Eric (00:11)

and how they’re using it to help change and shape the world. Because it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve accomplished, even someone like Tim Ferriss, they still have something out there that they’d like to do. And so we explore those stories here on Unfinished Business with Eric Mulvin. Where people in tech connect to amplify. Human intelligence plus AI. Moonshot goes that launch you high. Listen close and you’ll learn why.

This episode today is brought to you by Pac Biz Outsourcing. At Pac Biz, we help software, e-commerce, taxi, and NEMT companies outsource their customer support and back office work with dedicated teams in the Philippines. These are full-time remote staff who work as part of your team, handling calls, emails, chat support, and admin tasks. So you can keep improving support, scaling faster, and keeping costs under control. For example, we even have one client who switched over all their dispatching to Pac Biz and they’re saving over $600,000 a year in payroll costs. So if you’re trying to lower costs or scale support, visit pac-biz.com to learn more. Or you can call us Monday through Friday during business hours at 480-771-3009. Today’s guests are Kim Coates and Isaac Navias, founders of LocalFi SEO, digital marketing agency where they help businesses grow through SEO.

AI visibility and digital strategy. They also run the sustainable travel brand and podcast Full Time to Travel Time, sharing what they’ve learned, building a business while traveling the world. Kim and Isaac bring a unique perspective on using AI systems and creativity to build a business that supports both growth and freedom. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome to the show, Kim and Isaac.

Kim (02:11)

Thanks for having us, Eric.

Eric (02:12)

Awesome. Thank you guys for being here. All right. Well, ⁓ if you guys remember from the show, ⁓ Isaac was the first guest who interviewed me. So episode one. And so we brought him back so that we could talk more about you guys and your company. This time we’ll turn the mic around on you guys. ⁓ and I love having you guys are our first guests where we have two people on because it’s only fitting you guys work together as partners and your partners in life.

Isaac (02:22)

Episode 1.

Eric (02:41)

And so we’re going to explore some of that today. starting out here, I mean, I gave a little background, but just tell us a little bit more about you guys and who you are and what you do.

Kim (02:52)

I’m Kim Coates. I’m the CEO of LocalFi and Isaac and I really built LocalFi together in 2018 and my previous life to this was actually I have a veterinary degree in veterinary medicine. I was a vet tech for almost 10 years and in short I had a life-saving chest surgery to save my heart and then it made it real hard to work in the vet field and then Isaac, this wonderful man next to me, introduced me to entrepreneurship. So that was a

One of my first tastes of entrepreneurship was really building a business together and proving that we could do it.

Isaac (03:28)

Yeah, I’m Isaac and my favorite food is… So yeah, after college, I was actually an executive HR for Target. I was able to bring my store from the worst scored Target store for HR in the district to the second best within about eight months.  But I was really struggling with like my outside life outside of Target. And so I started getting testing and

but I had severe sleep apnea, so I was waking up over 45 times an hour. I wasn’t really functioning. All my effort went into work, but I couldn’t really function outside of work. So I ended up leaving Target really to focus on my health. You know, went through a whole two-year program that I called Get Isaac Healthy as F. don’t know.

Kim (04:17)

AF AF

Isaac (04:20)

Yeah, you know, think healthy AF and Yeah, just really changed my whole lifestyle. I you know, I changed my mindset. I changed my diet I changed my workout patterns I started working with a physical therapist to like get out of pain that I had from old lacrosse injury You know all those things and you know after two years of doing that really felt able to get back to living my life again and you know ended up

traveling across the country. One of my goals was always to travel across the country. So I went from New York to Arizona. I was planning only being a snowbird here, I met Kim and, you know, we, we decided to build the business and, you know, but we always, both Kim and I are like adventurers at heart. Like we were put on this planet to be adventurers and explorers. You don’t really get paid for that anymore unless you’re like a travel influencer or something like that. But

Kim (04:57)

I’m distracted.

Isaac (05:14)

We wanted to set up our lives so that we could do what we think we were put on this earth to do, which is explore, adventure, and teach from what we’re learning.

Kim (05:22)

And then also save the planet that we’re living on too. What better way to know how to save it other than like going out and being in nature and exploring all these places.

Eric (05:33)

All right, that’s incredible. Thank you guys for catching everyone up to speed here. So what came first? Was it the adventure and then we have to start a business to support that? Or was it the business and then, now we could, I mean, I know you mentioned you had the adventure at heart, but.

Kim (05:49)

I this chicken and the egg question. It’s true, ⁓

Isaac (05:53)

So for me, I wanted to own a business since I was young. I my dad actually is an entrepreneur. He ran the International Mask and Puppet Museum in Syracuse, an open hand theater. And so I grew up really being exposed to entrepreneurship and community building from a very, very young age. And so I always had that goal of building a business. My exploration didn’t really take hold until a kind of

a little bit later in life, you know, teenager. I remember I heard about Yellowstone in eighth grade in my eighth grade science class. Someone came and spoke to us about Yellowstone. And for whatever reason, that memory still sticks super strong with me. And I was like, I have to make it there. And so I guess even back then, I knew I was a bit of an explorer, but I had actually never went to a national park until I was 27 years old. I didn’t know growing up in the East Coast. My parents never brought me to any. There’s not as many over in the East Coast, but we’re only nine hours away from

you know, the closest one where I grew up, but I just never been exposed to it. So Kim and I went to the Grand Canyon first and the Grand Canyon is like the Grand Canyon, right? So we’re like, yes, of course it’s epic. So then we are on our next road trip. We actually our plans fell through. were trying to get into the wave, which is very hard to get into. And we didn’t. Yeah, we didn’t win the lottery. So I was talking to a park ranger. He’s like, oh, well, check out Bryce. And so we went over to Bryce National Park.

We’re driving in we’re driving this massive, like giant made sandcastle. It looks like giants made this huge sandcastle. I’m just like, wait, is every national park like this? Are they all this epic? And the answer is yes. They’re all different and they’re all super epic. like that visiting Bryce, which was the second one, really like changed our lives. And we’re like, how do we, how do we visit every single one of these national parks? Because it is breathtaking, unbelievable.

Kim (07:28)

Yes, they are.

Isaac (07:44)

And there’s a whole history of conservation, right? Like Americans have banded together, communities have banded together to protect these lands for hundreds of years now. You know, and so it really shows, to me, it shows the true American spirit of protecting the land that’s ours and protecting it, not just for the humans who live in America, but the animals and the plants and the whole life that, you know, is America. And so I think the national parks are one of the greatest things any government has ever done on this planet.

Kim (08:12)

And I love that we keep protecting more and more too. Like there wasn’t always 63 national parks, you know, they’ve kept growing.

Isaac (08:19)

When

we started there were 62. One of them that we visited as a national monument, White Sands, is now a national park.

Kim (08:25)

And also Indiana, where my homeland is, I always grew up going to Indiana Dunes, which was not a national park. And then when I left Indiana and moved to Arizona, now it’s a national park. So we had to go back and do it together. But Isaac had a very different upbringing for me where like, I’ve always loved exploring. I’ve always loved adventuring. And it was a whole nother level for me because my amazing grandparents would drive me around to all the national parks when I was like seven.

So I have a completely different appreciation as an adult. Shout out grandparents, thank you. But yeah, we would drive all over the US and I got to do multiple big hefty road trips with them. And a big thing for me was I felt like real life Snow White and all the animals would come up to me and follow me around. Like no joke, it happens in our life too where like a chipmunk will sit between us on a bench and then let me pet it for a while. I’m not feeding it, I’m just petting it. A wild deer will come up to me and let me pet

Isaac (09:23)

Literally pet a wild deer. Yeah

Kim (09:24)

Doesn’t let him pet it, lets me pet it. The most recent trip we did was New Mexico. We climbed the tallest peak in New Mexico, Mount Wheeler. I don’t remember, 13,000-ish. Pretty high. Yeah. And there’s a whole entourage of Clark’s Nutcrackers, they’re birds, three of them, that followed us all throughout the treeline. Once we made it past the treeline, they were gone. And I said, if you guys are here when I come back, I will give you a pistachio. And so we hiked all the way up, up, up. It was a doozy of a hike. Then we came down, got it.

to the trees again. Guess who was there for me? I totally did. And I set out the pistachio for them and literally just perched on my fingers and ate from my hand.

Eric (09:56)

Hope you had that for special.

Did you film any of-

Isaac (10:06)

I have some of it on video and it was pretty crazy because like these three birds literally followed us up and there’s a lot of other hikers but they just followed Kim and I the whole way up until we hit the tree line and then followed us down hanging out with us.

Kim (10:20)

I silently

freak out so hard like who doesn’t get excited to be like, well, I animal encounter, you know, yeah

Eric (10:27)

I mean, when I go on hikes around Phoenix, I’m like, oh, we got to see a coyote on this run. We got to see a, like a hawk or something or like a Falcon. I remember that was one of the last jogs I did like near South Mountain. But yeah, it is cool for being able to connect with nature, especially cause you know, we’re all business owners. Like we have to spend a lot of time on Zoom and a lot of time and emails and working and phone calls. And so it’s a nice break from that. so tell me more about

switching gears back to the business end. So you guys marketing agency, know, everyone specializes in certain things in their agency and you guys made a choice to specialize in certain things and not be everything to everybody. So come to work about that.

