Ep.43 Tractors and Cream glamping with Vicki Jones

[04:21] Vicky Jones: So we’re in a village called Othory on the Somerset levels, which is kind of right in the middle of Bridgewater street in Taunton. So I love it because it’s a rural village, but you can literally get within 20 minutes to anything you might need. So we’ve got a really family friendly glamping site. We’ve got geodesic domes. So we’ve got five geodesic domes for glamping. Then we’ve got a mini dome, which is for group bookings, just as for extra guests. And then we’ve got an event dome, which is a big ten-metre event space. So it’s mainly based around families and we get lots of groups coming who book the whole site and have get togethers and parties and things like that.
[05:02] Kelly Ballard: It’s fantastic. And you’ve also got a YouTube channel, haven’t you? So I’ve been kind of looking at this and exploring exactly what you’ve got down there because you do such a good job. You’ve got almost 10,000 subscribers on this YouTube channel, haven’t you?

[05:18] : Vicki Jones Yeah. So the YouTube channel just, you know, as we were building the glamping site, we kept finding that crazy, weird things would happen. Or like, you think, God, people could make a documentary about this. Like the things that happen when you run a glamping site or any business, to be honest. But, you know, the things that we would get stuck into because we built the whole site, just me and my husband. And so in the beginning of 2020, I said, let’s start blogging and start a YouTube channel. And it was mainly back then, it was for us as a family to look back on and see, oh, we did this, or, oh, this is how we built this. And just for the kids when they’re older as well. But then as we started kind of blogging and we kind of committed to putting out a video every week. So every Sunday we release a new YouTube video. And although that’s wobbled a bit recently, but basically, as we kept getting YouTube videos out, we would make ones that then actually caught a bit of audience attention. So we made. We built an a frame cabin. And when we put out the build of the a frame cabin, that suddenly went sort of semi viral, and then it nearly had a million views, that video. And so that gained us a lot of subscribers. And then once you get over 1000 subscribers on YouTube, then you can monetize. And so then YouTube then pay you every month for your content. And so we’ve just kind of really gradually kept putting videos out. Our GDC dome build videos get a lot of views as well. But they’re mainly, mainly people that watch art in America.

[06:49] Kelly Ballard: Oh, right. That’s interesting. So tell me a little bit about these domes, because, you know, I know that you used to have yurts, so why have you gone over to these geodesic domes?

[07:02] Vicki Jones: So when we first started, we had this idea for that. We were going to start a glamping site. But back in 2016, when we started looking into it, I’d only really seen glamping sites that had yurts. So we thought, okay, well, glamping is yurts. There’s no other alternative. Let’s get yurts. We went and stayed in a yurt in Devon, and we had like, a really awful experience. I was really heavily pregnant. The toilets were miles away, really far up a hill. It was awful weather. The wind was coming underneath the crown of the yurt. And even at this point, I didn’t think, oh, maybe yurts aren’t the best idea. Maybe I should investigate what else there is. I just thought, it’s yurts. We’re just going to have to go to the manufacturer and have a look at different types of yurts and see if we can solve that problem. So we had that experience, and then we’d put in planning permission for yurts.

So when. When we first opened the site, we bought two yurts. But the manufacturer assured us that these crowns had been kind of changed and that this was going to be absolutely fine. And these. These yurts were absolutely fine. We didn’t get any wind coming in. So then, as we kind of went down the years of running the site with the yurts, we had to take them down over winter and put them back up.
One year we tried leaving them up all, like, over the winter, they went completely green. The wind was so strong that we. It blew the door in of one of the yurts, and we were tethering this year to the tractor to try and stop it from blowing away.
And you see why we want to start a YouTube channel. All these crazy things happen. So then we made sure we took them down, but it would come to sort of March time, and I’d feel physically sick about the thought of having to build a yurt again. It was just me and my husband with two very small children. They were like two and four at the time.

