How to get more Direct Bookings with Jay Massey (Aka @CashFlowDiary )

Okay everybody, thank you so much, first and foremost, for watching back on the replay. This is the Boostly podcast experience. This is something that we have never attempted before. We're going to do a marketing review live with a special guest. Now in the Zoom Room we have a couple of the Boostly Academy members. If you want to find out more about the Boostly Academy, head to boostlyacademy.com and what we're going to do today is I've got a very special guest with me, Mr. Jay Massey of the Cash Flow Diary. I'm going to ask a couple of questions, get to know Jay a little bit more, and then we're going to open it up to the Boost Academy members, see if anybody would like to do a live marketing review with Jay and I, and we'll be able to hopefully make the host or help the host earn lots of direct bookings over the course of 2021, 2022 and beyond. So first and foremost, Boostly Academy members, if you could just do massive favor, just say a quick hi, I'm going to bring up on the screen, just say a quick hi. Hello, hello, hello. Looking amazing as per always. Okay, so to my left we've got Mr. J. Massey. J. If you could just do me a massive favor and to everybody who's in the room, a super quick one minute biography of who you are, where you are in the world and how you help hosts and just people wanting to get into the short term rental industry, please.

Thank you. Certainly. I am in, or sorry, I was going to say Los Angeles is technically Laguna Hills, but most people call it LA anyway in California. So I'm on the other side of the globe if you will. And, and we currently train and work with individuals in 17 different countries on this particular business model. I've been in the real estate space, or property space as you guys would say for a little over a decade and some change and it's been quite a journey. We started out as squatting in bank owned property and then technically homeless. My wife was unable to eat or drink at the beginning and over time we built a large enough portfolio, about 400 units or so of apartment units, anywhere from 5 to 180 units per building and then single family homes. I've been the lender a number of times as well as a wholesaling and obviously now short term rentals. Oh, commercial real estate, like all on the high street type of stuff, as well as cell phone towers. These are all things that are within my wheelhouse. It's commercial, it's all about cash flow as far as I'm concerned. So today we focus on the short term rental strategy as the number one way to get someone started in the real estate game and then helping them transition to the ownership game vis a vis the business that they build on the short term rental side.

Fantastic. And first and foremost, thank you very much for taking time out of your very busy schedule to be with us. We really do appreciate it. And I don't know if you have many people out of all the countries that you serve, I don't know you have many people in the UK and Western Europe. But again, I think for a lot of people who are maybe seeing or hearing from Jay for the first time, this definitely won't be the last. So I'm really looking forward to today. So, first and foremost, this is a direct booking podcast. It's a marketing podcast for hospitality owners all over the world. The first question I want to ask Mr. Jay Massey, what are your best or most current sort of marketing strategies to get bookings for your properties that you have? Or what are your favorite? Would be another question to sort of paraphrase it.

Yeah. So the best strategy is always, well, at least in my opinion, it's the one that you're going to do the most consistently. So that is in and of itself the answer. So I can say something, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's going to work for you. However, we are in the process of building and some leveraging some NFTs to be able to help us with extending our reach not only into the crypto space for the reservations, but also from a referral and loyalty program component. So that, that is definitely the thing I'm the most excited about today.

NFTs, I think for a lot of people, when you just mention that people have been thinking, what are we talking about? So if you want to find out more about NFTs and cryptocurrency, we could go down a total of episode on this, but we have.

That's a different episode. But you asked the question. So I'm like, I don't know how to answer this any other way. So here we go.

It's a great question. It's a great answer and it's something that I think a lot of people argue. I want to talk about more. If you need to know. Find a bit more about cryptocurrencies, Please go back a couple of episodes. Luca from the Trips community, Mr. Simon Lehman and Emmanuel Paney. We delved into cryptocurrencies and NFTS and all that jazz. So we will pack that. That's a great answer. Something that I think a lot of people are looking into with. So all of those digital currencies for payments moving forward to increase direct bookings and cut down over reliance on OTAs. But very nice. So let's go back to 2021. You have become more and more and more well known thanks to an audio app called Clubhouse. That's how I discovered you. That's how many people have discovered you. And what I'd be interested to know is what has the last six months of your life and business looks like now? The reason why I asked that question is that in doing the research for this podcast, I was checking out the YouTube channel, checking out social media, et cetera, and I noticed that video seemed to stop December 2020. So I was wondering, what have you been. What have you been doing? What has been like the core focus of yourself and how is this little app called Clubhouse sort of being brought into your world?

So as many of you are aware or may have heard, there was an incident out in Minneapolis last year. And that incident with Mr. Floyd and his family rocked me to the core. To the, to the point where I just could not be. I didn't feel positive, it just felt wrong. I just could not do any content production. I tell people I lost my voice. That's how I feel about it. I lost my voice. And it's actually because of Clubhouse that helped me find it again, if you will. Because I. There was just, it was like, why, why put out the content? Why keep. Why do I keep doing this? Especially because I don't have to. I mean, you guys know when you're running a short term rental business, it's not like you have to also put out content and make those commitments to individuals. And it's the spark that has been rejuvenated is, is amazing because I was able to connect with individuals on Clubhouse in who were there when I first started the podcast way back in 2013. And they told me so and they just continually just told me what the impact was and how it changed. And now having. While still being in the short term rental space, we've actually worked with and housed some of, some of our students, have housed some of the Floyds in the family and I've gotten to speak to them and there's just, well, there's just more to do now. Right. And so during the 2020, part of what was also necessary is because of the pandemic and the way that it hit Us, especially on the west coast of the United States is I had to literally rebuild the company. There's literally only one person outside of myself who's been here more than a year. So I had to put an entire new company together simultaneously with figuring out the new marketing strategies while trying deal with, you know, my, my own emotions. And just the impact of what happened has had just on my everyday trip to the grocery store or thought process around friends and family and those that, that know me. So it's, it's taken, it, it's, it took a lot of poor being poured into, I guess is the best way of saying it in order for me to go, you know what, okay, it's time to get back and do and continue what we started because it is, it was and will continue to make a difference. So that's basically what happened now. Simultaneous to that or concurrently, I should say getting on Clubhouse put me in front of a lot of the right people from a real estate standpoint. So right now we're opening up escrow hopefully today on a 12 unit building in DC. That's the $7 million deal. And then there's a hotel in Louisiana that's a. Well, when it's all said and done, It'll be about $6 million total in value. And then there's a, another property in Long beach and that's about $3.5 million all in a very short span of time. And we have doubled I think the number of students and individuals that we are working with at this time as well. So it is a massive amount of growth. In fact, we are negotiating with some larger landlords now looking for 40 units at a time. So we've got, I've got a massive amount of furniture moving all around the country and we're just moving at very, very fast speeds and hiring people and doing our best to show individuals that here is the path of how you can go from squatting a bank on property to seven figures. We've had a number of people do that now in less than 12 months and that's exciting and we want to keep that going because I strongly believe that this year is going to be the year where we have more people hit seven figures in one year than we've had combined in all of our priors.

