Making an impact with networking and marketing strategies

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So, so today we're talking all about giving back charity work with short term rental networking, standing out in your community and ultimately helping you to stand out as a host. And here to do that, I've got a very special guest. We're going to go behind the host on the Boostly podcast with Debbie Todd. She's got the Woodlands at Hocking Hills, which is in Ohio, an hour away from Columbus in the usa. She's got two units there and she's very, very passionate about giving back. So today I'm really excited to dive into this and you as a host is going to learn how that is going to help your hospitality business. If this is your first time here, then you're listening to the Boostly podcast. This is a podcast that gives you the tools, the tactics, the training and most importantly the confidence so you can go out there and get more direct bookings. So let's welcome along our guest Debbie. Thank you for joining me today, so.

Much for having me.

So first question. Can, can you introduce your business, give us the elevator pitch, who helps you run it and and anything else you'd like to share.

Sounds good. My name is Debbie. I am the co owner of the Woodlands at Hocking Hills. My husband and I both own it. We got into the short term rental business by accident which the more people I talk to I figured that sometimes is this common theme but we wanted a place to get away for our family. We found a place about an hour away from Columbus, Ohio. It's I call it our little hidden gem, Hocking Hills. And you bought a place. You know, didn't think in a million years we could afford this. We got another couple. We're like let's do this together. And it was during COVID and then all of a sudden it boomed. So we were like, wow, what is this? You know. So from there it became we just got really excited. We started looking for new places. The other couple was good with the one. So my husband and I were like let's do this. So we've renovated two other places and then in the meantime this was a total surprise. The first place we actually just sold with the other couple. So now we're like what are we going to do next? Are we going to build? Are we, you know, so we've got a lot of fun stuff ahead. My husband is more of the hands on design, just knows all the things. I've learned a lot from him. I am the more the management, behind the scenes hospitality. I know nothing about this but I've learned a lot and I love it. I'm a physical therapist by trade. That's what I've been doing for 20 years and it's been really fun listening to podcasts. Just it's like I feel like it's opened up a whole new world for me of something that I am passionate about that I didn't realize I was passionate about. So here I am. We have short term rentals, we still have our jobs, we've got three busy kids. So it's, it's a lot of fun.

That's cool. Thank you for, for the introduction and only it sounds as though the hospitality bug is, has got you there which is, which is cool. Tell me about your, the rentals. You just said you sold one, you've got two and tell me what guests can expect. What do they feel like? What can a typical stay be like when people come and stay with you and who would you say is your ideal guest.

So we come from a big family, so we love gatherings. We love, you know, having people over. So when we went into these places, so the, the second place we bought was a one, one bedroom, two bath. It had the, it was, it, the space was unreal. So we ended up making it a five bedroom, three bath. So it sleeps 20. So we are more family friendly, more groups of people. We've had reunions there. We think about functionality of, you know, small kids. Both of our places have game rooms because we feel like, you know, that's so fun. That's when families get together and make memories and laugh and so a lot of we've done, we kind of put ourself into it first and kind of built around that. So we designed it around kind of what we would love, which, you know, is just being with family and friends.

That's cool. And once, you know, what you'd love is, you know, because we're guests ourselves, aren't we, then it's easy to put ourselves in our guests shoes that way. What can people expect from Hocking Hills? You know, what, what is it that you love to do in the area and what are the reasons people visit?

It is such a hidden little gem. It is so like I lived in Ohio, in Columbus, probably 10 to 15 years before I even knew where it was. And it's an hour away, you know, so, you know, when we bought our place there, I had not known about it much more before then. And it has a little bit of, it's all here. It's got a lake nearby, lots of caves, parks, trails to walk on. There's water, activities of canoeing, zip lining. There's a lot of indoor stuff, glassblowing. It's just, it's a little bit of everything. It's really, it's really a cool place and it's pretty small. So not, I mean you can very easily shopping, really cool shopping, antique malls. So it's really neat.

