The Cold DM That Sparked a Real Estate Movement

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On this episode of Suite Success, host Katie Cline sits down with Grace Gudenkauf and Amelia McGee, co-founders of WIIRE (Women Invest in Real Estate), the fast-growing community helping women pursue financial and time freedom through real estate investing and entrepreneurship. What started with a cold Instagram DM between two strangers in Iowa has since grown into a movement serving thousands of women through retreats, masterminds, education, and community.

Together, they discuss why so many aspiring investors are waiting for permission to get started, how community can completely transform what feels possible, and why creating “W2-optional” lives has become such a powerful motivator for women seeking more flexibility. Grace and Amelia also share the behind-the-scenes story of building WIIRE organically from the ground up, hosting retreats before they felt fully ready, and learning how hospitality principles—from onboarding to first impressions—have shaped every aspect of their business.

The conversation also explores co-founder dynamics, the confidence gap in investing, how women often approach business and risk differently, and why being surrounded by people “moving in the same current” can accelerate growth in ways you never imagined. Plus, they share lessons from their book, The Self-Managing Landlord (https://amzn.to/49enAme), and explain why hospitality and customer service are at the heart of successful property management.

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lodgify and Bilt!⁠⁠⁠⁠

Connect

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Grace’s LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amelia’s LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• WIIRE’s Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Watch This Episode

I’m Grace Gudenkauf, and I’m Amelia McGee, and you’re listening to Suite Success.

You’ve just checked in to Suite Success. Join me, Katie Cline, for exclusive conversations with hotel executives, hospitality leaders, and industry innovators.

Together, we’ll uncover the strategies and techniques these Masters of Hospitality relentlessly refine. Whether you’re already in the industry or just starting out, tune in every week to unlock the secret to your Suite Success.

0:39

Introducing Grace Gudenkauf and Amelia McGee

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Suite Success. I’m your host, Katie Cline, and today, I’m thrilled to welcome Grace Gudenkauf and Amelia McGee to the show.

Together, Grace and Amelia are the co-founders of Women Invest in Real Estate, otherwise known as Wiire with two I’s, a community for women pursuing financial and time freedom through real estate investing and entrepreneurship.

They host retreats, including the upcoming Wiire Summer Camp in the Poconos this September, as well as a podcast of the same name.

They’re also the co-authors of The Self-Managing Landlord, More Profit, Time, and Peace of Mind with DIY Rental Property Management. Grace, Amelia, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you.

Thank you. We’re excited to be here.

1:26

How it Started: A Cold DM

You are both from Iowa, and your friendship started, like most things do, these days on the Internet with a cold DM from Grace to Amelia.

Can you explain to everyone how you met and how you then created Wiire together?

I will take that one. I, like everyone probably listening and everybody in the world, wanted connection, and I started investing in real estate, and I didn’t know anybody who was also investing in real estate.

I started posting on Instagram, and I saw another young, cool girl from Iowa who was investing in real estate, and I thought, no way there’s two. So I slid into her DMs, basically said, we need to be friends. Also, do you want to come speak on this?

Not actually made yet. Real estate meetup, it was during COVID. So she was the first speaker on that.

We thought it would be my mom, her mom, a few other people. But like 50 people showed up to that, and we were absolutely beyond shocked. Right then and there, we knew, okay, we have something, people want connection, people want community.

So we decided to keep doing that meetup together. And five years later, we’ve served thousands of women through Wiire. And we have a community summer camp, all the things, but it really started as our own request to have community and connection.

2:47

First Meetup

How did those first 50 people find you guys?

Grace and I had both been posting on our individual Instagram accounts prior to this, just kind of sharing our real estate journey.

So we probably both each had, I don’t know, a thousand followers apiece. And we just shared on our stories, hey, Grace is hosting this meetup, I’m the guest speaker, DM us your email to join us.

And then we just sent out a massive link to everybody and had like 50 people show up. It was super organic. And I think that that’s one thing that has made Wiire so successful is just how grass roots we really have been.

3:28

Start Before You’re Ready

And at that time, what had you both done in terms of investment deals?

That’s a good point I want to share is I never waited until I had so many deals until I felt like I had the authority to have this meetup.

And that’s why I asked Amelia to speak at it. You had done what? Maybe four or five?

I think I’d purchased three.

