Real Life Planning Podcast Episode 11: Finding Your Balance with Maddy Roche

In Episode 11, I talk to Maddy Roche about getting sh*t done, learning as you go, and enjoying life now. Maddy tells us about her wild ride as the first employee of the XY Planning Network and how the journey has changed her. Stick around to hear how she opened up a room in her Montana home on Airbnb and marketed it as an LGBTQ+, BIPOC, sober, safe sanctuary.

“All of us need to be able to evolve. I think one of the scariest things about living this one and beautiful life is staying the same” -Maddy Roche

This week on Real Life Planning Podcast, Cynthia and Maddy cover:

Takeaway Quotes

“I think a lot of people underestimate how much impact we can have by staying small and doing things really well in-house.” -Maddy Roche

“There's no time like now to ask ourselves what do we need to feel healthy, balanced, and grounded.” -Maddy Roche

"One of my goals recently is to be belly laughing every day." - Maddy Roche

“...we have to build a portfolio of thinking styles. Diversification makes anything stronger.” -Cynthia Meyer

Connect with Maddy Roche

• www.xyplanningnetwork.com
• Maddy Roche on Linkedin
• Maddy Roche on Facebook
• Maddy Roche on Instagram
• maddy@xyplanningnetwork.com
• TedX Bozeman 2022

Connect with Cynthia Meyer

• Real Life Planning Website
• Cynthia Meyer on LinkedIn
• Cynthia Meyer on Facebook
• Cynthia Meyer on Twitter
• Cynthia Meyer on Instagram
• Cynthia Meyer on Pinterest
• Email: cynthia@reallifeplanning.com  

About the Real Life Planning Podcast

Host Cynthia Meyer welcomes fascinating guests to share real life stories of how they are realizing their financial potential. Each episode explores practical, realistic steps to create results.

Transcript - Real Life Planning Podcast - Episode 11

[00:00:06] Cynthia Meyer: Welcome to the Real Life Planning podcast. I'm Cynthia Meyer, and today I have a really special guest that I've been looking forward to talking to and continuing our conversation. It's Maddy Roche, who is the vice-president of, Getting S**t Done at the XY Planning Network, the financial planner network that I belong to and I'm a huge fan of. Maddy, introduce yourself, if you will, and tell us what's important to know about you. 

[00:00:31] Maddy Roche: Sure. Thanks so much, Cynthia. I so look forward to being on the podcast. I recently had you on the XYPN Radio podcast, and this conversation that we had was enlightening. So I'm excited to continue it. I am the vice-president of Getting S**t Done at XY Planning Network, which you said is a financial planning network that I really helped build over the past eight years.

I was the first employee. We just celebrated our eight-year mark. So it makes eight years for me here. And since day one, we have been building a community of advisors that are dedicated to real financial planning, offering and expanding fee-only and fiduciary comprehensive planning to the masses.

And it really has been a huge passion of mine for nearly a decade now to make sure financial planning is accessible to more people. What's important to know about me is I am, for the first time ever, in a role where I'm not directly managing large teams and setting strategies for those departments, which feels really nice.

I've helped coach a couple of thousand advisors starting to launch their businesses. So I have a deep understanding of really the entrepreneurial spirit and what it takes, and the journey advisors go on, and other business owners go on as they hang their shingle out. I, myself, am not an entrepreneur, but I definitely enjoy supporting them like you, Cynthia. 

[00:01:44] Cynthia Meyer: You know, I have to say, Maddy, having known you professionally for a little while. I don't actually agree with that. Somebody can be an entrepreneur in a collaborative organization, right? Because you were instrumental in taking the small idea of a business, it was just a few of you. You were the first employee if I remember you saying correctly, and you grew and scaled it in a very short period of time to a much larger small business. It's a medium-sized business now with huge impact, and you guys incubate and coach other people to grow and grow their own small to medium-sized businesses. So that's inherently entrepreneurial. 

[00:02:24] Maddy Roche: Yeah. I appreciate that. I do feel like I've worked alongside our founders for all these years and have really tasted what it's like to, in our case, really plan on scaling a large company. So we have just under a hundred employees now, and I'm involved for the hiring of each and every one of them and the training that it required to get them schooled up.

So I've certainly been witness to it and have enjoyed the journey. 

