Cold open

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Are you ready to run your short-term rental business like a super host? If so, look no further than Guesty for Hosts. Guestie for Hosts offers listing management for all three major OTAs, Airbnb, Booking.com, and Verbo. With Guestie for Hosts, you can create a branded direct booking website in minutes. I've been able to hit 61% direct bookings in my business and automate daily tasks such as communication with cleaners and communication with guests. Click the link in the show notes to get an additional $20 off your first month.

SPEAKER_05 0:28

Welcome to Live Let Thrive, a podcast about the Airbnb live, the shared economy, and everything in between. Here are your hosts, Micah and Steve.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

What's up, Micah Man?

SPEAKER_02 0:51

I am Shell and Stevie Stacks. How you doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Good, man, good. This is episode 199 of your favorite NB VRBO. Home of my overlives all that shit, economy fun

Introducing Mark Simpson from Boostly

SPEAKER_00 1:04

stuff. Podcast in the world coming at you from Fort Worth and Arlington. 199, Micah. How do we get this far?

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Consistency, dude. Consistency. I didn't think we'd be here, but consistency, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

We have a special guest for this episode 199. And who do we have, Micah? Who do we got?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

We got Mark Simpson from Boosley.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Boosley, Mark Simpson. Who is he? You asked. If you don't already know, you might already know. Well, he was born and raised in Scarborough, close to the popular tourist region of the Yorkshire coast. Mark Simpson grew up surrounded by the hospitality industry. From the age of five, he became immersed in the family business, a charming farm known as the granary, offering tourist accommodation, a lifelong passion for football, and specifically Liverpool FC. I'm an arsenal man myself, so you know, uh, saw him training to become a coach. And eventually, Mark flew to the Nest to teach soccer in the United States. After taking some time out to travel the world, he eventually began his marketing career at Q Y P E. Quipe, Kip, Quipe, Quipe, Quipe, I got it. A web 2.0 company centered on social networking and local reviews based in Hamburg, Germany, which was eventually brought by bought by Yelp. In 2012, Mark took over the granary with the mission to bring the traditional 25-year business online. Over the next five years, he built up the Humble Farm Stays Web presence to rank amongst the top three properties in his competitive region on TripAdvisor, as well as the most followed independent business on Facebook in the Scarborough area. His initiative not only won the granaries several awards, it also saw the property expand with the addition of further rooms, a tea room, and restaurant. Let's go down to this part right here that I want to read. Recognizing a gap in the market in the same year, the marketing experts set up Boostly, an online academy that gives hosts the tools, tactics, and training to boost their profits through direct bookings with actionable advice. Through Mark's expertise, hosts can learn how to save thousands in commission costs, stop wasting time learning complicated out data strategies, how to build a hospitality business that is not reliant on third parties and to be profitable and to take care, take control of their destiny and attract their ideal guests to book directly through them. I'll stop there. Welcome, Mark, to the show.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

Thank you. I can't believe that you just came up with that. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yes, it's like wow.

SPEAKER_04 3:50

How do you know so much about me?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Just pulled it out me arse, man. Pulled it out your arsenal. Arsenal. Oh see, there's a there's a pun right there, anyways. Liverpool, Arsenal.

SPEAKER_04 4:05

My absolute pleasure. I have watched so many of your podcasts. I've I've I've loved it because I've got to see the people that I listen to on Clubhouse all the time, like you know, Kira and all those amazing people, Rafa. And you know, I've just watched literally watched the episode you did with Avery Carl, which was so cool. Uh so thank you so much for the invite. I'm glad we made it happen because I appreciate it. Like with time zones and everything, it's been a while getting done. I said before we came on air, I've seen snearly all your episodes. I've only been doing it for so long, and I love it how I've been tracking Micah's whiteboard behind him.

How local business networks drive direct bookings

SPEAKER_04 4:42

So I've I've loved it. So hey, thank you, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Cheers, man. I got my tea, got my cup of tea here. I have that all the time, though. Uh that's how I podcast. So yeah, it's Irish breakfast, not English breakfast, but you know, close enough.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

So, Mark, man, let's hop into it, man. And thank you for the whiteboard. Yeah, I always change it up. I don't know if you will notice it, but I have a you did. Uh, so direct booking tips, man. How do we get off Airbnb?

SPEAKER_04 5:09

Well, first thing that I want you all to do, go on to Amazon and go buy this book. This book is literally $20. $20. It's it's uh this book is a best-selling book on Amazon, and this will increase your diary bookings. I guarantee it. How do we do it? Well, there's there's so many ways we we can dig into, and I'm an open book, you can ask me tons of questions. You can you can speak directly with share B and B micro if you want. If you want to just delve in and just go, hey, help me with this. I mean, I've got some I've got my eye on on your website. As soon as you switch over to Guesty Proper, I'm all over this. I'm gonna help you get a website that you can be proud of, dial booking website. That's what we do. Um, but no, I'm um, I say that the whole reason for doing this, I've been involved in hospitality for so long. And in 2016, I got speaking to other hosts about their business, how they were bringing in bookings, and this was in the Scarborough area. Um, the very the very popular Yorkshire coaster, Steve. So could you correctly pronounced, which was amazing. I was loving the pronunciations.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

I was like, Oh my god, I was struggling.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

Okay, this is how we're pronouncing it today. But anyway, so um, I got chatting to host and I realized that so many people didn't know about social media, about email, about all of the things, and you know, nobody was talking about it in 2016, nobody was showing it. Everybody was saying, hey, you need to be on that Facebook, hey, you need to do that, but no one was showing you how. And that's all that I did, like with Quipe, the uh the job that I had, I learned those tactics there, and I just put it into practice with our family business and it worked, and that's why I started doing this. Yeah, my goal is to help one million hosts cut down on their over reliance on Airbnb. That is literally it. And I'm every single day I show up and I provide tactics and tips and all those cool things. The Boostly Podcast now is closing in on 500 episodes. I started about 2016, and I just there's so much things out there that I can just show people, and it's and I just try and do so much then one person can just watch and go, Yeah, I'm gonna put that into practice. So anything you want to ask, anything we can delve into today, I want this to be the best episode of the 200, the one that's gonna make people the most money, the most profit, most bookings, and we can we can delve in today.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Oh man, that is it is gonna be a great episode. Um, when you when you said that, how you how you were able to use what you learned at at Quipe to boost your business, right? Or your family's business, and then you use that uh uh for the direct booking strategies, you know. Uh I I automatically think I've always heard, you know, and and it's funny because I you just try to call a local plumber, a local whatever, local handyman, local, and it's still uh the phone goes straight to them if they answer it, right? They don't have anybody answer anything, they don't have any presence on on Google, and it's like they don't have any presence anywhere on social media. It's funny, it's like if you just put a little bit of effort into and create I could create a little plumbing company, create a trash pickup, whatever company, I could like rule the market fairly easy, right? In most places, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

I mean, the the the thing is that I've I've done a couple of podcasts over the last month. Ever since the book has been out, I've been podcasting and webinaring, and the same question keeps on coming out how do I get more direct bookings? Everybody's like, this this what is this secret source? Because everybody like assumes incorrectly that you have to spend a ton of money on Google ads, you'd spend a ton of money on Facebook ads, you have to spend loads of time doing it. The the most simplest thing that everybody can do right now to start building direct bookings is to create a local network of business owners, relationships, building those contacts and those partnerships. You could build a relationship and networks with other hosts. So wherever you are, where wherever you are in the cities and the towns or the countries or the states, find other hosts that fit your business model. So, for example, if you've got units that are ideal for contractors and business guests or healthcare workers, which other businesses in your area also do the same? And if you can get a little WhatsApp group of five or six people, right there, those partnerships and relationships that you build, will you be able to share

