August 17, 2025 • 17 mins
In this episode of RV Rental Secrets, co-hosts Garr Russell and Stacy Maxon talk about how the seasonal shift from summer camping to back-to-school is the perfect time to reassess your RV rental business.
They share updates from their own homeschooling routines, including Gar’s family working at their newly purchased diner and Stacy’s search for new curriculum for her high schooler. Then they dive into actionable strategies to help RV rental owners prepare for the next season:
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Price Check: Why now is the time to evaluate your nightly rates, delivery fees, and event pricing to ensure you’re covering wear, tear, and your valuable time.
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Event Strategy: How to maximize revenue during high-demand events, from raising rates to adding event fees—and making sure you’re compensated for delivery delays and extra effort.
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Inventory Expansion Hack: A behind-the-scenes Fireside tip on leveraging other owners’ RVs for big events without buying depreciating assets.
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Booking Trends: Using past booking data to decide whether to focus on high-performing campgrounds or diversify your delivery locations.
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Proactive Planning: Setting 7-night minimums for peak summer weeks, preloading event pricing, and locking in additional inventory now for next year.
Garr and Stacy also pull back the curtain on their own marketing review process, explaining how they track ad spend, KPIs, and conversion metrics—and how this podcast plays a role in educating and attracting future franchisees.
Links & Resources:
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🎯 Free RV Rental Course – Learn how to make money renting out your RV (a $1,000 value, now free!)
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Watch FREE webinar, 3 Secrets to Scale Your RV Rental Business Using Other People's RVs
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🔗 Subscribe to our YouTube channel for Q&A sessions, tips, and insider strategies
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Welcome to the RV Rental Secrets Podcast.
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.999I'm your host, Stacey Maxson, and I'm thrilled to guide you through the journey of launching, growing, and managing a profitable RV rental business. 3 00:00:09,330.9977324263 --> 00:00:09,870.9977324263 Hey everybody. 4 00:00:09,870.9977324263 --> 00:00:13,500.997732426 Welcome to another episode of RV Rental Secrets podcast. 5 00:00:13,830.997732426 --> 00:00:15,660.997732426 I'm your co-host Gar Russell. 6 00:00:15,960.997732426 --> 00:00:17,550.997732426 Along with Stacy. 7 00:00:17,550.997732426 --> 00:00:19,800.997732426 Did you start your school yet? Maxon Stacy. 8 00:00:19,800.997732426 --> 00:00:21,900.997732426 Did you guys start your school year yet? No. 9 00:00:21,900.997732426 --> 00:00:28,735.997732426 So up in New York, they don't actually start until after Labor Day, so we've continued to stay on that schedule with homeschooling. 10 00:00:29,795.997732426 --> 00:00:30,615.997732426 Oh, that's right. 11 00:00:30,755.997732426 --> 00:00:33,840.997732426 You know, 'cause we were in Michigan when we lived in Michigan. 12 00:00:33,840.997732426 --> 00:00:34,530.997732426 Same deal. 13 00:00:34,830.997732426 --> 00:00:36,450.997732426 Now that we're down here in Florida. 14 00:00:36,450.997732426 --> 00:00:38,370.997732426 Today is our first official school day. 15 00:00:39,270.997732426 --> 00:00:40,530.997732426 So, yep. 16 00:00:40,530.997732426 --> 00:00:42,780.997732426 So we started this morning, we did our devotions. 17 00:00:42,780.997732426 --> 00:00:45,270.997732426 We laid out what the kids, what the school year is gonna look like. 18 00:00:45,510.997732426 --> 00:00:52,440.997732426 This is gonna be an interesting year too, because Emma our oldest, this will be her last full year of school. 19 00:00:52,950.997732426 --> 00:00:55,830.997732426 So we were just kind of processing that, like, oh my gosh. 20 00:00:56,360.997732426 --> 00:01:00,775.997732426 And then about three months ago, my wife Tina bought a restaurant. 21 00:01:01,945.997732426 --> 00:01:05,455.997732426 She bought the oldest diner in Okeechobee, this little town that we live in. 22 00:01:05,665.997732426 --> 00:01:13,265.997732426 So now we all work at the diner here and there together, so that's gonna be part of the school this year is working at the diner. 23 00:01:13,265.997732426 --> 00:01:16,475.997732426 So yeah, we're off to, we're off to the races with school. 24 00:01:17,615.997732426 --> 00:01:25,845.997732426 Yeah, I've actually been like researching new curriculums the last couple weeks because we were traveling so much last year, we did a lot of online things. 25 00:01:26,760.997732426 --> 00:01:27,870.997732426 And I didn't love it. 26 00:01:27,960.997732426 --> 00:01:30,870.997732426 So I'm looking for new options. 27 00:01:30,870.997732426 --> 00:01:35,460.997732426 And then my oldest, he's going into high school this year, he'll be in ninth grade. 28 00:01:35,740.997732426 --> 00:01:40,390.99773243 So that's a whole new homeschool experience, especially in New York State. 29 00:01:40,390.99773243 --> 00:01:44,770.99773243 We have a lot of requirements we have to meet to, to meet the state guidelines. 30 00:01:45,40.99773243 --> 00:01:53,610.99773243 So I'm learning all of that and making sure I'm, crossing all the T's and dotting all the i's for the paperwork. 31 00:01:54,585.99773243 --> 00:01:55,125.99773243 Yeah. 32 00:01:55,515.99773243 --> 00:01:55,755.99773243 Yeah. 33 00:01:55,755.99773243 --> 00:02:01,935.99773243 You know, that's the, that's the cool thing about homeschool is you kinda look at what you did last year. 34 00:02:01,935.99773243 --> 00:02:04,155.99773243 You kind of reassess what are you gonna do this year. 35 00:02:04,155.99773243 --> 00:02:06,645.99773243 So we're doing the opposite of what you were just saying. 36 00:02:06,975.99773243 --> 00:02:09,855.99773243 We're, we're doing tablets this year in a lot of online. 37 00:02:10,695.99773243 --> 00:02:12,405.99773243 And because of the restaurant. 38 00:02:12,825.99773243 --> 00:02:19,485.99773243 So like, because we'll be, well my, the kids might be at the restaurant for a couple hours at a time and doing school. 39 00:02:19,485.99773243 --> 00:02:21,585.99773243 So we've been looking for all these online curriculum. 40 00:02:21,825.99773243 --> 00:02:28,945.99773243 It is so crazy too, not to get too off track, but we found this like math program for our kids and it's like AI driven. 41 00:02:29,545.99773243 --> 00:02:35,995.99773243 So it's like they're interacting with AI and it's like, Hey Noah, what do you like? And Noah's like, oh, I like airplanes. 42 00:02:35,995.99773243 --> 00:02:36,865.99773243 They're like, oh, cool. 43 00:02:36,865.99773243 --> 00:02:37,825.99773243 You like airplanes. 44 00:02:38,5.99773243 --> 00:02:39,745.99773243 Let me teach you about velocity. 45 00:02:40,105.99773243 --> 00:02:43,945.99773243 You know? And knowing that whatever his lesson today is about addition. 46 00:02:44,515.99773243 --> 00:02:47,275.99773243 And so, and it's like, what else do you like Noah? Oh, I like giraffes. 47 00:02:47,305.99773243 --> 00:02:47,665.99773243 Okay. 48 00:02:47,665.99773243 --> 00:02:52,405.99773243 And so it's super like intuitive and like engaging and. 49 00:02:53,260.99773243 --> 00:02:55,960.99773243 This conversation style teaching, so it's interesting. 