Success Leaves Clues: Tips from a Property Investor

Welcome back 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 yourselves direct bookings. We do a mini series on this podcast which interviews interesting successful hosts from all over the world. And today we've got a host who is a little bit closer to home. She's based in the uk. She's absolutely fantastic and they say that success leaves clues. And this is who I think of when I think of a short term rental host who's doing all the right things to achieve exactly what needs to be achieved. And this is going to be a great one. So please stick around for the next 20, 30 minutes where we're going to dive into her business and find out all of the life lessons, all of the things that she's learned along the way that can help your business too. So please welcome Laura from Laura Muse from Muse Escapes. And yeah, let's dive in. Laura, welcome along.

Thank you. Liam, nice to speak to you.

It's great to speak to you. And there's so many more things that we could talk about even other than the hospitality stuff. You're an investor, you've got your own event now starting up as well as so you know, event which is going on. You've also got a social media group which is huge and you're very active on on in so many different areas. So this is going to be so much fun. So start off by giving the people who don't already know you an intro, an elevator pitch as to yourself and Musascapes.

Yes. So my name is Laura Muse, I am a Sheffield based property Investor and in 2022 we got the keys to our first STR short term rental in the Peak District which is literally 20 minute. Well it's 40 minutes from here but to get to the peaks from Sheffield's 20 minutes and been embarking on this crazy roller coaster of hospitality because it is very different from property investing.

You can say that again. I should just mention as well you're doing speaking events and things like that. I forgot to include that in there. But you're actually going around now speaking at different events as well, which is cool.

Yeah, I mean, I mean obviously I work with my husband. Me and my husband have been investing full time in property since 2018. We started off with a three bed terrace, et cetera and then we've kind of built our portfolio. James invested pre2018 so it's been building up for quite a while. So we haven't Kind of gone from zero to buying mansions. It's been a process over quite a long time. And yeah, so I started talking a couple of years ago about how to use social media to raise your profile, to raise investment. So we work with investors to purchase our properties, we buy them, we refurbish them, we refinance them and then we pay the investor back. That's kind of how the model's been working. And then we've taken that model and now we use it in our business. So same Fox Low Grange, same the Candle House. But yeah, that's, that's me.

I mean, especially for the people who don't know you, I see that you've done training and I've seen you in some of the Facebook groups and you're one of the people I think of as taking action and going off and doing this stuff and so many people listening to this. If you are one of those people who have done courses but not put it into action, please listen to Laura. Go follow Laura and see all the things she does. Because even this week we were on a, on a webinar, weren't we? And I know you've taken action on, on, on that side of things as well, so it's really good to see. Shall we dive into more about the Musescapes then? So what is the properties like? Who is the kind of target avatar and tell us about that.

So just a bit of background of why, why the model I chose. So is there, you know, we've got a young family, we've got Isabelle and obviously a couple years ago, she was younger, she was five and we've got two dogs and obviously I don't want to mention Covid, but after Covid, the first lockdown kind of lifted. Obviously we couldn't go abroad, so me and my husband looked somewhere in the UK and one thing we massively, massively struggled with was high end. And I'm not talking luxury mum bands around the luxury. I'm talking about high end opulent holiday homes that are self catering that you can take a dog, you can take a child and you could have a spa treatment, you could hire a chef in the Peak District, it was more or less non existent. And even further afield, you know, there was always a little bit, there was always a compromise, like there was no hot tub on a dog or you can't take your children or they don't do the luxury upgrades or they don't do the experiences. There was always something that wasn't what I wanted. So from that we Were like look we've been in property quite a while. I love the interior design in lockdown. I started to do my interior design diploma and it's something that I've been doing in our other properties, our rental properties for a couple of years and just genuinely loved it and we thought so did let's just go buy something ourselves in the peak. So we have two units. So we have Foxlow Grange which is a large manor house that has got eight apartments in it and you can either book one of the apartments which we've got two one beds, five two beds and one three bed. You can book one apartment, you can book all the apartments, you can book half the apartments and then we have Candle House which is so that one's in Buxton. Then we have Candle House which is a four bedroom candle factory which is in Castleton which is an amazing place. I've no one's been there in Pete District. Like it's the go to place and it's got fantastic views like, like I say it's an old candle factory. It's got a well and things like that. So the completely that just beautiful properties in beautiful locations and everything I just said about what I wanted we offer. So for me it's not a five star state, it's a five star experience and that's something that I want. I was really keen to create and that's what we have created in the Peak District.

