Why Hosts Struggle with Direct Bookings—and How to Fix It with Strategy, Mindset & Obsession with Emanuele Pani

Summary and Highlights

Why Most Hosts Struggle with Direct Bookings

Many hosts fail to scale their direct booking efforts because they get stuck in cycles of hesitation, fear, and inconsistency. The biggest challenges include:

• Reliance on OTAs: Many hosts feel trapped by Airbnb and VRBO, fearing they can’t drive enough traffic to their own sites.
• Lack of Strategy: Without a clear marketing plan, website optimization, and guest acquisition tactics, direct bookings remain elusive.
• Mindset Blocks: Many hosts unknowingly self-sabotage by questioning their abilities, second-guessing their plans, or hesitating to take bold action.
• Failure to Leverage Relationships: Building strong referral networks, such as with real estate agents, is an untapped opportunity for most hosts.

Fixing the Direct Booking Struggle: Mindset, Strategy & Execution

1. The Power of Obsession

Hosts who win at direct bookings don’t just try—they commit fully. Our guest emphasizes that obsession is the fuel that drives success. The most successful hosts are relentless in testing, iterating, and learning. They don’t let setbacks define them; they adjust and push forward.

Takeaway: Stop treating direct bookings as an optional side project. Make it your primary focus, refine your approach, and stay committed.

2. Build Strong Partnerships

One game-changing strategy is partnering with real estate agents and local businesses. Agents have a constant stream of clients needing temporary stays—buyers waiting for a home, sellers in transition, or investors exploring the market.

Takeaway: Develop relationships with real estate professionals and position your rentals as their go-to solution for housing needs.

3. Set Higher Standards for Your Business

Many hosts settle for whatever bookings come their way, rather than actively shaping their guest pipeline. The key is setting standards:

• Emotional Standards: Do you approach setbacks with frustration or see them as learning experiences?
• Thinking Standards: Are you reinforcing limiting beliefs or focusing on solutions?
• Result Standards: Are you accepting low direct booking numbers, or are you demanding more of your business?

“People get stuck because they set a goal, hit an obstacle, and then change the goal instead of adjusting the plan.”

Takeaway: If you want to see different results, you need to change how you think, act, and set expectations for your business.

4. Consistency Wins—Automation & Marketing Matter

Direct bookings don’t happen overnight. A clear, repeatable strategy is necessary.

• Email Marketing: Stay top-of-mind with past guests.
• SEO-Optimized Website: Ensure your direct booking site is fast, mobile-friendly, and conversion-focused.
• Retargeting & Paid Ads: Don’t just rely on organic traffic—run targeted campaigns to bring back potential guests.
• Social Media & Community Engagement: Build trust through content, testimonials, and engagement.

Takeaway: Treat direct bookings like a long-term investment. Small, consistent actions compound over time.

Ready to Elevate Your Direct Bookings?

🚀 CraftedStays—the all-in-one direct booking platform built for professional hosts. Create a high-converting website, optimize for SEO, and leverage automation to maximize revenue.

Transcription

E: The biggest epidemic we have as a country is we don’t know how to make decisions, right? We have an idea, the idea becomes a want, the want becomes a goal, but then the moment the goal doesn’t go to plan, instead of going to plan B but still pursuing the same goal, we go back to idea, and we go back to want, and then we go into a new goal.

E: And so we never let a goal become an obsession. Every time anybody that has listened to this, and it’s true for me, it’s probably true for you as well, anytime I’ve become obsessed with anything, I have it.

Gil: Hey folks on today’s show. I have Emanuele Pani. You might know of him from the STR secrets podcast. I had a chance to be on his show a little while ago and I had a blast talking to him and I’m finding out that he’s actually pretty deep in the mindset game. Um, and he’s attributed a lot of his own personal growth and the growth of a lot of his mentees really around mindset.

Gil: So I’m thrilled to bring him onto the show. This is a dense show. It’s a bit different than some of the other episodes that we’ve had on our show, but. I’ve actually quite enjoy it because at least for me, I’ve grew a lot through the years through really tuning in and understanding my mindset. So I thought it was super important for, uh, E to join the show and really talk about how he thinks about things, how he coaches folks through mindset, why he thinks it’s important in the first place.

Gil: So without further ado, let’s bring him on.

E: Yeah, man. Thank you so much for having me on. It’s been, uh, it’s been a long time coming. And I remember having a blast when you came on our show. And so I’m super excited to, uh, be here with your people now.

Gil: Yeah, I’ve been wanting you on my show for a little while now. It’s been hard to get time on your busy calendar. Um, but I’m glad you’re here. Um, one of the main reasons and we’ll, we’ll get into this, but like I, out of like the space, I think there’s, there’s a lot of folks more recently that Is being aware of your mindset and how, how much of a contribution that has towards your growth.

Gil: So definitely want to kind of dive into that deeper into the show. And I know you’ve done quite well on the direct booking side. So for you to share some of those as well too, but maybe to kick us off, I’m sure a lot of folks may have heard your voice before, maybe they’re thinking, did they log onto the wrong podcast, but do you mind giving a brief introduction to who you are?

E: Yeah, I would love that. So my name is Emanuele Pani. I go by E. I was born and raised in Sardinia, Italy, but I’ve been in the States now for the better part of the last 15, 16 years. And the short term rental community knows me as the co host of the STR secret podcast. And I also have the honor and privilege of being one of the coaches within our community STR secret.

