The Top 3 Lessons Learned From Hosting My First Big Event

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Explore Hostfully's beautiful digital guidebooks with AI generated itineraries customized to your guest preferences. So make life easier with Hostfully. For a limited time, Hostfully is offering Boostly listeners an Unheard of deal. $200 off your PMP subscription, plus six months of premium guidebooks for free. Normally this deal is only a hundred pounds off and two months of free guidebooks. So hurry. There's only running for this deal between October 14th and the 31st. Go to www.hostfully.comboostly and let them know you're in on this deal through the chat option at the bottom of the screen. Again, that's www.hostfully.comboostly and let them know. All right, Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and welcome as I clear my throat. So very, very special impromptu podcast. I wasn't going to do this. I was going to wait a couple of weeks to do this. But there's a lot of things coming up and all of this is just going around in my mind 48 hours after the big bash I will forget about. So I wanted to do it now, bags and all. Very tired still from the event, haven't slept many hours since because it was a very late night and there's loads of, you know, the kids came with and all of that which I'll dig into. But I wanted to do this. So thank you for tuning in. This is obviously being recorded for the podcast, so if you miss it and all that cool stuff, it'll be on the podcast very, very soon. But this episode is all about the top takeaways, lessons learned from hosting my very first event, which was the big bash and all of those things. So if you were with us at the event, please drop a comment and say hi in the chat. If you weren't with us, but you were tuning in and watching in from social medias, I hope the FOMO was real. We had an amazing night. It was something that I absolutely loved from start to finish. Very stressful, but at the same time loved every single minute of it. To see everybody having such a good time, including my, my little boys running around, was, was amazing. So I wanted to do this. The voice is a bit croaky, so let's see how long that lasts to see how long this lasts for. But I just wanted to go through a few things because there will be people watching who are maybe thinking about hosting an event or putting an event on there, maybe people that have put an event on in, in the past. And so I wanted to sort of just talk about it and sort of allude to it and just bring, bring some ideas so that it may impact you in future events that, that you put on. So, first of all, this is my first and only event I am going to be running in in the uk. If there's enough need for it, I will do one in America in a couple of years time. But this has been seven years in the making. I'm never going to be doing it again. Even though a lot of people did come up to me and say, you got to do it again, I am done. The amount of work that has gone into this has been huge. I'm very, very, very, very, very fortunate to have some amazing people working behind the scenes at Boost Lead. That just means that even though I was so concentrating on this for quite a long time, that the business has not slowed down or been affected. So that's a massive testament. And again, I would encourage anybody who's thinking of putting on an event this size to make sure that your systems and structures are in place before you do. Because if it was maybe a year ago that I decided to do this, then a lot of things would have gone wrong within Boostly. If I tried to do it two years ago, it just would never have happened. So I'm a massive believer that things happen for a reason, a massive believer of that things happen when they're meant to happen and all those cool things. And I just think that with Boosted being the hospitality community and Boosted being seven years in now, it was, it was the right time to do so. We sold 300 tickets, which was a lot. We had just under 200 people turn up on the night so there's a lot of people who didn't turn up. Obviously, the location being York is not the easiest for people flying in, et cetera. And people told us the stories of how they got to York, which was kind of funny but crazy at the same time. And obviously as well, people message me on the day with illnesses and etc. Etc, etc. So it was a, it was a big deal. And to get there and to, you know, fight through the traffic and fight for the weather conditions, putting it on in November was obviously meant that the weather and driving conditions weren't the easiest, although those that did and battled through. I just want to say first and foremost, thank you for everybody that was in the room. I said on the night that, you know, this has been seven years in the making and we've had seven years worth of people chatting on Facebook, we've had seven years of people chatting on Zoom. And you know, the people in the room don't go to loads and loads of industry events. You know, this is like a big deal for a lot of people in that room and to be able to get everybody in and then to see people chatting and meeting for the first time. People have been probably speaking on Facebook or in Facebook groups and hospitality community group pretty much every week for like an extended period of time. That was the big win for me. And the community aspect of it and the sort of community building part of it, you literally couldn't put a price on that at all. And you know, putting on the event was expensive, but to see people chatting and hugging and having a drink and, and having a chat was, was everything for me. So for those of you that are in the room, I really hope that you all were able to meet people and got loads from it. And that was like the sort of the most basic thing that I wanted to get out of the event. When I put the event on what I based everything on everything that I ever do. So every podcast we've ever recorded, every. Every online thing that we've ever done, any video I've created or product that we've done, etcetera, I've done it based on the fact that would I like this, would I do this, would I have fun