Chaos-Proof Your Airbnb Launch – STR Expert Kim Fitzpatrick

Kim Fitzpatrick (00:00)
Could launch people’s properties faster than seven days, but we schedule time for chaos. We know it’s coming. We don’t know what it looks

Quentin (00:08)
Ooh!

Kim Fitzpatrick (00:10)
We know there’s going to be something that’s not going to go smooth.

So when it arrives, we have time. We’re not overwhelmed. We’re not frustrated.

But it allows that time ⁓ so that it doesn’t just disrupt the entire process.

Quentin (01:54)
Am your host, Q Edmonds, and I tell you, I am excited today. Y’all know we do a little talking on the backstage, as we don’t let y’all see, but I am excited today because I have a kindred spirit here, but y’all need to know everything we talked about because we here for a reason, right? We’re here for a reason. And she is excelling at what she do in the STR space, in the short-term rental space. She’s a forward thinker.

She’s trying to, not she’s trying, let me take that, let me cancel that out of my language. She is setting herself apart with the things that she’s doing, the services that she’s providing. And so, as you know, I like to let people talk with themself. I like to give them a great introduction, but I just want you all to welcome with me, Ms. Kim Fitzpatrick. How are you doing today, ma’am?

Kim Fitzpatrick (02:42)
I’m doing excellent. It’s been a pleasure talking to you backstage today.

Quentin (02:47)
Absolutely. I’m so excited that you joined us. I’m so excited for people to get to know about what you do, the way you think you’re processing. And so if you don’t mind, I want to dive in. I like to say you are the star of show. So please, if you don’t mind, our listeners are just getting to know you, right? You’re kind of bringing them into your world and talking about the different things you do.

So if you don’t mind, give us a short version of what’s your main focus these days. And if you don’t mind, tell them what markets you’re operating in.

Kim Fitzpatrick (03:20)
Yeah, absolutely. Hello everybody. It’s good to ⁓ make a connection even if I don’t see you. My name, as you said, is Kim Fitzpatrick and I am the owner of a company called Launched Host. And I say it slowly because sometimes it sounds like lunch toast, but it’s really launched like a rocket ship host, like short-term rentals and Airbnbs. So what we do is we take properties and we get them empty to guest ready in seven days.

That’s it. That’s what we do. ⁓ And that was our starting point. And we have been growing and growing and offering more services to hosts as we see a need. And they express like, I cannot do this on my own. like, we’ll do more for you. We like to take headaches off of people’s plates and put them onto our own because we’re just more experienced, more versed, and we can move through it quicker and smoother. And then it reduces carry costs for the owners and they can start making money faster. And that just

makes us feel a lot better about helping them with their investment process.

Quentin (04:25)
Absolutely, I love it. One of the notes that I took and you said it, you like to reduce the stress of launching their own home, right? Y’all like to get it set up quickly and efficiently. And I love that. I mean, I absolutely love that.

Kim Fitzpatrick (04:43)
Yeah, it’s once it’s launched, you can roll out your automations and things sort of flow mostly smoothly most of the time. I’m not going say all the time. It’s not passive, but it’s that beginning phase where you have to find a designer, pick the furniture, buy the furniture, assemble all of the furniture around

Quentin (04:53)
you

Kim Fitzpatrick (05:49)
and get everything dialed in and guest ready and start getting those five star reviews. That’s where it’s the hardest. And if we can get through that first part, it’s kind of downhill and

smooth sailing from there as long as it’s done right at the beginning. Otherwise, you’re just managing problems all down the road. So we like to help people so that they are not just in constant conflict with their investment.

Quentin (06:13)
Absolutely. So I mean, you actually took me right to the next question I want to ask. Of course, things are not always smooth. It’s not always easy in this climate. So I’ll ask it. I’m going to of switch my answer, my question around a little bit. What’s the key to keeping your machine running relatively smoothly? Right? What’s the key to that?

Kim Fitzpatrick (06:35)
Well, honestly,

could launch people’s properties faster than seven days, but we schedule time for chaos. We know it’s coming. We don’t know what it looks

Quentin (06:45)
Ooh!

Kim Fitzpatrick (06:47)
We know it’s going to be

We know there’s going to be something that’s not going to go smooth.