E: Uh, we coach people on co hosting and we coach people on boutique hotels. And we like to tell that we are really a mindset company disguised as a real estate company. Cause everything that we do has mindset kind of weaved into it. Uh, because Gil, I don’t know your journey, but for me, all my quantum leaps have come from an upgrade in my self image and the concept that I had on myself.

E: Anytime that has truly upgraded, my life has made a quantum leap. And that’s been true for Mike as well. And so, this is what we love talking about, right? Like, vehicle wise, STRs and boutique hotels have created massive wealth. But the spiritual opulence that I have has come from all the mindset work that I’ve done.

Gil: Yeah. Do you, do you see as a, the investing side is more of the kind of the vehicle to, to get towards your mindset stuff?

E: So I think there is a very big part of true to be said that being able to spend time on mindset. It’s kind of like a champagne problem, right? Like it’s you’re blessed to have a business that supports you being able to spend time thinking and philosophizing on life, right? At the same time, it’s kind of like the chicken and the egg. Did my working mindset allow me to? accomplish what I’ve accomplished financially, my answer, my through to that is, is yes.

Gil: Yeah, I

E: me, it’s also what keeps me growing and pushing and grinding and like. Expanding.

Gil: Yeah. I don’t know if I think of it as like the champagne problem. I think of it almost as like, and maybe like you probably see this up quite a bit when you meet like a lot of younger hosts, people that are just getting into the game and they’re just so hungry on things and. That to me. Like they also have a different, they have a mindset as well too.

Gil: Um, and they’re just trying to learn so much passion and kinda the fire that they have as well too. So, like, I agree with you. And sometimes it, it could be the chicken or the egg, it could be the mindset of helping you get to like that next point. Or even just to get started in the first place.

E: Yeah. And the, the beginner mindset, it’s beautiful and it’s complicated at the same time because I meet people that are just now starting and they’re quitting their W 2s and they’re taking the sleep. The initial fate takes a lot, but also what I’ve learned is the only way to continue to bring faith into the world, into your world, is continuing to go after things that require you to have faith. So faith goes away the moment you stop going after things that require you to have faith, right? So if we’re going to scale and grow these businesses, you have to have faith. And then it’s a matter of continue to have faith and kind of pushing. over time, that is a different conversation because you almost, the beginning you have nothing to lose.

E: And then the biggest. Part where people get kind of stuck is actually in the middle when they have a little bit of success have a little bit of money They’re close to quitting their w 2. They might just have quit their w 2 and then they let fear run Run the story instead of leaning to fate So the same fate that got you there will get you to the next point But the moment they get something I’m like, well, I don’t want to lose this Yeah

Gil: more extreme, like when I started this company, I have to stays, I had a very steady w two job, um, and in tech and it paid well. And my family, we got to take our annual vacations and things were very comfortable for us. And then almost immediately overnight, I decided to start this company, left my w two job.

Gil: And that goes from six figures down to zero almost instantly. Okay. And it’s a big fear. It’s an enormous fear. But I think for me, when I started the company, I couldn’t envision my life of not starting the company. And that just gave me so much fuel to do it. And I had a strong vision, and I spent endless, endless nights coding the first version of it, shopping it around, getting feedback on things, and like, that gave me a lot of energy.

Gil: Getting that feedback got me a lot of energy. And it got to a point where Um, maybe I think that more challenging part of it was six months into it where the novelty kind of wore off there. And then I need another fuel to help me push through because it’s probably going to take me a couple of years to really gain the traction that I want, especially since I’m bootstrapping and I’m not going out there and raising venture funding where people are injecting a bunch of cash into it.

Gil: We’re growing very organically. So the challenge is for me. How do I keep on pushing forward? Compromising a huge part in my family life like we’re not taking as nice vacations as we used to we’re taking more road trips now We’re we’re thinking about how to live more Economically so that we can feel the money back into the business, but like that’s really challenging for me and I think I’m now like starting to like focus a lot more on mindset where For me, it’s really around like, what is the end goal?

Gil: Like, what is that I want to get to? And like, that’s helping me fuel, like keep on going and really like, grinding through things when things are like, we have good weeks, we also have bad weeks as well too.

E: The end goal conversation is so interesting to me, right? Because what I believe is right, life is run by our concept of ourself, which I said earlier, right? Which to me is just like, what is your paradigm? And the paradigm is just a set of thoughts and beliefs of how life happens. And they’re really based on like how life has happened up until this point.

E: So it’s stored information that’s processing new information. Your paradigm is the one that rules your decision making, which then influences what your results are. But so if you draw something, right, and if your listeners are sitting, no driving, right, and you draw two squares that says paradigm, desire, and then you draw two arrows that go in the bottom and say decision results.

E: If you make your decision based on your desires, your results are going to change. Most people end up making a decision based on the paradigm. And so they continue to get the same decision making process that leads to the same result.

Gil: Mm hmm. Mm

E: So a lot of the times when people start a business, they have a desire to start a business.

E: Like they’re like, I really want to start a business. The problem is that the desire is the only thing that’s going to go to battle with your paradigm.

Gil: Mm hmm.

E: you cannot escape your paradigm. You’re always going to have a paradigm. All we’re trying to do is upgrade the paradigm to be matching your desire.

E: And then over time, your desire is going to change. And you’re Paradigm has to change, but if you’re getting the same thing you’ve always gotten is because your decision making is always the same and your paradigm, so the way things have been is leading your decision making and not what your desires. So now you’re experiencing that.

E: Now you’re making your decisions based on your desire. So the fear is I’m not going to have money. The desire is like, yes, we will as long as we do what we say we’re going to do and create this product. And then that Gil is the one making the choice. And the decision, and that’s why craft the states has grown the way it has.