Building a yurt is difficult. Normally, when nomadic Mongolians move their yurts around, they have sort of 15 guys that can put it up in about 15 minutes. It was the two of us. You know, if you’ve ever been camping with your husband or other half and you tried to put a normal tent up, you know, the shouting. Right, well, this is next level. When you’re. When you’re trying to build a. Yeah. Two kids running around, you have to pick the right weather. My husband works full time. He’s a corporate nine to fiver. So he had to take time off work to then build the yurts every year. And we just thought, this is unsustainable. I can’t keep feeling sick for months over the fact that we’ve got to build it, get these two yurts up. So then we tried a bell tent, and that blew away in the wind. Literally, the second week that we had it up, the pole pierced straight through the top of the bell tent. It ripped. We had guests that were supposed to be staying in it nightmare. So we started looking for what structures are the most wind resistant. And obviously we couldn’t go with cabins or wooden, anything wooden because our planning mission was restricted as to canvas. So then we found geodesic domes. And they’ve got such a strong structure. They’re made of triangles, aluminium, so they’re like aircraft grade aluminium, so they’re super strong. And then once we’d found these, that was like a game changer. And we replaced the earth with the domes.
[10:26] Kelly Ballard: They’re really quite architectural, aren’t they? They’re beautiful and they’ve got windows.. I think, you know, when you see the photographs and the videos that you’ve got, I’m really interested in that. And around each of the domes, you’ve got their own facilities. You’ve got a shed with toilets, you’ve got hammocks that you’ve got like four hammocks with some of them not inside but just outside. And you’ve got kitchens with varying degrees I guess three star, four star, five star. They’re probably all five star, but tell me a little bit about those.

[11:06]Vicki Jones : Well, we kind of wanted to make sure there were different price points for people because we want to make glamping and family holidays as accessible as possible. So we’ve gone for kind of a smaller dome with a kitchen and toilet outside so that we can kind of get those families in who can’t necessarily afford high end holidays. But then we’ve also got domes that have ensuite with outdoor baths and full kitchens with fridges and everything up there. We’ve also got a communal kitchen which services the three smaller ones. So they have got on grid fridges and kettle, toaster, oven, everything like a proper kitchen. But we kind of wanted to offer the different options so that if you didn’t want to go high end and you wanted to get more back to basics, kind of glamping, then there was options for everybody.

[12:00] Kelly Ballard: Yeah, I’m a camper and, you know, when I look at that, I mean, we’ve got a massive trailer, so we bring it all with us.. It made me laugh when you were talking about the, you know, the relationship with your husband trying to put up the tent. I mean, we’ve got it down to a fine art now, but there has been moments, especially with the kids. It’s like the biggest thing is how can you distract the kids? Or, you know, because they want to be involved, but it’s really hard work and it’s just like, we just need to put this up because it’s going to rain. I can feel the rain coming kind of, you know, like stressful. And it’s interesting because we’ve got friends who would never camp and, you know, the prospect of what you offer is a joy.

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[13:33] Kelly Ballard: Tell me, how did you get into this? What’s the story of, were you in hospitality before?

[13:41]Vicki Jones: So my husband, actually, my husband and I actually met working in a hotel. So I was on reception, he was a duty manager, he left the hotel and then I thought, actually, I don’t want to not see this man ever again. And so then we got together after he left, so we had a back of working in, working in hotels and then. But that was when we were back in Surrey, so we lived in Surrey and then he got a job in Bristol. And so kind of looking around for places and we found this place and it had seven acres of seven acre field attached to it. And I thought, well, I want. I was a dance teacher at the time, so I really wanted to start a dance school. That was going to be my business. And we found this house, it had the outbuilding that would have been a perfect dance studio, but then it also had this seven acre field. And when we first moved, the farmer next door, he just put the cows on it and it was just a field. And Brian was like, we need to make this work for us financially. This is an opportunity here. So he was like, well, we know hotels, why don’t we just make our own outdoor hotel? So then that’s when we found upon the word glamping. It was a bit more in its infancy, back in sort of 20, 1516. And so then we started going about researching, researching the world of glamping and we knew absolutely nothing about it. Hated glamping, hated camping, had never done anything like it before. We were always hotels wow. Make it an outdoor hotel.
[15:15] Kelly Ballard: Well, what a transformation in terms of how you approach things.

[15:24] Kelly Ballard: That to then cross over into, because essentially you’re outdoor living. I mean, you’ve got a lot of the luxuries, but you’re outdoor living. And I think maybe. Do you think things have changed, haven’t they, since 2015, in terms of what we appreciate more, do you think that?

[15:40]Vicki Jones: Definitely. And when you have children as well? Because when we moved, we had no children. So then when the kids came along and we realised we wanted to give them that outdoor lifestyle, and we didn’t want them on screens, we wanted them outside all the time. So having an outdoor led business that then is also really involves the family because it’s family friendly. So then every time we get regular guests coming back year on year, so the kids make friends with the guests, and then they see their friends every year. So it works brilliantly for that.

[16:16] Kelly Ballard: Yeah, definitely. Can you describe what there is to do there on the site for children?

[16:23] Vicki Jones: So we’ve put in two outdoor play areas. We’ve built up these big banks so they can climb up on the banks and run around and explore the kind of meadow. Essentially, we planted trees as well and put mazes and pathways through the trees to try and create interest. We’ve got a treasure hunt for every child that comes. And we’ve put in an indoor player as well. So we’ve got some soft play just because we know what british weather’s like.

