Turning Vision into Reality at Lafayette Flats on the Rim of the New River Gorge
What kind of magic is required to transform a 120-year-old building into a contemporary haven filled with original local art? Join us as we uncover the inspiring journey of Amy McLaughlin and her husband/co-founder, who turned their vision into Lafayette Flats Boutique Vacation Rentals in Fayetteville, West Virginia.
Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Lafayette Flats, Amy takes us through the meticulous planning, visionary design, and the challenges they overcame to create a unique lodging destination amidst the natural beauty of New River Gorge National Park.
Aspiring entrepreneurs and lovers of West Virginia’s charm will find a wealth of insights and inspiration in this episode.
We discuss the decision-making principles that guided her, focusing on goals over circumstances, particularly in the face of the area’s National Park designation.
This conversation is a rich source of wisdom on sustainable tourism, entrepreneurship, and celebrating local culture, making it a must-listen for anyone with a passion for hospitality and West Virginia’s scenic splendor.
More About Our Wise Guest – Entrepreneur Amy McLaughlin
Amy McLaughlin is an entrepreneur, master naturalist and art collector. She finds great beauty in her West Virginia home, which she curates for the rest of the world to appreciate.
Amy and her husband own and operate Lafayette Flats Boutique Vacation Rentals in Fayetteville, WV on the rim of New River Gorge National Park.
In April 2024, they celebrated the 10th anniversary of their small business, which is housed in a 120-year-old building they lovingly renovated.
Lafayette Flats was recently named one of the best places to stay in West Virginia by National Geographic, and as you will learn, it is much more than just a lodging property.
Now, settle in, take a deep breath of fresh mountain air … and get ready, over the next several minutes you will learn why Amy McLaughlin is one of the wisest people I know.
Resources
Check out the Lafayette Flats website
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Episode Chapters
0:02:47 – Celebrating Lafayette Flats
0:07:16 – Creating Lafayette Flats
0:11:17 – Making Decisions Based on Goals
Full Transcript of this Episode
0:00:00 – Announcer
Wisdom. It’s an incredibly valuable asset, some would say more precious than gold. It’s attractive, appealing, admirable. Conversely, a lack of wisdom is the basis of immaturity, blind spots and bad decisions. Wisdom, it can be gained over time, but it can’t be rushed. But wisdom can be shared. That’s precisely what we are here to do right now. Today. We are here to hack wisdom, to distill it, to understand it and to process it. Why? To get better at life. Welcome to The Main Thing.
This is your new nine-minute podcast. I’m your host, skip Lineberg, and I’ve set out to interview the wisest people I know. We’ll see what we can learn from each one when they’re faced with an incredibly difficult, soul-piercing question.
0:00:59 – Skip Lineberg
Hello and welcome. If it’s your first time here. I’m Skip Lineberg and I’m going to be your host today. Each episode we bring you a concise, high-impact wisdom lesson from one of the wisest people I know, studying their wisdom and learning together. We all get just a little bit better at this thing called life.
Today, you’ll hear from Amy McLaughlin, co-founder of Lafayette Flats Boutique Vacation Rentals. It’s one of my favorite places to stay in the whole world. Amy is a visionary entrepreneur, a caring conservationist and a gifted designer.
Amy McLaughlin is a native West Virginian and, as you’ll hear today, one of the state’s most enthusiastic ambassadors and it’s all genuine.
Today, in this terrific episode, you’ll learn what it takes to bring a dream to reality, how to plan it and how to execute it. Now, if you have dreams of launching a business in the hospitality, travel or tourism space, amy’s wisdom is going to be especially valuable for you. Or if you share a love of the mountain state of West Virginia, you’ll delight in hearing about the richness of the New River Gorge ecosystem.
A special shout out of gratitude goes to our newest patron, JD from West Virginia. Thank you, JD, for your financial support, which helps to keep this pipeline of wisdom flowing.