Kim (11:11)

Yeah.

Isaac (11:11)

Yeah, so we really, you know, I actually stumbled upon local SEO before it was a term. It was about 15 years ago. I had, you know, left Target. I was doing my own entrepreneurial thing. And I realized I finding all the businesses that I spent money on, on Google Maps. And so I went to a chiropractor. I was like, hey, can I try optimizing Google Maps and seeing what happened? Like, I didn’t know what was going to happen. And within three months, he had to bring on another chiropractor into his office. Then he had to start turning people away because he couldn’t handle all the new business.

Kim (11:40)

is like, I think I’m on

Isaac (11:41)

I guess I’m on to something. So for about the next five years, I just did this as like a one-off service to companies I liked. And then when I met Kim and was trying to help her transition out of her nine to five, we looked at all the things I had done over the last like eight years and local marketing had always delivered phenomenal results. So we decided to build a whole business out of it. So the first like two to three years of our business, we just did local SEO that’s ranking you on Google Maps, the help trip advisor, you know, all those platforms.

But then what we saw was that a lot of our clients had terrible experiences with websites and, you know, it was like a developer built it and then disappeared or they couldn’t get them to update it. And so we brought on a whole web team, started building websites, started doing website SEO, started ranking our clients, not just locally, but nationally. And then what’s really emerged now in this new field is AI visibility. So we started seeing a lot of both our business and our clients’ businesses, because we ranked so high in SEO, were showing up in AI answers.

we started seeing customers coming in through AI Answers. So I really spent about the last year and a half really digging into what causes a company to show up in AI Answers. And now all of our clients are showing up very high on AI Answers. They’re driving big business. When it shows up in AI Answers, it’s like a warm lead. It’s not like a cold or someone researching you. It’s like…

They’re asking point in questions and if I can answer that and direct them to your business like they’re ready to sign up already you barely need to talk to you so.

Kim (13:09)

Isaac said they’re really quality leads that are coming through AI too, so they’re closing pretty big jobs.

Isaac (13:16)

Yeah, so that’s really our focus is the local SEO, website SEO, web development and AI visibility. We decide not to do anything with social media. You know, there’s so many different types of marketing and they all can work in different ways. But we found that, you know, having your local presence is the foundation of any company, no matter if they’re national or not, because your Google business card shows up whether you’re national or not. And that’s the first thing someone’s going to see when they Google your company name. And that’s a huge factor. do they want to?

work with you. so, you I consider that the foundation of any business needs to have the local presence and a local profile set up and then from there they can build.

Kim (13:54)

I also really like Isaac’s explanation that he shares with people of we really want to be experts in our space. We could offer social media and brand marketing and this and that, but then we would just be like okay at everything and we want to be the best at like this. And we are the best. That’s why we get calls from all over the United States, not just Arizona. Somebody called me from Washington the other day saying, hey, I found you an AI search results. I heard you’re the best marketing agency. Can you help my company?

That’s cool!

Eric (14:24)

And

I can hear the confidence in your voice because you guys are seeing it. You you talked about for the last, I think, year and a half or so. I don’t know how long you’ve been really looking at AI and how it’s changing marketing. you guys are seeing the results and a lot of people are out there at that point, just barely testing on it. I had a guest earlier where we’re just talking about how some people are just now getting on AI and there’s a lot of mistakes to be made.

versus people who have been on a long time, they’re so far ahead. like we were talking, the last guest, he was saying that LLMs are for boomers. He’s like, it’s so old, like this is already where we’re at now. So the confidence that you guys have, can hear it. Tell me more about the results you’re getting for customers. Do you have any stories, any examples of like, what is making you feel like,

Like you guys are the company to work with.

Kim (15:24)

I’d love to tell a specific one about AI. That would be great. One of the jobs we have a landscaping company who is moving his entire family from Canada, Vancouver to Scottsdale, opening a brand new location. You know how hard it is to start up in a new business in a very competitive landscape. In another country. In another country. Yeah. So we helped him get established online, built his Google business profile, citations. He exists in so many places online.

Eric (15:41)

country.

Kim (15:50)

We helped them a little bit with his website just to like get a foot in the door, get started. And then with working with us for what, maybe like four to six months, he’s already showing up in AI search results as like one of the best landscapers, specialty and hardscaping and retaining walls. He just closed a $30,000 job to do retaining walls and pavers for someone’s driveway. And he’s like, I cannot reiterate how many times I need to tell you,

how excited and grateful I am that I found you guys. Like wanna work with you forever. Which I love hearing, but that’s a huge job. Just through AI, someone was like, you need to pay them.

Isaac (16:31)

Yeah, and it’s really interesting the industries we’re seeing really, you know, grow massively. And so one of our clients is a flight school here in Arizona, and they partner with Mesa Gilbert Community College. You can get your associate’s degree and your pilot’s license. And they actually came to us in COVID. They had lost all of the foreign students. And so they had about 150 students. They were down to 75 students and they were looking to replace those 75 students with American.

because there wasn’t foreign students coming over during COVID. Within three years, we tripled their 150 enrollment to 450 students. So not only did we replace those 75 of the Americans, but now they’ve tripled their enrollment, they’ve tripled their staff, they’ve shattered every single metric that they had set for themselves. And in big part, you’re seeing students adopting AI even faster than the rest of the general public.

And so for colleges and enrollment, like we had actually never done a type of marketing for any type of college before this. And it just actually makes so much sense why it works because most colleges are just putting money into paid ads. Well, guess what almost every single smart millennial or Gen Z person has on their computer? Ad blockers. Ad blockers. So if you’re trying to especially get people who are good at tech and you’re running paid ads, you’re not going to find those. Those people aren’t going to find you.

Kim (17:52)

big thing about the UND aerospace that he’s talking about that we work with in Mesa, they don’t need paid ads. None. Everything we do is organic, so it has a long-term benefit of working with us. It’s not just like, if we shut that off, it’ll stop serving you. It’s like, no, we built it to last. And that’s why we have our clients like such low turnover. They’ve been with us five years now, which is incredible. Not a lot of marketing companies can say something like

Isaac (18:19)

And was so proactive in that like, you know, when I started seeing people actually using AIDA to find businesses, I started helping them get ranked before they had even thought about it. And they actually brought it to the board and the board was like, wow, we didn’t even think about us needing to be here, you know? And that’s really what sets our marketing company apart is most people are used to like having to chase the marketers. What are you doing? What are you doing?

But for us, we’re proactive in looking at where are the trends going and getting those built before the company even realizes that those trends are heading that direction.

Eric (18:51)

marketing agencies are known and a lot of businesses are known for like overselling what they deliver and especially marketing agencies. because I think, you know, you talk to five different business owners, you’ll meet five people who got burned by an agency. so, but a lot of people are promising what you guys are delivering. And I would guess that a lot of people are like, that’s too good to be true. There’s no way.

Right? you having this conversation?

Kim (19:21)

Before you answer, I love when Isaac tells people, oh I’m not gonna sell you, just go do your research. Like, he always encourages people to go read our reviews, why wouldn’t you? Even if you, tell me to go work with someone, we should still read the reviews and do our due diligence. Go ahead.

Isaac (19:41)

Yeah, so you know what I really realized is a lot of marketing agencies out there aren’t really marketing agencies, they’re sales machines. And so what they’re really set up to do is take your money, reinvest that into their sales machine. So they’re running ads, they’re doing cold calling, you know, they’re doing all this outbound marketing, they’re signing people up for a year, knowing they’re only going to stay for a year. And then, you know, after a year and the clients like I haven’t seen results. They’re like, well, thanks for paying us the money for the year and

They’re okay because they already have people replacing them. And so that’s one thing I’ve really realized being in this industry for so long is like if you’re getting cold called by a marketing company, there’s a reason they have that capacity, right? You know, it’s because they’re losing clients. With us, we do almost none. We do very little outbound marketing. Almost all of our clients either come through referrals, through networking events, because we are involved in networking and in the community. And then SEO, of course, we have great SEO for our own company. And so they’ll find us through

do that way. But you what we really focus on is longevity with our clients. So we have very little turnover, our clients stay with us for many, many years. I don’t actually even have a full sales system. It’s the only thing in my company that’s not systemized because I have so little sales I need to do that I couldn’t employ a salesperson. You know, I just they wouldn’t have enough work because we just keep our clients on. And so our big focus is on client longevity, not on

turn and burn and bringing on new and new new clients. So we’ll only bring on one to new clients at a time as well. That way we’re always focused on, you know, our existing clients and making sure they’re always growing and thriving while we bring on new clients.

