Discover the entrepreneurial grit that catapults businesses to new heights as we sit down with Marco Torres "Capt Marco", a powerhouse in the travel industry. His journey from Puerto Rican roots to the forefront of innovative customer engagement strategies is a testament to the transformative power of resilience and strategic thinking. In this candid conversation, we tackle the peaks and valleys of business, revealing how Marco's ventures like BookVIP.com and MarketingBoost.com are redefining the power of travel incentives in driving sales and fostering customer loyalty.
Strap in for a masterclass on overcoming adversity and employing automated systems to maximize your leads. Sharing personal battles, including his rebound from the 2008 financial crisis, we spotlight the essential role of mindset in rebuilding success. Marco and I dissect how nurturing leads through meticulous workflows and incentivizing conversions can skyrocket your business growth, proving that strategic outsourcing and embracing innovative marketing tactics are not just smart, but necessary.
Wrapping up, we dig into the mechanics of using incentives to not only reward clients but also to revolutionize the hospitality marketing industry. We reveal how vacation incentives can transform the way business owners approach their work-life balance, improve processes, and ultimately enjoy the fruits of their labor. Join us as we uncover the strategies that keep businesses agile in an ever-changing market and how financial preparedness can be a lifesaver during unexpected shifts. Tune in for an episode brimming with insights to fuel your entrepreneurial spirit and propel your business forward with Marco Torres lighting the way.
Discover the entrepreneurial grit that catapults businesses to new heights as we sit down with Marco Torres "Capt Marco", a powerhouse in the travel industry. His journey from Puerto Rican roots to the forefront of innovative customer engagement strategies is a testament to the transformative power of resilience and strategic thinking. In this candid conversation, we tackle the peaks and valleys of business, revealing how Marco's ventures like BookVIP.com and MarketingBoost.com are redefining the power of travel incentives in driving sales and fostering customer loyalty.
Strap in for a masterclass on overcoming adversity and employing automated systems to maximize your leads. Sharing personal battles, including his rebound from the 2008 financial crisis, we spotlight the essential role of mindset in rebuilding success. Marco and I dissect how nurturing leads through meticulous workflows and incentivizing conversions can skyrocket your business growth, proving that strategic outsourcing and embracing innovative marketing tactics are not just smart, but necessary.
Wrapping up, we dig into the mechanics of using incentives to not only reward clients but also to revolutionize the hospitality marketing industry. We reveal how vacation incentives can transform the way business owners approach their work-life balance, improve processes, and ultimately enjoy the fruits of their labor. Join us as we uncover the strategies that keep businesses agile in an ever-changing market and how financial preparedness can be a lifesaver during unexpected shifts. Tune in for an episode brimming with insights to fuel your entrepreneurial spirit and propel your business forward with Marco Torres lighting the way.
and stop trying to do it all yourself. I've found too many solopreneurs, entrepreneurs that don't have the right team members, don't have, or maybe even none, but they're not outsourcing things that they could be doing. You know, anything you do every day over and over could likely be turned into a business process that you could outsource, and in today's world, it's never been easier to outsource.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast designed for small business owners. I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and founder of BOSS, where we make business ownership simplified for success, so that you can create a business that works without you. To learn more, go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom and be sure to hang out to the end of this episode for my recap and coach's corner, where I challenge you to take action on one thing that will move the needle in your business. Our guest today is Marco Torres. Marco has been an entrepreneur since childhood, managing the largest paper route in San Juan, puerto Rico, by age 12.
Speaker 2:
Hailing from Texas, his family's move to Puerto Rico ignited his spirit of adventure and entrepreneurship. After college, marco spearheaded the establishment of five Mexican restaurants across Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands with his family. By 23, he ventured into nightlife, opening an after-hours nightclub in San Juan. Transitioning to Florida, marco excelled in the travel industry, pioneering internet marketing strategies that generated nearly a billion dollars over eight years. In 2008, he co-founded BookVIPcom, which became North America's fastest-growing travel company, leveraging innovative customer testimonials to reach over $250 million in sales. Inspired by BookVIP's success, marco launched MarketingBoostcom, offering affordable travel incentives to small and medium-sized businesses. Known as Captain Marco. He now dedicates himself to helping businesses boost sales and improve conversion rates with his subscription-based incentives starting at $37 a month, revolutionizing accessibility in the industry. Marco is with us today to share insights on how he built multi-million dollar businesses and how the lessons he learned can help you do the same. Let's get to our guest now.
Speaker 3:
So welcome to another Small Business Pivots. Today we have a beautiful guest from a beautiful world. How are you today, sir? I'm doing great. Thank you for having me, my pleasure. So I have found that no one can introduce their name or business better than the founder. So tell us a little bit about you.
Speaker 1:
You bet. Thanks again for having me. So my name is Marco and I founded a company called MarketingBoostcom, and we also have our own podcast show, by the way, marketing Boost Solutions Show. But anyway, marketingboostcom, what we do is we serve small business owners around the globe with travel incentives, with what we call the wow, surprise and delight factor. We provide business owners the ability to enhance whatever their call to action is by providing travel incentives, complementary hotel stays in over 130 destinations from three to seven nights, plus hotel savings cards that come in different increments and restaurant savings vouchers. And then we in our community teach these members how to use those incentives everything from stand out from a crowd at a trade show to gather leads or acquire more leads online with the sweepstakes, or support local nonprofits and be an expert in your community All kinds of ideas we can talk about on the show on how an entrepreneur can use these incentives as new ways to generate more leads, put them in their pipeline and convert them to paying clients along the way.
