July 15, 2025 • 23 mins
What happens when a life-threatening cancer diagnosis transforms into a mission to create paradise? The ROAMies welcome Brian Montgomery, founder of SIrenian Bay Resort in Placencia, Belize, who shares his extraordinary journey from facing terminal cancer to building an award-winning luxury destination.
Brian's story begins with humble roots in Mississippi and a devastating diagnosis at 38 years old that gave him just six months to live. After nine months of treatment and a life-saving bone marrow transplant, Brian and his wife Brenda emerged with a completely different perspective on life. They sold their Texas company in 2012 and set out to build a simple beach house somewhere beautiful. Upon visiting Belize, they immediately fell in love with the country and its people, purchasing a property centered around two palm trees that would become the foundation of their first villa.
What makes Sirenian Bay truly special isn't just its modern luxury amenities or stunning beachfront location. The heart of the resort lies in Brian's revolutionary approach to leadership and staff development. His "Above the Line" philosophy focuses on positivity, purpose, and believing in people who had never been believed in before. This approach recently earned Sirenian Bay recognition from Expedia as offering the best customer experience in all of Belize.
The resort wasn't built according to a master plan or with profit as the primary motive. Rather, it evolved organically from Brian and Brenda's genuine love for Belize and desire to share their slice of paradise with others. What began as a retirement home to visit 4-6 weeks annually has blossomed into a destination where guests become friends and staff feel like family.
This inspiring conversation reveals how the most meaningful creations often come from the heart, not the balance sheet. Join us as we explore how one man's second chance at life became an opportunity to transform not just his own future, but an entire community's as well.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Alexa and I'm Rory, and together we are the
Romies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We are made to each other.
Right, we are a touring musicalduo.
And our music has taken us toall kinds of places all around
the world and keeps us always onthe go.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while
running around working to keepall your plates spinning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And we hope, to facilitate your busy lifestyle
and feed your inner travel bug.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Hi everyone, welcome to today's episode.
We are so excited to continueour episode series on Placentia,
belize and Cyrenian Bay.
So when Rory and I went toplacentia, we got to stay at
syrenian bay resorts and villasand it was so cool because we
had the privilege of having thisbehind the scenes tour from the
(00:54):
owner and founder, along withhis wife.
But brian montgomery gave ussuch a neat, heartwarming
experience behind the wholeresort and and we wanted to kind
of give you an insight intothis whole resort it's not just
a place to stay right.
There is so much more to it, somuch more heart behind the
(01:15):
whole, even the mission of whatit's about, and so we thought
that was important enough tospend a whole episode on.
So today, and then we're goingto give you kind of like a
virtual tour around the premises.
So today, y'all, we have anawesome guest with us, brian
Montgomery, with Serenian Bay.
Welcome, brian, thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Doing the tour is what I livefor.
Showing people around SerenianBay and giving them the
background that's my highlightof my day when I get to do that
and give them the background.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
That's my highlight of my day.
When I get to do that man.
That's awesome.
It's like if Oz had been likean amazing person.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Do pay attention to the man behind the curtain in
this case, yes.
Well, serenity Bay, as you know, coming here, was not built
from, like, an investor point ofview or you know all that.
It was built from the loveBrennan and I had once.
We retired to the love ofpolice.
We fell in love with thecountry and bought the property.
And what we have now today wasnever a planned event.
(02:13):
It was never a master planbehind it.
It kind of happened over timeand we built this, tore that
down, built it again, tore itdown to make sure it was exactly
what we wanted.
So that's how it became what itis today.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I love it.
Well, I want to dive deeperinto that story and what's
really fun is that my parentsgrew up in Mississippi and, from
what you and I have talkedabout, they're really not
terribly far from where you grewup.
So, you have Mississippi roots,yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I do Deep Mississippi , Columbia, Mississippi, outside
of.
Hattiesburg yeah, born in NewOrleans.
Brent and I were both born inNew Orleans, raised in
Mississippi, live in Texas nowand, of course, reside in Belize
quite a bit of time as well.
So, yeah, we're very proud ofour being from Mississippi.
I think it taught us a lot.
It taught us a lot of valuesgrowing up pretty poor, making
(03:07):
you appreciate what we have inlife and it keeps us grounded.
It helped us a lot through ourlife.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's great.
It's amazing how many touchpoints we have in common.
I'm from South Louisiana, bornand reared in Lake Charles.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Now we live in Texas.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, we live in Texas and her parents are from
Mississippi and we have afarmhouse there with them.
Man, our lives have beenfollowing each other around.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
It's a small world when you really get down to it.
I've met guests that live fivemiles down the road from us that
didn't even know we owned theresort.
It's an amazingly small world.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yes, I love.
When you started, you weretalking about it being a love
for Belize and the Belizeanpeople and the way that your
resort came about and the waythat you guys have built things
out.
