Forged In Fire
Hosted by Nate Pharmer-Eden and Cole Farrell, Forged In Fire is where real entrepreneurship meets raw, unfiltered stories. This isn’t your typical business podcast—we skip the fluff and dive straight into the heat of what it really takes to build, run, and grow a business. From late-night doubts to game-changing wins, we explore the trials, setbacks, and breakthroughs that entrepreneurs experience at every stage of their journey.
Whether you’re a seasoned business owner navigating new challenges or someone with a burning desire to launch your first venture, this podcast offers powerful insights and practical lessons for everyone. No sugarcoating—just honest conversations about what it takes to forge success through the fire.
Get ready to be inspired, learn from real-world struggles, and gain the tools you need to make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality. This is your front-row seat to the highs, lows, and everything in between. Are you ready to step into the fire? 🔥
Forged In Fire
Episode 42: Midterm Rental Success by Building a Dual Marketplace w/ Aisha Govani
What does it really take to build a thriving real estate business while homeschooling kids and maintaining your sanity? Aisha Govani doesn't sugarcoat her answer: "100 hours a week for two years, seven days a week, no days off." But the freedom and future she's building make every grueling moment worthwhile.
Growing up watching her contractor father covered in sawdust and paint, Aisha witnessed firsthand how real estate created generational wealth. After a decade in the nonprofit sector followed by corporate events, she realized building someone else's dream wasn't her destiny. When she met her husband—already a seasoned investor—they plunged headfirst into property management, starting with student rentals and townhomes.
In this riveting conversation, Aisha reveals how she and her business partner Sarah Larby created something unprecedented: a dual marketplace connecting property owners with corporate clients seeking midterm rentals (30+ days). Their business serves everyone from relocating executives to insurance claimants needing temporary housing, centralizing bookings and customer care so owners can remain hands-off while maximizing returns.
The entrepreneurial journey hasn't been easy. Aisha candidly shares her struggle balancing team growth with limited resources, the mindset shifts required when creating something that doesn't exist elsewhere, and why meditation and exercise became non-negotiable daily practices. Her perspective on energy allocation is particularly illuminating: "Every piece of energy I give to something that will not serve me takes away from energy towards something that can."
As she expands into the US market, Aisha remains grounded in what matters most—family, gratitude, and creating solutions rather than forcing customers to adapt to her system. Her parting advice resonates deeply: "You don't know when your last day is going to be, so what are you waiting for? Don't just react to life." Ready to transform your approach to business and life? This episode is your blueprint.
Forget what you've heard. Forged in Fire is where real entrepreneurs come to share the untold truths of success the late nights, the crushing setbacks, the moments that change everything. No fluff, just fire, ready to step into the heat and unlock what it really takes to build a business.
Speaker 2:this is where legends are made and welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of forza and fire. I am your co-host, nate farmmer. Come on stage, brother. How we doing man.
Speaker 3:Nate, I'm doing good, man. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm good. I'm good it's a Tuesday. I thought about this. I had a perfect intro. You and I were talking a little bit ago. You're like my hair. It's in this middle flux. I'm changing it up. I'm like you know what I look at myself? Like I haven't shaved. I look horrible. But this is a podcast. No one's going to see me. But then I realized that we actually do like the videos and those actually post. So that didn't work. So now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to fix this.
Speaker 3:I love it. I love it. Yeah, man, I'm in that in-between hair stage where, like, I grow my hair out and, like you, can't do anything with it it's too short, it's too long Everyone like looks at you funny. You don't know what to say Cause you can't explain a lot to someone and they just don't care. You know, I don't know, I don't know. But man, life's good too. I don't over here, I don't know. I got no complaints. We got a lot of acquisitions coming on, we're doing a lot of zoning stuff, which is interesting, to say the least. So things are good. So I'm excited for this episode. Are you ready? You ready to dive in?
Speaker 2:I'm ready, dude, this is going to be exciting man. Oh, I was going to do some housekeeping Sorry. Yeah, no, housekeeping it up bro.
Speaker 3:I was just getting yamped up. All right, look housekeeping real quick. Guys, we're only going to ask you this one thing. We ask every episode and it really means a lot If you could just leave us a review, whatever platform you're listening to this on Spotify, apple, a comment, anything If you click the follow buttons last, leave a review, it's kind of the same thing. That's what helps us grow, that's what helps us keep bringing these awesome guests and put more resources towards this. So please, please, please, just do us that one favor.
Speaker 2:But besides that, sit back, relax, enjoy, dude this is going to be a hell of a ride, bro. Hey, we've got Aisha Govani. She is coming to the stage. She is an amazing young woman coming straight to us from Canada. She has done a little bit of everything, bro, I'm talking about, from management to midterm rentals, to she owns her own properties, to enough rambling for me, aisha, come on stage, lady. How are we doing? It's so good to see you. Welcome, welcome.
Speaker 4:Hi Nate, Hi Cole, how are you guys? Thank you so much for having me today.
Speaker 3:Good you.
Speaker 4:Good, good. Yeah, it's a beautiful day here Finally. We're getting some warm weather only mid-June, so didn't have to wait that long, but you know how it is in the good old north.
Speaker 3:Where are you based at?
Speaker 4:Hamilton, Ontario, just outside of the GTA in Canada.
Speaker 3:Awesome, okay, we've had this weird relentless rain here for like literally a month. I swear to God, I've never seen so much rain in May or June ever.
Speaker 4:I don't know if you guys experienced that, but we're in like East Coast. Yeah, no, we get a lot of snow in the winter, so that they're a little more graceful when it rains for us.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I love it. So please tell us a little bit about yourself. What got you here? What brought you here?