Speaker 3:
It really is a fascinating concept and I appreciate it. I do encourage everyone to go listen to your podcast, as I've been a guest on there as well, so we're kind of switching roles here a little bit. It's kind of weird, but it's fun.
Speaker 1:
So I'm going to pick your brain today.
Speaker 3:
So I know a lot of our listeners are small business owners and I know that a lot of us like myself. We all have something in common which is trials, tribulations, some mindset blockage, growing up, maybe a bad childhood or an event. I know for a lot of the listeners that hear our shows from time to time they know that I was kidnapped by gunpoint and that usually gets everybody's attention. You know, for my biological father of all people, anything like that that you had to deal with when you got into your adulting world. That kind of held you back or did you have a beautiful life?
Speaker 1:
No well, I had a pretty good life overall. I've been an entrepreneur since age nine. I started a paper route. At age nine, I mean, my dad was pretty darn strict and there was no freebies in my household, there was no weekly allowance, and so, you know, he hit me. I mean he told me, okay, if you? I said I wanted a Schwinn bicycle. You know I was begging for a Schwinn bike and he said, well, you can wait for Christmas and maybe Santa will bring it to you if you're good. Or you could wait for your birthday and maybe you'll get one for your birthday, or you could go earn the money and buy one yourself and you'll even enjoy the bicycle even more. So I'm like, well, how do I do that? And so he guided me to start a paper route which, back in my day, meant you had to go knock on doors to sell the subscriptions, then you had to be up at five in the morning to deliver the papers and then I had to go back to those door to door to collect the money, because there was no online payments for everybody to pay for their subscription. So I had to go and collect my own money every week, door to door and so, but I eventually, what did I do? This is one lesson I learned by accident as a child was the leverage of, of networking. I networked and got several buddies of mine to help me deliver the papers in the morning and jump on our bicycles and go deliver the paper out, and I would focus on what I turned out to be best at, which was sales and collections. And I mean, back then I even had to learn how to run one of those handwritten, those big green spreadsheets with all the little columns on it, and I had to, you know, check in their name of the client and how much they owed me and whether they were up to date on payments. And so it was really running a real business that you know, not just uh, not just handing the, grabbing the papers and delivering every morning, but uh, but anyway, it went on from there at 23 to uh.
Speaker 1:
By the time I was 23, I owned five restaurants in a nightclub. Uh went from there. I sold several of those to taco bell. When they came on, we were in puerto rico and had the major food courts with the, with the mexican restaurants, and uh sold them the several to taco bell. Um went on from there.
Speaker 1:
It was bringing up a family in florida, got into sales of all kinds because I didn't want to have anything to do with the restaurant business anymore. I was burnt, burnt out on that. That's a story in itself. But moved on from the restaurant business into sales and then eventually fell into internet marketing back in 1996 and generated over a billion dollars in sales between 1996 and 2008. And it came to a crashing halt. So if you want to hear of a challenge in my life, yeah, 2008 was a disaster.
Speaker 1:
I thought I was living high on the horse. I was a vice president of a major corporation. I also had businesses on the side with my wife and I was an Internet guru at the time. I mean, I was really kicking. And I had, uh, I was an internet guru at the time. I mean I was really kicking. I had over 2000 telemarketers and under in uh that we were feeding the leads to and all inbound calls for sales and and it all came to a crashing halt and burn with the, with the economy in 2008 and nine Uh, I jokingly laugh now and say, shoot, I lost.
Speaker 1:
I had one of my best sales years ever in 2009. I mean, I sold my house, my cars, my boat, my furniture, my jewelry. It got it got real, real bad, uh. So I found myself in my mid forties, late forties, uh, starting all over. Uh, lost essentially everything. You know, uh, watching cars get towed out of my driveway for, you know, when I couldn't make the payments, or literally it was a very trying time.
Speaker 1:
And uh, then spent a couple of years before I could, you know, really bounce back. Uh, I thought, for sure, I, you know I will, I will bounce back vertically. I will land in another big corporate position. I'm a, I'm an expert at marketing, I'm a, you know, bilingual, I'm good looking, absolutely, yeah, I thought, I thought I will bounce back and man, it didn't happen. And you know, little by little, running out of funds and running out of savings and running out of everything and being a feeling like a mega victim. You know why me, why me, at this age, why am I starting over? And not until I got my head back on straight with realizing I know how to make money and, instead of trying to do it for somebody else, I went back into business for myself and eventually pulled out of here, pulled out of that route, and became a multimillionaire again.
Speaker 3:
Wow, yeah, that's an amazing story and I don't wish that upon anyone. I've been in your shoes at around 50 years old, so it's a very humbling experience, but, man, it's a great lesson when you come out of it. One of my mentors for anyone that's going through that I have a friend, dear friend, that's on LinkedIn that's going through the same thing, and I told her that it will be easier this time because now you know what to do, you know what not to do. Just go do those things that you know to do. And so that's just a little bit of encouragement that one of my business coaches gave me was I have no doubt you'll be successful. So there is hope, but you have to do something for it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it, it. You know God gives you, you know, tells you we've got to pray and we've got to, but we also have to do our part. You know the Lord will help you, but he's only going to do so much of it.
