WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:05.570 --> 00:00:08.760 Speaker: Welcome to Keynotes, a podcast just for Casago homeowners. 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.220 This is where we explore how to get the most out of your relationship with 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:16.630 Casago, learn tips and tricks on how to make more income with your property, 00:00:17.049 --> 00:00:19.999 and learn a little bit about the short term rental industry along the way. 00:00:20.699 --> 00:00:24.330 I've been a vacation rental nerd since my 20s, and the team has finally let 00:00:24.330 --> 00:00:27.289 me have this podcast so I can share everything I've learned with you. 00:00:27.930 --> 00:00:31.669 I'm your host, Steve Schwab, and this is Keynotes. 00:00:37.350 --> 00:00:38.340 Hey, welcome to Keynotes. 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:39.200 My name's Steve Schwab. 00:00:39.230 --> 00:00:43.470 I'm your host . Today I'm with JB and Ilona from Casago, 00:00:43.490 --> 00:00:45.340 Henderson and Las Vegas. 00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:46.349 Guys, welcome to the show. 00:00:47.150 --> 00:00:48.330 Thanks for having us, Steve. 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:49.730 Speaker 2: Thank you, Steve. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:51.239 Speaker: So glad to have you guys. 00:00:51.249 --> 00:00:52.570 I'm excited to be able to talk to you. 00:00:52.570 --> 00:00:55.240 A little bit of background and disclosure. 00:00:55.685 --> 00:00:55.985 J. 00:00:55.985 --> 00:00:56.375 B. 00:00:56.375 --> 00:00:59.045 was actually my platoon sergeant in the Army. 00:01:00.115 --> 00:01:01.305 Speaker 3: That was a great time. 00:01:01.385 --> 00:01:05.345 Actually, Bravo Company, first Ranger battalion, so it wasn't 00:01:05.345 --> 00:01:06.625 just the Army, it was the Special 00:01:06.625 --> 00:01:07.845 Speaker: Operations Army, Steve. 00:01:07.915 --> 00:01:11.454 That's right, and it was an amazing time and certainly life changing 00:01:11.454 --> 00:01:14.315 for me, directionally changing for me, and your leadership was a big 00:01:14.325 --> 00:01:15.435 part of that, so thank you for that. 00:01:15.975 --> 00:01:19.765 Speaker 3: It was great to be with you, and we served in a company of 00:01:19.765 --> 00:01:20.335 Speaker: heroes. 00:01:20.385 --> 00:01:21.054 Yeah, didn't we? 00:01:21.145 --> 00:01:22.895 Some amazing men gathered together. 00:01:22.925 --> 00:01:23.985 I always talk about that. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:30.390 And Ilona, you have an amazing background with your athleticism. 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:31.800 You were a professional athlete. 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:33.170 Can you tell us a little bit about that? 00:01:34.309 --> 00:01:41.500 Speaker 2: Yes, I came from a little town in Ukraine on the Black Sea called Odessa. 00:01:42.199 --> 00:01:44.750 I born there and I start skating. 00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:53.080 figure skating and I moved to United States when I was 25 years old and become 00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:55.410 a professional figure skating coach. 00:01:56.689 --> 00:02:04.149 After building my business, my coaching business in United States for 00:02:04.770 --> 00:02:10.519 about 30 years, I decided to retire. 00:02:11.799 --> 00:02:16.480 and start my new career in the real estate business. 00:02:17.429 --> 00:02:19.439 So, me and my husband, G. 00:02:19.450 --> 00:02:26.659 B., decided to go to vacation property management with Casago. 00:02:27.189 --> 00:02:29.339 And it was great experience. 