How to Grow Your Hospitality Business - Insider Secrets from an Expert!

Welcome along and thank you for tuning in. We are discussing the formula to a successful short term rental business. My name is Liam Carolan and I'm Mark Simpson's co host. You're listening to the Boostly podcast and this is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the training and most importantly the confidence. So you can go out there and get more direct bookings if you haven't already. You can come and join in the fun on Facebook in our free hospitality community. So if you go on Facebook search hospitality community, you can come and join in and there's awesome folk in there who share tips as well as Mr. Mark Simpson and myself. Jump in there with cool information from time to time. Today we are going behind the host with an extremely popular and lovable character here in the uk Property space and hospitality space. We're diving into a hospitality service accommodation business to ask all the questions on how you can get started, the success, the story and things that you can implement in your hospitality business. So let's get started. Let me introduce to you the one and only Lenka Yanchova Bed Narikova from Lenx Escapes. Lynx for short is the best way to say it. So welcome along Lynx, great to have you here.

Oh Liam, thank you so much. What a beautiful introductions. I'm actually blushing. See if I can demo that.

Thank you very much. Thank you. So let's get started with yourself, letting everybody know, introduce yourself, let everybody know a bit about where you host, how many units the strategy you use use. And also I detect the, the accent isn't from, from Devon I think is where you host, isn't it? Yeah. So yeah, let everyone know where you, where you're from and where your hospitality business is.

Right. So hello everybody. Hi Liam and thank you so much for having me on the show. Really appreciate that. I feel absolutely honored and you know I'm a big fan of Bruce Lee, follow you guys for ages now becoming a part of it, which we'll get to later. So really honored to be part of the show today. So as you said, my name is Lenka, friends call me Lenx. This is how I'm known as well for my brand which is Lenx Property, which is like a umbrella company for everything else I do at the moment. So this is where we start with Lenx. So as you said, I have hospitality business called Length Escapes in Devon in specifically, I mean in Torbay, which is one of the most beautiful parts of the UK for tourism. So that's answering the questions of what strategy I do. So it's basically mainly for tourists at the moment because it's seasonal. Over the winter it is a little bit more slower. So I'm trying to focus also on a bit of contractors mix and match. But to be fair we actually still do get nice amount of tourists here at the moment as well. So that's fantastic. I'm originally from Slovakia. I was actually born in Czechoslovakia which not many people can say these days that they are. They've been born in a country which doesn't exist anymore. So it's. I call it. Interesting fact about me. So I was born in Czechoslovakian and yeah I lived in the UK now for, for quite a while, traveled the world a little bit. This is where I fell in love with travels and hospitality in general. And that's. Yeah. Long story short, I ended up doing a hospitality business myself because I'm a very true passionate traveler so it really suits me.

That's cool and thank you. I mean Torbay is meant to be like the English Riviera, isn't it? It's beautiful there. I've seen lots of photos on your socials and you know, it's definitely worth a quick Google if you don't know Torbay or Devon, it's a beautiful part of the uk. So my next question was going to be is how did you get started in hospitality and why?

Yes. So basically when I came to the UK so I've like I'll say that's a long story short. Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with in 1995 I've. So when I came to the UK I started as an au pair to learn language and then from there I started working in hospitality but as in the restaurants I worked within two and a half years being in the UK I already was a fine dining hospitality manager in London. So I was one of those career goers and just working really hard, working on myself, studying in a free time and just trying to get myself in a higher positions just to realize that I was living life in London chasing something, not having any free free time, having constantly black circles around under my eyes from how tired I always was from work. So I went travels, I traveled, I traveled around Asia and then I traveled in Africa for. For I'm talking months at the time and a combination of traveling and combination of working in hospitality and especially elegant hospitality as a fine dining place. I started to. There was always. I always knew that I will combine these two somehow. Then I start. I discovered property simply through like a property book. Started learning about different strategies, etc. And when I came across service accommodation, I was like, this is it. I love travels, I love hospitality and I can put this all together and start investing in a property. This was to me, it was like a light bulb moment and I was like, this is it, this is what I'm going to do. So this is how I started in hospitality, really. It's by coming across service accommodation and I'm like, combination of all these free. This is what I need to do.