I was speaking to somebody yesterday about the kind of markets which seem to be very buoyant still no matter what. I mean we had covered, we had the staycation boom and then this year has been a bit up and down with inflation and all sorts of. And as we record this at the end of 2023 you know this. Who knows what 2024 is going to be bringing but one thing's for sure and the places which get the attention, get the bookings and there's features within your places which really capture the attention and the one that comes to mind is the amazing bathtub. The amazing old bathtub. But there's so many things that you mentioned just there that I want people listening to this to take note of because you know having a. The experiences that you were looking for going to to travel and that you couldn't find them. Well you know there's a market there for, for someone and the experiences. When you go and look at your website Musescapes then you can actually see.

Things like mostly one just to point out.

Yeah, yeah thank you for the plug. But when it comes down to the, you know, the experiences, they can book them on that it's very clear to see very quickly to land on your website and it's very clear with your offer and who you're going after and the whole thing just comes together. What would you say has been the. Been the biggest learning curve so far since you've switched from kind of investor buy refurbished refinance to short term rental. What's been that big takeaway so far?

There has been so many like I never like it's this, you can't go into hospitality and work 9 to 5. It's, it's not a job, it's a lifestyle like. And it really is. So that's my number of people are going into. I know a lot of people going to service accommodation, they go into the contractor market and that. I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the strategy that I do. You have got to be personally invested in creating them experiences and it's a lifestyle, it isn't a 9 to 5 job. So that is for me the biggest learning. Thinking that I could turn my laptop off at 10 o' clock at night. There'd be no guests calling me, you know, and because of the. What we charge. So, you know, we're not, we're not somewhere that's cheap, it's somewhere where people save up to go or it's someone who's got an disposable income that goes when people are paying in the height of July, for example, four or five hundred pounds a night. When they ring you at any time of day or night, they expect that phone to be answered. You know, for anyone else, the level expectations here, for my guests, it's up here and we always want to deliver on that. That's what makes us better than our competitors.

That's, that's really interesting because the like you say it's higher income but obviously the expectation is higher. And that's such a big change, isn't it? Like you say is the big takeaway to take away from this. Take me back into the history of what you've done before this. So I know you've done sort of investment and that side of things, but talk me through that kind of journey of investment. How did you learn what you learn and what would you say is some of the kind of stepping stones looking back along the way which, which has brought you to where you are now.

So I started with no knowledge in property in 2018. It was my husband that had all the knowledge. It certainly wasn't Me, I used to be. I'm an equine nutritionist by trade, which is probably the furthest thing that you could ever get from property.

What is that? A equine nutritionist?

Yes. Basically, I used to go around the UK telling people what they should feed their horses. Like that was my job. I went to uni to be an equine nutritionist. From then I went into kind of the sales side of it and. And then I once I had my first dogs, Rizza Bell, I started, I set up my own business. My husband's always been an entrepreneur. Really pushed me to just, why are you working so hard for somebody else? You need to do this for yourself. So I kind of went into that niche in 2018. James had been investing for a couple of years. He just finished a new build project that we'd done and he's like, laura, there must be a quicker way. What we're doing, saving up for deposits to buy a house to ref. Like, it's just too slow. Like, this is not what the big guys do. I want to find out what they do. So he went on his merry way, researched loads of different people, went on these seminars. We've all been there. And then he come across Progressive property. Now, say what you want about trading companies, but I've, you know, they've done that changed my life and I won't be forever grateful for that. I actually went to do a social media course that day for my current business, my property, my sales business. And James went to do like a beginners like, welcome. This is what we kind of do in property. I spent half a day, like talking to all these property investors thinking, I don't want to do this sales thing anymore, I want to do this property thing. This is so much more interesting and the money's better.

Definitely, yeah.