That sounds cool. That sounds cool. So obviously we're going to talk about what you're doing within your business. Something which is really cool and very different and not. I mean we speak to a lot of hosts obviously on, on the behind the Host part of the Boostly podcast and what you're doing there is quite unusual. So take us through what is, what is giving back? What does it mean to you and dive into that part of your business.

Yeah, so what I was, we were talking a little bit earlier. Being a physical therapist and working in the health care profession have always you know, been hands on helping as a child. My parents always, we went to nursing homes. I was always volunteering with my mom and dad at church or this and that. So I feel like I've kind of, you know, we do that with our family. Well, when we bought the short term rentals, I love the aspect of giving back for families to be able to come and enjoy, but I just felt like something was missing. I was like, I just, I want to make a bigger impact, but I don't know how to do that. And I remember telling my husband, I'm like, these places are bigger than us. And he's like, well, what is, what do you mean? It's. I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, I just have a feeling it's bigger than us. So we ended up and we talked to our kids. Our kids are 15, 14 and 11 now. But when we started this, it was about three years ago. We have kept them involved in all the decision making, asking them questions. So they've been a part of the whole process, which is really fun to do as kind of a family. Even the renovation part of it, which they weren't super thrilled about. But, but so what we started out is, you know, I wanted to give back part of our, you know, each rental. So we were trying to figure out, we kind of worked the numbers to see what would work for us because it's different. And we, we evaluated every year because each year is different. So we decided on 5% and we started this last year so we would give 5% back of each rental. We had each of our kids choose what charity that they wanted to support. And then we have our guest pick one of those three that they want their money to go to. And it started there, which was amazing. And then I just get the itch and sometimes I just, my brain doesn't stop, but I'm like, I want to do more. So we have incorporated basically the. Everything we make a decision on with our. Between our amenities, what giveaways we do. It all goes back to how can we make a bigger impact. And lots of times it's including others in the process. So our guest, we include the community, we've included the products we use. And I just have such a passion. It just, it's been such a joyful, giving experience in so many ways.

That's really cool. And you can definitely hear it. It comes from, from the heart. Often as entrepreneurs, we'd like to solve problems and having that sense of purpose and making the business bigger than Us giving it a purpose is such an awesome thing to do because it gets the chances of failure lower, you know, because you want to have that impact and also it makes you stand out from the crowd. How has this impacted your. Your business? What changes have you noticed since you've started reaching out to community and doing this sort of work? How has it helped you?

I would say I don't, you know, I feel like it immediately. I think of more bookings. Do you? How are your numbers? And it's, you know, I don't have answers for that. But what I do know is the experiences we've had with guest have been, you know, I've always loved the hospitality part of it anyway, but we've gone on a kind of like a little bit of a deeper level with, with guests of, you know, personal experiences that they've had with charities we're supporting. And I. Networking, not in a. In a. Oh, networking for me, but just networking of learning businesses around us coming together for a common purpose. Because lots of times there's lots of competitiveness, you know, are you have this amenity, do you do that? You know, and it's just bringing a different realm of working together, making a bigger impact again together, and it's more fun that way. So I've met more hosts, I've learned about different people in the community. Another really cool thing is bringing exposure to charitable organizations that people didn't know about. You know, we've worked with our food bank in our local area that some of the people that have rentals there didn't even know about the food bank. So it's just, I mean, like, how neat, you know, that. Just bringing people together. And I, I think that has probably been the most fun for me is just how to bring people together.

That's really cool. I mean, I've seen people do some sort of charity work, but because. Because you're doing it locally and you're able to, like, you say, you, you obviously get so much back. And we're not just talking money and bookings, which of course you do get. People refer you because you're top of mind. You know, they see you in the community, they see you doing good charity work. You're top of mind, so you're going to get more bookings that way. But also as a, you know, on the human factor, you get the satisfaction of knowing that. That you've helped, which is cool when it comes down to the actual marketing that you do around this. Is this something that you. When does the guest find out that you do this kind of work. Is it before? Is it during the stay? Is it when, you know, you send that email afterwards? And by the way, we give 5% towards charity. When. When do you communicate with them?