Well, you, sometimes you've got to pause to then go full throttle, which it sounds like you definitely have done. So again, well done and thank you for sharing that story. Now when I was doing a bit of research, I was come across your vlogs which was very entertaining. Back in 2017 when you started them, I mentioned them. I asked about the office. For anybody who doesn't know, can you just explain to me you've got all of these things going on but where, where do you class as your office to?

Everywhere. We have so many satellite offices. There's always seating. The coffee is great. It's also known as Starbucks by the way.

So Starbucks is fantastic. I love that. And again this, this is, this is something where you started the vlog 2017. So what come up four nearly five years ago but yet it's still somewhere that sits there in YouTube. And again, as much as we talk about it, we mentioned event hosts who are watching tune in bringing it back to you for a second. Anything that you're recording and putting out there and documenting of your day to day now that will sit out there. So again, host guests will love that and you'll be able to look back on fondly. Now the blog I was watching you pulled up your booking engine and you were using Guesty is your pms which is really interesting to me. I love kst. The PMS is really fantastic. Now are you still guesting now? Have you moved to a different system? What are you currently using for your tech stack and your tools behind the scenes?

Boy, tech stack is huge here. But Smart BNB guesty was long since replaced. But so Smart BNB primarily I would say Smart B and B and bookingsync are the two that we are primarily using. However, we're about to launch a Facebook campaign so we might be adding owner res for some additional capabilities inside of there. So from a customer facing standpoint, that's what most people end up seeing. And then we also have, well, we're also using Dial Pad because I couldn't find a better phone system that would actually integrate all the two way text and everything into one spot so that we have the unified, not just unified inbox for email, but I needed it for, for phones, I need it for message, I need it for text. Because our customer experience agents, you know, during shift changes, et cetera, they need to be able to pick up the information that's been left. And that's probably the thing I'm still very proud of is that our response time despite growth is still we target under 7 minutes. I just checked yesterday it was like 3 minutes 55 seconds for the last 60 days. So I was like yes, that's exactly what I want. So that way our customers are always being touched and talked to within, like I said, within seven minutes. No matter when they are, no matter what time zone they're in, they know they get a response from us really, really fast.

So okay, so that's some nice tools. And what I'll do, I know Jay mentioned really quickly off the bat, what I'll do is I'll make sure in the write up that we get some links if you want to go check them out. Because there are some new tools that Jay recommended there that I think many people over on the over in Europe etc might not have heard of, but they're definitely ones to keep an eye on. Okay, so let's dial in some tactics now. Something that I really, I picked up on that you said that I really liked is you have to become the go to. So for example, when someone says to a co worker or a friend, hey, I'm flying into Orange county or I'm going to London or I'm going to wherever, where do you recommend? So this is about becoming the go to. It's something I've touched upon, but I'd love to take to get your take on how some real simple steps that don't cost anything. How would you become the go to in your local area? What, what, what are some of the simple little quick tactics that the host can take to becoming that go to?

The easiest way to become the go to is I looking at it this way. You know where your hospital is. And the reason you know where the hospital is is because if you have a problem, you want to know where to go to get it solved. You become the hospital, AKA tell everyone about the problem you solve. Everyone wants to bring you their problems. Nobody wants their problems. No one wants to keep their problems all to themselves and say I don't, you know, no one wants to do that. They want somebody else to solve the problem. So if you advertise I solve landlord vacancy, landlords will bring you their problem. I solve displaced people during floods, fires and other natural disasters. They will bring you their problem. That's really what it comes down to so long as you continually have that message. But the way that you get their attention to have that message is very singular as well. And it's what you do here on this podcast and what you've known is that he or she who educates their market dominates it, period. Hands down, point blank. I didn't even say get paid for educating. I just be willing to educate the market. And you can do that in too many different ways from simple Instagram, Twitter, TikTok posts, all the way to, you know, courses and mentorships and a whole bunch of other things. The point is you become the go to person that has the answer to whatever the problem is. And the more complicated the problem, the better because that funnel narrows, it just gets narrower and narrower because there aren't as many people who know what you know. And that's really what it comes down to. For example, in my case, one of our uniquenesses is we know how to use a person's retirement plans and involve it into their business in such a way that you can unlock the value in that retirement plan. For example, many people go to a hard money lender. Well, I'll go to people who are recently laid off. Which sounds like that doesn't make any sense yet. The rules around retirement plan simply say if you're no longer working there, you can do many things with that retirement plan. So been that way since 1974. But most people don't know it. And because they don't know, we become the educator. And because we educate them, we're often the only outlet they have to express what they just learned. So we intentionally adopt a strategy around educating always. And the simplest way, here's something every person listening, watching, reading the transcript can do. You can host a cash flow game. And it sounds silly, but I promise you I can trace millions, and I mean millions, many millions of dollars to cash flow games. And that's how it started. Because I didn't have some super marketing strategy, I was squatting and bank owned property. I needed a way to get other people's attention. Education is it. But if you make education fun vis a Visa board game, not only will they show up, they'll bring friends.