[16:54] Kelly Ballard: Yeah, absolutely. Soft play is essential. And you also do afternoon teas, don’t you? And you’ve got this huge dome that is a kind of a space that seats up to 40 people. Is that right?

[17:08] Vicki Jones: Yeah. So before the glamping even started, we bought a yurt just like a really cheap yacht on eBay, just to kind of see how the. How the thing worked, how we put it together. We should learn from that, really. But we didn’t. So we put. While we were waiting for our planning commission, we put this yurt up. And I thought, like, what can I do while we’re waiting for the planning commission? What can I use this year for? And I’d always been into baking. I had a small business doing celebration cakes. And so I said, I bet you people would want to have afternoon teas in a year. Like, it’s something quirky and different. So we started doing private bookings. No more than about 16 people and a minimum of six. So it was kind of just group bookings, and they could spend as long as they liked in the yurt. We’d provide them with afternoon tea. We ended up getting lots of baby showers and hen parties for that kind of bespoke booking. But my plan was to knock that on the head when the glamping started and move the yurt onto the field. But the afternoon teas was so popular, I had to keep that going. So then we kept getting asked for bigger afternoon teas than the ones we could accommodate in the yurt. So we built a wooden hut in the place of the yurt, but then also that could still only accommodate maybe 20. So then as you get bigger groups, this is why we thought, let’s get the event dome, and then we can seat up to 40 in there. We’ve got a wedding this year where we’re actually going to have 62, I think, so that’ll be a challenge.

[18:36] Kelly Ballard: Wow. And can you then accommodate more people in the field? So you’ve got 30 people that you can have there in the domes as they are, but can people camp around that in order to support 60 people on site?

[18:51] Vicki Jones: Yeah. So if it’s a group booking, we let people come and camp. We’ve had people bring kind of camper vans and caravans and things like that for group bookings. We’ve got a belt up and we can pop up if we need to. We’ve also got a holiday cottage, so. Yeah, so this particular wedding, I think they’ll probably be about 45, sleeping, and then another sort of. Well, I don’t know how many more are coming for the evening, but there’ll be. There’ll be quite a lot more in the evening.

[19:17] Kelly Ballard: Wow. It really lends itself to, like, a whole occasion for a massive friends or family group, doesn’t it? And I love that we do that every year, so it’s really nice to think. And there’s so many opportunities then you could say, like 40th birthdays, 50th sixtieths and then anniversaries, as well as weddings and the like.

[19:40] Vicki Jones: Yeah, 40th. We get pretty much every couple of weekends we have a 40th. So it’ll either be, this is a big, organized three day 40th event, and they’ll have silent discos and bouncy castles and all sorts of things, or it will be, we’re just coming together to celebrate a 40th and it’s really low key, but we’ve added extras, things like somebody said to me, oh, can you do us cocktails? Because we’re licensed, we’ve got a mobile bar as well. So we had a 40th where she said, I want these three specific cocktails, and then my team just then made cocktails for them all evening. So it’s kind of a real bespoke thing, like, if you want something, we’ll just make it happen.

[20:18] Kelly Ballard: Yeah, I guess because you’ve got. There’s a lot of people who are around the age of 40 who’ve got young children. It really lends itself to that, doesn’t it?

[20:27] Vicki Jones: Yeah. So, exactly the right demographic.

[20:29] Kelly Ballard: Yeah, yeah. So in 2023, you won three awards. I know that you’ve won awards previously, but these were gold awards at the Bristol, Bath and Somerset Tourism awards. Tell me you got gold in the glamping business of the year, is that right?

[20:46] Vicki Jones : Yeah, that’s right, yeah.

[20:48] Kelly Ballard: And, yeah, tell me about your awards.

[20:51] Vicki Jones: So we started entering the awards right, from sort of 2018, the Bristol, Bath and Somerset Tourism awards. That me is. I don’t enter any awards that you have to pay for. And it feels like there’s more of a gender. I want someone. There’s a lot of awards that are very. Just a popularity contest, so you just go to your followers and say, oh, vote for me in this particular category. But that, to me, doesn’t really give a measure of how good the business is.

With the Bristol Bath and Somerset Tourism Awards and the whole Visit England Awards, a judge actually comes to your site and looks around and judges it against the other businesses. So that, for me, feels a bit more. What I want to portray is that this is somebody independent that’s come and judged our site. So we entered in 2018. We got some great feedback from the judges and from that feedback, every year that we’ve entered, we’ve got feedback. So we didn’t get anywhere the first time. We got silver in 2020 and silver again in 2021. We didn’t enter in 2022 because I ran out of time to put the entry form, because you have to enter by sort of June time, and that is just the manic is time of year. So I thought, right, this year, I’m determined to get my entry in. And so, yeah, this year we ended up winning the gold. So I was really, really, really happy about that.