It made me think, because yousaid that.
It made me think of arelationship like a marriage.
It's constantly changing andgrowing, constantly changing and
(04:05):
growing, and if something's notworking, you stop doing it and
you do something else.
Because of the love for eachother and the relationship that
you want to work and you want itto prosper and be the best it
can be, and the whole thingyou've done there at serenity
and bay just strikes me that itcomes from that relational love
that pours out of you guys and I.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
That's just so the company I built in texas really
wasn't part of that company.
Initially she had her owncareer going and then, of course
, I got my cancer, which we cantalk about that.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
That in itself, the cancer, is what drove us to
belize yeah, and we do want todive into that story and like
why belize and not other placeswhere I traveled?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
so yeah, tell us more about that sure I'll try to do
that and not get emotionalbecause I get it yeah, our
employees never required to readmy book.
I wrote a book, the niceentrepreneur, and all employees
are required to read that.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
And I have them coming to me.
Mr Brian, you made me cry.
You know, which is kind of oneof my goals in the books.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
We'll put a link to that book in our show notes.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Yeah Cool.
I was never like the resort.
I had never intended to write abook.
That was never in my millionyears.
Because growing up in SouthMississippi, you know, I wasn't
the most educated person, Iwasn't the smartest person.
I grew up severe dyslexic, soI'm severe dyslexic, so reading
and writing has been a challengefor me, but that's made me work
hard, right.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Right right.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
So my background was in medical equipment service.
That was my industry.
I did for many, many years, buteventually, in 2003, I got
diagnosed with late stage 4cancer and I had an incurable
cancer of the bone marrow and Iwas given six months to live.
Again, that's 38 years old andI'm the ultimate positive guy.
(05:59):
Okay, well, what does that mean?
Well, doctor, we're going tosend you home and put you on
medication?
I go no, he goes well.
There's that mean Well, doctor,we're going to send you home
and put you on medication?
I go no, he goes well, there'snothing we can do about it.
I said there's got to besomething we can do about it.
There's always something newabout it.
And at the end of the day, Ispent a little over nine months
in the hospital doing chemo andI ended up having a bone marrow
transplant, and I like to takeevery opportunity I can to talk
(06:22):
about that, because one guysaved my life by him just being
willing to donate his marrow, tosave my entire life.
And I feel like now that's mypurpose is to save people
everywhere I can and help them.
But that's kind of what changedour mindset.
(06:43):
We started looking at lifedifferently, fred and I started
being working together.
Uh, we decided life was moremore important than just work.
Uh, so we worked in order toend up selling our company, and
we ended up selling the companyin 2012, and so we want to build
a beach house somewhere.
We want to go build a beachhouse and we looked several
(07:09):
countries.
We had it down to Panama, costaRica and Belize.
We made our first trip to Belizeand we never went anywhere else
.
Well, you know what it's like,brenda, and I'll use a personal
story.
You know, brenda and I, when wedated childhood sweethearts, it
(07:30):
was like we really never datedmany other people and we dated
all through high school.
We got married and we marriedas of today, 38 years.
Congrats, yeah, you find whatyou want.
You go after it, right, right,and that's kind of what I
discovered in Belize.
From the moment we landed atthe airport to the drive to
Placencia, the people wereabsolutely amazing.
(07:54):
Everybody we met was here tohelp us.
Everybody was here to you.
Know what can I do for you?
Help us with tours.
I mean, it was just amazing.
And one of the first people wemet actually was a guy named
Lucky Ivy, which owned CaptainJack's, and we became very close
friends, which, in today, ishow we got Captain Jack's, which
we can delve into a bit later.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
In our previous episode, we talked about Captain
Jack's, so this is that same.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
He was a neighbor in Texas.
Okay, and he came all the wayto Blee's to meet me.
What yeah, he was a neighbor inTexas and he came all the way to
Blee's to meet me.
So that's the end of havingCaptain Jack's, wow.
So we came here, we visited thecountry, we had a couple of
tours, we settled on a piece ofproperty, which is where now
Manatee Villa, which is ourlargest villa, sits, and it was
nothing there Blank piece ofland, a clean slate, and we saw
(08:44):
two palm trees.
And I sat there and lookedbetween those trees and I told
Brenda my voice you know what?
We can build a beach on betweenthose two palm trees, with an
infinity pool between those twotrees, out to the Caribbean Sea.
Of course, brenda, not being adreamer as I am, goes, quit your
freaking dreaming.
So that set the stage.
(09:06):
Manatee Villa, which is ourlargest villa, center point of
that house is those two palmtrees, the center point of that
entire house, and that's becameone of our should have been our
retirement home but, it's nowsince turned into our number one
rented home Because it allowsthree families to come share
together and have an experienceof a private pool, private hot
(09:28):
tub, beautiful on the beach, andwe've been glad to share that
house.
