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. Kelsey has been with the company now for about 10 months.
. She started the special business unit of homeowner acquisition and marketing.
Kelsey's successfully grown the special business units, , to
a very healthy part of Casago.
. She helps a lot of our partners find success in growing their inventory.
Welcome Kelsey.
Thank you for having me.
Excited to be here.
Kelsey, we originally met at Keystone Retreats in, , Nashville at our
first event that Matt and I put on.
what was that, 2022?
Yeah.
And you saved our hides when our original Event coordinator fell
out the last minute and you came in and kept the machine running.
And through that, we became friends and you picked up the ball and ran with it.
Yep.
Good time.
That's what a budget will do.
That's right.
Kelsey, you're originally from Colorado, right?
Yep.
Yep, born, well, actually I was born in North Carolina, but since I
was four, raised in Denver and then went to college at Colorado State
University and graduated there in 2017 and then moved here to Nashville.
Did you meet your husband Josh in Colorado or did you meet him after college?
After college, we met here in Nashville.
Okay.
Yeah, he, I think he moved here around 2018, like basically a year after I moved
here, he moved here, but we didn't meet till 2020 . So you guys met during COVID.
Yeah.
. That's a good time.
Started dating and then got married like what?
13 months after that.
. So a short engagement, so now Josh travels around as the drummer in a band Yeah.
For a famous Christian singer.
Right.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
His name's Ryan Stevenson.
I don't, he's one of those that he has a lot of well known songs, but I
think his labeled in Doom Justice and putting a lot of marketing behind him
so that people would know that that is who is the singer of those songs.
But yeah, he's got a lot of well known songs and they travel around COVID.
Since COVID, they got off a bunch of arena tours and decided to, since it all was
shut down and they wanted to play music, they got bought a van and loaded all their
gear and was playing backyards all over the country and have continued doing that.
Now it's more churches and stuff like that.
Theaters.
But yeah they tour all over.
He's a traveling machine., And you have a claim to fame of
having 8 million views on YouTube.
I'll clarify that.
Josh, my husband, he is loves guns.
He is just he studies them a lot.
He watches a lot of videos.
. . And he started a YouTube channel just for fun.
And he had just ordered a what is it called?
Just a thing of ammo, and it came in this wooden box.
And he asked me to record him un opening it, unveiling it.
And there, I guess it was strapped in steel.
And I just made some comments about like, Use scissors!
And he was like, That's steel, I can't use scissors on this.
And I was like, Anyway, so, my, just my commentary on it.
That video ended up, I think it has over 10 million views now.
He didn't get to monetize it.
It just too much time went past.
But that would be my claim to fame is having my voice.
There's comments people commented all on the video, like,
laughing at my commentary, so.
I don't have any other fame other than that.
. Well, we all know you
\ . And today we're talking about seven tips to help you grow your inventory.
And this is really relevant because this is what you do for Costco
and for our partners, right?
Right?
It is.
It's exactly what I do.
When starting this program, I guess you could say, we were starting from scratch.
.And now we're built up to about 14.
And just figuring out being new to the industry, the vacation rental industry.
I have marketing and like music and events, weddings, retreats, stuff
like that, but new to the vacation rental industry just learning from
the market representatives that I'm working with from the partners,
learning a lot about their market, it.
And what the pain points are, what their homeowners really value.
And maybe what is lacking in other companies in their area and what
we can speak to in those strengths.
So Kelsey for number one, you have, , Have a local feel with personal touches.
How do our partners do that?
Yeah.
I really love this because there's a lot of generality out there.
There's these big national brands that like their marketing is just very stale.
They have a lot of it.
But it's just very stale and there's not really like that
local touch or local feel.
, and that is one of Costco's strengths.
, I know all of our partners really hold a lot of value in their business, in
who they are, what makes them Different being with Costco, who does have the
national reach, but also that local field.
That's really the heart of the point about all this.
So touching on that and utilizing that in your marketing.
And so some of the things that we do in the markets that I work with is
showcasing, Them, the, a photo of them or their team or whether it's a husband and
wife or just them solo or the entire team.
We, I always like to have some sort of photo that puts a face to the company.
That way they it's a little more o welcoming and it just feels
like it's a little more personal.
And so when somebody calls they, they may.
Now they know who they're talking to they have that like face rather
than just like a logo or . So that, I think that local feel and then always
putting local boots on the ground 24 seven support, like always putting that
in your marketing , I think it makes people feel like it's not just you're,
they're not just lost in the mix, right.
. Yeah, I actually saw an article one time talking about how when you put
the face of a real person, not like some model, but like a real person on
the website, and especially around the contact area, the trust in the website
doubles for those who are going there.
