Celebrating Women in Hospitality

This episode of the Boosu podcast is sponsored by xivu. Zivu is the direct booking revolution. They have got PMS Channel Manager. They've got a fantastic service that I recommend that everybody check out. I've known Naim, who's the founder of xivu for a long time now and I've told him since day one, listen Naim, just crack one thing, get really good at one thing and focus on that. He goes, no, I'm going to do everything. So not only do they have properties, they property management, they do a PMS channel manager, they've got an academy, they do everything. And also as well they now integrate with Google Hotel ads which is really exciting because Google Hotel ads is going to be a very key area of your marketing in 2021. So if you haven't already, go to boostly b o-o s t-l y.co.uk explore e x p L O R E. That'll take you to a landing page where you can find out a little bit more about Xevu and how they are revelation revolutionizing the direct booking journey. And you can also book a call in and have a chat with them to see if they will be the right PMS for you. I'm also excited to say that XIVU and Boostly websites have now combined together. We have, they and us have come together, We've linked our APIs and it just means that you're direct booking WordPress website with Boostly is now straight connected into Xevu so the guest doesn't have to leave the website to create and complete the booking, which is a game changer. I cannot tell you how much of this is a game changer. It's going to save time. It means that everything will be so smooth and it just knocks out any traction in the guest booking process. So please do go check out Booster Cody K for Slash Explore and if you want to go check out boostly websites, boostly website.com okay everybody, are you ready for today's episode? It's going to be a good one. Leave a hashtag live in the comments if you're watching with us. Leave a hashtag replay if you're watching on the replay with us. And also as well let us know where you're tuning in from in the world. If you're on the audio, if you're listening in the car or walking the dog, then just literally pick up the phone, send me an Instagram message and let me know where you are watching or tuning in from this so uk. Thank you so much. Let's get on with today's show. All right, welcome. Welcome one and all. Thank you very much for joining us and welcome to like a very, like I said, very special episode. What I would love everybody to do as you're coming in, if you're watching live or even if you're watching back on the replay, do say hi in the comments. So let me know where you're watching in from the world. Let me know the business, let me know your website. Give yourself a little bit of pitch and a promote and a plug because you never know who's watching this. Your next guest could be watching this and in the comments as well. So please do say hi, please do let me know me know where you are tuning in from. So today is a very special podcast and I'm really looking forward to introducing you to all of our amazing guests and talking about a topic that needs to be said and needs to be talked about. So what I've gone and done and put together is a very special podcast. We've got three guests that are going to talk about Thai on stage. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to let the guests go straight in and introduce themselves and I've asked everybody to, to let me know about, and you know, their story in getting involved with hospitality. So what they were doing before, why did they get started and why hasn't. How has it progressed to where it is now? So we're going to start with Heather and we're going to Mariah and then we're going to go to Vanessa. Now there is hopefully going to be one more guest join us live during the show. It's very, very, very early in Australia, so I'm going to send her a quick text message. Hopefully she's had a coffee and we can get Julie on as well. But if not, we'll, we will rock it with the four of us, so to speak. So, Heather, if you could just take a couple of moments, please. Just let everybody know your story, how you got into hospitality and how has it transpired and progressed to here, please.

Well, firstly, Congratulations on your 200th episode. I know that it's a tough slog. Yes, thank you. Keeping up with podcast episodes. So congratulations on that and I'm very honored to be here on your 200th. That is so cool.

Thank you.

My background, you know, goes back quite a long time, so this could take quite some time. I'll keep it short. So I'm, I'm an ex psychotherapist, hypnotherapist management consultant and serial starter of businesses. And it was that that got me into this way all way back in 19, last century, 1998 and we went on a vacation in Ontario, Canada and I was from the UK at the time working as a management consultant with a training company and went to a cottage on a lake and it was, I, I could say it was a disaster. It was a grungy little cottage on a rock and 12 of us went there and there was no indoor plumbing and etc, I mean this is way back last century. And sat on a rock on the last night and I turned to my sister and we sat with a gin and tonic or two and I said, you know, we could do this better and you know, we could just do a great job with this. And went back to England, decided I would buy a property in Canada, went on to buy seven and moved to Canada three years later, started a rental management company and here I am 18 years later with one of Ontario's top producing property management companies and I'm now the host of the Vacation Rental Success podcast which I've been doing for the last seven years. Is that I'm sort of talking quick because I know there's a lot to cover there.

No, perfect. So thank you very much. That's perfect. That's exactly what I was after. And it's always hard to go first but I would just say thank you very much Mariah, we're going to come to you next. So again, same question to you. What were you doing before Smiling House and hospitality and why did you get into it? And just a little bit more because you are in a beautiful part of the world and just sort of share your story if you could be so kind.