doing this? And when it came to the event, the key thing that I had written in my sort of mind map as I was drawing this out was fun because there are a lot of industry events, there are a lot of short term rental, medium term rental hospitality events that are out there. And every event is fantastic in, in the education so there are loads of events and I don't want to name them because I guarantee I'll forget somebody. But you know what they are, you've all been to them, you've all seen them, and they are great in what they do because you get a lot out of it with the education part of it. But one common thread that I have seen from every single event I have been at is everybody talks about the party. So everybody, it starts off saying, hey, this is what we're doing. And then we've got the after party that's going to be the party. And that's the thing that everybody's like getting ready for. So I thought, well, let's just skip out all the education. There was no talks, there's no presentations, there was none of that. It was just all pie. And once I realized that that's what the whole event was going to be around. And as soon as you walk through the door or as soon as I came up the lift and the lifts opened, I wanted it to be like a wow, where, where am I? What is going on right now for the senses. So for those that were in the room, you'll know that as you came up the lift. So I greeted everybody as they arrived. They came into the lift, up the lift, I give them the bands and the drinks vouchers, which we'll talk about in a second. And I gave him a name badge and Emma came up, turned to the right and there was Mr. Troy Hawk there. So if you don't know Mr. Troy Hawk, he is very, very famous for doing Greeters Guild. Let me see if I share my screen super quick. So this is Mr. Troy Hawk here. Very, very popular on Instagram, on YouTube and on, on TikTok. He is well known and he's built a very good brand around greet his Guild. So he got very famous by just standing outside of Waitrose and Primark and weather spoons and just catching strangers off guard and greeting them in. And he does it in a positive way. So he, you know, he, he, he looks fantastic himself. He's, you know, tall, he's tanned, you know, mustache, got a very smart dinner, dinner jacket on. And he greets strangers by walking them into like say a Primark or a, or a Waitrose or wherever like that. And he's got very, very popular. We were very fortunate to get him to do, to do the event, to be perfectly honest. And, but that was the first thing that everybody saw. Turn to the right and you get a Greeters Guild welcome. And then as you Walk in to the actual main room. You don't go into like where, where all the tables are at. You go into what I call the fun run. And as you walk through, you turn to the right and there was loads of cool things. There was a, there's a phone box. So let me see if I can bring the phone box onto screen right now. That phone box there, everybody could record a greeting in and that those recordings are going to get sent to me in the next few weeks and they are going to. We're going to turn this into a podcast or a video online. Everybody got to sort of say a little word and leave a few messages. I've been told by the people who own that box there's a lot of swear words. So the editing team are going to have a lot of fun sorting that out. We had a 360 photo booth we had which was really cool. In fact, I've got a video here. So those things are cool. You stand on it. There's a camera that literally whizzes around with a GoPro and it takes, and it takes a cool video. That was Dave, Dave Goodfellow, David and Harry from the iconic team. They were on it and everybody had a lot of fun with them. My kids got on at a great time. But as you walked in as well, I wanted to do something a little bit different. So just to cue this next video up on Friday night, me and my brother in law Kieran, who is one of the co owners of the social media club who are a big sponsor of the event, we were sat having a drink and it was I want to do something on, on Friday. And we were just watching funny videos on YouTube with the kids with us. And one of the funny videos that came up on YouTube was a scare prank video. There's a guy who dresses as a plant and he hides in like New York and London and all of a sudden he'll just jump out on strangers. And we're watching that and I said let's do that. And you know, it was up for it. He said, yeah, 100. I had a quick look online. I was able to get a costume delivered in literally 24 hours. It was on the front door and then this happened. So as you're walking in, you're literally your senses are going all over the place. Tryhawks there, greet his guild, greeting people in. There's loads of pictures of that online. You walk through and then this happened. Oh my God. So that was Helen and Jane walking in and that was Kieran who was down There and he was making people jump literally as they walk in. I have literally. Kieran is sending me these videos through literally now as we speak and it was hilarious to see. So know, you, you come in there, you see the fun run, you go down and then you come into the main room. The main room looked amazing. So we're at the York race course. I managed to grab this picture before everybody arrived. Everything that you see in that room, from the bunting, from the boxes on the table and all of the cool stuff that you saw around the event and on that night is thanks to the team Made by Evolved, otherwise known as the printing people. Gary, Helen and the team. If you've ever had a boostly mug in the post or anything, Bruce Lee in the post is because of that team. I work with them and I've been working with them for years. The UK based company, they are phenomenal to work with. And if you are looking at swag or any print or anything for your business, I recommend that you get in contact with Made by Evolved. They are an unbelievable company based out of York and yeah, I recommend you all get in contact. But this is what, this is what the room looked like as you walked in. So you walk in, the stage is at the top there, which is cool. It's got all the