It is the first thing. Again, everything we do revolves around that. That is my, like, our soul. Why this is why we're doing it. It wasn't always, you know, like I said, this has evolved and it continues to evolve, which is really cool, is that I feel like the sky's the limit. Like, this is just the beginning for us. We start on our website. You know, I created the website and I wanted people to know that this is the kind of, you know, rental you're going to be staying in. We talk about who we give back to in our website. So it kind of starts there. Our communication with our direct booking, the emails that are sent out, we include it in that to say, hey, these are the charities we donate to. Where do you want your 5% to go? I send out text communications to guests. And it's funny, I'm. We're kind of an in between right now. One of our cabins is. Is kind of managed by Evolve Vacation Rentals, and the other one is, we've started our own direct booking, which is a little scary. It's so fun. I'm like, oh, this is good stuff. Thanks to Mark, too. You know, thanks to this lovely podcast and book.

Thank you for the plug.

Absolutely. But, you know, that has given us the opportunity to streamline it more and get it out there, because when you work, you know, nothing against Evolve, but when you work with them, you kind of have to go by their rules. When we're direct booking, I can. We can do whatever we want. So that's been a lot of fun. We also, you know, thank the guest and this is. I love, like, different little tips. Eventually, I. I'm hoping this Christmas we're going to have. Let me back up. Last Christmas, when we donated the money from the guest, you know, I thought, I'm just going to write a check and send it in the mail. Well, I decided, no, that's just. I don't like that way. So we went ahead, each kid and we went to the place and I had them give the donation and explain what we were doing. And so I took a video of that and I sent it to. And it's a little time consuming right now because I'm still trying to figure out, but for every guest that donated to, you know, the Special Olympics, I sent that video as a thank you. Like, I want you to know this is where the money is. You know, it went this year. I would love the kids to maybe write a thank you to the guest. And again, it's including the kids, like our kids, they're my main priority. And so anything we can teach them along this journey is worth it. It's kind of the legacy, right? We, we think of a legacy. What are we building? Why are we building? You know, it's for them and I want them to see, see all of it. And this is a huge part of me and I want them to learn that, yes, it's great to be an entrepreneur and to, but it's also great to give back.

So that's amazing. And what I love about this, I'm just going to touch on a couple of points that you mentioned there. So first of all, you know, have your own website shout about what you do. It is fundamental to, to be marketing, showing off exactly who you are so your guest knows before they've even walked through the do the other touch points you've got there. Talking about it is fantastic. And then if we go all the way to the other end of that journey where you're actually handing over the money for the charity, that's actually a great marketing opportunity in itself. You can share that on social media, you can share that with guests. And actually, again, yes, you know, this is, is obviously helping the community, but also is making you top of mind. You know, this is, this is what marketing is. It isn't. We're doing good work and we want to tell everybody about the good work we're doing ultimately. So that's fantastic.

Well, and it's interesting you said that because I had to kind of check myself a little bit. I had posted something about, you know, is anybody else on a hosting kind of forum or whatever, hey, is anybody. I love hearing what, how people. Because people are doing all kinds of really cool things. So I just threw it out there. Hey, is anybody doing it? Well, I did get a response of why are you throwing this out? You know, giving back should be individualized. You should not be, you know, boasting about this. What are you, you know, this is more about you. That. And it kind of took me back and I was like, oh, my goodness. You know, I've never been. It wasn't really an attack, but it was definitely a moment of why am I doing this? So it's, you know, those things do come with it. But it's interesting because it was again, made me think of my why. What is our why? And it's different for everybody. And, and another really cool thing is the more I've done this, the more I realized the more people that know and how you do it too, you know, there's probably a slimy way to do it and a true way to do it, and the more people you get involved, the bigger impact. So again, you are getting your name out there, but you're also making a bigger impact than if you did it by yourself. So it's definitely can go both ways. But I have had to be a little careful with that because again, I don't want it coming out to be like that, but it does and it gives exposure to these, these organizations that would never be seen before. So it's gotten so many positives about it. I just, I can't say enough of that.

