30 Day Stay: How To Earn Your Freedom Through The "Medium Term Rental" Airbnb Strategy w/ Zeona Mcintyre

Zana MacIntyre, International Woman of Mystery. How are you?

I am so good, and I just wanna say that you perfectly pronounce my name and that is not an easy feat. So already you're winning, Sir.

Zona Macin entry. Hello, How are you?

Oh, everything in that range happens to me. So yes. , brian: same. Same here. Same here. , you travel a good bit yourself. So are you currently home or are you abroad? What are you doing? I am in Boulder, Colorado, But you are catching me between Burning Man, which is epic, like going to another planet and then I'm going to Hawaii tomorrow. So

yeah, So you just, so you're part of the Burning Man crowd. I

am. So does this paint a different picture

now? How? How was Burning Man? And tell me about the economics of a 12 hour car ride to exit burning.

I am way more cool than that. I take a bus. The bus gives you just a straight shot. So there is no waiting in line. I know all about this. This is my fifth year at Burning Man. . brian: I saw Ray Dalio. The billionaire hedge fund manager, the Titan of industry, wearing a fur coat at Burning Man, and I was talking shit about Burning Man for two weeks straight and toss saw Ray Dalio there. And then I thought, okay, like shoot, is the secret to Should have been there.

Yeah. Yeah.

But anyways, I know that you are massive in the Airbnb space, and I want to go into that with you. We'll go into what's working, what's not working, and what is different from now and 2020. Yeah. Because we have a lot of newbie Airbnb investors that are coming in right now, and it's a scary time. Because the underwriting is completely off. And you and I both know this, I wanna talk about it. First, let's back it up a bit and talk about your origin story with this whole wacky world of short term rentals, because you were getting into them before they were super popular, right?

Yeah I got lucky. Th there's not many things in my life that I do ahead of the curve. Let's just be honest. I'm a little bit of a slow adapter, but Airbnb I got in early and it's been a wild ride. It's been fun to see It rocket shifted over, 2015 to 2019 and it's just fun to see how it's evolving. Yeah. You wanna go into the origin story?

Yeah. So it was, your friend was like renting out his apartment. Yeah,

so my friend in New York where, you know, if you live in New York or LA you hear about everything first. It's like the tech hub mecca. Anyway, so Airbnb, I think what the barrier to entry for a lot of people was, is that they didn't want randoms in their house. And I was already okay with that. So I was like, Oh man, I could do couch surfing, but actually get paid score. So at that time I was a college student, I was making like minimum wage and I had a spare room. I had a roommate who just moved out and I already had to furnish with all my stuff. And so I was like there's no harm in trying this. If it doesn't work, I just get another roommate. It's like I have the sheets and towels and everything. So I listed it and it did okay. It wasn't this crazy amazing thing cuz it was Boulder, Colorado, and not New York City. But over time, Boulder got more and more popular and Airbnb got more and more popular. So it got to be where I was renting out this other room, and then I was renting out my room and staying at people's houses. Then I eventually got more apartments and I was going between the different apartments and then ended up buying and then buying outta state. And so I, yeah, I started with arbitrage and have of just tried every strategy since.

What was the part that really made you fall in love with the medium? Was it the cash flow? Was it the hospitality? What part was it?

Yeah, at the early days it was the hospitality, but I'm so removed from that now that it's hard to say that's still true. I think I still dream of having a place where, like my basement unit or my ADU is an Airbnb because it would be so fun to have fresh flowers and interact with the guests. In 2015, Airbnb had the Airbnb Open, which was this big conference, and they had a couple of events where they were having. Awards for amazing guest stories and I was like weeping in there cuz there's just like beautiful stuff that, that travelers got to experience for their hosts. I want some of that magic, but now I don't have people like in my home with me. So I don't really see the travelers.

I wanna hit on two different angles here, but first I wanna start with 2022 starting an Airbnb. And jumping into the industry now. Yeah, because I think this is a great podcast episode to do because a lot of people ask about it and a lot of people are looking into it, and I really wanna direct them the right way to do it, as opposed to. Going really wacky with the numbers and then having a problem. Because what we're seeing across the country right now is interest rates are going up. Some people are getting underwater with their Airbnb purchases. Yeah. And they're like, Oh, I was so excited to start doing this. And now all of a sudden we've got regulations coming in, we've got legislation coming in, interest rates going crazy. So now. I'm so excited to have you on today because you've seen all of this and then you make content on this and you talk to people about Airbnbs all the time. So if somebody were to make, to start doing the Airbnbs in 2022, let's walk them through a journey here about what to do and what not to do. So first off, what is changing that you're seeing here in this year that people need to be looking out?