Gil: Yeah. I, I, more recently I’ve been reading a lot about like your subconscious. Um, I’m reading the book, the answer right now. I forgot who’s the, who’s the author there. Um, but they talk a lot about like what dictates a lot of what you do on a regular basis is actually not your conscious state, not the, the rational brain of yours, but actually a lot of things that are happening behind the scenes in your subconscious.

Gil: 95 percent of your mental capacity. It’s towards your non conscious activities. That’s how you can go from point A to point B when you get into a car and not realize that you’re actually at your destination is because it’s not your conscious brain that’s telling it to turn left on your signals and break every time, but it’s really your subconscious doing that.

Gil: And it’s through that repetition of driving that you’re able to almost autonomously get there. So if you really want to maximize like Really how you perform in life, you really have to hack your subconscious there. Is that related to kind of like what you’re mentioning about your paradigm as well too?

E: yeah, yeah, because your paradigm is in your subconscious mind. So your paradigm is what runs everything and your desire is in your conscious mind. So the problem with those two things is that your desire has to influence yourself because it’s going to influence your decision making. So by using that example that you gave, right, and let’s change it slightly.

E: If you are programmed in the way that you have your competition with yourself to say you are a success, your natural way of being is to be successful. So similar to the thing, somehow, no matter what you do, and you, we all know those people, right? No matter what they do, get to the destination. So that’s the example of you’re saying like you’re driving, you don’t know how you got there, but you get there.

E: Some people have in their subconscious stories that are not helping them, and they become self fulfilling prophecies. Because obviously, if that’s how you feel about yourself, your subconscious is gonna be like, that’s how we feel about ourselves, what am I supposed to do? you ever said to yourself, I’m so clumsy, and then immediately after, you do something that is clumsy? Your brain doesn’t know that you’re joking, your brain doesn’t know what’s going on. The sub has no attachment to any of the information that goes in. So you give it meaning.

Gil: Yeah. Yeah.

E: that you give it once it goes in is negative, your sub is gonna take it at face value. But by the same degree, If you change it, the sub is going to change it.

Gil: Yeah, let’s, let’s talk about that a little bit more. And I know that we went deep into the, the deep end of mindset right from the

E: Oh, dude, we jumped in. Like I don’t, I don’t know how else to do it. And so I apologize to your listeners if they weren’t ready, but welcome. Yeah. This is my favorite thing to talk about. So I’m

Gil: yeah, I’m glad we do it. We can go back to all the STR stuff in a little bit, but I love this part of it. But, um, you’re men, you’re mentioning about like really changing your subconscious or your paradigm there. You’ve coached many, many folks through the program and outside of it through that process. Is there a framework that you’re thinking about?

Gil: Are there hacks that you’re thinking about really to help folks understand really how to shape their subconscious to really have them perform how they, how their brain wants them to perform.

E: Yeah. I love that question. So on my own one on ones and me and Mike do the same thing with the people that come into, into our community. My number one question is always like, who are you? So before we can change who you are, we have to know who you are right now. So step one for all change is awareness.

E: Because once you become aware of something, you can change it. Most people are not even realizing the subconscious thoughts that they have around the things that they want. And going back to how much of it is subconscious, 80%, and don’t quote me on this, go check it, but I believe it’s 80 percent of the thoughts that people have are negative, and most thoughts are positive.

E: Recurring. So you have the same thoughts over and over. So first of all, understand what are the thoughts that you have in, why you have in them, and what’s the story. So if your story is a story that does not have you winning at the end, it’s never gonna happen. Awareness, and then is, let’s create a new story, and then it’s repetition of thought. And the best way I have to describe this skill, you have kids, I assume most of your listeners have kids, right? When you thought your baby, What their names were, did you tell them one time and they were like, cool, thank you that I know my name. All was it for the first year was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of repetition until a certain point there was a moment that they’re like, that’s my name.

E: Right? And then you do that. That’s how all of you has been created. Repetition of thought over and over from your family, your society, your culture, the people around you. The good news is that the same way you were programmed, you can be reprogrammed. So all we have to do now is input new thoughts. And so as we’re thinking about things, it’s understanding this is what we say we are, this is what we say we want to become.

E: I’m going to keep affirming what I want to become until what I say I am becomes what I want to become.

Gil: it. Got it. And in the very beginning, so you talk about like awareness, what’s your new story? What do you want to become? And repeat that over and over again until that becomes the reality of who you are. And maybe you’re starting that new cycle of that. Um, when you’re going through that repetition, are you going back to the awareness or really the awareness is really there to have you understand your starting point.

Gil: And then from then on, your focus is really on the new story.

E: So the awareness is in terms of like hearing myself when the story goes back to the old story. So it’s always being, being there to witness what I’m thinking. And one of my mentors always say, Hey, how’s your mind treating you today? Which is an interesting question to ask yourself. If I plug in a machine to you that gives us a script of what you thought about in the day, and you’re reviewing this much, this, this script before you go to bed. Are your thoughts in alignment with what you say you want in life? Or are you thinking all the reason why you can’t have it? And then it’s starting to really understand, Okay, how can I make this a little bit better? How can I make this a little bit better? And that comes from establishing three standards for yourself. What are your emotional standards? What are your thinking standards? So the standards of thoughts. And what are your result standards? Most people, we have very clear standards when it comes to like, Is this property clean? Easy, right? We can all agree with that. If you open the bed and it’s dirty, it’s not clean. We agree?

Gil: Yep.