I like that. And I hope that everybody is the one, especially in those in the Zoom room. I mean Jay's talking about seven figures, et cetera, but I know a lot of people in here, maybe down one property, a couple of properties, etc. And I've really. You're just trying to just think of how can you apply what we're saying and put it into the business. Because I think there's some really important information being shared. And again it may come from a lovely American accent, but again we can take it and we can put it into into practice in what we're doing.

I love how lovely American accents. It's all good though, I think. Although that sounds funny to me to hear, that would be amazing. I would love to know what it sounds like to you guys to hear us speak. Anyway, I just got a little distracted. I'm back the rabbit hole is done. Here's how you can use it. You get one board game and on your turnover day, say you've got a turnover that departs at 10 or 11. You don't have a arrival to say, four or maybe the next day. Schedule a cash flow game with individuals who you've been talking to. You've been talking about your business for a while. They're excited about it. You know they're excited about it. They know what you do and you have one unit. Awesome. Have them come play the cash flow game inside your unit. And as you're playing, they can become either the next referral source for the next location, the next investor for the next location, occasionally the next guest for that location. Right. My, my point is simple. The major reason, if you're still, you know, on the smaller side and if I'm shooting you very straight, because that's the only way I know to do it. The smaller you are, the harder this business is. It gets easier as you get larger. I want everyone to experience larger, much larger. Right. Because you can. And the need is there. The need has been in every city I have worked in. In fact, I'll tell you the four cities that in my opinion, are difficult just beyond all get out. They are Chicago, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona. You're not in one of those four places. And again, we can still find a way to get it to work. It's just really difficult. Those four places. This business model is there for, for all of us. And that's how I see it anyway, because it gives us an entry point into something that was, that can feel exclusive. But this is by far the most inclusive real estate strategy, most universal real estate strategy I have ever seen taught or ever practiced. And it can start with something just as a cash flow board game. It doesn't have to be huge. And yes, I do talk with two commas most of the time, because that's what, that's what I think about. Right in. But the same strategy can be applied. That's how I got to two commas. It's just playing a board game, you know, So I still do the same thing. What's funny is that the people who are also up there, they're like, wait, you want to play a board game? Yeah, that's what I want to do. I want to play a board game. You know, where's the fancy keynote and PowerPoint presentation? No, no, no, we don't need that. We're just going to be regular people and play a board game and have some chips and soda. We're good, right? They're like, okay, but it works because you're building a business to serve humans. It's hospitality, and you're building it with other humans. So just treat everybody as humans and they'll gladly contribute their resources to your endeavor if they only know that they can.

So for anybody who doesn't know, can you just please explain to me the cash flow board game, who is it by and why that game?

I was like, oh, well, sorry. They're always within arm's reach. So this board game is the board game, but that I'm referring to, it's made by Robert and Kim Kiyosaki. They've. It's been around for 30 years. 20 years. 30. I don't know, 25 years or so. And if you've read Rich Dad, Poor dad, same guy. Okay. And that board game is the simulation before the real thing. So. Right. One of the reasons you. We are often because humans were scared. We have fear during the purchase process, and then we have to deal with greed during the selling process. But that's two different things. But the way you can lower that fear is to simulate before we put one of our young people into a very expensive piece of machinery known as a fighter jet for the military, they go into a simulator, period. Because to practice, you know, when it really counts matters, and that's what they do. They put many hours in that thing. And the cash flow game is. That is the same way. It's the simulation of the real thing that gives you and I access to an understanding of, oh, so this is how it works. By not simulating, you start skipping steps. And that's where the anxiety comes from. Because you're like, okay, what's going to happen? But when you can play that board game, you can lower someone's anxiety, your own included. You can get used to saying things like $100,000 a month or €100,000amonth or pounds. Depends on where you are. Right, I got it. I got it. Anyway, so my point is, you can get used to those things because the first time you say something like that, it may sound fake or foreign or you're like, yeah, but that's not me. And it takes time to resolve that cognitive dissonance. And the game can do that for you to the point to where it becomes natural for you to say, yeah, I woke up this morning and already had $10,000 and I'm going to go to work now. Right. And it takes a while. It can take a while for that to happen. But normalizing it is what's key. And playing it with your kids even better, because the sooner they get used to seeing mom and dad have those types of conversations, it normalizes it for them so that they start thinking, well, how can I make $100,000 this year? And they're still in. They haven't gone in. They haven't even gone to university yet. But they're thinking all about that process ahead of time. Because here's the truth of the matter. We've all gone through transformation somehow, and this game is at the center of it. And you can intentionally create that transformation for other people while educating them, while having fun, AKA you become the educator of your marketplace and therefore dominate it.

Thank you very much. This started off as being a marketing podcast, and now it's gone into money mindset, and I love it. So thank you very much, Jay, for taking it on all the routes. So what we're going to do now, like I said at the start, is we're going to bring it back. And what I want to do is I want one of the Boostly Academy members that's in the Zoom Room with us to be able to jump on the call and have a marketing review live. Now, like Jay says, he shoots from the hip. And, Greg, I've literally just gone scrolled up and down, and your stingrayvilla.com was the first one that stood out to me. So, Greg, if you could do me a favor, Mr. Greg LuPone or Stingray Bella, if you could unmute yourself, that'd be lovely. Jay, if you want to go to the website so It'll be in rayvilla.com.

How we doing?

So, Greg, what I'm going to let you do is I'm just going to let you very quickly just say hi to Jay and just give a very quick overview of where you are in the world while Jay is having a quick look at the website, just where you are in the world, what your big struggles are at, and just any questions that you have for Jay. And then what we'll do is I will share my screen and then we'll do a marketing review live, buddy.

