170. SOLO EPISODE! Baby #4?? Buying a Camp + The REAL Reason I Stopped Coaching?!

0:00Natalie Palmer:Hello, welcome, and thanks for checking in today to No Vacancy, the podcast. I'm your host, Natalie Palmer. I'm an Airbnb ambassador and 17-time superhost, and I've hosted over 1 ,000 reservations. I'm a stay-at-home mom of two and manage my eight listings remotely. My mission is to help new and experienced vacation rental hosts turn their listings into fully booked, profitable properties that can be managed from anywhere so you too can have no vacancies. If that sounds good to you, let's get right into the show.

0:52Natalie Palmer:Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of No Vacancy, the podcast. I'm your host, Natalie Palmer. Today, I have a confession. I 100 % dropped the ball on getting a guest lined up for this week. And it's now Tuesday, the day before. My podcast is supposed to come out. Episodes come out every Wednesday. And here I am realizing I didn't plan a guest. So I guess we got to do a solo episode. So I'm just going to catch you guys up on sort of my life and what's been happening. So I don't have a hard-hitting interview for you today. And yeah, I truly dropped the ball in my defense, okay?

1:32My dad had triple bypass last week and I've been very distracted with hospital visits and everything. He's doing very well, in case anybody cares. what a gnarly surgery you guys can i just say anyone who's had a triple bypass or knows someone he's like fully chopped up like they literally go and take an artery from his leg a vein from his arm another artery from his other leg and then open his whole rib cage like crack his sternum open go into open heart surgery with these harvested veins from all his other limbs like absolutely gnarly. And then within the same day, they were getting him into a chair and like walking around the hospital.

2:16Modern medicine blows my mind. So anyway, he is he's all good, but I've just been very distracted. And like I said, failed to get a guest lined up this week. So you get to hear from me for the next 20 to 30 minutes. We'll see how long how long all my thoughts take to get out. But maybe this is for the best because I have some updates for you guys. Where do I even start? So much has changed lately. I've done a whole career shift this summer. And did I tell you guys I'm pregnant? I don't think I did. I've been totally absent on social media, which I will get into. And I didn't post an announcement, but I am 30 weeks pregnant as you're hearing this.

2:57so yeah I'm due end of January with baby number four I don't know what to think about it I was open to four kids I definitely was open to four kids but I think I wanted a little bit more of a gap my third baby Grayson he will turn two in April and this baby comes January so they'll be like 21 months apart I think I wanted a little longer of a gap which did not happen I also was trying to time that this kid, we want it a fourth, but in my mind, I was trying to time it that the kid would maybe come in like June-ish.

3:33Natalie Palmer:My husband's a teacher, so he'd be on summer break. It would be after Level Up Your Listing, my annual Women's Short-Term Rental Summit I do every year in March. It would be after that. I clearly did not time it well and was not tracking the way it was supposed to because here we are and I'm due in January, but it's going to be great. And I don't know what we're having. It'll be a surprise. All our kids were surprises, actually. So we shall see. I have two girls already and one boy. We'll see if we even it out two for two or if Grayson is just going to be absolutely outnumbered with some crazy estrogen sister energy.

4:08We'll see. Anyone with multiple kids, I would love to know if your approach to each pregnancy has been different because the difference between my first pregnancy and my fourth is with the first, I was tracking every single week, like, what fruit is my baby now the size of? Now they're a mango. Now they're a papaya. Like, every single week, obsessed with every milestone. Now they have fingernails. Now they have fingerprints. And now their eyes are opening all of that. With my fourth, I literally forget that I'm pregnant. I'm 30 weeks now, and I'm, like, wrangling the other three children. And then all of a sudden, I'll feel a kick.

4:47And I'm like, oh yeah, there's a fourth one coming. But like if, if the child wasn't like kicking me and reminding me it's there, I would forget. My mind is just in a million places. I don't have like time to just sit here and obsess over fingernail growth, you know? So don't get me wrong. I'm very excited and I can't wait to see how this one like joins the family and like the other kids. I mean, my 18 month old, he doesn't, he's not aware of what's coming, but two older sisters are very, very excited to have a baby. I can't wait. I'm very excited, but I just keep forgetting. I'm so sorry, child.

5:25You'll hear this one day. Please don't think that I'm not excited for you, but I just, I can't possibly give this pregnancy the same energy that I did to the first and even the second. So I'd love to hear from other moms if you had that same experience. And yeah, that kind of goes to why I never even posted this one on social media or anything. I just feel like by the fourth kid, no one cares anymore. It's like everyone's excited for your first, even your second. And then after that, it's just like, oh, they just they keep going. Okay. So yeah, I haven't posted anything. You know, this might be a good time to address to why I just haven't been on social media.