sponsors on there and yeah, and that was it. And that was the layout. And so the layout was really important to me. Every single thing from the little details of what you got is the bangle and stuff. I just wanted to make the event fun and interesting and Instagrammable, which, which is what we did as the night kicked off, then came down to the lineup. So the lineup again was important because I wanted to make sure that we, we made everybody laugh. And when we got in contact with Troy, obviously he's got the greatest guild, but he's also a stand up comedian. That is how he is, you know, that's his bread and butter. And he's got some standup shows coming up next year. Let me just bring my screen up again. So he's actually going to be touring around the uk, so if you need to see this guy, this is where you can go and check him out. But on the actual night he said, listen, I'll do a standup show as well if you want. I was like 100%. So when we got everybody sat down, we did some cool things and we got Troy on stage and he was really, really funny. He, he, he, he told stories of meeting, you know, Jack Grealish and of some of his greatest guild Stories. And he spoke to a few people in the audience, which was, which was hilarious. We had a few people try and get a little bit clever, a little bit rowdy, but he had a lot of fun with them, which. Which made me giggle. Absolutely. But yeah, as the event went on, we, we did a few more things and then we got the main act. Well, not the main act, but the, the song that the singers up. So we got. I went with a company called A1 Star Tributes and A1 Star Tributes. I spoke to them last October, so a year ago. And I said, listen, I want to do an event and I want to get some tribute acts. I want to get. I want to get Robbie Williams and I wanted to get abba. And you know what? They came back to us and they delivered. The two acts were hilarious. I got to know Matt, who was Robbie, and the ladies who did ABBA and you know, hilarious. Really funny. They traveled around the whole of the country singing at club nights and whatnot, and they had an amazing time. So, you know, I went to all the acts and I just, you know, I want to make sure they had a good time because if they had a good time, I know that their performance was amazing and I knew that the. And everybody else would have enjoyed it as well. When he came on and he did Let me entertain you, I was like, yeah, that sound, that's good. I'm sound. I'm good on that now. And there was. There's a lady called Caroline, Caroline Monks. And it was a birthday on the day. She was a huge Robbie fan and she messaged me before the event saying, I wonder if Robbie can give me a shout out, Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. And he actually did Sweet Caroline for Caroline, which was, which was epic. And we all got to song Caroline Happy Birthday at the event. And yeah, and I know that she had a good time. I think she got a selfie with Matt, AKA Robbie at the end. So another one of the singers that was. Was on the stage was a. Was a young girl called Amber Mason. And the story behind that is that Amber was never meant to be at the event. The only reason Amber was there is that in the day, me, Laura and Rosie went for something to eat in York and we had to pick up a few more bits and bobs for the event. And as we're walking through the shambles, there was a busker playing and you could hear it from. From. From a way off because the voice was unreal. Such a nice voice. And so Laura had To pop in to get something done. I pushed Rosie over and she was in a push chair. And Rosie loves anything music. She will bob away, she will dance, she will throw her hands in the air. And I just thought I'd stop outside the busker and just watch while waiting for Rosie, waiting for Laura. Sorry. And Rosie was having an amazing time and Amber was gesturing to Rosie and it was so cute to see. And at the front of the placard of her stand had her Instagram handle, Amber Mason Music and I didn't think much more. We put, we put some money in, say, you know, thank you for entertaining our Rosie. And I just had an idea as I was walking away because it was such nice sort of welcoming music. She was singing Adele and other songs and, and I messaged her on Instagram. I just said, I know this is super last minute, but do you fancy doing an hour's gig tonight? And she replied back, you know, within an hour saying, yeah, absolutely, would love to. And you know, for me as a business owner and has done all of these things to see somebody else in, a young kid who has taken the initiative to a brand a business properly. So she's done the marketing aspect, left an easy way of a click to action of a call to action on the street and then B got him backwards. But instead of going, I'm not sure, yada, yada yada, this bit last minute, she was like, yeah, I'm up for it, I'm sound, let's do it. That was massive for me. And so she came down, no Prep at all, 6:30, just before everybody arrived, she set up, spoke to the sound guy and from 7 to 8 she was playing amazing music. And my biggest regret is I couldn't pop up to see her singing. But luckily I had a performance earlier on the day because I was welcoming everybody in, but people that I spoke to said, yeah, she was really nice, really good, you know, and she, she played, you know, she stayed there for a little bit, the intro, she played a few of the games and then, and then she left and you know, and a massive, massive fan of Amber. So please make sure that you do go and, and follow it. It was, it was, it was great to see. And yeah, someone's put in the chat here. The young singer, as people was walking in was lovely. Yeah, it was great. So it's Amber Mason, go and give her a follow and just say, hey, I saw you at the bash. Because she's just getting this started by the looks of it, stands in Yorks and sings and yeah, it was fantastic. And so bringing it back to the, to, to the event. What, what are things that I learned? Well, number one, have an event manager. Talking of which, before the event, so on LinkedIn on the daytime, I was just quickly checking my messages because I was helping