28: Business Model Basics (Series Part 1): What problem does your business solve?

Intro:
Hey, you’re drinking house coffee – unfiltered conversations brewed at the intersection of real estate life and coffee shop service. We’re Maggie and Rich – local business owners and friends sharing stories and welcoming you to pull up a chair with us. The door’s always open. Let us pour you a cup.

Rich:
Well, we picked an interesting week to talk about business models.

Maggie:
I know

Rich:
For people in real estate.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
It is Wednesday.

Maggie:
Yep,

Rich:
November 1st.

Maggie:
Yeah. Happy November.

Rich:
Wow, you

Maggie:
Too

Rich:
And

Maggie:
Episode

Rich:
28:28

Maggie:
Because you know, I got to keep track.

Rich:
I’m glad you do. So we will touch on it today, but some yesterday there was a verdict in a landmark lawsuit.

Maggie:
Yes

Rich:
Regarding the National Association of Realtors,

Maggie:
Correct and Nar

Rich:
Things relating to the real estate business model, that’s core. Yeah, I’m pretty sure so yeah, I’m not super equipped to talk about that. It just happens. So it’s really notice and so I know you’re not super equipped to talk about that. We got a couple resources in front of us.

Maggie:
Yep

Rich:
That will touch on that’s not our main focus at all. Anyway, the reason it’s relevant funny enough is because we were going to talk about we are talking about business models today. And we’ll be answering the question. Or it will be touching on the question does my business model work and that’s kind of a question all of us. I think need to be answering if we’re in business.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Does my business work

Maggie:
Riches business model work or are we asking a uniform question? Well,

Rich:
It’s hopefully by the end of what we talk about today, you’ll figure out how it’s applicable to you or at least how to begin to answer that question for how does my business model work? It’s not weather mine works. I’m pretty sure it. It doesn’t it doesn’t right and there’s reasons for that that will we’ll touch on. but I’m you can kind of you can kind of ask this of your personal life too though. Does my life model? You know because ultimately a business model is just it’s a collection of it’s a system

Maggie:
Right? It’s

Rich:
A system of components that go together. So we’ll talk about all that

Maggie:
But first. What have you been listening to Rich?

Rich:
Well my one of my all-time favorite bands from a long time ago

Maggie:
Can I guess? The band

Rich:
I dare you to guess

Maggie:
Copland.

Rich:
No, but I like Copland

Maggie:
Death Cab for Cutie

Rich:
Also. No, but I need guess that one. You might not know this. It’s a secret favorite.

Maggie:
It’s secret favorite.

Rich:
Yeah,

Maggie:
Um Chevelle

Rich:
No,

Maggie:
Okay that I’m done.

Rich:
But that’s a that’s a throwback. Thanks Blink-182.

Maggie:
Oh

Rich:
Back on the scene after Tom Delong the guitar player and higher pitch lead singer has rejoined the band as of I think last year

Maggie:
Cool

Rich:
And they were working on music finally put out their new record. So just for nostalgia’s sake and to see what’s going on. in the minds of our favorite fully grown adult teenagers, I Have been listening to that record and you know, it’s it’s cool. It’s good. Sorry. They’re very much the same there’s some unsavory stuff that. I don’t always like they make it. They have a lot of crude humor and like things related to. Like just they’re always joking about sexuality and stuff. That’s just not my favorite, but They’re a band that has always had. Just one of those really deep places in your heart. So it’s Gotta Keep Up gotta keep

Maggie:
Saying so

Rich:
That’s right. That’s right. It is so it is so but it’s it’s an interesting record not to give a review but it’s it’s like really introspective. I think in in some ways like not introspective in like the I’m writing a song. It’s it’s it’s introspective as much as in it’s an introspect into the band itself. The album is called one more time. And this there’s a song on it called one more time. And that was actually released before the album came out. as a single and that song is it’s literally telling the story of how they were the lyrics are like strangers into Brothers back into strangers and and then it’s about how like, you know, we don’t have tomorrow. We don’t know what’s gonna come and so they’re kind of celebrating coming back together and it’s but it’s like it’s got It’s signature blink sound all around. I think this album leans heavily into their self-titled. Style, which was their record from 2003 that was a departure from there like classic punk rock sound. It was a little more dark and emo if you will and that and really really layered like comp like good complexity in that album. That was probably my favorite the 2003 self-title album. So leans draws on that as far as the style. And some of the tones but it’s also brings back around some of their like Punk

Maggie:
Nostalgia

Rich:
Stuff. Yeah, and it’s interesting another little thought for you. This is these are deep Cuts these deep Cuts. These are for the pop punk fans in the room. There’s like been this new wave of pop punk that has come around in the wake of like blinks. Hay day, so Let’s say the last 10 years. There’s been these new new bands out like neck deep and knuckle Puck and bands like these who you can so tell the blink influence, but it’s it’s like a more emotional kind of raw. all said lyricism that comes with it and it’s interesting to hear blink swing back around and like sound like the newer wave of Some of those bands on some of these songs. It’s like how would blink-1 I’m sure that through this thing that they inspired.

Maggie:
They’re right.

Rich:
You know.

Maggie:
Wow, what a weird all Circle moment for Blink to be making music that’s influenced by bands that they influenced

Rich:
Right? Isn’t that something?

Maggie:
Yes

Rich:
Now I can’t that’s my take. I’m not sure how much but I mean it been like blink is probably aware of

Maggie:
Yeah, like

Rich:
Those guys love that style of music too. So I’m sure they’re aware of those other bands that have come around since then, you know. Yeah state champs is another one that would fit that bill. They’re actually from Albany. They’re kind of a local. local Legends Yeah. Others in that room. I don’t listen to that that’s not like my main style of music, but sometimes I like that energy and that emotional. take on the stuff we go through and and they just they like put a feeling out there that that’s can be hard to express. in stylistically when I write music, it’s been a long time, but I tend to gravitate toward that style of vocal like vocal styling and even the guitar work that I do. kind of comes from that that realm so that’s what I’ve been listening to

Maggie:
Check that out.

Rich:
Yeah, the circumstances around the band kind of reforming were like just like basically health and life scares, you know Travis. Yes, the drummer probably one of the best if not the best drummer of all time. You heard here first

Maggie:
And

Rich:
Dude name a better drummer

Maggie:
Dave Grohl.