I had done a flip and then I had a triplex, a quadplex and a single family home.

And I was really in the midst of my first deal, I think. And so I didn’t ever wait to be like, oh, I have to have all these years of experience to host this meetup.

I just said, hey, I’ll host it, I’ll ask questions, but I’m going to bring people in who know more than me. And that is one thing that looking back on my journey is neither of us have ever waited for permission to do something.

And it’s something I always share with people who are maybe one step behind and wanting to keep moving forward is you’re never going to wake up and the universe is going to say, you know what?

Today, Katie, today’s the day that you get to start that thing.

I love that point. And it’s so true. Like we never get that quote unquote permission.

And what you did actually was put yourself in the learning seat as opposed to coming out and being like, I know everything. And now you both are in this position where people are looking to you for your advice, for your experience.

It’s kind of similar to how I feel with hosting podcasts is I get to sit and talk to cool people like both of you and pick your brains and ask you all the questions that I’m interested in hopes that people who are listening and watching are wondering

Yeah, Grace actually.

Yeah, Grace, unbeknownst to me, she told me later, the reason she created that meetup was so that she could pick my brain. And that was a good excuse to be able to do that. And so that’s exactly what she did.

I love it.

I love it. It really is proof of like create the thing that you want and other people will come. Because also what you guys said is you each had fairly quote unquote small followings for what people consider big followings nowadays.

And yet 50 people came. So it really showed you that there was interest there.

5:36

Hosting a Retreat

We never woke up saying we’re going to make a business out of this.

It’s going to be a summer camp in a community and retreats. It truly was completely organic and they let our community tell us what they wanted. And another funny story I want to share is, so we did this free monthly meetup for probably a year.

After about a year, Amelia’s like, hey, and with again, no thought of like this could be a business. We were just having so much fun serving people and giving a lot of value. But a year and Amelia’s like, hey, I feel like we should host a retreat.

I’m like, you’re insane. We’re not hosting a retreat. I don’t know who would come, all the things.

She’s like, well, I already sent out an email and people have signed up. So we’re hosting a retreat in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, baby. And I feel like that was the first time again, it sold out in like maybe a couple of weeks.

People came, they didn’t know us, they’d never met us in person. We weren’t yet speaking on stages across the US. And that was another reminder of like you said, Katie, if you build the right thing that people want, it will make itself.

And if you listen and you continue to use your community to help you build it, it will all work out.

Amelia, what gave you the confidence to do that? Or did you have it? Were you just like, I’m just going to throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks?

I feel like it’s a little bit of that and a little bit of, that was something I wanted to attend and I couldn’t find anything out there that was like that.

There wasn’t a product that was, nobody was doing retreats back then. I feel like a lot of people do retreats now. This was back in 2022 and they’re just weren’t as many retreats then.

But I was listening to a podcast actually this morning that was talking about the way your brain works and how your brain is a machine and your brain tries to stay comfortable, and it doesn’t like to be uncomfortable.

I think that’s one thing that somehow Grace and I have excelled at, is not allowing our brain to keep us comfortable. We’ve always been able to get uncomfortable, and that’s allowed us to grow and expand so much.

I don’t know how you can get better at that if you personally are struggling with it, but there is something within us that makes us, I think, really good entrepreneurs, is that we’re not scared to take calculated risks.

I’ve been thinking about this so much lately and it is wild when you go through even the smallest risks and you listen to your brain and not really your gut, your brain, and your brain is like, mm-hmm, let’s not do that, like bad idea, bad idea, bad

idea. And it’s very easy to listen to that because you think your brain is the smart part of you. And actually, it is just trying to keep you safe because that is evolutionarily what it’s trying to do.

So the fun thing is when you get curious about, oh, I’m feeling that way, let’s follow that path down and see where we end up like you guys did with this retreat.

8:34

Gatlinburg Lessons

So how many people showed up in Gatlinburg? How did that go? And when that ended and you guys looked at each other, what did you say?

Our retreats have come so far.

I think there were 16 women that showed up plus me and Grace. So we had 18 women. We showed up at the exact same time, actually after some of the attendees showed up at the Airbnb.

So we weren’t even there to welcome them. I don’t, we catered in all of the food. It was a mess.

It was so much fun. Probably one of the most fun retreats we’ve ever had, but very casual.

Flying by the skin of our pants.

Absolutely.

