In this episode of the Team Lally Show, we are joined by Nathan Mcfarland and Lari Jarvis, co-owners of Massage Envy Hawaii. Nate & Lari talk about what brought them to Hawaii and how they were inspired to open Massage Envy in Hawaii. They also talk about their background in banking and how it contrasts with their business and lifestyle in Hawaii.
Phone: (808) 524-3689
Announcer: It’s time to enter the world of real estate in Oahu with Hawaii’s only true real estate radio show, the Team Lally Real Estate show. Grab a pen and get ready to take notes. For the next full hour Hawaii’s premiere real estate leader Adrienne Lally and Attilio Leonardi will bring you the latest in real estate news and real world strategies on how they can guarantee to sell your home at a price and deadline you agree to, or they’ll buy it. Now here are your hosts, Adrienne and Attilio.
Adrienne: Welcome to the Team Lally Real Estate Show, home of the guaranteed sold program – or we’ll buy it. If you have any questions just give us a call at 799-9596.
Attilio: What’s that number?
Adrienne: 799-9596, or check us out on the web at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Well hey everybody this is Attilio. You know what I was doing this morning? I was working out at Orangetheory, running on the treadmill. I was at the all out pace, and this lady tapped me on the shoulder, started asking me a bunch of tax and legal questions and I said, “Those are great questions but I highly recommend you seek the appropriate licensed professional.” And then I said, “But mom, what other questions do you have?” So if you hear anything on the show that sounds like legal advice, hey go see an attorney for that-
Adrienne: We actually have an attorney to recommend
Attilio: Oh yeah who’s that attorney?
Adrienne: You can call Myran Kamihara.
Attilio: What’s his phone number?
Adrienne: 352-6417
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: Kamihara Law.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: So if you hear anything on the show that sounds like legal advice, you know run that-
Adrienne: Just call Myran.
Attilio: Run it by Myran. Alright anything on the show sounds like tax advice, hey go see your local tax professional on that because today we’re going to edutain you. We’re going to teach you something while having a good time at the same time.
Adrienne: So I have a question about like – Were you really at an all out pace and able to have a conversation with your mom?
Attilio: Yeah I have a low resting heart rate.
Adrienne: Interesting.
Attilio: I work out everyday!
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: You know, so I’m 49 and I’m turning 50 in April so my birthday goal is to be the most fittest that I’ve ever been in my entire life.
Adrienne: Well that’s an excellent goal.
Attilio: Yep.
Adrienne: But I don’t know if that’s going to help you.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: Speaking of being fit, let’s talk about cupcakes.
Adrienne: Cupcakes.
Attilio: Cupcakes! You know just like that YouTube video.
Adrienne impersonating “that YouTube video”: Cupcakes!
Attilio: Cupcakes! So we’re giving away cupcakes and I know what you’re thinking: “Man I wish I had some free cupcakes for Valentine’s.” So if you’re one of our – what, clients?
Adrienne: Or raving fans.
Attilio: Or raving fan. If you’re a hate just turn the radio off right now.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: Don’t listen to the rest of this right now.
Adrienne: No cupcakes for you.
Attilio: No cupcakes for you, but every year we do this. It’s the day before Thanksgiving- Pfft. Thanksgiving?
Adrienne and Attilio: Valentine’s Day.
Attilio: If you go to our website, if you go to our website, if you go to our website and RSVP to-
Adrienne: Teamlally.com.
Attilio: Is it teamlally.com?
Adrienne. Backslash RSVP.
Attilio: Backslash – Do we have a thing with Team Lally Cupcakes?
Adrienne: I don’t know.
Attilio: No?
Adrienne: We probably do.
Attilio: Yeah? Anyway go to the website, you’ll see it.
Adrienne: It’s easy to find.
Attilio: Go to teamlally.com. Go to the events dropdown menu, click on cupcakes and you can RSVP. These are gourmet cupcakes.
Adrienne: They’re delicious.
Attilio: Not the plastic ones that you get at like Safeway or something like that’ll stay fresh in the box for like six years. These are gourmet cupcakes with cream cheese topping.
Adrienne: Mmm!
Attilio: Made fresh and they’re going to put it in a nice little box, almost looks like the – what do you call that, Sonoma something?
Adrienne: William Sonoma box.
Attilio: William Sonoma box.
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: You can give it to your loved one. You don’t even have to give us credit on where you got it. Tell ‘em you got it special for them and you’re going to look like a Valentine’s Day superstar. Okay?
Adrienne: Okay.
Attilio: You got quotes for us?
Adrienne: I do. I have quotes courtesy of Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: Mhm.
Adrienne: Alright so the first one is from Steven Pressfield. “Don’t cheat the world of your contribution, give it what you’ve got,” and the next one is from our favorite author, unknown.
Attilio: Anon.
Adrienne: Anon.
Attilio: You know he’s a very popular quote writer this guy, Dave Anon.
Adrienne: Okay. “A thousand disappointments in the past cannot equal the power of one positive action right now.”
Attilio: Mhm.
Adrienne: And then the last one. It’s short and sweet from Philip Crosby. “Attitude is everything.”
Attilio: Attitude is everything?
Adrienne: It is.
Attilio: So if you’ve got a blankety blank attitude, you’re nothing?
Adrienne: Exactly.
Attilio laughs.
Attilio: Speaking of attitude, he’s always got a great attitude and he sends us these quotes everyday!
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: His name is Duke.
Adrienne: Duke Kimhan.
Attilio: Duke Kimhan with Hawaii Pacific Property Management. Let’s bring him on the line! Duke with Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Adrienne: Tell us your property management tip of the week.
Attilio: Hi Duke.
Adrienne: Hello!
Duke: Hi! Why would you work with a property management company that does not guarantee their work?
Adrienne: Mmm.
Duke: At Hawaii Pacific Property Management we guarantee so many things. We guarantee your rent.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Duke: We guarantee the tenants. We guarantee we walk through your unit two or three times a year, depending on if you have pets. We guarantee it all! So if you have a tenant dispute that leads to a court case, we will pay for that, if we put the tenants in.
