't likecool.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
See Twitter, that boy's Twitter.
I want to hang out.
Yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So I definitely remember that first year too.
The first year is the toughestright, because you got to do
everything for the first timesober, birthdays, weddings,
every holiday, right.
It's just kind of like musclememory, um, so that first year,
first year, is definitely thehardest, um, but uh, yeah, I
remember that last year ofdrinking I think my biggest
(13:40):
issue was, you know, drinkingfor me was a solution to a
problem that I had for most ofmy life, which was like oh, this
is, you know, help me relax,kind of check out.
Not, I've always had beenpretty intense, right.
I mean, I do a lot of thingsprofessionally, I have a ton of
energy, and I think thatdrinking allowed me to kind of
(14:00):
like chill the F out, right.
And it got to a point where myusage was so intense that I
wasn't getting that reliefanymore.
So it was like I was drinking alot and I wasn't even getting
the benefit.
So that's what really got me totake a hard look at that and
start thinking, like you know,is there another way?
And thankfully I had somebodyput in my path that showed me
that way, and I'm forevergrateful for it.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, well, that's important the person, your path,
and you know when they come.
So I've had a similarexperience where someone I've
known and respected he said Iquit drinking I was 18.
And I'm like, I don't even knowif I can trust you Like, you
know, like, and then you getthere and you're like, you know.
Then he adds a faith piece andI'm not quite to where he is now
, but the point is I was likeanyway, it's super important.
(14:40):
So I think one of the ideas inthe moments they aren't there
always is to sing something fora big tie cut.
I want to give the audiencethis idea that it's going to be
a lot of things and you're goingto need people in your life to
navigate through it and help.
It might be a book, it might bea person you just got to have.
You know a path that says it'sokay.
And isn't it weird, though,when you're on the other side of
(15:03):
like, why don't I just quit?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
this Like why did I ever start?
Well, yeah, you know, for me itwas a little different.
I know exactly why I started.
I know exactly why I did it for10 years.
You know, it was like I reallywas seeking a feeling right.
It was a means to an end for mewith drinking and that's part of
why, you know, I had an issuewith it, um, and so once it
stopped working, then it wasjust a matter of like, oh, what
do I do now?
(15:24):
Right, and then I was able tocreate a number of other tools
in my kit to kind of deal withlife, right, whether that was
meditation, prayer, supportsystems, you know, intimacy with
friends and family, that that alot of that had kind of gone by
the wayside with my, mydrinking and use.
So, um, yeah, it's, it's been,it's been great.
(15:44):
I can't, I can't recommend itenough and I'm kind of excited
that it's like trendy now,because just so many more people
are getting to experience whatit's like to remove alcohol from
your life, and I think it canbe very powerful.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I love that as you've navigated your kind of life and
your business here like right,dive in a little to the how,
though you know it's one thingto know it, identify it like,
and you've touched a little bit,but maybe just kind of you know
how did you make that happenfor yourself?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
And sorry, the how to which piece, Like you know, you
cut the tie.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
But it's one thing to identify and say I'm doing it,
but there are steps that areinvolved, like you know how,
like what was your.
It's the work.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And you're talking specifically on the sob Like
it's one thing to say, oh, I hadto quit doing it, like that's a
big one, and I think there area lot of people who you know
they're going to be please go,because because, like, that is
one that really really holds somany people back.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And and I and sure If you're a girl, of course- like
had this person put in my paththat had done it before me and
that I respected them, I trustedthem.
I went to support groups for it.
I met other people that hadbeen there before me and had
come to the other side and Ibelieved that they were actually
(17:03):
genuinely happy and I wasn't,and I knew what I was doing
wasn't working.
So I did what they did Rightand I followed the.
I followed the suggestions thatthey gave and I was like, worst
comes to worst, I do thesethings, um, and I do these
things and like it doesn't workand okay, I can always go back
to drinking Right, or I do thesethings and it works, and maybe
(17:23):
I have a different, differentway of life and I can have some
of this happiness that that theyhad, and I mean it.
For me it was a spiritualjourney, right.
So it's not it's hard to sayany one kind of piece of it, but
for anyone who's interested inthat, there's, there's great
programs out there.
You know AA probably being themost prominent one to to get you
to to sobriety and to be ableto maintain it.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, I did it.
I listened to one book calledit was Alan Carr drinking mate
quit easy or something, I can'tremember.
I literally listened listen toone book called uh, it was alan
carr drinking mate, quit easy orsomething, I can't remember.
I literally listen to it and Iwas done the next day.
I was like I kind of reframedthe meeting and then a friend of
mine went through.
He was like a different.
He went through the a programand he was.
He was kind enough to invite meto his one-year chip, which was
kind of I had lost touch alittle with him.
I would say that would not haveworked for me, though I would
(18:07):
like that program would.
No, I would be like, oh no, no,I'm going to start drinking
more, sure, then I'll make thisprogram.
I was like, oh my gosh, thatwas like a different level.
So, yeah, not because I knewthat wasn't for me, but I didn't
know that until I went to histhing and I will go to his
two-year if invited, but I amnot going.
I would just I'm not going toadvisors or listen to advice for
(18:31):
advisors or listen, you know,or I can't talk.
It's the end of the day, it'slike the 10th podcast.
Let's just go with that.
What advice would you give tothe listener?
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Advice I would give to a listener.
So if, if you are trying toembark on an entrepreneurial
journey, I think that you haveto know going in it's going to
be really hard.
So, so know that going in andand sort of I think anticipating
that makes it easier to getthrough some of the harder times
.
And then it goes back to what Italked about before, which is
(19:00):
what's the worst case scenario.
Think about worst case scenarioand I think that can remove a
lot of fear.
Worst case scenario fall flaton your butt.
You got to go get another jobright, not the end of the world.
You've had a job right thatyou're quitting, so you know how
to get a job, not the end ofthe world.
You've you've had a job rightthat you're quitting, so you
know how to get a job, um.
So I think that those canreally help kind of remove
limiting beliefs.
For me Also, it's been soimportant.
(19:21):
I think it's really importantto to choose business partners
wisely, um, and I've I've likeso crucially important and I've
I've sort of stepped onminefields with that earlier in
my career and then I feel likeI've gotten a lot better and
smarter with that later in mycareer.