[22:15] Kelly Ballard: Oh, that’s fantastic. And did they say why? Because wasn’t there some distinctive characteristics around? I mean, you do really well, from what I can see in sustainability and accessibility. Was that key to the award?

[22:29] Vicki Jones: Yes, they seemed. The judges seemed really hot on. There was a whole, like. He sat for an hour chatting to us about the sustainable side of it, the accessibility and inclusivity and the ethics. So they’re really looking for what you’re doing to be sustainable. So, for example, we chose to get our domes manufactured in the UK rather than shipping them vast distances from China or that sort of thing. We’ve chosen lots of sustainable materials, like we’re using ecoply for our bases, which is recycled plastic bottles rather than unsustainable plywood. We’ve got an electric golf buggy to take us around the site rather than driving a diesel car up there or to do all the changeover things like that. So all our choices, we’re kind of making what’s the most sustainable rather than the cheapest, because we know that it’s not necessarily the cheapest option to be sustainable, is it?

So you’ve got to decide where your ethics lie in those decision making processes. So, yeah, and they’re really hot on the inclusivity and accessibility, and we make sure that you can drive right up to the dome, so there’s not like a long trek anywhere. You can literally park right outside, so that really helps for accessibility. And then also encouraging neurodivergent families as well. So we get a lot of children with ADHD or autism and we try and really encourage those families, so, because it feels like it’s a safe space for them and we can also guide them to times when it’s a bit quieter and they might want the whole site to themselves. So I can offer that sort of thing because we know how difficult it is when you’ve got children that are neurodivergent and you want to have a family holiday and you don’t want it to be crowded and. And they need that, that space as well, and to feel secure. So the field is really secure. It’s got hedging all the way around it and fences and everything. So there’s nowhere for a child to escape. So I think that’s why parents feel relaxed, because the kids can go and do what they like and play, and they can go off independently and the parents can lie in the hammock with a glass of wine, which is basically what we all want.

[24:41] Kelly Ballard: Exactly. We’re all shattered at that point, especially when they’re little. It’s. And if you’ve got a child that’s neurodivergent, as, you know, as I have, it’s just so relentless. And being able to give them the freedom to go out and enjoy themselves. I mean, my son is at his happiest when he’s in nature. And it’s just, I think it’s true, isn’t it? And it’s just being able to relax and know that he’s safe. And they just absolutely love it. I think that’s why camping’s become a big thing for us.

[25:12] : Yeah.

[25:13] Kelly Ballard: Yeah. Just going back to your YouTube channel for a second, it’s interesting that you talked about how it came about and you were kind of clocking your journey as you came through the build, etcetera. I was watching, and I think this is really lovely. When you went to the awards evening, you recorded pre awards and you recorded your feelings as you. You had just spoken to the judge who’d come to visit you. And then the video then continued to the night when you actually won the gold. And going through that journey with you was just so lovely.

And it’s so humanising to feel, you know, as if I was a visitor, then I would be thinking, I want to come and visit and then to see you there. You’re just so genuine and lovely and understanding the hard work that you put in. So what do you think has really been important in growing that channel and how do you think it’s helped you in your business?

[26:16] Vicki Jones: So it hasn’t helped at all in getting bookings, I don’t think, as in, because a lot of the are followers of America, they’re not going to ever come and stay. That’s just not what’s going to happen. But what it has helped with is people feeling like, like you just said, like they already know us.

So I always share the videos to our Facebook and Instagram. And so if those people, lots of people in the UK don’t watch YouTube necessarily, kids do, but I’m not sure adults do as much. And so what we found is sometimes people will come to the site, having watched the virtual tour that’s on the website or watched a couple of little videos. And then they’ve said to me, oh, my goodness, I feel like I already know you. And I feel like we’re coming to visit friends or people family or people that we already know because. Because we’re so normal. And I just literally record real life. I don’t make sure I’m perfectly made up or my hair is done or anything like that. I’m just. This is just normal life. And so I think it really helps people to then get to know you.

You know, people buy from people, so once they know you, then they’re like, oh, yeah, I feel like I really know this place and it feels more familiar and more comfortable when you’re going to stay somewhere. And part of our stay back in the year, back when we went in 2015, was the fact that we didn’t know how anything was working and we felt really uncomfortable. We didn’t know where anything was. Nobody met us. And so that’s what I really wanted to bring, is that you’ve got all that knowledge. We’ve got video. We can use video to our advantage. We can teach people how to use a wood burner. We can already show everybody exactly what it’s like. So they’re not going to come and be disappointed because they think it’s going to be something amazing. That your Instagram shows these beautiful photos was actually there. Seeing this is exactly how it is. I know what I’m expecting and this is where I want to come and stay.