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks for asking. So I've been full-time in the real estate industry for about the last 10 years. I grew up under. My dad was a real estate investor, a contractor. When I smell paint or any renovations really takes me back to my childhood. I don't recall ever seeing him not covered in head to toe from sawdust and caulking or dried paint. So it's something I grew up in and something I sort of saw. You know, something I saw as an avenue that built the generational wealth for my parents. And then they turned into entrepreneurs so they ended up closing up shop in the real estate business and just running a delivery company for the last 24 years.
Speaker 4:Fast forward. I met my husband about 10 years ago and he had been investing already at that point for 10 years. So now he's in his 20th year of investing and at that point 10 years ago, I started to learn more about the current industry of real estate and was thrown through the marriage headfirst into managing our own properties. We have a student rental near McMaster University and then we have four townhomes in Cambridge, ontario, and so I really had to dive in into buying and renovating and re-renting out, dealing with tenants and the such, and I sort of said to my husband this seems to be quite lucrative comparatively to my. I was in the nonprofit sector before. That was the first 10 years of my career, but also I was then into corporate events. So between both real estate just seemed to be the biggest bang for your buck. I said we both work like donkeys. So if we're going to work this hard it has to be towards something that eventually I can retire early and then it makes sense. I'm not going to build someone else's dream with all the hours that I know we can put in. So we went fast forward. We launched full time into real estate about four years ago Now. We both started doing our realtor license. He completed his in the midst of mine.
Speaker 4:I got the opportunity to work for my current business partner, sarah Larby. I was working for her as an executive assistant for about a year. We realized we had super great synergy. She's fabulous to work for. I knew she would be excellent to work with and so we decided to launch Midterm Rental Properties and that was birthed about three years ago. And so that brings me today. So today I am a full time, a full time under the company.
Speaker 4:We have a team of four who works for us, and we recently launched into the US about two months ago and that's really how I reached out and wanted to connect with Nate, because we have a lot of the same clients. And also to backtrack a little personally me and my husband are also investing in the US. Now in the last year, we've really decided to stride away from Canada and so we're trying to buy our first properties in the US as well, as we've launched now midterm rental properties in the US, which is what brought me to you guys today and my connection with Nate. I'm trying to reach out to my US investors to just say what's up, what are you guys today? And my connection with Nate. I'm trying to reach out to my US investors to just say what's up, what are you guys up to? How can there be synergy? I'm all about collaboration and growth. There's so much of the pie for all of us. We might as well work together. So that just brings us to today.
Speaker 3:I love that. Oh my goodness, there is so much I want to go into there. One really cool story I love that your dad was involved and you always saw him working his butt off and kind of just going through the motions and it's really cool. And it's cool that you work with him. You kind of partner with him in a lot of instances. That's kind of how I got started. Same thing where similar story I won't go into now, but I just resonate with something like that so much and it's super interesting to hear. You came from like the nonprofit world, you did the corporate thing, and so one of my questions is one you said you started and you got your real estate license. So why get your license? Was that mandatory? And I asked that because there's a whole controversy of okay, if I'm going to be an investor, should I get my license, do I have to, et cetera.
Speaker 4:So let's start there. That's actually a really good question. So so we both started to get our license and he completed his much, much earlier, because he's my husband, is the he that I speak of? So my husband started his license, um, he got his, and then I started mine a few months later. I didn't finish now. Now, I didn't finish because of what you just said. So he had already had his, and I then started to learn more about the industry. And as I learned more about the industry, I was like well, we don't need two people in the family to close our deals. It makes no sense, you just need one realtor. And then, if I became a realtor, I actually wouldn't be able to run midterm rental properties. I wouldn't be able to have that company because I would be liable to the rules and regulations under the brokerages.
Speaker 3:That's what I wanted you to say, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and every time I would close a deal I would have to then pay them a fee. And I was like why? So I actually didn't finish my license, even though I scored really high and would have done really well, I didn't finish it. And it was because, you know, my business partner was like it doesn't make sense, it's going to limit us on your liability, it's going to limit us on what we can do. And then I found other avenues like. This was like the first, my first entry into real estate, thinking that being a realtor was the only way I didn't know. But when I started to learn is when I realized I could just have something like midterm rental properties and not be tied to a brokerage and the real estate license. You only need one realtor in your group, not even your family. You just need one person in the group that has the license.
Speaker 3:Love it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I love this all so much, and you and I, we talked about this. I don't know when we first initially connected months ago. This was before you got that luxurious trip to Bermuda. So welcome back. By the way, my question for you, of course, my question for you and you can take this in whatever direction but from coming from your background corporate America and then doing the whole nonprofit to where you are now, because you've grown immensely what were some of the struggles, what were some of the trials and tribulations that you had to go through, and then what are some of the struggles and headaches or pain points that you're experiencing now?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I appreciate that question and you know, before I came on this podcast, we talked a little bit about your listeners and it's always important for me to know who's listening and really what they want to get out of it. And I think anyone listening to most podcasts that's really the question they want to know and that's what I listen for when I listen to podcasts what can I learn from this person's mistakes and their struggles and what they've been through? So I really appreciate that question. I think a large part of my growth from then to now is really mindset right. When you're entering as a real estate investor and you're looking at these big numbers and you're like, oh, like that's an impossible feat, it's impossible to buy a large building, it's impossible to buy a fourplex or it's impossible to buy a resort. When you educate yourself and you actually unpack the strategies behind all of these investments, like, so, for example, I don't necessarily have to buy a whole building by myself I can come to Nate and say, what opportunities do you have that I can be a part of? And that is what I would say I learned very quickly is I learned what I didn't know? And then I was like, okay, I should do you have that I can be a part of? And that is what I would say I learned very quickly is I learned what I didn't know. And then I was like, okay, aisha, do you have the capacity? Like when I entered the real estate industry, my kids were like a year and two and a half, like they were babies, so I was also a full-time mama, right? So I had to balance and I had to think like what, what can I learn? What do I have the capacity to learn? And then, who knows what? Who, who has the expertise in their, in their strategy, and can I go to them and ask for their advice?