Kim (21:22)

says longevity he really means a partnership. We look for a long-term partnership. We don’t say, we’re bringing on new clients. We say congrats you’re now part of the LocalFi family. If you go to the home page on our website it says join our growing LocalFi family because when you’re with us and you’ve been with us five plus years yeah we know your names we know oftentimes like your birthday your anniversary dates like we get to know each other and really forge a relationship and that and I think that’s really special.

and completely rare in our industry that doesn’t normally care about, you know, the client.

Isaac (21:57)

it.

Eric (21:57)

yeah, agreed. And I know what people are probably thinking right now. If I got myself showing up and AI search results, I’m going to have the biggest company in the world. Like why, like I could get all the leads from everybody, but that’s not true. And also that you guys aren’t trying to work with everybody as well. So talk to me a little bit more about that because maybe I think that might be the first thing like, if I’m, if I’m a landscaper and now people are looking on AI for the best landscaper.

can show up everywhere. it seems like there’s some conflict like that.

Isaac (22:31)

Yeah, so, you know, what I’m seeing right now is I think about 10 to 20 % of your potential customers are using AI to find businesses, right? So that is just one thing to know is that it’s not everyone at this point. But, you know, from what we saw, you know, I just did a, you know, we just did a whole, um, And one of the things I found in my research for that is that in 2025, 6 % of consumers used AI to find businesses.

Kim (22:52)

A Z BizCon.

Isaac (22:59)

In 2026, that’s already up to 47%. So are they using it every time? No, I’m sure they’re not. If you’re looking for a restaurant near you, you’re still going to pull up Google Maps and type restaurant near me, right? You’re not probably going to go onto AI. But if you’re looking for a great date night, that might be where you’re going on to AI. And so I want to have a great date night. I have these allergies. I want to have this type of view. Specifics.

what restaurant should I go to? So it’s when people are asking more of these specific questions where they used to have to search and go into every single company’s website and do their research, now they’re turning to AI. So AI is never gonna be probably the only way people are looking, right? So one thing is never, there’s almost no marketing avenue that 100 % of your customers have come through. The other thing is AI always ⁓ recommends multiple places.

You know, so AI is not almost ever going to say, just go to this one restaurant. They’re going to pull up three to five recommendations and say, here are my recommendations based on what you asked. And so then it’s about conversion, right? You show up on AI results. You need them now when they search for you online, your website, your social media, your Google presence. Are you showing up in a way that they want to actually take action to do business with you? So just showing up is not going to cause them to be a client showing up and then having a great presence online will oftentimes cause them.

Kim (24:18)

And also at this point in time, like a Google search, a normal Google search, the AI overview that pops up is only showing up about 15 to 30 % of the time. Will that change in the next year or the next five years? Yeah. Probably. Probably. But even so, if it’s only showing up right now 15 to 30 % of the time, you’re not getting all of the real estate up there, which is why it’s awesome that we help you show up in Google Maps, the first website, the AI overview. Like, let’s take over all that real estate where people are looking.

Eric (24:48)

All right, awesome. Now you touched, you talked about how companies, the leads that are coming in are more qualified. Talk to me more about that. Why is that the case? This is just like a Google search and they’re just like, I think basic question that.

Isaac (25:03)

Right, and I think a big thing is they are already have done a lot of research, right? So like, you know, in a customer cycle, they have to go through the research and understand what is their problem. Well, a lot of times people are turning to AI now to figure out what the problem is. You know, one interesting thing from one of our, you know, a pest removal company is he told me everyone always searches for why a hole showing up in my backyard. They’re not searching for best pest control company.

They don’t really understand why holes are showing up. And so that’s what they’re searching for. But if you’re providing that answer, your company is providing that answer that AI is now pulling from and then sharing it and then sharing, this is the website we got this information from, here are recommendations of businesses that can help you with solving this issue. That’s going to, you know, drive a lead to your business.

Kim (25:49)

This

is a big thing about working with us in LocalFi though is what Isaac is saying is we really dig in to understand the details of your business. Even UND Flight School, when he left us a wonderful video testimonial that you can find on our webpage, he talked about the fact that he loved that we ask all of the questions and get all the answers. So it’s not just like an AI populated, let’s write a webpage about how to fix a leaky faucet. How many other plumbers have tried to do that, right?

But with us, we’re asking the questions, finding out those unique answers. So that’s why our clients are showing up in AI search results for these very specific situations that people are actually searching for and trying to find a solution.

Eric (26:30)

Well, if you guys, I’m curious with your power here, is there anything you’re thinking about that you could get into AI search results that’s not part of your business? And you’re like, what can we do with this?

Isaac (26:45)

Absolutely. this whole kind of last week and this week, I started sitting down. I was like, how can I use this power for good? And so one of the things that I spent a couple of days on last week was actually writing all of this content for a great organization here in Arizona, Green Light Solutions. They’re a student run organization. They actually help students going through ASU actually go into businesses and find ways to reduce those businesses carbon footprints.

But one of the side things that they’re doing that’s really helping them actually drive revenue to keep the program running is they do zero waste management for events.

Kim (27:19)

And waste diversion, like keeping all the waste out of the landfill.

Isaac (27:23)

essential.

And so they go on site, they’re able to do your whole waste management. So your dumpsters, but they actually trash guard, bin guard. when people are throwing things out, they’re making sure they’re throwing them in the correct areas. After the event, they actually sort things, make sure the compost is going over here, that the plastics are going over here, and all that kind of stuff. And so it’s really huge in helping our community, our whole community, be more environmentally friendly when throwing these events.

But guess what? They don’t rate for any of this because they’re a non-for-profit and they’re not focused on AI search results. And so, you know, I just spent a few days building all of this content out for them. Next week, we’ll actually start putting it up on their website. And I believe within the next two months that they’ll be showing up as one of the main waste management providers for events here in the whole Phoenix Valley.

Eric (28:10)

That’s incredible. We’ll have to do a follow up to see how that turns out. But that’s really incredible that you guys are sharing that. I love talking. This is about people who are changing the world and obviously for the better. There’s enough people out there making it worse. So we need more people out there making it better. And so thank you guys for sharing that and also for out there doing that because we need the amount. Every time I go to the garbage and I throw a big

giant bag of trash away. I’m like thinking about how many millions of people just in this country are doing that every single day. Like this is like our kids, my kids anyway, I know you guys don’t have kids, but my kids, they’re going to have to solve this. Like this is not sustainable. And I know some people don’t see that. You guys see it. I think people being out in nature, you know, it’s, it’s more apparent because if you’re in a city all the time, trash on the ground is trash on the ground. But

It’s different when you’re out in nature and you’re like, what the heck is this rapper doing on this trail, know, or this trash that’s on the beach somewhere.

Isaac (29:17)

We’re really the only country that I’ve been really traveled to that doesn’t pre sort our trash really well So almost every other country has multiple bins and we’re pre sorting our compost our glass our aluminum our trash So they’ll have like four or five bins and the trash is always the last one is the least ⁓ Full because all of the other stuff should be going in these other bins here We just throw everything into recycling and that makes it actually very inefficient to actually recycle

You know, so the our recycling systems here in America are really really behind the times and again the pre sorting takes no energy from a human right it takes very little additional time it takes very little additional calories to just you know put something in this bin and this bin in this bin versus when we throw everything into recycling dump it in that recycling bin people are also throwing things that shouldn’t be recycled because they want to do good like something I had to teach him is you can’t throw a whole pizza box into the bin that actually contaminates it because that food product will actually make it worse and so

Kim (30:16)

make it perforated on your pizza box so that you can tear off the top guys. Did you know that?

Isaac (30:22)

Yeah, so you can tear off the top as long as the grease hasn’t gotten on the top and hasn’t contaminated it. You tear off the top, you put the top in the recycling, but the bottom shouldn’t go in. And so we just don’t even teach these things here in America.

Kim (30:34)

⁓ Seattle does a great job. They’re very hardcore about it. Like we’ve been there and they have so many bins and even I was like, wow, this is impressive. Also, I California does a little bit. Oregon does it a little bit. Seattle, I feel like is the biggest place in America that I is like very gung-ho about pre-sorting.

Isaac (30:52)

Yeah. So yeah, so that’s just something again, like, you know, we wouldn’t have known about if I, you know, like, well, the first time I came across it was when I traveled to Switzerland and I was like, ⁓ wow, this is a pristine country, beautiful. And part of the reason is they just have six bins and everyone knows how to pre sort things before they throw it out. And so that’s why I think travel is so huge and just expanding our understanding. You know, what I love from different cultures is they’ll come up with completely different solutions to problems that all work.

Right? You know, these different solutions all work. And when you can combine those solutions together, you can get an optimal solution. And that’s one thing that America really has going for us is that we have brought in so many different cultures and have welcomed so many different cultures here into America. And so we have kind of these different thinkings together. And so when we can collaborate as a team, we get better solutions.

