WEBVTT
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.183
Hey, what is up?
00:00:01.183 --> 00:00:04.431
Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.
00:00:04.431 --> 00:00:17.672
As always, I'm your host, brian LoFermento, and we very often talk about entrepreneurs solving real life big problems that not just we face in the business world but in society as a whole.
00:00:17.672 --> 00:00:29.829
And today's entrepreneur is not just talking about this one societal problem, but she is actually solving a big problem when it comes to student housing, especially short-term student housing.
00:00:29.829 --> 00:00:35.676
It's an important gap that so many students across the United States face literally every few months.
00:00:35.676 --> 00:00:37.341
This is a real problem for people.
00:00:37.341 --> 00:00:41.432
So today's entrepreneur is plugging that gap in really cool and innovative ways.
00:00:41.432 --> 00:00:42.765
So let me tell you all about her.
00:00:42.765 --> 00:00:44.371
Her name is Nancy Schwartz.
00:00:44.673 --> 00:01:03.768
After having a successful career as director of advertising for a Fortune 50 firm in New York City, nancy and her husband moved to my favorite, boston, massachusetts, where they have raised their family, which includes graduates from the University of Maryland, indiana University and the University of Pennsylvania and the State University of New York.
00:01:03.768 --> 00:01:12.031
At Albany, nancy founded the JJA Group, which was a rental housing business providing off-campus housing for students in Albany.
00:01:12.031 --> 00:01:19.102
However, as the mother of three study abroad alums, solving the one semester housing dilemma was a mission.
00:01:19.102 --> 00:01:25.254
The idea for Semester Sublet percolated for over eight years and one year ago Semester Sublet was created.
00:01:25.254 --> 00:01:26.156
You're going years, and one year ago Semester Sublet was created.
00:01:26.177 --> 00:01:40.891
You're going to hear some real life stories from Nancy here today even just talking to her off air about the real life impact and how it solves these pain points for students and, yes, any parent who has had a kid in college, I'm sure that you've all felt that real need as well.
00:01:40.891 --> 00:01:46.873
So, hearing from Nancy, we're all going to get inspired to move forward in solving the own problems that we care about.
00:01:46.873 --> 00:01:48.757
So I'm not going to say anything else.
00:01:48.757 --> 00:01:51.362
Let's dive straight into my interview with Nancy Schwartz.
00:01:51.362 --> 00:01:57.921
All right, nancy, I'm so excited that you're here with us today.
00:01:57.921 --> 00:01:58.802
First things first.
00:01:58.802 --> 00:01:59.864
Welcome to the show.
00:02:00.847 --> 00:02:01.227
Thank you.
00:02:01.289 --> 00:02:03.421
Brian, I'm so excited to be here with you.
00:02:03.421 --> 00:02:09.784
Heck, yes, and you are right down the road from where I grew up, so it's so cool that you and I have that in common.
00:02:09.784 --> 00:02:19.182
I didn't tell you off the air I was also born in Albany, so we've got quite a few things in common, nancy, but the one biggest uniting force is our love for business and entrepreneurship and serving people.
00:02:19.182 --> 00:02:21.086
So let's go into your story.
00:02:21.086 --> 00:02:22.288
Take us beyond the bio.
00:02:22.288 --> 00:02:22.989
Who's Nancy?
00:02:22.989 --> 00:02:24.671
How'd you start doing all these cool things?
00:02:30.979 --> 00:02:35.391
Well, thank you for having me and I'm so excited to be here with you and to meet all of those entrepreneurs, those entrepreneurs out there.
00:02:35.391 --> 00:02:44.144
I went to college thinking I was going to get into the business school and in my first semester of freshman year I failed math.
00:02:44.144 --> 00:03:02.671
So I had to come up with another way to not only get through college, because I just wasn't a math mind, but to be able to get into the business world because I knew that's where I wanted to be, and originally I really wanted to get into the business of travel and publishing.
00:03:02.671 --> 00:03:09.082
I was really open to a lot of opportunities and it was just finding the right job.
00:03:09.082 --> 00:03:19.192
After I graduated college with a combined double degree in psychology and English, I thought that that would help me when it came to marketing and advertising, and indeed it did.
00:03:19.192 --> 00:03:44.186
So, you know, through a couple of great jobs right out of college I landed an opportunity with an international business publication where they were posting for an advertising sales rep, and I asked the vice president of sales if I would be able to apply, if I would be good at that, and he said I think you'd be amazing at that.