It's cool, isn't it? It's cool. And out of interest, you mentioned there was a book just then for everybody listening is what was the name of that book? Just because I'm sure people want to check it out.

Well, it was actually, well started with Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So Rich Dad, Poor dad is a classic, isn't it? From Robert Kiyosaki.

It's the go to go to.

So that's even on my podcast. Most of the people say that book as a. When I ask for recommendation book, everybody knows that book. So Richard Podard was the first book which showed me a bit of, I mean difference in invest, like investments and different way of looking at life. But then I came across the multiple stream of property income and that's where I started learning about HMOs, accommodation conversion, et cetera. And so I'm like, wow, there's so many different ways of making money through property, so. And yeah, so that was a multiple stream of property income. When I. When I discovered there's so many different strategies.

Really, it's such a good book. That was one of the books which got me started as well. It's on the shelf just lower down behind me that. But yeah, that is still one of the ones which I always look at with fond memories which helped me get into first world property and then hospitality. So similar. So your guests, you mentioned that you tend to host leisure guests. So who would you say is your ideal guest and what do you find is the best way to attract them to book? What sort of platforms do you use use and is there anything that you do specifically that appeals to your. Your target guest?

So I use OTAS at the moment, which is Airbnb booking.com I had Verbo, which I'm having currently back and forward emails with Integration team. So Verbo is something where I'm just basically some reason got disconnected. But there's a long story why the. So this Airbnb booking.com at the moment. However, as you know, I've signed up for finally to Boostly Academy because so I want to attract, attracting more direct bookings. So that's obviously one of the, that's going to be one of my main goals for this year is to learn and master this strategy how to do direct bookings.

We're excited to have you in the community links. I know it's going to be so much fun.

I'm so excited to be here. So excited. But yeah, and how do you attract the ideal guests? So basically, I mean everybody obviously want people who comes in respect their, respect their properties, etc. And I've learned that if my price is a little bit higher, I kind of, I tend to attract better guests and if I want to charge a little bit higher, I need to provide something different. So what I'm doing is that with my husband, with my properties I'm offering, they ate, they're slightly different, their design is different. It's, it's just different. People look around. I love receiving this beautiful feedback when people go wow, your property is like, like, like so different. It's like a catalog, it's like interior design catalog and things like that. And that makes me really happy. The fact is that I really truly trying to create home away from home, going to details because I'm a very hands on woman when it comes to my household. So I'm thinking about what people could need when they open this cupboard, when they open this cupboard, when they open that draw. Do they need details? So the fact is that people always found pretty much anything they need in the property. It's what makes me happy, what drives me to, to, to, to be a better host all the time. So attracting them with difference in property when they're scrolling through Airbnb and they stop online because oh wow, look at that's different. So that's one thing. Second thing is my locations. So I, my, my properties are always in a fantastic locations where I always make sure that people know that I have sea literally there or you have to only walk one minute and the sea is that or you have a sea views. So I always make sure that that's also on the descriptions and in the pictures. So it makes them stop scrolling because of how different the properties are. And then when they're going through pictures, they can see what's nearby, etc. And they like that.

I love that there's so many gems within that. I mean there's a couple of things you mentioned there. First of all, we see time and time again that better designed properties and for anybody who wants to check out your Properties is@chrikes escapes.com is at. Is that correct? Yeah. So you can go at the moment.

I'm working on that which I will. So yeah find me on the. And the social media at the moment. Like length escapes.