Eric (31:41)

I agree 1 million percent. know, one of my favorite things that I don’t understand why this is not here, but I see it in like Taiwan and stuff in the public bathrooms there. There’s like a little sink above the toilet, where the tank is, above the tank. So when you wash your hands, it’s filling the tank back up with the water that

Kim (32:01)

You’re going to just. I love that. Simple.

Eric (32:03)

I mean, is simple.

Isaac (32:06)

We

visited Earthships in New Mexico last year. Really fascinating. If you’re in New Mexico, look them up. You can go visit and get a tour. They reuse the water four times. And so they have whole systems because everything’s off grid. They’ve built everything so that you can operate off grid very comfortably. It’s not like the slum in it. But yeah, they reuse the water four times with the hand, the toilet, the plants.

And I forget the fourth one, and plants. so, know, the way again, we because we’ve had so much abundance for so long, we don’t really think about these things. And yet the change in our behavior would be pretty minimal and it would protect our planet. It would allow resources to be able to be passed on to our children and their children and their children. And it’s just something that, you know, again, I hope our generation can start understanding, hey, we can do a 10 percent reduction in comfortability.

and increase our resources by 90 % by doing that. you know.

Eric (33:07)

Yeah, mean, I’m willing to make this act for us. know others are, when you have something as simple as like the pizza box you could tear off and no one even has any idea. I mean, just to get people to understand you shouldn’t even throw away that in a recycle of

Kim (33:32)

people to educate me. Like we need to support each other and say, hey, I bet you didn’t know that pizza box has perforated so you can tear it easily.

Eric (33:40)

This is

Kim (33:43)

Yeah, right.

Isaac (33:54)

 into the business. So one of the things we’re launching right now through our travel brand, Full Time the Travel Time, is really the tourism marketing. And so we’re helping tour groups, we’re helping cabin resorts, we’re helping eco lodging, you know, make sure they’re showing up and getting people visiting them. And one of the things we did recently is we went up, we have a cabin resort in Pinetop Northwoods Cabins. They’re clients. They’re of ours.

Kim (34:18)

Don’t, there are clients.

Isaac (34:23)

Family and friends, absolutely. so we actually went up and spent a week there. And what we did is we went around to all the most popular things and then wrote articles about them and got them highly SEO optimized. You know, what’s cool, like Woodland Lake Park and that trail is the most popular trailer. We now rank second for that trail only after all trails.

Kim (34:42)

And above the forest service. Above? We rank above the forest service.

Isaac (34:46)

and above Pine Top’s government website.

Eric (34:49)

US Forest Service, maybe you need to hire these guys.

Kim (34:52)

We

love you so much.

Isaac (34:53)

So what happened?

But what happened from that, I didn’t even expect, right? So a woman actually saw the article that I wrote was so blown away by the area, decided she wanted to get married there and then booked out all the cabins in Northwoods for her wedding. And Northwoods previously, with the new owners, had never thrown a wedding. It wasn’t even like part of the marketing or anything like that, even though they’re so well established to be able to do so because they have all the lodging for all your guests. Yeah.

 and so from there we recorded, we took pictures of that wedding, obviously with permission. We created a whole wedding page with all the catering options, all this different stuff. They now have six weddings booked this year. You know, and so that was something that, you know, it was completely unexpected when I wrote down, when I created that article about Woodland Lake Trail, never had I conceived that it would start a whole new massive revenue stream of weddings for them. Like.

that wasn’t the pathway I thought it would take. And that’s what we see in travel a lot of times is the pathway that we’re intending to take isn’t the pathway we end up taking and oftentimes it can be better that way.

Kim (36:00)

The

thing with the tourism marketing is really nice is we’re going out there and actually experiencing what our client offers. Instead of like, you know, you hire somebody in Washington to market your business in Arizona, they don’t know Washington, but we’re travelers, we’re adventurers. We’ll come out, we’ll explore, we’ll eat all the local food, we’ll meet the tourism office, we’ll go do that White Mountain Nature Center and interact with the owls. Like, we’ll write about all of it and now we’re helping that business in a whole nother level.

combining adventure, travel, and marketing all into one.

Eric (36:33)

I love it. And you guys really are able to both of those together, which is really incredible because a lot of people, like business owners, and I talk about this all the time, business owners, need to have, they need to not just shut off their whole entire life and just focus on their business. For me, I’m a big proponent of hobbies. I do photography, do running a podcast and I have a call center, but there’s cameras all over the place here that I’ve somehow set up.

Kim (37:03)

Successful.

Eric (37:04)

Maybe we’ll see But ⁓ but you’re able to combine these two passions of your guys together and turn it into your life and so talk to me more about that because I feel like Business owners need that outside inspiration They need they need to like if all you’re thinking about is your business You never get to pull yourself out so you get so deep into the company You can’t even see your own problems anymore

Kim (37:32)

That’s called a job. I’m very excited that you brought this up because this is like our whole blueprint. We call it like our lifestyle blueprint because back when we were first building LocalFi, it was really laying out the foundation of what do we want to build and why? What is our purpose? Like somebody wants to start a restaurant. They love hamburgers. They want to serve the people right. But like

What are they good at? We should start with that. So Isaac actually had us each write down a list of like, Kim, what are your current skillsets? What are you great at? Because remember I have a veterinary like medicine background, completely different from his background working in executive HR at Target, like discovering, you know, local SEO. I don’t know if I can say that out loud, but kinda, you know, so we wrote down all these things that we’re good at. Then we combined those two and figured out also,

What is an industry where we know we can make a big impact that we can feel good about? And also we want to be able to achieve freedom. We don’t want to have a job. We want to create a business. And this is our first time creating a business together and we wanted to like hit it out of the water. And that was a big thing behind it. So.

Isaac (38:50)

Hit it out of the water. it out of the park.

Kim (38:53)

What is this

Isn’t there another water phrase? I’m very poor at phrases. Or proverbs or all of that. He constantly has to teach me new ones or correct them. But yeah, do you have anything to add about the Lysol boo proof?

Isaac (39:01)

I’m sure there are.

Yeah, so you know what what Kim and I realized is, know, I because I had been what I thought was an entrepreneur for about eight years before I even had met Kim. And really what I realized is I had created a job for myself, not a business. And that’s OK. And that’s where a lot of us start. There’s no shame in creating a job for yourself. But we had really wanted to create a business for the freedom side of things. And so we actually failed pretty miserably for the first three months of launching LocalFi, which we won’t go into. But it was it was.

bad. But what really changed things was us starting to realize, hey, we need systems in place. I had all these systems that were in my head and not documented. So Kim actually helped me start documenting these systems that allowed us to hire our first employee. Instead of telling the employee, hey, go do this, we said, hey, here is a system for how we do this. Now go do this. And that makes all the difference. I hear a lot of new business owners, you know, when they hire people for the first time, especially BA’s to say,

hire this expert and they were terrible at these things, blah, blah. It’s almost always because they didn’t give them a system to be successful in. so systems are really what makes a business be a business. But one thing I’ve also constantly seen is that as soon as a business owner implements a new system, let’s say they implement a new system and they free up three hours of their time now, they almost immediately take those three hours and bring in more revenue from those three hours.

which creates more time and I now no longer have those three hours. And so what’s really key is as you’re freeing up your time is to keep a section of that free time for you to keep building new systems or for you to be with your family or for you to travel. And I usually try and take about half the time that I’m saving with new systems and bank those for me building new systems to save more time or me spending times on the things that I’m most passionate about. I’m not immediately re-

you know replace those hours with more revenue because we all are trying to get more revenue, but I think all of us especially I think people towards the ends of the lives realize like I would rather have have had more free time to spend with my family to explore this world to work on the things I’m passionate about then that extra million dollars that I have in the bank that you know What does that matter at the end of you?

Kim (41:25)

Honestly, feel like life is about experiences and we have a whole book that I’ve written down of all of our experiences, adventures and travel and that is so much more valuable to me than money.

Eric (41:38)

physical book published?

Isaac (41:40)

not

published.

Kim (41:41)

This is like my travel book. I write down like all the places we’ve ever been little like weird funny stories of things that have happened I’ll even like draw doodles like I turned into a lobster because we got second degree burn accident like in a hospital Yeah, all and all the dates and everything all the national parks all the hikes we’ve ever done so much of it. Yeah It’ll be fun to look back on like yeah

Eric (41:55)

getting turned into a lobster.

That’s it.

Isaac (42:06)

do want to take it and help us publish a book. We’ve actually looked at creating a travel business book, you know, something that really hasn’t been done before. And we started plotting out what that could possibly look like because, you know, we’ve all read business books and some of us have had travel books, but like to combine them together, you know, that’s really what we wanted to do is how do we actually grow a business while we’re traveling full time, you know, and that’s what we’ve been able to accomplish.

Eric (42:35)

So you guys are talking a lot about travel here and you guys I know have taken that passion and turned it into something bigger than just you traveling. You’re sharing these and you built a podcast and you have a lot of a lot of goals and ideas around that too. So talk to us more about that.

