Turning Train Cars into Dream Stays: Creating a Brand Where All Belong with Amy Corbett

In this episode of Booked Solid, Amy Corbett reveals how she’s transforming quirky spaces like vintage train cars and grain bins, into sought-after escapes. Discover how her brand, All Belong Co., is redefining what it means to be a host by creating inclusive, unforgettable experiences that go beyond the ordinary. From harnessing niche communities to building direct bookings that aren’t dependent on Airbnb, Amy’s journey is all about breaking the mold and making guests feel truly at home. If you’re ready to take your STR game to the next level with bold, one-of-a-kind stays, this episode is for you!

🎤 Meet Amy — Founder of All Belong

Amy is the founder of All Belong, a distinctive accommodation brand inspired by her personal experiences and her family’s journey. She has transformed her life and business by focusing on creating a space where everyone feels like they truly belong, despite being different. From her daughter’s battle with alopecia to offering one-of-a-kind stays like a 1950s train caboose and a grain bin lodge, Amy is not just about providing a place to stay—she’s about creating a community. Her vision goes beyond booking platforms like Airbnb, aiming for direct bookings and personal connections.

🧠 What You Can Learn From Amy

Building a Brand from a Personal Story 🏠

• Create a Brand with Meaning: The name All Belong was inspired by Amy’s family’s experience of feeling different due to their unique circumstances, like her daughter losing her hair at two from alopecia. This personal story fuels Amy’s drive to offer accommodations where guests feel a deep sense of connection and belonging.
• A Brand Beyond Airbnb: Amy emphasizes that Airbnb is not the core of her business. Instead, she focuses on building the All Belong brand into something independent, already trademarked and positioned for expansion. It’s about creating a legacy that is tied to the values of community, inclusivity, and connection, not just to the listings on external platforms.

Tapping into Niche Markets 🚂✈️

• Facebook Groups and Niche Communities: Amy’s innovative approach to marketing includes sharing her caboose listing in train enthusiast Facebook groups. This has led to unexpected bookings as people in niche communities have shown interest in unique, themed accommodations. This is a perfect example of how targeting micro-communities can be a powerful tool for direct bookings.
• Creative Property Choices: Amy’s unconventional properties, like the Fusel Lodge (a grain bin) and the caboose, appeal to travelers looking for memorable, quirky experiences. By offering distinctive stays, she’s able to attract guests who want more than just a bed for the night.

Leveraging Local Networks for Direct Bookings 🌍

• Get Involved in Your Community: Amy shares how being involved in local tourism networks, like the Chamber of Commerce, has helped build her presence in Lynchburg, Virginia. While her location may be small, she’s managed to become a big fish in a small pond by connecting with local families, event planners, and visitors who are looking for unique places to stay.
• Local Referrals and Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Amy’s active participation in her local community has led to bookings from guests whose family members or friends are coming to town, helping grow her direct bookings without relying solely on online platforms.

Manifesting Success and Consistency 💭

• The Power of Manifestation: One of Amy’s key strategies for success is manifesting goals and consistently speaking about them. By sharing her vision of growth and the kind of business she wants to build, she creates a clear path forward, reinforcing her commitment to growing her direct booking platform.
• Daily Reflection: Amy incorporates a daily habit inspired by “The Gap and The Gain” book, where she writes down three wins at the end of each day and sets her goals for tomorrow. This simple practice helps her maintain momentum and celebrate progress in her entrepreneurial journey.

Networking for Growth 🤝

• Surround Yourself with Yes People: Amy advises anyone starting something new to find people who support their vision and will help brainstorm and innovate. Surrounding yourself with a positive, growth-focused network is critical to overcoming challenges and pushing boundaries.
• Leverage Events for Ideas and Support: At Level Beer Listing, Amy experienced firsthand how networking and idea-sharing can help refine and elevate a concept. Conversations with like-minded individuals in the industry have led to new ideas for her properties and future projects.

Her Book Recommendation 📚
Amy recommends “The Gap and The Gain” by Dan Sullivan. This book teaches the powerful concept of measuring progress not by where you fall short (the “gap”) but by how far you’ve come (the “gain”). For Amy, this book has inspired a daily habit of reflecting on three wins every day, keeping her mindset positive and focused on growth.

Amy: This is something I think all of us as hosts, if we’re not doing it, we should be doing it. So, you know, a lot of things are, sometimes it’s just throwing spaghetti on the wall and just try things. And one of the things that right now I’m trying is that leveraging the skills of other people to help us get more visibility and get our brand more out there.

Amy: So I would say going after direct bookings can take a number of different paths and. I’m reaching out. I’m not thinking I have all of the answers to get them, but I wanna be, be wise and see if the other people that are out there to, to help me with this, if they can help me.

Gil: Hey folks, welcome back to Book Solid. The podcast where we interview top operators in short-term rental industry to share their secrets on how their book solid. On today’s show, I have Amy Corbett. I met Amy at Level Up Your Listing, and she has an amazing story. I had so much fun interviewing her. I think you guys will really enjoy this episode as we kind of walk through how she has progressed in her short term rental journey, some of the projects that she is digging into, and how she approaches direct bookings and SDR marketing in general.

Gil: I think. You guys will get a lot of value out of this. Her story is just amazing. The properties that she’s building out are unlike what I typically hear. So it’s amazing just how she thinks through some of these projects and some of the more unconventional ways on how she even found some of these.

Gil: So I think you guys will really enjoy this. So let’s bring her in.

Gil: Hey Amy, welcome to the show.

Amy: Thanks so much, Gil. It’s great to be with you.

Gil: Yeah. I met you last week at the Level Up your listing, uh, summit or conference, and I immediately knew that I wanted to have you on the show to talk about many different things. We’ll, I won’t spoil it right now, but you have some pretty unique properties that I want you to. To talk to me about what’s, what’s going on in there.

Gil: Um, so it was a huge pleasure to meet you last week. Was it last week? Maybe two weeks now. Uh, a few weeks back.

Amy: Yes,

Gil: it’s great to record with you now. Um, maybe to kind of kick us off, do you mind introducing yourself to, to our listeners?

