MC Fireside Chats – August 14th, 2024

SPEAKER_00:

This is MC Fireside Chats, a weekly show featuring conversations with thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and outdoor hospitality experts who share their insights to help your business succeed. Hosted by Brian Searle, the founder and CEO of Insider Perks, empowered by insights from Modern Campground, the most innovative news source in the industry.

Brian Searl:

Welcome everybody to another episode of MC Fireside Chats. Got my dog here in case I mess up and you guys can just look at her and think she’s super cute and forgive me for everything that I’ve done and transgressed throughout the entire episode. But super excited to be here for another episode of MC Fireside Chats. This week we’re focused on glamping as we always are. Second week episode, got a couple special, well one special guest here. Derry from the Secret Garden Glamping, who I understand is in the UK, but you’re in Turkey now.

Derry Green:

Yeah, just on holiday at the moment. We’re back in the UK after the weekend

Brian Searl:

Well, thanks for joining us on your holidays.

Derry Green:

No problem.

Brian Searl:

I’m super excited to have two of our recurring guests here, Zach from Clockwork and Angèle from Creekside R&R. Zach and Angèle, you want to take a minute to just introduce yourselves? And then, of course, Derry.

Angele Miller:

Sure. Yeah. So hi, everyone. My name is Angèle Miller, and I am one of the co-founders of Creekside R&R Glamping. We’re leading award winning glamping resort in the Atlantic Canada, Eastern Canada region. And we’re also now taking our brand and opening more resorts across Canada and United States as well.

Brian Searl:

Where in Canada?

Angele Miller:

Well, right. Yeah, right now we’re looking at Quebec, Alberta region as well.

Brian Searl:

Alberta is good. Yeah. I don’t know about Quebec. Alberta is fine. Welcome, Chris. But go ahead, Zach.

Zach Stoltenberg:

I’m Zach Stoltenberg. I’m the Director of Outdoor Hospitality for Clockwork. We’re a general practice architecture firm based in Kansas City, and we help people design campgrounds, glamping resorts, experiential stays, unique hospitality, boutique hotels. Done work all around the country, all around the world now. Had our first couple international projects this year, and we help people build glamping resorts.

Brian Searl:

Awesome. Super excited to have you here as always, Zach. We’ve got a couple of people who joined us a little bit late here. Should we let them introduce themselves, Zach, or should they just… No, introduce them. We’ll go with Chris first, Chris.

Chris Jeub:

All right. I’m Chris Jeub, the glamping guy, I call myself. And I run two properties here in Monument, Colorado under Monument Glamping. So you can check that out at monumentglamping.com. But I also very much enjoy connecting with other glamping operators around the country and the world as Glamping Guy, where I help landowners develop safe, legal, and profitable glamping operations on their private property.

Brian Searl:

So I didn’t know you had two. You have two places on the same piece of land? Or did I know this?

Chris Jeub:

I have two properties. Oh, this is kind of a long story, but I’ve got two properties. I’m licensed for 36 units this year, but I’m taking a step back. I’ve only got eight operating units right now. And I’ve got a third property in the works. I might go into contract next week. So that’s big news. Big news in the glamping guy world.

Brian Searl:

Well, I’ve got to tell you, Chris, I’m a little disappointed that you solved your dispute because there’s really no drama on this show anymore. So what do you think about just fighting amongst yourselves? Property to property, you can just create your own drama.

Zach Stoltenberg:

Yeah.

Brian Searl:

That’s what I’m going to talk about every week. But good. Congratulations, man. That’s awesome. Thank you. Miguel from the Mexican Glamping Association.

Miguel Huerta:

Hello, everyone. I’m Miguel Huerta. I’m the president of the Mexican Glamping Association, and I’m also a glamping operator here in Mexico. We have four glamping sites that are up and running, and I’m happy to always be part of the show. Thank you, Brian.

Brian Searl:

Awesome. Thanks for being here, Miguel. Miguel, are you going to the glamping show again in Colorado?

Miguel Huerta:

Yes, sir. And actually as a breaking news, we will be having a booth for the Mexican Lamping Association. So if you want to improve your Spanish skills, or if you want to know what’s going on here in Mexico and Central America, this would be the place to go.

Brian Searl:

I do want to know all that, but I want to do it over drinks at the bar, not at your booth. Is that an option?

Miguel Huerta:

I don’t know if we can, I mean, if we can have open containers at The Glamping Show.

Brian Searl:

If not, we’ll do the bar. Yeah, I think we can. I think we can. Yeah.

Zach Stoltenberg:

Okay.

Brian Searl:

I can answer that, yes. Yeah, for sure you can. Yes, absolutely. So, Derry, last but not least, I didn’t mean to kick you down the can, but you’re a special guest. I wanted you to go last, so we can just get into your story about the Secret Garden. So, please, introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about your business.

Derry Green:

Yeah, so I’m Derry Green. I own the Secret Garden Glamping. We’re based in the UK. So we’re the UK’s most viewed, most followed, and most booked glamping site. I started in the lockdown of 2020 as a project with my daughter and my son, just in the back garden, not intending to open a glamping site. I didn’t know what glamping was at the time. And since then, we’ve grew to, like I say, be the most booked site in the UK. We currently book around two years in advance. We have a little over 1.3 million follows across our social media platforms and over 5 billion views on our platforms now to date. So yeah, it’s been a huge journey from a little project in the garden to multiple sites now and more as we go forward.

Brian Searl:

Well, I think this is what interests us, right? Partially about, certainly you’re going to have a lot of things to talk about as we go through the show, but talk us through that beginning process. Like during COVID, you mentioned, how did you first come up with this? Perhaps it was glamping, but didn’t really know what it was.

Derry Green:

Yeah, so in the UK we had quite strict lockdown measures. So we were basically locked at home for the best part of three months. And it was just myself and my son and my daughter and it was out of boredom. You’re trying to find things for them to do each day. So we had a camping trip in the garden. First night, pitched a little tent, woke up on the grass and the next morning it was a bit wet, it wasn’t very exciting, I thought I can do a bit more. So we built a little deck to camp on for the next evening and then as days turned into weeks and then into months I just kept building a bit more each day and by the end of the first lockdown I created this whole kind of outdoor glamping area with a pod and a fire pit and a hot tub and yeah it was just great fun for me and the kids but there was never any intention to build a business out of it. But then I was contacted by a news organization to do an article on what a dad had built in lockdown for his kids. In the UK, everybody was building like home bars and gyms and things like that. So it was just a nice news piece. So there’s a photo of me and my son and my daughter in the garden with this pod. And that was it, or what I thought was it. And then people started messaging me through social media asking if they could book it for a holiday. And I thought, that’s weird. Why do you want to come and stay in my garden in Skelmersdale? That’s bizarre. But I thought, you know what? I’ve got nothing to lose. I’d lost my previous business because of COVID. I used to do transport. European transport, so France and Spain, and because we couldn’t travel, we lost that business in COVID. So I listed it on Airbnb, and within two days, we were fully booked for two and a half years in advance on that first unit that I built in the garden. So from there, I saw an opportunity for what I’d done, applied for planning permission, that took about a year to get sorted, and then we opened as a glamping site in 2021.