Length escapes. Yeah. And that is. I mean the design you get to see. Anybody who goes across there and sees the design is absolutely stunning. The designs of your properties you mentioned as well is that actually putting your price higher is so important to attract the right guests. And this is something which many hosts at this time of year are actually looking at doing the opposite at lowering prices, changing things like that. Whereas actually by having a higher price point but maybe even a little bit less occupancy, you actually achieve the same income but your place gets less wear and tear, you get better quality of guests and that side of things. So definitely worth worth checking out. And of course the other one you mentioned there is location is so important for short term rental success. The location is just so key, isn't it? And I know you've got some stunning views from some of your properties which is, which is amazing. So brings me onto the question of what is your favorite thing about hosting and hospitality and why?

Oh favorite. I think it's the answer to this will be similar to what I kind of already said thinking about it. I love creating this really beautiful homes away from home. I think this is it because I love the customer service as well. Still don't know how long I will be loving it for because obviously as we were saying before we started recording naturally when people progressing there's certain things we don't want to do anymore because we want to focus on let's say bigger things or for whatever that reason is. But I really truly enjoy the customer service and I love the. Yet create a home away from home. As I said that I just do details like I don't know so giving tips but I make sure there's always pens in the property, a sellotape blue tag. Just details like that you just never know what people will need. And I only know that from me traveling a lot. Me and my boyfriend travel a lot. I traveled a lot prior having this business A lot, a lot from backpacking to five star hotels. So kind of like just having this, this kind of. I always trying to put myself in the customer shoes and trying to think if I would come here for work, if I would come here with kids, if I would come here with my boyfriend or. And just to see if I can like I have let's say salt and bubbles in the bathrooms. So now everybody know everybody uses. A lot of people do ask me why do you have this? And I was like, because occasionally a person like me who loves bubbly baths, then it's there and it doesn't cost me much at all. And to be fair, we don't even refilling it that often as people think. So it's yeah just kind of those sort of details. That's what makes me happy when people say I truly felt like high, like home away from home just in a very stunning property does that's what makes me happy.

It shows as well. And I've seen posts from yourself where you've actually stayed in your properties and how important has that been to measure the kind of success and how comfortable the homes are?

Huge. Huge. I always said that the property have to be tested about life. To me personally, I always, I, I love it because by living there and it's not only to stay there because it's very tempting, Liam. It's very, very tempting to kind of like okay, I'll go and stay there but I'll order takeaway or you know, just to make, not make much mess. No, I'm actually doing everything what you could do if you go and stay in holiday. So I'll buy stuff to put in the fridge then I need to chop things down. Do I have a chopping board? Where is it? How far away is it from my station then calling that for, you know, washing my vegetables and all, loads of things like that. So what I found out is so many times I stayed in a property and I'm like, wow, this is not ready. Wow, I forgot this. Or even just things like silly things, silly things. But for example, in my last one I bought cooking pots and I have a brand new property, no one ever lived there. So I was pulling all these, you know, the plastic beads out from the oven and all these like completely brand new property, I had a brand new pots, etc. Just to find out that I'm trying to cook and the hops are not coming on because they are industrial hops. But I didn't, I didn't and I'm just saying like they could by setting up the entire property, which is what you think of tiny, tiny details in few days time that can happen that you missed something or you make a mistake when ordering something because the brain is very tired. So something obvious obviously can sometimes can slip, slip the mind. So I've ordered wrong pots and now imagine I would have a first guess and they said, sorry, we can't cook so. And they could arrive at 11pm what do I do then? And that's the first experience. So I personally love staying in my properties and trying to do. Trying to use this shower. I'll try to. This shower is the pressure. Okay. Do I. Is there any leak? Is there? So, yeah, that sort of thing. That's why personally I love staying in my properties and testing it properly. But properly I use up sofa bed. I see how the guests would feel if they're doing a sofa bed. Is that easy or. Yeah. Do I need different instructions or things like that?

I completely agree with you. Such an important point to go and test out your properties beforehand. And I've made that exact same mistake. You're talking about the induction of that. And I've. Yeah. I literally set an entire unit up. First time the guest goes in. Yeah, I can't use the hob and I had to rush out. It was about 10 to 6. I had to rush out and get the. Get the new.