Rich:
I mean, he’s solid but look, I don’t know dude who can do what Travis could do?

Maggie:
I don’t know

Rich:
At his age. Although they’re probably about the same age fine. That’s that’s your hot. Take care. You’re allowed to have your opinions. It is an unfiltered podcast. But anyway, Travis was in a plain accident where other people died, but he survived Mark had cancer. Is the bass player and the deep voice in the band he had cancer and seems to have recovered from that.

Maggie:
It’s either one who sings I miss you.

Rich:
Yeah. Yeah. Sure. so yeah through all that. They just kind of like talking again and reconnected and then who saw that coming not me. I’m not gonna lie. They were very far removed from like when Tom left the bands in 2015 or so. I really have not followed up like it’s just it’s because it’s back around now. It’s I’m I’m listening in but I’m not like a devotee to do great I used to be at all or whatever, you know, and I’m already kind of like I’ve listened to the album. I’m probably getting over it is just is the novelty of it cool for me. So yeah, that’s that

Maggie:
Nice.

Rich:
How are you?

Maggie:
Yeah. so I haven’t been listening to so much watching but rewatching. I documentary on Netflix with the kid I have at home and it’s called Beckham. Have you seen it?

Rich:
A comfort rewatch if you will know

Maggie:
For me. Yeah,

Rich:
I have not. I think I’ve heard it. I think I heard of it but

Maggie:
It is well first of all documentaries, I Like are my lovely.

Rich:
Yeah, you’re a former document.

Maggie:
I film it exactly like I could watch documentaries all day every day.

Rich:
I actually also love documentaries

Maggie:
You do. Yeah, they’re great. And this documentary is about David Beckham and his like early early years and there’s like footage of him playing soccer when he was like or football because it’s

Rich:
Football

Maggie:
Footballer. That’s what they call them. And it was just hoping you see yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah, which I am not a sports fan. But I I am like a human interest fan and I was a big fan of the Spice Girls and I was actually Posh Spice in a dance when I was in fifth grade. So there’s that but

Rich:
I am so much

Maggie:
So I’m interested in that world and so in Victoria Beckham was also interviewed for this documentary and it was just a really interesting look at. their life and David Beckham’s influence Because when he was a star. You know, I I wasn’t. old enough to like appreciate nor was I You know European to like be in in the midst of like knowing his success

Rich:
Sure.

Maggie:
So it was just really interesting and the kid we have at home has expressed interest in playing soccer. And so I thought it would be interesting to watch this and show that side of the game and it’s been it’s been really cool because I’ve already seen it

Rich:
Right and

Maggie:
Watching it. At home again with this kid has been really interesting. So that’s what I’ve been listening to nice.

Rich:
Yes, always it’s always interesting to see behind the scenes of of someone who’s been influential.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
I don’t even care if I am related to the industry at all or that activity, you know to see the story behind a name, you know. There’s always something that I was listening to.

Maggie:
The

Rich:
Guy Ross how I built this

Maggie:
Okay

Rich:
Our podcast. I was listening to an episode yesterday just in thinking about business models with the guy who started this company viori. Do you know it’s like an athleisure brand?

Maggie:
Okay,

Rich:
But he kind of pioneered it. as as that kind of where for men

Maggie:
When

Rich:
The industry was dominated

Maggie:
By

Rich:
Clothing for women for like yoga

Maggie:
So

Rich:
He was like, there’s nothing for for dudes. And so it’s just like tracing the story of how he got there. And I’m like, I don’t I’ve never heard of this company or this guy. But here he is having this like relatable experience talking through all these business startup things and he had like three or four failed. Tries before the one that took off and even the circumstances are on the one taking off. It’s like half luck half. you know grit and I’m I have nothing to do with clothing industry no interest in it, but you see behind the scenes a little bit and it’s just always interesting to To do and that’s true sports figures too. I think. I mean who doesn’t know that yeah Beckham is such a household name, you know. I’d be interesting for anyone.

Maggie:
I think because I’ve been doing more staging projects. I’ve been wearing a lot more athleisure clothes because I have to be like transitional. Yeah, so that’s exactly I like half of my wardrobe now is like You know leggings are like, you know transitional type pieces that I can like wear like I could go on an appointment and then I can either like quickly change or add a Blazer to make it look professional and then like change until like a sweatshirt to be more comfortable for moving large pieces of furniture.

Rich:
Check out viore. I don’t know maybe yeah, I miss when you want to go with.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Just kidding. Or do I mean

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Sounds fun.

Maggie:
Well. speaking of business models

Rich:
I would love to. so there is a lot to a business model. Here’s the way I wanted to talk about it. I think that business models are taken for granted. Okay, every business has one. whether it was Architected. What’s the what’s the road tens of that word?

Maggie:
What are

Rich:
Good, that’s right tense of the word are

Maggie:
Um,

Rich:
Whether it was

Maggie:
Still

Rich:
Or

Maggie:
Drinks

Rich:
Whether it was like a matter of I’m going to construct this business with this model in a way that it’s going to be totally foolproof or account for all the earthquakes and storms that can come its way or whether it was just You just did what you knew how to do and and cobbled some. Stones together and made this thing, you know have the appearance of a business that actually is has a crumbling Foundation right? No matter what you got a model. The question is does it work? so I am in the midst of thinking about all of that and that is why I thought it could be interesting to talk about it. And because I’m in basically the restaurant industry. I have a particular kind of model you’re in real estate and you have the other arm of your business being staging so there’s models baked in there’s there’s a model see the business that you’re creating with staging and then there’s kind of a built-in model or at least there was until Today,

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
There’s a built-in model. Of how real estate works and I think a lot of that is mysterious to people not just real estate, but business models, it’s it’s a word you hear but take for granted that you know what it means. So that’s where I’m kind of coming from with that. I think if people understand what goes into a business model, then they can begin to think about well, do I have one that is going to work? Do I have one? That’s sustainable? And is there something I need to adjust about what I currently have? Sometimes you have one that works, but it could be better whatever, you know, the more you know about something the more you can tweak it and right. And we’re fix it. So that’s my take

Maggie:
And you’re talking specifically about storied coffee.