And we sold it at cost. It was $700.

We made no money.

All food, all lodging, like four days. And that’s why it sold out so quickly is because it was priced correctly. And like you said, Amelia, we had so much fun.

But in terms of hospitality and really leaning into like all the things that make a retreat special, that wasn’t there yet. But I think we’re both great at creating community and making people feel comfortable and safe and knowing what they want.

So the social side of it was absolutely there. The masterminds were there. The hospitality, on the other hand, that took some retreats to really nail.

And I think we have at this point. But we always look back and have a giggle at that because it was truly flying by the seat of our pants. And if we had overthought it, we probably never would have hosted it.

And people walked away with five-star reviews. They loved it. And I remember we just looked at each other.

And we were like, well, we both made a couple of hundred dollars to come have a fun weekend and make new friends. Like, this is awesome. We’re on to something.

By the end of it, we had actually already booked our second retreat spot, which was in Denver and had already sold that out as well.

So we’d already sold out the second because the first one sold out so quickly. And then afterwards, we were like, wow, we’re really on to something. This was so fun.

Let’s see how many we can do. We ended up getting a little burnout. We only host two a year now, but we were so excited with how incredible it was to be in the same room with women who thought the same way that we did.

10:45

Co-Founder Workflow

Co-founder Dynamics can really make or break a business.

You guys said you’ve been working together for five years now. This all started with the DM on Instagram. That retreat, was that the first time you guys even met up in person, or had you been together in person prior to that?

I actually just had a memory pop up on my phone of the first time we met in person.

Our first online meetup was in early February of 2021. We didn’t meet in person until September of 2021. However, we only lived two hours away from each other, but it was nine months still before we met in person.

So we had met in person, but only a few times, I think, at that point.

I mean, people live much closer than that and still go nine months without seeing each other. So two hours can feel a long time, especially with somebody you’re just getting to know.

But how nowadays do you guys divide responsibilities between each other? And what have you learned about working with one another effectively?

Luckily, I think we do have at the heart of it something very special, where we naturally and intuitively work very well together. And in terms of divvying up responsibilities, that has felt a bit natural.

However, we absolutely, as we’ve stepped into a higher level of business, tried to really narrow down, what is the org chart? Who is in charge of the podcast? Who is in charge of the community and the behind the scenes?

And currently, Amelia is more of the back-end stuff, and I am more of the front-end education and creation. And that has worked really well for us. But absolutely, as co-founders, it’s like a marriage.

I think one thing that’s worked really well for us is we weren’t friends before. So we developed our relationship working together. That’s all we ever knew.

And I feel so blessed to have Amelia by my side. And as we have invested in other masterminds to help us level up as business owners, absolutely, there’s hard conversations. And we’re not perfect.

And we do have to do things that aren’t fun. But in general, I would say our dynamic is very, very special. And I feel very grateful for it.

And back to what you guys were saying earlier about having that thing in your brain of whether or not you can handle the risk. It’s also having other people.

And I would not have done a third of the things Wiire has done if Amelia hadn’t been behind me saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, let’s do it and vice versa.

It always feels like when one of us wants to pump the brakes, the other one is saying, no, let’s go, go, go. And that’s been such a fun dynamic between the two of us.

But just to reiterate a little bit of what Grace said, I think we have the utmost respect for each other, which allows us and I think as we’ve gotten further along in our business, we have started to have more difficult conversations, but they always

stay super respectful. And we both know that they’re for the better good of Wiire and for our business partnership. And our community. And our community, we try not to leave things unspoken or unsaid because that builds resentment.

We truly do have a very open communication style, and I think that that’s served us really well, and will continue to make us be successful in the long run.

Has there ever been a big disagreement where one of you wanted to do one thing, and the other one was like, absolutely not?

I would say many times, but we always figure it out. And one thing that’s helpful is like, okay, let’s both come up with our own solution and come back to each other. And what does that look like?

But at the end of the day, I don’t think there’s ever been something that has truly lingered as a disagreement. But every day we’re like, no, I think we should do this, or, oh, I know, I think it should go this direction. What would you say, Amelia?

Yeah, I think I would agree.

And I think that one conversation I can think of recently that we had is just, we handled it a certain way. The other person probably would have handled it a different way. And so we communicated about that.

But at the end of the day was the way that we handled it ultimately really wrong.