Attilio: Yeah.
Duke: So that’s what kind of guarantees we make.
Adrienne: What is that? That’s the eviction guarantee, right?
Duke: Eviction guarantee, yep. We warranty our tenants, we warranty everything. So as long as we’re touching it and we’re doing it, then we warranty it.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Can you take tenants for a test drive?
Adrienne and Duke laugh.
Duke: Yeah I wish that was the case.
Attilio: No, okay. You guys are like aspirin for the headaches of property management.
Adrienne: Yes.
Duke: Yes.
Attilio: With all these guarantees.
Duke: We are the cure.
Attilio: Mmkay. We highly recommend – Come on folks! If you’ve got property out there, the reason why Adrienne personally didn’t get involved with it is because it’s very litigious. 90% of the time any of the litigation that occurs in the real estate industry has to do with property management. So we highly recommend using a professional, and who do we recommend?
Adrienne: We recommend Duke Kimhan and Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: Hey Duke before we let you get back to it, tell us about that rent guarantee.
Duke: If we don’t rent your home in 30 days or less at a guaranteed rent, then we’ll pay that amount of money.
Attilio: No way!
Duke: Pretty simple. Yep.
Attilio: Are you serious!?
Duke: Sure thing.
Attilio: That’s crazy!
Adrienne: Now I also want to point out that they have excellent reviews online from many, many happy owners that are very pleased with how Hawaii Pacific Property Management manages their property, manages their tenants.
Attilio: Mhm.
Adrienne: Make sure that they get paid every month and keeps the property occupied.
Attilio: Alright, thanks Duke.
Adrienne: So check them out online.
Attilio: Alright so if you’re like “Oh man! I didn’t write his number down.” What’s that number Adrienne?
Adrienne: It’s 445-9223.
Attilio: What if I’m an introvert, I just want to check them out on the internet first?
Adrienne: Well you can Google it or you can go directly to their website hipacificpm.com.
Attilio: Hey don’t believe us. Go on Yelp, check out their reviews and see what their happy, happy, happy property management clients have to say.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Mmkay? Alright so are we going to take a break, keep going, or talk about some of these things first?
Adrienne: Well I think that we’re going to have an insurance tip and mortgage tip.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: So while we’re waiting for-
Attilio: In the meantime.
Adrienne: In the meantime let’s talk about – We have a mastermind event coming up.
Attilio: Mastermind.
Adrienne: What is the mastermind?
Attilio: Mastermind. Okay so that’s when we get together with Doctor Evil in the bottom of an extinct volcano.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: With his hairless cat and we plan the-
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: We plan the destruction of the entire planet.
Adrienne: Nooo.
Attilio: No, not that kind of mastermind.
Adrienne: No so we’re going to have a real estate mastermind on February 17th out in Kapolei.
Attilio: Yes.
Adrienne: And so for those of you that are in the industry, you want to learn more about how to get immediate clients at your open houses, you’ve gotta come sign up.
Attilio: Come to our mastermind, we’ll-
Adrienne: Come check it out. That is the theme this month.
Attilio: Where do they RSVP for that?
Adrienne: Do you know what? They can send an email to info@teamlally.com.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: And we’ll put them down on the list.
Attilio: Now hey make a mental note, or you know, what forget that if you’re mental. Write it down in your calendar. Is this – No we’re doing an exception this month, but typically it’s the last Friday of every month we hold a mastermind for any of the agents, realtors, in the Kapolei community. Come into our office, it’s an hour. Usually you’ll have a sponsor that brings food. So we feed your tummy, feed your mind, and-
Adrienne: Feed your business.
Attilio: Feed your business.
Adrienne: Grow your business.
Attilio: And guess what? We’re going to share with you all of our secrets. Okay? We did 172 transactions last year. $82,000,000 in sales. Not being braggadocious – well maybe a little bit – but we’re going to share with you how we did that.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Tell me an agent that you can go to, top producing agent that’s going to share with you all their secrets. Not going to happen. But at Keller Williams we always come from contribution, and what’s that mean?
Adrienne: That means that, you know, it’s all about execution, right? So we’re open book. We can share with you what we’re doing. We want everyone to succeed.
Attilio: I gotta set you up for that. The answer is, “Sharing is caring.”
Adrienne:Oh. Sharing is – it is caring.
Attilio: Sharing is caring so we have the sharing is caring Carebear.
Adrienne: Okay so come visit with us February 17th. Block out your schedule from about 12-1:30.
Attilio: The special appearances by the open house coach-
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: We’re going to give you special tips on how to be successful with your open houses and build your business. Okay?
Adrienne: Okay and then the next announcement that we have is-
Attilio: Is it with Jodie?
Adrienne: No it’s with-
Attilio: Oh more announcements.
Adrienne: We have one more announcement while we’re waiting for Jodie.
Attilio: Okay go ahead, get to it.
Adrienne: Career nights.
Attilio: Career night.
Adrienne: So March 6th we have career night at our office from five until six so if you are-
Attilio: Is that the first Monday?
Adrienne: The first monday of every – Well not of every month, but the first Monday of March.
Attilio: Oh, every other month.
Adrienne: Every other month we do a career night.
Attilio: Yes. Thinking about getting into real estate? You’re like, “You know, I watched a – I watched a reality show. That looks pretty cool, maybe I want to be a realtor like that, have a private driver, only do one or two million dollar transactions,” come to career night so that we can completely crush that misinterpretation of what it’s really like to be in the real estate world. But you know we’re going to teach you. If you’re thinking about getting into the industry, administrative, sales, what else are we going to talk about at these career nights?
Adrienne: All other questions that they might have.
Attilio: Mhm.
Adrienne: So every single question that’s asked is answered during our presentation and then even after we’ll answer your specific questions about real estate, about our business, about the industry. Whatever questions you have.
Attilio: You’re an existing agent, maybe not happy where you’re at and you’re ready to make a move? Come to our dealio.
Adrienne: mhm.
Attilio: You want to ask us questions, again, no secrets.
Adrienne: Alright.
Attilio: Except for the recipe to our cupcakes.