After you’ve listened today, I encourage you to head over to our website, themainthingpodcast.com. There you can learn about becoming a patron, and you can also discover all the wisdom resources we offer, including our twice-monthly wisdom newsletter.
Now here’s a bit more about our special guest. Amy McLaughlin is a master naturalist, an entrepreneur and an art collector. She finds great beauty in her West Virginia home, which she curates proudly for the rest of the world to appreciate. Amy and her husband Shawn own and operate Lafayette Flats Boutique Vacation Rentals in Fayetteville, West Virginia, which sits on the rim of the New River Gorge National Park. In April 2024, they celebrated the 10th anniversary of their small business, which is housed in a 120-year-old building they lovingly renovated. National Geographic recently named Lafayette Flats one of the best places to stay in West Virginia and, as you will learn, it is much, much more than just a lodging property.
Now settle in, take a deep breath of that fresh mountain air and get ready. Over the next several minutes, you’ll learn why Amy McLaughlin is one of the wisest people I know.
03:50 – Skip
Amy McLaughlin, welcome to the Main Thing Podcast.
0:03:54 – Amy McLaughlin
Thank you, Skip. I’ve really been looking forward to talking to you and I’m very happy to be on your podcast.
0:03:59 – Skip
First things first. Happy 10-year anniversary for Lafayette Flats. Wow, what an accomplishment!
0:04:05 – Amy McLaughlin
Yes, it does feel like an accomplishment. In some ways it feels a lot longer than 10 years. In some ways it feels shorter, but we’re proud that we’ve made it for a decade.
0:04:20 – Skip
Just so our listeners can have a mental picture of the setting, because we are recording this in Lafayette Flats in the one known as “Eddy “… would you paint a word picture for our listeners of this place and the surroundings that we’re sitting in?
0:04:30 – Amy McLaughlin
Absolutely! So, we like to say that Lafayette Flats is four modern vacation rentals in one historic building. So our historic building is right in the heart of Fayetteville, it’s across from the courthouse and, as probably a lot of listeners know, Fayetteville sits right on the rim of the New River Gorge National Park. So it’s a great location. It’s a great old historic building. Inside we renovated the whole building and we created very modern, very contemporary spaces. So, like you said, we’re in vacation room number four right now. The color scheme in here is very cool. It goes along with the name “Eddy,” which is named after the new river and all the eddies that form in the river. It has that cool water feel with its purple, blues, dark teal and gray. And then we’re surrounded on the walls by lots of original art by West Virginia artists.
0:05:31 – Skip
Yeah, and the whole building is just chock full of art. It’s so fun to explore, and every time I’m here I notice something new.
0:05:38 – Amy McLaughlin
Well, we collect art, so we are constantly putting new art in here. We actually have part of our business plan is we have a fund where we put aside some of our profits every year to buy new art. To bring it into the flats so that our repeat guests, like you, can see new West Virginia artists, emerging artists, and what they’re producing.
0:06:02 – Skip
Yeah, for our listeners. You should know that this is my favorite place to go and stay and get away. And this is our 15th stay here. So I’m in my happy place.
0:06:13 – Amy McLaughlin
Well, we appreciate you guys coming up here and supporting us. All four of our flats are roughly the same size and they’re nice size. They’re the size of an apartment. They have separate bedrooms, living space, kitchen and full bathrooms. We cater to couples, so each flat is designed with a couple in mind.
Flat number one “Nuttall” is named after Nuttall Sandstone, which is the important sandstone up here, the high silica content that brings the climbers here that makes our rocks so strong, yeah.
Flat number two is named “Corten”. That’s named after the steel that the New River Gorge Bridge is made out of.
And then flat number three is called “Quinnimont.” Quinnimont means five mountains in Latin. And it’s the name of an old mining town deep down in the gorge that was once important when the coal boom was on.
And then, of course, “Eddy,” where we find ourselves today.