Rich:
Well, that’s my lens. Yes, but I think just when I when I get into

Maggie:
What

Rich:
I’d like to walk through so I found a really helpful resource on YouTube. That was a nine minute video nine plus video.

Maggie:
Oh you sent me.

Rich:
Yep one we crash course right before this, but I watched it several times and Wrote down the the nine components according to this this particular author. I’ll tell you the title of the video for credit sake insect, but I found that really helpful. And when you think of those kind of things then you can ask yourself. Okay, how you when you have that framework then you can ask yourself. Okay, how how does my business relates? How does my model compared to these things because you can have there are many different business models. And another thing to emphasize too. This was emphasize in several of the resources. I found is there’s a difference between business model and business strategy. but I think that those things are conflated at times someone might present a business strategy thinking it’s a model when really that’s that’s not that’s not the what of your business it’s the it’s it’s one component of your model actually strategy fits into the business model. It’s in terms of differentiation.

Maggie:
Yes, so

Rich:
I know you had a comments on that on our texts.

Maggie:
Yeah so business just to repeat what you just at a business strategy. Can be a part of your business model.

Rich:
That’s right. I think it yeah, I think it ends up being. fitting in kind of in the middle here.

Maggie:
Okay, interesting. Yeah.

Rich:
So I okay any thoughts

Maggie:
No to

Rich:
Lead with from you or should I lead us in kind of

Maggie:
Keep going

Rich:
Thinking about it? Okay. so I’m I’m gonna borrow heavily from basically that last resource we had So let me pull up the title just so y’all can see what the heck I’m where I’m coming.

Maggie:
You’re referring to the video

Rich:
That video that we crash course is called. the business model canvas 9 steps to creating a presumably a business model. I can’t see the full title. from the screen

Maggie:
Okay,

Rich:
But the business model canvas from the business Channel. This thing has 2.3 million views, okay. it’s it’s pretty solid. Like I said, it’s 9 Minutes 47 41 seconds long and I watched several times. It’s like one of those ones where someone’s giving a lecture almost or just like giving a talk, but there’s there’s drawings just illustration with each point. So it’s actually

Maggie:
Very

Rich:
Engaging the perfect if you’re trying to say, what’s a business model. This is the perfect video. You heard it here first. Yeah,

Maggie:
It’s very engaging

Rich:
Super engaging. Okay, so I’m more or less gonna just borrow those nine points and talk through them because I don’t think it could be more succinct.

Maggie:
Okay

Rich:
Or more. Yeah, more or more clear what we need in terms of Bismol. So This model canvas from the business Channel. Um,

Maggie:
Do you want to list the nine the nine pieces and then go over them one by

Rich:
One sure. That’s a good idea. I did put it in my own words a little bit. So I’ll I’ll just give a little blurb on each one. All right one by one. So number one is the value proposition. That is basically What problem are you solving? Okay. Number two is going to be your Market who is going to buy your products. Who are the people what are their demographics? Number three are the channels. through which your products will get to customers.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Number four customer relationships and that’s going to be how you get. Are you keep how you grow? your customers and and the relationship the financial more than financial but Baseline Financial relationship between union customers number five are the revenue streams. And that’s how is money getting into your business? as a result of your customer relationships number six are going to be assets or he says key resources which I translate and he uses the word assets. And so that’s going to be what are the things you need you need, you know financially what are things you need physically if you need to store like me, do you have online sales channels? Do you have online? Uh, yeah inventory, there’s gonna sell online things like that you need in inventory physical products like manufacturing and Manufacturing. You need supply chain kind of things. There’s all kinds of stuff that can be in the assets lines of credit. Things like that. So key resources number seven. Partners and suppliers, so it’s going to be just different relationships you have. to up to for your business to fulfill orders and creates products and that might be You know suppliers. It’s gonna be places that you get stuff components. You need to manufacture or the manufacturers themselves. I think that might also factor into like Excuse Me Maybe business partners just partner

Maggie:
Relationships

Rich:
Which could come and go and then you have a number eight Key activities? Which what are the things your business needs to do? to fulfill its Mission fulfill products creation and Get people what you’re doing. So lots of different things could fit in that category. It’s number eight number nine is at the end of all that what does it cost? What is the cost to operate your business and of course that’s going to be your overhead that’s going to be. Fixed costs things that don’t change you pay a monthly your bills. It’s also gonna be variable costs things that come and go it’s gonna be hidden costs. What are the things you got to be aware of that are going to Come out of your business to make it work payroll huge. So those are the nine components. value proposition Market channels customer relationships revenue streams key resources partners and suppliers Key activities and cost which when I heard all those things I was like that is

Maggie:
A

Rich:
Handy reference. So no now how do you translate those things into a business model? That’s kind of a question. It’s not it’s not it’s not It’s not taking. for granted that that if you have Just having these questions in front of you doesn’t mean you have a business right? You have to answer these questions in a way that’s going to structure something. so that At the end of the day you are generating value for your business as a result of what you’re doing.

Maggie:
And

Rich:
That’s the other thing about a business

Maggie:
Throwback to our last episode. You’re being that here you’re being the what the leader of the the guide the guide?

Rich:
Yes. How are you going to position yourself? Right so we can we can take these things and translate them into that language. Yeah. How are you setting yourself up? What is the value? How are you going to guide your customer your the hero out there in the world. What is the problem the heroes got? That you’re solving. that’s that’s that first first component, so that’s I mean no with this on the table. It’s like how how does this translate to real estate? How is this translated to your business? How does this translate to your staging business? I can begin to answer it with story. But I’ve already been talking for most of this. Yeah, so, you know, where do we I can keep going but but do you want to jump in here? This start to

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Exactly just raise

Maggie:
Questions. We real honest. I haven’t really come up with a business model for Welcome Home. Co my staging

Rich:
Business. You should do it right now

Maggie:
It I it start it might actually do enough

Rich:
Work start

Maggie:
As I’ve spoken about in past episodes. It’s something that kind of grew organically as I was starting to take things from my own house and put them in my clients house and all of a sudden one day. We were having a party and Brandon said where did our chairs go? Where’s our lamp? Where’s our coffee table? Stop taking our furniture and putting it in your client’s houses. That’s kind of how my business started

Rich:
Right

Maggie:
And I was like, hmm. Maybe I should make some separation here and start buying things. Separate from my own personal belongings,

Rich:
Okay. I love this. This is about to be an episode of How I built this

Maggie:
With

Rich:
Guy Ross except I’m guy Ross.