Brian Searl:

So you have just one tent or you have multiple tents?

Derry Green:

So now we’ve got 13 different units at our current site. So we’ve got things from traditional pods. We’ve got yurts. We’ve got tree houses. We’ve got geodomes. So every unit I do is individual. I don’t replicate the same thing over and over. So each one’s different. The new location that we’ve just purchased is a place called La Mancha Hall, which is a grade two listed stately manor. which is a massive project. We can do lots of different things there, but I like creating unique and yeah, unrivaled experiences within Glamping.

Brian Searl:

So I want to talk a little bit about that philosophy, but I got to go back to your daughter for a second. So when you were building this whole thing during COVID, right? Was it your idea every day about what to add or did she come and if she did, if it was her ideas of, you know, daddy build me this or whatever, right? Yeah. At what point did she do this for the hot tub? Was that first or was that eighth?

Derry Green:

That was a bit further down the line when we kind of ran out of simple stuff to do. So both my son and daughter were massively involved in everything. Basically, we just lived in the garden. Because again, in the UK, in general, it rains all the time. It just is what it is. But in that first lockdown, it was like a… like the most amazing summer in sort of April and so we we’ve moved everything out of the house we moved the sofa out there we moved the tv out there anything we wanted we took outside and if we didn’t have it I built it and so every time they asked for something you know if they got bored they wanted to play a game we’d make a you know a big Jenga set for example or something like that so it was all based on what they wanted to do with me and ultimately The more I kept them entertained with things in the unit or things to do, the more time I got to relax as well. So I could spend time in the hot tub or the sauna or things like that.

Brian Searl:

So is this skill set that you obviously have, right? A lot of talent, a lot of bookings, a lot of creativity. Is that something that you kind of had a passion for your whole life, that you developed, that you just kind of figured out you had over COVID?

Derry Green:

Yeah, well, I’ve always been handy. I mean, this is by far and away the biggest project I’ve ever done. The first deck that I built there was probably eight feet by 10 feet. It wasn’t a big thing. And I didn’t have any background in building or anything like that. But I love design. That’s what I’ve always loved doing and being creative. And I love spending time outdoors. I love the woodland. So yeah, and what I found is I kind of just took my hand to things. And it didn’t have to be perfect. It’s not like a… your five star hotel in Dubai, you have these rustic parts and these these kind of handmade things. And that’s the quirks of what glamping is. So everything doesn’t have to be perfect. And actually, it adds to the character of the properties that we do now.

Brian Searl:

The imperfections do exactly. Yeah. I think that’s definitely something. I mean, you remember that you look at that and it sticks out in your mind as that’s imperfect. It’s not a negative imperfect. It’s just an imperfection. And that kind of almost makes it perfect in some ways.

Derry Green:

Yeah, you can go too far. The industry is so vast in what it can be. The term glamping can be anything from a bell tent to a glass tree house in a Norwegian fjord. It can be anything. But it doesn’t have to be anything as well. So it can be this rustic, handmade thing. It came up at the start of this. It’s all about the experience. When I talk about glamping, We’re not an accommodation provider. We’re an experience provider that has accommodation. There’s a big difference in it. If it was trying to act as an accommodation provider, just like where I am now in this hotel, it’s beautiful. There’s a grand piano. There’s bookcases. It’s phenomenal. But it’s accommodation. That’s what it is. I’m not here for the experience of the lobby. I’m here to spend time with my family. So when you focus on being an experience provider instead of an accommodation provider, you can do a lot more and it can be anything it wants to be.

Brian Searl:

So I know, Zach, you have obviously a big background in focusing on this at your firm, so do you want to weigh in a little bit on this?

Zach Stoltenberg:

Yeah, I mean, I have to say honestly, Jerry, I’m very familiar with your project, because I’ve had several of our clients that have referenced it as we want something like this. I have to give you props that, you know, I think what you’ve done is incredible. And to know that you built it all yourself is even more impressive to me as an architect, as someone who knows how these things come together. So I think that’s incredible. But I’d love to hear, you When we did the introductions, you talked through some pretty big numbers, 5 billion combined views, 1.8 million followers online. I’d love for you to talk a little bit about the social media side, because I know you had a jumpstart, right? You had the magic bottle, or genie in the bottle, you had the initial television story and interview that launched you. But if you can talk a little bit about what you’ve done, are you managing your social media? Are you working with someone that does that? And how that’s impacted the growth and building out your business?

Derry Green:

Yeah, so social media is a massive part of my business. Again, when I’m talking about experience over accommodation, when I talk about my business specifically, we’re now a social media company that has a glamping site. So our product could be anything. It could be a pair of trainers. It could be a dining table. Our product is our glamping site. But we’re ultimately a social media business now. I learned quite early on that the social media aspect of any business these days is really, really important. But again, when I came to it, I had Facebook and I used it to say happy birthday to a friend when I was told to or put some pictures of kids on. I didn’t really understand how social media worked from a business point of view. So that’s where I focused a lot of my time on. A lot of people get stuck within the business within Glamping and I could see it really early on that I could end up being on site every day fixing toilet seats or welcoming guests or whatever it might be. So I kind of took a step back right early on and made sure that I focused on the social media and I did everything I could to learn. what our audience wanted, what people wanted to see, why people were visiting our site. And that then led me down the journey from social media. So yeah, we went from, you know, a standing start when that first, because I didn’t have social media at the time, although we had this big impact through the articles that went online about it, I only had my own personal kind of Facebook, which was private. So when I started, I started with sort of two or 300 followers, and then it quickly grew from there. And I worked out, well, again, It’s a bit of a longer story, but it was actually through necessity rather than through design. Because when I got the planning permission for the site, which took me about a year, I had no funds to build the site. Because at the time I had one unit that was booked through Airbnb, so I was receiving payments every day for that unit. So each day I’d get in $100, $150 each day. So I had no money to put the $100,000 worth of infrastructure in that I needed to actually start the glamping site. So I had to launch my first unit before I built it. with no photography, no content, no nothing. And I basically tried to come up with a plan of selling something before I had it and made a whole big thing around it was going to be a surprise and it was going to be amazing and kind of took people on the journey with me, which is basically what crowdfunding is. But I did it privately through my own website so we could then take bookings, which I could then get the 30% deposits in to then actually build the product that I was selling to people. And yeah, you know, since then, my main focus is social media. I do all the social media that we have between myself and my partner Chelsea. She runs all the Instagram and TikTok. Now I run everything on Facebook and all the backend stuff. But all the posts, all the content, we do everything in-house. We don’t outsource anything. Because that’s what, again, I love the way that social media works. I hate it, but I understand the way it works. And that’s kind of like a game. Yeah, it’s like a game to me of working out these little tweaks. And it’s just constant testing of different things. And our social media platform is colossal now. Our average monthly reach is about 10.2 million. And that’s growing constantly. And obviously, it’s down to social media, but then other types of media as well. Any form of marketing that we can do is really, really important. That’s what drives all our leads. We turn away, on average, around about 1,500 bookings a week. And our waiting list at the minute is around about 120,000, something like that. We couldn’t build them quick enough. But again, limiting the supply makes it higher demand. So it’s all these different factors.