And I think what you're talking about is a perfect example of when you put
people's faces, when you talk about the local person who's actually on the ground,
somebody who they're going to speak to.
Right.
I mean, we put it on our websites and we put it, I mean, even think
about your experiences with guests,
? , it's all about personal touches with guests.
And I know Henderson personally does really well with this.
So why wouldn't you also do that in your marketing?
Any, anything you can do to build trust in marketing, I think is super important.
Yeah, that's really good advice.
So for number two, you said identify the known pain points for homeowners
and address those solutions.
Yeah, I kind of mentioned that a little bit ago, but identifying pain points so
that when I'm meeting with my markets I'm constantly asking them, like,
What are you hearing in your area?
What are you hearing from the community?
What are you hearing from your homeowners?
What are you hearing from other management companies that are
maybe calling you frustrated?
Like, what are those pain points in your specific market that we can speak to and
we can meet by being a part of Costco.
And so it's figuring out what those pain points are and addressing them
in your marketing or addressing the solutions to those in your marketing.
Because that's, what's going to stand out to people.
So if it's property protection, like maybe all these guests are
just like trashing their home.
And that is a pain point of your market.
Like put, like, we take care of your investment.
Like it's our own, like we are the steward of your property owner centric, like, We
like property protection is huge for us.
Like put that in your marketing or if it's revenue Like maybe it's a numbers
market and that's what Owners are frustrated that they're not making enough
revenue obviously the time is different and whatnot, but like maybe like go
into your the data of your portfolio and like pull out like how your homes
are Performing showcase that on your marketing showcase those numbers and how
like with dynamic pricing make a point to highlight those in your marketing.
So what are the pain points and address them?
Because that's what's going to speak to somebody in that moment.
Kelsey, when I was out in the field, always signing up
homeowners back in the early days.
Yeah.
I found that there was like these themes of friction points in different markets.
So like in one market, it seemed like there was an entire group of homeowners
who were very concerned about work orders and being overcharged for work orders.
And then, to go to another market or community and I would be talking to them
and they were concerned about, damages and then another group and when I found
those themes, I would start speaking to those themes about not badly not in a way
that's that bad mouse or is, negative of the competition, but I would highlight
how we were fixing that problem and, putting that into marketing, putting
them to your homeowner meetings when you know, these are common friction points.
It's amazing how well those increase your conversion rates.
Totally.
Absolutely.
I mean, I mean, you're trying to stand out from the competition, right?
And so those are addressing solutions to the pain points is a big way to stand out.
So for number three, you put that the key is the value proposition.
Yeah.
I mean that that's actually a good segue into the next one because
we're addressing solutions, right.
And our marketing and so value proposition is literally addressing those solutions
and then elevating why cost to go.
Is the value of to homeowners, so that's, it's a national approach, right?
We've got a national reach, but we're local and we've got our own touch.
We've got our own presence in the market.
And then just like, that's owning you, right?
Like, what is different about you?
What sets you apart from the other?
So value proposition is really holding key to like, what are those
foundational things about Costco?
I mean, that's our orange credo.
Like, you could literally start listing out some things from the credo.
Like, I feel like that is a big value proposition.
How many companies even have a credo?
Like that alone, the culture of a company is huge.
So like, culture is a big value proposition.
And then just what they get as a, as being part of Costco as a homeowner,
like the different things that they receive and yeah, so it's just
highlighting those things that like owning you and what stands out and
making sure to always touch on those.
What are a couple of value propositions that you've seen partners use
that have worked really well?
I would say local boots on the ground.
That is a, that's a big one.
And then we like to, I like to express like why hiring the
right property manager matters.
And so, like, the difference between a average property manager and the right
property manager, and what those, the value of Costco brings that is the
right property manager yeah, so that, and I think owner centric is a huge
one, and property stewardship, and the programs that we offer, like the home
design, And that's with what host GPO, like highlighting those things, the
homeowner protection program, like the, all of the technology and the things
that we have at our fingertips, being a partner of Costco, I'd say those are big,
so for number four, you said being consistent in
branding to build recognition.
This is big.
And this is what I think most people like we are in an instant
gratification culture, right?
Like we know that we want to see results, instant gratification, or not seeing
results, we're going to pull the plug.
And I think marketing is the opposite of that.
Marketing is longevity.
And like I kind of said at the beginning With my husband, the guy
that he works for, his team didn't put marketing behind him to make him
known for the songs that he's singing.
That is a big deal.
That's the difference between a Justin Bieber and a Ryan Stevenson.
Like, marketing is huge.
That is, it's branding.
It's putting your presence out there.
It's putting your name out there.
And that's money.
Marketing costs money, but it's important because nobody is gonna know you exist.
If you don't put yourself out there and so, and being consistent in it.