Speaker 3:
So you're going to be.
Speaker 1:
You're going to need to step up and do your part and then he can open the doors along the way. But you've got to get out and start having the right mindset, the right gratitude, the mindset of gratitude and the mindset of learning and churning. I mean you've got to, you've got to go through the steps, you've got to knock on the doors. You've got to, you know, do what it takes and and believe in yourself and and leverage partnerships is another fact. I've done very well with that over my in my career.
Speaker 1:
I've, by the way, there's, you know, I think was it you that wrote the book on the partnerships and what to do and what not to do Online course. Yes, yes, you got that course and you know they can be very effective. Of course, they can be disastrous if they're set up wrong, but I do believe in partnering because, like I did with my friends when I was nine years old and others, there's power in numbers and sometimes there's, you know, conquer, and what's the word I'm looking for? Divide and conquer with partners that have different skill sets than you might have, and sometimes you can partner with people that you couldn't afford to hire right, but you could potentially bring them in as associates or partners in the business and build something together. That can be grand.
Speaker 3:
So, yeah, no, that's. I appreciate you sharing that that's. I promise that's going to help someone today, because I know people that are in that situation, especially in today's economy. So you talked about having multiple businesses.
Speaker 1:
Most business owners can't even fathom, because they can't even get past thinking about this week on their one business what's a kind of a life lesson that you found that you were able to replicate owning businesses, well, systems and processes that need to be set up, and hiring either the partnerships or people that you bring on board, hiring people smarter than you, and trying to build a circle, a team of people that are better at you at areas where you're weak at, and stop trying to do it all yourself.
Speaker 1:
I've found too many solopreneurs, entrepreneurs that you know essentially don't have the right team members don't have, or maybe even none, but they're not outsourcing things that they could be doing. You know, anything you do every day over and over could likely be turned into a business process that you could outsource, and in today's world, it's never been easier to outsource your effort, whether it be with automation, which you definitely need to have in today's world. Set up as much automation and systems as possible with CRMs that are so affordable today, and or you need to, you know, have a combination of virtual assistants that can be hired in your backyard or on the other side of the world that can be doing a lot of the you know menial or tasks that take time, that were you know where you're working in the business versus on the business and therefore, you know, step up, hire smart people, hire people that are experts in one area or the other better than you and and then outsource it and get them doing those things so you can focus on the bigger picture.
Speaker 3:
I know a lot of business owners often ask us what should I delegate first? Do you have any insight on what you found was probably the most beneficial to you to outsource first or delegate?
Speaker 1:
Well, in today's world of business setup, I would say you need to be delegating workflows and processes of the process of a lead coming in the front door, whether it be in your physical business or an online world. What is the process that, when they come in through that front door and you capture a lead somehow? By the way, that's another mistake. A lot of physical businesses don't do Brick and mortar businesses don't? It always amazes me how many brick and mortar businesses do nothing to solicit my contact information when I'm in and out of their business, and so they have no way to follow up with me, because they never even bothered to have some sort of system to request my name, phone number and email to join their newsletter, to get on their list for a free appetizer on my birthday, to come back to the restaurant, to share, you know whatever. Come up with something, but most businesses don't even bother, right. So you? But again, if you are generating leads, what is your process? What are you? How are you?
Speaker 1:
I would outsource the system of putting them through what I call a workflow, where they come into your business, into the process, and then they're getting your series of emails welcoming them to the community, following up with what you offer, showing and communicating that you're the expert and authority in your field, and then eventually asking them to or maybe always asking them to become a client, asking for the order and having good reasons to show why you are the expert.
Speaker 1:
And in that process of email text messaging, reading list, voicemail, broadcasting what are you doing to stay in touch, stay relevant? Maybe it's a newsletter, but all of that I would outsource so that you can have all that set up and make it automatic so that systems are working. When you get up in the morning, you've already had emails, are already going out the door, text messages are already being in the workflow based on what they did. I mean you can get an expert to help you set up workflows that are if they do this, they get this kind of responses. If they're doing this, they get this kind of series of messages. If they respond to one of those messages, they get a new series of emails or text messages based on their interest or their response. And all of that takes some thought and takes some, you know, setup, but it's easy to outsource somebody who's an expert to do exactly that in today's world with CRM systems and what have you.
Speaker 3:
That's so important because I know a lot of business owners will tell me well, I can't afford that. And my response is so you really want to sit there and spend 10 to 20 hours researching the different workflows and then spend another 10 to 20 trying to figure out the different platforms? And then you know, or just hire somebody that can do it in a few hours or whatever it is, and in that expense, go find another client. You know that time that you would have spent trying to figure it out. Go find another client to pay for that person, right.
Speaker 1:
Exactly it out. Go find another client to pay for that person, right, exactly, and that person will likely bring you more clients quite quickly, because as you set all of these systems up, the clients will begin to fall in. They'll be soon asking for how do I get involved if they're not, you know, because they want your product or service, assuming you have a solution, you have something that solves problems for somebody else, and if that's what you do, then clients will come your way as soon as they find out about you.
Speaker 3:
Eventually, Absolutely Well, so I was going to wait a minute or two, but I'm so excited to share your product because it is so unique. And, while we're talking about leads, this might be something that someone consider to put in their workflow, so tell us a little bit about that. It's really cool.