50 00:02:56,50.99773243 --> 00:02:56,320.99773243 That's cool. 51 00:02:56,590.99773243 --> 00:02:56,920.99773243 Yeah. 52 00:02:57,490.99773243 --> 00:03:12,700.99773243 Well, hey, speaking of that, what we thought we would talk about today is, what we usually talk about around this time is it's kind of a season shift, right? We're going back into school, which means families aren't camping as much, so that we're out of the craziness of July. 53 00:03:12,700.99773243 --> 00:03:13,720.99773243 Things are starting to taper down. 54 00:03:14,570.99773243 --> 00:03:27,870.99773243 You know, we, and so just like Stacy and I were talking about like a assessing and, and figuring, okay, what is school gonna look like us for us this year? What a great time to think about our rental season. 55 00:03:28,50.99773243 --> 00:03:46,385.99773243 What are some wins? What are some losses? What did we learn? What do we want to implement? You know? Heck, one question I want to ask you, the audience right off the bat is and I don't know if I do this often, do we ask questions and they comment? Is that part of a podcast, Stacy, or no? Yeah, they can comment on our YouTube channel. 56 00:03:46,895.99773243 --> 00:03:47,345.99773243 Oh, okay. 57 00:03:47,345.99773243 --> 00:03:51,245.99773243 So I'm like, can you even do that? I don't listen to much podcast. 58 00:03:51,455.99773243 --> 00:03:53,435.99773243 I'm actually, I'm gonna confess that right now. 59 00:03:53,435.99773243 --> 00:03:55,295.99773243 I, I'm not a huge podcast guy. 60 00:03:55,295.99773243 --> 00:03:56,735.99773243 I don't listen to a lot of podcasts. 61 00:03:57,95.99773243 --> 00:04:07,750.99773243 But my question to you is, when's the last time you increased your price? Right? Like, if you're looking at your camper right now and you're thinking, huh? We did pretty good this year. 62 00:04:07,750.99773243 --> 00:04:14,170.99773243 We made some money, but man, our carpet is like beat up or our right. 63 00:04:14,170.99773243 --> 00:04:16,30.99773243 The, the furniture gets beat up quick. 64 00:04:16,30.99773243 --> 00:04:28,180.99773243 That the, you know, are you making enough to where you're keeping your camper updated through the wear and tear? So that's something like, have you ever even thought of that audience? Like, Hey, I need to look at my pricing. 65 00:04:28,180.99773243 --> 00:04:35,290.99773243 Do I need to increase my pricing? Yeah, I see that a lot when people are just renting their own personal camper. 66 00:04:35,540.99773243 --> 00:04:42,770.99773243 Or even if they own a couple campers and are just renting them out, they're not necessarily thinking it, of it as a business. 67 00:04:42,920.99773243 --> 00:04:51,110.99773243 And you know, they're, they're just looking at, oh, I'm getting some extra cash, but they're not putting the price high enough to cover that wear and tear. 68 00:04:51,140.99773243 --> 00:04:55,260.99773243 I mean, you're gonna need new tires like you said, carpet or furniture. 69 00:04:56,10.99773243 --> 00:05:04,290.99773243 Are you really charging enough to cover your time? Like I've seen delivery expenses be, you know, a hundred dollars or free delivery. 70 00:05:04,720.99773243 --> 00:05:11,20.99773243 You know, your time is worth money and you should be getting paid for the time it takes you to deliver and set up that camper. 71 00:05:11,500.99773243 --> 00:05:20,930.99773243 So it's definitely something to take a look at your prices you know, see what other people are charging and make sure you're at least in, I would say the middle. 72 00:05:20,990.99773243 --> 00:05:23,120.99773243 You know, you shouldn't be the lowest person out there. 73 00:05:24,365.99773243 --> 00:05:25,265.99773243 No, definitely not. 74 00:05:25,595.99773243 --> 00:05:28,115.99773243 And I, and that's a really good point to see your time. 75 00:05:28,145.99773243 --> 00:05:30,575.99773243 'cause your time is your most valuable asset. 76 00:05:31,175.99773243 --> 00:05:43,585.99773243 And and also if you're managing other people's campers, like our fireside franchisees do are you billing for the time where you're working on other people's campers? You know, we just had a. 77 00:05:43,930.99773243 --> 00:05:54,280.99773243 In our fireside chats every Tuesday night we do fireside chats with our franchises and we'll come on and teach, kinda similar to this for a little bit, and then we'll do q and a and encourage each other and stuff like that. 78 00:05:54,640.99773243 --> 00:06:03,330.99773243 Pray together and man, several of the franchisees are like, realizing I'm putting a lot of time into working on people's campers and I'm not billing them. 79 00:06:03,930.99773243 --> 00:06:06,480.99773243 And because I feel bad, but no, this is a business. 80 00:06:06,480.99773243 --> 00:06:07,770.99773243 You need to be billing. 81 00:06:08,140.99773243 --> 00:06:16,930.99773243 And honestly, that's one of the money making parts of the business is, you know, you know when you take your RV to get worked on somewhere, well, you don't Stacy 'cause your husband's an RV tech. 82 00:06:17,230.99773243 --> 00:06:22,810.99773243 But when other people do, when us normal people do, you're paying 1 25, 1 55 an hour. 83 00:06:23,200.99773243 --> 00:06:25,555.99773243 So even if you're managing other people's RVs. 84 00:06:26,215.99773243 --> 00:06:31,965.99773243 And say you're charging 80% of that, or even half of that, you're charging $75 an hour. 85 00:06:31,965.99773243 --> 00:06:33,735.99773243 You need to be billing for that time. 86 00:06:33,735.99773243 --> 00:06:44,175.99773243 So yeah, definitely a good time to just be reflecting on those different areas of your business and then also looking at your business and saying, Hey, I just noticed, you know. 87 00:06:44,880.99773243 --> 00:06:48,780.99773243 50, 60% of our bookings went to this specific campground. 88 00:06:49,560.99773243 --> 00:06:50,640.99773243 Well, that's amazing. 89 00:06:50,790.99773243 --> 00:07:07,950.99773243 Maybe you could actually get with that campground and see what kind of partnership you could work out to where a hundred percent of your bookings are going there to where it's, it's very you know exactly the, the layout of the campground, how long it takes you to get through all that kinda stuff, and then you're just servicing that campground. 90 00:07:07,950.99773243 --> 00:07:10,350.99773243 Or you can look at it from the other angle and say. 91 00:07:10,710.99773243 --> 00:07:13,920.99773243 Hey, most of my bookings are going to one campground. 92 00:07:13,950.99773243 --> 00:07:18,900.99773243 Maybe I should diversify a little bit, you know, and it's whatever you obviously have peace with at the end of the day. 93 00:07:18,900.99773243 --> 00:07:23,550.99773243 But just looking at those different things instead of switching gears in life. 94 00:07:23,580.99773243 --> 00:07:26,550.99773243 Okay? Camping season's over, and then I'll think about this again next year. 95 00:07:26,850.99773243 --> 00:07:28,260.99773243 No, think about that right now. 96 00:07:28,260.99773243 --> 00:07:30,480.99773243 Make some changes and tweaks that you need to make. 97 00:07:31,60.99773243 --> 00:07:37,175.99773243 Like one of the things I would do right now is for next summer, put your minimums to seven nights. 98 00:07:37,930.99773243 --> 00:07:47,320.99773243 And increase your nightly rental rate because if somebody's booking right now for next summer that far in advance, you, you want to cherry pick those customers. 99 00:07:47,320.99773243 --> 00:07:51,910.99773243 You know, you're gonna have bookings in, you know, mid-June, through mid-August, give or take. 100 00:07:52,210.99773243 --> 00:07:55,60.99773243 So make sure you're really maximizing that time. 101 00:07:55,430.99773243 --> 00:07:59,60.99773243 So you have a high nightly minimums and high nightly rental rate. 102 00:08:00,170.99773243 --> 00:08:01,940.99773243 Also looking ahead to next year. 103 00:08:01,970.99773243 --> 00:08:11,60.99773243 You know, see what events are, what the event dates are for popular events in your area, and make sure you set up event pricing for that time period. 