Meet Anna Jordan, she had a full time job + two side ventures.
She took a lease on an additional apartment in her building and loaded it to AirBnB. She’s grown her property list from 1 to 7 over the last year by growth hacking AirBnB and has spun out a consulting service to help others on the platform achieve a similar result.
It doesn’t stop there. She’s connected with 1,500 properties on the site to sell her Essentials Packs, turning the experience for the guests of these properties into an upgraded experience (hotel-esk)
It doesn’t stop there (no thats not a typo, I didn’t write that by mistake twice). She’s found another opportunity for guests of the 1,500 locations to store bags for the guests who arrive early or want to check out late!
To me, this is the definition of HUSTLE > press play and hear Anna’s story… INCREDIBLE!
Transcript:
Tobi Skovron:
Hey, guys. This has to be one of my favourite vlogs. We’re talking with Anna Jordan who went from side hustle to full-time enterprise. This for me is the definition of hustle. Check it out.
Tobi Skovron: You’ve just resigned.
Anna Jordan: Yeah. I’ve just resigned from my full-time job. That was a big leap.
Tobi Skovron: Oh, yeah.
Anna Jordan: It’s kind of…you’re in this mind frame where you don’t know when is the right time. I went to work on Friday and I wasn’t planning on resigning.
Went out for my morning coffee and was like …
Tobi Skovron: Screw it.
Anna Jordan: Yeah. Today’s the day.
Tobi Skovron: That in itself is seriously gutsy to do. Do you feel like you’re at the point or are you throwing yourself off the cliff hoping that the parachute opens?
Anna Jordan: For the past eight months I’ve been working to get to the point where I am today. I have thrown myself off the cliff.
Tobi Skovron: Okay. I love that. I think that an entrepreneur, I think someone that’s got the guts to do that, they’re hoping the parachute opens. As an entrepreneur, they’re hoping to actually build the aircraft and take off just before you hit the ground.
Tobi Skovron: You’re working with Airbnb hosts to … Go ahead.
Anna Jordan: Two years ago, a friend came back from US, and he was saying how he stayed at Airbnb, all over the U.S.
I absolutely loved his story, and the experiences that he was sharing with me.
After working in the hotel industry for 10 years, I thought this is something I could absolutely nail and love, because I work in guest relations.
So, a week later I became an Airbnb host. There was an apartment for rent in my building, signed the lease, put it up. and made 85 grand in my first year, first 11 months actually.
Tobi Skovron: That’s awesome.
Anna Jordan: So from there, people started hearing about the Airbnb’s that I was running. I improved from one to six within a year.
Tobi Skovron: So, you’re leasing and then releasing, so you’re taking your master lease and then hustling it on Airbnb?
Anna Jordan: Absolutely. Yes.
Tobi Skovron: Wow. Okay.
Anna Jordan: There’s never been a day, or month, where we haven’t been able to cover the rent. But I mean, it’s been an incredible learning experience, because Airbnb has so many algorithms and ways to optimize your property to make sure that-
Tobi Skovron: So, you’re growth hacking the Airbnb site?
Anna Jordan: Yeah.
Tobi Skovron: I love it.
Anna Jordan: Yes. From there I have a lot of people contacting me saying, ‘Can you help me? I’ve got a property sitting in the Mornington Peninsula or rural Victoria or Italy.’
I started helping people, because I love helping people, so I was helping all these people, and I thought, I could start a consulting business and make money out of this.
Tobi Skovron: Of course.
Anna Jordan: I started a consulting business and started consulting to people all over Australia.
Now I manage properties, one in the Mornington Peninsula out of the consultant business, as well as properties again in rural Victoria and one to back to April this year. That’s where the essentials happened.
Tobi Skovron: The story that I know is, I never knew any of that by the way.
So again, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. I love the hunger.
It’s super addictive, and super inspiring, and I hope that people watching, but the essentials.
I actually listened to a podcast, I can’t remember who it was, it might have been Reid Hoffman, with the founder of Airbnb, saying ‘Hey, we want to create almost an 11 star experience, and then dial it back from there’. And, so essentials to tell.