00:03:44.186 --> 00:04:02.530
So I was hired, I was trained and two years later I became the director of that division and I really really was honored because the executives liked that.
00:04:02.530 --> 00:04:12.212
I was very creative and I was coming up with new products and I was very good at having a building relationships with our advertisers, so.
00:04:12.212 --> 00:04:22.369
But then we moved up to Boston and I sort of said goodbye to that career and I had a stint at Boston Magazine and then we started having our family.
00:04:22.369 --> 00:04:26.555
And that's when Then we started having our family and that's when my first two children were young.
00:04:27.454 --> 00:04:36.338
I had in mind a long time it was percolating to buy a couple of houses and rent them to college students at SUNY Albany where I went to college.
00:04:36.338 --> 00:04:43.447
So I had my finger on the pulse of where the kids wanted to live and that worked.
00:04:43.447 --> 00:04:47.060
I would bring brownies when I would come to visit the kids.
00:04:47.060 --> 00:04:54.819
The parents liked me because I was always, you know, taking care of the student housing.
00:04:54.819 --> 00:05:00.411
It wasn't like I was a slumlord and it was really really very enjoyable.
00:05:00.932 --> 00:05:19.011
And nine years later it was time to move on and you know time has taken me through having my children in college, my college students, but really it was the experience when son number one at the University of Maryland was going abroad.
00:05:19.011 --> 00:05:34.327
He was going to study abroad in Copenhagen and we were in a panic because he was in a brand new building and he had signed a lease and the rent was over $1,000 a month and he was going to be away for the spring semester and we needed to find a subletter.
00:05:34.327 --> 00:05:41.447
So I contacted the University of Maryland Study Abroad office and they offered no help, no assistance whatsoever.
00:05:41.447 --> 00:05:50.791
Fortunately, through word of mouth, we were able at the very last minute to subsidize tremendously the apartment and somebody rented it for from us.
00:05:50.791 --> 00:06:00.141
The same thing happened with my son, who was at Indiana University, and the same thing more recently with my daughter, also at Indiana University.
00:06:00.661 --> 00:06:20.697
So after all this time, eight or nine years, this idea was in my mind that there has to be a way for parents and students to advertise and showcase their sublets and, to the audience that needs sublets, a way to find them.
00:06:20.697 --> 00:06:23.904
So that's where the idea came from.
00:06:23.904 --> 00:06:37.901
I contacted a website development company in New York City and they put to the site all of my you know, all of my wishes and we have a very easy to use platform.
00:06:38.764 --> 00:06:40.728
Yeah, I love that overview, Nancy.
00:06:40.728 --> 00:06:43.334
My only complaint is why were you doing it in Albany?
00:06:43.334 --> 00:06:44.562
You could have been doing it in Waltham.
00:06:44.562 --> 00:06:46.187
I would have taken cookies and brownies.
00:06:46.187 --> 00:06:55.723
With all of that, though, what I really love about your story and it's true for so many entrepreneurs is that you obviously experienced these problems firsthand.
00:06:55.723 --> 00:07:08.408
You talk about those experiences with your own children, but what I really love, nancy, is that you solved those problems the first times with your children when you had to go through that, but then, somewhere along the way, you said you know what?
00:07:08.408 --> 00:07:18.069
I want to invest my time and my resources, and I want to solve this problem for complete strangers, people all over the country, families all over the country.
00:07:18.069 --> 00:07:25.668
What was that catalyst, what was the spark for you to actually say I don't just want to be aware of it, I want to be part of the solution.
00:07:29.281 --> 00:07:35.552
Well, I mean not to be egotistical about it, but I really was onto something.
00:07:35.552 --> 00:07:37.035
There was a need.
00:07:37.035 --> 00:07:42.451
Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of students study abroad every single year.
00:07:42.451 --> 00:07:55.408
Literally all around the world kids are studying abroad, whether they're leaving their European countries to come to America, or you know American kids going not only to you know Europe, but South America, asia.
00:07:55.408 --> 00:08:12.151
There is a market and, as an entrepreneur, you know you're looking at opportunities and when you hit on one and you say to yourself, okay, maybe I can break into this market and if so, wow, maybe I can take it really far.
00:08:12.151 --> 00:08:16.990
That's what got my juices going and led me to where we are today.
