Network is your Networth

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the new episode of the Boostly podcast. We are going live streaming across Facebook. We're also recording this for the podcast itself and as well as it'll go out on YouTube. So if you haven't already figured out, you are on the Boostly podcast, the podcast that gives you the tactics, the tools, the trainings and most importantly, the confidence on how you can go out there and get more direct bookings. So today we are going behind the host. My name is Liam Carolan and we're going behind the host with Buck Combo and he is from Sea Mountain Vacations. If you want to go and check them out before we get started, you can do so by going to seamountain vacations.com go and check out his awesome branding. He's now got a Boostly website which we're going to talk about as well. And today's episode is all about how just networking and building connections, saying yes and figuring out along the way really helps you in the hospitality industry and how having those connections really opens up those doors in general. So. And Buck's got a great story which he's going to share with us. So welcome along. Buck, thank you for joining us today.

Yeah, Liam, thanks for having me, man. Super excited.

So tell us a bit about your business and where you are in the world.

Yeah, so I'm currently based out of Nashville, Tennessee. I run the business remotely. All of our properties are in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I've lived there the past 15 years or so and kind of just, I moved here to chase my, my beautiful wife. Now she's a songwriter out here and we kind of, we bought a property and, you know, it kind of just forced us to, to figure it out, you know, build the right systems and processes to, to be able to scale upon. And we had really good success with that property and we decided we would take on a few more. So it's been a, been an exciting journey over the past few months.

That's cool. How many units do you currently look after and what sort of model do you use?

Yeah, so, so right now we have 11 units that are live. We have, I'd like to say another 30 or so that are being renovated. So we're holding our, our homeowners to a very high standard to kind of ensure that that guest satisfaction's met. So typically when we take on a new homeowner, we're going to ask them to renovate their property and refurnish it kind of up to our standard to again, bring that, that guest experience to A really high point. You know, that's very important to us. We started out with the co hosting model, kind of wanted to just get our, our feet under us and, and figure out this whole hosting thing, you know, and, and get all the kinks worked out before we started taking on other clients. So I think this, this past summer we, we had four and we're up to 46 now, just within about four or five months. It's been a crazy journey. Wow.

And we're going to dive into how that's happened so fast. But before we do, tell me a little bit more about yourself. What did you do? Take me back before hospitality. What did you do before this?

Yeah, it's, it's been a, been a wild ride. So again, I'm from Myrtle beach area. I cut my teeth in the hospitality industry as a captain for a parasol company. So again with that guest experience was always huge. You know, we would have hundreds and hundreds of people come through during the day and we just had to keep them all happy, put a big smile on their face. From there, I started up a custom surfboard brand with a few friends of mine and they're actually the ones that are helping me with, with this business now. So we've, we've been able to scale them and that's been super exciting. After the custom surfboard brand, I was a videographer and photographer in the outdoor industry and action sports industry for the past eight years or so. When I moved here to Nashville, I kind of just quit everything. And I was like, man, I don't know what I'm going to do. I know I want to do real estate, so I'm just going to stop it all. I'm going to figure it out. I had read the book Rich Dad, Poor dad, which kind of lit a fire under me. And for a whole year I was just educating myself full time on real estate. I went out to, to get my real estate license and took all the courses and it was time to take the exam and I was like, man, I don't want to sell houses, I want to buy them. And then from there, same thing, I went down the mortgage industry and just educated myself on that. Was going to get my brokerage license and didn't pursue that either. And that's when I finally fell in love with the hosting business. So that's, that's where we're at now.

That's cool. So we had Bill Faith on recently and he was saying, do you know the right way to do this if you want to get started is to start with that co hosting model. So how did, Absolutely. How did you learn what you needed to know from that co hosting and what kind of doors did that unlock?

Yeah, so again, it helped me refine the systems and processes I needed to, to build a strong foundation to scale upon. It was extremely helpful just, you know, taking a few properties under the belt before I took any real management clients and, and just utilizing that to, to build everything out, whether it be the, the guest messaging, the templates, knowing the issues that might arise and kind of having systems in place to address them. It was extremely helpful starting with that model initially and then then graduating to.

