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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: Hello, this is Robert Smigler with Canada's podcast.
[00:08] SPEAKER_01: We're talking about entrepreneurs who are making it happen here in British Columbia.
[00:13] SPEAKER_01: Today, our guest is Tamara Martin.
[00:15] SPEAKER_01: Tamara believes success is not final and failure is not fail.
[00:20] SPEAKER_01: It's the courage to continue that counts.
[00:22] SPEAKER_01: She is the owner of Mirror Image Vacation Rental Services.
[00:26] SPEAKER_01: Born and raised in Corona BC in the beautiful Okinaw Valley and in Corona,
[00:31] SPEAKER_01: it's all about tourism.
[00:34] SPEAKER_01: Whether it be world-class wineries or champagne powder at Bay White ski resort or sparkling lakes,
[00:40] SPEAKER_01: she always knew tourism and hospitality was something she was not only passionate about,
[00:45] SPEAKER_01: but was in an area she could see herself getting into business.
[00:49] SPEAKER_01: After 15 plus years of scraping by a waitress and bartender and never getting ahead,
[00:53] SPEAKER_01: she applied for a part-time job with Corona Resort accommodations,
[00:57] SPEAKER_01: which is a large-scale property management company in Colona.
[01:01] SPEAKER_01: And then from there, she started her own business.
[01:04] SPEAKER_01: Tamara, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[01:06] SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you taking the time to share your entrepreneurial journey with all our listeners.
[01:13] SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, Rob. Thanks for having me. It's my pleasure.
[01:17] SPEAKER_01: Great. Okay.
[01:18] SPEAKER_01: Hey, once you tell us a little bit more about yourself, you're born and raised in Colona.
[01:23] SPEAKER_01: And have you traveled where you just always stayed in Corona and always in tourism?
[01:27] SPEAKER_02: I love traveling.
[01:29] SPEAKER_02: Traveling is the reason that I put so much effort within my business.
[01:33] SPEAKER_02: I want to see the world and I try to get somewhere else every year to expand my horizons for sure.
[01:41] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Good.
[01:42] SPEAKER_01: Tell us a little bit more about your business that you're doing now.
[01:45] SPEAKER_01: Where are you, our new entrepreneurial journey?
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: So, I've been in business coming up on actually in the next week, two years.
[01:54] SPEAKER_02: A very, very new business.
[01:58] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I started two years ago.
[02:00] SPEAKER_02: I was a bartender. I was a server.
[02:02] SPEAKER_02: And that's what I've been for the majority of my life.
[02:05] SPEAKER_02: I have three beautiful children, Calli Owen and Jordan.
[02:09] SPEAKER_02: And so I just, you know, I served a bartender.
[02:14] SPEAKER_02: I worked in many different establishments.
[02:17] SPEAKER_02: And I always found myself within a month or two in a leadership role within those establishments.
[02:23] SPEAKER_02: And however, I was not getting by.
[02:25] SPEAKER_02: I was not, I was not able to save money.
[02:28] SPEAKER_02: I was not able to do what I wanted to do with my kids.
[02:31] SPEAKER_02: And so I took a part time job within Airbnb cleaning.
[02:38] SPEAKER_02: With Cologne and Resort accommodations.
[02:40] SPEAKER_02: And it was there that I was working part time, you know, evenings and those days off that I had.
[02:46] SPEAKER_02: And I had a real estate agent come in and ask, hey, like, are you taking on a new clients?
[02:55] SPEAKER_02: And of course, I was like, yes.
[02:59] SPEAKER_02: And so they offered me, he said, I need to put you in contact with my friend Dale Holmes.
[03:06] SPEAKER_02: Who is a property manager within in within Cologne here.
[03:11] SPEAKER_02: And I phone Dale Holmes and he took me on to take over four properties.
[03:17] SPEAKER_02: And I had to make the decision because even for properties, we'll take up a lot of time.
[03:21] SPEAKER_02: So I had to make the decision to roll with this or continue on with what I was doing with serving and bartending.
[03:27] SPEAKER_02: So I made the decision. It was a hard one.