00:08:17.663 --> 00:08:35.821
Yeah, and obviously, taking into account your professional background as well as the director of advertising for a huge and successful company, I wanna hear how that played into and actually I don't even just wanna use past tense background as well as the director of advertising for a huge and successful company, I want to hear how that played into and actually I don't even just want to use past tense how it plays into the way that you view business, the way that you view semester, sublet and scaling and all of those things.
00:08:35.821 --> 00:08:37.306
I'd love to get some of those insights.
00:08:39.211 --> 00:08:53.210
Well, as I mentioned before, I was very, very successful in my career as director of advertising because I was good at establishing honest relationships with my clients.
00:08:53.210 --> 00:08:59.283
And you know, if you have a good product, you're not really selling it.
00:08:59.283 --> 00:09:01.865
You're providing somebody with a solution.
00:09:01.865 --> 00:09:06.932
Providing somebody with a solution and you don't have to bang them over the head.
00:09:06.932 --> 00:09:10.196
It comes naturally.
00:09:10.196 --> 00:09:17.740
And so my job.
00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:18.861
I can look back and kind of say you know what?
00:09:18.861 --> 00:09:31.730
It was somewhat easy because it was a great product and it was well known in the market and I just kind of helped it grow and created other avenues sort of this though this is a great product.
00:09:31.730 --> 00:09:36.919
This is a great product fulfilling a need, and I can relate.
00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:41.384
So it's very honest, we all need it all.
00:09:41.445 --> 00:09:53.269
Parents of college students If your child is thinking about studying abroad, you're going to be faced with what do you do with housing for that one semester that they're away?
00:09:53.269 --> 00:09:57.110
If you've committed to a lease, you've got to think about this.
00:09:57.110 --> 00:10:00.221
If you're not committing to a lease, well then maybe.
00:10:00.221 --> 00:10:05.620
If you're subletting from somebody else, well then, there was a sublet connection somewhere.
00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:33.018
So it's um, the advertising point of it is just telling people I have a great solution to a big problem for you complicated as entrepreneurs.
00:10:33.038 --> 00:10:40.403
As someone who talks to a lot of entrepreneurs, I can't tell you how many times I hear that someone is an innovative, groundbreaking technology that's going to do X, y, z and the fact of the matter is semester sublet.
00:10:40.403 --> 00:10:48.097
We actually know, even if nobody knows what you do, they know from the title of your company the gap that you're plugging and so if they have that problem, they know.
00:10:48.097 --> 00:10:51.743
To turn to semester sublet, talk to me about the way that you've structured it.
00:10:51.743 --> 00:10:57.630
You talk about reaching out to a web design agency and it's cool seeing your platform in effect.
00:10:57.630 --> 00:10:59.198
I mean, there's listings right there.
00:10:59.198 --> 00:11:01.104
There's really not many questions.
00:11:01.104 --> 00:11:03.558
When you land on the website, everything is at your fingertips.
00:11:03.558 --> 00:11:05.144
How have you structured it?
00:11:05.144 --> 00:11:13.676
Obviously, you went through it as a mom, but I want that executive hat on as far as how did you lay it all out so that it's user friendly and starts attracting people?
00:11:15.258 --> 00:11:18.143
Well, thank you for that nice compliment it.
00:11:18.143 --> 00:11:29.729
You know, the idea behind the site was ease of use, because there will be parents who might not be as tech savvy as their college students.
00:11:29.729 --> 00:11:41.677
There will be college students who don't want to spend a lot of time, who need to like take this and have it done, and how do they upload their photos of their apartments easily and quickly?
00:11:41.677 --> 00:11:48.929
How do they list the benefits of renting their apartment?
00:11:48.929 --> 00:11:52.845
Well, we have these drop-down menus with all kinds of amenities.
00:11:52.845 --> 00:11:54.977
All they have to do is click on the boxes.
00:11:55.658 --> 00:12:14.567
So we really wanted to make this experience as easy as possible, and I'll be the first to admit, you know, maybe I'm not the most tech savvy my kids would definitely agree with that comment but I love how easy my site is to use.
00:12:14.567 --> 00:12:21.604
When people ask me, how do you do it, I mean, it's really, it's literally three steps and you hit post.
00:12:21.604 --> 00:12:24.816
I will say, though it doesn't go live.
00:12:24.816 --> 00:12:26.457
Listings don't go live.