Speaker 4:So the the struggle was first learning what I didn't know and being like holy crap, there's a lot I don't know. Then slowly realizing I didn't have to learn it all by myself, and then starting to reach out and make connections to people who could not only teach me, but they were already really good at what they did and they could fully guide me and I wouldn't have to worry about learning the ins and outs and and and again. Like I'll repeat, like this is how my relationship with Nate happened is because I was like who are the people in the industry, doing what is up and coming, doing what is going to be big later on and who knows? You know different strategies that I don't know and so I. That's why our connection was so quick, because now I've spent the last 10 years learning that it really is about finding the professional. So that's my first thing I would say is learning what I didn't know and then making a power team or making those connections in that network, and then I would say my biggest struggles today it's a lot of things.
Speaker 4:You know, I built a business from scratch and a business that no one else has done the way we've structured midterm rental properties. Nobody else has a business out there. And a business that no one else has done the way we've structured midterm rental properties. Nobody else has a business out there like that. So it's allowing my brain to not be scared to create something that doesn't exist just because someone else already hasn't put their stamp on it, like and that, and that was really the. It's another again the confidence of knowing what you don't know and then being okay to take the risk in doing something that may not have been done, but also not trying to reinvent the wheel. So I also tell my team we don't have to come up with the answers every time. It's okay to look at what someone else is doing and say, hey, that might work for us. So it really is. I say the overall answer is mindset and it was those two things under mindset that helped me grow. If I could package that answer things under mindset that helped me grow.
Speaker 3:If I could package that answer so good, such a good answer, and I'm curious. I keep hearing you reference teams, so talk to me more about how was that team built? Meaning I'm assuming you didn't go from zero to four. And so when did you start bringing people on? What were the metrics? You used to say, okay, I'm too busy, we need to start hiring. How does that have that look?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a great question, Because that's a really hard answer. So, in order to grow, we need a team, but in order to grow a team, I need money. But in order to make money, I need a team, because I'm one person. So it's literally a balance of everything that can't be balanced, that you must balance.
Speaker 3:A lot of people struggle with this, especially in real estate, because you're trying to do it all, you can't do it all and you just like you said you need help but I can't have help because I can't afford help.
Speaker 4:So what do I do here? Yeah, correct. So I think a couple of things is number one you have to be okay, going to a little bit of debt to build your team, but then you also have to make sure you manage that debt and then, with the team you have, ensure that you're able to bring in the money you need to keep that team and then continue to grow. So when I'd reached a point like I kid you not when I probably worked 100 hours a week for two years, seven days a week, I didn't take a day off, I was working on vacations I remember closing deals, like we would be in Mexico for my birthday and I'd be on the balcony closing a deal, because I was it, and that happened for about two years. And then, like within the two year, we tried to start growing our team. So like we'll grow it and then we'll shrink it back a little, then we'll grow it and we'll shrink it back a little.
Speaker 4:But the team we have today is fantastic because it covers three main elements. So we have someone who handles all of our guest bookings and communications and then we have someone who handles all of our host onboard inquiries. And then we have someone who handles all of our IT and our website. And then we have someone who handles all of our social media. Now that organizing that took a while, because when you're an entrepreneur, you want someone to come. Because you're doing everything, you're like, oh, now I need someone to come and they have to be able to do all the things. Most people aren't built or crazy enough as the founder of the company and they don't have the capacity to do all of the things. So that was my biggest struggle in growing my team is realizing what to let go first, and then bringing someone in who already was really good at that, and then being able to let that go. Um is what would say. But you're absolutely right, it's a struggle, for sure, and something, yeah, something that's been an ebb and flow in the business.
Speaker 3:Yeah and Nate, before you go, I just want to ask one more question as a follow-up to that, which is somebody listening might be like okay, I hear you about going into debt a little bit to build the team. I understand what you're saying, but can you give us any logistics? And obviously not asking for your financials and stuff, but like, can you give us any logistics? Like, okay, how much should I be willing to risk? And at what point do I say, okay, this isn't working. I need to turn back, like more of like the someone's listening going yes, I'm having that problem, but how how far do I push it or what should I do? Can you give me some answers there?
Speaker 4:So I always look at the big guns. So, like Starbucks wasn't profitable for the first 17 years, Uber, I think, from what I understand, still isn't fully profitable. Amazon, like you know, it's. It's a two prong. So first of all, you have to be crazy enough to push yourself past the first few years to realize you're not going to be profitable right away. But you can't be stupid enough to just push through if it's not making sense. For us, the strategy is what we're building the business on and the results of what we're seeing in the industry. So we're making connections to ensure that the need is there.
Speaker 4:Now what I would say to anyone who's looking to grow your team and deciding is start really small. So, like we bootlegged, we bootstrapped sorry, not bootleg, we bootstrapped from day one. So we created a course on midterm rental properties. We sold that course, we took the money from the course and we put it in the company and every dollar from the last three years has gone right back into the company to build the team. Now I would say to someone you have to be willing to continue working that 100 hours a week, seven days, seven days a week, and then the minute you stop wanting to do that. That's when you know you're done. But if you know you're going to keep doing that and you're going to keep waking up early and you're going to keep doing that and you're going to keep waking up early and you're going to keep going to bed late and you're going to keep pushing, then even the worst case is you let your whole team go but you continue to carry on. That's when you'll know.
