June 4, 2025 • 55 mins
Have you ever wondered what it really takes to turn your fishing lodge dream into reality? Willie and Krista Pawlowsky pull back the curtain on their latest adventure - purchasing and launching Two Rivers Lodge in northwestern Ontario in under 60 days.
The couple shares their journey from vision to execution with remarkable candour. After stepping away from Nordic Point Lodge, they weren't planning another venture so soon. But when opportunity knocks, passionate entrepreneurs answer - especially when that opportunity connects two legendary fisheries. Situated at the confluence of the English and Winnipeg Rivers, Two Rivers Lodge creates a unique connection between Lake of the Woods and Lac Seul, offering access to some of Canada's most productive waters.
Willie methodically walks listeners through each critical step: defining your vision (a family-oriented experience with manageable scale), finding the right property (often through industry connections), establishing a business structure (they partnered with longtime friends Adam and Denise), creating a brand identity, and implementing effective marketing strategies. The practical advice shines with authenticity as they speak from experience, having launched three successful lodge businesses.
Perhaps most reassuring is their firm belief that lodge ownership isn't reserved for the wealthy elite. "You do not have to be somebody with $5 million in the bank to start a lodge," Willie emphasizes. Starting small, leveraging entrepreneur support programs, and growing organically makes this dream accessible to passionate individuals willing to put in the work. Their story even includes an engineering feat - rescuing a sunken barge by building a makeshift dam around it - demonstrating the problem-solving creativity that lodge ownership demands.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
life can't keep me down and he's that's true I
can't, I'm not, I'm not that guy, I'm not.
I'm not the guy who's gonna sitand wait for it to come to me.
I'm gonna chase the puck in thecorner and drill you up against
the glass.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Every time, every time this week on the Outdoor
Journal Radio Podcast NetworksDiaries of a Lodge Owner Stories
of the North.
On this episode, willie takesthe wheel and he and his amazing
wife and partner, krista, talkabout something very near and
dear to my heart how to start alodge business.
(00:42):
Which begs the question can you?
On this show, willie and Kristatalk about how to jump right
into starting a lodge businessand what they have learned on
their second go-round.
They talk about some of thechallenges and fears they faced
and how they found solutions tomove forward.
(01:03):
So, folks, if owning a lodge isa thought that has ever crossed
your mind, I ask you to askyourself why not?
I know there are somepassionate people out there who
will become lodge owners.
The question is is it you?
The question is is it you?
(01:26):
Here's Willie and Krista'sconversation about how to start
a lodge business.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Hello folks and welcome to another episode of
Diaries of a Lodge Owner,Stories of the North, willie the
oil man here.
I'm shooting this one here witha guest today, a special guest.
Stevie has got the itching togo fishing, so he's prepared for
(02:00):
his season with the boys and,yeah, I figured I'd grab the mic
today and hit one out of thepark for you folks.
So welcome back.
Diaries, family and toeverybody, I've missed you.
I know Stevie's been lettingeverybody know here what's been
going on, but I've had somethroat issues over the last
(02:22):
month or so.
Over the last month or so, yeah, I actually went to the doctor
and for the first time in mylife believe it or not, because
all I do is like to talk someonetold me just to shut up and
don't say anything and it'll fixmy problem.
(02:42):
And that's physically what mydoctor told me.
He said you've been talking toomuch, you have too much on the
go, you need to stop talking andspeak like a baby.
So I wasn't allowed to podcastmy.
We're back in the saddle, baby,yeah.
(03:06):
So welcome back.
I apologize for being gone.
It's a beautiful day here innorthwestern Ontario.
We're sitting in the Kenoraoffice of the Diaries operation
here In the Great White NorthActually, it's the Great Smoky
North right now.
We have a lot of forest firesup here and dangerously close to
(03:36):
the Kenora Falcon Lake WhiteShell Park to the north up now
by the Paw in Manitoba.
It's been pretty devastating,so certainly a little smoky
around here.
Yeah, we need some rain.
Anybody in central USA orsouthern Ontario that's been
(04:01):
getting pounded with rain thatwe know of, please send some our
way.
We can use it, folks, please.
Just if my voice starts tocrack a bit, like I say, I'm
just getting over thislaryngitis, the Johnny Cash
syndrome I had there, so justbear with me.
I'll have to take some drinkstoday and lubricate my throat a
(04:23):
bit.
It sounds horrible, but yeah.
So I'm sitting here at my homeand I have our next guest here
with me my beautiful wife,business partner, life partner,
mother of my children and theperson who will one day put on
(04:46):
my diapers, krista Polowski.
Everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Hello listeners.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
That was up for an intro, honey.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It's awesome, awesome and true.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Okay, so, yeah, so, like I say, we've been gone for
a bit.
It's kind of springtime is likea busy time of the year for me
and Krista.
We do like like we have so manykids, so there's like we have
kids that are going to proms andgetting ready for that.
(05:17):
I got nieces getting ready forgraduation.
I got another kid that'shalfway across Canada right now
and one that's actually flyingon Sunday to go to Toronto with
her class for five days Lexi,and yeah, so on top of that, on
(05:39):
top of that, it's our.
We own a business called SunsetLimousine and we transport
people all over to.
You know, we do work with theM&R, the firefighters, rick
Payne there and his gentlemanover in, rick Payne what an
awesome guy, eh.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, they've kept us very busy so far this spring.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
He right with all the fires.
But Rick is, if you guys thinkback, and we're going to have
him on the show again.
But Rick is the very humble,modest gentleman who is the head
dispatch coordinator for thisarea, so he's the one sending
out the fleet to control thesefires and he's an intricate part
(06:19):
of their wheel and of theirwheel.
But, yeah, we're going to haveRicky on here again, but he's
been kind of keeping us up todate.
That's been busy stuff.
So that's something we've beenup to.
We've been finishing up theschoolwork with the vans and
then we get into the season andit's time to shuttle around the
(06:42):
fishermen and ecotourism gueststhat like to come and and visit
northwestern Ontario.
And Krista that is you, yes,that's Krista is the.
She is the kingpin in thatcomment yes.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So in saying that, there's a lot of cottagers that
come to Kenora um over thesummer.
So we do the transport fromusually the Winnipeg airport,
winnipeg or Thunder Bay airportto here, and then the fishermen,
we transport them from usuallyWinnipeg or International Falls
to all of the lodges aroundNorthwestern Ontario.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
So you're taking, so we're picking up the guests that
are going fishing and we'retransporting them either to the
shuttle, like to a float planebase, or to the airport, or to
the camp, private camp lodge,wherever they're going for their
summer holidays.
That's what you're doing,correct, and we're.
It's busy this time of year forus.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, it's very busy.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Everyone's slamming right now.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Travel agencies are using us.
There's yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
EN and CP.
We do a lot of work with them,so Chris is busy this time of
year Anyway.
So that's kind of what we'vebeen up to here in the spring
and everyone knows, you know, wekind of back in March we
decided to step away from NordicPoint Lodge and they have a
great facility there and they'removing forward and things are
(08:08):
going amazing there and wewished them all the best in
their future and we weresupposed to have a relaxed
summer.
I think I told everybody onhere I was going to, you know,
get my shoulder surgery done andI was going to be my wife's
employee for the first time ever.
It was going to be lovely.
I was just going to be mywife's employee for the first
time ever.
It was going to be lovely.
I was just going to drive herlittle shuttle vans around and
(08:30):
yeah, but then I think you knowlife can't keep me down, honey,
that's true, it can't.
I'm not that guy.
I'm not the guy who's going tosit and wait for it to come to
me.
I'm going to chase the puck inthe corner and drill you up
against the glass every time.
Every time I'm going to be BradMarchand against the Toronto
(08:53):
Maple Leafs Every time, and Ihate him, but at the same time,
when he plays for Team Canada, Ilove him for that reason.
So we Well, we'll just let thecat out of the bag we bought
another fishing lodge and soMarch 1st we actually signed the
(09:14):
papers on Mother's Day, so thatwas the 11th of May this year.
So my promise to not doanything but was two months and
ten days, and then I broke mypromise, right, honey.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Absolutely.
I knew it was coming, it wasjust a matter of time.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So we are now the owners of Two Rivers Lodge,
which sits 50 minutes to thenorth of Kenora, which is a nice
, close drive.
For us.
It is a fly-into or boat-into,so we have a landing that is
(10:00):
really safe, big, flat, nicespot to park your car, and then
we have a shuttle boat thatpicks you up and it's a
20-minute boat ride up to ourcabins, and or you can fly in
from Kenora Winnipeg via floatplane.
Yeah, so crazy idea.
I know it sounds nuts, but it'sthe right opportunity for us
(10:25):
and we are super excited, eh,babe.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Absolutely Brings us back to exactly where we started
.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I know I hated not having a lodge.
I hated it, even though it wastwo months and 10 days.
Four hours, 11 minutes.
I hated it.
I hated it.
So what we're going to talkabout today, folks, on this
episode, is how do you, how doesJohn Doe on the end of this you
(10:53):
know podcast, if you know ifhe's sitting there and he wants
to make a life change?
You know Mr Nitzwicky, ouramazing leader here and host.
You know he his story right ofjust one day being sick of his
job and just saying, screw it, Iwant to own a fishing lodge.
(11:14):
I can figure it out financially.
I might bankrupt myself, but atleast I'm going to try doing
something.
And I have a lot of respect forthat.