Amy: sure. Yep. So my name’s Amy Corbett. Um, my business name is Lanco. We have 45 properties in our collective. Um, only four of those are my personal ones. So we’re managing for a lot of homeowners and around 25 of those are in the Lynchburg, Virginia area. Um, we just picked up 13. Two hours down the road in Hot Springs, Virginia.

Amy: And then we’ve got a few that are like sprinkled throughout the country. So, you know, one outside of Memphis, one in Ohio on a lake, and just kind of some, um, standalone places.

Gil: That’s amazing. And how, how long have you been hosting now?

Amy: We officially started as a business, um, January 1st, 2019.

Gil: Wow. Okay. Okay. So you, you got in right before the, the big pandemic waves then.

Amy: we did. Yes. And you know, that was so scary because we all thought everything was gonna, you know, collapse for us. It ended up being

Gil: opposite.

Amy: Yeah, exactly.

Gil: Yeah. That, that’s funny. Where, yeah. I think a lot of folks, um, I think a lot of folks got in like 2020 right? When things started to pick up. But I do remember very early on the folks that were investing prior to that, um, they weren’t sure whether or not they could even rent out their place because Airbnb was pulling listings off or bookings down.

Gil: Um. Because they didn’t know whether or not it was even safe to, to allow someone into someone else’s home anymore.

Amy: Right, right.

Gil: What, what was that like for you in, in, in, in that, in that process, like, did you, did you get any bookings that were canceled and had to figure out what to, what to do with it?

Amy: Yeah, we, we had some kind of that initial freak out, um, when, when everybody was panicking and then, you know, remember when it was really bad in New York to begin with. Um, we had a family who co, who reached out about one of our properties that had just gone online. So the calendar was wide open and they said.

Amy: We and our 3-year-old son wanted. We just, we found Lynchburg, we found your property, you know, on the map. Like, can we just come for a few months? And it ended up being, you know, our first booking there was a midterm rental because of the pandemic. So, um, we actually got to know the family and Uhoh, like we weren’t supposed to, but we went on a walk with them, so we were keeping our distance and um, but that was a really unique.

Amy: Unique time for sure.

Gil: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember a lot of folks, either you handle the pandemic really well or you had a really hard time through the pandemic. I think some of the folks that end up taking the opportunity to travel during that time and just get away even when you’re only confined to your own family, like they actually did quite well for themselves.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. And of course we’re located like 30 to 45 minutes from the mountains, so. Um, you know, those properties did amazing. Everybody was like, we’ll just take this time to, to social distance in nature. So that was, that was, yeah, that was a time. But, you know, I think out of that time is when everybody started, host started realizing that we needed to create our own brands and not just rely, um, solely on Airbnb.

Amy: That was kind of the. Beginning because, um, yeah, Airbnb was definitely not, you know, helping the host as much as they were helping all the guests.

Gil: Yeah, I, I’ve heard so many stories where folks just had all their bookings canceled and. They didn’t have contact with the guests there. And if they wanted to even try to figure something out or work with their local regulations to see what was allowed and not allowed, it was almost like Airbnb had like a blanket.

Gil: We don’t know what to do, so we’re just gonna cancel everything. Um, but as, as, as hosts, there are a lot of regions, even in those early days, that if you, if you follow a procedure, you could actually still rent it out, but like you didn’t have that option if you’re on just the OTAs. yeah, I think you’re right about that being a huge wake up call for a lot of hosts.

Gil: And it came right when there’s this big influx of new investors coming online. So you’re seeing a lot of people, even from the get go, like even start to invest into direct bookings. Um, and maybe it’s a culmination of all those things kind of coming together. But I definitely have seen a big rise in direct bookings and more folks going direct over the last few years.

Amy: Absolutely. Uh, for me that was, you know, that was the impetus. I remember seeing a national article about that too, just host kind of coming together and going, wait a second, this was a wake up call for all of us. Like, we can’t build our business just on the, the OTAs. You know, we’ve gotta, we’ve gotta really focus now towards our own brands and, um. And helping travelers be more savvy about that.

Gil: Yeah, yeah, definitely. The tra the, the, the travelers being savvy, like you have some pretty creative folks that are now doing, like people are now picking up the clues of like, oh, okay, if you put in, hosted by blank on your, on your listing, people pick that up. And even people have done like reverse Google reverse image searches where they’ll click on your hero image and they’ll figure out like, oh.

Gil: I can also book this on vrbo. I can book this on booking.com and look, I can book direct as well too. That’s, that’s pretty, that’s a lot more common nowadays. Even like my wife the other day, we were looking for a place to spend spring break and she actually looked on Airbnb first and then she did a reverse Google search and f found out that that stay was by Vac Casa and she booked directly on Vac Casa and spent saved a good two, $300 on it.

Gil: Actually, probably even more than that. Yeah.

Amy: Yeah, that’s what I say. Like, go find your places on use, use their search engines, um, Airbnb, vrbo, great search engines, but always look and see, you know, do, do some digging and you can really save some money that way.

Gil: Yeah, absolutely. Um, I wanna, you mentioned, I wanna poke on, on, on, on, on your properties there. Um, and, you know, you know, this is coming, but, um.

Amy: I know what’s coming.

Gil: You, you say you have four properties, and I don’t know if that includes one of the unique ones that you’re, you’re in the process of, of doing. I don’t think that does include it.

Amy: No, no,

Gil: Okay. Okay. So you have four properties. I’m guessing these properties are not like all the other properties that you manage for, is that right?

Amy: Um, right. Well, you know, I have, I have a, a, an apartment that would be kind of, that’s where we got our start. So that’s like the most typical. And from there, you know, we, we decided to get a little more unique. So, um, we’ve got that apartment. I’m, I’m gonna go from order of like. Most typical to, like the most out there.

Gil: Okay,

Amy: Um, and, and this was the timeline

Gil: so,

Amy: so

Gil: so you said, so with progression of time, also progress the outness.

