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Avery Carl started The Short Term Shop in 2017, a real estate brokerage that only does short-term rentals, with offices in about 20 markets. They've helped over 5,500 investors and will cross $4 billion this year. In this episode, Rafa and Avery get into what she buys now, which is cute, clean, comfortable properties, how the short-term rental tax strategy works and who it works for, why she has to talk people out of buying a bad deal just for the tax break, and how she teaches buyers to self-manage with simple systems and AI. CHAPTERS 0:00 Meet Avery Carl 1:50 From touring musician to real estate investor 11:23 Short-term rentals before and after COVID 20:04 What she buys now: cute, clean, comfortable 26:02 The 20 markets The Short Term Shop covers 28:34 The short-term rental tax strategy, explained 37:01 Don't buy a bad deal for the tax break 40:37 Self-managing with simple systems and AI 49:20 Where to buy right now 53:51 Reserves, furniture and your first year 57:41 Does rental history raise the sale price? 1:01:21 How to reach Avery Find Avery: https://www.theshorttermshop.com Avery on Instagram: @theshorttermshop Avery's YouTube channel: The Short Term Shop Hospitable (25% off for 3 months): https://hospitable.com/partners/rafael Try HelloHost (30-day free trial): https://hellohostai.com/rafa Join Rafa's community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about Follow Rafa on Instagram: @itsrafaloza We're not CPAs and this isn't tax, legal or investment advice. Check with your own CPA. This is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any investment is offered solely to verified accredited investors through formal offering documents. No returns are guaranteed. The Big Break Show drops new episodes every week. Follow the show so you never miss one.

Sam Primm built a $40 million rental portfolio in St. Louis using none of his own money. He grew up middle class, inherited nothing, and was earning $250,000 a year in sales when he and his business partner Lucas started buying rentals. In this episode, Rafa and Sam get into why 35 rentals still left them no closer to quitting, how flipping and wholesaling paid the bills while the rentals built the wealth, and where the money actually came from: refinancing, and private lenders who turned out to be teachers and engineers. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:28 Who is Sam Primm 3:31 Why he flips some, wholesales some and keeps the rest 9:54 Rich Dad Poor Dad and the first deal 12:02 The refinance that gave his money back 13:42 35 rentals and still no closer to quitting 17:27 Scaling the team and the first hire 21:20 12 years with the same business partner 24:18 Half his deals cost $0 in marketing 26:03 COVID and today's interest rates 30:30 How he teaches beginners 34:02 The first question to ask yourself 36:21 Private lenders are normal people 39:06 Masterminds and coaching 49:06 Why real estate is how you get ahead 50:00 What AI actually does for his business 53:29 Social media, then and now 57:45 Where to find Sam Find Sam on Instagram: @samfasterfreedom Sam's YouTube channel: Faster Freedom Try HelloHost (AI guest communication): https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa Hospitable (get 15% off your first 30 days): hospitable.com/partners/rafael Join Rafa's community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about Follow Rafa on Instagram: @itsrafaloza The Big Break Show drops new episodes every week. Follow the show so you never miss one.

Most people have never heard of the business Jason runs, and that is exactly why it works sowell. He takes old, dead buildings, empty offices, dead retail, whatever is sitting there, and turns them into salon suites that he rents out to hairstylists and beauty pros. It cash flows,it scales, and almost nobody is competing for it.   Here is what got me. His tenants are business owners who do not want to give 40 to 60 percent of their money to a salon owner, so they happily pay him for their own space. He buys these buildings around 1.1 million and sells them for over 2 million, and keeps the cash flow the whole way. Then he runs a system on the back end that keeps those tenants for years, so the income does not churn.   I have spent my whole career in short-term rentals and this conversation still made me rethink what a scalable real estate business can look like. If you have ever wanted cash-flowing real estate that is not another Airbnb, this is the model to study.   TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Who Jason is and the business nobody knows about 3:45 - From a college painting franchise into real estate 7:16 - What salon suites actually are 8:15 - How he stumbled into the model 10:15 - Why marketing makes or breaks any business model 12:35 - Why beauty pros pay for their own suite 16:22 - How this is arbitrage for commercial buildings 18:24 - Why it scales faster than buying rentals 19:16 - How he raises capital for each deal 20:39 - Buy for $1.1M, sell for $2.1M: the spread 31:19 - The first 100 days system that keeps tenants for years 40:29 - The exact market he looks for 42:28 - How he uses local partners as boots on the ground 1:00:11 - Where to find Jason   CONNECT WITH JASON Instagram: @jasoncousineau   The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.   Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?   Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about   New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.