104 00:08:11,280.99773243 --> 00:08:21,90.99773243 You don't want something slipping through the cracks where they're booking it at a regular price point now before you updated your system to increase the, the price for those dates. 105 00:08:21,90.99773243 --> 00:08:26,550.99773243 So definitely make sure to, to do all of that now while it's fresh in your mind. 106 00:08:26,620.99773243 --> 00:08:27,640.99773243 Instead of waiting. 107 00:08:29,50.99773243 --> 00:08:31,930.99773243 Yeah, when it comes to events, you'd be surprised. 108 00:08:32,140.99773243 --> 00:08:39,340.99773243 I mean, you can literally double, triple your price for an event and it's at the end of the day in business, it's supply and demand. 109 00:08:39,340.99773243 --> 00:08:44,980.99773243 So the demand increases and the supply is the same, so you increase your price. 110 00:08:45,230.99773243 --> 00:08:49,430.99773243 So you can do that on your nightly rental rate, or you can just simply tack on an event fee. 111 00:08:49,910.99773243 --> 00:08:52,520.99773243 We have franchises that charge, you know. 112 00:08:53,15.99773243 --> 00:08:55,145.99773243 A couple hundred on up for an event. 113 00:08:55,605.99773243 --> 00:08:59,445.99773243 Also when it comes to the events too, think about your delivery time. 114 00:08:59,445.99773243 --> 00:09:03,435.99773243 If you delivered to an event this year, y'all gonna know what I'm talking about. 115 00:09:03,435.99773243 --> 00:09:07,245.99773243 Here is, man, think about how long it took you to actually get into that event. 116 00:09:07,545.99773243 --> 00:09:13,575.99773243 Like you may have waited in a line for 2, 3, 4 hours, had to purchase a pass to go into that event. 117 00:09:14,340.99773243 --> 00:09:19,380.99773243 And literally that was an all day deal, just to deliver that camper and an all day deal to pick it up. 118 00:09:19,830.99773243 --> 00:09:24,30.99773243 So you can easily justify your cost when you're talking to people. 119 00:09:24,400.99773243 --> 00:09:30,130.99773243 When they're asking you about, Hey, what, well, why is there an event fee? Or why is your rate so much higher? You know, you can let 'em know. 120 00:09:30,380.99773243 --> 00:09:31,670.99773243 These are the reasons why. 121 00:09:32,540.99773243 --> 00:09:33,20.99773243 Yeah. 122 00:09:33,20.99773243 --> 00:09:35,330.99773243 And you know, you mentioned supply and demands. 123 00:09:35,330.99773243 --> 00:09:38,540.99773243 We had a franchise in South Dakota recently. 124 00:09:38,790.99773243 --> 00:09:39,990.99773243 They have about 20 units. 125 00:09:39,990.99773243 --> 00:09:41,340.99773243 They were all out for an event. 126 00:09:41,865.99773243 --> 00:09:44,145.99773243 And they were still getting requests. 127 00:09:44,205.99773243 --> 00:09:52,845.99773243 They said if they had a hundred campers, they could have all been rented, you know? So start to think about that if you want to work those events. 128 00:09:53,95.99773243 --> 00:10:02,445.99773243 You know, what inventory do you need to get now so that you have it available for next season? Yeah, that's a good, this is usually this. 129 00:10:02,535.99773243 --> 00:10:10,635.99773243 What I'm gonna say next is usually something I would only share on a fireside chat for our franchisees, but I feel like I'm gonna just give you guys a little deeper nugget. 130 00:10:10,905.99773243 --> 00:10:11,385.99773243 Okay. 131 00:10:11,385.99773243 --> 00:10:12,795.99773243 Should I do it, Stacy, or no? I don't. 132 00:10:13,215.99773243 --> 00:10:15,915.99773243 You think it'll set the franchisees? I don't know. 133 00:10:15,915.99773243 --> 00:10:17,355.99773243 I'm excited to hear what you're gonna say. 134 00:10:17,355.99773243 --> 00:10:17,595.99773243 Okay. 135 00:10:17,595.99773243 --> 00:10:22,395.99773243 I'm gonna say it, but this here is like, this is the power of community and masterminding and working together. 136 00:10:23,40.99773243 --> 00:10:43,830.99773243 Okay, so I'm gonna first, before I say I'm gonna make it a plug for the franchise opportunity, 'cause seriously when you guys are, when you're in a community of people doing this together and you're doing thousands of bookings a year all around the country and you're in different personalities and different events, you learn some things and, and I said this several weeks ago, hard times equal hard lines. 137 00:10:44,190.99773243 --> 00:10:49,260.99773243 When you get in some of these pinches, all of a sudden you get really creative and you make a decision. 138 00:10:49,560.99773243 --> 00:11:09,800.99773243 So what happened? For this unit in South Dakota actually for South Dakota location, they had somebody that was so desperate for a camper that was basically willing to pay ev anything that they paid our franchisee in South Dakota to go to a location of ours in Colorado, pick up an RV and bring it back. 139 00:11:10,220.99773243 --> 00:11:11,900.99773243 Like they, they paid for all that. 140 00:11:12,290.99773243 --> 00:11:15,800.99773243 So here's, here's how this applies to you. 141 00:11:16,160.99773243 --> 00:11:31,490.99773243 Since you don't have multiple locations, what if you have an event in your area, in your RV books every year for it? What if you were to actually realize that you have access in these situations to more inventory than you know, and, and the. 142 00:11:32,765.99773243 --> 00:11:39,125.99773243 And what I mean is during COVID I had a, I laid off all my staff on the corporate team. 143 00:11:39,335.99773243 --> 00:11:44,375.99773243 I read an article on Facebook that said, top thing CEOs wish they would've done during 2008. 144 00:11:44,825.99773243 --> 00:11:51,875.99773243 The number one thing they stated is they wish they would've laid their staff off sooner because they're kept thinking like, oh, this will pass, this will pass, this will pass. 145 00:11:52,200.99773243 --> 00:11:59,765.99773243 Well, what happened is I laid off all my staff and right after that I got an inquiry in Michigan for 72 units. 146 00:12:00,395.99773243 --> 00:12:07,775.99773243 To go to the different power plants around Michigan for mobile quarantine units for their electrical engineers. 147 00:12:08,105.99773243 --> 00:12:11,375.99773243 So I think I had maybe 35, 40 units at my location. 148 00:12:11,825.99773243 --> 00:12:13,415.99773243 So I took all those units, put 'em there. 149 00:12:13,415.99773243 --> 00:12:21,785.99773243 But then what I did is I started reaching out to other owners in our network and I started negotiating rentals with them. 150 00:12:22,175.99773243 --> 00:12:26,75.99773243 To where I was basically putting them in my fleet for that specific rental. 151 00:12:26,495.99773243 --> 00:12:29,15.99773243 And so I was making money off 30 something extra units. 152 00:12:29,255.99773243 --> 00:12:36,755.99773243 So what if you're actually to be proactive instead of reactive and say, Hey, I do have this event that happens every year. 153 00:12:37,325.99773243 --> 00:12:48,545.99773243 And you started reaching out to owners that were maybe 25 miles, 50 miles outside of this event and start pre-booking their campers at a pre-negotiated rate. 154 00:12:50,60.99773243 --> 00:13:00,920.99773243 Then as inquiries are coming in, you're able to assign those units to those campers that you've already pre-negotiated with, and you could do this in a way to where you don't have to actually have money come outta your pocket. 155 00:13:01,310.99773243 --> 00:13:04,370.99773243 What if you were to do that so this next year you could actually have. 156 00:13:05,0.99773243 --> 00:13:07,880.99773243 Five units or 10 units or 15 units go to this event. 157 00:13:08,60.99773243 --> 00:13:17,330.99773243 So now you're more of a broker and you're facilitating instead of just sending your one unit there or doing what I see a lot of other people do that, oh, just makes me cringe when they do it. 158 00:13:17,870.99773243 --> 00:13:20,270.99773243 Other people go out and start buying more campers. 