How Dan Meredith changed my business forever

As you may or may not know, I am currently putting together the final touches of my very first book, which is called the Book Direct Playbook. It's going to be released in some point over the next couple of months and we are very much, I very much, we are very much excited to get it to become a thing. It's going to be a physical book, it's going to be a digital book and it's also going to be an audible version as well. And in this episode, I wanted to read to you a section of the book to give you a little bit of a teaser and give you a little bit of taste of what you are in store for when you purchase the book. And the section that I have pulled out is a section that is very dear to me. It features Mr. Dan Meredith, aka Mr. Coffee with Dan, aka Mr. Espresso with Dan. He is a very successful author in himself and somebody that I have looked up to for many, many, many years. And he the reason why I say that is that he will hate that. And I'm going to tag him in. I'm going to make sure that he sees this because it is very important. If it wasn't for Dan Meredith, Bruce Lee would not be here where it is today. And I can 100 say that in all certainty it's not just Dan himself, it's the network that is in and around him and all of the amazing people that I have met in his fantastic Espresso with Dan Facebook group. Now another person that I want to mention is the fantastic and the amazing Neely Can. So Neely has been helping me edit this book I sent over to her. 50,000 words on a Google Doc and she has transformed that brain dump, that illiterate brain dump into something that is not only readable, but this is a fantastic read. She is phenomenal. And if you haven't done so already, please do check out Nearly Nearly varies the business Nearly can is all over social medias and again is helping hosts and peers in the industry as well. Recommend 100%. So let's share this. So the title of this as customer Avatar. Now the reason why I say this is that the book is designed to have lots of tools and tactics and training in the book. Every single chapter has got a different part of the world of direct bookings that you can implement into your business. It's very similar to Tools of Titan and it's a book that where you don't have to read it from COVID to cover, you can just dig in at a certain chapter so where we mentioned and we talk about customer avatar, you could also say guest profile. Ideal guest. So let me just read this and then I will come back afterwards. So what you'll read below is a scripted account of a conversation I had with Dan meredith back in 2016. Actually, it's a bit paraphrased minus the swear words because I know my mum will read this book. And just to assure you yes is relevant to customer avatars, just stay with me to give you some background info. Dan has been and remains one of my biggest influences in my business. Although he has a tendency to rip you a new one, especially after saying the words. I say this with a smile on my face. The guy has an unbelievable knack of identifying the very root of your business problem quicker than you can look up on Google. The conversation below is what went on between Dan and I during one of his infamous hot seat calls. So I'll give you a bit of background to go off script. A big part of what Dan does is he's very good at getting everybody into like a zoom room. You say what's currently wrong with your business and then he will identify it. It's called hot seats. Back then, a group of 40 to 60 business owners, all at different stages of their business journey, would gather on a webinar hosted by Dan and you're taken in turns to be verbally torn apart by him with love and all for our own respective benefit. Of course. I would love listening to other people getting grilled, but when it came to my turn, oh boy. My hands would literally shake with nerves. Thank goodness those calls were only on audio so nobody could see how red in the face I would go. So this is the conversation. Me. Dan, I'm stuck. I don't know how to best describe what I do. Dan, well, what are you doing? How would you explain it to me if I just met you in a bar? I help business owners with their marketing. Dan. No, me going red. Awkward silence. That means nothing to me and it'll mean nothing to your ideal clients. Try again. Another awkward silence. Now getting embarrassed. Look, who do you directly help? Short stay accommodation owners in hospitality. Good. Try again. I help short stay accommodation owners with the marketing. No, I should point out that by this point I was sweating. Dan won't even remember his conversation, but I do, because it was literally I can remember how I felt at that point. All the blood rushing through me was making my first turn from an acceptable shade of red to an astonishing bright purple. And again, side point. I am just so glad that this is at late night. Laura and the boys are asleep. At this point, it's just me in the kitchen getting very embarrassed. I just kept thinking to myself, I would rather be anywhere right now than getting this virtual grilling. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to press the leave meeting button. And I probably might have done if I didn't have to face the embarrassment of showing up in the Facebook group among the very people who just witnessed my car crash of a call. Ultimately, I didn't want to let Dan down. I didn't want to let myself down. After all, I just joined Espresso with Dan Coffee with Dan Facebook group because I was serious about creating a business that offered support to hospitality owners as it was so shockingly lacking in my local area of Scarborough. This wonderfully bearded man who was more than capable of making grown adults cry was simply trying to help me. And I might add, he knew exactly what he was doing all the time. Our hot seat call. You see, Stan smells way before the average human. He is almost has a talent for it. It's an amazing quality to having a business owner as well as a published author, which he is too, by the way. Dan wasn't giving me a grilling because he got some kind of egotistical kick out of it, but because it was important that I said those words for myself. Dan knew I had it in me all along and that what makes him an epic coach now, the reason why I put this in the book and the reason why I really wanted to have it as a section in the book is that when it comes to you and when it comes to your ideal guest, you really do have to grill down than just saying we are a family friendly property. You have to go beneath that. And there's an amazing quote that was recently shared with me at a conference in America. It was the micro niche. You know, get buried so far down in a niche that there's only room for you in there. And you know, there's a very common phrase that you'll hear online where it says the riches are in the niches. And it is very, very true. The more that you can go down your niche, the more that you can really personify who you're helping have an amazing stay. Then the more revenue, the more reviews, the more guests, the more people that will just come to you naturally, because not only will you attract the guests, but you'll attract all of their friends, co workers, et cetera, who buys over the same Persona match as them. So Dan, if you do watch this or listen to this. That's a tip of the tap hat to you. Thank you so much for everything, Neely. Amazing words and I can feel myself thinking back to that hot seat call all over again. So I'm going to leave it there for today. I'll be back tomorrow. If you want to be part of the pre release squad, we've got about 400 hosts that put their name down. Go to boostly.co.uk book. You can read the first draft right now. It's all there on a Google Doc, the same draft that I sent to Neely before she worked her magic. And we've got an exclusive Trello board. And what I'm going to do before the book is published, I am going to do a zoom call. I'm going to go through the book, go through the tips and we'll have an exclusive, we'll have a good chat, we'll have a good zoom call on there. So if you want to be part of it booster.co.uk book you'll obviously get an exclusive discount, a special discount when the book is released. It only costs 99 pence to join, so a bargain. Come and join boostly.co.uk book. I will see you on the other side and if you are already a member of the pre release squad, let it be known below and I can give you a thumbs up to say thank you. Okay, I'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.