Okay? Hi, Jay. We're sitting in Cozumel, Mexico, and I bet we're cooler than you are in Los Angeles.

Very possible. Very possible.

So biggest struggles, you know, before we hooked up with Mark, you know, trying to get direct bookings was our biggest problem. But we've also done things over the past couple years like blogging. We put 140 blogs on our website to try to get the answer man of Cozumel I think is, you know, trying to hit all the articles. So we pop up on the first page of Google when people say, hey, is Cozumel safe? Hey, what's the fastest Internet in Cozumel? We did that first and then we fine tuned everything. When Covid hit we joined Mark and his boostly academy and went that step further. This year we're actually trying to put more social media out on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn. So you know, we're doing little by little, you know and it has been working. I mean it's. We're completely full right now due to the fact I think people in the United States just had so much pent up demand to travel. You know, we're probably at the top of the market. We fill up first.

Nice. Thank you very much for that, Greg. Mr. J. Mass, have you been on the website? Let me share the screen as well. And then what we'll do is we'll just. Okay.

And again I. Yes, that's the game. But when you, when I was looking at the site. Are we going to talk about the site right first or you want to talk about the game?

Go about the website and then the game. Anything that comes to mind. Like you say, I think real fast.

Because I want to. I don't. Because since you're sharing your screen, I can show on him the. When the website popped up, the first thing I noticed. Okay, it's more about what I actually didn't is that I did not notice the way to build an. And I'm confused. Like there's no, there's literally no way to build an email list. Like if I'm ready to book a stay, that's wonderful. But what if I'm not? Am I missing something that. Did my browser not work or what?

No, I used to have a pop.

Up.

You know, asking to join the email thing. But Google has sent me things that if you have a pop up on the screen that blocks off more than 30% they're going to penalize your Google listing you.

Yeah, you were sending straight to Google to that site. Okay, got it. So long story short, there's a way to work that system and that's, that's why I was wondering. And then ultimately when I'm looking at this at the beginning again, I like where you're going with the Live at the Cozumel situation. I would encourage you to rethink your logo a bit as well as the font you chose. That's literally the first thing I'm Looking at now right behind that. I did not pull it up on a mobile device because nine times out of 10, that's what I'm going to be using anyway. Which means that now what's going to happen is that once I. How it looks on mobile. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so ui, ux, user interface and user experience. There's got to be someone who does that type of work. And then. Yes. What you just saw there, what Mark just showed us, is that those reviews, why are they so far at the bottom? We got to. I would want that sooner. Like. Yeah, that exactly. Is that repuso. Because that's what it looks like.

I don't know who I use. It's one of them.

Okay, that's fine. But yes, I would want that closer to the top because that, I mean, the first thing you've got to build is that trust factor, if you will. So that, yeah, that's what matters is I don't, I don't know you yet and I would like to know you, but you've got to build that trust. Like who else stays there? And you made him. I think it was one, two, two scrolls below the fold before we even got to that. And I'm like, okay, so that's potentially a challenge. Now, I love the idea of what you're talking about with the coffee and whatnot, but I don't know that I would have all of this on this very long one page. Do you get my meaning? Because I don't know what your load time is, but I would, I would really want to look at that. And are you using amp? Amp? Do you know what I mean when I say that?

No, I do not.

Got it. There's two different platform, two different ways of getting the format of the website to be speedy and formatted. One for mobile, one for desktop. And I would definitely look into that as well. Yeah, See, the con man, I would be, I'd want to be really, really clear about what I want people to do. And I get the fact that you want them to book, but that, that's, that's, that's a problem because you're, I don't. What is your bounce rate? Do you know? It's got to be high.

It's 40 to 50.

Your bounce rate is 40 to 50?

Yes.

Is this the page they're entering on? Are you sure?

Yes, yes.

Well, that's better than what I thought it was going to be. I will say that for sure. So that's good. And when. Now, once I do click the book, all Right, so then I've got again brand consistency challenges. Again. I've already mentioned the logo, I've already mentioned the font, but even on my phone where go back to the top. Is it there? Yeah, you've got Stingray Villa on the left and you got Stingray Villa over the top and that's very valuable real estate and I don't know that that's the best place for what it is. Do you have a hot jar or something that is doing heat mapping for you?

No, sir.

I would encourage you strongly to find a heat mapping tool and get that sucker plugged in immediately because I think it's going to give you some information around what your customers are doing, where they're cl, importantly where they're not clicking and where you've got some wasted space, whether on mobile and, or desktop. Does that make sense?

Yes sir.

I can keep going. But Mark, is, am I in the realm of what you were thinking?

You've done fantastic and everything that I wanted and again all the context is that Greg is doing like really well booked up etc. But and I think this is always the trick to go down is that you could always, there's always something you feel like you need to do. What I'll do, I'll make sure that on the write up I'll make sure we get crazy Jake crazy egg hot jar, which are the screen recording ones in for you, Jay? Greg should be able to check that one. Everybody else also what I'll do as well is just put some other little hints and tips in that blog post as well. But Jay, couple other things. We're fast so while you're doing that, just, just as you're doing that your camera has frozen. We can't see that.

I didn't realize as you're doing that.

As you're giving more advice. There you go, you're back, you're back.

I'm back. So the other thing that I was thinking about and when looking at it is the fact that you are booked, that's good and also bad because it could mean that there's a, there's likely a significant amount of money left on the table because of what you what, what you were talking about again, pent up demand, et cetera, et cetera. So while yes it sounds, it may sound or feel good to be at 100% I hate it because it always makes me think I left money on the table or there was something I missed. Right. So I don't know if you're doing any pricing studies or tests but that's something I would. I didn't see it there. I only could find one room. But the reason I'm saying these things is not because, okay, you're booked and that's bad. I'm saying that there's probably even more revenue available for you that, that you could get or you could build additional units or go get a bigger property or something if we just had the data to support it. And I want to be always collecting all of the data you need in order to replicate success. Because if you're going to then build a new website for the next location, you need to know what's working, why, and. Or why not. And all of those tools are designed so that you can reverse engineer a system that you can then just literally launch and do these things this way and always have your control that you are split testing against. Which gets me to. Do you have a split test version of the site?