Adrienne: Yeah that is a secret recipe.
Attilio: If we told you the recipe we’d have to kill you.
Adrienne: Alright so on that note we’re going to take a short break but when we come back we have some special guests joining us.
Attilio: They’re going to talk about envy and how if you let it build up in your life it’s not a good thing. So what you should do is go get a massage.
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: More particularly at Massage Envy.
Adrienne: So stay with us.
[Commercial Break]
Announcer: The Team Lally Real Estate Show continues.
Adrienne: Welcome back and thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate Show, home of the guaranteed sold program – or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne.
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Adrienne: And if you have any questions you can reach us at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Was there something you wanted to bring up first?
Adrienne: I think that we have a mortgage tip of the week.
Attilio: Oh a mortgage tip of the week!
Adrienne: A mortgage tip of the week first.
Attilio: Yep.
Adrienne: And then we’ll be bringing on our instudio guest.
Attilio: Hey Jodie are you there?
Jodie: Hey there, I’m here! How’s it going?
Attilio: Alright. Good, good. We’ve got Jodie from Pacific Rim Mortgage with a mortgage tip of the week.
Adrienne: So tell us, Jodie, what do we need to know?
Attilio [whispering]: So tell us Jodie what is it?
Adrienne: What’s going on with interest rates? What’s going on with the industry?
Attilio: We’re waiting with bated breath.
Adrienne: Yes.
Jodie: Okay, so – so I was speaking with someone who was VA eligible and actually it was his third time utilizing his VA loan-
Attilio: No way.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Jodie: Because you can, y’know, reuse it.
Attilio: Mhm.
Jodie: And it occurred to me that he didn’t know something that I had assumed that he had known.
Attilio: Mhm.
Jodie: And because he was such a seasoned buyer and he still didn’t know, I feel I wanted to talk about it today, which is you can exceed the county limit of 721.
Attilio: mhm.
Adrienne: Mmm.
Jodie: For your purchase. So if you want to buy a million dollar purchase, or a million dollar property, or a $2,000,000 property, that’s fine. I mean you can get – technically you can get a VA loan up to $3 or $4,000,000. It’s just that you have to be able to come in with the difference.
Attilio: Okay.
Jodie: And so what the difference is going to be is if you have full entitlement, let’s say as an example, $900,000, you find out how much that is over our county limit.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Jodie: Which is that $900,000 purchase minus $721,050, county limit equals $178,950. That’s the difference between what you want to buy and what our county limit is.
Adrienne and Attilio: Mhm.
Jodie: And then you just multiply that by 25%. So as a VA eligible buyer when you’re buying a property for $900,000, all you need is $44,737.
Adrienne: Oh wow!
Attilio: If you didn’t have a VA loan and you’re going conventional how much would you need? Just to give them a comparison.
Jodie: Minimum $90,000 plus closing costs, so plus another $8,000.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Jodie: So $98,000. Versus $45,000.
Attilio: That’s a lot of pluses.
Adrienne: That’s amazing.
Attilio: That’s a plethora of pluses.
Adrienne: That’s a great benefit.
Attilio: Yeah.
Jodie: And it’s just a reminder to me because you know, we’re in it, we live it, and breathe it.
Adrienne and Attilio: Mhm.
Jodie: And this was his third time utilizing it and he had not realized that. So he was always trying to stay under 721.
Adrienne: oh.
Attilio: he was like Ed McMahon after you told him. “I did not know that.”
Jodie and Adrienne laugh.
Attilio: Now he knows.
Jodie: So now he upped his purchase price. He’s looking for something more expensive.
Adrienne: Nice!
Attilio: Cool.
Jodie: Yep.
Adrienne: Well that’s an awesome tip. Actually we were talking to Derek at our team meeting and that topic had come up.
Attilio: Mhm.
Adrienne: I thought that – He was like,”Yeah you know, you can-” He said there really is no limit as long as you can come up with that difference and it always make sense to use your VA benefit even in a jumbo situation, no matter what the purchase price.
Jodie: Absolutely, because your rate is going to be lower, and your cash out of pocket’s going to be lower.
Adrienne: Yep.
Jodie: And speaking of rates-
Attilio: Yes.
Jodie: Just a general trend.
Attilio: Mhm.
Jodie: There has been some recovery since the crazy 382 bases points loss that had occurred – and I’m not saying which side I’m on – but when Trump became the president elect.
Attilio: Yes.
Jodie: So there’s been some improvement.
Attilio: There have been some improvements? What kind of improvements?
Jodie: There have been improvements. So for instance, last week, the week prior, whatever rate that you had been quoted from your particular lender, it’s probably an 8th better this week.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: Oh wow!
Jodie: Yeah.
Adrienne: That’s a pretty good improvement.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: Alright-
Attilio: Thanks Jodie!
Adrienne: Thank you Jodie.
Jodie: Thanks.
Attilio: Alright so if you want to get ahold of Jodie what’s a good number Adrienne?
Adrienne: You can reach them at 488-5510.
Attilio: What’s that number one more time?
Adrienne: 488-5510.
Attilio: Or on the internet at…
Adrienne: Pacrimmtg.com.
Attilio: Pacrimmtg.com. Guys and gals we highly recommend them. If you’re a realtor out there, hey you know what, here’s the first piece of your team. A good, quality, lender that can help you get your transactions closed.
Adrienne: And that’s Pac Rim.
Attilio: Alright so speaking of closure, and relaxation, and-
Adrienne: And quality!
Attilio: The main theme of the day is: treat yo’ self!
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: Let’s talk about treat yo’ self.
Adrienne: Okay so today we have not one, but two guests with us on the show.
Attilio: Mhm.
Adrienne: They’re business partners here today to talk about Massage Envy Hawaii. Our first guest is franchise owner and regional developer at Massage Envy Hawaii. He also owns an Orangetheory Fitness in Iowa. Please welcome Nate McFarland.
Nate: Thank you very much.
Adrienne: And with him today is his co-owner and regional developer at Massage Envy, Laurie Jarvis. Nate and Laurie, welcome to the show.