Speaker 1:
All right. So imagine if you were to be able to enhance your call to action. Let's say you've got a team of salespeople, or you are the salesperson and you you know you're going through the process of asking people to get booked on your calendar so you can have a Zoom call with them. I mean, in today's world, one thing that's really changed the world of sales and marketing is Zoom, of course, or other platforms like this, where we no longer have to drive all over town to meet in person with somebody to make a presentation of how our solution can fix their problems. And you know the time we used to have to spend to drive around town park, get out, meet somebody, have lunch with them. Those still are great ideas to do with clients. You know that are when you can. But we obviously we can use zoom in today's world and meet with people all over the world and and pitch people, our product and services and uh, but many times okay, the challenges can you get them to book on your calendar? And then how many of them and it's amazing how many of them end up being no shows. So your salespeople are getting clients booked on their calendar and then they're no shows. So with our marketing boost incentives, we've seen so many of our clients fix this problem, which is imagine it. I mean, if more, if you eliminated the noows, what does that do to your bottom line?
Speaker 1:
You've got your salespeople or yourself talking to more people, closing more sales, and to do that, for example, offering an incentive from Marketing Boost that doesn't cost you hardly anything. You know, a membership to Marketing Boost is $37 a month and you get the ability to give away an unlimited amount of our three categories of incentives. So you might offer, for example, a hundred dollar restaurant savings voucher. When you book your call, a no obligation phone call with us, whether we do business together or not, I'm going to give you rewards, you with a hundred dollar restaurant savings voucher. Good, you'll type in your zip code and see a bunch of restaurants you can use it at and we'll give you that just for showing up on time for the appointment that you book as a reward. We think your time is valuable. So is ours. So if you show up on time, we'll reward you with a $100 restaurant savings voucher. Maybe a $200 hotel savings card. Once you get them on the call, then you might be saying now, by the way.
Speaker 1:
You know, here's what we do. Here's our solution. If you go ahead and hire us, we're running a promotion this week and if you take action before Friday end of day, we've got a few of these left where we can give you a complimentary hotel stay three nights in Las Vegas, miami or Orlando, for example. We have 30 US destinations, but you might say, look, we're going to give you a complimentary hotel stay on us when you go ahead and sign up, you know, by end of day, friday. And or if you pay in full you know, pay in full rather than monthly. If you pay in full for six months of our service, I'm going to reward you with six days and five nights in Cancun on us at a beachfront resort in Cancun. And then, of course, you can drop in the disclaimers.
Speaker 1:
Michael, this is what we teach our members. We have, you know, most of our members have the option of paying their here. Let me tell you, they don't include airfare, they don't include food and beverage and they don't include government taxes and fees. So most of our members just disclose that to the client. Look, Michael, I'm going to give you a complimentary hotel stay on us. I've got your hotel covered.
Speaker 1:
It. I'm going to give you a complimentary hotel stay on us. I've got your hotel covered. It won't include how you get to and from Cancun, it won't include your food and beverage when you get there and it won't include your government taxes. But I'm going to give you, you know, a phenomenal resort getaway in Cancun or three real nice hotels and three nights in Las Vegas. And then I just do the proper disclosure. Or, if I make enough money on the sale of my product, I may want to go ahead and cover those taxes and fees and pay the activation fee and give you a truly complimentary getaway. But that would be up to the member if they want to pay that activation fee. Now there's no timeshare, sales pitches or hoops to jump through. I mean, this business came about kind of by accident, michael, and it's almost a great story to tell as well on how it came about in the first place. But it's been a home run for many, many businesses on being able to use these incentives as tools to acquire more leads and close more sales.
Speaker 2:
You're listening to Small Business Pivots. This podcast is sponsored by Boss, where business ownership is simplified for success. Boss helps business owners create a business that runs without them, with business consulting, business loans and much, much more. Go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom to learn why small business success starts with Boss. If you're enjoying the podcast and want to stay up to date with all of our episodes, make sure to hit that subscribe button, give us a thumbs up or leave a positive review. Let's get back to our guest, yeah.
Speaker 3:
I know that me personally as a business coach a lot of business owners come to us and we're going to invest in this, because one of the top things or comments that most business owners come to us and say is I haven't taken a vacation in how many ever years? Well, let us help you with that. We're going to schedule this and I'm going to help you with the hotel or whatever it is. I mean, that's just it kind of fits. So if you're creative and how it fits and aligns with maybe even some of the conversations that you have with your clients, you can really use it to your advantage. Just so it doesn't even sound like a sales pitch. Absolutely, you're right.
Speaker 1:
Because you could be saying, you know, in your discovery, you could say, by the way, you're running a business and if you're like most business owners, you're strapped and almost, you know, chained into the business. So tell me, when was the last time you took a vacation of more than you know? A two day getaway, you know, maybe a weekend, but other than that you're stuck Right and they're like, yeah, you're right, I haven't taken more than two days off and or, you know, in in years. And so, bam, he says well, we're going to help you with that. When you hire a bub bub, bub bub, I'm going to, you know, after we work through and help you with the coaching and help you set up these processes and help you start improving your business flow. I'm also going to reward you with boom, you know, if you take action and or pay in advance or on our six month anniversary.
Speaker 1:
So you can dangle these incentives as what I call. You know, make people earn them. The more you make them earn it, the more valuable they are. So, although as a Marketing Boost member, you can give away as many of these as you want, you have unlimited access to them, but if you give them away like candy, then you're reducing the value of them in the mind of your prospect as well. So you want to make them say do something to earn it. I'll give you an idea. I just heard from someone else that I interviewed recently that how they're we're using marketing boost incentives and this was, I thought, a great idea on a simple way to be for local business owners in their community to be branding themselves.