And Steve, because, as we'veboth said, there's not many of
these places that aren't passeddown by family or taken by
corporate entities that have alot of money.
(11:34):
It takes a lot of gas and a lotof nuts to put everything on
the line again and do it.
And Steve did that.
And he did it twice in his life, and with that business and
then with his tin-lockingbusiness prior to, and I respect
him a lot for that, but anyway.
So, yes, we are going to teachyou how to start your own lodge,
(11:59):
folks.
That's the episode today.
Hey, honey.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Go team, go team.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Go team.
So how do you start your ownlaunch?
You say you know everybody, hey, honey, everyone thinks it's
hard.
You know it's hard work, it's ahard process, would you say it
(12:26):
is.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It is hard work.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
But I think it's if you have the dedication and if
you know where to start, it'snot that bad Like so.
This is our third time doingthis.
Now We've had Lake of the Woods, fishing Adventures, we created
Nordic Point and now Two RiversLodge, and the first thing we
(12:54):
needed to do was decide what wewanted to do.
What do we want to do?
What do we want in our nextexperience?
So before we you know, wereally weren't looking for any
properties we had to decide as ateam me and Krista what we
wanted.
What did we decide we wantedfor a lodge?
(13:16):
What style of lodge do we want?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Family.
We want a family-orientatedlodge.
We want something manageable,something breathtaking something
smaller too like bad ways.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yes, yes, absolutely our last place was huge, like
any of you guests that hadvisited there you would have
known, but like anybody whohadn't, it was Insanely big and
way too many cabins for us andwe would rerun in 20-hour days
for no reason.
(13:50):
So we just decided you knowthis one, let's step it back.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
All about family.
We wanted it to be about family.
We wanted to do it withourselves and our close friends.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, we want to.
Yeah, exactly.
So we want to keep it afamily-run lodge, a
family-orientated businessstructure.
We didn't want to make it acorporate Canada or a corporate
America venue.
We will have an elite-levelservice, just like you always
have.
You'll have elite food andelite fishing and elite boats
(14:29):
and guides and cabins, butthat's not the experience.
What we want that experiencedirected at is your family or
your group of people enjoyingthat family-run experience,
always being pushed around you.
You know Steve's old motto andwe've stole it off him and he
(14:51):
allowed me to steal it, butwe've actually started putting
it.
It's on the front page of ourwebsite, honey, what is it?
Come as friends, leave as family, that's right, that's right,
and it's going to be right onthe main sign when you pull up
to our dock.
And we truly believe that andwe always have.
So that was the first thing youneed to do is, yourself, know
(15:15):
what you want, your vision.
Know your vision, correct,correct, exactly.
You know what Little Johnnythat used to guide for me, his
vision always, I remember, sinceMaynard Lake and T2 guiding
with him.
Little Johnny has always wantedto have his own outpost.
That's his thing and he'll haveit one day.
But you know it'll come and Ijust you have to know your
(15:41):
vision, you have to know.
So that's where we start.
So me and Kristen, you know, wealways sit here in the evenings
and we're watching our shows, or90 Days, fiance and hockey and
foot whatever.
We're watching this shit wewatch and we're always talking
about this stuff.
So that's us knowing, that's usknowing.
(16:02):
So one day the phone rings andit's an individual that a long
time ago we'd reached out to andjust said, hey, this is who we
are, give us a call and theyhave some very unique properties
.
We were actually just lookingto talk to them to kind of tell
(16:24):
us our story and we kind of havesome relations business-wise,
so some unique ones.
So we were just kind of lookingto chat and we really hit it
off with these people and, youknow, after we hung up the phone
we kind of started beingintrigued by the conversation
going.
You know, like maybe there'ssomething here Kind of lit a
little bit of a fire in my bellyagain.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And the wheels were spinning.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And the wheels were spinning.
So what we did was we didn't donothing.
We actually got another phonecall from the same family a
month later and you know, theywanted to talk to us some more
and get to know us.
And we actually met the peopleand, uh, by that time I was
(17:12):
hooked.
I know the plan, I know thelodge, um, I know it's history,
I know what it's capable of.
It's been closed for five years.
But I know, uh, if there'sanybody that can bring it back,
it's me.
But I know if there's anybodythat can bring it back, it's me,
and I'm excited for it, I'msuper excited for it.
(17:37):
So we decided to just to makethem an offer, a random offer.
And so this is the second partyou need to do, folks, is you
know what you want to do?
Let's say in the background youknow I want a fishing outpost,
we're going to use that model ofJohnny's.
And then, all of a sudden, youknow, so you're looking, you're
looking online.
You can get a realtor, you canlook at Kijiji, you can look on
(18:00):
Marketplace, facebook, you cantalk to fishing guides, you can
talk to local outfitters here.
Ask everybody I ask everybodyall the time what's for sale.
What's on the market Right?
Ask anybody those questions andwhen you do, you're going to
find those diamonds in the rough.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
You'll never know, unless you ask.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Right, rainbow Point Lodge was a diamond in the rough
before we turned it to Nordicand it was a beautiful
campground.
Bob and Gail had such abeautiful place there for 40
years but we were so fortunateto find it and stumbling across
those little tiny pebbles, andso this is one of those diamonds
in the rough and it's a gem,this property Beautiful.
(18:43):
It was started by a gentleman,so the old lodge name used to be
T2 Lodge when it was createdand it was Bill Kozak that
incorporated that lodge, builtit up and then a family the Hens
took over.
(19:03):
They ran it for a few yearsuntil COVID and then, just with
COVID, I guess there was someunforeseen issues with COVID and
it closed its doors and it wasT2 Island Lodge at the time.
So we, amazing place, greatplace.
I actually used to work thereas a, as a contract guy that's
(19:25):
why I've told you guys about itbefore.
When I first started guiding,kind of where I cut my teeth and
uh, so we, we, we, we reallywant that property, we really
wanted it Right and we knew it.
You know, we, we knew we hadthe people on the phone they
wanted to make a deal and so we,you know we made this deal.
(19:48):
We have the vision.
You know we're moving forwardand we started the company.
You know we decided that weactually sorry one step back
here.
We decided to go in withpartners and I didn't want to go
(20:09):
in with partners Uh, in theessence of other businesses that
I've been involved in in thepast, but this was different.
So there's been a gentleman outthere who's we don't talk about
him very much on here, but weshould have more of it.
(20:29):
He's the background stud in ouroperation.
His name was Adam Brow and Adamwas.
He was like my.
You know, kyle McMahon was kindof my other, my other fire
there for a long time, but Adamkind of was with me right from
the start.
You know he bought my old Lakeof the Woods Fishing Adventures.
He bought the company off meand Krista Yep, him and his wife
(20:52):
, and they wanted to do the samething.
You know they slowly wanted tobuild and have a guiding outfit
and work it into a lodge andthey've been doing it.
You know they've been runningthat other company and so we
brought them in.
We wanted to family, family,family.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
They have the same vision, him and his wife Denise.
They have the same vision.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, so our 50% partners at our lodge are Adam
and Denise Brough.
Everybody welcomed them to theDiaries family.
Yay, yay, they're amazinghumans they are.
We'll be talking about them alittle more here.
And we've got to get Adam onhere.
Adam's a top shelf guy.
He's actually catfish fishingtoday up on the Red River in
(21:38):
Winnipeg, just outside ofWinnipeg, I think.
He said yesterday he caught 60catfish and I think over.
I think 40 of them were like ofwhatever the master class
Freaking, ridiculous.
Like Adam's a stick and a halfon the water.
He's a great human.
Anybody who wants to come toTwo Rivers Lodge, he is the man
(21:58):
to guide.
Yes, he's a.
Yeah, he's the man.
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Speaker 1 (23:54):
So that was, I guess, the next, you know.
The next thing was you know howdo you want to do your business
?
You know, like, how do you wantto do you want to run a sole
proprietorship by yourself?
Do you want?
Is it just a one-man cabinoperation?
You know, is that outpost justthat?
Is that outpost an Americanplan, where you have to feed
them and guide them?
Is that outpost style, justsomewhere where you'd fly in and
(24:16):
drop them off like a WayneClark?
Is that outpost style, justsomewhere where you'd fly in and
drop them off like a WayneClark?
You know, like the king of theflying north there, wayne Clark?
Is it an operation like that?
It all depends on what youroperation is.
So now you've found your niche,you've got your business, you've
(24:39):
got your angles of where youwant to go and you know we've
got a partner.
So if you didn't have a partner, you would have just skipped
that step.
And then so the next thing weneeded to do was establish a
name.
Right, establish a business,establish a company.
So we reached out to a lawyer.
Uh, we had a handful of namespicked out.
We gave them a handful of namesand said come back to us with
(25:00):
which ones are available.
And they did, and I think therewas only one, I think it was
just two, I think Two RiversLodge was the only one.
That's the one we all wanted.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
That's when we came up with it.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Collectively, that was the deal.
So this lodge, sorry, thislodge Collectively, that was the
deal.
So this lodge, sorry, thislodge.
This area where the lodge sitsis on an island called Titu
Island, sits on Titu Lake andthere's two rivers that come in
from the backside, from thenorth.
One is the English River.
That flows down from Laksuil soup where I used to be up, by
(25:35):
Pearl Falls and Near Falls.
That's where the start of thatriver is.
It flows down past Maynard LakeLodge and so on and so forth
and then spits out into TituLake on the east side of our
island.