Brian Searl:

Miguel, yes, absolutely. That’s what you’re here for. Feel free.

Miguel Huerta:

No, I love what Derek just shared with us and I’m completely with you. What is funny is that last week I gave this presentation where I told them that I think that the glamping industry is surging not because of COVID, because at the end, we are I mean, we are like the outcome of different technologies come together. We have, I mean, because of social media, because of the internet, because we can serve and operate from afar, because now using this satellite internet, I think that the glamping industry is disrupting the hospitality industry. And as you said, we’re not selling these diamond hotels. We’re selling more of an experience, but also I think that our clients are a little bit more welcoming. And the mistakes that we may have at the end, even like the big professionals, they tend to have these mistakes. And I think that it’s something that we need to to share with the rest of the glamping industry that we are growing and learning as every step as we’re going. And I think that Barry, and actually I’m a huge fan of you, if you have some followers, behind me and some of my people. But at the end, I think that the glamping industry will keep on growing. I was talking to this technology guy the other day, which he was telling me that he can go completely off grid for a manufacturing plant. So can you imagine if we do that with different locations? At the end, for example, here in Latin America, not only in Mexico, we’re primed with different natural sceneries that sadly the level of comfort and the level of service has not been met till now. So I think that we’re going to keep on seeing more stories like Darius or like some other folks that are part of the glamping OGs, if I may name ourselves. And the industry is only going to keep on growing and sophisticating. So good for you, Darius. I love what you share with us.

Zach Stoltenberg:

Thank you. I have another question related to the experience piece. When I first found the Secret Garden, the website that was sent to me, I believe the article was that you were the number one destination in the UK for hen and stag parties. And so that made me kind of think like, you know, a big part of outdoor hospitality and glamping in general is these experiences and maybe group experiences or a certain type of customer that we’re trying to attract. And I think industry-wide, there’s been a lot of people that have focused on kind of, you know, the romantic couples weekend getaway. And that’s certainly huge market in outdoor hospitality. But I wondered if you could talk a little bit about some of those trends that you’ve seen at your sites and other groups that for people that are watching the podcast, other opportunities that they might’ve overlooked or other groups that they might want to try to market to.

Derry Green:

Yeah so that’s that again the big thing when I came into glamping because I came into it with open eyes you know I’d never done anything like this so rather than things just being done the same as it’s always been I guess it’s always from my point of view why can’t this be done so you know things like weekends holidays school holidays all those sorts of things everybody can fill You know, they’re relatively straightforward to fill. You know, when you’re looking at most sites running at 60, 70, maybe even up to 80% occupancy. We currently, from cash terms, run at 106% occupancy, and we have done since day one. And the reason is because we have a diverse range of people that come. So if you look at weekends and school holidays, obviously it’s going to be families, kids, that sort of stuff. Now, most people within the glamping industry, like you said, focused on couples. Now, when I came to it, I was with my partner Chelsea, and as a couple with two kids, it’s very hard for us to get away on a Tuesday in December, let’s say. So if me and Chelsea want to go away on a Tuesday in December, we’ve got to get childcare, we’ve got to not only have babysitters, we’ve got to get somebody to take them to school, to pick them up from school, get them dinner, all these sorts of things, which is really, really difficult. So when I came to it, I thought, how could me or Chelsea go away? So when Chelsea goes away, she can go away with two or three or four of her friends, and I can stay home and look after the kids. And then at the weekend, I might go to the football or something like that. So focusing on groups was always key at the start. So we never build any unit that won’t sleep at least four people. So any unit that accommodates two, I won’t even look at anymore, because you are limiting yourself massively. Most couples now are having children younger, they’re both working, getting time off work, that sort of stuff is really, really hard. So our main focus has been around mainly groups of women so women between the ages of 35 and 45 so I kind of talk about it it’s like the the mums from school who meet on the way to school and you know they might bitch about the husbands going to the football on a Saturday or golf on a Sunday or something like that and they’ll go away on a Tuesday or a Wednesday or Thursday when the husbands can take the kids to school so that’s fine and then we also have multi-generational families here so when we go away You know, I go away, it’ll be me and Chelsea and the kids, and it’ll be my mum, and then my brother and his wife will come with us. So having these larger units, or units that can accommodate different things. So we have two units, the wilderness spa and the lookout. Both are separate, both sleep up to four people, but if you book them together, the central fence between them can slide away and it becomes one huge unit. So that way we can accommodate larger groups, especially if it’s two families or multi-generational families. But then in the week, on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, they can be partitioned off and sold separately to couples or groups or whatever else. So focusing on the midweek stays, who’s going to come to those stays, has always been the focus. The weekends and the school holidays will always fill the cells. So it is women is our main audience. 96% of our followers are female. We’ve never had a stag do in four years. We’ve never had a group of men in four years book. But we have had lots of groups of women who want to now come away and relax and spend a nice time doing something.

Brian Searl:

This part of it fascinates me, and I want to hear your thoughts too, Zach. And obviously, Angel and Chris, as you’ve built out your businesses in Miguel in Mexico too, as a marketing guy, right? And I don’t want to slant it with, I meant to do everybody at the same size, and I blew up Angel there. That was weird. Sorry. But as a marketing guy, this is what we’re talking to clients in campgrounds, RV parks, glamping spaces. Our general advice, and obviously, it’s different for each unique property or client is, you know, start with marketing to everybody and then figure out who your niche is and then build specific stories to tell to those people to make sure that you’re in front of that audience and telling them why they want to stay. You know, a crude example is like the construction workers who would come. I had a conversation with, you know, a campground who was trying to attract these last week. And it was just, you know, build a page on your website that talks about why you’re good for construction workers, how close you are to the plant, where the grocery stores are, where the hospitals are, where the, and then that page serves as the hub for them. And then build another page and another page and another page, but start big to apply to, to kind of everybody, not in a generic way, but in a way that you can then follow that process. So, you know, Zach, I know you’re big into branding right in the beginning with some of these properties that you, so talk about how you would kind of counsel someone to do that. How do you figure out what your brand is?