No, sir.

Got it. Well, I don't. I will. I will let that stop. I think I've made all of the points. I'm just saying I think all of those things will just help you earn more money because do you. Are you emailing your people after at all? Okay, I got one. All right, excellent. And then are you asking them, do you have a referral program of some kind?

Yes.

Yes. Awesome. Good stuff. All right, perfect. And then does your customer get paid if the referral books?

I don't have it set up for money. They get a couple free nights.

That. That sounds like a lot. Wouldn't you rather give them like 10 or $15?

Yeah, I guess. I guess so.

So that. Just hear what I'm saying. Immediate gratification of the 10 to $15 is probably way better than a couple of free nights because that you're actually getting to my next question. The customer acquisition cost. Do you know what it is?

No, sir.

Are you running any ads?

No.

Got it. Okay, well and let you're not running any ads, so that means you're not necessarily spending any. Any money in that regard, so no big deal. Does the space have a YouTube channel?

Yes, it does.

And when is the last time you posted a video?

Six months ago.

Okay. I would encourage you to post. Do you have a drone? Like even the Mini one, the super Mini one?

I have no drones. I'm droneless.

Okay, got it. I think so. Review this later. And everywhere you said no, those are items that can increase your revenue. That's what I'm going to say. Say, I'll let it sit there. Is there anything you want to ask me, though, about why any of those things. Does it all make sense?

It all makes sense. And it just give us. Gives me another avenue to educate myself.

Yeah. Okay. And hey, with the drone, now you can say, hey, look, honey, it's a business expense. I have to have this. Think about it. I'm trying to help here. Think about it.

I'm trying to let her get a new truck, and that will make me the happiest.

Well, let's see. The drone comes first, then comes the truck. Because if I can put our revpar up, you know, a couple hundred dollars or ADR up, you know, even three, four, five, six dollars a night, that's going to pay for the truck.

That's true.

That's how I'd look at it.

Very good. Thank you so much, sir.

Thank you so much for doing that. Really, really, really appreciate it, my friend. And. And again, all of the things that will be recorded so you can come back on it and anything you want to pick out more than welcome to. But again, really appreciate it. Thank you very much, Greg. And thank you, Jay, for doing that. Now, is there anybody else that would like to go?

If so, you're done.

What I would love is I would love an Airbnb listing come up as well, because we've done a website.

Okay, let's do it. Let's do it.

So we'd actually do. We've got Mr. James Nicholson. So, James, if you could just very quickly unmute yourself, please, if you could.

Hi, Mark. Hi, Jay.

So this is cool. We've gone from one side of the world all the way over to the United Kingdom. Mr. James Nicholson. What I'll do, Jay, if you can just check the Zoom chat.

Oh, I see it. Got it.

Yeah, it's pretty recent, the Airbnb one.

Fantastic. So, James, just give tons of context to Jay. Just have much context about the business and everything that you can do just before he delves in. Because like I say, once Jay gets going, he gets going. So the more context that you can give, the better. Right now, please.

Perfect. So it's basically a rural farm in Somerset. We've got sort of built in accommodation around the farm, sort of one bed places and a couple of cottages on nearby locations as well. It's basically parents set it up and I'm just trying to look into the whole marketing side of it and getting out there for people to enjoy, which is kind of. This is kind of the first year we've really put it out there.

Okay, got it.

And at the moment, we're getting a lot of kind of referral business. And in terms of people who've been there or stayed in some of the other bits around.

Okay, are you offering any additional services like food?

Starting to. It's interesting when we did have a lot of people request food, so we're trying to do something like that. At least little bits for people to have. But most places have our own kitchen as well.

Well, it's a farm. As soon as you say farm, I would rather eat the food that's there. That's like part of the experience, right?

Yes, definitely.

It's almost setting the expectation, especially if they're coming from the United States because we have a number of what we call farm to table restaurants. And that idea that. Yeah, I would look at that. All right. So I will say a couple of. Oh man. A couple of things. I am. People call me not so nice names when I start reviewing their photos because I am really like, it's the story, my friend. The story in the photos. It's a thousand words. And it's a thousand words that could say, oh look, I took care. Concern, I thought of you. Or it could say, hey, look, I found this in the rubbish. So hey, come on and stay. Right. And if you can control that narrative, why not? One of the things that I have personal issue with are photos like these because it reveals the location. Now it may be fine in your case because you're in the. I don't know what's next door sheep. But you know, so that. That could be okay. I have trouble. Like for example, the. One of the number one reasons I would not stay here is because the location is revealed in a public situation that does. That just does not make me feel safe and is something that we avoid in all of our photos is revealing the location just through the photos. So after you make a reservation. No problem. Different story there. So that's. That's one of the things I'm gonna see if I can't find a different and or better feature photo for you. Okay, so here's another one. This is a good example of a lot of things. I'm assuming this was a cell phone photo. And give me a second. Someone who's about 5 foot 10. Yes. Took this photo.

I'm not sure, but possibly.

Yeah. It's about five, ten is my guess. And so there's a number of things that are off because of the perspective. Right. This sets the wrong expectation. Unless you're. How. Unless your walls are actually slanted. It's probably not a good idea Right. It's that perspective. Because what happens is it can make. In this case, it's making the room look longer than it probably is, and then means, hey, Mr. Customer, this room, this is what it looks like. And they get there and they go, oh, my God, it's so tiny. And that becomes a challenge. Or it shows up in your review. Also in the photos, I tend to want to superimpose, as opposed to having the black on the tv. By the way, good job posting it on the wall and hiding the wires. Hallelujah. Thank you. But I like to superimpose images on the television to again, create more atmosphere, if you will. Also love the idea of the speakers being there as well, from a safety aspect. So that. That. Yeah. So we need a real camera. A real camera. And it causes an actual. Did you use a professional photographer?