a few people get to the event and there was two really nice messages. One from Diane Lloyd, who helps runs events for staa. And I've known Diane now for about four years. We first met when I went to one of the events that she was running and managing and she just sent me a message just saying good luck with the bash. Which meant a lot to me at the time because it was getting very stressful. And another message from Damien Sheridan, who is the, one of the co founders of Scale Rentals. He's puts on so many amazing events that meant the world, you know, that little message on the day from the two of them was, was amazing. And I think Diane and Damien will testament to this. If you're going to run an event, have an event manager. Now, the reason why I didn't have one is pure and prim foremost. I, you know, I wanted to keep the cost as low as possible. I wanted to keep the ticket prices as low as possible because putting on an event like this, put on any event, isn't, isn't cheap at all. And I was saying to Laura yesterday, my one biggest regret is that I didn't have an event manager because there was a few things that needed to be dealt with on the day. And the plan was six o', clock, me and my family, we're going to sit down, we're going to have a meal together in the restaurant with the boys and Rosie and my parents. We're then going to jump in a. I organized and I surprised the boys with a limo ride from the restaurant to the race course and we're going to do all those cool things, walk in and the event, you know, go ahead with the event. It's a bit naive on my part because as the day transpired, with logistics and getting everybody in, getting all the things set up, that was never going to happen. So I had to leave the restaurant, I did to leave the hotel about quarter to six to get, get to the event, to sort out these last little bits and bobs and I missed all of that. And you know, it's, it's stupid on my part because I'm a massive fan of who, not how. And it's one of the things that you, you don't know what you don't know and this is the first time I've event on like this. And again, if I was to do it again, I would 100% have an event manager to be able to run it. And you know, power to Diane, who does this for a living and she's amazing at it. Every event that I'm, I'm speaking at, where she's there, they just run so smoothly. And I know it's not smooth because nothing ever goes to plan, but to have an event manager, that would be one of my core recommendations for, for everybody who is looking to put on so major takeaway so far. Event manager, design the event for you. So design the event that you would enjoy. And then if I think if that's the case, then everything else will go to plan. But also as well, I've got a little secret sauce. A little. What's the word? I can't even think of the word now. Cause I know I need to finish this soon. But my little secret sauce to putting on an event was, was this guy. And I only literally discovered him about a month ago in America. So I was at an event, Bigger Pockets and hostcon. And this guy was at the events and he spoke at hostcon before me. And this guy is called Nick Grace and he's got a book out called the Two Hour Cocktail Party. And I discovered this guy and I, I've been going down the rabbit hole and his Instagram game is amazing. What he talks about is so cool. And one of the things that he's got is basically he is all about putting on events and how to make them fun, whether it's like a small meetup or whatever you want to call it. And he's got this thing called the Nick Party formula. And I watched this about a month ago on the plane back after, after meeting him in Houston. And I was like, this is unreal. So the Nick Party formula N is name tags. So name tags help 110% because not everybody knows each other. Name tags is an easy way of remembering names. And you know, and it's. And it helps break, break down any potential barriers that there are. So that's the end. So as you know, if you've been at the event, the first thing I gave you when you registered and so I said, hi, give you a name tag. I is for icebreakers. So an icebreaker is a great way of, you know, any, any sort of nervousness or whatnot that's in the event. So for me, what we did is we did a game called Boostly Beetle Drive. And again, this game that I've played. This is my. You know, my mum and dad would break this out at every family event. It's called Beetle Drive. And you may have heard of it, you may have not have heard of it. A lot of people in the room hadn't heard of it, A lot of people had heard of it. But it is an amazing icebreaker game and it's very hard to explain it. And for you to listen in or watching this back go, yeah, that sounds good. You literally have to be there to play it. But just Google Beetle Drive and just do it at your next family event or meetup or whatever. It is a lot of fun. And we called it Boostie Beetle Drive and that was our icebreaker. Just as people were coming in, getting settled, maybe sitting down in the friend groups or whatnot, it was a great way of mixing people up. C is cocktails. So a big part of what he does is no food. And, you know, it caused a lot of uproar in the WhatsApp group chat that we set up that I said, there's literally no food at this event. Get your food, get fed beforehand. But C is for cocktails, so C is about drinks. And so instead of doing food, what I did is I put the money towards a bar tab, which went down really well. And, you know, I couldn't done that bar tab without Dave Goodfellow, Davinc and Harry from Iconic Training Academy. So thank you very much for that. But it's like, yeah, no food nibbles at most. So what we did, we provided Pringles and sweets and bits and bobs, but no food. And then K is a kickout time. And the kickout time I didn't come up with the race course, came up with that for us at 12 o'. Clock. But that is a really solid little formula for hosting any event. And again, I don't want to butcher it too much. I've asked Nick to come onto the podcast so we can really delve into this. Go and check out the book. Go check out this guy, because he's just come out of nowhere and I'm fascinated with it. I think it's a great idea for any event. So even if you're organizing events and conferences or whatnot, even just a small little meetup, do go check out this guy, because I feel like that was my secret sauce to the event going, going so smoothly as it is. And yeah, and the final thing is timings. Like, I was setting timers on my watch. My watch was buzzing the whole event because Everything had to go at the time, right? And I got warmed by the race course. I said to the race course beforehand, like all the events that you've done, what's the one mistake that you see everybody make when you do these things? And they said, timings, things, running over things, going for too long, yada, yada, yada. And so timing is key, so just make sure that you have your times and you stick to it. And again, that's what a good event manager would have helped with. 