[28:16] Kelly Ballard: That’s fantastic. You were on the tv as well, weren’t you? Didn’t you do something with the BBC?

[28:22] Vicki Jones: Yeah, there was a program called my unique b and b. And so they went and they were going making over BNB’s or Airbnb type places. So we had just put our dome up in 2020, and they came and did a whole makeover on the inside of the dome. And that was hilarious. It was two days of intensive filming when they did the makeover, and then at the end of it, we were like, we’ve got guest staying in here, like, in two days, and you’ve just kind of left it with. It looked amazing at the end of the end of the program, but everything was stuck up with velcro and double sided tape. And then my daughter got to the top bunk of these beautiful bunk beds. They made the most beautiful beds and bunk beds and it was amazing. But she got up on the top bunk and was like, there’s nothing to stop me rolling out, mummy. And I was like, quality control testing from the seven year old. So then we had to go and kind of add bits to it, add a side to it. We actually lowered the whole bunk beds because they’d made them so super high, they stuck out into the middle of the room.

So we even spoke to the producer and he was like, this is tv ready. This is what you get. You get tv ready. I was like, yeah, but we need guests ready. We can’t have guests coming in. And our very first guest that they built this massive double bed. And the very first guest that came and stayed, she was really. She was probably about five, just over five foot two, this lady, and she couldn’t get into the bed. And so literally that there and then we just knocked up a step for her so that she could get into the bed and that’s still there.

[29:59] Kelly Ballard: I had exactly the same happen. We had a tv program come to our house. And in hindsight, I mean, my husband went mad because the quality control, the snagging list when they left, I mean, how they, they made it look beautiful afterwards on the, on the film, but, you know, we’d had our whole house plastered and they came along and knocked nails into the wall to put things up like a hockey stick and little, you know, and it was just like, yeah, it’s. It’s funny, isn’t it, what they do with tv? I mean, it was tv ready. Yeah, it was tv ready. Oh, God, we still can’t talk about it in our house. So, um, in terms of other marketing that you do to support your business, what’s been effective for you in the past couple of years in terms of driving bookings?

[30:54] Vicki Jones: Pretty much everything comes from social media. We don’t list on any sites. We kind of have it on Airbnb for the shoulder months and mid weeks. I would say 96% of our bookings are direct and it’s mainly word of mouth. And then people will come one year and then they’ll just book straight away for next year. So then we’re just always got people. So it’s really fantastic. Spend too much on marketing and then, because obviously then get the groups in, so then they book out the entire site for a weekend and that’s, you know, you’ve only got a finite number of stays, so it feels quite easy at the moment to fill up, which is great and long may that continue.

We are seeing a kind of shift in how people are holidaying and that there’s a lot more last minute bookings. But we found people generally will just book the year in advance for next year, which works really well for us. And like, you know, social media is such a difficult thing as a business, isn’t it? You know, you just feel like you have to keep slogging away at it and you just have to keep this presence going and it all has to be immaculate. But we found just being authentic on social media and we’re never going to get thousands and thousands of Instagram followers because we just get the same people coming back each year. So we’re not getting that influx of new people every year. We just keep. I like having the same ones, I want to keep the same ones coming back. And that’s why we keep changing things every year.

So every single year we’ll add something new. This year we’re adding a new whole stretch tent outside area just to keep those people coming back. And I think that’s, yes, it’s much cheaper to retain your current customer, isn’t it, than try and recruit a new one? So that’s always the path we’ve gone down, definitely.

[32:52] Kelly Ballard: And do you communicate with them by email? Is that a big thing for you?

[32:57] Vicki Jones: No, I do no email marketing at all.

[33:03] Vicki Jones: I keep thinking I should do email marketing just to keep in touch with the people who are coming back on for year. But it’s just I’m not very good at writing. I can do vlogging, but it’s the thought of sitting down and planning out a strategic email and then I know how I just sort of chuck my stuff in my junk, you know, and I never really read emails unless it’s an important one I know is from a customer or something. There’s so much junk, so much kind of chaos in our inbox, isn’t there, that I’ve been reluctant to do it. But I keep thinking, well, Sarah’s made me think I should do it.

[33:41] Kelly Ballard: It’s interesting that you’re getting all of these bookings, that repeat business word of mouth is vital and you obviously provide a fantastic experience. But we know that more people open their emails than see your social media. So it is like three, only three to 10% of people, of your followers, organic followers, see your feed. So. Yeah, but I mean, you’re producing all this content. You could actually just share that in your email. So your vlogs and with AI now you can take your transcript of your video and you could create a summary automatically add that into your email and just, you know, your content goes into your email.