Maggie:
Yes, bring it.

Rich:
Just just kidding. But here’s the coolest part about this right this all can sound kind of non-sexy the whole business model thing is like that’s not super cool. That’s like

Maggie:
Avoid it.

Rich:
Sure, sure doing the work of figuring these things out and putting them on paper is is kind of lame or maybe it’s exciting. I don’t know. It’s probably exciting.

Maggie:
I think someone to be boring.

Rich:
But in probably a lot of ways you’ve subconsciously done this stuff and either way what I mean to just draw out here is like you’ve already got the beginning of a story that that wraps all this stuff up in stuff up in it, and I think that is I think that’s fun at the end of the day. We all have a business and there’s a story behind it. And you hear those little things that are like, yeah, I kind of came by this, you know accidentally or

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
And now I’m running this business so

Maggie:
Right

Rich:
So that’s what’s romantic about it is like you take it from. from like cold calculated business plan language and turn into well I’m doing this because I have a passion for it and I’m doing it because it came out of nowhere organically just because of what I was doing or who I am and So I think if we can hold those two things in Balance, we’ll be probably better off tap into the the passion and what makes you want to have a business that sustains itself and sustains you. But knowing like are as long as I’m still in touch with that that reason why I’m doing it.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
It’ll make doing this work a little easier. I don’t know. It’s a that’s a hot take for you.

Maggie:
Yeah, so what’s the question

Rich:
The question is? When you started to take furniture out of your living room. And Brandon went to sit down he fell on his butt. I said why is this room so dark, but I couldn’t even see that. My chair was missing. Just

Maggie:
Kidding. It’s a great story you’re painting. I love it.

Rich:
Thanks. What problem were you solving? How did we get to that point?

Maggie:
That’s a great question.

Rich:
You took those things for a reason?

Maggie:
Yes. Okay. And the reason for that was I was selling an empty house and the empty house was listed previously as for sale by owner. And it didn’t sell. and long story short They reached out to me and said we’d like to list the house and I said, all right, I’d love to help you. I’m happy to help you sell your house. I’d also like to offer staging because I think being that this house is vacant empty staging would help make this go a long way. and I didn’t have all the like furniture or a full house And I was just sort of like piecemealing things together. here and there and was like, well these chairs are Cool, and we can live without them for a couple months, but I’ll just take them and put them in this house and that’s how that started. So

Rich:
You’ve told that story before

Maggie:
Yes,

Rich:
Right we talked about how we got into the other things and who we are. I was like one of our first episodes. I think you told that story. But how did you get into? What made you think let me stage this thing you had in staged before that. Oh

Maggie:
I had. Yeah, I I have been I will

Rich:
You’re telling the story of how that

Maggie:
That particular day. When yeah missing that’s like, okay, so you’re asking like a deeper question

Rich:
A little bit. Yeah, this is like the problem of The problem that you’re solving.

Maggie:
Mm-hmm.

Rich:
I you that was a specific example of a time was all in particular problem, but overall what is because this gets in your target market too, right this gets into. Yeah. Number two is like who are the people that have the problem? What is the problem they have? Who are they?

Maggie:
I’ve never really thought about it in terms of like what is the problem but I think with with my with being a real estate agent. Who has a background in Design Services like retail Design Services? They they seem to just go hand in hand and sure. I it it was something that Was organic for me it wasn’t something that I set out to be. Doing strategically it was just something that I saw a need for early on in my real estate career. When I started to list houses. It was just a gift that I couldn’t ignore so when I was listing a house. And I wanted to make a room look more appealing. I would rearrange it or get, you know, get the owner’s permission to rearrange it. And then I’d be like do you mind if I put a cover over your sofa and change out the pillows? And do you mind if I change out your curtains to be more neutral? Do you mind if I bring in a quilt and put it over your bed to make it look like, you know more modern and just like kind of became one of those like if you give a mouse a cookie. And like if you let Maggie stage one room, she’s going to want to Stage everything.

Rich:
That’s

Maggie:
That’s how I happened.

Rich:
Okay,

Maggie:
And it was sort of innocent like oh, do you mind if I just like move this over here? And while I’m at it like why don’t I bring some pillows and a coffee table and we’ll just we’ll just have it this way.

Rich:
Okay

Maggie:
And people just listen to me. Yeah

Rich:
And

Maggie:
Once because at first it it’s uncomfortable at first because some people sometimes people ask me like, how do you get people how do you tell them these things to get them to make these changes? And I think it’s it’s a it’s a gift and I’m you either had not you either have it or you don’t but you have to be very sensitive and empathetic to somebody when you are in their home and you are. Like quote unquote criticizing the way that they have lived or the way that they’ve arranged their furniture. And you have to almost frame it. To them in a very polite very sensitive way. Listen. The way we live is much different than the way we sell. And

Rich:
That’s a good that’s it has a drop right there dude. That’s what they call a bar.

Maggie:
Yeah a bar. So and that’s sort of what my job is like the reason you’re talking to me today is because you need to sell your house and my job is to get you the most money and the way that I can do that in addition to you know, putting your house on the multiple listing service and doing showings and doing an open house is I got to get people through the front door, and I quickly realized early on in my real estate career that people shop for houses On their like through photos on their phone, and if you can’t even get people through the front door. You’re not doing anything. You’re not doing your job in my opinion. So I thought to myself. Okay, how can I get bodies through the front door and the way that I thought that was through staging? and that’s sort of how it is and I and that and and being able to. empathetically sensitively say to someone like the way you live is very lovely. Thank you for allowing me to tour your home. buyers in this market live and Shop differently than the way we are living in our homes. Like would you allow me to help you? Emphasize like the best parts of your home by helping you Stage IT. And at first these conversations were really awkward and stuttery and like you know not really knowing how to say but now I just go in there and I say You know. This is what we have to do to sell a home. It’s very matter of fact to me now, but in a still in a sensitive way,

Rich:
Yeah

Maggie:
Because it’s not personal. I mean, I I and I had to get over that part of it like They I’m there for a reason they they’re hiring me for a reason. And it’s the seller house and if I don’t do my job. I don’t have to worry about doing my job and not worry about offending them because I don’t like their curtains.

