Her Story
About Nichole
Nichole DiPippo is the owner of Cozy Quarters Management LLC, Lush Living Designs, and Fresh Living Designs, based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She has spent the past six years building her companies, which specialize in short-term rental management and interior design from an ROI standpoint, including underwriting properties and managing the full owner and guest experience. DiPippo manages approximately 50 short-term and 20 long-term properties and designs Airbnbs nationwide through her design firms, though she manages only within North Carolina due to licensing. Prior to entrepreneurship, she spent 15 years in corporate finance and wealth management, advancing to vice president at one of the country's largest wealth management brokers. She earned a degree in communication from the University of South Florida and holds an interior design certificate along with her North Carolina real estate license. DiPippo is active in professional organizations including HOOT (Women Who Give a Hoot), Network in Action, the Chatham and Apex Chambers, the Vacation Rental Design Collective (VERD), VR Nation, and VERMA. She attributes her success to hard work and surrounding herself with inspiring, knowledgeable people, values freedom of time for herself and her team, and advises young women entering the field to develop thick skin and recognize that customer interactions are rarely personal.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nichole
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to working hard and being around people who inspire me, especially since my parents were entrepreneurial spirits growing up. Knowing that it didn't matter what you wanted to be, you could dream it up and do that, with no limiting factor. If you can't figure it out, find somebody who can tell you how to figure it out.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received was to make sure you surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. You should always be the stupidest person in the room. Be around smart people in different fields, even if it's not the field you're in, because you can learn a lot from people who have bigger things or are doing something that I'm not doing.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Have thick skin. I work with investors in a male-dominated field, and also my career in finance was very male-dominated. When you work in a customer service industry, you have to understand that things are not personal. When a guest shows up at midnight after traveling all day and takes it out on you, it's not really about you. It's just the world you're living in. Have a little bit of awareness into the experience of that person.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges and opportunities is that our industry is so young. Short-term rentals, while they've been around a long time, the industry itself as an industry is less than [AGE]. All of the tools, processes, things, best practices are all still being created in real time. It really gives you an opportunity to be a part of the birth of the industry, and not just a bystander. I get to speak at big conferences for short-term rentals where we share our best practices and experiences.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The value of freedom of time is most important. Along with myself and employees in our business, we allow people to work schedules that work for them, and it doesn't necessarily mean that that's a 9 to 5. Work should not be something you live to work or work to live; you should work to live. Life is more important, and family is more important. Most of our employees have been with us from the very beginning because we understand that life is more than just working.
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