All about.... Susie Croot

Welcome to a very, very special series of the Boostly podcast. This series, I am not going to be talking all about diary bookings and tactics. What I wanted to do is I wanted to have some success stories and feature stories. Some of the Boostly Academy members, Team Boostly as we, I like to call them, we like to call ourselves. So in this little series that I've put together, I'm going to focus and I'm going to feature some members of the Boostly Academy. And today we're kicking off with the Amazing Suzy Crew. You are going to love Suzy, so please make sure you stick around and you tune into the full episode at the very end. What I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a little bit more information on how you can join Team Boostly and join the Boostly Academy. But for now, all I want for you to do is to sit back, relax and listen and watch the Amazing Susie Crew of the Ross Cairn Group. And I want you to make sure that you do reach out to her after this and give her a little bit of love because it is not easy going on camera, it is not easy sharing information that she's going to share. So thank you so much, Suzy, if you are watching back. So everybody please watch, please make sure you get in touch and, and I'll see you at the end.

Hello, I'm Susie Crute from Ruskern Group Accommodation based on the west coast of Scotland in Dunoon. It's exceptionally beautiful where we live. I've been asked by Mr. Simpson to put a short video together just describing my experience with the Academy and how it's helped me. One thing I would like to let people know is that the Academy is for everybody. Even if you have behavioural disability difficulties and learning difficulties like I do, it's very easy so that you can pick it up and put it down when life suits you. So that if you've got other things going on and you're being distracted and you can't put your focus in at the moment, it's fine, you can just put it down and when you're ready, you come back to it. Okay? So don't worry about any of that. So our property is a Victorian villa built in 1880. Initially it was a bed and breakfast for the last 50 odd years and we've now taken it on and because we don't actually live there, we started doing bed and breakfast. And because of the stresses and commitment of time required to do that, we've got a little boy with Learning difficulties as well. It's quite difficult to try and do that. So what we then we thought, let's look outside box, what can we do? So we decided to offer group accommodation for family holidays, celebrations, gatherings, that sort of thing. So our unique selling point is we have 10 en suite bathrooms, which is exceptionally high in this area. Usually you'll get these large Victorian properties and they might only have five bathrooms between. Between them all. That's where we are special because we do have, well, we've actually got 12 bathrooms, but yeah, only 10 of them linked to the, to the bedrooms. So anyway, so that's our unique selling point, is that we can sleep up to 24 people and we have lots of bathrooms with en suites. Anyway, so that's a bit about me and what I do. So we now offer group accommodation. My major, major learning curve with all this is that these things take a lot of time, especially because I've took a business over that hasn't really been running for the last five years and then I'm rebranding it and relaunching it and there's so many different areas that I wasn't aware that needed looking at and what you had to be involved in, how to do pricing, how to do marketing, how to use Facebook for marketing, social media for marketing, websites. It was the major panic here just.

To say, amazing, isn't she? So I'm really looking forward to finding out what comes next. But the first question that I asked Susie and it was, what were some of the major frustrations that she was having before discovering Bruce Lee in her business?

If anything, it's just confusing all the time and because bookings could come in so last minute, I found it really difficult to organize myself and plan myself. And then one minute I'd be like, oh, I haven't got anybody coming in and then you check your phone, you'd be like, aha, I got someone coming. Anyway, so this is how the Academy helped me. They want to know what did the frustration feel like as you tried to solve these problems? I was just like a rabbit in a headlight, really. I didn't really know what to do, where to turn.

I asked Susie was number one, how did she discover Bruce Lee and what did she find really beneficial to her?

Upon joining, I found the Boosley Academy through recommendations. So where we are in Argyll, it's an extremely friendly community where we live and I was actually having coffee at another guest house owners and he mentioned the hospitality community to me and I hadn't heard of it. And so I then googled it and joined the Facebook group and I'm going to. Since then, the booster academy is, you know, it's different to just something else. You actually feel part of a family, like you're part of a team. So I know that I can ask a question and you're not going to feel stupid. Obviously with COVID that come in, I mean, nobody mind blown. How could you even predict that that was going to happen? I mean, I set myself a target for this year for grouplets and my prediction was within the first month I already hit my targets that I was meant to be achieving for the whole year. So I was all like, you know, doing a little dance and then next thing you know, like Covid's hit and especially in west coast of Scotland, I mean, we can't have more than one household together at the moment and it's, it's extremely challenging and you could, you could find yourself getting really quite depressed and upset. And the academy helps, helps you have that moment of, yeah, I'm, you know, I'm pretty pissed off and things aren't great at the moment. But then there's other people there that are giving you inspiration and being optimistic and thinking outside the box and suggesting things that perhaps you could do that you hadn't thought on. So that's what I think. What is what makes boostly difference is that you actually feel like you're. I feel like Mark's my friend. I've never met the guy. I'm like, hey, buddy, how you doing? And I've got a few other ladies that I chat to that we private message and yeah, and it's like you've got a few friends and it was, you know, it's like you're friends of people and you just, you just feel like you're part of something. It makes you not feel like you're on your own. So everybody's in the same boat with different directions, different plans, but you just feel like you've got a bit of support, you've got some. Someone's got your back.