The management model and just to jump in. So if, how did you do that initially? How if somebody was sitting there, you know, just going, you know what? I'd love to get in co hosting, but what steps did you take to really, you know, meet these hosts to become their co host?

Yeah, I mean you really just got to be initially good at selling yourself. You know, fortunately my wife and I had bought a property and that was kind of our trial run and we worked out all the kinks from there and had really good success. So pitching myself to other investors to like, hey, let me, let me co host your property was a little bit easier because I had built that, that foundation first with, with my personal property. But I think one of the biggest things that helped was initially after the, the short term rental wealth conference, Mark spoke and it got me fired up. So I think I had two listings at the time and I like reached out to you guys, I was like, hey, let's, let's build a, let's build a site. And Boostly got a site built and that helped build a tremendous amount of rapport with co hosting clients. So just having that, that forward facing site, it helped tremendously being able to convince these homeowners to know that I'm legit, you know, so that was extremely helpful.

That's amazing. And you know, again, we've not spoken about this obviously before the call, I know I did ask how's the website going? But you've made a really important point and one which I found as well. I'm a host myself and by having a good quality website, and obviously in this case we've both got Boostly websites. Naturally, as I work for Boostly now and yourself as a client, the benefit of having that website is that they suddenly go, hang on, you've got a professional website, you, you're geared up for direct bookings, which 90% of people aren't necessarily Geared up for direct bookings and that just puts you as the kind of industry leader in your particular local location. So that's a really awesome point and thank you, Buck, for sharing that. That's awesome.

Yeah, absolutely.

Quick break from the podcast to let you know that the two boostly books that we brought out, the Book Direct Playbook and the Book Direct Blueprint are two of the top rated and the best sellers selling in the hospitality category on Amazon for just two pounds. You can grab both of those books right now. The foundations and the structures that you need to put in place is in the blueprint. And then for 101 marketing tactics that is in the Playbook. So go and grab a copy on Amazon now just type in Book Direct Playbook or the Book Direct Blueprint and we'll see you on the other side.

So going on, what did these opportunities lead you to? So you started obviously after you heard Mark speak at the Nashville conference, which again is coming up for anybody listening. We're recording this in January 2023. So you know, if, if you haven't checked out Nashville STR conference, then do check out. It's on every year, isn't it? But what opportunities did it lead to, man?

Yeah, it led to some, some pretty crazy opportunities. So, so from that I started co hosting really just family and friends properties, you know. And from there I was able to, to build out a good little resume of properties that we were able to take the revenue and just absolutely maximize the potential for those properties by again just focusing. And from that it led to a lot of opportunities. Our first sign management contract was actually for 15 units and they're all oceanfront units. So it led to that and then that led to someone reaching out to us by word of mouth, kind of hearing about the numbers we were, we were doing. And he came with us with the opportunity to launch a real estate fund. So right now we're working behind the scenes to, to work on that. It's a short term based real estate fund where we'll raise money from the investors and then deploy that into short term rentals in our area. So it's just been every door that's open, we walk through it and there's another door that's immediately open, you know, if not three at a time. So we're kind of having to choose like, okay, do we go down this path or this path. It's, it's been really exciting just taking that, that big leap of faith, you know, it's amazing where it'll lead.

It's Just exciting. First of all, wow, what a whirlwind of a journey. You know, like going from two units and then 15 through friends and family, and then having this major opportunity to have that fund to buy more of what you're doing is a testament to you and your business that obviously it works. And what would you say for the people listening and the things which they'd have to consider differently with management to your own first unit? Was there anything which you look back and you go, ah, there was perception I had about management, which has changed over time or something that people would be aware of or need to be aware of.

You know, it's really not that different, you know, than managing your own unit. You just have to put yourselves in the. The homeowner shoes, you know, and be able to provide them with, whether it be reports or different services to maximize their experience as a client. You know, we're trying to make this as hands off for these investors as we can, and that's been extremely helpful for them and, and us, you know, but having that. That foundation built out with our own property, again, just kind of help lead the path into that.