6:03And probably none of you have even noticed.

6:07Natalie Palmer:I feel like this is something that when someone takes a break from social media, they think that everybody misses them and is wondering where their content is. I would venture to guess none of you have even noticed that I just stopped posting. But yeah, I just decided this summer, and I want to say this isn't like a final thing, like I'll never post on Instagram again. No. But when I grew my account, I was having so much fun doing like creative reels and skits and voiceovers. And for the last six months, I just am so bored. When I go online, Instagram and these apps, they just don't even hold my attention.

6:51Natalie Palmer:I feel like it's all the same thing. Nobody's being creative and putting out unique content. Maybe I'm just following the wrong people or my algorithm just isn't giving me anything I like, but I feel like I've seen it all. I feel like there's everybody's faces are starting to look the same. Everybody's houses are starting to look the same. Everybody's skincare collection and makeup collection and their closet all looks the same. And I'm just so bored. So if social media is not going to hold my attention, I'm not going to. It's like I can't think of what to post. That's interesting. I also feel like my account, I grew it talking about short term rentals.

7:31And at this point. Guys, I feel like I have said every single thing that I need to say about short-term rentals. Like, I don't know what's left to talk about. This is why I have so many guests on, because they at least bring like a new perspective that I can dig into. I could not sustain a solo show right now. Look, what? We're 10 minutes into this episode, and what have I even talked about so far? Nothing short-term rental related. I feel like anything that I need to say about STRs, I've said it. You're not going to get a new take from me.

7:59Natalie Palmer:I actually have felt burnt out from social media for even longer. I would say like 18 months at this point. I think it was when I was pregnant with Grayson and he was born April of 2024. I think during that, like the last trimester of that phase, I just like wasn't comfortable in my own skin and my body. We were busy playing level up and I just didn't want to didn't feel like showing up and like posting. And so at that time, I had hired somebody to help me with social media. And I had a realization because I sort of stopped going on after that. Like I had somebody helping me and she was very good.

8:34Natalie Palmer:She would like ask me to like send her B-roll and I would still have to approve the posts and everything. But I didn't have to be the one like watching trends and figuring out what the trending audios were and just like keeping up with all of that. She was really good at all that. And I had a realization. I went to a retreat recently. It was called the seven figure founder retreat. And it was like women who have been seven figure founders. So I went to this and there was a moment where I was talking to a group of us. It was a group of us women. And we started talking and I realized I use someone for social media.

9:11Natalie Palmer:Every single girl at this table was like, yeah, I use someone for social media. I don't go on anymore. I don't have time. And I had this moment where I was like, is everybody just using a VA or an agency to post for them? And are the only people left online other VAs and agencies? And is everybody just paying to have content created for the consumption of their other VAs and agencies? Which I know is not true. There's billions of users on these platforms. But it really clicked for me that all these other seven-figure founders and CEOs and founders and very successful people who those are the people I want to be in rooms with, they're also not going on.

9:58Natalie Palmer:They're also not going on social media and they've outsourced that too. So what are we all creating content for? Like who's consuming this out here? Hired help? You know what I mean? And obviously I know that's not true because so many businesses thrive because of social media, but I've heard so many people and I have said it before too. I've heard so many people say, oh, if I didn't need social media for work, I wouldn't be on it. There's literally spikes right now in people buying dumb phones instead of smartphones. Like people now want phones without internet access. And they're going back, you know, 20 years to how we used to have phones.

10:38Natalie Palmer:And I caught myself saying that. I've said that so many times in the past and said, yeah, if I didn't need social media for work, I wouldn't be on it.

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11:20Natalie Palmer:Anyway, this year I had been working with this social media agency and was really happy with them, but it was around April of this year, I want to say, that the time was coming up to renew with them. And I just, something in me just felt like I had caught myself so many times saying, if I didn't need social media for work, I wouldn't be on it. And I think that after, as like April was coming up and it was time to renew, I thought to myself, if I feel like I still need social media for work, I haven't built the business that I wanted. People have been able to make money and be successful for millennia.