Yes. So thank you for having me tonight or this morning for Julie. My name is Mariah Rockman from Smiling House. I'm the CMO and the founder of the company and we are based here in the Swiss Alps. And I'm not in the sauna, I'm just in the one part of my chalet up here in the mountains. It's very, very beautiful outside, full of snow, but very cozy island as you can see. And my journey with hospitality actually started with this very place where I'm based right now. It was a 350 years old, very, very old farmhouse that Ira and me turned into just kind of summer vacation home because you for sure wouldn't like to stay here in winter. There was no heating, the toilet was outside and most of the house was dedicated to cows and Stable and all kind of huge, huge parts, parts of the house that was really not meant for human being to stay in. And we slowly but surely start to kind of renovate it for our own needs. Until one day a friend came from New York. We had many little babies at the time, so we suggested for her and her boyfriend to stay here. And then she kind of introduced us to Airbnb. She said, why don't you Airbnb this place? And I said, what? What is Airbnb? I'm talking about the beginning of, I don't know, but about 10 years ago, and she introduced us and we put this place online. And we've been very, very surprised with the kind of people booking this place, people who could stay in a very luxurious place and actually wanted to get to a place like that with the authentic feeling of a Heidi Chalet or something like that. And there's a long journey, but not so long in time since we start to take it in a serious way. And today we are managing 3,000 properties, mostly in luxury, in 29 countries and 90 destination. And I'm very, very happy to be in this, in this industry of hospitality before that. I'm coming from the background of communication, lecturing university in Israel, where I'm originally from. And then I'm just, you know, like, still in the journey, still learning every day, extending the business and very, very lucky to be here in the Swiss Alps.

Thank you very much. And now, obviously, as well, speaking, doing podcasts and clubhouse rooms and speaking on stage, which is, which is fantastic. Which is obviously what we're going to talk about, which is amazing. And yes, Jane, she did just say 3,000 properties. It's amazing. Amazing. So we've got a lot of people chatting in the comments, so please do keep saying hello and say hello to our guests. And again, what I would love everybody to do is just to share your story and how you got into hospitality. Because as much as we love getting people up on the stage, I can only fit four or five guests on here. There's so many other people that I would love to have on the stage as well. So please do share your story, but we're going to move on to Vanessa. Hello, Vanessa. So again, I've wanted to get you personally on the podcast for so long to talk about this. I saw you talking about it. One of the events that we're both at. But before we talk about Thai on stage and equality, etc, but what I would love for you to do is just to give your background. What were you doing before Rentals. And what were you doing before? Hospitality. What made you get into the journey? Because you've had a really cool story. I've listened to many of podcast interviews in the past and I would just love for you to share it with the, with the Boostly team, please.

Thank you so much. Well, it's been a, it's been a rocky story, it's been ups and downs, lots of them. And. But it all started really in a 25 school meter apartment in the center of Rome where I decided to create an ota, a type of Airbnb. But Airbnb didn't exist back then, so I wanted to be the middleman. So I found a property manager to work with in Rome, another one in Venice, and I made a website because I was a bit of a programmer, developer, front end developer. So I managed to make a website and I had €1,000 to make this website work. I had some properties and decided I'm going to get some guests. And back then it was 2006. So at a thousand euros and a thousand years, where do you put them in order to make a website work? At the time I put them in AdWords and it wasn't very competitive right at the time, thank God. But yes, it was a make or break situation. Either make the thousand euros work or go back to London, pack my bags and find a job kind of thing. But, but I put the thousand euros in AdWords and within a week I was in profit. So I was early days Airbnb if you want, and I did that for eight years, grew it to 8,000 vacation rentals that you were able to book online throughout the world, which today sounds like nothing. 8,000, what's that? But at the time it was, whoa. Right. So eight years later it became harder and harder because Airbnb got their millions in booking.com got millions in. Everybody was trying to get into our world and it was really hard to make the marketing bucks work basically. And so came a competitor of ours, also a small to medium sized agency. And he said, well, you know, if we don't do something about it, if we don't get together, we're going to, we're going to die as agencies. It's too hard. And so we got together and we came up with four competitors with the idea of a distribution platform. And this distribution platform is today Rentals United. We let the agencies go, we grew Rentals United. And this is what I'm doing today. I'm very, very proud that we have 100 employees in Warsaw and in Barcelona, where I'm sitting right now. And yes, that's my kind of story, how I go into vacation rent.

Fantastic. And I love how you just say 8,000. So blase when there's people watching now, just. Just like, in awe. So, so fantastic. Thank you to everybody for a lovely intro. And what I really want to do is when I get on to the next part. So I thought it'd be a fantastic way to see in 200 episodes to celebrate women in hospitality and really sort of get people to not be afraid of standing up and talking and especially, like, taking the next step. And we've got Heather, we've got Mariah, and we've got Vanessa, who, you know, the podcast, speaking on stage and all of that. And that is where yourself, Vanessa, came up with. With this idea. So could you just please explain to everybody who doesn't know what tie on stage is, what it is, what it represents, and why it's important to you, please.