So Avery Carl, if you guys know her short term shop, she's gotten really popular with her vacation rental markets. And so where she buys is she buys in these markets where they've been tried and true vacation rentals for 20 years. But what we're seeing now is that doesn't necessarily protect you, right? It doesn't mean that regulations may not come in eventually because now it was first the cities and then it was smaller towns, and then even these. Remote hamlets are starting to put regulations into place, so you're just not fully sure. The second thing I don't love about that concept is that in a recession, which we're maybe in right now, we're working towards I feel a little concerned about not having a backup plan. So people are buying these million dollar properties that they're Airbnb or 700,000, which is still quite a big mortgage and it's all cute if they're rented, but when they're vacant, it's not great. And if it's in a town where nobody really lives there, there's a couple of people that work in the restaurant industry and that's it. It's a little bit scary because no one's gonna pay that really high mortgage for that house if you have to rent it long. . . brian: So is that what you look for? So talk to me about the markets that you would look for right now if you were purchasing, Cause I'm sure that you probably still are actively purchasing. What markets are you looking for and , What are some red flags to avoid when you're looking just from market demographics? Yeah. So I like urban adjacent, right? So mm-hmm. .. So a lot of the urban markets, they're not allowing it anymore. Or they do the thing where it has to be primary residents. So I I live in Boulder. Yeah, Atlanta's done that. But in Atlanta there's towns like Tucker. You live in Atlanta, right? Tucker allows it. So like, how can you be really close to Atlanta and position yourself on the edge of Tucker, the part that's the closest to Atlanta, right? And then you've got this loophole that you can do it. And a lot of times when they go in and change the regulations, they'll grandfather the people in that are already doing it. And so that happened for us in Colorado Springs. We're one of the few with the grandfathered. They don't let you sell with that license. So it's not a lot of competition, which is awesome. So for Denver, for example, outside of Denver, there's a couple surrounding towns that allow it. They all have their own little regulations, but maybe you can just have one property or whatnot, and those do super well. And so it's just about like knowing the intricacies and that's why having. An investor friendly realtor is really helpful and hopefully one that's already Airbnb the.

So that's probably where you would start are you're still finding these properties on the mls because now I see it becoming more and more popular with these people that are going and finding these super distressed properties and essentially like being like burring them. Into an Airbnb. I see that happening over and over again. So are you still act, So if you were to go look for one, would you be looking for the, on the MLS or where are people finding these? I have

bought every mo, every one of my properties from the mls. Yeah, it's, I'm not reinventing the wheel. I think it's knowing. I like to talk about like the real estate food chain. Where I am is I come in at the place of renovated, so I'm not even doing value add, and some people do and that's awesome. I come in at the space of renovated and I get it furnished immediately, and I know that my money is coming from this space of being furnished in shorter terms, so maybe that's a month or maybe that's under 30 days, but I'm doing the medium and short term rentals, and that's where my cash flow

comes. Okay. Say more on that, about the strategy that you have with that. Because I know that some people that have come on this show, they're like, they like the month to month or they like the traveling nurse strategy. What's your go to pocket strategy that you're doing right now that's just kicking ass?

I'm doing more mtr, so this is like month to month rental, but it's, everyone has their pros and cons, right? Sure. So short term rentals, it's gonna get you the most cash flow. So if you're really at this space of I need to e out every dollar that I can get outta my property, then short-term rental is probably gonna be the one. But it comes with a lot of drawbacks. It comes with way more management higher expenses, and then regulations that you've gotta deal with. Medium term is this. Perfect. In the middle thing that I like where you can still get cash flow, but you're seen as a long term rental, so just a lot of that junk doesn't apply to you. You don't have lodging tax, you don't have to do like extra permits and stuff for the short term rental license. You just get a long term license and you chill. You're in this weird gray area that nobody's really looking at and there's still money to be made.

Yeah. So when it comes to these months to months, is that a complete, that's a completely different type of tenant than when it comes to the short term? Correct. Correct.