Zach Stoltenberg:

It’s a huge part of what we do from a design perspective. Sitting down and just establishing, it doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be just sitting down with a notebook and a sheet of paper and talking through what is it that we want to build? One thing that I go back to always that I think Derry did so well is figuring out what is that experience? What is the experience that we want to deliver? That should be connected to your customer base? Who is it that you’re trying to attract? And so, you know, when you look at the Secret Garden, you know, the design, the interiors of the units, especially, I mean, it’s very easy to see that this is something that would be very attractive to a female customer, which is why 96% of his followers are female, right? He understands his market. He knows he’s looking there.

Brian Searl:

He didn’t do it though, right?

Zach Stoltenberg:

He didn’t accidentally find it and then grow old. No, no, no. And so I think in the beginning stages, defining what that’s going to be, being really intentional about it, put it into writing so that you have something to go back to, and then using that as you make those decisions, whether that’s design, whether that’s your web, presence, your, you know, which type of marketing platform you’re choosing. All those things should be driven by what is the experience we’re trying to deliver and who are we marketing that experience to. And then I think being consistent with it, you know, following through. One of the things I loved hearing you talk about, Jerry, was sort of managing expectations, right? because I personally, I mean, I’ve seen this, I’ve seen it repeatedly in traditional hospitality, where, you know, people get online, they look at the photos, you see this, you know, beautiful room, well made bed, everything. And then when you actually arrive on on the property, and you walk in, you realize that that picture must have been taken about eight or 10 years ago. And You know, the room reaps of stale cigarettes and the linens on the bed are so stiff, you know, you can’t, you don’t even want to sit on them and you can almost feel the bed bugs, right? So I think we’ve seen, we’ve all encountered that. We’ve had that bait and switch. But I think, One of the reasons that we see so much marketing on social media and that we trust influencers and reviewers and those firsthand accounts is that we want to make sure that we show up what we get and what we’re expecting is what we were promised. I think Derry’s done a really good job of that. The photos, everything that they have on social media, it gets you excited. You’re like, wow, this is a really, really cool place. But I think when guests show up, it’s just as cool when they get there in person. And so I think establishing that brand, figuring out who it is, being honest, managing those expectations, all those things are working together to create that really positive experience. And I think Derry’s done it very well.

Brian Searl:

But I think it’s important to say, too, that the brand sometimes, not for maybe us on this podcast, but I think brand can be a scary word. How do I format? How much work has to go into it? How do I figure out my audience and then market and build my website and talk about my social media? And what’s my style and my tone? It’s a lot. And I think there’s also something to be said for people that you already have a brand. You may not understand what it is, but this goes back to, you know, I remember one of the first times I ran into this was probably 2012 or 13, when we were marketing for a jelly stone who was trying to get people in the fall after kids went back to school. And we finally kind of, you know, this is way back when I was new in the camping industry, but we’re looking at their website and there’s pictures of kids playing all around and the people who are traveling in September along the roads don’t necessarily want to be near noisy kids and they don’t realize they’re all back in school and that’s not going to be the environment. So something as small as changing the photos You know, changing the text out, depending on the season, there’s a niche you’re going after. You have a brand already. People are talking about you. It’s understand what that is. Is it the right brand for you? And then going and then making adjustments all the way up until what you’re talking about, right?

Zach Stoltenberg:

Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the important things you said there is like brand can be scary, right? It doesn’t have to be, it shouldn’t. You know, it can be a very informal thing. But once you kind of hit on that, once you’ve selected it, I think staying consistent is the most important piece of that. Know who you are, know what you do, do what you do well. You know, those are just kind of basic core principles of good business, right?

Chris Jeub:

Can I pipe in here? Cause I think it’s a, I’ve got an answer.

Brian Searl:

One second, Chris. Yes. Cause I just want to say that also with consistency. Cause that that’s scary to a lot of our clients too, is what does consistency mean? Does that mean I have to post every single day? Does it mean I have to plan a content calendar out for six months in advance and create blog posts? Right? No, that’s not what it means. It means portraying your brand consistently, whatever that means to you. So go ahead, Chris. Sorry.

Chris Jeub:

Yeah, I was gonna say that what I mean, Derry, you’re very inspiring. I don’t know if you realize how inspiring you are, because a couple things that you said, like, like, why can’t this be done? You’re, I liked what you said earlier on by, by, you know, you were just imperfect, and you were fine with being imperfect at the beginning there. And now you’re, you’re really rolling and doing, doing fantastic. Uh, I find that people are hesitant to get involved in glamping or doing something on their own property because they analyze and wait for perfection or they wait to have their brand all figured out before they actually do something. And, uh, uh, it sounds like what you did is you just put it up in your, your yard and just kind of made it up as you went along.

Brian Searl:

And then the brand, he also didn’t intend to do that. Right. So he kind of like accidentally. But still, right, I see your point.

Chris Jeub:

Yeah. You also said you also said something early on about how you fell into it. I have a very similar experience where I fell into it, a bedroom remodel. I just threw my tent up in my backyard and threw it up on Airbnb to see what happened. And I booked out the rest of the summer. It was just a it was just a fun. experience and I just fell into it. And then COVID hit. And then all of a sudden, as I started moving along on this road of kind of making money and just having a good time and having fun with it, and the hospitality of it was very enjoyable. the brand started to form itself. I’m still forming my brand. I’m six years into this and I’m still five years into it and I’m still holding it and adapting to the demands that the market puts on me. If that inspires people who are watching here, who have property and they’ve been analyzing this forever and they’re waiting for that perfect brand identity, to move forward. It’s analysis paralysis is keeping you from starting because actually when you start, then momentum picks up and you start, the brand comes together as you move into business.

Brian Searl:

Yeah, I don’t want to take us away from brand because that’s really important. And sorry, Daryl, just give me one second. I want to let you answer that. I don’t want to take us away from brand, but that paralysis is everything is probably Zach has dealt with and Miguel has seen and Angel has talked to people about, right? It’s not just branding. It’s when am I going to get the perfect price? Am I all lined up with my permitting? And it’s always a story to tell. I have a good friend who has been trying to start a business for 15 years and always comes up with a reason. It’s not an excuse in his mind, but it’s a reason to not do it yet. Or I’m going to be there next week or next month, right? So I think that’s important, that message that you just said, Chris. And please, Derry, go ahead.

