Welcome to Elevate with Elsner. Join us for inspiring conversations with individuals who have transformed their lives and are making a difference through the work that they do. And now, We spotlight stories of real growth, grit, and people doing business with purpose. Today's guest is a guy who knows how to deliver, literally. Whether it's fresh-baked cookies or five-star vacation stays, he's built a career around creating experiences that make people feel good. He's the head of sales at Tiff's Treats and the founder of the Madison Live Collection, a luxury short-term rental portfolio that's as intentional as it is inviting. But behind all that, he's also a dad, a pilot, a systems guy and someone I'm proud to call a friend. Zach Medlin, welcome to the show, my man. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Absolutely. So let's dive in a little bit and start with the Tiff Street. So going back, I guess, you know, probably post-college, is Yeah, I started as a delivery driver in college for Tiff's Treats. It's kind of a funny story. I was also an RA, so I've always been a hustler. So I was an RA in college, so I could essentially con my parents into paying my fraternity. So I paid my housing and food through that. And then I was also a pilot. And one of my fellow friends who was a pilot was a delivery driver for Domino's. He, that's how he paid for his flight training. And one of the tips, treats guys walked in the lobby one day. I was like, Hey, you guys make good money. It's like, yeah, man, you should interview. And, uh, I went and interviewed with Tiffany who the company's tips, treats, uh, founded by Tiffany and Leon Chen. Um, so I interviewed with them that day and a couple of days later and got the job and, uh, That's pretty neat to start. So yeah, you started at the very, very bottom Yeah. And I should, I should tell people what we do. So Tiff's Treats is a warm cookie delivery company. We were founded in 1999 in Austin, Texas. Um, Leon actually, uh, Leon and Tiffany founded the company, but Tiffany actually stood Leon up on a date, um, in 1999 and to make up for it, she baked some cookies with mom's recipe. took him over in a Tupperware, just by happenstance, they were still warm. That was the first time Leon had ever had warm cookies. And she just handed him this Tupperware and he felt the warm and you just his mind was blown. He's like, Oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever. And he's like, we should do this as a business. And they, they started baking out of their apartment for family and friends, then grew into a small retail location. And over the past 25 years, it's grown into 150 distribution points and national shipping. So I'm currently the head of sales for Tiff's Treats. I work on all our corporate customers, our catering sales, just really find ways for our cookies to solve other people's problems. And it's been a blast, but it's been a ride. I've been there since Since we were one store with probably, I think there were six or seven employees total at the time to now we've got upwards of 2000 employees and Wow. That's impressive because that's a, you know, thinking of thinking back, like you're, you're amongst like some of the, like the true OGs of the Kirkle cookie world. Like, I mean, thinking nowadays, like there's so many of them now, but I guess since you have a staple and you've built, you know, they've built such a great brand. Um, I guess some of this stuff hasn't, you know, affected like these new big operations that have popped up. I'm sure some of us know the names, right. Some of Yeah. Um, I mean, the competition is thick. We, we are claim to fame as we were the original warm cookie delivery company. So I know that literally, I think in college it was pizza or Chinese that you could deliver it. And that was it. Um, there was no door dash. There was no Uber eats. There was no, there wasn't this. The world comes to me type service. Like we have now. So when we started bringing these warm, fresh baked cookies to your door for self-consumption, that was just mind blowing to people like, Hey, I can be sitting on my couch and order a dozen chocolate chip cookies. And they're going to show up in about 45 minutes. And it was just, it was amazing. And then we, you know, people turn from self-consumption to naturally wanting to gift them. Oh, I want to send this to my mom for her birthday. Oh, I want to send them to this. So. We really focused on that premium gifting space and the transformation of the brand over the past 25 years. It's been amazing to be a part of. Uh, originally I was such, I think I did so well and enjoy the company because we were so young and so there we could pivot and turn on a dime at any time. And a lot of the ideas that I had back then for ways to improve service or efficiencies or. anything where my ideas I put into place back then that are still in place today. You know, I think probably my biggest idea, biggest execution point was Valentine's day was crazy. Still