On the west side of our islandis where the lake now dumps into
the Winnipeg River and then,farther south, it comes from
(25:58):
Menakee, out of Lake of theWoods, up to us.
So we're connected to someheavy bodies.
We're actually one of the onlybodies of water that's connected
to Lac Sewell and Lake of theWoods.
That's incredible, huge.
Those two fisheries are insaneand we're stuck right in the
middle of those two fisheries.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
That's where the two rivers came in.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Correct the place of two rivers.
I think that's what T2 meantback then.
That's what T2 Lake means, Ithink, is we'd always heard that
and Adam told me that was theplace where two rivers meet In
some native tongue.
I'm not sure To use myignorance, I'm just not educated
in it.
I don't know.
(26:39):
But yeah, so that's how we gotthe name.
So, yeah, so we had their name.
We had our incorporation.
A lawyer set it up.
It was.
You know it's not much, folks.
It all depends what you want todo with your company.
You can split your shares, youcan do different things in a
partnership.
There's tons of things.
Your lawyer will go over thatwith you, but it was like $2,500
, something like that.
You know it's not much, right.
(26:59):
So now you have that company,you have that protection of an
incorporation or a limitedcompany behind you and to move
forward.
So you have your propertyalready.
You know you found yourbusiness At the same time you
create your business.
You know at the same time youcreate your business, you create
your name.
(27:19):
You know you got to do all yourwork with CRA and get your key.
So there's a business key thatyou'll get and you got to set
all that up with CRA and allthose are all steps that I
didn't know.
All free, no money involvedthere.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And then Do you have to design your brand, your brand
, your logo?
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Oh yes, well yeah, I guess you've got to design a
brand.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
The kids did that.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Well, denise and the kids and you, we didn't really.
It was different this time.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Julie and Denise did that one.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yeah, I think they pretty much put this one
together and it was good.
Our logo's really sharp, reallycool.
Everybody can go on.
Tworiverslodgenet becausefishing has nets, everybody.
(28:12):
My partner, adam.
We were trying to gotworiverslodgecomca and he said
tworiverslodgenet because it'sfishing, and he is absolutely
right.
Tworiverslodgenet because it'sfishing, and he is absolutely
right.
So T-W-O, not two, the numberTwoRiversLodgenet.
Go check it out, folks.
Yeah, so we kind ofcollectively, everybody threw in
their ideas and blah, blah,blah.
(28:34):
We all had the same concept, Ithink.
But Denise and Julia, adam'swife, kind of pounded this logo
out and then we sent it over toour good friend Timmy Dawson,
there over at Campus Crew.
Let's give him a shout out Woo,woo, woo.
I can't even.
I lost my voice.
I can't even Woo, woo.
(28:57):
So yeah, timmy Dawson here,here, what an awesome guy he
makes all that, all the swag forthe fish of canada show, all
those amazing hoodies that angie, pete and the boys are selling
over there, um, go check themout.
They're uh, the quality and thecraftsmanship of his product is
second to none.
It's the fit is incredible,it's unbelievable.
Every piece, every piece, it'samazing.
So, anyways, timmy digitized usa logo, created us.
(29:22):
He gave us a couple versionsactually too, so then we can put
it in some different ways andareas, and that was wonderful.
So we had that now, you knownow.
So now we're starting to brand.
You know I actually did anepisode of power branding.
That's kind of a specialtything of mine, you know.
(29:43):
Know, we created that brand andif you're very loud, you don't
have to be, you can, you canobviously.
Just, you know, you can markethow you want and network how you
need and.
But I'm very loud and I'm veryproud of our stuff and I I make
sure you know my one of my firstcalls was to our friend Jamie
Bruce.
You know, making sure Bruce, hewas on board with us, picking
him up as a sponsor next year.
Jamie Bruce, these podcasts,the TV shows that I've filmed at
(30:07):
my lodges and the sponsorshipwork, that and the Jamie Bruces
and the Brian Gussies, thoseguys, man, so many people see
your name.
You know my logo has been atthe Bassmaster Classic and it's
(30:32):
been to several events all overthe southern United States,
which is my target market.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
So that, yeah, you know, like, you don't have to go
as heavy as that.
You know that's obviously someof its money, a lot of its
connections, and it takes timeto meet those people.
But at the same time, you knowyou can market in different ways
on Facebook Marketplace andFacebook.
Instagram is a big one, right,and you know your website
promotions through Google.
(31:00):
You know, learn how to useGoogle a bit and hit those
target things.
You know you don't need to paysomebody $2,000 a month to tell
you what you already know, likeI did, and to continue to pay.
You know you learn those things.
Right, pay the money to teach.
That's how I say it.
Now, one thing I've learned inthe last two places is, if you
(31:23):
need to educate yourselfsomewhere, pay the money to do
it and make sure it's doneproperly, right?
The couple things that I'velearned, hey, babe.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, absolutely, it's important, man.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, that's advice of ours as lodge owners.
Just make sure you're.
If you need help with something, we always asked we weren't
afraid to that but educateyourself with training too.
We can do that as well.
So, and there was a couple ofareas where we had to do that
Yep, yeah, so you're, you know,you're kind of, your business is
(31:55):
there, you're, you know.
Now you've got a frame model ofwhat you're going to do.
I guess you know, in thebackground you're always.
You got to, you got to think ofhow you're going to, how are
you going to, how is your campgoing to look to guests, you
know, and I step back and Iphysically do this, like I step
back and Krista thinks I'm crazy, but I'll be like, okay, I'm a
(32:15):
guest getting off, you're aguest getting off the plane,
krista, and you walk down and Igrab your bags and take them to
your cabin and show you yourbeautiful cabin and give you a
little speech.
And you know this is a what'sup around camp, right, and you
know, show you a layout andwhere the lodge is, blah, blah,
blah.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
And this is daily.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
But this is why we're successful.
You play that back every day.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
So, yeah, it's important to do that Role, play
that guest coming to you and seewhat you need in your lodge,
what's your flow like?
You know like what's I knowright now like our place.
So when you come off the docksright Like, is your steps too
high, are they too flat, isthere broken boards?
Is there landscaping that needsdone?
Right now that I just took overa new camp, that's what I'm
(33:05):
looking at A lot of.
I think a lot of people wouldlook back and they'd go, okay,
well, this over here needs fixedand this needs fixed now.
But if you think about it from aguest perspective, you're going
to know what they need donefirst.
Obviously, you got to have agenerator going or power to it.
You need fuel of some source ofsome kind.
You know you need those things.
(33:26):
Yes, but I'm talking about thevisual aspect of your camp.
What is it going to look like?
And that's important because Ican see already.
I can see the flowers on thedeck and the lodge right, and I
could see guests having a beerout there, right, and that's
(33:46):
important.
That's a vision you know andI've had that.
We've always had that.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yep absolutely.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
So now you got your vision, you know of your
property, now you have the moneyto do it.
You have the things to do.
Money is one thing too, folks.
So just to let everyone know,there is a million options out
there.
You do not have to be somebodywith $5 million in the bank to
go and start a lodge.
Everyone might think you do,but you don't.
(34:15):
I'm not going to say how muchI've put into my places to get
them going, but, like you candefinitely do it on a reasonable
salary and start out small, youdon't have to start out big.
You know you can.
Obviously, investors is a wayto go.
I've done that route and thatwas you know.
(34:35):
It was an amazing experience,but it's a way that you could go
as well.
um a bank there's help out therethere's lots of help, there's
lots of agencies that help inCanada, like there's places that
they want young entrepreneursto thrive, you know they want
them to grow, they don't wantpeople to struggle, you know.
(34:57):
And there's places that do thatout there, you know.
So get online in whatever areayou're in, and you can start
Googling that business stuff.
Like family too, family alwayshelps, right.
You know those kind of things,you know.
Maybe not even financially, butwith help.
I know us like our last twoplaces wouldn't have survived
without our family, and neitherwill this one.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
We're very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
You know it was like I say you know, May 11th, we're
taking over this lodge and weactually have guests coming at
the end of June.
Now it's crazy Right Under 60days we got a lodge running,
operating, and nobody would everthink you could do that.
But, like I'm saying thesesteps, that I'm telling you
folks, really, if you just stepback and take them one at a time
(35:45):
and don't, you cannot OCD overthe issue at the time.
I do it and it's a problem, itslows me down and it keeps me up
at night.
But if you just flow through itand I've learned this and flow
through what the guestrequirements are, needs, it'll
all come together.
So you know, obviously yourcabins have to be cleaned and
(36:10):
everything's got to be gonethrough.
Any renovations you need to do,you're going to do them.
You know we're cooking aheadlike that them.
You know we're cooking aheadlike that.
Okay, so, getting guests there,how do you do that?
You know, if you're a new lodgeowner now, you got the place,
(36:31):
you got the business, I got apartner.
I don't, I've got.
I need people.
How do I get the people here?
Well, like I said, those guyslike the Jamie Bruces and the
Gussies and the you know andinvesting in shows like this
that we can talk about yourplace consistently, or just
giving us a call.
Anybody out there listeningthat owns a lodge?
You know the easiest way tomarket give me a call or send me
(36:53):
an email.
Okay, my email to everybody now.
Super simple, everybody, andit'll stay this one for 20 years
.
I apologize for having tochange it the last six months,
but it's will attworiverslodgenet, will at
tworiverslodgenet.