Derry Green:

Yeah, so this is a… I love this little bit of a rabbit hole here. So lots of stuff came up then. When you were saying about leaning into something, that’s exactly what I did. I had no idea what glamping was, what people wanted, nothing. So I just lent in to what the media was saying about me. It was as simple as that. Now, as we go further down this journey, what we were talking about with brand and content and things like that, the one thing that comes through over and over again now is authenticity. Now, you look at any major brand, Hilton Hotel, something like that, you’re never going to see Mr. Hilton stood on the checking desk saying hello to you. It’s not going to happen. So there’s no point in competing with big business on stuff that they do really, really well, because you can’t. They’ve got the budget to do whatever they want. But what we can do is we can compete from an authenticity side of things. So this was the big switch for me, was TikTok as a platform. Because we were really kind of early adopters onto TikTok. And I’ll be honest, I absolutely hated the platform. Because I loved creating content that made, as Zach said, made the site look as amazing as possible. You can sit there and edit content all day long, change the filters, change the lighting, do anything you want to make it look perfect. Now, if that customer turns up and it’s not what they’ve seen, then they’re not going to be happy. So my first two or three videos that I put onto TikTok as a platform were these really crafted kind of adverts, I guess is probably the best way. And I got nothing, no promotion from it at all because people don’t want to see that content on TikTok. The first video that went really, really well on TikTok was created by my daughter who wandered around with a camera like this, you know, going all over the show. The lighting was awful. It was raining. The place looked a mess. I was like, no, we cannot put that on. It went viral. People love it. So what people want to see now on social media is they don’t want to see perfection, because perfection is selling something to them. When people are sat on social media these days, it’s not because they want to be sold to. They want to relax and spend their time looking at videos, looking at whatever it is. If they smell a whiff of being sold to, they’ll switch. They’ll move. So these videos that people create when it isn’t perfect are far, far better than anything you can do from a promotional side of things.

Brian Searl:

Because perfection is saturated. This is what they’ve been used to is the polished, perfect life of Sally for 10 years, right?

Zach Stoltenberg:

And this is it. Darryl, you hit the nail on the head when you said it’s all about authenticity. When you show them that perfect, curated, crafted content, it doesn’t feel authentic. It doesn’t feel honest. It doesn’t feel real. And we’re inundated with that, right? On every other form of media, we get the message that they want us to get. And I think especially on younger generations, there’s almost a rebellion against that. It’s like, give me the imperfect. Give me the crappy, because I know it’s real. I know you’re being straight and honest with me.

Derry Green:

That’s the point you see. So if somebody sees a video of our site in December, in the pouring rain, and people are sat there having a great time, if they’re coming in summer when it’s going to be hot and sunny, they know they’re going to have a great time. Because if somebody’s having a great time when it’s the worst time, when they come, it’s going to be the best time. So that, it sells itself more over. Now we’re part of TikTok’s high value acquisitions team. So we have bi-weekly meetings with TikTok. They’re moving to a review platform. Reviews these days are dead. You look at Google or TripAdvisor or any of the other platforms, and everything is either a five-star review or a one-star review. And the people who leave the one-star reviews, you discount them because you know they’re just complaining for no reason. And the people who leave five-star reviews, again, you discount because it can’t be perfect, as we’ve just discussed. So with a platform like TikTok, it can show people the genuine content and people can make up their own minds based on people’s real experiences there. And if they can see people having real experiences, having a great time, that’s what’s really going to push you on social media. That’s what’s going to drive the bookings. And that’s ultimately going to what is what make people come back and share what you’re doing.

Brian Searl:

And ultimately, they don’t need to sit and watch all the video content either, because now you look at technology like AI that can look at your user-generated content and the videos that are on TikTok and YouTube and even summarize that stuff for you from an authentic standpoint. So that’ll be interesting to see what TikTok does.

Derry Green:

And then just… Oh, sorry. I was just going to say, just before we go off the point of… Sorry, I was losing where I was. Sorry. Yeah, no, I’ve lost where I’m up to now. It’s for sure my fault. I distract everybody all the time.

Zach Stoltenberg:

Authenticity in social media and marketing.

Derry Green:

Yes, that was it, right, yes. So brand and who we’re targeting, that sort of stuff. What I tend to find, especially in the UK market, when it comes to brand, when it comes to who you’re marketing to, everybody has a bias. I had a bias when I came to this and I quickly worked out what I wanted to see wasn’t what everybody else wanted to see. If you look at my feed, it’s not just Glamp Insight, Glamp Insight, Glamp Insight. cars, it’s football, it’s all these different things. So I realized my own bias were probably going to influence what I was doing. So this, and this is where social media is absolutely key for it. Facebook into Instagram, TikTok are by far better at working out who your perfect customer is than I ever would be in a million years. They will show your content to the people that need to see it. So the answer is I just keep putting out content, keep putting out content and see who likes it. Whatever content does well, I do more of that content. And you go down and down the line by keep doing the same thing over and over again and fine-tuning that product until you get to an end point. So I never started off thinking, oh, I really want to attract women. I thought, as everybody does at the start, oh, it’s probably going to be couples. I probably want to target men and women. I let Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok do the hard work for me. So when I talk about social media, although we’ve got, 10 million views a month we’ve got 1.3 1.4 million followers they’re not my audience i only have three people who i try and target which is facebook instagram and tiktok because if their algorithms are so good now they will show the exact people you want to see that because if i was a a 50 year old couple who had no kids and dogs i’d probably try and target 50 year old couples who had kids who didn’t have kids and who had dogs just naturally you kind of look at content in that way you think well what do i like oh well i want to show people that and it’s the worst thing to do so at the start You put the content out and let the social media platforms decide for you where that content needs to go. And then you follow that path down from what they’re telling you. Because if they’re telling you this video is great, do more of that. Don’t do what a lot of people do and think, oh, well, I will.

Brian Searl:

Like you were talking about, right? You figure out what doesn’t work. Exactly.

Miguel Huerta:

And I think it’s funny because look what I have in here. It’s Coldplay’s Rush of Blood to the Head album. And they have a lyric that says, give me real, don’t give me fake. And I think that that is happening with TikTok, you know? So what I wanted to ask you very, really quick is, because it just happened to me that one of our videos got a little bit over one million views. What’s your sales funnel? Okay, so you put out the content and then you, I mean, sure, like people, they look at your videos, some of them, they subscribe to them, but then how do you drive them to bookings? Because I think that that will be quite an insight for the people that are watching the podcast.