Amy: Yes. Yes. Like we’re just going farther away from normal as we can. Right. So, um, we also have a historic house and, um. I wanted to do it in a theme of Martin Luther King, Jr. Uh, we have a son that’s black, we’re white. And um, so as a multiracial family, that’s just, you know, we’ve been very, um, astute learners over, he’s 12 now, but over the years that’s been super important to us, um, talking, thinking through culture and all that.

Amy: So, um, we named it the MLK Dream Home. We commissioned a local artist to come in and, um, take a lot of like old photographs of MK and even his visit to our town and he actually walked, like on that street. He stayed the night, not in our house, but in, on that street. So there’s a lot of connections there and it’s just a really unique historic house and with a, a neat theme to it.

Amy: So. That’s, you know, that was the beginning of we, we like to be different and then

Gil: so pause for a second. So what’s, what makes this house. Unique or how did you brand MLK into, into the property? I’m guessing throughout the house you have maybe photographs of ml, Martin Luther King, Jr. Um, what else have you done to this house to kind of bring that in there?

Amy: Yeah, I would say a lot of it is through the pictures and imagery, but we’ve included a lot of books, um, around the topic, his, his books, and, um, we also, let’s see, like. Little things like the coffee mugs. Each one of them has a different MLK quote. Um, and then I actually had an artist off of Etsy. I said, I wanna create a wallpaper for a focal wall.

Amy: And I wanted to have the entire, I have a dream speech on it. And so we, we did it, we made it happen. She made it happen. Um, and that’s. That’s probably my favorite element of it. You know, the bed is in front of it, but it’s kind of on a diagonal and every single word, you know, is, is is there?

Gil: is plastered on the wall.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah.

Gil: Oh my God, that’s amazing. I can. I only know probably like the beginning half of that speech because I’ve heard it so many times throughout my lifetime. But I can imagine you going to that property every single time. You’re probably much more versed on the entire length of that entire speech at this point.

Amy: Yeah, it’s funny because like, you know, on the very right hand corner, like the very end of it, you see the free at last, free at Last, thank God Almighty, we’re free at last. Like it’s, you know, squeezing it in there.

Gil: Oh my God, that’s amazing. And, and how has that been received by either guest or maybe even the public there?

Amy: It’s been received really well. You know, I, I did worry about that. Like, will there be people who, you know, will there be any pushback? And it’s been really great. I think it’s a. A really cool, historic home, and a lot of our guests may not connect to, you know, the MLK theme of it. Um, but it like the, the house could stand on its own, but we really wanted to give it more of.

Amy: Our heart and our love. Another thing that we did was we had a black artist come in and she did, um, she created these silhouettes of the steeples in downtown Lynchburg, um, just to kind of, and then I made a wall of, of her silhouettes, um, to capture MLK’s connection to the church, you know? Um, so just, yeah, lots of little things throughout the house and, um,

Gil: Has it picked up any press at all?

Amy: Yes, actually it has, we just had a, a video, um, a guy with the following come through. Um, we were on the news as we were creating it yeah, there’s more I can do and I plan to do to like get it a bit more visible to, uh, get it out there more. But that. We’re, we’re happy with it. We also put it on peer space so it can be used, you know, for, we’ve had meetings, interviews, um, small gatherings there too.

Gil: That’s interesting. Yeah. We don’t talk about this a lot in on the show, but there are some properties and even some hosts that have done really well with. Pr and I think that that is actually one that is like very prime to have PR and PR in, in, in kind of the more traditional sense when you’re talking about newspaper and, uh, the news itself.

Gil: Um, because it has such, i, I, such character in it that they would actually want to, to write about it or even have a series on it. So I, I definitely think, like, I’m not surprised that the press has picked that one up.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. It’s. I, I mean, I think it’s something special.

Gil: It is, I, I, I am actually curious to see, to hear what your son’s reaction is and kind of how he was involved in that process. Um, and, and how does he, how does he feel about it?

Amy: Yeah. You know, that was what the, the news actually wanted to have him on there. ’cause they, they kind of wanted to capture that. And at the time, um, you know, that was a few years ago and I. Uh, he’s, he’s pretty shy with the press, but he did say, um, you know, I think it’s cool. And he said, it, it shows me that she, it shows me that she cares. And I thought, you know, that’s all I needed. Like,

Gil: Yeah.

Amy: he knows that’s, he knows that’s our, our family’s heart. And, um, yeah, we, we wanna be really mindful that, um. He knows, you know, a great, a bigger story, um, in his life and, and that, yeah, that’s just one way that we could, um, kind of express that.

Gil: Yeah, I bet there’s a huge sense of. Pride with that house and, and being part of that and being kind of, him being the inspiration for that house. I wouldn’t be surprised if once that launched many, many years ago that he talked about at school and come, come the holiday. Like he’s talking about like, did you know I have MLK house?

Gil: Like that’s not something that would be probably be normal at school. Yeah. So, so that was, that was the start of it. What, what else have you done on the, on the unique side? Let’s go. So let’s go up the spectrum.

Amy: Okay, here we go. So we had some land, um, and it overlooked. Imagine a cliff. And it overlooks a river, which sounds lovely. However, imagine down at the bottom of that cliff there, um, is a factory and there is a train track

Gil: Okay.

Amy: and, but the lot, the land is really beautiful. There’s a great view. Um, we were like, okay, we really.

Amy: Think this, this would be great except for these trains and you know, that go by. And so we were just kind of toying around with what kind of property, you know, I kind of had this like sexy A-frame in my mind for that, that lot. And, um, a friend of mine sent me this article and they were, it was about how I guess the old circus drains were being sold, um, in another state.

Amy: And she was like, oh, you should totally do this. And, um, we didn’t, we didn’t buy anything. We didn’t, you know, purchase those trains. But it did give us the idea of, oh my gosh. That’s it. Like it put two and two together. Like if we put a train on that land, like the train’s coming by, that’s just part of the experience for people.

Amy: So you, you take that, what would be perceived as being the negative part of the experience and we wanted to flip that, you know, on its head and, and now, okay. So yeah, so we decided to put a train, I won’t, I won’t go ahead. Um, but we decided. Let’s do a train. So where does one find a train? Naturally, one finds a train on Facebook marketplace.