Building referral partnerships with day-trip venues

SPEAKER_04 9:12

bookings with each other, you'll be able to pass bookings to each other? That is so powerful. And then if you can start building relationships and networks with other business owners, like the other like cafe or coffee shop owners or things to do, places to go, places to visit, restaurants, takeaways, drivers. You know, I know that the whole Toro thing is big over in the States, but in the UK, it's not. So, what relationships can you build that you can then not only increase your guest experience, as in they'll arrive, and literally before they arrive, they've got recommended drivers, they've got recommended places to go for coffees, for something to eat, something to drink, something to go. And then you've got a little, again, you can share the booking. You can go to the business owner and say, Hey, I've got a thousand guests who come through my business every single year. I would love to recommend you because I know your service, I know you do a good job to them. Would you like that? And any business owner that you send that to, if they say no, they are stupid because they are turning away free money, right? And and this is what we did in our bit in our town, and this is like a real-world example that everybody can follow suit. So our farm, 200 acre farm stay business, we had 14-bedroom guest house, we had free holiday cottages, and we knew who our ideal guest is. So you've got to nail down your customer avatar, and we can come back to that later on. But we knew our ideal guest was families, right? Families just like ours, families who wanted to come away from the city, come and stay for the for the weekend or for a week on a on a farm, have a have a great time, you know. And we knew exactly what they wanted and they needed. So I set out in our local area to find other businesses um that would uh really appeal to our guests. For example, days out. So there was other places that families would go and visit. I reached out to the um the owner of the business. I explained what we did. I said, Would you like to uh us to recommend you? He said yes. And I said, Is it is there something that you could do? Could you offer like a voucher or a freebie or something if if if they came for you and mentioned us? And he said, Yeah, sure, 10% off. So for the guest, it was a win because the guest went there, got a 10% discount. But it was a win for the business owner because he had free revenue. Well, literally free revenue were sending to him, free marketing, free money sending to him. And for us, because we sent so many people his way, number one, I never paid for a day out for my family again to go there. It was amazing. But number two, because we sent so many people his way, he started giving me a kickback for every 10 people. So we're actually making revenue without actually actually doing any extra work. And what we did is we created a cool little map. And on the map, we we highlighted the places, we showed them where they were in the local area, and and it and it went down really well. And we didn't just do it with one business, we did it with like 10 or 15. And over time, we had such a good relationship that they started doing weddings and they didn't have accommodation. And when you go for a wedding, you're gonna find a place to stay. So the bride and the groom were going to these people saying, Hey, do you know? Uh do you recommend anywhere that we could get accommodation for our family that are coming in? And guess who they recommended? So we got tons and tons and tons of bookings through that. So we just became the go-to. We went, we built those relationships, we built the go-to. And I don't care what business you're in, whether it is a tradesman, a gardener, a hairdresser, a PT, the whole business will live and die from the relationships and the networks and the partnerships that you build. So if you try and do this all by yourself, you close yourself off, you don't have anybody else to come and help or do those sort of things, you will go you will disappear. It's not what you know, it's who you know. And I feel like that's the most important thing that everybody can be learning and digging in. And you can guarantee I talk about it in this so much. There's a big section on it, the whole chapter on it. So it's worth it for $20 right there.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Man, I'm digging it, man. So so yeah, forging strong relations, local relationships. That's like the first step, I

Why SEO doesn't matter for vacation rental websites

SPEAKER_00 13:01

guess. And and and then from there, I mean, I guess you you go into like the SEO. I mean, you go into how do you how do you rank how do people find you on the net, how do you know, besides you know, locally, but locally, um, word of mouth.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

Well, SEO is a is a funny one, and I've just been doing another uh podcast episode just before this, and they asked me about SEO, and and this is my sort of controversial stance on it, is that for 99.9% of the businesses and people that are watching this forget about SEO or what you think SEO means. Because when it comes to ranking and all of those things, if I if I say to a host, like what do you want to do with a website? And they go, I want to rank number one on Google. Okay, what do you want to rank for? Well, well, someone types in you know vacation rental in wherever, like you okay, let's just go do a little search. And I did I did my own little video on this the other day because I wanted to showcase it. And if you've got such a generic term that so many people are searching for, do you honestly think you're gonna be able to rank above Airbnb? Do you honestly think you're gonna be able to rank above TripAdvisor and Expedia and Booking.com and all the other big guys are trying to get in that space? The answer is no, but even if you were for some divine miracle to be able to get your website when someone types in vacation rental in wherever to rank number one, well, guess what? Google are allocating four or five ad spots above you. So you've got all of that to take care of, and then you've got the map to take care of. So you could rank number one, but you'd be already halfway or a third down the page, and no one's scrolling that far anymore. Our attention spans are low. So instead of worrying about SEO, what you need to do, number one, you need to have a website that you are proud to send somebody to. So, like you said in the in the title in my intro, I give hosts the tools, the tactics, the training, but the confidence to get their own direct bookings, and tools is websites. So we do website design, right? And we create websites for hosts that they are proud to send somebody to that will be confident that they will then be able to get a direct book in, turn a look it into a booker. And so you get a website because the website's the most important. Hosts, Airbnb hosts, property hosts, property developers, whatever you want to call whatever you want to label yourself as. When you get into this game, you put so much revenue and money into getting the property ready. I mean, which is fair enough because it's it's it's what the guests are going to be staying in and all of that jazz. But the website is as important as the property, but everybody just treats it like a like a second thought or an afterthought, or even worse, a third for because you spend all the money up front and they go, you know what, I'll just use the free website that your porter gives me, which is absolute the free websites from the PMSs, and they admit this, they're crap, they're just glorified landing pages because they used it as a sales technique to get people to sign up for their PMS in the first place. So many free ones, right? And so because you've got to treat your website like that first impression, it is your online business card, it is as important as people walking into your property for the first time. And so this is why I believe instead of wasting time and money and effort trying to get your website seen organically on search engines, instead, put that time and money and effort into getting a decent uh website. And then all you need to do is you need to utilize your guests, the people that have stayed with you in the past, utilize your friends, your contacts, your local network to be your word of mouth referral machine. And all you need to do is just grab your phone, look at your contacts, look at the guests who have stayed with you over the last month, last two months, and just send them a text message that contains four little words. And these four little words are going to transform everybody's businesses right now. Do you know anyone? So, do you know anyone? Do you know anyone that needs accommodation? Do you know anyone who's coming to insert your town or

The four words that generate referrals: Do you know anyone?

SPEAKER_04 16:56

area? Do you know anyone who needs to stay? Because I guarantee there'll be some friends of yours in your phone book, some ex-coworkers, some social media friends, or whoever don't even know what you do for a living. Right? And you just got to remind them and just say, Hey, do you know anybody? Now you may send that to 10 people, nine people will go no, but I guarantee that one person will go, I do actually. Got a friend, family member, wedding, something's coming up, and they need a place to stay. You just gotta become the go-to. That's literally, you just got to become the go-to. And that's the that's the trick to it.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Nothing better than word of mouth marketing, man. There you go. So, okay, and I'm happy you brought up the PMS because I'm currently using the whole guestie for host thing, right? So, and of course, it has no, it has little SEO, but not really. I just did it because it's quick. Wanted to get the job done. How does boost you know, how does Boostly work? Like, I know you guys are gonna design the website. Um, how does guest communication work? Things of that nature.

