Lights On

Michael Russell made good money in sales. And kept almost all of it.

Not because he was cheap. Because he had a different definition of wealth.

Not things. Time.

Every dollar he saved went toward buying back his own schedule. First real estate, then short-term rentals, then a hostel in Maui that now generates $2.4M a year.

The goal was never the portfolio. It was a Tuesday morning surf session with his wife.

🎙️ Full episode with Michael Russell on the Lights On Podcast. Link in bio.

Jessie Fischer started answering hotel guest questions at age 12.

Check-in time. Cancellation policy. Can I bring my dog.

Same questions. Every day. On repeat.

Fast forward to today and those same FAQs still eat up 70% of front desk call volume across the industry.

So she built GuestOS to handle them.

🎙️ Full episode with Jessie Fischer, founder of GuestOS, link in bio.

Rodger Wada thought revenue managers ran the show.
Then his entire exec team turned over at once and he had to cover every role himself.

Housekeeping. Sales. Asset manager communications. All of it.
He came out the other side with a very different perspective on what it actually takes to run a hotel. Clicking a button in a revenue system is easy. Understanding what happens after that button gets clicked is everything.

🎙️ Full episode with Rodger Wada on the Lights On Podcast:
https://www.lightson.co/posts/hotel-growth-stories-beyond-numbers-with-rodger-wada