Amy: So yeah, I go on Facebook marketplace and three and a half hours away there’s, there’s this red caboose and it had been used as. A concession stand, like at the kids’ ballpark. Um, and the guy, they were no longer doing it, it was sitting there and he put it up on Facebook. Marketplace of all of all things.

Gil: What did you search for? Did you search for trains on Facebook? Marketplace and, and, and had to sift through like thousands and thousands of toy trains.

Amy: Yes, Thomas the train, everything.

Gil: I’m, I’m imagining what Facebook recommends to you when you go to Marketplace now,

Amy: Well, we’ll get to that because that was also where I found, you know, something even more out there. Yeah. Facebook Marketplace. Y’all don’t get on it.

Gil: Um, so you have, was it always a red caboose?

Amy: Yeah, it was red. We repainted it because they had obviously their logo on it. And we actually had a muralist come on one side of the train. And, um, since we’re in Virginia, Virginia is for lovers. And you’ll find these love signs all over the state. So we had a muralist come and on one side, the, of the entire train, we had a big love sign and we actually got it, um, what do you call it, like, registered with the State of Virginia.

Amy: So it’s an official sign?

Gil: Is it a landmark then at that point?

Amy: kind of, yeah. Like there’s a list of like two or 300 of them. So we’re on that list and you’ll, we’ll occasionally have. See somebody coming and they’re not allowed to go on, um, you know, on the deck of the caboose, but they can stand in the street and, and turn back and take a picture of, of the love signs.

Amy: So we’ve had a few guests who were like, we love, you know, we do love sign, um, trips and so we saw yours and we were like, well that’s perfect for the overnight.

Gil: Yeah, we’ll stay in a sign.

Amy: Yeah.

Gil: So what, what is that like? Is it just a train parked in the middle of the, uh, your, your plot or what’s, what’s around it? Is it on, is it on a slab?

Amy: no, there’s no slab. We actually had to bring in like railroad people to create a little track for it, um, with the railroad ties. That was super cool to see that. Um,

Gil: So it’s on a, it is on a track. It’s on a track.

Amy: It’s on a track, it’s tucked away at the back of a neighborhood, a historic neighborhood, and overlooking the river. So it kind of feels private.

Amy: It feels like it’s its own thing,

Gil: Okay.

Amy: but yeah, it’s got a big deck and,

Gil: And every, every, does it have a full kitchen and, and all that? Or what, what is it like inside?

Amy: So inside, um, it’s got a queen bed. It’s got, um, you know, a little couch with a, um, it’s a pullout twin sleeper. So I can, I can get three in there. I wanted to get four, but we, we couldn’t make it happen. Um, it’s too

Gil: it, well, well, it is caboose.

Amy: Well, yeah, it is. The fact that we could get three was pretty, it’s pretty amazing. Um, there’s a full rest, full bathroom in there with a big shower.

Amy: Um, kitchen is, we don’t have a, a stove. We have like a convection oven. And then we have like, you can pull out kind of a, what is it, like a hot plate

Gil: Oh, like an induction? Like an induction

Amy: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you can cook in there. Um, and then we have a grill outside on the deck.

Gil: Yeah. I’m guessing the folks that rent that place aren’t expecting to, to do a, a big meal there. They, they, they know what they’re signing up for.

Amy: Yeah, and you’re right near downtown here, which is like super cute and historic and charming. So there’s tons of dining options, there’s nature trails. It can be just like a whole experience in and of itself. There’s a really awesome bagel shop, um, at the, um, the beginning of our, the neighborhood here. So I always say. you know,

Gil: Just walk down the block.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s a thing,

Gil: What was, uh, the most challenging part of that project?

Amy: probably getting it here.

Gil: Getting it there.

Amy: I mean

Gil: I mean, there’s no tracks to bring it down.

Amy: exactly, and it is, it had to be so well choreographed. First of all, it took. Twice the cost of the actual caboose to bring it here like that. You know, this company, they had to come because the neighborhood is historic, the streets are narrow. So, um, just getting it, just getting it back, there was quite the feat.

Amy: And then, you know, they picked it up off of this. I used this huge crane and picked it up and had to turn it midair and set it back down on the wheels like it

Gil: my God. Was this like using, I’m, I’m guessing straps around it? Is that how they picked it up?

Amy: yeah. Yep.

Gil: Oh, wow.

Amy: Yeah,

Gil: I’m sure you have that recorded somewhere.

Amy: I do. Yes,

Gil: I’m,

Amy: it was brought on my husband. It was on my husband’s birthday, so like, I’m like, happy birthday babe.

Gil: I got you a caboose.

Amy: Yeah,

Gil: Oh my God, I, I can imagine all the content that you recorded and you can use to help drive a lot of buzz around this. Um, and I don’t know if, if, if you have kind of brought your audience along with that, along for that ride there are.

Amy: we did, you know, we did a, we had a drone fly through before. Um, drive through the caboose and then, you know, in the same video, then it drives through. Um, not drives, flies, I should say, flies through afterwards.

Gil: Yeah, I, I’ve hear so many stories of folks that, especially on the more unique side of things, um, and even on like the more plain, like we’re putting in new countertops and stuff, but like, they’ll record their entire journey over that month, two month, however long it is for that rehab. But. I find that a lot of engaging content is really around that story of seeing something come to life over a span of a couple of pose.

Gil: Yeah. It’s not just like, oh, I hear here’s that clip of before and after, but like as you’re going through it and actually telling that story, you get people pretty hooked on.

Amy: yeah. That’s what we’re doing now with, with our, um, with our newest build. You ready for this one?

Gil: Yeah. Let’s go onto the next one. So we have the MLK House. We had the red caboose. How, how do we step it up?

Amy: Well, okay, so now we go. And we find a grain bin,

Gil: A, a. A what?

Amy: a grain bin, like a silo like that you might see out on the farm and you know, it would’ve stored all the corn. Um, and then guess what?