Derry Green:

Right, so this is, when it comes down to, where was that video on? What platform was that on? TikTok. Yeah, perfect, right. So my whole social media strategy now, and this is it, and this is what everybody should be doing. I use TikTok as my kind of testing platform. So we put content onto TikTok every single day. Every day we put stuff on there. And if you look down my video views, although it’s, again, this is why I don’t want people to get disheartened, because when I look at it, something that’s good for us is in the millions. So it’s when a video does a million, two million, something like that. And when something is bad for us, that’s when it does, you know, 10,000, 20,000. But it works equally if it’s 10 views and 100 views. So we’ll put out 10 pieces of content And we’ll see which one does best. And there will be one that stands out from all the others. You’ll have one that does, say, 10,000, 10,000, 20,000, a million, 10,000, 10,000. Because TikTok is a platform that takes each individual piece of content and rates it on its own value. So whether it’s Facebook and Instagram, everything’s rated on what you’ve done previously, what you’ve done. going forward, TikTok is literally on an individual basis. So we can have a video that does 2 million one day and it can do 200 the next day and it is purely content driven. So we will then take that video that’s done a million views on TikTok and we will put that onto Facebook and Insta around 10 to 14 days later. And that video will do double, triple, quadruple what it’s done on TikTok. Because we know Facebook and Instagram, Meta as a business, are trying to copy TikTok’s algorithm. Because TikTok’s algorithm is so far in advance, it’s unbelievable. So the only way Facebook and Instagram can keep up is by the time they figure it out, which, again, 10 days, two weeks is about kind of how far they are behind when they’re trying to keep up. Their algorithm actually boosts anything that TikTok have done in that period. So they think that to get that audience back, they need to show more people those really, really good videos. So we’ll have a video that does a million on TikTok and it’ll do 7 million on Insta on Reels because it takes that platform. So we use TikTok as a testing platform. And then we use Facebook and Insta to actually gain that huge audience. And when we’re driving people then, when Facebook and Insta are showing it to, you know, combine say 10, 15 million, it’s very easy to get customers. Now it works the same on a smaller scale because if you’ve got um 10 videos and each one’s got 10 views on let’s say and you’ve got one that’s got 100 views well that one video is 10x anything else you’ve done before so you want to do more on that one so use the algorithm that tiktok has or that insta has or that facebook has and find out what they think is good and work on that that’s what i do every day i don’t dig it on what i like because if i did There’d be a lot of videos that I’ve put on there that have bombed that I think are way better than some of the other stuff that I’ve done, but the algorithm doesn’t think so.

Brian Searl:

Well, and I think it’s important to, again, dial this back, right? Because I understand algorithms, and a lot of people here understand the algorithms, right? But from a small business owner perspective, we’re really talking about giving the user what they want by giving TikTok what they want, because TikTok wants to give the user what they want to keep them engaged in watching more content and seeing more ads and everything else, right? And it’s really that simple. It’s like you were talking about in the beginning. You were posting the promotional stuff and it wasn’t working. And then you started to figure out, OK, what’s working? Well, what’s working is what your user wants. So many people, so many of us have been on social media for 15 whatever years. And in the beginning, it was easy. We could just post whatever we wanted to post or we thought wanted to be seen. And that would be amplified. But then they started shutting down organic reach and focusing more on advertising. And the algorithms started to get better. And people are still doing the same thing they did 10, 15 years ago as a business owner. Buy, buy, buy, look at my new site, 10% off. The algorithms don’t want to show this stuff. And we’ve started to have conversations with clients about the same thing. Like, don’t even worry about your followers. One, you shouldn’t be worrying about that anyway. It’s a vanity number. But two, the algorithm is just going to show your content. People are starting to figure out they don’t need to click follow anymore. They’ll see it anyways. So again, it’s just in that world, then you still have to create content that is for TikTok, that is thus for your users, because you better believe the algorithm is not going to show the book now sales promotional messages that you want to put out.

Zach Stoltenberg:

Something else that I’ve heard more recently, this is from one of our clients, they noticed in their traffic that any videos, any reels, any content that they posted, where they didn’t talk about price. They didn’t talk about a special. They didn’t talk about a sale. Yes, you can click on their profile and it has a link to their website and their direct bookings and all that. That’s there. But if they didn’t talk about any kind of special price, promo, anything like that, those videos were doing well. On the videos, and they tried it. They said, well, we had a cancellation or something. So they put a quick video out, hey, And they put those out. What they actually found was that Meta, the Facebook and Insta, would throttle that post back. that they were only getting like less than 10% of the impressions on a post where they were trying to sell something. And I think that resonates just with what you were saying, Derry, about, you know, people don’t want to be sold to and I think the platforms are recognizing that as well. And so even, and I don’t know if it’s an AI bot or, you know, real person that’s reviewing and vetting this stuff. But they have in their tools to show that to fewer people. And where they were frustrated with it was they said, because of that throttling, most of the followers that eventually saw that video saw it three days after they posted it. And to try to fill a hole, fill a gap, whatever, when they started, when people finally started commenting on that, it was, oh, I wish I would have saw this two days ago. It just showed up in my feed. So I think that’s really good feedback and kind of, you know, a good insight, hopefully for people that are watching, you know, focusing on content and creation of less on the marketing booking cost side is going to help you fit those algorithms a little bit better.

Brian Searl:

deliver value, right? And then what you’re talking about is a funnel, like you should have multiple touch points. I’m sure that if you ask Derry, his only touch point is not social media, it might be one of his biggest ones. And so the deal is much better served on email or text message marketing. But you can build an audience through social by collecting leads and taking that stuff offline, and then working through a funnel. So you have a list of 100,000 people you can send a deal to, to fill somebody the same night, because you know, it’s not gonna play on social, right? Is that fair?

Derry Green:

I couldn’t agree more. So in four years of doing this, I have never ever put a price on a video, never put a deal on a video, nothing. You will never see content from me that has anything to do with, book this, you need to buy this now. It does not work on socials anymore. You’re right, because at the end of the day, Facebook, Instagram, they’re not getting anything from it. the fifth Yeah, because if you do, that’s the aim of the game, is keep them on that platform as long as possible. That’s the simple fact. So like you just said then, TikTok specifically as a platform, because we are fully booked, it’s pointless sending people from a TikTok video to our booking page, because they’ll get there, there’s no audience, sorry, there’s no bookings, they’ll leave, because it’s very quick like that. So we don’t use that. We use TikTok specifically as a data capture tool. So the link that’s on our TikTok, did you get one link on TikTok, doesn’t send them to a booking page, it doesn’t send them to see the units, they can see all that on TikTok, they probably just have. It actually sends them to a competition page. So every month we run a competition and we give away a night’s stay. And they’ll go from TikTok to that landing page, win a free night. They’ll give us their information, email address, phone number, that sort of stuff. Yes, they can’t come and stay, but maybe they can win a stay. And once a month, we draw a winner and we give away a free night. But we’re gaining tens of thousands of email addresses phone numbers from that rather than losing them off the other end because they come to the website and go again because they’re not going to spend long but again if we can give them a form that they fill in in 20 seconds and they can go back to watching funny cat videos on TikTok great everybody’s a winner we capture their details we know they’re interested in what we’re doing and we can mark it to them at another point down the line

Brian Searl:

And they’re an audience that, again, you said, the nail on the head is they’re interested in what you’re selling. Stop buying lists, please, everyone.