And so during the seven day launch, we know chaos is coming and we schedule

So when it arrives, we have time. We’re not overwhelmed. We’re not frustrated.

We’re not like feeling like the pressure because we’re like,

there you are we were going to go out and enjoy the town for half a day but we are now working and that’s fine

but it allows that time ⁓ so that it doesn’t just disrupt the entire

Quentin (07:20)
Absolutely. Listen, I have wrote you down and I got you quoted. Schedule time for chaos. Ms. Kim Fitzpatrick, like…

Yeah, I’ve never heard that kind of succinctly put like that, but that’s brilliant because everything don’t always run smoothly. And so you got to schedule time for it. I love that. I mean, you just listen, this kind of bring me to my next question. mean, things get real sometimes, right? There’s times when you got to pivot fast, things go sideways. So do you mind sharing a story like that at a time when that happened within your world and what you do?

Kim Fitzpatrick (07:59)
my gosh, which one do I share? There’s so many and that’s why we schedule the time. ⁓ We’ve found, so sometimes people buy 200 year old beautiful properties in like the hills of Kentucky and it’s a gorgeous short term rent, it will be a gorgeous short term rental. But currently there’s a raccoon living in the walls and it needs to be exterminated. And that meant that the exterminators came and tore sheetrock apart, dug into

Quentin (08:24)
Bye!

Kim Fitzpatrick (08:29)
the like all over the place and we had to like stop work move aside let them get please take the raccoon out of the walls and then repair it and then we still were man we were still capable of getting it done in seven days ⁓ and we’ve had a blizzard in the middle of winter in a ski resort town in Colorado I mean we’ve had

I can’t even think of all the different chaotic events that have happened that are beyond our control. Once a pipe burst in a basement, they had to tear up all the flooring, jackhammer the cement, and then we set up everything upstairs. And then when the crew got done with that, we put it all in at the last minute. Yeah, there’s been chaos in a lot of places that are beyond our control. can’t expect it. We don’t know it’s coming. We just know that we save time for it.

Quentin (09:22)
Thank you for that perspective and thank you for sharing things from your lens. Cause I never thought that a raccoon would enter into this conversation. I just, I did not see that coming, Ms. Kim. I just, I just didn’t see that coming. And I see why you scheduled for the chaos, right? After the raccoons, I think, did you say hurricane? Did I you say hurricane? Did I miss that? Or did I?

Kim Fitzpatrick (09:48)
We hurricane,

Quentin (09:51)
I don’t know why I just went there. don’t know. Blizzard. There you go. Yeah, there we go. Yeah. Watermane, Brave,

Kim Fitzpatrick (09:51)
I think we had a blizzard. We had a blizzard in Colorado. We had a wreck in We had a lightning.

Quentin (10:34)
Yeah.

Kim Fitzpatrick (10:34)
Yep, water main. We’ve had a lightning strike that burned a house down like three houses away. Yeah, it’s and of course the rain and all of the weather that came with that. So yeah, we we’ve seen a lot. I feel like the mayhem guy on the on the insurance commercials.

Quentin (10:41)
Wow. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think I said to you earlier, because you were talking about your services, but even still, just, makes me understand that you’re kind of like a forward thinker, right? Like you’re going to solve a problem. if something happened, we got a way to solve it. And even maybe thinking ahead for a problem that hasn’t, that don’t need to get solved yet. But I know when it comes up, we’re going to be able to solve it. And so I love that.

Kim Fitzpatrick (11:18)
Exactly.

Quentin (11:19)
I love that. And for me, that lets me know you’re going to be in this game for the long term, right? This is the difference between people that just dabble and people that’s in it for the long term, because you’re forward thinking and it’s like, if there’s a problem, we’re going to solve

Kim Fitzpatrick (11:33)
Exactly. Yes.

Quentin (11:34)
And so I love

that. love that. So let me ask you this. What are you main focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for you, Ms. Kim?

Kim Fitzpatrick (11:44)
So as I said, our first, ⁓ what we started out with was empty to guest ready in seven days. We then took over receiving packages, which is another phase of the project. We then took over being able to purchase for clients if they would like us to do the purchasing, because that’s a whole difficulty. And then now we are taking on design. And so we will be your designer, purchaser, receiver, installer. So one stop shop. ⁓

into the future, we will start managing the property so that people can truly be hands off from beginning to as long as they own the property and they can just get their check in the mail every month. ⁓ that is our next ⁓ step to climb.