I don't have to spend all this time driving up and down the UK selling a pair of boots or a bag of horse feed. So that night when I met up with James that evening, I thought, oh, my God, he's going to kill me. Like, he's literally just bought me a new van. Anyway, he comes, bounded down. Now, if anyone knows my husband, he's a typical Yorkshire bloke, proper, like, proper tie, says it as it is. And he went, laura, I went, what? He went, I've got something to tell you. And I went, well, just hang on a minute because I've got something to tell you first. He went, what? I went, you go first, actually. Right. I don't think you should do this horse thing anymore. I booked you on this property. There's this thing called deal packaging. I've seen this girl called Katie Wilson. If she can do it, you can do it. So I've signed you up. I'm like, oh, I'm really glad you've said that because I don't want to do this property thing. I think all that. Sorry, they have a part the sales thing. I want to do the property thing with you. I think I'm really good at the sales and marketing side of it. And he's like, literally the next day I shut my business down and we went into it full time together just before we got married. What's the best move? But yeah, so our wedded life or married life is been working together and yeah, the rest is definitely been interesting. Since we've gone from like a three bed semi tap which took me a couple of months to purchase. We realized really quickly that actually to scale the business and by doing the training that we needed to leverage other people's money. Not everybody wants to invest in property. People are quite happy to park the money for three to five years. So all people invest with us want long term wealth. They don't want to replace their income to get out of the job. That's not our investor type. And from there we got quite a few investors. We managed to scale up pretty quickly. We've got 37 tenants outside of the business. Well, the STI business now. And then we kind of went to a new build project. Then we went to a large block of flats and we've built up over the years. So we've kind of, you know, built. I think it's really important as well. Like if you are looking to buy and especially buy these bigger buildings, you've got to have the foundations of taking these small steps from your buy to less to, to doing the flip, to doing a hmo, to doing a new build conversion or residential, sorry, commercial conversion. You've got to build it up. You can't go from zero to hero because it's dangerous.

It's great advice and I loved how great minds think alike. You and James both was just like, hey, let's stop doing this, let's do this instead. And. And how excited you both were about it. I mean when you say little steps, when we look at that, there'll be people listening to this just going. When you say little steps going from, you know, a three bed and then I think two steps later you're a block of flats and now you've got this awesome. You know sort of str company as as well and, and some of the best examples of experience stays in the uk, you know, that's got to be said, is is one of the best places I can think of and obviously I get to see a lot of websites.

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 2, 000 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 call and booking an appointment with one of our sales team.

So ultimately, what had to change in your mindset from going as a equine supplies sales to where you are now? Is there any advice or anything you can talk around the mindset shifts?

I could tell you kind of why it happened, which might resonate with a lot of people. It's not really something I normally share, if I'm honest, but I'm happy to do so. So, unfortunately, in 2014, all my family passed away, literally the months of each other, and I was working like 40 hours a week, if not more. I was away from home a lot. I didn't get to spend time with my mom and when, unfortunately, she did pass away, me and James just sat down and said, I don't want this. I don't want to start having my own family and the kids never see me because I'm always away from home all the time. Like, we need to create a life that's on our terms and we make the rules and this isn't that, you know. And it was kind of from there really that we were like, solve this. I'm not working this 9 to 5 anymore for somebody else. Fill in someone else's pockets. If we're creating wealth, we're creating wealth for ourselves, not someone else. And if I want to take the summer holidays off, and that was always the plan, like my ex, I never wanted to work any school holiday. I wanted to spend that time with my children. Yes, the last 12 months I have worked them, but I know my team are now great and going forward that I will be able to spend more time with my kids. But you Know that was kind of the trigger for me. It was. And it's quite sad actually that it takes something major for a lot of people, whether it's their own personal health, it's losing people in certain circumstances, that's that trigger that's like, shit, we're only on this planet once. You got to live life like and it's got to be on your own. I've been someone else's and that's kind of what it were for me. So that was my mindset. Shit, mind shift. To be honest, it's not the most glamorous story or happy story but it's kind of what's got me and propelled me and you know, I don't want my kids to be thinking that, you know, I've drowned it in self pity, you know, I want to give them the best life. I want the greatest experiences for us all. And my life is all about the memories I create with the people who live in this house. And that's my husband and my two children.

I thank you for sharing that with us. And sorry to hear of what happened there.

No, sorry I shared that.

But you know there's so many people out there who need to, need to hear that. And also what you've done is you've moved to a different kind of way of thinking with purpose as well. And the thing you touched on there is when we do switch initially there actually is harder work, isn't it? You know there is harder work to get businesses launched to do all this. I mean would be the line if we said otherwise that short term rental property, everything, business, everything takes a lot of effort and there's so much work done unseen behind the scenes and that sort of things. But ultimately you build an asset which then will look after yourself. I mean like you say, once you've got a team in place and that side of things, things start to get a little bit easier on the other side of the initial hard work, don't they? So thank you so much for sharing that. When you decided on the location being the Peak District, how did you settle on these particular. Foxglove, is it?

Yeah, yeah, foxglove. So Buxton and Castington. Yeah, yeah.

How did you decide on those particular ones? Is there any kind of tips and tricks for people listening on why decide on a certain area?