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, 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 call and book in an appointment with one of our sales team. We've all been said this event literally could not have happened without the sponsors. I mean, the sponsors were everything because the event ticket price was really, really low. And the reason why it was really low is because we're able to get sponsors to come in and help with this. And, you know, I've, I've given a shout out on the night, but I want to give him a shout out again very, very, very, very, very quickly here because it's really important because I've put on the event, I've announced it and, you know, there's a big, big outlay to do. And so to help reduce the costs, I go out into my little black book of people that I've got to know over the industry and I've just said, hey, would you like to be a part of it? And what I wanted to do is I wanted to get people into the room that would help make the night as good as possible. I didn't want people to come in and sort of go, yeah, if I'm going to sponsor this event, I want to be speaking on stage, I want to give a presentation, a performance. I was like, no, none of that. So I said to everybody that if you do this, there's no booths, there's no presentations, there's, there's none of that. You are just here to join in with the Party, get to know people, get to meet your customers because a lot of these people had customers at the event and you know, and just come and join in the fun. And there was so much trust on the, on the end of the sponsors coming into this because this is wasn't an a normal industry event. They are used to the very standard where you come in, you have a booth, people can come up to you and talk and swap business cards and all of that. This was so new and so many people didn't get it, but these guys did. And again, I will be always be grateful for them to them and you know, I want to shout out about them as much as possible. I want to do it now on very quickly on the podcast. So Price Labs, Super Hog, Touch Day. These three companies have turned into friends and they were, they were with me on the direct blueprint. So the book Direct Blueprint that we're put together, they were co authors on the book and you know, they're one of the first people to come back saying, yep, let, let's do this. Touchday very kindly came in and they provided the digital guidebook. So the digital guidebook was a big success. So many of you used it, used it for times how to get to the venue. Cause it was not an easy location to find the room was not easy at all. Touch Day came in and helped put all of that together here we got Alice and Ned in front of the balloon. This is definitely towards the end of the night. But they, they looked amazing. They were amazing. And they got to meet Joyce McGuire who is a big fan of Touch Day, who is part of their testimonials and all that good stuff. So I was amazing that we could make that happen. Price Labs, Super Hog, Hannah and Caitlin came down and you know it was, it was a. I'm so grateful to have use just in my contact lists. They're always there and I will always be grateful to them. We've got so many people that are part of Boostly that use Touch Day, that use Super Hog, that use Price Labs. Price Labs is of course dynamic Price and Super Hog is of course is the, is a host protection guest verification platform and touchday is digital guidebooks. There are so many people out there that you can go to, but you literally cannot go wrong with those, with those three. The next up is Host and Stay. So Dale Smith, everybody should know Dale Smith by now. He is at all of the events. He wins a lot of the awards. The Host and Stay team, they, they sponsor football clubs, they do a lot of great advertising and their properties are all over the major tourist spots that are in the uk and they offer such a fantastic model. I've been lucky enough to stay at one of their properties. I've seen their operations in, in, in action and, and they just do it right. And again, the team came down. Dale was one of the first ones that got back to me saying, yep, 100%. We'll, we'll, we'll put it on my, my way that I sold it to Dale. I was like, listen, because Dale's from Saltburn. The teams are from Saltburn, which is near Stockton, which is near Middlesbrough. For those who don't know where it is, I was like, there's no events in the north. There is no events in our industry in the north. Everything is down in London. Let's just like put a flagpole in. Let's, let's do this event for the North. And he was in on the back of that and, you know, a lot of people were there chatting to him and there's a lot of people who will definitely be able to partner up and team with him, which is, which is amazing to see. The next up is James Valley. So James, I know he'll be probably seeing this on LinkedIn at some point in the future. I met James in person. Feels like forever ago, but it was in September in, in London. And when we're at the event, we're talking about Holiday Cottage Handbook and what he was doing and the plans and you know, he's, he's literally started this up and, you know, he's, he's doing this and you know, he's, he's literally at the startup phase. He doesn't know what