We no longer get to stay in thehouse but we got a lot of people
staying in and at the end ofthe day, that's kind of what
it's all about.
But that led to purchasinganother piece of property, led
to another piece of property,led to another piece of property
, led to another piece ofproperty.
(09:48):
And brenda blames me, I'llblame her.
End of the day, we did ittogether.
We purchased all our propertyon the resort side.
Our intent was to well, wedidn't know what our intent was.
Honestly, we didn't know.
We just saw this opportunity toinvest in a country that we
fell in love with and we didn'tknow what that investment looked
like.
So, so that became Serenity Bay.
(10:10):
We ended up building additionalvillas, additional bungalows, a
resort pool, a littlerestaurant, and then that
spanned across the street.
When me, I've always been a, Iguess, opportunist you have to
be set in your life.
People say luck.
We know I don't really believein luck, so to speak, but luck
is putting yourself in a placeto take advantage of an
(10:32):
opportunity.
That's what we did.
We purchased a property acrossthe street which grew.
We ended up building the minigolf course, which was the first
thing we built, along with thegift shop and what is now ET's
restaurant, et's 19th Hole.
Yeah, we decided to go luxury,you know, with the resort,
because when we started buildingthe resort, I'm a guy that
(10:55):
steps outside the box.
I don't want to do everythingelse that everybody else does.
Yeah, you know, do somethingunique, do something different.
And what Belize at the timedidn't have is really modern,
the modern resorts.
You know they have somefantastic jungle resorts.
You know they have somefantastic, just beachfront,
cabana type resorts, beautifulcountry, beautiful area, but
(11:17):
they didn't have anything realmodern.
They didn't have the rooms thatare all aced, the air condition
every room.
They didn't have the tvs inevery room.
They didn't have a lexus in therooms.
Yeah, and we, I'm a very techieguy, I believe in technology, so
I wanted to apply technology toBelize.
So I wanted to offer the modernvacation in an adventurous
(11:40):
country, because Belize is knownas an adventure country, not a
luxury travel country.
It's more known as an adventurebecause there's so much to do
here, an adventure becausethere's so much to do here.
I mean, there's so much to doin Belize.
That's true you guysexperienced and talked about.
I wanted an extra touch.
So that's what we built SerenaBay from a high-end, luxury,
modern point of view.
Then, as we expanded,pickleball came along.
(12:02):
We had the first Pickleball inthe entire country of Belize.
We built Pick pickleball in theentire country of Belize.
You're a visionary man.
Yeah, what I wanted and my goalhad come to be was if you're
going to do something, do itright.
My dad taught me that Growingup, my dad said if you're going
to do it, do it right or don'tdo it at all.
I know people say that a lot,but we believe that, brittany
(12:25):
and I believe that If you'regoing to do it, do it right,
don't cut corners, don't do ithalfway.
And so we've invested to makesure this place is nothing but
the best right.
But again, as we know, you cango building, building, building
and be the best in the world,but that doesn't make you a
great resort.
What makes for a great resortis your staff right, and I do
want to touch on that.
(12:46):
We can kind of circle back tothe minute because our staff I I
can't say enough about ourstaff.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Our staff is is top notch, and you're going to more
reasons why, why they're downaway you're part of that whole
heartbeat of why your staff isso yeah, look, I can I have a
great leader and I want toinsert here real quick, I think,
because I think this ties intoit there are all these shows on
television about you know,fixing up houses and building
(13:10):
your dream house and yourforever house.
What really strikes me, whenyou were talking about the home
you guys built, how everythingcame out of it when you built
your dream house.
It was your dream house,because your dream wasn't all
about you guys.
Your dream was loving peopleand doing something there for
them, and that is just so coolit is.
It puts the paradigm of a dreamhouse on its head, but it's the
(13:35):
whole loving your neighbors,you love yourself and I and I
think that is a lot of the, alot of the whine behind your
resort.
Your staff's amazing and it wasjust.
I don't know if everybody inBelize is like your staff, but
if they are, the people are likeincredible.
You touched on that earlier.
But I think that all this comesout of your dream and your
(13:56):
dream not just being all aboutme.
You know that kind of a thing.
That's really, really awesome.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Well, we built a house even to back up just one
staff.
Our goal of the house we weregoing to be here, probably four
weeks, maybe six weeks a yearwas our plan, but we wanted our
friends and family to come downand enjoy the house and enjoy
Belize.
Yep, right, that was our intentto share the house with our
friends and family and to sharewhat we weren't able to do
(14:22):
growing up.
We weren't able to travel, weweren't able to do any of that.
Yeah, we up, we weren't able totravel, we weren't able to do
any of that.
We wanted to be able to have aplace where they could come and
stay.
So that did start the house,which is why we went on VRBO and
Expedia and stuff to begin with.