Nate: Thanks for having us.
Laurie: Thank you, we’re excited to be here.
Attilio: Alrighty so we got questions for you. Here we go. You know what, as we told you prior to getting on the microphones here, Hawaii local style is we like to get to know the persons a little bit before we get into the business. So if you guys are from Hawaii or you’re from somewhere else tell us how you ended up here in Hawaii.
Laurie: It’s warm here.
Laurie laughs.
Attilio: It’s warm?
Laurie: We’re from cold places.
Attilio: Yeah? And so what brought you to Hawaii?
Nate: I had actually overseen some of the Wells Fargo financials that used to be on the island here.
Attilio: Okay.
Nate: I was surfing one day in Maui, hurt my back, and said, “Hey there’s gotta be a good business opportunity here for local residents to receive quality massages.”
Adrienne: So Nate where are you originally from?
Nate: Originally I grew up in Wisconsin.
Adrienne: Oh wow.
Nate: Quite a different climate.
Adrienne: Yeah, and Laurie where are you originally from?
Laurie: Idaho.
Adrienne: Oh wow.
Attilio: Now I know what you guys is thinking: “Oh Korean massage!” No. We’re not talking Korean massage.
Adrienne and Attilio laugh.
Attilio: ‘Cause I think the wives get nervous when the guys start getting Korean massages, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about – I think it’s that maybe that slot of service between the Korean massage and the resort massage. Because for me as a guy I was thinking “Oh man! It’s like 150 bucks, 200 bucks, to go get a massage at the resort.” For you guys that was a critical niche. Has that been the key to the success for Massage Envy?
Laurie: Attilio we are here for the locals, yes, and we are here for their regular health and wellness.
Attilio: Mhm.
Nate: Not only that from a price standpoint, Attilio, but we also knew that local residents didn’t want to drive into Waikiki to get that massage done.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nate: So we wanted to place our spas in locations where people live and people work.
Adrienne: Okay so tell us where are the locations on Oahu and then on – and even on the neighbor islands.
Attilio [off-mic]: And the coming soon ones.
Adrienne: And coming soon, yes.
Laurie: Well we have Pearl City, we have Kaneohe, Kapolei, and we are opening in May, 2017, we’re opening in Aina Haina and then Maui will be 2018.
Adrienne: That’s exciting. Sounds like lots of growth is happening here with Massage Envy.
Nate: There really has been a lot of growth. We started four and some change years ago with twelve employees and we’re really proud of the fact that we still actually employ a lot of those twelve employees. We’ve just grown up to almost 150 employees, currently.
Attilio: Well right now – You guys weren’t born entrepreneurs right? You know when you started walking, got out of diapers, you were an entrepreneur, you were self-employed? So you worked for other people and that’s always – That’s the great American dream! You know everybody thinks the great American dream is owning a home. It’s not! It’s being self-employed, being your own boss. How did you guys make that transition?
Laurie: Well we actually worked together on the mainland for 16 years. So that’s how we met and we worked for corporate America there and, you know, like you said, the dream but something happened and we were laid off through the banking industry, and at that point in time we decided that we wanted to change our lives but more importantly we wanted to change other people’s lives, and we never wanted to have to layoff an employee again, and here we are.
Attilio: What about you Nate/
Nate: It really was one of those “Oh no, this is worst case!” scenarios, and it happened, and turned out to be the best case scenario for us because we were very loyal. We weren’t planning on looking to go anywhere else, and it happened to stumble into our laps. Granted, we had to find it, we had to make it happen, but we’re really proud of the fact of what we’ve built and more importantly the team we’ve built around ourselves. We have the most amazing employees on the island. We’re the luckiest two people as far as bosses on this island.
Adrienne: So speaking of team building, are you guys looking for massage therapists, for an admin, as you guys grow?
Laurie: Yes!
Adrienne: How do you find your people and how can they find out the career opportunities with Massage Envy?
Laurie: Yes Adrienne. I mean, like we said, we are opening in May, 2017, Aina Haina, we are definitely looking for licensed massage therapists, estheticians, front desk, anyone with a passion for this to help people feel their best. They can reach us at – They can call us at Massage Envy.
Adrienne: Okay and what is the best number – is that the 524-3689?
Laurie: It is. 524 ENVY. E-N-V-Y.
Adrienne: Okay.
Nate: And what’s great about working for us is you actually don’t have to leave where you’re currently working.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nate: We’re very, very flexible as far as hours, as far as schedules, since we are open seven days a week, eight in the morning until 10 o’clock at night during the weekdays, and on the weekends as well, and so some of our employees work as few as four hours a week for us. We’re just happy to have them and happy to have them contribute, and we just enjoy having teams here.
Attilio: Alright so – By the way, congratulations on your Pacific Business News interview. We saw the article.
Nate and Laurie laugh.
Nate: Thank you.
Attilio: And that was a great, great interview that you guys did. Saw you guys right on the front page. Again, speaking to – Let’s talk about potential clients out there, and uh because like for me, I came out of the closet and got a facial as a guy and it was an enjoyable experience and you know, as we get older, I think most confident people need to say, “Hey, I moisturize.”
Laurie: You loved it didn’t you?
Attilio: I loved it!
Laurie and Nate laugh.
Attilio: You know I was like – I looked like Quasimodo and I came out looking like Brad Pitt all because of this facial!
Nate and Laurie laugh.
Attilio: I’m telling you, you guys should do it, but anyway, let’s talk about the – Like for me, so I’ll tell you what my “why” was when I signed up with massage envy. I do a lot of the running series for getting ready for the marathon, and you’re all “owie” on the Monday morning so I usually schedule mine right after a big event of running and stuff like that. But for the lay people out there, what are you finding? Why are people signing up in droves?
Laurie: Well there are so many reasons, Attilio, and whether it’s physical, emotional, whatever it is, stress, migraines, lower back pain, all of us have something – We’re so hard on our bodies! Whether we sit in traffic all day, whether we sit at a computer all day, whether we are, you know, moms carrying our kids around all day, doing physical labor, whatever. Just you know, working hard playing all day. Whatever it is we beat our bodies up and that’s why we’re here. We’re here to help people maintain and feel their best so they can be – they can be happier, they can enjoy their playtime more, they can enjoy their families more.
