The headline on Jenna Fuhrman’s LinkedIn profile says, striving to be the hardest worker in the room.
As the product marketing and partnerships manager, she has proven to be one of the hardest workers on Rent Responsibly’s remote team.
“Jenna has a way of getting things done: sick, ill, asleep, or awake. It’s amazing to watch,” said Rent Responsibly CEO Dave Krauss. “She keeps efficiency top of mind. That’s Rent Responsibly’s theme for 2023, and Jenna will be instrumental in driving that.”
Jenna lives in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her dog, Phoebe, a 6-year-old Flat Coated Retriever.
Vacation rental marketing roles
She oversees all things related to marketing, cultivates productive relationships with Rent Responsibly’s partners, and captains cross-team projects with coworkers who live all over the map.
Her role also focuses on cross-department marketing operations, product marketing, and supporting short-term rental alliance membership sales.
She fell in love with the vacation rental industry by happenstance. In pursuit of a career in marketing, she found a job as marketing coordinator at TravelNet Solutions, a property management solutions company, in July 2017.
She was impressed by the level of connection, support, and innovation she experienced in the vacation rental community.
“Once I started in the industry, I knew it was home for me,” she said. “The relationships within the industry, the fast-paced environment, and the growth trajectory all inspires me and burns a fire of passion within me.”
Building vacation rental communities
She had her eye on Rent Responsibly for some time before joining the company.
“I knew the team and goals of Rent Responsibly aligned with my passion for helping others,” Jenna said. “I could see the future of Rent Responsibly was not just to provide alliance management and software; it was to genuinely help local communities find common ground and bring value to all parties involved.”
As a marketer, she was eager to blast Rent Responsibly’s message and advance its mission across the industry.
She joined the team in late June of 2021 as marketing manager.
Thanks to her hard work and initiative, she was promoted to the company’s product marketing and partnerships manager in early January of 2023.
“Partners are one of my biggest favorites,” Jenna said. “Growing relationships, attending trade shows, and networking at events is important to me, and I love that Rent Responsibly has given me the opportunity in my role to do just that.”
A magnetic force at short-term rental conventions
Her magnetic personality and enthusiasm for collaboration make her the ideal person to nurture relationships with the company’s key partners and to coordinate joint projects between Rent Responsibly’s three departments.
Garrett Dobbs, product lead at Rent Responsibly, recently noted Jenna’s magnetic effect at the VRMA International Conference in Las Vegas in October 2022 and her ability to make close friendships and relationships within the industry.
“Jenna has a magnetic charisma, an innate talent that has helped her to build meaningful relationships with partners, property managers, and advocates across the entire STR industry,” Garrett said. “Her ability to connect and communicate with others shines through her work, whether she’s crafting friendly and relatable messaging for marketing efforts or collaborating on campaigns with Rent Responsibly’s partners.”
Jenna also likes Rent Responsibly’s role as a pioneer in responsible renting and community-building in the short-term rental space. “We’re constantly evolving, which is amazing,” she said. “I’ve found living in the gray space a bit of a challenge. Ironically, what I love is also what I am challenged with most.
“We are navigating through experiences no one in our industry has touched before, meaning we are constantly improvising and enhancing our processes and solutions. But if we aren’t outside of our comfort zone, we aren’t growing.”
She also relishes the ability to work with a team whom she considers friends and like-minded individuals who want to change the world, and she enjoys connecting with them face-to-face at Rent Responsibly’s company retreats and small-team workshops.
Building wellness habits
As part of the company’s focus on wellness, she has joined Dave in a group challenge to build new wellness habits during a 300-day period.
“I’m working on creating a morning and night routine with habit stacking,” Jenna said. “My first 30 days I journaled and tidied up my workspace before bed and took my vitamins every morning. Each month I will continue to add on small habits to my morning and night routines until they are complete.”
In addition to fulfilling life goals, she enjoys spending time with Phoebe, doing craft projects, baking, playing Bingo, camping with family and friends, and attending sporting events in her spare time. Her favorite teams are the Vikings, Wild, Twins, and Bucks.
Local experiences at short-term rentals
She also has a zest for travel. One of her most memorable vacations was a trip to the Pacific Northwest where she spent two weeks with her cousin. They hiked Mount Rainier, went sightseeing, and lived like locals. On a long weekend, they visited Portland, Oregon.
Pacific Northwest cities like Seattle, Portland, and Eugene have high rates of homelessness compared with most cities in the U.S. “During this vacation, we decided to buy a meal for a homeless person each time we ate out,” Jenna said. “I was only out of college at that point and from small-town Wisconsin, so it was extremely eye-opening to see what big city life was all about, and it helped me to gain a bigger perspective.”
She has seen how vacation rentals enhance the local experiences that travelers have on their vacations, or flexcations, and support the local economy.
In March, she plans to have her own STR experience when she and Phoebe will stay in a barn loft in Shelbyville, Tennessee, just outside Nashville, for a month.
“When I was 25, I wrote down a goal that if I was still renting when I turned 30, I would move across the U.S.,” Jenna said. “I know I want to live in Minnesota long term, but I do want to experience what it’s like living somewhere outside my comfort zone, alone, and focusing on just me.”
Her time in Tennessee will give her a taste of living in another place and the discomfort, excitement, and self-exploration that comes along with being a newcomer in a city.
The short-term rental in Shelbyville has horses and farm dogs and a yoga studio in the barn. She plans to visit some nearby national parks where she can hike with Phoebe to some waterfalls, go horseback riding, and possibly go for a hot air balloon ride in the mountains.
Visiting at least two line dance bars is also on the itinerary, and her goal is to perform at least one line dance.
“I am so uncomfortable with dancing,” she said. “That’s why it’s a goal. I took a line dancing class once for a bachelorette party, but that was it. I have been watching YouTube and TikTok videos on line dances.”
It’s opportunities like this to experience something new and unique to a place that makes short-term rentals so special (amongst other things).
“I truly believe that vacation rentals create an experience, not a typical stay, and that they drastically help local communities,” Jenna said.
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