Amy: The trains would’ve come and taken that and, and delivered to, you know, everywhere. So we are doing a tiny, a grain bin, tiny house.

Gil: Oh my gosh.

Amy: And it also is on the cliff of overlooking the river.

Gil: So same plot. Is it the same plot?

Amy: it’s actually right across the street.

Gil: So it has a different lot altogether from, from a, from a planning city perspective. Um, but it’s in the same vicinity there. Um, I’m, I’m guessing this, their caboose is never gonna get hooked up to this thing. It’s not anywhere close,

Amy: Right, right.

Gil: so I’m imagining this big round steel cylinder with a. With not, that’s not triangle top with a three.

Gil: What’s a three pyramid round? I don’t know what the shape that is.

Amy: Oh gosh. Is it a no? Is it a prism? No.

Gil: No,

Amy: No. Ah.

Gil: I, that’s gonna kill me later. Um, but so I have this I imagination of the cylindrical silo, big metal steel silo. That’s not a typical thing that I think about a stay. How are you converting this into a stay

Amy: So if you imagine it’s gonna, it’s got windows. Um, it is, it’s actually, it’s gonna have, okay, so it’s gonna have stair. I say it’s gonna have, but it does have, because we’re like right in the middle of it. Um, it has stairs going along the side that take you up inside. Um, and that takes you up to a loft with your king bed and a full bathroom and also your other closet.

Amy: The closet that has your washer and dryer in it.

Gil: Okay.

Amy: Okay, so then downstairs. We’ve got huge fireplace. We’ve got tons of windows to look out on the river. Um, there’s a full kitchen and there’s actually a half bath, and there’s also going to be like a Murphy bed that can pull out to a queen, so it’ll actually be able to sleep four in the grain bin.

Gil: Nice. Nice. Um, wow. Okay, so it’s not gonna ever hold grain ever again. You now you have holes in it. Um. It can sleep for people. It sounds like it’s pretty, actually, pretty well amenitized there. You have full kitchen, full bath, actually one, it sounds like one and a half bath there. Um, A loft. Is that

Amy: It’s gonna be pretty pimped

Gil: Yeah. It sounds like it. It sounds like it. How did you even find the help to build this thing?

Amy: So would you won’t believe this there.

Gil: Marketplace?

Amy: There, there’s a company of Grain in builders.

Gil: Did you find them on marketplace?

Amy: no, actually I did not find them on Marketplace. Um, I found them on tiktoks, I think. No, a friend told me about ’em, but they are on TikTok. Um, go around and that’s their thing. They build grain bins,

Gil: Wait, do they build grain bins to store grain or do they build

Amy: no for houses. And, and here’s here’s what, um, one of them said, you know, grain bins used to feed America and now they’re gonna house America.

Gil: Wow. I don’t even know what comes after that one.

Amy: I know and we’ll end the podcast there.

Gil: Oh my, so there’s this grain bin company. I’m guessing they’re not local, so they’re flying, they’re flying out to you and they’re, they’re, they’re building this out for you locally.

Amy: They actually drove there out of, um, Tennessee, so it wasn’t, it wasn’t too much, uh, you know, too much on them, but they would come and do a stint. Uh, go back home for three days, come back out and they got us up to a certain part of the build. And so now we’re in the part of the build. Like they were quick.

Amy: It was amazing, but now we are the general contractors, which slows everything down,

Gil: So, so they got to a good, they got to a point where everything is structurally in place to live in, and now it’s you to do the finishing touches.

Amy: Exactly, yeah, up. They took us up to painting and then we’re, you know, they did sheet rock, all that and we’re painting and you would think it would just keep on, ’cause it’s just those last finishing touches, but oh my goodness,

Gil: I

Amy: that stuff takes a while.

Gil: I, I heard painting. How long can paint take?

Amy: Oh, please, we cannot talk about this. It, it is a point of contention in my household. I would need marriage counseling to answer

Gil: you, you knew I was gonna poke there. Um, for our listeners, when I met Amy, uh, in person, we had this 15 minute discussion about painting. Painting the grain bin. And I was like, how hard can it be? Like could you just bring in a couple friends and just do it over the weekend? And she had me record the exact same clip so that she can send it to her husband.

Amy: Gil, um, the grain bin is still not painted if that, I don’t know if that surprises you, but Yeah.

Gil: Well, if, uh, we might just have all of our listeners just come in and knock, come to your town with, with their, their painting clothes on and just like, help you out one afternoon and just knock it all out.

Amy: Bring your brush. Let’s do it

Gil: All right, so we now have a almost completed, almost painted grain bin. That’s not the end of it.

Amy: now. We’ve got another one in the works.

Gil: Okay, what’s, what’s going on there?

Amy: It, it’s kind of in the conceptual part except I got on Facebook marketplace

Gil: You need to stay off that thing.

Amy: I know this is, this is my problem right here. Um, so on the lot of the grain bin, it’s actually zoned where we can have two. Um, structures, homes. Yeah. So we were thinking, okay, what are, let’s, we wanna do two, what are we gonna do?

Amy: And I had the idea, well let’s find one of those like old train depots, um, and kind of like see if we can have it moved to this lot. Wouldn’t that be cute? Um, so. Course. I’m like, well, maybe I’ll get lucky Facebook marketplace. And I get on, and like you said, they’ll suggest really weird things for you. And one of the things I saw immediately was a plane, like the cabin of a plane, like a, not like a 7, 3 7, but like, um, like a small jet that would hold like 15 people.

Gil: Okay.

Amy: And you know, you’ll see those things, or maybe not, but when you see the really cool things, they’re always in another state from you or like halfway across the country. And, um, I look and it says Lynchburg, like local. And I’m like, what? So I click on it and yeah, there’s a, it’s a fuselage of a plane and. I was like, I have to check this out.

Amy: So I reached out to, the guy went, it was a, it, it was sitting at this company in Lynchburg that apparently sells plane parts online and they had gotten this plane, they stripped it of, um, of its parts and this was like the cabin of what’s left. So. I, I mean, I went in there and I’m looking around just going, this is incredible.