No, it’s just someone else would have done it differently and being okay with having those conversations of like, yeah, I would have done that differently and that’s okay. And you did it the way you did it and that’s okay too.

So again, just having the ultimate respect for the other person, I think has really carried us through our business partnership.

It’s part of the fun of brainstorming too, of having somebody else who’s like equally invested in what you’re trying to build. Because I’m thinking about corporate projects I’ve worked on and you come up with an idea that you think is really good.

And somebody else says, well, what have we thought about it this way? And it’s not a good idea, but it’s all those bad ideas that you layer together. And all of a sudden, you’ve created something way better than anyone could have created alone.

And that’s very much what I see with the two of you and your partnership.

Another point I want to make is we have very much taken calculated risks, but we’ve also always done it within the context of never overloading ourselves, never getting too big for our britches, and never having too much on our plate.

So that we never had a giant burst of, I can’t do this or this is too much.

And I think the pace at which we went in our business has really allowed for us to make smart decisions, have conversations, really figure out how to work best with each other, and all of the things that make and end up in a great business

Has that been hard at all?

Is there a moment where you’re like, gosh, we have all this opportunity, we could be doing all of these things at once, like, let’s go, go, go? Or is it like, no, we’re really good with picking the one focus area at a time?

We’ve gotten a lot better at that because both of us are visionaries. And so we have a lot of ideas and we can see money making opportunities around every corner.

And so it’s been hard to really stay focused on providing, not hard to stay focused, but just like we see other things, but really our end goal is to stay laser focused on creating the best real estate community for women investors that we can.

And I think within the last probably 12 months, we’ve gotten really good at that and we provide an absolutely amazing experience for our Wiire community members because that is what we’re solely focused on really.

I mean, we have a few other things, but that’s really our main focus.

And it’s really nice to have each other to remind the other person of that because there are definitely squirrel moments that happen with both of us every other month where we’re like, let’s do this really cool thing.

This is going to be such a big success and the other person has to be like, let’s pump the brakes. We got to stay focused on what we know we can do really well. And yeah, so great question.

17:41

Onboarding with Hospitality

I would say it’s nice to have another person that you can kind of bounce ideas off of, but be like, let’s also stay focused.

And building a community is in many ways a lot about hospitality, I would imagine at least. You’re anticipating needs, you’re creating connection, which you’ve talked about already. You’re making people really feel seen and less alone.

How do you guys think about that?

One of the biggest aha moments in terms of connecting hospitality with Wiire is understanding that the onboarding and their first impression is everything.

And that’s the same when you walk into a hotel or whatever hospitality moment that you have is.

And so for us, it’s how can we clearly set expectations, not overwhelm them, but show them all the possibility, build a lot of FaceTime with our new members within the first month.

We go through what we call our CEO framework, where we really teach people, here’s how to be CEO of your real estate business. How do we make sure they know how to get logged in and use the platform, and they’re not overwhelmed?

So that I would say is the biggest piece is the first impression and onboarding truly is everything.

Every once in a while, we’ll get somebody who doesn’t get logged in or can’t quite figure it out, and that just mentally doesn’t make for a great experience if you can’t use the thing that you’re paying for.

It’s fascinating to hear you put that lens on community because when I was working for the hotel brand La Meridien, we did this study which was all about how the first 10 minutes sets the tone for the entire guest stay. I talk about this a lot.

I think about it with my short-term rentals. I teach about it. Like it’s something that people really grasp on to.

And you can understand it very straightforward, right? Like when a guest arrives, they’re looking at did I get in okay? Did I find the place okay?

Is it clean when I walk in? Is it cool in the summer? Is it hot in the or warm in the winter?

But you’re right. It’s equally about that for your community members too because even though they’re not physically arriving someplace, though potentially they are when we’ll talk about your retreats, it’s the same, it’s the exact same principle.

It really is. We take a lot of care during our onboarding period and I think that also sets us apart from other real estate communities that are out there.

And we really want to make sure people are getting the most value as possible and that starts with the very first time they ever enter our platform. So that’s really important to us to make sure everybody has a, it starts off on the right foot.

20:10

WIIRE Summer Camp

So from that first Airbnb in Gatlinburg to this coming summer, you’re hosting the Wiire Summer Camp in the Poconos.