SPEAKER_04 17:52

So the the way that I like to describe this, what Boostly is and what we do for a website, is just imagine a car. So a car body. The car body is your website, right? And the engine is the PMS. The car body would not survive without the PMS, and the PMS would not survive without the car body. The car body is there to attract attention. Okay. The car body is to get someone to go, oh, that's a nice car. That's a nice car, that's a nice looking car, that's a nice looking website. And then the PMS is the engine, is what powers it all. So for those of you who don't know what a PMS is, property management software, like you mentioned, Guesty for host, which used to be your portal before Guesty bought them out, but you've got Guesty, the major platform, you've got hostaway, you've got oh, there's tons, Logify, you literally name it. You could speak to 10 different hosts and property managers and ask them which PMS they use, and they'll give you 10 different answers because there's so, so many. And the free website that you get is yeah, it's just a glorified landing page. What we done and what I preach, and I talk about it tons in the book, is that everybody should be having a WordPress website. If you really want a word a website that is

WordPress sites vs free PMS landing pages

SPEAKER_04 19:02

going to work, that is going to turn lookers into bookers, you need to have a WordPress website. The problem, and this is why I started doing what we're doing. 2016, I started Boosley. Every single day I showed up in the Facebook group, in the hospitality community. Please do come and join it and just giving tactics and tips. And I was talking so much about all of these things to drive traffic to a website. People started coming back to me saying, But Mark, my website doesn't work, my website design has gone missing. I don't know what I'm doing. And I kept saying, Well, just get uh get a WordPress site, get a WordPress site. And then they'd come back to me going, Listen, I'm looking at this WordPress site, and it's like I'm looking at code, like I'm looking at the matrix. I haven't got a clue what's going on. And so I said, Okay, so let me look into this. So I created a website for somebody and it and it looks looked okay. I'm not a website designer, but I've put together our family business is one. And then I reached out to a friend of mine who was doing a bit of website work and I said, Listen, can you come and help? And he's a guy called Tom O'Brien, he's based in Bali. Uh, I met him while traveling. And since then, since 2018, we've started doing websites for hosts all over the world. We've got over 1,000 hosts and property managers now that got a boostly website, which is amazing. And the reason why we work is that what we've done is we've been able to take a WordPress website, we've created all of the design, all the template and everything, and we're able to link it up to the top PMS providers. So guestie, host away. So it syncs in directly. And what we've done is we've we've taken what Airbnb do well, we've taken what Booking.com do well, what Verbo do well, what the Hilton, what the Marriott, and what all these big chains do really well and how they design their website, and they've spent hours and millions of dollars trying to research what works and what doesn't work, we've taken it all and we put it into a WordPress website that links in, and we know every single button what works for this industry. Because the big problem is that when you do hire a website designer who isn't a specialist in accommodation websites, let's say they do websites for gyms, right? They try and create the next Mona Lisa. It's all singing, all dancing, all flashy websites. When literally, if you want to have a website that works in hospitality, you go look at Airbnb. That's not a fancy website, that's a crap design. But they know what to do, where to place it, how to place it, and they know what works. So don't try and reinvent the wheel. Take what all these guys are doing and put it into your own website, and that's literally what we've done. So you could try and spend hours doing that, try and go down the route of creating this code and all the stuff. Or, you know, we've just shortcutted it and we keep it so cost effective. One to three properties, it's $500. If you've got four plus properties, and if you want an all-singing, all dancing, amazing website, it's uh three foul four thousand dollars, three thousand pounds, and everything comes with a money back guarantee. And and that is it. The guarantee will get you direct bookings, or we'll give you money back. Does now does boot booths leave act as a PMS? No, we are the we are the car body. Remember, we're the car body, with a website, we have to have the PMS. So we you need to have your PMS. That is what does. Does the engine we had a cow body? We we specialize and we just focus on that. Gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Oh, so for three grand, about you said pounds or dollars. Um, yeah, about four thousand bucks, um, three thousand quid. I need to spend some time in England. Anyways, uh it's about four four thousand bucks. You get a website that you can put every single property you got into. It's not just oh, first property costs this much, second, you know, it's you can throw it all in there and set up direct bookings 100%.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

I see, and it links through. So that I've studied this, like I've geeked out on this so much over these years, and I've I've researched what works, what doesn't work, looked at the surveys, and there's a there's a couple of core reasons why websites don't work. So, number one, right? You go onto your domain. So let's say you send people to your domain, which would be share BNB, right? Sharebnb.com. And then you click book now, and what it does is it takes you to a totally different domain. It takes you to uh share BNB, da da da, because you've got to go to the PMS's domain, and instantly that trust is gone. Because people are like, well, hang on a second, I'm I'm over here on this website and now I'm being sent here. The trust factor just goes. And as soon as you throw up an obstacle, they bounce. 89% said if I have a poor user experience, I will bounce and I will never come back. Because once they leave your website, they then get sucked in the mousetrap of Airbnb, they get sucked in the mousetrap of TripAdvisor, of all these sites that are just literally throwing themselves at them. So this is why it's really, really important. You've got to have something that builds trust, you've got to have a website that works. And you know, I've just me and Tom, we've geeked out on this. We've created something, we we created this technology, this API technology that was that was unique and that nobody's done before, and that got the attention of Guesty, that got the attention of this and all his PMSs, and now we're working with them, we've partnered up with them. And again, I came back to it. I I grew a business through relationships and partnerships with the family business, and I've just replicated that with Boosley. And now the relationships and the partnerships and the networks of I'm growing with this is just taken Boosley 200 growth over the last year, and it and it's awesome to see. So, you know, it's it's it's like it's what I keep saying. I mean, you've had Yves on work B and B, same thing. He's just he's just creating relationships and partnerships through LinkedIn and he's just spreading the word, spreading the word, spreading the word, and then hopefully one day it just it just bangs. For us, it banged end of 2020, which is crazy. Seeing everything that happened in 2020, but the reason why I think why, for the four years before that, every single day I was showing up as a direct booking guy in March 2020. When Airbnb turned off their listings, when Airbnb just cancelled all those bookings without any prior warning to the hosts, hosts came out the other end going, you know what? I can't put all my eggs in one basket. I can't literally build my house on Airbnb land. I got to do something about this. I got to get a PMS, I've got to get a direct booking website, and I was just right place, right time, talking about diet bookings for four years straight. And people just came towards us because of the relationships and the partnerships and the things we created.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

No such thing as luck. It's about being at the right place at the right time. You set yourself up for it because that's

Live chat, automation, and the tools available to one-property hosts

SPEAKER_02 25:08

when I got into direct bookings. As soon as that happened in March, I'm like, I'm going direct. Now, okay, so on your website, man, because I'm loving this, you're you're definitely touching some some really strong points here. How do you like if a guest comes to my website, right? Do are they only allowed to book or can they literally can I communicate with them through like a chat app or something like that?

SPEAKER_04 25:28

When you've got a WordPress website, you can do what you want, right? And this is the important thing with a with a with a templated website from a PMS, a free one, you are heavily restricted on what you can and can't do. And it's mostly what you can't do. So when you've got a WordPress website that you've got all the this the bells and whistles, then you can have live chat. You can have all the cool things that you want. Whatever you want, you can have it in there because you've got the power to do so. So we've got clients that have the most basic setup, phone number in the top right-hand corner. They don't want instant book, they want inquiry only because they've got some luxury properties. That's cool. We've got most who are building a business, building a property management company that want things automated. The book, instant book is on, they've got live chat on, they've got all of the automation set up. So when even when somebody live chats, there's automation behind the live chat. You know, there's some really cool technology that is available now to host technology that was only available to massive hotel chains maybe 10 years ago. But now, even if you've got one property, the for things and the tools and the software that we have available to us, it's is crazy and it's so powerful. And it depends on what you want to do. You've got all those things available, but you've got to have a WordPress website. You can't have a Wix or a Squarespace or whatever, it's got to be a WordPress site.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Okay. And then, man, then you you got me on board. So, okay, now let's say I want to uh so since it's WordPress, so like if I want to collect a security deposit or do a background check on this guest coming in, you've figured out how to put that all into the WordPress website and go from there.

SPEAKER_04 27:00

This is the cool thing. Your PMS has done that for you. So your PMS guesty has has got connections and this API, this API technology has opened so many doors, right? Before API, it was iCal, which was so slow and so outdated, and now it's all updated with API. So there's so many cool software and technology coming available. Superhog, for example. Superhog does the guest verification service. It's a company based out of the UK, and I guarantee there's going to be some in the States as well. But Superhog is just the one that I know, but it is worldwide. And what they do is they sync up and they work with your PMS provider with Guestie, for example, or your whoever. And so they will automate that. And it's all done via API technology. It's it's just a case of making sure you go with a PMS that's got the right connection. So a booking comes in, superhog does the verification, guesty take the payment, links it up with Stripe or Paypal or whatever you've got going on. We are literally the thing that turns a looker into a booker. We are that really nice card body that goes, Oh, I'm gonna second, this is nice, and then they go down the route, they make the booking, and then the PMS takes over from there, property management software.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Now, are you seeing more and more like people going? Because I've always done this, you know, uh uh go to Airbnb or VRBO, I'm looking for a place to stay, whatever. And if I notice say if I notice they they either wrote it in the listing, you know, this listing brought to you by so-and-so rentals, or have a little logo up there. I'm gonna go to the website, try to get a cheaper deal, right? Do you notice a lot of traffic going through that that way?