Send me an email and I'll getyou on the show and that's the
(37:13):
easiest one-hour promotion youcould have.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
There's so many ways.
Facebook Marketplace is huge.
That's the easiest one hourpromotion you could have,
absolutely.
There's so many ways.
Facebook marketplace is huge,instagram is huge, the shows are
big and it on your clientele itdepends on.
But there's, I know a guy likeWayne Clark.
He he feeds off that stuffRight and he does so good down
there and word of mouth Don't bequiet about it.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Word of mouth yeah, don't.
Yes, like Don't be quiet aboutit.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Word of mouth yeah, don't.
Yes, like don't keep your placea secret, be very proud of it,
wear your swag.
I know Krista.
It's actually ridiculous.
She wears Sunset, limo and TwoRivers Lodge swag everywhere she
goes, or other investments.
Right, like, everything shewears has our logos on it.
It's important.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
People see that and they ask Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
And you tell Absolutely the old, you know the
old, mailing things out mightbe a little much.
Email lists are huge.
Right, if you can combine a,you know, a small overtime, you
know as you, that's one thing asyou collect your clients.
So if you're at a show inMinneapolis, a fishing show, and
(38:20):
you have your booth, okay,you're there for the first time
and the guests are rolling byand you're talking to them, but
they keep going, or one or twobook and then the rest.
How do you, if you only get oneor two bookings but you let 150
people walk away?
That's no good.
You got to get theirinformation right.
(38:42):
So you think of ways to get it.
So Krista would have a fishingrod or a sweater or a jacket
from Nordic Point, I think itwas at the time and she would
have a little box and some pieceof paper and a pencil or
business cards and a pencil, andyou had to fill out.
Not fill out, all you did wasput give me your name, phone
(39:03):
number, email, and then you'reentered in the draw to win this
jacket, fishing rod, whatever itis, and everybody's going to do
it because it's a chance at afishing rod.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
And as they were doing that, I'd say, can I just
add you to my email list?
And they'd be like, yeah, yeah,of course, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Right and it's simple right.
Simple sales tactics like thatguys can keep you.
It'll help your business growincredibly fast.
There's so many things to do.
Like TV was huge for marketingand growth.
When your clients start calling, you know, answer the phone.
If it doesn't matter, if it's11 o'clock at night, I answer
(39:41):
the phone.
You have to answer the phone.
This is part of the gig in anytravel tourism business.
It's not a must.
Customer has to be number oneall the time.
It's not Monday to Friday, nineto five.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Those are the slowest times.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
That's the times where you can sleep.
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, there'slots of ways to grow your
business and get your clientele.
If anyone has any questionsabout sales or how to grow your
clientele, give me a call, giveme an email, drop me a line.
So now we have clients coming,okay, so now we got 100 clients
(40:18):
booked and I'm thinking, okay,now I got to feed them, I got to
have swag, I got to have toiletpaper.
Where do I get all that stuff?
Okay, well, so the best optionis not to go to the grocery
store and spend max dollars at aretail price.
(40:40):
Don't do that.
I did that before.
I did that in my first business, lakewood Fishing.
Don't do it.
Your profit margin will be waytoo low.
But you'll learn.
You'll learn.
So you hook up with a company,like a Cisco, you know, and you
get in with them and they're.
You know they're going to haveitems on sale in bulk.
(41:03):
You got to determine what'sgood and what's not.
So you buy in bulk when you canat a bulk price.
When you can't, you hit a placelike wholesale or Costco, right
For that other, for your fruitsand your veggies, and a lot of
these places like these Cisco'sand whatever the other vendors
(41:23):
are frats, foods and whateverthey they'll deliver right to
your lodge, right, so likethey'll bring it right to your
back door, just like a fueltruck.
You know fuel, all theseaccounts you have to set up as
you go.
You know we use Morgan Fuels uphere in Kenora and for propane
and diesel gas.
(41:45):
So which is crazy, crazy thing.
Just let me hop in here andtell a crazy story before we go
on here.
So along with this place, it'san island in the middle of the
lake, in the middle of nowhere,and we're run by generators, 40
(42:05):
and 30 kilowatt and they'rediesel and we use a lot of
diesel.
So some camps fly it all in ortake some in in the winter,
right Snowmobile in it.
We don't have that option herebecause of the heavy currents.
We could fly it in but itprobably would get more
expensive.
So a lot of it we barge in.
(42:26):
So we have a barge.
So about three weeks ago, me andAdam and the boys decide to go
up and get the barge going.
Well, the barge had sunkbecause it's been five years
full of snow and rain and water.
It had sunk once, actuallyabout three years ago, and the
(42:50):
owner, john Williams, who ownsSubmarine Lodge.
He actually floated it one time.
You know the old guy there.
He got it up and then before wetook the camp over he told us
he'd done that.
So we kind of planned on itbeing on bottom.
But yes, it was on bottom, soit's sitting in like seven feet
(43:12):
of water.
The front of the barge is justout of the water, so like three
feet of it, and it's a 30-footlong barge.
It's a huge barge.
And so we ended up we had tobuild a dam around the barge and
pump it out.
So since it was a little bitout of the water, we were able
(43:35):
to.
Basically the gist of it is wewe took one by one um chunks of
wood and used class C clamps andwe see, clamp the wood to the
side of the boat, the rail, allthe way around that was under
the water.
And then we took Polly andwrapped the boat in Polly, like
you would like your house, overyour insulation.
(43:57):
And then we had strips ofplywood that were like two,
three feet high or whatever.
So we screwed the plywood intothe other board that we'd
clamped already to the side ofthe boat barge.
So now we physically built adam.
So if you picture it in youreyes, the barge is underwater
but we build a pref dam.
So if you picture it in youreyes, the barge is underwater
but we build a prefab dam to goaround it.
(44:19):
So yeah, the dam's not secure.
You know, there's a little bitof water coming in here and
there, but as long as we'refaster than the water coming in,
we'll gain on it.
So we had two big four inchpumps going.
It took us two days.
The first, the first day, wefailed.
We got three quarters of theway done and we couldn't get it
complete so we needed to come inwith a bigger pump.
So anyway, second day, we gotthe two bigger four inch going
(44:44):
and it was like we pumped it outand it was like three quarters
out and then the hull startedlike it was like making noises,
like it was going to twist.
So what had happened is it sunkin the mud.
So the bottom of the barge wascompressed and suctioned down
(45:07):
into the mud.
So while we're pumping water,adam had to get in his boat and
put a chain on and suck it uptight and kind of just suck it
out, kind of thing Like just getsome pressure on it and it
would suck out.
So we ended up getting thebarge off bottom.
So Two Rivers Lodge on Facebook.
I'm going to post thesepictures if anybody wants to go
(45:27):
there.
But I'll post pictures of ourbarge float.
It was crazy.
It was crazy.
So, anyway, clint's had to tellthat story because it was not
the story.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
No, no problem.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
So yeah, so now you know, you got your fuel
suppliers, you got your foodguys, you got all these people.
These people are important.
You know Chris Thompson he'sour Cisco guy up here.
Or Chris Davidson I'm sorry,chris Davidson.
Chris, he invited us the otherday to go learn, to go sit with
some chefs in July and we'regoing to learn some culinary
stuff.
I'm not a culinary guy at all,but I need to.
(45:58):
I want to know what's going onand when these guys offer these
little training ops and takeadvantage of them.
You know, if they offer anyhelp, take advantage of them.
You know, noah, we had to.
Another service we had is LodgeVault, the booking system.
So it was our booking system.
So like your hotel bookingsystem, I guess you know it's
(46:20):
virtually the same thing, butit's a Lodge, it's based on
Lodge.
Is this one, Noah?
He's been a guest on our showbefore.
Let's give him a shout out toNoah.
Anybody looking for softwarefor the Lodge industry.
You're silly not to be callinghim because he's second to none.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
And it's incredibly easy to use.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, super it is.
It's user-friendly and the guyyou can get a hold of him at any
time.
I called the guy last week andhe's like answers the phone.
I'm like where are you?
He's like I'm in Austria.
I'm like, oh my God, it set usup.
But he answered the phone andhe actually worked through
(46:58):
setting me up.
I was having some revenueaccount issues on the software
and he had to help set me up.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Anyway, there it is, the key Answer.
Your phone People do Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
And he, that's right, absolutely, that's super
important.
So, yeah, so, absolutely,that's super important.
So then, so yeah, so things arecoming together.
You know, in that aspect, youknow you have to set up your
payment system.
So like, how are people goingto pay you?
Are they going to pay you witha credit card?
If they are, how are you goingto take that credit card?
Our software has that creditcard information so we can just
(47:29):
pump it in there.
We're thankful enough to havethat.
That's something you can goonline and Google.
How do you get those things?
Excuse me, I've got to take adrink of water.
I'm getting a little dry honey.
See, I'm talking too much folks.
Doctor says shut up, willie,shut up.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
It wasn't a tough week at all.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
So, yeah, so you know , all of these things you got to
pull together.
We had to do them rapidly thistime.
Last time I still had to dothem rapidly, but at least I had
six months.
This time I got weeks, but it'sdoable, you know, and if you're
out there listening to thisepisode and you're like man, I
(48:13):
could do this.
Like you know, I got 20 or 30grand and that's all you need to
start Get going.
Start a little thing, you know.
Go and find your dream.
And you know there's privatepeople selling.