is at every store. It's, it was, but back in the day it was, you know, you could end up in a corner crying chaos. Like it was just an insane day. And they ended up shutting off walk-in business, like locking the front door that day because we were at capacity. We couldn't take any more orders. We couldn't handle anybody else. So I had the idea to do pre-baked boxes of a dozen cookies. So not made to order, not hot, not anything. I was like, people just want cookies. Like let's make them cookies and sell them for a premium and have them at the window. So I had the A-frame made, put it outside on the sidewalk and said, you know, one dozen cookies, whatever the price was, ready now. And they've sold like, they sold like wildfire. And they went from being closed on Valentine's Day to all that walk-in business to now with 150 locations, probably sending, selling tens of thousands of boxes of cookies on that day that they wouldn't have sold. So it's fun to see that one location to 150 location scale go from a little idea you had. But that same entrepreneurial mindset is what's propelled me into where I'm at today with my That's that's pretty deep because like it makes me think about like the whole chocolate covered strawberry world, right? Where there was a time where I felt like during during the holiday of February, it's like you couldn't get them. Now, all of a sudden, some of these bigger companies in St. Louis or in Missouri, they like mass produce them. So like, you know, you go to the grocery store and pick up a box on Valentine's Day or you could go to the store and yeah, they're going to be already mass Yeah, there, we have some, there's some internal horror stories about, cause we did do chocolate covered strawberries on Valentine's day, probably like, I don't know, 10 to 15 years. And they were just a nightmare, like fresh fruit dipping in chocolate, like day of, but that volume was, was really, really hard to manage. And as we grew and scaled, it became harder and harder and harder to where really it wasn't part of our business plan, like we, we had to get it out. And we, it led to the creation of a new product, which is, we still, still sell today is our, our cookie truffles, which are, I think currently it's a chocolate chip cookie that's crumbled and then rolled in butter and then hand dipped in dark chocolate, drizzled and sprinkled. Um, so those are, those are our chocolate covered strawberry that we do now, but it's fits more within our realm. We can mass produce them ahead of time. So. Uh, yeah, that Do you, do you target certain like areas like colleges to like open these shops or, because I know like when I first got my first box of warm cookies, I was in college and I remember this day I'm like, Whoa, like we got, it's got a warm box of cookies. I'm at college, you know, probably don't remember much, but you know, I just remember that box. Like you're saying that warm box of cookies, you remember the bottom being No, it's it's, it's, we call it the warm moment, like hashtag warm moment, like people. feel that warm box in their hands, like, oh my gosh, they're still warm. Like that's, it's verbatim what comes out of nine out of 10 people's mouths because people don't expect it. And we do, colleges are great to us, but they're, they're not, I don't, I don't say we specifically target them. We have locations that are near colleges and those locations do great, but really like the, it used to be the, straight up business gifter, like catering, office meetings, you know, and then evenings would be birthdays and, and any kind of occasion or self consumption, and really COVID pivoted it to where, you know, this work from home concept, really, our suburb stores started doing equally as well as our, our kind of downtown corporate locations. So it's shifted over the years, like where five years ago, our Houston, busiest store in Houston was our downtown Greenway Plaza store. And it it's in the middle of all the epicenter of business. And it just crushed everybody. And now you see stores in the suburbs like Katie and the Woodlands and Cyprus are routinely like our busiest stores on the outskirts of the city. And that transformed with COVID. So it's, we serve everybody. I mean, from the businesses to the suburbs, to the walk-in traffic, to the moms and dads, to the Yeah, that's pretty neat. I think Eric sent me a box of cookies every time I buy it. I'm like, that's something that you don't even think of. Somebody obviously makes those box of cookies and has a nice contract with the Bomberito dealership that I buy from. So that's interesting to think about that. So what, uh, so what would you say, uh, I guess if we switched and you put on your, I guess you would say your, your short-term rental hat. Um, how did those like, how did you go? Okay. Now I'm going from. Warm baked cookies. I got my pilot's license. Was that you just wanted to fly cookies Uh, I'm still working on making that a business expense. Um, but. Yeah, I mean, really, I think