[03:30] SPEAKER_02: It was a scary one.
[03:31] SPEAKER_02: But I made the decision to get into business for myself within the Airbnb game.
[03:35] SPEAKER_02: So I did those four properties and before I knew it, those four properties turned into seven.
[03:41] SPEAKER_02: And then I was, you know, needing help.
[03:44] SPEAKER_02: So I hired my first, my first employee.
[03:49] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, from there, we grew and honestly, you know, most companies use a lot of marketing.
[03:55] SPEAKER_02: We've never actually used any marketing.
[03:57] SPEAKER_02: It was strictly just word-of-mouth.
[04:00] SPEAKER_02: But I had to find a way to stand out amongst all the other, you know, Cologne is a community that is saturated in in cleaning companies and in Airbnb management companies.
[04:14] SPEAKER_02: So I had to find a way to stand out and how I did that was, you know, I really wanted to make sure that the quality was there every day in every way.
[04:23] SPEAKER_02: So what we did to stand out honestly was just to, you know, if one team member does it, another team member checks it.
[04:32] SPEAKER_02: And that way we can ensure quality and we can ensure that you're getting the same service every single time.
[04:39] SPEAKER_02: So that's how I chose to stand out.
[04:41] SPEAKER_02: And before I knew it, I had a contract get offered to my company for over a hundred properties.
[04:49] SPEAKER_02: And, yeah, the rest is history.
[04:51] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[04:53] SPEAKER_01: Okay. What regarding Airbnb and management?
[04:57] SPEAKER_01: Give me one piece of knowledge or information while you're in your sheet.
[05:02] SPEAKER_01: You can share that with benefit or less.
[05:03] SPEAKER_01: The same thing that is unique about that people may not know about Airbnb management.
[05:11] SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, you got to be willing to roll with the punches.
[05:15] SPEAKER_02: You never know what you're getting into.
[05:17] SPEAKER_02: So I'll have, you know, I have people contact me and they'll say, are you available at this time?
[05:22] SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, well, I don't know.
[05:24] SPEAKER_02: I don't know what I'm walking into from one day to the next, right?
[05:27] SPEAKER_02: I can't decipher what, you know, how guests are going to leave a property and how guests are going to leave various properties.
[05:37] SPEAKER_02: So it's really being able to walk into your day and not knowing what that is going to entail you.
[05:47] SPEAKER_02: So we've had some nightmares.
[05:49] SPEAKER_02: We've had, you know, we're somebody, you know, I guess rents one of our Airbnb's and they have a party and it's crazy.
[05:57] SPEAKER_02: So that was a juggling act that I had to deal with in the beginning was, you know, trying to schedule my time without knowing what I was walking.
[06:07] Speaker UNKNOWN: I'm not going to be too.
[06:08] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[06:09] SPEAKER_01: What are you most proud of the terms of the work you do?
[06:12] SPEAKER_01: It's something that you're really proud of that you kind of go, you know what?
[06:15] SPEAKER_01: Every day, it's kind of shows me that I'm on the right track.
[06:21] SPEAKER_02: I'm proud of the service that we offer.
[06:24] SPEAKER_02: We stand out amongst the rest of our competition in that, what I had just explained to you that we offer a guarantee on our services and we are consistent in our services.
[06:36] SPEAKER_02: So how I came into the game and, you know, this is a saturated industry and I had to find a way to stand out amongst everyone else.
[06:47] SPEAKER_02: And the way that I did that was, you know, I gave my clients that guarantee and I gave them that comfort of knowing that every time was going to be the same service.
[07:02] SPEAKER_02: So what they've, you know, what they've gotten from us before is what they will always get from us.
[07:09] SPEAKER_02: And how I did that was, and that's how I had chose to stand out amongst everyone else was that when we enter our property, we, it is completed by one teammate,
[07:22] SPEAKER_02: and another teammate is inspecting it and another teammate is going through it so that you have multiple sets of eyes on the job that was done so that, you know, it's checked off by those multiple people.