Speaker 1:
And she would do, you know, like local events at the baseball. You know local little league baseball games and sponsor or hire a ice cream truck and bring the ice cream truck and give you know, for two hours, free ice cream for you know, the parents and the kids and what have you. And, of course, to get the free ice cream, they had to come up to her counter next to the ice cream truck there and enter, click on a QR code and enter their information to be entered to win a trip to, for example, five nights in Cabo San Lucas or five nights in Las Vegas, whatever, three nights in Las Vegas, whatever. So they're entering to win and she would say everybody gets a $25 restaurant voucher when you enter and we're going to have two winners are going to win some complimentary hotel stays, but when you enter, you're also get your voucher for the free ice cream. So, everybody coming through, and then she's got her real estate sign that she's a realtor I'm the expert, you know. If you're, if you're, if you're, and she gets to chat to people. Hey, if you're buying, selling, investing, don't forget. You know Marco Torres, realtycom, so don't forget, look for us, you know, or so forth.
Speaker 1:
And at the same time, so she's getting hundreds of leads at. You know, at this event between the, you know by the time that all the different games are over. And and what did it cost her? Yes, and and what did it cost her? Yes, she had to pay for a bunch of ice cream, but she's generating leads. And she was using the marketing boost incentives as a reason for people to actually enter name, phone number, email at the counter. You know what have you. And then, instead of having a bowl or people dropping their business card, if they have one or something, it's kind of modernizing it, right, everybody's got a phone in their hand. Click the QR code, enter your information and I'll give you your voucher for the ice cream. And generating leads like that. And then she does.
Speaker 1:
I've got other business owners, that insurance agents, for example. They sponsor local nonprofits and they go in with, take their sales hat off and sponsor local nonprofit organizations and help them fundraise by giving them a half a dozen of the complimentary hotel stays for marketing boost. And they'll be like hey, you can get use these complimentary hotel stays I'm giving you. You can raffle them off or or or auction them off at the event. At your fundraising event. We can give everybody who walks in. So, in other words, I'm going to sponsor your fundraising event from Marco Torres realty or whatever you know, joe's Plumbing or whatever it is, and you say I would like to sponsor your next fundraising event, help you generate more money. We'll give everybody who comes to the event a $50 restaurant savings voucher to use in their local zip code. So we'll do that and then we'll give you the complimentary hotel stays that you can auction off or sell raffle tickets to, and then all I need to do is I'll be at the event.
Speaker 1:
I do need to explain how these work, the three disclaimers that don't include airfare, food and beverage, government taxes and fees, and then, of course, I'd like to give my elevator pitch. Folks, you know, hope you enjoy the complimentary hotel stays if you win one, or whatever. But I'm the expert in real estate. So if you're buying, selling, investing, contact Marco, don't forget me, or I'm the insurance expert or the financial expert, you know, yada, yada. So you do your little elevator pitch and you're generating, you're in the community, they're generating leads, being rubbing shoulders with philanthropists and showing that you know, you're kind of the hero helping a good cause and you could be generating leads, marketing your brand, without the typical sales hat on at all times, like we are when we go to the typical networking event or what have you. So it's just different ideas like that, michael, that are easily and affordable ways to be in the community, branding yourself and generating leads.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I'm just speechless because my mind, I'm sure, as our listeners we're just going a million miles an hour. I could do this and this and this. So, for those that aren't watching the video version of this, your background says over 30,000 Facebook group members. What is that about?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, we have our main Facebook group, marketing Boost Facebook group. It's called Marketing Boost Official Facebook group the travel incentive guys. We have over 30,000 entrepreneurs in that group that are like you, michael, and every other small business out there. They come into our world. Part of our marketing strategy is to invite folks to join our Facebook group and within our Facebook group community we are sharing content and ideas and how to how to use these incentives to grow your business. Other you know a lot of different members are posting what they did, how they what they're doing, what it worked for them, asking questions and so forth, and they can see in the community that you know they're not the only ones using the incentives and so it's kind of like okay, so it's not. You know it's not too good to be true if others are doing this too, because it does. You know we make this so we're not the first to be offering travel incentives or rewards that you can offer your client. But we did reinvent the wheel in how it's presented and how affordable that is. Typically, prior to us, you had to buy certificates. You had to buy a huge bundle of them. It was expensive and you had to buy. You know, pay for these type of certificates up to $100 each in order to give away to your client, and many of them, if not, if they weren't expensive like that, they had all these timeshare hoops you had to jump through, and so our incentives don't have any of those hoops to jump through. There's no phone calls to make. After they activate the certificate, they go online to our travel fulfillment company. It's called RedeemVacationscom. That's where your client activates the certificate and then they can log in anytime they want. They have 18 months to use the complimentary hotel stays and they log in, plug in the dates they want to go and, based on availability, they'll pick their hotel and get instant confirmation and on their way. Now we are fulfilling, I mean, the relationship we have with our hotel partners. To do this is we convinced hotels that you know? Well, let me tell you. Can I tell how we were born in the first place? Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 1:
So when we started this business, it came about completely by accident. We were in the travel space. My partners and I have been in the travel space since 2010. And we were trying to get video testimonials from our clients and we just couldn't get anybody to do it. You know, we kept thinking man, if we only had hundreds of video reviews on our travel website and if we had them for each of our destinations, people would you know. They would convert to hundreds of more sales because they'd see the realities. People love this particular hotel, or these prices we offer are real, and so on. But we couldn't get anybody to do it. So we came up with an idea that we thought would be temporary and just say we'll do a survey. Now this, michael, works really well for any business out there, rather than just ask everybody for a review.