my wife and I are always, we're both entrepreneurial at heart, and we both work W2 jobs. So I think taxes are a big motivator. Working for somebody else has amazing stability and opportunity, and there's certainly perks. But when you work for yourself, the sky's the limit. The corporate world, there's only so far you can go in a role and then you've got to move to a new role or a new position or elevate yourself. I'm in sales. So commissions, that's, that's, you know, that's been a game changer for me. So that allows me to control my, my own destiny. Um, but once, once you kind of get into that entrepreneurial world, you can keep going. And, and I think we want to be in that place of financial freedom where we can spend more time in our kids and not have to rely on anybody else and You know, honestly, we both were, Kara's my wife. She had some friends that had gotten some short-term rentals in the Smokies, which did phenomenal during COVID and still do really well. And then I was on the short-term rental algorithm on TikTok and Instagram, and she kind of got into it there. And interest rates were down, and we had the opportunity to refinance our house that we're living in. And we both said, what do we want to do with, with money or can we do something with the money? And we put that into a property in Gulf shores. And, uh, we took on our first one and knew nothing about it except for the fact that we could do it really well because we're both. She loves to design. She loves to, um, decorate. Like she's got a skill and a knack for that. So we knew we could make a place beautiful. We knew we could put our heads together to market it well and make it, you know, offer a lot of service that not everybody offers. You know, we try and be intentional about our stays and try to make it comfortable. And we try to check all the boxes so that we can get great reviews, but we want people to make memories in our houses. And, um, you know, we've learned a lot along the way, but it's something we're still trying to get better at, you know, how can we take this to the next level? You know, we want to. We'd love to have 10 or 15 houses and we've gone from one to currently three. Yeah, that's not easy. And we got to stay at the hangout house, which was No, we, so we just sold our first one was our baby. We just sold it this past February. And, uh, we spun that off into our two newer properties, which are going to be the Hangout House and Salty Shells, which is over in Orange Beach, same Gulf Shores area. But, you know, we kind of outgrew, we've got three kids, so we outgrew that house, and we couldn't really stay there with our own family. So it was like, why do we have this place? It is making money. And we hated to get rid of it because it was profitable, but it was just too small. And we didn't have the financial means currently to go out and buy two new houses or buy a million dollar house that we would fit in and rent out. So we sold that we did really well, because we got a great price during COVID. And of course, the market's gone up since then. But then we, we did have to pivot into some miserable interest rates for our two new properties, which will help to refinance in the near future. But it gave us a way to kind of take that to leverage, leverage our debt, to take advantage and move forward and propel ourselves forward. And you know, they're, they're businesses, it's, it's a monthly note, just like any other business, it's an interest, you know, you've got to do that to fund most things these days. So we're making Yeah. And that hangout house, we got to stay there. It was very well designed, like from the inside to the outside, from that swing, you walk right out, you can, you can actually almost see like a sliver of the ocean from there. I mean, you're a block from there. The one thing I like about. Yeah. The one thing I like about, well, the pools right there, it's practically a private pool. I mean, there, you know, there's. maybe one other family there. And they're always, I mean, everybody that we met there was nice. Like, um, and they're like, where's Zach at? And, you know, like, you know, joking about it's like, everybody knows everybody. It's such a small little community over there. And you share that little pool and it's everything's built. Nice. Um, yeah. Like you said, the decorating inside the beds are nice. There's tons of room, tall ceilings. I mean, it really is, um, a special house. It reminds me, I don't want to say like, of a different country, but as much as I've stayed along Panama City, Destin, 38, all that stuff, I will tell you that Gulf Shores, Orange Beach area is 20 times nicer. It's like people have forgotten to go back west a little bit. Everyone just keeps going east on the panhandle of Florida. I'm like, wait a minute, like this is like the secret little spot back here over here at orange beach. It's not as crowded. The service is great. The people are great. And so I'm like, this is like our new spot. I'm like screw 