Let’s talk a bit about how that has shifted, what type of experiences your guests are going to be receiving and what you guys are most looking forward to.

We are beyond excited. This is something we’ve been talking about for years and now is the right time to do it. But as we start, we’ve done 11 or 12 retreats, sold out, even one international.

And about a year ago, we did our first adventure retreat. And we thought, we did it in Zion National Park, we thought a lot of already outdoorsy women would come. Right?

We’re hiking, we’re horseback riding. And what surprised us was there was a lot of people who came who said, I never would have done this. I never would have done this unless you had provided this opportunity that all I had to do was say yes to.

So that really got our gears turning is not only do women want to come for masterminds and the education and the incredible networking you get when you spend four days in a house with 15 women.

They’re also coming for these incredible life experiences that they wouldn’t do elsewhere. That they don’t have friends who go hiking in the Narrows in a canyon in Zion.

They don’t have friends who want to go rent an Airbnb at the base of a volcano in Guatemala.

So we really started to revisit that summer camp idea of how do we combine all the incredible pieces of a retreat, the intimate experiences and networking, but the incredible fun of doing something new and also the masterminds.

How can we do that in a way that serves more than 15 people? Because we’d only be able to serve 15 people at a retreat, and we would get emails and text messages, has the spot opened up? Has anybody canceled?

I want to come. I can’t believe I missed it. So we really needed to figure out a way that we could serve 150 women instead of just 15.

Yeah.

I don’t know that I have too much to add there other than we’ve been to a lot of conferences, and this specifically, the Conference for Women, women don’t want to sit in a room and be talked at for the whole day. Women want to be up.

They want to be networking. They want to be yapping. They want to make connections.

They want to get to know the other attendees on a deeper level. They want to have in-depth conversations about what’s working, what’s not working, wins, tribulations, all of the things.

And what better way to do that than at an amazing, fun summer camp where you’ve got all sorts of activities to keep you busy in the meantime. So it’s not awkward. There’s not going to be, you know, awkward introductions.

You’re going to have something to do with your hands the whole time, plus you know that you all have a common denominator goal, which is to be a successful real estate investor.

So right off the bat, you have something really interesting to talk about. And that’s why I think summer camp is going to be unlike any other real estate conference that anyone has ever been to. One, obviously, because it’s a summer camp.

Two, it’s for women. But three, like, when else are you ever going to do that as an adult?

And I also have to point out, it’s a bougie summer camp. It’s not a tent. It is a very nice 500-acre, every amenity you could think of.

Massive staff of professional chefs and bartenders, and speaking of hospitality, the people all around to help you get where you need to go and help you have the best day possible. It is a really incredible venue.

And I really like what Amelia said about, like, you’ll have something to do with your hands because you’re right. Like, that’s how we meet in normal life, is we’re doing something typically, right?

Or if you think back in school or sports teams or what have you. And actually, conferences are quite the opposite. It’s that awkward, like, going up to somebody being like, hi, can I read your name tag?

And so almost giving people these shared experiences to let the conversations and the relationships develop naturally are really exciting.

24:12

Women Invest Differently

You also touched on how this is really geared toward women. And real estate investing specifically has traditionally been a very male dominated space, potentially still is in a lot of ways. How do you guys think women approach investing differently?

Number one, women tend to have just much lower levels of confidence.

They tend to want somebody to give a stamp of approval to their plans. And we can talk about where that comes from.

But in general, we are in a little bit more of a need of a community to help you get to that initial level of confidence to where you do that first thing. And then you know and you trust yourself that you can figure this out.

So that is the number one thing that we see hosting hundreds of women in our Wiire community membership, is we need a second glance sometimes. We need somebody saying, yes, you can do that.

I would say that women tend to be more conservative investors in general. I don’t know that anyone could really argue against that point, but I think that that also serves us because it can also be a detriment.

But I see women taking a little bit more of a calculated risk versus with men. Sometimes they’re super excited about things and they get in over their heads and then they tank.

So I think women, while it can be a bad thing to be a little bit more cautious and a little slower, I think it can also serve a great purpose. Then I would also say, I think women just tend to be a lot more organized overall.

They’re really trying to operate their business like a business. They’re trying to get systems in place. They’re trying to be organized.

And I think for long-term investment growth, that is a really key component that a lot of investors are missing, which is why we talk so much about that in our CEO framework and level up your listing, the speech we did on becoming the CEO of your

business. I think it’s really important and we don’t talk about it enough.