[00:02:46] Cynthia Meyer: So one of the things I really wanted to get your perspective on today, and if this is a surprise to you, hopefully, that's okay, is, so many of my clients, for example, who are real estate entrepreneurs, may also own another business, a small business or practice of professional practices sometimes. And we've all been through this earthquake of the pandemic. And many of us have had to pivot what we're doing during the pandemic, and we've come out on the other side of it, thank heavens. What guidance would you have as somebody who is part of an organization that's a little bit farther down the road and about growing and scaling?

[00:03:25] Maddy Roche: Growing and scaling the business. You have to decide, I think, is that what you want to do? I know for a lot of our advisors, they do want to stay small. They didn't get into this to manage a huge amount of teammates and take over the world. So I think it really starts with your why and decide how far down the road do you want to build this and how big do you want to get it to?

I think a big decision is, are you going to outsource work to contractors or teams or groups, or are you going to keep it in-house? That's something. And I'm not intimately familiar with what it means to build a real estate empire or business, but I would imagine you have a number of components to the business that you can either find groups that can support you by outsourcing or you can hire internally. And hiring internally, I think, is something that we really have to take pause with.

I think being a boss is one of the most beautiful opportunities that any of us can have to change lives. So if that is something that draws to you to build a team, to keep a culture, to incubate that kind of community within the team, go for it. But some people really can become overwhelmed with the management side of it.

And all of a sudden feel like they've lost the vision of what they're building cause they're tied up in all the people, things that have to happen as you manage these businesses. But I think, deciding what's right for you and your family and your future. Knowing that we only have one quick and beautiful life here on earth, is building and scaling just to build and scale the real calling that you have, or is it to make an impact?

Because I think we can argue that impact is varied in terms of how big you have to grow to have it. I think a lot of people underestimate how much impact we can have by staying small and doing things really well in-house and things like that. Does that answer the question? 

[00:05:08] Cynthia Meyer: Yeah, I think that answers the question very well, actually.

And I'm wondering, in particular, do you think it's different in any way for women in business or for women who are starting their own businesses? 

[00:05:22] Maddy Roche: Absolutely. There's always inherent differences given gender, and I think that is because the script hasn't been written as clearly for us as it has for men and certainly hasn't been written for non-binary folks. So there aren't as many idols to look up to. Now, that's not negating the fact that there's a huge amount of women and nonbinary folks that are incredibly successful in running their own businesses. Just the perpetual history that we have of a male-dominated society. We see a lot of men rise the ranks of being entrepreneurs, but women, I think, go into a lot of this wanting; I think we've all heard women won't apply for a job unless they have a hundred percent of the skillsets listed and men will apply with only 70% of them. I see a lot of women want to get to the perfect spot and the perfect time to launch their businesses because they need to get everything else in order. Their family, their home, their life.

And I think men are more willing to just jump in and not know everything is buttoned up. So I think if we, as women, can move past this idea that we have to feel a hundred percent sure to do something that we will, at least test the waters faster. And I think the best way to learn is to dive in and test the waters.

But I think for women, we carry a different kind of burden into the longevity of our firms and what we want to do. I see a lot of women very quickly want to start giving back once they become successful, which is really interesting. Women in their third and fourth, and fifth year, even like you, who want to be on the podcast and share their knowledge and share their expertise, and that I think is so beautiful. We shouldn't build our businesses so big that we can't begin to do that and coach and mentor other women into this space. 

[00:06:57] Cynthia Meyer: Yeah, I think that would be really helpful, especially in the financial planning space. All the time that I have been a financial planner, the percentage of women in the profession has not changed too significantly. It's a great profession for women, I think. For somebody who is interested in finance, who is math-oriented, who wants a relationship-based business, there are a lot of moving parts that just work so well. It can be a very family-friendly career.

If there's anybody out there that's listening, that's thinking, what would it be like to be a financial planner? What would it be like to do this? Drop me a line on LinkedIn because I'd love to talk to you about and be encouraging in that way.

You have a lot to say Maddy, and you've always dropped these words of wisdom into conversations, which I love you're super quotable. You recently hosted a TEDx event, right? 

[00:07:45] Maddy Roche: Ahhhhh, yes. 

[00:07:46] Cynthia Meyer: Tell me about that. What kinds of themes were in the event? What was it like? 