I have made just about every business partnership mistake there is. Some of my partners became people I now call family. Others cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars and a lawsuit I am still cleaning up. In this solo episode I break down everything nine and a half years of both taught me. I walk through how I structure the deal end to end: how I split equity, how I vet who I let in, active versus money partners, partnering with friends and family, and how to catch a partnership that is drifting before it ends up in court. The thread through all of it, and I say it flat out at the end, is that almost every problem traces back to roles. Clear roles, in writing, with people who give as much as they take. CHAPTERS 0:00 Why I'm doing a whole episode on partnerships 2:24 Every partnership problem traces back to one thing 3:37 The 3 things a partner must bring: time, money, or experience 6:23 The principle that keeps a partnership from breaking 10:15 Define the roles before anyone does anything 12:36 The deal I did with no contract, and what it cost me 13:02 How to structure equity splits fairly 15:00 Why aligned goals matter more than the money 21:40 The partner who wanted 70 percent, and why I walked 26:53 The partnership that turned into a lawsuit 31:16 The red flags I ignored 38:05 What to actually put in your contract 42:49 The clauses that protect everyone 45:02 Why I always pay my investors back 47:12 It all comes back to roles Join my community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about Follow me on Instagram: @itsrafaloza The Big Break Show drops new episodes every week. Follow the show so you never miss one.

Guest messages never stop. Check-in times, the wifi password, is there a blow dryer, the door code, something is broken, and it all lands on you at the worst possible hour. That was my life for years, and it is the exact problem Annie set out to kill.   Annie is the co-founder of HelloHost, and before she built it she answered more than 10,000 guest messages herself while running a 16-unit retreat in Ontario. So this is not a founder guessing at what hosts need. She lived it. HelloHost is a team of AI agents that answer your guests in your own voice, around the clock, and quietly pull the maintenance tasks out of those conversations so nothing slips through.   What sold me was not that it replies fast. It is that it replies well. Her team got the error rate down to 0.01 percent, and when they studied 1,800 guest reviews, almost none of them could even tell an AI was answering. It knows about 80 percent of your property from day one with no training, and it asks you before it guesses on anything it is unsure of.   If you run rentals and your phone still buzzes at 2am with a guest asking how to get in, this is the conversation that shows you the way out.   TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro and who Annie is 0:41 - From management consultant to Airbnb host 2:25 - What HelloHost actually is 2:40 - The 16-unit retreat and 10,000 guest messages 5:42 - Why she went all in on AI guest communication in 2023 6:51 - What makes the message quality stand out 8:27 - The multi-agent system and the edge cases 9:56 - How it learns and asks before it guesses 17:01 - The 1,800 review study 23:10 - Getting the error rate down to 0.01 percent 26:42 - Setting your own confidence level 33:48 - 80 percent ready on day one, no training 35:25 - The 30 day free trial and 2 day setup 45:10 - Why Rafa calls it a no-brainer 59:07 - Where to find HelloHost and Annie   Tools I use to run my STR business: Hospitable (Get your 15% Discount on your first 30 Days!): hospitable.com/partners/rafael HelloHost (AI guest communication): https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa   The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.   Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?   Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about   New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.