Yeah, I agree with both of your points. I think that lower levels of confidence is also largely because we potentially were lacking spaces like what you’re creating.

And I know for me and my investing career, as I start to meet friends who have structured deals differently or have done things that in the past I would have thought, oh, there’s no way I could afford that or no way I could do that.

And then hearing the way that people have approached it or have figured out ways to do it without any of their own money with investors or with lower money down than I ever thought possible, all of a sudden your eyes start to open and you think, oh,

maybe I could do that too. And until you have rooms like what you’re creating, it’s hard to have your mind open. You also touched on earlier like these people might not have friends who want to go to Zion and do hiking and horseback riding with them.

They also might not have people in their lives who are doing real estate investing. Both of you said you didn’t know anyone who was. I didn’t know anyone who was.

So it becomes even more intimidating that you’re second guessing yourself, especially with that first deal, to think you’re crazy until you meet people like yourselves.

So maybe touch on a little bit of that, both of your backstories, how you never saw this modeled for you, what made you want to start it in the first place, and what do you think could have been different if you did see it modeled for you or if there

Another thing I want to illustrate before answering that is being in a community is like being in a current, where even if you’re not swimming, you’re still moving because everything around you is moving.

Everything around you is showing you like you just said, Katie, over and over, this is possible. You can do it. It’s not as hard as you’re making it out to be.

Yes, there are real people like me making it happen. This could be you as well. For us, luckily, very early on in my journey, I made friends with Amelia.

It took me a while to find people in my actual physical market to see what they were doing. And so I think if I had had a female mentor who was a few steps ahead of me, I would have been able to grow faster but also grow smarter.

I think I did grow pretty fast and same with you, Amelia. But just so many things about business that you would never know until you’re in a group of people who are doing the same business as you and telling you what to look out for.

Yeah, I’ve never heard you describe it as being in a current before. That was a good one, Grace. I like it.

It’s so true though, because you’ve got to be around other people that are moving and shaking. Otherwise, you are going to become stagnant.

But Grace and I both grew up in, I would say, middle-class families in Iowa, who when we were raised by parents, God bless them, loved them so much, but work a nine-to-five job for 30, 40 years, save money in your 401k, retire when you’re 65, and die

when you’re 80. One of those type of things where it’s like, if we would have been surrounded by people who were entrepreneurs or saw that there was so much more than working a nine-to-five and living life outside of the status quo, I think our lives

could look so much differently. I’m so glad the way that they did turn out. Maybe there’s something to be said about that. But if I could have grown up in a household that was full of entrepreneurs, who knows what I could have been?

Or even just a family that was open to the idea of doing something outside of getting a college degree, going to work, and then retiring with a 401K. I don’t know what I could have been, but I think that’s really important.

We’re not parents, but for any parents out there listening, to encourage your children to do entrepreneurial things or art or whatever the case may be, because you never know what their life could be in the future.

29:59

The Self-Managing Landlord

You both also co-authored the book, The Self-Managing Landlord, and from my understanding, that’s really about operations at its core.

Would you guys agree with that? Also, how do you think about property management through a hospitality lens, through a transactional one?

Just overall, if you were to give the very quick explainer, but obviously everybody should go check out the book.

Yeah, it’s definitely about operations and a story that helped me really understand how property management is hospitality, is I had a back very early on in my investing career, I had a couple of them on 4th of July, and they just did not get great

communication from me. They didn’t get a great setup when they first walked in. The cleaner was still there.

It was a great apartment, it was a great location, but those things really took them off from the start, and it ended up not being an enjoyable experience for them.

After that, I really realized, well, I have to get my systems in place, so I know when communication goes out. I know how to track my cleaner.

I know exactly what needs to happen before they move in, the day that they move in, and what happens while they’re there as a tenant, trying to enjoy the place as best as possible.

That really helped me take a good hard look at my business and implement the procedures and the processes that I didn’t have. You’ll find a lot of those in that book, The Self-Managing Landlord, is how do you operate this as a business?

Because if owning a property that somebody lives in and calls home and sleeps at at night isn’t serious enough to be a business, I don’t know what is.