So for me I think especially with the holiday, let's obviously wear furniture. Lets if you want to categorize us. So a lot of them are in tourist destinations and the one unfortunate downside of a tourist destination is it's seasonal so we were really clear that if we were doing this in the Peak District it had to be somewhere that had 12 months trade so that is why we chose Buxton so Buxton's got the Opera House which we've literally just agreed a partnership with last month so we work where their official self catering supplier they have shows 360 days of the year I think they have up to 800 people who can be seated per time it's got the Crescent it's got so much going for it and then Castleton. Castleton is actually when we did our research and we spoke to people like Sykes Holiday Cottages not that we've gone with them just put that out there but obviously leveraging their knowledge and their experience Castleton I mean we love Castleton as a family we've been going for years but it is the honey pot of the Peak District that is what it's known for and they actually said it is ranked just above Windermere in their rankings at the time so it's really sought after area and yeah to walk Mount Tour to do win its pass it's got the Caverns there it's the only place in the world that does Blue Johnstone so it's got so many things going for it it's got cabins that do music concerts in this tiny little village so they were the two destinations I mean putting it out there I wanted to live in Candle House but James said no I mean.

That'S a good sign though if it's somewhere you'd want to live and somewhere you want to visit well it's going to work isn't it for short term you know I. I've learned a lot in there because I've been to obviously the peak districts a couple of times but it's just I didn't know that stuff and what is that stone you mentioned?

It's called Blue Johnstone so in Castleton there's three cabins so there's Tree Cabin, there's Peak Cabin which is the place that is. It's actually called the Devil's Ass which is hilarious but it's where so like Jarvis Cocker did his music video in there they do music concerts, they do cinema experiences and like honestly it's crazy but then they also have Blue John Cavern and you can actually go mine will mine for. You can make your own jewelry there so you can actually take the forage your own piece of stone Blue Johnstone and create a jewelry piece from it like you can't do that anywhere else in the world. But in Castleton it's got Pembrell Castle. And when it's pass, which is absolutely stunning, it's been on so many films. It was on the spin off from not Lord of the Rings. What's it called? Wikileese Cameron, but it's called Game of Thrones. That's it. And the spin off, is it dragons or something?

Yeah, nice. House of Dragons.

That's it. So it was one of the opening scenes for the House of Dragons was when it's pants. It's got the most incredible mantle, which you can see from our house. It's got the most incredible sunrise. Like literally hundreds of people on a Saturday and Sunday morning I sat at the top of mantle. So yeah, we were really conscious that I didn't want somewhere. So we used to have a holiday home actually. Well, a caravan, Sati caravan in Abasok just outside Abbasok in North Wales. And we used to go in the winter and literally it was a ghost town. And obviously we'd been going for years. James's family had been going for years and they said literally as soon as the children back to school in September, they shut down, like because there's no trade. And I said to James, if we're doing this, we can't have a holiday home that's got big bills to pay that is in that situ is in that scenario. So that's why we chose Buxton Castleton.

I mean, you're going to have loads of people, by the way, listening to you just going, I want to go there. I want to go where Laura's talking about. So if you do want to go there, obviously get recommend a great holiday home. You can stay in, you know, do you know, anywhere where they can take them? But you know, there's something to take note of. Listening to this podcast is the way that you're talking about your investment area is you're an ambassador for that area. You're obviously you, you know about it, you've researched it. One of the big mistakes sometimes I see is people just go and invest in the area because they hear us good. They hear, oh, you know, the Norfolk coast or you know, Cornwall, they, you know, certain places they hear is good, so they just pick anywhere. Whereas what you've done there is, you know the area inside and out, you're an ambassador for the area. And actually that brings us on to a great question, is what are some of the things that you've done building relationships in the area?