[00:07:50] Maddy Roche: Sure. Yeah. I actually applied to speak three years ago, before COVID. And my talk title was about getting s**t done. Cause that's always kinda been my fun play title at XY and what I've been known for and what one of our core values is. So I put together a little pitch around that and the team at TEDx Bozeman emailed back and said, " Would you be interested in being the MC instead?" Being the MC of the conference is something I'm familiar with through XYPN. I've been the MC of that.

[00:08:20] Cynthia Meyer: It's like XYPN live and yeah.

[00:08:23] Maddy Roche: Yes, our annual conference and so I've always enjoyed creating a space of energy. I realized that it's one of my skillsets. If I walk into the room and exude the energy I need to, I can really shift it for people. That is a skill that I want to continue to hone and I think it's a gift that I can give to communities. When they invited me to be an emcee, I thought, okay, I don't know the Bozeman community. I'm relatively new to living here back then and and then COVID happened. So we postponed the Ted event, but just now in April 2nd of this year, I was up on stage with nine incredible speakers. We had probably about 300, 400 people in the audience. The topic or theme of the TEDxBozeman event was in focus. So just focusing up on things in life that we don't always focus on. So we have incredible speakers from our community and I was able to introduce them and set the tone for the audience. It was an evening event. It was intimate. I felt in my element, despite it not being the XYPN community, I was so used to facilitating. So I really enjoyed it. And I think it'll be something I'll do. 

[00:09:25] Cynthia Meyer: Oh, that's great. Can we watch that on YouTube? 

[00:09:27] Maddy Roche: It's not available yet and I'm actually not sure if my intros will be part of the YouTube series because all the speakers will be featured. If anyone wants to come to Bozeman next year for the event and they invite me back, I encourage you to go. 

[00:09:39] Cynthia Meyer: That's a good idea. So Getting S**t Done. What does that entail? If you could distill that into some principles for your own philosophy of productivity, what does that look like? 

[00:09:51] Maddy Roche: Yeah. It was a standing joke with the founders of our company that they needed someone to come in and just get shit done as their first hire. I think is applicable to any entrepreneurs that you do have to make that first hire at some point, and our founders are really confused. Do we hire apps or do we hire a client-focused person or do we hire a back-office person? And instead, they just decided to put these words around who has energy to just get in, get their hands dirty, and aren't afraid of taking all the steps necessary to make sure things are buttoned up before you get in there.

So, I have an attitude of, I just want to be effective. I want to make change. I want to see progress. I want to inspire people to move and act fast. I've thought over the years that Getting S**t Done, isn't just about getting it done and checking it off the box. It's bringing a sense of urgency to the work that you do and a level of commitment to seeing it through. A lot of us that kind of have the get shit done traits are quick starts. We don't need a huge amount of research. We don't need to interview a hundred people. We just want to do it and see how it 

[00:10:50] Cynthia Meyer: Learn-by-doing people. 

[00:10:51] Maddy Roche: Yeah, iterate on it. And so, as we've hired people over the years of XYPN, it's a trait I look for. I look for people that are flexible. Flexibility is a huge part of Getting S**t Done. Being able to work around all the roadblocks that you've got to come up with a solution. And I also am not afraid of doing things that I've never done before, which I think uh, can freak some people out. But now in this role at a much higher leadership level, it's about instilling that into our team leads and even our entry-level teammates that at XYPN, the customer comes first. Our member comes first. We've gotta be able to be willing to act, to get the things done that they need. So it's not just about, "Oh, I'll take this one idea and I'm going to hang it on the shelf." That's not effective and that's not good customer-centric behavior. But taking an attitude of doing what it takes to get across the finish line, even if it's not perfect and I think perfection can really be a hindrance to people. I've never been a perfectionist. I've never been a straight-A student. I'm not looking for that. But it is something that a minimum viable product needs to get out the door at some point. Being able to say at the start of a day, here's what I'm going to get done and I'm going to ship it essentially. I'm going to get it out the door is one way to look at it and I've found it is contagious when you've got people working with that kind of attitude. A lot of people want to level up to it. 

[00:12:08] Cynthia Meyer: Oh, that's so powerful to say that. That energetic level of productivity is contagious in a good way.