Nate: And I think as far as the facial piece has concern too, us – we Hawaiians love to do to enjoy the outdoors. If you’re going to live here be outdoors. Love life, and protecting your skin is vital. You know the sun’s beating down on us all day long, getting in, getting facials, having that protection so that nothing bad happens from skin cancer standpoint, or from an aging standpoint. That’s what we look for. But just as much as we look to take of our clients, our employees get that same type of protection as well.
Adrienne: Oh nice.
Nate: We actually allow each and every one of our employees to get a free massage or facial every, single month. So we don’t just expect –
Adrienne: Oh wow! That’s expensive.
Nate: Yeah, absolutely.
Laurie: I know, we’re nice.
Nate: We don’t just expect that from our clients. We expect it from our employees.
Attilio: Hey my hat’s off to you because typically in the work environment, they don’t encourage employees touching each other.
All laugh.
Laurie: Different industry, Attilio.
Adrienne and Laurie laugh.
Nate: Yeah.
Adrienne: So with Massage Envy it’s like you have a membership. So what does this look like, the membership? How does it work?
Laurie: A membership they – Well obviously it’s monthly just like you guys enjoy Orangetheory Fitness.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Laurie: It’s a membership and it comes out of the account every month but they can come in and use it whenever they want, and if they do not use it, we encourage monthly for their health and wellness –
Adrienne: Mhm.
Laurie: But if you get busy, you can’t come in that month, it rolls over. So you don’t lose it!
Adrienne: Oh wow.
Laurie: Yeah.
Adrienne: And then you can also use it at any Massage Envy.
Laurie: Yes.
Adrienne: Anywhere, right?
Laurie: Yes, any of the locations on the island or if you’re on the mainland, traveling, you can use it there.
Nate: There’s actually over 1,100 Massage Envy locations.
Attilio: Oh wow.
Nate: And you actually – another benefit is, if you really, really, can’t use it, which is crazy not to use it, you can actually gift it away as well.
Adrienne: Mhm. Oh wow! So it’s not like a use it or lose it, it’s like “Hey we really want you to use it, but if you’re just too busy, just assign it over.”
Nate: We want somebody to use it, absolutely.
Attilio: Yeah. So give the gift of massage, and, you know, it makes a great gift for the important people in your life. Who wouldn’t want to reduce stress, of your staff members, your employees, your friends, your family? And then you enjoy hanging out with them because they’re not so grumpy because they got a massage.
Nate and Laurie laugh.
Laurie: Yes.
Adrienne: Okay so I know you guys, you came from the financial industry, could you tell us the story, like how did you come across Massage Envy and what made you decide to just go full in, all out, with this particular franchise?
Laurie: Well Nate mentioned at the beginning that he was here, and he was surfing, and – I don’t think you’re the greatest surfer, are you?
Nate: No I’m not!
Laurie: No, yeah.
Nate: I’m not!
Laurie: No! So he hurt himself and tried to get a massage and couldn’t find one for a price that he wanted to pay, and called me on the phone while I was on the mainland and said, “Oh my gosh, I think we should open a Massage Envy here in Hawaii.” And I said “You’re crazy! I’ll talk to you when you get back,” and then I flew over less than a week from that phone call, and here we are. So all because Nate is a terrible surfer.
Nate: Yes!
Adrienne and Laurie laugh.
Nate: That is accurate, actually, and old too. Yeah.
Adrienne: So you saw the need and then you filled the need, and then here we are four years later with a very successful franchise with many – with more stores opening here to come.
Nate: Right. I think we took it to a different level, too. We actually spent a lot of time interviewing current employees, massage therapists, on the island, asking them what they don’t get from their employees. We wanted to provide something different from that aspect, so that they would stay with us, ‘cause we want people to be loyal to us ‘cause they love their therapist. They love their esthetician, and they love that front desk employee, and it’s really worked for us. We’ve actually been the fastest growing Massage Envies in the company, and things have really worked out well, because we focus a lot of our effort on that employee.
Attilio: Keeping a happy workplace. Speaking of estheticians, is that somebody named Esther? What’s an esthetician?
Laurie: A facial specialist.
Attilio: Oh a facial specialist! Gotcha.
Laure laugh.
Attilio: I had never knew that.
Laurie: It’s why you look like Brad Pitt.
Attilio: You know that’s like one of those words up there, like phlebotomist. What the heck’s a phlebotomist? They take your blood.
Adrienne: Alright well we’re going to take a real quick break but stay with us. We have more questions for Nate and Laurie of massage envy.
[Commercial Break]
Announcer: It’s the Team Lally Real Estate Show. Here’s Adrienne and Attilio.
Adrienne: Welcome back and thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate Show, home of the guaranteed sold program – or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne.
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Adrienne: And if you have any questions just give us a call at 799-9596, or check us out online at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Alright so we’ve still got Nate and Laurie from Massage Envy. They went from being – they went from being homeless on the streets to owning all these Massage Envies.
Laurie and Adrienne laugh.
Attilio: It’s a true rags to riches stories.
Nate and Laurie laugh.
Adrienne: Not quite there.
Nate: I was living in a sailboat so I pretty much was homeless.
Adrienne: Okay technically.
Nate: Yeah.
Attilio [off-mic]: But you wrote some questions down.
Adrienne: Okay so on the break we were talking about some of the achievements that you guys have had. So tell us a little bit about the spa of the year and how did the Pearl City spa win that?
Laurie: Oh I know! Isn’t that amazing?
Adrienne: Yeah, I know.
Laurie: Yeah the first year in business our first location, Pearl City, 2013, won the award for spa of the year over all the mainland Massage Envies.
Attilio: All the locations. How many?
Laurie: Their first year in business, at the time there’s over 1,000. I don’t know Nate, how many at the time?
Nate: 1,100 around that time.
