Hey there, I'm Madeleine and welcome to The Luxe and The Short of It podcast. I'm a military wife, mom, and entrepreneur that went from a stressed out nine-to-fiver to now a present-minded seven-figure business owner and investor, all through the power of short-term rentals. Here we believe the Luxe life means having the time and financial freedom to be present for the moments that matter most. And I'm here to teach you the exact mindset shifts, insider expertise, and business strategy to make that a reality for you today. So are you ready to actively create the life you want? I'm Madeleine and this is The Luxe and The Short of It podcast.

[00:01:04] Welcome back, lovely people, to this episode of the Luxe and The Short of It podcast. Folks are blowing up my Instagram recently, and there's a common thread through the conversation about people being nervous, apprehensive, a little bit antsy about the changing environment of our economy, technology landscape with AI, investing, real estate. People just aren't sure what things in life are going to look like over the next several years because there's so much going on. And I wanted to take the opportunity to give you guys a bit of a shift of perspective and then three really practical things that you can start doing to future-proof yourself and your life for what is coming. Very first and foremost, it always starts with your perspective and your mindset on a topic. And one of the things that I purpose myself to do is think of change as an opportunity, always and forever. Any time that there is a shift in landscape, a change, there are opportunities that present themselves. And so when you train yourself to think like that, you start to see more and more opportunities.

[00:02:26] And I think that is one of the things that gives me an edge, is I have practiced that habit of viewing change as an opportunity. And I want you to get in that habit as well because it shifts the mindset from being passive and reactive to being proactive and wanting to be ahead of something and be an early adopter. And being an early adopter helps you get on the front side of those opportunities and meet the needs of people. Because really when it comes to businesses and making money, it's people who position themselves to solve people's problems in an efficient, in a way that is of excellent service to people. But the people who make the most money are the people whose solve the biggest problems. It's really what it boils down to, folks. So as you're starting to look at things in your daily life, start looking for changes and shifts in a landscape that you can see an opportunity and then act on it. Don't just see the opportunity to say, that's going to make somebody a bunch of money or that's going to serve some people really well. How can you do it?

[00:03:50] Number one on my list of future proofing steps is creating a personal brand and curating that personal brand. Show up, start building your network, start showing up online. If you're not online, you're invisible. Show people what you do. One of the things that is a really easy shift is to curate your personal Instagram bio that shares what you are into. Mine says STR Investor and Business Strategist. And it tells people how I can serve them, helping you start or optimize a seven-figure boutique short-term rental business. People, when they come to my page, know what I can do for them. And not to say that that's mutually exclusive. And if you want to have a private page on social media where you baby spam or grandkids spam, whatever you want to do over there, by all means, go for it. But I highly recommend having a public facing personal page. I can't tell you how many opportunities have come my way just from showing up online. Within that, I recommend having content pillars, typically four.

[00:05:09] And what that looks like is I share short-term rental tips on mine because I'm really into short-term rentals. I share a good bit of lifestyle stuff. So things on my farm, things that let you guys know that I'm human, not just some robot investing in properties and doing all the things. Things that people can relate to. I'm a mom of two. People like doing business with people and showing up online and curating that personal brand that is relatable, but also shows what you're all about and what service you can provide other people. It's important. Start showing up. The other thing that-- I'm going to get on my soapbox about this. I don't care if you have 50, 100 followers and it's just like friends and family. Start showing up online, start posting consistently, but also you can start monetizing that. You have an opinion. You have amazing taste. I don't even know you, but I guarantee you're here. So you have amazing tastes. Just kidding. But you have a perspective and that is super valuable.