159 00:13:20,330.99773243 --> 00:13:23,930.99773243 Oh, that frustrates me when I see people buying campers. 160 00:13:24,620.99773243 --> 00:13:26,480.99773243 Campers are depreciating. 161 00:13:26,510.99773243 --> 00:13:27,470.99773243 They're not an asset. 162 00:13:27,500.99773243 --> 00:13:33,920.99773243 They don't appreciate, they depreciate, don't go buy more campers, use other people's RVs. 163 00:13:33,980.99773243 --> 00:13:39,530.99773243 Trust me, during COVID I saw several of my big competitors go out of business that owned all their inventory. 164 00:13:39,980.99773243 --> 00:13:43,40.99773243 So that's, that's my hack. 165 00:13:43,460.99773243 --> 00:13:45,320.99773243 You wouldn't, you wouldn't have thought of that on your own People. 166 00:13:45,320.99773243 --> 00:13:47,330.99773243 Don't pretend like, oh yeah, I thought of that already, Gar. 167 00:13:47,360.99773243 --> 00:13:48,530.99773243 'cause you didn't think of that already. 168 00:13:48,950.99773243 --> 00:13:51,200.99773243 That's a hack that you'd only hear in the fireside family. 169 00:13:51,230.99773243 --> 00:13:51,380.99773243 Okay. 170 00:13:53,345.99773243 --> 00:13:54,455.99773243 Yeah, that's a good one. 171 00:13:54,775.99773243 --> 00:13:56,425.99773243 Yeah, I'm surprised you came out with that. 172 00:13:56,425.99773243 --> 00:13:58,225.99773243 That's a, a good insider tip. 173 00:13:59,275.99773243 --> 00:13:59,845.99773243 It is. 174 00:13:59,845.99773243 --> 00:14:03,145.99773243 It's, it's utilizing other people's assets in a way. 175 00:14:03,545.99773243 --> 00:14:08,465.99773243 And then guess what happens is you get people who actually want to just go ahead and leave the RV with you. 176 00:14:08,465.99773243 --> 00:14:12,995.99773243 Hey, do you want to keep running that out for me? People who are maybe even renting it out on their own before. 177 00:14:13,520.99773243 --> 00:14:16,400.99773243 And they're like, Hey, I made a little bit less, but I did none of the work. 178 00:14:16,460.99773243 --> 00:14:17,60.99773243 That's amazing. 179 00:14:17,90.99773243 --> 00:14:18,170.99773243 So, alright. 180 00:14:18,170.99773243 --> 00:14:20,750.99773243 Stacy, you and I, so we just did this podcast. 181 00:14:20,750.99773243 --> 00:14:27,140.99773243 We recorded two other videos and now we got four minutes until our marketing meeting and, and I'll just share about that real quick. 182 00:14:27,380.99773243 --> 00:14:27,500.99773243 Okay. 183 00:14:27,500.99773243 --> 00:14:33,770.99773243 When we talk about reviewing and assessing and reassessing all these things, so every Monday we do a marketing meeting. 184 00:14:34,140.99773243 --> 00:14:42,300.99773243 With our marketing company that we use Ben, our sales rep, Stacy, myself and Tori that does our bookkeeping. 185 00:14:42,480.99773243 --> 00:14:55,350.99773243 And basically what we do is we look over all of our metrics, okay? And we say, Hey, what's our roas? What's our KPI, what's our ad spend? And some of those things I just said, some of y'all have maybe, maybe never even heard those terms. 186 00:14:55,350.99773243 --> 00:14:57,865.99773243 And guess what? Stacey and I just learned those like two years ago. 187 00:14:57,865.99773243 --> 00:14:58,45.99773243 Okay. 188 00:14:58,45.99773243 --> 00:15:04,945.99773243 So we're not like super cool marketers, but we get in the rooms and we buy the courses, and we do the things to learn the things. 189 00:15:05,275.99773243 --> 00:15:07,585.99773243 So now we know ROAS is return on ad spend. 190 00:15:08,400.99773243 --> 00:15:24,750.99773243 So we know, hey, if we put out a dollar, how much will we make and return? You know, if, if we how many leads do we need to pay for to book a call? How many book calls do we need to have to sell a franchise? And so then we can determine our metrics and how we're looking for the month and stuff like that. 191 00:15:24,750.99773243 --> 00:15:37,230.99773243 So anyway, those are some of the deeper things that we go into in the Fireside Family Man business can get so deep y'all with, with understanding sales strategies, with understanding. 192 00:15:37,405.99773243 --> 00:15:41,185.99773243 Indoctrination sequences and how to educate people. 193 00:15:41,395.99773243 --> 00:15:42,745.99773243 I'm gonna tell y'all one more hack. 194 00:15:42,775.99773243 --> 00:15:43,315.99773243 Okay. 195 00:15:43,705.99773243 --> 00:15:52,285.99773243 This podcast is one of the ways that we give back to this community, but also for us, this podcast, it's part of our indoctrination sequence. 196 00:15:52,285.99773243 --> 00:15:52,555.99773243 Okay? Y'all. 197 00:15:53,260.99773243 --> 00:15:56,770.99773243 I'm sorry to say that you are in an indoctrination sequence right now. 198 00:15:57,160.99773243 --> 00:16:06,190.99773243 We've had many franchises that have signed up because they followed our podcast for a certain amount of time, and they're like, oh my gosh, I've gotten so much value. 199 00:16:06,520.99773243 --> 00:16:12,280.99773243 I've gotten to know Stacy and Gar so well, and maybe you've reached out some other fireside franchisees and you've been to a webinar. 200 00:16:12,280.99773243 --> 00:16:13,905.99773243 You're like, I gotta be in that community. 201 00:16:14,755.99773243 --> 00:16:15,145.99773243 Right. 202 00:16:15,145.99773243 --> 00:16:18,475.99773243 So we have all these spokes in the wheel where we're teaching giving value. 203 00:16:18,745.99773243 --> 00:16:22,915.99773243 We have a course that we give away, and I feel like we're just going over so much on this podcast. 204 00:16:22,915.99773243 --> 00:16:26,665.99773243 Stacy, I know we're hitting all the information. 205 00:16:26,785.99773243 --> 00:16:27,175.99773243 I know. 206 00:16:27,265.99773243 --> 00:16:35,65.99773243 Do y'all know that we have a free course that we give out that teaches you how to rent your RV out? Should we put that in the show notes too? Yeah, definitely. 207 00:16:35,285.99773243 --> 00:16:38,615.99773243 Download the course and then let us know, you know, what you think about it. 208 00:16:38,615.99773243 --> 00:16:43,805.9977324 What'd you learn from it? Yeah, we have a free course that we give out that we used to sell. 209 00:16:43,805.9977324 --> 00:16:45,275.9977324 We sold it for a thousand dollars. 210 00:16:45,275.9977324 --> 00:16:46,445.9977324 We sold it for 500. 211 00:16:46,445.9977324 --> 00:16:47,495.9977324 We sold it for a couple hundred. 212 00:16:47,855.9977324 --> 00:17:01,205.9977324 And then I think we do have an upsell in there though, where you can purchase the like handheld book, the handheld manual as you go through the course and somehow the, I mail all those out now when, last time I was with Stacy, she handed me all those books and now that's my job. 213 00:17:01,805.9977324 --> 00:17:05,760.9977324 It was when you sold your, maybe when you sold your house and when you were full-time in or something, you were down. 214 00:17:05,760.9977324 --> 00:17:06,0.9977324 Yeah. 215 00:17:06,295.9977324 --> 00:17:08,395.9977324 I didn't have room for everything in the Harvey. 216 00:17:09,625.9977324 --> 00:17:15,145.9977324 So yeah, if you do that and I throw in a couple extra goodies, the last couple ones I mailed out, I threw in a couple extra things. 217 00:17:15,145.9977324 --> 00:17:18,175.9977324 I think I threw in a free copy of my book and some other things. 218 00:17:18,175.9977324 --> 00:17:20,905.9977324 So anyway, y'all all right, that's the end of this episode. 219 00:17:20,905.9977324 --> 00:17:22,225.9977324 We gotta jump on our marketing meeting. 220 00:17:22,745.9977324 --> 00:17:23,495.9977324 God bless y'all. 221 00:17:23,495.9977324 --> 00:17:27,575.9977324 Thanks for joining us, had so much fun with you guys, and we'll see you on the next.