What's really funny, we said wewould not be here more than six
weeks an entire year.
The first set of friends westarted having, we spent six
(14:44):
straight weeks here with sixdifferent families straight
through when we first opened thehouse.
Man Because you know this soundskind of funny, but all of a
sudden, when you have a beachhome in Belize, you have more
friends than you thought you'dhave.
Yeah, man, come on boy.
And some of those friends stillcome today, right, that's great
(15:07):
.
But you know the opportunity togrow the resort and expand it.
Just all I did was bring thatto more.
More friends, more family cancome down and people can come
now who become friends later,you know, later in life.
Become friends, they come hereyeah.
But the staff.
I do want to touch on staff,because that is the reason we
are where we are today.
You know, when Brenda and Icame here, we had our first
(15:29):
staff was just absolutelyamazing.
The people, the ones we hiredto help us with caretaking just
amazing people.
As we started growing andbuilding, we added more staff on
board.
Almost all the staff are stillwith us today, but what I
learned is no one believed inthem.
And as I started bringing inmore staff, what I was hearing
that Mr Bryan, you spend timewith us.
(15:50):
We've never had an owner comedown and believe in us.
And then it started kind ofkicking in that we were not
normal owners.
A lot of people come to Belizeand nothing wrong with this.
They come to invest and makemoney.
You know, come down, invest inthe country, build a resort and
make money.
And that was not Brendan L'sfocus.
Brendan L's focus was not tomake money.
(16:11):
Brendan L's focus was to havesomething for us to do and
others to do.
But I quickly realized that thepeople here, with just a little
bit of attention and a littlebit of love, they not only did a
great job, they did anexceptional job.
So I started.
Which I love most.
Leadership training is my love.
I love teaching people aboutleadership, because leadership,
(16:35):
to me, is a foundation ofeverything we do.
Right, it's a foundation.
What you do with your kids, youlead your kids through their
lifetime.
Right, you lead your friends.
So.
So I started leadership classesand that became part of what my
, my heart and soul was.
In fact, we have a full-blownconference room here now that
trains people.
I train our staff, I train someother staff and I train outside
(16:57):
the resort, which is going togive me chill bumps.
I think you'll know a littlebit about the, the children here
.
We, we, yeah, train but trainerpeople.
And then every orientationstarts out, and and this is how
I lay the foundation, when newpeople come in, we do
orientations and I spend aboutfour hours with them.
Right, first thing I say is whenyou got up this morning, you
(17:18):
got out of bed, you went to thebathroom, you brushed your teeth
, you took a shower, you put onclothes, you know what?
So did I.
And guess what?
We're exactly the same.
I said now, but I've been veryfortunate in my life because I
grew up in a city that's smallerthan the same body.
Right, I grew up in a city thathad less money than the same
(17:41):
body.
And when I look at that and seethat I'm like Mr Brunner, how
are you here today?
I said that is a fantasticquestion.
Let me tell you who I'm heretoday.
Right, can I give them my story?
You know I can't go the wholestory, we don't have that much
time.
But you know, basically growingup with good values, and my dad
, when my dad taught me, whenmom taught me, and you know,
cutting yards, earning moneybecause I have no degree I have
(18:03):
a two-year electronic degree.
I have no business education atall why but what I do have is I
learned through my career,through my mentors, what it
means to treat people right andwhat happens when you do treat
people right Customers,coworkers and all that and so I
started sharing that with them.
This is how I do it, you know,and this is how I want you to do
(18:24):
it, so I can teach you how todo this and that's what I do.
You know.
I teach them about leadership,teach them about you know how
they can be a better person andgive them purpose in life.
And that relates back to whatyou saw when you were here the
exceptional customer service.
We do, and the above the linementality, you remember the
above?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
the line mentality yeah, above the line absolutely.
Yes.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
I'm above the line.
The above the line is smiling,happy, loving your job, it's all
that combined and they live it.
They truly do live the abovethe line mentality and we have
guests now coming in adoptingthat philosophy about above the
line.
I heard you guys, when you werehere, even say it, right yeah.
I heard you guys talking about.
(19:12):
We're above the line today,right?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
So it's a contagious statement, right?
Because smiles are contagious,happiness is contagious and our
staff does an amazing, amazingjob.
And we just got recognized I'mproud to say uh, last week by
expedia group as the bestcustomer experience in the whole
country of.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Belize.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Wow.
Belize Hotel Associationpresented us that last week at
their annual meeting and we'regrateful to have received that
because that comes from guestreviews and guest comments and
that's that was we're very happywith that to be considered the
best experience in Belize.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Well-deserved, man Well-deserved, that's great.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Well, I think you got to sometimes keep me under
control, because I can talk allday long about my people.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
All right, I am going to interrupt right here and we
do talk more about his peopleand we get a virtual tour of the
campus and the behind thescenes with all of the cool
things that you don't want tomiss, but we're going to save
those for next episode.
