How The Law of Marketing taught by Digital Deepak busted my Procrastination

How can a simple law of marketing bust procrastination? When taught differently (ref: DDIP) or when experienced in totality! In my case validations and improvements emerged as ‘aha moments’. A rewired thought process enabled me to?face my ‘FUDs' (fears, uncertainties and doubts) head on and understand how a simple act of ‘sharity’ and creating a ‘tribe’ will take ‘The Buransh At Bhimtal’ a homestay, several notches closer to its destiny - ‘an experiential boutique homestay’ with ‘an exclusive home dining experience’.?

When I opened my home to guests in October of 2020, I called it ‘The Buransh At Bhimtal’ (https://www.facebook.com/BuranshAtBhimtal) a homestay and inhouse café. The idea was to share a beautiful space in the hills and have an active source of income. Initial experiments with friends and family, brought forth another angle to my small business initiative. ‘My presence’, they said enhanced their experience in Bhimtal, ‘of course’ I would say, ‘after all you are here to meet me, right?’. However, soon I started to host their friends and returning guests and their references, this brought us to diverse conversations and soon I was adding just that teeny-weeny personal touch to their stay by answering their questions and curiosities of being in a remote-new space. Their reviews on Airbnb highlighted this aspect of their stay besides the regular great experience with food, ambience, view and super easy access in the hills – obviously enhancing their overall travel experience. And some of these were people I was meeting for the first time.?

As a local, I could guide them on kayaking, hikes and trek routes. Some guests wanted to visit temples, caves, ashrams and cultural museums, others wanted help with time, distance, travelmodes and places to visit. These were questions I had asked myself and explored the area ever since my voluntary retirement from a successful, fast-paced IT career a few years ago.?

However, the initial exhilaration started to ebb, and the fear of failure, uncertainity and doubt (FUDs) crept in. I started to keep the homestay closed for when I wasn’t personally available to host the guests. This led to existential stress, financial losses and procrastination. That is when the never-say-die gene(ie) living inside of me, decided to take charge of my space, mind and all! I found myself joining Digital Deepak’s Internship program (DDIP) to learn Digital Marketing?https://deepak.me/internapply. Some thoughts rewired after the “Success Mindset” session in week 1 and I understood how to differentiate “Anuja a Superhost” a Personal Brand (airbnb.com/h/the-buransh-at-bhimtal) from “Anuja a Founder" of her start-up DGTLJ Consultancy LLP and ‘The Buransh At Bhimtal’ homestay.?

The week 2 of the DDIP course “The law of marketing” brought me to retrospect the happenstance of the niche I had chosen for myself. I was marrying my talent of process mining to my passion of exploring and sharing my experiences to the market need of travellers to the hills.

Unbeknownst to me I was following the first two of the six steps of building a personal brand: learn and work. What I now understand from DDIP is that thenext four steps blogging, consulting and mentoring help strengthen the focus on marketing and also to setup a new start-up.

Managing a home and community that is comfortable, feels safe and included came from the Navy and Army fraternity I belong to, while analytical and digital process management came from decades of a very successful IT career.

If a?talent?for process mining, caring, hosting, conversing, exploring, trekking, yoga, meditation, writing, digital and process automation and?passion?of exploring, sharing, learning, coaching, mentoring, writing is married to a?market?of travellers to the hills from affluent tier 1 cities, How can I use DD’s Mass Trust blueprint, the CATT marketing Funnel and Integrated Digital Marketing framework to help ‘The Buransh At Bhimtal’ become a #1 experiential homestay, while managing a consulting business (DGTLJ Consultancy LLP) ??https://instagram.com/theburanshatbhimtal?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Yoga, meditation, energy healing, permaculture, trekking are a few experiential sub-niches I can work out for The Buransh At Bhimtal homestay. I can write (Content), blog, podcast, videos, have live webinars and create lead magnets. Relevant content will draw the?Attention of interested travellers and a call for action link will enable them to book single rooms or all three rooms with preferred experiences. Efforts on SEO, social media, paid ad’s, referrals will further draw?Attention(traffic) and bring edge customers back to the content with a call to action. The in-house café, if opened to public can work as trip wire marketing for the homestay. Customer reviews, content, call to action in emails, social media,advertising and SEO prioritization and referrals will work in synchronization and strengthen the?Trust through Deep marketing (trip wire, marketing automation and re-targeting) so that leads are converted into customers. This?Transaction doesn’t end here as a team engages with our customers with continued communication about our services, trainings and products.

Traditional marketing like pamphlets in newspapers, Cable TV advertising and local radio advertising is something we can use as marketing to attract workers for the Homestay and café, however for sales we need to go organic with our marketing and do deep and personalized marketing to tier 1 affluent city dwellers who travel to the hills and will use our services. Also, our short stay options work as trip wire marketing for our long stay and workation guests.

The formula wealth = niche^CATT, validates the current spikes in my earnings as my social media presence is erratic and hence the potential experiences at?The Buransh At Bhimtal?unknown to most guest. Co-hosting experiences with other experts in the niche will not only enable me to work seamlessly but create a bigger and diverse tribe.?

‘Sharity’ at the ‘The Buransh At Bhimtal’ an experiential boutique homestay in Bhimtal means – the local experts engage with us to provide experiences like birdwatching, plant and rock identification, yoga, meditation, craft, music, permaculture, treks and hikes etc. and they benefit by being part of a larger community through our guests and digital networks.

A beyond win-win situation, when we fit in the Integrated Digital Marketing framework along with the CATT marketing framework funnel and use paid advertising to boost the momentum on content, which has a call to action on it. Support this with the SEO signals and social media and lead the customer back to content. I understand how the wholesomeness of the digital engagement will strengthen the trust and hence the conversion ratio, as against the current stories on social media that are amazing experiences fragmented across time and space, diluting their impact. Once our content is streamlined on our own digital platform and linked with the social media channels we extent our tribe and outreach. Customers can be re-targeted and the branding re-enforced through emails, leading them back to content and social media for call to action.

If I have to follow DD’s Mass Trust Blueprint regular blogging, consulting, mentoring and dovetailing the best practices learnt through these interactions and research into the start-ups The Buransh At Bhimtal?a homestay and DGTLJ Consultancy LLP will create customized offerings and organically boost sales.

In depth knowledge simplifies a process. Simple processes are executable, FUDs, Fears, Uncertainties and doubts start to clear and procrastination dies a natural death. ‘The Success mindset’?https://youtu.be/dPCY9sEmR_E?taught as a precursor in the DDIP course allows for the free will to set the stage for our vision boards. Go ahead, create your dream job!

If you would like to discuss this account, please write to me at [email protected] or [email protected]. If you want to join the course, please sign into?https://deepak.me/internapply