[34:24] Vicki Jones: But I need to look at the world of AI a bit more. Definitely.

[34:28] Kelly Ballard: It scares me, but it’s really helpful for these things because it just speeds it all up. And if you’re creating that content anyway. But then again, when you’re running a place like you are doing everything because you are heavily involved in the running of the place, trying to do these things is a challenge, isn’t it?

[34:49] Vicki Jones : Yeah, that’s why I try and do as much as I can over the winter of all the kind of admiring y stuff and then summers just flat out the guests and cleaning and afternoon teas and.

[34:58] Kelly Ballard: Yeah, but you can, I guess, once you know, in my experience you can automate some of these things so that you can say, you know, when someone’s booked they get this, this, this email, then they get that email like a week before and you can, you know, you can repeat the same content for them, you know, through the summer so that you’ve got it going on. It takes time to set up, don’t get me wrong, but. Yeah, but you’re doing very well already. But when, you know, it’s when you start to have those moments where you’re thinking what else could we do? Because we’ve got a week to spare then yeah, definitely something to consider.

[35:32] : Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

[35:35] Kelly Ballard: So are you experiencing any trends around well being and how are things changed? How have you seen things change for you in terms of how people are booking? And you’ve talked about 40th birthdays and afternoon tea. But is there anything else that you’re seeing that brings to mind?

[35:55] Vicki Jones: There’s definitely an uplift in retreats. So we have a lady who comes and does a Pilates retreat twice a year. So she does three nights. I do all the catering so it’s. So I do the dinner and the breakfast for those three nights and yeah, that we’ve had that for a few years but I’m now seeing more and more day retreats where I’m catering and they’re doing either yoga or they’re doing women’s wellbeing and they’re trying to book two or three retreats a year as well. So not necessarily staying over, but from the event side of things, I’m definitely seeing that people, since COVID are now thinking actually I need to look after myself. I need to. Is women particularly thinking, you know, I had all this time looking after the kids and now I need something for myself. So that’s definitely a trend. I’m feeling like the women’s wellness in general. And then I was thinking, can I run one myself? Could I do my own retreat? Because obviously we’re just providing the accommodation in the space. But actually if you’re the person that’s organising that retreat, then the profit margins are a bit higher. So I was thinking maybe like a back to school in September, let’s get the mums in for like a couple of nights midweek to just have a. Oh, kids are back at school. I need my own space.

[37:17] Kelly Ballard: Totally. I think the biggest thing for me when I’ve done a retreat is permission to rest.
[37:22] Vicki Jones: Yeah. Yeah. Being away from home and not thinking, oh, I can’t relax because I’ve got to put the washing on, I’ve got to do the dishwasher and I’ve got to clean. And la, the LA if you’re somewhere else. And that whole purpose of that is just to give you two days to recharge.

[37:37] Kelly Ballard: Yeah.

[37:38] Vicki Jones: And, yeah. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?

[37:42] Kelly Ballard: Forget hosting it, we need to go. Just quickly going back to YouTube a second. Since you’ve been able to monetise the channel, I’m really interested because you actually, you have a gated opportunity for people to pay you for support now, don’t you? Is that right? One to one? And can you explain a bit more about that and how that came about?

[38:10] Vicki Jones : Yeah. So YouTube offer a membership program, as in someone can join someone’s channel. So I was like, for ages I was like, well, no one’s going to want to join our channel. Like what could I offer? And then what I found over the last three years since we’ve had the channel is that people have messaged me and again, mainly people in America, but also people in the UK asking for advice on starting up their glamping sites because they’ve watched us build it, they’ve watched the videos. And so I was spending hours on the phone to people on Zoom calls, people coming to the site, even staying over the site and us spending hours showing them around, showing our solar setup, showing how we did like the outdoor baths, how we built the bases.

We were spending hours of our time and not getting anything in return, actually just helping somebody set up a rival site. So I was thinking like this is crackers. Absolutely crackers. So when I learned about YouTube’s member program, I thought, well maybe I could offer a one to one mentoring. So that when somebody phones me and says like, can you help me? I’ll say yes. But if you join our channel, then you get all these extras, you get, you know, access to videos, early priority, reply to comments as a whole random list of different things. But also you can talk to me for an hour once a month and then even for existing sites, it means that you’ve got an accountability buddy, essentially.

So you can keep, I can keep you on top of your marketing or I can keep you on top of, or answer questions about specific things about glamping. So yes, I’ve only just launched it. So I’ve got my first mentoring member who’s over in America, so she’s 6 hours behind. So that’s the only problem is the time difference. I might be working at midnight because you need more to do!