So we had so much fun withBrian that our conversation just
(20:23):
kept going, so we are going tocontinue that in the next
episode.
We hope you've enjoyed this one.
Please subscribe to our podcaston the platforms where you
listen so that you can catch thenext one and you don't miss it.
And we will see you in the nextone.
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
We hope we've inspired you this episode, so
join us next time.
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Speaker 1 (20:52):
We are also on X and on all social platforms.
We are at TheRomies that'sT-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-S, and our
main hub is our website.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
At wwwtheromiescom, that's right, that's.
T-h-e-r-o-a-m-i-e-scom.
We'll be there until next time.
Yeah, thanks for listening.
Bye, thank you, thank you,thank you.
Hi, I'm Alexa and I'm Rory, and together we are the
Romies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We are made to each other.
Right, we are a touring musicalduo.
And our music has taken us toall kinds of places all around
the world and keeps us always onthe go.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while
running around working to keepall your plates spinning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And we hope, to facilitate your busy lifestyle
and feed your inner travel bug.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Hi everyone, welcome to today's episode.
We are so excited to continueour episode series on Placentia,
belize and Cyrenian Bay.
So when Rory and I went toplacentia, we got to stay at
syrenian bay resorts and villasand it was so cool because we
had the privilege of having thisbehind the scenes tour from the
(00:54):
owner and founder, along withhis wife.
But brian montgomery gave ussuch a neat, heartwarming
experience behind the wholeresort and and we wanted to kind
of give you an insight intothis whole resort it's not just
a place to stay right.
There is so much more to it, somuch more heart behind the
(01:15):
whole, even the mission of whatit's about, and so we thought
that was important enough tospend a whole episode on.
So today, and then we're goingto give you kind of like a
virtual tour around the premises.
So today, y'all, we have anawesome guest with us, brian
Montgomery, with Serenian Bay.
Welcome, brian, thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Doing the tour is what I livefor.
Showing people around SerenianBay and giving them the
background that's my highlightof my day when I get to do that
and give them the background.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
That's my highlight of my day.
When I get to do that man.
That's awesome.
It's like if Oz had been likean amazing person.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Do pay attention to the man behind the curtain in
this case, yes.
Well, serenity Bay, as you know, coming here, was not built
from, like, an investor point ofview or you know all that.
It was built from the loveBrennan and I had once.
We retired to the love ofpolice.
We fell in love with thecountry and bought the property.
And what we have now today wasnever a planned event.
(02:13):
It was never a master planbehind it.
It kind of happened over timeand we built this, tore that
down, built it again, tore itdown to make sure it was exactly
what we wanted.
So that's how it became what itis today.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I love it.
Well, I want to dive deeperinto that story and what's
really fun is that my parentsgrew up in Mississippi and, from
what you and I have talkedabout, they're really not
terribly far from where you grewup.
So, you have Mississippi roots,yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I do Deep Mississippi , Columbia, Mississippi, outside
of.
Hattiesburg yeah, born in NewOrleans.
Brent and I were both born inNew Orleans, raised in
Mississippi, live in Texas nowand, of course, reside in Belize
quite a bit of time as well.
So, yeah, we're very proud ofour being from Mississippi.
I think it taught us a lot.
It taught us a lot of valuesgrowing up pretty poor, making
(03:07):
you appreciate what we have inlife and it keeps us grounded.
It helped us a lot through ourlife.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's great.
It's amazing how many touchpoints we have in common.
I'm from South Louisiana, bornand reared in Lake Charles.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Now we live in Texas.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, we live in Texas and her parents are from
Mississippi and we have afarmhouse there with them.
Man, our lives have beenfollowing each other around.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
It's a small world when you really get down to it.
I've met guests that live fivemiles down the road from us that
didn't even know we owned theresort.
It's an amazingly small world.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yes, I love.
When you started, you weretalking about it being a love
for Belize and the Belizeanpeople and the way that your
resort came about and the waythat you guys have built things
out.
It made me think, because yousaid that.
It made me think of arelationship like a marriage.
It's constantly changing andgrowing, constantly changing and
(04:05):
growing, and if something's notworking, you stop doing it and
you do something else.
Because of the love for eachother and the relationship that
you want to work and you want itto prosper and be the best it
can be, and the whole thingyou've done there at serenity
and bay just strikes me that itcomes from that relational love
that pours out of you guys and I.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
That's just so the company I built in texas really
wasn't part of that company.
Initially she had her owncareer going and then, of course
, I got my cancer, which we cantalk about that.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
That in itself, the cancer, is what drove us to
belize yeah, and we do want todive into that story and like
why belize and not other placeswhere I traveled?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
so yeah, tell us more about that sure I'll try to do
that and not get emotionalbecause I get it yeah, our
employees never required to readmy book.