00:02:29.739 --> 00:02:33.070 I changed my life completely for that. 00:02:33.519 --> 00:02:35.890 And I'm very happy I did that. 00:02:36.364 --> 00:02:42.754 My skating coaching business is very similar as with the vacation 00:02:42.924 --> 00:02:49.474 rental business because in both businesses you need to stay organized, 00:02:49.504 --> 00:02:54.034 disciplined, and attached to details. 00:02:54.924 --> 00:03:00.195 It's very important in skating to be attached to details. 00:03:00.704 --> 00:03:07.184 As I was working As choreographer, and it's very important to, to 00:03:07.184 --> 00:03:12.094 look at the program on a different perspective, different sides to 00:03:12.594 --> 00:03:17.624 clean up the program with expression, with head movement, with hands 00:03:17.624 --> 00:03:20.604 movement, same in property management. 00:03:20.635 --> 00:03:26.674 Now, when I'm designing homes, I have to be very detail oriented 00:03:26.934 --> 00:03:28.334 how I want to design it. 00:03:29.224 --> 00:03:31.605 And it's actually helping me. 00:03:32.644 --> 00:03:37.605 With my new business, uh, to stay organized, disciplined, 00:03:37.665 --> 00:03:39.855 and lead my company. 00:03:40.645 --> 00:03:46.585 Same way as I lead my skating career, because I was working with the team of 00:03:46.585 --> 00:03:53.065 coaches and I was leading them to help this young athletes and their parents. 00:03:53.075 --> 00:03:55.595 So I build my team around me. 00:03:55.884 --> 00:04:03.364 Same as I'm building my team around me now with my maintenance people and cleaning 00:04:03.525 --> 00:04:07.135 team and supervisors and designers. 00:04:08.180 --> 00:04:14.060 So it's very similar for me what I did before and what I'm doing now. 00:04:14.329 --> 00:04:17.090 And that's why our company is going to be successful. 00:04:17.260 --> 00:04:20.899 Speaker: Yeah, you know, you both come from such a disciplined 00:04:20.899 --> 00:04:22.590 and structured background. 00:04:22.640 --> 00:04:28.335 And with organization, I feel like it's like, The perfect power couple in property 00:04:28.335 --> 00:04:32.455 management because something that we always say is the big things are easy. 00:04:32.505 --> 00:04:34.764 It's the small things that make the difference and they're 00:04:34.765 --> 00:04:36.035 the hard things to do, right? 00:04:36.134 --> 00:04:39.934 And so when it comes to whether figure skating and making sure that 00:04:39.935 --> 00:04:42.634 you're hitting that pose or that, you know, whatever that spin is. 00:04:42.755 --> 00:04:46.765 just exactly right for the judges or whether you're running a complex special 00:04:46.765 --> 00:04:48.385 operations mission like you did, John. 00:04:48.965 --> 00:04:52.075 Both of those lend themselves to the idea of making sure that you have a 00:04:52.075 --> 00:04:55.825 perfectly clean property that is in great condition and you're taking 00:04:55.925 --> 00:04:59.545 care of that and being the steward of the property for those homeowners. 00:04:59.574 --> 00:05:00.435 Would you guys agree with that? 00:05:01.535 --> 00:05:02.805 Speaker 3: I agree 100%. 00:05:02.865 --> 00:05:06.905 Everything Ilona said, I just want to caveat a few things. 00:05:06.915 --> 00:05:13.555 One, she failed to mention that she was a world champion, which I think set her on 00:05:13.555 --> 00:05:19.840 this path of success because the detail and the commitment you need to become a 00:05:19.860 --> 00:05:23.820 world champion and then a professional athlete and then a professional coach. 00:05:24.580 --> 00:05:28.810 That is the, uh, symbol of excellence for what we're doing at Casago now. 00:05:28.820 --> 00:05:35.930 Her creativity, I think blends very well with my like military regimented system. 00:05:35.930 --> 00:05:42.020 I think that's why that we, we can look at things and solve 00:05:42.120 --> 00:05:43.489 problems when they come up. 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:50.650 And give people, homeowners, when they go with us, they see us as real people. 