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Another month of positive growth, but still firmly in the slow season. We had a little snow yesterday and I'll be very happy if that's our last. I'm ready to get outside!

I continue to try and spend more time focusing on sales and marketing, which shows up in a few different ways. I like taking any opportunity to get new people in the space to show them around, which helps them spread the word. I've started hosting a monthly coworking day with the Asheville Wanderlust Society. AWS is a group for travel lovers, both locals and visitors, that spun up last year to try and replicate the best of the Couch Surfing community. Talk about people that understand the hostel life. I've met some great folks and it's been cool being able to share the space with them.

I've also been thinking more about how to more effectively reach younger audiences. I like to pretend I'm still young, and after a fresh shave, I can damn sure pull it off, but we could definitely do a better job of attracting the youth. I spoke to a class of Entrepreneurship students from Mars Hill University about my story, and it was helpful to see what clicked and what didn't with that audience. In general, the college age kids in the US just don't travel as much (at least internationally) as some other countries, and so the hostel concept is still foreign to many of them. There's probably an education piece as part of any marketing effort that could help with this. Related to that, we're fortunate to be bringing on one of those entrepreneurship students as a Spring intern, and part of what they'll be tasked with is helping outreach to younger audiences. I'm not afraid to hire to try and supplement my weaknesses :)

I've also been using AI to help build some custom software to help the hostel operate more smoothly. First step: build out a daily info dashboard to replace the handwritten one in the lobby. The one we had was fine, but it was still manual work that I didn't want to do every day, or would forget to do, and my handwriting is awful to boot. Now guests can find the daily weather, events, helpful links and Wi-Fi info all in one place, and most importantly, it's legible. Several other fun software projects on the docket - more to come!

I'll also look to hire another part-time employee this month, which will be assisted by my other AI-led project, Patchwork, a platform that helps businesses fill part-time roles. I wrote more about it here, in case you're curious!!

The full green screen is good again. I did have a one-night whole house rental, which buoyed these numbers a bit. It reinforces the need to continue to be creative about different ways to generate revenue.

The beginning of March has been slow, hoping it will pick up again with some nice events in the next few weeks. We'll see!

Book Your Stay

When my part‑time remote role at Gumroad wrapped up at the end of December, I found myself with a bit more free time and a lot less income. I decided to finally try and build something I've thought about for months. Hiring for part-time roles is time consuming and it's hard to find the right fit. I've long noticed that existing job search platforms try to solve every employment issue, resulting in bloated, chaotic systems that just don't work for us. In conversations with several hospitality business owners, the frustration was unanimous—they were tired of sifting through endless listings that rarely delivered the right candidates.

That's what sparked the idea for Patchwork. I set out to build a lean platform dedicated solely to connecting local hospitality businesses with professionals seeking flexible, part‑time opportunities. On Patchwork, employers can post positions that are easy to manage, and jobseekers can find roles that align perfectly with their schedules—making the hiring process both efficient and effective.

I won't claim that Patchwork will revolutionize the industry or that it's destined for massive success. The truth is, I'm not sure what will come of it. But building an entire product from scratch, exploring a new customer base, and tackling a fresh problem has been a fun challenge.

One of the most exciting parts of this process has been rediscovering my passion for coding. With the help of AI‑assisted tools like Cursor, I've been able to get back into coding in a way that's both fun and efficient—something I hadn't experienced in a long time. These tools have allowed me to focus on creative problem‑solving rather than getting bogged down in repetitive tasks. I built patchwork and wrote probably 1% of the code. AI wrote the rest. It's getting good.

Looking ahead, I'll continue to improve Patchwork and if it gains traction, eventually expand it beyond Asheville. The goal is simple: save employers time by simplifying the search for quality, part‑time employees, and help professionals fill their schedules with the right opportunities.

Thanks for following along on this experiment. I'd appreciate any feedback, or if you have any questions about the process, don't hesitate to reach out!

One month into the new year and seeing some great progress. The hostel is still slow, as is town in general, but that's to be expected. Still hard to dissect how much is seasonal vs. storm-related, but as some data is trickling in, I think the forecast is better than some I've seen. For example, Asheville vacation rental occupancy in November (purposely excluding hotels as they had FEMA vouchers) was at 49% vs. 60% in Nov 2023. Asheville being down 20% YoY isn't good, but also not near as bad as some estimates have projected. And by comparison, my November occupancy was quite a bit higher than November 2023. Startup revenue growth can still happen in a tough macro environment, and I hope that trend continues. Still just trying to focus on what I can control.