There's lots of people forknowledge.
Reach out to Steve too, at theFish of Canada show.
You know Steve here, our hoston the show.
(48:35):
The guy's got a world ofknowledge.
He helped me so much inbuilding my second place.
I can't thank him.
I'm forever in debt to him andyou know there's lots of people
that'll help you guys.
So if you want to do this, takethe chance, take a leap of
faith.
Yeah, believe in yourself yeah,because it can be done.
Leap of faith yeah, believe inyourself.
Yeah, because it can be done.
(48:57):
It can be done.
I think that's what else we gotto talk about, honey, on our
show today.
We have lots of shouts out, Ithink we're.
So.
That's the.
You know, that's the gist ofhow we got going.
That's where we're at right now.
(49:18):
So we are.
We've got all of those thingsdone in the last two weeks that
I've just talked to you about.
I'm going to talk to you guysevery time I'm on here and keep
updating you as to where we'reat, so the evolution of your
knowledge and learning cancontinue.
Right now, we're in the middleof a fire ban, actually.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Fingers crossed, toes crossed, ears crossed.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Everything's crossed.
We have sprinklers set up onour property from the M&R fire
and I need everybody here tocross your fingers and pray that
nothing happens to my camp.
Last time we checked, we haveactually images that the fire
was two kilometers away andthere's alerts going out today
that everyone needs to.
It's already evacuated, butanybody in the area needs to be
(49:55):
over there as of today, evenfirefighters.
So we will uh, we'll keep youupdated on that.
Our current situation is thatwe have everything here ready to
go, Company's ready, we haveclients booked.
All we got to do is we got afew minor maintenance deals up
there.
We got to get ready.
We got to put a new set ofdocks in and play with some
(50:17):
generators, get some watercoming around and then but we
are all sitting on the edge ofour seats waiting to get out.
What a scary thing fire and itis, though, rick Payne.
He told me the one fire took a20-kilometer run, folks,
overnight.
Overnight, yeah, 20 kilometers.
Just imagine going to bed and20 kilometers away and waking up
and fire at your doorstep likethat fast.
(50:39):
That's insane.
I'm about to play with.
We gotta get ricky back on herefor an episode.
He's.
He's super busy right now, butI'm gonna catch him here
sometime when he has a coupledays off and we're gonna get him
on because he has so manystories.
He's's great.
Our new partners yes, two RiversLodge, baby, here we go again.
Another venture, Folks.
(51:02):
I want to say thank you toLakeside Marines Andrew Johnson
you guys got to which, by theway, is a partner in the lodge
as a sponsor he's.
We would only rep his sponsor,we would only rep his equipment,
we would only purchase throughhim.
He is amazing.
His customer service is secondto none.
I'm going to go all the way toRed Lake for any of my equipment
(51:25):
and or he'll be here for that.
Lakesidemarinecom, check themout, get online fishingcanadacom
and check out their giveaways.
Um, garvin's always giving awaystuff there.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
You know, you can see pete and ang and uh, their
handsome faces and uh, yeah well, I'm so proud of you, honey,
and I'm so proud of all theseventures and all the support
from everybody around.
Thank you so much, baby.
Thanks for coming on the showtoday and uh.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Support from everybody around.
Thank you so much, baby.
Thanks for coming on the showtoday and keeping me down to
earth and keeping me grounded,and let's do this again.
I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Me too Go, team go.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Awesome TwoRiversLodgenet folks.
Thus concludes another episodeof Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Stories of the North.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
I'm a good old boy, never meanin' no harm.
I'll be all you ever saw beenrailin' in the hog since the day
I was born, bendin' my rock,rock, stretching my line.
Someday I might own a lodge,and that'd be fine.
(52:46):
I'll be making my way the onlyway I know how, working hard and
sharing the north with all ofmy pals.
Well, I'm a good old boy.
I bought a lodge and lived mydream.
And now I'm here talking abouthow life can be as good as it
(53:10):
seems.
Yeah, good as it seems, yeah.
Hi everybody, I'm Angelo Violaand I'm Pete Bowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
Speaker 5 (53:28):
That's right.
Every Thursday, Ang and I willbe right here in your ears
bringing you a brand-new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Speaker 3 (53:35):
Hmm, Now what are we going to talk about for two
hours every week?
Speaker 5 (53:38):
Well, you know there's going to be a lot of
fishing.
Speaker 4 (53:40):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 3 (53:45):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors, from athletes, All theother guys would go golf, from
athletes to scientists, to chefsand whoever else will pick up
(54:12):
the phone.
Wherever you are, our OutdoorJournal Radio seeks to answer
the questions and tell thestories of all those who enjoy
being outside.
Speaker 5 (54:20):
Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 6 (54:28):
As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(54:49):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal use by
Indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
After nearly a decade of harvest, use, testimonials and research
(55:12):
, my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
life dedicated to improving thelives of others through natural
means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
That are shaped by our naturalworld.
(55:32):
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast.
I'm going to take you alongwith me to see the places, meet
the people that will help youfind your outdoor passion and
help you live a life close tonature and, under the canopy
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
life can't keep me down and he's that's true I
can't, I'm not, I'm not that guy, I'm not.
I'm not the guy who's gonna sitand wait for it to come to me.
I'm gonna chase the puck in thecorner and drill you up against
the glass.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Every time, every time this week on the Outdoor
Journal Radio Podcast NetworksDiaries of a Lodge Owner Stories
of the North.
On this episode, willie takesthe wheel and he and his amazing
wife and partner, krista, talkabout something very near and
dear to my heart how to start alodge business.
(00:42):
Which begs the question can you?
On this show, willie and Kristatalk about how to jump right
into starting a lodge businessand what they have learned on
their second go-round.
They talk about some of thechallenges and fears they faced
and how they found solutions tomove forward.
(01:03):
So, folks, if owning a lodge isa thought that has ever crossed
your mind, I ask you to askyourself why not?
I know there are somepassionate people out there who
will become lodge owners.
The question is is it you?
The question is is it you?
(01:26):
Here's Willie and Krista'sconversation about how to start
a lodge business.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Hello folks and welcome to another episode of
Diaries of a Lodge Owner,Stories of the North, willie the
oil man here.
I'm shooting this one here witha guest today, a special guest.
Stevie has got the itching togo fishing, so he's prepared for
(02:00):
his season with the boys and,yeah, I figured I'd grab the mic
today and hit one out of thepark for you folks.
So welcome back.
Diaries, family and toeverybody, I've missed you.
I know Stevie's been lettingeverybody know here what's been
going on, but I've had somethroat issues over the last
(02:22):
month or so.
Over the last month or so, yeah, I actually went to the doctor
and for the first time in mylife believe it or not, because
all I do is like to talk someonetold me just to shut up and
don't say anything and it'll fixmy problem.
(02:42):
And that's physically what mydoctor told me.
He said you've been talking toomuch, you have too much on the
go, you need to stop talking andspeak like a baby.
So I wasn't allowed to podcastmy.
We're back in the saddle, baby,yeah.
(03:06):
So welcome back.
I apologize for being gone.
It's a beautiful day here innorthwestern Ontario.
We're sitting in the Kenoraoffice of the Diaries operation
here In the Great White NorthActually, it's the Great Smoky
North right now.
We have a lot of forest firesup here and dangerously close to
(03:36):
the Kenora Falcon Lake WhiteShell Park to the north up now
by the Paw in Manitoba.
It's been pretty devastating,so certainly a little smoky
around here.
Yeah, we need some rain.
Anybody in central USA orsouthern Ontario that's been
(04:01):
getting pounded with rain thatwe know of, please send some our
way.
We can use it, folks, please.
Just if my voice starts tocrack a bit, like I say, I'm
just getting over thislaryngitis, the Johnny Cash
syndrome I had there, so justbear with me.
I'll have to take some drinkstoday and lubricate my throat a
(04:23):
bit.
It sounds horrible, but yeah.
So I'm sitting here at my homeand I have our next guest here
with me my beautiful wife,business partner, life partner,
mother of my children and theperson who will one day put on
(04:46):
my diapers, krista Polowski.
Everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Hello listeners.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
That was up for an intro, honey.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It's awesome, awesome and true.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Okay, so, yeah, so, like I say, we've been gone for
a bit.
It's kind of springtime is likea busy time of the year for me
and Krista.
We do like like we have so manykids, so there's like we have
kids that are going to proms andgetting ready for that.
(05:17):
I got nieces getting ready forgraduation.
I got another kid that'shalfway across Canada right now
and one that's actually flyingon Sunday to go to Toronto with
her class for five days Lexi,and yeah, so on top of that, on
(05:39):
top of that, it's our.
We own a business called SunsetLimousine and we transport
people all over to.
You know, we do work with theM&R, the firefighters, rick
Payne there and his gentlemanover in, rick Payne what an
awesome guy, eh.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, they've kept us very busy so far this spring.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
He right with all the fires.
But Rick is, if you guys thinkback, and we're going to have
him on the show again.
But Rick is the very humble,modest gentleman who is the head
dispatch coordinator for thisarea, so he's the one sending
out the fleet to control thesefires and he's an intricate part
(06:19):
of their wheel and of theirwheel.
But, yeah, we're going to haveRicky on here again, but he's
been kind of keeping us up todate.
That's been busy stuff.
So that's something we've beenup to.