There's a, maybe there's a tiny bit of overlap, but it is a different concept. The short term, I would say the average day is about three to four nights, and this longer term stay, whether it's a month or three months, you're getting more like traveling business professionals. You're getting traveling nurses, you get. Digital nomads. So someone like you where I could be staying in places for a month. So I've had people that say, Hey, I'm in Austin this month, then I'm coming to Boulder, then I go to Hawaii, and they're just like working from home. But they're in these different Airbnbs. So some people now live in Airbnb's full time and they don't have

a home. Yeah, I know can relate. Yeah, I'm in an air Airbnb right now in Budapest. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. But what I'm doing is I'm living like two weeks at a time because for me, a month into place is just too much and I run out of cuz without social connection. It becomes, Yeah, if you had friends there, it would make sense, yeah. But like for me, I'm like, two weeks I'm good onto the next thing. So that's what

I'm currently doing. But you get a cheaper rate at a month, so just need to start going to meetups and stuff. So you make some friends, everybody. Brian needs friends.

Brian needs friends , do any of y'all wanna be my friend? I'd like it. Yeah. Speaking about Brian needs friends, it's eight 20 on a Friday night and I'm here talking to you, so yeah, I'll be, that says it right there. Whatever . When you're doing the underwriting , for your Airbnbs right now, what different moves are you making in your current underwriting that maybe you weren't making in the last couple of years where it was just like going absolutely gangbusters with occupancy rates and bookings? It was insane. So what are you doing different now to make sure that you do have multiple exit strategies and you do have something that has. Kind of a safety net around it, just in case it doesn't quite cashflow like you want it to.

Yeah, so what's tricky is that people were in love with this 10% down second home loan and that was just like killing it. And then I think it was back. April that they changed it, where those didn't have such a good rate anymore. So before it used to be basically like getting a primary loan, which is about 1% less than an investment loan, and , people were loving that, but you still had to use your own income. You couldn't use the income from the property to qualify, but 10% down is way better than 20% down. So that was great. Now it's they're Wanting you not to do those loans as much. So you usually have to pay a bunch in rate, buy down or points. So yeah, you might have an okay rate, but then you have to pay like $10,000, which sort of screws you up on the lesser down payment, right? So what we're finding now is that people can sometimes do a 15% down, but those 10% down ones are just not as good. Got it. So that kind of sucks. What I have seen people do is some people that are digital, no adsd like you and I I've seen them do an Airbnb as a primary, so you know, Gray area, but they go and they live in it for a little while, say it's their primary, and then they continue living around the world. And so they still get that lower rate and they can put, even three to 5% down. . Okay. Not everybody's gonna do that. Otherwise I would look for 10% down products, 15% down products. I am not as worried about, hi, a high interest rate. I think interest rates are gonna just change over the years. If you look at a 10 year horizon, if they go up and down. , you can refi at some point. Don't really worry about that. Worry about what your mortgage is gonna be every month. And that those numbers still work for you. And I think people get too worried about, Oh, I just want it to be, 0.25 less. It's who cares? Yeah. Marry the

cash flow to focus on, marry the cash flow date the rate.

Yeah, great. Sure. But what I don't like to do is throw money away to points. So if you have to buy down rates or there's some kind of fee, I don't like that as much, so I just try to see where I'm gonna be best suited. But yeah I try not to put down too much money if I can help it. And sometimes you can help it. When you buy condos, which I end up in a lot, you have to do 20% down usually. Sano was perfect. And

I'm assuming these are condos that are non hoa or are you buying with hoa? I buy it with

hoa. So if I'm doing, Wow. Yeah, so if I'm doing medium term rentals, what I like are the one and two bedroom units. I like 'em smaller. Cause generally for month to month, I feel like people are either traveling with themselves or maybe one partner. Sometimes traveling nurses have a. Something like that. But if I'm gonna have a three or four bedroom, how many people are traveling in a group like that? Month to month? It seems just like the tenant pool's gonna be harder. Sure. So while I do own one bedroom houses, there's not that many of them. So yeah, we end up in condos and the numbers still work.

And you haven't had any issues with HOAs because that's been like a nightmare in Atlanta. Like it's just like a hell on.