Dan Rivers and I are in the same mastermind, and his team runs the pricing on some of my own properties, so this one is personal. He came up blue collar in Brockton, got thrown into managing 600 units with zero experience, and built Synergy Stays into one of the sharpest revenue teams in short term rentals. But the part that stuck with me was not the business.   Most people treat their nightly price like a slow cooker, set it and walk away. Dan makes the case that in 2026 that is exactly how you quietly lose money, because the platforms change the rules every month and an algorithm nobody is watching will happily underprice your best weekends. Then he flipped the whole conversation. He asked what feeling your goal is actually chasing, and once he started building toward calm and presence instead of a number, everything got clearer.   I have hit numbers that meant nothing the day I reached them. Dan put words to why.   CHAPTERS 0:00 Meet Dan Rivers 1:56 His first big break: 600 units, zero experience 3:28 Two open-heart surgeries and his second chapter 11:48 The breakfast meetup that rewired how he thinks 20:03 Thinking 100K a year meant he had made it 22:12 You only learn when you start losing (the 150K lesson) 24:38 Why he killed 6 businesses to focus on one 31:58 What Synergy Stays actually does 35:35 Why set it and forget it pricing is dead 39:47 The client who netted 38K more in a year 43:35 Goals vs feelings: the reframe that made the episode 50:00 Why he will never retire 51:52 Where to find Dan and Synergy Stays   Tools I use to run my rentals that saved me 10 hours a week: Hospitable: hospitable.com/partners/rafael - 15% OFF your first 30 days! HelloHost: https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa   Want to learn how I actually use AI in my short-term rental business? Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about   🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.   📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. 🔔 New episodes every Thursdays! subscribe so you don't miss them

Carl Dumesle survived the 2010 Haiti earthquake at 15, then raised his three younger brothers before he ever touched real estate. I wanted him on because he builds at a level most people call impossible, and he treats it like it is nothing. That is the thread through this whole conversation. Carl runs his development, architecture, construction, and management all under one roof, and the reason is not ego, it is control. Every piece he brought in-house was a failure point he refused to hand to someone else. If you have ever had a deal die because a contractor vanished or a permit dragged an extra year, this is the mindset that fixes it. The part that stuck with me was not the buildings. It was how he handles hard things. When you have watched your school fall floor by floor in 50 seconds, a late permit stops feeling like a problem. Most people build a giant mental gap between where they are and where they want to be. Carl came in with no ceiling because he never knew one existed. We also get into the two F's, feelings versus facts, the cleanest decision filter I have heard on this show, and why owning fewer, higher-quality assets with low leverage beats chasing doors you will spend years wishing you could offload. CHAPTERS 0:00 Who is Carl Dumesle 2:30 Surviving the 2010 Haiti earthquake at 15 7:00 Becoming head of household for his brothers 9:16 Why he still does not feel successful 11:00 The first thing you have to predict is yourself 14:00 Why business problems are not real problems 16:13 The slingshot, the deeper the low the higher the launch 17:41 You are closer than you think 20:16 From a student-housing startup into development 22:55 The 25 percent margin rule 26:00 What actually makes a deal work 28:23 The two F's, feelings versus facts 31:00 How he flies under the radar on approvals 34:49 Controlling every pillar in-house 44:00 Partnerships, hire slow and fire fast 59:00 Extreme ownership with investors 1:03:47 Own less, hig her quality, lower leverage 1:07:00 The takeaway Connect with Carl Dumesle: https://www.instagram.com/carldumesle/ Tools I use to run my rentals that saved me 10 hours a week: Hospitable: hospitable.com/partners/rafael - 15% OFF in your first 3 months! HelloHost: hellohost.com/partners/rafael Want to learn how I actually use AI in my short-term rental business? Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? 🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them