E: Do you have an emotional standard? Like, do you have a standard where you’re like, these are the emotions that I allow myself to feel on a day to day basis?

Gil: Partly

E: Okay. Do you have a thought standard? These are the only thoughts that I allow myself to have, and I don’t accept anything that is not in alignment with this kind of thought.

Gil: that I think about more often now, maybe that’s because I’m focusing on mindset a lot more. I pay attention to my thoughts. Yeah.

E: Awareness. Awareness leads to change, right? And number three is what is your result standards? How many people do you know say they want A and then compromise for B? If you want A, you get A. B is not what you wanted. But how does your brain know that that’s what you want if you set it and then you compromise? Set it and then compromise. Have you ever trained a dog and you’re like, you have to do this and then he does something else and you like encourage it anyways? Then the dog’s gonna be like, bro, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to sit? Do you want me to lay? You wanted me to sit down, I lay down, you said it’s fine.

E: So now I associate sit with lay. And you’re like, that’s a whole mess now.

Gil: Yeah. Yeah. That reminds me of like, kind of like the reward cycle as well, too. You’re rewarding yourself for that compromise state rather than you really sticking to what you actually want to go for. Yeah,

E: The biggest epidemic we have as a country is we don’t know how to make decisions. Right? We have an idea, right? The idea becomes a want. The want becomes a goal. But then the moment the goal doesn’t go to plan, instead of going to plan B but still pursuing the same goal, We go back to idea and we go back to want, and then we go into a new goal. so we never let a goal become an obsession. Every time anybody that is listening to this, and it’s just true for me, it’s probably true for you as well. Anytime I’ve become obsessed with anything, I have it.

Gil: and I think that probably is, it kind of goes back to like what I was saying earlier about like me starting the company in the first place, I was so obsessed about starting the company. I talked to so many different hosts. I understood the problem so well. I know the technology stacks so, so well. And I knew where we are and where I wanted to go.

Gil: And I didn’t necessarily know all the individual steps, but I knew, like, if I kept on at it, I would get to that state. And I got to that state really, really fast because I was so obsessed. I would stay up three o’clock in the night coding and my background is not engineering, but I can learn new things.

Gil: I’ve learned coding like six times in my life now, but I was just so obsessed at solving that problem. But you’re absolutely right. Like if you are obsessed about it. You can definitely get through it.

E: The universe has to give it to you. And that beautiful thing that you said just now. Is that I think people get lost in the how, the how is none of your business. The only decision is what you want. So the goal cannot change, the plan can change. The problem is that most people are more attached to the plan than the goal. So they have this preconceived idea based on their paradigm, right? As to this is how this is going to go. Most of the time, Gil, like, let’s be honest. With no real life experience in the particular industry, in a particular area of what it actually takes. And then they bring their plan based on misguided information to get to a goal.

E: And then the moment their plan, which was horrible to start with, doesn’t work out. So like, I’m going to change the goal. I’m like, why? Have you tried anything else? He’s like, no, no, I had a good plan. I’m like, yeah. Based, but who, did anybody put a stamp on it? Or like, this is a great plan? No. Well, who do you talk about it?

E: Well, I talked about it to my dad and then my, my, my buddy from college. I’m like, okay, what have they done? Well, my dad is retired. My buddy from college has, has a brewery. I’m like, okay. And they advise you on how to buy boutique hotel. Is the people that you’re talking to, do they have what you want? Because if they don’t, why are you talking to them?

Gil: So how do you, how do you shake that fallacy of like them getting so focused on that plan when it doesn’t go through, they just abandoned it? Like, what is, what’s your guidance there? Like, how did they shake that mentality of like, not getting stuck with the plan, but really focused on the goal and not necessarily needing to know how you’re going to get to that goal.

E: Most of people want things and think wanting thing makes them ambitious and driven. It just makes you human. If your only reason for being an entrepreneur, you’re like, I am a driven person because I want a lot of things. Once you’re human, your body is a wanting machine. From the moment you wake up to the moment you listen to this show, whatever time it is, look back, how many things has your body wanted? You want water, you want to move, you want to use the bathroom, you want food, you don’t want that food, you want this food, right? We want things all the time. But the moment they become an obsession, that’s when things change. So if you are concerned that your plans are not working, going back to Gil’s, what Gil said, right?

E: He didn’t care. He knew as long as he did the things he was doing, the success was inevitable. As long as you do the things that you know you should be doing, success is inevitable. It doesn’t matter how we get there. Let’s just get there. And so if you have, if you are in the habit of changing, Your goals often, I will beg you to stop and to just really choose one and which one the one that sounds the scariest because that’s where your paradigm is going to grow the most because the other problem that people have is they keep working on things that they know are possible. But if you

E: know it’s possible, going back to faith, you don’t have faith, right?

Gil: That’s interesting that you say that, to chase the goal that is the scariest because that’s where the paradigm shifts the most. Because you could take a, a few steps, you can take your next logical leap that you know how to get to, you’ll grow maybe just a little bit. But know what you’re saying is, if you really want a successful and meaningful life, go for the big thing, go for the thing that you really, really want.

Gil: Because that’s where you’re going to start to change yourself to who you want to be.

E: Make decisions on what you want, not what you have or not what you know you can have. Most people are making decisions on what, what they have. What they think they could have. Why? Make decision what you want. I want this. Why Gil? Because I want it. Fair enough. Anything else? I want this too. Yeah, and that’s okay, right?