Speaker 4:And if you're unsure, I suggest take a moment and shop around for a job on Indeed and I guarantee you, if you're a business owner and you decide for even a hot, you're going to quit and go work for somebody else. You spend 10 minutes looking for a job and you will go right back to your business and say there's no way Because you can't. Once you've experienced what it is to grow and create and build, you cannot go back to working. Someone else's dream. It's literally impossible. So if I wasn't doing this, it would just be another business of my own, because my brain can no longer be contained and be limited. It's impossible. I've done too many things to make myself be crazy enough to build my company in this way that I can't reverse now. So you just it's really get rich or die. Trying is really 50 Cent had it when he said it.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh, Mind blown. Mike has been dropped. I'm infamous and notorious for saying this and I mean it every single time. If you are listening to this, pause this, stop this rewind, play this whole thing back from the very beginning. So many nuggets have just been dropped and so many points that, like, touch my soul, because a lot of people they just don't quite get it and don't quite understand the drive, the determination, the mindset that you have to have to be able to get off that couch and to be able to continue to go. And even when all else looks daunting, you're like F it, I got it, we're going to figure this shit out. So hats off to you. This is amazing.
Speaker 4:Thank you. No, I appreciate that because and I'll tell you before I became an entrepreneur a lot of entrepreneurs make it look really easy. And they make it look easy because they put in all the hard work when the rest of us are asleep or the rest of us are doing other things. They don't put it out in the universe. So when you know, I went back to Bermuda and I saw friends I hadn't seen and they're like we see all the stuff you're doing on social media, how are you doing it? And I was like I don't have a choice, bro. I get up and I just grind. There's no option to not do it. And it's even harder when there's no one. Like if I don't get out of bed for three days saying you didn't show up at work today, the only thing that's going to show is the bank account. No one else is going to care. So it's really about exactly what you touched upon. It's just about getting up and deciding what do you want your life to look like?
Speaker 4:And at birth I knew I was going to be an entrepreneur. I was birthed by entrepreneurs. My dad has never worked for anyone, so I already knew it was in my blood. I knew for a fact. So when it happens, you feel it, but the grind is real and don't let the grind be the things that stop you, because the grind is a blessing.
Speaker 4:If you have the opportunity to grind and you get the, you get the access and you get the privilege and you get the network and you get like it is a privilege for me to sit here today with you on your podcast to share my story. It is an honor because not everybody gets to do that and so I take every opportunity to share my story and to grow and to make connections, like you guys, a blessing. So, really, if you get this opportunity, take it as that, and it's not easy, because if it was easy you got, everybody would do it, and that's the truth. If it was easy, everybody would do it, and it's not. So it's got to take the hustlers like us to really know that it's possible. And all of your listeners should also know it's possible. And why not? What else are you going to do? Go build someone else's dream. What's the point, right?
Speaker 2:You are making me blush. That was the kind of nicest thing. I appreciate that. But no, the honor and the pleasure and the privilege is ours. Thank you so much for coming to the stage right now. My next question for you, two part can you explain to me and to all of our listeners what, like an average day would look like for you? Part one and then part two and this segues back into what Cole was talking about what are some of the KPIs and the metrics that you track to help?
Speaker 4:understand that you're actually moving the needle forward. Yeah, those are great questions because KPIs are really important. So I'll touch upon quickly an average day for me. I usually wake up between five and six. I'll have my workout, I'll have my coffee and I will try to get in a good, like you know, an hour or two of work before my kids get up. But the first thing is is just checking on the guests Any inquiries came in, to make sure when my team logs on, they're good to go.
Speaker 4:A majority of my day at this point is just checking with my team. So we'll have a team meeting in the morning, you know. Do you guys know what's happening today? How is your day looking? Is there anything I can do? They go on about their day. We check in. You know there's a WhatsApp chat going. I monitor that. I'll have my podcasts. I record. I'll have meetings with any partners. I'll reach out to make bigger partnerships with other business owners and real estate investors, and then again in the afternoon we'll have another team meeting, my team catches me up. Investors, and then again in the afternoon we'll have another team meeting, my team catches me up.
Speaker 4:Ultimately, my role right now is to support my team. Whatever they need, however, I can make their life easier and their jobs, you know, more effective. That's what I do. So do they need more training? Do they need, you know? Do they need to upgrade some sort of subscription on something so that it's easier for them to do things, more automated or quicker? So it really is looking at the overall company and then deciding what are the things we need to make more efficient and higher quality. So I would say my day is really analyzing the business the whole day and seeing how we can grow and advance the business.
Speaker 4:I like to spend a lot of time with my family. I homeschoolchool my kids, so it is also about picking and dropping them off at their classes and then putting in the quality time. Because I'm an entrepreneur but and if any parent is listening, you know your job as a parent is more important than running a business. If, like I'll say that straight up, I won't even say like, the fact is it is more important than running a business because ultimately, no matter how much money you have in the bank, if your children are are unhappy, then that doesn't matter. So you want to make sure you balance that and that's always been important to me and I've never shied away from that. So they're also a big priority. They sit in my meetings, they'll be playing and they'll hear me speak and they'll you know they're learning and I guarantee you. You sit my son down and you say what does mama do? He can explain to you what midterm rental properties is. And so for me, for my children to learn it is such of my life, because I want them to have a good life like I do, and the only way they're going to do that is by seeing me and their mother and their father do it. So, in a nutshell, you know, growing my business is what my day looks like.
Speaker 4:And then the KPIs and the indicators. You know right now, because we're scaling into the US, our KPIs really are about our sales calls. So how many sales calls a week is my team making? How many touch points, how many meetings did they book? That's the top KPI. And then the second one would be how many hosts did we onboard this week? How many hosts are in the pipeline?