So if you're doing short term, sometimes your HOA is not gonna like that. If you do medium term, what you need to find out at the beginning, because I'm a realtor, so I know these things, is that you find out if they have any kind of restrictions on their Their rental time, their term, or whatever. , sometimes they'll say it's gotta be min, minimum a month, three months, six months. Sometimes they don't say anything. Sometimes they say a year, but usually they just want it to be minimum a month. They're just keeping the short term rentals at pay and so that's perfect for us, and so we just stay within

that. Okay, cool. So if you are gonna purchase within an hoa, do the month to month, instead of the short term, do the MTR instead of the St. Yeah. Okay. Okay, cool. So are you, when you're underwriting for the occupancy rates, I've heard a lot of people say to that what they're doing, the advice that they're giving is that they're underwriting for a 2019 or a 2018 occupancy level as opposed to a 20 or a 21. Are you doing the same thing or what are you doing when you're looking at

cash flow? It is smart. I am not looking at that. And then maybe I should be. Sometimes I learn things. But basically I look at air dna. And Air DNA is doing it by quarter. So that's pretty recent and I feel like that's pretty safe. And then I'm not so worried about the occupancy. So some towns you'll see 70% or more, which is fantastic, but other towns you'll see 50% or 45%. It's not about, It's about how much are they getting in that 50% of time? If you're making like a thousand dollars a night, yeah, maybe you don't need to rent it 90% of the time, and then it's, less hard on the house. So I wouldn't be so worried about that, but I wanna make sure that the average is gonna equal the income that I need to make. Does that make sense?

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So that's gonna, that actually leads perfectly into my next question, which is what price point do you target? because I've had people on here that do the ultra, like the luxury, high end short-term rentals, and I've had people that are doing like destination themed short-term rentals where they're all like bear themed and different cabin and wooded areas. Areas, Yeah. And I've got people on here with every single different niche and pocket that you can find. So I'm curious, Yeah, about yours.

That's really interesting. I think what I would love is to be at this really high end level and it scares the crap outta me. mean, Having a mortgage where you're like 10, 15,000 a month, like if that doesn't work, It's just a lot, So I know these people are in a space where they're making that in a week, but it's just hard to wrap my head around. So that scares me. I tend to buy in the smaller range. I have properties between a hundred to 700, but most of them are in this 300 K range. , and that's probably just limited beliefs in glass ceiling. I think we find what we feel comfortable with and then we grow. But I often am buying something where it makes me uncomfortable and I've just gotta adjust to that. So I don't know if there's a perfect answer for that.

Yeah, it's just, I've been curious as I've been watching because I'm just like, okay, like what is the strategy here? Do you wanna be , like the ultra high end one that's got all the different bells and whistles, but if you are the ultra high end one, and like I've had Rachel Gainesboro and all them on the show, and I even asked them, I'm like, Okay, so I buy B class. For my actual houses, for my full-time rentals, long-term rentals, and I buy B class because if you are in a recession, the first thing that happens is the A class tenants go down to B class and then, so then you have a bit of a trickle there. and it's a nice, stable ecosystem. But I'm curious, and this is a good question for you cuz you're way more in this world than I am. Yeah. I'm curious about with what is happening. So the stock market went crazy or in some type of recession, like we can all just generally agree the economy is not looking great. , we can all agree on that. Yeah, can agree on that. So normally there's a delay in the real estate reaction. The appreciation's already slowed down, which I'm actually excited about. That's what the Fed was trying to do. But now I'm wondering, will we see that impact in the short term rental space where whenever people do get hit, it's gonna be, Oh, I'm not gonna buy that luxury short term rental. I'm gonna go down to that mid-class Airbnb. Or do you think it's not gonna be really impacted as much because of changes in trends? Because now I feel like people would rather do the experiences and spend money on experiences instead of spending money on things after the pandemic. There's a lot. I think that was

true. That was true in like 2021. I think people were really about the experience days and the rural stays and that's why you were seeing all these like treehouses and things coming up. Now I think people are a little bit more getting back into the urban markets because they're doing the necessary travel. People are just like little unsure what's happening, but they still wanna go visit their friends and their family members and so okay, we're we. Gonna go to this city cuz we have to go see somebody. So I, that's what I'm feeling the most comfortable with. I get that if we're in a long recession, people are going to be doing more drive to destinations instead of flying. They're not gonna go to Mexico and Hawaii, they're gonna drive down to Florida. Okay, great. That's what the short term shops model is. But I think that in the interim, and I don't know how long this weird holding pattern's gonna be, people are just doing those necessary trips. But I want to say something else because I got to reflect while you were talking for a long time. And I realize you welcome. I

get, I'll let you drink a coffee. I'll let you think, I'll let you go to the bathroom.