Derry Green:

This is what does my head in with Facebook, well, with meta ads. So with meta ads, it really does my nut in. Because a lot of it, I mean, I understand the justification for it. Actually, when you’re talking about if you’ve got a specific night that you need to sell, meta ads can do that for you. It will show it to the people who want to see it for that time. I get that. If you pay, right?

Brian Searl:

But then the ROI has to be there of, well, it’s a last minute deal, and I’ve got to give a discount on it. How much do I spend on ads?

Derry Green:

Yeah, I don’t like it because ultimately all that ad is doing is showing it to whatever they’ve guaranteed they’re going to show it to. 10,000 people, 20,000 people, 100,000 people. That might be somebody who wants went somewhere with somebody that was near a glamping site. Do you know what I mean? It’s not specific audiences looking for specific things. If somebody sees my glamping video on TikTok, it’s because they want to see glamping videos, they’ve searched glamping videos, they’ve talked about glamping, whatever it might be. So that audience member is way more beneficial to me than 10,000 that I’ve paid Meta to try and find. which also like 10,000 other things and aren’t really interested in going glamping in August. They just kind of mentioned it once. So I always, again, sorry, I’m going off on a little tangent here. When I look at marketing, so I have never, in my whole time, ever paid anybody for anything. So I’ve never done a… Actually, I’m lying. I’ve spent about £10 on MetaRads just to have a mess around with it. But I’ve never paid. Everything’s organic. We’ve never bought a follower, never paid for an advert, nothing. Anything we’ve ever done. But when i say organic reach nothing’s ever organic you’ve got to do something to start with so i know specifically on tiktok if i want my video to say get to a million i can pay for that it’s about seven grand something like that The way I look at it is, what can I buy, what can I build, what can I make for $7,000 or pounds that will get me a million views? And there’s lots of things that I can do with 7,000 pounds to get me a million views. So we create things at the site that make people want to take videos, take photos. We add these things in. You know what? The neon signs, a sauna, for example, cost us about 5,000 pounds. I can create 100 pieces of content about that sauna, and if one of them goes to a million, it’s paid for the sauna. But then it’s there over and over and over, and everybody’s creating content with it. So that content figure is going up and up and up all the time. So rather than spend money on marketing your business, think of things that you could do within your business with that marketing budget to get better content. So if your marketing budget is $500 a month, what can you buy for $500 to make a really good video? Might be some fireworks, it might be some lanterns, it can be anything that you can create content with and I guarantee it’s way cheaper to do it that way and you will get a way bigger audience.

Brian Searl:

Well, and it’s who that audience is too, which is very critical. Again, we’re talking about buying email lists versus building your own email list. You’re clearly interested in what you’re doing or running ads versus organic social that are nurturing your niche, right? I mean, this is who, I can get you 2 million people to your website tomorrow, but probably none of them are going to buy. And we’re having this conversation with hundreds of our clients now, which is just like, the traffic doesn’t matter to your website anymore. You should expect your website traffic to go down from here out, because they’re researching on ChatGPT, and they’re finding you other places, and all that kind of stuff. But who cares? The number of people that come to your website doesn’t matter. It’s how many people are buying. And if they’re buying on TikTok without leaving TikTok, fine. If they’re buying on ChatGPT without leaving ChatGPT, cool. If they can purchase on Alexa, that’s great. Who cares if they ever see your website? Absolutely.

Zach Stoltenberg:

No, I think that’s a really interesting point because I get that feedback from both existing operators and people that are trying to launch and start where, you know, the excuse or reason, whatever you want to call it, you know, oh, I can’t afford to do that. You know, looking at a unit, you need $5,000 in new furniture for this. Well, I can’t afford to do that. You can’t afford not to do that. And I think looking at it through that lens of, you know what, we’re gonna bite the bullet, we’re gonna spend it, we’re gonna make this unit look incredible, Instagrammable, and we’re gonna count it towards our marketing piece, right? I think that’s a really valuable way to look at it that I think many operators probably miss.

Brian Searl:

Well, everybody struggles with it. Not even just operators, right? Like, I’m going through this with our company. We’re about to drop $6,000 on a brand new trade show booth that has a backlit thing that’s really nice, right? Do we need that? I don’t know. But if we’re going to go and spend $3,000 to exhibit at a trade show and $4,000 at another one, we might as well have the prettiest booth. And then we’ll know, is the trade show worth it or not? We won’t be second guessing whether it was our ugly booth that drove people away, right? So it’s something that you deal with.

Zach Stoltenberg:

Especially when you’re a marketing company.

Brian Searl:

But you always have that, right? It’s not just an operator thing.

Derry Green:

Yeah. And it doesn’t have to be big scale. I mean, a lot of the stuff we do now, because when we’re booking two and three years in advance, I know what’s coming in for the next three years. So it’s very easy for me to plan. It’s very easy for me to talk about, especially bigger infrastructure that we’re putting in. When we’re building swimming pools and spas and things like that, that’s easy. But even on a small scale, so one of the biggest things that we ever did and it was only about six or eight months ago. We was out shopping and we seen like a there was a set of swings, like garden swings, but they were done like in a Victorian style. They looked a bit cheap. They were like a greeny colour. They were $200 from a local shop. So we brought them back to ours, my partner Chelsea spray painted them gold, put some flowers on them, we put a couple of little lights on them and stuff, and we sat them at the entrance to the car park. So when you pull into the car park, you’ve got a little gate that goes through onto a main pathway, and the swings are sat there. And without fail, every single guest who walks through that gate after they’ve parked the car, before they go to the unit, has a photo. It might be a couple having a photo together, it might be a family with kids having a photo, it might be dad taking a photo with mum and the kids. Every single person has a photo there. And then what do they do? They put it on Facebook, they put it on Instagram, they tag us in it. That $200 that we spent on that, I guarantee has been the most successful marketing thing we’ve ever done. So it doesn’t have to be really expensive. It’s just place. So we put it as the first thing they see when they get out of the car. They’re really excited to come. They’re going to go further. Right, let’s have a photo, family photo, friend photo, whatever it is, to start it off. And they always post that. And every time, so we’ve got 65 guests on site at any one point. So 65 people are either sharing that or being tagged in that, which is showing it to, say, on average, three or four or 500 friends that they have on their own Facebook group. We’re then into tens of thousands every single day without doing anything, not lifting a single finger. And that’s being done day in, day out without doing anything for a very small spend at the start.