Most investors chase the wrong kind of income. They buy a door, watch a couple hundred dollars trickle in every month, and wonder why the freedom never shows up. Patryk ran that math and made a hard pivot.   He walked me through the moment it clicked. He owned a rental he bought for 306 thousand that was worth 465, with a pile of equity just sitting in it, netting him around a thousand a month. Then he looked at buying a co-hosting business for 165 thousand that was throwing off close to fifteen thousand a month. Same money out the door. Completely different life. He bought the business, kept buying more, and now runs 150 properties he does not own a single one of.   We get into how he found and bought those companies, why he still works in the business even though it runs without him, and what he plans to do with the money now. I have built the operator side of this for years and this conversation still made me rethink where I put the next dollar.   TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro 0:57 - From corporate tech to short-term rentals 3:46 - Why he could never work for someone else 4:42 - Buying the co-hosting company in Joshua Tree 5:04 - Why passive income was never going to be enough 17:28 - Scaling the company and what happens next 19:15 - Why he still works in the business by choice 24:05 - The math that changed everything 36:44 - The takeaway that stuck with him 58:42 - Why he gave his team equity 1:05:17 - His big break moment 1:12:43 - What he actually wants to do with the money 1:13:32 - Where to find Patryk   CONNECT WITH PATRYK Patryk Swietek, Owner of The Cohost Company Instagram: @patryk_swi   Here's my Tool stack i use for my STR Business: Hospitable (Get your 15% Discount on your first 30 Days!) : hospitable.com/partners/rafael HelloHost (AI guest communication): HellohostaiHelloHost | Rafa Recommended   The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.   Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?   I build and share my STR strategies by implementing AI and test them out for a free trial without spending anything for a week! Join my community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about   New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.

Most operators do not lose their business to the market. They lose it to a team that was never set up to win. In this episode Rafa sits down with Scott Hanis, co-founder of Fortitude HR Solutions and the man Tim Bratz brought in to build the structure behind his company. Scott has scaled organizations, run HR for over a thousand employees, and spent years fixing the exact team problems that quietly stall real estate operators. Rafa gets honest about blowing up his entire virtual team, and Scott breaks down why that almost always traces back to the leader, not the people. They get into the first hire you should actually make, how to know when you can afford it, why culture and values are worthless until you live them out loud, and the two lines from this episode that will stick with you. People live up or down to your expectations. What you permit is what you promote. If you are trying to grow past doing everything yourself, this is the conversation that shows you where it really breaks and how to fix it. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro 0:50 - Who Scott is and what Fortitude HR does 5:06 - How Tim Bratz convinced him to go all in 9:03 - Why he walked away from a corporate HR salary 11:52 - The first hire every operator should actually make 15:04 - When you can really afford to hire full time 19:29 - Rafa: why I blew up my entire team 21:41 - What culture and values really mean 27:03 - Mission and vision, and why most people skip it 29:51 - The three solutions rule 33:38 - People live up or down to your expectations 39:10 - Setting expectations in your personal life 47:05 - How faith shapes hiring and firing 51:25 - How to actually become a better leader 54:52 - What you permit is what you promote 56:34 - How AI is changing HR and where it gets dangerous 1:01:43 - Where to find Scott CONNECT WITH SCOTT Fortitude HR Solutions: https://fortitudehrsolutions.com 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. just a note please add this tmoving forward for podcast description: Tools I use to run my rentals: Hospitable: hospitable.com/partners/rafael - 15% OFF in your first 3 months! HelloHost: hellohost.com/partners/rafael Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? 🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.