Isaac (42:53)

Yeah, so we launched Full Time to Travel Time, you know, really because both Kim and I went from working full time to being able to travel full time. Yes, we work while we’re traveling, but ⁓ less than most people because we have such great systems. But what we really wanted to highlight through Full Time to Travel Time was one, really ⁓ encouraging people and creating pathways for them to be able to start traveling. A lot of people think, I need to go overseas to see something incredible. So did I.

I that as well. But then I realized here in America and really anywhere I’ve ever traveled, I’ve been to over 40 countries. There’s something incredible within two hours of you, almost anywhere on this

Eric (43:30)

Even in a 40 country? Jeez.

Kim (43:38)

We’ve tested it to be true so far. Even in the middle of nowhere within two hours. Yeah, we can find something super cool.

Isaac (43:43)

There’s something amazing and so what I really encourage people to do is start traveling locally and really starting to build those travel muscles. That’s what Kim and I did long before we went on our first three month road trip was every month we’d go on a two day trip and then a three day trip and we got it up to the point where every month we were taking a week long trip.

Eric (44:01)

You didn’t just jump into these, like, you’re going to leave Phoenix for-

Kim (44:06)

It flex your travel muscles. So like get used to going out for a weekend and then get used to going out for a week and then get used to going out for two weeks and then suddenly you’re gone for a month and things feel okay. You don’t just jump into a three-month trip. That’s got to be so daunting for somebody.

Eric (44:22)

I imagine. That’s why people like end up leaving in the middle of it because they’re like, I can’t handle this.

Kim (44:26)

Right, flex your travel muscles first, like work your way up to it and wean into it.

Eric (44:31)

I will say this, I’ll share a story because I had my cousin out here who works at Pac Biz and this was her second visit out here. We got to do a nonprofit event that we support out in Las Vegas and she was like, ⁓ I don’t know. I’ve been to Las Vegas before. Maybe there’s some other things I could do. And I’m like, no, just come with us. It’s going to be fun. After the trip was over, she’s like, this was different. She’s like, traveling with you guys is different because our travel muscle is strong.

We were getting ready to go to Asia for a month. We take our kids. Before COVID hit, our youngest daughter, who was not even five at the time, had 19 stamps on her passport. so yeah, I was like, yeah, it makes sense. We could hop on a subway. We could flag a taxi. And I was like, I know they’re into cars. And so I looked up on Google Maps. I’m like, what can we do with the cars?

Kim (45:26)

There’s so many car shows, is that what you mean?

Eric (45:27)

Well,

I mean like yeah, there’s got to be something in Vegas so I mean yeah There was some stuff that was like you could go see all these Shelby’s and it was like $60 a person I’m like, I’m not trying to spend a bunch of money I found a place that was completely free like in this warehouse, but they had like crazy cars I was like how much is this one Ferrari over here and all that’s like five million dollars and it was just casually sitting over there with all this stuff, but Their whole thing they were just like no this was like you never know what you’re going to get

And so it’s a good thing and a bad thing. Sometimes I burn everybody out because I’m like, we’re going to go drop everything and go to Sedona for the next two days. Just cancel all of your plans. But you guys live this out. And you don’t have kids, so you have even more freedom.

Kim (46:14)

We to bring friends and family with us instead then and maybe their kids but we haven’t participated in that yet. But every time we bring people out on adventures like we’ll head to Apache Trail and take them to like Apache Lake, Roosevelt Lake, Canyon Lake and everyone is blown away by our adventures. If they’re not on the adventure with us then you know we had some friends going to Italy and we’re like do you want me to make you an itinerary and they’re like…

Heck yeah! So we made them an itinerary. went there with two of their friends. Mind you, they’re in their 50s. And they said out of the entire trip, the best thing they did was the things we recommended. And they were like, my God, this is amazing.

Isaac (46:54)

And specifically it was a restaurant and a vineyard that they went to that like we mistakenly kind of went to, right? So we went to it just like last moment we were traveling and I was like, let’s go try out this vineyard. We get there and ⁓ they a lot of times in Italy they make you have to do a tour to do a wine tasting. They’re like, our tour just started. Like you can’t do a wine tasting. We’re like, okay. And so we’re leaving and the guy comes running out. He’s like, wait, wait, you can go on the tour.

Kim (47:03)

was an accident.

They chased after us.

Isaac (47:26)

So we go, we do the tour and then afterwards they’re like, do you want the wine and food tasting? So I was like, yeah, I want that. And I thought they’d bring out like a menu or something. And then they brought out course two and then course three. then course four. And so every course came with a whole cup of wine. A whole glass. A whole glass of wine. And like, these are like incredible courses that we’re getting.

Kim (47:39)

And then they brought out course number one.

And of course, five.

Isaac (47:55)

And I turned to Kim and I was like, think I just ordered us like their most exclusive menu item. So we got this whole wine and steak. It was like a steak dinner. toss it in steak and we had a pasta.

Kim (48:00)

extremely affordable though

to a pet bed.

Take

Eric (48:11)

Where is this so can make this online?

Isaac (48:13)

So a complete mistake, did not mean to order this. $50 a person. For six glasses of wine and six course meals.

Kim (48:18)

That’s it!

So you bet that was the best thing our friends did. Not only that, but she told me that her friends bought 12 wine bottles to take home to America.

Isaac (48:29)

It like 20 bottles.

So so it cool that you that really that story actually was a big influence on starting full time the travel time, because one thing is we know like I am an expert at planning trips. Like it’s something that I’m just exceptional at. But not everyone is. And a lot of people like stress out about that where I love it. And so we realize like, we can help people experience these incredible trips. We can highlight these local areas, these local businesses. And by telling people about them, you know,

You know, we actually drove hundreds of dollars of business to this small family owned vineyard. That’s, you know, one of the only vineyards in the area because of zoning laws. It’s just this family has owned this for hundreds of years and so they’re allowed to still be there.

Kim (49:13)

I think what’s special about it though is like when you hire a travel agent, you know, they plan trips for you, but we’re different in that we’ve actually experienced it completely ourselves so we can give recommendations. It’s like we just met someone at BizCon and she was like, you’re going to Long Beach, California? I used to live there. That’s my hometown. She just emailed me a giant list of everything to do. And I was like, like that makes me so happy, but that’s really special. I love that.

Isaac (49:39)

And so one of things that we’re really passionate about is road tripping and sharing these incredible road trips. So like on our website, we have like the best five day trip to the Grand Canyon. So many people come and visit us for the Grand Canyon, but don’t realize that we have Sedona and Jerome. If you take a little bit of a detour, you go to the Petrified Forest National Park, which I would say 80 % of Arizonians haven’t even been to Petrified

Kim (49:55)

Petrobras.

Of course, national.

Eric (50:04)

I’m one of the 20 % and I’ve been to the meteor crater. got my space shirt on today.

Isaac (50:09)

creator that just is like, as soon as you get off the highways, America is incredible. And so we create these different trips so that and share them so that people can experience them. Maybe they’re not quite as good at planning as I am. And that’s fine. We all have our specialties. And, know, that’s where we wanted to share like, OK, here are some amazing road trips you can take. Here’s what you need to know if you’re going to Europe and, you know, the things that you need to make sure that you bring so you don’t get there and be like, shoot, I messed up, you know, because we went there. We have messed up. You know, we’re OK with going and messing up.

Kim (50:38)

So that we

Isaac (50:39)

So

we can teach others, you know. ⁓

Kim (50:41)

But the thing that Isaac is talking about is like this incredible amount of free resources on our website. Go get that three most iconic road trips in America. Go get that five day road trip to Grand Canyon. Like it’s all free. We just want to help people like travel and be outdoors more. And if they are interested in going Full Time to Travel Time, we want to be able to teach and guide them too. So we can hang out with other 30, 40, 50 year olds, know, trying to make a difference and having a very much healthier work life balance.

Eric (51:10)

So is that something that you guys do then is help people to transition to that lifestyle?

Isaac (51:15)

It’s something we’re slowly starting to teach, so…

Kim (51:18)

Isaac is an incredible teacher, I will say that. I’ve been told that people like hearing me too, but I’ve learned so much personally from him as well in our 10 years of being together in a relationship, you know? But consulting and teaching, I’ve seen him completely flip lives around from being like, I’m in this job, I think I should just stay here to, my God, she changed career, she got married, she got a house. Her entire world, I’ve never seen this woman so happy in my life.

and all because you can.

Isaac (51:49)

That was after like three sessions. It was a quick turn around that one.

Kim (51:54)

I would love for us to both be involved in consulting and helping people really figure out what they’re passionate about. And like you said, Eric, why can’t you combine all your passions into one business?

Isaac (52:08)

Yeah, and travel time to me doesn’t just have to be about travel, right? Like, we are very drawn to travel because, like, we think we were put on this planet to be explored.

Kim (52:16)

We

know we don’t.