Amy: I don’t know how you do this. I don’t know how. Yeah, I don’t know what you do, but we gotta have it. We’ll figure that out later.

Gil: So, so you walked it, so you just went on marketplace. They somehow suggested a few lodge to you. You drove out there and you’re like, I’m gonna get that. I’m, I’m guessing you just didn’t like hitch that to your truck and just dragged it, dragged it across down.

Amy: It’s actually still sitting at the place they were So, they’re so kind. Um, and they actually have an emotional connection to this plane because one, the owner of the business used to fly it around.

Gil: This was

Amy: The world

Gil: this exact one. This, this model or this? This

Amy: this plane. Yeah. So they like, are so excited that we wanna like, bring it to life. Um, and they wanna help us with that.

Amy: And um, so they’re keeping it stored until we get everything figured out. Like I said, it’s kind of in my brain, but I don’t have anything yet on paper.

Gil: Okay, is it gonna

Amy: is also on the down low, Gil, like I, this has not been like released to the public. You are the, this is the first like revealing of this.

Gil: I, I’m definitely gonna be watching the story and seeing how it unfolds. Like I, I can we, we talked a little bit about this, but like, what is this plane gonna look like? Are you gonna have the cockpit in there? What’s gonna be the amenities? It gonna be, there’s just so many fun things that you can do with the plane.

Gil: You can do a lot with a grain bin.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. So I, I don’t know. These industrial structures are, are finding us and, um,

Gil: How does this city feel about you?

Amy: Oh gosh. Yeah. Every time I reach out they’re like, okay, what is it this time?

Gil: Yeah, it’s not, it’s not the, you’re not known as like the the red caboose lady anymore, or the grain bin lady anymore. You’re like, oh, it’s a fuselage lady now.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. I, I’ve, I’ve only like tapped on that door, um, since it is conceptual. You know, I just needed to see if, kind of like, get my beginning bearings with them. Um, so they, they’re gonna have quite a laugh on that one. But, um,

Gil: the regulation like over there for, for these types of constructions?

Amy: as long as they meet code, they’re okay with it. As long as they

Gil: I don’t even know what code looks like for a fuss lodge.

Amy: Well, I don’t either, but what I know is, what I do know is there are ceiling height restrictions and so that’s gonna pose some challenges for us. So, um, what I’m thinking, I’m gonna go ahead and tell you what I’m thinking is that inside the plane would be inside. A bigger structure that maybe looks like a plane hanger

Gil: Yeah.

Amy: and then the plane itself, um, would be kind of like, I’m trying to convince, my thought is I convinced the city that the big structure, that’s the house, you know, and the plane is just kind of like an accessory within

Gil: It’s, it’s

Amy: Yeah. It just happens to be in it.

Gil: Oh my God.

Amy: a few kids’ beds, you know, inside and in the cockpit. I wanna, uh, my neighbor said he would help me create like a flight simulator situation,

Gil: That be so much fun.

Amy: right.

Gil: I,

Amy: So

Gil: I mean, if you ever want to do custom stuff, let me know. I, I do a lot of building on the side. I would love to, to just, yeah. Yeah. Um, wow. So what’s, uh, what’s the time length of this project? When do you think. You’re, you’re gonna be opening doors for your first guest to stay at a fuselage.

Amy: That is a good question. I need to find the builders that go around the country and build fuselage, um, Airbnbs, you know, short term rentals, I

Gil: You, you should go on

Amy: I know it’s time. I need one of your listeners to like, reach out and, you know, and tell me where do I find this person? Um, no, we’re opening the grain bin in May, probably here in a month or so, and,

Gil: Just in time for summer.

Amy: just in time for this summer travel.

Amy: So I would anticipate that we will try to get the fuselage going in, um, in the winter. Again, I. For an opening next spring.

Gil: That’s pretty quick.

Amy: Well, that’s, that’s my goal, you know, gotta, you gotta set some stretch goals for yourself.

Gil: No, I like that. I like that. Uh, you also, um, exhibit of a, a little bit of a law of attraction there as well too. I, I, I like how like, I mean, I hear this a lot in the entrepreneur space where you just talk about what your projects are, you’re talking about what you’re passionate about, where you need help, and just naturally.

Gil: Those things are gonna get out there and you might not intend for this outlet to be, to seek someone, but with enough of those nodes being connected there, something’s gonna come back to you. And I mean, I would have, I’m not gonna be surprised if like pretty soon like, Hey Gil, we’re starting construction next week because we fi figured it out.

Amy: I love that though. yeah, I love that how they, they find you.

Gil: Uh, I’m, I’m so glad I met you. I’m so glad we had this conver, we’re having this conversation now. It’s just, it’s just so much fun just hearing how you think about these days, how you conceptualize it, and how you’re actually like you’re. You don’t have it all figured out. You don’t know how to go through every single thing.

Gil: And I’m going through this process right now of like for crafted days, we’re doing a lot of new things because we’re doing things that hasn’t been done in the industry before. But when you have that vision just so crisp in your mind and you know, you just have so much passion to go down it, nothing is gonna stop you.

Gil: You’re gonna figure something out.

Amy: exactly. Like there are so many hurdles that would stop someone from, from moving forward and just taking that next step. And it really is a, um, just thinking about I. Yeah, knowing where you wanna be and it’s like, okay, we’re gonna make a way. I don’t know how that way happens, but it’s gonna happen.

Gil: I mean, you proved it three times already, so you have a, you have a pretty track, pretty good track record of manifesting this stuff.

Amy: We do. We do. And, and a lot of it is just manifest it and Yeah. One step at a time, one day at a time. Go after it.

Gil: Yeah. And, and just keep on looking at marketplace. You’ll find some, some nuggets there.

Amy: That’s, that’s the hot tip for today.

Gil: Yeah. Um. I want to transition just a little bit about, about direct bookings and kind of your journey there. Can you speak to kind of like what you, what you’ve invested so far and um, like, I guess like why you even got into direct bookings in the first place?

Amy: Sure.