SPEAKER_04 28:31

Well, this is this is what really started to scratch my itch, is because when I had the family business, I was always, I mean, I was really lucky because we checked in everybody. We meet and greeted everybody that came to stay because it was a bed and breakfast and it was holiday cottages, so it was all on one bit of land. So they had to come and check in at the front desk, and I would just check everybody in. And from the walk from the front desk to their room or to the holiday cottage, I was quizzing them, I was surveying them. So, how did you find us? Why did why did you book on Airbnb Booking.com? I was literally surveying, and I got to survey thousands of people every single year, and I was always making a mental note. And I was like, okay, so if I just started doing X, he would have booked direct with me instead of going with booking.com. So I figured all of this out really quickly about what to do and how to do it. And it's a case of re-educating the guest. In 2016, there was a local TV company that came

Re-educating guests to book direct

SPEAKER_04 29:24

down and we did a joint um piece together for the news. We interviewed people on the seafront in the busiest tourist season. We interviewed them and asked them how did they book their stay. Out of every 10 people, I'd say I think it was eight people had booked via Nautia. They had booked via booking.com or Expedia. Airbnb still wasn't a thing in the UK then. And I was like, wow, why? And they said, well, it's just, you know, they were the brand, it's what they knew. You get the best rates, you get the best cancellation policies. I was like, nah, you get the best rates when you book direct, you get the same cancellation policies. What they had done really cleverly is they had branded and marketed their business so well. And if you want to see the mindset of these big companies, go on to YouTube. TED Talk about Joe Gebier, who's the co-founder of Airbnb back in 2016, did a 30-minute 20-minute sorry, 20 to 30 minute TED talk about how Airbnb is designed for trust. And this is a perfect video to watch if you want to get into the mindset of these of these big, big, big companies, because Airbnb knew in 2016 if they were going to get on the same level peg-in as Booking Holiday Group and the Expedia group, they had to get the demographic of guests away from those platforms and booking on there, and they had to get the host on them as well. And they had to do it through trust. And they built that trust and they did it through amazing marketing, amazing branding. They hired amazing people and they got there. Now you can argue that booking Airbnb, sorry, is ahead of booking.com, ahead of Verbo, ahead of the Expedia Group in terms of like standing in the industry. And so now we've got to look back to us and it's like, okay, so how do we do this? What we got to do is we have to re-educate our guests. So if I was to stand on my little plimph at our family business and just re-educate every guest, I am never going to achieve my goal. My big goal is to get the OTAs to cut down the commission costs. My big goal is to make sure that they treat us more like partners. And my big goal is to make them pay attention to us because they don't at the moment. We're not partners, we're just another number in the chain for their shareholders and stockholders, right? And so, how do we do that? If if I can educate one million guests, great, but it's not going to go anywhere. If I can re-educate one million hosts, and in turn, if I can help those hosts re-educate their guests, and that's really powerful because every every host has got at least a thousand guests a year. So imagine if I've got 10,000 guests or 100,000 guests. That is where we get the that is where we get the attention of these guys. And literally the easiest thing you can do to re-educate your guests right now, like you said, Steve, you've got your Airbnb profile, you've got your Airbnb listing. Go and put a little watermark on your images on the Airbnb. Go into your profile, and the first line of your copy of your personal profile, put that you are property management company, go check them, go say, go check out online reviews, are really good. By doing that to show that you are a proper business, a proper company, and not just somebody who's doing this as a hobby or it's your spare room, then people will go and check you out online. They will click around. The public now know that if you look around, you will get better rates and you'll get better incentives. And on every Boosley website, as you scroll down on that home page, we've got a section dedicated for the reasons why you should book direct. And if you're thinking, oh, that's pretty niche, go and look at what the Marriott do. Go and look at what the Hilton do. When you book direct on their sites, you can get free Wi-Fi, earlier check-in, later checkout, you get discounted rates. They they talk about it. In fact, the Hilton had a TV ad spot going in 2018 with Anna Kendrick. The the whole slogan was don't click around, book direct with us. And it's like, if this is what the big guys are doing and they spend millions and millions and millions doing this, then why aren't we doing this? We don't have to reinvent the wheel. And that's literally what I've been showing and explaining and talking about for the last five, six years.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

It's funny because that you say that because Southwest Airlines always been want to have come to our website to book with us. We're not going to get on any of those, you know, expedias or pricelines or anything. You got to come to our website, and they're successful. Very much so.

SPEAKER_04 33:36

And this is really important because if we let Airbnb keep growing and growing and growing and growing and growing, there's a there's a potential problem here, and I can relate this year. So this book, book direct playbook, my book that I released. I had to put this on Amazon. I couldn't do this directly. I haven't got a printing press behind me right here. I've got my nine-year-old sleeping, probably about now, right? I had to do it through Amazon because they started 20, 30 years ago with just Jeff Bezos in his garage selling them books. They've grown and they've monopolized this book printing industry so much you have to literally do it through them. And for every book that I sell, I only get 30% commission,

The Amazon warning: why Airbnb could take 70% commission

SPEAKER_04 34:16

30% to me. I have to pay 70% commission, which is madness, right? And because right now people are going, oh, that that's that commission cost of 3% to 14% on Airbnb, that's a bit of a jump. Yeah, just imagine if you are 80% reliant on Airbnb for bookings. What's going to stop them in a couple of years' time when they grow their dominance and they become the ultimate OTA? And then you are 80% reliant on Airbnb. What's to stop them from turning around going, you know what? I don't think this relationship is pretty fair. We're doing all of your work, all of your marketing, all of your revenue, and we're only taking 15%. Let's bump that up to 30. And then they'll go, let's bump it up to 50. It's a 50-50 relationship, and then it'll go 70-30. And that's the worry. This is why it's so important to have these chats and these and these discussions because there's a warning sign and it's Amazon right there. There's no reason why Airbnb can't do that. So this is why it's really important that we have to start doing our own marketing. We have to start collecting our guest data because Airbnb aren't going to give it. We are very lucky that Airbnb still give you their phone number of the guest because they don't give you the email address. They want to keep it all on platform, and I can see it sooner rather than later, where they will have a phone option within the app. And if you want to communicate with your guests by calling or emailing, you have to do it on the app. You've got to take advantage of getting their phone number, their mobile phone number, and doing something about it now. Start building up your own guest database because it could come to a point in time where you have your whole business on Airbnb. And what happens if they just do this and go, nah, sorry, that listing went against our guidance. Off you go, that account off you go. It can easily happen. Happens. I've done so many of these podcasts and spoken to people, go, yep, happened to me.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Yeah, yeah. Man, you you are touching on some really good gems here, man. And I think this is the I'm happy you brought up the reason why you're so passionate about this, is because you, if you have a monopoly, man, those monopolies they they control it, you know, they can they have the opportunity to control that. So, man, I'm I'm definitely gonna be on board. I'm definitely right now when I can like hop on board to loosely, man, because then this is next level anytime.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

So here's a big thing. I always get and when when in whenever anytime we talk to somebody about direct bookings, right? And we have guests on the show that are pro-direct bookings, you know. We have guys, I don't know, 80% of my business comes from direct bookings. We have people on there, no, no, no, I don't want to deal with direct bookings. Airbnb does everything for me. There's the best websites, the best marketing tool. So we get we get all into the spectrum, right? You know, and so here here's the biggest thing against it, and I'm sure you can talk on this is the the fears of doing direct

Superhog and million-dollar insurance without the middleman

SPEAKER_00 36:49

bookings, as far as you know, because Airbnb and VRBO come with this million-dollar insurance policy, right? And so, what happens if if someone um destroys my house on a direct booking, or what happens if they have a slip and fall and sue me for a million bucks? You know, how what what how do you ease those fears on people?