I got to like process. There we go. I realized that my strategy tends to be that I find a cheap pocket, maybe an undervalued pocket of a town. And I find a nice renovated unit in it, so one that looks really good, but is on the edge of something that could be gaining in value and then buy that. So yeah, I tend to find something that, I think it's a little bit cheap, but I can rent it for a lot if I furnish it well. So that's the strategy that I've seen myself doing again and again.

And so right now let's go into what your portfolio currently looks like and then what you're trying to take it to.

I have 12 units. I have 12 units, but they're in four states and it's just like bonanza. I think what's funny is that a lot of people buy in one town. They like get to know it and they're like, Sweet. I know exactly what I'm looking for when that comes on the market, I'm just gonna buy it. And that makes a great amount of sense in theory, but like I have not done that. So guess have

into have not done that. Why have you not done that? Tell me more. The

people want know. Okay. I started in bull Colorado cuz it is where I lived. Okay. So I had a unit and then bought a unit with that was very similar that I had been arbitraging cuz I was like, okay, I know all these numbers. And I looked at the other one and it was cheaper and I was like, Perfect, that's gonna work. Then after that I was like, Boulder's too expensive. I can't keep doing. So I went to St. Louis, and that's a much cheaper market and just went crazy there. So I had four places and now only have one. I'm like getting out of that market. Then yeah, I, I just buy where I find opportunity, so it is a little bit crazy, but I have a few in like middle Florida, Ocala, I have a Panama City Beach Rental. I've got one kind of outside of Seattle on the sound. Up in Washington state and then a couple around Colorado. I've got two. Two Boulder, One Denver, one Colorado Springs.

Nice. We're all counted for . zeona: Yeah. I got lots of friends. Yeah. Whatever. That's awesome. So right now, so you also do you also have a management arm? To this.

Oh, I used to, but that is the worst part of the job, so I'm not doing that anymore.

Tell me more. Let's talk about that. Because some people are like, Oh, I want to go on to Airbnb management. I want to do all this. Talk to some,

Sure. You could do it for a short period of time. I don't know. Maybe some people are just better at systems than I am. What I learned is that I would get an assistant and then all the bad news were rolled at the top. They could handle all of the in between, and they would hear the good things and see the reviews, but anytime anything escalated to me was just terrible. And so all I got was just all the bad stuff and I was like, This is not fun. So I stopped doing it, but at that time I had managed. 60 rentals in five countries. So I learned to be all over the place with it. And so that's why it's easy for me to buy in different places cuz I'm like, Oh yeah, I just managed from afar.

Yeah, it's hilarious because whenever I'm like getting a place that's like super nice. Like the place I'm in Budapest right now is super nice. Mm-hmm. And just perfect for exactly what you need. And I was just like, oh, this person's a professional host for sure. And I go look at her property. She has 37 properties. On Airbnb, and I'm like, I almost wanna message her and be like, Hey look. So I run this American podcast like , do you want, can I be on the show? You wanna be on the show and talk about the Hungarian rental market? ? zeona: You could. That's fine. So you've got 12 right now. What's the casual looking like on 12 Airbnbs that you're running? And are these, do you have these in-house or are these outsourced for their management because you hated doing?

No, so I'm an assistant, so she does my management and then I just don't do other people's management anymore cuz I, it was just too much. Got it. And I have short, medium, and long term. So 12 units across, what is it? Nine actual properties and my cash flow, I think we're like nine, nine and a half thousand, something like that. And the reason. I have a quad that I gave to my nephews. It's their college fund, and so I don't really track that money as much. I think it's like 1300 that comes off of that quad, but that's like theirs.

So talk more about that because I know Brandon does something like that. Yeah. With his kids and he was on the show and he talked about that. Talk about being

a college one. He totally just stole Brandon's idea. Good. Do it. . Exactly. He

doesn't deserve all the ideas. He doesn't deserve all the ideas. Take him . zeona: Yeah. So I saw that he did that. And then when my nephews were born I'm not intending to have children and my sister. They just live like a pretty frugal life. They live in a tiny home and they're in Maui, and they're just not as, I don't know, entrepreneurial and crazy as I am. So I was like, this would be cool if the kids wanna go to college. I could just buy them a quad now, in 20 years it'd be mostly paid off. It'll probably appreciate a ton. We can just sell it or they can use the money now for like private school or whatever. So it kicks off, I think around 1300. A month and they use that for yeah, nanny, daycare, whatever. And they're stoked and meanwhile it is appreciated. I got it two years ago. It's appreciated. Like a hundred, 150. So yeah, it's doing its job. There you go. So I heard you say that they're pretty frugal, but not you, you're an entrepreneur. So let's pivot here. Let's pivot here. No, hold on a second. Ok. Honestly, I got you for a second. Oh, Alright. What are your ideas on financial independence? Retire early.

