Growing Multiple Entrepreneurial paths with Stephanie Figueros
On this episode, we have Stephanie Figueros. She’s a short term rental operator, a public speaker, founder of Bravo VA, and the host of the STR Nation Facebook group and conference. She walks us through her entrepreneurial journey from being a nurse to having multiple starting multiple businesses. She also shares some simple tactics she uses to win direct bookings. Podcast Summary Stephanie’s career trajectory reflects a remarkable evolution from nursing to real estate investment, entrepreneurship, and remote workforce management. Her journey began with a shift from nursing to real estate, driven by a desire for greater autonomy and fulfillment. Inspired by YouTube videos, she ventured into short-term rentals, ultimately establishing her own real estate portfolio across multiple states. Recently, she transitioned to working as a full-time real estate agent specializing in short-term rentals, demonstrating her commitment to this niche market. In addition to her real estate ventures, Stephanie founded Bravo Virtual Assistance, a Philippines-based agency providing virtual assistants tailored for the real estate and short-term rental sectors. She emphasizes the importance of coaching both VAs and clients on effective leadership, focusing on providing context for tasks rather than just instructions. Through her agency, Stephanie aims to empower VAs as integral team members, fostering their growth and autonomy over time. Stephanie’s approach to leadership and team-building offers valuable insights for remote workforce management. By prioritizing compatibility between clients and VAs and emphasizing empowerment, she creates a dynamic environment where VAs can thrive. Her story highlights the potential for combining diverse experiences to create innovative business models, suggesting avenues for further exploration, such as writing or podcasting, to share her expertise with a wider audience. Essential Highlights Stephanie has had a fascinating career journey going from being a nurse to becoming a real estate investor, short-term rental host, entrepreneur, real estate agent focused on short-term rentals, and founder of a virtual assistant (VA) agency called Bravo Virtual Assistance. Here are a few key points: Stephanie seems to have leveraged her diverse experiences to carve out a unique niche combining short-term rentals, real estate, and remote workforce management. STR Nation ( Use code STEPHANIE ) Follow Steph on instagram @stephaniefigueros Transcription Like, the truth is that, um, your team member, whoever they are, whether it’s in person, virtual, they’re only going to take 80 percent off of your plate, realistically. They’ll never take 100 percent because there’s still that 20 percent that requires you to actually manage and, you know, be a supportive role. And that’s kind of how it progresses. In the beginning, you are the teacher, you are the trainer, you are the manager. And eventually when they get a little bit more autonomy and confidence and you’re empowering them, you’re becoming more of like a support for them, but they’re the ones that have to be responsible for a certain task. Otherwise, if something doesn’t go well, uh, they’re the ones having to kind of fix it, not you. So that’s just like, kind of like the progress and then it makes them better because, um, That pride in your work type of thing that you want your team members to have separate from you. Folks, welcome back to direct booking simplified. We break down the tactics and strategies to win in direct bookings. Today we have Stephanie for girls. She’s a STR host herself. She’s a real estate agent. She has an eight VA agency to help hosts scale their portfolio. And she’s this public speaker. On today’s podcast, she’ll walk through her entire journey of how she got to where she is today and some tips on how to do in more direct bookings. So let’s bring her in. Hey Steph, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Miguel. Yeah, it’s really good. It’s really good to have you on the show. I, we’d spent so many phone conversations more recently. I was like, ah, it’s really good to have you on. Thanks for Nick. I’m happy to be here. Like I love everything that you’re doing. So I’m really, really excited. Oh my God. And I’m, I bet you it was hard to, to even find time from, from, from your busy day, given like all the things that you’re swimming in right now. Ah, yes. But anything for you, Gail. So, well, why don’t we start off with a kind of an intro on kind of who you are and all the things that Stephanie does. Sure. So, um, I’m a former registered nurse. It’s actually something I don’t talk about that often anymore. Um, but turned into real estate investor, um, short term rental host, um, entrepreneur now, um, short term rental agent, uh, business owner, and I’m also public speaker, so, um, I have properties in California, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida, primarily in the short term rental space. And, um, I, it’s been, it’s been a very, very awesome. Crazy nonlinear road to get to where we are now. So I can’t imagine a linear road for that type of, you have a portfolio of a life. No kidding. And it’s crazy. Cause we’re, we’re doing a lot of, um, changes actually in our portfolio, uh, me and my partners. So it’s like, there’s a lot of new and exciting things to come. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I forgot that you, you actually, you were a nurse not that long ago. It feels like maybe, maybe less than five years, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, it’s, uh, I’m technically still licensed. I actually just renewed my license in December, but I don’t practice anymore, but I’m going to keep it pretty much forever just, just because I did that. So, um, truly this is like a second career for me and everything I’ve ever learned about life and business is, gets translated through nursing first in my brain, then to real estate and business. So that’s interesting. What was it? Tell me the kind of origin story. How did you get started