I closed for 8 days mid-month to take my annual planning retreat. Last year I spent it on the Pacific coast of Mexico, but this year I scaled back all the way to the sunny coast of Florida (thank you in advance for your pity). It was part productive and part fun, as friends and family joined me towards the back half of the week. I could always look back and say I should've spent more time doing x,y, or z, but between the trip and a staff meeting before I left, we have some great ideas for the year and have the wheels in motion on a few.

For example, I've switched our room configuration around a little bit. One of the 8-bed coed dorms is now our female dorm, and the old 4-bed female dorm is now a coed (and slightly more expensive). Our female dorm occupancy was higher than coed and I wanted to open up more slots for ladies that wanted to book that room. Plus, now we can have a slight premium option for those that would prefer to have fewer roommates. This feels like a small but positive change.

We're revisiting our marketing strategy (or lack of one) too. It's not something that comes naturally to me, but several books have suggested to me that marketing is in fact important as a business owner. I'll take their word for it for the moment. We've sent out our first marketing email, targeting all past guests. The idea is to share events in the upcoming month, feature a new business, and in general, remind our past guests of the fun they can have in Asheville. Stats on the first email newsletter: 54% open rate, .7% unsubscribe rate, and 0 new bookings using the newsletter discount code. Got some good feedback generally on the newsletter but I hope that bookings number turns positive. One of the things that annoys me about marketing is not everything is attributable or measurable. I'm accepting it (for now).

As mentioned in that newsletter, we've launched part 1 of our rewards program. It's been an idea since I started, but I finally got around to setting up the technical plumbing to track it. We may change the parameters, rewards, etc., but it's good to have the data flowing automatically.

And lastly, we got our front yard monument sign installed (pic below!) This should help a lot with brand awareness; we've transitioned from a weird green house on the side of the road, to a weird house with a cool mural on the side of the road, to now a cool muraled house with a proper sign that will allow people to Google us as they're sitting in traffic. We have seen an increase in Google search traffic since the sign was installed, and that certainly can't hurt.

In general, I'm excited about the ability to move faster. The end of my other job helps that. AI helps that. Growing the team will help that. Excited to share just as many updates from February too. Thanks for reading!

Getting some more green on the board! Nice too, considering we were closed for 8 nights of the month. The crazy high YoY changes are mostly due to just how slow Jan 2024 was. That month, I had 10 guests and 2 of them were related to me.

Either way, this does show good growth. Back a year ago, people barely knew we existed. A lot of our January 2025 revenue was from local partner referrals and/or repeat guests. That's always a good sign, and something that should always help keep us afloat during Asheville's slow months.

Would love any feedback. Until next time!

Book Your Stay

Well I've gotten to the 'Set Up Blog' item on my To-Do list, so here we are. I wanted to set up a blog to document my experience abroad for several reasons - to serve as a helpful resource for would-be future travelers, to keep friends and family at home apprised of my whereabouts, and to have a portal to share any life lessons I pick up along the way with people who don't have the good fortune to go on a life-changing trip such as this.

Speaking of to-do lists, my current one (or three) give me a fair amount of anxiety. It's like that feeling you get when you're packing for a weekend getaway and you can't remember if you packed your bathing suit. Except you multiply that by 4 months, and instead of going to Destin you're going to a Spanish speaking country 5,000 miles away.

The to-do lists really break down into two categories - shit to do and stuff to bring. Luckily there isn't much that I could forget which isn't replaceable or unnecessary. I don't plan on taking many things...clothes and electronics mainly. I've tried to become less reliant on "stuff", which is far easier said than done, and I don't always practice what I preach. But the less time I spend on materialistic things, the more time I will have to fill with new people, new stories, and new experiences.

But I still feel like I have so much left to do before I leave. Luckily, after next week, I'll have 40 more hours per week to get stuff accomplished. Get my house ready to rent, find lodging, find work, sell my car, figure out health insurance, pack up my stuff, move my stuff...the list goes on. All the while still wanting to take this last month and spend time with friends and family that I'll miss dearly while I'm gone.

It's a lot to remember. But have no fear...I have to-do lists.