00:05:51.050 --> 00:05:57.039 And we're not trying to like, hustle this to sell it, or it's just the next house. 00:05:57.080 --> 00:06:00.540 Like, we have this commitment to excellence with them. 00:06:00.990 --> 00:06:05.120 And we want to take the homeowner on a journey, and we want to be 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:07.430 that steward of their property. 00:06:07.700 --> 00:06:12.930 Yeah, to take something off their plate when they're busy doing other things, they 00:06:12.930 --> 00:06:18.130 want to have these investment properties and they wanted to go well, but it's also 00:06:18.730 --> 00:06:23.319 of giving the guest experience because I think sometimes, you know, that is miss. 00:06:24.030 --> 00:06:27.290 Guests go into some other properties and they're like, you 00:06:27.290 --> 00:06:31.680 know, wow, I'm paying whatever, four or 500 a night for something. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:33.210 And this isn't it. 00:06:33.210 --> 00:06:34.379 Yeah. 00:06:34.380 --> 00:06:39.199 Speaker: I mean, you both obviously exude that humble professionalism. 00:06:40.230 --> 00:06:44.380 You're a very modest woman when it comes to not speaking about like all the amazing 00:06:44.380 --> 00:06:47.060 things you've done, but it's a good thing. 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:49.749 We have John here to bribe you up and make sure that everybody gets to 00:06:49.749 --> 00:06:51.350 know what an amazing human you are. 00:06:51.970 --> 00:06:56.389 And speaking of guests experiences, we have something we call owner centric and 00:06:56.389 --> 00:06:58.820 I've always believed making sure that. 00:06:59.225 --> 00:07:03.615 Guests have amazing hospitality is in its own way, serving the 00:07:03.615 --> 00:07:05.125 homeowner and elevating the homeowner. 00:07:05.645 --> 00:07:09.535 Like he has to talk to the philosophy of owner centric, which is something 00:07:09.545 --> 00:07:11.935 that we talk about often in Casago. 00:07:12.505 --> 00:07:16.284 And what does it mean to you guys and how do you implement it day to day? 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:20.850 Speaker 3: Well, I think that owner centric really expands 00:07:20.850 --> 00:07:22.010 to the guest experience. 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:25.720 Uh, we've had a homeowner that before we took over her home, 00:07:26.289 --> 00:07:27.869 she never had a five star review. 00:07:29.200 --> 00:07:31.679 Now that's all she has is five star reviews. 00:07:32.090 --> 00:07:38.040 You know, one that makes that homeowner feel, feel wonderful that their home, 00:07:38.285 --> 00:07:44.445 What they bought that their, their hard earned money went into is giving success, 00:07:44.475 --> 00:07:46.355 giving happiness to somebody else. 00:07:46.795 --> 00:07:50.655 And I think that's so important when we talk about that owner centric. 00:07:50.684 --> 00:07:53.185 And this is what we're trying to get to. 00:07:53.245 --> 00:07:56.674 This is what we want in a premier property. 00:07:57.155 --> 00:08:00.895 Discussing that with the homeowner, if that's what you want to have, then we're 00:08:00.905 --> 00:08:05.485 for you, you know, I like to say in our business and Vegas and Henderson, there's, 00:08:05.574 --> 00:08:10.835 you know, there's, there's two people that there's the super big company that's 00:08:11.055 --> 00:08:13.074 maybe turning and burning your place. 00:08:13.095 --> 00:08:16.895 And then there's the mom and pop shops and we're boutique and 00:08:16.895 --> 00:08:18.165 we're boutique, but we have the. 00:08:18.375 --> 00:08:21.765 Power and presence of an international Casago brand. 00:08:22.285 --> 00:08:23.605 We have the support network. 00:08:23.655 --> 00:08:24.545 We have the backing. 00:08:24.545 --> 00:08:25.605 We have the university. 