That's what I meant.

And you go and sort it. But the thing is you could by testing out, by going into the property and like you say, I mean, I'd be guilty of ordering like takeaway or just nipping around the corner to the local restaurant or whatever because. But you are there to test out the. The features and the fittings and stuff like that on here. So that's really cool. So who have you discovered that you need on your team to have the success that you've had?

Cleaners. But good cleaners. The first point, it's that something can actually ruin your business. Having good cleaners or having bad cleaners. It's more important than some people who starting out or who's thinking about starting out. They would think so I've experienced amazing cleaners, cleaners who I want to clone and never let go, cleaners who I cannot even believe that I lived without them. But I had cleaners which almost ruined my business. So I would say that when you. With that first point is. I mean when. When someone's starting out or they. Or they. They thinking about starting out with cleaners, if there is a. Any chance and somehow go and check their work. Not necessarily in the beginning, even later, because in the beginning everybody will do very, very good job because they know that you might pop in. But I've tested by cleaners later on and after obviously receiving a few like few messages from the guests, like, oh, we arrived and let's say they forgot something on the. On the garden. So the first thing they see it's something and I'm like, right, I'm gonna start looking into this and yeah, so having the right cleaners and spotting it on time and let the bad cleaners go, it's so important. I can't stress that enough how important that is. But if you have a good cleaners and then you have no problems and having someone on the ground. So when I do lots of trouble and also my boyfriend, we still doing these long distance relationships for multiple reason children and our businesses at the moment. But when we are together, we can be together for two, three weeks at a time. So me being away from here and have someone on the ground, it's just. So that's why I can. Someone who understands all the properties, someone who got a really good customer service. Someone can step up for yourself or for themselves if something goes wrong or if something happens. Luckily things don't happen like that. That's the word. But yeah, that's what I would say. It's important.

How do you find somebody like that? You mentioned somebody who can be on the ground. How have you found somebody like that?

Well, for me for example, it was by having a cleaner for. So there was in my first two properties which one of them I don't have anymore. My contract ended. Those are insurance. So basically. So for the first two I had two individual cleaners. There was not company, nothing like that. There were two ladies and they were all. They both had their own property so that was like their baby. They were the best, they were honestly the best cleaners. Basically when one of those properties. So I my contract ended and I've lost one of the properties. I wanted to keep the other girl but there was obviously no more clean to. And to the point that I realized that I could always and always count on her. When I was away she was still my cleaner and if something happens and I called her, no matter what time it was, she would go there, she would sort it out for me no matter what time. And to the point that I realized that Joanna, maybe you don't have to stay with me as a cleaner. Maybe we can do something else together because you never ever let me down. And because she never did let me down, we, we can't. We stayed working together and I can fully trust her. I even helped her out the other day. She had real emergency and I stepped, stepped in and I did things for her. Some occasionally happened maybe, or maybe once or twice happened that I even did a clean for her because she had the dad's emergency or something like that. But I'm happy to do that because she's always there for me and she works 10 times more than somebody else would. So I, that's how I found her. And it was simply by trusting her with. She proved what she'd done when she was my cleaner. So I was like, yeah, time for you. Just a bap because you're too good.

Anyway, sounds like an absolute keeper. And we, I remember speaking to Toby Dior on the behind the Host podcast and he's somebody who often travels away a lot and you know, needs, needs time away from his places. And again, similar sort of thing where you're testing people out by having to be in that situation, you get to test and find out who is really on your team, who is the people you can count on. And it sounds like that's what you've done with this, this particular cleaner, which is amazing.

Yeah. So now Jonah, it's my, it's my everything.

So you mentioned there's been a couple of units that you had to give back. Is there any sort of setbacks that you faced within your short term rental business? And how specifically would you advise the people listening to be able to deal with setbacks? Is there any actionable advice that you'd be able to say to people?