We've been finishing up theschoolwork with the vans and
then we get into the season andit's time to shuttle around the
(06:42):
fishermen and ecotourism gueststhat like to come and and visit
northwestern Ontario.
And Krista that is you, yes,that's Krista is the.
She is the kingpin in thatcomment yes.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So in saying that, there's a lot of cottagers that
come to Kenora um over thesummer.
So we do the transport fromusually the Winnipeg airport,
winnipeg or Thunder Bay airportto here, and then the fishermen,
we transport them from usuallyWinnipeg or International Falls
to all of the lodges aroundNorthwestern Ontario.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
So you're taking, so we're picking up the guests that
are going fishing and we'retransporting them either to the
shuttle, like to a float planebase, or to the airport, or to
the camp, private camp lodge,wherever they're going for their
summer holidays.
That's what you're doing,correct, and we're.
It's busy this time of year forus.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, it's very busy.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Everyone's slamming right now.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Travel agencies are using us.
There's yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
EN and CP.
We do a lot of work with them,so Chris is busy this time of
year Anyway.
So that's kind of what we'vebeen up to here in the spring
and everyone knows, you know, wekind of back in March we
decided to step away from NordicPoint Lodge and they have a
great facility there and they'removing forward and things are
(08:08):
going amazing there and wewished them all the best in
their future and we weresupposed to have a relaxed
summer.
I think I told everybody onhere I was going to, you know,
get my shoulder surgery done andI was going to be my wife's
employee for the first time ever.
It was going to be lovely.
I was just going to be mywife's employee for the first
time ever.
It was going to be lovely.
I was just going to drive herlittle shuttle vans around and
(08:30):
yeah, but then I think you knowlife can't keep me down, honey,
that's true, it can't.
I'm not that guy.
I'm not the guy who's going tosit and wait for it to come to
me.
I'm going to chase the puck inthe corner and drill you up
against the glass every time.
Every time I'm going to be BradMarchand against the Toronto
(08:53):
Maple Leafs Every time, and Ihate him, but at the same time,
when he plays for Team Canada, Ilove him for that reason.
So we Well, we'll just let thecat out of the bag we bought
another fishing lodge and soMarch 1st we actually signed the
(09:14):
papers on Mother's Day, so thatwas the 11th of May this year.
So my promise to not doanything but was two months and
ten days, and then I broke mypromise, right, honey.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Absolutely.
I knew it was coming, it wasjust a matter of time.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So we are now the owners of Two Rivers Lodge,
which sits 50 minutes to thenorth of Kenora, which is a nice
, close drive.
For us.
It is a fly-into or boat-into,so we have a landing that is
(10:00):
really safe, big, flat, nicespot to park your car, and then
we have a shuttle boat thatpicks you up and it's a
20-minute boat ride up to ourcabins, and or you can fly in
from Kenora Winnipeg via floatplane.
Yeah, so crazy idea.
I know it sounds nuts, but it'sthe right opportunity for us
(10:25):
and we are super excited, eh,babe.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Absolutely Brings us back to exactly where we started
.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I know I hated not having a lodge.
I hated it, even though it wastwo months and 10 days.
Four hours, 11 minutes.
I hated it.
I hated it.
So what we're going to talkabout today, folks, on this
episode, is how do you, how doesJohn Doe on the end of this you
(10:53):
know podcast, if you know ifhe's sitting there and he wants
to make a life change?
You know Mr Nitzwicky, ouramazing leader here and host.
You know he his story right ofjust one day being sick of his
job and just saying, screw it, Iwant to own a fishing lodge.
(11:14):
I can figure it out financially.
I might bankrupt myself, but atleast I'm going to try doing
something.
And I have a lot of respect forthat.
And Steve, because, as we'veboth said, there's not many of
these places that aren't passeddown by family or taken by
corporate entities that have alot of money.
(11:34):
It takes a lot of gas and a lotof nuts to put everything on
the line again and do it.
And Steve did that.
And he did it twice in his life, and with that business and
then with his tin-lockingbusiness prior to, and I respect
him a lot for that, but anyway.
So, yes, we are going to teachyou how to start your own lodge,
(11:59):
folks.
That's the episode today.
Hey, honey.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Go team, go team.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Go team.
So how do you start your ownlaunch?
You say you know everybody, hey, honey, everyone thinks it's
hard.
You know it's hard work, it's ahard process, would you say it
(12:26):
is.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It is hard work.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
But I think it's if you have the dedication and if
you know where to start, it'snot that bad Like so.
This is our third time doingthis.
Now We've had Lake of the Woods, fishing Adventures, we created
Nordic Point and now Two RiversLodge, and the first thing we
(12:54):
needed to do was decide what wewanted to do.
What do we want to do?
What do we want in our nextexperience?
So before we you know, wereally weren't looking for any
properties we had to decide as ateam me and Krista what we
wanted.
What did we decide we wantedfor a lodge?
(13:16):
What style of lodge do we want?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Family.
We want a family-orientatedlodge.
We want something manageable,something breathtaking something
smaller too like bad ways.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yes, yes, absolutely our last place was huge, like
any of you guests that hadvisited there you would have
known, but like anybody whohadn't, it was Insanely big and
way too many cabins for us andwe would rerun in 20-hour days
for no reason.
(13:50):
So we just decided you knowthis one, let's step it back.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
All about family.
We wanted it to be about family.
We wanted to do it withourselves and our close friends.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, we want to.
Yeah, exactly.
So we want to keep it afamily-run lodge, a
family-orientated businessstructure.
We didn't want to make it acorporate Canada or a corporate
America venue.
We will have an elite-levelservice, just like you always
have.
You'll have elite food andelite fishing and elite boats
(14:29):
and guides and cabins, butthat's not the experience.
What we want that experiencedirected at is your family or
your group of people enjoyingthat family-run experience,
always being pushed around you.
You know Steve's old motto andwe've stole it off him and he
(14:51):
allowed me to steal it, butwe've actually started putting
it.
It's on the front page of ourwebsite, honey, what is it?
Come as friends, leave as family, that's right, that's right,
and it's going to be right onthe main sign when you pull up
to our dock.
And we truly believe that andwe always have.
So that was the first thing youneed to do is, yourself, know
(15:15):
what you want, your vision.
Know your vision, correct,correct, exactly.
You know what Little Johnnythat used to guide for me, his
vision always, I remember, sinceMaynard Lake and T2 guiding
with him.
Little Johnny has always wantedto have his own outpost.
That's his thing and he'll haveit one day.
But you know it'll come and Ijust you have to know your
(15:41):
vision, you have to know.
So that's where we start.
So me and Kristen, you know, wealways sit here in the evenings
and we're watching our shows, or90 Days, fiance and hockey and
foot whatever.
We're watching this shit wewatch and we're always talking
about this stuff.
So that's us knowing, that's usknowing.
(16:02):
So one day the phone rings andit's an individual that a long
time ago we'd reached out to andjust said, hey, this is who we
are, give us a call and theyhave some very unique properties
.
We were actually just lookingto talk to them to kind of tell
(16:24):
us our story and we kind of havesome relations business-wise,
so some unique ones.
So we were just kind of lookingto chat and we really hit it
off with these people and, youknow, after we hung up the phone
we kind of started beingintrigued by the conversation
going.
You know, like maybe there'ssomething here Kind of lit a
little bit of a fire in my bellyagain.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And the wheels were spinning.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And the wheels were spinning.
So what we did was we didn't donothing.
We actually got another phonecall from the same family a
month later and you know, theywanted to talk to us some more
and get to know us.
And we actually met the peopleand, uh, by that time I was
(17:12):
hooked.
I know the plan, I know thelodge, um, I know it's history,
I know what it's capable of.
It's been closed for five years.
But I know, uh, if there'sanybody that can bring it back,
it's me.
But I know if there's anybodythat can bring it back, it's me,
and I'm excited for it, I'msuper excited for it.
(17:37):
So we decided to just to makethem an offer, a random offer.
And so this is the second partyou need to do, folks, is you
know what you want to do?
Let's say in the background youknow I want a fishing outpost,
we're going to use that model ofJohnny's.
And then, all of a sudden, youknow, so you're looking, you're
looking online.
You can get a realtor, you canlook at Kijiji, you can look on
(18:00):
Marketplace, facebook, you cantalk to fishing guides, you can
talk to local outfitters here.
Ask everybody I ask everybodyall the time what's for sale.
What's on the market Right?
Ask anybody those questions andwhen you do, you're going to
find those diamonds in the rough.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
You'll never know, unless you ask.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Right, rainbow Point Lodge was a diamond in the rough
before we turned it to Nordicand it was a beautiful
campground.
Bob and Gail had such abeautiful place there for 40
years but we were so fortunateto find it and stumbling across
those little tiny pebbles, andso this is one of those diamonds
in the rough and it's a gem,this property Beautiful.
(18:43):
It was started by a gentleman,so the old lodge name used to be
T2 Lodge when it was createdand it was Bill Kozak that
incorporated that lodge, builtit up and then a family the Hens
took over.
(19:03):
They ran it for a few yearsuntil COVID and then, just with
COVID, I guess there was someunforeseen issues with COVID and
it closed its doors and it wasT2 Island Lodge at the time.
So we, amazing place, greatplace.
I actually used to work thereas a, as a contract guy that's
(19:25):
why I've told you guys about itbefore.
When I first started guiding,kind of where I cut my teeth and
uh, so we, we, we, we reallywant that property, we really
wanted it Right and we knew it.