E: That’s the other big component of it. I think most people are afraid, like actually afraid, of having everything they want. Because the next scariest thing, my friend, in my experience, is the moment that you actually start getting everything you want. And you have this like, oh shit moment. My life is actually changing. Everything is working out. I should go back. Stop. Pull the stop. Let me off this bus. This is scary. Why? This is why you want it, wasn’t it? Yeah, but and then they get off the bus and then life doesn’t change.

Gil: Or it goes back.

E: It always goes back, right? Anything that gets created when it’s not sustained, what happens to it? It

Gil: It goes back to normal state. Yep.

E: Anything, right? It’s the law of the universe. Nature would take back everything. Nothing is ever created or destroyed, right? It’s all here. It’s all repurposed.

E: What was this show about? What were we talking about? The reg bookings,

Gil: Short term rentals and direct bookings.

Gil: Um, uh, we went on a tangent, but actually I, I really love this topic and I, I, I, I can’t imagine a better person to really like I’m also using this as a mental exercise of myself as we’re thinking through this about like how much I’ve changed as well in the last 12 months, I’ve been building products for the last 15 years, but it wasn’t until I started this company and I took the biggest risk that I’ve taken in my adult life, probably even my life and really abandoned everything that I had from a monetary standpoint and took a big risk and and.

Gil: Rather than earning money, I’m injecting money into this company. I’ve learned more in the last 12, 18 months than I did 5 years prior. I, I didn’t know how to start a podcast. I didn’t know how to start a company and to incorporate it. I didn’t know how to hire a team from, from scratch. To get our first customers out there and build a channel, like channel marketing, like, and our marketing engine, like, I didn’t never knew any of that stuff.

Gil: Um, and I can’t really pinpoint one thing that really helped me get through all that stuff. Other than what we just talked about, which was like, I was just so obsessed.

E: hmm.

Gil: I think that was probably the only thing that I, I was just so focused over the last year of like building an out that it helped me get through all of that.

E: Because it was an obsession.

Gil: Yeah.

E: And the thing is, is, is this right? When you get on the right vibration, you’ll start attracting the right things. Because again, like the universe is here to help you. Because again, going back to the subconscious mind, the subconscious mind and the power of the universe is not against anybody.

E: This story that the world is against you is a story, right? How many people do you know the world is against me and you’re like actually man is life has been pretty good to you Right,

E: but those people are never happy and then you have those people like me that I’m like, I don’t have bad days People like how I’m like because it’s my life. What do you mean? What was gonna make me have a bad day? My emotional standards and my thought standards are that I don’t have a bad day. Do I have bad moments? Absolutely, brother. They last less and less because I just don’t accept it It’s not worth it. What’s the, what’s the exchange?

Gil: Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me a lot about, uh, I don’t know if you ever read that Grant Cardone book, uh, you

E: one?

Gil: the, oh, there’s a bunch, but the one that comes to mind as we’re talking about this is like be obsessed or be average. Have you read that one?

E: Yeah. And he’s right. Right. Look at him. Like I started following him. I remember Mike and I went to 10 X in 2019 in Miami and it was, he had this little chart that showed about how over time the more people talked about him, how much more his success went up. All he did is become obsessed obsession for anything. And he’s also like, it’s what makes life fun. Right. Cause it’s rewarding and it’s fun and it gives you a purpose and a feeling. And like, we want to strive for more. Like to want more is to be human and to be human is to want more. So anytime you want more and you say no to yourself, you’re going against your human nature.

Gil: Yeah. There’s, there’s some stuff from, from Grand Cardone that I, I think is a bit more over the top, but definitely like, if I need it, if I need a good mindset kick, listening that on audible is actually very, very healthy.

E: Uncle G man, Uncle G has done some really great things.

Gil: Yeah.

E: And again, he’s created an amazing business. 

Gil: Yeah. 

E: can hate him as much as you want, but like dude, he has done it. Um, like he created an amazing business.

Gil: All right. Maybe switching gears a little bit. I want to, I want to hear your backstory. I want to hear how you got started in all this.

E: So I came back from college in 2010. Uh, we might tell them between my legs, man. Like I terrible relationship in college. It just wasn’t a thing. Came back to live with my mom and my sister and I, they were living at an apartment that did midterm rentals for, for a tennis Academy. Um, so when I came back met the guy that used to run the office, his name is Hanan.

E: Uh, he’s Jewish and he’s like, Hey, like you’re Anna Maria’s son. I need somebody, like season is coming, right? So winter season for us is coming. I need somebody to answer the phones on Shabbat because I can’t. And I need somebody that’s good with, with computers. He had another maintenance guy there, but he was more than like handy, handy person, but he wasn’t really great.

E: And that was my start brother. Fast forward, fast forward 12 years later, I own all four of those apartments. Um, And I have grown from there. So I started as a maintenance guy. And so when I tell people, you’re a concept of yourself. Like, I went, if anybody has read the e myth, I was the operator. So when I started buying those apartments and I bought the business, I used to still do maintenance Wednesdays.

E: But I used to go and pressure clean the buildings and paint things. And I did everything myself. And I used to use an Excel spreadsheet. And keep track of reservations on little stickies and stickies, like I would write people’s credit cards on little, little post its and they’re like, is this safe? I’m like, it’s super safe.

E: Don’t worry about it. It’s in my agenda. Don’t stress it, right? Like everything is good. And then over time, when I met Mike, Mike opened my eyes to how to systematize something. And he also opened my eyes to understanding that like, I could be a business owner. I didn’t have to be a worker bee. And so that has allowed me to then scale that business, step out of it, and now work just a couple hours a week on it.