That's cool. And setting them expectations. Because I've seen some of your properties, obviously on your website, which. Which I encourage everyone else to. To go to see mountain vacations.com and go and check out your properties because they're beautiful. And that's one of the things where when you're then managing other people, you've got to say, hey, you know, I need you to be at this standard, which, you know, by being at this standard, I can then get you this sort of income and will then, most importantly, get good reviews, which then brings more people and the cycle continues. Obviously, you're doing very well there, which is cool. What challenges have you had along the way so far, Buck?

You know, the. One of the biggest challenges has been imposter syndrome. You know, kind of just getting to the point where I'm at now and just being like, okay, well, am I worthy of this? You know, is this me that. Overcoming that has been one of the biggest struggles, you know, and trying to step out of my comfort zone and do things like this very intro, introverted guy. So it just comes back to the imposter syndrome. Everything else has been easily worked through as far as the hosting journey is concerned. You know, you just, you learn from trial and error.

You know, I really like that because, first of all, you know, you said just before we went live this your first, first podcast, but you seem natural at it. Which is really cool. And actually you're one of the. Obviously we had our call about the Boostly website originally and you know, you're one of the people who stood out as being one of the more personable people that we get to talk to, which is cool. So ultimately there's that combination of skills and I think you mentioned it right at the start is that you've got to be able in hospitality and in any business to be able to sell yourself and step out of the comfort zone, you know, get comfortable being uncomfortable and just keep pushing, you know, how, how far can you push that? You know. And it looks as though it's paying off, which is cool. So what would you say is the biggest success so far in the business?

Oh man. Let's, let's come back to that one.

We'll come back to that one. So moving on, let's look at obviously we've talked about the business, how it's grown. Let's talk about the operations within the business. So let's talk about your tech within the business. What top pieces of tech do you love to use on a day to day basis?

Does my Boostly website count?

It definitely does. Yeah. You can give that a mention. Thank you.

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. So beyond that, integrating the Schlage smart locks has been really cool. Just again working remote, you know, just having the, we got it connected to hospitable. When somebody books it sets the code for the last four digits of their phone number, you know and we just have somebody kind of rolling and out of there just to, to check that all that's in line and that just that smooth check in process. Guests absolutely love it. Beyond that like we utilize Rank Breeze to track our rankings and that's been extremely helpful and it's been a huge selling point being like hey, all of our properties are on page one. So that's been really cool. And I mean really we're just, we're implementing new softwares and technologies every day just trying to innovate and stay ahead of the game. So each step of the way we're figuring out something new that we like or something that we're going to take away and replace with something else. It's definitely been exciting. My favorite part has been the, the tech side of things.

It is exciting. And this with hospitality there's so many new tech as well. I mean all, all PMSs are pretty new. Did you mention a PMS? There was. Do you use a P?

Yeah. So currently we're working with guesty but transitioning into Working with lmpm. Yeah, they have a really robust system that we're excited to start using.

This is the exciting thing about like I say, hospitality is that things are so new. PMSAs in general are so new. Dynamic pricing software's still relatively new. You know, there's all these tech and they're all coming together and it's the most exciting space hospitality tech because all these things didn't exist 10 years ago. So what are they going to look like in 10 years time? You know, it's really going to be amazing. So when it comes down to your team and who helps you to run this, you mentioned, first of all, it's awesome that your wife is a singer as well. That's cool in general, especially from somebody who's here in the uk. I look at Nashville and you know, singers and that side of things is an awesome career. Does she help you with the business or is there anyone else you've got as part of your team on the, on the ground?

Yeah, definitely. She helps a lot with the communications and stuff. Sometimes I'll get, I'll get swamped in the, just the day to day and she'll, she'll relieve me in that sense. I mentioned the surfboard business earlier, so my partners that I started that up with, we, we ran and operated that for about five years and we kind of figured out a great workflow. We all kind of kept each other level. I'm a, I'm a dreamer and a couple of the guys are realists. So it's, it really balanced out really nice. So as of recent, as we're starting to scale, I'm like, man, we need to really work on having a good team in place. So we're able to bring them in, they're helping with all of the operations, you know, the commute. We got a guy coming in helping with the communications and marketing side of things, another guy that's handling all the financing, owner reports and another guy that's more forward facing for the investors. He's able to take those meetings, walk the properties with people, help onboard each property. So especially being remote, the most important part for us has been having a team that you can rely on and then putting in place and knowing that things are going to get done because I mean I'm nine hours away so I can't, something goes wrong, I can't rely on myself to bail me out. I have to put my faith in these guys and it's been an exciting journey thus far and I can't wait to see where it all takes us. It's been really cool, all of us coming up together, just being friends from high school and already starting a business up together and now trying to do this all over again with the hospitality business.