00:12:26.457 --> 00:12:40.306
When somebody hits submit, it comes to the back end and our staff reviews every photo and every listing, and then we preview them and then we publish.
00:12:40.306 --> 00:12:50.625
So there is a process on the back end, but it's real, real easy to use and we don't even limit photos.
00:12:50.625 --> 00:12:57.280
I mean, you can well, we limit photos up to nine photos, but you don't really need to tell the story with more than nine photos.
00:12:58.297 --> 00:13:02.799
Yeah, and to that point, Nancy, I'm on your website so I'm gonna share it with listeners, since they may be on the go.
00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:08.278
It's literally four dropdown fields the semester that you wanna sublet, the school that you go to.
00:13:08.278 --> 00:13:18.109
You pick from the calendar, and then the room type and then that's it.
00:13:18.109 --> 00:13:19.375
You literally click one button, and so I love the way that you've laid that out.
00:13:19.375 --> 00:13:20.543
Obviously, you've thought about this as a parent who's gone through it before.
00:13:20.462 --> 00:13:29.445
I want to ask you this strategic business question, though, because it's one of the earliest business lessons I learned right down the road from you, and I was a student at Bentley university is the difference between customers?
00:13:29.445 --> 00:13:30.346
Who's your customer?
00:13:30.346 --> 00:13:34.479
When I started my soccer blog, I thought that my customer was my readers.
00:13:34.479 --> 00:13:37.365
Little did I realize my customer are the ones who are writing me the checks.
00:13:37.365 --> 00:13:43.336
It was the advertisers, and so, in the case of your business, I think about having been a college student myself.
00:13:43.336 --> 00:13:50.866
I think about the students, the ones who are supposed to be taking care of our business, but the more important customers are parents, who help us with so many of these things.
00:13:50.866 --> 00:13:58.110
Nancy, from a strategic business approach perspective, are you serving the students or are you focusing on the parents.
00:13:58.110 --> 00:13:59.556
Who's the end user here?
00:14:00.979 --> 00:14:02.883
The parents, you're right.
00:14:02.883 --> 00:14:04.807
You're right, it is multifaceted.
00:14:04.807 --> 00:14:39.851
But ultimately, most of the cases we have encountered are parents on the hook for thousands and thousands of dollars for when their students go abroad or, in some of the less happy situations, when their students are transferring out of school because it didn't work out, or when their student is at a school in an apartment living with what they thought were their best friends and it's not working out and they have to move out.
00:14:39.851 --> 00:14:53.629
So, ultimately, it's parents who are on the hook for thousands and thousands of dollars, in addition to dealing with the stress and sometimes even the mental health of their kids.
00:14:53.629 --> 00:14:56.239
So, really, the customer is the parent.
00:14:57.019 --> 00:14:58.102
Yeah, I'm glad I asked.
00:14:58.102 --> 00:15:07.543
I honestly figured that that would be the case because fortunately, so many parents take care of all these things for us and it's important and obviously you fully understand that and it helps in your messaging.
00:15:07.543 --> 00:15:09.035
It helps in the way that you service people.
00:15:09.035 --> 00:15:17.557
Actually, going backwards, you already kind of revealed that when you talked about your website of maybe the parents aren't as tech savvy so we need it to be accessible to them.
00:15:17.557 --> 00:15:20.725
So I love how much that plays into the strategy that you roll out.
00:15:20.725 --> 00:15:37.684
Speaking of strategy, I want to ask you about partnerships, because just being on your website, seeing how many students and sublets at all these different amazing universities across the United States, how much do you plan on or already are, how involved would you like to see the schools as part of these partnerships?
00:15:37.684 --> 00:15:42.785
Because you've already been let down from your own kids' schools as part of their study abroad experiences.
00:15:42.785 --> 00:15:44.456
What's the long-term play here?
00:15:46.640 --> 00:15:47.022
Thank you.
00:15:47.022 --> 00:15:52.471
That's a question that you can sit around our table with us as we're planning.
00:15:52.471 --> 00:16:06.861
So that's a complicated question because the residential housing offices at the schools are really concentrating on their residence halls the kids who are living on campus.
00:16:06.861 --> 00:16:11.417
Once students move off campus, it's kind of you're on your own.
00:16:11.417 --> 00:16:23.557
We might have an office to help with off-campus housing questions or legal issues around leases, but really the schools are not really involved anymore.