So if you don't see it, if you do one or two mailers or you do marketing for
one or two months and you don't see anything and you pull the plug, well,
great still, then nobody's going to see anything and you're still not going to get
any return because you're not out there.
And so you have to be consistent with it.
I think I watched something one time of a cost set, like.
Their marketing spend is ridiculous, . We received their
marketing in our faces all the time.
We're tired of it, but you know who they are because they put a
lot of money behind their brand and to make sure you know who you are.
And so.
It's just and they don't stop.
They just never stop.
So I think marketing is effective when you just don't stop.
Even if you may not see results at the beginning or like you feel like it's just
not working, like keep putting a little bit to it every single month is important.
Just keep going.
Be consistent because
you will reap what you so And so it could be something that you sewed
in like the first or second month, but you may not reap that until 10
months down the road when somebody's like, all right, now I'm ready.
And this postcard has been on my fridge for 10 months, so
just be being consistent as big.
Don't pull the plug on it.
Just keep going.
Yeah.
And that kind of, and you're right, that does segue into just never stop.
Oh yeah.
Never stop marketing.
Your efforts don't matter if they're not consistent.
I definitely believe in that and I think something great about this
program brings that because like our partners, they're working really hard.
They have all these things on their plate between guests and revenue and all the
things and marketing may get backburnered.
But I think what's great about this program is like me
doing the marketing for you.
Like, You can know and have trust that there is consistency
going on in your marketing.
So in 08, when the financial crash happened I had a little airplane
Saratoga and a local guy here kept sending me postcards and the postcards
had really cool airplanes on them.
And on the back, it was about there was advertisement about
selling and brokering airplanes.
And there was a couple of those airplanes that were pretty cool.
I'd thrown them in a drawer . And I'd see him every now and
then when I'd open the drawer.
And so suddenly, the economic downturn was upon us and I was in a cashflow struggle.
Things were tight.
We had like an 87 percent drop in revenue in one year and 190
employees or something like that at the time and trying to make payroll.
So I decided to sell the airplane.
And I had remembered seeing those postcards in the
drawer just a few days ago.
And I'd, I went there, opened it up, called him.
And because he was consistent with these postcards over the course of, several
years yeah, he got to, his commission.
He probably spent, A hundred bucks in sending me postcards over the course
of several years, but he got the deal.
Yeah.
They're investments.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
And that's the thing too.
Like you just said, he maybe spent a hundred dollars on postcards.
Postcards are so cheap.
If all you do is postcards, that is not, you're maybe spending a
hundred bucks, 200 bucks a month.
Like it's not that bad.
And, but to close that deal is significantly more like all your
marketing efforts in one year, you close one home pays for itself.
Yeah.
It also reminds me of a letter that Spencer put out.
And didn't hear much from it.
And then almost six months later, he gets a call from that letter.
And it was after the beginning of the year.
And when this client got his letter, she put it up on her
refrigerator because she was frustrated with her, property manager.
And so.
When she got her statement, , she decided she was going to give herself a
present for the new year and get a new property manager and took that letter
off of the refrigerator and called him.
And that's led to multiple referrals from that one homeowner.
But they're investments and they're not instant gratification.
Like you said, . They take time , once you plant that seed
for you to reap the benefits.
Nope.
Totally.
I love that.
That's awesome.
So for number six, create a written plan.
. There are a lot of things that have happened in my life that I wrote down
and they took place, like wild things.
Even, like, meeting a, an artist that I loved and admired and now we're friends.
Like, I, but I didn't know her at the time.
Years ago, I wrote that down and here we are.
But, so if you don't write something down, it's not gonna happen because
you don't have a vision for it.
You don't have, like, it's just in your mind.
And how many things are in our mind that Or just like swarming
and never actually take place because we don't have a plan for it.
So Marketing a marketing plan is huge I mean marketing plan strategy all the
things like you have got to write it down Create a timeline Like by months
create a budget like and stick and write it down and stick to it Because
if you don't it's not going to happen.
So I just Yep, create a written plan, whether it's on a Google sheet, whether
it's on an actual piece of paper, whatever it may be write it down.
So you have, so you know where you're going, it's clarity, it's vision, it's,
it can always change and ebb and flow and mold, but like at least brings clarity
and direction to where you're going and you know that something is gonna come.
Go out.
You're going to be sending marketing out because you have a plan and you've written
it down and you know where you're going.
And Kelsey, you don't even take on a client without having a plan, right?
Correct.
Yeah.
We make a plan every single time.
And how far out are your plans?
Are they a year out or are they six months out?
Every year.
We plan it out for a year and then, but our campaigns are about three months.
So we'll run a campaign to a specific group of homeowners for three months
and then shift the next three months.