Right, wow. So, so I would say one of the examples was, as we've mentioned, when I have, when I had to give some properties back, when I know that was my decision and why I said, well, I have to, I decided to give properties back and that was simply because of a type of person I had to work with. So one of the things I've learned is that, that I'm a person which is not chasing shiny pennies. And I do what I do because I love what I do. And I want to wake up in the morning and be happy in what I do, be excited about my work and go to sleep happy. Obviously there's going to be times and challenges, but that's a different story. I realized that I took on three properties which the person I had to work with was a nightmare. And that's a very polite way to say I've tried, I've tried, I've tried over and over to work with him. I've even listened to the books about negotiation, these and that and these to, to learn the tricks, how to deal with difficult people to the point that I'm like, no money will ever, ever be worth the stress. That the fact is that he's sending me messages at 11pm and then 7am he will send me A message saying, I saw you online last night, why you didn't reply and you know, and asking about a color of the picture, like nothing urgent. And it was nightmare, absolute nightmare. So I'd say when you end up working with someone and it's not working well for you or for both parties, find a way how to get out, nice way, doesn't have to be nasty or anything like that. Find a nice, polite, friendly way how to get out because it's so worth it. My boyfriend never seen me so stressed. He said that he never seen me stressed when I had to deal with that person. I was pulling my hair. Since I let him go, I'm happy length again. And even my boyfriend noticed the difference. So I'd say for, for health benefits, for your own benefits and for the business benefits, because that way you can focus on actual happy things in your business. I'd say if you end up working with someone which is very, very difficult to deal with, find a way. It's not worth it. Money is not worth it.

I think it's such a good point that you, if there's people out there who you don't want to work with, this is your business, it's your land, you don't have to work with them, which is the cool thing. Whereas when you're in a workplace or you're employed, you kind of have to deal with stuff. But when you're in this kind of environment, it's your business, isn't it, which is cool. So what is the best piece of tech in your business that you use and that you'd swear by? And why tech?

You mean as app as well or.

As a. Yeah, tech app or anything that. That you use regularly?

Well, I. So my laptop. Joking. So, yeah, basically I live on laptop and the phone, everything I'm using, I can run the business from my phone, which is one of the most amazing things about hospitality. As you know, certain things I have to do on my laptop, but that's details. So I use Channel Manager, which PMS system. It's absolute no brainer. So everybody who's called, even when you have one unit, it's just to make sure that you don't get double bookings. Just to have a place. For those who don't know, but I'm sure people don't know about. For those who don't know, Channel Managers just links all your hosting channels together. So when you get a booking on Airbnb Blue, booking.com is automatically blocked out. So that's a game changer. But that's a kind of like given I'd say it's a must I would say really for hospitality owners now owners, you know what I mean? Hosts the pricing channel Pricing system Can.

Think of the word dynamic pricing.

Dynamic pricing system. So I since I started using Price Labs personally I use the price lab since I started using Price Labs my revenue changed as well because that sort of software picks up what the area is doing how how big is the demand in the area and it gives you an idea of how much people are willing to pay at the moment for that particular size of the property. So just keep an eye on that sort of thing on a daily basis or every two days just to see how the market's doing so you can adjust your prices. It's really, really important. Doesn't take long time as well. So I'd say pricing system and social media which is free marketing and I am so excited that finally you join Boostly and Bruce Lee is going to show me how to use it even more and better to the full potential.

You're already. You're already quite sort of. I see you on social media all the time. Which would you say has been the social media channel which has helped you the most grow your personal following.