It's great that you've got so much history and you know each other so well. And also, like you say, you do need that mix of people in business. Certainly between my, me and my business partners, I'm the head in the clouds, he's the, he's the kind of like keeping my feet on the ground, you know, sometimes with things. So it is just having that different aspects. And one thing which, which I done when me and my business partner first decided to go into business, we done something called a wealth dynamics test, which you can get them, they're about $45 or something like that, and they just analyze personality. And one thing that they do is they, if you had like a pie chart, they've got different areas where they score you in different ways. And pretty much mine and his was polar opposite, which was why we decided to work together because it's so different. And yeah, it's like you say, just having a collection of friends who have got different skills in different areas just, just makes a big difference to your business. So if you could go back and give yourself, you know, you mentioned when you first got there, you weren't sure what to do. If you could go back and give yourself one or two actionable bits of advice, what would they be?

Man, just do whatever it takes to get that first deal. Once you get that first deal under your belt, whether it's your own property or your first co hosting deal, it gets significantly easier after that. And beyond that, just be actionable, you know, take steps towards reaching your goal, whatever it may be in real estate. Every day, whether it's 10 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day, an hour a day, just do it consistently, do it every day. And eventually the snowball effect's gonna come into play and it's gonna catch up and soon that, that snowball's gonna be chasing you down the mountain.

It's just so important, isn't it? Like you say that first one and a lot of people reach out to us, they're saying, hey, you know, I'm struggling to get your first one. And when you think back to that first one, you just go, actually that was by far the hardest one. The next one you can.

Absolutely.

I've got one look at this one as an example. And like you say, opportunity builds from there. Do you use dynamic pricing and that side of things within your business?

Yeah, absolutely. We, we use price labs. Yep. And that's been a huge thing that has set us apart in, in our market because the management companies that are there, they use the all set it and forget it method. They're a little bit old school. They've been in the industry 30, 40 years, so they're not very apt on taking on new technology and implementing it because they have so many properties in the area that they can almost set the price and it sets the price for the whole market. But us utilizing the dynamic pricing has helped tremendously with our occupancy rates and then just increase in revenue as well.

That's cool. And you mentioned, obviously you set your standards high of the units. What would you say? Is there any things that you do, particularly within your units, which attracts your guest avatar? What sort of things do you think that they. Why do you guess Book with you? I guess is the question.

Yeah, again, we, we try and focus on that experience, whatever it may be. Typically, you come to our area and you get a place to sleep and your, your experience is the beach. So we tried to reinvent that a little bit. And I mean, people are coming to stay in these houses. They, they need an experience there as well. So whether it be just kind of going through Airbnb and checking off every little amenity box as we can, or implementing something like a little theater room or a really cool outdoor area, we're working on one right now. I think we're going to put a golf simulator in there. Myrtle beach is a big golf destination, so kind of just thinking above and beyond on how to create an experience not within the house itself, but even within each individual room, you want to, as you're walking through a house, be like, okay, well, how can I maximize the experience in this room alone? And that's been really pivotal to our success. Attracting guests in, again, homeowners and then pairing that with very interesting and captivating descriptions on the listing websites and then high quality photos has been a huge recipe for success for us.

It's amazing. And having different kind of units, especially, you know, different themes, is so important because we, we actually I spoke to somebody yesterday who's got six apartments in, in one block. And, you know, when I said, what are you going to decorate? And she said, oh, I think I'm doing these all, all like this. And I was just like, no, make sure, make sure you do spend some time tailoring each one. Because people who stay there one time, when they rebook or, you know, Providing hopefully they'll rebook, you know, email marketing to get that direct book in and then they rebook. They might come and stay to the same place but they'll want a different feel to it. You know, they might want they book one of your other units instead. You know, put a different aspect next vacation, which is cool.