he's going to evolve into. He doesn't know any of that. Okay. But I'm a big fan of what he's doing. The podcast is great. I'm going to tag him in in the chat now in LinkedIn so he can see this. And I really want everybody to go and check out the Holiday Cottage Handbook, go check out the podcast, go check out the resources because you'll need your guidance, the booster guidance as he is growing this in terms of how it shapes and what it looks like into the future. There are good people in this industry and there are great people in this industry and anybody who is, is nice, good and great, just a nice person. I will support 110 and I always will and I always, and I always will do. And James is getting starting and I can see already in the content that he's putting out there in the podcast that he's doing, the resources and the newsletter, it's one that everybody should be having in their inbox and it's totally free, so go and check it out. And he very kindly came along to the event and he. And he documented it all, which was amazing to see. So he's got some real cool thing on, on, on his, on his LinkedIn the next up. So now I put a post on LinkedIn today about this. I have been a fan of these guys since Smart BnB, since the good old days of Smart BnB, which started as a messaging platform to make your lives easier when guests are chatting to you on Airbnb, et cetera. They have built a business around community and they are a community first business. And the community helps definitely guide them in the way that they go. And this is now Hospitable. Hospitable. They are PMS that never wanted to be a pms, but the community has driven them to it and they are doing amazing things. One of the cool things about what they're doing is that they are still new. And when you are working with a new startup, your feedback means so, so much more. If you're with a more established, bigger vendor, and if you give your feedback, then it's a lot harder for them to, to pivot, right? And you can literally see booking.com and Expedia going through these sort of teething problems now because they're, they're a cruise liner trying to turn around, but if you're working with a crawler ship, like a small fishing boat, they can spin around in literally minutes and they can pivot and they can change. And that is literally what Hospitable are doing. And they have just brought out this huge product which is all about diary bookings. And I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of, and our partnership and our relationship is growing. We're able to integrate more with them. So more Hospitable customers are able to work with Boostly. And the websites has got this epically smooth direct booking process. And we're able to do more and more and more with them. The products they're creating are fantastic. And the best thing about it is that it's impacting hosts at Property one to Property seven level the most. And with Boostly, with all the people that are in our system, you know, the 2,500 customers, we've got about 20,000 people on our email list, the podcast and everything that over 80% of the people that are in our world are in that one to seven property world. So when you are looking for a PMS and if you're going, right, which is the one for me, you want to be thinking, which is the one for me? At my situation now. And there are loads of choice, but you've got to look at the ones where the people are raving about it the most. And not only is their customer service spot on, the product team are fantastic. What they talk about is great and how they act and just is everything to me. And that's why I was so glad that they agreed to be part of the event. So Hospitable, please, please, please do go check them out. It was amazing to have you part of it, to meet the, to meet the guys. I met a lot of them in Burma, in Orlando, and then to sort of chat to him a bit more. It was great. So please do. And check out Hospitable. Next up is the social media club. So social media club, if you don't know my wife, Laura, Laura Nicholson Simpson and her brother Kieran Nicholson, they started up a business a week after Rosie was born. And what they're doing is they're providing a done for you solution for your social media, done for you solution for Instagram more in particular, and the results that they're having. So many of their customers are Boostly customers. And the basically the reason why it works is that Boostly has never done a done for you solution. With social media, we show you what to do, which is great, but there are others out there. But just go, you know what, Mark, you're talking sense. All makes sense to me. Can you just do it? And I was like, no, we don't do it. But now I can pass over Laura's contact details. And so many people are speaking to her. So many people are reached out to us since Tuesday night, which is, which is great. She had a couple of calls lined up for today and for tomorrow and so, and. But they can only work with a limited amount of people, which is, which is, you know, it's great to see them doing. It's great to see them so full already. Because when you start up a business, you know, and I say this a lot, in the world of hospitality, you're all very lucky because you can start up a hospitality business, you can take a couple of pictures, you can put it on Airbnb and be pretty much depending on your market and your niche, guaranteed revenue. When you start up doing any of our industry, in every career, there isn't any of that. There's no website that Laura could go and list their businesses on and be guaranteed revenue. So they're having to start all from fresh and from scratch and to see their journey is, has been unreal. The results that they're getting for their, for their customers and their members and their clients is, is fantastic. And to be able to showcase them at the event for me was, was amazing. And everything on the fun run that you saw, the phone booth, the balloons, the 360, Laura and Kieran, they sorted that and they, and they paid for it to be there. And so it was, it was epic to be able to do that with them. And I just, I wish them all the best and, you know, I try