Isaac (52:18)

But you know other people want to be able to spend time with their family right and so like you know one individual Terry very successful in New York, but he had gotten got kind of caught up in his business and all the speaking engagements and You know you wanted to spend some more time with his kids So I actually helped him plot out a whole road trip for the day a day a loop all around and they went to places that are half an hour 45 minutes away from them that they had never been to before

And he was like, this was such a huge bonding moment for me and my kids. And to do these things and to experience like this incredible, these incredible businesses or these incredible parks or nature that were all within a couple hour drive of us that we had never experienced even though we’d lived here for.

Kim (53:04)

And he’s a very successful entrepreneur too, like working with big names as well and somebody like him didn’t even know that something like this was possible.

Isaac (53:12)

And the bonding that he I mean he sent me like a Huge email afterwards just sharing like how much it had meant to him and his kids to be able to do this Together and I think that’s you know travel can really help build those bonds together because you’re going out of your comfort zone And that’s really where living happens is when you’re outside your comfort zone

Kim (53:32)

What’s your quote? He says, if you’re comfortable, you’re not truly living.

Isaac (53:39)

And it’s not bad to be comfortable and you know live part of your life and being comfortable but if your main goal is to just be as comfortable as you can you’re really not living life because the challenges that face you, the areas that allow you to grow those come from being outside of your comfort zone and in travel you’re gonna hit things that are uncomfortable there are going to be things that go wrong it’s a hundred percent a fact there will be

Eric (54:03)

 yeah, I’m just making me think of some memories of things going wrong

Isaac (54:07)

But

adjusting it with your family, that’s a bonding moment. And problem solving. it teaches you all of these real life skill sets. to me, travel time is not just, you’re traveling everywhere. It’s like you’re building memories and you’re building relationships with the people you’re traveling.

Eric (54:25)

amazing. I was just thinking about like one of the crazy like there’s so many things that go wrong when traveling right and it’s you know you gotta work on your so I just remember I missed a boat going to Catalina Island and everyone on the everyone was on the boat but me and I’m like and the guy would not let me on and I was just like throwing a fit and like but it’s like there’s there’s just like so many like but you learn you get better and that’s where the experience I think comes in because you know you know all right if we’re getting on a boat that

10 AM call time is not going to they are going to shut the gate on your face and watch. You could watch the boat go away even though you could easily walk on.

Kim (55:04)

And now you can warn other people like us to be like, hey, I’ve gone through this experience before. I want to share with you what I experienced.

Isaac (55:11)

One of the craziest experiences we had was I got us this very cute Airbnb in Toulon, France. So we get there, it was very cute. It was like in the center of town, like you could walk out and be in the whole walking district. It was amazing. And then night came and we were invaded by cock.

Kim (55:29)

I mean like baby cockroaches were coming out of the floor, not the floorboards, the baseboards, open the refrigerator, they’re inside, they’re coming out of the sinks. Isaac’s like, shut your… A horror movie! was a horror movie.

Isaac (55:42)

I mean cockroaches everywhere

Kim (55:44)

But

then it was worse because we had to sleep there until morning in which Airbnb would like allow us to move to a new place and Isaac was like, just be aware.

Isaac (55:53)

But I had previously learned how to deal with Airbnb because the first time an Airbnb problem happened, I tried to deal directly with the host. And because I was trying to deal with the host for multiple days, they actually didn’t refund any of those days because he didn’t dock. Right. So this time I didn’t reach out to the host because this was a major, if it’s a small issue, then I’ll always reach out to host and give them a chance to. The major issue. I immediately reached out to Airbnb.

Eric (56:07)

minute with them.

Kim (56:14)

This is pretty big.

Isaac (56:18)

I immediately explained that they needed to move us. I had already found an Airbnb we can move into. But because of my previous experience with Airbnb and understanding like, you need to document it with Airbnb immediately, we got changed by 12 o’clock the next day. We were at a new place and the next place was unbelievable.

Kim (56:38)

on the water, big glass like walls that you can just see into a courtyard with people dancing and markets beneath you.

Isaac (56:45)

We

were on the pier so we had all the water.

Eric (56:49)

Can we go so there’s no cockroaches?

Kim (56:51)

Right

Isaac (56:52)

So yeah, it was a beautiful place. again, was my experience with like failing with, you know, a previous issue with Airbnb that taught me the experience of, they directly contact Airbnb when something like this happens, document photos. And then, you know, I had to follow up one of the funniest things. They didn’t refund my cleaning fee. They said there wasn’t a cleaning issue and I was like that.

Kim (57:05)

Take photos of everything.

Eric (57:11)

Yeah

Isaac (57:14)

was the issue. And so I actually had to fight back and I had taken pictures though while I was there. So I sent them all the pictures of the cockroaches in the fridge and coming out of the sink and whatnot. And I was like, you’re telling me you’re not going to return my cleaning fee? And yes, I got the cleaning fee after a couple back and forth with them.

Kim (57:29)

So.

So hopefully people listening to the podcast today are also taking away like little tips like Carolina Island like cockroaches

Eric (57:41)

Yeah,

there’s some good travel tips. I think, mean, it’s also tying it back to business. So it’s kind of the same thing. Like when you’re in your business and you’re doing stuff for the first time, you’re going to make mistakes and you push through like, like going back to when you guys first started, right? Like you said, those first three months, you know, what pushed you guys to keep going and not say, maybe let’s look at our list again. Maybe there’s something else that we could do with your vet background and your, your target.

Kim (58:09)

The future picture was so bright for me. I had worked a nine to five my entire life. I didn’t know that there was anything outside of like societal expectations and living. So for me, everything was so bright and shiny and new that it was like, I was so hungry and determined to not have to work 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. anymore and do emergency shifts at the animal hospital or put down 14 animals a day anymore. Like I was…

I was burnt out, was being very impactful with my work, but the idea of being able to make an impact on local businesses and the community I live in and communities all over America was just so like, I will find a way. Even though this first three months was brutal, like it even threw a thorn in our relationship, like you’re not in the right seat, this organizational structure, blah, blah, blah. I didn’t know how to network. I was word vomiting on people and scaring them away and they would run and I would chase them.

It was awful.

Isaac (59:08)

I literally had to go to a couple of networking events because Kim’s a great talker and she’s very friendly and you know great at starting conversations and so I was like she’ll be great at sales I know how to do all of this stuff I’ve been very successful and so we had placed her in sales and me in operations and so I had to go to a couple networking events and like nothing was happening we weren’t getting any any

Kim (59:32)

So

he decided to be my wingman and actually watch the magic.

Isaac (59:37)

So like she went in to talk to this girl, she scared the girl because she was just worried about me.

Kim (59:41)

I this while I talking to her and I don’t know body language. not at all. Her feet are turned away from me. She’s like slowly backing away and then I’m walking.

Isaac (59:50)

At some point she’s like I have to go

Kim (59:53)

So she turned away, she turned her back to me, she walked away and I chased after her and then Isaac grabbed me by the arm and was like, Kim stop!

Isaac (1:00:02)

I literally had to grab her arm and pull it back. I was like, stop chasing.

Kim (1:00:05)

She’s her.

I’m pretty sure I was like, it’s okay, I’ll come with you.

Isaac (1:00:08)

Hahaha!

Eric (1:00:11)

You’re going to your car? Let’s go.

Isaac (1:00:14)

And so at that point I turned to Kim and I was like hey you remember those like elevator pitches we practiced like that 30 second line and like why don’t you just try and say that and just be quiet

Kim (1:00:23)

And I was like, just be quiet and don’t say anything. And he’s like, yeah.

Isaac (1:00:26)

He’s like, what if there’s silence? was like, let there be silence.

Kim (1:00:28)

So I walked up to a guy, I said the 30 second elevator pitch that we practiced tons of times, and then I didn’t say anything. I was highly uncomfortable in silence. And the guy went…

Isaac (1:00:39)

We literally, it was like a cartoon, we watched his eyebrow like raise up.

Kim (1:00:43)

And then

he said, tell me more. And I was like, oh my god!

Isaac (1:00:47)

You

Kim (1:00:49)

Yeah, that was a pivotal moment in my… and realize Kim is not… I mean, I had a lot to learn, of course, but we were in the wrong seats to begin with, which is why, like, LocalFi was not really working well.

Isaac (1:01:03)

So, so interesting in that we shifted where Kim actually started doing more of the operations because she was able to download the systems that were in my brain, document them, start working operations. I started doing more of the sales. Here I am an introvert doing sales when I’m actually like the expert at the operation.

Kim (1:01:20)

And I’m the extrovert writing down all the systems in XQE.

Eric (1:01:23)

sense that you had her doing the sales because it’s like okay

Isaac (1:01:27)

It

made logical sense, but it didn’t work. ⁓ no. Right? And so that’s where you have to make adjustments and understand like, hey, maybe it’s not working because we’re in the wrong seats or something like that. And so we shifted and, know, also, I’ll be honest with this. I was getting very angry at Kim because I was like, you know, I’m going to do all the work. All you need to do is bring in the clients. Why can’t you just do This one thing. But

Kim (1:01:48)

Just do that.