Welcome to the RV Rental Secrets Podcast.
(00:02):
.999I'm your host, Stacey Maxson, and I'm thrilled to guide you through the journey of launching, growing, and managing a profitable RV rental business. 3 00:00:09,330.9977324263 --> 00:00:09,870.9977324263 Hey everybody. 4 00:00:09,870.9977324263 --> 00:00:13,500.997732426 Welcome to another episode of RV Rental Secrets podcast. 5 00:00:13,830.997732426 --> 00:00:15,660.997732426 I'm your co-host Gar Russell. 6 00:00:15,960.997732426 --> 00:00:17,550.997732426 Along with Stacy. 7 00:00:17,550.997732426 --> 00:00:19,800.997732426 Did you start your school yet? Maxon Stacy. 8 00:00:19,800.997732426 --> 00:00:21,900.997732426 Did you guys start your school year yet? No. 9 00:00:21,900.997732426 --> 00:00:28,735.997732426 So up in New York, they don't actually start until after Labor Day, so we've continued to stay on that schedule with homeschooling. 10 00:00:29,795.997732426 --> 00:00:30,615.997732426 Oh, that's right. 11 00:00:30,755.997732426 --> 00:00:33,840.997732426 You know, 'cause we were in Michigan when we lived in Michigan. 12 00:00:33,840.997732426 --> 00:00:34,530.997732426 Same deal. 13 00:00:34,830.997732426 --> 00:00:36,450.997732426 Now that we're down here in Florida. 14 00:00:36,450.997732426 --> 00:00:38,370.997732426 Today is our first official school day. 15 00:00:39,270.997732426 --> 00:00:40,530.997732426 So, yep. 16 00:00:40,530.997732426 --> 00:00:42,780.997732426 So we started this morning, we did our devotions. 17 00:00:42,780.997732426 --> 00:00:45,270.997732426 We laid out what the kids, what the school year is gonna look like. 18 00:00:45,510.997732426 --> 00:00:52,440.997732426 This is gonna be an interesting year too, because Emma our oldest, this will be her last full year of school. 19 00:00:52,950.997732426 --> 00:00:55,830.997732426 So we were just kind of processing that, like, oh my gosh. 20 00:00:56,360.997732426 --> 00:01:00,775.997732426 And then about three months ago, my wife Tina bought a restaurant. 21 00:01:01,945.997732426 --> 00:01:05,455.997732426 She bought the oldest diner in Okeechobee, this little town that we live in. 22 00:01:05,665.997732426 --> 00:01:13,265.997732426 So now we all work at the diner here and there together, so that's gonna be part of the school this year is working at the diner. 23 00:01:13,265.997732426 --> 00:01:16,475.997732426 So yeah, we're off to, we're off to the races with school. 24 00:01:17,615.997732426 --> 00:01:25,845.997732426 Yeah, I've actually been like researching new curriculums the last couple weeks because we were traveling so much last year, we did a lot of online things. 25 00:01:26,760.997732426 --> 00:01:27,870.997732426 And I didn't love it. 26 00:01:27,960.997732426 --> 00:01:30,870.997732426 So I'm looking for new options. 27 00:01:30,870.997732426 --> 00:01:35,460.997732426 And then my oldest, he's going into high school this year, he'll be in ninth grade. 28 00:01:35,740.997732426 --> 00:01:40,390.99773243 So that's a whole new homeschool experience, especially in New York State. 29 00:01:40,390.99773243 --> 00:01:44,770.99773243 We have a lot of requirements we have to meet to, to meet the state guidelines. 30 00:01:45,40.99773243 --> 00:01:53,610.99773243 So I'm learning all of that and making sure I'm, crossing all the T's and dotting all the i's for the paperwork. 31 00:01:54,585.99773243 --> 00:01:55,125.99773243 Yeah. 32 00:01:55,515.99773243 --> 00:01:55,755.99773243 Yeah. 33 00:01:55,755.99773243 --> 00:02:01,935.99773243 You know, that's the, that's the cool thing about homeschool is you kinda look at what you did last year. 34 00:02:01,935.99773243 --> 00:02:04,155.99773243 You kind of reassess what are you gonna do this year. 35 00:02:04,155.99773243 --> 00:02:06,645.99773243 So we're doing the opposite of what you were just saying. 36 00:02:06,975.99773243 --> 00:02:09,855.99773243 We're, we're doing tablets this year in a lot of online. 37 00:02:10,695.99773243 --> 00:02:12,405.99773243 And because of the restaurant. 38 00:02:12,825.99773243 --> 00:02:19,485.99773243 So like, because we'll be, well my, the kids might be at the restaurant for a couple hours at a time and doing school. 39 00:02:19,485.99773243 --> 00:02:21,585.99773243 So we've been looking for all these online curriculum. 40 00:02:21,825.99773243 --> 00:02:28,945.99773243 It is so crazy too, not to get too off track, but we found this like math program for our kids and it's like AI driven. 41 00:02:29,545.99773243 --> 00:02:35,995.99773243 So it's like they're interacting with AI and it's like, Hey Noah, what do you like? And Noah's like, oh, I like airplanes. 42 00:02:35,995.99773243 --> 00:02:36,865.99773243 They're like, oh, cool. 43 00:02:36,865.99773243 --> 00:02:37,825.99773243 You like airplanes. 44 00:02:38,5.99773243 --> 00:02:39,745.99773243 Let me teach you about velocity. 45 00:02:40,105.99773243 --> 00:02:43,945.99773243 You know? And knowing that whatever his lesson today is about addition. 46 00:02:44,515.99773243 --> 00:02:47,275.99773243 And so, and it's like, what else do you like Noah? Oh, I like giraffes. 47 00:02:47,305.99773243 --> 00:02:47,665.99773243 Okay. 48 00:02:47,665.99773243 --> 00:02:52,405.99773243 And so it's super like intuitive and like engaging and. 49 00:02:53,260.99773243 --> 00:02:55,960.99773243 This conversation style teaching, so it's interesting. 50 00:02:56,50.99773243 --> 00:02:56,320.99773243 That's cool. 51 00:02:56,590.99773243 --> 00:02:56,920.99773243 Yeah. 52 00:02:57,490.99773243 --> 00:03:12,700.99773243 Well, hey, speaking of that, what we thought we would talk about today is, what we usually talk about around this time is it's kind of a season shift, right? We're going back into school, which means families aren't camping as much, so that we're out of the craziness of July. 53 00:03:12,700.99773243 --> 00:03:13,720.99773243 Things are starting to taper down. 54 00:03:14,570.99773243 --> 00:03:27,870.99773243 You know, we, and so just like Stacy and I were talking about like a assessing and, and figuring, okay, what is school gonna look like us for us this year? What a great time to think about our rental season. 55 00:03:28,50.99773243 --> 00:03:46,385.99773243 What are some wins? What are some losses? What did we learn? What do we want to implement? You know? Heck, one question I want to ask you, the audience right off the bat is and I don't know if I do this often, do we ask questions and they comment? Is that part of a podcast, Stacy, or no? Yeah, they can comment on our YouTube channel. 56 00:03:46,895.99773243 --> 00:03:47,345.99773243 Oh, okay. 57 00:03:47,345.99773243 --> 00:03:51,245.99773243 So I'm like, can you even do that? I don't listen to much podcast. 58 00:03:51,455.99773243 --> 00:03:53,435.99773243 I'm actually, I'm gonna confess that right now. 59 00:03:53,435.99773243 --> 00:03:55,295.99773243 I, I'm not a huge podcast guy. 60 00:03:55,295.99773243 --> 00:03:56,735.99773243 I don't listen to a lot of podcasts. 61 00:03:57,95.99773243 --> 00:04:07,750.99773243 But my question to you is, when's the last time you increased your price? Right? Like, if you're looking at your camper right now and you're thinking, huh? We did pretty good this year. 62 00:04:07,750.99773243 --> 00:04:14,170.99773243 We made some money, but man, our carpet is like beat up or our right. 