So the number one thing I've done is created The Peak District podcast, which I think you're alluding to. So I heard Mark talk about this probably over a year ago now. I bought the domain literally as soon as he said it, but it was. It's only taken me until a couple of months to go to launch it because obviously we all know setting up and running a hospitality business is just a mammoth thing. Especially when like me, I changed my tech stack not once but twice, which is mega stressful. So, yeah, so I set up the Peak District podcast and it's all about connected. So we all know a lot of people don't read, like, they don't read checking information like. And I'm one of them people, I'm an audio person. So I thought, well, why don't I create an audio guidebook for my guests? It's a great way to connect guests with local businesses. So when people come to the Peak District, they don't go to Manchester, don't go to Cheshire, they don't go to Alton Towers. The stay here and they go and see these, these businesses that they've heard on my podcast and we keep the money here in the Peak District economy. It doesn't go outside and I'm really passionate about that. Like, there's so many amazing independent suppliers experiences in the Peak District. Like the guy who work with Chris from Pete's and paddles, so he does things like caving, kayaking, canoeing. He actually is one of the only people in the UK that does blind canoeing. So we did that last year. So at the Peak District are massive ambassadors for accessibility. So they're making things as accessible as possible for people with disabilities, whether it's people in wheelchairs, blind, deaf, anything, any kind of mobility issue. They've got a plan to get people to the Peaks. It doesn't matter, you know, if you, if you can walk or not, you can still get to the Peaks and get around. And next year our plan is to make some of our accommodation more accessible to people. Maybe not wheelchairs because of the kind of where we are, but make them more accessible. And it's something I've learned. It's not, you know, we don't all start off in this industry knowing everything. We'll learn as we go. And I've learned some big things, you know, taking people's advice when actually that person don't even run their own business, someone else does it for them, but the perceived to be the expert. But people are, you know, and until you do it, no one knows as much about you and your properties. In your area than you. And, well, somebody shouldn't, should I say.

I mean, everyone's a work in progress, right? And I think the key thing that I've learned is from going out there, it's the speed of how quick you can get that experience is really important, isn't it? Because that's what teaches you. They say that experience will teach you if you need more of it, but you don't know until you do the first task whether that is, like, you say. I mean, you've now started the podcast, which is amazing, and you learn so much just from doing it. It makes you look back and go, I wish I'd have done this at the. At the start, you know, like, and. And all that cool stuff.

It's funny, actually, if you've ever been to. If you go to Buxton, it's got this amazing Crescent. So basically, Buxton water is in Buxton, and we've got the natural springs in underneath the Crescent Hotel. This amazing experience, which I've done a podcast on, but I was actually talking to the commercial director of the Crescent Hotel, and he used to work at Claridge's, like, really experienced in hospitality. And he's going around going, oh, so. So. And he's like, oh, res part. And I'm thinking. And I'm like, all right, yeah, thinking. I dare ask him because it's always something really important. He's like, oh, what's your res part? And I'm like, I'm really sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about. He's like, you're in hospitality, right? I'm like, look, I'm new. And he had to explain it to me. And I'm like, oh, my God. Like, this is so embarrassing. It's like, don't know what you don't know, and you genuinely don't know what you don't know.

And the nice thing is that people in hospitality are really open to say that. And again, if you're listening to this podcast, just going, what is revpar? All you need to do is take your occupancy. Sorry, take your nightly average rate and divide it by your occupancy, and it gives you your revpar revenue per available room. If it's a hotel, or we say rev. Pap. Property, you can say as well. So. But yeah, that is. That is amazing. And again, this is one of the things where, when we started this podcast, we're talking about success leaves clues. And I can see from the research of the area that you've put in the avatar that you've chosen to go after. I mean, you openly said, hey, we're not the cheapest. This is somewhere people save up to go and have an experience. Well, it's actually, to my mind, that's one of the things where people save up because they want the memories to last a lifetime of that kind of great experience. And then part of that experience that you've created is reaching out within the community to keep money in the community. Once they come and stay and give them that wow factor that they wouldn't get with somebody down the road. You know, the person down the road won't have a podcast, they won't have that audio kind of guide that you've been able to do. So that is amazing.

You know what, Liam? It's been an amazing tool to connect with businesses that would never normally speak to somebody who's got a holiday home. Like, normally if, like, I've got people from, like the Opera House, I've interviewed the, the CEO of the Opera House and visit Pete District and I've got some amazing guests coming up and like, they're asking me, can I. Can I be featured on your. On your podcast? And I'm like, oh, gosh, yeah. Like, I had an amazing lady, Suzanne, who's known as the Peak Glass in the P. District. Check her out. Honestly, like, she's a photographer, but she captured. She captures them like hidden moments, not just like the generic like Bantar, etc. And like her following is absolutely insane. And I never thought in a million years that she'd say yes to the podcast and she like, no to do with it. Oh, great. And it's also trying to build my brand off the back of these people. Like, that's why really I'm doing it, you know.

Yeah, well, mutually, though, because if you can get some of these links back to your website, which helps with search engine optimization, I mean, that's one thing. Also, if you ever need to speak to that person about whatever their expertise is, you've got them. You know that. And then as well, if your guests are saying, who do I speak to about, you know, going and stuff like that, you've got all the people that you know just straight away and you can actually say, hey, speak to this person there. I've spoken to them. Hey, here's the audio interview I've done with them. This gives you an idea of what they do, which there's just so many benefits to them because as a business or as local and to you, so mutually beneficial. And this is something which everyone listening to this can actually go and do this in their own areas and this can help you to stand out against, against your competition.