And one thing that I've foundis that earlier in my career I
(19:43):
feel like I would try to I mighttry to partner with somebody
that was too like me, or I wouldtry to partner with somebody
that what I thought would solvemy problem, because I didn't
want to do something right and Ithought they would do it or
they would handle it Um and andwithout enough due diligence or
incentive alignment to to makesure that they actually could
(20:04):
deliver on it.
So I've been in businesspartner relationships where,
like I felt like I was kind ofdoing everything and I've had to
figure out how to undo thoseand move on.
But more recently I have had,I've had the ability to identify
partners that are like.
I know for fact and for certainand from referrals that they are
way better than me in certaindomains and way smarter than me
(20:27):
in certain areas.
And those partners that have acomplimentary skill set, that
come highly referred, that havestellar reputations, have been
total game changers and I've hadto give up big pieces of
companies to attract those typeof people and it's been so, so
worth it.
Of the big things I look for ina partner and basically anybody
(20:54):
on our team, is anextraordinary sense of urgency.
I think that that is crucialand it might be the single most
important asset and culturalattribute of a successful young
company.
A startup is urgency, becauseyou have to meet this, this
minimum viable escape velocityto get out of the startup phase
(21:15):
and be a successful, viablebusiness, and I think that it
takes extraordinary passionate,urgent people to make that
happen.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, and you not only have to have the model, the
problem, you're solving all theother things, right.
You just got to have so muchfuel behind it.
You get it off the ground andlet it float in space, right,
like you got to get it off toget it to escape the gravity of
what a startup it's going tocrash.
You don't get it outside thatspace Now.
It may blow up or implode onceit gets out, but anyway, that's
a different thing.
But just to get out there,right.
(21:45):
And you're spot on with thatpartnering and not hiring
someone to do something you justdon't want to do.
That's outsourcing, right, likethat's a don't put a partner in
that position because that's ashort lived thing, right, it's.
It's, like you know, strategicpiece.
I absolutely love that.
What's kind of big tie today,though, you can't cut.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
That's a good question.
What is the big tie today thatI can't cut?
What is the big tie today thatI can't cut?
I think that it probably has todo with it's a good question.
You know, I'm continuing tolean more into and and try to
(22:28):
continue to get better at, likethe personal content side of
things.
Right, we've, we've done Ithink we do a good job with my
twitter, with my linkedin right,we're putting out really good
written content and the personalbrand side of things has been
really valuable for me, um, andwe've been doing instagram
really well and and social mediamarketing on the the video side
for hotels.
And we've been doing Instagramreally well and social media
marketing on the video side forhotels, and we've done that
(22:50):
really well.
But I haven't done as much ofthe short form video myself,
like for my own personal page.
So I'm really like trying toinvest in that double down.
I think maybe I had a limitingbelief that, like you know, that
wasn't me to be one of thoselike short form video sort of
gurus, if you will.
But I do think there'sincredible value in the personal
(23:11):
brand side of things on shortform video, so I'm going to put
a heavy focus on it.
I'm sure I'm going to put outsome cringe worthy stuff
initially and then I'm going toget better at it and hopefully
in a year or so I'll be prettygood at it.
So that's probably the one thatI'm focused on, and then right
right sort of after that, andconnected to it to some way, is
(23:31):
YouTube and long form video.
So those are the two thingsthat I want to do more of that I
think have such incredibly highreturns that I haven't had time
or bandwidth to devote a ton ofenergy to it.
But I'm in a stage now where Ithink I can and I really want to
double down on it, becausepeople connect with people,
right.
People trust people way morethan they trust brands or
(23:53):
corporations, and so the morethat I can kind of put out my
personal brand and and sort ofbuild that trust and authority
on multi-channel, a whole bunchof different platforms, I think
the the the better off mycompany and future endeavors
will be.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah and listen.
I've struggled with this aswell and it's like I love
podcasting and almost wish therewasn't a video component,
because that's like where I'mcomfortable.
I like to do like the short,like you know, with our
marketing agency, like it'simportant but it's boring, like
who's it's it's important butit's boring, like who's gonna
want it, like it's like, butthen on the personal side for
(24:30):
like, let's say, your hotel,there's actually fun, like you
could do things with that, andbut if it's like on the business
, I'd like it's almost, it'salmost painful.
I don't want to do it like I'dlike, it's like anyway.
so I, I'm sure, we just shrugwith it's like what's the right
mix of what I do to make itworth it?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I'm trying to get into the mindset of that, trying
to almost look at it like agame that I'm trying to figure
out right, because I do thinkthere's an element of that there
.
There there's a gamification ofsocial.
You know how you use hooks, howyou sort of use cadence and
storytelling to pull people inand re hook people and and and
garner, you know, interest anddeliver real value, like you
(25:06):
have to deliver value, whetherthat's entertainment, whether
it's, you know, information,right Knowledge, like there
needs to be some sort of valueinspiration.
So it's like it's.
I'm trying to stay curious andand to to, to look at it like
look, I'm not going to be greatInitially.
(25:27):
This is new for me, even thoughwe do it as a business for
other properties.
And so just putting in the work, putting in the reps, getting
out more content and just makingincremental gains daily, and
then those stack up and beforeyou know it, you're actually
pretty good at something.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
One of the things we give advice to a lot of people
who are in your spot is, ifthere's not a real business
reason behind it or it's whatyou want to do next, when you
have enough money not to careanymore, don't do it.
It cannot be somewhere inbetween.
You have to be like this isgoing, it's so much work, yeah,
yeah, and it's also it's likeit's I say the joke.
It's like you put a certainnumber in my account.
(25:58):
I will go to an audio-onlypodcast, I, I will be in.
There will be no social mediaat that point.
It'll just be cause that's whatI want to go do.
Uh, and and I know that assomeone who's pretty active on
social media, I'm like I will,kate, that would all go away.
So, and that's I, gen XL, justtake it for.
But that you know.
But that's how I feel about ithonestly.
(26:19):
So it's like I, I, you know,outside of comedy channels that
I have for my own entertainment,it's a struggle.
So, anyway, listen out there.
You got to do it for realbusiness reason and when you go
back to the kind of readinessenergy you're going to have to
bring it, I know like I have tobring it for 10 shows every
Thursday, right Every show.
When you listen to it you can'tknow if it was the first or
last.