and give advice, but if you've ever tried giving advice to your spouse, you know, it goes in one ear and out the other. So I was just like, how can I support them in any way, shape or form? And this is what we can do. The last two people, well, Dave and. Dave and Harry. Iconic Training Academy. They had a great time. They're the ones on the 360. They put the money down for the, for the bar, which was great. They helped a lot. So every single one of you that had a free drink at the bar, it's thanks to Dave, Dave and Harry. So please say thank you to them. Iconic Training Academy. Go and check it out. Dave's got a book coming out in January. I've given it a read already. I'm doing the forward for it. Hopefully my forward stands up to the test and they actually produce it. But it is a really, really good book for anybody who is looking to level up their short stay accommodation business in 2024. So do go check that out. The last one that I want to give a mention to is Gary and Helen, made by Evolved, otherwise known as the printing people. When I say that I could not have done this event without them, it's an understatement. When I came to them with the idea, they were like, brilliant, Leave it to us. What's the budget? Let us go. And they came up with all of the little things. So one of the things that I've loved this morning, I saw A post on LinkedIn from Laura Burnett and she said about the little things that make the event. Every single little thing that she spoke about was them. It wasn't me. They came to me, I just said, sound, I trust you. Go for it. So the door hangers that you tap, that was their idea. The bunting, that was their idea. The boxes was their idea. The, the, the, the Beetle drive cards was their idea. The, the drinks, token vouchers, that was their idea. The wristbands, that was their idea. The name tags, the to actually design of it, that was them. Anything that I brought to them, they did it. And it was phenomenal. The deck chair and all that cool stuff. Because I think that the way to make an event as good as possible is you got to make it as Instagrammable as possible. Just like with your properties, the more Instagrammable your properties look, then the more it will spread on Instagram. And they came up to me with tons of Instagram ideas and absolutely loved it. And they, they gave try a little present as well, which I know he absolutely loved. His real name's Milo by the way, but Troy absolutely loved it and it was, it was a, it was a, it was a really, really nice touch of everything that they did. And so yeah, if you are looking for swag, if you are looking for merchandise, if you're looking for printing, go to Made by Evolved. Go check them out on Google based out of York. If you've ever got anything in the post from Boostly, it has come from them, they ship it, they post it for me. I don't know if they offer that to other people but we've been working together for years now and I met Gary, this is going back 2018 when I first started Boost Lee the local university in Scarborough approached me to do some workshops for them and it was a government based thing so the government paid me to do it and I traveled around to Scarborough to other places and I was, I had to do a day in Malton and this wasn't hospitality people, this was every people and every business was there and Gary had just started up the business and he was sat down and I met him in Moulton in 2018 on a very, very cold September day. I know it was September because a week later little Frankie was born. So back in 2018 and so we've known each other since then and it was around 2020 that I had the idea of posting things out in the poster people and he was the first person that I came to. So we've known each other for a while now and to be able to bring it all together at this event last night was, was amazing. So yeah, please do go, go and check them out and, and that's all my notes, that's literally everything. I mean the main things that I have learned. Get an event manager. Number one, design the event for you and number three, have the Nick party method in your world. Um, the final Thing I want to show you which was my favorite bit of the night was this. So the reason why the event was in York was for no other reason that I wanted my family to be there. And if I'd have put it in Liverpool, I'd have put it in Manchester, if I'd have put it in wherever Newcastle, they wouldn't have been able to come because it was on a Tuesday night, it was a school night and I put it in York because I wanted them to be there. And one of my favorite things, and this was done last minute, I said to Laura in the morning, I said, I want to get the kids on stage. And so at the end of my little introduction, before we got try Hawk up on stage, I got the kids and Alfie is here, Charlie's here, Frank is here and Alfie's holding Rosie. They came on stage to say thank you. And the why, the reason why I got him on the stage to say thank you is because you all that are watching this now, you have been following me, but then following them since 2016. And as people have been watching Boostly since 2016, part of Boostly since 2016, these have grown up and you know more about them, what they even realize. And so we've got to travel to amazing places to meet all of you, really, like we've stayed at your places, we've traveled the world to meet you. And we've got to meet so many people from the world of Bruce Lee. And they've got to experience amazing things because of everybody who is part of this, right? And everything that we have done over the last seven years. And to get them on stage to say thank you was amazing for me, but amazing for them. Frankie wanted to stay, he wanted to do dances, he wanted to do handstands. These two were very shy. Rosie didn't have a clue what was going on. And they haven't stopped talking about it since. They haven't stopped talking about that or the limo ride since. But to get them on stage, just to say thank you and hi to everybody and I know they went from there, they had all of the sugar. Their uncle was giving them coke, which I was, which I was fuming at because they're not going to