Rich:
Yeah, you don’t want to offend their sense of style.

Maggie:
Mm-hmm,

Rich:
But you are tactfully trying to say I can help.

Maggie:
Yes.

Rich:
And here’s how

Maggie:
Yes,

Rich:
That’s amazing. So it all came out very organically almost. Because you’re in real estate. Here’s what I was hearing because you’re in real estate. That’s that’s the given

Maggie:
But

Rich:
You saw opportunities related to who you are and your previous work experience. Yes. And you’re you’re talents?

Maggie:
Yes,

Rich:
And it kind of was complimentary at first

Maggie:
Right

Rich:
Like complimentary like it complemented what you were doing, but also complimentary like it was free of charge.

Maggie:
Yes.

Rich:
I’m just going to add this value to your real estate selling experience.

Maggie:
Yes, that’s that’s how it started.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
So all my like early on adopter clients. You know free staging for life,

Rich:
Right? You know who you are. Yeah,

Maggie:
You know who you

Rich:
Don’t know don’t ask

Maggie:
And you know that also allowed me to experiment and like they knew that they were getting they knew what they were getting and I knew what I was offering. And now it’s reached a point where I have furniture in five houses right now,

Rich:
Right

Maggie:
And I have an empty trailer because all my furniture is dispersed. and people are You know. There’s still a demand.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
So I know that there’s something there.

Rich:
Yeah. Yeah, so that’s that’s perfect. And that’s there’s so many ways probably that we come about what is the problem? We feel uniquely positioned to solve.

Maggie:
Yes

Rich:
On behalf of someone else, right? So that’s a great example of one way that that’s happened for one person and right. Maybe there’s something relatable in that. Yeah. I’m not even gonna get into I’m not gonna start to talk about myself and and how I can really

Maggie:
Why not

Rich:
Because we don’t have time.

Maggie:
No, I want to know what’s good. People want to know Rich.

Rich:
All right. Look, here’s here’s the thing. I am fully engaged in this conversation. And in this process, I actually love where this is going. Okay, and we are not going to have time today obviously to get through nine of these

Maggie:
Sure

Rich:
We have barely gotten through one, but I think there’s a lot to I think there’s a lot of fun conversation we had. over this and I think there’s a lot of cool stories and ultimately a lot of probably value in our experiences. of having Come to this point in our businesses. So what I’d like to propose is that we continue. To talk about this kind of stuff

Maggie:
Sure.

Rich:
We’ll keep going for now we got We got some time left on the clock. but I think this can kind of be maybe the start of I don’t know if it’s a Siri. Yes, or what like but I think this could be the start of a process of talking through kind of how we’ve built our businesses, which is you know, when we envision this podcast, I would say a little bit of what I had in mind of like let’s talk about how what we’re doing how we got here with the Back stories and I think over time we’ve touched on those but this is a cool like framework for talking from kind of like start to finish

Maggie:
Sure

Rich:
On both sides of our table.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
About about those things. So that’s not I don’t know if there’s anything more

Maggie:
Important.

Rich:
Cool cool. So we’ll just keep rolling with that and people can come along for the ride. I’d say

Maggie:
Word.

Rich:
Um, okay well Yeah for me as I was thinking about that because you just gave a picture of one way that we can come to how we’re gonna solve this problem. I think for me it was like What’s the problem we can solve? Well, I was living in Albany. For six years with my wife and we were going between Albany and Troy there were cool coffee shops a handful like literally three two, or three or four coffee shops that we would have said. These are the ones we go to and these ones we recommend and basically we don’t go anywhere else and spoiler alert. There was none of that going on in Schenectady where I was still driving through Schenectady to Scotia. because my parents lived there and to me it was like All right. This is this is our environment. These are our kinds of people. This is the kind of stuff we like we like this better as coffee. So I was like one problem. There’s not good coffee options. It’s Schenectady. Or like cool places to comfortable places to hang out and have that experience and then two the problem. I was having even in the cool coffee shops was that there wasn’t a great sense of connection. There was no there was very little back and forth give or take over the bar. To this to the degree that I would go to the same place for three years and no one would ask like no my name. Yeah,

Maggie:
You know,

Rich:
I don’t have to have a conversation every time with the Barista who’s like an introvert who doesn’t you know is not they hear that I gosh. I don’t that’s not why I’m in coffee, you know, I get that there’s there’s a range of things but like come on dude act like you’ve seen me before you know, and so to me it was like, all right. We need better coffee going on, but overall we need a better service and more friendly engaging like connected Human Experience around that coffee. And then and then just add to all that. We also knew there was no bubble tea. Okay, there was a very little like Boba culture. in Schenectady, you might have had one or two places where you could have gotten a bubble tea, but it wasn’t like the it wasn’t tapped into the culture of of boba that we were becoming aware of through like farther afield companies that that we knew like Boba Guys and and Kung Fu and just like plenty of other Boba companies we were aware of because we were Being paying attention to the broader coffee and and beverage culture. So yeah, it was a series just a series of events that led up to like could we open a business? Could we open a coffee shop? I don’t know. Could we do this thing and like where could it work? And we were looking all in the areas where we knew there was there was more room for that kind of thing. And I didn’t feel like we were so new to coffee too. We’re learning on the Fly and didn’t feel like we could competecessarily in Albany or Troy not that we needed to do it there but We just we saw more opportunity. Yeah, like back home because I grew up in Scotia and I was like, well, maybe there’s actually a space in Scotia and it just kind of fell into place. But the problem was that we were solving was we I need I need a place to go for coffee and I needed to be more engaging so shoot. I’ll just do it.

Maggie:
Oh

Rich:
And that’s that’s kind of how we got started was. How can we what can we bring? How can we do this a little differently, how can we take like specialty coffee quote unquote and all these like italian-ish words and make them familiar relatable without making people feel stupid or alienated. And how can we make it? To the best of it’s like possible taste.

Maggie:
Processible. Would that be a word?