It definitely gets, it definitely gets you noticed and gets you noticed for the right businesses, you know. Yes, 100%. I get the neginay as I call them, like, oh, she's doing a podcast and do you know what? If it's benefiting my business, it's benefiting my guests and other local businesses, then yeah.

And the, the thing is you want them to be talking about you as opposed to you. You know, you're giving them something to talk about. Fine. While they're talking about you and your business, they're not doing it in their own business. Is is what I always think of.

So always learn. Any press is good press either bad.

I said this on one of the other podcasts is Grant Cardone says money follows attention. And that's. I struggle to disprove that theory. Every time there's, there's attention, money is going to somebody in that, in that situation.

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 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 there's a couple other questions I want to cover for, for the people listening is what kind of tech stack you mentioned you change tech stack. So can you just give the listeners an idea of what tech you have in your business and why?

So one thing I realized is I thought my demographic would be a lot younger and it's a multi, you know, our houses are multi generational stays like that. That's what they are. But we also get larger groups of older people who come away for golfing, hiking, whatever. And one of the things I learned from Bruce Lee was when you do any pre check in, why are they coming to the area? Like why are they coming to stay? And we quickly learned from that that actually a lot of them are coming in bigger groups, they're older and following up once they've checked out, like yes, they go do the reviews etc, but following up with an actual survey after is what do you think we can improve on? How was the check in process? What do you think worked? What do you think we could do better? What did you not like? And one thing that kept coming back because we started to use Dove. Now I'm not, I'm not this saying that it doesn't work. It, it would definitely work, but just not for my avatar and older it was downloading an app and it's great, like it's quite expensive is what I would say. And I just thought this is too complicated for my guest avatar. I needed to really make it more simple that I got it because I've, I've set it up, you know, so I use Bez before I use Dove and some other bits and bats. So I kind of just thought, right, I had to sit down and do an actual customer journey. Right, these are my three avatars because they have three types. Because my, my Foxlow Grange for example, such a large building, you can't just have one avatar. I'm like, right, this is the customer journey. Let's go through the steps of what happens and actually spoke to the people like, right, so when you book, what is the next step? And like actually communicating with my guests. So I've now moved from. So I added a horrendous direct bookings website. So that was the first thing. We moved from that to a new booster website which was amazing. But then we had terrible issues connecting it with beds 24. Now I don't know if anyone uses beds 24 but it's the most antiquated software ever and so difficult to get an answer to somebody to help you. So we were like, right, okay, it's obviously not working. So why don't we move from base 24 which didn't plug in with loads of things I was looking at, blah, blah, blah. So move to Host for Life. And then we use the host for the guidebooks. We also use Stayfi, which I absolutely love. Again, got that from a booster podcast. Literally as I was driving while we're renovating. Got them like, James, don't know what this thing is, you need to look into it. But we had eight apartments that it was currently renovating. It's like you're doing it, you're doing it now. And literally within 12 months we're about two and a half that. Well, it's about 2,000 just from people who have checked in. Another probably 500 from people who are coming to stay with us because we've just added that to them.

That's your email Contacts that you can now remarket to just from having stay fire and especially for big places like yours, yeah you've got more people coming through the door. So if you're collecting all that data, how much better is it that you can then contact every single one of them instead of just the lead?

Honestly that piece of kit is just incredible. If anyone's in str you100 need that bit of software even if you've got one. Even if you've got. So say for example like Candle House is one unit. I'd only get that lead booker's name but I've got. Can I have seven or eight guests that stay there? So every time someone stays I've got seven or eight new email addresses every single time and they're saying yes, I want to, you know, have your updates, et cetera and then you can retarget to them. So it might not be that actual lead booker that comes back, but somebody within that party or they might mention it to their friends and that's honestly it's literally been insane. So we use day five use hostfully. We don't use any cleaning software. We've tried Turner but because I employed I don't use an external cleaning team anymore. Um, so I employ now so all my team in house for obviously various reasons but mainly so I can control the quality of it. So what else do I use? I use the boostly email marketing tool that Matt brought out. I love it like it posted like Google my business which is just incredible. I think that's about it.