[00:12:15] Maddy Roche: Totally in a good way. But I also have to recognize that's not everyone's MO. They don't want to work like that. As a manager, I found that I had to change and shift my approach as I built teams. As a supervisor of teammates, you can't always just want to get shit done. You actually have to let them have space to get things done themselves and things like that. So I've had to evolve over the years and know when to turn it up and wanted to turn it down. 

[00:12:39] Cynthia Meyer: I always think of it as, we have to build in our businesses, we have to build a portfolio of thinking styles. Diversification makes anything stronger. Diversified investment portfolio is more resilient. Diversified people portfolio is more resilient. At least that's how I think about it. 

[00:12:55] Maddy Roche: Absolutely. I think All of us need to be able to evolve. I think one of the scariest things about living this one and beautiful life is staying the same. I think progress is one of the most beautiful things and progress in ourselves and just our approach to things. 

Are we staying up and worried about the same thing year after year? If so, you're doing it wrong. You want to be worried about different things every year and, keep it fresh. That allows you to approach problems differently because you're testing and iterating on things all the time and you're learning.

I think one of my biggest recommendations is always just to invest in yourself and that is through exposure to different projects and different people and different challenges because that educates you on the next step for your own business. 

[00:13:38] Cynthia Meyer: So how did you get started in your career?

[00:13:41] Maddy Roche: I was a paralegal for about three and a half, four years after college.

And that was because I plan on going to law school. So I moved to Seattle and worked at a law firm and really found the grind not fun at all. I didn't like the limitations in terms of flexibility on how I could live my life. I had to be in the office and be wearing certain things and it was not how I worked.

And so I really was working off of a small paycheck, living in Seattle alone, and I had to figure out how to make it work. And so I really fell in love with my own personal finances and figuring out how to pay down my student loans and make things work. And I started doing research and I saw Merrill Lynch's training program. I'm like, what? This isn't what I would want to do if I got into financial planning, but then I stumbled across the CFP® curriculum. And that's when the doors open to this idea of fee-only. This idea of RIA and creating your own businesses. And so I cold-called and cold emailed a number of people in the Seattle area and one of those calls ended up being a lifetime now of a friend and a mentor. That woman's name is Kate Holmes. Now Katie Brayden. She was a founding member of XYPN. She encouraged me to get my CFP®. She wanted me to come work at her firm, Belmore Financial, back in the day. But when Alan and Michael circulated this job description or founder circulated the job description to our founding members, she emailed them and said, "I plan to hire her, but you should hire her now." And so I interviewed. I pitched myself about how I get shit done and how my work ethic would be a perfect match for this budding startup and took off from there. I left my job. I took a pay cut and they shipped me a little computer and told me I can work whenever I want and take off as much vacation as I want. I started getting shit done in my bedroom and from there the company continued to grow and we established. I moved to Bozeman about four years ago for the organization. And that was my entrance in. 

[00:15:32] Cynthia Meyer: And now am I right? Do I hear some Midwest in your voice? 

[00:15:35] Maddy Roche: I am a Chicagoan. I am a sixth-generation Chicagoan.

[00:15:38] Cynthia Meyer: So now you're in Montana. Everybody is watching Big Sky Living on TV and fantasizing about their log cabin in Montana. What's the best part of living in Montana? 

[00:15:50] Maddy Roche: I was actually just having dinner with a friend and his wife last night and they were thinking about moving here.

I think it's the balance that I've been able to achieve. I think it's the grounding nature of this kind of land and space that I didn't know as a city girl could exist. I had a more calming level of existence than I expected. There is something about living in a huge state with just about a million people in it and a town of 60,000 people. I think the best part is that I feel a deep sensation of grounding here. I feel a connection to the land that I didn't know I had. I think that has freed me up a bit to become. Probably a better Maddy than I would have been.

Just being able to have space and quite frankly, it takes me 45 minutes to run errands every weekend and it takes people in the cities several hours to run errands in a weekend. Just that extra time to be able to be calm and in my own space, in this environment has been the best part.

[00:16:48] Cynthia Meyer: I love that you're learn-by-doing person. You went around and encouraged people all day long. Who are the folks that encourage you? Do you have a mentor or have you worked with a coach? What keeps your spirits so zen? 

[00:17:00] Maddy Roche: Yeah. Oh, I love that. Outside of the core value of Getting Shit Done, our core value is mission-driven in XY. I've been so incredibly lucky to help grow a network of people that are just genuinely wonderful humans.