SPEAKER_04 37:06

So, all that is it's Airbnb, good marketing, and good branding. They put the fear in hosts and guests to go, you know what, you don't need to go anywhere else. All it takes is a simple Google search. I've already mentioned the company, Superhog, they have exactly the same insurance, that exactly the same payout as Airbnb and better, but you don't have to rely on a middleman. And this is this is so important, is that and and you know, I've talked to so many people, I feel like Clubhouse, every single week. I'm speaking to somebody who's like 90% plus reliant on on Airbnb. And if you are gonna grow this business, if this is gonna be something that you want to be around in five or ten years' time or even three years' time, if you are solely reliant on one platform and one channel to bring in all of your revenue, then you are literally playing in somebody else's sandpaper. And like I said, all it takes is one complaint right now. It can take one or two crappy reviews, and number one, your listing's gone. Number two, you'll you're you're if you've got bad reviews, you'll you'll fall off the algorithm and you may never recover. And if you're solely reliant on that one platform to bring it in and you just go, you know what, I'm happy, leave them to it. What happens if you lose your listing or your account? You're screwed. And what happens if you can't be seen? How are you going to get bookings and revenue? You need to. And you know, it's it's very important this message because this industry that we're in, which is hospitality. I don't care if you say you're a real estate guy or a property guy, you're in hospitality. As soon as you've got strangers staying in your property, you're in hospitality. You're in my world. And with this industry, we are so in demand. We create memories. We are so in demand. There's dates in your calendar that you can look at in the next 12 months that you know you could sell three or four times over if you wanted to, if you could do. And because of that, anybody right now can go and open up an Airbnb, take a couple of pictures on your phone, throw it on that channel, and you're pretty much guaranteed to get revenue coming in. It's a blessing and it's a curse. It's a blessing because it's so easy, but it's a curse because then because it is so easy, you become over alight and you become lazy. And then you literally then are just waiting and waiting for those bookings to come in, you're reactive. There is no other industry like it, right? I do websites. There is no website listing site for me where I can go list my services and guarantee to get in revenue. No, I have to do what everybody else has to do. I have to create a brand, I have to create content, I have to network and market and do all these things to build brand awareness and do all the things that everybody does. But in hospitality, because it is so easy, people don't do it. Those that don't, unfortunately, in March 2020 on Airbnb with the everything that happened, so many people I know lost their businesses because there was that one day in March 2020 where everybody woke up, guests, hosts, and there was a notification saying, I don't care what the cancellation policy is, you can cancel your stay free of charge. And people did because it was madness. The world was turning upside down by day. And because of that, people didn't come out the other end. But those that had direct bookings, those that didn't have a middleman as their point of call and point of reference and all those things, those that had bookings under their database and under their rules and their policy, they were able to communicate with their guests, they were able to pick the phone up and have a one-on-one human conversation. We did this, we saved so much revenue by adopting the method and the mantra of change, not cancel. So listen, Mike, I totally understand. You've booked to come and stay with us in April with everything going on. I know you can't. We really would appreciate if you would just move your date back just to help make sure that we are here when the world starts to go back to normal. Are you okay to do that? And by having a super honest and transparent conversation, we're able to do that. If you were with Airbnb, you didn't have opportunity. So it's a it's a lesson. It's a lesson. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Don't I mean, don't go 100% direct bookings. You've got to be able to have a nice moderation and a fair moderation of everything on board. It's just as dangerous to go 100% book direct as it is to go 100% Airbnb. You've got to have a healthy moderation, you've got to have a healthy split.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

So, so branding, you harp on that. Is that in that book? Do you do you go over branding and how to build a strong brand, stuff like that?

The Book Direct Playbook structure and evergreen tactics

SPEAKER_04 41:18

You better believe it. So this this book right here is called the Book Direct Playbook, and it's called a playbook for a reason. Like I said, I used to coach soccer. When I was on the sidelines, I had my book and I had my folder with me, right? If I wanted to run a specific play, if I wanted to do a certain drill, I would open up the book, I would go to that chapter, I'd go to that section, we would run it and we'll review it. And when I wanted to write a book, I didn't want to have somebody read it from page one to 300. I wanted them to be able to come in and go, right, what do you need help with? So we've got sections on customer avatar, building your ideal guest, finding your ideal guest, your website, how important is it? Networking, bring brand building, uh a simple guide to content creation, hashtags, email marking. So it's everything. So you can go in, you can dip in and dive. And I totally understand that what I talk about with marketing, it has the ability to go out of date. So I could have written this book and it would be out of date before the time it even came to publish. If I'd have written a book two years ago about musically, it's now TikTok. It's crazy. So what I've done, instead of like mentioning specific things, social media channels or whatever, I talk about the psychological aspects of everything and it keeps it evergreen. And there's a there's a there's an actual video course on the back of it. So the videos is all on a separate website. So when you buy the book, you know where to go, you know how to get access to it. Those videos will stay on the internet forever, and I can update it as we go, which is really cool. So this book is going to be as valid in 20 years' time. So if my boy, my boys, Alfie, Charlie, or Frankie want to give us a go in 15, 20 years' time, I can give them a copy of the book and they can go, ah, my old man actually knew what's talking about. So this is this isn't important. So yeah, I mean, the everything branding, building awareness, creating content, being becoming the go-to. I speak about a ton in that book. And and and that's why I created it because I've got 500, nearly 500 podcast episodes, and I still get people messaging me now saying, How do I do this or that? And like Clubhouse Rooms, it's crazy. I'll say something and I'll get a message saying, 'How do I do that?' And now I can just go, you know what? Go buy the book and just I love it.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

So another thing I want to touch on is uh I in this society, and and I'm uh you know, I'm subject to it too. I reviews, reviews are big, it's it's everywhere, right? I I I go, Oh, I'm gonna try a new restaurant downtown, obviously, three and a half stars, and I'm probably not gonna try it, you know. I even though I probably should, anyways, someone was pissed off that day and they only have five reviews, one person game of one star because they didn't like the waiter. I don't know, but but it just it's just it's ingrained in this now, and that's that's a huge part of Airbnb, right? And so when you have your direct booking site, there's no, I mean, unless you put a review section on there, I don't know how how do you handle the reviews part?

SPEAKER_04 43:53

Not that covered with WordPress, so there's amazing tools out there that now will go and grab all of the reviews that are on. Online, whether it's on Airbnb, Google, Facebook, Virgo,

Review aggregation tools and the 84% social-proof stat

SPEAKER_04 44:03

and they'll collect them, collate them, and you can set a filter so only the five-star reviews go on your website, which is so cool. Right. And uh good, and we've got them on every single one of our boostly websites. Because I'll tell you why. 84% of people only book a stay after they've seen social proof, i.e., a review, right? So if you've got a website and 84% of people will check a review or social proof before making a book in review, why do you not have a review uh section on your website? Because then what does that mean? They're gonna bounce, they're gonna go and find a place with reviews. And as soon as they hit TripAdvisor or wherever they go, they are bombarded with so much. You like this, go check out this. You like this, go check out that. And like literally, once they hit that mousetrap, even if they book with you and you've got to suck up the commission, what if I said they go book somewhere else? It's dangerous. So you've got to have that. And and reviews are so important, I 100% agree with that. But there's something that everybody can do to make sure you've got a five-star review every single time, but nobody is going to do it. And I guarantee 90% of people watching and listening to this won't do it. But if you do it, it will mean that you get a five-star review every single time. And this is what you need to do. So make sure you get your pens and papers out. And if you need a review of this, just send me a message on Instagram. I'll send you a video on how to do it, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Are you wanted to hop into the short-term

The story behind every booking

SPEAKER_02 45:28

rental space but just don't know where to get started? Join our Live Let Thrive Facebook group to network with other like-minded investors. We have property managers, lenders, and other experienced hosts to learn from. Click the link below to join. I'll see you there.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

