Today we’d like to introduce you to Sharon Middendorf.
Hi Sharon, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve spent my whole life building things on my own terms. First as a model in New York City and Paris, then writing and producing music with a band called Motorbaby. In 2003, five years before Airbnb existed, my husband and I found, renovated, and restored a 1924 cottage in Lake Placid, NY and named it GO-Cottage. I designed every inch of it with the same obsession I’d put into a song, and with national attention from Country Living, Domino, and HGTV, it became a top brand of its own. I’m also writing a fashion and rock ‘n’ roll memoir about my life in ’80s and ’90s New York, Paris, and London. Most recently I started a dog walking and pet-sitting business — animals have always had my heart, and after my own dog changed my life, giving back to them matters more than almost anything.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No road worth traveling is ever completely smooth, and mine certainly wasn’t. When we started GO-Cottage, there was no Airbnb and no roadmap. I was building a business that didn’t even have a name yet — figuring out all of it myself, from marketing to travelers who’d never heard of a “short-term rental” to making people feel at home from a distance.
And I’ve done it almost entirely on my own. There’s no front desk, no staff, no manager. Just me answering the messages, solving the problems, and making sure every guest’s stay is right. In a small mountain town like Lake Placid, even something as basic as finding dependable cleaning help can be a real challenge, and the seasons swing hard — you’re full one month and quiet the next. But the struggles are where I do my best work, because I’m a problem solver at heart. Every problem is just one more thing to design my way out of. I’ve always believed that if you want something done right, and done beautifully, you build it yourself — and that mindset has carried me through nearly every challenge.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At my core, I’m a creator. The medium changes, but the work is always the same: making something beautiful that people can feel.
I started as a model. I walked Marc Jacobs’s very first runway show, and later landed on the cover of Time Magazine. Modeling took me from Ohio to New York and Paris, and into the middle of the 1980s music scene. I danced at the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards, presented on MTV’s Christmas special hosted by KISS’s Paul Stanley, and starred in two of the era’s iconic videos: the Beastie Boys’ first, “She’s On It,” and Cheap Trick’s “Tonight It’s You.” But being the girl in everyone else’s videos is exactly what made me want my own voice. So I picked up my guitar, started singing and writing songs, and founded my own band, Motorbaby.
We signed with Rawkus, the deal moved up to Mercury, and I got to work with extraordinary people like Tony Visconti and Reeves Gabrels of Bowie’s circle, songwriter-producer Ronnie Mancuso, drummer Lez Warner, and Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s. Then the industry shifted and Mercury dropped most of its roster, me included. So I started my own label, Ten Wings Music, and put out my next record, Rise, entirely on my terms. I’m happy to say I still get royalty checks for songs I wrote thirty years ago.
Today that same instinct lives in real estate and design. With GO-Cottage, I shape every detail of the guest experience the way a producer shapes a record, and it’s earned features in Country Living, Domino, and HGTV.
What I’m proudest of is that the best things I’ve made are built from scratch. I don’t see these as separate careers. Most people in this business are running a property. I’m composing one.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Music, first and always. I listen to everything, and it still feeds me creatively the way it always has. Beyond that, staying at my best is mostly about staying grounded — yoga, pilates, meditation, XC skiing and hiking with my dog, which is honestly where I do my clearest thinking. I’m almost always in the middle of an audiobook; Mel Robbins’s The Let Them Theory is one that’s stuck with me lately. And underneath all of it is something I’ve believed my whole life: financial independence is what gives me the freedom to keep creating. None of it is fancy. For me, doing my best comes down to keeping the body moving, the mind quiet, and the inspiration flowing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.go-cottage.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/gocottage
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gocottage
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-middendorf-1a69904/
- Twitter: @gocottage
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gocottage
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/search/motorbaby
- Other: https://linktr.ee/sharonmiddendorf