Well, once I didn't say thank you so much for giving time on stage a platform, you know, thank you. And title Stage basically was born out of a day when I went to a summit, a vacation rental summit. And I looked at the agenda. I had done a proposal that I wanted to speak on stage, and I looked at the agenda for the day, and I basically was the only woman on stage that day. And it struck me, it's like, how is that possible? And so I decided that during that day, I would raise awareness around the fact that this wasn't quite right. And then I had to think about, how do we raise awareness? It was scary, you know, scary, because, I don't know, when you speak up about inequality, it's kind of scary. And also, you know, you don't want to be. I mean, I am a feminist, but somehow there were lots of men in the crowd and being labeled a feminist, sometimes there's negative connotations to it. So the whole process was fairly scary to me. And so I decided that somehow we needed to raise awareness around the fact that this wasn't right. And how do you raise awareness? Symbols can help. And so I decided, what can we use as a symbol that's easy for us to. To raise awareness with? And a sort of a tie also, because a tie is like a noose around your neck. So we want to liberate ourselves from this noose. And so this is how the whole process behind Thai on stage came about. And so I did my. I was extremely worried about it. My small speech about the fact that, you know, we need to raise awareness. This is not right. And why not? More women on stage. And to my surprise, as it was really welcomed, like really, really welcomed by men and women, by everyone in the audience, obviously, you know, it's their unconscious biases at the end of the day, I think. And so when, when, when we spoke about it on stage, immediately there was a, you know, it was what. They were welcoming towards it. And so since then, many women have been wearing ties on stage. We have a hashtag which is trending on LinkedIn, etc. Where, you know, also in different. Which I thought was really cool. Not just in our own industries, but there's been women with, you know, in different industries wearing ties on stage. And so that's what it is. It's basically raising awareness that there is inequality when it comes to public speaking as well as there is inequality in many other respects in the workplace. But when it comes to public speaking, this is one of the areas where we need to raise awareness. And this is what we're trying to do is with the hashtag.

So when was the first time you entered a summit and you spoke about this. What, what, what year are we placing this in?

This is 2019. So nothing, you know.

Oh, yeah. Less than two years ago. And since then, since the awareness, have you noticed that there is being something done about it or do you feel like there's, there's, there's room for, for massive improvement?

There's definitely room. Right. And I think now I'm, I'm not labeled a feminist, I'm labeled a bully. Because I do, I do see a lot of, you know, a lot of organizers of events. And again, it's unconscious bias, right? And they organize events and Somehow it's like 90, 10%, sometimes it's just male. And so I go in and I go, hey, hashtag tie on stage. And you know, and they welcome it. They welcome it. I know that the moderators and the people have spoken to about it. The people organize events since then. They do make an effort. And I said I would wear a tie on stage until we're 50. 50. So today, obviously, I don't have to. But to all the events where we're not 50, 50, I wear a tie just, you know, in order to raise awareness. It's not right. It's just not right.

Well, thank you for that. And I just wanted to say a little welcome to Julie George. We can see you. We see you earlier morning in, In Australia. Yeah, it's okay. I hope you got a strong coffee, but thank you. Very much. Vanessa. There you go. Strong copper. So I just wanted to pass the, the mic over to, to Heather and Mariah and then we'll, we'll, we'll fill Julie in on, on the conversation so far. Have you obviously have a been over in, in America and Canada and speak, you know, go to many events, etc. Have you, have you ever noticed this there where there's just a lack of female speakers or is it more 50, 50 so to speak in, in America and, and Canada, etc.

No, that the, the proportion of female to male speakers at these events is just, is, is ridiculous. And even, you know, even after Vanessa launched this and a couple of events that I thought would change their rollout of the amount of female speakers, they just didn't. And the next, you know, Vanessa, exactly the ones I'm talking about that they listened, it's like, yes, you know, Vanessa got on the stage with the tie and then still the next one that rolled out. And I looked at the lineup and it's just you did not get that message. That message didn't get across. So I think we need to do more. I mean, I've been speaking at these events for the past 10 years from VRMA to through to the European events, and I am not seeing the difference. So I think there's a lot more that we can do as women in this industry because there are so many amazing women in this industry. And I don't know whether it is, you know, an unconscious bias of the organizers or whether it is a little about the women themselves not feeling confident enough to step up and put that pitch in. And I know that Amy Highnote is doing wonderful things with the Vacation Rental Women's Summit to really encourage women to get on stage because that's just about all there's going to be at the Women's Summit. And she currently is welcoming pitches for the Vacation Rental Women's Summit in New Orleans in December. So, you know, just everybody's got something they can, they can talk about. We're all crazy competent at what we do. Just go out there and share it.

Mariah so you've recently started to take that step to step up and speak at events. We were at event last February in London. I don't know if that was the first time speaking or one of the first time speaking. So for yourself, before you started speaking, did you feel nervous? Was it something that you felt like you couldn't do or just sort of share experiences? And why did you make that leap?