Rich:
Yeah, I don’t know if I use that word, but I meant to

Maggie:
Hmm,

Rich:
Or that would definitely fit in we would say that too. Yeah, yeah, so that’s what we wanted to to bring in that was kind of the problem. We saw ourselves solving like Scotia hadn’t had a Scotia itself Tiny Town, but it hadn’t had a coffee shop since 2014. And this was 28 2017 when we were thinking about this stuff 2018 by the time it all got started 2019, but it’s on the shop open. So there just was there was room for that but even is connected, you know, the closest comparison there was only one coffee shop on J Street. Graham said even opened yet. They opened.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
Later on that year. so that’s yeah, that’s kind of how we it’s how we identified that problem. I think it was just organically like looking into our own experiences. It sounds like doesn’t sound like you had a staging experience where you saw a need as much as it was. opportunistic in what you related to what you were doing, so that’s that now when it came to Market when it came to like identifying our target market, I would say that’s an area where we we didn’t per se. Do the the work they recommend you do of like all right, who who’s your ideal person? What do they look like?

Maggie:
What

Rich:
Do they smell like, you know because that’s dramatic. But literally, I mean maybe you’ve been through some of these exercises. I’ve seen him out there. It’s like What are they? What’s their nine to five, you know, like every little detail? They they want you to try to pinpoint that’s your archetype, you know?

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
And I won’t say we did that per se we kind of envisioned it being. quote unquote people like us like around I don’t know that mid 20s to mid 30s range, but everyone’s invited, you know, we ultimately we thought less about the type of people and more about what is this You know who who’s in town? How can we relate to the people in this town who don’t care about coffee? don’t care about the like what goes into it per se they just want it to to be comfortable and good, you know, so I started to think less about the the specifics and how to Market ourselves with the specifics and more about like the the feeling or the the culture that I was trying to. Communicate to people and I just envisioned that that could appeal to anyone a friendly comfortable environment where there’s good. It’s good familiar products,

Maggie:
Right

Rich:
Who doesn’t that appeal to you know, so I didn’t know how to quite identify. Down to like the target audience and I don’t even know if I could after five years. do a better job of identifying that but I think if if you kind of look back you can you find Identify some patterns? So I’m not an expert at Target Market or demographics and audience things like that. I will definitely say that needs then his development at the current juncture of my of my business planning or re-planning but That’s that I mean who I don’t know. How do you speak to your sense of audience for welcome homeco Sure. Yeah. You see you’re in the desire an interesting place. We got real estate,

Maggie:
Which

Rich:
Is like I don’t know how people Target themselves in real estate. because everyone has the if you’re selling a house you have the problem of I need to sell this house

Maggie:
Right

Rich:
Affordably, but also been profitably

Maggie:
I think as a real estate agent you have to differentiate yourself from other real estate agents because I’m not going to be everybody’s cup of tea. You know what I mean? Not everyone’s going to want to work with. Some not everyone’s gonna need staging. Not everyone’s going to want to work with. Someone my age or someone. you know in my Area, yeah,

Rich:
So sold houses for people you’ve worked with people who didn’t you didn’t need staging.

Maggie:
Yep, and

Rich:
You didn’t Market yourself to people on the grounds of I’m gonna sell your house because I’m like, it’s like crap. That was a that’s just always like an add-on.

Maggie:
Yes,

Rich:
Maybe someone hires you specifically for that at this point. Okay. So

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
I mean you’re right now when it comes to Twice. Yes. I don’t know I guess target market targeting an audience. You did work on that as you were developing your brand with.

Maggie:
Mm-hmm.

Rich:
Welcome homeco.

Maggie:
Yes,

Rich:
Have you? had you thought of that or have you done that in just your real estate business which predates welcome home code by but

Maggie:
Think when I have to think back, so I got my real estate license in 2015. and when I first got my license, I was working with a lot of buyers because a lot of people I was working with a lot of people my age and I got plugged into some local community groups and I was involved in like rotary Rotary International. in Glenville and I was also. going to church regularly and some one other thing that I like Now that I was using church as like a way to like. Promote my business right at all. It just

Rich:
There’s a lot

Maggie:
It was. Yeah, there was just a lot of built-in networks people who? I I knew in in like there’s a lot of business people in the church that I kind of knew outside of the church. So that’s sort of how that happened and and yeah early on I just sort of built my business that way by becoming the person people trusted. Yeah sell their house because real estate agents tend to have like an achy reputation. At least that’s what I was told and that’s kind of what I’ve experienced early on in the in the business. Unfortunately, and I just wanted to stay true to my values and work with integrity and I was also. Logging regularly and I was like using social media in a way that agents weren’t using social media at the time. Like I was doing live videos at open houses and live videos of Things that had the houses I was I was publishing content on Facebook. and Instagram pretty regularly when people in my Market in my like local industry weren’t really doing that. They were still using traditional methods of marketing. So That’s what helped set. Me and my business apart early on and then after a couple of years, I started to see how staging could play a role and and like I just thought to myself like as much as I love house hunting with people like going all these houses. I enjoy staging more and I wanted to I Knew. The real estate industry was going to be shifting. and like I just wanted to be able to prepare myself for the shift in the real estate market and not be like blindsided and not really know what to do because I think I’ve said this in another podcast like I I never wanted my income or my business to Solely depend on a person closing their house. closing on this house, like being desperate enough to be like this house better clothes, or I’m not going to get paid or whatever and I I So I don’t know that has to do anything. I just couldn’t thought just sort of jumped into my mind, but like and I’m I so I wanted my business to be greater than just like the transaction.

Rich:
Yeah,

Maggie:
That’s what my point is

Rich:
Got it. So 2015 your license?

Maggie:
Yes.

Rich:
When was that first staging job? my first engine like the first time a year, just give me the year of like how long How soon after was it when you said I’m gonna add the stage and component to this particular.

Maggie:
Let’s say

Rich:
2017-17.

Maggie:
Because my first year of business I sold one house.

Rich:
In 2015.

Maggie:
Yes.

Rich:
And when you said you just said that you had you had a sense of like that the real estate market in the future. The real estate was shifting. Who was that? When did that start to form for you?

Maggie:
It was when I went to the Gary Vee conference in. 2018 Called Agent 2021 It wasn’t until. Yeah 18. maybe it was in 2017 double check my photos, but when I first went to that conference,

Rich:
So Gary Vee was dropping some insights about yeah

Maggie:
How

Rich:
Things were gonna be Shifting the next.