Gil: I.

Amy: I knew that. When we gave our business a name, um, you know, our business came out of a personal story. You know, our business is named All the Long Co. And I shared a little bit about, um, my, our son’s story, but our daughter was also, um, uh, through adoption and, you know, she lost her hair at age two and um, for something called alopecia.

Amy: And she, um, she’s now 17 and she’s bald and she’s been bald for 15 years and she rocks it. And so we’re just a really unique family with a really unique story. I’m gonna get around to your question, but I’m kind of taking a longer path. Um, and so out of our story, you know, we don’t often feel like, like we fit in, you know, just being different.

Amy: Um, and so that’s. That was kind of the impetus of our name all Belong cos because we want, we know what it’s like to not really feel that sense of belonging and warmth as a family. And so we wanted to provide this for other spaces or for other people. And um, so I think what, what really drives me to want to have direct bookings is that.

Amy: I didn’t want to just be stuck on, um, and dependent on Airbnb. Um, I want, I don’t want Airbnb to be the name. I want all the long code to be the name. You know, I, um, I got nationally trademarked, um, pretty early on and, and I never felt like we would just be in Lynchburg. Like I just, I had this sense or this desire for us to.

Amy: To do more, to be more. So I guess that was the impetus.

Gil: Yeah, I mean, it sounds like it’s, it’s like you, like you said, it’s, it’s not just you being another Airbnb out there, another stay out there, but there is. A deeper vision, a deeper brand that you want to build. Um, and it sounds like you’ve started already to curate some pretty unique stays where people feel like they, they have a more personal connection with you and less so with Airbnb.

Gil: So I have like no doubt that like over time Airbnb may not even necessarily be even part of the puzzle. Like you can be totally independent.

Amy: Wouldn’t that be, that would be awesome. Yep. That everyone just, you know, find us the first time through Airbnb, but you don’t need to go through that to get to us.

Gil: I mean, it sounds like you’re already doing steps that people aren’t necessarily finding you through Airbnb first even because. You’ve al if I’m picking up some of the, the pieces that we talked about, you’ve already kind of started to share your story of these build outs. So people are discovering you through these build outs, they’re building that connection with you.

Gil: You’ve already done more traditional PR and your places are seen and known locally as well too. So it’s, to me, it sounds like it’s more of leveraging more of those pieces. Um. I would have no doubt that like, like you would get lost in Airbnb, but not lost in some of these other spaces.

Amy: Right. Yeah. I mean, we even have with the caboose, you know, um, there are Facebook groups for train lovers and. You know, I, I just put our direct booking link out there just to say, Hey, you know, not just like, Hey, we have this 1950s train caboose, and like so many of them are like, oh, that’s a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah model.

Amy: And, you know, thanks for sharing this. And um, so we’ve gotten, we’ve gotten some bookings even that way.

Gil: Wow. I’ve seen people leverage Facebook groups. Niche Facebook groups as well too, but not, not something quite like that. So that’s,

Amy: Yeah,

Gil: special. That’s pretty. Have you found a, have you found a grain bin Facebook group?

Amy: I have not ventured yet. Um, but if you Yeah, I will be looking.

Gil: I bet you there’s gonna be a bunch for the Fusel Lodge.

Amy: Yes. Oh, we can find plane lovers.

Gil: You’ll find plenty of playing lovers. I, I was telling you, I, I didn’t even know what a grain bin was. I’m, I’m a city boy myself. I did not know what a, a grain bin is. I’m then, I’m, spring break is coming up next week, so I will be driving through California and I’m gonna be, I know I’m gonna spot grain bins that I never knew existed there before.

Amy: You’ll, you’ll just see ’em now. Yep. And you’ll think all.

Gil: I will, I definitely will. I don’t think that there’s gonna be any separation from those two thoughts.

Amy: I’m, I am not a farm girl. Um, so it is kind of funny. I’m not a train girl and I’m actually scared of flying, so who would’ve thought I would Yeah. Have these things?

Gil: It’s all serendipity.

Amy: Yes. Yep.

Gil: Um, any other tips that you wanted to provide our listeners around just kind of how you’ve approached your direct bookings?

Amy: Yeah. Um, I think we’ve kind of said some of it, um, speaking things and manifesting things. You know, social media is something that can be leveraged really well, and it’s not necessarily, you’re not always talking to people who will book themselves, but, um. You know, there’s just, we’ve worked on getting a name in our community and establishing that, and it’s through that, that we get a lot of direct bookings, um, from people whose families are coming into town or what have you.

Amy: So I would, yeah, I think just that connection to your place is really, um, important. Try to get into your tourism. Um. Uh, what do they call it? Like department?

Gil: Oh, the, oh the Chambers, chamber of Commerce.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. We have a small city and it’s kind of easier for us to be a little bit of a, um, bigger fish in a smaller pond. So I realize if you’re in a large metropolitan city, that’s not necessarily as easy, but, um, I, I think it’s, I.

Amy: If we can have a bigger approach as hosts to not just selling our properties, but you’re selling your place, I think that can will help contribute to, um, more and more direct bookings.

Gil: Yeah. Awesome. Amy. We usually end the show with three questions, um, so I’m gonna fire them off. First question, I’ve been doing a lot more reading recently. I would love to know what’s one of your favorite books that you like to recommend or that has changed your life?

Amy: I love, I don’t read fiction, but I love reading business books. Um, I love, um, there’s one, the Gap in the Game. Have you read this one?

Gil: it’s been a long while. I think since like MBA school is probably the last time I read that one.

Amy: Okay. Okay. Yeah, I love it. It was very, it still is a helpful concept to me as an entrepreneur. Um, and I still actually do a daily habit from it that I, that I got from it.

Amy: And that’s at the end of each day, write down three, three things, three wins for that day, and then what are my three wins going to be for tomorrow?

Gil: Oh, okay. And, and, and you, I’m guessing you have like a notepad next to your bed that you, before you sleep. Yeah, a little. I remember a little while ago, my wife and I used to do this. It lasted for a little while. Um, but every night we would just say like three things that we were grateful for and not, not necessarily just in general, we

Amy: wins.

