We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Wonkyung Lee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Wonkyung, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
As with many things in a world perpetually seeking bigger and better things, the square footage of our homes is expanding even as families are getting smaller and nearly a third of our households are occupied by people living alone. As a perfect home is measured by Instagramable granite countertops, hardwood floors, and marble bathrooms, all contributing to inflating housing costs, we’ve forgotten the basic premise of a dwelling. A house is a home. It’s where we rest our bodies and souls from a hard day at work. It’s where we find refuge from the cold. It’s our sanctuary. With this in mind, all the Bird Nest homes are curated for safety and then furnished with care to cater to personal spaces and communal living. We understand that living with housemates elicits images of noise, dirty dishes in the sink, abuse of commonly shared items and spaces, and unpleasant encounters. As trivial as it may sound, these inconveniences hinder people from living together and building communities. At Bird Nest, we aim to create an environment people can call home by minimizing these encumbrances. While providing tasteful and creative decor is also a passion, we focus on fostering more pleasant co-living experiences because the community is integral to creating a home. Hence, we are more than just a housing provider. We strive to bring the hearth back into our homes.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Early this year, Bird Nest was born to accommodate the increase in rental housing demand from the Johns Hopkins Medical community. Most, if not all, of the residents are new to Baltimore and arrive with much trepidation about the city, given its reputation. Many have had minimal experience living alone, away from family, and come to Baltimore knowing no one. However, we don’t emphasize the importance of housing because many other things demand our attention. Searching for housing is usually the last step after a lengthy application process or a decision to move. We scramble for housing options only after receiving our admission letter or job offer, which makes total sense but undermines the importance of where we live. Whether renting or owning, housing is a basic need affecting many facets of our lives. In most cases, an address signals our socioeconomic status, voting eligibility, access to services, the people we encounter and establish a relationship with and our path in life. A dwelling is, therefore, more than an address. While bringing homogeneity to all neighborhoods and eradicating socioeconomic differences is challenging and unrealistic in a capitalist society, we can change what’s behind the walls. I realized, through Bird Nest, that I was bringing together individuals with similar interests and goals under a single roof. Our efforts to minimize co-living friction helped solidify these relationships and allowed residents to enjoy the better parts of living together at a moment of ever-increasing living costs. At Bird Nest, we understand that a home is more than its listing attributes. It’s where we feel comfort, security, and connection. Our mission and brand represent an effort to unite people, create community, and foster lasting friendships, support, and networks. We also cannot emphasize enough the importance of a comfortable and clean home in supporting physical and psychological health.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
The book that comes to mind is Zero to One by Peter Thiel, the legendary entrepreneur most well-known for co-founding PayPal, the digital payments app. This book was on my reading list for some time, but I just recently got to reading it. What I love about this book is how the author does not attempt to prescribe a formula for success, but instead, he points to a more fundamental way of thinking about and co-creating the future from a first principles perspective. Innovation is happening all around us every second, and the world we know today is not sufficient to predict the world that is to come. It won’t even rhyme. With these changes come uncertainty, a need for flexibility, and a readiness to discard what we know to be true in the face of a vastly different reality. The best way to train our minds to think this way is to challenge known truths constantly. He states in his book that successful people find value in unexpected places. In other words, you need to look where no one else is looking, which is possible by challenging the status quo and questioning the unquestioned.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Integrity. When you offer what you promise to provide, your customers will return, and they’ll never return alone. Most of my residents have arrived through word of mouth. I plan to continue building the business organically through repeat and referral residents who genuinely enjoy staying at a Bird Nest home. There’s nothing more rewarding than a happy customer. Every positive review reaffirms the business model and the company’s direction. Marketing only goes as far as the value the product or service offers. There are no shortcuts to building a business, mainly if cutting corners entails misguiding the people we claim to serve. Profits are a reward for offering value to our customers. It doesn’t get any simpler than this.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.birdnesthome.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birdnest_homes/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wonkyungjessicalee/
- Twitter: @wonkyungoglobal