0:07:15 – Skip
Hey, I want to pivot just for a minute to our relationship connection. I’m so blessed to know you, thanks to our dear, mutual friend Emily Bennington.
0:07:24 – Amy McLaughlin
Yes, Emily. Yeah, so Emily and I met in kindergarten, and we completely grew up together. She’s one of my life long friends, absolutely.
0:07:36 – Skip
Emily, thank you. I know you’re listening. Thank you for making this great connection that has just been such a rich friendship and business relationship.
0:07:46 – Amy McLaughlin
Yes, thank you, Emily.
0:07:50 – Skip
Let’s go back to this wonderful place you’ve created, Lafayette Flats and rewind the clock 10 years.
0:07:57 – Amy McLaughlin
We were looking for a place in Fayetteville where we could come and stay and we could, you know, host visitors to the gorge and show off our beautiful state, you know, and all the New River Gorge had to offer. And we found this building and we thought, well, we can do that. You know, we can turn that into four vacation rentals that are self-contained, you know that, have their own HVAC systems, their own hot water tanks, everything, and bring people in and let them experience Fayetteville and the Gorge that way.
0:08:26 – Skip
What would make you think that you were capable of that? Would you talk a little bit about your background and Shawn’s background.
0:08:33 – Amy McLaughlin
Well, and so that’s the key. So the combination of my background and Shawn’s background is, I think, what made it possible. So Shawn grew up the son of a stonemason. So the stone building, you know, immediately caught his eye. He was immediately attracted to it. He was also very familiar with the contracting world. He was the executive director for Habitat for Humanity, so he knew about house-building. He knew how to create construction budgets.
He’s the one that developed the floor plan for this building, preserving the historical components, while still making it modern and fire safe.
And then my background I came from specialty retail management, so I had a lot of experience with decor and interior design. So, I brought that into play.
0:09:25 – Skip
You brought the aesthetics.
0:09:26 – Amy McLaughlin
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, taking it back really old school, my favorite pastime growing up was my Barbie dream house that I constantly decorated. I turned it into a hotel, whose name … no kidding … the name of the hotel was “The Lafayette.”
0:09:41 – Skip
Wow, that’s amazing!
0:09:46 – Announcer
Come explore America’s newest National Park and stay at Lafayette Flats Boutique Vacation Rentals in Fayetteville, West Virginia, the charming small town on the rim of the New River Gorge National Park. When you stay at Lafayette Flats, you’re only minutes from spectacular hiking trails, breathtaking vistas and the world-famous New River Gorge Bridge. And at the end of your adventurous day, park your car and relax. Lafayette Flats is conveniently located in the heart of Fayetteville, just steps away from shops, restaurants and pubs.
The historic building that houses Lafayette Flats was lovingly renovated to create four unique vacation rentals, carefully designed for couples ready to enjoy a relaxing getaway. Each flat is private, comfortable and filled with cultural treasures, from the impressive original art collection on the walls to the West Virginia literature on the bookshelves. Lafayette Flats combines the stylish, modern design of a boutique hotel with the privacy and local flavor of a vacation rental.
The efficient booking process, high cleaning standards and luxurious amenities are what you would find in an upscale hotel, but there’s no front desk to slow you down. And you can relax without the daily intrusion of housekeeping staff. Visit lafayetteflats.com to see hundreds of five-star reviews from delighted guests like me.
Lafayette Flats Boutique Vacation Rentals – the hottest place to stay in the New River Gorge National Park.
0:11:16 – Skip
Amy McLaughlin, what’s the main thing you’ve learned in your lifetime so far?
0:11:21 – Amy McLaughlin
Skip, the main thing I’ve learned in my lifetime so far is the importance of making decisions based on goals and not circumstances.
0:11:31 – Skip
Oh, wow, that is important. Would you tell us more about that?
0:11:37 – Amy McLaughlin
Just thinking about that phrase … whenever I’m at a point where I need to make decisions, it immediately pulls me out, you know, and gives me a higher perspective. To look at something and think, Okay, what’s my best choice here? How can I move towards my goals, and not just to react to the situation that’s in front of me?