[07:34] SPEAKER_02: So there's not really room for things to get mess and things to be arid, which was huge within my company because most of my clients are, you know, they live down south,
[07:46] SPEAKER_02: or they live in Eastern Canada or, you know, they're abroad and so they can't come and check for themselves.
[07:52] SPEAKER_02: So they need that comfort of knowing that what they've come to expect from my company is what they will continue to get every single time and that just that consistency.
[08:05] SPEAKER_02: And that, that is what I would give the most credit to my success in my business and how I rose above the rest.
[08:13] SPEAKER_00: Canada's podcast is your gateway to success in the world of entrepreneurship. Start listening today. Canada's podcast dot com subscribe now.
[08:23] SPEAKER_01: What advice would you give someone starting out as an entrepreneur? If you were talking to someone very young, wanting to be an entrepreneur, what's the general things that you tell them, whether that's starting?
[08:34] SPEAKER_02: Wow, so much, so much. So first of all, you have to be willing to, to take a risk. It's always a risk. It's always a chance. There's no guarantees that your business is going to make it.
[08:48] SPEAKER_02: So make sure that you have a plan in place to facilitate success. But success is never guaranteed within my own company. I've had many fallbacks, many drawbacks, you know, lots of failures and lots of success.
[09:06] SPEAKER_02: And so you just have to, you have to be driven for myself and I told my own children.
[09:15] SPEAKER_02: My business comes first and that's how growing my business. My business comes first. And, you know, lots of people might look like go, oh, that's crazy. Family has to come first. Your children need to come first.
[09:27] SPEAKER_02: They do come first, but if I don't put my business first and I don't put the success of my business first, then everything else is going to fall apart, right?
[09:36] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, when my business calls upon me and needs me, I need to be there. And that is, you know, if you want to start a business, it is 24-7. It is 365. I've worked for Christmas's. I've worked new years.
[09:50] SPEAKER_02: I've worked, you know, Easter's everything Thanksgiving, you name it. I've worked all of those days. If my business calls upon me, I don't care what day. You know, I'm going to be there and I'm going to bring it, bring it to the table.
[10:02] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, maybe it doesn't always need to be like that, but we are still a new business. We are only coming up on two years in business on May 3rd, which is, you know, our two-year anniversary of me starting this company and it's done very well.
[10:17] SPEAKER_02: And, but I've had to make it my baby. I've had to essentially make it another one of my children.
[10:23] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Let's talk a little bit about working in British Columbia as an entrepreneur. Where are the biggest benefits for you being an entrepreneur?
[10:31] SPEAKER_01: You share some of the good points about operating here, but also give me some of the challenges along the way that you've encountered while working in operating BC.
[10:43] SPEAKER_02: Well, British Columbia, I've traveled across Canada and it is it's such a beautiful country, but when you come to British Columbia, you've got mountains, you've got lakes, you've got ski hills, you've got wineries, you've got oceans, you've got, you know, we really have it all in British Columbia.
[11:01] SPEAKER_02: So it's it's a really a beautiful place to grow a business that does center around you. So I had that working for me.
[11:12] SPEAKER_02: Working against me was October 2023. We came into new legislation on Airbnb within British Columbia. And wow, what a scary time.
[11:24] SPEAKER_02: It was the biggest curve ball I've ever been thrown within my company was, you know, literally, hey, me first 2024 Airbnb's are going to operate unless they are primary residents.
[11:35] SPEAKER_02: And for me, I, where I operated my company with over a hundred properties was all, I'll, you know, condos and basically, my company was ripped out from under me right there in, in that new legislation that was taking place.
[11:53] SPEAKER_02: May 1st, 2024, which is coming up in a couple days, but wow, what a terrifying experience I've built my business and my foundation within my business upon vacation rentals and all this and I had, you know, over a hundred properties and they're all gone, they're gone.
[12:09] SPEAKER_02: And so I had to take my business and I had to relook at it and how can I give it and how can I, how can I get through this alive and how can I keep my company near and it's alive.