(26:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
You don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You have no idea how many I've canceled.
No, I know how many havecanceled it, which has been a
little frustrating, but we'llget back to that.
That's not even going to getedited.
All right, a little rapid fire.
What's the one entrepreneurialbook you?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
recommend to new people.
I think just the one book inbusiness in general for me and I
mostly listen to podcasts andconsume information different
ways now but how to Win Friendsand Influence People was a book
my dad gave me when I was a kidand I just think that it has
it's permeated so many differentaspects of my life.
It's it's allowed me to buildrelationships, build community,
(27:15):
find business partners, findclients so many different find
investors, um, just in terms ofhow to build interpersonal
relationships, build trust, umand uh, yeah, that that's
probably my number one.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, it is.
I mean it's.
You feel like you're in atraveling time machine reading
it and you imagine that oldstuff.
People used to talk differentlyback then, I don't know,
because they were less removedfrom accent so they didn't have
the American kind of accents yet.
It was still like second, thirdgeneration immigrant.
You know, people gotdifferently back then.
Anyway, you feel that in thatbook anyway For sure.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
But I still think it's very applicable, right Like
the overarching concepts arestill very applicable even today
, um so yeah I, I do.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's a solid one.
If you don't, if you don't read, start that one.
I heard a comedian the otherday, uh, gen x comedian.
He was like you know, the newgen z and y's love subtitles on
movies.
He's like you should try a book.
The whole thing is subtitlesanyway.
It's just funny.
Um, whole thing is subtitlesanyway.
(28:10):
It's just funny.
Um fun joke.
Had to be there, all right.
Uh, rick's rapid, if you couldgo back to any part in your
timeline, what would, when wouldthat be, and what would you do
differently?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
yeah, I just go back to any part of my timeline.
Um, I think it goes back to the, the business partners, right,
and it's so hard to know thatwithout having had the
experience.
But if, both with businesspartners and with team, I could
have been laser focused on Aplayers and not sort of settled
(28:40):
for convenience for people thatI knew to fill a gap, something
like that, and could really justhone in on a players and wait
for them and be patient, um, Ithink that it would have.
It probably would have saved mea lot of, a lot of headache and
a lot of things that thatslowed me down.
So, just, it goes back to thewhole, like you know, higher,
what, higher, slow fire, fast,right, type thing, and we've
(29:02):
really embodied that now with mynew company.
I mean, we've had two or threehires that we've had to fire,
whether day one or the firstcouple of weeks, and just
finding out that, despite theinterviewing, despite how good
we thought they were going to be, we found out early on wasn't a
cultural fit, they weren'tfully bought in, they weren't
team focused, they just weren'tin alignment with our values,
(29:23):
and it's so much easier to torip the bandaid off and stretch
the team a little bit for for aperiod of time, to make sure
that that everybody's a reallygood fit and everybody's an A
player.
Um, so yeah, cause the fastestway to push A players out the
door is start hiring B and Cplayers.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
So yeah, I'm the way the A player is like thanks, I
have more work now.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, I'm doing more work, I'm cleaning up their mess
, right.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
It's not like I'm picking up what they did.
I'm cleaning up what they didExactly.
You're picking it up.
It's like, hey, at leastthey're carrying something.
And if I'm cleaning it up, itmeans they're dropping
everything and I have to do mineand I'm out.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, yeah and look, I think early on, I've always
sort of like oriented to actionand to movement and to urgency,
which I think is good and Ithink it's helped me.
But that's one area where youhave you have to be patient to
get the right person.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Before my final question comes around uh, I
forgot to let people pre-stalkyou.
I always let the ADHD or kindof stalk you.
I forgot to ask the question,but just you know what's the one
link people should go to tostalk you.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, probably my link, probably my LinkedIn, um,
and, and from my LinkedIn youcan get to my newsletter where I
put out some good content oncea week.
But yeah, linkedin, ben WolfWOLFF, if you search me, I
should pop up, so follow methere.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Double Fs.
You're looking good, dude, youdo a note, y'all don't have to
note me.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
If you put in Ben Wolf Onera or Ben Wolf Owasi,
O-A-S-I, I'll definitely come up.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Awesome, very good.
If there was a question Ishould have asked you today, and
didn't what is that questionand how do you answer it?
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah, there's a question you should have asked.
Yeah, I think that the question, the question that you should
have asked, is maybe where doyou see the puck going in travel
and hospitality?
I mean, that's kind of mydomain of expertise, I would say
(31:15):
, for the most part, is traveland hospitality, and I do think
that it's continuing to move inthis direction of experience,
first story, first shareability.
You want to create experiencesthat people want to share and so
that's where I see the puckgoing.
It's already sort of moving inthat direction and we're
(31:37):
creating hotels that try toalign with that In the future.
So I've done so much of this inlandscape and outdoor
hospitality and like beautifulnatural settings.
In the future I really thinkthis is going to get brought
more to urban hotels as well and, like, urban hotels have kind
of lagged behind some of themore outdoor focused, nature
(31:58):
focused experiential hotels, andprobably in the next one to two
years I plan to start startworking on an urban experiential
concept.
So more to come on that.
I was in San Francisco recently,probably in the next one to two
years, I plan to start workingon an urban experiential concept
.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
So more to come on that I was in San Francisco
recently and I haven't validatedthis is true.
But people who live there theysaid in that city if a hotel
goes under they have to sell tothe city for homeless housing.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
I'm thinking what a great way to ruin a city.
You know, la has some of thatcrazy stuff too, where I mean, I
know people that own buildings,you know SROs or legitimate
hotels that the city will justkind of say like, oh, we're
taking this and going to use itfor homeless housing.
If I can believe we're going toset the price.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Well, I mean, it's great if you have the math
behind it.
You're like cool, they'repaying for it.
I'm not taking care of anything, it's going to be horrible.
Oh, I dig it right now and I'mgoing to.
I'm going to demo this thing inabout 10 years.
Thank you so much for coming on, Ben.
I really appreciate you.
I know you're super busy andfocused and you need to give the
time to our show and otherguests.
It does mean quite a bit to me.
I really do appreciate you,Thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Thanks for having me on man Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
And anybody who made it to this point in the show you
rock.
If this was the first time here, I hope it's the first of many.