00:08:25.635 --> 00:08:33.174 We have just this group of owners, like you call the 65 CEOs that we can call at 00:08:33.174 --> 00:08:35.094 any time and communicate with each other. 00:08:35.104 --> 00:08:36.985 Cause we're, we're all in it together. 00:08:37.594 --> 00:08:38.724 I think that's so important. 00:08:39.005 --> 00:08:44.785 Speaker: Ilana, you have an amazing way in which you are really owner centric. 00:08:45.530 --> 00:08:49.189 And I've seen this throughout, you know, our time together. 00:08:49.810 --> 00:08:54.880 When you meet with a homeowner, and maybe it's part of, of your Ukrainian culture, 00:08:54.910 --> 00:08:58.659 but it comes off so great that like, you're really honest with them about 00:08:58.660 --> 00:09:02.989 what the property is and what they need to do to make sure that, that there's a 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:08.230 premium experience and that the reviews and the revenue are going to be maximized. 00:09:08.745 --> 00:09:12.735 You do it in such a kind way, but a very straightforward way, and , it's a 00:09:12.735 --> 00:09:16.145 very special way of being owner centric. 00:09:16.994 --> 00:09:19.914 And maybe you could tell us a little bit about like some of the philosophies 00:09:19.914 --> 00:09:23.305 you have around that and what is your approach when you come and meet 00:09:23.305 --> 00:09:25.724 a new homeowner , looking through their property, making sure they're 00:09:25.724 --> 00:09:27.665 a good fit for, for your company. 00:09:28.405 --> 00:09:29.734 Speaker 2: I'm gonna look back. 00:09:30.370 --> 00:09:35.000 Where I come from and how I come here to United States. 00:09:35.699 --> 00:09:42.589 In my country, Ukraine, when you never look for how to make money. 00:09:43.760 --> 00:09:46.259 Only certain things, right? 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:51.449 Let's say I start my business here as the figure skating coach. 00:09:52.294 --> 00:09:55.684 The money wasn't on the radar. 00:09:55.884 --> 00:10:01.434 For me, it was important to help the children to learn the skills. 00:10:02.594 --> 00:10:05.964 And for me, it was important to work with them and teach 00:10:05.974 --> 00:10:08.364 them and bring best from them. 00:10:09.094 --> 00:10:14.274 And then, of course, because I'm, I'm working, it's my 00:10:14.274 --> 00:10:16.464 job, you get paid for that. 00:10:16.764 --> 00:10:19.804 But the pay thing never come. 00:10:20.469 --> 00:10:22.919 before the result. 00:10:24.289 --> 00:10:30.729 I think that stay with me and now I'm in a new business. 00:10:30.779 --> 00:10:40.369 I understand it's our business, but also, it's in me that I'm not thinking about 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:42.429 how to make money on that home first. 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:50.449 for me is how I can improve that home first, how I can help 00:10:50.920 --> 00:10:59.430 this homeowner to make this home to make money for both of us. 00:11:00.609 --> 00:11:07.140 And first of all, first is for homeowner, how I can help them to make this home. 00:11:07.530 --> 00:11:10.920 Work better how I can improve this home. 00:11:11.280 --> 00:11:14.709 That's what is in my mind when I talk to a homeowner 00:11:15.660 --> 00:11:15.890 Speaker: When 00:11:15.890 --> 00:11:16.510 Speaker 2: I meet them, 00:11:16.650 --> 00:11:21.939 Speaker: It comes through that first and foremost you have their best 00:11:21.940 --> 00:11:27.350 interest in mind and Doing that consistently will eventually drive 00:11:27.510 --> 00:11:29.520 the revenue as the business grows 00:11:30.020 --> 00:11:32.740 Speaker 3: I think she's clear when she's with the homeowners of this 00:11:32.750 --> 00:11:36.550 transformation like you could almost do one of these reality shows before and 00:11:36.550 --> 00:11:40.199 after we actually thought about that like filming it before then filming it 00:11:40.199 --> 00:11:44.560 after and then when the homeowner comes in and sees and the homeowners alone is 00:11:44.560 --> 00:11:47.530 clear with them look there's going to be an investment because your property 00:11:47.980 --> 00:11:51.519 was not where it was supposed to be because it was not managed correctly. 