Speaker 1:
What we did was we did a survey when we thought our clients should be at their peak of happiness, which, in our case, selling travel was the day after they checked into the hotel Not when they bought the vacation, but when they showed up. And the day after they checked in we'd ask them hey, what do you think of the hotel that you checked into? Is it living up to your expectations and how has our service been so far? Can you give us a star rating from one to five? And if we got a four or five star review back, then we would send them, then we would send them a request for a review and we would say listen, we're thrilled You're having a wonderful stay at the hotel. Would you help us spread the word about that hotel? And if you'd even go the extra mile of filming a selfie video from the pool, the bar, the? You'd even go the extra mile of filming a selfie video from the pool, the bar, the restaurant and brag about that hotel brand. Give kind of a little hotel review and mention our brand. We will bonus you with a three-night getaway in your choice of Orlando or Las Vegas.
Speaker 1:
Bam, we started generating video reviews instantly, and then we had several dozen, and then you know about 100. Generating video reviews instantly, and then we had several dozen, and then you know about a hundred. And then we shut the campaign off because we're like, man, this is going to be expensive to fulfill these three night stays. When people start raising their hand going okay, you promised me three nights in Orlando, las Vegas, we knew we're going to have to come out of pocket to pay for those. How are we going to do that? Well, it was worth it because we had. Now we had all that social proof on our website and our Facebook groups. But then we thought, man, how could we keep this going where we don't have to turn this campaign off. And we went back to our hotel partners in Orlando and Vegas and we said listen, we've come up with an idea and you have a problem. We think we can solve it.
Speaker 1:
Let's be honest, your hotel is never full year round. I mean, you're certainly full certain weekends, certain peak season dates, holidays, special events, but 70% of the year be honest you probably have what 20, 30, 40, 50% of your rooms often sitting empty and you still have the same fixed costs mortgage payments, front desk staff, light bills, you know maintenance crews and they agreed and we said we can put warm bodies in those rooms that are going empty and they're likely going to spend money at the restaurant, the bar, the casino, the gift shop, the excursion desk, the room service. They'll hopefully upgrade room types, book extra nights and or they'll come back next year, they'll post social media pictures of them at the resort and you'll get branding and marketing from it, from all these folks as well. So you'll generate some revenue versus none. And we got a few partners that, ok, we'll give it a try. So we got access to their unsold dates and we're able to start fulfilling again those complimentary hotel stays that we wanted to give away. So then, now we're generating more and more video reviews. By the way, that website has over 30,000 video testimonials today, more than any other travel website in the world so that campaign is still part of our process. Ok, so we're getting these reviews, we're getting, you know, we have Orlando and Vegas and then we think, what if we could get more? Imagine if we could get more hotels all over the world to participate in this closed loop environment where they're giving us access to this unsold inventory. And so we went out to solicit hotels around the world.
Speaker 1:
In 2017, we launched what, at that time, was called advertisingbaitcom and we had six destinations with complimentary hotel stays for six destinations only, and that's grown into and morphed into a different company name. We eventually became marketingboostcom and we now have complimentary hotel stays in 130 destinations around the world, from three to seven nights, plus the hotel savings cards that come in increments of one, two, three and $500. Those are good at over a million hotels worldwide. So we serve business owners anywhere in the globe because they can give these hotel savings cards to anybody everywhere, and the complimentary hotel stays. We've got destinations in Asia and Europe and Australia and the United States and the Caribbean, so literally it works for their most of the you know tourism, high tourism destinations around the world were covered, so that you're no matter where you are. As a business owner, you can incentivize your client to a destination they'll likely enjoy, like Dubai or Bali or Phuket, thailand or Singapore, boracay in the Philippines or all over Australia and, of course, 30 US destinations. So we created what we call Michael.
Speaker 1:
Sorry to hog the microphone here, but we have what we call a real win-win-win scenario. It's a win for the Marketing Boost member because for $37 a month they have access to these powerful, high-value incentives they can use to enhance their call to action or reward clients for loyalty, create loyalty programs. You know, realtors can use them for housewarming gifts. I mean, there's just a little bit of creativity and you can use these in a myriad of ways. So it's a win for the marketing booth member. It's a win for the hotels we're helping them fill rooms that would otherwise go empty. And it's a win for the end user who receives the incentive because they're oftentimes traveling to destinations they would not have been able to afford to at all prior to the business owner rewarding them with the gift or even if they can't afford it, they're saving.
Speaker 1:
And in today's world, with the inflation rates all over the world as high as they are and travel being in high on everybody's mind after COVID, people want to go somewhere and they want to get back to traveling. And it's expensive now more than ever. So the discount incentive, the hotel savings cards or the complimentary hotel stays become an attractive incentive for whatever business niche you're in. I mean, we obviously have hundreds of travel agents that use us. So it's a shoe in for a travel agent because obviously, hey, buy a cruise and I'll give you a three night stay as a bonus. You know it's like a BOGO offer, but it works for you name it. Whether it's a car dealer saying, hey, come in for a test drive and get a reward, or or it's a business coach promising you know, when you pay me for six months in advance, or you name it, it works pay me for six months in advance, or you name it.