63 00:04:14,170.99773243 --> 00:04:16,30.99773243 The, the furniture gets beat up quick. 64 00:04:16,30.99773243 --> 00:04:28,180.99773243 That the, you know, are you making enough to where you're keeping your camper updated through the wear and tear? So that's something like, have you ever even thought of that audience? Like, Hey, I need to look at my pricing. 65 00:04:28,180.99773243 --> 00:04:35,290.99773243 Do I need to increase my pricing? Yeah, I see that a lot when people are just renting their own personal camper. 66 00:04:35,540.99773243 --> 00:04:42,770.99773243 Or even if they own a couple campers and are just renting them out, they're not necessarily thinking it, of it as a business. 67 00:04:42,920.99773243 --> 00:04:51,110.99773243 And you know, they're, they're just looking at, oh, I'm getting some extra cash, but they're not putting the price high enough to cover that wear and tear. 68 00:04:51,140.99773243 --> 00:04:55,260.99773243 I mean, you're gonna need new tires like you said, carpet or furniture. 69 00:04:56,10.99773243 --> 00:05:04,290.99773243 Are you really charging enough to cover your time? Like I've seen delivery expenses be, you know, a hundred dollars or free delivery. 70 00:05:04,720.99773243 --> 00:05:11,20.99773243 You know, your time is worth money and you should be getting paid for the time it takes you to deliver and set up that camper. 71 00:05:11,500.99773243 --> 00:05:20,930.99773243 So it's definitely something to take a look at your prices you know, see what other people are charging and make sure you're at least in, I would say the middle. 72 00:05:20,990.99773243 --> 00:05:23,120.99773243 You know, you shouldn't be the lowest person out there. 73 00:05:24,365.99773243 --> 00:05:25,265.99773243 No, definitely not. 74 00:05:25,595.99773243 --> 00:05:28,115.99773243 And I, and that's a really good point to see your time. 75 00:05:28,145.99773243 --> 00:05:30,575.99773243 'cause your time is your most valuable asset. 76 00:05:31,175.99773243 --> 00:05:43,585.99773243 And and also if you're managing other people's campers, like our fireside franchisees do are you billing for the time where you're working on other people's campers? You know, we just had a. 77 00:05:43,930.99773243 --> 00:05:54,280.99773243 In our fireside chats every Tuesday night we do fireside chats with our franchises and we'll come on and teach, kinda similar to this for a little bit, and then we'll do q and a and encourage each other and stuff like that. 78 00:05:54,640.99773243 --> 00:06:03,330.99773243 Pray together and man, several of the franchisees are like, realizing I'm putting a lot of time into working on people's campers and I'm not billing them. 79 00:06:03,930.99773243 --> 00:06:06,480.99773243 And because I feel bad, but no, this is a business. 80 00:06:06,480.99773243 --> 00:06:07,770.99773243 You need to be billing. 81 00:06:08,140.99773243 --> 00:06:16,930.99773243 And honestly, that's one of the money making parts of the business is, you know, you know when you take your RV to get worked on somewhere, well, you don't Stacy 'cause your husband's an RV tech. 82 00:06:17,230.99773243 --> 00:06:22,810.99773243 But when other people do, when us normal people do, you're paying 1 25, 1 55 an hour. 83 00:06:23,200.99773243 --> 00:06:25,555.99773243 So even if you're managing other people's RVs. 84 00:06:26,215.99773243 --> 00:06:31,965.99773243 And say you're charging 80% of that, or even half of that, you're charging $75 an hour. 85 00:06:31,965.99773243 --> 00:06:33,735.99773243 You need to be billing for that time. 86 00:06:33,735.99773243 --> 00:06:44,175.99773243 So yeah, definitely a good time to just be reflecting on those different areas of your business and then also looking at your business and saying, Hey, I just noticed, you know. 87 00:06:44,880.99773243 --> 00:06:48,780.99773243 50, 60% of our bookings went to this specific campground. 88 00:06:49,560.99773243 --> 00:06:50,640.99773243 Well, that's amazing. 89 00:06:50,790.99773243 --> 00:07:07,950.99773243 Maybe you could actually get with that campground and see what kind of partnership you could work out to where a hundred percent of your bookings are going there to where it's, it's very you know exactly the, the layout of the campground, how long it takes you to get through all that kinda stuff, and then you're just servicing that campground. 90 00:07:07,950.99773243 --> 00:07:10,350.99773243 Or you can look at it from the other angle and say. 91 00:07:10,710.99773243 --> 00:07:13,920.99773243 Hey, most of my bookings are going to one campground. 92 00:07:13,950.99773243 --> 00:07:18,900.99773243 Maybe I should diversify a little bit, you know, and it's whatever you obviously have peace with at the end of the day. 93 00:07:18,900.99773243 --> 00:07:23,550.99773243 But just looking at those different things instead of switching gears in life. 94 00:07:23,580.99773243 --> 00:07:26,550.99773243 Okay? Camping season's over, and then I'll think about this again next year. 95 00:07:26,850.99773243 --> 00:07:28,260.99773243 No, think about that right now. 96 00:07:28,260.99773243 --> 00:07:30,480.99773243 Make some changes and tweaks that you need to make. 97 00:07:31,60.99773243 --> 00:07:37,175.99773243 Like one of the things I would do right now is for next summer, put your minimums to seven nights. 98 00:07:37,930.99773243 --> 00:07:47,320.99773243 And increase your nightly rental rate because if somebody's booking right now for next summer that far in advance, you, you want to cherry pick those customers. 99 00:07:47,320.99773243 --> 00:07:51,910.99773243 You know, you're gonna have bookings in, you know, mid-June, through mid-August, give or take. 100 00:07:52,210.99773243 --> 00:07:55,60.99773243 So make sure you're really maximizing that time. 101 00:07:55,430.99773243 --> 00:07:59,60.99773243 So you have a high nightly minimums and high nightly rental rate. 102 00:08:00,170.99773243 --> 00:08:01,940.99773243 Also looking ahead to next year. 103 00:08:01,970.99773243 --> 00:08:11,60.99773243 You know, see what events are, what the event dates are for popular events in your area, and make sure you set up event pricing for that time period. 104 00:08:11,280.99773243 --> 00:08:21,90.99773243 You don't want something slipping through the cracks where they're booking it at a regular price point now before you updated your system to increase the, the price for those dates. 105 00:08:21,90.99773243 --> 00:08:26,550.99773243 So definitely make sure to, to do all of that now while it's fresh in your mind. 106 00:08:26,620.99773243 --> 00:08:27,640.99773243 Instead of waiting. 107 00:08:29,50.99773243 --> 00:08:31,930.99773243 Yeah, when it comes to events, you'd be surprised. 108 00:08:32,140.99773243 --> 00:08:39,340.99773243 I mean, you can literally double, triple your price for an event and it's at the end of the day in business, it's supply and demand. 109 00:08:39,340.99773243 --> 00:08:44,980.99773243 So the demand increases and the supply is the same, so you increase your price. 110 00:08:45,230.99773243 --> 00:08:49,430.99773243 So you can do that on your nightly rental rate, or you can just simply tack on an event fee. 111 00:08:49,910.99773243 --> 00:08:52,520.99773243 We have franchises that charge, you know. 112 00:08:53,15.99773243 --> 00:08:55,145.99773243 A couple hundred on up for an event. 