There is, and remember this, write this down. There's a story behind every booking, right? There's a story behind every booking, whether it's a work cation, staycation, leisure, family, one night, two night, ten nights, whatever. There's a story behind it. It's up to you to uncover it. And the easiest and the simplest way for you to do it is to call a guest when a booking is made. Like I said, you still get the phone number. Take advantage of it while we got it. Call a guest. And then you're gonna ask a ton of open-ended questions like who, where, why, what, where. So, you know, why did you book? Why did you stay with us? Why did you choose us over everybody else? You know, those same conversations that I had with a guest walking in from the check-in to their door, you can have by picking up the phone. And by having that really cool conversation, you're gonna say, Well, is there anything you're celebrating? You know, why are you coming to the area? And you can find the story behind it, you

The $20 fishing-rod gift that locked in five years of rebookings

SPEAKER_04 46:30

can do something about it. Now, I'm gonna give you a story and an example of this in in real world practice and why this works so many times. There's a a lady that I was speaking to, she's based in Canada, she's got properties by a lakeside by a riverside, right? And her properties were well known for being by the river, you go there, you chill out by the lake, amazing time. Somebody made a booking, and in the little contact form, like the note section, they said, We are coming to stay with you. It's our little Jimmy's ninth birthday. He wants to learn how to fish. Never done it before. Now, most people, 90% of people will just look at it and go, Oh, that's nice. But what she did was she went to the bait and tackle shop, the fish shop, the sports shop, whatever you want to call it, on the way to the meet and greet, because she met and greeted her guests. She picked up a fishing rod, some bait, and a bucket, got to the property, left a little note on the porch saying, Little Jimmy, have an amazing birthday, just a little gift from us to say good luck with your fishing. Bucket and fish and bait, maybe 20 bucks, five or 10 minutes out of their time. You can just imagine the effect it had on the family when they arrived. Instantly, five-star review. Instant. I mean, you could have crappy Wi-Fi, crappy hot water, crappy beds, and that's still a five-star review because of what you've done to personalize your business over everybody else. Not only was it a five-star review, think of the social media posts instantly, social proof. Everybody talks about wanting to work with influencers. Every single one of your guests is an influencer in one way, shape, or form, because the only time they properly post on social media is when they're on vacation because they want to show off to everybody back home who's doing the normal nine to five, right? So pictures instantly, text messages. Oh, look at this, is it great? When they got home, told friends, family, co-workers. That family rebooked, she said, I think it was five or six years on the trot every year after that, plus as well, all of the referrals and the things that came in on the back of it was huge of a bucket that cost $20 with a fishing rod and five, 10 minutes out of a day. So, how can you personalize your business? Now you don't have to do it for everyone. If you've got a lot of properties, you're thinking, oh shit, that sounds like a lot of work. Just focus on the 80-20. Look at the 20% of bookings that generate 80% of your revenue and focus on them. So realistic terms, anybody who books more than a week, why are they coming to stay with you? Surely that's got to just pique your interest. I mean, I geek out on this, but if I see someone, one of my clients and they book for more than a week, I'm like, I'm texting them saying, call them, call them, find out what are they doing? More than two weeks. Why are they doing it? If they've got a business domain, it's like shit, they're coming on work. Like, this is big. Call them up, find out who made the booking. Did they make the booking, or do they have a PA in their in their team? How many members of their team come to your town regularly? You could be sat on a six-month contract if you just picked up the phone and had a conversation. The problem is we're too scared to pick up the phone. We'd rather just hide behind a text message or a WhatsApp or an Instagram message. Fucking pick up the phone and just do it old school, then you'll absolutely fly.

SPEAKER_00 49:28

That's so true, man. That's so true. You know, powerful. Um, it's the power of actual conversation with somebody, right? Instead of just relying on texting or relying on I dare your listeners, I dare your watches.

SPEAKER_04 49:39

I dare anybody try it. I dare, and when you do it, send me an Instagram message. You've got permission to Instagram me, just say, Hey, I listened to you on LiveLet Frive, I've tried it, tell me the results. I guarantee it will work. I guarantee it.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

Man, you're right, and we're we're scared to do it because I mean, especially that these phones have made everything so freaking easy to just communicate and we don't want to talk on the phones anymore, right? But at the other day, I you know, I use Furnish Finder to get you know travel nurses longer bookings. You know, you've heard of Furnish Finder, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:09

I'm the founder, yeah. Good guy. I'm sending get to UK, get uh get to UK, get to your man, get it over here.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

He was on our show, he came on our show. No, I watched it. Yeah, yeah, great dude. Um, anyways, I I had the same thing, you know. There was this this person I was going back and forth with for a few days, and they were oh we might book it, we might now, you know. And I just I just picked up the phone. Hey, you know, what's going on? And and then it's like, well, you know, I am interested in some of your places. I just you know, my my wife's gonna be at home a lot, and I want something safe for her. You know, we got two dolls, and you told me the whole story, and I said, Okay, I'm definitely not gonna put you at this other place because I don't, you know, because what you told me, uh I want you to stay at this one, it's safer, it's enclosed, but I I got to hear his uh why he wanted to book what he was looking for, you know, which wasn't coming across in the text messages. And then he he that same day he sent me the money and booked it for four months. And I was like, This is so easy. Why don't I call more of these people instead of them just going back and forth with text messages? You're freaking right, man.

SPEAKER_02 51:08

Yeah, I did the yeah. If you call those people on Furnish Finder, if you're the first one to call them, they'll even pay more because they know there's a real person behind this text message, they'll pay more, you know. And that that's a man, you're touching on some real heavy gems tonight. That is that is the truth.

SPEAKER_04 51:24

Think about what we are in, we're in hospitality. Think of that, you know. I started off my American journey in Tennessee, in Alabama, in Louisiana. They're like this is hovering hospitality down to a T, and we are in the hospitality business, but yet we are scared to be hospitable. It's crazy, you know what I mean? And you know, it's it's this is what we do. You know, I grew up in a guest house every single day. There was a stranger in my kitchen, I couldn't help be hospitable. You know what I mean? And now I feel like with uh everything that's going on and arbitrage and all those things and all these cool words, we're just literally looking at people like a number, and we can't do that because that's what Airbnb do. That's what booking.com do, that's what Virgo do. We have got the amazing ability to become the local go-to in our whole area. Airbnb can't do that. You've got the ability to influence your chamber of commerce, you've got the ability to do all these cool, amazing things, build so many cool networks and abilities, and it just starts by picking up the phone, being hospitable. B and I, B and I there's business network institute meetings that go on everywhere, around the world, every week. There are your future guests and referrals sat at those meetings, but you don't go. Why? Tap into that and you'll be fine. You'll have diary bookings, four-month bookings, six-month bookings, seven-month bookings, and they pay and they're the best guests because it's not them that pay, it's their businesses. And if those guests take the piss, reccu place, they've got to not answer to you, but gonna answer to their bosses, and they're the best guests, best guests, and then you've got to tap into them.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

Well, one one real quick caveat on the on the

Why you have to pick up the phone

SPEAKER_00 53:06

phone call thing because okay, the only the only problem here is that people are bombarded with these scam calls all day long, right? So they don't a lot of people don't answer the phone because of that, right? So, do you send a message like a text message first? Hey, I'm gonna call you real quick, or and then how do you do it?

SPEAKER_04 53:20

You know how cool it is, is because they've already made the booking, they've already you've knocked down so many barriers, they already know you because they've made the booking. And you pick up the phone and just say, Hey, this isn't a sales call instantly. Ah, relax. I'm just gonna have a phone call with you. I just want to make sure. I just want to make sure that your stay with us is gonna be the best day possible. Imagine how many people don't do that. I guarantee 99.9% of people don't do that. If they don't pick up and it goes to voicemail, hey, it's Mark calling from da-da-da-da. Just wanted to check you're okay. Uh, get back to me. This is my cell phone number. And and if you're thinking, oh shit, this sounds like a lot of work. And if you've got tons of units, hire somebody that will do that for you. That's called Mike McAllowitz. Clockwork, that's called there. You go, Mike is nodding his head.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 54:06

This is about growing if you are thinking, oh, that sounds like a lot of work, congrats, your frigginations. You've got tons of bookings to deal with. Hire somebody, get yourself out of that business. And again, there's so many cool software. I use WhatsApp every single day. I send voice notes, voice notes, voice notes, voice notes. If you send a voice note, many more people are gonna listen to it because it's the intrigue of it. Like, oh, what's this voice note gonna say? And then again, they'll listen and all that cool stuff. You can video call Christ almighty. If you video call somebody right now, whoa, why is somebody video calling me? This is crazy, and then boom, you pop up with your big smiling face saying, Hey, I'm from blah blah blah, instantly. They know your face and they know your face and know your voice, and it's not gonna be a cancellation. I guarantee you, cancellations happen, one in three cancellations happen because you literally there's no personalization. If you personalize your business in some way, shape, or form, that's not gonna be a cancellation, they're gonna come and stay with you, and then what can you do on top of that? And then there's so many more things you can do in it, and I guarantee you I've talked about it in this book. So go and get the book, get the book, guys. Yeah, man, it's a best seller for a reason.