Well my life without a job has officially started. Definitely a weird feeling. But first I should reflect back on where I left. When I think back to my last semester of college, going through the interview process, I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I wanted a job. A job that paid a good salary so I could pay my bills and buy cool stuff. A job in a big city in the Southeast, preferably Atlanta.

I interviewed with several companies, some ending better than others. And then I went into the Home Depot interview process (with something like 25 other developers from other colleges there) and thought I crushed it. But I still didn't really know what I was interviewing for (a generic IT Developer position). Turns out, I did crush it, enough at least. I finally got the offer (the only offer I ended up getting that cycle), I was excited but more so relieved. I checked the boxes...I got a gig in Atlanta with a good salary so I could pay my bills and buy cool stuff.

I started working on a software I had never even heard of, but somehow managed to figure it out, mostly due to having a very helpful and patient manager. Through out my years at HD, this pattern continued to repeat...meeting and working with amazing, helpful people. It's what allowed me to be successful. My strength has always been building relationships with good people and learning from them as much as I can, and Home Depot was no different. But beyond that, I met so many people that I can truly call friends. Maybe I initially thought that work friends were just for keeping me sane while at work. But I'm as close to these people as I am anyone. I've laughed with them, traveled the world with them, and had way too many beers with them. It's what made leaving last Friday tough. But I find comfort in knowing regardless of where any of us are working in the future, we'll always remain friends.

Now back to the present. I'm doing my best to make these 3-4 weeks before leaving as productive as they can be. There's always a fine line between being productive and being busy. But there is a difference...I want to do more than just 'not sit around', time spent needs to be focused on accomplishing a goal. My two current goals are: get as prepared for my trip as possible, and spend as much time with friends and family as I can. I feel pretty good about what I've accomplished so far, but it's still only 2 days in. I'm also working on developing a morning routine, but I'll post about that later.

That's enough for now...until next time, I'm logging off.

Yesterday I got my 3rd and final epidural shot in my back, conveniently only 2 hours after the actual appointment time *deep breaths, Ryan, let it go*

The shots definitely do provide some relief. And I'm not sure how weird this makes me, but there's something intriguing about watching them give you the shot through the x-ray machine. The length of the needle can be a bit bothersome, but it's cool watching the medicine flow exactly where they want it to. But when doc starts saying "Ok, tell me if the pain shoots down your leg...", that means the pain is about to shoot down your leg. Just a heads up.

When I first went to the doctor in January, I would've said you were crazy if you told me this issue would still be lingering 7 months later, but alas, here we are. I can say it's definitely gotten better - I don't fear sneezing anymore, which is nice. It's really just developed into more of an annoyance. I was worried it would bother me in Colombia, and it really never impacted me. All I can do now is take my meds, get my stretches and work outs in, and let it work itself out.

Mark that off the bucket list. I finally got the chance to do it. I took a kayak on an 8 hour drive to its (hopeful) final resting place.

When my mom said she wanted to take it down on her car, I laughed. She drives a Mazda 6. It's built for hauling soccer balls, not watercraft. She said "Don't worry, I saw on the internet where you can make a rack out of a pool noodle and some ratchet straps". Oh. Good. She's got it all figured out.

So I showed up at her house yesterday at 10 AM, and well, we were on the road by 12:30. Two noodles, 4 straps, and countless offers of help from Mother later, it was on there. And I'll be honest. I was proud. That baby wasn't moving.

My pride was short-lived, fading approximately 1.5 miles away from her house. The first time the car exceeded 40 MPH. That's when I heard it. The steady, constant, loud hum. Like bees. Lots of them. Aggressive stubborn bees that never retreat. I thought maybe it just takes a few minutes to settle in. Nope. Then you get on the highway. Louder. I made the completely unsafe decision to wear both headphones and listen to podcasts. Maintaining my sanity was worth the risk. But really all that did was make me think make me hate the kayak and the podcast. 90 minutes in, as we stopped at a rest stop, Engineer Appleton kicked in. I realized couldn't last 8 more hours. I went to school for this, damnit. And I had the perfect solution. Put a towel in the door crack. TADA!

Confidently, I start the car up again and cruise out of the rest stop, wondering if people truly appreciate the creative masterpiece they just witnessed. Then I get to the on ramp and the tears start to well up. It's back so soon. but now there's the added sound of the towel whipping against the door - I made it worse. What an idiot.