It’s been a guiding principle in my professional career for a very long time, but it wasn’t until we created Lafayette Flats that it kind of moved over into my personal life as well.
0:12:09 – Skip
Okay, cool, yeah, and it’s this nature … this essence of not reacting, but responding in a more thoughtful, strategic way. Is that it?
0:12:20 – Amy McLaughlin
Yeah. And knowing that there’s a place you want to be and every little decision you make either gets you closer or further away.
0:12:29 – Amy McLaughlin
And so just being able to think of things through that lens is helpful to me. It makes, it pushes me back, and helps me look at things from different angles, in different ways. And then eventually I’ll come to: this might not be the easiest way, this might not be the easiest decision, but this is the decision that’s going to get me closer to what I want to achieve.
0:12:51 – Amy McLaughlin
There were times it was hard. You know after the pandemic, when every booking that we had canceled, we had no form of income for the entire building, the entire business. It was easy … it would have been very easy to make some bad decisions there, to do something quickly.
0:13:08 – Skip
Just to freak out, to panic ….
0:13:10 – Amy McLaughlin
Shawn and I were good about working together and saying, Let’s take a pause. Let’s not react to this circumstance. Let’s think about what our goals are, and let’s try to come up with a solution that moves us closer to those.
0:13:26 – Skip
Let’s go back to that personal application, this context of not reacting but responding strategically. Can you share with our listeners a recent personal example of when you really had to lean on your own main thing wisdom to get you through a challenge or a situation?
0:13:44 – Amy McLaughlin
Yes. So it’s a big one, and I’ve been consumed with this for the past couple of years. But since the National Park designation came through, our world has changed right. The area has gotten a lot more tourism, it’s been a lot busier, which is good, great, right?
But there are challenges that come with that. There are challenges for the community. There are challenges, you know, when you have a certain workload that you expect and that changes, and it was almost quite literally overnight. Yes, yeah it was like the designation came through and ….
0:14:16 – Skip
Within that season, yeah, it was on.
0:14:19 – Amy McLaughlin
So you know, it was fast and it was heavy. And it would have been super easy just to respond to those circumstances, and just to plow through it. Keep doing things the way we were doing and, you know, eat up that success that we were having from a business perspective.
0:14:37 – Skip
Scale it?
0:14:38 – Amy McLaughlin
Right. But we decided we wanted to start learning about and exploring sustainable tourism.
0:14:45 – Skip
Okay.
0:14:45 – Amy McLaughlin
So I spent a lot of time over the past few years reading about sustainable tourism, learning what it is. Learning how I could apply that to Lafayette Flats and what I do.
And that’s what our goal is. That’s what we’ve been working towards. So we want Lafayette Flats to be socially, environmentally, economically sustainable for this community.
0:15:10 – Skip
And to not just have this special place just be chewed up by the volume of it all.
0:15:15 – Amy McLaughlin
We changed the single-use toiletries to the bulk toiletries to lower our impact on the environment. From the social perspective, we make sure that, whenever possible, we’re using local vendors for anything that we do possible. We’re using local vendors for anything that we do. You know, whether that be a service or a good, the art that we hang on the wall. Whatever we do, we’re keeping that money local, and we’re generating it that way.
We encourage them to stay a little bit longer, right Having the same person here for a longer time period has perks. We encourage them to explore the not so overrun aspects of the park. So people get hung up on the Fayetteville area, which is great, but the park is 53 miles of river. You know, there are lots of other trails lots of other places, so we promote those places. We give people directions on how to get there. We encourage them to visit.
0:16:09 – Skip
And even guided hikes and guided tours
0:16:11 – Amy McLaughlin
Yeah, absolutely. So we’re trying to implement all those things in a way, as I said, that’s good for all parties. Good for us, good for guests, and good for the community that we love so much.