12:01Natalie Palmer:People have been able to make a living and do all of this. Instagram came out in what, 2011? How did anybody make a living before that without social media. I know it helps. I know it's made the world smaller. I think my summit, my podcast, like a lot of what I've accomplished has been thanks to social media. But something just clicked for me. And it was like, if I still feel like dependent on this, and even if it's not me personally, but I have to pay somebody to go on here and keep my account alive, then I haven't built the business I want. And so I decided not to renew. And I think it was anxious for maybe a week like oh gosh either I have to decide to start showing up again or I'm like really just giving up on social media being one of my leads to my business and it ended up being the latter and I have zero regrets you guys I did a whole career shift this summer I'll get into that too did a whole career shift this summer and I can tell you not having social media has not slowed me down one bit.

13:03We still have a VA that does our social posts for level up your listing. But other than that, I just don't go on anymore.

13:11Natalie Palmer:And I kind of love it. I feel like I started getting my real estate license this summer. Like normally I would go scroll the app. But now instead I go into the app that has my course on it and I'm knocking out this content every week. I've been reading more books. I've been watching more like YouTube, like long form content where I'm actually like learning something and consuming something interesting rather than just scrolling. I absolutely love it. This is not meant to turn into a diatribe about like why you should get off social media. I just want to encourage you guys. I feel like I haven't really been seen much online and I want to reassure you has not slowed me down one bit.

13:53Natalie Palmer:And I feel like if you are that person who feels tethered right now to social media and you don't want to be, you can figure it out without it. You can figure it out without it. My two biggest things I would recommend is you have to have your email list and not going to lie, having the podcast helps. I get a lot of leads still for business from the podcast. So that's helpful to have some sort of platform. I really want to start posting on LinkedIn too, because now that I'm doing capital raising, I think that my audience, people, high net worth individuals who have liquid funds that they need to invest into a property or a partnership, I think that more of that audience is going to be on LinkedIn than they even were on Instagram to begin with.

14:36Natalie Palmer:I've also never been on TikTok, literally never been on TikTok, never had a TikTok account and don't plan on ever. So again, I will say this is not like you're never going to see me on Instagram again. This is not like a final departure. My account's still there. I actually posted last week because I had a partnership with Wayfair. So I did post something for them around Wayday. And I think it's a great platform that I have to like fall back and connect on. But really the biggest changes I've made this year are I'm in so many groups and masterminds. I've spent a lot of money on coaching programs and to be in these kinds of groups.

15:12Natalie Palmer:But I'm in three really solid groups right now with great people in them. And rather than going on social media, I'm just engaging in these groups and forming relationships in there. That has been so much more helpful. And I think with what I'm doing now too with capital raising, I need fewer people with more money. When I was doing coaching and selling that, I needed a constant influx of people. So it's just every month we were working with my social media agency and it was like, okay, you have to make sure that you have this many people commenting to this many new followers, this much engagement every single month so that those people can be exposed to my coaching program.

16:02Natalie Palmer:Then I have to have this many people DMing. And the conversion rate from somebody DMing to then booking a sales call is this. The conversion rate from somebody being on a sales call to closing is this. And it was just a constant hamster wheel of like having to hit these metrics because of the conversion rates. Now, I feel like it's so many fewer people I need and just better quality relationships. So yeah gosh you guys I really love it I feel like my like brain works better now without without the doom scrolling I have just no temptation to even go back and scroll on there I used to have to set like screen time limits on my Instagram to tell me like you've been scrolling for 30 minutes it's time to get off I don't have any of that on right now I just don't go on I just don't like it at all I would literally rather go into my real estate course and actually learn something, read a business book or read a fiction book.

16:58Like not even everything I do is productive.

17:00Natalie Palmer:I've been reading so many good books and thrillers. So there you go. Okay, that was a long ramble. All right, let's talk next about capital raising and kind of my career shift and the decision to quit my coaching program. So this was a whole journey, you guys. I really, really thought that I wanted to be an online coach. Like I poured hours and hours and hours into creating my coaching program, into sales calls, into group coaching calls. And what I discovered is I loved the hour and a half or two hours that we were on a call together. Loved that. Every other part of coaching in this business, I dreaded.

17:50Natalie Palmer:I hated showing up for sales calls. Even once I was on the call, I would usually connect really well with the person who was on there because the only people scheduling calls had followed me and listed the podcast. And they already knew coming into the call that we would vibe. So once the call started, I did enjoy the sales call, but I just always had this like pressure in my head that like, oh, this is a sales call. We're not just actually like bonding here and clicking as friends. Like there is an objective here and I just hated it. And what's interesting is I don't hate sales at all. Like I do sales calls to sell sponsorships for Level Up.