Most people think running an Airbnb is passive. You list it, go to the beach, and the money shows up. Anyone who actually does it knows the real job is the coordination. The messages that never stop, the maintenance that has to get scheduled, the vendor who has to be found and called, and the ten different tools that somehow have to talk to each other. In this episode Rafa sits down with Jan Sahagun, co-founder of Trellis, a Y Combinator company building autonomous AI agents for short-term rentals. Trellis is not another chatbot. It sits on top of the tools you already use, pulls all your operations into one place, and runs AI agents that actually do the work. The agent talks to your guest, figures out the problem, and if nobody on your team can fix it, it picks up the phone, calls an outside contractor, and gets it scheduled. You just approve it. Jan went from professional ice hockey in Europe to building one of the most talked about AI companies in the short-term rental space. He and Rafa get into how you keep an AI agent from going rogue, how much work it really takes to train it on your business, the first thing smart operators should automate, and why you cannot just vibe code a real software business. If you own or manage rentals, this is the conversation that shows you where the next few years are going. CHAPTERS 0:00 - Intro 2:06 - Meet Jan and what Trellis actually is 3:20 - From pro hockey to short-term rentals 5:51 - Why he built an AI that runs the business itself 8:03 - What happens when you plug your rentals in 15:39 - The agent that actually calls your vendors and staff 17:14 - How they keep the AI from going rogue 19:37 - How much work it takes to train it 22:44 - The first thing smart operators automate 23:38 - Zero to 3,000 listings in under three months 38:12 - What AI will replace and what it won't 50:40 - Why you cannot vibe code a real software business 56:09 - Jan's story: a broken ankle that changed everything 59:26 - Where to find Jan and try Trellis TRY TRELLIS Website: https://trellistech.com Connect with Jan on LinkedIn: Jan Sahagun Apps that i use for my Airbnb Business: Hospitable: https://hospitable.com/partners/rafael HelloHost: https://hellohost.com/partners/rafael If you want to apply AI in your business to save time and earn more.. Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about Follow Rafa on Instagram: @itsrafaloza The Big Break Show drops new episodes every Thursday. Follow the show so you never miss one.

Blake Anthony Carter is back on The Big Break Show for round two, and this one is a full playbook. He breaks down why he sold his co-living business to go all-in on short-term rentals, how he scaled his management company to around 90 quality units, and the exact systems that let it run without him. If you want to co-host, manage, or buy STRs, this is the episode to take notes on. We get into the real numbers: how a management company actually sells, the sliding scale he uses to fire bad clients, the minimum revenue he needs to say yes, and how he wins deals with agents by giving away free help. Then we go deep on the stuff most operators skip: building a VA team, using AI for guest messaging, and running the whole business on EOS. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Welcome back, Blake (second time on the show) 1:05 What changed in 3 years, and why he sold the co-living business 1:33 Going all-in on short-term rentals 4:36 How he actually sold the company (the earn-out model) 7:12 Why you structure a sale with an earn-out 8:34 What a co-living or co-hosting company really sells for 9:50 Arbitrage, then co-host, then buy: the right order to start 10:47 How to actually get co-hosting clients (agents and BiggerPockets) 13:55 Referral fees and winning agents with free consulting 15:32 The furniture talk: why cheap clients quit in 4 months 19:40 How to fire bad clients using a 1 to 5 sliding scale 24:30 The minimum revenue rule: $70K or it is not worth it 26:02 The underwriting stack: Rabbu, AirDNA, and PriceLabs 27:53 The pitch to homeowners: cashflow, flexibility, and the STR tax loophole 34:15 Should you buy a management company? Best, not biggest 36:35 Building the team: local ops, QC, maintenance, and VAs 38:43 Using AI for guest messaging (HelloHost and Hospitable) 42:06 The experiential hotel: a stadium-seating pool, weddings, and full buyouts 47:08 EOS explained: how to actually run your business 50:28 When you should implement EOS 55:10 What is next for Blake: 120 units and $10M in bookings 58:06 The takeaway: run EOS even as a short-term rental operator Here's my Tool stack i use for my STR Business: Hospitable (Get your 15% Discount on your first 30 Days!) : hospitable.com/partners/rafael HelloHost (AI guest communication): https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa If you're wondering how I scaled my 7 figure business through Systems and AI Operations, Join my Skool community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about Connect with Blake: Blake Anthony Carter on all platforms (his free Skool is linked in his Instagram). Subscribe to The Big Break Show for more real conversations with operators who are actually doing the deals. New Episodes every Thursday!