First of all, I think I remember the Day that Vanessa was standing on stage for the first time with a tie. I think it was down in Como in 2019. And I was in the crowd and thought like, wow, this girl, she's. She's finally saying what we all should. Should have said long time ago. But I have to agree also with Heather mentioning that it has to do with us ladies as well. You know, you cannot choose 50, 50 men and women when there's not 50% woman that you, that you know, that have the ability to speak or at least that somebody knows about their experience. So I would say that beside my own experience that I will say in a second, all of us, all the women in the, in the hospitality and apparently hospitality is one of the industries that women have a big tone and a lot, a lot of women are busy with hospitality worldwide. So there's really not reason in this industry not to step up and to say more and to be more exposed. So for me, last February in London was not the first time I was on stage. I used to be and I'm still speaker also for another industry. I'm an expert for the sharing economy industry. And also in this kind of conventions, women were not the majority, unfortunately. And my experience is that getting better because of people like Vanessa and people like yourself, Mark and all of us that kind of giving this topic another, another room or you know, kind of emphasize on it. But I must say that the new app of clubhouse is a great opportunity and this is where I met Julie for the first time and this is where I happened to meet another other some kind of power ladies in hospitality all around the world. So if you're not there yet, join and if you can join also the SDR professional with Mark together and other kind of sports leaders. We have a great room and also there we try to kind of raise the numbers of women speaking and I think it's a great place to discover and maybe it will give the idea of time on stage kind of a boost to find more of these kind of ladies that will be able to speak when events will finally will be more on real stage, but even before even on digital stage. We all ready and thank you for the opportunity again and for the time that you took to do this kind of podcast around this topic.

So you make my life so much easier, Mariah with the segues because we're segwaying straight into clubhouse and clubhouse wouldn't be anything without Ms. Julie George. So thank you very much for joining us. So we're definitely going to continue the topic and the Conversation because it's really important and there's a lot of people in the comments saying this is the first time I've heard of Ty on stage. Which is why exactly why I wanted to do it so we can spread more awareness and get more people talking about it. And I will finish off Vanessa with asking you on some actionable steps that we can take, etc. But Julie, could you just please again just a super quick intro for anybody that needs it but nobody should just quick intro on yourself where you are in the world. Why are you drinking coffee at this time in the morning? You are literally time traveling. You are speaking to us on Tuesday. Yeah, Tuesday. So yeah, please a big intro and, and what I would love for you to finish up on is obviously being in Australia, do you notice the same over there? Obviously you love to speak on stage etc if you notice the same and just share your experiences so we can get right up to up to date.

All right, well hello ladies and Mark, it is so terrific to be with you and my apologies, I'm coming to you from Australia where we've had some time changes and it's 5am here. I thought we were supposed to meet at 6. Anyway look, this is a. Because it's a lot close friends here. This is a jacket over my pajamas today. So you guys are seeing the real deal, the real Julie George. So don't worry, I could actually put a tie on with this jacket in fact Vanessa. But look, I must admit that my. I've not heard of Ty on stage either until Mark said to me come and jump on with Heather, come and jump on with Mariah and Vanessa and Ty on stage. I had to ask what is it? What are you talking about? And when the concept was explained to me it made total sense. Look, I guess just for anybody who doesn't know me, my claim to fame is this little book right here.

Shameless.

Plug in the background Million Dollar Post. I have had a pretty amazing journey in the sharing economy within two and a half years, zero to 130 properties, $8 million income, packaged the whole business together, sold the business, wrote a best selling book. Now I get to jump up on stages all day every day. In fact today I've got three major events I need to do today and one of them being a clubhouse room and we are talking about the future in clubhouse. And yes, great topic because I'm in Australia already. It's 5am here Tuesday so I can tell you the future doesn't quite look bright yet because the sun hasn't Come up. But it will. And I promise you, if I can have success in the sharing economy, you can have success in the sharing economy. Clubhouse room, just very briefly. Look, I run a room there religiously every Sunday. But also we are starting for the European market every Tuesday, Tuesday 11am London time. And it's really just about a gathering of brains and gathering of minds in the short term rental industry. Look, we're there to inspire, encourage, support each other. And this industry is one of very few that we all do that. We all lift each other up, we all help each other out. And I love the idea of encouraging more women to come in because it's a safe space. You are not going to be judged, you're not going to be critic. And especially on Clubhouse where it is knowledge before image. Hear that again. Knowledge before image. You don't even have to worry about putting a jacket on over your pajamas. You can be doing the dishes, you can be changing the child's nappy, you can be. Well, we all know that there's been people sitting on the toilet while they've been talking on Clubhouse. Let's be honest. So guys, come and join us. If you ever see my name on Club Clubhouse, I want you to make sure that you come onto the stage with me. Even if it's your very first time, I want to support that. So please make sure that you are brave enough, step up, say your piece. Even if it's just say hello, this is the first time I'm speaking. That's enough. That is the first place you need to start. And I promise you we will make you feel, we'll make you feel special. And, but yes, women, I have noticed. Yesterday I did an event, there was 15 of us up on stage, two women. But do you know what? It's okay. We just make ourselves heard. We don't have to compete with the boys. We are very different. We're special and it's quite amazing. Is that enough from me, Mark Simpson? Can I just go back to drinking my tea?

Thank you so much for, for being part of this. I didn't realize it was five o' clock in the morning. These time zones are going to be the end of me. That's such commitment. Thank you for showing up. I feel really bad for waking you up now at what must have been four something in the morning. But, but I will make it up to you. Don't worry. Those, we'll, we'll get those diamonds in the post one day to say thank you.

Diamonds on stage. Now there's a concert There you go.

So, okay, so let's talk about what action steps can we do? Vanessa, I just want to bring it straight back to yourself when it comes to tie on stage and spreading the awareness and most importantly, making it equal and having more people feel the confidence that they can, they can do this. Because speaking on stage can be quite daunting. It doesn't have to be a physical stage. Like I said, it could be a clubhouse stage or whatever it may be. What actionable steps can everybody take? Obviously we can start with the hashtag, but. But what do you recommend? What can we do?