0:16:27 – Skip
If you step back to the Amy of 2013, 2014—what might you have hoped that Lafayette Flats would be like at a 10-year point? What was your hope, what was your aspiration for this place, Lafayette Flats? Did you think you’d make it 10 years?
0:16:48 – Amy McLaughlin
I did think we would make it 10 years. Because after we made it through that renovation, it felt like we could make it through anything. You know that was that was intense and once we once we made it through that, it kind of felt like smooth sailing after that so I did think we would make it 10 years.
I thought we would stay on the um regional getaway level, you know. I thought we would be bringing Charleston folks up still. We would be bringing people maybe from Southwestern Virginia, Kentucky. We would stay in that area. I would never have guessed, because I didn’t anticipate the National Park status was going to change. I would never have guessed that we would be hosting someone from Great Britain this weekend or you know the worldwide travelers that come in, so that’s very different than how I envisioned it, but in a in a great way and it gets an exciting way.
0:17:44 – Skip
Yeah, you talked about the renovation … and you scrunched up your face and you pushed your fist together. There’s a memory there, Amy. I want to poke you a little bit. What is that?
0:17:58 – Amy McLaughlin
It was hard.
0:18:00 – Skip
I read about drilling through the concrete walls up high near the ceiling so that you could get the HVAC ducts through these thick walls.
0:18:10 – Amy McLaughlin
Yeah, the water line was the worst, and I didn’t do that. That was Shawn, and our plumber, and our engineer. But yeah, they actually had to rent coal mining equipment to drill through the building to get a larger water line through, because we had four apartments we had to service. So we needed larger water lines.
We worked every free minute we had. At one point we were living up here and commuting to Charleston for our full-time jobs. So it was a physically taxing time period.
It was scary. We invested our retirement accounts into this.
0:18:46 – Skip
All in. Pushing all the chips to the middle of the table.
0:18:50 – Amy McLaughlin
Absolutely, it needed to work. So there was that element of it. And don’t get me wrong, it was fun. There were times … and it certainly brought Sean and I to a great place in our relationship, but it was hard.
0:19:04 – Amy McLaughlin
The New River Gorge, I think, is one of the most fascinating places on earth and a lot of people don’t understand why. They see just the recreational side of it, the whitewater, rafting, the climbing, and they think, wow, that’s cool, that’s great!
But the history of the Gorge, the natural history of the Gorge absolutely fascinating … the biodiversity of the gorge. People don’t know this, but New River Gorge National Park is about the fourth most biodiverse park in the country. That’s a big deal.
0:19:37 – Skip
Well for listeners, if you want to know more about the New River Gorge, follow Lafayette Flats on social media. Their Instagram is a great follow. You share all sorts of outdoor photos and stories. I learn so much just from following you there. And, of course, the website Lafayetteflats.com is another great place to get engaged with the special place that I’m sitting in, that I love so much.
0:20:00 – Skip
Amy, thank you so much for coming on to The Main Thing podcast, for spending part of your 10th anniversary celebrating with us on the show.
0:20:12 – Amy McLaughlin
Thank you, Skip. It was a great way to celebrate.
0:20:14 – Announcer
Wow, that goes by incredibly fast, doesn’t it? Time flies when you’re hacking wisdom. I hope you’re left wanting more. Sync up with us again next time, on The Main Thing, for nine more minutes of wisdom.
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Transcribed by https://podium.page
Keywords
Entrepreneurship, Hospitality, West Virginia, Lafayette Flats, Vacation Rentals, National Park, Sustainable Tourism, Interior Design, Construction, Budget, Vision, Planning, Challenges, Local Art, New River Gorge, Celebrating, Charm, Scenic Splendor, Aspiring Entrepreneurs, Shared Experiences, Unique Appeal, Backgrounds, Decision-Making, Goals, Circumstances, Professional, Personal Life, Socially, Environmentally, Economically Sustainable