Isaac (1:01:50)

You know, I started actually at times where I’m really struggling. Sometimes I open up the seven habits of highly affected people and I start flipping through and I always open up to the spot I need to read. it was all about, you know, taking responsibility for you and your sphere of influence. And I was like, wait, I’m blaming Kim for all this stuff. Let me take responsibility for what I can do. So I started taking responsibility and I realized like, hey, I know the product so much better than Kim. I’ve been doing this for many years. I’m the one who’s better at talking to people about the product.

you know, and so I had to take responsibility of that and say, hey, I know I’m an introvert, but that’s okay. I can go out and talk to people about this product.

Kim (1:02:26)

But then guess what? On the flip side, you had me in the beginning working on the backend. So then I finally felt comfortable talking about it. And I am the salesperson because I worked in the backend for so long. I know it like the back of my hand and I’ve seen the results forehand of the fruit of my labor of like, this is what I did and this is what it created. So now I also have the confidence because I did it myself. It’s interesting how that, how you think it’s going to work logically. And then you’re like, God, we need to change this.

Isaac (1:02:56)

Yeah, we made that shift and you know, Kim often’s time would still be the gate opener. She would get the conversation started, but then I would come in and close the sales. Then Kim was working way more on the back end, building the systems, allowing us to hire staff and actually replicating ourselves so we could grow and scale and free up our time to build new systems, build new businesses, travel, explore, you know. So yeah, it’s really about adjusting when things aren’t working and

One of the things that really have stuck with me across all of the books I’ve read and all of the successful people, and you’ll probably see this theme when you’re speaking with all these incredible business owners on this podcast, is the people who are persistent are the people who win. It just comes down to that. Persistence is what wins the game. And sometimes you have to be persistent for longer than you expected you’d have to be persistent for. But the ones who continuously take small steps, and that’s something I teach my whole team,

As long as you continuously take small steps, you’re going to accomplish great things.

Kim (1:03:57)

And one thing I really love about Isaac, if I might add, is the fact that his persistence does not come without nervousness, but he never shows it. I ask him all the time, aren’t you nervous? Aren’t you uncomfortable? Like, you’re gonna make this hard phone call or do this thing? And he’s like, yeah, but I’m gonna push through it. And I’m just like, always so proud of you for doing that, because that’s like an inspiration to anybody listening to this podcast, too. The uncomfortable hard things.

is what means you’re gonna make it to the top. That persistence.

Isaac (1:04:29)

Yeah.

Eric (1:04:29)

All right. Thank you guys for sharing that because I did want to ask you guys about, you know, working together because I feel like me and my wife, we don’t work together in the same company, but she’s a business owner. I’m a business owner and I feel like that’s really rare that a couple both has either their own company or working together. And I always love encountering, seeing that in the wild.

You guys obviously you work with a lot of regular traditional businesses. Maybe you got, do you have any clients that are like you guys, like a couple or a family?

Kim (1:05:03)

It

is kind of weird too though, I feel like I don’t see it.

Isaac (1:05:06)

I see a lot in the home services, the husband wife couple often times work in home services and we actually prefer to work with husband wife couples because usually traditionally the wife is running the office and there’s way better system.

Kim (1:05:18)

than just one. Yes.

Eric (1:05:21)

So

you’re like, we could fix things here.

Isaac (1:05:23)

Right. If you’re working with like just a male who’s running a service based company, oftentimes it’s really bad systems on the back end. They have great systems for what they’re doing with service, but they have really bad back end systems. Not always, but this is something that we’ve crossed.

Kim (1:05:36)

So

like an AC company, husband, wife, team, concrete, supply company, husband, I literally was on the sales call and he said, do you mind if I just go work in the field and you can talk to my wife? I was like, sure, no problem.

Isaac (1:05:50)

I think, you know, what’s really key is understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I think a big issue that a lot of couples run into, and this happens in travel too. So not only are Kim and I working together, but we traveled together six months during the year. Like we are literally directly next to each other so often. And so I think a big thing is a lot of people look at relationships as being fair. Everyone wants to be fair and equal, but that

Kim (1:06:09)

And we live together. Everything is together.

Isaac (1:06:19)

ultimately cannot be optimized, right? Because we all have different strengths and weaknesses. And so to be an optimal couple operating at the highest efficiency, it’s not going everything is going to be fair and equal. What you’re going to do is, you know, lean into each other’s strengths and weaknesses. You know, I typically am a better quick decision maker than Kim. It’s just I’m very good at making quick decisions. But I tell Kim, you know, I’ll make these decisions, but I’ll also admit when my decisions are wrong, I’ll quickly admit that and we’ll adjust and fix it.

So that way if we’re like, do we take a right or a left? We’re not arguing. No. It’s what Isaac thinks is the right direction. And 90 % of the time, I’m going to be correct. And the 10 % I’m wrong, I quickly make that acknowledgement. And we adjust course. And so I think a lot of couples when they travel, it’s like, no, it’s this way. No, it’s that way. And there’s this argument.

Kim (1:07:08)

I understand. I know that I’m not a good navigator. Not even Google Maps. I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to use it. my flaw. It’s not my strength. My strength is driving. I’m an excellent driver. I’ve been told by friends, even on his partner blueprint, his dream woman was like, must be a good driver or enjoys driving. That’s me. So I drive 99 % of the time. He navigates 99 % of the time.

Eric (1:07:10)

direction.

Isaac (1:07:34)

And driving for me really exhausts me. I’m a good driver, but it really exhausts me and drains my energy. so, know, Kim now driving so that I can navigate and I can plan out all of these things allows us to do these incredible trips that if we were trying to split navigating and driving 50, it wouldn’t go well.

Kim (1:07:51)

I’d be so stressed out. Don’t do it. Yeah,

but people see that as like not fair. you drive all the time. He does that to you. No, no, no. I do that to me because I love it. Let me do what I’m great at and let him do what he’s great at. And this is how we thrive in a relationship when we’re traveling in business. The biggest part is that we communicate with each other. Even with hard conversations, you have to have them. And the fact that Isaac, you know, with couples, we don’t always communicate sometimes.

So the fact that you would be honest enough to say, hey, I feel like you’re hanging on to something, let’s have a conversation about it. Cause he can read body language unlike me. So we’ll talk about it, but that’s the thing. And always using tact, he knows how I receive feedback the best and it’s using tact first. Hey, I want to talk to you about something. And this is the goal that I want to get out of having this conversation. As long as I know those things, you’re not here to hurt me or attack me.

or be against me, you’re on my side and you care and love for me. Like you care and love for me. You care and love me and that’s why we’re having this conversation. And this is why we just celebrated our 10 year anniversary in our relationship and we’ve had LocalFi since 2018 and we’ll keep building and growing things together.

Isaac (1:09:06)

Yeah. So I think really the key is identifying your strengths, right? You know, we realized, hey, Kim is unbelievably good at taking systems and documenting them in a way that are very duplicatable. So, you know, we put her into that role in the business because she was just so good at it. I’m good at making systems, but terrible at documenting those systems. Kim is good at both making systems and documenting systems. And so, you know, we work together here.

know, Kim is a phenomenal artist. So we tap into, know, where can she use her art? Sometimes I actually have the concepts of the art and I’ll talk to Kim and we’ll workshop the concept and then she’ll execute it. Cause I can’t draw, but I can have this up in my head. The concept.

Kim (1:09:46)

I used to hand draw every person’s logo that we would work with in a thank you card to be like, we’re so happy you’re part of the local family. And that we would come visit them like years later and my card would be right on their desk. I wish I

Eric (1:09:58)

I’m guessing you still do that?

Isaac (1:10:00)

We

don’t just because, you we’ve grown, it would be hard to do that for every company we talk to. It did definitely work in the beginning, you know, getting on clients, especially when we weren’t as established, we’re way more established now, but you know, in the beginning we weren’t very well established, but then you get a personalized card with a hand drawn logo on it. So it’s really, I think, tapping into understanding these are my strengths, these are your strengths, these are my weaknesses, these are your weaknesses. And then really.

Kim (1:10:05)

But they did love it.

It’s meaningful. It’s nice.

Isaac (1:10:28)

creating a relationship that can really channel both each other’s strengths and then forgive each other’s weaknesses. Or either cover the weaknesses or recognize, hey, there’s going to be some challenges here and that’s okay and we just have to accept that we have these weaknesses and we can move through them.

Kim (1:10:47)

Or can we grow through these weaknesses? Isaac has taught me how to overcome some of my weaknesses. You know, that’s part of communication as well.

Isaac (1:10:55)

Weaknesses can turn into strengths, know, like she shared. She was scaring people away initially at networking, but that’s actually a great strength of hers. She’s so good at talking to people and so friendly and inviting. She just had a couple tweaks she had to make, you know.