113 00:08:55,605.99773243 --> 00:08:59,445.99773243 Also when it comes to the events too, think about your delivery time. 114 00:08:59,445.99773243 --> 00:09:03,435.99773243 If you delivered to an event this year, y'all gonna know what I'm talking about. 115 00:09:03,435.99773243 --> 00:09:07,245.99773243 Here is, man, think about how long it took you to actually get into that event. 116 00:09:07,545.99773243 --> 00:09:13,575.99773243 Like you may have waited in a line for 2, 3, 4 hours, had to purchase a pass to go into that event. 117 00:09:14,340.99773243 --> 00:09:19,380.99773243 And literally that was an all day deal, just to deliver that camper and an all day deal to pick it up. 118 00:09:19,830.99773243 --> 00:09:24,30.99773243 So you can easily justify your cost when you're talking to people. 119 00:09:24,400.99773243 --> 00:09:30,130.99773243 When they're asking you about, Hey, what, well, why is there an event fee? Or why is your rate so much higher? You know, you can let 'em know. 120 00:09:30,380.99773243 --> 00:09:31,670.99773243 These are the reasons why. 121 00:09:32,540.99773243 --> 00:09:33,20.99773243 Yeah. 122 00:09:33,20.99773243 --> 00:09:35,330.99773243 And you know, you mentioned supply and demands. 123 00:09:35,330.99773243 --> 00:09:38,540.99773243 We had a franchise in South Dakota recently. 124 00:09:38,790.99773243 --> 00:09:39,990.99773243 They have about 20 units. 125 00:09:39,990.99773243 --> 00:09:41,340.99773243 They were all out for an event. 126 00:09:41,865.99773243 --> 00:09:44,145.99773243 And they were still getting requests. 127 00:09:44,205.99773243 --> 00:09:52,845.99773243 They said if they had a hundred campers, they could have all been rented, you know? So start to think about that if you want to work those events. 128 00:09:53,95.99773243 --> 00:10:02,445.99773243 You know, what inventory do you need to get now so that you have it available for next season? Yeah, that's a good, this is usually this. 129 00:10:02,535.99773243 --> 00:10:10,635.99773243 What I'm gonna say next is usually something I would only share on a fireside chat for our franchisees, but I feel like I'm gonna just give you guys a little deeper nugget. 130 00:10:10,905.99773243 --> 00:10:11,385.99773243 Okay. 131 00:10:11,385.99773243 --> 00:10:12,795.99773243 Should I do it, Stacy, or no? I don't. 132 00:10:13,215.99773243 --> 00:10:15,915.99773243 You think it'll set the franchisees? I don't know. 133 00:10:15,915.99773243 --> 00:10:17,355.99773243 I'm excited to hear what you're gonna say. 134 00:10:17,355.99773243 --> 00:10:17,595.99773243 Okay. 135 00:10:17,595.99773243 --> 00:10:22,395.99773243 I'm gonna say it, but this here is like, this is the power of community and masterminding and working together. 136 00:10:23,40.99773243 --> 00:10:43,830.99773243 Okay, so I'm gonna first, before I say I'm gonna make it a plug for the franchise opportunity, 'cause seriously when you guys are, when you're in a community of people doing this together and you're doing thousands of bookings a year all around the country and you're in different personalities and different events, you learn some things and, and I said this several weeks ago, hard times equal hard lines. 137 00:10:44,190.99773243 --> 00:10:49,260.99773243 When you get in some of these pinches, all of a sudden you get really creative and you make a decision. 138 00:10:49,560.99773243 --> 00:11:09,800.99773243 So what happened? For this unit in South Dakota actually for South Dakota location, they had somebody that was so desperate for a camper that was basically willing to pay ev anything that they paid our franchisee in South Dakota to go to a location of ours in Colorado, pick up an RV and bring it back. 139 00:11:10,220.99773243 --> 00:11:11,900.99773243 Like they, they paid for all that. 140 00:11:12,290.99773243 --> 00:11:15,800.99773243 So here's, here's how this applies to you. 141 00:11:16,160.99773243 --> 00:11:31,490.99773243 Since you don't have multiple locations, what if you have an event in your area, in your RV books every year for it? What if you were to actually realize that you have access in these situations to more inventory than you know, and, and the. 142 00:11:32,765.99773243 --> 00:11:39,125.99773243 And what I mean is during COVID I had a, I laid off all my staff on the corporate team. 143 00:11:39,335.99773243 --> 00:11:44,375.99773243 I read an article on Facebook that said, top thing CEOs wish they would've done during 2008. 144 00:11:44,825.99773243 --> 00:11:51,875.99773243 The number one thing they stated is they wish they would've laid their staff off sooner because they're kept thinking like, oh, this will pass, this will pass, this will pass. 145 00:11:52,200.99773243 --> 00:11:59,765.99773243 Well, what happened is I laid off all my staff and right after that I got an inquiry in Michigan for 72 units. 146 00:12:00,395.99773243 --> 00:12:07,775.99773243 To go to the different power plants around Michigan for mobile quarantine units for their electrical engineers. 147 00:12:08,105.99773243 --> 00:12:11,375.99773243 So I think I had maybe 35, 40 units at my location. 148 00:12:11,825.99773243 --> 00:12:13,415.99773243 So I took all those units, put 'em there. 149 00:12:13,415.99773243 --> 00:12:21,785.99773243 But then what I did is I started reaching out to other owners in our network and I started negotiating rentals with them. 150 00:12:22,175.99773243 --> 00:12:26,75.99773243 To where I was basically putting them in my fleet for that specific rental. 151 00:12:26,495.99773243 --> 00:12:29,15.99773243 And so I was making money off 30 something extra units. 152 00:12:29,255.99773243 --> 00:12:36,755.99773243 So what if you're actually to be proactive instead of reactive and say, Hey, I do have this event that happens every year. 153 00:12:37,325.99773243 --> 00:12:48,545.99773243 And you started reaching out to owners that were maybe 25 miles, 50 miles outside of this event and start pre-booking their campers at a pre-negotiated rate. 154 00:12:50,60.99773243 --> 00:13:00,920.99773243 Then as inquiries are coming in, you're able to assign those units to those campers that you've already pre-negotiated with, and you could do this in a way to where you don't have to actually have money come outta your pocket. 155 00:13:01,310.99773243 --> 00:13:04,370.99773243 What if you were to do that so this next year you could actually have. 156 00:13:05,0.99773243 --> 00:13:07,880.99773243 Five units or 10 units or 15 units go to this event. 157 00:13:08,60.99773243 --> 00:13:17,330.99773243 So now you're more of a broker and you're facilitating instead of just sending your one unit there or doing what I see a lot of other people do that, oh, just makes me cringe when they do it. 158 00:13:17,870.99773243 --> 00:13:20,270.99773243 Other people go out and start buying more campers. 159 00:13:20,330.99773243 --> 00:13:23,930.99773243 Oh, that frustrates me when I see people buying campers. 160 00:13:24,620.99773243 --> 00:13:26,480.99773243 Campers are depreciating. 161 00:13:26,510.99773243 --> 00:13:27,470.99773243 They're not an asset. 162 00:13:27,500.99773243 --> 00:13:33,920.99773243 They don't appreciate, they depreciate, don't go buy more campers, use other people's RVs. 163 00:13:33,980.99773243 --> 00:13:39,530.99773243 Trust me, during COVID I saw several of my big competitors go out of business that owned all their inventory. 