To me I think it will be Facebook at the moment however I literally just because I was giving few units back I had to change a lot of things about my business taking some pictures down etc. And I'm also expanding just to give as well idea to someone who knew me before from called torbescapes. The reason why I've changed to Links Escapes is because I expanded from Torbay so basically I used to be called Dorbescapes when I had holiday let's just here I'm going now to Timoth as well and talk about it later. I mean like I. I'm trying to expand as well so now it's called Links Escapes so and now I'm working more as well on Instagram which was new account created a new Facebook business page so there all those things are new at the moment but I'm trying to post at least two times a week on each of them. Which idea I was at least five days but then I thought no in reality, in reality I thought right if I do two times a week at least I'll be happy that I'm. I haven't failed my goal at least so that's what I'm trying to do at the moment. But they're fairly new accounts. But Facebook was the one which was Driving me at the moment like most.

That's cool.

Until now.

I mean you mentioned there was a PMS or channel manager within that. What was the one that I didn't catch the name of the one that you use Just for the people listening.

Yeah. So I was on Guesty previously and I literally just swapped to app listing.

Nice, nice. And what, what was the reason for the swap and what, what extra features or what reason was. What problem does uplisting solve that guesty didn't at the time?

So I've learned that guesty might be giving more to it than. Than I was using but for what I was using App listing gives me exactly the same thing for way less. So up listing it gives me exactly what I need like literally doing exactly, exactly the same things at the moment to I was doing on guestly. One thing is missing so far but I'm sure I can solve it. I already spoke to uplifting team and yeah, it's, it's basically I was very disappointed but that's just. Personally I don't get, don't get me wrong guys, I was very disappointed that for the, for the price I was paying and for the guesty there was the customer service wasn't the best. When I needed a real help there was never ever, ever option to organize a call. It was always through emails and sometimes email communication got lost and somebody else picked up from that email had to explain things again. And I'm thinking for the amount I'm paying and app listing I had one question which I couldn't resolve straight away. They said straight away, send me a calendar link, say, right, just book a call with us 15 minutes, we can, you know, we can help you out faster than via emails. So I'd say guesty fantastic. It is really fantastic. But maybe I wasn't using it to the full potential because for what I was paying, I wasn't gay. Do you see what I mean? Right now I have exactly the same thing and the business can actually save loads of money. But that was just me personally. Maybe I wasn't using it to full potential. I don't know.

I don't know. I love asking that question though because every host has a slightly different tech stack. And the great thing is there's so many PMSs out there. It's about finding one which you can try and then works for you and then if that doesn't work, network switch across and you know, the switching process. I mean I've switched twice before and you know, it's not necessarily the easiest thing in the world. But the features or the changes that you get are worth the brief period of the time of the pain. So that's awesome. I really, I really enjoyed finding out obviously about your tech stack there. You mentioned that you're expanding. What does the future of Lynx Escapes look like?

Ooh. So the idea is I want to focus on getting some properties in Lake District. That is one of my main goals for UK and that's purely because I just love nature and I love hiking in mountains and I want to have properties in the places I. I can, I can easily spend time and happily spend time myself and, and love and be passionate about the area. So I love nature, I love hiking, I love lakes, etc, so Lake District is one and also naturally because my boyfriend is lives in a Leeds area and we obviously somehow. But eventually we'll end up living together which is what we, you know, obviously discussing and start working on. In Leeds I would be able to have a business which is all year long which compared to like Dorbet which is very seasonal. So I always say that I want to also have an essay somewhere where I can have a business all year long. So that will be the next thing. However, what I'm also working on and the only reason why I want to say it publicly now is because it's going to be like my accountability. So for years and years I said that I'm going to have holiday let's in High Tetras which they are second highest mountains in Europe. They are in Slovakia where I'm from. I speak the language, I've got people on the ground and basically no Slovakians ever can get into that market. It's because it's just full of investors. It's on Americans, Russians investing in, in. In High Tetra Trust. It's basically very expensive place to get into but obviously it is one of the most popular destinations in Europe. And I always say that these sort of things. When people tell me you can't get in the market, you can't get in the market, I'll be like, watch me. So I started looking into it just before COVID started. But then Covid started and I had to focus on surviving here because I through Covid I've lost job twice. I was one of those people, I had really challenging Covid time financially and so kind of left Slovakia idea now being there now and finally found my perfect business partner. So I have a person on the ground. I got people who would be able to keep a maintenance for me etc etc like and start talking to people about what I do and guess what happened? Four people gave me a contact number to someone who's either got investment properties in the in high tech trust or they have massive insurance companies. So they know people who's got. That's how it works. So basically just by telling people what I do because I started focusing on it again. It's if you believe in the power of thoughts and law of attraction, I start attracting contacts for, for high touch risk. So hopefully Link's property will expand to Slovakia very soon. I mean I'll let you know.