Yes.

It was a friend, though. But it's interesting, I think you're saying, because of the angle coming from. I can see now. I've never seen him like that before.

Oh, yeah. I haven't even gotten to the white balance. Because, see, this photo right here is completely out of focus. But this. This one also is also slanted. Again, you've. You've got a perspective shift where they're shooting in a downward motion. That's how I was guessing at their height. Because I'm like, okay, I think I know what's going on here. And the challenge is that this. That. That doesn't quite work. And it just doesn't work. I mean, don't. Don't get me wrong. You're obviously, you're going to make money because you're present, but when you wanna know, when you wanna make the most amount of money, there are diff. Sorry, I paused. Cause I was like, wait a minute. This might be the best photo I've seen so far. Just even though it's. But here's the challenge. It's a story you already told. Cause you remember earlier, you have the exact same angle, exact same shot. So if I was going to choose, of the two photos that I've seen of this angle, this shot, I would choose this one over that one. Oh, hello. Look at this. Now we got one.

Okay.

It's still a little crooked, but it's not bad. I like where we're headed. Do you get lots of questions around, hey, how many plates? Or is there going to be plates and cups? Do you get those questions yet?

Not yet, no.

You're going to, because you're not telling them that they're there. I'm assuming they're there, but I have to assume. Not everybody is going to assume. So if you don't show it, if you don't say it, they. Then they're going to assume it's not there. Meaning you're going to. So while they're typing into the message center, hey, are there cups? Right after they hit enter, they're going to be going to the next listing. And if the next listing answers all their questions in the photos, they're going to make that reservation. And by the time you get back to them, they're going to be like, oh, sorry, we already made a reservation. And it's simply because you didn't finish telling the story in your photos. Does that make sense?

Sure. Yeah. No, that does. That's great.

So you want to put yourself in a situation. Your first line of defense for customer experience or customer service is your listing. Answer all the questions in as few pictures as possible. By the way, you only have 10. I tend to go for 22 to 27. Somewhere in there. Around 24 as we end up landing. Because you want to tell the entire story. Because right now. Right. I'm assuming I've got access to a kitchen and a bedroom, and I'm beginning to wonder if this bathroom is shared, because I have no idea.

Sure.

So those are the things that I have questions about. And I'm not saying that that's good or bad, because again, you're present. Being present is. In a lot of cases, it's enough. However, if you want to maximize and definitely if you want to scale and you really. If you want to become predictable, my friend, those are the. That's. That is where I come from. I am so not the guy. If you. If you only want one. I'm not the guy. But if you want, you know, 10, 20, you want to put two commas in your bank account, that. That's kind of my specialty and where I look at. So I always look for a way to scale what's here. Sec. Next. When it comes to this text, people don't like to read. And if you haven't learned that. So I need bullet points. These big. No one is ever reading this paragraph right here. Like, they're just not. And why is the word buzzards in there? What is going as well as the. Okay, awesome. All right. Buzzards it is. So 60 acres of land. Wow, bro, you have a gold mine here. When. When. If repossession didn't use properly. Oh, my good Lord.

So that's the amazing thing is where people get to come and enjoy the whole place. And that's why I was trying to show the pictures outside.

Well, notice I didn't get any of that until I got to those words which most people. Most people are going to skip. Okay, now I'm going to give you some hints on your title that I would really, really encourage you to make some adjustments to because it's going to influence your, your, your click through. So Farm Stay. Farm Stay is okay, wonderful. But I. If you haven't gotten it yet, you're going to get the. Do we have WI fi? And I saw down here you're like, yeah, you do. So I would put Farm Stay fast WI fi. And you said you were going to do the food or.

No, we will be doing some food. Yeah.

Okay, so then Farm stay fast Wi Fi on 60 acres.

Yep.

That is a completely different than Farm Stay hosted by Upper Vobster Farm. I don't know who Upper was that the city?

No, that's the farm name. It was trying to get people to come direct to us.

Okay. And I would. Yeah, so I would. Those are the things that I'm thinking about is Farm Stay. Like I said, farm stay fast wi fi on 60 acres. Oh, really? Wow. Just those words alone are more clickable than what you've got there.

Totally.

Are you aware of there's a tool out there that does that tracks the emotionality of words. Man. What is that tool called? I'm trying to remember it. Where you can put in your title and it'll give you the emotional sentiment behind those titles to help you understand how clickable it might or might be. Do you know the tool I'm referring to?

No, I do.

I'll see if I can find it while during the rest of the time that we have. But I mean I could keep going, but I think that's more than enough for now.

That's amazing.

Hold on, hold on.

Is that tool called Twin Word by chance? I'm trying to google it as you are talking.

No, that's not it now. That's not. It's not it. Your check in is only from 5 to 8. What's up with that?

We're kind of in the middle of nowhere. Oh, I gotta get people.

That part was clear.

So.

But I.

We could do checking it. We've done checking like 3am but it's more where people want to come direct to us and talk to us about it.

Okay, so if that's the case then are you doing like a minimum seven day stay or something on here?

Two nights. Because we Were trying to. Otherwise it's just not working. We're trying to do more than three.

Nights, but yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking. Okay. I think with some of the things that I'm thinking and have said, I think you can get this to a minimum seven and then have a check in window and begin to attract a completely different customer. Especially with some upgrades to the photos and the description of the experience. Experience. Remember, it's about the experience at the property, not the property. And you're describing the property mostly. I want you to describe the experience. What is it like to wake up and see buzzards? I. I mean you put it in there for a reason. So what's that like? Because I don't know.

I'm not even sure I want amazing. It. It's not. You just wake up with all the nature. It's. That's the beauty of it.