Speaker 4:So, because we're in a dual marketplace, any real estate investor who has a fully furnished rental is able to list on our website very similar to Airbnb, but we do minimum 30 day stays, month to month, and our target market is corporate guests. So I simultaneously, without knowing, created a dual marketplace company. I didn't know. So now I have two clients, so I'm essentially running two companies. I have to bring in the hosts with the furnished rentals and make sure they're taken care of and their platform works and their operations work, and then I also have to make sure we have enough guests coming in and those operations work and they're part of the website works do a marketplace. I was like that's why this is so fucking hard, because I'm trying to do two things at the exact same time and I didn't.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so the KPIs are critical and it really is the number of outreaches and the number of guests and hosts we can onboard, because if I have a guest come in and if I don't have a house, I don't have a deal. And if I have a house come in and I don't have a guest for them, I don't have a deal. So I literally it's like almost like a marriage committee. You're literally trying to make two people at the same time have the same desire and then put them together. Airbnb makes it look really easy.
Speaker 4:Again, I put no discredit to their two decades of work. And that's what it is. And I tell people are like you know, how do we run a business? Well, they, when you look at the Uber and you look at Amazon, I always go back to Jeff Bezos's picture of him in his office, or Elon Musk sleeping on his floor. And really, no, I really do to ground myself and say you know what, like that, spacex did not come overnight, aisha, so you got to keep it together and know that the hustle and the grind is real and mandatory. It's mandatory.
Speaker 3:I absolutely love that. I love that so much. I want to ask you a question. So if somebody's listening and they go, okay, I kind of want to own, but I also love the entrepreneurial aspect and they're listening to what you're saying, they're like, okay, similar to Airbnb, you obviously do different things with midterm. So do you own anything? Do you have like investments that you keep yourself, or is it only like a platform for matching it? So if somebody is listening and they're like, wait, what are you dialing on? Can you explain that a little further?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so great question. So I, I am a real estate investor, so I have my own properties, I have student rentals and I have long-term holds and then I have some stuff on the midterm market. But my platform and my business partner, sarah Larby, also has her units. She has a small resort in Coboconk and Kawartha Lakes Inspire Beach Resort. It's a beautiful resort. When you guys come and visit, we'll set you up down there and give you a few nights to come and relax and then we also have she also has her long-term investments and then she also has her properties in the midterm. Now our platform is comprised of her properties and my properties, but the rest are all. We're probably at 250 now. The rest are all external real estate investors and these real estate investors are not exclusive to us.
Speaker 4:So, to quickly touch upon your question, if you are a real estate investor and you're listening and you have a home that I would recommend in today's economy is already fully furnished, or you know for sure you want to go into the furnished rental space, you're not exclusive to us. So you can list with us and you can list on Airbnb and you can have your own direct booking and you can be on Facebook, marketplace or however you wish to book. But when you book with us, we have a centralized booking system so we handle the whole booking. We have centralized customer care. So my team handles all the customer care. So you just have to list, I send you the bookings, you say yes, I'll take the booking, and then we handle the entire booking, from payment to check in, to check out, and then you just collect your rent. So that's very different, comparative to listing on Airbnb or listing on Facebook Marketplace or listing direct booking, because you have to do everything.
Speaker 4:So we are really for the host that is happy to be hands off, wants access to all of our marketing and all of the leads that we bring in, not only to our website but to our B2B account managers on the internal front. So we have two different types of listings where you can list and you can collect, get the bookings and you can receive the communication. You handle all of it on our website, but then if you're part of our B2B, you don't do much. You just give us your property and maintain it and then we handle everything else. So we are for the new investors, for the old, for the people who've been in the game for a while If you have a furnished rental and you want it to be listed and booked with a corporate guest. We are the leaders in that industry in both Canada and the US, in terms of the direct booking sites.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I love this so much. So let's dive in just a little bit deeper. So who would your target avatar be from a business partner and or investor standpoint? Who would be the ideal client to be able to come to you to say, hey, this is what it is, that I would like to be able to say, hey, take this over, I want no parts of it. And then also, who are your clients when it comes to somebody looking for a rental, and then somebody, of course, on the other side saying I have a rental?
Speaker 4:Yeah, thank you so much for that question. So, as we're scaling into the US, our partnerships are going to be people who are either arbitrageurs or property managers or have larger portfolios, and we're okay if they're already managing them with other bookings. But this helps us know that these are properties that are quality assured, being maintained by a professional company and have a hand on them. So if you are a real estate investor or a property manager for furnished rentals or an arbitrage for furnished rentals in Canada or the US, we are looking to partner with those type of host companies. And then we're also looking to partner with other listing and booking platforms similar to midterm rental properties that are maybe on a smaller scale. So we have companies that we work with that are just in Arizona or just in Florida or just in California and they're just in their in their little pocket. But we can we can carry them on a national level so they can handle all their local bookings. But if we have anyone traveling to those areas, we can send them to their property. So we're also happy to give and share. The property doesn't have to be exclusively ours. We can help list through them as well. So that's one type of partnership, and then we also are inviting individual hosts. So let's say you decide to buy a furnished rental near your area and you just have one property. That's cool. Cool too, you can still list with us, we will still book you, we will still take care of you, as long as it's a furnished rental that is managed by you and taken care of.
Speaker 4:And then if you're a guest looking for a furnished rental, our ideal guests are businesses. So businesses that do a lot of corporate travel. You're looking to place your new hire or consultant month to month during a project. There are a lot of service providers. So let's say, for example, all of a sudden Tesla blows up in your area and there is a service company that's come in and they're installing EV chargers in the in the companies next door. That will take months, so we'll work with a company like that will take months. So we'll work with a company like that.