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.

So one thing I've got to ask, obviously Buck, you've just had the website is how long is the new Boostly website been live for?

It has been live since I think November.

Amazing. And you've just got your direct book and if you can fill us in on your direct booking.

Yeah, so our, it's pretty exciting. Our first direct booking was for, for six units for six days and it totaled $27,000. Pretty wild. First direct booking.

That is the biggest first direct booking of come across. So that is amazing and congratulations for that. And yeah, I mean how much commission is saved in that and oh my goodness. Yeah, I'm sure Lulu owners are going to be incredibly happy with that.

Yeah, it's the website surely paid for itself off the first booking which is pretty exciting.

We do promise it. That's one of the guarantees with Boostly. So what is the future for Sea Mountain Vacations? What does the future look like?

Yeah, so right now we're kind of just focusing again on that real estate fund and we're going to manage all of the properties that we buy within the real estate fund. From there we're working on developing and implementing a homeowner acquisition system which will help us kind of acquire more luxury type properties. We're going to be very specific with what we're trying to bring on and eventually we're trying to advance our model and take on. Right now we're just on the Carolina coast, we're trying to take on properties throughout the nation, kind of work on a marketing Model, you know, where we're right now, we do everything, you know, we do the cleaning, we offer, we put people in place for renovations, interior design. We're thinking about kind of dumbing that down and only doing the marketing piece and kind of taking that nationwide. So it's going to be exciting to see how that comes into fruition over the next couple of years.

That's amazing. First of all, I like the image of the future as well. But just touching briefly on that where you're talking about to scale up your niching down a little bit there. So at the moment you offer them entire range of services, which is amazing. Do you know what I mean? To be able to offer interior design, the actual management, you know, advice presumably beforehand, I guess, offering furnishing tips and all that cool stuff that you guys probably do. What is the thoughts behind reducing the number of services? Is it just the operationally and that side of things, being able to do it?

Yeah, we'll still keep those services there locally in our market because just growing up from there, I'm able to put somebody in place for anything that needs to be done. And had I not grown up there, I wouldn't have those, those connections to where I can do that. So trying to scale into other markets, it would be very difficult to kind of operationally do each of those things. So we're kind of just thinking that we'll confine it to just the marketing piece, you know, just distributing the properties, marketing them and doing like a more consultation type service.

That's cool. And with things like you say with Rank, where you've got all these tools, you can analyze that stuff with and ultimately put your spin on it, your awesome brand and you know, your, your excellent management service, which is cool. So as we reach towards the end of these book, we love to ask a couple of quick fire, just fun questions. And you mentioned earlier on, you mentioned the book Rich Dad, Poor dad, which is, is one of the, the top books other than Rich Dad, Poor dad, what other resources in terms of either podcasts or books would you say that everybody listening needs to go and check out?

Man, there's so much. I encourage everybody to go and get a master's degree on YouTube education. Just, just go on YouTube and just deep dive do everything. I mean, and then the podcast, there's, there's so many good ones. Just listen to all of them. I mean I've, I've listened to thousands and thousands of hours of podcasts over the years. Kind of just trying to educate myself on the space Just never stop learning, you know, just again with the consistency, just read away, listen away, watch as much YouTube as you can, and eventually that snowball effect takes in and you'll be able to be a master within your, within your local market.

Definitely. I like, I love it. You mentioned earlier on some of the skills and traits that your friends have got. What would you say is your top skill, top trait, which, you know, you're your own super. That's your own superpower.

As such, Man, I, I don't know how to say no. So this, this definitely hurts and helps at the same time. I kind of have a bad habit of saying yes and then figuring out how to do it along the way, but that's been, this helped us tremendously in being able to scale, you know, just kind of taking it one step at a time. And it's, it's been a great trait to have, but I'm sure one day it might bite me in the butt.

No, it's cool. At the end of the day, there's a great film called yes man, and I don't know if you ever seen it, Jim Carrey, but that is fantastic. And for a while I was just like, could I do that? But he gets himself trouble, doesn't he?