That's what I need in a photo. That's what I need in the title. That's what I need in the description. Because if I don't have that, I'm left to wonder and my imag pretend I have no imagination like most customers don't. And you got it. Because if you don't tell them, they don't. They don't imagine it at all. But if you can show it, capture it. Get me. And if you want to do some of this, the outside photos, that's great. But get me some sunsets, some early morning sunrises. Get me some, get me a photo of the wildlife. If Bambi is in your.

We've got millions of them.

I want to see Bambi.

Well, I can do that. We've got wild deer as well.

James. James, thank you so much.

Thank you.

For a while. This is fun for me.

James, thank you so much for that. Jay, I want you to repeat one thing that you said. Experience to stay. Repeat that one. Share the experience of the stay, not the experience of the property.

Experience at the property, not the property. And you need to be able to describe what is the experience. What is it like to wake up next to. I mean if you've got buzzards and that's a feature, I want to know what that looks like. It feels like. Sounds like I need to be able to almost melt the eggs cooking in the kitchen when I look at your photo go yeah, right. And. Or hear the shower running because it's early morning when I look at the photo or read the words and everything has to be congruent to that effect. And you will increase your adr all day long. And occupancy, you can start to demand, like I said, the minimum seven days and all these other things. But you have to describe the experience at the property, not describe the property.

James, any final things that you'd like to say to Jay? Last thing.

That's amazing. Thank you very much. It's awesome.

You are right.

Time for one more. Do we have time for more? Is anybody brave enough?

If they're willing and no one's been scared off yet, then I'll do it.

I mean, we've got a couple of people in the chat saying, I'm scared.

I get it. But here's what I will say. If you take this on, you'll make more money, you'll serve more people, your business will grow. That is what I do. Like, like all day. Because I want everybody. Because I can't house them all, neither can Mark. We'll try, but you know, we can't. So we want everyone to experience what we get to experience. And that's why we do it. That's why we do. What we do is to help more people feel and see and experience the world that we live in. If that makes sense. Am I right, Mark?

What I would love, because we've done like a villa, we've done a farm stay. What I would love is a. Is a guest house. So Jane put her hands up and Jane, if you are. There we go. Okay, so I'm just gonna grab the link for you a second, Jay, and then you can have a quick look at it and. Which is in here. All right, so it's Jay. So it's Fields. And I'll put it in the chat for you as well. In the zoom.

Yeah, that'd be great. That would make for me.

It's just in there in the chat, just while you're pulling up the website. Jay, Jane. So we've got Jay and Jane. Jane, could you just unmute yourself, please? There we are. Hello, Jane. Good evening.

Hello. Hello. I must say, I've got butterflies in my belly now.

Love this accent. So this is.

But Jay is brilliant. What a breath of fresh air. This is fantastic to listen to.

Thank you. I appreciate that, ma'. Am. Okay, this is you.

This is me.

Okay, excellent. Okay, so. Oh, where's the first guy? Where's the first guy? Did you see this? That was on a delay. It looks like 30 seconds. That's all I'm saying. 30 second delay. Thank you for working on this. I love it.

And one thing. Jane has got fantastic email list, fantastic emails.

Yeah. She focused on that. I can see that. Okay, so some of. I think I feel what you're going for, especially with these first three photos. The challenge, though is that they're. They're very low resolution. So if you can, I would get some higher resolution photos just because. So they don't look so grainy, especially with these phones and any of the iPhones. Man, the resolution on those things is so, so good. I love this food picture, by the way. This over here, not so much because again, it's off axis and off angle to like bedroom shots that are straight on. But we'll get to more. But I just want to contrast this versus the other one we saw from the beginning. It is. She had the delayed pop up. It looked like it was around 30 seconds. She's got the photos that the gallery photos are switching and on each one I want everyone to pay attention to. She's got her credibility sitting at the bottom. And it's different each time, which is again another symbol of trust because that's one of the first things that we've got to build Now. I don't know where the reviews are, so I find that interesting. That shows up for me as a missing at this moment. Like where the reviews. Additionally, I would re. Look at this. Your banner is just way too large up here. So that's a lot of valuable screen real estate that could be better used in some other way. And now up here we have lots of choices. All right. What was really good about the other website is that there was a choice, right? There was a choice here. I'm feeling like there's just too many choices and I would explore a different menu or directory system up here. Again, do you have hot jar or something that. That shows you where the heat maps is, where people are clicking?

No, I don't, but I will do by tomorrow.

I love that attitude. Yes. Because moving at the speed of instruction is what we call it. I get excited for that. My guess is, is that there are only a few of these up here that people are actually clicking on that really don't need to be here. And you'll begin to learn a lot about what people are clicking on as well. Plus, I don't know if you've realized what you've got. Book my stay up here as well as right here. And again, there's just a lot of wasted space here. And don't get me wrong, I like your photos. I like what you're doing. I'm almost though going to say I would prefer to see it more In a framed style. Cause I don't know if you've seen where they have, you know, three or four photos in a frame, but not all of them have to be the same shape and size. That would at least be a little bit more lively. And ultimately you've got a lot of red and green. And all I can think of is Christmas. And I'm like, I don't. That's what she's after. But it's what evokes. It's so everywhere. And that's fine. I'm just letting you know that if that was intentional, great. If not, then consider of all these awards. I still would like to see reviews from real people that have stayed here.

Yeah, that could be on there somewhere. I don't know why it's not on the homepage. It's obviously dropped off and I don't even know about it.

Yeah, I was wondering why I wasn't on the homepage myself.

There we go. There you go.

But do you understand the problem? Do you see how the problem is? It's so small.

Yeah, yeah.

The problem is that it's so small that we had. We were looking for it and had to find it.

Yeah. And it's my own site.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. So this is right here, this free guide. Do you have a video version of this?

No, but I can. Yeah.

Okay. So what I would love is a video version of this, even if it's only voiceover and you just flipping through the photos, talking about it.