30. Hey, I'm coming to orange beach and Gulf shores because it is like the little like secret spot and everything's getting updated. It's pretty impressive. Yeah, it really is. And we were, we live in Houston, Texas. Um, and I had actually never been to Gulf shores before we bought our place and we bought it in 2021 and And we bought it sight unseen. So I found a realtor on Instagram and she had some good content and reached out to her and she, it was a pocket listing that wasn't on the market. It was the right price. We looked at projections, they looked good. And we just dove in head first. Um, but since, you know, obviously since 2021, we've made a lot of trips down there and I love Gulf Shores. Like I always joke with my wife, like I would move there. Like I would live there full time. The people in Alabama and Gulf Shores are the friendliest people on earth. I mean, from, you know, our HOA manager, who's the sweetest lady and goes out of her way to help me and always super responsive. You know, the people that you kind of dread dealing with in Alabama, they're all so sweet, like the, to set up your internet and cable bills, you can't do it online. You've got to call them and talk to somebody. And they're like, it's kind of, and they're all, they answer and they're like, Hey, this is Tina. Like, Hey, Tina, I need to set up a new cable account. She's like, okay, let's do it. You know, it's just, it's real Southern charm and it's so family friendly. We've got three young kids. There's always something for them to do besides the beach. There's just consistent entertainment. The vibe of Gulf Shores is so chill. I don't think there's a restaurant where you have to wear a collar anywhere, where you can get in without shorts and flip-flops. Everywhere is just approachable and friendly and good food and nice people. a beautiful beach with white, white sand, great houses. It's just, I love it. I mean, I Yeah. And the recommendations you gave on the whole process of, I always say, when you book an Airbnb, part of it is obviously the stay, but you also want to get some information. And that's a big part that I think you all do so well is that you give a guidebook that has so many great options. We went to probably almost every restaurant on there. Um, and between like the hangout, there's just so many different, like cool little things where, like you say, you could, you can dress up with no sleeves or you could dress up with a, you know, a nice shirt and you can go to the same spot like, and have a nice meal or a affordable meal, right. Or something like something like that. But the service is going to be great. That's one thing that I did notice that everybody's a lot. friendlier in Alabama than just a little farther over in the panhandle of Florida. So I really, I really, it was, it was eyeopening because I had not realized I always went to Gulf shores as like a kid. Like that was like the spot we started as a kid. And then, you know, then you're in Destin and I felt like you're growing up. I'm 32 now I was in Destin. I felt like for almost half my life, and then you start to keep going East. But now even I feel like Gulf Shores to Pensacola and Orange Beach, that Alabama, Florida area is going to be like the Just don't tell anyone. From a business owner perspective, I hope so. From a vacationer perspective, I like the quietness, but I also want a place to stay. It's an insanely competitive market in the short-term rental space. There's I think, 2,500 or 3,000 rental properties that are all clustered together. If you haven't been there, it's not a big island. It's pretty small. So location matters, but you're competing with so many other people, and that's really made us step up our game. The first little house, we had a vision for it. We wanted to do all these things, but then it just started raining, and it kept raining. you know, this was during COVID. So people were traveling, they couldn't go out of the country. So Gulf Shores, they were driving there. So it wasn't hard to keep it full. It was actually hard to go down and visit it and make improvements to it because it was full so much. So as we've gotten into these newer and bigger properties, the only way to compete is to elevate, which is where we want to be. That's, I think, philosophically, like, that's what my wife and I strive for. Like, we've got a beautiful house here. It's decorated beautifully. We've got a great pool. Like, that's the stuff that we want there. We want a place. We want a vacation where it feels like a vacation, where you're not, uh, without your normal things, where you've got sharp knives. If you want to cook dinner where you've got nice pans, um, you know, so always striving to get better. Like I have this, this dream become, I'm not an influencer at all. I've got, you know, maybe like 400 followers on Instagram. Um, but I'm like, could, wouldn't it be cool if we had all the products that we love in our Airbnbs and just QR code and, and people were just buying them, you