And if you've been here before,you know what I always say Get
out there, go cut a tie towhatever's holding you back from
that success, but first startwith defining that success for
yourself.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast.
I am your host, thomas Helfrich, and I'm on a mission to help
you cut the tie to whatever itis holding you back from success
, and success has to be definedby you, or you're chasing
someone else's dream.
So that's the first step tofind your own success.
Today, I'm joined by Ben Wolfe.
Ben, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Doing well.
Thanks for having me on, Thomas.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
My pleasure, not yours.
You can't have pleasure here.
This is all for Thomas.
It's all my pleasure.
Take a moment, introduceyourself where you're from, what
it is you do, sure.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, I'm Ben Wolfe.
I am a hotel developer operator, now marketer, and we've
created some pretty coolproducts in the Texas Hill
Country and we're actually thenext hotel we're building is in
South Florida and we manage andmarket and do revenue manage for
hotels across the country.
I actually started inshort-term rentals, so Airbnbs.
(00:52):
I had a short-term rentalmanagement company and then
progressed to hotels andbuilding hotels and we've
created some prettyone-of-a-kind treehouse hotel
properties in the Texas HillCountry under the brand Onera.
So we have two locations One is28 keys, the other one is 35
keys.
We actually just opened anexpansion to the one in
(01:15):
Fredericksburg, texas, in Julyand we have some units that
you've never seen before, rightLike a 40 foot cantilevered tree
house, totally wrapped floor toceiling in glass and a number
of other cool unit designs.
So that's probably what I'mknown for most.
But I have a marketing andmanagement company called Owasi
and we are now starting a newbrand in South Florida called
(01:38):
Baya, which is a tropicallandscape resort and think of it
like a mashup of agritourism,wellness, tourism and this you
know, tropical hotel vibe thatyou might find in Bali or Costa
Rica, but bringing it 45 minutesto Miami, plus alligators Plus
alligators.
Yes, we're in Alligator Alley.
(01:58):
Just you know stones there fromthe Everglades for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
All of a sudden, the cabana over water.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
We got a question's going on there it's like there's
an alligator crawled up in heretonight anyway, I I'm still
doing it, just so you know.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I think I saw you had a post or something.
That's something.
This is how we connected tojust giving people advice out
there.
Sometimes you'll see a contentand actually comment and be like
hey, I want to interview youand people say yes, so don't be
afraid to ask.
Yeah, I usually ask thequestion what makes you uniquely
different and why people pickyou.
I don't think I have to askthat.
It's pretty obvious.
You guys have come up with yourown ideas and brand.
I will ask how old are you,though?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
How old I am.
I'm 37.
I'll be 38 in October.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So you're very young, you don't feel it, but you are
Dive in, so dive into some.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I want to get into your journey, a bit of how you
got there, you know, and howyou've created all this kind of
cool stuff.
But start with how you'redefining success.
Yeah, I think we're reallytrying to build products that
the modern traveler wants andspeak to the modern traveler,
right.
So we're trying to create thesehighly shareable,
instagrammable, one might sayRight, these very unique
experiences that leave you withstories to tell, right, leave
you with memories that you'llcherish forever.
(03:09):
And that is, if we are sort ofreaching for that goal, then I
think we'll create some prettyamazing stuff.
One benchmark I'm oftenevaluating the hotels we build
on is like, if I bring somebodyout to the property, does the
property itself make them go,wow, once we create the units,
are they blown away, right?
Do they have this autonomicresponse to whip out their phone
(03:32):
and take a video or a photobecause it's that cool?
So that's what we're shootingfor, um, and I think if we can
kind of do that for ourselves,then then you know it often
follows for guests as well.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So so the uh, the metric of success is just do
they say, wow, I'm like I'mgoing to see here?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
first.
Do we blow them away?
Yeah, I think at like a highlevel, more sort of subjectively
, quantitatively.
I mean we love looking atdirect booking percentage.
So are we getting 75, 80%direct, often through social
media content?
So we're really good at videostorytelling.
It's one of the specialties ofmy marketing agency, awasi, and
(04:09):
when we apply that to theseone-of-a-kind properties we can
often drive 80% of bookingsdirect, which is for those of
you that don't know hotels,that's very high, typically
short-term rentals.
Direct booking rate it might belike 20% if that, and hotels,
if you're lucky, maybe it's 50.
So 80% is very high and we areattracting a high paying guest
(04:31):
right.
Our occupancy numbers are up.
Our rate numbers are up At bothOnera properties.
Our ADR, which is average dailyrate in the hotel world, is
anywhere from the mid 400s tothe mid 500s and occupancy is
typically all over 80%.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And I think that's the people that should realize
that when you book direct book,you're saving what?
20, 30%.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
We say conservatively it's about 15%, but some of the
platforms it's closer to 20%.
So you're still going to pay apayment processing fee either
way.
So that's a few percent.
But once you deduct that fromthe 18% to 25 percent that a lot
of the OTAs charge, it's rightaround.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
you know, high teens, low 20s yeah, I mean it's
fantastic Talk about yourjourney a little bit and what
was the biggest, you knowmetaphoric tie to cut, to kind
of achieve where you've definedyour success today.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah.
So my journey, myentrepreneurial journey, I think
probably started in high schoolor at minimum college.
In college, me and a businesspartner that went to college
together we started this partypromotion business where we
would like bus kids to and fromthe school to the local bars and
clubs and stuff like that.
And we took a cut of the doorkind of thing and and you know,
(05:47):
the venues wanted to work withus because we were packing them
out.
So that was probably my firsttaste for entrepreneurship.
But I guess also hospitalityand marketing.
When I think about it right, itkind of encompasses all of
those things and those have beenthe areas that I keep seemingly
coming back to entrepreneurship, hospitality and marketing.
So I did, I worked at McKinseyfor a little bit out of school.
(06:09):
At that point, you know, justgraduating college, I didn't
have a business idea or a teamthat I was ready to like fully
press, go on, you know, to tofull send, and I think I was
there for about two years, whichwas it was good experience, but
but pretty soon realized Iwanted to start my own thing
again.
I started another hospitalityevents company, did that for a
(06:30):
few years and then really fellinto Airbnb and the short-term
rental world.
So in the mid 20 teens, airbnbswere still pretty new.