[40:02] Vicki Jones : Yeah, but yeah, so it just enable that side of it to be monetized because it just seemed bonkers. I was helping all these people and actually, it was detrimental to me.

[40:12] Vicki Jones: Yeah, I can see that. Well done for kind of capitalizing on that and valuing your time, because it is, you know, what you’ve learned is valuable and you’ve got a lot to share. It’s interesting, though, that you’ve got so many people that are coming to you and asking you. Interesting that it’s in the US.

[40:30] Vicki Jones: Yeah, glamping is really up and coming. And because I feel like glamping in the UK is starting to get to saturation point. There are so many glamping sites. Most of them popped up over Covid when we were having that staycation boom. And so now I feel like there’s just so many here, people are starting to worry. And we’ve got things like the glamping site owners club on Facebook. And every time anyone says, oh, I’m thinking about starting glamping site, I’m thinking about shepherd time. There’s a whole barrage of comments going, have you checked how saturated your area is? And are you sure this is a good idea? Have you really researched this? Trying to put people off because they know there’s so much competition, whereas glamping in the US is really up and coming. I mean, they’ve got 50 times the space we’ve got, haven’t they? They can do glamping sites all over the place. So it’s just. That is. It’s just a thing in America now. It’s all just kicking off there, which is. Which is great for us.

[41:28] Kelly Ballard: Yeah. Yeah, that’s good, isn’t it? Before you know it, you’ll be like an American expert and going and speaking at big events.
[41:37] Vicki Jones : We went to the Glamping show Americas last year with the dome manufacturer. So they took us out there and then we were on their stand and speaking to people about the product and things like that. But, yeah, to speak as an expert there would be like a dream come true.

[41:51] Kelly Ballard: Watch this space. I can see it happening. Well, thank you for sharing all that. If you could give three tips for making a successful glamping business, what would they be?

[42:05] ] Vicki Jones: So my first one would be to choose your target demographic carefully. So I find it’s much easier to sell to somebody when you know everything about that person. So our target demographic are ourselves, really families with young children who like the outdoors. And so I’ve kind of really profiled that person. So I know. Exactly. I know, like, what their name is I know where they would work, I know where the kids go to school, I know where they live. Mainly, like, they live in Bristol. We’ve got a lot of people come down from Bristol who don’t want to travel too far in the car, but want to go somewhere different. So, yeah, really think about your target demographic and exactly what they want and create that space that is going to speak to them. And it’s not just a case of, you know, you want to reach millions and millions of people through a viral video. You want to make a small amount of people love your place so much that they go and tell ten of their friends, and each of those go and tell another ten of their friends, and then you’re getting your perfect person who gets it.

[43:11] Kelly Ballard: Great, great advice.

[43:13] Kelly Ballard: Second tip.

[43:15] Vicki Jones] : Second tip would be to choose your structures wisely. So, obviously, when you’re going for planning permission, you’ve got to put down what structures you’re going to have. We went with the Yurts because that’s what we thought it was, which then meant that our planning permission only covered canvas structures. And actually, in hindsight, maybe it would have been nice to be able to do treehouses or log cabins or that sort of thing. So really research. And we always go to all the shows. There’s a glamping show, the UK Glamping Show. In other words, we visit the US one and we always film those as well. So you can go in back and look at all the different videos, which shows you all the different structures you could possibly get in the whole world. But bonus points for build your own. And then it’s something completely different. So that’s my second tip.

And my third tip is, yeah, probably about marketing. Is about starting your marketing. Like, now. There’s no time. Its not too soon to start your marketing. You might think, I’ve got this idea, I’ve got the land, but actually, I’m not going to actually start any of my social media until I’ve got that shepherd’s heart up and running. By then, it’s too late. You need people to be in that day that you’re open. You don’t want them to be. Then coming six months and you have. You’ll be empty for six months. So I wish we’d started the YouTube channel right when we bought the house. I wish we’d started all the social media earlier and then taken people along the kind of story as to how it all started. And then once people buy into that story, they want to know what happens. They keep coming back, and that’s how you’ll get your engaged audience.

[44:58] Kelly Ballard: Oh, that’s. That’s really good advice. I think that’s good advice for any business that’s growing and going to be launching something new, who’s doing development projects. I think it’s really good advice. Thank you.

So, a few questions about you. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

[45:18 ] Vicki Jones] : Best advice I’ve ever received is find something you love and then you’ll never work a day in your life. So I thought that was dance teaching. Back when I was a kid, I was always gonna be a dance teacher. I never thought I would do anything else but actually building something like this from scratch that I have put my heart and soul into. And I love it so much. None of it feels like work. It all just feels like fun. And also surrounding yourself with people who are in doing something happy. Like, my sister was a cancer nurse. She was always just a little bit sad about life.