Yeah, so the hashtag, obviously, you know, it's a question, it's a marketing thing. So the more you use it, the better. If you notice some, some conferences or webinars where you know it's completely unequal, then do mention it. I think that that could, you know, it's. It's about raising awareness towards the organizers. Right. The organizers need to understand that they need to keep an eye on equality and diversity and inclusion. Right. So that's, you know, using the hashtag is there for that. But then when it comes to women speaking on stage, I would say, you know, having mentors is really good. If you feel this is a scary thing, if you have something to say, you should say it also. And then having mentors can really help. So there are so many groups now online, in LinkedIn particularly, this is where I roam. There's tons of these new groups where women support each other and become role models, where you feel suddenly it's a lot less scary to speak up your mind when somebody else has done it before. You say, she can do it, I can do it, and then you can get this, etc. So yeah, this, I mean, if you have something to say and you feel that you can contribute to the conversation, obviously, you know, if it's just talking air, then it's no point. But if you can contribute to the conversation and you have a knowledge, profound knowledge about something subject, then you should share it. Right. It should be a must. And then in order to, you know, find help, there's tons of help around from, from other females as well.

So Heather, you mentioned Amy's got a conference coming up. Can you just repeat what it is and when it is and just if there's a web link or anything, if you know of any web link, etc, what. How can more people find out about it? Because I think that'd be a great place to start. To start there.

Yeah, it's the Vacation Rental Women's Summit it's in December in New Orleans and it is, I believe it's 4th to 6th December. Amy did this. Was it 18? Was it just a year ago? No, maybe two. I don't know. I don't know where the years have gone. February, last year? No, it's February two years ago. Two years ago. Do you know?

I can't remember.

I don't know where the years have gone. But she, it was a huge success. She has amazing speakers that are not necessarily. She, she had the Countess of Carnarvon as the main speaker at the last event. And of course, the Countess of Carnarvon is the owner of Carnarvon Castle. And that was the. Oh, oh, gosh. Somebody remind me of the program.

Thank you. Because I was just jumping on Google.

Yeah, so. So she had her. And the Elizabeth. Eat Pray Love. Elizabeth Gilbert was, Was another speaker too. So this was not focused solely on short term rentals at all. It was focused on amazing, amazing women. And you were there, were you there, Vanessa, to that one.

You were.

Yeah, yeah, I remember. Yeah. I mean, was. It was a truly amazing event. And, and men were not, you know, there were plenty of guys there too, but it was called the Vacation Rental Women's Summit. To find out more, go to the vacation. Just look at vacation rental women on Facebook. And there's a Facebook group just for vacation rental women. That's Amy's group. I'm a moderator on it and we talk a lot. And so you can find out there how to speak. And everybody's been really supportive of people who want to speak at that conference. But I just want to, I just want to add in something I mentioned to Mark earlier. Mark's on my podcast next week. So we had, we, we just recorded that episode. And I was saying to mark that for 25 years, I was phone phobic. So 25 years of my life, I could not pick up the telephone and, well, without a cigarette in one hand.

And a glass of wine.

And probably I had to have the three glasses of wine before I made the call. But I got over it by getting myself a job as a receptionist answering the telephone. And if so, so many people I know feel that they are. That they have stage fright. They don't want to get on stage, they don't want to talk, they don't want to be front and center. Just do it. Just do it. If I can do what I do now after being 25 years of phone phobic, everybody can.

Fantastic. Thank you very much. And I think that is a Perfect place.

Cheers for that.

Perfect, perfect place. Fantastic. We've got coffees, we've got wine, we've got. We've got. We've got wine being cheese. Amazing. So if you want to find out more, please do. I will do my best to get all the links that are mentioned and I will definitely get it up in the blog post and the links and all of the things. And if you're watching back on the replay, I'll get this episode all timestamped so you can come back on it. But what I would love to do, and some I love to do when I have a live podcast and I have amazing guests with me, is to finish on some quick, quick fire questions. So I will sort of peel back the, the curtain and the magic on this. I have send the questions to the guests to give them a little bit of notice, but I would love for everybody to join in who's watching live? We've got plenty of people watching live with us. There's gonna be lots of people watching back on the replay. Please do join in. So the way it's going to work, I'm gonna ask the quick fire question. I'm gonna start with Heather. We're going to go to Vanessa, Mariah and Julie and then we're going to flip it and we've got about three or four questions to ask. So first and foremost, Heather, I'm going to come to you. So when you're not working, how do you like to spend your time? First question to you.

Outside. Because I work inside. I am like a kid at the. On, on holiday. Every single day. When the day finishes, I am out in the winter, it's in the snow and in the summer, it's kayaking, running, walking, biking, whatever. That. That's it for me. I have to be outside.

Nice. And it's an outside day tomorrow, right?

It's. It's a day off. My first day off since Christmas.

Wow. Well, enjoy, Vanessa.

It's gonna be warm and the snow is nearly gone.