I was working for a short-termrental management company owned
by a buddy of mine and I startedbuilding my own portfolio on
the side so mostly what peoplecall lease arbitrage where you
(06:51):
lease a townhome, apartment,building, whatever and then you
rent it out a short-term rentalstyle and so I started doing
that in 2016 or so by 2018, Iquit my full-time job and
started growing that portfoliofull-time and started managing
for others as well.
So that was when I really tookthe plunge about seven, eight
(07:14):
years ago now and I've beenfully on my entrepreneurial
journey since then.
So initially it was growingthat short-term rental portfolio
from about eight units to 200under management in about a year
and a half by the end of 2019.
Covid hit and that totallyrewrote the story of urban
short-term rentals and all ofour bookings got canceled
(07:37):
overnight.
It was a total mess, but we didmake it through and that really
pushed me to pivot a bit andstart focusing more on outdoor
hospitality, more unique stays,which led, you know, which led
to Onero, which is truly what Ilove to do Building these
landscape, one of a kind, hotelsI'm way more passionate about
it than I am about a cookiecutter apartment in some random
(07:58):
city.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Well, I mean it also.
You just saw the problem isover the pandemic.
Those become super valuablebecause people want to get away
For sure.
Now they're long-term metals.
You're going to charge a shh,yeah, the, uh, the.
You know.
But what was the big tie,though, like you know, was it,
was there a?
Was it the stigmatism of youknow McKinsey, if you don't know
out, there is a high-end.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It was kind of the thing you had to really let go
of, or yeah, the limiting belief, I think what, what really got
me to take the entrepreneurialplunge, was this, this wreck,
this realization that what's theworst case scenario?
Right, I'll go out and and haveto get another job, right, it's
(08:42):
like, oh, that's the worst casescenario.
Then I'm much less afraid.
So I think that and I've justhad a number of experiences in
my life where I kind of had mybutt handed to me, right In one
sense or another, and so I thinkthat having my butt handed to
me and then sort of coming backfrom that and being okay and
sort of better for it in thelong run, I think has taught me
(09:04):
that, like, I'm just not asafraid of failure right After
having some of those experiencesand everything from quitting
jobs to getting fired to, youknow, getting kicked out of
school to getting sober, I meanI've had so many different parts
of my journey.
We could, we could talk atlength about it, but that's
probably a big one.
I mean, I got sober 10 yearsago and that has been a, yeah, a
(09:25):
life-changing endeavor.
That's really, you know, led meto where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
That's great.
I mean, on that journey,getting sober is a big one, you
know, as somebody who stoppeddrinking two years ago and
luckily it never was a problem.
My wife might argue at timesbut like you know it wasn't like
owning my life, it just chippedaway at mornings and it made
you sleep a little less.
And you know I get it.
And if it was actually anywherenear a problem it's definitely
(09:50):
something you got to cut back on.
But to do it good for you,because that's like one of the
biggest ties to cut is adependency.
But once you cut that it's likeeverything else probably seems
a little easier to do.
It's like, oh, if I can do thatI mean like I'm all about the
biography in there I can't giveup Starburst, I love them.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's funny.
I just had some Sour Patch Kidslast night.
I won't eat them.
I won't eat them, but if mywife brings them in the house,
it's like I don't have any.
You put a bag of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I mean, I buy a family size thing of Starbursts
and it's Like I'll eat it beforeI get to the car.
I'm like yeah, yeah, no, theyweren't individually wrapped.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, you know it's funny.
I actually think that, likesometimes, food sweets, at least
for me is one of the hardestthings to stay continually
disciplined on and I try, likeI've tried and I've done, like
full hardcore keto before Igained a bunch of.
I gained a bunch of weight whenmy wife had our first kid.
It was during covid.
We all these sweets in thehouse I was, you know, munching
down, we weren't getting out ofthe house much, so I put on all
(10:46):
this weight.
So that summer, after we hadour first kid, I did keto
hardcore and I lost.
I lost like 30 pounds and allthat.
But it's like then, you know,the first birthday that comes up
, it's got some good lookingcake, right, and then it sort of
gets, you know, gets me backinto to be fair, I think
addictive.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I don't think alcohol is actually addictive at all,
it's just a habit to me.
But sugar man, you get realcravings for those.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And I see with my kid my kid's four years old and if
he gets a little bit it's likemore, more, more, more right.
So we have to wait to give himanything until after he's
already fed and day or something.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I know we're on a tangent, but I will tell you, 30
chicken nuggets fromChick-fil-A is about the right
amount before you throw up.
You get from home, fromChick-fil-A to home without
anyone knowing you bought it orate it.
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to leaveyou guys imagining how far did
he drive.
It doesn't matter, but it's alot of chicken nuggets to eat.
Very quickly I'm going to sayright now but don Do you
(11:49):
remember, you know well, maybe Ithink one of the ties I would,
I think a lot of people relateto, and as somebody who you know
, who I call myself anon-drinker, meaning like we
went to Cuba last year and I hada little rum just to try it.
Like if I go to Czech RepublicPilsen, I'm going to have a
Pilsner because that's what wasmade right.
Like it's not, it just has toadd, it has to add real value
for me to drink.
And then I'm not really lookingto get drunk because I don't
(12:11):
want to waste the time, but fora lot of people they find that
crazy, I think.
Do you remember the moment that?
And I'm going to focus on thatone because I think that's most
relevant to so many people who'dlike I'd love to just stop, but
I don't know if I can sociallyor whatever else.
Yeah, do you remember themoment you're like, yep, I'm
done.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I remember that last year.
Let me tell you that last yearwas hell, um.
So I do remember that last yearand it wasn't one moment.
The one moment was probably thegrace that that that I had in
my life, that that somebody youknow introduced me to the idea
of sobriety, right and and andthat was something that, like I
(12:49):
don't know, like I knew it was athing, but I didn't.
I didn't really like I wasn'taware of the sort of help and
support and community that isout there and that, like,
there's a lot of people doingthis and remember, you know,
this is back in the mid 20 teens.
I think that that's sober andsober curious is a little bit
sober.
Oh yeah, this was a lot morelike in vogue today to be sober
than it was, and we're like howmany like non-AOL gears I have
(13:11):
options to now it's sointeresting, right, like when I
got sober, like it wasn't likecool.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
See Twitter, that boy's Twitter.
I want to hang out.
Yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So I definitely remember that first year too.