So absolutely.

But yeah, just, just saying yes to the right opportunities is a major thing with this. And is there any place that you're planning to travel to this year? Obviously you've made a success out of the business. Is there any places that you're looking to travel to or your top travel destination?

Man, I just left Hawaii about a month ago. Me and my, my wife got married on top of a mountain up there. So I definitely want to, want to make it back. Make it back. Thank you. To the island of Oahu. When we left, it felt like I was leaving home. Beyond that, man, I do a lot of traveling. I still do the video stuff on the side because I'm really passionate about it and it allows me to get in the outdoors and travel to new places I haven't experienced before and then be able to capture it and show it to people. So a little bit of everywhere. I'm looking forward to going out to Montana this year and doing some filming. So that'll be fun. And just everywhere in between.

Nice, nice. And before we ask our last question, which is, you know, what motto or mantra do you like to live by? I'd love to know, is there any other tips that you'd like to share for first time hosts or anybody who is in hospitality?

Yeah, I mean, really, it just goes back to the get consistent. You know, just whatever you do, do it every day, whether it be just educating yourself on something, just take little steps every single day and eventually you're going to, you're going to be amazed at where that'll take you again. And just educate yourself as, as much as you can. Soak it all up like a sponge. I believe that, you know, this, this life is, is like a book. You write the pages every single day. So why not make it a badass book, you know?

Love it. That's brilliant. And I mean, you've reminded me actually of. I watched a video with Alex Hormozi. I mentioned him quite often, big follower of, of, of his videos and that. And you talked about YouTube and how you can go out there and there's a video on everything. And Alex Harmozi is. Where this is from is that you can literally go and do say 10 hours of any video and you'll be one of the people who is then at least have more expertise than most people in your city and in your area just doing that. The thing is that most people don't spend that time. They don't go and educate themselves. So I really take your point to heart there. That's so important just to get out there, choose the skill you're going to learn and then just deep dive, find who's the best at it and either, you know, follow the YouTube or go and get them as a mentor and a coach, which is cool. So that brings us to our last question. Is there a motto or a mantra that you like to live by or one that really resonates with you?

Yeah, absolutely. There's, there's, there's two that really stick out to me. One is your network, is your net worth just who you surround yourself is that has a direct reflect on your net worth. You know, it's not as much what you know as who you know. So do what you can to network. Never eat alone. And beyond that, I just want to do the things that inspire me so that it inspires people to do the things that inspire them. And those are kind of two I really, I really live by.

I like that. I like that a lot. And that's definitely the theme that I've got from, from this podcast is that, you know, having, first of all, it's really inspiring hearing your storybook and also the opportunities come as your network grows. You know, that is absolutely a theme with the, with your friends from, you know, the surf school and from, from high school. Also from you mentioned the investor who's starting the fund. You know that is you're co hosting with, which is. Is amazing. Which came about from you co hosting and saying yes to that opportunity, which, you know, that just shows that that network is. Is just so important. So I'll throw it over to you now, Buck. How can we all get in touch with you and follow you?

Yeah. So right now the best place to reach me is on. On Instagram. Captain Underscore, Buck. Underscore. So I'm not. Not as active as I once was. Typically, I just kind of post pictures and videos from my journeys. But this, this year, I'm looking at doing a little bit of rebranding and trying to come out of my comfort zone and be more vocal about what I'm doing within the hospitality space. So come follow me along on that journey.

Awesome. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people who come and give you a follow, but also do more stuff like this. You're a great guest on a podcast. I'm sure there's lots of podcasts out there who would love to hear your story, Buck. So that's it from. From us. Was there anything I missed just before we draw it to a close? No. Amazing. Amazing. So thank you so much for spending your time with us to Buck today and thank you too. If you're listening in either on the live or on the Boostly podcast, come and join us on the hospitality community on Facebook. If you want to keep the conversation going with us, or ask myself or Mark Simpson any questions, you can find that just by going to group searches and search hospitality community and we'll pop up as the top group there. So thank you again for listening. We'll see you on the next one. Bye from me and bye for Buck.