I wrote a book, the niceentrepreneur, and all employees
are required to read that.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
And I have them coming to me.
Mr Brian, you made me cry.
You know, which is kind of oneof my goals in the books.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
We'll put a link to that book in our show notes.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Yeah Cool.
I was never like the resort.
I had never intended to write abook.
That was never in my millionyears.
Because growing up in SouthMississippi, you know, I wasn't
the most educated person, Iwasn't the smartest person.
I grew up severe dyslexic, soI'm severe dyslexic, so reading
and writing has been a challengefor me, but that's made me work
hard, right.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Right right.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
So my background was in medical equipment service.
That was my industry.
I did for many, many years, buteventually, in 2003, I got
diagnosed with late stage 4cancer and I had an incurable
cancer of the bone marrow and Iwas given six months to live.
Again, that's 38 years old andI'm the ultimate positive guy.
(05:59):
Okay, well, what does that mean?
Well, doctor, we're going tosend you home and put you on
medication?
I go no, he goes well.
There's that mean Well, doctor,we're going to send you home
and put you on medication?
I go no, he goes well, there'snothing we can do about it.
I said there's got to besomething we can do about it.
There's always something newabout it.
And at the end of the day, Ispent a little over nine months
in the hospital doing chemo andI ended up having a bone marrow
transplant, and I like to takeevery opportunity I can to talk
(06:22):
about that, because one guysaved my life by him just being
willing to donate his marrow, tosave my entire life.
And I feel like now that's mypurpose is to save people
everywhere I can and help them.
But that's kind of what changedour mindset.
(06:43):
We started looking at lifedifferently, fred and I started
being working together.
Uh, we decided life was moremore important than just work.
Uh, so we worked in order toend up selling our company, and
we ended up selling the companyin 2012, and so we want to build
a beach house somewhere.
We want to go build a beachhouse and we looked several
(07:09):
countries.
We had it down to Panama, costaRica and Belize.
We made our first trip to Belizeand we never went anywhere else
.
Well, you know what it's like,brenda, and I'll use a personal
story.
You know, brenda and I, when wedated childhood sweethearts, it
(07:30):
was like we really never datedmany other people and we dated
all through high school.
We got married and we marriedas of today, 38 years.
Congrats, yeah, you find whatyou want.
You go after it, right, right,and that's kind of what I
discovered in Belize.
From the moment we landed atthe airport to the drive to
Placencia, the people wereabsolutely amazing.
(07:54):
Everybody we met was here tohelp us.
Everybody was here to you.
Know what can I do for you?
Help us with tours.
I mean, it was just amazing.
And one of the first people wemet actually was a guy named
Lucky Ivy, which owned CaptainJack's, and we became very close
friends, which, in today, ishow we got Captain Jack's, which
we can delve into a bit later.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
In our previous episode, we talked about Captain
Jack's, so this is that same.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
He was a neighbor in Texas.
Okay, and he came all the wayto Blee's to meet me.
What yeah, he was a neighbor inTexas and he came all the way to
Blee's to meet me.
So that's the end of havingCaptain Jack's, wow.
So we came here, we visited thecountry, we had a couple of
tours, we settled on a piece ofproperty, which is where now
Manatee Villa, which is ourlargest villa, sits, and it was
nothing there Blank piece ofland, a clean slate, and we saw
(08:44):
two palm trees.
And I sat there and lookedbetween those trees and I told
Brenda my voice you know what?
We can build a beach on betweenthose two palm trees, with an
infinity pool between those twotrees, out to the Caribbean Sea.
Of course, brenda, not being adreamer as I am, goes, quit your
freaking dreaming.
So that set the stage.
(09:06):
Manatee Villa, which is ourlargest villa, center point of
that house is those two palmtrees, the center point of that
entire house, and that's becameone of our should have been our
retirement home but, it's nowsince turned into our number one
rented home Because it allowsthree families to come share
together and have an experienceof a private pool, private hot
(09:28):
tub, beautiful on the beach, andwe've been glad to share that
house.
We no longer get to stay in thehouse but we got a lot of people
staying in and at the end ofthe day, that's kind of what
it's all about.
But that led to purchasinganother piece of property, led
to another piece of property,led to another piece of property
, led to another piece ofproperty.
(09:48):
And brenda blames me, I'llblame her.
End of the day, we did ittogether.
We purchased all our propertyon the resort side.
Our intent was to well, wedidn't know what our intent was.
Honestly, we didn't know.
We just saw this opportunity toinvest in a country that we
fell in love with and we didn'tknow what that investment looked
like.
So, so that became Serenity Bay.
(10:10):
We ended up building additionalvillas, additional bungalows, a
resort pool, a littlerestaurant, and then that
spanned across the street.
When me, I've always been a, Iguess, opportunist you have to
be set in your life.
People say luck.