So I have found, deep friendships through the members of XYPN. Several women and men, I would consider my mentors and friends and I'd call them if I was having a hard time. I have about three or four kind of little angels, I call them, of my life. They will ping me and ask how things are going and they've been really bought into my career. Katie Braden is one of them, and they want to provide. They want to see me succeed. I feel that the little angels in my life are pulling me up and supporting me in that way. When I get a text from them or an email, like time to sit down and talk, like, how are things going?

I feel an accountability to them. I also have taken a page out of the book that we've taught at XY, which is to get a mastermind group. For about four and a half years now maybe even longer, I've been meeting in a mastermind format with two very close people of fellow professional women. We meet every week and we set goals and we talk on a quarterly basis about what we're going to achieve the next quarter. And so I've always had that group supporting me. 

And then of course I have a mom that likes to light a flame under my butt to climb the ladder and to be as successful as I can be, which I appreciate. But I also have to as a grown woman, ask myself, "Am I living my life or other people's lives?" And that's always a question that I think we should all be asking ourselves. I think it's very easy, especially as women, to get scripted. I almost went to law school because I thought it was what I was supposed to do and that's just not true. So there's that fine, beautiful balance between what your people want you and could see you doing and what you truly believe internally is what you should be doing. and so it's that balance. 

[00:18:40] Cynthia Meyer: I asked this question a lot when I'm meeting folks for the first time in a professional situation like if I give you a magic wand, it's my Harry Potter question, I give you the magic wand and in 10 years it turns out exactly the way that you want it to. What does that look like? 

[00:18:55] Maddy Roche: I really appreciate the question. I think about it all the time. I've worked through life planning myself and have had that opportunity to envision a life where money is no issue. And what would you do? I've shared this with people before, but I'm deeply connected to my mortality. And I've been told by my friends that I am deeply connected to my mortality in ways that other people aren't. Meaning that I just think about it a lot. I think without today could be the last day. To me, finding a level of balance that you feel like you've achieved and what to me, I own my home in Bozeman. I have a dog, I have a space that I've cultivated that I love. I've achieved that like financial component of it. I've set myself up for success. I'm not looking to be a multimillionaire. I'm looking to be able to live a comfortable life. I dream about being able to be a professional friend and person and mentor to people. I want to be available to jump on a plane if your father's passing and I want to be able to be available with my aging parents. I want to be available to my friends if they need a place to stay. So I want to be able to build myself up in 10 years to be able to be flexible enough that I can be that professional person to someone in a personal capacity. If that makes sense. 

[00:20:08] Cynthia Meyer: Wow, that's very powerful and, there are lots of ways that we can all use love in the world to make an impact on other people. We can do it through work and we can do it in our personal relationships. I absolutely love that's a goal. It's not just the work thing.

What do you listen to like when you're in the car driving 45 minutes to your errands? What are you listening to? Because I know you're a podcaster. So you appreciate the art form. What do you put on in the car? What kinds of things do you like?

[00:20:34] Maddy Roche: Oh, you're sweet. I was a big audiobook person for a while, but I read a lot, to begin with, and I actually prefer to read versus to listen to it.

One of my goals recently is that I want to be belly laughing every day. When I 

[00:20:45] Cynthia Meyer: Awesome goal.

[00:20:46] Maddy Roche: Yes, and that's because I think I need to have more fun in my life. I need to be able to really enjoy the emotions of fun. And I'm trying to like intentionally listen to things that lighten my mood.

I've been going to a lot of standup comedy and bringing more comedy into my life. I've been listening to some podcasts in the work realm. You know what I have to remind myself, I have a stack of business books all the time, but there are people creating massive amounts of content about the things that we as a company are looking at and I am thinking about professionally, that, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Like XYPN is not the only organization that has to think about how to get over the hundred teammate mark. There are other companies doing it. There's the net promoter podcast that Bain and company puts on and that's a fabulous conversation around customer-centric things. Yeah, it's a beautiful podcast. And then I've listened to a variety. I've studied Native American policy through college and have a lot interest in that area. So there's a number of podcasts following a couple of Supreme court cases that I follow up on.

And then I've got my great music. So, that's all what's in my mind! 

[00:21:46] Cynthia Meyer: That's what's on your speakers in the car. Huh? That's so interesting. Office Ladies? Yes or no? 