You know, we, we knew we hadthe people on the phone they
wanted to make a deal and so we,you know we made this deal.
(19:48):
We have the vision.
You know we're moving forwardand we started the company.
You know we decided that weactually sorry one step back
here.
We decided to go in withpartners and I didn't want to go
(20:09):
in with partners Uh, in theessence of other businesses that
I've been involved in in thepast, but this was different.
So there's been a gentleman outthere who's we don't talk about
him very much on here, but weshould have more of it.
(20:29):
He's the background stud in ouroperation.
His name was Adam Brow and Adamwas.
He was like my.
You know, kyle McMahon was kindof my other, my other fire
there for a long time, but Adamkind of was with me right from
the start.
You know he bought my old Lakeof the Woods Fishing Adventures.
He bought the company off meand Krista Yep, him and his wife
(20:52):
, and they wanted to do the samething.
You know they slowly wanted tobuild and have a guiding outfit
and work it into a lodge andthey've been doing it.
You know they've been runningthat other company and so we
brought them in.
We wanted to family, family,family.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
They have the same vision, him and his wife Denise.
They have the same vision.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, so our 50% partners at our lodge are Adam
and Denise Brough.
Everybody welcomed them to theDiaries family.
Yay, yay, they're amazinghumans they are.
We'll be talking about them alittle more here.
And we've got to get Adam onhere.
Adam's a top shelf guy.
He's actually catfish fishingtoday up on the Red River in
(21:38):
Winnipeg, just outside ofWinnipeg, I think.
He said yesterday he caught 60catfish and I think over.
I think 40 of them were like ofwhatever the master class
Freaking, ridiculous.
Like Adam's a stick and a halfon the water.
He's a great human.
Anybody who wants to come toTwo Rivers Lodge, he is the man
(21:58):
to guide.
Yes, he's a.
Yeah, he's the man.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
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Speaker 1 (23:54):
So that was, I guess, the next, you know.
The next thing was you know howdo you want to do your business
?
You know, like, how do you wantto do you want to run a sole
proprietorship by yourself?
Do you want?
Is it just a one-man cabinoperation?
You know, is that outpost justthat?
Is that outpost an Americanplan, where you have to feed
them and guide them?
Is that outpost style, justsomewhere where you'd fly in and
(24:16):
drop them off like a WayneClark?
Is that outpost style, justsomewhere where you'd fly in and
drop them off like a WayneClark?
You know, like the king of theflying north there, wayne Clark?
Is it an operation like that?
It all depends on what youroperation is.
So now you've found your niche,you've got your business, you've
(24:39):
got your angles of where youwant to go and you know we've
got a partner.
So if you didn't have a partner, you would have just skipped
that step.
And then so the next thing weneeded to do was establish a
name.
Right, establish a business,establish a company.
So we reached out to a lawyer.
Uh, we had a handful of namespicked out.
We gave them a handful of namesand said come back to us with
(25:00):
which ones are available.
And they did, and I think therewas only one, I think it was
just two, I think Two RiversLodge was the only one.
That's the one we all wanted.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
That's when we came up with it.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Collectively, that was the deal.
So this lodge, sorry, thislodge Collectively, that was the
deal.
So this lodge, sorry, thislodge.
This area where the lodge sitsis on an island called Titu
Island, sits on Titu Lake andthere's two rivers that come in
from the backside, from thenorth.
One is the English River.
That flows down from Laksuil soup where I used to be up, by
(25:35):
Pearl Falls and Near Falls.
That's where the start of thatriver is.
It flows down past Maynard LakeLodge and so on and so forth
and then spits out into TituLake on the east side of our
island.
On the west side of our islandis where the lake now dumps into
the Winnipeg River and then,farther south, it comes from
(25:58):
Menakee, out of Lake of theWoods, up to us.
So we're connected to someheavy bodies.
We're actually one of the onlybodies of water that's connected
to Lac Sewell and Lake of theWoods.
That's incredible, huge.
Those two fisheries are insaneand we're stuck right in the
middle of those two fisheries.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
That's where the two rivers came in.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Correct the place of two rivers.
I think that's what T2 meantback then.
That's what T2 Lake means, Ithink, is we'd always heard that
and Adam told me that was theplace where two rivers meet In
some native tongue.
I'm not sure To use myignorance, I'm just not educated
in it.
I don't know.
(26:39):
But yeah, so that's how we gotthe name.
So, yeah, so we had their name.
We had our incorporation.
A lawyer set it up.
It was.
You know it's not much, folks.
It all depends what you want todo with your company.
You can split your shares, youcan do different things in a
partnership.
There's tons of things.
Your lawyer will go over thatwith you, but it was like $2,500
, something like that.
You know it's not much, right.
(26:59):
So now you have that company,you have that protection of an
incorporation or a limitedcompany behind you and to move
forward.
So you have your propertyalready.
You know you found yourbusiness At the same time you
create your business.
You know at the same time youcreate your business, you create
your name.
(27:19):
You know you got to do all yourwork with CRA and get your key.
So there's a business key thatyou'll get and you got to set
all that up with CRA and allthose are all steps that I
didn't know.
All free, no money involvedthere.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And then Do you have to design your brand, your brand
, your logo?
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Oh yes, well yeah, I guess you've got to design a
brand.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
The kids did that.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Well, denise and the kids and you, we didn't really.
It was different this time.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Julie and Denise did that one.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yeah, I think they pretty much put this one
together and it was good.
Our logo's really sharp, reallycool.
Everybody can go on.
Tworiverslodgenet becausefishing has nets, everybody.
(28:12):
My partner, adam.
We were trying to gotworiverslodgecomca and he said
tworiverslodgenet because it'sfishing, and he is absolutely
right.
Tworiverslodgenet because it'sfishing, and he is absolutely
right.
So T-W-O, not two, the numberTwoRiversLodgenet.
Go check it out, folks.
Yeah, so we kind ofcollectively, everybody threw in
their ideas and blah, blah,blah.
(28:34):
We all had the same concept, Ithink.
But Denise and Julia, adam'swife, kind of pounded this logo
out and then we sent it over toour good friend Timmy Dawson,
there over at Campus Crew.
Let's give him a shout out Woo,woo, woo.
I can't even.
I lost my voice.
I can't even Woo, woo.
(28:57):
So yeah, timmy Dawson here,here, what an awesome guy he
makes all that, all the swag forthe fish of canada show, all
those amazing hoodies that angie, pete and the boys are selling
over there, um, go check themout.
They're uh, the quality and thecraftsmanship of his product is
second to none.
It's the fit is incredible,it's unbelievable.
Every piece, every piece, it'samazing.
So, anyways, timmy digitized usa logo, created us.
(29:22):
He gave us a couple versionsactually too, so then we can put
it in some different ways andareas, and that was wonderful.
So we had that now, you knownow.
So now we're starting to brand.
You know I actually did anepisode of power branding.
That's kind of a specialtything of mine, you know.
(29:43):
Know, we created that brand andif you're very loud, you don't
have to be, you can, you canobviously.
Just, you know, you can markethow you want and network how you
need and.
But I'm very loud and I'm veryproud of our stuff and I I make
sure you know my one of my firstcalls was to our friend Jamie
Bruce.
You know, making sure Bruce, hewas on board with us, picking
him up as a sponsor next year.
Jamie Bruce, these podcasts,the TV shows that I've filmed at
(30:07):
my lodges and the sponsorshipwork, that and the Jamie Bruces
and the Brian Gussies, thoseguys, man, so many people see
your name.
You know my logo has been atthe Bassmaster Classic and it's
(30:32):
been to several events all overthe southern United States,
which is my target market.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
So that, yeah, you know, like, you don't have to go
as heavy as that.
You know that's obviously someof its money, a lot of its
connections, and it takes timeto meet those people.
But at the same time, you knowyou can market in different ways
on Facebook Marketplace andFacebook.
Instagram is a big one, right,and you know your website
promotions through Google.
(31:00):
You know, learn how to useGoogle a bit and hit those
target things.
You know you don't need to paysomebody $2,000 a month to tell
you what you already know, likeI did, and to continue to pay.
You know you learn those things.
Right, pay the money to teach.
That's how I say it.
Now, one thing I've learned inthe last two places is, if you
(31:23):
need to educate yourselfsomewhere, pay the money to do
it and make sure it's doneproperly, right?
The couple things that I'velearned, hey, babe.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, absolutely, it's important, man.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, that's advice of ours as lodge owners.
Just make sure you're.
If you need help with something, we always asked we weren't
afraid to that but educateyourself with training too.
We can do that as well.
So, and there was a couple ofareas where we had to do that
Yep, yeah, so you're, you know,you're kind of, your business is
(31:55):
there, you're, you know.
Now you've got a frame model ofwhat you're going to do.
I guess you know, in thebackground you're always.
You got to, you got to think ofhow you're going to, how are
you going to, how is your campgoing to look to guests, you
know, and I step back and Iphysically do this, like I step
back and Krista thinks I'm crazy, but I'll be like, okay, I'm a
(32:15):
guest getting off, you're aguest getting off the plane,
krista, and you walk down and Igrab your bags and take them to
your cabin and show you yourbeautiful cabin and give you a
little speech.
And you know this is a what'sup around camp, right, and you
know, show you a layout andwhere the lodge is, blah, blah,
blah.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
And this is daily.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
But this is why we're successful.