164 00:13:39,980.99773243 --> 00:13:43,40.99773243 So that's, that's my hack. 165 00:13:43,460.99773243 --> 00:13:45,320.99773243 You wouldn't, you wouldn't have thought of that on your own People. 166 00:13:45,320.99773243 --> 00:13:47,330.99773243 Don't pretend like, oh yeah, I thought of that already, Gar. 167 00:13:47,360.99773243 --> 00:13:48,530.99773243 'cause you didn't think of that already. 168 00:13:48,950.99773243 --> 00:13:51,200.99773243 That's a hack that you'd only hear in the fireside family. 169 00:13:51,230.99773243 --> 00:13:51,380.99773243 Okay. 170 00:13:53,345.99773243 --> 00:13:54,455.99773243 Yeah, that's a good one. 171 00:13:54,775.99773243 --> 00:13:56,425.99773243 Yeah, I'm surprised you came out with that. 172 00:13:56,425.99773243 --> 00:13:58,225.99773243 That's a, a good insider tip. 173 00:13:59,275.99773243 --> 00:13:59,845.99773243 It is. 174 00:13:59,845.99773243 --> 00:14:03,145.99773243 It's, it's utilizing other people's assets in a way. 175 00:14:03,545.99773243 --> 00:14:08,465.99773243 And then guess what happens is you get people who actually want to just go ahead and leave the RV with you. 176 00:14:08,465.99773243 --> 00:14:12,995.99773243 Hey, do you want to keep running that out for me? People who are maybe even renting it out on their own before. 177 00:14:13,520.99773243 --> 00:14:16,400.99773243 And they're like, Hey, I made a little bit less, but I did none of the work. 178 00:14:16,460.99773243 --> 00:14:17,60.99773243 That's amazing. 179 00:14:17,90.99773243 --> 00:14:18,170.99773243 So, alright. 180 00:14:18,170.99773243 --> 00:14:20,750.99773243 Stacy, you and I, so we just did this podcast. 181 00:14:20,750.99773243 --> 00:14:27,140.99773243 We recorded two other videos and now we got four minutes until our marketing meeting and, and I'll just share about that real quick. 182 00:14:27,380.99773243 --> 00:14:27,500.99773243 Okay. 183 00:14:27,500.99773243 --> 00:14:33,770.99773243 When we talk about reviewing and assessing and reassessing all these things, so every Monday we do a marketing meeting. 184 00:14:34,140.99773243 --> 00:14:42,300.99773243 With our marketing company that we use Ben, our sales rep, Stacy, myself and Tori that does our bookkeeping. 185 00:14:42,480.99773243 --> 00:14:55,350.99773243 And basically what we do is we look over all of our metrics, okay? And we say, Hey, what's our roas? What's our KPI, what's our ad spend? And some of those things I just said, some of y'all have maybe, maybe never even heard those terms. 186 00:14:55,350.99773243 --> 00:14:57,865.99773243 And guess what? Stacey and I just learned those like two years ago. 187 00:14:57,865.99773243 --> 00:14:58,45.99773243 Okay. 188 00:14:58,45.99773243 --> 00:15:04,945.99773243 So we're not like super cool marketers, but we get in the rooms and we buy the courses, and we do the things to learn the things. 189 00:15:05,275.99773243 --> 00:15:07,585.99773243 So now we know ROAS is return on ad spend. 190 00:15:08,400.99773243 --> 00:15:24,750.99773243 So we know, hey, if we put out a dollar, how much will we make and return? You know, if, if we how many leads do we need to pay for to book a call? How many book calls do we need to have to sell a franchise? And so then we can determine our metrics and how we're looking for the month and stuff like that. 191 00:15:24,750.99773243 --> 00:15:37,230.99773243 So anyway, those are some of the deeper things that we go into in the Fireside Family Man business can get so deep y'all with, with understanding sales strategies, with understanding. 192 00:15:37,405.99773243 --> 00:15:41,185.99773243 Indoctrination sequences and how to educate people. 193 00:15:41,395.99773243 --> 00:15:42,745.99773243 I'm gonna tell y'all one more hack. 194 00:15:42,775.99773243 --> 00:15:43,315.99773243 Okay. 195 00:15:43,705.99773243 --> 00:15:52,285.99773243 This podcast is one of the ways that we give back to this community, but also for us, this podcast, it's part of our indoctrination sequence. 196 00:15:52,285.99773243 --> 00:15:52,555.99773243 Okay? Y'all. 197 00:15:53,260.99773243 --> 00:15:56,770.99773243 I'm sorry to say that you are in an indoctrination sequence right now. 198 00:15:57,160.99773243 --> 00:16:06,190.99773243 We've had many franchises that have signed up because they followed our podcast for a certain amount of time, and they're like, oh my gosh, I've gotten so much value. 199 00:16:06,520.99773243 --> 00:16:12,280.99773243 I've gotten to know Stacy and Gar so well, and maybe you've reached out some other fireside franchisees and you've been to a webinar. 200 00:16:12,280.99773243 --> 00:16:13,905.99773243 You're like, I gotta be in that community. 201 00:16:14,755.99773243 --> 00:16:15,145.99773243 Right. 202 00:16:15,145.99773243 --> 00:16:18,475.99773243 So we have all these spokes in the wheel where we're teaching giving value. 203 00:16:18,745.99773243 --> 00:16:22,915.99773243 We have a course that we give away, and I feel like we're just going over so much on this podcast. 204 00:16:22,915.99773243 --> 00:16:26,665.99773243 Stacy, I know we're hitting all the information. 205 00:16:26,785.99773243 --> 00:16:27,175.99773243 I know. 206 00:16:27,265.99773243 --> 00:16:35,65.99773243 Do y'all know that we have a free course that we give out that teaches you how to rent your RV out? Should we put that in the show notes too? Yeah, definitely. 207 00:16:35,285.99773243 --> 00:16:38,615.99773243 Download the course and then let us know, you know, what you think about it. 208 00:16:38,615.99773243 --> 00:16:43,805.9977324 What'd you learn from it? Yeah, we have a free course that we give out that we used to sell. 209 00:16:43,805.9977324 --> 00:16:45,275.9977324 We sold it for a thousand dollars. 210 00:16:45,275.9977324 --> 00:16:46,445.9977324 We sold it for 500. 211 00:16:46,445.9977324 --> 00:16:47,495.9977324 We sold it for a couple hundred. 212 00:16:47,855.9977324 --> 00:17:01,205.9977324 And then I think we do have an upsell in there though, where you can purchase the like handheld book, the handheld manual as you go through the course and somehow the, I mail all those out now when, last time I was with Stacy, she handed me all those books and now that's my job. 213 00:17:01,805.9977324 --> 00:17:05,760.9977324 It was when you sold your, maybe when you sold your house and when you were full-time in or something, you were down. 214 00:17:05,760.9977324 --> 00:17:06,0.9977324 Yeah. 215 00:17:06,295.9977324 --> 00:17:08,395.9977324 I didn't have room for everything in the Harvey. 216 00:17:09,625.9977324 --> 00:17:15,145.9977324 So yeah, if you do that and I throw in a couple extra goodies, the last couple ones I mailed out, I threw in a couple extra things. 217 00:17:15,145.9977324 --> 00:17:18,175.9977324 I think I threw in a free copy of my book and some other things. 218 00:17:18,175.9977324 --> 00:17:20,905.9977324 So anyway, y'all all right, that's the end of this episode. 219 00:17:20,905.9977324 --> 00:17:22,225.9977324 We gotta jump on our marketing meeting. 220 00:17:22,745.9977324 --> 00:17:23,495.9977324 God bless y'all. 221 00:17:23,495.9977324 --> 00:17:27,575.9977324 Thanks for joining us, had so much fun with you guys, and we'll see you on the next.
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