Two hours later, as I stared ahead a beaten man with no hope, I threw the hail mary. I phoned a friend. Google. My search history now contains "kayak on roof LOUD NOISES MAKE IT STOP". And of course, the first damn link has the simplest fix known to man. And this is the reason I make this post. If you take anything from this, just remember: When attaching a kayak to your roof with pool noodles and ratchet straps, apppppppaarently you need to put a simple fucking twist in the line where it isn't flat on the kayak or the car. That's it. One twist in the the strap and the sound is gone. I can comfortably say it's single-handedly the best thing the Internet has ever given me. So please learn from my 3 hours of Hell on Earth. And spread the word.

Yesterday was fantastic. I had my going away party with my friends and had an absolute blast. Started at Monday Night Brewing at 1:30 and didn't stop until midnight. It was an All-American theme, so I tossed on a red shirt and was planning on getting accessories when I got to MNB. Little did I know, my buddy Harper had different plans. And when a friend presents you with an Uncle Sam costume, you can't turn it down. So one quick trip to the bathroom and I had morphed into a true patriot. I certainly turned some heads, and on the bright side, it made it very easy for people to find our group.

We went from Monday Night Brewing for some food and beverages at Krog Street Market, then walked over to Ladybird where the shots began flowing. The hazy nightcap at MJQ was a great way to end it...I'd love to see video of Uncle Sam dancing the night away.

I drank entirely too much beer and am paying for it today, but with such a great group of people out with me I didn't want it to end. I will certainly miss these people when I'm away. I look forward to meeting new friends abroad, but they will have some tough shoes to fill.

Starting from last Monday, it's been a bit of a whirlwind for me. I've been so busy getting everything ready that it didn't really give me the time to get nervous. Probably for the best. But when you combine the stress of selling a car, moving out of a house, and packing for a 4 month stay, safe to say the stress builds. But I made it to Thursday. I had one final dinner with mom, got to the airport in plenty of time, grabbed a beer with my buddy Ken, and took a deep breath.

We got into Chile early Friday morning and hit the ground running until I left this morning. It wasn't a city with a ton of major tourist attractions, but we got in a good mix of in-town hiking, sightseeing, and patio day-drinking. It was nice having Ken there to kind of ease into this solo travel, instead of jumping in head first. He left Sunday to go check out a few other cities before meeting back up with me in BA on Saturday.

Arriving down here has also made me realize that my Spanish has a long way to go. The Chileans were really cool with it but I'm definitely limited. Best example: Yesterday I ordered some mystery meat (chitlins?) sandwich by accident. But to be fair, I think the gentleman was trying to tell me I wouldn't like it. I think. Anyways...I at least made it 3 bites in. Oh well, chalk it up to experience.

Just got to BA this afternoon and am able to relax a bit. I'm in the Eco Pampa Hostel for a week before heading to my airbnb for a few. The Eco Pampa has been a really nice stay. The staff speak many languages and are very helpful with recommendations or booking reservations if Spanish is not your native tongue. They also have a cool patio and herb farm on their roof for enjoying some fresh air and getting a different view of the city. Check them out!

Getting to the end of the first week and the comfort level is rising. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a lost little puppy at times, but now it's more like a lost puppy who can get back to a street he knows and find his way again.

I'm starting to appreciate the importance of decent conversation. While I'm working on my Spanish (more on that in a bit), it'll be important for me to keep in touch with some English speakers to stay sane. I've done a decent job of that this week. I met up with an Expat group on Tuesday which I found online. A collection of ~15 people who have moved here from around the word and speak English. The crowd is generally a little bit older than me, but seem to be good people that could be very helpful for me on this journey. One lady, who is the dean of a program for international students, mentioned helping me get involved with some of the events her students do. Another guy has a lead on a place to stay. So it will definitely be an event I attend on a regular basis to continue to learn.

Last night, I met up with a friend of a friend who I was introduced to, a good Australian bloke (sorry I can't help it I become Australian pretty quickly) and we had a few beers. A younger guy, he's gone through the same things I'm going through now so he had some good insight, and was an all-around good mate.

I've also done my fair share of wandering, just getting the hang of where everything is, the different neighborhoods, finding decent affordable restaurants, etc. When you're traveling alone in a foreign country with no real schedule, your to-do lists change quite a bit. Wednesday, for example, I wanted to walk to Puerto Madero (the nice district right on the water), about 5 miles away with the route I was taking, check it out, and then buy a metro card and take my first journey on the BA metro.Well I go in to buy a pass and the guy asks me for my passport, which I obviously don't have on me. So my 5 mile luxurious stroll turned into about an 11 mile march out of pure stubbornness. But damn did that pizza and beer at the end of it taste delicious.