Brian Searl:

All right, well, I think I could talk to all of you guys, as always, for probably another hour. But I’m sure everybody has something to do with their day. And it’s 10 o’clock in Turkey now, Derry? Yeah, it is. Yeah, it’s getting late now. Things you want to do without talking to us. So I appreciate you all being here. Let’s do final thoughts. So do you want to go around the room? We’ll end with Derry. But Zach, you want to go first?

Zach Stoltenberg:

I just want to say thank you. I mean, it’s incredible what you’ve done, what you’ve built. I really appreciate the insights. I think you give a really valuable perspective that I think a lot of people would benefit from knowing and hearing. So yeah, my takeaway is just thank you for sharing all this. It’s a wealth of knowledge. I agree with Brian. I think I could sit and pick your brain for another four hours on how to do this. and maybe we do need to follow up.

Brian Searl:

You can stay on when you’re done if you want.

Zach Stoltenberg:

But no, just thank you very much. I’m very impressed with what you’ve done and look forward to seeing more great things from you.

Brian Searl:

Thank you. And for your expertise, Zach, where can they find out more about Clockwork?

Zach Stoltenberg:

You can find us, we are on Instagram, clockwork-ad, for architecture design. You can email me, Zach, at clockwork-ad.com. LinkedIn, Facebook, all the usual channels.

Brian Searl:

Awesome. Thanks for being here, Zach. Miguel? I don’t think we can hear you.

Miguel Huerta:

the end of Yeah, thanks so much, Barry. I think that I love how all your candor and how open you were with your experience. I think that that brings a lot of value to our podcasters, listeners. And well, on my side, I think that let’s not forget that what we sell are expectations. And social media is just a tool in how we sell those expectations. And we deliver those expectations at the moment where our guests check in. So, yeah, I think that this is great. And you can find me on, I mean, the network company, it’s Nantli Living, N-A-N-T-L-I, and the Mexican Lamping Association, although it’s in Spanish. But you can look for Mexican Lamping Association and you can find me there. Thanks so much, Ryan and everybody.

Brian Searl:

Yeah, we still got to work on that, Miguel. We got to get that into all the other languages because Derry is going to run out of room for more gardens in the UK. He’s going to need that land in Mexico soon. So you got to get that started now. Chris, go ahead.

Chris Jeub:

Yes, Derry, this is this is wonderful. I took notes. I was I was taking notes here. Tick tock. I got to take it more seriously book now does not work on social media. I think that’s this is a very humbling broadcast because I’m like, and then consider Instagrammable developments as marketing. That’s I think the brilliance that you just added here. And then finally, follow Derry Green, model him. He’s crushing it in the glamping space. So thank you, Derry. Oh, and you can find out more about me at monumentglamping.com or glampingguy.com, I guess. That’s what you’re going to ask, Brian.

Brian Searl:

Angel, last but not least, you’ve been quiet today.

Angele Miller:

Yeah, I know the conversation was like, so interesting. Like, I gotta say, Derry, like, you’re incredible. Like, I’ve learned so much about you. Like, it’s not easy, you know, to, to learn, to connect like that to the way you’ve done to your customers and like be able to kind of master the social media, but it’s so important, you know? And I think for you, like the authenticity, like the story, you know, to be real and to really connect with that audience, like has really like kind of shown, but the experience, like, you know, like you said, glamping, like I’m not marketing myself as accommodation, I’m providing an experience and for me, to even learn about how you’ve been able in the week when it’s not busy to market to that target audience. So you bring the people. I’d love to learn more from you also on that aspect, on the experience, because it is so important, you know, in the glamping world and what we’re doing. So I want to thank you anyway for everything you’ve shared. And I look forward to also learning more from you. And so for myself, anybody that wants to learn more, it’s CreeksideRNR.com and you can get our contacts there to reach me as well.

Brian Searl:

Awesome. Thank you, Agile. And Derry, last but not least.

Derry Green:

Yeah, it’s been amazing. I love talking about these subjects and yes, I can do this all day and night. It sends me down rabbit holes. I always say the same thing. I get out as much from these conversations as other people do because when I start talking about it, I realize why I’m doing things. This industry is amazing because people can really help each other because to me, again, I’m not in competition with other glamping sites. I’m in competition with your traditional accommodation providers, the Hilton hotels, these resorts, those sorts of things. The more people that come to glamping, the better that every glamping site is. Ultimately, again, I’ll be honest, from a selfish side of things, they’re going to find my content. Absolutely. If somebody’s searching glamping, they’re going to find my content at some point. So the more that I can do to help other glamping site owners boost the glamping economy, ultimately is going to boost me. So we can all work together and do more things. Um, we don’t, you know, we don’t have to be in competition with each other. Um, and like I say, you know, if we can get more people to come to, to glamping as opposed to traditional accommodations, um, you know, the better for me. And I love it. It’s a business that I’m absolutely passionate about. I will talk to anybody for days on end about anything they want to know. I’m an open book on everything. I don’t hide anything. it’s just new friends that I get to speak to all the time. So if anybody needs anything, if anybody needs help, by all means, it might be a stupid question, or it might be a really good question, but just reach out to me. On all the social media platforms, you’ll find us at the Secret Garden Glamping, you know, TikTok, Insta, and Facebook, or you can go onto our website, thesecretgardenglamping.uk, and just send me a message, because it’ll be me that replies. It’s still my phone number on the website, so just give me a shout.

Brian Searl:

Yeah, I mean, I think the only stupid questions are those that you don’t ask. So that’s it. All right. Well, thank you, guys. I appreciate it. Derry, as always, for your time. Angel, Miguel, Zach had to leave. Chris as well. Really appreciate you guys being here for another episode of MC Fireside Chats. We’ll see you next week for another episode. Take care, guys. See you. Thanks, guys.

Chris Jeub:

Bye. Bye.

SPEAKER_00:

This episode of MC Fireside Chats with your host, Brian Searle. Have a suggestion for a show idea? Want your campground or company in a future episode? Email us at hello at moderncampground.com. Get your daily dose of news from moderncampground.com. And be sure to join us next week for more insights into the fascinating world of outdoor hospitality.