[12:23] SPEAKER_02: So what that meant was, hey, do we offer, you know, car detailing services? Do we offer residential cleans and management? Do we, you know, what do we do here?
[12:33] SPEAKER_02: And so I was fortunate enough that I was contacted by a culinary resorder accommodations to take over running, running everything over at Castle and the resort, which doesn't fall under the new legislation, but wow, like what a, what a stressful time.
[12:52] SPEAKER_02: So, and that I think will happen within any business, you're going to get thrown pervals and you have to be willing to, to reinvent yourself, reinvent your company and how can we keep that flow coming in and how can we make sure that people still have jobs and how can we make sure that we're still a success story.
[13:11] SPEAKER_01: So how do you deal with fear now when that first hits are different challenges? Are you well organized and to pivot to adjust to a situation? How do you kind of overcome that the initial shock of something that we put into place?
[13:33] SPEAKER_02: Well, we cried for a couple days. And then, you know, yeah, like I say, you start like saying, well, okay, maybe we can venture in this direction, maybe we can venture in that direction.
[13:44] SPEAKER_02: And that is business as a whole. It's very few and far between that business is just going to make sense all the time and not have any, any drawbacks or issues or, you know, curve balls being thrown at them.
[13:56] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I got thrown that giant curve ball and for me, my team, my company would not be what it is and it wouldn't exist in the way that it does without the amazing backbone that I have behind me.
[14:14] SPEAKER_02: And so they were a huge driving force in that I was not willing to cuddle as people and say, hey, you know what, you don't have a job to come back to me first.
[14:22] SPEAKER_02: So I wanted to make sure that we had something in place, whether that meant going into auto detailing or going into residential or no matter what we had to do.
[14:33] SPEAKER_02: I wasn't willing to, you know, my company was my baby and it's a new baby. We've only been in business for coming up on two years. I wasn't willing to accept defeat at this point.
[14:46] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, that I guess it all comes down to tenacity and just, you know, you have to, you have to roll with the punches. You have to roll with everything that comes towards you.
[14:59] SPEAKER_02: There's going to be hurdles that you have to jump and overcome some of them really hard, some of them really small, but, you know, if you have a mindset of, you know, for me in business, it's very important to be organized.
[15:14] SPEAKER_02: It's very important to have a to do less that you address every day and you are, you know, crossing off those items on your to do less each day. It's important to have goals and that you, that you strive to meet.
[15:28] SPEAKER_02: And it's important to, you know, just every day for me personally what drives my success is what drives every business is success. But for me, nothing else in life comes before I make those goals happen and before those, you know, might you do less this cross off and just, you know, addressing whatever comes my way.
[15:54] SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's talk gold. Where do you see your business and five years?
[16:01] SPEAKER_02: Where I see my business in five years. So, right now we've grown exponentially throughout the Okanagan and I acquired some amazing people that helped me make that happen.
[16:15] SPEAKER_02: I would like to think about, you know, franchising out and growing into other communities within the Okanagan within our province and within other provinces.
[16:28] SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, ideally that would happen where we might be able to franchise and we might be able to grow.
[16:36] SPEAKER_02: But, you know, the, the challenge in that is always finding yourself within someone else. So, someone that has the passion that you have and the love for your company that you have finding that person that's going to start up that new, you know, that new franchise with, with the same passion that you have and the same love for your company that you have and just growing in that way.
[17:01] SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, that would be a goal and something that I've been working very hard towards. I have a beautiful business partner. Her name is Christina Peralt.
[17:09] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, when they offered me that contract on over 100 properties, it was obviously something that I couldn't do alone.
[17:15] SPEAKER_02: So, she was someone that I hired on as just a, you know, a regular worker two years ago. And now she is, you know, she helps me run a very big chunk of my company and which would, which opened us up to growing larger because she was there.
[17:30] SPEAKER_02: So, now there was two of me. And so, now we're trying to find a third me and a fourth me. And so, that is, I guess, the end goal is just to grow and come into that place where you find people that you can trust that are going to have the same end goal that you do and that are going to want to grow your company with you.