Maggie:
Yep

Rich:
Three years.

Maggie:
Well, it was Gary Vee and Tom Ferry and Ryan Serhant and bunch of other like real estate. like influencers in panel discussions and I Chelsea pytes was another one huge shout out to her. I follow her and her because she’s a former real estate agent now, she does a ton of marketing stuff. And it just was like I I want to I don’t want to be the last one on board this train. I want to think about ways of developing my business now so that I’m not Treading Water, you know several years from now,

Rich:
So he was given some warnings or like things to consider about how to

Maggie:
Yeah, the the sentiment back then was like consumers are smart and You know Zillow is smart, you know Zillow. Even though Zillow is a great tool A lot of times. It can it can be. the enemy to an agent because you like agents will pay Zillow for advertising. only in like certain zip codes and I don’t really know where I’m going with that trying to thought but basically like my thought the sentiment that was like there’s gonna be a day when people are not going to go to a real estate agent first. They’re going to go to Zillow first or or other platforms first and cut out the real estate agent if they don’t see that agent’s value. So I was like, okay. Well, I have to be able to show my value to people if they’re going to want to work with me. And the way that I felt that I could show my value is through staging. And that’s how that’s why I started to pursue that. So aggressively. Yeah.

Rich:
So talk about business model the MLS multiple listing service.

Maggie:
Yes. That’s

Rich:
Where houses are listed.

Maggie:
Yes.

Rich:
What does Zillow do? It accesses that. Database

Maggie:
Correct. It’s in the MLS gets syndicated to the websites. You

Rich:
Like Zillow

Maggie:
Like Zillow and realtor.com and Redfin. But Zillow you can also list your house. If you’re the owner of a house, you could also list your house yourself on your own house

Rich:
Until okay. That’s what I was.

Maggie:
Yes

Rich:
Wondering. Yeah. So wow talk about talk about a disruptive.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
Business model. Wow, okay. So yeah with that looming. That must have with that coming on the scene and that must have just changed the game from the start started to change the game. Yeah,

Maggie:
I don’t know. It’s

Rich:
Really accessible and like yeah,

Maggie:
Because Zillow Falls their own business model.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
And get into but yeah, no, but I think that like I don’t know. I don’t know where to go with the conversation from here, but the the Zillow model I think as like some if you don’t have like here’s the thing like if you want to sell your house. Don’t use and you don’t want to use an agent you have that right?

Rich:
It’s

Maggie:
A good it’s your own. It’s like

Rich:
For sale,

Maggie:
But for sale better have that right? Yeah, like I have nothing against that if that’s what somebody wants to do. The main reason why people do a for sale by owners because they don’t want to pay commission or they think they can do a better job than a real estate agent.

Rich:
Sure

Maggie:
And I’m not gonna I don’t want to get into like the Nitty Gritty details of that but I think that’s like the basic Reason, yeah,

Rich:
I’m sure that’s that right on. I mean,

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
It’s

Maggie:
You

Rich:
Know selling a house is its own business model?

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
And there’s a you’re talking about the Partnerships. You might need you can either do you do it on your own or you can involve a realtor? Yeah, and it’s these micro transactions any micro transactional life can boil down to a model of profiting. That’s really what it all boils down to. Yeah. What is the model for profit here? And there’s more profit if there’s less middlemen, so I see where that’s coming from. Yeah, Zillow really? Change the game out here. This guy. We’re not talking about Zilla, but just garyvee brought that up among other. Things to consider for that future and that guy you thinking

Maggie:
Yeah, just like, how can I just how can I get your value? How can I differentiate myself from other agents and There’s enough business to go around. I don’t see myself as quote competition or like competing with other agents because I’ve strongly believe that there’s enough business to go around and you attract the right people who you want to do business with and I’m not everybody’s type of agent and not everybody is my type of client and I’m okay with that.

Rich:
Sure makes sense. So so that’s cool. That’s I think that that begins to answer the well we touched that was Point number two. We were still talking in and that’s thinking about our Market who is our who is our people that were trying to get to and and you you touched on that a couple different a couple different ways. That’s an area where there’s probably ongoing development for every company. Every business model is like Needs to think about. because you’re always trying to ask who are the people that I’m solving a problem for and all kinds of different people have the same problem. So it’s always going to be a question of how do I relate to? More of those people.

Maggie:
Okay. Can I like interject a funny story? So I this kid who I have now asked me a question. He was like do you? work more or less Having your own business. Do you work more hours or less hours than somebody who goes to a normal job,

Rich:
Right?

Maggie:
I was like, what do you think? And they’re like, oh,

Rich:
What a great question on your part.

Maggie:
And I was like I work more. Yeah,

Rich:
I

Maggie:
Work more hours and they’re like really like yeah, why? Well, I I have my day to day business that I that I run. but sometimes I work into the evenings as you know, and sometimes I work on Saturday and Sunday. long hours of the day and people who have a regular job that they go to they don’t necessarily have to work on Saturday and Sunday because they don’t have to go to a job, but I do but that’s a choice I make because I really love what I do and it’s not a complaint But to answer your question. I do work more having my own business means I work more hours and somebody who just goes to a regular job.

Rich:
Yeah

Maggie:
Day in and day out and that’s the choice that they make and that’s the choice that I make

Rich:
Totally. What a great thing for. For a young person a year and probably probably not so young people to hear who are who are considering something that they might want to get into. It’s like you kind of have to realistically be prepared for this to be all consuming or at least Several years of your life.

Maggie:
Hmm,

Rich:
Unless you’re gonna build something as you’re gonna craft a model that’s gonna start to sustain itself where some of the components are not Reliant, you know, you sub out yourself for you sub in other people for yourself. Yeah in a model that That is built to operate that way, but if you don’t craft that thing it ain’t gonna work.

Maggie:
That’s

Rich:
Why I’m stuck right now. and you know real estate largely is an independent is kind of like we call independent contractor type of thing. You know, you’re you’re kind of out here on your own. So that is what you make it.

Maggie:
Yes, but

Rich:
It is it has to be what you need it to be at the same time.

Maggie:
So

Rich:
Diversifying that can create other. Ways to do that but also creates more work.