SPEAKER_00 55:07

Oh, nice. So, one crucial question, one very important question I gotta ask you is um, what kind of discount are you giving to us at Live The Thrivers, man?

SPEAKER_04 55:17

Come on, what kind of uh what are we talking about for websites?

SPEAKER_00 55:22

Uh for yeah, well, yeah, for the for the 3,000 or the 4,000. It yeah, what's what's up with I'll look after you.

SPEAKER_04 55:28

So if you go into the Boostly website, if you want to get a website, put in the coupon code Thrive T-H-R-I-V-E, and you'll be looked after. That's just for you guys. I'll sort it out. I've got my I've got my ways, I've got a WordPress website. I know what I'm doing behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

So you can do discount codes, of course you can. Oh man, dude, this is guesty's about to be mad, they just lost a customer.

SPEAKER_04 55:53

No, no, no, you need to uh boom. Let's just rewind. Remember, Boosley is the power body, the PMS is the engine. You if you if you're talking about powering it, coupon codes, you've got to do it via your PMS. And if your PMS doesn't do coupon codes, pester them, get them to do it because there's some amazing ones out there that does, etc. etc. So, yeah, you can do coupon codes, but there's there's also cool things you can do as well, like pop-ups and ah man, there's just so many. We can literally talk here for days, or you could just go and buy the book and it's all in there. So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

Nice, man. Is there a coupon code for the book too? I gotta ask.

SPEAKER_04 56:29

I gotta I can't because you know why it's on Amazon.

SPEAKER_00 56:32

Oh, it's on Amazon.

SPEAKER_04 56:33

Okay, you know what? I'm screwed. I literally was nothing I could do. I wish I could send people they can buy it from me, but I I can't, man.

SPEAKER_01 56:39

It's just a BMB ain't got coupon codes, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 56:43

So hey, but but buy his book anyways because it'll be a tax write-off because it's educational, man. It's educational.

SPEAKER_04 56:49

I've already buying it on Kindle, it's on Kindle, it's on Audible, and it's on print. Do you do you read the book? I do read the book, it was the hardest thing I have ever done. Because I don't know if you realize I talk kind of quick. Then you've got to literally sit there with the screen in front of you, and you've got to read one sentence, you've got to stop, and then they've got to edit it, and then you go again. It's the hardest thing I ever did. And I and I I was ill, ill as as I was recording it, but I still did it because I needed to get it done that day. If I hadn't got it done that day, it wouldn't be ready for the launch. So we got it done, it's out, it's ready. Sariest thing I've ever done, but I did it.

SPEAKER_00 57:26

Do you have like a package where you you could get the book and the audio book, or is there any packages that just you have to buy a separate?

SPEAKER_04 57:32

Well, you you you buy it to you can buy it and you can buy it. I always say that my biggest productivity hack is I love audiobooks. What I do is I grab the audiobook and I get the print as well because as I'm going through, I can make the notes as I am listening to it. And um, I got that from Alex Hall Mosey, the one with the 100 million dollar offer. Um, Alex Hormosy, really good book, the hundred million dollar offer. I recommend everybody check it out. And I got that from there. So you can you can you can get all of them, man.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

Just you know what's it called? The hundred million dollar offer?

SPEAKER_04 58:01

Yeah, Alex, Alex Hormosy, uh, 100 million dollar offer. He is pretty much blown up everywhere right now on YouTube and podcasts and Instagram and stuff. Very interesting guy.

SPEAKER_00 58:12

What is the hundred million dollar offer, by the way?

SPEAKER_04 58:14

If you want to spoil the book, the well, the the the premise of it is that you've got to create an offer that makes

Writing a 50,000-word book in six weeks using the Pomodoro technique

SPEAKER_04 58:21

people feel so stupid if they say no. That's the offer. And he uh he built it up through um Jim's Gymshark is his business and his brand, but now he shows everybody in different businesses how to do it as well. Really good follow on Instagram, really good follow on YouTube. Uh drops a lot of really good like business and marketing and sales talk and whatnot. But that that book was really good, really good sort of introduction to to to um to his world. So, yeah, do go check it out after you've bought my book, of course. Get them up.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

Of course, of course. How do you write a damn book, man? Well, well, how did you do that? Did you do are you a writer? Do you know how to do that shit?

SPEAKER_04 58:57

No, I've never done it before, never. I I knew what I wanted to do, I knew, and I had 10 10 years of stuff in my head. And I say, whenever I come on a podcast interview or a clubhouse room, I get people messaging me and asking me the same questions. And I was like, I I've got them on YouTube, I've got them on podcast, but people don't go. So instead, I just want to go send people to one place. And at the end of the day, Julie George, you all know Julie George, she said to me, uh, I spoke to her before at the start of the process, and she said, just do it because at the end of the day, it's the best business card, and it'll be something you can pass on to your boys when they're old, it's a legacy play. And I'm glad I did it. To get started with, to be honest, I just did the pomodor technique. 25 minutes on, five minutes off, did two of them every day, and I was able to churn it out in six weeks, 50,000 words in six weeks. I just put it down on a Google Doc. I didn't even look at what I was writing, I just brain-dumped it out, and then I discovered an amazing human called Neely Khan, um, of Neely Vare. She's a copywriter storyteller, and she helped me edit the book to actually make it sound like sense and craft a story behind it. And then the the went worked with a publisher, got the audio done, and yeah, bizarre. Hardest thing I've ever done, best thing I've ever done.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

You know, that's crazy. The last two people who came on and said they wrote books, they just time blocked it and they got it done.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:17

Avery Carl, I listened, I watched that. Avery Carl, same thing. You know, she just had a second baby, she said, and she just got them done. And obviously, like she had the bigger pockets per hand to like work behind and stuff, which is awesome and a nice push. But yeah, you just just get it done, man. Just get it done. Small little sections, just break down those big goals into small little chunks. Like I've never ever said this before, but I do 36 push-ups every morning, right? You do 36 push-ups every morning, that's 12,000 in a year. If you're gonna say if you do 12,000 push-ups, you're gonna go it's crazy. But you break it down to small little daily goals, that's just 36. So, again, big goal, small little daily chunks, just improve yourself one percent every single day. Off you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:57

Man, you're powerful right there, man. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

It's cool. Like you mentioned, Avery Carl, Julie George, and it's it's it's funny. It's a our community, it's like we all know each other, right? And it is it is super cool that it's still like that, you know. You wouldn't think, um, I don't know, the hotel industry is what it is, you know, there's the five biggest brands, and that's it, right? And then there's a lot of little small ones, but but this thing, this short-term rental, midterm, whatever, is is still a community where anybody can do this, right? And and I know you're foreshadowing that well, one day Airbnb is gonna take over everything, right? And this might not even be it, you know, as as um, you know, small time, small time people doing it anymore, but hopefully it is.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:45

But it's okay, it's never gonna happen. It's never gonna happen because people are gonna teach one million people how to book direct and we're gonna educate their guests, so they're never gonna get to that point. This is why it's important that we start now, but yeah, I get you.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:55

Yeah, yeah, you see what I was getting at. I was like, man, it's cool that it's like this, and hopefully, like you said, it'll stay like this because we're all connected, you know. It's it's it's a big community, but it's kind of a small community because we all kind of know each other, and that that's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:07