Like, it’s such a hard thing to do. It’s amazing to do. But if you can find a career that you’re surrounded by people that are happy, people that are going on holiday, people that are. Are happy naturally because they’re doing something that they want to do that is going to uplift your life massively. And that’s how I feel. I’m always surrounded by people who are happy.

[46:19] Kelly Ballard: Yes, that’s. Yeah, we’re giving people their best days.

[46:23] ] Vicki Jones: Yeah. Creating, like, the fact that I can create a memory for a. For a child that they’re going to remember coming to tracks on the cream every year. They’re going to remember that when they’ve got their own kids. And hopefully then they’ll bring their kids back and go, this is where we used to holiday when I was a kid.

[46:38] Kelly Ballard: Absolutely.

[46:39] ] Vicki Jones : That’s what I want.

[46:40] Kelly Ballard: Oh, that’s wonderful. And what do you do when you’re not working?

[46:50] ] Vicki Jones : So, over the winter, normally, I work loads of weekends, but I haven’t worked the weekend for the last, like, four or five weekends. And so nice that the kids, and, like, my husband and the two kids, we will go for a walk somewhere. We’ll go up on the Quantocks. We’ll. We’ll. We don’t have a dog, but I feel like we’re regularly walking as if we were walking a dog. And we call my little boy, like, he needs to be walked like a dog. He. Because he’s. He’s, um. I think he’s probably ADHD, and so he just needs to be exercised. So we love to go out family walks, national trust places, anywhere that gets us out and about and out of the house and in nature, basically.

[47:32] Kelly Ballard: Lovely. Do you still dance?

[47:35] : Yeah, well, I’ve just started going back to clubber size, which is a great exercise class.

[47:40] Kelly Ballard: Yeah. Is that with the glow sticks?

[47:42] Vicki Jones : Yes. Brilliant. So it’s not quite dancing, and I haven’t really danced for a while, so I really do miss it. But I’m given the opportunity every now and again when we have a hen party and they sometimes will book a dance lesson, and so then I’ll be like, yes, let’s just grab them a little routine that they can perform at the wedding if they want to.

[48:00] Kelly Ballard: I love that. Brilliant. So where is your favourite place to eat and drink in the West?

[48:09] : So we love supporting local places. Actually, one of our favourite places is to go down to the King Alfred pub in Boroughbridge, which is literally two minutes down the road. It’s where we all send our guests. So I think they’ve got a lovely, lovely business. They do great food there, lovely atmosphere. So that would be one of our top places to go locally.

[48:31] Kelly Ballard: Nothing better than a good local pub serves good food. Very nice.
[48:36] Vicki Jones: Yeah.

[48:36] Kelly Ballard: And how about your favourite place to visit when you’re not working?

[48:43] : We love little places like the Willers and Wetland Centre. Have you been to that?

[48:50] Kelly Ballard: What’s it called? Sorry?

[48:51] : The Willows and Wetland Centre. It’s about ten minutes up the road. And they do willow growing, which is perfect for Somerset levels. They do sculpture trails, every seasonal sculpture trail. So they do like a Halloween one where they’ll make all sorts of different amazing sculptures out of willow. They’ll do an Easter one, they’ll do a summer one where you pay, like, three pounds, you get a trail, you can get a prize at the end. So that’s such a brilliant thing to send our guests to. And the kids love it there. It’s really nice. Lovely to go for a walk.

We also love Langport. It’s a lovely town. It’s got a river running through it. You can do paddle boarding and kayaking on the river. Lovely, beautiful walks around, nice loops. Lots of independent shops. So, yes, like going to Langcourt. Wow.

[49:45] Kelly Ballard: I feel that Somerset has got so many undiscovered places. It really does, yeah, absolutely.

[49:51] Vicki Jones: Lots of people are very transient through Somerset. They’re coming from London, they’re trying to get to Cornwall or Devon, or they’re coming from Birmingham, trying to get down to Devon. And actually, nobody thinks, let’s just stop in Somerset. There’s so many amazing places. We really need to champion all those brilliant places that there are in Somerset.

[50:07] Kelly Ballard: Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your Somerset insight and sharing so many interesting things about your business. I will put the links to Tractors and Cream in the show notes and in the various places where I promote your business. So yeah, hopefully people will come down and visit and I’m sure lots of people will take lots from what you’ve said, those of us that are in the industry. So thank you so much.

[50:39] Vicki Jones: Thank you for having me. This is really good to talk.

[50:42] Kelly Ballard: I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. For all links to my guests, their businesses