know, and giving us our, our affiliate links from our Airbnb properties. So, um, we want to continue to, to build them up and make them nicer and put the things in that we like, um, also, and not worry about, 50 different people being in there and breaking every single thing. You know, that's, that's a real concern Yeah, no, I, that's a, yeah, that's the things that people, you know, it's kind of like, Oh, you just have an Airbnb and let's just be money, money, money. No, there's, there's a lot, a lot more that goes into that. Yeah. I, uh, I, I know that with just rental properties in itself, but that, that's cool that you've built like a, um, a house that like you wanted a vacation at, like, so you can tell between like somebody that's just in it for, you know, just a flip days and weeks to, you know, somebody coming in, they don't really care, but you walk inside, like you said, like I, I kind of joke at some of these units. I'm like, I don't know if I trust drinking out of these glasses or you're like using these knives, but like yours, not a, not a watermark on anything, like nothing, like it is spotless in there. Um, and that's like the stuff that I think people pick up on and then they return because that's Yeah. And that's, that's challenging because we, we manage our properties remotely. Um, so I do all the management, um, but we've got a cleaning team and a maintenance there that we trust. But I can't get, you know, I would love to walk through on every stay and make sure it looks good and perfect. But I've got to trust a team to do that. You know, and they're human, you know, sometimes they screw up. And we really try and get our guests to let us know up front, like, let us fix it. Don't, you know, please don't go blast me on Airbnb five days after your stay because you know, you had a dirty glass. Yeah, let me send the cleaning team back to fix it. You know, there's a spot on the floor, they missed something like, let us take care of it. We want you to enjoy your stay. We don't want you to be miserable at something or not let us know. So we try and promote that open communication from the beginning. We're very responsive to all of our guests, you know, it comes straight to my phone and probably something that I need to balance a little bit better around the family. But, you know, 8 o'clock and one kid's in this room, hold on, daddy's got to respond to this guest. It definitely has challenges, but we try to be on top of things and, and try to anticipate everybody's needs before they happen. But that's, we, we handle a lot of different personalities, a lot of different avatars of guests. You know, there's people that are coming in for a bachelor party. There's people that are coming in for family vacation. There's, you know, right off the bat, I think in the first five stays, I had two people ask where the iron is at the hangout house, and I didn't have an iron. I'm like, who needs an iron at the beach? Like, we never had an iron at our small property. Nobody ever asked us once about it. And, you know, within the first five stays, I had two people requesting an iron. I was like, man, I guess we need an iron. But like I said, there's nowhere you need an iron in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, so I'm not sure where that happened, but just walk outside and shake your shirt. All the wrinkles will fall out. It's human. We've Let's just say that. That's fine. I was going to say I use wrinkle release or just toss in the dryer. It'll do it, you know. Yeah, that's that's interesting. I've never thought of an iron either. It's kind of like, you know, well, a coffee maker is pretty normal, but there's certain things I'm sure you're here all the time where you're like, man, like. Cause they're, yeah, like you say, you're dealing with so many different personalities, so many ways of like living that people, you know, one person does this and another person does that. And you then have to, you know, be suitable. Like, yeah, that's, that's, yeah. It's, it's not easy because yeah, like I said, I always, if you have an issue, raise your hand because yeah, there's no sense in waiting till the end and being miserable and then. you know, bashing it on Airbnb because yeah, nobody, nobody wants that. You don't want that. You want everybody to have a good time. And, and you can tell that's what, you know, that's what you do. You, you care about the house, which then turns. And I think a big thing also down there with, with that, it's your house is new. Um, it's clean. It's, it's got its own pool and it feels, you know, there's a lot of condos down there. So. I think when you have bigger people, you can have two families that stay together in that house, at the hangout house, and then it becomes more affordable, right? And you got your pool and you're a block from the beach. So I think that's maybe more of a driving factor that you have a way bigger Yeah. I've actually never stayed in one of the condos there, but I I don't. And there's