E: And that allowed me to also start real estate syndications and everything else. And now I spend most of my time coaching mindset, coaching within our community for both boutique hotels and STRs. But primarily mindset, mindset and boutique hotels. That’s where I really have a lot of fun,

Gil: Yeah. Yeah. So what’s, what’s your boutique hotel portfolio? Like now you see at the 40 unit, right?

E: correct? So that and then I am right now my, so I was born and raised in Italy. As I mentioned earlier, I found one in Sardinia where I’m from, uh, that I, I want and my goal is to keep spending the summers there. So I’m still blessed with three out of four grandparents. My grandpa just turned 97 this weekend and I’m going there June to September this year.

E: Coming back briefly for STR walk on because I have to, uh, I don’t want to miss that, but I really want to bring everything that I’ve done here. And so that’s one of my, my big goals for the year is that one and then to pick up another one here. So similar to the one that I have, ideally close to the water because I want a different kind of asset that I don’t have right now.

E: Mm

Gil: Yeah. Yeah. My, my follow up question was going to be, where are you taking things? So it looks like you’re going to be expanding your portfolio to, to home 

E: hmm. and then 

Gil: possibly grow in here. Nice. On your, on your coaching side, what’s, what’s some of the goals that you have for, for this year?

E: so within STR secret we give out what we call the Freedom Awards. And so that’s people that quit their W 2. In 2024, we helped 16 people get out of their W2. We have helped 49 people since we launched STR Secrets. Um, and the goal for this year is 50. So that is our goal for STR Secrets is to just help 50 people get out of their W2 when it comes to coaching, either through co-hosting or boutique hotels, um, and then to help people from that perspective.

E: And then I have a personal goal to help people just. Get what they want because it’s funny and you’ll notice this with your own friends, right? As you listen to this, if you start talking to people and you ask them what they want, they’ll give you some most common answers. But the moment you start digging in there, there is nothing.

E: They don’t know. They don’t know what they want. And to me, man, that drives me absolutely insane. Like you are a being with infinite intelligence and possibilities and you’re accepting life as it comes. And you think that you cannot have everything you want in life and that’s not true, right? So on the mindset side, I love supporting people and understanding and creating this new self image, right?

E: So what is the new self image script? Why? Who are you? And let’s make that. And then helping them understand that that self image. You get to always have it under construction. You get to continuously look at your life and being like, Cool, I am night and day in this part of my life. And the same thing I did here, I’m going to do in every other bucket of my life and then come back to this first bucket.

E: And then I’m going to re upgrade this, this bucket. Because life is infinite, so what are we doing?

E: Because the moment we start growing, we stop growing, what happens? Everything atrophies and dies.

Gil: as you’re thinking about kind of like your mission, you’re in, you’re in goal there, you have your coaching business now, are there other ways that you’re thinking about getting more leverage to impact more people?

E: So this is one of the ways for me, right? I, I, I go and I speak to my podcasts as, as I can. So if you have a show and you like me to come on, I would love to please reach out to me. And then I also do the same thing for coaching communities. So I’m, I’m blessed with a lot of friends that have some amazing communities that they built.

E: I love sharing this within other communities. Cause again, I think we get in the mechanical spirit of things quite a bit, like the dialing of how things actually work. Without getting into the spirit of it in the being of it and that to me in my experience of coaching for so long is what gets in the way every single time.

Gil: Is that, is that why you went back to STR secrets at the core? It’s a mindset company disguise as an STR company is because we find that Yeah. By focusing more actually on the mindset part, you’re able to reach some of those goals. If they have STR goals, they can actually reach it. But if they actually don’t really focus their attention and you guys have the training, uh, and the restructure, the structures in place, like they’re not going to get to where they want to go.

E: hundred percent. And what I’ll share with you, one of my favorite book is called psycho cybernetics and what he talks about on there, he was a plastic surgeon. And what he realized is how sometimes he would do surgery on people. And their entire life will change. And some other times, you would do surgery on people, they would look 100 percent different, and life wouldn’t change. That is the same thing, right? Like, I can show you how to fish, but if you don’t believe you can fish, you’re never gonna fish. And I can show you the waters we do it in. But then if you throw the line that way, the water is there, it’s never going to happen.

Gil: Do you see yourself, uh, ever writing a book?

E: I don’t know. So I’ve been blessed enough to be part of the hospitable host. Um, so I wrote a chapter in there. There was a lot

E: of fun. I don’t know. That’s an interesting question. I never thought about it.

Gil: Yeah.

E: like there is a lot of learning that has happened. 

Gil: Yeah. The reason why I asked is I think like right now you’re obsessed with really helping more and more folks really get in the right mindset and really learn how to manage, uh, manage their mindset.

Gil: Uh, and you’re doing a lot through coaching and being guest speaker and we can probably talk for hours on this topic and I still will.

E: for hours. Yeah.

Gil: Exactly. And I’m just trying to figure out like, how can he leverage his obsession to reach more people? Um, and the first thing that comes to mind is, is, is some sort of book or some sort of course or some sort of thing that’s like a bit more automated where like you didn’t necessarily have to do one on one, but you’re able to translate all the knowledge that you’ve learned through all your coach, like all your coaching sessions with all your, all your folks.

E: hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And again, like I. Mike and I do a lot, a lot together. Um, we coach. So one of our programs is called Limitless and, and it’s pretty much geared mostly on mindset. Um, so the goal is to continue to grow that. And again, for me, that, the big part of it is to grow with people that I love and care about.