Speaker 4:Let's say there's a huge storm somewhere and the arborists have to come down and spend three months mitigating that storm. That happened to us here in Peterborough and they've spent four months mitigating an ice storm, and maybe the arborists are up there and they need a place to stay for four months. So anywhere where there's big corporations maybe a Walmart opened or an Amazon opened and they need housing for multiple months at a time, that would be us. If you are going through a renovation in your home and you need a place to stay for three to four months, you would call us. We would help you. Let's say, unfortunately you're going through a separation and you want to be close to your separated partner, we could place you in a home for three to four months, near the children's school or near your previous home.
Speaker 4:We work with individuals like that, but our main avatar is B2B. We also work with a lot of insurance claims. So if you are an insurance claim adjuster and you deal with a lot of fire, floods and you want a quality, assured property, you don't have to worry about going and having to find multiple hosts. It's a one-stop shop. So, for example, you call me and you're like hey, aisha, we have 10 new hires. They're all flying in from Portugal. They're moving here. I need a place for six months. Instead of you going online and looking up 10 different places, hoping that the host that you get is decent, hoping that the place is what it looks like, you're just sending one email and my team is like here's everything you need, here's what it is we handle. It's actually an extremely easy concept and process for anyone whose main role is to find accommodation, furnish rentals, for their own clients. So relocation specialists, recruiters, people like that.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I love it. Thank you, thank you. And before we jump into our next section, we have a surprise for you coming up very soon. But before we get there and I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way you have made leaps and bounds. Like you have gone so far in such a short amount of time. It's mind blowing, it's crazy. But now what if we turned it on its head? So, just in a short amount of time you've gone this far, but what does the next one to three to five years look like for you? Because if you're able to accomplish all of this and just figuring out from like 2020, 2021, like I'm going to get my realtor license now, halfway through, I don't really need it. And then, boom, overnight blew up. I'm like excited to hear what you got cooking.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, should I go into my wild plans or should I go into my? I have these, I have my wild plans.
Speaker 4:Yeah, okay. So I would like to be out of Canada in the next one to three years. I need to live near the ocean, I need to have my feet in the sand, I don't care where, but it needs to be clean ocean and sand. That's going to happen. We're going to not deal with another Canadian winter in very, very soon. So that's part of my plan.
Speaker 4:I want to blow up midterms in the US. I want to really be the household name for insurance claims for corporate travel. We have the systems in place. We have the listing site in place. We are so good at what we do and we work tirelessly to serve our clients and to serve our partners. So we really want to be a solution for a lot of problems people are facing in the midterm world, which is booking and listing and the communication, the customer care. It really can be centralized and we can help with that.
Speaker 4:And then, honestly, just slowing down life, which is really hard when you're trying to ramp up business. But I think it's necessary. I've always performed better when I've tried to ground myself more close the noise, not pay attention to the nonsense, and really just hone down in on what do I want my life to look like. What do I want my family to experience in the next one to five years in their life? What are my husband's goals? And you know and not listen to what's happening out there, because there's a lot of things that you hear that can shift your attention. And then you know when you're worried about the interest hikes and you're worried about the taxes and you're worried about all this stuff that our governments are doing. It can really, you know, it can really take away your attention.
Speaker 4:And I learned very quickly that if I put my attention anywhere, that's that took it. So you know, I tell my son all the time like if you've given yourself, if you've given your five minutes or 10 minutes to that one thing, it's gone. Even I took my daughter to the dollar store and she goes I want to buy this, I want to buy that. It's okay, but every dollar you buy your little piece of thing. Then next time you're like I want to go to Mexico, all those little dollars you've spent can add up to our next trip.
Speaker 4:So that's the same thing about energy and humans. Every piece of energy I give to something that will not serve me or that I cannot positively impact, takes away from the energy towards something that can. So for me it's going to be travel, building my business, spending more time with my family and aging well, because after you tilt 40, it smacks you in the face and I'm not about to let that happen. So I'm going to look like this when I'm 75. But I got to start now. So that's a large part of I want to age really well and it really does start right now for everybody, I think. So that's going to be part of my goals.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. That's one of my favorite answers I've ever heard, just all encompassing, fantastic. I love how you have some wild goals, but I think they're perfectly normal based on what you're doing, and I love that you centered in on kind of the whys behind it. I like how the lessons and things that you're teaching your children. It just is. It's awesome to hear and I think a lot of people can probably relate If they haven't heard that I'm sure they have a lot of takeaways that they can run with which is awesome.
Speaker 2:So, with that said, nate, I think she's ready. Are you ready? I'm ready, aisha, are you ready? I don't know if I'm ready.
Speaker 3:We ask every guest the same questions here, and Nate and I do our best not to respond. We kind of just let you run with it, but we always fail. We always have to interject. We get too excited. So you can answer this succinctly at length, whatever you wanna do, but it's all yours. So here's the first question what separates top performing entrepreneurs from the rest of the crowd?
Speaker 4:Grit. You got to have the grit and you got to be able to wake up even when you don't want to. You got to work even when you don't want to, and you got to push down the negativity and just you just got to keep going. And it's grit If you put one foot in front of the other, anybody can do it, but it's that, putting one foot in front of the other, that not everybody can do.
Speaker 2:My God, damn it. I'm trying hard not to Okay. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2:What is one daily habit that's contributed to your success?