[00:21:53] Maddy Roche: Is that a podcast? 

[00:21:54] Cynthia Meyer: It's a podcast. Yeah. It's true. The actresses from The Office and they do commentary on individual Office episodes and it's very funny. I don't think you can binge it, right? There's hundreds of episodes, but it's pretty funny. 

[00:22:10] Maddy Roche: Oh, I will listen. I have watched every episode of The Office. That would be great.

[00:22:14] Cynthia Meyer: When we were driving back from a trip to see my parents a couple of weeks ago, my husband, Steve, and I were listening to a Michael Lewis's podcast. They got it with The Big Short. Very interesting. Yeah. Very interesting. And Brooke Castillo. Love Brooke Castillo's podcast. The Life Coach School.

Okay, so I'll go off my detour here and get back to business. What is the best piece of advice that you have ever received? 

[00:22:38] Maddy Roche: I think it's invest in yourself. Put yourself first. I'm sure that you've gotten that as an answer before on the podcast, but I think nothing really works unless you work. And I think us as women and as many of us have kids and things like that, if we're not putting ourselves first, we're not doing any justice and that's not a selfish thing. It just isn't. I've had to really move past this idea that is selfish of me to say, "I pay myself first. I invest in myself first." But thinking about kind of this challenging time that we're all in, there's no time like now to ask ourselves what do we need to feel healthy, balanced and grounded?

That way we can bring ourselves into the world more authentically and more powerfully. But I really do think it's invest in yourself whether that be monetarily or educational-wise. I will surely have a different answer 10 minutes from now.

[00:23:26] Cynthia Meyer: But compound investment returns, right? Some more new answers, just keeping coming up.

[00:23:30] Maddy Roche: Totally. 

[00:23:31] Cynthia Meyer: Are you one of those people that does like a theme for the year? Do you set yourself some annual goals and I'm not just talking about financial goals, more like spiritual goals are who you want to be goals. 

[00:23:42] Maddy Roche: 100%. I've got notebooks filled with that. The study group I work within isn't just a professional one, it's very much a spiritual/personal one. We've been through a really deep and serious things together. And part of the past several years is that I've think I've entered into my life a lot more authentically and on my terms. This year balance is a big theme.

Nutritious meals, as bizarre as that is, is a big thing for me. I need to be eating consistently and eating nourishing things. So that's on my plate as well. I really want to bring more fun and laughter into my life. And I think I can cultivate that with people, but I want to receive it as well.

I really want to find the humor in things. See the lightness in things. One of my big things that I think has made me really enjoy life recently is that, and this may be relevant to the listeners, is that in the past five months I've opened my front room up to Airbnb. Yeah, I've marketed the house is as being an LGBTQ+ BIPOC, sober, safe sanctuary. That to me is niched in terms of who I'm asking it to share my home.

[00:24:44] Cynthia Meyer: And so that's pretty niche. 

[00:24:46] Maddy Roche: I've had the most beautiful experiences with these people that come and find my space to be a healing space and a calming space. And that's all of a sudden, I'm realizing I'm giving back in that way. And that is like deeply fulfilling. And on top of that, I'm able to meet like really diverse people from diverse places.

And that, to me, I want to keep cultivating a diverse and beautiful, supportive healing community on my personal side. 

[00:25:11] Cynthia Meyer: Oh, that is absolutely fascinating. I did not know that. I'm so interested to know that. Do you have any guidance for somebody who was thinking about being a host or home sharer?

I love how you've picked up a particular type of person that you want to invite into your home as a guest because it is your home after all. What guidance would you give people if they had an idea in their head? Oh, I might like to do this, but I don't know. How much work is it? What would you say? 

[00:25:37] Maddy Roche: Yeah, I think the work is a welcomed work. What I'm being asked to do is to keep my house in a beautiful shape and what a gift to me and my house to be able to do that. I wouldn't vacuum as frequently and if I wasn't having guests.

And trust me, I would never touch the vacuum. 

[00:25:52] Cynthia Meyer: So you can actually, delegate that, but...

[00:25:56] Maddy Roche: We have a labor shortage here in Bozeman. I have to, I have to flip the room like I do today. I gotta make sure my schedule works. Really, it's allowed me to trim down what's in my home. It's allowed me to practice detachment with my home. It's allowed me to create a space that I would hope is healing and beautiful to someone. What's unique about this is that Bozeman is known on the political side, but also not necessarily to be a diverse place period.