E: We’re, as a community, we’re creating an impact. cause dude, we had our, we had our boardroom event this past week in Orlando 

Gil: I saw it. I saw it.

E: to me. Yeah, dude, it’s so special for me to, like, see, like, 50 some people that like have become a family, right? Like it’s just such a meaningful, meaningful moment.

E: And then this is a room where people different than our families, man, we find 100 percent support, right? Because these people around you, your family is in line with your paradigm. So a lot of the times your family is going to try to keep you the way you are. And it’s not out of anything but love. So the fact that we’ll be able to create a family where people get to upgrade their paradigm and have the support around them from other people that are doing the same, that, to me, really fills my bucket.

E: Like, really makes me feel Yeah, man, like, really makes me feel like we’re doing something that is bigger than STRs. It’s bigger than boutique hotels. And again, we teach those things because that’s how we have done it. Like, that’s the vehicle. Like, we love those things, and I love hospita Like, I love hotels.

E: I love hospitality. So I am going to build a brand. A hospitality, food, and hotel brand. Like, that’s just part of the thing. But, the service and the helping, it’s, it’s, it’s the lead. Like, the lead cause that’s gonna create all the effects in my life is just serving and helping others. that’s 

Gil: Yeah. I saw some of the, uh, the reels, um, of you holding, uh, Chris’s, uh, kid in your arms while you’re, while you’re up there. You definitely feel the family. I think that that’s probably like one of the things that I’ve noticed and I’ve come across quite a few secrets folks now. Um, now that like. I’m meeting more folks in the industry ever since I started the company, like I’ve been a host for years now, but like when you’re starting a company and you’re growing it, you end up meeting some fantastic folks.

Gil: And I met a lot of folks from secrets, both on the, on the coaching side and also on the, the student side as well, too. And I think I hear over and over again, just like how the community is built differently than some of the other mastermind groups. It’s just like a much stronger, I don’t know if camaraderie is the right way of like describing it, but there’s a definitely a tighter bond and I think probably more.

Gil: So I think it comes down to like purpose.

E: Yeah, cause we want the, we want the freedom. Like, what I want for my people in secrets, and I know that’s what Mike wants, It’s the real freedom, like we don’t, I don’t care about the, the flashy shit. Like, I know Mike doesn’t need it. Like, do we have nice things? Absolutely. Right. Because like we like them, but is that our leading KPI when it comes to that?

E: It’s not for me, it’s Chris feeling comfortable coming to the STR event with a baby that’s four months old and having a community of people because Chris was coaching with me when given puppy, I got her, she fell asleep. We had our entire conversation. That to me is what’s, what’s important, right? A whole day at this, like we went to Universal as a group. That to me is what, what, what matters, right?

Gil: Yeah, I love it. I love it. And I love how like you guys have such strong focus on on that as as as a core principle. It’s not marketing fluff. It’s like the people that I meet don’t have to say those things.

E: no, no, it’s, it’s who we are as people, 100%. We care about health, we care about wealth, we care about love, and we care about impact.

E: Like, those are, those are our buckets.

Gil: Switching gears a little bit.

E: Yeah, let’s do it.

Gil: Um, I do want to understand a little bit about kind of the more direct booking side of things. Um, you do quite well on, on the direct booking side. Um, what’s, uh, what’s your secret?

E: So, one, obviously, I’ve been doing it for a long time, right? And so I’ve been having these conversations with people, and people know me locally. So I don’t invest across the country. I’m hyper local, right? So I’ve been in South Florida for 15 years. I invest primarily in South Florida STRs. I’m in South Florida.

E: Everybody that knows me in South Florida knows me as a, as a short term rental guy. One of the things cause I was trying to think about something to give you a listener is that maybe they haven’t heard before, right? So I am, I’m a real estate broker as well. And so over time, when I started in real estate, I would tell people that I had short term rentals and a lot of those agents have become longterm partners of ours.

E: And what I mean by that is Anytime an agent has a client that is either coming into town because they’re buying something or they bought something or they’re selling something and they’re waiting for the new house to be ready or they have any issues with like the home itself, right? Floods, fires, anything breaks.

E: Agents know because agents love to save the day,

E: right? And agents also become the point of reference for anything real estate that the homeowner goes through. So in my mind was like, okay, how do I provide value? How do I, how do I become an ally to agents where I make them look good? They make extra money and I don’t give them any extra work. So we have created a great partnership with real estate agents because again, anything their client needs, we help them. The family coming to town, they can have space for them at home. We take care of them, just send them to us. We don’t make them do any work. The agent themselves. Right. So like. If an agent is making a commission, usually there’s a bunch of contracts involved.

E: There’s a bunch of paperwork involved, phone calls, scheduling, this and this, showing this, nothing. You want to show one of our properties, you just let me know. One of my team members will go meet your client. If you can be there, good. If you can’t, good, right? Your client needs a place for a month, six weeks, eight weeks, four days, Thanksgiving, whatever it is, right?

E: And so in understanding, like there is tons of people that want to give better quality service to their clients. And we are very fortunate to be able to provide tons of value to other people that then makes us money. But again, if the motive is just money, things don’t work as well. My motive is like, I’m going to help you look better. And the effect of that is that I make more money. Mm 

Gil: It reminds me, uh, When we were talking on your show, when the topics that we chatted about was always be in service of others and that kind of like, it rings to me, like what you’re trying to do, not necessarily is to try to juice occupancies and really focus on that. It’s like, you’re going to go through life and you’re going to meet people, you’re gonna, you’re obsessed with growing your portfolio, making the life of what you need, but like. As you go through life, if you always concept, like how do you actually serve others, it will eventually come back to you. And the way that you do this is like, how can you help your agents in any way, whatever resources you have, it could be time. It could be money. It can be assets. It can be these rentals.