drink Coke. And they had a best of time. They were meant to leave at 9, they didn't leave until 11. I am amazed that they were on the school run the next day. But they made it to school. My mum and dad lesson, they came down, they. They got the kids, they took them back, they stayed with Them over in the hotel, they got them up in the morning, got him breakfast, got them fed, got him dressed and they got him off to school. I was fast asleep. I didn't get in till one o' clock in the morning. They woke us on the way to the school run and I didn't see the kids until 3 o'. Clock. But yeah, little Frankie last night he fell asleep at 4 o' clock on the sofa at night and he woke up at 6am this morning. They were shattered. I've got parents evening to go to tonight and I've got to apologize for the state of my kids for the last two days because they are well and truly knackered. But they had the best, best of times. So yeah, thank you to every everybody for making them feel so welcome for everything you do. All right, the next podcast will be back to normal. It'll be back to your normal run of fins of doing this. But I really wanted to do this now while it is top of mind. There's so many people in the room that, you know, I wanted to thank him, thank him for being there and if I haven't thanked him on the night, I thanked him in a, on a WhatsApp the next day. And I really, really hope you all had as much fun as I did putting it on. It was very stressful. Things weren't going right on the day, but we made, we're able to make it happen. And I feel like at the end of the day, the reason why it just, it just worked is that in hospitality, this gene is born and created with inside you that you just get it done. And you know, I've been in this industry for a long time. I was born into it and I've been into it full time since 2011. And you develop this knack of just getting it done. Doesn't matter what the situation is, whatever the problem is, whatever the issue is, you just are able just to get it done and we're able to get it done. And the event was epic and I could properly relax after, I'd say 10 o'. Clock. Well, the more that Laura, Laura Powner, my managing director, the more Mexican mules Tequila, very strong tequila was able to give me, the more I was able to relax. And by the end of it it was, it was amazing. And this hive I'm on now will, will stick around for a while. I'm definitely going to switch off and recover now for the, for the, for the next couple of days and then I'll be back on Monday because when I'm back on Monday. Whenever you tune into this, this is going to be the 20th of November. When I'm back on Monday, we are all systems go for the book direct Virtual Summit. I think I got kind of popular by putting on these five day giveaways, five day challenges, five day trainings. But ever since Laura Powno has come in as managing director of Boostly, it's given me the ability to step outside of the business and really plan ahead. And there's something that I've wanted to do for a while now is turn these five day challenges and put them on speed and turn them into a virtual summit. So that's why on the 27th of November to the 1st of December, I've opened up my little black book and I have invited some of the best speakers in the world to a five days of virtual training. So no having to travel to York, no having to spend time away from your business and your family. This is going to be on your phones, on your devices, on your TVs. We're not going to do just one session a day. We're going to do at least three sessions a day and it is going to give you all the biggest heads up for 2024. We have got some amazing speakers lined up and I can't say anything more than that now. I'm going to start announcing it as of the 20th of November and we're going to start on the 27th of November. It's 100% free. It's going to be open for all to tune in and I'm now going to switch off and I'm going to tell you more about it on Monday. So I'm going to leave you on a teaser and we'll be back on Monday. So whenever you do listen to this podcast, you may listen to it when it goes out. Maybe listen to it live with me now, maybe in the future. You're going to be listening to this. I hope you've. I hope you've enjoyed it. It's literally just been me rabbling on for 30 minutes, but I really wanted to do this. So for everybody who's a part of it, thank you. Thank you so much for being part of it. It meant the world to bring my whole world together into one place. There was even a guy who won't watch this because he's not on social media. You may or may not recognize him. There's a guy called Jim James Hesketh. I've known him since three years old. We went to play school together. We have Grown up together, went to primary school, secondary school, college together. I didn't go to university because I dropped out to do soccer coaching. So I went to traveled America to do soccer coaching. He stayed at uni. He came back out of uni in 2006. He messaged me in June 2006 saying do you want to go traveling? I said yes. We went to Thailand, we'd booked a one way ticket to Thailand and for two years we traveled together, came back, moved to London together, came back and then that's where we went our ways. He moved to Sheffield, I came back to Scarborough and, and that's when I fell into the family business. But best man at my wedding, known him for years and he lives in Leeds. And I messaged him saying do you want to come down? Fancy it? And he came down. Didn't know anybody but I'd had a great night and it was great to have him in the room to be able to, to be able to see it. So again, bringing all my world into it, into this one room was phenomenal. So thank you everybody for being part of it. Uh, thank you to York Racecourse for being so welcoming because it was, it was a lot of messages sending and to everybody else, I really don't think I've left everybody out but if I have, I'm so sorry if I've, if I've not messages or spoken to you, I will get to yous and I'll be back very, very soon. So from me, take care everybody and have an amazing night. Uh, have amazing day afternoon, whenever you're tuning in, speak soon.