18:31Natalie Palmer:I am now doing sales calls with investors, you know, and finding partners. and I really enjoy it. Like I don't hate sales calls but for some reason with the coaching program those sales calls had a different like connotation and I think this is what it is. I've really gone back and like analyzed like why were those kinds of calls not fulfilling for me. I think this is the difference. When I'm doing sponsorship calls for level up your listing it's working with the brand I'm not like personally asking this person to hand over five grand it's the brand they have a marketing budget and you know basically I'm proving like why a return on investment in our conference is worthwhile but they have a brand budget and they have their metrics they're looking for we're both like in this together they understand that this is a marketing channel it just felt more like business to business and a little bit less personal so I I really enjoyed that.

19:31Natalie Palmer:Now I'm working with partners, right? And so trying to raise capital and find private money lenders and partners, usually our minimum investment is 50K. The kinds of people I'm talking to now, even though they are deciding on an individual basis to invest with us or not, it still feels more like that business to business sale. These types of people I'm talking to have usually done a number of real estate deals and now they're burnt out and they see the value in a passive investment opportunity. And it's basically like, yep, I know I could get this in the stock market. I'm getting this in whatever this deal is.

20:12Natalie Palmer:I'm getting this in a syndication. What are the returns you can get me? What's the return rate? Okay, show me your track record that you guys know what you're doing. Okay, great. It just feels like there's obviously they still have to trust us. Like there is a personal touch to it, but it does feel more transactional. And I think with coaching, especially because of my audience, I think that my audience is a lot of young moms, a lot are stay at home moms, or they want to be stay at home moms. That just happens to be the audience that I attracted. And I think for them, it was, oh my gosh, if we're going to invest this much into a coaching program?

20:49Natalie Palmer:You know, am I putting this on credit cards? Am I using Klarna? Am I getting on a payment plan? And there was just something about that, where in my coaching program, you are not guaranteed results, right? It's what you it's the work that you put in to make it happen. With level up your listing, when you sponsor that, and we sell a brand on a 25k sponsorship, or whatever it might be, when I can tell you on that, I know like what we're delivering. We're setting up your booth. We're giving you space to talk. And then you're coming and you're giving your speech, like whatever it is. With the capital raising, it's like, okay, you're investing 100K with us and these are the returns you're getting.

21:28Like take a look at the pro forma. Take a look at the securities. Here's our operating agreement of how your investment's

21:34Natalie Palmer:protected. Like there's just more, I feel more in control of the results that I can get for these people. And with the coaching program, it's just so in your hands. It's up to you to show up to the calls and make it happen. And these people would be investing this money into a coaching program and it might be a year before they even buy a property and close on it. Might be another six months of renovations before they even list it for bookings. It just takes so much time for them to see the money back. And I absolutely still do think you can get value out of coaching programs. Like I said, I'm in so many high level groups right now that I've paid for, for that access and for that knowledge.

22:13So I have nothing against coaching programs, but it just always felt

22:18Natalie Palmer:to me like a lot of the people that I was selling into the program, this was almost like their last hope. Like, hey, I'm really miserable in my job. Like, this is going to work, right? And it was just so hard for me to sit there and say, like, it will work if you put in the work. Like, I can't guarantee anything. I just never got over that feeling. And I heard a stat once that in online coaching programs, if any of you have ever been a part of one, if any of you have been part of mine, I've heard this stat that industry-wide across all sorts of coaching programs that are out there, whatever industry they're for, there is only apparently a 20 % success rate on average of people taking what they learned in a coaching program and directly making that money back.

23:11Natalie Palmer:It's about 20%. And that number, I saw that in mine. Like I really can think back that about one in five people who I worked with, I saw like really implemented everything and got a return on investment. I don't want to say it didn't help the others, but it's like really for me one in five that I can see like took it and ran with it. And I think another four out of five, they may have gotten value in their own way. Maybe it gave them clarity on, actually, I don't really want to do short-term rentals. Maybe I want to do midterm instead, or maybe I just want to do burrs and flips. Like that to me is also value, right?

23:50Natalie Palmer:Because you're finding out what you don't want to do. So it's not to discount that. It also could be something where somebody just took the knowledge and then decided to invest in a passive deal, but now they're able to analyze it better because they speak the language and know how to analyze a deal better. I've had students who joined thinking that they were going to launch a short-term rental and then decided that they wanted to be a co-host instead. So maybe it's not directly a win in the way that the program was positioned where you're now building equity and owning property, but they still got something out of it.