Quentin (12:31)
Absolutely. I’m laughing because I’m hearing the services that you’re providing is absolutely great. You want to manage the property? Absolutely great. We can help you if you want to sell or buy. Absolutely great. But it’s almost like, Ms. Kim, you are inviting the chaos, right? It’s like, because you’re making big audacious moves. And I know you know this, the next move can either compound things or create total chaos, depending on how you play it, right?

And so I love it, but you like, I’m here for it. And I think I will, I know a lot of people are listening and they are early in their journey. They’re looking to level up. And I think they have benefit from hearing this, particularly from you, when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Kim Fitzpatrick (13:24)
I mean, the way I treat people honestly has come back to me tenfold. The fact that I understand that when we’re doing things, accidents happen, mistakes get made. And I ask people, I’m like, mistakes are fine. Be transparent. If you hide it, don’t have a lot of, you don’t have a lot of longevity in my business. You will be asked to leave. But if you tell me that you made a mistake, we can resolve it. And that’s totally fine. I just don’t want to find it because it’s been hidden.

But yeah, and I’m also just very friendly with people. treat them well. And that has come back to serve me because they will invite their people into the business. And then our business is growing just by word of mouth and our network grows because I believe that relationships are everything. At the end of the day, I don’t want to die with a pile of money. I want to die with a crowd of amazing friends that I love.

Quentin (14:24)
⁓ I absolutely love that. I absolutely love that. And you believe so much in relationships. Now, I’m going put it out there. If you want to talk about it, you don’t have to, right? But I’m going put it out there because for me, you are showing that you want to connect with people. You care about relationships. You want to die surrounded by people who are actually benefiting from your life and what you’ve done. And so I know you talked about launching

Well, before I say launching, you offer Launch Blueprint, right? I don’t know if you want to talk about that or not, but it

Kim Fitzpatrick (14:56)
Yeah.

Quentin (15:42)
like, it’s your way of kind of wanting to help people, even at the risk of, and we don’t even have to talk about the risk of it, but just if you want to talk about Launch Blueprint, I just wanted to create the opportunity.

Kim Fitzpatrick (15:52)
Yeah, absolutely. So we are only, we can only go so far and do so much for people and other people don’t, they want to do it themselves. And they’re like, wow, it looks so fun what you do. Cause I post everything on social

on my Facebook and Instagram. And, ⁓ and I show them the chaos. I show them the raccoon traps and the, and you know, all of the things and, they are experiencing it with us. ⁓ and some people are like, I want to join your team. And other people are like, I want to learn how you do what you do.

And I’m like, let me teach you because I can’t go to all of the places all of the time. ⁓ We are a team of 23 right now. So we are not able to be everywhere to all people. So I developed the launch blueprint, which is all of our SOPs systems processes, how we do things, how we think about things, because everything is case by case. Every else is different. Every client is a little bit different. So we, we talk about the overarching ideas and concepts that we

to make decisions and how we go about like just scheduling and the order of operations that we do to get these properties launched so fast. So we offer that to other people so that they can do it themselves. ⁓ used to say, and sometimes I do, that I save marriages one launch at a time because…

Quentin (17:13)
I’m writing that down to you. Please continue. I’m writing that down to you.

Kim Fitzpatrick (17:17)
Well…

While you’re writing, the reason I say that is because so many people have come back to me saying, my spouse and I went to set up our property and it was so overwhelming and we were so stressed that we took it out on each other and we just started really getting in on each other and you get so just, it’s physically taxing and when you are depleted physically and mentally and it’s not going right, you tend to lash out at the people you love the most, which is so sad. So we were saying, let us take it from you and then now we’re saying,

let us teach you so that you can do it and still save your marriage.

Quentin (17:53)
Yeah, no, that’s beautiful. And I know, you

we said it, you know, in fun, this is serious. Like, this is absolutely serious. Like you said, one of your mandates that you do is reduce the stress of the lunch. And so this is amazing. And that’s true because those are the little stressors within the marriage, family dynamic that sometimes can be too much. And if you can have one less stressor in your marriage, why not?