Speaker 3:
It works. Yeah, there are so many tools and lessons in here that you've shared your success story being adaptable, you know, taking advantage of something that you saw, being open to new ideas For the listeners. You're getting a wealth of information here, so this is not your typical marketing campaign. I mean, this is very unique, so those that are listening are really going to have the upper hand against their competition, because this is something not really heard of. So what is the website and what is the cost?
Speaker 1:
Marketing Boost. I like to promote marketingboostsolutionscom. Marketingboostsolutionscom there has a link to Marketing Boost, of course, and where you can go and sign up for Marketing Boost. Matter of fact, your listeners, if they go to marketingboostsolutionscom first and then click on the link there for Marketing Boost, they can actually get a free account with no credit card required. It's a limited version, they don't get everything that we have, but they can actually, you know, see, preview it without even putting in their credit card. So zero risk. And then, of course, we also on that site there's a link to my podcast and links to other tools that we offer to help a business owner grow, like the CRM systems I was talking about earlier, et cetera. So, marketingboostsolutionscom. And then we have a little chat support guy there. It's automated, we call her Sales Genie, but that chat you can ask her any question about Marketing Boost and right in there the chat will answer any questions you might have about Marketing Boost. Sitting on there, the chat will answer any questions you might have about Marketing Boost sitting on marketingboostsolutionscom.
Speaker 3:
And then what's the investment?
Speaker 1:
You mentioned it earlier 37 bucks a month and you get access to all three categories of our incentives. So that's.
Speaker 3:
that is not a risk. Exactly, you know what?
Speaker 1:
I mean, yeah, any, any. And you know what I mean yeah, any, any. And you know we used to be as high as 197 a month for our services, michael, but when we launched in 2017, we were 37 and then we ended up, you know, as we grew and added all kinds of additional incentives, we raised the price up to 197 a month and then covid hit and of travel became back burner for nearly everybody and we took a big hit. At the same time, we were trying to expand globally and so our strategy changed and we thought, you know what we're trying to serve business owners in India, in the Philippines, in Australia, in different markets around the world, in different markets around the world and for some, 197 a month was a real stretch in different countries, in Columbia, south America, et cetera. So we went back to our classic price of 37 a month, which is what we launched in with 2017, during COVID, and that kept our base intact.
Speaker 1:
So we didn't lose as many of our clients. We certainly lost some of the revenue, but but we kept our business owners, you know, in, in, in the loop, here with us and after we came out of COVID by 2021, mid 2021, it was like revenge travel. People were like, after they're you know, everybody got realized they were they're either going to get it or they already got it, or they got the jab or they got the. Uh, they already had immunity from you know getting sick already. They were like, okay, revenge travel kicked in and all of the people who had those incentives were were using them and uh, more. You know, we're back to numbers way beyond uh 2019 and serving business owners around the globe.
Speaker 3:
That's fantastic. So what is your podcast about? Just so listeners know.
Speaker 1:
The Marketing Boost Solutions podcast, michael, probably similar to yours. We invite business experts with success stories or business tips and ideas and tools to help inspire this entrepreneur journey. So our community again, you know, 30,000 entrepreneurs and growing. And the idea is, you know it's a lonely journey to be an entrepreneur Often, you know, you're sometimes losing sleep to make payroll on Friday, you don't have anybody to shoulder to cry on and there's certainly nobody to pat you on the back when you're doing a good job. And so our podcast, the goal and mission, is to inspire entrepreneurs to keep taking one more step up the ladder and being there to you know, guide people up that ladder on that journey of success.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, that's, that's. That's awesome. I appreciate you sharing the load and helping others and, just for our listeners and any business owner, you're not alone. Just like you said it's, I work with some of the wealthiest people that aren't known worldwide, but they're wealthy in my region and they still struggle. We all have the same problems. They're just at different levels, right. So, uh, just keep like you said. Take one more step. Nobody's got this figured out. Even those that look like they do. They don't. In fact, they're probably the ones that have it the least figured out. They're just putting on a facade. Yeah, so, uh, before we wrap up, since it's small business pivots, is there a pivot that you made in business that you can share that you would say? That's the one that kind of catapulted me, or this is the one I would recommend to everybody? Is there anything that happened in your business? Or or maybe something you did that you wouldn't do again?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, good, good point there. Uh, did that I wouldn't do again. And good, good point there. Did that I wouldn't do again. And this is a difficult thing for many a business owner right, you build a team. Right, you know you build your staff and then there might be a downturn. You know things out of your control. So, for example, one of our travel sites, back in maybe 2017 or or so, we were really kicking ass and we were spending millions of dollars on facebook ads alone. Um, I mean, in 10 years, we spent about 70 million dollars on facebook ads alone. Wow, where that's travel website, which was was a huge success. I mean, we were.
Speaker 1:
You know, when you find a marketing campaign that works, here's another lesson you can learn from which is good. When you do find a campaign that's working, don't limit the budget. If it's working, throw gas on it. I mean, just keep. If it's working and it's generating profit, then keep throwing money at it until it stops. The challenge we had was it stopped? In other words, I think it was 2017 or 18,.