Speaker 4:Daily meditation and exercise, 100% Quieting down the noise and centering in on myself and what I wanted and getting myself in shape, really helped me work through the hardest days Because even when I had the hardest days, I knew that I'd physically done the best I could for myself, mentally done the best I could for myself, for myself. And and while I you know, I don't want to miss out on gratitude, because if you don't appreciate everything in front of you, then there's no point, because all the things in front of you today are the things you wished upon 10 years ago and they're right there and you don't appreciate them. Don't think that the next thing things are going to come in the next 10 years. You have to take a moment and even if it's not what you hope to have, it is what you had hoped to have and you have it. So gratitude is a huge part of my daily regimen, in addition to exercising and meditating.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness, I'm pulling an eight Pause. Rewind that 30 seconds. Hear that five times over again.
Speaker 4:I know it sounds cliche, but it truly. It is so true like I can't even, I can't even deny it, and if people just took a minute, and it doesn't have to be those things. But you have to physically work on yourself and mentally, because if you aren't handling things here you can, you cannot handle things out there, and once I handle things in here, I literally could handle anything out there. That that's simply the truth.
Speaker 3:I love that. Just a quick aside. Here we go and I fail, but I just find it so interesting. I've been getting into meditating a lot recently and I find it funny because when I listened to, initially, other people talking about it, you know the naysayers always like oh, it makes no sense, why did you? Blah, blah, blah, and then anybody that's done it. It's like well, it's just another muscle, it's just your brain, though, like it's the muscle that you is debatably the most important, and you're telling me you don't exercise the most valuable muscle in your body. Like, what are you doing? And so, so interesting. I love that you brought that up. I digress All right. What is a piece of advice that you would give to yourself if you were starting again?
Speaker 4:Oh my, gosh, oh, so many things. If I was starting over, oh I don't know, I think I would just say I think I would. I read a lot, now like a lot. I would have probably wanted to start that sooner and said, like I always used to have probably wanted to start that sooner and said, like I always used to thought, I always used to think I would. I needed to take a course and someone else had to teach me what I needed to learn. So I was always enrolling in these courses all the time, trying to learn. But now I just self-read and I self-teach a lot of stuff, but I read a lot.
Speaker 4:And so I would have said to my older self um, first of all, don't hang hang out with people you're hanging out with. Hang out with better people. Spend more time with your parents, listen to them, because they are right, and start exercising sooner, like I always exercised. It was always like. I always dabbled in it here and there, but like never as I am today. So I wish I'd started that sooner as well. And then just, yeah, keep educating yourself and really get rich or die trying. There's no, there is no. There's nothing to lose. That's what it is. There is nothing to lose, because if you're willing to work, you could just even literally go flip burgers till you figure something out. You're never going to be without money, you just will have to do other things. So you've got nothing to lose.
Speaker 2:I love this so much. What is your favorite business book?
Speaker 4:Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, that's such a good question. Okay, so I'm in the middle of reading one called Good to Great by Jim Collins. I would say that's a good one for entrepreneurs. It's an old school one, but it's a good one. And then I just finished Diary of a CEO by Stephen Bartlett, and that had some excellent nuggets, because he combines so many lessons from so many entrepreneurs. I found I couldn't put that book down. I've gotten to the habit of my husband drives anywhere. I now just carry a book and so he's driving, and now I look back and my kids and all three of us we're just reading. He's driving, but I can squeeze in 20 minutes of a book and so I keep one in the car and I keep them by my bed and I keep one in my bag and that's yeah.
Speaker 3:I love that. I will say Stephen Bartlett, he's got a podcast if you haven't listened to it. Same thing and I'm addicted to it. It is so good, so very good, so awesome. What is your favorite part of owning your business?
Speaker 4:Freedom of time and freedom of location. I tell you that is the one thing to know that I picked up and went to Bermuda without having to ask anybody, without having to think about it, because I can work in my business anywhere in the world. So I was able to do that. And freedom of freedom of time like, again, you really have to be a grinder to be an entrepreneur, because it's very easy to, you know, spend the day just dawdling through your house and getting things done without sitting. So because I know I can sit and grind all week and I don't need anyone to stand over my shoulder and make me do it.
Speaker 4:I can I time manage really well. But it is also freedom of time to know if my son has something or if I want to go do something, I can work around it. Like when I was on vacation, I would just get up really early and work from like five to seven or eight, and so when my family got up I already banked in three hours and I could spend my day at the beach. And then I come home and work at night. There is no one waiting on the other end saying you need to sit at your desk nine to five, be clocked in and not move. That is prison to me. I would rather be in jail. So freedom of time and location is 100% the reason I work this hard.
Speaker 3:I love the conviction yeah.
Speaker 2:You stand behind that. 10 toes, like that was, that was impressive. I love that.
Speaker 4:Well, for now, it ain't the money. It ain't the money right now, because you know, an entrepreneur, startup is a startup, but it's definitely the the yeah, definitely that Money will come, that'll be fine, we'll get there, that is a for sure. That is a for sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:I love it. So my last question Sure, that is a for sure. Yeah, I love it. So my last question what is something new that you've implemented into your business that's helped drive your success?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a great question. So, obviously, looking into AI, that's a large part of of where we're pivoting, but we really so. I am a huge Amazon customer and it is simply because I just I don't like shopping. I don't have time to shop. You know, a five second chore will take you 45 minutes in a store and then you buy things you don't need. But I read his book, the, the, the letters to the shareholders. He has this book where it's letters over from 1999 to all his shareholders over the years.
Speaker 4:And again, as I mentioned, I study all the greats simply because why not? And the one thing is we're really doubling down on is our customer care. So I told my team relentlessly you need to care about everybody who touches our company. You need to care if it's a host, you need to care if it's a guest, you need to make sure that they are taken care of, they feel as important as they are to us and whatever they need, we listen. If they give feedback, we listen and we adjust it. Because, circling back to Amazon is they have my loyalty, because they're really good with their customers.