I mean that's amazing. There's quite a few there. So especially for. For if somebody's listening to this just going I'm sure there's people out there scribbling these down just going like oh this is. This is awesome. And ultimately tech stacks are individual to each business. But just going out and trying these tools and like you say you tried one which didn't work or a couple that didn't work. You don't know until you go out and try and that's the important thing about this. So what we do is squeeze down the questions ever so slightly. Looking back of what your. What you used to do of, of doing the equine sales. What would you say to that person if she was in front of you right now? What advice would you have for. For her?

Oh, what are you doing driving up and down the uk getting to you idiot. Do it now. Stop procrastinating.

It is definitely one, isn't it? Where you see often it is like you look back and go, I should have just done this faster. I should have just done this earlier. I should have taken action. Which is, which is cool. So in a moment we're going to share how we can get in touch with you and come and follow you. Listen to your podcast, stuff like that. But just give me a general overview of what's happening in your business in the next sort of say 12 months or in the future. I know you've got some exciting stuff going on right now and hopefully, yeah, share, share with us what, what that is.

Yeah. So one thing I'm massively keen on and I think what everyone should think of, especially when you're going into the kind of niche, I mean, and you're looking at these bigger buildings, obviously they come with massive bills, let's be honest. So having multiple streams of income, that is so much more than a head on a bed. Like we do the upsells, we do the experiences, but for me it's always been what else can we do? And you know, we're just, we just, we've just applied for a small weddings license. We're doing networking events, we can hire our space. There's loads of things like that that we're now adding to our offering to people. So we're not just somewhere to come and stay. You know, with a family gathering, you can come and do a wedding. You could do a large conference. We're now doing corporate days, Sunday to Thursday. We never used to offer one night stays. Now the reason we are doing that, we don't do them with the hot tub apartments. So we've got four hot tubs, we don't do them with that. But anything on the upper. So Foxlow is over three floors. Anything upper we can do a one night stay with in conjunction with the opera house. Because a lot of people come to the opera, they don't want to stay in the Peaks for two nights, they want to come and stay for a night. So that's working really, really well and just really growing that like the team's strong now, really strong and you know, into next year. I did my own retreat last year which was about women in property, but more of a, like holistic. Well, we've all been to these conferences where you leave absolutely, like physically and emotionally and mentally drained and I'm fed up with going to them types of networking events or, you know, courses. So I wanted to create something that you come. We learned a bit. We do some, you do some massage, we have a massage by somebody that comes out externally we go for a hike in the Peak District, we do a bit of yoga, we eat some great food and we have a laugh and you go away feeling. Actually, I'm really motivated and inspired to, you know, crack on with my business because, you know, what we do can be quite lonely. And I think, you know, the community that Mark's created, a new Liam, is incredible, but not a lot of people, you know, it's quite the small in it, in the world of entrepreneurship. And I think if we can create these little pockets of, of a haven, should I say, where people feel safe and they can share their experiences, they can get ideas from other people and support, which is, I think the real key and the knowledge, you know, like, you know so much more than me and I'm always keen to learn. But then there's someone who I've only just started, really. I've only been doing it 18 months, but there's just someone who's just started who I can help. And it's actually in chain of events that we're all helping, supporting each other, grow our businesses and become more profitable and not relying on the OTAs. So from that we created a networking group which we partnered up with Boost and the Visit Peak District and Derbyshire. So we launching that in January next year on the 22nd. So. But again, it's going to be limited tickets because I want people to connect, I don't want them to come to a mass event and you don't get around to spending, speak to anybody. It's all about connection and support. So every quarter there'll be a networking event, there'll be a coffee and cake where you can literally come, it's very informal. And then we're going to do a networking event as well. So there'll be four networking events for networking events.

Oh, nice.

Yeah. And then for coffees and cakes. But I just think it's a great way for people to interact. Obviously, I'll be doing the retreats. I've got my social media group that I mentioned you mentioned earlier and just trying to grow it all together organically because I think it all kind of slots into each other and, you know, this is my lifestyle and I love it. And if I can help other people like you guys have massively helped me, even if I can just inspire one person and that's my job done.

Well, it's, you know, you got so much going on there, but you can hear the passion, you can hear the excitement and I'm excited for you. And if the people listening to this and you know that people can reach out to you obviously for, you know, you're looking for speakers and stuff like this. Obviously if there's businesses that can be on your podcast, if people are thinking where would be cool to go for a retreat, where would be cool to just go and you know, see the opera, you know, all of these things, then there's somebody listening to this from all over, especially if you're in the uk. But even if you're based further afield listening to this, go and visit Musescapes obviously to go and see parts of the UK which I'm now interested in going to see and I know other people will be as well. So I'm going to be throwing the mic open just before we do. Is there any other kind of thing that we've missed along the way or anything else you want to. Anything else you want to share?