Gil: If you can leverage that as a service,

E: hmm.

Gil: it’s going to help you.

E: And do always understand that living isn’t a giving, right? So like, what can I give? Because the law of circulation is always working, right? So it’s gonna come back. So what can you give? Start from giving. Because that’s the other problem. Most are like, oh, I’ll do that. When I have. I’m like, no, do that now. Start doing the things that you know are right. Do them now. And have faith. That by doing the right things, having the right cause, the right effects will show. Most of you just are doing things for the wrong reasons. And that’s why you’re getting the wrong effects.

Gil: Yeah. is probably one of the deepest shows that we’ve recorded on this, uh, on this podcast. I love it.

E: Well, that’s my pleasure. That’s such a great compliment. And I, and I do hope your, your audience got a turn out of it. If there is anything that I can help them with, uh, epony. realestate is my IG handle. That’s where you can find me on the most. But overall, Facebook, STR secrets, anything that you, however we can serve you.

E: Uh, we’re, we’re, we’re here for you.

Gil: Yeah, I was just about to move into the last segment of me asking you, where can people find out more about you and, and such, so definitely I’ll leave the, I’ll leave your information in the show notes, uh, when we air this as well, too, I’ll, I’ll tag you so that people can find you back on, on your show as well, too, or your, your IgE, um, I usually end with two questions, which

Gil: One, you may have exposed already.

Gil: Actually, both of you might, I have exposed already, but the first one, um, I’m doing a lot more reading now. Um, I’m focusing on myself a bit more this year. So what’s, uh, what’s one book that you would recommend that has changed your life.

E: this year, and I have it here because it’s always with me. It’s the Power of Awareness by Neville Goddard. So there are small chapters, very philosophical in nature, but very, very powerful. So it’s called The Power of Awareness. And it’s one of those books that you don’t hear kind of recommended a lot because it’s, again, can be a slightly heavier read.

E: And so if you are thinking about getting it, if you do end up getting it and you read it and you read the first chapter, you’re like, holy shit, like, what is this? Just know that my first chapter I probably read eight or nine times before I move to the next one just to understand it, right? So it’s one of those books that you study and you don’t read,

Gil: Mm.

E: right?

E: And so in terms of like understanding big complex information, I would encourage people to not go through the motions of reading, but to really learn how to study. And to study is you study powerful information, you study yourself, and then you study yourself against the powerful information. So I study.

E: I understand myself and I’m like, okay, based on what I study, how well am I doing this?

Gil: Yeah. It’s almost a feedback loop.

E: It is. And then what do you do? You go back to study.

Gil: Yeah. It’s interesting that you said, uh, study. I always, whenever I get a book advice,

E: Hmm. Hmm.

Gil: do I pick up a hard copy? Do I download it on my Kindle or do I get an audible? And I found that mindset ones I typically like on audible.

E: Hmm.

Gil: I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’m not hearing in my own voice.

Gil: I’m hearing in someone else’s voice.

E: Okay.

Gil: Um, yeah. Um, things that I need to refer to over and over again, things that have diagrams, things that have structure operations that teach me something that I need to put into practice and it could still be a mindset book. There’s a lot of mindset books out there that are very practical, tactical. I tend to buy hard copies of, 

E: Interesting. So I have too much of a squirrel brain. So if I listen to things, my brain kind of flies off in different, different directions. So I can, and again, this is where, where. Study, study yourself, right? It’s in understanding, like, okay, like, these two people have completely two different ways, right?

E: And Gil reads some books, but then listens to audio. He is only books, right? Like, I don’t do any audible. Neither one of us is right. It’s just what works better for us. And until you know yourself, you won’t know what works better for you.

Gil: yeah, yeah. Introspection is a very powerful thing.

E: Yeah. Well, educo, which is the root word of education, it means to draw from within. And so most people don’t realize that, like, education should be what do you feel about certain things. Whereas nowadays education has become, let me fill your cup with what I say. And then there’s no power of, like, self reflection or self analysis in it.

Gil: Yeah. All right. Last question. What’s one tactical advice that you would want our listeners to put into practice today, typically geared towards direct bookings. You’re welcome to sway it towards some of the other topics we talked about today.

E: Yeah, so direct bookings, if you like my little tip on agents, is in understanding how can you become of value to real estate offices in your area. That could be teaching them how to analyze vacation rentals. That could be just become a value, serve, serve people. I don’t care how don’t go into being like, I want to create a direct booking strategy through agents.

E: No, I want to serve agents for whatever it is that they may need that is short term rental related and then watch your business change when it comes from mindset, create a clear mental picture of what it is that you want and then become obsessed with it and understand that like day after day, it’s like a shower.

E: Everyday. You gotta go in there and shower. Everyday. Wash the bullshit, wash the old thoughts, wash the old you away, bring in the new stuff. And then become unapologetic with it. Don’t accept anything else. Raise your standards of emotion, thinking, and results.

Gil: That was a good show. I appreciate you being on the show.

E: Oh brother, my pleasure, thank you for having me.

Gil: I’m sure it’s not going to be the last time I’ll have, uh, we’ll, we’ll be speaking on a podcast together either way.

E: I’m here, whenever you want.

Gil: Thank you, E. And I hope, uh, you guys get value out of this one. Thanks. Bye.

E: Ciao guys.

Yeah. Yeah.