Speaker 4:I know if I need to return something that I may have forgotten in the 30 day cycle. They'll take care of me. I know of something they even do returns. I just have to drop something at my door and it gets returned. For someone like me, you have no idea how priceless that is, how busy I am and to know, my kid grew out of his running shoes overnight.
Speaker 4:We leave for a trip in three days because we are. So we came back Sunday and on Sunday we leave for Mexico. So we went to Bermuda and my daughter packed. We got there. None of her clothes fit. She had done a growth spurt overnight. So this week I'm like I have to catch up on work because we were on vacation. Now we're going on vacation, but I need to know if your shoes fit. So I know if I call, if I, you know, get Amazon to deliver it and I need to return it.
Speaker 4:It really is creating. I want to make a really easy life for all my clients, whether it's my host, whether it's my guest. I want them to know we can call midterm rentals. They're not going to give me a hard time. They're going to take care of me and they're going to know what I need and they're going to do it. And because we're a startup and because we're a business we can create. I don't have a board behind me telling me what to do. I have no red tape, there is no bureaucracy. I can create solutions and services and products to take care of them, and that really is where our focus is AI for efficiency, but keeping the human touch and focusing on customer service, because I truly believe that is what has made some of the greatest companies grow where they are today.
Speaker 2:Cool, I know you're up, but I just got to say mic drop. It's like you dropped it. You picked it up and you dropped it again, just like emphasis. The whole we create solutions needs to be driven home. That is probably one of the most impactful pieces of information I need all of our listeners to understand. If you are interested in becoming an entrepreneur and you're sitting there thinking why me this is happening, I don't understand that you need to fucking just get this shit together, figure it out and create a solution, because no one's coming to save you. This is amazing. I appreciate you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and you touched on something really important and I tell my team all the time don't try to fit a square into a circle. Just because we've been doing something a certain way, it doesn't mean it's right, we are not right. We don't know everything. You have to ask the customer. If they are telling us it's not working for them, then we change. If they don't like how we're doing things, then we change. We're not here to convince them. What we have created is the best and they should buy or list with us or work with us. It is what do you need? What are your pain points? What are the problems? How can we create a solution? And truthfully, when I realized that I was like this changes everything, because now I don't need to try to figure out what people need. I just need to know the right questions to ask and then get the answer and then create what they need amazing.
Speaker 3:All right, just dialing us back all the way. Beginning, I loved hearing your story, from seeing your dad and how he worked and then hearing how you started a nonprofit. You did the corporate world. You started a real estate license. You and your husband were like wait, he needs it, I don't, let's think about this. And then you learned. You learned with your partner. You learned and you grew. You knew what you didn't know or sorry, I should say, you didn't know what you didn't know. And then you did. And just going through that phase and then building your team, building your company, all these lessons that you touched on, that I can't even begin to go through all of them. That were just so amazing. So I have two final questions for you. One, any final advice? And two, where can people find you? Where can people get in touch with you?
Speaker 4:Thank you for that. My final piece of advice would be you don't know when your last day is going to be, so what the hell are you waiting for? There is nobody out there that's going to come and tell you here is your dream life. Here's what I'm going to give you. Here's what you should do Sit down, figure out what you want your life to look like, whether it's living by the ocean or living, you know, in the city, or living in a high rise or sailing the world on a yacht.
Speaker 4:Everyone's dreams are going to be totally different. Doesn't have to be what mine is or what Nate's is or what Cole's is, but don't just react to life. Don't just get up and go to work and come home and don't do that. Live life, because life is here and we have opportunities. And if you're lucky enough to go and do something that you're dreaming about and all it's going to take is hard work and you have that blessing and you're not struggling to eat and you're not struggling to pay your rent, but you have opportunities to grow, take those opportunities, because you've literally got nothing to lose. That's really what I would say to anyone listening who wants to do anything. Whether you want to become a real estate investor or an entrepreneur, whatever it is, they also have access. Talk to the people who know what they're doing, like I reached out to Nate and Cole. Do the same thing If you're not sure what you want to do in real estate, if you're not sure what you want to do in business, I still go and I look for mentors all the time.
Speaker 4:Anyone who will talk to me. I will go and ask questions and you know I'm like a little kindergartner, like tell me, tell, and they can tell me. Here's what you should do, here's what I don't think you should do and here's why. So also grow and meet people and have a beautiful network, because that's just. Life is beautiful that way. Um, and then how they can reach me is, uh, my business is midtermrentalpropertiescom. My personal website, which will have everything that I'm doing, is aishGovanicom, and I can be reached at Aisha at AishaGovanicom. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Aisha, this has been amazing. I'm so happy that we were able to connect, even more happy about the fact that you're willing to come on with the two of us to be able to share some insight to our listeners. This has been truly a remarkable experience. The honor, the pleasure and the privilege has been all ours, and I mean what I say when I say mi casa y su casa. Our house is your house. Come on in whenever you want to. We know that you're going to accomplish so much more in the next 700 days that, if you want to come on back, pull a chair up. We got space for you always.
Speaker 4:Thank you. I really appreciate that. You guys have been a real pleasure to chat with.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you Well for those that are listening, please, please, please, cole. I saw you. You want to say something, cole? Go ahead, brother.
Speaker 3:Nope, nope, that's it. I was going to say thanks.
Speaker 2:I love it for those that are listening. Please get home safe if you are traveling, if you are in commute somewhere. Thank you all so much for tuning in to Forged in Fire and we are looking forward and we are super excited to have you all back on for the next episode. But until then, everybody take care and we'll talk to y'all soon thanks for tuning in to another episode of Forged in Fire.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed today's raw, unfiltered stories, don't forget to like, subscribe and leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more real-world insights to entrepreneurs like you. Be sure to join us next time for even more lessons, struggles and breakthroughs on the road to success. Keep forging ahead.