There you go. Thank you very much. Vanessa, we're going to come straight in to yourself. So when you're not working and running Rentals United and, and building that, what, what do you love doing?

For me, it can be inside or outside. It has symbol, friends and wine and food.

Anything.

Anything hanging out. That's my. That's what I do.

I like that. So wine, friends, food, conversation. Done.

Yes.

Happy. Vanessa, Mariah, straight, straight to your good self. What do you like to do when you're not working and traveling the world and all of those things. What do you like to do do?

That's it. That with me it's a bit of a combination. So since I see myself as a kind of a digital nomad and you are following me. So you know that I've been traveling the whole year and something that maybe not everybody knows that me and Ira, my husband that is the founder of the Smiling House, we are also the parents of seven kids, so we travel a lot with them. And I would like to spend everything that has to do with family, all kind of activities outside. And when I'm finally alone, one of the things that I like to do very much is to sing, is to play my flute and to dive. I'm a scuba diver and this kind of again, this kind of journey in hospitality just gave me the possibility to put it all together all the time. And that's great.

That's amazing. Thank you, Miss Julie. George, when you are not working, clubhousing, doing all of the things, what do you like to do up there in Australia?

Do you mean you get off Clubhouse?

I don't understand.

I'm definitely not playing the flute. I'm definitely not scuba diving. I'm probably watching Netflix, sitting there with a cup of tea, a good chocolate and then I'm having a bubble bath and I'm reading a great book. But I just, I like to unwind and I guess I'm really into extremes. If I'm not in front of a camera or, or have a microphone in front of me, it's. It's got to be switch off and completely alone time. Which is, it's kind of two extremes. But it's really nice just to switch off and watch some rubbish tv, some housewives or some married first sight or something ridiculous Neighbors, Home and Away, all of our Australian shows.

But.

And Mark Simpson knows this because he always tries to ring me in the middle of Home and Away.

I know I always have to start my conversations with I'm sorry, I know I'm interrupting something, but. But which is always good. Okay, let's move on to the next one. Fantastic. And again, everybody, please let me know what you like to do when you're not working in the comments. I will flash some other ones up on screen as they come in. So we move on to the next one. This is one, this is my favorite question of the lot. So we'll go with Julie first. We'll go Mariah, Vanessa and then finish up on. On Heather. So what is your. I think we might know the answer already. But what is your Guilty pleasure. So what crazy fun thing do you like to do, but others think that's just crazy. What, what is your guilty pleasure, Julie? George?

I don't know.

It probably is the trash tv. A lot of people are surprised that I actually really enjoy watching them. Mindless crap that is on television. Just to chill out, relax and make myself feel normal. If you watch an episode of Dr. Phil Suddenly or, you know, the good old Jerry Springer suddenly your world just seems so much better.

Yeah, no, I, I can. Well, that is my good pleasure. I've said this a few times. I love nothing more, but when you're in the shop queue to check out, you always see those magazines and you've got all the, the crazy gossipy magazines. I just love to read them, just never buy them. I just love to read them as my, my wife thinks I'm crazy, but I just, I don't know what it is. I love to see it. At any rate. Mariah, let's move to yourself. What's your guilty pleasure?

So we like to, yeah, we like to show some, some parties. I like dancing and sometimes when I'm kind of really dancing freely, I'm feeling like a 16 years old. I'm jumping around moving my hair like a, like a groupie of some kind of a rock band and it's a true pleasure. Maybe it's looking ridiculous to somebody from the side, but for me it's like the best.

I love that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Vanessa, coming straight to your good self.

This is half as ridiculous as what I'm about to tell you. And I thought about it. This is the most ridiculous thing I do. And I have a dog, Lola. I adore her, but I'm not, I'm a dog owner, but I'm not completely dog crazy. However, I got this passion for this Facebook group all about dogs and I do find myself spending quite a bit of time checking out other people's posts about their dogs, which is, I mean, completely ridiculous. And when I catch myself like, come on, turn it off. And it's very hard to turn off, you know, and I haven't told that to anyone. So.

Thank you. And, and it's just I, I've always said there's a Facebook group for every pleasure, anything like this. And so that, that is, I can totally see that. That is nice. Thank you very much for sharing that, Heather. So we're going to finish on your good self.

Well, you inspired me to think about this one earlier on because you mentioned Marmark.

Marmite, like Vegemite.

I think you should call it Marmark or something.

Well, somebody described me as. Somebody once described me as Mark miked forever.

That was it. Because my. My guilty pleasure is. Is trash tv, Julie. I love a e a e ambulance. Anything that I watch. Gore and blood and stuff. And thank goodness I'm sitting on my couch. But I will do it with a packet of peanuts and a jar of marmite because the only way to eat them is to put your finger in a jar of marmite. And I actually have put this on my Facebook page before, so people do know. So you put your finger in the jar of marmite and then you put that finger in the packet of peanuts so it comes out covered. You know, marmite. Covered peanut, covered marmite. And it is.

Big time. Yeah, she wins.

I mentioned this on my Facebook page, and somebody sent me a jar of marmite and a packet of peanuts.

I think. I think of all. I've asked this question to a lot of people, a lot of guests, and up until. Up until this point, it was Richard Vaughnton from Rentivo's answer of running naked on the beach at night time in Devon. But I think you might have just topped top Richard's naked running. So.