If you want to make a big splash, it's going to make some waves. And these people. One of the metaphors I love for one of my mentors in the early days is the crabs in the bucket syndrome, which is, I don't know if you've ever put crabs in a bucket, but as one tries to crawl out, they know they pull each other down again. So unfortunately, there are people, businesses out there who will see you doing some awesome stuff and their point of annoyance isn't really aimed at you. When they're commenting, they're actually upset they didn't do it first, you know, like, oh, I should have done that. You know, that's a great idea. And really, this is the great thing about things like the Boostly podcast, given hosts confidence and also the networking that you're talking about. There is if you surround yourself by people who are going to, you know, that's a great idea. Why don't we do that in our business? Well, every, everyone wins. You know, Rising Tide floats all ships.

I have learned through this, you know, and again you, there's more positive than negative. But with the negative, my goal is, okay, take it in, don't dwell on it. But hey, what can you. And I was actually, I learned a lot from that comment. So I feel like, you know, with anything we do, whether it's short term rentals, whether it's, you know, whatever business, you know, you're always going to get that negative. But hey, you know, you kind of take it in and say, can I do something better? Can I learn and then move on?

Definitely.

If you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start, then I recommend you go and book in a call with Boostly and our team right now, we can walk you through exactly what we're offering, how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only your niche, but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increase their direct bookings. And if you are interested, then all you need to do is go to Boostly. B O O s t l y.co.uk forward/, call and book in an appointment with one of our sales team.

You mentioned as well. Like, you're looking for good ways to be able to personalize that message, but send it out to all guests. And I don't know what the name of this is, but on I think it's futuretech.com, there's, there's a website which talks about AIs, and one of them is where you can video a message, but it'll change the name to the name of the. The person. So you can actually have a personalized message for everybody. But it's the same message bar the name at the start, which definitely something to look into. I will, it'll come to me after the podcast and I will send it to you. So, one question, which I'd have for the host listening. Where should they get started with reaching out to the community and doing some of this work? What advice would you have to them?

I would say the main thing, because every. Everyone's Every passion. Everyone's passion's different. Everyone's circumstance is different. I think the biggest thing is what's your. Why just kind of start there. Why are we doing this then? What are you passionate about? Like, what kind of gets you excited and that's so different for everyone. And then the third thing is, what are you already doing that you can incorporate that passion to? Because I feel like so many times we feel like we've got to do these big things and, and I would, you know, when we were thinking of it, I'm like, okay, what are we already doing? I was like, well, we need to buy toilet paper. Is there a toilet paper company out there that gives back? We already buy coffee. And that's how the whole amenity thing started. You know, I looked up coffees that give back. And then things started popping up and I reached out to them and I was like, hey, you know, would y' all donate 5%? And we're going to give that back. We now sponsor a child from Compassion International through our amenities. So I don't think it's a One stop shop. You know, I think you, you start with those three questions, your why, what you're passionate about and what are you already doing. And then it just starts to kind of go from there, you know. And then probably another thing is just look into your community and see again that passion what you already are there people in your community that maybe you could buy coffee from that could, you know. So it just kind of explodes when you start to stop and kind of think okay, what do I want to do? Which is kind of what happened to us.

I love that that's got the mind boggling with ideas because like you say we do already buy a lot of this stuff and there are great companies who do give back and by buying from them enables them to give back while you're then giving back, you know, it has a bigger impact as you say. And also there'll be people in your community who is already doing some good work. So if you're able to recommend those businesses or work with those businesses in some way. So that's really, really good. It's certainly got the mind whirring there. So I want to dive into the rest of, of your hospitality business and really do a couple of quick fire sort of questions just about your business. So what, what tech do you use within your hospitality business?