00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:59.221
The reach out to the study abroad offices is what we want to do and that's part of our next phase of really reaching out, and in fact we're doing that now Reaching out to the study abroad offices and saying, hey, let's let everybody know that there is this platform available to them and that they're not just on their own, that there's somewhere where they can go, they can list, they can look and find if a student is coming back from being in Spain for the fall semester.
00:16:59.221 --> 00:17:00.544
It's winding down.
00:17:00.544 --> 00:17:05.544
They're starting to panic because they need housing starting January 15th or so.
00:17:05.544 --> 00:17:12.157
So we have listings for them as well as for the students who are going abroad.
00:17:12.157 --> 00:17:17.385
Study abroad offices are beginning to hear our message.
00:17:17.385 --> 00:17:28.469
In fact, michigan State University just added us to their list of resources and you know it's slow, but it's going to happen.
00:17:28.469 --> 00:17:29.616
It's going to happen.
00:17:30.018 --> 00:17:41.826
Yeah, I love that, and especially because just having interacted with you before our recording here today and seeing some of the stuff that you're already implementing sponsoring college events, supporting fundraisers there's so many cool things that you're doing.
00:17:41.826 --> 00:17:45.068
Talk to us about that market penetration, because I think it's so clever.
00:17:45.068 --> 00:17:51.181
Nancy, I expect nothing less from you, knowing that you are a brilliant advertiser at heart, from your professional career as well.
00:17:51.181 --> 00:17:54.183
Talk to us about some of those inroads into the college market.
00:17:55.986 --> 00:17:56.707
Thank you again.
00:17:56.707 --> 00:18:07.573
Something I'm very, very, very proud of is our involvement with the dance marathons at the big universe, not even big universities.
00:18:07.573 --> 00:18:20.056
Many, many colleges and universities around the country have dance marathons where hundreds and hundreds, sometimes thousands, of students are involved and they raise money for the Children's Miracle Network.
00:18:20.056 --> 00:18:29.176
And what we have done is we have partnered and sponsored some of those dance marathons and it's really really.
00:18:29.176 --> 00:18:44.654
It's gotten us followers on our Instagram page and it's gotten us listings and it's given us a really warm and cozy feeling because we're doing something good while getting the word out and working with the college students.
00:18:44.654 --> 00:19:09.046
So last year we did that at five schools and we already have now the infrastructure, the relationship is there, so we're going to be now the second annual sponsoring of the Syracuse Autothon and the Gators and the schools that we've been involved with, plus more.
00:19:09.046 --> 00:19:11.240
So it's really a good feeling.
00:19:11.762 --> 00:19:13.912
Yeah, I love that Because, truly, when I think about your business, nancy, it's really a good feeling.
00:19:13.912 --> 00:19:16.548
Yeah, I love that because, truly, when I think about your business, nancy, it's just that everybody wins.
00:19:16.548 --> 00:19:27.846
Truly, it's a business where every single side of the equation wins, and when you talk about that marketing plan, I mean you're even talking about charities winning, which is so cool that you're supporting those events.
00:19:27.846 --> 00:19:36.665
My sister went to University of Kentucky and she participated in Dance Blue every single year, went to University of Kentucky and she participated in Dance Blue every single year, 24 hours.
00:19:36.685 --> 00:19:54.749
These students are raising money and the fact that semester sublet is part of that is actually incredible and I love it, although it makes me ask you this question, because when we talk about college, we have to talk about the huge expenses that come with college, and that's also something that I like I'm just going to keep the wins and the good train going here with you is that you're also addressing that side of the equation.
00:19:54.749 --> 00:20:04.141
A lot of people might look at your business and think you're solving subletting, but you're also solving the cost side of education and study abroad and these real needs.
00:20:04.141 --> 00:20:07.248
Talk to me about that emphasis, because the more we talk.
00:20:07.248 --> 00:20:10.259
It's very clear to me why your messaging isn't just about sublets.
00:20:10.259 --> 00:20:13.765
It's also about saving families and parents and students money.
00:20:15.748 --> 00:20:17.730
Yes, it absolutely is, Brian.
00:20:17.730 --> 00:20:33.829
You know, when we were talking before and you asked me who the customer is, and I mentioned that it's mostly parents I have to say there are some students who are paying their way through college, whether it's through grants or financial aid or taking out loans.