Yeah, that's. That's not a good visual.

Oh, very good. I love that. Okay, so we're gonna move on to the next one. We're gonna go Heather than Vanessa van Mariah, then Julie, your most favorite or your most used emoji. And if you don't know what your most used emoji is, you literally open up a text message and it's the first one that's literally sat there in your most recent. So mine is the laughing face emoji. I don't know if you can see if I hold up to the camera. The one that I literally use the most is the laughing face emoji. Very closely followed unsurprisingly with the Bruce Lee rocket. But, yeah, those are the two ones that I use the most. Heather, are you an emoji person?

Yeah. It's the head blowing up one.

I like that.

The head explosion.

The head explosion one. Okay, I can. I can see that. That. That is usually mine and my wife's conversation when we're talking about our children. So it's probably the one that gets used the most. Vanessa. Vanessa, straight onto yourself. I don't know. I don't know. Just get on with it. I like that. Mariah, what's your favorite emoji?

The smiley, of course. I'm sure you can understand why.

Yes, I Love that. Before we go to Julie, everybody in the comments as well. We've got over 30 people watching with us live. Let me know what your favorite emoji is. Just tap it away in the comments and share it with us. Julie George, what is your favorite emoji?

It's the laughing one on the side with the tears coming out. Because I'm always laughing at you, Mark Simpson. And it just. I think half of the emojis I send are to you. So thank you very much for making me laugh.

My absolute pleasure. I try my best. I try my best. And one that I love to finish on and we'll go, Julian, and work our way back. Is what is coming up in the next year that you are the most excited about? I know there's gonna be a lot of travel in these answers, because I think we're all ready to. To do it. But what is coming up in the next year, Julie George, that you are most excited about?

About?

I am busting to travel. Busting. My. My passport is dusty. It doesn't know what to do with itself. I am in Australia. We're in full lockdown here, so we can't travel in or out. We're on a little prison island. But super, super safe in Australia. We. Our Covid situation is fantastic. Like, we, you know, we. We're healthy, we're safe, but I am busting to travel. I'm. I'm. I just wrote the details down about that conference in New Orleans in December. Possibly. I think we're six months off international travel. But, girls, if Ian can get there, the four of us, we are going to have a bottle of champagne between the four of us. We will possibly invite Mark Simpson. Okay. A bottle each with a straw. And look, I am so looking forward to connecting with people in real life. So that is what I'm looking for.

Forward to.

I don't know if you've ever experienced the New Orleans Night owl, but it's definitely, Definitely one. Definitely one to watch. Definitely. Definitely one that you will never remember.

I think the Aussies can take that challenge.

Yeah. It's very well known for its absinthe down in. And down in New Orleans. But I've. I've experienced that many times, but thank you. That was awesome. So, Mariah, what is your number one thing that you are looking forward to for the rest of this year?

Well, there's actually more than one.

Okay.

But they are going together. So. Because a lot of us is happening, we are now busy very much with launching a new kind of a channel that is Villa Tracker and it's a software that is dedicated actually to B2B to reach out to the professionals from different kind of industries that they all kind of don't know how to reach out to us, the legacy travel agent, the concierge companies, travel designers, media production, mice industry and others. We couldn't ignore it. We had a lot of booking coming from this kind of professionals that don't find themselves in the OTA in 2020 and we decided to sit on this product and it's made that I'm getting a little bit more familiar with tech and this is like a whole new journey. And at the same time Smiling House is becoming a luxury channel by itself and I will have to speak with Vanessa as well about it. So a lot, a lot of excitement coming this year, coming very soon.

Fantastic. I'm looking forward as always to hearing more. Vanessa, moving to yourself, what have you got planned this year? It can be work or non work on what summits coming up that you're looking forward to?

Well, actually I have to piggyback on Judy because you know, and I also want to do a shameless plug. There is a list of vacation rental events on my, on my blog, on the rentals united.com blog where I was amazed that so many organizers are actually organizing events from September onwards. And there, you know, there's London, there's plenty of us, there's Malaga in Spain and you know, I keep on hearing about others. So if you go, if you go there, you'll see what is planned from September onwards and tons of in person events. And personally, you know, for me as a marketeer in the vacation rental industry, it's very important to be in touch and to meet people and to talk to them and to have a drink with them, you know, face to face. This is where I get my inspiration from is to you know, what is it that, what kind of solutions do I need to, to provide to them, you know, to help them. So, so this is what I'm really looking forward to seeing, you know, all the, all the people in the vacation industry again as of September.

Yeah, what I love about going to events where Rentals United are present is there's always so many people over at the desk and booth and talking and chatting. So it's always a good sign of a good company when, when you see that. So well done, well done. And Heather, what are you most looking forward to this year apart from more days off and more eating Marmite?

Yeah, it, it's, I, I'm what they Call a snowbird here. And I, I join 350000 other Canadians every winter and head south and could not do it. I had to experience a winter in Ontario which is not to my liking. So I am, I am booked to be in Gulf Shores, Alabama for five months from November, which is just down friend Amy high note. So we get to hang out a lot for five months. And so that's what I'm really looking forward to is November. I'll be heading down to Gulf Shores, Alabama and I won't leave until April.