The first year is the toughestright, because you got to do
everything for the first timesober, birthdays, weddings,
every holiday, right.
It's just kind of like musclememory, um, so that first year,
first year, is definitely thehardest, um, but uh, yeah, I
remember that last year ofdrinking I think my biggest
(13:40):
issue was, you know, drinkingfor me was a solution to a
problem that I had for most ofmy life, which was like oh, this
is, you know, help me relax,kind of check out.
Not, I've always had beenpretty intense, right.
I mean, I do a lot of thingsprofessionally, I have a ton of
energy, and I think thatdrinking allowed me to kind of
(14:00):
like chill the F out, right.
And it got to a point where myusage was so intense that I
wasn't getting that reliefanymore.
So it was like I was drinking alot and I wasn't even getting
the benefit.
So that's what really got me totake a hard look at that and
start thinking, like you know,is there another way?
And thankfully I had somebodyput in my path that showed me
that way, and I'm forevergrateful for it.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, well, that's important the person, your path,
and you know when they come.
So I've had a similarexperience where someone I've
known and respected he said Iquit drinking I was 18.
And I'm like, I don't even knowif I can trust you Like, you
know, like, and then you getthere and you're like, you know.
Then he adds a faith piece andI'm not quite to where he is now
, but the point is I was likeanyway, it's super important.
(14:40):
So I think one of the ideas inthe moments they aren't there
always is to sing something fora big tie cut.
I want to give the audiencethis idea that it's going to be
a lot of things and you're goingto need people in your life to
navigate through it and help.
It might be a book, it might bea person you just got to have.
You know a path that says it'sokay.
And isn't it weird, though,when you're on the other side of
(15:03):
like, why don't I just quit?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
this Like why did I ever start?
Well, yeah, you know, for me itwas a little different.
I know exactly why I started.
I know exactly why I did it for10 years.
You know, it was like I reallywas seeking a feeling right.
It was a means to an end for mewith drinking and that's part of
why, you know, I had an issuewith it, um, and so once it
stopped working, then it wasjust a matter of like, oh, what
do I do now?
(15:24):
Right, and then I was able tocreate a number of other tools
in my kit to kind of deal withlife, right, whether that was
meditation, prayer, supportsystems, you know, intimacy with
friends and family, that that alot of that had kind of gone by
the wayside with my, mydrinking and use.
So, um, yeah, it's, it's been,it's been great.
(15:44):
I can't, I can't recommend itenough and I'm kind of excited
that it's like trendy now,because just so many more people
are getting to experience whatit's like to remove alcohol from
your life, and I think it canbe very powerful.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I love that as you've navigated your kind of life and
your business here like right,dive in a little to the how,
though you know it's one thingto know it, identify it like,
and you've touched a little bit,but maybe just kind of you know
how did you make that happenfor yourself?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
And sorry, the how to which piece, Like you know, you
cut the tie.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
But it's one thing to identify and say I'm doing it,
but there are steps that areinvolved, like you know how,
like what was your.
It's the work.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And you're talking specifically on the sob Like
it's one thing to say, oh, I hadto quit doing it, like that's a
big one, and I think there area lot of people who you know
they're going to be please go,because because, like, that is
one that really really holds somany people back.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And and I and sure If you're a girl, of course- like
had this person put in my paththat had done it before me and
that I respected them, I trustedthem.
I went to support groups for it.
I met other people that hadbeen there before me and had
come to the other side and Ibelieved that they were actually
(17:03):
genuinely happy and I wasn't,and I knew what I was doing
wasn't working.
So I did what they did Rightand I followed the.
I followed the suggestions thatthey gave and I was like, worst
comes to worst, I do thesethings, um, and I do these
things and like it doesn't workand okay, I can always go back
to drinking Right, or I do thesethings and it works, and maybe
(17:23):
I have a different, differentway of life and I can have some
of this happiness that that theyhad, and I mean it.
For me it was a spiritualjourney, right.
So it's not it's hard to sayany one kind of piece of it, but
for anyone who's interested inthat, there's, there's great
programs out there.
You know AA probably being themost prominent one to to get you
to to sobriety and to be ableto maintain it.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, I did it.
I listened to one book calledit was Alan Carr drinking mate
quit easy or something, I can'tremember.
I literally listened listen toone book called uh, it was alan
carr drinking mate, quit easy orsomething, I can't remember.
I literally listen to it and Iwas done the next day.
I was like I kind of reframedthe meeting and then a friend of
mine went through.
He was like a different.
He went through the a programand he was.
He was kind enough to invite meto his one-year chip, which was
kind of I had lost touch alittle with him.
I would say that would not haveworked for me, though I would
(18:07):
like that program would.
No, I would be like, oh no, no,I'm going to start drinking
more, sure, then I'll make thisprogram.
I was like, oh my gosh, thatwas like a different level.
So, yeah, not because I knewthat wasn't for me, but I didn't
know that until I went to histhing and I will go to his
two-year if invited, but I amnot going.
I would just I'm not going toadvisors or listen to advice for
(18:31):
advisors or listen, you know,or I can't talk.
It's the end of the day, it'slike the 10th podcast.
Let's just go with that.
What advice would you give tothe listener?
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Advice I would give to a listener.
So if, if you are trying toembark on an entrepreneurial
journey, I think that you haveto know going in it's going to
be really hard.
So, so know that going in andand sort of I think anticipating
that makes it easier to getthrough some of the harder times
.
And then it goes back to what Italked about before, which is
(19:00):
what's the worst case scenario.
Think about worst case scenarioand I think that can remove a
lot of fear.
Worst case scenario fall flaton your butt.
You got to go get another jobright, not the end of the world.
You've had a job right thatyou're quitting, so you know how
to get a job, not the end ofthe world.
You've you've had a job rightthat you're quitting, so you
know how to get a job, um.
So I think that those canreally help kind of remove
limiting beliefs.
For me Also, it's been soimportant.
(19:21):
I think it's really importantto to choose business partners
wisely, um, and I've I've likeso crucially important and I've
I've sort of stepped onminefields with that earlier in
my career and then I feel likeI've gotten a lot better and
smarter with that later in mycareer.