But we map it out for about a year.
Finally, for number seven, utilize Costco's resources.
What resources are those?
Those resources.
So being a partner of Costco, these resources are provided to you at no,
like it's part of being a part of Costco, which is huge because if you're your
own business like this You'd have to get these resources all on your own.
So I think it's a really amazing that Costco provides
for your owner acquisition.
They provide for you the tools to start or extend your growth.
And that's the Costco CRM.
So that's the customer relationship management tool that helps you take
A homeowner from a new lead to a closed home and an onboarded home.
And
I've seen with my partners that utilize the CRM consistently.
Are successful are I see the most growth with them and it's because it's organized.
You've got this platform that organizes your leads and when somebody calls
or when somebody submits a form like there's communication going out to them.
So just utilizing that CRM to help you manage those leads and keep you
organized because then if you don't like so many will fall through the
cracks and never get followed up with and that's a lot of lost homes.
And so if you've got a system, you've got a A resource to
help you manage those leads.
I think it's huge.
And then the other one is audiences, which is our program
for getting absentee owner data.
And so that is also a big deal.
So as a partner, you have access to your territory in audiences, which pulls
the absentee owner data in your home.
And that is great for creating your mail lists.
So you create your mail lists and you create your marketing and you send them
to those homeowners, or it also has the feature that you can pull the emails
and phone numbers to that so that if you wanted to do email marketing to
them, or even if you just wanted to cold call some people like it, it has
that data for you to be able to market to those homeowners in your territory.
So those two resources are big and Costco just provides them to
you at your, for your benefit.
And so I think utilizing those and then I can give some marketing, I
guess, resources to Costco has its own handwritten machine that I think is
great for For you to utilize as well.
So those would be like more personal.
That's more personal marketing or that, like I said, that personal touch
feel and you could use the handwritten machine that's down in Rocky Point.
You can always reach out to me about it and I'll work with
Janet to help get those sent out.
But yeah, utilize that machine.
There's also we have a postcard resource as well, and it's called
postcard mania, but also audiences has the capability to send postcards too.
So there's just multiple resources.
And then I love for like typed letters, open letter marketing is a great
resource for sending like, Typed letters that are in an envelope and sent out.
So those are some marketing resources, but I just love that being a partner with
Costco you don't really have to work hard to be able to like market, there's it's,
the resources are at your fingertips.
And especially when those leads come in to manage them and to
close them and have successful.
When ratios, before you came on, I think one of the struggles that I
was seeing, and, this includes my own markets that, , that I'm a franchise
in is that we all have the intention to market, but property managers are busy
managing homeowner relationships, guest stays, making sure they have fantastic
experiences, damages, accounting, Statements, finances, teams, and because
marketing is important, but doesn't feel urgent, it gets pushed to the back burner.
And so everybody has the intention to do it.
Everybody has a budget in there to do it.
And it just wasn't getting done.
, I'm glad to be here.
Thank you And so when I get to see like all of the hard work paying off it's
one of the, one of the coolest things.
And just being able to add value to our partners businesses is really awesome.
. So Kelsey, one final question.
What is your favorite sentence from the Orange Credo?
My favorite letter is E for excellence.
And do you want me to say the whole sentence?
I want you to say whatever you want to say.
Okay.
, it's yours to interpret how you please.
I will perform my job with excellence.
I will seek to better my performance and the performance of my coworkers.
And I love E for excellence because it's not perfection.
I think we get that confused.
It's excellence.
It's a mindset.
It's a posture that we come into every day.
I, my standard is because I am a believer and so my standard is I
do everything as unto the Lord.
So think of that thing that you hold with the highest honor and the highest
standard like in work as unto that.
And so, come into everything with just that heart posture and that mindset.
Of excellence, because if we don't, then the people on the other
side are going to feel the lack.
And even though we may lack sometimes, like, and that's why it's not perfection.
It's always coming to the day, wanting to seek better performance.
And then also the performance of your coworkers, lifting each other
up and propelling them forward.
So that's, I just love excellence.
And I think Costco does a great job at that.
I think as a whole, like we Value others.
And we want the best for others.
We want the best for them to have the best experience, , and we value
our own businesses and we want all of our reviews to be five stars.
And so I believe that like Cosco does a fantastic job at operating in excellence,
. I read a quote one time , speaking to the fact that if you seek perfection,
it'll be unattainable and exhaust you.
But if you seek excellence, you'll find satisfaction and
be able to achieve that goal.
And I think excellence is a fantastic goal for all of us at Costco.
. Kelsey, thank you for coming on today.
What a pleasure.
And you guys are always welcome to email me and use me as a resource.
Ask me any questions, schedule a call.
. Just reach out to me
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