Welcome to Boostly Podcast Episode 402. This is a recap of my Facebook live where I talked about how Dan Meredith changed my business forever.
Here's the audio for this episode:
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamp
00:00 Start
02:00 Your customer avatar
03:00 About Dan Meredith
04:00 The conversation with Dan
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Audio – Boostly Podcast
Transcript from the Episode
As you may or may not know, I am currently putting together the final touches of my very first book, which is called the book direct playbook. It's going to be released at some point over the next couple of months. And we are very much excited to get it to become a thing, it's going to be a physical book, it's going to be a digital book. And it's also going to be an audible version as well. And in this episode, I wanted to read to you a section of the book to give you a little bit of a teaser, and give you a little bit of taste of what you are in store for when you purchase the book.
And the section that I have pulled out is a section that is very dear to me. It features Mr. Dan Meredith, aka Mr. Coffee with Dan aka Mr. Espresso with Dan. He is a very successful offer and himself and somebody that I have looked up to for many, many, many years. And the reason why I say that is that he will hate that. And I want to tag him in, I'm going to make sure that he sees this. Because it is very important. If it wasn't for Dan Meredith, Boostly would not be here where it is today. And I can 100% say that in all certainty. It's not just Dan himself is the network that is in and around him. And all of the amazing people that I have met in his fantastic espresso with DanFacebook group.
Now, another person that I want to mention is the fantastic and the amazing Neely can. So Neely has been helping me edit this book, I sent over to her 50,000 words on a Google Doc. And she has transformed that brain dump that illiterate brain dump into something that is not only readable, but this is a fantastic read. She is phenomenal. She is helping hosts and peers in the industry as well recommend 100%. So let's share this.
Your customer avatar
So the title of this is customer avatar. Now the reason why I say this is that the book is designed to have lots of tools and tactics and training in the book. Every single chapter has got a different part of the world of direct bookings that you can implement into your business. It's very similar to tools of Titan. It's a book that way you don't have to read it from cover to cover. You can just dig in a certain chapter. So where we mentioned and we talk about customer avatar, you could also say guest profile ideal guest. So let me just read this, and then I will come back afterwards.
So what you'll read below is a scripted account of a conversation I had with Dan Meredith back in 2016. Actually, it's a bit paraphrased minus the swear words because I know my mom will read his book. And just to assure you, yes, it's relevant to customer avatars. Just stay with me.
About Dan Meredith
To give you some background info. Dan has been and remains one of the biggest influences in my business, although he has a tendency to repeat a new one, especially after saying the words I say this with a smile on my face. The guy has an unbelievable knack for identifying the very root of your business problem. The quick event you can look it up on Google. The conversation below is what went on between Dan and I, one of his infamous hotseat calls, so give you a bit of background to go off script.
A big part of what Dan does is he's very good at getting everybody into a Zoom Room. You say what's currently wrong with your business and then he will identify is called hot seats. Back then a group of 40 to 60 business owners all at different stages of their business journey would gather on a webinar hosted by Dan and you take it in turns to be verbally torn apart by him with love and all for our own respective benefit, of course, I would love listening to other people getting grilled, but when it came to my turn oh boy my hands would literally shake with hertz thank goodness those calls were only audio so nobody could see how red in the face I would go.
The conversation with Dan
Mark: I'm stuck I don't know how to best describe what I do.
Dan: Well what are you doing? How would you explain it to me if I just met you in a bar.
Mark: I help business owners with their marketing.
Dan: Who do you directly help?
Mark: Short stay accommodation owners in hospitality
Dan: Good try again.
Mark: I help short stay accommodation owners with their marketing.
Dan: No.
I should point out that by this point, I was sweating. Dan won't even remember this conversation but I do because it was literally I could remember how I felt at that point. All the blood rushing through me was making my first turn from an acceptable shade of red to an astonishing bright purple. Again, side point I'm just so glad that this is that late-night, Laura and the boys are asleep at this point is just me in the kitchen getting very embarrassed. I just kept thinking to myself, I would rather be no anywhere right now and getting this virtual grilling. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to press the leave button. And I probably might have done if I didn't have to face the embarrassment of showing up in the Facebook group among the very people who just witnessed my car crash of a call.
Ultimately, I didn't want to let down Dan. I didn't want to let myself down. After all, I just joined espresso with Dam Facebook group because I was serious about creating a business that offered support to hospitality owners, as it was so shockingly lacking in my local area of Scarborough. This wonderfully bearded man who was more than capable of making grown adults cry was simply trying to help me and I might add, he knew exactly what he was doing on our hotseat call.
You see, Dan smells bullshit way before the average human, he is almost has a tunnel for it. It's an amazing quality to have in a business owner, as well as a published offer, which he is too by the way, Dan wasn't giving me a grilling because he got some kind of egotistical kick out of it. But because it was important that I said those words myself, Dan knew I had it in me all along. And that is what makes him an epic coach.
Now, the reason why I put this in the book, and the reason why I really wanted to have it as a section in the book, is that when it comes to you, and when it comes to your ideal guest, you really do have to grill down than just saying, We are a family-friendly property, you have to go beneath that. And as an amazing quote that was recently shared with me at a conference in America, it was the micro-niche, you know, get buried so far down in a niche that there's only room for you in. And you know, there's a very common phrase that you will hear online where it says the riches are in the niches. And it is very, very true. The more that you can go down you're niched, and the more that you can really personify who you're helping have an amazing stay, then the more revenue, the more reviews, the more guests the more people that will just come to you naturally because not only will you attract the guests, but you will attract all of their friends, co-workers, etc, who are the same persona matches them.
So Dan, if you do watch this, or listen to this, said, tip top hat to you, thank you so much for everything, nearly amazing words. And I can feel myself thinking back to that hotseat call all over again. So I'm going to leave it there for today. I'll be back tomorrow. If you want to be part of the pre release squad. We've got about 400 hosts that put their name down, go to boostly.co.uk/book you can read the first draft right now it's all there on a Google doc does him draft I sent to nearly before she worked her magic, and we've got an exclusive Trello board.
And what I'm going to do before the book is published, I am going to do a zoom call. I'm going to go through the book, go through the tips and we'll have an exclusive we'll have a good chat we'll have a good zoom call on that. So if you wanna be part of that, you'll obviously get an exclusive discount a special discount when the book is released.
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