And so to have an opportunity to hang Black Lives Matter gay flag in one of my pictures, I'm able to actually have people feel safe coming to my home, which I've really appreciated. When I was doing the pros and cons of doing this, I really wanted to give back, I really wanted to be able to meet new people. I really wanted to share my space. I really wanted to create a protective environment and all of a sudden it was like, "Oh, I could do that by Airbnb in my room." 

And I've had the opportunity to sit and meditate with a young man that I would've never had the opportunity to engage with. We shared meals together. They look at my book collections and they leave me beautiful notes. 

I've spent my life volunteering at different organizations and things.

And the past couple of years, I've moved away from that. And I've thought God, I need to get back to giving back. And then I realized like, "No, I think I've just leveled up the way I'm giving back." 

[00:27:10] Cynthia Meyer: I think you have. 

[00:27:11] Maddy Roche: ....from XY conferences and am now I'm sharing my home to people. I keep the price point at, I think a really humble price point under a hundred dollars most of the time, and to me in a small mountain town where you can't get a hotel room for less than $300, to be able to stumble into my home and because I've marketed it the way and because I keep it in the shape that it's in people step in and they find it to be, they treat it with such respect. I haven't had anyone be disrespectful. I haven't had anyone come in with energy that was anything other than deeply appreciative of me opening my home. I feel like I've just started on the journey of what this could be. Two rooms now. But I think for audience members to think, " Who am I? Okay, I'm a young parent of young, small kids, what do you need when you travel? You could put up a room and a half and have a room for small children to be able to stay in. And then you cultivate a place where families can stay and you're giving back to them. I think you can really target the type of person you want. Because this isn't meant to just be some room. I want it to be an experience for both of us. I'm finding a have higher level of satisfaction than I think I anticipated. 

[00:28:16] Cynthia Meyer: I love hearing this host story that you have here. I hope that other people who are listening will consider, you know if they have been percolating on whether or not they would want to try to host it through one of the home-sharing platforms that it's worth it if you think about who you want to invite, right? It's not just leaving your home, necessarily, for a weekend and having somebody else come and stay there, which can also be helpful. It's not just about the money. It's about the experience of being the host.

[00:28:42] Maddy Roche: Totally. And I think I'm being compensated more in that way than I am financially. And to me. The idea of leaving my home in its entirety. It spooks me because this is where I heal and live and restore. But the idea of I could share that. I don't have to give it up. To be able to rent the house all month or something like that.

[00:29:00] Cynthia Meyer: What are you curious about right now? 

[00:29:04] Maddy Roche: No, I love that. I'm curious about a lot of things. I'm curious about, what I think we would just witness with COVID. There's some major shift in power dynamics between employees and employers. I think there's deep shifts in values. Do we need massive consumption or do we need to start giving back? I think we're at the precipice of some major movements. People movements and otherwise, and I'm here for it. I think we, like all things, want to see progress. Have the same kind of boom in the 90s-2000 s isn't necessarily what we have to do.

I think a lot of us need to get back to our roots about who we are as living, breathing creatures here on earth and what our relationship is to the larger experience of being alive. I do hope that people through COVID have learned that we've taken a lot for granted and that it's our time to begin thinking about and harnessing some power of giving back and changing the world in a positive way. Whether that be through laughter or sharing space or building businesses. Building businesses was one of the fastest ways we can make an impact and, through being employers and serving our customers. If we had more companies be customer-centric, the way that we're demanding them to be, the better. I'm not against companies. I'm against corporate profits in masses.  We can have value for customers that also have value for the owners of the business and I don't want us to think that they're mutually exclusive as we proceed into the future. 

[00:30:25] Cynthia Meyer: Sure. One of the best ways to change the world is to start a business. 

It has been an absolute delight to continue our conversation, and I hope we'll keep having it over time. Either, you know, on a podcast or just over a cup of coffee. So thank you very much, Maddy. 

We will drop in the show notes where you can find her online.

[00:30:43] Maddy Roche: Awesome. Thank you so much, Cynthia. And shout out to you for being the business owner. You are a shining light in our community and I know to your friends and family and clients. So thank you for doing this. 

[00:30:54] Cynthia Meyer: Thanks, Maddy.

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