Yeah, so I considered myself five at the first time when I was 28. So I got to do that in two years with Airbnb, which is dope. Yeah. And then I had different goals, right? So first it was just, can I cover my expenses? And I'm like, Yeah, can I hit a million dollars? Yeah. And then all the things continually change. So my expenses do go up as my lifestyle goes up. I don't think I'll ever stops up working. But yeah, I have more expenses than I used to and I think it's probably, cuz I'm also a real estate agent and it's a spendy job. , brian: Yeah. A little bit to a degree. I just, Yeah. Can't be So my whole thing that I talk to people about on this show and around is like getting enough passive income to have passionate. That's the goal. Wow. Is to explain that to me, . Oh yeah. I'm a, It's in the trademark process. It's serious. We're serious over here. But yeah, it's funny, I say this because I posted in some financial independence, retire early like Facebook groups and. What I do is I'll post my picture of me, like in Greece and I'll say, Hey guys, like I hit financial freedom. I'm traveling around the world and everyone goes, Oh my God, this is awesome. And then I start getting all these hate messages, right? Ooh. Because they're like throwing shade. They're like, You're still working. You're not fi, you're working, you still produce income. I'm like, What are you talking about? I was like, I travel around the world full time podcasting and now that has become my job. . Yeah. I was like, Isn't that what we're aiming for? Yeah. So it's just, it's funny because that's what I think it's for. I think that the reason that you get the passive income, the reason that you do your short term rentals, that you can get the nine grand is that you choose to do the work that you want to do instead of having to do work that you have to do. And then you can have, So I got a little tweak for you. So this is mine. Mine is different, but I got this, I got a hit at Burning Man. You get messages. Burning Man is, oh my God. Full spiritual place. We're going back to it. But when I was there I realized that so much of my life has been focused on the financial and the vocational parts of my life. Where the, those are like overdeveloped. And now I'm in my mid thirties and I'm like, I wanna be more spiritual. I wanna be more creative. I wanna do all these other things. And what I realized there is that. My why has shifted into helping people figure out their finances so that they can grow as humans. Because I think like you can't work on yourself spiritual, You can't fully develop if you're focused on surviving. And we waste our time doing 40 years of surviving. So fuck that. Let's get that outta

that. All right, now we're having ourselves a podcast episode. Now we're getting past it. Welcome, welcome to the Action Academy. Okay, here we go. All right. I agree with you. Let's talk about this because Naval Racon, have you seen him on Twitter or seen anything he's posted? I

don't tweet, so

no, Tell me. So Naval Racan tweeted this thing. He tweeted this whole list of stuff where it was like, How to get Rich without getting lucky, and he's just like this philosopher angel investor duties, freaking awesome. And he did a tweet where he was like, I want to get everyone ridiculously wealthy so that they can see that the answer is not riches to happiness. Yeah. . But he's Let's get everyone rich first so that they can realize it's not the. Because if you're spending all of your time, energy, and effort on survival and that's all you're thinking about is, okay, how do I pay this? How do I pay this mortgage? How do I pay this car note? How do I pay this? And that's all your brain is thinking about. There's no way that you're gonna be able to do any of the internal work. So talk more about that with your journey.

So I had this conversation yesterday, so this is really this is good timing, but what I was talking about to this person, I'm in a, an accountability group that, that focuses on eight areas of life and not just, finances. Perfect. But I was saying, it's easy to get stuck in this thing where it's okay, I wanna have a million dollars, and then you achieve that and you're almost a little bit depressed. What do I do now? Yeah. And then you're like I guess I better kick the can down the road. Let's make it 10 million. And so I have something to do, and it's easy to measure these goals of 10 properties or 10 million because they're just easy round numbers. But what he told me is that it's not what you have, it's how you feel. And that was like a light bulb for me. I was like, Oh my God, if it's only how I feel, I could literally wake up every morning, do a little meditation. How am I feeling now? How do I want to feel and then go after that and that's it. I could be satisfied there and I don't have to do all this other shit. Yeah, I think I've worn myself down. I get really exhausted just chasing these things to chase them that don't mean anything.