So we use hostfully as our property management system and that is just as of January. So I feel like I got a handle on it. But still learning new things. We use price labs for dynamic pricing. We use stay fi which is helping us with email marketing. We're still kind of learning that and figuring it out. But that's what I love being on this podcast too is I don't have it figured all figured out and it's been a lot of fun. You know, I, I'm excited to see where this goes and how much I've learned in the past two years. Three years has been phenomenal. You know, the probably the biggest thing is I wish I had more time. But don't we all right. Another one that I love is Canva. Oh my goodness, that is a lot of fun. So those have been huge. I've, you know, I listen to podcasts in the car when I can try to find grab and there's so many resources out there nowadays. It's overwhelming because there's so much out there but it's so good to, you know, you can kind of pick and choose. I kind of kind of like this. I don't like that. So we're very fortunate to have so much out There.

That brings me nicely onto the next question, which is what resources do you recommend people go and check out podcast, books or movies, YouTube videos. What sort of things has helped you in your business that could help?

So probably the first thing that I jumped on was thanks for visiting their. Their podcast. That was. Someone had mentioned it to me. I'm like, I'll check this out. That was huge. That kind of got me thinking. All different kind before it was more I was just doing it for passive income. We were, you know, which by the way, is not passive. Started listening, heard about Mark, got his book, the direct booking. You know, I was like, what is this direct booking stuff? You know, um, that's been super helpful. My goodness. Gosh. I could go. I'm trying to. Those are probably the two that stick out initially, but there's been tons more.

That's cool. And again, this brings us nicely onto the next question is what do you recommend or what do you do in your business to encourage bookings or direct bookings?

So right now, being that it is newer, we. I'm on Instagram and Facebook. We have our website. The email marketing, I'm really trying to make that better. Work on the SEO search engine with the website. You know, I would love to hire somebody, but right now I'm just trying to figure that out. We're good. It's a work in progress, right? Direct. So and then just. Yeah, I think the biggest thing is the email marketing of just getting the name out there and word of mouth. Just, you've got to get your name out there. You've got to talk about yourself. Which is a little uncomfortable at first. You know, hi, I have a business, you know, but, you know, as soon as you sit and I, and I try and if they want to ask questions, lots of times people are like, hey, what do you do? And I'm like, I'm a physical therapist and I've got some proper properties in Hocking Hills. And I kind of leave it at that. And then usually. Oh, so tell me more about, you know, like, since she asked, you know.

What, what does the future of the. The business look like for you then? What is. What can we expect in the next few years?

So my husband and I went to dinner and talked about that yesterday, actually. So right now we're kind of in a holding, you know, holdings point here. We just finished the renovation. Our third cat, or now our second cabin, our last cabin, we just renovated and started bringing that out in May. So that was a. That was a big one. So we kind of needed to take a little, a little break. But our goal is to hopefully we've got 14 acres and 9 acres. So we're hoping to maybe build on those properties, you know, smaller type cabins because the ones now sleep 20 and 12. So we're thinking maybe a little smaller, intimate. I love business retreat. You know, we're right outside of Columbus using them for maybe like business retreats, location rentals. So just trying to just kind of feel it out there and with the market and what's needed because you know, lots of times it's very easy to do the same old, same old what everybody else is doing. But sometimes it's hard to kind of be different too. And I love that that stuff is good. But probably my biggest passion, which again is super, this is one of my big audacious goals is I would love to, you know, incorporate what we're doing into a bigger realm and you know, maybe do like a short term rental nonprofit and be able to provide this for other hosts, other businesses. Like I just, I see it, I see it big, but I'm too.

Sounds exciting. Watch, watch this space. Watch this space. And what, what do you do for fun? How do you relax after, after doing all the short term rental stuff? How do you relax and, and who is that with?

Usually I have to be removed from my home to relax because otherwise I would need to do laundry. I need and I actually enjoy like figuring out stuff in a weird way. My, my brain doesn't stop. And so for me, I love coming on and learning and figuring stuff out. I would say past that I love our kids. Our kids are my way of decompressing. Going to all their sports activities. We do, we have a great neighborhood. We're hanging out with friends and we just bought, you know, a new puppy Saturday. So why not just throw that into the mix.

You like to stay busy. That's cool. That is cool.