Laurie: Okay but it was such an honor because Pearl City with nine treatment rooms, so only nine therapists can work a time, they beat all the Massage Envies on the mainland that had 12, 13, up to 27 rooms.
Attilio and Adrienne: Oh wow.
Adrienne: So what is the criteria for the spa of the year? Is it about customer experience, or how many members-
Laurie: Both.
Adrienne: – or like the feedback that the therapists get from the members?
Laurie: Oh we’re so blessed because our members, they love us and we love them. So definitely the customer experience and the growth.
Nate: Well I think the thing that made it really rewarding too was there were people within Massage Envy and on the island here that said, “Aw, this isn’t going to work,” and within the first year we were open #1 spa in the entire country.
Laurie: A lot of people told us it wasn’t going to work.
Adrienne: So a lot of naysayers and you had to just show them otherwise.
Laurie: Yeah. Yes.
Nate: I think you’re always going to have that and you have to listen to yourself and listen to your heart for those entrepreneurs out there.
Attilio [off-mic]: Gotta go for it.
Adrienne: So speaking to the entrepreneurs out there, what kind of tips do you have for them about becoming successful?
Laurie: Well I think we just mentioned one of them, and that is that you just have to believe in it. You have to believe in yourself and regardless of what everyone around you is saying, you have to know you can do this, and then you have to work really hard.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nate: You do have to work your butt off. You know Laurie and I weren’t, and still aren’t, above doing all the things that make a business run. Taking out the trash, working the front desk, cleaning the rooms. When Pearl City opened up we had a plumbing problem. Thaaat wasn’t fun, but we did it, and you do it, and you’re there, you’re there long hours, ‘cause it’s your passion. We didn’t have a Plan B. This was Plan A, A, A, A.
Attilio: Do or die.
Nate: Yeah, and so we wanted to make sure this was going to happen. We also partnered up and our partnership was amazing because Laurie has a very different skillset than I do.
Attilio: Yes.
Nate: She’s far more organized.
Laurie laughs.
Nate: She’s a lot better to look at than I am.
Laurie laughs.
Nate: And honestly-
Attilio: She has all her keys.
Nate: And she doesn’t lose the keys to the clinics, yes. Absolutely.
Laurie: Nate’s are in the bottom of the ocean right now and he’s not getting anymore keys, but that’s alright.
Laurie laughs.
Attilio: Yeah so let’s talk more about that because we’ve never had a guest on this show that have similar partnership situations like Adrienne and I do. The, you know, same thing. It’s the complementary skill sets that allow us to turn into a super mega entrepreneur. ‘Cause we’re kind of like Voltron. We combine efforts, but – So what’s some of the, let’s talk about the complementary – it’s kind of like, what’s that show with Felix and Oscar? The Odd Couple. Right?
Laurie and Nate laugh.
Attilio: So what’s – You know what, let’s see how well you guys know each other as partners. Because you do get to know each other when you’ve been in business, and for Adrienne and I we were in that, “I like big butts,” our butts were so big we were in that video.
Laurie and Nate laugh.
Attilio: And we worked them off. Now they’re a lot smaller because we worked so hard, but for you two guys what are your – give us more a laundry list of your complementary skillsets.
Laurie: Well Nate – I mean there’s no question. We wouldn’t be here without Nate. He just pushes. He’s the idea person and he always says – he comes to me and he’s like “We should do this, we should do this!” And I’m like “Wait, no, no, wait. Let’s back off, let’s make sure we have enough money, let’s research this. I’m going to put a business together.”
Adrienne: Mhm.
Laurie: And so definitely, he pushes me every single day.
Adrienne: So we call that the expander, and then the container.
Laurie: Oh really? Is that what it’s called?
Adrienne: Yeah but you know what we learned that from Barbara Corcoran, and she says with every successful business you need to have one of each because if you just have the expander, eventually you’re just going to go out of business.
Nate: Oh well we would’ve ran out of money years ago with just me, for sure
Laurie laughs.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: So it’s important to have those complementary skillsets to just keep each other in check, right?
Attilio: By the way, Barbara Corcoran said this. We were on a coaching call with her the other day, and she said, “Of all the businesses,” obviously she’s one of those Shark Tank – I think she’s got like 30 different businesses – the most successful of all her businesses were always partnerships with people who had complementary skills as opposed to a solo entrepreneur.
Laurie: Oh I believe that absolutely because, like I said, we would not be here if it wasn’t for each other, and even though it makes it difficult sometimes when you don’t have 100%, or I don’t have 100% control-
Nate and Laurie laugh.
Laurie: That makes it difficult, but it absolutely is why we’ve been so successful, no question.
Nate: I think how we deal with our employees as well, is we deal with them differently, and I think certain employees relate a little bit more to Laurie and certain employees relate a little bit more to me so somebody – everybody in our organization has an outlet to go to, and we really like that a lot.
Attilio: Yeah I think of one of the keys when you’re dealing with someone, and you’re just the one person, and you get off on the wrong foot, it’s kind of hard to recover but then if you send in the good cop – You know, you can do the bad cop, good cop thing and then what’s more important is that you alternate those hats.
Laurie: Oh, I’m always the good cop.
Attilio: Oh, you’re always the good cop?
Nate and Laurie laugh.
Adrienne: So Nate and Laurie is there any tips or information that you’d like to share with us and our listeners today before we wrap things up?
Attilio: How about a funny story?
Adrienne laughs.
Laurie: Other than Nate’s keys being at the bottom of the ocean – Oh my gosh, well I don’t think this is funny but Nate always thinks it’s funny to torment me. We opened in November, 2012, in Pearl City. Our first April Fool’s Day, I show up to work at 7 A.M., I’m the first one to unlock the doors, and there’s a big lock around it with a sign that said, I didn’t do something right with licenses.
Adrienne laughs.
Laurie: What am I, the container? I’m having a heart attack in front of the clinic. Nate is hiding behind this pillar laughing. It was horrible but everyone thinks that’s funny. I don’t and he’s not allowed – we don’t talk on April’s Fool Day.
Nate: That’s the last time I was able to do an April Fool’s joke.
Adrienne: Did you get it on video at least?