We know I don't really believein luck, so to speak, but luck
is putting yourself in a placeto take advantage of an
(10:32):
opportunity.
That's what we did.
We purchased a property acrossthe street which grew.
We ended up building the minigolf course, which was the first
thing we built, along with thegift shop and what is now ET's
restaurant, et's 19th Hole.
Yeah, we decided to go luxury,you know, with the resort,
because when we started buildingthe resort, I'm a guy that
(10:55):
steps outside the box.
I don't want to do everythingelse that everybody else does.
Yeah, you know, do somethingunique, do something different.
And what Belize at the timedidn't have is really modern,
the modern resorts.
You know they have somefantastic jungle resorts.
You know they have somefantastic, just beachfront,
cabana type resorts, beautifulcountry, beautiful area, but
(11:17):
they didn't have anything realmodern.
They didn't have the rooms thatare all aced, the air condition
every room.
They didn't have the tvs inevery room.
They didn't have a lexus in therooms.
Yeah, and we, I'm a very techieguy, I believe in technology, so
I wanted to apply technology toBelize.
So I wanted to offer the modernvacation in an adventurous
(11:40):
country, because Belize is knownas an adventure country, not a
luxury travel country.
It's more known as an adventurebecause there's so much to do
here, an adventure becausethere's so much to do here.
I mean, there's so much to doin Belize.
That's true you guysexperienced and talked about.
I wanted an extra touch.
So that's what we built SerenaBay from a high-end, luxury,
modern point of view.
Then, as we expanded,pickleball came along.
(12:02):
We had the first Pickleball inthe entire country of Belize.
We built Pick pickleball in theentire country of Belize.
You're a visionary man.
Yeah, what I wanted and my goalhad come to be was if you're
going to do something, do itright.
My dad taught me that Growingup, my dad said if you're going
to do it, do it right or don'tdo it at all.
I know people say that a lot,but we believe that, brittany
(12:25):
and I believe that If you'regoing to do it, do it right,
don't cut corners, don't do ithalfway.
And so we've invested to makesure this place is nothing but
the best right.
But again, as we know, you cango building, building, building
and be the best in the world,but that doesn't make you a
great resort.
What makes for a great resortis your staff right, and I do
want to touch on that.
(12:46):
We can kind of circle back tothe minute because our staff I I
can't say enough about ourstaff.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Our staff is is top notch, and you're going to more
reasons why, why they're downaway you're part of that whole
heartbeat of why your staff isso yeah, look, I can I have a
great leader and I want toinsert here real quick, I think,
because I think this ties intoit there are all these shows on
television about you know,fixing up houses and building
(13:10):
your dream house and yourforever house.
What really strikes me, whenyou were talking about the home
you guys built, how everythingcame out of it when you built
your dream house.
It was your dream house,because your dream wasn't all
about you guys.
Your dream was loving peopleand doing something there for
them, and that is just so coolit is.
It puts the paradigm of a dreamhouse on its head, but it's the
(13:35):
whole loving your neighbors,you love yourself and I and I
think that is a lot of the, alot of the whine behind your
resort.
Your staff's amazing and it wasjust.
I don't know if everybody inBelize is like your staff, but
if they are, the people are likeincredible.
You touched on that earlier.
But I think that all this comesout of your dream and your
(13:56):
dream not just being all aboutme.
You know that kind of a thing.
That's really, really awesome.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Well, we built a house even to back up just one
staff.
Our goal of the house we weregoing to be here, probably four
weeks, maybe six weeks a yearwas our plan, but we wanted our
friends and family to come downand enjoy the house and enjoy
Belize.
Yep, right, that was our intentto share the house with our
friends and family and to sharewhat we weren't able to do
(14:22):
growing up.
We weren't able to travel, weweren't able to do any of that.
Yeah, we up, we weren't able totravel, we weren't able to do
any of that.
We wanted to be able to have aplace where they could come and
stay.
So that did start the house,which is why we went on VRBO and
Expedia and stuff to begin with.
What's really funny, we said wewould not be here more than six
weeks an entire year.
The first set of friends westarted having, we spent six
(14:44):
straight weeks here with sixdifferent families straight
through when we first opened thehouse.
Man Because you know this soundskind of funny, but all of a
sudden, when you have a beachhome in Belize, you have more
friends than you thought you'dhave.
Yeah, man, come on boy.
And some of those friends stillcome today, right, that's great
(15:07):
.
But you know the opportunity togrow the resort and expand it.
Just all I did was bring thatto more.
More friends, more family cancome down and people can come
now who become friends later,you know, later in life.
Become friends, they come hereyeah.
But the staff.
I do want to touch on staff,because that is the reason we
are where we are today.
You know, when Brenda and Icame here, we had our first
(15:29):
staff was just absolutelyamazing.
The people, the ones we hiredto help us with caretaking just
amazing people.