Yeah. So you know, family friends are probably are my way to kind of decompress.

What I've really got the vibe from this, this podcast and you know, from yourself there Debbie, is is, you know, really what could we be doing more within our hospitality businesses to really give back and be part of the community. And this has certainly sparked some ideas for me and I'm sure there's others on here who would like to know more and go and check out your business. So how can people do. So where's the places they could could find you?

Absolutely. So we are, we have our website the woodlands@hocking hills.com and all of our information's on there. Instagram, Facebook, we have a YouTube channel that I could, you know, it's there. But that's another thing. Lots of times people are like, try this, try it. And so you just start trying stuff and then you realize you can't do it all. So you got to bring it back in. One of the goals I've set for myself is, you know, I want to post at least one thing every day on Instagram. You know, whether it's about. And, you know, I struggled with what to post. Like, everyone just posts their house. And I was like, I feel like we're different. We're. We're a family run business, we are our rentals, but we're also a lot more than that. So that kind of makes up what we do and how we do it. So my Instagram, it's, it's probably a little different than most, but that's okay. And I was like, I'm fine with that. And that just, you know, I'm all about showing our place. But then I like to tell people about how behind the scenes, like how we try to figure out things. And because I've had so many people ask, you know, how do you do this? And I was like, I'm going to talk about that. So like I said, follow us on Instagram. It's fun. Our, our journey, we're all over the place. And I, like, I always say I'm an open book, so that's cool.

I'm sure you're going to have people reaching out off the back of this. So to see us out, is there any advice or like a mantra or a motto that you absolutely love that you'd like to share with the listeners?

Yes. And so I'm going to read it because this question, you had sent this question before, and it's funny, I read the question and I was like, I've never thought of this. So it made me start thinking. And now I live by this quote. And I even told my husband, I'm like, listen, this is my life quote. So I'm going to read it so I don't mess it up. This is what I would like to say I live by. It says, when I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say I used everything you gave me. And that's by Emma Bombeck.

Brilliant. Yeah, that is. You know, there's sometimes we hear the same ones over and over. The first time I've heard that and that's given me goosebumps. So, you know, like, I really like that. That's really good. So who's it by again?

Just say the name Emma Bombeck.

Emma Bombeck. I will take a note of her. I've got, believe it or not, in this office where I've got quotes on the walls. I don't know if you can see these couple in there. Yeah, yeah, they're all around. So that might make the wall. That's a very good one. Love it. Well, Debbie, was there anything else to share or anything we missed along the way?

No, I think we're good. I think it's just, you know, being intentional, being purposeful and kind of thinking outside the box, you know, And I will say this, too. A lot of this I don't want to say. I don't have the knowledge. I mean, we can figure things out, but, you know, I was not taught how to do marketing. I was not taught how to. And I think lots of times it's very intimidating because people are like, oh, but they do this for a living. They're a design person there. When you're passionate about something, you'll figure it out. And sometimes it means just starting. You know, a lot of the things we've done, I'm like, I have no idea if this is going to work and we've had to change it, but you just have to do something because lots of times you can kind of get in your own way of feeling, like. And I tend to have the personality. I don't want to do it because I don't want to fail. And I think in the past two years, that is what I've learned the most failure is growth. And it's okay. Like, it's okay. And it's actually better to fail trying than. What do they say? Not try at all. Right. You know, so that would be my biggest thing, is if there is something and you don't have all the answers, go for it. You'll. You'll figure it out.

Well, great way to see us out. And we thank you for listening to the Boostie podcast. If there's somebody know who can get value from this, feel free to share it with friends, family. And earlier on, Debbie mentioned the. The book which helps people with more direct bookings is the book Direct Playbook. If you do Google the book Direct Playbook from Mark Simpson, you'll easily be able to find it on platform of your choice. It's only. Well, it's the lowest possible price. We're allowed to do it for on Kindle. So it'll only set you back a few dollars and you'll be able to dive into getting the confidence and to go out there and get more direct bookings. Thank you very much for listening. We'll see you on the next one.