00:20:33.829 --> 00:20:48.598
There are kids who are on the hook for thousands of dollars potentially if they want to study abroad and in some cases they have to decide not to study abroad because of the financial implications, and that's really unfortunate.
00:20:48.598 --> 00:21:02.006
The fact is, when you see seminars where financial advisors are talking about the cost of college, this is something that is never mentioned.
00:21:02.006 --> 00:21:10.924
Not the price of housing, because the cost of housing is included, but the meal plan housing.
00:21:13.954 --> 00:21:23.394
There are certain things that are always mentioned tuition, of course, but a lot of students are considering going abroad even when they're in high school.
00:21:23.394 --> 00:21:24.840
That's a dream that they have.
00:21:24.840 --> 00:21:27.182
Well, this is reality.
00:21:27.182 --> 00:21:41.616
If they're going to go abroad, you're going to be facing a semester where there's a housing dilemma, and it's going to be facing a semester where there's a housing dilemma and it's going to be an expensive one potentially.
00:21:41.616 --> 00:21:46.288
So I really think financial advisors and college coaches who talk about the finance of college financing the college education for parents.
00:21:46.288 --> 00:21:48.840
They should really really start talking about this.
00:21:48.840 --> 00:21:50.826
They should include this in the budget.
00:21:51.634 --> 00:21:52.377
Yeah, absolutely.
00:21:52.377 --> 00:21:53.481
I completely agree.
00:21:53.481 --> 00:21:56.221
I think that was the most surprising thing for me as a student.
00:21:56.221 --> 00:22:06.532
I majored in economics and finance, so, even though my parents were, yes, helping me out a little bit during school as well, I was very fascinated by the financial ramifications and I graduated with student loan debt.
00:22:06.532 --> 00:22:13.615
So it was a very real reality for me, and the fact that you're already thinking about this is incredibly important for all families.
00:22:13.615 --> 00:22:20.162
Not only thinking about it, nancy, but again I come back to I love entrepreneurs and you're actually doing actions.
00:22:20.162 --> 00:22:24.760
You are solving that problem for people, so I really appreciate the work that you're doing there.
00:22:25.103 --> 00:22:31.561
I want to ask you about the network effect, because the deeper we go into this conversation, it just sounds to me like there's so many stakeholders involved.
00:22:31.561 --> 00:22:34.205
There's the people whose places they need to sublet.
00:22:34.205 --> 00:22:36.609
There's the people who need to sublet those very places.
00:22:36.609 --> 00:22:38.859
There's the parents, the students.
00:22:38.859 --> 00:22:41.286
We're talking about study abroad offices.
00:22:41.286 --> 00:22:45.162
We're talking about financial advisors that can help families navigate these.
00:22:45.162 --> 00:22:48.699
Nancy, where the heck do you focus In all of these equations?
00:22:48.699 --> 00:22:49.896
There's so many moving parts.
00:22:49.896 --> 00:22:51.503
How do you balance that and what do you focus on?
00:22:51.503 --> 00:22:52.585
Equations there's so many moving parts.
00:22:52.625 --> 00:22:53.726
How do you balance that and what do you focus on?
00:22:53.726 --> 00:23:05.142
Well, that's, that's a really good question, and sometimes I I don't fall asleep at night because of that question, but I have to tell you we haven't been live for even a year, even one year.
00:23:05.142 --> 00:23:09.380
We went live the third week of November last year.
00:23:09.380 --> 00:23:13.615
So our growth has been incredible and I'm very, very proud of that.
00:23:13.615 --> 00:23:25.096
What I'm also amazed at is the fact that this has happened with virtually no advertising money spent, and I'll tell you why.
00:23:26.352 --> 00:23:45.290
On Facebook, there are many college Facebook parent pages and many of those pages require you to answer some questions to ascertain whether you're fishing or you're not really supposed to be on that page.
00:23:45.290 --> 00:23:50.031
So they ask questions about you know, do you have a student at that school and what year is that student?
00:23:50.031 --> 00:23:59.056
And you know things like that and our staff and I we will never, ever pretend or fib or lie that we're a part of the school.
00:23:59.056 --> 00:24:03.644
If we're not, okay, how do I get the word out to those folks?
00:24:03.644 --> 00:24:21.144
Facebook will not let me run ads, because anything to do with housing or subletting or apartment rentals comes under a very, very, very strict set of rules and it's really hard to break into that.
