Are you a Hectic Host or Strategic STR CEO?

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
Welcome back to Get Paid for Your Pad. Eric and Kaye here. Let's start by imagining two STR CEOs.

One spends their Tuesday untangling a double booking, trying to avoid bad reviews, making sure everyone’s happy. The other spends their Tuesday closing a deal on a 20-unit hotel. Same role, completely different outcomes.

In this episode, we’re talking about what it takes to be the second CEO—the one who's leading the business, not trapped in it.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
This is something Jasper and I have talked about for years. We called it the "Hectic Host" mindset. Now, with RPM, we’re seeing it play out across hundreds of operators.

We spoke with a woman scaling fast—30 new listings, a platform migration, team turnover, pricing issues—all happening at once. She didn’t need a new tactic; she needed a new way to make decisions. That’s why she joined RPM. We took revenue management off her plate so she could step back and lead.

The lesson: the more you operate from chaos, the harder it is to make smart decisions.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
It’s the difference between running on a treadmill and actually moving forward. So how do you know if you’re being reactive?

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
Start with this: where is your time going?

We all have to react sometimes. Hospitality is a 24/7 business. But when you’re solving every issue from memory—no process, no owner of the problem—you create chaos.

Ask yourself: what’s coming up over and over? Is there a system for it? Is someone accountable?

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
We’ve had to learn this firsthand. For a long time, you were taking customer service calls yourself.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
I wanted to understand the guest and the flow of communication. But eventually, that shifted. I wasn’t learning anymore. I was just reacting.

So we hired pros who love customer service. Now, we lead the vision and refine the system. It feels amazing to see it working.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
Same in marketing. Sometimes you have to do it yourself first to define the standard. But staying in that mode too long is a growth bottleneck.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
Exactly. And it’s not just about time. It’s about energy.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
Right. Time management gets all the attention, but energy management is where the real leverage is.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
When I focus on tasks that drain me—stuff I’m not good at—it wipes me out. I lose clarity. But when I’m talking to clients, doing strategy, or building the brand—I get energy.

That’s why I schedule low-energy tasks first thing, block them off, and move on. That frees me to focus on the $10K/hour work.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
And Jasper’s framework helps here too. He labels tasks by value: $10, $100, $1,000, or $10,000/hour. The goal is to spend most of your time in the high-value zones.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
Troy Daily is a great example of this.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
Yes! He’s an RPM client in Northern Michigan who’s scaling fast.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
Troy started with 20 units. When he joined RPM, he was at 30—but still stuck in the weeds. He was doing it all: in-house cleaning, laundry, management. Once we took pricing off his plate and helped him shift into sales and hiring, things exploded.

He just crossed 100 listings. He hit his first $1M month. He’s hiring great people, landing new owners, and growing fast. Most important: he’s leading, not reacting.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
He made the shift. From "do it all myself" to "build a team and a system."

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
And he made energy a priority. Last time I saw him, he’d lost 60 pounds. Works out daily. Looks like a different person. That clarity and health shows up in the business.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
And systems made that possible.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
We say it all the time: systems = freedom.

If you do something more than once, there should be a process. The whole point is to move from memory-based chaos to documented, delegated ownership.

So many people hire a VA and then wonder why it doesn’t work. It’s because they’re still micromanaging, not systemizing.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
Yes. Scaling requires documentation. That’s what makes the handoff possible.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
And it doesn’t have to be painful. I used to spend a month building a sales dashboard. I recently built one in 6 hours using ChatGPT.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
Such a game-changer.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
Exactly. You can move fast if you know what you want and communicate clearly.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
Let’s talk delegation. One of our best-performing ads said it outright: “CEOs shouldn’t be pricing their own listings.”

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
Right. Revenue management isn’t just a task. It’s a specialized function. Doing it yourself is a six-figure mistake.

We recently did a revenue audit for a host with 100+ units. She was still pricing manually. Our audit showed she was leaving $385K on the table. That’s why she joined RPM.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
So the takeaway is this: do a time and energy audit. Figure out where you're the bottleneck. Then start designing your way out.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
Exactly. Build systems. Hire experts. Focus on what only you can do.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
And if revenue management is one of those bottlenecks, get in touch. We offer a free audit that shows how much upside is sitting in your portfolio.

Eric Moeller | Freewyld Foundry
You’ll walk away with clarity, even if you don’t move forward with us. But if you do, we’ll get to work on unlocking that growth right away.

Kaye Putnam | Freewyld Foundry
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time on Get Paid for Your Pad.