Nate: I didn’t.
Adrienne: Like replay it for future enjoyment?
Nate: Unfortunately.
Laurie and Adrienne laugh.
Attilio: You know this is what we learned about humor. At the time, it’s not funny but when we reflect back upon it’s hilarious.
Adrienne: Yeah we can laugh about it now.
Laurie: I don’t know if I’m laughing.
Laurie and Nate laugh.
Adrienne: You’re giggling.
Laurie: Okay.
Attilio: You’re laughing now. You know sometimes if we – That’s the reason why Massage Envy exists. When people just are going along working, working, working, being serious all the time, that’s when people start you know, their heads explode. So thank you for reducing the incidence of spontaneous head explosions here in Hawaii with Massage Envy.
Laurie and Nate laugh.
Laurie: You’re welcome.
Adrienne: Okay so if any of our listeners want to get a massage here from Massage Envy, right, they can give them a call at 524-ENVY or 524-3689. You can also check them out online at massageenvy.com.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: Alright.
Attilio: We’re bringing some people on the line here? Alright, hey Abby are you there? Hey Abby are you there?
Abby: I’m here!
Attilio: Alright, tell us about your open house or –
Abby: Okay.
Attilio: Yeah, go ahead.
Abby: Of course. I have a grand open house for showing, first grand open house, this coming Sunday.
Attilio: Uh-huh.
Abby: I’m going to be in Pearl City, 1641 Kalauipo Street, so look for the Team Lally Open House sign. I’ve got a really nice single family home, 5 bedroom, 2 bath.
Attilio: Mhm.
Abby: It’s got over 2,000 square feet of living space and the lot has got a substantial amount, about over 6,000 square foot lot.
Adrienne: Ooh.
Abby: So it’s got a lot of potential. Come down, see me. I’ll be there from 2-5.
Attilio: Alright, Thanks Abby.
Adrienne: Awesome.
Abby: Thank you.
Attilio: Alright who’s next? We’ve got Ross.
Adrienne: Ross to talk about his open house.
Attilio: Ross, dress for less. Alright, tell us about-
Adrienne: No.
Attilio: Tell us about – No not that one?
Adrienne: No this is Ross, our awesome buyer agent.
Attilio: Oh Ross our awesome buyer agent.
Adrienne: Awesome buyer agent. He’s got an open house to talk about.
Attilio: Go ahead, Ross.
Ross: Yeah so this week I’ll be sitting at 91-276 Kaioli Street, #3805 over in Ewa Beach.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Ross: This is a townhome at Fairway’s Edge complex.
Attilio: Mhm.
Ross: Again, that’s 91-276 Kaioli Street, #3805. This is the highly desirable Fairways Edge complex and it’s close to the Ka Makana Ali’i shopping mall as well as other shopping centers. So it’s a great location over in Ewa Beach. I’ll be there this Sunday from 2-5 P.M. Hope to see you there this Sunday 2-5 P.M.
Attilio: Alright, thanks Ross. Now folks, Ross is a connoisseur of knock knock jokes.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: So when you do go visit with him, share with him your best knock knock joke.
Adrienne: And I just want to, you know, state I think we’ve got two listings over there in Ocean Point, right across from each other. One’s at Spinnacker is at the Fairways. So it’s the one that’s on the – closer to the Ka Makana side of the street.
Attilio: Just follow the signs.
Adrienne: Follow the open house signs.
Attilio: And go visit both of them.
Adrienne: Okay so…
Attilio: So next up is Brooks.
Adrienne: With his coming soon listings.
Attilio: Brooks are you there? Hello Brooks.
Adrienne: He’s-
Attilio: Hello Brooks.
Adrienne laughs.
Adrienne: Technical difficulties.
Attilio [singing]: Brooks, are you theeere?
Adrienne: Brooks.
Brooks: Hello.
Adrienne: He is there.
Attilio: Hi Brooks.
Brooks: Hi. Are you guys there? Can you-
Adrienne: We can hear you.
[Attilio impersonates a phone call cutting out.]
Attilio: No we’re here, just kidding.
Adrienne: No.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: We’re here.
Brooks laughs.
Attilio: Go ahead.
[Brooks impersonates a phone call cutting out.]
Attilio laughs.
Brooks: Okay I have a tip this weekend – this particular segment of your show, does that – is that okay?
Adrienne: Okay.
Attilio: Sure.
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: Give us the tip.
Adrienne: we love tips.
Brooks: Well alright I’ve run into this lately, and I’d like to ask all those sellers out there to – when they’re considering selling their property and they’re getting ready for market, when they look at the interior or exterior paint job and they’re thinking of repainting, to consider seriously hiring the professionals.
Attilio: Yes.
Brooks: Because I’ve seen a lot of people, the do-your-selfers that are, you know, have all the great intentions in the world to do a great job of spoofing up their home, but as they’re rolling the wall, in their bedroom with a nice color, and they hit the ceiling and all of the sudden there’s all these roller marks on the ceilings-
Adrienne audibly groans and then laughs.
Brooks: – and the cut ins are all over the place –
Attilio: Or the holidays.
Brooks: Boy it just takes away so, please get the professionals to do the work that it is intended for sprucing up your family or your home, and that’s my tip for the day. How’s that?
Adrienne: That is an excellent tip and I just want to tie into that – if you go onto teamlally.com we do have a list of recommended –
Attilio [with dialect]: Paintahs.
Adrienne: Painters, service providers, vendors, that we personally recommend and use ourselves. So-
Attilio: On the east side there-
Brooks: Yeah, excellent.
Attilio: On the east side they’re painters, on the west side they’re [dialect] paintahs.
Brooks and Adrienne laugh.
Brooks: Very good.
Attilio [with dialect]: Call my bruddah, he can make good paint job!
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: But anyway, thanks Brooks!
Adrienne: Okay next we’ve got Angelique.
Attilio: Angelique.
Adrienne: With either an open house or some kind of a tip.
Attilio: Whatcha got for us Angeliqe?
Angelique: I am hosting a grand open house.
Attilio: Alright.