Yeah, man. Well, it's and and this is the thing, we're in the sharing economy now. Where like 10 years ago, people kept everything so closely to their chest, you know what I mean? There was no proper social media, there was no clubhouse or Zooms and all of this cool technology that we've got. So, like right now, I'm in England, right? User in America, I've met so many Americans and Canadians this year from our past two years from Clubhouse and all those cool things, and we're able to jump on a podcast and do this. And then we're gonna upload it to YouTube and Spotify, and then people can can share and they can join in the conversation. And that's the cool thing about it, is that even though it is a huge world, social media mean that it's literally is two degrees of separation. And we name all the people and we know the same ones, you know. And people that I follow on Instagram and chat too and stuff, you've all interviewed and it and it's an amazing, and I learned from them and they learn from me. And and the whole goal of this is that I never from day one believed in competition. I believe in collaboration over competition, and because of that mindset, it's opened so many doors. I know so many people that went down the other route, competition over collaboration, and they do not have a big audience, they do not have a big community, they do not have a big network because of that. So you flip it collaboration over competition, and your business and everything about you and what you do will grow.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:22

Beautiful, man. And and yeah, and um oh shit, I just fell out of my head. Collaboration over competition. I love it. We've been doing that for you know, going on 200 episodes. Oh, yeah. What's your what's your uh what's your podcast called?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:39

The Boostly Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:41

The Boostly Podcast.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:42

Boostly Podcast. Yeah, I'm not I'm very lucky. Like I've been doing doing it for nearly 500 episodes. I'm very happy and grateful to say that it's in the top one percent of downloads to get into what top one percent, which is this is madness, right? For podcasts, to be in the top one percent, you think and assume you've got to do millions and millions, you know, like bigger pockets level. You don't, you only have to get six thousand episodes in the first 10 days. That's it, six thousand. That's not a lot if you think about it from base bearing in mind how many people check out podcasts. So six thousand downloads, six thousand downloads in the first 10 days. So that's it, and that's amazing. And to get in the top 10, I think it's like half of that, like 3,000 in the first 10 days. So that that's pretty cool, and not a lot of people know. So I I I think personally, everybody should have a podcast. I think every host should have a podcast. It's not that much of a hard work, but the networks, just imagine it right now, that networking thing that I told you about. Just imagine if you went to a host and say, Hey, I'd love to feature in my podcast. I go, Yeah, that's great. And you build that relationship, you build that thing, and then you've got content online to build it as well. So then you talk about SEO, you talk about all those cool things. Just imagine if somebody types in their business and looking for their business, and then a video of you pops up, interviewing them, and then they learn about your brand. And again, for like a 15, 20, 30-minute episode video, and you can do maybe 10 of them focusing on the businesses that you like and around your local area, you become that local brand ambassador, which is what everybody should strive to do, become your local brand ambassador. So then you become the go-to, and yeah, beautiful thing, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

Man, that's awesome, man. You really dropped some gems today, man. I'm happy we finally got you on because man, it took a while the time's all different.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:21

But yeah, if you would have waited just a little longer, you'd have been episode 200, though.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:25

Well, I'm happy because my goal is the best podcast in the 200. Because I've seen your community to talk about what was your best podcast of 2021. And I'm like, I've got to get my name on that list, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

You're definitely gonna hit 2022 for sure, man. Better.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:43

Oh man, so thanks for hopping on, Mike. This has been a great the greatest episode. There you go. That we've that we've recorded today.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:51

My absolute pleasure. I mean it. I'm a I love what you do. I love the podcast, I love the community, I love everything. So thank you so much for having me on. I mean it. So, like as I said, I've watched These whiteboards behind Mike could just change all the time. I see the mindset every episode. So thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:09

Real quick, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:12

Uh easiest thing, Instagram. Come and find me on Instagram. You can send me a message, even if I'm not following you. Instagram is easy. It's at boostly uk. Come and send me a message. Save it you discover me on the five. Don't forget the coupon code. You can get some money off. Some cool things, whatever that may be. But yeah, come find me on now and we'll we'll go from there.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:34

Well, thanks so much, man. And we wish you all the luck. And and when we're in England, we'll go we'll go hang out, man. We'll go watch a football match. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:41

Go watch the Arsenal.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:43

Arsenal.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:45

All right, Mark, man. Thank you for having us on. Thanks for thank you for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:50

Yeah, no, it was his show today, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:52

Yeah, it was his show. Thank you for having us on. Thank you very much. All right, man. We are out later. Man, that was a really good episode. I gotta definitely I took some notes on that. He dropped some heavy little gems on that dude on the whole, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:09

I got two pages, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:10

Yeah, I got a whole word per word of notes here. And I already have a WordPress site, so I'm like, oh I can just flip it over to him. So yeah, I'm I'm I'm that was really that was really eye-opening and how he looked at like the I never really thought about the monopolization of Airbnb. You know, hey, if we got the whole market share, everybody's Airbnb hosts and Airbnb hosts. Uh by the way, yeah, it's 40% now. Ain't shit you can do about it because your business depends on yeah, imagine paying 40 plus 20 to a management company. Get ugly.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:42

So it could happen. Uh that's the thing. And and like you said, like you know, we've like I said, we had guests come on that are 100 Airbnb, they don't want to mess with any direct bookings, and then the other ones that that are all about direct bookings, and then in between, right? You know, half and half or whatever. But um, he he gave some some reasons, and he and reason and a big reason was fear, you know, someone trashes your place or whatever, Airbnb's gonna take care of me, which they don't always do, right? Uh but um he mentioned super hog, and over here we have um what is the insurance company here?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

Uh uh we use super hog and proper super hogs are oh super hogs are here too.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:21

I'm actually supposed to be switching to super hog Q2. So April 1st, I'm probably making that switch.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:27

So um, yeah, I and and it's and it's funny because like it all goes, you know, the anything can happen. Yes, I know. Uh we have you know, we have over you know, we have like 45 listings now, and and you know, knock on wood, nothing too crazy is you know happened, and like I don't want to jinx it. Uh Federico always says, you know, grab your your left ball with your right hand and spit if I to not jinx something, you know. I don't know, it's uh it's something stupid. But anyways, um but yeah, if you get the right insurance, if you get prop uh proper insurance, or or that that hog one, that hog one, um you'll be all right, or you'll be just as covered uh as Airbnb claims to cover you. And we all know the Airbnb doesn't honor every claim. So, anyways, uh it's it's it's all about fears and it's all about good marketing, and it's all about um getting out there and and what's it called? Uh think think locally and then act globally, or I don't know, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:25

Yeah, yeah, how he said it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:26

I forget how he said it, but yeah, it's definitely but it was it was a very eye-opening episode, and I'm I'm definitely gonna be reaching out to him, man. So I'm gonna get that book for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:35

Yeah, for sure, man. Um I can't wait.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:38

Yeah, man, and hit us up. We got big things coming in the Live Let Thrive community, you know, live let thrive at gmail.com. Uh hit uh hit us up, uh livelethrive.com. Uh big things coming, man. This is this is exciting times.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:52

Yeah, and for those watching on YouTube, you know you can follow our IGs down here at the bottom. Um, yeah, but yeah, thank y'all for continuing to listen, man. That that we didn't even really get to talk about it, but that meetup last week was absolutely awesome, phenomenal that we had. And we didn't I didn't realize we had so many people locally that listen to our podcast. You know, mainly everyone I was talking to, hey, had you hear about us? Some people came from bigger pockets, and a lot of people were like, Oh, I just listened to the podcast. I'm like, damn, you know, so really cool stuff. It was really cool to meet y'all for the people that did come. Man, really cool. And thank y'all for coming out. We will definitely be having those, I believe, quarterly, right? So we'll be having one in the next month or two here. So thank y'all for coming out.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:31

All right, we'll see y'all on the flip.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:33

We are out. Peace later.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:37

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Live Let Thrive. Be sure to tune in next week for all the latest in the world of Airbnb and all that entails. Bye bye.