[00:06:24] You should have an affiliate account. So if you find something you love, you can share it and then earn some money off of it. I don't care who you are. You need to either have Amazon Associates. I recently found a new affiliate company that I really like, especially because they specifically are helping smaller creators. So people don't have to have thousands of followers to get accepted like you do on LTK. This is a much smaller company, but they have amazing affiliate percentages. It's called Shopmine. I'm going to drop that down in the link below because I just feel so passionately that if you share a product, you need to be compensated for that because you are doing that marketing for the brand. Even if it's just an item that makes your life a little bit easier, start earning some money off of it. And short-term rental hosts, please for the love of God, make your property shoppable. That is really my soapbox that I'm on all the time. You should have multiple streams of revenue for your property. If you have followed me for any amount of time, you know I preach that from the rooftops, but it is so easy. And I make hundreds of thousands of dollars for making my property shoppable. It's a no-freaking-brainer.

[00:07:51] Anyways, I'm going to drop those links below if you're interested, but make sure you have a personal brand where you are showing up and you're monetizing it. Step number two to future-proof your life. Start learning AI. Some of you may not want to hear it. And I'm talking, learn how to prompt AI. Learn how to start creating AI agents. If you do not, you will be left behind. There are business coaches out there that are making their teams train AI to do 90% of their job. And that last 10% is the secret sauce that makes that employee valuable to the company. It makes them more efficient. Start learning how to prompt it. Start learning to create those AI agents. There are so many business opportunities for people who are early adopters. Where we are right now with AI is where the internet was in 1996. I mean, we're still getting the diddy-diddy-dile-up-internet situation in the AI front. OpenAI just launched chat version five. And this is going to really date this episode, so probably shouldn't have said that. But anyways, by version seven, they anticipate that it is going to replace a large portion of the workforce. So you need to start learning how to use it. Don't bury your head in the sand, folks.

[00:09:36] If you're a short-term rental host, we do have an AI bootcamp for how you can start using that and create a custom GPT for your specific business. We'll drop that in the link below. But just in general, folks, short- term rental host not short-terms rental host, start devouring every piece of education and content you can about AI. That is the wave of the future. Do not freak out. And last, because of AI and the changing landscape of technology, the third thing that I think that everybody should be doing to future-proof is starting to invest in physical assets. Start investing in things that people are going to physically experience. The change in landscape with AI is people are going to start paying a lot of money to have in-person experiences and it's going to shift to become more relational. I'm trying to remember the study. I'll see if I can find the article and link it down below. But over the next 10 years, people are going to start paying a lot of money for people to take walks with them. That's why I'm doubling down on my retreats and in-person experiences because there's something about sitting across the table from somebody and having a meal. Those types of connections and relationships are what is going to become even more valuable as content shifts to being more AI-generated and people don't really understand what's real. What's real is the physical, what's in-person.

[00:11:32] Those types of opportunities and events are going to really become more and more valuable as well as I personally believe travel and then investing in real estate because you own the land and the land isn't going away. That's something that AI cannot replace. So I'm looking for opportunities that AI isn't going to be able to take over. And real estate is one of those big things for me. So if you're not really sure how to dip your toe in the water of real estate, of course we have you covered on the short-term rental side of things. We'll help you start, optimize and set up a short-term rental business that really runs on autopilot, leveraging AI, adding multiple streams of revenue through that affiliate stuff over there. But as a whole, I know if you guys make a point to start dipping your toe in the water, start just posting to your personal brand, figuring out how to monetize that through affiliates, leveraging AI and starting to familiarize yourself with not just asking ChatGPT about a recipe and leaving it there, but actually understanding how prompting works and coding and like the AI agent piece of it, and then investing in physical assets and business opportunities that are going to lean towards physically being present. I think those are three things. Well, those are things that I know that I'm doing.

[00:13:17] My legal team is going to say that this is not investing advice. You need to consult with somebody who is familiar with your particular situation, your CPA, your attorney, all the things. I had to say it, but what I am personally doing is doubling down, personal brand, AI, physical assets and physical opportunities for people to get together and create connection. I hope this eases your mind. Don't forget to check out the show notes. I have a lot of resources that I mentioned today. Until then, I'll see you on the next episode of the Luxe and The Short of It podcast.

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