Angelique: It’s going to be on Sunday of course from 2 to 5 P.M. It’s 92-924 Palailai Street #49 up in Makakilo.
Attilio and Adrienne: Mhm.
Angelique: It’s a townhome, three bedroom, one and a half bath, over a thousand – over 1,100 square feet of interior space. Ocean views, spacious. Come check it out. 2-5 P.M.
Attilio: Yeah. Hey you know what, we want to give a special congratulations to Angelique. What is it for, Adrienne?
Adrienne: So Angelique was the recipient of a CCIM scholarship she applied for.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: And they chose her to attend – I think it’s in March, right next month? – the CCIM 101 course. So she’s going to be starting.
Angelique: That’s right.
Adrienne: So congratulations. We’re very proud of you Angelique.
Angelique: Thank you.
Attilio: Alright.
Angelique: Thank you so much.
Attilio: Congratulations.
Angelique: Appreciate that.
Attilio: Alrighty so coming down we’ve only got a couple of minutes left in the show.
Adrienne: Let’s – I mean let’s talk about the CCIM.
Attilio: Let’s talk about CCIM.
Adrienne: Because we did – we were there for the 2017 forecast and we did our little, our five minute presentation.
Attilio: On the residential forecast for 2017, it was sold out. 650 people.
Adrienne: Plus, yep.
Attilio: Plus people at the Hawaii Convention Center. So they had a couple questions for the panel and we wanted to share these with our listeners.
Adrienne: Yes. Well I mean part of them, some of the questions weren’t able to get answered because you know, they were very specific about their timing.
Attilio: Mhm.
Adrienne: So we answered a few questions but there was a few others that I thought like, we should still answer those questions and share-
Attilio: Let’s give them the answers.
Adrienne: And share them on the radio show.
Attilio: So here’s one of the questions. With the rise of online surfaces such as Redfin and other similar low commission business models, how are residential brokerages adapting to meet this commoditization? And the other phrase that we use is, hey how our us realtors going to, you know, get out there and prevent ourselves from being Uber’d.
Adrienne: Yes. We’re not going to be Uber’d.
Attilio: We’re not going to Uber’d.
Adrienne: There’s no way.
Attilio: So here was our response. No matter what happens in any industry, so long as you bring value-
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: – to your clients you’ll always be busy. The internet will always provide information, but it’ll always take a skilled human to execute on the real world of the real estate transaction. The world we live in is filled with highly educated and well informed – what I called derelicts – who have a market share of zero. They know a lot and have a lot of skill. Information is not enough. A cab ride, a plane ticket, or a hotel room are commodities that we have figured out algorithms, coding, and apps, to allow interface between the consumer and that type of business model or services, but ‘til we see medical robots, like the on the last Star Wars episode, performing open heart surgery, we won’t be Uber’d just yet.
Adrienne: Yep and I still think too, like that the level of communication, right.
Attilio: Mhm.
Adrienne: When you’re purchasing such a large investment, right?
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: You’ve gotta have that-
Attilio: A lot of complex moving parts.
Adrienne: And you’ve gotta have that human interaction.
Attilio: Or skill is what they talk about.
Adrienne: Yeah and I don’t think a computer or, even like a low commission type agent that’s like-
Attilio: Well you get what you pay for.
Adrienne: Exactly.
Attilio: Okay. Alright so here’s one of the other questions that they had. We know there are many issues of homelessness, can anyone suggest two solutions which would provide to our state legislators? So all of you state legislators, come close to the radio. Here we go. Give a man a ham sandwich on a wheat toast with a grey poupon mustard and swiss cheese, and you feed him for a day, but investment in his knowledge will always pay the best interests. Now okay the sandwich I totally made up, but the investing from knowledge is really from Benjamin Franklin and the point is this: If you have a friend – I have a friend who is a state therapist for homeless adults and he shared with me that it takes a lot of time and resources and a whole team to change the habits of an adult, a homeless person, but here’s our suggestion: put the state’s money into educating and saving the homeless children.
Adrienne: Oh wait a second! We have a non-profit called Project Hawaii-
Attilio: Yeah!
Adrienne: That, they focus on the homeless keiki.
Attilio: So you know, make a donation, go to our website, because if you break the cycle of homelessness for the child, you greatly reduce the probability of them participating in domestic violence, drug abuse, possible incarceration, and these are effects in community that have a greater ROI of time and money spent, because you’re not – Listen up folks. When you’re out there seeing the people in the public, ‘cause you’re not afraid of the homeless person, you’re afraid of what they might do. So let’s stop this homeless cycle by – you know, let’s focus. We can’t save everybody.
Adrienne: Focus on the kids.
Attilio: Focus on the kids.
Adrienne: Start with the kids
Attilio [dialect]: It’s for da kids, cus.
Adrienne: Okay well, thank you for listening and thank you to our sponsors.
Attilio: Jodie Tonga and Derek Tonga of Pacific Rim Mortgage.
Adrienne: Bradley Mariama of Allstate Insurance.
Attilio: Nathan Baker with Pillar to Post Home Inspection.
Adrienne: Ben and Tony Mamuad of AAA Roofers Hawaii.
Attilio: Janyce Myrland with Dream House Drafting.
Adrienne: John Speed of Kilauea Pest Control.
Attilio: Duke Kimhan of Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Adrienne: John Menard of Kama’aina Plumbing.
Attilio: Thomas Pattison with Pattison Land Surveying.
Adrienne: Myran Kamihara of Kamihara Law.
Attilio: If you want to get ahold of any of our sponsors just go to teamlally.com.
Adrienne: We also want to give a big thank you to Stephen our producer here in the studio. And also-
Adrienne and Attilio: Nate and Laurie!
Attilio: Our guests. Chee-ooh!
Adrienne: Make sure to tune in next week, we’ll have an awesome guest talking about something that’ll change your life-
Attilio: Forever! This is the Team Lally Real Estate Show, home of the guaranteed-
All: SOLD PROGRAM!
Adrienne: If we can’t sell your home at the agreed upon price and our time frame, we’ll have it bought for cash.
All: THANKS AND ALOHA!