00:11:51.899 --> 00:11:55.180 And, um, you know, just recently and one of the new homes we 00:11:55.180 --> 00:11:56.420 picked up the homeowners. 00:11:56.535 --> 00:11:59.905 You know, I just went and spent a weekend in it, and, you know, nearly in tears 00:11:59.915 --> 00:12:03.405 at the transformation of their home, and now they see it and feel it, so 00:12:03.405 --> 00:12:08.055 it's not just a space where people are going to come in and lay their head. 00:12:08.094 --> 00:12:11.895 It's a place that people want to come and visit, and they feel it, 00:12:12.344 --> 00:12:18.594 and it's the reason, you know, they purposefully chose to go into a home 00:12:18.595 --> 00:12:20.535 rather than just staying in a hotel. 00:12:20.555 --> 00:12:24.874 You know, obviously more in Vegas, you can stay, you can stay cheap, or you can stay 00:12:24.875 --> 00:12:29.820 expensive, and Uh, but when people have a need for staying in one of the properties, 00:12:29.820 --> 00:12:34.119 whether it's a homes or condos, you know, we, we give them that experience and it's 00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:40.219 a loan is creativity, this transformation of these properties, and I think she 00:12:40.219 --> 00:12:43.159 uses it from her own personal experience. 00:12:43.179 --> 00:12:44.419 Where would I want to stay? 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:44.880 Yeah. 00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:46.789 How do I want it to look like? 00:12:47.319 --> 00:12:47.709 And, 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:52.040 Speaker: Uh, that's the, that's the genius when I've stayed in your properties. 00:12:52.050 --> 00:12:55.839 So I've rented at your properties before when I've come to Vegas and one word 00:12:55.839 --> 00:13:00.370 comes to mind as I walk in and then I walk through the property and it's intentional. 00:13:01.064 --> 00:13:05.645 Everything that I see in the property from just even the way that a certain 00:13:05.645 --> 00:13:09.455 paper is laid at a very specific angle, , as the welcome note or 00:13:09.785 --> 00:13:14.845 the towels are put in place or the beds made everything's intentional. 00:13:15.415 --> 00:13:21.135 And when you see a property that has been cared for with high intention. 00:13:21.655 --> 00:13:25.195 You know that you can feel like it's been well cared for. 00:13:25.205 --> 00:13:26.465 It's a premium experience. 00:13:27.030 --> 00:13:31.560 I think that's what you guys bring to the homeowners and the guests, 00:13:31.570 --> 00:13:34.620 , through your stewardship of those properties as we're winding down. 00:13:35.155 --> 00:13:38.315 How does somebody get a hold of you if they're interested in 00:13:38.345 --> 00:13:42.045 having you manage the properties in the Las Vegas or Henderson area? 00:13:43.244 --> 00:13:50.104 Speaker 3: They can reach out to us directly at 702 605 6116 or 00:13:50.105 --> 00:13:52.024 they can email us at henderson. 00:13:52.025 --> 00:13:52.084 com. 00:13:52.085 --> 00:13:57.195 Uh, you call us, email us, we'll get right back to you. 00:13:57.395 --> 00:13:58.705 Yeah, I know you guys are fantastic with your 00:13:58.965 --> 00:13:59.435 Speaker: response rates. 00:13:59.435 --> 00:14:02.755 Thank you so much for coming out . What a great time talking to you and we'll 00:14:02.755 --> 00:14:03.645 look forward to talking to you again. 00:14:04.264 --> 00:14:04.834 Thank you, Steve. 00:14:05.275 --> 00:14:05.335 Speaker 2: Thank you. 00:14:07.384 --> 00:14:07.494 Thank you.