Eric (1:11:12)

This is beautiful I love you guys sharing all of this and I hope for the listeners there that are watching that You know, it may be you’re in a relationship thinking about starting a business, know Like that’s how a lot of there are businesses like that that start There’s some great great advice here. So take some notes ⁓ Now with the time wrapping up here, I wish I can keep I have a ton of questions as always with every guest ⁓ Yeah, well we’ll have to

together again when you guys because I know these guys are getting ready to go on a six-month adventure and so I like we have to hurry up and film this now because you’re not I’m gonna be in Asia they’re gonna be who knows somewhere in the country so but you know with with you guys are getting ready to really like I know you’re putting a lot of effort and time into the travel side of things but this shows about unfinished business and what is it that you guys want to be able to do in the future and so for you guys what’s

What’s the big unfinished business for you that you would like to see in your lifetime, in your career?

Kim (1:12:13)

Do you want to go first? you go ahead. I’m going to process.

Isaac (1:12:17)

So for me, you know, I just think we live on this incredible planet. Like we are so blessed to live on a planet as beautiful as Earth. Like the flowers, the animals, the cohesion, like, you know, the ecosystems that are created are unbelievable. They’re so complex and simple simultaneously. And, you know, for me, it’s really honoring this planet that we live on. I think we oftentimes take it for granted. You know, we have all these resources at the push of a button.

And for me, it’s really going back to instead of dominating the planet, which has been our kind of our main focus for so long, it’s harmonizing with the planet. And we’ve seen that we’ve had cultures in the past and still to this day, cultures that harmonize with the planet instead of trying to dominate it. And I think that’s where we really need to make this shift is understanding like this planet is our home and it’s home for millions and billions of other life forces.

And so it’s honoring those other life forces, those life forces give us medicine, give us food, give us enjoyment and inspiration. And so for me, it’s really focusing on how can we help our shift in human nature to go from, you know, these are my resources, let me take them to recognizing there’s an abundance on this planet. How can we share resources with humans? How can we share resources with animals? How can we preserve spaces for animals to thrive? Because when animals thrive,

You know, like hunting, ethical hunting is so important because, you know, you wipe out a whole population and that you can no longer hunt. But if you’re doing ethical hunting and making sure that you’re keeping areas that are safer breeding grounds and allowing these animals to live really positive lives in these areas and only then, you know, hunting the excess of animals that they would naturally have predators, right? Predators are part of the ecosystem. So.

That’s my big focus. I’m already doing it now a lot with I’m turning AI and AI has a lot of environmental consequences. I think we need to really be focused on them. And so I’m trying to look at how do I use AI to help with environmental consequences? How do I actually turn AI into something that’s helping the environment? And I’m doing that right now by helping non-for-profit show up in these AI answers for the services and offerings that they have that are incredibly good for the environment, the community, local businesses, you know, all that kind of stuff.

and just continuing to push that type of education. And that’s part of the reason we want people to travel is so that when someone goes to Sequoia National Park and gets to walk through a 3000 year old forest, I mean, these trees are 3000 years old. And the only reason that you and I can go to them, Eric, is because people several hundred years ago stood up and said, we want to protect these forests. We don’t want to cut all these trees down for lumber, even though that would make a lot of money in the short term. And now Sequoia National Park,

literally prints money for the US, you know, park system, you know, brings in tourism all over the place, helps these gateway towns and has preserved these ancient trees that are around before Christ. mean, isn’t that the craziest thing? You get to walk through this knowledge and experience that. So that’s really my goal is going out and finding how do we preserve this incredible land that we have? How do we preserve it in a way that humans can still experiencing it while honoring the land and while protecting all the animals that also call that area home?

And those animals, again, are benefiting us in more ways than we can even understand.

Kim (1:15:36)

Yeah. And my mission is to support that mission. Like, you know Einstein, right? You’ve heard of Albert Einstein. This is my Albert Einstein. He needs to focus on the world. He needs to focus up here while I need to be like, let me cook you food. Let me like, let me get you your basic needs so your brain can be up there instead of like right here. And I feel like that’s a huge supporting mission of mine. Like he, he needs me and I know you.

Isaac (1:16:00)

You need

1. well, all but Kim also is very passionate about animals, you know. So she’s she runs a pet sitting company as well, because she just loves being around animals and is, you know, actually building up a whole company where we can travel to different countries and actually pet sit for people who are out traveling for a month and we can come and pet sit.

Kim (1:16:05)

It makes me so happy.

International pet sitting so a minimum of two weeks to some months, you know people hire me I’ll fly over there Isaac and I will stay in their home and then we take care of their house We take care of their plants. I take care of their pets. I give them daily photo updates It’s a whole premium luxury service that people are psyched about and my whole better

Eric (1:16:40)

to these places? Actually

Isaac (1:16:43)

And we’re

Eric (1:16:43)

you’re getting paid!

Isaac (1:16:45)

gonna get

Kim (1:16:45)

I am getting paid, yes, but the lodging

Isaac (1:16:50)

And

then we help these people go out and travel and experience the world and experiences in

Kim (1:16:54)

And Isaac with his amazing navigating skills, can curate plans for these people to say, you’re going to Paris, you’re going to Lucerne, let me craft this for you on things to do.

Isaac (1:17:07)

So I think with Kim, with her passion around animals, and she is so passionate about animals, that’s so important because I kind of focus more on the bigger picture and I look at the land and preserving the land, which of course helps the animals. But then Kim being able to hyper focus on, hey, this species really needs our help right now. We can do these things. I think that’s really a driving factor and works so well to

Kim (1:17:30)

It’s very complimentary. I’m very present tense and he’s very future tense a lot of the time. Like, how can we protect what’s in our future? And I’m like, I got to be here in the moment to be able to know what to do for the future.

Eric (1:17:43)

I love it. Well, thank you guys for being on the show and sharing your stories and your experiences and your knowledge here with everybody. And for people who want to learn more about LocalFi or to learn more about the travel podcast, how do they find you guys? How do they stay connected?

Isaac (1:18:00)

Yeah, so with Locify, you know, we’re really focused on working with colleges and education institutions, really focusing on colleges that are helping students find a real career path. You know, I think a lot of us millennials fell into this student debt, you know, pit, essentially, where, you know, we got education, but the colleges weren’t really well designed to get us a real career path from there. And so, you know, working with someone like UND Aerospace, where they’re creating a real career path, they go through their college and then become a pilot.

right, you know? And so those are the types of institutions we love working with. Our marketing is working phenomenally and especially with AI and how we’re getting our clients showing up in AI. We’re also working a lot with environmentally friendly travel industry. So eco lodges, tour groups that are like, you know, a lot

Kim (1:18:47)

tours, dune buggy tours.

Isaac (1:18:49)

E-bikes

are becoming big, so a lot of national parks now you can actually go e-bike through the national parks instead of drive your bike, which is way more environmentally friendly. So working with those types of companies and then again working with a lot of home service companies. We work a lot with them and again we like to focus on know, Darling Wildlife is a great example of a client that was, focuses on humane animals.

Kim (1:19:12)

He’s a wildlife biologist who removes wildlife humanely. That’s fantastic and does all the exclusion pest control and everything else but in a safe way.

Isaac (1:19:21)

So yeah, if you go to localfiseo.com or just type in Localfi on Google, you’ll find us and it’s Local F-I, all one word. ⁓

Kim (1:19:30)

Full Time to Travel Time is our travel brand. That’s T-O. And that’s the website as well, fulltimetotraveltime.com. And again, check out that website, both LocalFi and Full Time to Travel Time. We’re very big on teaching and educating. So you will find immense amounts of free resources on there. Literally on Full Time to Travel Time, it says free resources and then things to do. We have a whole list of things to do in Sedona. The best hikes, the best food.

road trips around America, the Grand Canyon road trip, go get it, find it. If you don’t see what you want to see, then just reach out to us. Maybe we’ll curate something special for you.

Eric (1:20:08)

the next six months they’re going to be traveling. there’s room to stick it into the. Well, thank you guys so much for being on the show and squeezing me in here. Appreciate it. I know you got to run. And for those of you guys who enjoyed today’s conversation, you want to hear more amazing conversations with business leaders like them, like LocalFi. Make sure you subscribe at Biz with Eric on social media and look us up unfinished business with Eric Mulvin on Apple podcasts, Spotify, I heart radio anywhere where you guys look for.

Kim (1:20:12)

More data. Yeah

Eric (1:20:38)

podcast. So until next time, we’ll see you guys later.

Kim (1:20:41)

And don’t forget to leave this guy a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all the amazing places. He deserves it. So incredible. Thank you.

Eric (1:20:49)

See you guys.

The world’s changing fast, we’re talking to business leaders who adapt, innovate and keep moving forward because nobody’s business is ever finished. This is Unfinished Business with Eric Mulvin.

My last check from Yelp, turned it into a taxi ride. Earned my street MBA, lessons you can’t buy. Six LLCs later, packed biz at new heights. Now I’m talking with leaders about their unfinished business tonight. Unfinished business. Where people in tech connect to amplify. Unfinished business. Human intelligence plus AI. Unfinished business. Moonshot goals that launch you high. Unfinished business.

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