Welcome to Boostly Podcast Episode 370. This is a recap of my Facebook live where I talked about my first-ever book.
Here's the audio for this episode:
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamp
00:00 Start
00:40 Redoing the first paragraphs of my book
01:45 Never build your house on somebody else's land
04:40 Join the pre-book release
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Visual – YouTube
Audio – Boostly Podcast
Transcript from the Episode
I have a little treat for you today on the Boostly podcast, as you know, or you may know or hopefully know or if you don't know, this year, I've been planning something pretty big, pretty special. And it all started in January. And we've got the next hurdle done. As of a couple of weeks ago, I'm talking about the book Direct Playbook, aka my first ever published book. And what I want to do is I want to share with you the first little couple of paragraphs from the edit.
Redoing the first paragraphs of my book
So what I wanted to do on today's episode of the podcast is very quickly redo the first couple of paragraphs. So to give you a bit of a teaser, a bit of a taster of what is going to come next. And also as well I'm going to give you the link if you stick around to the end the link on how you can join the pre-release squad where you will get an exclusive discount, you'll get an exclusive zoom call with me as I walk through the tips. And also as well when you join that you get to go and read the first draft if you wish.
So let me share my screen. This has never been seen before, it has only me nearly and the publisher who has seen this. So I wanted to walk you through and I wanted to just read it out to you so you can enjoy it with me now. And then I'll give you more details on how you can find out more about it afterwards. So you're going to discover with this opening section a very distinct theme with the book, champion mindset the warm-up.
Never build your house on somebody else's land
I'll never forget these words first said to me in a breezy summer of 2013. I had just returned to the UK and back to a family business. A 14 bedroom guesthouse, I met the green landscapes of the Howard Dale village where I grew up. The Grainary was called family pride and joy. My task was to take the business online and effectively spread the word. Back then I thought it was brilliant that such websites such as the booking holiday group, the Expedia group, or more recently Expedia existed, a place where hospitality accommodation businesses were promised help as well as a decent income. So as long as they stash a good as long as they had a stash of good photos of shiny rooms, and more keyword-stuffed descriptions to match. We are partners with these OTAs, the problem was is there anything but we, as the business owners and I just a number to them, just another property among the millions of others who sign up to their website, just another means of making money, because they only pay as what we get a booking for them just another vehicle of their greater expansive plan. Because remember, even when we do get a booking, you have to pay a percentage of cost back to them.
I could go on, but I'm sure you get my drift. You see, when my parents opened their guesthouse in the 90s, there was no such thing as commission. You simply paid to have your business listed in a newspaper and magazine. And I was but when the commission model did emerge, it disrupted the entire industry. So much so but over the last decade, every listing site has adopted it and made a good book along the way. I see it within the communities I'm part of the idea of I don't have to pay anything if it doesn't work lulls you into a false sense of security. What's worse, is that it's so easy to get sucked in when listing sites with billions of advertising spend are shown from every digital rooftop and encouraging you to join the end result, you end up relying on them heavily for your bookings. Which brings me back to that life changing quote, a friend of mine who has been in business for many years send me this reminder had the perfect time never build your house on somebody else's land. To me, it means never rely on one platform for all your income. Especially if it's a platform you have no ownership over and frankly cannot control. It's worse than putting all your eggs in one basket because you don't even get to be that person who carries the basket around.
However, the biggest problem is five years since and after coaching 1000s of hosts from all over the world. I have learned that this is exactly what's happening within our industry. In fact, very recently while writing this book, I spoke to a host who relied on Airbnb for 95% of their bookings, the same host is now no longer in business. So now is the time to take action. And this playbook is a great place to start. In it I put all my experience learnings insights and your soccer reference to help you finally regain control and turn your business into the champion of direct bookings. You're gonna love it. Game off.
Join the pre-book release
If you want to find out more if you want to join the pre-book release book squad, go to boostly.co.uk/book only cost 99 pounds to join and with that you'll get exclusive access to the first draft to A very exclusive discount as well as an exclusive zoom link pre-release, where I'll go for everything in this book review and much more.
Thank you so much for being part of this. I really am looking forward to this book being released. I will have more information when it is going to be so until then stay awesome. Make sure you're proactive. And please, please please help me get this book to number one so we can get more hosts aware of the book direct movement.
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