[17:47] SPEAKER_00: Stay ahead of the game with our expert tips and strategies that will help your business thrive in a digital era. Canada's podcast.com subscribe now.
[17:56] SPEAKER_01: Well, it is a very beautiful place. It's thought to do up there. How do you create work like balance if you can? What do you do to relax and just kind of enjoy your company?
[18:07] SPEAKER_02: So, I find solitude in I have a beautiful home that is right on Woods Lake, out in Lake Country.
[18:21] SPEAKER_02: So, every day, you know, I come home from work and I can run line there. So, coming home from work as a business owner doesn't mean that work is over. Like, it's not going to work as an employee and you do your nine to five.
[18:34] SPEAKER_02: So, I do my work day out out in the community. And then I come home and right immediately I address my books. Okay. And I'm taking care of payroll and I'm taking care of just making sure that everything is, you know, in the books and everything for that day is accounted for.
[18:51] SPEAKER_02: And then once I've done that, then I really like paddle boarding. I really like meditation. I really like hanging out with with like minded people. I have a beautiful group of friends that are also entrepreneurs that I like to pick their brains and stuff like that.
[19:08] SPEAKER_02: But sometimes it's just nice to completely shut it off. So, you can do that with a height. You can do that by going and loading.
[19:15] SPEAKER_02: You can do that by hanging out with a good friend reading a good book. There's so many ways to disconnect from work, which is really important when you can find the time to do that. So, work comes first. And then when you can find those moments where you can disconnect from work, which is essentially a recharge for your brain. That's so important.
[19:34] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, those are the ways that I do it myself. And just being out in nature and just being connected to your higher power, which for me, it's, you know, the universe is a whole.
[19:47] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I draw straight from that.
[19:50] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Let's have a couple of fun questions for you.
[19:53] SPEAKER_01: If you are doing what you do now, what would you like to do for a profession?
[19:56] SPEAKER_01: Any profession besides your being the business you, what would you do?
[20:03] SPEAKER_02: I don't, I can't really answer that specifically. I think that I, you know, I kind of won the lottery in the fact that, you know, what I loved about serving, what I loved about bartending, I brought to the table and within my new.
[20:18] SPEAKER_02: And, so I like dealing with people. I could never be someone that, you know, sat in the office and stared at computer screen. I like to be, I'm a social person. I like to be.
[20:30] SPEAKER_02: Talking with other people, getting new ideas. And I really like dealing with my clients. I really like dealing with my staff. I really like being a leader. I really like sharing my knowledge.
[20:42] SPEAKER_02: So all of those things come to the forefront in my company now.
[20:48] SPEAKER_02: If I can't have a company within the Airbnb industry, anything with tourism, anything where I'm dealing with people and, you know, able to, to pick, you know, your brain, not just mine.
[21:01] SPEAKER_02: I love, I love meeting new people and experiencing what they have to offer and the advice that they have.
[21:07] SPEAKER_01: Okay, what two words would you use to describe yourself?
[21:16] SPEAKER_02: Tenacious, definitely, and driven.
[21:20] SPEAKER_02: Which might kind of be the same thing, but, but I can't drive those home enough. That is, that has been my business success.
[21:29] SPEAKER_02: I've watched a million people come into my, you know, industry and I've watched, you know, unfortunately, watched them not make it.
[21:38] SPEAKER_02: And it's because I don't, I don't have a shut off.
[21:41] SPEAKER_02: If my business isn't doing well, then I'm not feeling good about my business. I'm not feeling good about myself.
[21:49] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, it's just, it's just kind of a domino effect.
[21:54] SPEAKER_02: I thrive off of, I thrive off of that. I thrive off of being a leader, being organized and putting that work first.
[22:03] SPEAKER_02: And essentially I have three children, but I have four because my company is my fourth child.
[22:09] SPEAKER_02: And that's how you make a business work is by loving your business like you love your child.
[22:13] SPEAKER_02: And you have to put the same amount of time and effort into it.
[22:17] SPEAKER_01: Anything keeping you up at night, you shut it off, or do you think you can write down things in the middle of night, no pat by the nightstand, or you just turn it off.