All right people. All right, ladies and gentlemen listening to the podcast. You guys listen now. You guys listen now, it's not just one person, it's not just two people. It's 10 people now have come on this show and had the same realization. Oh, I love it. I had a friend Chad Corbit, so if you guys have not listened to Chad's episode, you need to go back and listen to it. It was I think it was like feelings before freedom and this guy had an eight figure real estate business and he. Was running three different arms. He had a mortgage part, a lending part, a real estate brokerage. He had all the different arms that you're supposed to make, making eight figures a year. And he finally was just like, Okay, how do I wanna feel? Cause he got the same coaching that you did and he had the same realization. Yeah. And his feeling he wanted was relaxed. Yeah. And he said, None of this shit is making me. So the next day he woke up in the morning, burned it down , and he shut down three businesses in one day. Yeah. He shut 'em all down. And then he started an online education business that now is generating a million dollars every six months. Totally. And now he's relaxed while he does it. Yeah. So that's my new thing, is like now I'm rewriting my vivid vision for this next run. And I've got my my vivid vision in there. So I've got my, how I want to feel, and I've got like an acronym that's free. It's financially abundant, ready to fly, energized, and excited. That's how I wanna feel every day. Oh. And the to. I like that. Yeah. And the ready to fly apart is because at any given point, like I'm gonna have my business designed to where at any moment I wanna be within a one week notice of being wherever I wanna be. So if you tell me, Hey, we're doing this next week at any given point, my business, I wanna say, Okay, cool. Like next Tuesday. Okay, cool. Let me move some things around. I'll be there next Tuesday. I'll fly. That's what I wanna do. Yeah. Cool.

Ah, I love that. And I love that you, you've gotta so figured out that you have an acronym so you're definitely step your game up are on the right path.

Step your game up, Z Money, What are you doing, ? That's right. So what is next? So what is next on your path to enlightenment and riches and success and fulfillment and significance? What are you doing?

So I just co-authored a book that's coming out. Depends when this airs. But in November, for bigger pockets, that is all on the medium to rental strategy. So it's called 30 Day Stay. The Investors Guide to Mastering the Medium Term Rental. So I'm excited about the book and it is brought up a lot of, do I take this big surge of opportunity and create a bunch of stuff or do I not, And. I'm at this place where it's like, Man, I could build a million dollar group coaching business, but I don't think I want to and like that, That I think is hard for people in the real estate world to understand because I am five first, I'm in the financial independence world where it is about enough and it is about. Our family and our friends and our lifestyle first. So yeah, I don't wanna do something that's just gonna make me more busy to make me more busy or make me more money when I already have enough money. I wanna have a TV show. I think that would be fun as hell. But other than that, I don't know.

Chilling, man. So tell me more. So if you could wave a magic wand, if you could wave a wand in fast forward a couple years, like what would a perfect week in the life of Zana look?

I like a lot of travel. I still do a lot of that. So we travel about six months a year and we do slow travel. So like we're going to Hawaii, we go for a month. I don't like bopping around as much. It's just complicated. Slow mat. Yeah, slow mat. So I'd love. At least for a season, it'd be really fun to have a show where I was getting made up because I don't like to do myself. But if someone wants to glam me, that sounds amazing. And then I love the idea of doing something where I'm having these really rich conversations with people like you. If you guys listen to our podcast, it's good, but I wish it was deeper. And that's fine. It's Craig and I. It's not just what . brian: Wish it was deeper. We not go deep enough. Yeah, let's go. Oh, it depends on the person, right? But I think our format doesn't allow for as much depth. If you've seen something like David Letterman's, like My guest needs No Introduction, that show that you do so much research and background on their guests that is incredibly rich and I want that

yeah. I love it. Yeah. Awesome. So where else can people find you?

Yeah, so Instagram's the easiest, but I do lots of the socials, but yeah, I answer all my dms, so find me at Zana MacIntyre.

There you go. And then we will have that spelled out in the title and also in the show notes. People. Yes. And if you mispronounce her name, she will punch you in the throat. Sorry. That's right. There. You do not wanna throat punch. Thank you so much for coming on. This has been awesome. This will be going out in October, so that'll be perfect timing for the book release. Everybody go get the book. She knows what the heck she's talking about and she's proved it today. And we got a little bit deep. We got into it a little bit. I love it. And thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. Bye. All right. This is Ben, Brian and Zana with the Action Academy Podcast signing.