so many, there's a ton of high rise condominiums around there and their parking is all expensive. So you've got to pay to park in their garages. And then you've got to drag all your beach gear inside. And then you've got to take an elevator up five to 20 floors, depending on where you're staying. Then you've got to track down the hall to your house. Like from a perspective of traveling with a family and a beach vacation, that just sounds. so miserable to me. So the way we've got it where we're right across the beach, like literally we're right across the street from the beach. You can be at the beach in three minutes from the front door. We've got a big beach cart with big old beach wheels that you can drag across the sand, which you can load up, load all the kids up, walk across the street, be on the beach, walk back, rinse off with a hose and be in your living room, you know, 30 seconds later. And that to me just, that's why I want my vacation to be like that. I mean, the only thing that's better is walking right out onto the beach from the ground floor. But you got to pay for that. You know, we do as an investor and you do as a guest. So I mean, to me, this just checks all the boxes and the hangout house is so central to all the good food and you can walk everywhere. I mean, busy season, slow season, like it's just a I love it. Yeah, you really can't walk anywhere. And even like there's this that little little putt putt and it's a bar and grill that that's I mean, what a genius idea. That's fun. It's right there, too. I was like, I took my kid there, my boy, and he's like, wow, this is awesome. Like and I'm sitting there watching them play putt putt. you know, having a, having a nice meal from, I think because Mike's seafood owns it, right? I think that's who, Mikey. Yeah. So I'm like, man, you get the best of both worlds. Kids can play golf. You're overlooking them playing putt, putt. Um, so yeah, like you say, there's so many other things to do than just the beach, but I will say staying in one of those condominiums, I think it's faster to get to the beach from your place than those condos, because like you, like you say, those elevators take forever. So you're standing there, you're lugging everything down the hall. So by the time you, you do it, it's like, yeah, you're on the beach, but like, it literally is faster from the hangout house to get to the beach. So unless you're on the first floor. So yeah, there's no parking garages, there's no elevators to wait for. There's none of those things. So it, I, and you just have space. I mean, we've got four bedrooms, four full baths, like there's space for you to move around. There's space for you to put your stuff. Like it feels like home, you know, it's not somewhere where you're going to be cramped. Um, so it's, and when you have kids like you guys do, and we do like that space is essential. Like you gotta have somewhere for them to go somewhere, then do things. somewhere where you can put them to sleep and not have to tiptoe around. Um, you know, that that's huge to me or, or hotel or condo, like, okay, it's six o'clock. Now the littlest is going to bed. Now we have to watch our iPhones with our AirPods and for the rest of the night, because we can't go anywhere. Uh, that trapped feeling, Oh, I know it. Yeah. That's, that's, that's part of the reason why, when we were in some of those small areas, we've got the slumber pod. If you've ever heard of that, it's like a little tent that we put over the pack and play that That's true. Yeah. You gotta go deaf by listening to those hatches at a hundred percent. But yeah, no, I, I, uh, I, I truly enjoyed it. I mean, another awesome part is you can be sitting on that, um, porch and actually you could be in the living room to be honest, you can see the pool. So like, you know, you can be, you know, feeding a baby in the living room and watch your kid at the pool, um, at the same time. So that's another, I think benefit because it really is I'm working on like. workshopping some sort of zip line to go down from the balcony to the pool so you can send down sunscreen and extra beers and refills. I I was going to say, uh, one of the, one of those guys down there, I think he might've owned the place. One of those places down there, he had his drone out and I'm like, Oh, that's how you can do it. You could just take a little drone, attach something to it and fly a little six pack down there. Some sunscreen and a towel. Yeah. You'd be set right there. Or like the old sandlot way. Right. Throw That's more of the vision I have right there is a bucket and a rope and some sort of a, yeah, it's gotta Yeah, that's right. So what's next? What's next besides just I mean, we're really, these properties are brand new. So we just opened them both mid-March. We closed on them beginning of March, and we frantically went down there for spring break and took our kids and got both of them ready in a week. And that was one of the biggest challenges of my life. I thought I was