And one thing that I've foundis that earlier in my career I
(19:43):
feel like I would try to I mighttry to partner with somebody
that was too like me, or I wouldtry to partner with somebody
that what I thought would solvemy problem, because I didn't
want to do something right and Ithought they would do it or
they would handle it Um and andwithout enough due diligence or
incentive alignment to to makesure that they actually could
(20:04):
deliver on it.
So I've been in businesspartner relationships where,
like I felt like I was kind ofdoing everything and I've had to
figure out how to undo thoseand move on.
But more recently I have had,I've had the ability to identify
partners that are like.
I know for fact and for certainand from referrals that they are
way better than me in certaindomains and way smarter than me
(20:27):
in certain areas.
And those partners that have acomplimentary skill set, that
come highly referred, that havestellar reputations, have been
total game changers and I've hadto give up big pieces of
companies to attract those typeof people and it's been so, so
worth it.
Of the big things I look for ina partner and basically anybody
(20:54):
on our team, is anextraordinary sense of urgency.
I think that that is crucialand it might be the single most
important asset and culturalattribute of a successful young
company.
A startup is urgency, becauseyou have to meet this, this
minimum viable escape velocityto get out of the startup phase
(21:15):
and be a successful, viablebusiness, and I think that it
takes extraordinary passionate,urgent people to make that
happen.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, and you not only have to have the model, the
problem, you're solving all theother things, right.
You just got to have so muchfuel behind it.
You get it off the ground andlet it float in space, right,
like you got to get it off toget it to escape the gravity of
what a startup it's going tocrash.
You don't get it outside thatspace Now.
It may blow up or implode onceit gets out, but anyway, that's
a different thing.
But just to get out there,right.
(21:45):
And you're spot on with thatpartnering and not hiring
someone to do something you justdon't want to do.
That's outsourcing, right, likethat's a don't put a partner in
that position because that's ashort lived thing, right, it's.
It's, like you know, strategicpiece.
I absolutely love that.
What's kind of big tie today,though, you can't cut.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
That's a good question.
What is the big tie today thatI can't cut?
What is the big tie today thatI can't cut?
I think that it probably has todo with it's a good question.
You know, I'm continuing tolean more into and and try to
(22:28):
continue to get better at, likethe personal content side of
things.
Right, we've, we've done Ithink we do a good job with my
twitter, with my linkedin right,we're putting out really good
written content and the personalbrand side of things has been
really valuable for me, um, andwe've been doing instagram
really well and and social mediamarketing on the the video side
for hotels.
And we've been doing Instagramreally well and social media
marketing on the video side forhotels, and we've done that
(22:50):
really well.
But I haven't done as much ofthe short form video myself,
like for my own personal page.
So I'm really like trying toinvest in that double down.
I think maybe I had a limitingbelief that, like you know, that
wasn't me to be one of thoselike short form video sort of
gurus, if you will.
But I do think there'sincredible value in the personal
(23:11):
brand side of things on shortform video, so I'm going to put
a heavy focus on it.
I'm sure I'm going to put outsome cringe worthy stuff
initially and then I'm going toget better at it and hopefully
in a year or so I'll be prettygood at it.
So that's probably the one thatI'm focused on, and then right
right sort of after that, andconnected to it to some way, is
(23:31):
YouTube and long form video.
So those are the two thingsthat I want to do more of that I
think have such incredibly highreturns that I haven't had time
or bandwidth to devote a ton ofenergy to it.
But I'm in a stage now where Ithink I can and I really want to
double down on it, becausepeople connect with people,
right.
People trust people way morethan they trust brands or
(23:53):
corporations, and so the morethat I can kind of put out my
personal brand and and sort ofbuild that trust and authority
on multi-channel, a whole bunchof different platforms, I think
the the the better off mycompany and future endeavors
will be.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah and listen.
I've struggled with this aswell and it's like I love
podcasting and almost wish therewasn't a video component,
because that's like where I'mcomfortable.
I like to do like the short,like you know, with our
marketing agency, like it'simportant but it's boring, like
who's it's it's important butit's boring, like who's gonna
want it, like it's like, butthen on the personal side for
(24:30):
like, let's say, your hotel,there's actually fun, like you
could do things with that, andbut if it's like on the business
, I'd like it's almost, it'salmost painful.
I don't want to do it like I'dlike, it's like anyway.
so I, I'm sure, we just shrugwith it's like what's the right
mix of what I do to make itworth it?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I'm trying to get into the mindset of that, trying
to almost look at it like agame that I'm trying to figure
out right, because I do thinkthere's an element of that there
.
There there's a gamification ofsocial.
You know how you use hooks, howyou sort of use cadence and
storytelling to pull people inand re hook people and and and
garner, you know, interest anddeliver real value, like you
(25:06):
have to deliver value, whetherthat's entertainment, whether
it's, you know, information,right Knowledge, like there
needs to be some sort of valueinspiration.
So it's like it's.
I'm trying to stay curious andand to to, to look at it like
look, I'm not going to be greatInitially.
(25:27):
This is new for me, even thoughwe do it as a business for
other properties.
And so just putting in the work, putting in the reps, getting
out more content and just makingincremental gains daily, and
then those stack up and beforeyou know it, you're actually
pretty good at something.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
One of the things we give advice to a lot of people
who are in your spot is, ifthere's not a real business
reason behind it or it's whatyou want to do next, when you
have enough money not to careanymore, don't do it.
It cannot be somewhere inbetween.
You have to be like this isgoing, it's so much work, yeah,
yeah, and it's also it's likeit's I say the joke.
It's like you put a certainnumber in my account.
(25:58):
I will go to an audio-onlypodcast, I, I will be in.
There will be no social mediaat that point.
It'll just be cause that's whatI want to go do.
Uh, and and I know that assomeone who's pretty active on
social media, I'm like I will,kate, that would all go away.
So, and that's I, gen XL, justtake it for.
But that you know.
But that's how I feel about ithonestly.
(26:19):
So it's like I, I, you know,outside of comedy channels that
I have for my own entertainment,it's a struggle.
So, anyway, listen out there.
You got to do it for realbusiness reason and when you go
back to the kind of readinessenergy you're going to have to
bring it, I know like I have tobring it for 10 shows every
Thursday, right Every show.
When you listen to it you can'tknow if it was the first or
last.
(26:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
You don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You have no idea how many I've canceled.
No, I know how many havecanceled it, which has been a
little frustrating, but we'llget back to that.