And as I mentioned in an earlier post, my Spanish just isn't where it needs to be. So Thursday, I went over to a Spanish School and met with the academic director to discuss classes. This led to a proficiency exam on the spot with fill in the blank and a paragraph to write at the end. I had the same nerves I haven't felt in 10 years about not studying enough for a test. Whatever level my bombing of that test put my into, I'm apparently the only student in it next week. So instead of 4 hour daily group classes, I get 2 hour daily personal sessions until someone else enrolls at my level. Shit's about to get real. It isn't super cheap, but I believe a very worthwhile investment.

Now the weekend is here, and I'll experience BA nightlife (which is supposed to be absurd) for the first time. I'm going to find out what this town is made of. More likely, it's going to find out what I'm made of.

I've had a nice week since the last time I updated so I'll try and hit the true highlights, while trying to avoid telling everyone about every time I aimlessly walk around the city. Tomas, the guy who lives at my AirBnb, returned to the city on Friday (he works in the country during the week). He kindly invited me to join him and his friends for dinner that night. Dinner was great – one of the weirdest collections of foods I've seen at a dinner table in one sitting – chicken tenders, meat and cheese plate, guacamole, sushi, sardines…I think the avocados make it a healthy meal, right? Tomas' English is pretty strong; the other three guys, less so (a common theme for me nowadays, as expected). So I did a lot of listening, but I picked up on the highlights, including one of the guys Martin expecting a new child and moving to Chile. Which probably explains why he brought 4 really nice bottles of wine. It was my pleasure to celebrate on his future child's behalf. After I had my first experience with Fernet Branca, a liquor popular amongst Argentinian youngsters, we called it a night around 3.

I'm starting to get back into a workout routine, but without a gym, I'm having to get a bit more creative. The running part is easy - there are tons of parks nearby my AirBnb for me to burn off the extra empanada. Strength training is a bit trickier. I've found a park nearby that has a pull up bar and a few other apparatuses so that is now where I work on my form. Now you may be thinking the same thing I think regularly…that I'm not exactly what you picture when you think 'guy who works out in public parks'. But you make do with what you have. I've found that letting out a good grunt occasionally helps earn people's respect.

Last night I attended my first Mundo Lingo event in town. Mundo Lingo is an organization which puts together language exchanges for people from all different backgrounds to come together and practice speaking in their non-native tongue (and where the flags in the picture come from). It's a bit like speed-dating, except the first priority isn't se..err...finding true love. I had a halfway respectable chat with a Colombian hombre in Spanish for a while and enjoyed a few brews. Ended up weaseling into a conversation in English (whatever, it was a moment of weakness, sue me) between some American kids who just came down for an exchange program and a few Argentinians working on their English. One of the girls in the group encouraged me to finally stop being a coward and helped me take my first bus ride in the city (didn't have a ton of other options anyways as the subway had stopped running). But it was harmless and it was nice to check it off my to-do list.

And finally today, I met up with Graciela. She's great. Graciela is a woman I met at my weekly Expat group meeting (at Starbucks no less, how very Expat of them). She's probably in her mid-60s, and was born in BA but moved to San Francisco for many years before moving back here in 2005. I was mentioning to her at our last meeting how I couldn't get anyone to break my 500 peso bills, which is all the ATM was giving out, and she offered to go with me to her bank to help me break them. She said while we're at it, I can show you around my neighborhood to see some other banks that would give out lower denomination bills. It turned into a 3-hour crash course in how to be a more effective gringo in BA. I learned not to buy fruits, veggies, and meat at supermarkets. She showed me the best supermarket to go to (the one I've been using is "crap", apparently). But we walked probably 50 blocks, had a lovely chat, and I learned a ton. I've now deemed her my adopted Argentinian mother (not to her face…yet). She always warns me about very motherly things, like how to not get pick-pocketed, or to not eat the Chinese food with extra MSG. She's actually going back to the states in a few weeks, but it's so nice having someone with experience here and is so willing to help.

I'm researching on the easiest way to add a comments section to the blog, but until then, I welcome anyone's feedback – comments, questions, things you'd like to hear more about, things you'd rather never hear again, etc. Email me at jryanappleton@gmail.com or any of the social media networks. I'd love to hear from you!