Trevor B West is a multifamily real estate investor, faith-based entrepreneur, and one of the most in-demand event emcees in the real estate mastermind world. Before real estate, he spent his career as an Air Force special-forces intelligence analyst, building target packages alongside teams like SEAL Team Six and Delta Force. A snapped leg on a rugby field and twenty thousand dollars in debt forced a reset that pushed him into investing. Seven years later he owns more than 80 multifamily units across 17 buildings in Ohio, and he owns almost all of them outright, with no syndication and no partners. He now teaches the playbook on his YouTube channel, Trevor B West (@bettertrevor on Instagram). In this episode, Rafa and Trevor break down: Why multifamily is getting crushed in 2026, and the contrarian way he positioned to BUY the distress instead of becoming it. Over $160 billion in multifamily loans come due this year, and the operators sitting on five-year syndication debt are the ones being forced to sell. Price over location. Why his mentor threw out "location, location, location" and replaced it with "price, price, price," and how buying far below market gives you room to survive every mistake. Why he owns 100% of his portfolio with no partners and no investors to bail out when the loan resets, and the honest case for when a partnership is actually worth it. The $940K deal. How he bought a 28-unit portfolio for $940,000, renovated it, and refinanced at $1.9 million, building a million dollars of equity with the BRRRR method (buy, renovate, refinance, repeat) in 14 months. The shiny-object trap that quietly cost him tens of thousands in dead earnest money, and why picking one strategy and putting his blinders on changed everything. Why a single property replaced the entire retirement he would have earned from 20 years in the military, and the mindset shift that comes with owning your first door. How an intelligence analyst vets a deal like a target package, so he never wires money into a trap. Why he turned the whole business over to God, and the one verse (Psalm 37:23) that has guided every move for two years. ───────────────────────────────────── TIMESTAMPS ───────────────────────────────────── 0:00 - Intro 2:08 - Meet Trevor B West 3:19 - From Air Force intelligence analyst to 80+ units 7:11 - $20K in debt, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and the first deal 10:38 - The shiny-object trap that cost him tens of thousands 16:27 - Why multifamily is getting crushed in 2026 (and why he chose it) 18:54 - Price over location: the rule that beats the market 20:10 - The syndication trap and the 2026 maturity wall 23:17 - The $940K, 28-unit deal that built $1M in equity 26:35 - The real numbers: cash flow, equity, and $200 per door 32:01 - Why he owns 100% with no partners 39:11 - Leverage and delegation without losing control 42:05 - Rich Dad Poor Dad and why timing decides who it changes 43:20 - Faith, focus, and turning the business over to God 51:13 - Psalm 37:23: God cannot bless steps you never take 53:40 - How one property replaced a 20-year pension 56:44 - His big break: the feather, the hammer, and the train 60:25 - Where to find Trevor 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? 🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.

Donato Callahan is a real estate investor, software founder, and capital strategist who acquired nearly 600 units in commercial real estate before the age of 27. He graduated high school valedictorian and was recruited out of Boise State by the Department of Defense as a geospatial analyst, then walked away from a secure intelligence career to go all in on real estate. He house hacked his way in, lost money on his very first deal, and turned that failure into a 172-unit syndication just months later. Today he is the co-founder and CEO of Bright Investor (@donato_callahan), a deal-analysis platform built for investors and property managers, and the CFO of Timberview Capital, where he is helping scale the firm to 100 million dollars in annual capital. He is the proof that a few focused years can outrun a 40-year career. In this episode, Rafa and Donato break down: The 2-year sprint versus the 17-year sentence. Why a short window of extreme, isolating effort buys a life most people never touch, and how a coworker who "mentally prepared to do another 17 years" became the warning that pushed Donato out the door. The failed 96-unit deal that built his entire career. How walking away from a "war zone" building in St. Louis and eating the loss on contractors got him invited into the room that handed him his first 172-unit deal. Why being in the right room beats being the most talented person in it. The poolside conversation in Joshua Tree that turned into a CFO seat at Timberview, and why proximity to the right people creates opportunities that raw skill never will. The exact first-deal playbook for a total beginner. House hack a two to four unit, get as close to zero out of pocket as possible, then trade sweat equity for someone else's capital on a 10 to 50 unit. The simple path most people overcomplicate into never starting. How a teenager's NVIDIA bet led him to real estate. He picked the one stock that printed, watched COVID erase half of it overnight, and decided he needed assets he could actually control. Syndication explained like you are five. What a general partner and a limited partner really do, how the splits are structured, and how someone with energy but no money partners with someone who has money but no time. Inside Bright Investor, the software he built from his own pain points. How it surfaces on and off market deals, pulls sale and rent comps line by line, runs ten strategies side by side, and generates a lender-ready report, and why an investor who actually buys real estate builds a sharper tool than a banker ever could. ───────────────────────────────────── CONNECT WITH DONATO ───────────────────────────────────── Website: https://donatocallahan.com Instagram: @donato_callahan Software: https://brightinvestor.com (14-day free trial) 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? 🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.