00:24:21.144 --> 00:24:35.092
So we have not advertised at all on Facebook, but we have reached over 50,000 folks men, women, parents on Facebook because of sharing and sharing and sharing.
00:24:35.571 --> 00:24:50.237
So in this case, social media has really, really worked for us, the fact that there are avenues that we have to go down and, you know, ways that we'll have to market it's.
00:24:50.237 --> 00:24:58.857
There are lots and lots of, there are lots of things coming, you know, facing us and we're going to have to figure it out.
00:24:58.857 --> 00:25:08.443
We are doing donations, we're getting in with Greek Life, we're getting in with the study abroad offices, we're contacting the study abroad companies.
00:25:08.443 --> 00:25:11.132
We're doing it.
00:25:11.132 --> 00:25:12.375
We're not even a year old.
00:25:13.116 --> 00:25:14.519
Yeah, I love that, nancy.
00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:15.462
Honestly, it's incredible.
00:25:15.462 --> 00:25:29.030
The other thing I really love all of our guests who come on are so humble, and that's why, nancy, I'm totally going to put you on this spot here and humble brag for you, because you and I were talking off the air about the real life stories, the real life impact.
00:25:29.030 --> 00:25:40.412
It's those heartwarming stories of people who were facing literally a multi-thousand dollar dilemma for their students, while they're also facing student loan debt and the rising cost of education and all of that.
00:25:40.412 --> 00:25:42.257
So, nancy, I'm going to put you on the spot.
00:25:42.257 --> 00:25:43.018
The stage is yours.
00:25:43.018 --> 00:25:44.442
Give us some of those real life stories.
00:25:44.442 --> 00:25:46.694
You were telling me about some of them before we hit record today.
00:25:46.694 --> 00:25:49.431
I'd love for listeners to hear about those real life stories.
00:25:51.576 --> 00:26:05.592
I have a student who wasn't thinking she was going to be able to go away to study abroad and her three roommates were studying abroad and she really didn't think she'd be able to do it because of her commitment to her lease.
00:26:05.592 --> 00:26:12.373
And she posted, she found a sub letter and she was able to study abroad, and that made me so happy.
00:26:12.373 --> 00:26:18.477
Just last night, as I mentioned to you earlier, brian, I was out to dinner and I got a text from a mom thanking me.
00:26:18.477 --> 00:26:25.511
The listing wasn't even up for one week and they found a sub letter and I mean that made me so happy.
00:26:25.952 --> 00:26:57.005
I'm hearing this more and more, but the fact is that if your student is paying, if you're paying a thousand dollars and in some cases in Wisconsin I just heard $1,600 a month for some of these beautiful apartments If you're paying upwards of $4,000 or $5,000 or even $7,500 for a semester, and then a lot of kids don't go back for the summer session, so you're potentially looking at seven months of rent, $7,000, $10,000.
00:26:57.005 --> 00:27:06.954
This is extraordinary money and if we're able to save parents and students thousands and thousands of dollars, what could make me happier?
00:27:07.676 --> 00:27:08.959
Yeah, that's incredible.
00:27:08.959 --> 00:27:10.122
I love that, nancy.
00:27:10.122 --> 00:27:15.606
Honestly, it's so cool to see the work that you're doing, opening doors and possibilities.
00:27:15.606 --> 00:27:19.538
That student who gets to study abroad now she's going to remember for the rest of her life.
00:27:19.538 --> 00:27:26.682
Yeah, sure, she may not chalk it up to Nancy Schwartz, but the truth is the work that you're doing is literally changing their lives in this way.
00:27:26.682 --> 00:27:28.674
So I so appreciate all of that.
00:27:28.674 --> 00:27:34.917
I want to ask you this question, entrepreneur to entrepreneur what's your growth plan look like when you look at the future?
00:27:34.917 --> 00:27:40.238
Obviously you have big plans and you want students and families all across the country to start utilizing this.
00:27:40.238 --> 00:27:42.280
What do those growth plans look like?
00:27:42.280 --> 00:27:43.723
Do you think in terms of years?
00:27:43.723 --> 00:27:45.857
Do you think in terms of number of users?
00:27:45.857 --> 00:27:46.814
I'd love to hear that.
00:27:48.950 --> 00:27:52.621
Well, at this point we're thinking in terms of semesters.
00:27:52.621 --> 00:28:07.413
We have on the website a section that we added for summer internship housing for 10 major cities, because summer internship housing is very, very difficult to find.