Definitely let us know. One I'd be interested to, to see it. I've not, I've not even heard of the, of the mountain ranges but I love mountains and you know, I'm more that kind of holidays than sun and beach and that side of things. Yeah, what I've taken from this is, is you know, if somebody says you can't do something, find a way to do it. You know, that'll make you more determined that, that you can go and do it and also tell everybo about what you do. I mean we mentioned before we went live that you spoke to somebody recently and told them about what you do and they're interested in your business. It's just so important, isn't it to tell everybody hey this is what I do, this is how I can help and this is, this is the goal and people will buy into that. Which is, which is really cool. So yeah, I feel we've learned a lot about your business lengths as we come towards the end of these. We love to do a couple of quick fire questions just for fun. But before we do, I'd love to ask is there anything. Obviously we've talked about what you've done before, hospitality where you are now, the future. Is there one perception that has changed over the time from when you first got into hospitality to where you are now either your beliefs or your skills or your traits. Is there, is there one thing which goes. You know what? That was a real changing point for me.

Good question. I mean first thing what popped into my head is even though you have systems and processes in place, you still, if you want to grow your business and keep, keep it healthy and going, keep an eye on your business on a regular basis. That's something what I thought that oh, I'll have system in place, I have this and automated this and then I can just put my. Not necessarily, I'm just giving a little bit of exaggeration but just to make a point. And, and I thought this is It. And I thought I just have to step in, in the, in the system. You know, I've re. I don't know, once a week or once in two weeks, whatever that is. As I said, I'm just giving a sort of example. But what I've learned is that no, if you want to learn, if you want to keep on top of things, if you want to see how the market's changing, etc. Even if it doesn't just an hour a day, but just keep an eye on your business every single day. That sounds something seems like something natural like that something should be given. But I watched loads of people, they might not have admitted, but just by talking to them, and I know, I mean publicly, they might not admit publicly, but just by talking to other people as well, I know that loads of guests do it. You think that I'll just get these, I'll automate this, automate that, and then I don't have to do anything anymore. I've learned that yes, it is true to a certain point, but hospitality business just have, have amazing things in place. But do keep an eye on your business because I, I just learned just by last week I was doing the boostly, what do you call, bootcamp. And just by every single day, spending an hour with Mark, learning about new ways of attracting guests, I was like, why I'm not doing, like I need to be doing this all the time because this stuff works and it makes me feel as a better host and it makes me feel better as a businesswoman as well. And it makes me feel like I've done something for my business instead of just answered few queries and, you know, and paid cleaners and things like that. So, yeah, I, I don't know if that was actually what you asked, but brilliant answer.

Really brilliant answer. And what I love about that is there's a lot of people out there at the moment who are saying, hey, you know, try and make everything passive and not be involved. But actually making the kind of the hustle and the grind cool again is so important because like you say, getting stuck in there and certainly marketing and selling your business, nobody else can do it like, like you can. Which is amazing. So, so we move on to a couple of quick fire questions. So what do you do for fun? What is your hobby?

Oh, many things. I'm one of those people. I do loads of things. So I do hiking, I love nature. I do lots of walks and hikes. I have a big dog, but he is still a puppy and he's already 50 kilos. You know him, Loki. So he goes everywhere with me. So, yeah, I do. I'm a very much nature person. I do modeling as well, which I ended up doing sort of by accident. I mean, it wasn't planned. And now I love it. I actually really love it. So even today I have a shoot, which you kindly agreed to put the podcast a bit sooner because I have a really interesting shoot soon. So thank you.