Anna Jordan:
Yeah. I actually listened to that podcast after you told me about it, and yeah, Brian Chesky was saying how they will, you know, you can provide an 11 star experience.
He gave examples of how to get there, which is really interesting. I love creating guest experiences.
So, the essentials started when my husband came home from a work event in Sydney, unloaded his suitcase and out poured all of the little bathroom essentials.
Tobi Skovron: My wife actually, she’s going to hate me saying this – and she’s looking at me here – my wife steals the soaps from the hotels.
Anna Jordan: I think everyone does.
Anna Jordan: So yeah, these essentials poured out of his suitcase, and I just thought, ‘Holy shit, how cool would it be if we could come up with our own product line to supply Airbnb hosts who can then supply to their guests.’
It’s enhancing the experience of every Airbnb guest.
Tobi Skovron: Ultimately, with creating with your essentials pack, you’re creating a hotel experience within a sub-let or sub rented apartment.
Anna Jordan: Absolutely.
Tobi Skovron: What the interest been like?
Anna Jordan: Crazy.
Tobi Skovron: Yeah?
Anna Jordan: Yeah. We’ve done a lot of research to get to our first sample product.
Tobi Skovron: Yep.
Anna Jordan: We went out to Airbnb hosts. We went out to Airbnb guests at Airbnb management companies in Australia, Paris and London, and we got feedback on the original design that we got done by a lady in the U.S.
From all that feedback that we got we then went to Version Two. Then, from Version Two, we actually got in contact with manufacturers and got samples made. Once we had the samples, they went back out again.
Anna Jordan: I went back out to Airbnb hosts management companies, and guests, and said ‘To the guest, the guest experience is different to the host experience. The guests are the ones that are going to enjoy them.’
Tobi Skovron: Totally.
Anna Jordan: So, they’re very important.
Tobi Skovron: Yeah, yeah, that’s where you’re going to sink or swim.
Anna Jordan: Yeah. From all of the feedback we’ve got once we had the samples, we went then went to Version Three, which is our final version, and that will be ready in two weeks.
Tobi Skovron: Great. So, you’re launching in two weeks?
Anna Jordan: Yep.
Tobi Skovron: How many people are you going out to in two weeks time?
Anna Jordan: We’ve got 500-
Tobi Skovron: Wow.
Anna Jordan: … who have requested a sample pack.
Tobi Skovron: Wow. Talk to me about the terms. So, 500 is a customer base for sample packs, and they sell, are they once a week doing an Airbnb? Are they’re doing a once a month? What’s their scale of terms for you as a product company?
Anna Jordan: Sure. There are differences. Some people have their house on there full time. Some people have multiple properties. It’s really quite diverse.
Tobi Skovron: You think the, you know, what are you projecting in terms of true terms? On a customer base of 500, is that worth 2,000 units a month? A thousand units a month?
Anna Jordan: Yeah, it’s close to 2,000, yeah, yep. Then we’ve just signed a contract with an Airbnb management company. I won’t name who, but they’ve got 1000 apartments.
Tobi Skovron: That’s distribution guys, that’s serious distribution.
Tobi Skovron: By the way, this was a side hustle until…
Anna Jordan: Until, well, I’m still working full time. In two weeks I’ll be done.
Tobi Skovron: So much power. So much power to you. It’s unreal. Without the sound of sounding like a Demtel ad, that’s not it, is it?
Anna Jordan: No.
Tobi Skovron: There’s more?
Anna Jordan: There is. Yeah. I always wanted to work on the essentials full time, but, like a lot of people, you get scared to leave your corporate job that has a steady income.
I thought, you know, what is something that I could, what’s a business I could run, aside from this business?
Tobi Skovron: Sure.
Anna Jordan: That could generate-
Tobi Skovron: So, a side hustle, side hustle?
Anna Jordan: Yeah, side hustle, side hustle. I was sitting at home, couple of wines into my Friday evening, and thinking away, ‘How can I leave my corporate job, and still have passive income?’
I came up with the idea of aligning storage service for Airbnb guests, because the two biggest questions that I get as an Airbnb host is, can I check in early because they’ve arrived at the red eye flight and they want to get in, or can I have a late checkout?