That's not even going to getedited.
All right, a little rapid fire.
What's the one entrepreneurialbook you?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
recommend to new people.
I think just the one book inbusiness in general for me and I
mostly listen to podcasts andconsume information different
ways now but how to Win Friendsand Influence People was a book
my dad gave me when I was a kidand I just think that it has
it's permeated so many differentaspects of my life.
It's it's allowed me to buildrelationships, build community,
(27:15):
find business partners, findclients so many different find
investors, um, just in terms ofhow to build interpersonal
relationships, build trust, umand uh, yeah, that that's
probably my number one.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, it is.
I mean it's.
You feel like you're in atraveling time machine reading
it and you imagine that oldstuff.
People used to talk differentlyback then, I don't know,
because they were less removedfrom accent so they didn't have
the American kind of accents yet.
It was still like second, thirdgeneration immigrant.
You know, people gotdifferently back then.
Anyway, you feel that in thatbook anyway For sure.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
But I still think it's very applicable, right Like
the overarching concepts arestill very applicable even today
, um so yeah I, I do.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's a solid one.
If you don't, if you don't read, start that one.
I heard a comedian the otherday, uh, gen x comedian.
He was like you know, the newgen z and y's love subtitles on
movies.
He's like you should try a book.
The whole thing is subtitlesanyway.
It's just funny.
Um, whole thing is subtitlesanyway.
(28:10):
It's just funny.
Um fun joke.
Had to be there, all right.
Uh, rick's rapid, if you couldgo back to any part in your
timeline, what would, when wouldthat be, and what would you do
differently?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
yeah, I just go back to any part of my timeline.
Um, I think it goes back to the, the business partners, right,
and it's so hard to know thatwithout having had the
experience.
But if, both with businesspartners and with team, I could
have been laser focused on Aplayers and not sort of settled
(28:40):
for convenience for people thatI knew to fill a gap, something
like that, and could really justhone in on a players and wait
for them and be patient, um, Ithink that it would have.
It probably would have saved mea lot of, a lot of headache and
a lot of things that thatslowed me down.
So, just, it goes back to thewhole, like you know, higher,
what, higher, slow fire, fast,right, type thing, and we've
(29:02):
really embodied that now with mynew company.
I mean, we've had two or threehires that we've had to fire,
whether day one or the firstcouple of weeks, and just
finding out that, despite theinterviewing, despite how good
we thought they were going to be, we found out early on wasn't a
cultural fit, they weren'tfully bought in, they weren't
team focused, they just weren'tin alignment with our values,
(29:23):
and it's so much easier to torip the bandaid off and stretch
the team a little bit for for aperiod of time, to make sure
that that everybody's a reallygood fit and everybody's an A
player.
Um, so yeah, cause the fastestway to push A players out the
door is start hiring B and Cplayers.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
So yeah, I'm the way the A player is like thanks, I
have more work now.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, I'm doing more work, I'm cleaning up their mess
, right.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
It's not like I'm picking up what they did.
I'm cleaning up what they didExactly.
You're picking it up.
It's like, hey, at leastthey're carrying something.
And if I'm cleaning it up, itmeans they're dropping
everything and I have to do mineand I'm out.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, yeah and look, I think early on, I've always
sort of like oriented to actionand to movement and to urgency,
which I think is good and Ithink it's helped me.
But that's one area where youhave you have to be patient to
get the right person.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Before my final question comes around uh, I
forgot to let people pre-stalkyou.
I always let the ADHD or kindof stalk you.
I forgot to ask the question,but just you know what's the one
link people should go to tostalk you.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, probably my link, probably my LinkedIn, um,
and, and from my LinkedIn youcan get to my newsletter where I
put out some good content oncea week.
But yeah, linkedin, ben WolfWOLFF, if you search me, I
should pop up, so follow methere.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Double Fs.
You're looking good, dude, youdo a note, y'all don't have to
note me.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
If you put in Ben Wolf Onera or Ben Wolf Owasi,
O-A-S-I, I'll definitely come up.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Awesome, very good.
If there was a question Ishould have asked you today, and
didn't what is that questionand how do you answer it?
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah, there's a question you should have asked.
Yeah, I think that the question, the question that you should
have asked, is maybe where doyou see the puck going in travel
and hospitality?
I mean, that's kind of mydomain of expertise, I would say
(31:15):
, for the most part, is traveland hospitality, and I do think
that it's continuing to move inthis direction of experience,
first story, first shareability.
You want to create experiencesthat people want to share and so
that's where I see the puckgoing.
It's already sort of moving inthat direction and we're
(31:37):
creating hotels that try toalign with that In the future.
So I've done so much of this inlandscape and outdoor
hospitality and like beautifulnatural settings.
In the future I really thinkthis is going to get brought
more to urban hotels as well and, like, urban hotels have kind
of lagged behind some of themore outdoor focused, nature
(31:58):
focused experiential hotels, andprobably in the next one to two
years I plan to start startworking on an urban experiential
concept.
So more to come on that.
I was in San Francisco recently,probably in the next one to two
years, I plan to start workingon an urban experiential concept
.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
So more to come on that I was in San Francisco
recently and I haven't validatedthis is true.
But people who live there theysaid in that city if a hotel
goes under they have to sell tothe city for homeless housing.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
I'm thinking what a great way to ruin a city.
You know, la has some of thatcrazy stuff too, where I mean, I
know people that own buildings,you know SROs or legitimate
hotels that the city will justkind of say like, oh, we're
taking this and going to use itfor homeless housing.
If I can believe we're going toset the price.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Well, I mean, it's great if you have the math
behind it.
You're like cool, they'repaying for it.
I'm not taking care of anything, it's going to be horrible.
Oh, I dig it right now and I'mgoing to.
I'm going to demo this thing inabout 10 years.
Thank you so much for coming on, Ben.
I really appreciate you.
I know you're super busy andfocused and you need to give the
time to our show and otherguests.
It does mean quite a bit to me.
I really do appreciate you,Thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Thanks for having me on man Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
And anybody who made it to this point in the show you
rock.
If this was the first time here, I hope it's the first of many.
And if you've been here before,you know what I always say Get
out there, go cut a tie towhatever's holding you back from
that success, but first startwith defining that success for
yourself.
Thanks for listening.
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