And it really teaches people who maybe never thought of themselves as business owners, how do you get to the nitty gritty of making this a business so that your tenants are happiest, they stay a long time, they take care of the property, they tell

their friends, man, I have a great landlord, I’m happy with where I’m at. And then you make more money, you have an easier life, and you’re able to get to that place in your business where you have the optionality, because you’ve built a really

Yeah, I think that a lot of times as long term rental landlords, we forget that it is still a hospitality business at the end of the day, it’s a customer service position to own a rental property.

You have to make sure your customer is happy, which your customer is your tenant. And happy tenants, they stay for longer. Like Grace said, there’s lower vacancy turnover costs.

They’re going to give you referrals to other great tenants, and you’re just overall going to have an easier lifestyle. And we’re really big on radical accountability.

So if something goes wrong, let’s take a look at what we did incorrectly in the situation and let’s fix that moving forward. We’re not constantly placing the blame on tenants for being annoying and reaching out to us and all the things.

We’re really trying to figure out, okay, how can we make this experience better so the next time we don’t run into the same problem over and over again.

For someone listening who is maybe thinking, I’m too late to invest in real estate or I don’t have enough money to get started, what would you say to them?

We did a podcast episode with one of the women in our community, with many women in their 50s, even 60s, who are getting started in real estate. And literally the title was like, it’s never too late to get started in real estate investing.

And anything that you can do that’s going to impact your current life and the life of potentially your children, if you have them and create generational wealth, it is never too late to start that.

I was actually just having this conversation with my mom the other day, which is so random, but my mom is 67. And I was just, I just asked her, I said, I know you do, but I want to hear it from your own mouth.

Do you still have goals and things that you’re trying to reach at the age that you’re at? Because at the end of the day, we’re all just girls going through this life for the very first time, right?

And I for you forget that about your mom and your parents. And she’s like, yes, of course, like I have all these goals that I still want to get to even at 67. I just think there’s never a wrong time to get started.

And if it’s something that you’ve been wanting to do forever, why can’t now be the time? As far as I don’t have enough money to get started, I’m not here to tell you that investing in real estate is easy without money.

But if you’ve never heard of the concept of house hacking, which surprisingly a lot of people haven’t, that could be something worth looking into where you buy a multifamily property, you live in one side, it allows you to get in with a lower down

payment and you rent out the other side, which covers a lot of your expenses. So if you’re worried about money, there are ways to get into real estate without money, but you have to put yourself out there and get surrounded by other people who got

started without a lot of money. Otherwise, you’re never going to know how to do it yourself.

I love that conversation you’re having with your mom because you’re really seeing her as a person and I don’t think a lot of us realize that our parents are people too, like you said, doing the best that they possibly can until I’m a mom of two and

you look around and you’re like, I’m in charge here, are we sure? Going back to what you said about needing permission on things, you’re like, I can’t be the one who’s making all of these choices. Yes, we can have ice cream for dinner.

But I will make sure we link the episode that Grace referenced as well as a link to your guys’ book and we will also be giving you guys a $200 off coupon if you want to join Grace and Amelia at Wiire Summer Camp, which is obviously going to be

incredible. And now ladies, I want to ask you the last three questions that I ask everyone. I’d love to hear from both of you. You might have the same answers on some, but you might have totally different.

And the first is, what was the best hospitality experience that you’ve ever had?

For me, the best hospitality experience was an incredible hotel in Ecuador that just had the most incredible smells, the most incredible woodwork, so clean, people handing you a drink when you walk in, the best food, and it just really made you relax

and have absolutely no worries during your trip. I can’t remember the name, but it was the coolest place I’ve ever been to.

I’ve had so many. We both love to travel. But my most recent one, I booked a weekend getaway to a tiny little town in Iowa.

I’m working on my own little luxury couples getaway, so I used it as a business expense excuse.

But it was a little place out in the middle of nowhere, where every single detail had been thought out, including a towel warmer in the bathroom, all of the essential oil scents that you could ever want, shower steamers, plush robes for multiple

people. Just every detail was there, including a bottle of champagne and chocolates, because they asked, you know, what were we coming to town for? So they knew and could cater their welcome gift for that. It was just so thoughtful.

You can really tell that they put a lot of care into that experience. And for me, that’s something that goes such a long way. We were already planning our next trip back there before we had even left, because it was such a great experience.

Wow.

And on the opposite side of those two experiences, what was the worst hospitality experience that you’ve ever had?