As we started growing andbuilding, we added more staff on
board.
Almost all the staff are stillwith us today, but what I
learned is no one believed inthem.
And as I started bringing inmore staff, what I was hearing
that Mr Bryan, you spend timewith us.
(15:50):
We've never had an owner comedown and believe in us.
And then it started kind ofkicking in that we were not
normal owners.
A lot of people come to Belizeand nothing wrong with this.
They come to invest and makemoney.
You know, come down, invest inthe country, build a resort and
make money.
And that was not Brendan L'sfocus.
Brendan L's focus was not tomake money.
(16:11):
Brendan L's focus was to havesomething for us to do and
others to do.
But I quickly realized that thepeople here, with just a little
bit of attention and a littlebit of love, they not only did a
great job, they did anexceptional job.
So I started.
Which I love most.
Leadership training is my love.
I love teaching people aboutleadership, because leadership,
(16:35):
to me, is a foundation ofeverything we do.
Right, it's a foundation.
What you do with your kids, youlead your kids through their
lifetime.
Right, you lead your friends.
So.
So I started leadership classesand that became part of what my
, my heart and soul was.
In fact, we have a full-blownconference room here now that
trains people.
I train our staff, I train someother staff and I train outside
(16:57):
the resort, which is going togive me chill bumps.
I think you'll know a littlebit about the, the children here
.
We, we, yeah, train but trainerpeople.
And then every orientationstarts out, and and this is how
I lay the foundation, when newpeople come in, we do
orientations and I spend aboutfour hours with them.
Right, first thing I say is whenyou got up this morning, you
(17:18):
got out of bed, you went to thebathroom, you brushed your teeth
, you took a shower, you put onclothes, you know what?
So did I.
And guess what?
We're exactly the same.
I said now, but I've been veryfortunate in my life because I
grew up in a city that's smallerthan the same body.
Right, I grew up in a city thathad less money than the same
(17:41):
body.
And when I look at that and seethat I'm like Mr Brunner, how
are you here today?
I said that is a fantasticquestion.
Let me tell you who I'm heretoday.
Right, can I give them my story?
You know I can't go the wholestory, we don't have that much
time.
But you know, basically growingup with good values, and my dad
, when my dad taught me, whenmom taught me, and you know,
cutting yards, earning moneybecause I have no degree I have
(18:03):
a two-year electronic degree.
I have no business education atall why but what I do have is I
learned through my career,through my mentors, what it
means to treat people right andwhat happens when you do treat
people right Customers,coworkers and all that and so I
started sharing that with them.
This is how I do it, you know,and this is how I want you to do
(18:24):
it, so I can teach you how todo this and that's what I do.
You know.
I teach them about leadership,teach them about you know how
they can be a better person andgive them purpose in life.
And that relates back to whatyou saw when you were here the
exceptional customer service.
We do, and the above the linementality, you remember the
above?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
the line mentality yeah, above the line absolutely.
Yes.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
I'm above the line.
The above the line is smiling,happy, loving your job, it's all
that combined and they live it.
They truly do live the abovethe line mentality and we have
guests now coming in adoptingthat philosophy about above the
line.
I heard you guys, when you werehere, even say it, right yeah.
I heard you guys talking about.
(19:12):
We're above the line today,right?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
So it's a contagious statement, right?
Because smiles are contagious,happiness is contagious and our
staff does an amazing, amazingjob.
And we just got recognized I'mproud to say uh, last week by
expedia group as the bestcustomer experience in the whole
country of.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Belize.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Wow.
Belize Hotel Associationpresented us that last week at
their annual meeting and we'regrateful to have received that
because that comes from guestreviews and guest comments and
that's that was we're very happywith that to be considered the
best experience in Belize.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Well-deserved, man Well-deserved, that's great.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Well, I think you got to sometimes keep me under
control, because I can talk allday long about my people.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
All right, I am going to interrupt right here and we
do talk more about his peopleand we get a virtual tour of the
campus and the behind thescenes with all of the cool
things that you don't want tomiss, but we're going to save
those for next episode.
So we had so much fun withBrian that our conversation just
(20:23):
kept going, so we are going tocontinue that in the next
episode.
We hope you've enjoyed this one.
Please subscribe to our podcaston the platforms where you
listen so that you can catch thenext one and you don't miss it.
And we will see you in the nextone.
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
We hope we've inspired you this episode, so
join us next time.
Please subscribe to rate andshare our podcast with your
friends or you know whomever?
And please like and follow uson Instagram, youtube and
Facebook.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
We are also on X and on all social platforms.
We are at TheRomies that'sT-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-S, and our
main hub is our website.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
At wwwtheromiescom, that's right, that's.
T-h-e-r-o-a-m-i-e-scom.
We'll be there until next time.
Yeah, thanks for listening.
Bye, thank you, thank you,thank you.
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