Kim Fitzpatrick (18:22)
Exactly. Right?

Quentin (18:22)
Why not?

So no, I really appreciate you saying that because that’s major. That’s huge. I absolutely love that. So this is a point where I just want to take the time. So I don’t have too many questionable questions to ask, maybe one or two, with this one included. When I’m talking to people like you, people who I know really trying to make connections with people,

that’s really trying to offer services to people. know, before you and I got on, I was on the phone with my mentor and we lived by a statement, proverb that says, when you refresh others, you in return will be refreshed. Right. And this is why, like for me, Launch Blueprint, I see that as you refreshing others and therefore you’re going to be refreshed yourself. And so,

Listen, I’ll show you the chaos. I’ll show you how to do it because I know when I refresh you, I’m going to be refreshed in return. So I just want to create the opportunity right now. If there’s some kind of encouragement or inspiration that you want to give anything that comes to mind that maybe you want to give out viewers about your journey, about the business that you’re in. I want to be wide open because I know that you are a person that like to see people win and you’re creating systems.

for people to win. And so I just want to give you ⁓ a chance to just speak, maybe whatever’s on your heart to our listeners.

Kim Fitzpatrick (19:53)
Yeah, I mean, I don’t know exactly how

just gonna speak from the heart, I do love the launch blueprint is not just like, here you go, here’s the systems, but it also includes weekly calls with me where I get on the phone and people are like, how do I handle the post office when I don’t have a mailbox at the house? How do I handle the contractor if they’re doing a terrible job? How do I, and we just sit here and talk and I see eyes open and people are like,

Quentin (20:00)
Absolutely.

Kim Fitzpatrick (20:23)
⁓ thank goodness. You just saved me like $4,000. And I’m like, really? In three sentences? Are you kidding? And that makes me feel very, like, I just feel so filled up that I was able to navigate something for somebody and show them the roadblocks and show them how to sidestep it and move forward and just keep plugging away. And I know that, like, we just did this call yesterday and it was really rewarding. So ⁓ I was just so thankful that I know this

woman’s next couple of months are going to go a lot easier because of a few sentences that I was able to give that was exactly what she needed. And yeah, that is everything to me. It feels great to be able to help like that.

Quentin (21:07)
Absolutely. Listen, and I’m gonna tell you now from a former mailman, I was a mailman for 14 years. So you solving that problem out the mailbox. Listen, I’m gonna tell you from this side, kudos to you because you could have been saving people from their mail not ever getting delivered. We don’t see a mailbox. We may be sending that million dollar check back to senders. So, I just want to again, just to monitor you.

Kim Fitzpatrick (21:23)
Never.

Great, exactly.

Quentin (21:36)
for solving real problems, right? Like, I love your heart. I love your perspective. I love the way you are solving problems for the clients that you serve. And so I just want to give a nice little clap to you and say kudos to you. I really appreciate it. And so listen, before we wrap, Ms. Kim, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Kim Fitzpatrick (21:50)
Thank you.

Three different ways I would say one would be our website launched post calm set it slow so you could hear it, but it’s just simply launched post calm and ⁓ If you’re a Facebook person, it’s under my name Kim Fitzpatrick as it’s on the screen and ⁓ on Instagram I’m under my business name launched post so you will be able to find me and I think it all links so just

it up on the socials or on the Google machine and I’m sure I will come up. And you’ll see my face on all the videos because I’m very much a part of what we do.

Quentin (22:41)
Absolutely. I love it. Ms. Kim, listen, I appreciate your time. I appreciate your story. I definitely appreciate your perspective and your lens. Like, I absolutely do. We definitely need more people like you that’s doing it the right way, building businesses the right way. So again, I thank you so much for joining us today.

Kim Fitzpatrick (23:01)
Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.

Quentin (23:04)
Absolutely. Now, for those who’s tuning in, she echoing so many different things that I say because y’all know at this point, I say this very slowly. If you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. I keep telling y’all, we keep bringing up amazing people and we have done it again with the amazing Ms. Kim Fitzpatrick. So you do not want to miss out on these conversations about learning from people who’s

building real businesses and building them the right way. So you don’t want to miss out. So make sure you’re subscribed. Ms. Kim, thank you again. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next episode.