going to end up in the hospital from stress and fatigue. legitimately. But we got them done. We got them online. So I think both properties have little projects we'd love to take on and just continue to improve the guest experience. We want to improve both the outdoor areas a little bit. We just added wallpaper to our other one. So just little things. I want I think one of my big goals is like some Instagrammable stuff, like you want them to be, if we can get it creating some of its own social content, I think that's super helpful. Yeah, we rely a lot on Airbnb. I mean, it's the biggest short term rental platform there is. And you're also at the mercy of Airbnb. Um, you know, so as you grow if you ever have a angry guest or something like that and airbnb sides of the guests that get Really dramatically hurt your business um, so we're always trying to to work on our guest communications and trying to bring them into kind of our Ecosystem so we can get them to rebook with us directly at another time For them to tell their friends so people can find us other ways. So it's not just a hundred percent dependent on Airbnb. Cause that, that is, that can be, yeah, that can be that kind of a ugly algorithm on that Airbnb. Cause I know how, you know, they really, you know, your rating, your guest favorite, all that type of stuff. They throw all those at the very top. And if you're not at the top, it takes a while to scroll down to some of those other ones. So yeah, that, that, that's a good point because like you said, That's why so many people redo their Airbnb listings because they, they have to, it's like, they got to rebrand it because of one, one bad person had to throw off the entire thing. Now they got a 4.7 and And that's tough. Big time. Um, you know, you're at the mercy of them and you can have made it right with that guest and done everything in the world. And they still give you that review and you're like, it will hurt you till forever. So you get enough reviews to take it out. So it's, I think that's hospitality in general, like, but being in the short term rental space, it's like you're Hilton or Marriott or, you know, somewhere where you're not completely subject to that, that their terms and conditions like here. I think that's, it's, that's one of the harder parts of the business is, is not, you don't know the algorithm. You don't know what gets you to the top of the search page. Like you can check all the boxes, you can do all the things, but then you still don't have full control of that. Um, so that's, that's a hard part about this business, but the other part is. You listed on there and you get booked tomorrow and you didn't have to do a whole lot, you know? Um, but if you do things right, you can keep Yeah. And you're definitely, definitely doing well on that because you're building a brand too. And that's one thing that I don't think a lot of Airbnbs do is they'll end up pushing it to a property management or, you know, somebody local down there that runs it through their scenic rentals or whatnot. Um, but that you've built your own brand, the Madison live collection that makes it stand out on its own. So that way you have its own landing page. You have its own booking page as well. And that way you can see other reviews that are a different projection Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, we're, we're trying to do it the right way and trying to grow. Um, but it, it's, it's definitely, it's got its own challenges. Like, like we talked about, it's not my full-time job. Um, are there, I could spend eight hours a day working on it every day. I could, but I don't physically have the time to do it. There's enough tasks and enough things that we want to keep tweaking and keep doing better. I think with that first property, we went in the mindset of set it and forget it, mailbox money, and just realize there's a lot more opportunity than that. Like you said, there's owners out there that do that. They set it, forget it, give it to a management company. And it can make them a little bit money here and there but we want to be the best like we want more of these properties and if we do a really good job on them, and we can continue to grow our portfolio and Expand who knows who knows where I don't I don't know where the where the limit is or where we want to end up but I do know that I have goals to see all my kids soccer games and be there for my family like that's I Faith and family are number one for us. And that's where we want to be first. And I think this gives us a great opportunity to keep that in the forefront of Yeah, I would agree. And I think what you're really good at is delegating because this stuff doesn't grow by itself. If you try to do all this, like you said, by yourself, it just wouldn't work. So the way that you're reaching out to people, growing it through certain channels and whatnot, It's only going to take off. And like you said, it's only been since, you know, March or what do you say? March is the