Danny Mabley is a content strategist and creator coach with over 450,000 combined followers across platforms. He started in content over a decade ago, and when his daughter was born, pivoted to consulting. His first major client was in the short-term rental and real estate investing space, which led to a coaching and strategy practice that now works with investors, coaches, and business owners. He runs Return on Content (@ReturnonContent), where the focus is results, not just views. In this episode, Rafa and Danny break down: The 0-5-10-15 second framework. What has to happen in every window to stop the scroll, build emotional connection, and open a curiosity loop before anyone decides to stay. Why skip rate is now the most important metric on Instagram and how to actually move it in your favor without expensive production. The outlier testing method. How to shoot 20 videos in 5 different styles, identify the one that does 5-10x, and replicate the formula until growth compounds. Why your iPhone outperforms an expensive camera on Instagram in 2026. One of Danny's clients doubled her average views just by switching to a phone and the Edits app. What to look for when hiring a content strategist and the red flags that tell you are walking into a content farm with a payment plan and no real coaching. Why AI cannot write hooks. Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini all fail at the most important 5 seconds of your video, and why that is good news for anyone willing to put in real work. The difference between a growth season and a sell season, and why mixing them quietly kills both. ───────────────────────────────────── TIMESTAMPS ───────────────────────────────────── 0:00 - Intro 1:26 - Meet Danny Mabley 6:04 - Why variety content now beats niche content 10:28 - The 0-5-10-15 second framework 15:16 - The most underrated investment for creators 16:36 - Growth season vs. sell season: never mix them 20:01 - Outlier testing: how to find your 5-10x video 21:45 - Skip rate: the number one metric right now 29:13 - The Edits app algorithm boost and how long it lasts 31:30 - Why structure beats production quality every time 32:32 - How to hire the right content strategist 36:19 - What real growth actually costs in 2026 43:31 - The command growth strategy 45:23 - iPhone vs. expensive camera: a real client case study 51:23 - TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram are not the same game 54:39 - Why AI cannot write hooks 57:28 - Why AI content will hurt your brand long-term 1:00:41 - Danny's final advice: just start 1:05:13 - Where to find Danny 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? 🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.

If your short-term rental revenue still lives and dies on Airbnb, this episode is the clearest roadmap to changing that. Rafa Loza sits down with Mark Simpson — founder of Boostly, creator of a WordPress direct booking framework that converts at 5x the industry average, and the force behind Boostly Connect — to break down exactly how STR hosts are using AI and PMS integration to build their own marketing machines. Direct bookings, vacation rental automation, and the tools that make it all work without a VA team are all on the table. 📌 01:06 — 18 autonomous AI agents running his business 11:15 — Boostly Connect build (18 months in the making) 20:58 — CRM + PMS integration for automated marketing 43:21 — FIFA World Cup STR opportunity strategy 40:55 — "Vibe coding" for niche landing pages 1:00:58 — "Icarus" — his personal AI chief of staff 🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday. Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff. 📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist. Wondering how and where to start your STR journey? 🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about 🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.