Gil: not, not necessarily wins, but I actually found that like we ended the day on the happiest note ever because we reflected back on all the great things of that day.

Gil: And it also allowed me to understand like what my wife was proud of from, from that day as well too. And we also teach this to our kids now. Uh, we have to get probably better at, like, consistently doing this, but, we’ll, we’ll ask our kids like, what did, what was your favorite part of the day? What was your least favorite part of the day?

Gil: What was something that you did for someone else that you’re proud of? And what was something that someone did for you? So we asked these like four questions to our kids

Amy: I love that.

Gil: Yeah. Um, but what we found is like one, we get a lens of. What they were thinking and how their day was like. But more so we found that when we started asking these questions, they, our kids were seeking these moments throughout their day.

Amy: Exactly, because they’re thinking. That conversation.

Gil: And they’re thinking, okay, if dad’s gonna ask me this at night, I better have something that I have done today for someone else. So it kind of like has them. Think more actively about how do I give back or how do I serve others? So that’s been, that’s been a helpful tactic for us.

Amy: I’m gonna steal that from you with my kids.

Gil: Yeah. I mean, that moment, like right before bed is like, they’re super tired, but they are also like, they want to talk and that’s probably the best time to open because after school they don’t wanna talk to you. At least my kids don’t wanna talk to me.

Amy: yeah, yeah.

Gil: Yeah. But, but, but that, that time where they wanna stay up for, for a couple more minutes and they just wanna talk to you.

Gil: Like that’s the best time to like open up.

Amy: I love it.

Gil: awesome. Next question. What’s one piece of mindset advice that you would give to someone that’s starting something completely new? And you are totally entitled to answer this question like, you have done so many new things that hasn’t been done before.

Amy: I think, well we’ve talked, I’ve, you know, we’ve talked about manifesting it, but I think part of that is. It is mindset. It is this sense of having yes, the like, yes in your mind. And you need to find the people that are yes people, um, and surround yourself there because they also, you know, contribute to your own mindset.

Amy: So, um, yeah, finding those people who won’t think you’re crazy. They’re actually going to give you ideas and, and, and help this dream, um, come true. You know, you need, you need that to, to cross each hurdle as they come.

Gil: Yeah, I, I definitely felt it at that, at that lunch table that we had at Level Beer Listing. You were talking about your Fus lodge and everybody was just like throwing their ideas out there, ideating and like, yes, there was a bit of craziness in, in, in some of what we were, we’re proposing, but you were surrounded by people that like wanted to make this the grandest thing possible and not think about like, oh, how do we make this easiest as possible?

Amy: Yeah, exactly. Those are, and those are my, my girls, my people. Um, I don’t know what I would do without them. And they’re, you know, when those negative, when the negative thoughts come, um, well I can text them and, and, you know. They’re just great. They’re great,

Gil: that would be back in shape.

Amy: Yes, they will. And I can hear their voices, you know, like, um, yeah, spurring spurring me forward.

Gil: Yeah. So like, like, like Tanya, you, you found your, your tribe.

Gil: last question, what’s one tactical advice that you would give to someone that’s trying to either get started in direct bookings or trying to boost their direct bookings?

Amy: Well, this is something I think all of us as hosts, if we’re not doing it, we should be doing it. So, you know, a lot of things are. Sometimes it’s just throwing spaghetti on the wall. Um, and, and just try things. And one of the things that, um, right now I’m trying is that, um, leveraging, the skills of other people to help us get more visibility and our, and get our brand, um, more out there.

Amy: So yeah, I would say. Going after direct bookings can take a number of different paths and, um, and I’m, I’m reaching out. I’m not thinking I have all of the answers to get them, but I wanna, I wanna, um, yeah. Be, be wise and you, and, and see if the other people that are out there to do to help me with this, if they can help me.

Gil: Yeah. Yeah. I think there’s like this mentality, at least in our industry of hosts, we come from almost like we get into it with, with this open mindset of we have to do this, we have to do everything ourselves. We buy our first property, we furnish it. Maybe we start hiring a designer, but like we’re still operating it on a day to day and we’re still figuring out how do we optimize it.

Gil: Um. Sometimes we don’t really keep stock of like, oh, actually we can be doing this a lot better if we leverage other folks, or we tapped into other folks. And I think that that’s starting to shift now where people are thinking like, oh, I’m okay in revenue management, but it’s not something that I love to do.

Gil: I don’t have enough data on this. Should I actually leverage revenue management out there? We see this a lot in design where people know like, oh, maybe I don’t have the design tops. I’m gonna hire someone and. I don’t see it as probably prevalent as as this in the direct booking marketing space. Like people still try to be pretty scrappy and do it themselves, and I see a lot of success of people doing themselves.

Gil: But I also hear what you’re saying about you only have X amount of time and you only have only so much time to learn some of these things. And at this point you’re growing so quickly, you have some. Pretty unique properties that could be better leverage. And rather than you going through the learnings of doing yourself, what you’re now seeking to do is try to figure out are there people that have done this successfully and leveraged them?

Amy: Exactly. Yep. Couldn’t have said it better myself, Gil.

Gil: That’s awesome. Well, Amy, this was. A real pleasure. I had a lot of fun doing this interview with you. I was looking forward to this ever since we met a couple weeks back. Um, if folks wanna find out more about you, if they want to see these places for themselves, where can they follow you? Where can they find you?

Gil: How can they follow along on your new journey and figure out when you’re gonna get this thing painted.

Amy: It’ll be next year. We’ll still be painting. Uh, it’s yeah. Find us@allbelong.co. Whether it’s Instagram all belong.co website, all belong.co. Um, Facebook all belong.co.

Gil: Awesome. All right. I hope people reached out to you and offered to help you paint. Um, I’m also looking forward to seeing how, how these, these properties come to life. So I’m, I’m rooting for you.

Amy: Thank you so much, Gil. This was, this was super fun to talk to You too.

Gil: Awesome. Well see you next time. Bye.

Amy: All right, bye.