You're a digital nomad?

Yes, well, yes. Yeah. I mean last, last time we went away, we went to 10 different, different states and just work throughout the winter, so in different states. So it's perfect. I just want to get away when the border opens between us and the U.S. amazing.

Well, thank you very much one and all for coming on and talking about this. And you know, like I said right at the very start, there's so many people that I could have invited, but could only invite four amazing people up here. So I encourage everybody to please adopt Thai on stage hashtag bring it in. And if you ever notice clubhouse room or an event, a live event, a speaking event, and you feel that the equality is not there, then mention it and then do something about it. Put your hand up and an offer to speak and everybody's got a story to share, everybody's got something they can talk about. Please never, ever feel like you've not got something to share because all you have to do is to come into the hospitality community. And we've got 82% of the total membership, 6,000 members in there, 82% are women and 82% have got amazing stories to share. They've got always got help and advice. So never ever, ever feel like you can't speak up. And if you ever come across anybody who gives you any grief, tell me and I'll make sure that I'll kick them in the ass and tell them what's for because it's this industry is, is made and for everybody. And I love this industry and I love talking about this industry and I love helping as many hosts as possible and I'm so glad that we were able to do this on the 200 episode of the Boostly podcast. So thank you to everybody for joining, thank you to everybody that tuned in and watched live with us and thank you to everybody that watches on the replay. If you want to go find out more, just go to boostly.co.uk podcast we've got loads of interviews that you can, can get caught up on and you can download and all of those good stuff. Before we go, I just want everybody of all our guests just to fight to say where people can find out more. So we'll start with Heather. We'll go to Vanessa, Mariah and Julie George. And a lot of people are asking for your book, Julie, so make sure you give it a plug and promote when you do so. So Heather podcast, you know, where can they go, where can they go find it and where can they find out more about you, please?

Yeah, podcast is vacation rental success. It's been going for seven years and you know, we're just coming up to our 400th episode.

Wow.

And you nearly. I'll be a million downloads this year. Wow. So you can find, you can find me at vacation heather vacationrentalformula.com if you want to email me or just check out the website.

Amazing. One million downloads. Fantastic. Vanessa. So where can people find out more about rentals and etc.

So yeah, it would be rented. We're a channel manager. We're not for everyone. We're not going to try and sell you something that you don't need. So we're a distribution platform for larger property managers. But if you want some really cool resources, I think they're very cool. It's our blog. We do put a lot of time in the research and creation of our content and there's tons of really cool things, really cool downloads to be had completely for free just because, you know, we're, we're vacation rental nerds.

Thank you very much. So that's rentals united.com and then forward slash and you'll find everything that you need to head to the homepage and go from there. Mariah. So you've got some exciting projects coming up if anybody wants to find out more. LinkedIn, Instagram, where's the best place to find you? Where's the best place to get in contact?

Oh, yeah. If you want to find a little bit about Smiling House or just go to Smilinghouse CH and about me, I'm on LinkedIn under Maria Rockman in Instagram with Smiling House in Facebook, of course, and in Clubhouse, I want to mention again the SDR professionals and the great club we have, but there's many other great clubs with hospitality and we all there for sharing knowledge. So please join and you can find me there as well with Smiling Hub. Thank you.

Thank you. And Julie George. So again, the book, everyone's asking for the book. And just where can people find out more if you want to have a chat.

So look, you can find me always on Clubhouse, but we'll talk about that in a second. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. I finally figured out how to use Instagram. I'm sure I've cracked it. But look, Million Dollar Host. You can get this on Amazon, you can get it on any online bookstore or go to milliondollarhost.com you've got to put the AU for Australia on the end. But that, but look, ladies, anybody who's tuning in right now, if we have inspired you, if you feel like we've motivated you to jump on board and jump on a stage, don't be shy, don't be scared, be brave. Be brave. Pull those big girl pants on and come and join us. Because all of us, we are, don't be intimidated. We are all human. We are all going to support you and we would love to have you, I would love to have you all up on my stage. So if you're in Clubhouse, please make sure to follow me. We are having regular events on there. We talk about short term rentals and Airbnb all day long. We're addicted. We are clubaholics. But I would love for you to make contact with, with me, shoot me a quick message and go, I'm ready, I'm ready to speak up. And I don't care if you've got one property, if you've got a hundred. I don't care what your experience is. I just would encourage you to come up and, and find your voice. Thanks, Mark.

There's some amazing comments and saying thank you very much. Really inspiring. Jane saying, really enjoyed listening to this, Sharon and Angela and everybody. So thank you very, very, very much for, for joining, for joining us for this, for this podcast. And I will leave and just say if you want to find out anything more about any of these podcast episodes, just head to boost lee.co.uk podcast and I will be back for episode 201 tomorrow for our daily podcast. We do, we release videos and podcasts every single day. My goal this year is to do a podcast every day and see if I can kind of get anywhere close to heather and the 400 numbers. We're going strong, we're doing well. So I'll be back tomorrow for another podcast but thank you very much to everybody that's tuned in and we shall see you when we see you.