first. I mean, so the fact is like you keep doing this consistency, it's going to be its own brand. Eventually you're not even going to need Airbnb and you're going to just going to need the Madison live collection. It's going to run itself. And then you go to the website and then you book So yeah, that's our goal. It's worth trying to get to, but surely it'll come, but you know, I'm glad that you reached out and I'm glad that you came to stay. And, you know, there's any candid feedback you don't want to give me But, uh, no, it is flawless. I, it is a flawless day. And like I said, I've, I've stayed a lot of places. Um, not the. not to brag, but just to not to impress people, but to put an impression on you because it truly was a awesome stay. And I was one of these times we're going to come back and be able to stay a lot longer and enjoy the full effect because I didn't want to leave. I'm like, man, this place is awesome. Like it really is, because like you said, the space, the family time, the pool, the beach, the The camaraderie, the locals, it all just it really is an awesome time. And what you put together as an entire That that warms my heart really does, because we worked hard for it. And it's like I said, it's hard not being there. So when it when we're able to deliver on it consistently for guests, that's that's awesome. Every time we get a five year like. thank you, but it genuinely feels good. Because that's, we're working for it. I mean, we're trying to get it and we have some blind faith in our team there. And they do a great job. And we're, we're thankful for them. But, you know, you said it, the people and like, I don't know if I don't know if we can find people this good or find people that are willing to drop things and help us, you know, complete strangers just We found this company right when we were there for that week. You know, it was probably two days before we were leaving and we had, I don't know, a thousand things to do. Um, and got in touch with this company called the beach dads and they've got a sister company called the beach moms that does concierge service there and, and Gulf shores. But the beach dads is their maintenance arm. And that, you know, I had. just things that I need to help with, like help hanging the TV, help hiding wires, help moving this helps mounting this thing. I just didn't have enough time to do it anymore. And I was, I was literally like, to the point of being physically and mentally ill, trying to get these things ready. And the beach dads came in and it was him and his wife and they just helped us to just finish setting up properties. you know, hanging the patio lights outside, they did that for me, mounting one of the TVs, hiding wires, like, you know, I'm in one room, he's in the other room, like, what do you need next, you know, running to the hardware store and grabbing something like they were just two extra very capable bodies that work their tails off for probably two 12 hour days to help us get across the I, you know, I see that you have the, yeah, sorry. I walked away hugging them because they were just, I don't hug many strangers that work for me. Um, but that's the people that you get in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Like it's, it's testament to the area and the people. And, and I've just ran into so many people like that That's truly awesome because obviously they want to see you succeed because they know if you succeed, they succeed and everybody rises together. That's like the shoulder to shoulder thing. I think that Gulf Shores and that orange beach area has is like, Hey, if we, we all work together, we all kind of rise together. And I think that's a, that's a big thing, Yeah, it truly is. Cause we have used them for all our maintenance stuff now. And, uh, any odd ball, random project, like we've got a wireless Completely wireless video doorbell there that you have to charge like every 10 days, so he'll go by and throw it on the charger for me between guest days like things that I Can't pay somebody a lot to do every time like they're just helpful, and they'll go do that So he's driving by there anyways, so it's just out of the kindness of his heart. You know, but then we haven't do our maintenance stuff and When we're going in three weeks, we use the beach bums and they are booking a chef for us one night and they're gonna stock our fridge before we get there. And so just, again, little things to make your vacation easier. Like there's these great people down there and so we are using So Zach, yeah, I appreciate you coming on today and sharing your journey. You're a guy who makes people feel at home, whether it's through a box of cookies or a weekend away, and that's a gift. To everyone listening, if you're looking for ways to elevate your sales game or scale a passion into a brand, just follow Zach's lead or Madison Live Collection. Build it with heart, build it with systems, and always make Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and tell your