Okay.

That would be so great, to say the. To say the least. And then you know what? Because you're on that. You're on an island, aren't you?

Well, we're in Wales, so I'm on a peninsula.

Yeah. Okay, so it's hard to get to you, right?

Yes, it is a long way to get to us.

So here's one of the things that I was thinking about for you and others. You might want to pick this up, too. There's a company out here, it's called the Multitasker. What they literally build is a VR version of the inside of where, Of. Of. Of of your place. So someone could come to your site on an Oculus headset and. And. And literally, quote, unquote, walk around in a VR space because you're hard to get to. I think that to your advantage to use. And these are the guys that do it then. Now, obviously, they do it for construction and all kinds of things like that, but repurposing it for our purposes makes a ton of sense, too, especially since you have. Where did it go, this guide, I'm willing to bet that. Do you have a drone?

No, but I wrote drone in big capital letters earlier.

You've got too much green, pretty puffins. And bur. You've got to get this place shot from above so that people go. You know, you want those photos where people stare at it like you do in the morning sometimes you look, you're like, oh, my God, I can't believe I live here. That's what you want me to say when I look at your photos?

I forgot to warn everybody just before we started that J is a Joan fan. I've seen the proof on his vlogs. He loves the drum. He loves it. He's mentioned it 2 out of 3 reviews. I'm amazed he didn't mention it for poor James. So, drone, drone, drone.

Okay, so. And okay, hold on, hold on. So there's a number. What is that? Interesting. So you've got. Well, okay, so the puffins are a thing. Is that. Is that, like, why people come out there?

That's a huge thing. Yeah.

Then how come.

And that's my fudge.

I'm just gonna ask. Are puffins green?

No, puffins. No. Puffins are black.

Yeah, I didn't think they were. I'm just trying to understand the Christmas tree for the logo and the. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's because I got a massive fir tree in the garden.

But the puffins. You said the puffins. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But puffins are also huge here as well.

Yeah. Yes, but all the more reason, because who. What's more likely to be typed in a search engine? Puffins.

Puffins. Oh, puffins, definitely.

Okay, so let's. Let's leverage what's going to be typed in the search engine anyway.

Yep.

I mean, because that's because you. And what's really interesting to me, because this is what got my attention. Buy your tickets online to see the puffins. Yeah, that's the thing. Do you realize that this is at the bottom of the page?

Yeah, I do now. Yeah.

I'm like, okay, if that is supposed to be a thing and because I'm not seeing. I mean, maybe I missed it. Yeah, no, no puffins.

So, yeah, fair point. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Fresh bit of ice. Thank you.

Just don't go flying a drone near those poor puffins.

No, absolutely not. I get fired.

I understand. I'm just trying to point out oftentimes we don't leverage the things because, again, I live in Southern California. I really have no desire to go to Disneyland. I don't. And I know that's why people are coming. So guess what? I start mentioning Disneyland because it's why they're coming anyway.

Yeah, yeah.

There's no sense in me taking the time to mention something else when you're coming for Disneyland. Yeah, that's why you're coming. So I'm going to leverage that to my advantage as much as I possibly can. And that is what I don't see. And it looks like, yeah, I like, and I love the fact that you have your own products and stuff, but puffins first. Yeah, yeah, because that's why they're coming. And then like I said, you, you evoke a lot of thoughts of Christmas with the, between the color schemes and the logo and I'm just like, well, maybe that's intentional but it's not why they're coming.

No, no, that's right. Yeah.

Does that help you?

Absolutely, yeah. I've written loads of things down and I go back on the video. That was brilliant. Thank you.

Uh huh. Now, oh, does anybody have a Scottish accent? That would just be fun for me if you do. I would love to do one more.

We've got Welsh, we've done English. Now has anybody got a Scottish? I don't know if we've got any Scottish.

I mean it feels like we've covered, you know, a good gambit of them. So I'm like, come on man, there's gotta be one.

Jane. One thing I forgot to mention, Jay, one thing about the Boostie Academy members is that they are action takers. And I know you love action takers. They are action takers. So when Jane says she's going to get this done, it is going to get done.

So right now, in her time, that's like what, five hours from now. So I'm just like, okay, let's do it.

I'm looking at the people who may have a Scottish accent or an Irish accent. I don't know.

That'll work too. That'll work. That one would work too.

Shirley's not here. Shirley's not here. She had been perfect. Shirley's got a cave house in Spain and it is, it's a wonderful so. But unfortunately not. But let's tell you what, Jay, we've kept you for just over an hour. I really do want to honor your time and I just want to say thank you so much for doing this.

No problem. I had fun. I appreciate you guys humoring me. I want everyone to win. So if there's anything more that I can do. Just, just. Well, I'll definitely be on Clubhouse, so let's catch up there for sure.

Jay is, is is in the clubhouse. You can go find him. Is it at Cash Flow Diary on the Clubhouse?

Yeah. Yes, exactly. At Cash Flow Diary on Clubhouse is where you can definitely find me as well as Cash Flow Diary on all other social media.

Yeah. And like I say, even though Jay hasn't done a YouTube video in 2021, that doesn't mean that the back catalog isn't unbelievable and full of so many tips. I've been watching it today, checking up on the blog and everything and it's great to go back on. So please, please do, do that Cashflow Diary. Jay, again, just one more time. Thank you very much for answering all those questions and doing the market reviews, especially a big mention to Greg, to James and to Jane. It's not easy being up on the stage and having a spotlight shone on you, but you did really well to every single one of you. So thank you very much for doing so. Rj. Thank you again. I'm going to let you all go. As always, we will be doing this again for those of you that are watching, that are not in the zoom room, that are watching this on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and you're thinking, I want to be part of this. Just got a boostly academy.com you can join there. Until next time, please, please always remember, be proactive, don't be reactive and let's go and get some diary pockets. Take care, everybody.