[22:29] SPEAKER_02: Absolutely. My mind goes a million miles an hour, but that's where that to do list comes in.
[22:35] SPEAKER_02: If you're addressing here to do list and you cross it off, it's a lot easier to go to sleep at night, which is super important in running a business and being present every day.
[22:44] SPEAKER_02: And being able to be on the ball is, you know, you need to be able to shut it off.
[22:48] SPEAKER_02: And for me, personally, the best way to shut it off is, you know, you make yourself a reasonable to do list every day.
[22:55] SPEAKER_02: When you attack it, now you can shut it off. If you feel like you're allowed to shut off your brain, then you can't. That works for me.
[23:01] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Do you have any books that you've read that helped you with your business?
[23:07] SPEAKER_02: One of my favorite books that I read right actually before starting my company and was influential in starting my company has a
[23:16] SPEAKER_02: belief word in the title. It's called How to Unbuck yourself. And it was a fantastic book that I read.
[23:24] SPEAKER_02: You know, I just spoke self-empowerment and self-growth and believing in yourself and finding that confidence and, you know, yeah, one of my favorites.
[23:35] SPEAKER_01: Now, is there any advice you received along your journey that you can pass on to entrepreneurs about Canada?
[23:41] SPEAKER_01: You've got a mentor or anyone that you've said that you have other entrepreneurs that are friends and so forth.
[23:46] SPEAKER_01: Is anyone ever giving you just a kind of real jam a vice or statement?
[23:52] SPEAKER_02: So many times. One of the best pieces of advice that I live my my life by and run my company by was the funniest piece of advice ever, but it was by.
[24:01] SPEAKER_02: I was by an entrepreneur that has a business that I won't say any names, but is operating across Canada and doing phenomenal, doing amazing.
[24:12] SPEAKER_02: And I picked their brain. I said, what's your piece of advice? And they looked at me and they said, brush your hair and brush your teeth. And I was like, you know, like what?
[24:21] SPEAKER_02: What does that mean? And they said, you know, you can get into.
[24:25] SPEAKER_02: You know, you get into a rhythm and no matter what happens in that day, you're going to brush your teeth and you're going to brush your hair or you're going to do your books and check your emails or you're going to, you know, it's finding it's finding something that, you know what?
[24:42] SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I don't feel like it's not feeling well. Sometimes we're feeling lazy. Sometimes I'm feeling like I'd rather be at the beach.
[24:48] SPEAKER_02: But if you have that list, this is what I need to do every day. And no matter what happens in your world, you address those things. Then you can only move up.
[24:58] SPEAKER_02: So that was a huge piece of piece of advice. And the other one was what you started the interview with. And, you know, that was that.
[25:06] SPEAKER_02: So success is not guaranteed and failure is not death. And it's really not. You will fail in your company.
[25:17] SPEAKER_02: Absolutely. And just don't let it be you. And, you know, you just keep, you just keep going and pick yourself up and carry on and learn from your mistake and apply it to your business and errors.
[25:31] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Well, Tim, we're going to wrap things up. How can our listeners get all of you? Is there anything you'd like to add before you need to?
[25:40] SPEAKER_02: I would just like to add thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. And, you know, I just wish everyone the biggest success.
[25:50] SPEAKER_02: And in those times of darkness, find your strength and keep going because, you know, I don't know how many times in in my journey, which, you know, has only been two years, but how many times they felt like putting how many times they felt defeated with the new legislation and with everything else.
[26:07] SPEAKER_02: But you just that you just keep going. So that's another piece of advice and running a business is don't watch the clock. Do what the clock does just keep rolling.
[26:19] SPEAKER_01: Brush your teeth and brush your hair.
[26:21] SPEAKER_02: That's right. Absolutely.
[26:24] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Mara, thank you so much for coming on the show. A lot about you. And I'm sure our listeners have as well.
[26:32] SPEAKER_02: Absolutely. My pleasure. Thank you.
[26:34] SPEAKER_01: See you next time.