So the final question that I asked Susie was, how is life now? So how has Boosley helped? How has been in academy helped? How has it been for her and what has been her. Her major takeaway but the academy, it.

Helps me, like if I'm stuck on anything, there's always somebody to ask and you don't feel silly asking those problems. I got my first book, my first direct website booking this month as well. It's only for a very short break in November. And it's the first one that's came through my direct website and I was like, oh, I don't know what to do now. So now it's like another thing I've got to go learn, like, what do I do now? Because I was so used to it being through an online travel agent where they would just handle everything and send me the dates and then I would just go on my computer, block out the dates or whatever. And I was like, oh, that's that done. Now I'm all like, oh, no, what do I do now? Nobody's like, told me what to do for that. So, yeah, so I'm now learning all about that. I'm sure I'll be making lots of errors and mistakes along the way, but who doesn't in life? You know, that's part of the joy of the academy, that someone's been there, experienced it and they've got advice that can, can help you. Anyway, so I hope you've enjoyed my wee video and if you haven't joined the accountability, I'd recommend that you do. It's great for making you feel like you belong to something. So obviously the self catering industry can be quite lonely, I think, and because even though people in your local area like, you're all in the same boat because you're, you're still doing like holiday rentals or bed and breakfast or whatever, but in a way you're still competing. So you kind of want to ask them how they are, how busy they are, but at the same time you don't. Because if they're not very busy and you are, you feel like you're like. Or all the other way around. If they're really busy and you're like, hey, I've got nothing going on. And they then feel a bit, you know, then like, oh, you know, it's the end of the season, don't worry. Anyway, I'll stop whittling on. I tend to go off on a tangent anyway. Susie Crute, Ross Cairn Group accommodation. Join my Facebook page.

I just want to say a massive thank you to Suzy. You put a big smile on my face. So, yeah, please do go and check out the Ross Cairn Group Facebook page. Do go and like it, share it, tell your friends and go and give Susie a little bit of love from me to say thank you for doing this. And if you want to find out more about the Boost Li Academy, then all you need to do is go to boostlyacademy.com B O O S T L Y A C-A--E-M-Y.com you'll find everything that you need to know. You'll find out how to join, what you get when you're joining and what are the benefits of doing so. And you can join Suzy as Well as over 600 other members from all over the world being part of the Book Direct movement. As we strive and go towards making the OTA make more attention of us. And hopefully if we keep growing as though a rate that we we're growing and we're increasing our direct bookings and we're educating our guests, hopefully they'll be able to treat us more like partners like they say they're trying to. I'll be back very soon for another one of these episodes, but then I'll thank you again for Suzie. Thank you so much for watching and please make sure you keep on talking about Book Direct.

And let's do this. You're frustrated, a source of consternation. You're struggling to rent accommodation. You be not rubbing hands with glee. You being screwed over by Airbnb and booking dot com. They're not nice to the hosts. No, by far not the most taking high commission costs. They be presenting you and taking all that percent should be into your bank account. And maybe you don't know how to use social media to grow and get the bookings coming direct. Well, don't worry, I'll explain what comes next. Yeah, you're gonna be glad you heard a rap from me. I'm explaining. That's an academy. Oh, like an orange, so juicy. Gotta look at that thing by Bruce Lee. That's the three T's tools, tactics and training to give you the confidence. That's a no brainin'. You get weekly group coaching. 500 people. That's the most in. Let me say this, going through it. You know that he's the Martin Lewis for the hospitality owners. Yeah, not dumb like Homer Simpson. Not the guy from the past. There's a vault of online training videos that will last you for a long time. Teaching you how to master Facebook, Instagram and what comes after. Marketing by email, the pricing, branding, Google so you don't fail. And here's another thing that you ought to see. If you don't get a return, there's a money back guarantee. What? Yeah, you can't top that return on your investment or you get your cash back. Sounds like a deal. Sounds like a steal. And that's the Bruce Lee Academy that I reveal.