Tobi Skovron: Sure.
Anna Jordan: It’s all to do with bags. People don’t like carrying their bags around the city.
So, I created a website on GoDaddy in a couple of hours on a Friday night. It was pretty basic. It still is. But, then contacted a friend who works in digital marketing and said, ‘Look, I’ve got this website, I’ve got this idea. How can I get people traffic to the website?’
We chucked a bit of money towards SEM and made that live on the Monday, and it went berserk. In the first week I made about just over $500 cash and within week three, I was making a thousand dollars a week.
Tobi Skovron: Side Hustle, side hustle.
Anna Jordan: Yes.
Tobi Skovron: Some people look at me and go, ‘Man, it’s amazing what you’ve been able to achieve.’ I turn around and say ‘We both have the same 24 hours.’
Anna Jordan: Yeah.
Tobi Skovron: It’s about maximizing your time ,and not being in the armchair or too big, too lazy. So. So that’s a storage bag? What are you, how are you, where are you storing these? How are you processing this?
Anna Jordan: I’m running the whole thing from my apartment on Flinders Lane.
I created bag tags. Again, working in the hotel industry, I know what a bag tag looks like. I got on Canva. Just made my own little bag tags, got them printed and the guests booked through my website.
They arrived down the bottom of my apartment, I bag tag their bags up. Asked them what time they’re coming back, meet them down the bottom of my apartment at the time they say they’re going to pick their bags up.
I now have another phone, a bag drop phone, for all enquiries or phone calls, so I know who’s calling me. If this phone rings, I know someone’s wanting to drop off a bag, or pick up a bag. So, that’s the bag drop.
Anna Jordan: There was one moment after Derby Day, it was Sunday morning and everyone was hung over, couldn’t be bothered with their bags and I was away at a wedding. I asked my brother’s girlfriend to step in and run the bag drop. Anyway-
Tobi Skovron: Tell me you subcontracted her.
Anna Jordan: I said you can take 100 percent of the profits. I just want the data. I just want to know how many bags we’re going to get day after Derby Day for next year.
Anyway, she rang me and she said, ‘Holy shit, there are a sea of humans on the breezeway outside of your apartment. I don’t know what to do.’ I said ‘Just tag that shit right up, get the bags in there, put them in the lobby area and just get everyone’s bags in.’
Anyway, she did it, but then got an email from the business next door saying, ‘You need to change your address because people are coming into our store trying to drop their bags.’
Tobi Skovron: Bags. Oh my lord.
Anna Jordan: There were just people everywhere after Derby Day, but she nailed it. She made 550 bucks on Sunday after Derby Day.
Tobi Skovron: So, just to put that in context, you say you’re making about a thousand dollars a week, you did half of that in one day?
Anna Jordan: Yeah, in about five hours.
Tobi Skovron: Oh my god. Power to you, power to you.
Guys, it’s not simple, but it really is that simple. If have an idea, it’s all about the execution.
Anna’s confessed today that her website wasn’t that great, but it got the job done and is continuing to deliver a residual income while she focuses on her central business. This is the definition of hustle.
Tobi Skovron: I don’t know, there’s not much we can see the hustle sign in the background there.
That’s what we want to achieve here at Creative Cubes. We want people to just be at it relentlessly. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I’ve been talking about Anna coming on the Vlog since we met, I don’t know, three weeks ago?
Anna Jordan: Yeah.
Tobi Skovron: Amazing, amazing.
Anna Jordan: Thank you.
Tobi Skovron: Guys, I will link Anna’s website if you need
a) some essentials for your Airbnb,
b) if you need a bag business or bag support for your guests from Airbnb Anna’s available.
I will link all of that in the description below, and I’d love to check in with you in say three or four months time, or six months time, with an update.
Anna Jordan: Absolutely Tobi.
Tobi Skovron: It’s likely that we’ll hear about it in the news anyway, but I want the privilege of showing this audience here what it’s all about.
Anna Jordan: Thank you.
Tobi Skovron: All right.
Tobi Skovron: That was a pretty good blog, right? But if you go to creativecubes.co/vlog, you’re going to see hundreds, if not thousands more.