I think just one thing for me is obviously I know that Holiday let's finish Holiday let's is a bit of a buzz, especially in the UK right now. And one thing I really want to get across is, you know, it was really important at the beginning that I shared with you kind of the stepping stones that we've taken across the, the, the journey if you want to call it or adventure, hate calling it a journey of starting small and then scaling up. Now I'm not talking about rent to rent or anything like I'm talking about people who want to buy luxury houses and convert them into holiday lets. Like you still need to start small and then scale up. The one other thing, you know, we had a really terrible time getting Foxlo Grange refinance which is eight apartments, it's over 5,000 square square foot or meters, whatever. I get confused. I'm not very good with that type of thing. My husband would be like, what? So you know, we had a massive issue and we've got multiple different strategies within our portfolio. We've done multi, you know, we've done new builds, we've done. We purchased blocks of flats and things like that. So we have lending history and I think people go use other people's money to buy these lovely amazing houses which is fine. But trying to refinance or onto a mortgage when you borrowed somebody's money and you don't have the experience, very, very difficult and you know the mortgage market for serviced accommodation furnished holiday let's is getting more difficult. So I just a word of warning to anybody if anyone is looking to get into what I do, these bigger houses, please, please. If you're using investor Finance, please make sure you can get out of that deal before you take anybody's money because it's just going to end up in a lot of stress. And you know the big builders like Foxlow, great. We bought for a million pounds when I first started and I bought a house for £69,000, I would literally like having palpitations. I never thought in a million years I'd be buying something for a million pounds. That is just insane. But this is what they cost, you know, so you're not playing with 60 grand anymore, you're playing with big, big money and it's harder to get out of them situations. So that's just my. Maybe I don't want to end up on a doomy note, but I just think it's really important that people ensure they can get back end finance.

Oh, that's good advice though. And that is from real life advice at the end of the day. So it is really, really very cool. So one of the things that you mentioned there is obviously you don't want to end on a. On a sort of a down note and we love to include just a fun question at the end. What is your karaoke song and James's karaoke song of choice? And I, I get the idea that he probably doesn't have a karaoke song, but feel free to go back.

So I have never, ever done karaoke up until about a month ago at Progressive in Peterborough. So I do mentoring there on the deal packaging. We went to o' Neill's karaoke bar and I sung Chesney Hawks, the one and only. Oh, nicely. Because it's the only one I know the words to.

Next time I see you, I'm just going to be playing that in the background or just make sure that's. That's playing anything for James at all. Or.

Oh, what.

What would you put on as his karaoke song if you had to, to get him up singing?

Oh, I don't even know. It loves A Bit of Westlife, so it has to be. I mean, I've just completely given James his little thing.

Yeah, I was gonna say, like, he'll be like, why?

Because I thought it'd be a Westlife kind of guy.

Yeah, it's destroyed the Persona of him there.

I can say something more manly if you want.

That's cool. Everyone loves A Bit of Westlife, so I'm going to throw the mic open where everyone's going to want to reach out for, you know, for some of the awesome stuff you've shared. How can they do.

So I'm all over social media, so it's either at Musescapes or at Laura Muse Official. And you will find me on most platforms, in fact, all of the platforms.

We'll also include some links underneath in the show notes as you listen to this as well. And so that leaves us with our final question. Is there a motto or a mantra that's resonated with you across your journey?

Yes. My mum always used to say to me, people who can't be with you at your worst don't deserve you at your best.

Like it. And why, why has that resonated with you?

We've had Foxlow Grange is a difficult project and, you know, we had. Me and James had some really low points and people who we thought were friends just weren't there to support us because we were being too negative. But you know what, that's just how we were. And then people don't deserve us. One of his best. And so we caught him out.

Good times are coming and with all the exciting things that you've got going on, I don't blame you. So awesome. Laura, this has been so much fun. I've really enjoyed it and I hope you listening to this as well has been enjoying it. If there's somebody you know who can get some value from this podcast, of which there is stack loads of it, whether it's tech or taken the initiative to reach out to your local communities or just dealing with some of the harder sides of. Of of stuff within hospitality that you need to go through and to get to the other side. You know, Laura and James from Musescapes are absolute proof of that and I've really enjoyed speaking with this. So do share that with friends, with family, with anybody else who gets value from this podcast. And we'll see you on the next one. Thanks very much. And that's bye for me. And that's bye from Laura.