Maggie:
My

Rich:
There’s something to be said for this for like the the season you’re in the face you’re in startup phase is what we’re talking about. I think we’re both still in the start of days. We comments on that before versus like, you know, okay. This thing’s built out long haul the systems are in place. Now, we’re just tweaking the systems or just like maintenance

Maggie:
Make

Rich:
You get to a maintenance phase. If you do it, right? We’re still very much and started face.

Maggie:
There’s this famous real estate coach named Brian buffini. Who’s if you’re in real estate, you would know his name. He does a lot of like trainings and stuff and his basic concept is As real estate agents every day you wake up unemployed. And that was sort of ingrained in me early on when I first started that like every day you wake up unemployed. You have to go out there and generate your business.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
And when I’ve developed that mindset. And part of being unemployed quote unquote as a real estate agent is you have to generate business by prospecting and doing having all these like quote unquote pillars of your business and I identified certain pillars of my business early on and and I stuck true to those pillars. And as a result my business grew. And so my my three pillars were like social media advertising marketing. The networking groups that I belong to I’m in two networking groups that I attend faithfully and give and receive referrals from those groups. And one of them is the community organization rotary. And what was the third leg of my pillar? I can’t remember because I think social media and my blog were one of them. They’re kind of I kind of like tied them and to the same, but maybe maybe my blog was a third leg because I was very active on my blog

Rich:
Right

Maggie:
And Yeah, that’s

Rich:
Cool.

Maggie:
That’s how it happened.

Rich:
Yeah that obviously that’s right in line with talking about the importance of a structure.

Maggie:
Yes to your

Rich:
To your business model. well, we have got through I think we’ve tied in a couple other points into this conversation like things you’ve touched on I would have identified as like maybe go back to his points like customer relationships revenue streams. Some of what we’ve been talking about here. There’s a lot of crossover and I think that’s maybe something to highlight to as we wrap this up is like these aren’t you? I guess I’m yeah, I don’t know how much we can every knowledge it breaks down. So I’m not sure how much you can talk about like. Alright, well, you get the foundation and then you got you know, you get your bricks and your mortar and you’re like framework, you know, and I don’t know how much all that stuff can be tied to any one point here the all of these things work together in a cohesive system when you but lining them out gives you a helpful way to think about them and that’s why I liked having a Like a list of things here, but they a lot of them. tied together so that can be that can be probably why it’s easy to conflate certain Concepts. Because of how similar or just where the lines a little blurry in different things like talking about your target market gets you talking about your customer relationships and things like that, you know, you give an example or partners and suppliers, you know your assets your key resources, you’re talking Financial. Well that might come down to a business partner like it’s They’re linked. So there’s different ways that that’s going to happen as we kind of work through these these thoughts. So I think rather than try to get into like. in other words in one sense Point number three channels, we’ve already touched on some channels of how you make sales and at the same time we could we could get into that category and talk more specifically about it. So I would say maybe we Table after next time

Maggie:
Sure

Rich:
And and keep rocking because I I this is this is fun. To explore with you and I think at the end of this we will have done exactly what I wanted to do, which was understand. Business models more

Maggie:
Yep

Rich:
Understand how each of us has a business model how we are relating to that business model different ways. We see it underdeveloped see it more about and I think it’s just gonna take a few more conversations then I originally thought Because there’s so much to it. Yeah, that makes sense and

Maggie:
We still have to answer the question does Rich have a business model that works?

Rich:
Will know will know at the end of all this perhaps

Maggie:
I can’t wait

Rich:
Perhaps Perhaps not I don’t know.

Maggie:
No, we’ll know it’ll be yes or no. Right,

Rich:
I think we’ll touch on. Well, okay if there is an answer, there’s an answer that question there’s a yes or no. Do I have a model that long enough term? works Or not. I think we can answer that question.

Maggie:
Okay.

Rich:
Well as I suggested last time what I have Currently, this is where the gray area is. Yeah, what I have currently is a structure that sort of supported from outside.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
We’re like maybe the foundation is crumbling but there’s like reinforced

Maggie:
Right,

Rich:
You know. Steel and Timber outside that’s like holding up the walls. So and that’s you know, you think about I don’t think about the way. You build something. You got to hold it up while you rip stuff out so it’s like, okay. Can you is there enough time? In your equation and your circumstance and really just circumstantial is there enough time allowed for me to correct? The things that are problematic in my model that’s kind of the that can be the maker breakpoint for a lot of businesses. It’s like do I have time to identify the issue and get it solved before? It runs before like the tracks run out here, you know and I think in my case. We’ve had a flawed model. that we’ve circumstantially been given time to identify and and like keep it up keep it together and we’re just we’re just waiting out some of the things that are problematic slash building more of that infrastructure as we go and given enough time we’ll have we’ll have reconstructed this thing to where if we can hold on. It’s kind of a big gift because there’s the Dynamics of life that happen at the same time, you know family kids Anything Can Happen labor shortages and all kinds of issues. Right? It’s like and mental stress and pressure. It’s like if we can hang on this thing could work out. With a sustainable long-term thing, but we’re literally the middle of that. It’s very much an open question.

Maggie:
You have a lot of people rooting for you.

Rich:
Yeah. So

Maggie:
Not just me.

Rich:
Thank you.

Maggie:
Not just me.

Rich:
I know that’s

Maggie:
All speaking for a larger audience.

Rich:
I appreciate that. Glad you’re tapped in with our large

Maggie:
Audience.

Rich:
Give my best to you.

Maggie:
I will.

Rich:
All right. Well,

Maggie:
They’re listening right now.

Rich:
Love them. So that’s why I don’t have a clear answer, right? It wasn’t. Yes. We do know. Based on black and white stuff data. It’s like okay. This would not work long term but circumstantially and this is the crazy thing of a small business an entrepreneurship is like circumstantially. There’s enough of that luck and just stuff that worked out. that it’s like It could happen it could happen.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
Against All Odds

Maggie:
Against All

Rich:
Odds the way I come at this conversation. Anyway, did enjoy been a pleasure. We’re gonna pick it back up next time and

Maggie:
Great.

Rich:
Thanks for hanging it.

Maggie:
Yeah, send us feedback audience. How’s coffee podcast at gmail.com or slip into our DMS? We’d love to hear from you until next time later.