This was recent and it might be your answer too, Amelia. I knew you were going to say it. I’m not naming the hotel.

But basically, we walked in and we instantly had to go to an ATM to give a cash deposit for the room. And the ATM had an insane charge and everybody was in line trying to do this thing.

We didn’t know that you had to do it and it just instantly set the tone to be an awful experience with it smelled bad. So just bad experience from the get-go because we felt like we had been tricked right when we walked in trying to check in.

Who’s not taking credit card? That is crazy.

Yeah, they were taking credit card, but they were also taking, they made us pay cash as a large hotel chain and we had to book this place last minute because our flight home from Guatemala got canceled or delayed and we couldn’t make our layover.

So it was one of those. But then get into the room and it’s even worse when we get into the room. But luckily, we stayed for one night.

We were out of there the next morning. But I like how you said, Grace, our onboarding experience was terrible. Set the tone for the whole stay to be negative.

Final question for you guys.

What does hospitality mean to you? And is there any one, it can be a person, it could be a brand that you think has truly mastered it.

Hospitality to me really means going above and beyond to provide the best experience possible for your paying customer. I’m going to use paying because I think that’s when it’s really important.

And a brand for me that does an amazing job would probably be, the only thing I can think of is, and this is so random, but Shark.

Because I know Shark has an amazing return policy, where if you buy any of their products and then like two years later, you decide you don’t want them anymore or like something has gone wrong, they’ll either send you a new one or fully refund you,

Yeah.

I will give a also different answer. Hospitality to me, especially in terms of our work, is how you take care of your people and socially.

And so one thing we do at our retreats is welcoming people, walking them to their rooms, making sure they know where to sit and what to do with their hands, and they know what to say until they get to that piece, to that place where they’re

comfortable to kind of be autonomous and on their own. So I have to give a shout out to level up your listing as well of doing a great job of being hospitable as a conference, especially in terms of how they place their vendors and give you ways to

interact with them. I thought that was a really ingenious way and new take on hospitality.

Well, Grace, Amelia, this has been so much fun. Thank you both for joining us today and for everyone watching and listening. As I mentioned, I will be sure to link the links to their book, their podcast and the discount code for summer camp.

Thank you for having us.

All right, everyone, it’s time for today’s Suite Summary, where I break down the key insights and actionable takeaways from today’s conversation.

40:15

Suite Summary

In hospitality, we talk a lot about the arrival experience, how the first 10 minutes set the tone for a guest’s entire stay. It was fascinating to hear Grace and Amelia talk about the same principle in their businesses.

From how they onboard new members of their community, to how they welcome new long-term tenants, first impressions aren’t just a moment, they’re a foundation.

Speaking of first impressions, Grace sliding into Amelia’s DMs is such a tale of modern friendship. But it’s also a reminder of something bigger, not waiting for the perfect moment or for permission to take action.

Grace didn’t wait until she owned enough properties to feel qualified to start this community. She followed her curiosity, which led her to Amelia, and together they built it step by step.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t and still aren’t what Amelia calls squirrel moments. The distractions, the pivots, the things that try to pull their attention in a dozen different directions.

But they always have each other to come back to, to refocus, to realign, and to stay grounded in what really matters, connection. That is what they have built.

A real community housed in a place, whether it be physical or digital, where people feel comfortable, safe, and understood.

A current as Grace described it, where even when you’re not actively pushing forward, you’re still moving simply because of the environment you’ve placed yourself in. And maybe that’s the bigger takeaway here.

The right rooms don’t just inspire you, they move you. They expand what you believe is possible. They take you out of your day-to-day.

They give you access to conversations, ideas, and versions of yourself that you wouldn’t encounter otherwise. And sometimes that alone can change everything. And that concludes another episode of Suite Success.

If you enjoyed today’s conversation, please subscribe, rate, and review the show. We all know how important those five-star reviews are. I also want to say a massive thank you to each and every one of you for tuning in.

It means the absolute world to me. And I’d love to hear from you. If you have ideas for future guests, new topics to cover, or even just want to say hi, don’t be shy.

Message me through our website, suitesuccesspodcast.com, or on social media, at suitesuccesspodcast.com. That’s sweet like Hotel Suite. Once again, I’m your host, Katie Cline, and I’m super excited to see you all next week.