No worries.

Yeah, I did that. I do music. I want to go back to DJing as well. So I used to be DJing on turntables, properly on turntables, but things like that gets expensive. So I kind of stopped buying my turntables for a long time and. But I'm coming back to. I want to get back to my DJing as well. There's loads of things. I love cooking, I love baking, I love gardening. My house is like jungle. I love plants. So, yeah, lots of things.

That's cool. I always get the sense that you have lots of fun. Do you know? I mean, that is, you've got to have fun in business. And I certainly get the sense of that from you. So brings me on to the next question, is who would play you in a movie? What actress would play you in a movie about your life?

Well, because I'm so bad with actors names and I personally, like, I have few favorite actors, but they're males. So I'll go with Jennifer Aniston because she's funny and she's smart. I love funny, I love crazy and you know, when people bubbly people and people don't think life too seriously and things like that. So. But serious enough. So yeah, I'll go with Jennifer.

I like it. So we always end with this question, which is, is there a mantra or a motto that you live by?

I have one. It's here.

I love it. We've got it on there. So for those on the podcast, Lynx has just picked up something off her wall, which is amazing.

So shall I read it out loud?

Yeah, do you want. If you. Yeah, if you read out loud, I'll probably butcher it. Otherwise.

So it is. Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people want so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't. This is for those days when I, you know, been asked to go out on Friday night or I, you know, someone wants to go. I don't know. I don't know. Basically, things when I'm saying no to because I need to study or I need to work on my business. Or when I've done. I also have done all my travels and things like that before. Lots of people were saying, including my parents, you need to save money. You need to save money. And I'm like, I will make money again. And I saved money and I traveled and I went and I went traveling and it's like, yes, because I want to live life my terms, in my way.

So what a brilliant, brilliant way to bring things to a close. Links. That is. It's very much very you. And yeah, I hope people have learned so much from today, certainly in terms of, you know, what to do, what not to do, all of the tech and that cool stuff and yeah, just been inspired by your story and what, what comes next. You know, the, the idea of the, the house in the mountains, you know, sounds amazing. And I know there's going to be a lot of people out there who are wondering, how do they follow you? How do they get in touch with you? What's the best way to do so.

So my name is so long, but you can find me on the person, like on the personal field and follow my personal journey. So on Facebook, I'm like Linka in Shaba, as you said. But it's quite hard to. So it's on. On Instagram, I'm either links blog, so links. It's easy to remember because it's just lengths and then it's a length vlog or length escapes or length model. So I'm trying to keep it like that now. And I just started the Facebook pages as well for the same thing. So the length escapes, length model. But yeah, for personal one, it's length block. And yeah, that's my story there.

That's awesome. Well, we're going to add them to the show notes as well, so thank you so much. So was there any questions I missed or any final thoughts before we bring it to a close?

Thank you so much for having me, Liam. I really, really enjoyed being on the show. You know, we've been friends now for, for a while and I always. We always had a good chat and everything, so I was really, really looking forward to this. I knew that we're going to have a good laugh. So thank you so much for having me. I loved being on the show and you coming on my show as well. For those who don't know, I also have a podcast and Liam's coming on my podcast in January. So looking forward.

I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it. Very much so. And like you say, it's always so much fun links and, you know, thank you so much for today. Really enjoyed having you on here and, you know, hearing your story because I've learned a lot that I didn't know before and I'm sure everybody else has. So thank you. Also to you, if you're listening in on the Boostly podcast or watching on YouTube or even on the Live, really appreciate you being here. I know there's lots of places you can put your attention and you're choosing to put it with Boostly. Thank you very much. That's it for today's episode and we'll see you on the next one. Thanks very much. Bye bye for now.