Speaker 1:
Apple changed the rules on Facebook advertising. They changed the iOS 14, ios 15 came out and suddenly the new privacy policies everybody on the Apple phone was plugged into eliminated the ability with Facebook ads to target our audiences properly and to do retargeting like we used to, and overnight ad campaigns were not working. And we weren't the only one, other major marketers that were spending $50,000, $100,000 day and Facebook ads suddenly it was like can't make it work. And we're all trying and twisting and turning and trying to, you know, update the ads and try this and try that. We kept going at it because we had kind of an obligation to our staff. You know we had this huge call center with people that made money. You know they had to fulfill the clients and take the phone calls and sell the travel and answer all the questions and the customer service. And now, you know, with the ads not working, there's no new or a hell of a lot less new clients coming in the door. And we have a commitment to our this staff, or we, you know we had this emotional commitment to a big, to the staff that we've had and trained and invested in over the years and we didn't pivot fast enough. We didn't pivot fast enough to cut the staff, cut the campaigns, quit bleeding on the campaigns that weren't working anymore.
Speaker 1:
It's like when you're winning in the casino and then it turns and your luck has changed and you're not winning anymore. It's time to walk out and the mistake you can make is well, I'll win it, this will turn and I'm going to keep going and I'll win it back. Before you know it, everything you won is gone and you're digging into your pockets and you walk out of the casino losing. You know way too much and business is, and advertising and marketing is like the casino. Every day, you know it's like. Is this going to work? Is this going to work? I'm going to spend. You want to. You want to, you know, like a casino, you want to put $5 chips down if you can and see if, like you know, and then grow as it grows. You can raise your, raise your bets and similar, you know, with marketing on Facebook, google, youtube.
Speaker 3:
That's a good analogy yeah.
Speaker 1:
Anything else. You, you spent, you gambled a little bit, you know, and if it's working you throw more money at it. When it quits working, you need to pull back. Well, the problem we had was we had, you know, we built a huge staff to go with the success of the marketing campaigns and then we felt an obligation to not want to cut that staff. And you know, with the cashflow can get real upside down real quick, and that's when you need experts like Michael, by the way, you want to make sure you have an advance previously, set up your credit lines and your access to cash to carry you through the rainy days that are going to come, that might come, that will come your way sooner or later in the cycle of business.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, long story short, we survived this, but we lost a lot of money in the sense that we were overspending on ads, still trying to find a way to feed the machine, to feed the machine of staff that we had, where we, you know, because it's painful to let go of staff, but that's what we needed to have done and we weren't. We weren't willing to do it, we wanted to try to keep, keep hammering away at. We've got to find a way to make the marketing work again so we can continue to feed our machine and keep our cat. You know our revenues, what they are and grow and sometimes you need to pull back. At least that's what you know in retrospect. We should have pulled back sooner, made decisions to pivot faster, tighten up the team, tighten up expenses everywhere else and live to fight another day and find the new marketing strategies you know over time versus overnight.
Speaker 3:
So that's a that's a great story to share and I know a lot of times business owners will have that gut feeling, but they don't go with their gut and they're like man, I should have gone with my gut. So sometimes you really need to follow your gut. And there's a book, and I'll put it in the show notes. It's called the Dip, I believe, and it talks about being in that situation, like you were, and how to make that decision quicker, how to pivot faster. But I'll put that in the show notes so we're out of time here. I think we might have to have an encore with all your knowledge and experience, uh, sharing. But is there somewhere that people can go follow you? I mean, do you put YouTube or is it just go to the Facebook group? Where's, where's the best place to go learn more information from you?
Speaker 1:
I do have a YouTube channel and it's called the Marketing Boost Solutions Podcast channel, and so Marketing Boost Solutions YouTube channel, our Facebook group, marketing Boost, the official Marketing Boost group, and, of course, all of that you can find if you just go to Marketing Boost Solutions or marketingboostcom.
Speaker 3:
Fantastic. Well, I appreciate your time and insights. A lot of people are smarter today because of it, so thank you again, wish you continued success and we'll see you around. Thank you, michael. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the recap and coaches corner. This episode is packed with strategies for both brick and mortar and online businesses, detailing the use of automated workflows and CRM systems to keep leads warm and convert them into sales. Marco and I dissect the nuances of lead generation, the value of outsourcing technical setups and the incredible effects of creative incentives like restaurant vouchers and hotel stays on customer commitment. In today's competitive environment, it is essential that each company create their own unique incentives to attract buyers. For today's Coach's Corner segment, we learned about the transformative power of travel incentives and how they can supercharge your business growth. The one actionable item I want to leave you with is this Explore the travel incentives into your customer engagement strategy today, whether it's offering restaurant vouchers, hotel stays or other enticing rewards. Take the leap and see how it impacts your business's bottom line and customer loyalty. Or simply said find your own unique differentiator. You've got to stand out to make an impact. Said find your own unique differentiator. You've got to stand out to make an impact.
Speaker 2:
If you need help establishing your unique differentiator and increasing your sales, go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom and download our sales playbook under our free resources tab. Thank you for listening to Small Business Pivots. Please don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast. If your business is stuck or you need help creating your business to run without you, go to our website businessownershipsimplifiedcom and schedule a free consultation to learn why small business success starts with boss. If you have a guest or topic suggestion for our podcast or just want to talk anything small business related, email me at michael at michaeldmorrisoncom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.