We recently connected with Carol Moody and have shared our conversation below.
Carol , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
Comfort ……making and wanting people to be comfortable and at ease has always been my mission. I was always the person to BEND or SHIFT to let others get what they needed…. whether it was working an extra shift so my co-worker could take his vacation or uprooting our family so that my husband could attain his dream of going to graduate school.
It was this need that found me looking for a nice, affordable home for my mother to live. She was getting close to retirement and was paying an astronomical rent for an apartment downtown. While searching properties, I found that the prices were elevated and the quality was mediocre at best.
So I decided to purchase an older home and transformed it into a chic, modern showplace for my mom. She is now comfortably retired with her own home that’s both beautiful and affordable.
This was the beginning of Moody Hospitality and Event Group, LLC. This is also when I realized that I enjoyed developing real estate. The passivity of real estate fit my introverted personality.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Never too late ….. I was 50 years old before I became an entrepreneur. I was at a state in my life where peace and freedom were my main concerns. Oprah Winfrey said ” Do what you love, and the money will come.”
After getting my mom into her new place, a year later the property next door to her was up for sale. My husband and I immediately put an offer on the property and it was accepted ! The home is located close to the airport and to Graceland, so my first thought is to transform the home and list it on Airbnb. This was March 2020, around the time that the world was at a standstill due to the pandemic. Renovating the home kept us busy during that time.
We opened July 1, 2020 to multiple bookings for the property on Airbnb. I love that I’m able to provide a beautiful, comfortable home away from home for vacationers and business travelers. We achieved “Superhost” status with Airbnb 3 months later and have maintained that title for 3 years.
Some of our guests at the Airbnb were utilizing to host their birthday parties and bridal showers. That gave me the idea to open a venue for small gatherings. (Gatherings were limited to 100 people or less due to the pandemic).
June 2021, I signed the lease for Visions Event Studio, located on Germantown Parkway in Cordova. Visions is the Airbnb of venues ! Your rental includes everything you need to host an event. You would only need to bring your food and beverages. Each guest gets a code to the door. The venue is totally theirs for the time of their rental. Most of the time , I am not on site. We are totally paperless and all transactions are handled online. We hosted 100 events in 2022. Our most popular events are bridal shower, baby showers, and birthday parties. Our capacity for the venue is 50 guests.
Our goal for 2023 is to introduce a micro-wedding/elopement package at Visions. The forecast is that couples are going away from the costly, elaborate weddings which have an average cost of $30,000. We will offer an option for couples who would like to share their special day with their closest friends and family in an intimate setting, We hosted our first wedding in May and the couple was so glad that they chose to go with a small, intimate wedding.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My number one quality that I place forefront is customer service. I felt frustrated planning rehearsal dinners for my sons weddings because I found that vendors would go days before they returned my call or answered an email. So, I make it a priority to answer each inquiry or email the same day. I have been blessed with the nicest customers in return.
I always put myself in the customers shoes. One way I do this is to test my product. I stayed at the Airbnb for a week before I listed it. I tweaked a few things during that process. I hosted my own event at the venue to make sure the setup and decorating times were realistic.
One of my skills that I have is that I’m very thrifty. I like to keep my overhead low. For the venue, I wanted the Chiavari chairs , which are very expensive. From speaking with other venue owners, I learned that you could purchase them used, so I save myself quite a bit on those. When we needed an architect to draw up plans for the venue, I was quoted $5500 from an architect. After much thought, I called the School of Architect at University of Memphis. One of their professors came and drafted our plans for $600. Having a low overhead allows me to enjoy my running my business without the added pressure of creditors looming.
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I would suggest to any business owner, to keep gaining knowledge and information from books and podcasts that peek your interest. I find if a business book is boring, I won’t read it. A couple of my favorites are We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers and Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holiday.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
Our church, The Life Church Memphis, hosts an event called ‘The Dream Tank’. It’s a launching pad for new business owners. They assign you a business mentor who coaches you for an entire year. There are also sessions to help with creating your elevator pitch, business plan, forming an LLC, taxes, and preparing for business credit. This event gave me so much traction and provided me a network of other business owners for support and encouragement along the way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.visionsmemphis.com
- Instagram: visionseventstudio901
- Facebook: visionseventstudio
Image Credits
Ricki Moody