You play that back every day.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
So, yeah, it's important to do that Role, play
that guest coming to you and seewhat you need in your lodge,
what's your flow like?
You know like what's I knowright now like our place.
So when you come off the docksright Like, is your steps too
high, are they too flat, isthere broken boards?
Is there landscaping that needsdone?
Right now that I just took overa new camp, that's what I'm
(33:05):
looking at A lot of.
I think a lot of people wouldlook back and they'd go, okay,
well, this over here needs fixedand this needs fixed now.
But if you think about it from aguest perspective, you're going
to know what they need donefirst.
Obviously, you got to have agenerator going or power to it.
You need fuel of some source ofsome kind.
You know you need those things.
(33:26):
Yes, but I'm talking about thevisual aspect of your camp.
What is it going to look like?
And that's important because Ican see already.
I can see the flowers on thedeck and the lodge right, and I
could see guests having a beerout there, right, and that's
(33:46):
important.
That's a vision you know andI've had that.
We've always had that.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yep absolutely.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
So now you got your vision, you know of your
property, now you have the moneyto do it.
You have the things to do.
Money is one thing too, folks.
So just to let everyone know,there is a million options out
there.
You do not have to be somebodywith $5 million in the bank to
go and start a lodge.
Everyone might think you do,but you don't.
(34:15):
I'm not going to say how muchI've put into my places to get
them going, but, like you candefinitely do it on a reasonable
salary and start out small, youdon't have to start out big.
You know you can.
Obviously, investors is a wayto go.
I've done that route and thatwas you know.
(34:35):
It was an amazing experience,but it's a way that you could go
as well.
um a bank there's help out therethere's lots of help, there's
lots of agencies that help inCanada, like there's places that
they want young entrepreneursto thrive, you know they want
them to grow, they don't wantpeople to struggle, you know.
(34:57):
And there's places that do thatout there, you know.
So get online in whatever areayou're in, and you can start
Googling that business stuff.
Like family too, family alwayshelps, right.
You know those kind of things,you know.
Maybe not even financially, butwith help.
I know us like our last twoplaces wouldn't have survived
without our family, and neitherwill this one.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
We're very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
You know it was like I say you know, May 11th, we're
taking over this lodge and weactually have guests coming at
the end of June.
Now it's crazy Right Under 60days we got a lodge running,
operating, and nobody would everthink you could do that.
But, like I'm saying thesesteps, that I'm telling you
folks, really, if you just stepback and take them one at a time
(35:45):
and don't, you cannot OCD overthe issue at the time.
I do it and it's a problem, itslows me down and it keeps me up
at night.
But if you just flow through itand I've learned this and flow
through what the guestrequirements are, needs, it'll
all come together.
So you know, obviously yourcabins have to be cleaned and
(36:10):
everything's got to be gonethrough.
Any renovations you need to do,you're going to do them.
You know we're cooking aheadlike that them.
You know we're cooking aheadlike that.
Okay, so, getting guests there,how do you do that?
You know, if you're a new lodgeowner now, you got the place,
(36:31):
you got the business, I got apartner.
I don't, I've got.
I need people.
How do I get the people here?
Well, like I said, those guyslike the Jamie Bruces and the
Gussies and the you know andinvesting in shows like this
that we can talk about yourplace consistently, or just
giving us a call.
Anybody out there listeningthat owns a lodge?
You know the easiest way tomarket give me a call or send me
(36:53):
an email.
Okay, my email to everybody now.
Super simple, everybody, andit'll stay this one for 20 years
.
I apologize for having tochange it the last six months,
but it's will attworiverslodgenet, will at
tworiverslodgenet.
Send me an email and I'll getyou on the show and that's the
(37:13):
easiest one-hour promotion youcould have.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
There's so many ways.
Facebook Marketplace is huge.
That's the easiest one hourpromotion you could have,
absolutely.
There's so many ways.
Facebook marketplace is huge,instagram is huge, the shows are
big and it on your clientele itdepends on.
But there's, I know a guy likeWayne Clark.
He he feeds off that stuffRight and he does so good down
there and word of mouth Don't bequiet about it.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Word of mouth yeah, don't.
Yes, like Don't be quiet aboutit.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Word of mouth yeah, don't.
Yes, like don't keep your placea secret, be very proud of it,
wear your swag.
I know Krista.
It's actually ridiculous.
She wears Sunset, limo and TwoRivers Lodge swag everywhere she
goes, or other investments.
Right, like, everything shewears has our logos on it.
It's important.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
People see that and they ask Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
And you tell Absolutely the old, you know the
old, mailing things out mightbe a little much.
Email lists are huge.
Right, if you can combine a,you know, a small overtime, you
know as you, that's one thing asyou collect your clients.
So if you're at a show inMinneapolis, a fishing show, and
(38:20):
you have your booth, okay,you're there for the first time
and the guests are rolling byand you're talking to them, but
they keep going, or one or twobook and then the rest.
How do you, if you only get oneor two bookings but you let 150
people walk away?
That's no good.
You got to get theirinformation right.
(38:42):
So you think of ways to get it.
So Krista would have a fishingrod or a sweater or a jacket
from Nordic Point, I think itwas at the time and she would
have a little box and some pieceof paper and a pencil or
business cards and a pencil, andyou had to fill out.
Not fill out, all you did wasput give me your name, phone
(39:03):
number, email, and then you'reentered in the draw to win this
jacket, fishing rod, whatever itis, and everybody's going to do
it because it's a chance at afishing rod.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
And as they were doing that, I'd say, can I just
add you to my email list?
And they'd be like, yeah, yeah,of course, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Right and it's simple right.
Simple sales tactics like thatguys can keep you.
It'll help your business growincredibly fast.
There's so many things to do.
Like TV was huge for marketingand growth.
When your clients start calling, you know, answer the phone.
If it doesn't matter, if it's11 o'clock at night, I answer
(39:41):
the phone.
You have to answer the phone.
This is part of the gig in anytravel tourism business.
It's not a must.
Customer has to be number oneall the time.
It's not Monday to Friday, nineto five.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Those are the slowest times.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
That's the times where you can sleep.
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, there'slots of ways to grow your
business and get your clientele.
If anyone has any questionsabout sales or how to grow your
clientele, give me a call, giveme an email, drop me a line.
So now we have clients coming,okay, so now we got 100 clients
(40:18):
booked and I'm thinking, okay,now I got to feed them, I got to
have swag, I got to have toiletpaper.
Where do I get all that stuff?
Okay, well, so the best optionis not to go to the grocery
store and spend max dollars at aretail price.
(40:40):
Don't do that.
I did that before.
I did that in my first business, lakewood Fishing.
Don't do it.
Your profit margin will be waytoo low.
But you'll learn.
You'll learn.
So you hook up with a company,like a Cisco, you know, and you
get in with them and they're.
You know they're going to haveitems on sale in bulk.
(41:03):
You got to determine what'sgood and what's not.
So you buy in bulk when you canat a bulk price.
When you can't, you hit a placelike wholesale or Costco, right
For that other, for your fruitsand your veggies, and a lot of
these places like these Cisco'sand whatever the other vendors
(41:23):
are frats, foods and whateverthey they'll deliver right to
your lodge, right, so likethey'll bring it right to your
back door, just like a fueltruck.
You know fuel, all theseaccounts you have to set up as
you go.
You know we use Morgan Fuels uphere in Kenora and for propane
and diesel gas.
(41:45):
So which is crazy, crazy thing.
Just let me hop in here andtell a crazy story before we go
on here.
So along with this place, it'san island in the middle of the
lake, in the middle of nowhere,and we're run by generators, 40
(42:05):
and 30 kilowatt and they'rediesel and we use a lot of
diesel.
So some camps fly it all in ortake some in in the winter,
right Snowmobile in it.
We don't have that option herebecause of the heavy currents.
We could fly it in but itprobably would get more
expensive.
So a lot of it we barge in.
(42:26):
So we have a barge.
So about three weeks ago, me andAdam and the boys decide to go
up and get the barge going.
Well, the barge had sunkbecause it's been five years
full of snow and rain and water.
It had sunk once, actuallyabout three years ago, and the
(42:50):
owner, john Williams, who ownsSubmarine Lodge.
He actually floated it one time.
You know the old guy there.
He got it up and then before wetook the camp over he told us
he'd done that.
So we kind of planned on itbeing on bottom.
But yes, it was on bottom, soit's sitting in like seven feet
(43:12):
of water.
The front of the barge is justout of the water, so like three
feet of it, and it's a 30-footlong barge.
It's a huge barge.
And so we ended up we had tobuild a dam around the barge and
pump it out.
So since it was a little bitout of the water, we were able
(43:35):
to.
Basically the gist of it is wewe took one by one um chunks of
wood and used class C clamps andwe see, clamp the wood to the
side of the boat, the rail, allthe way around that was under
the water.
And then we took Polly andwrapped the boat in Polly, like
you would like your house, overyour insulation.
(43:57):
And then we had strips ofplywood that were like two,
three feet high or whatever.
So we screwed the plywood intothe other board that we'd
clamped already to the side ofthe boat barge.
So now we physically built adam.
So if you picture it in youreyes, the barge is underwater
but we build a pref dam.
So if you picture it in youreyes, the barge is underwater
but we build a prefab dam to goaround it.
(44:19):
So yeah, the dam's not secure.
You know, there's a little bitof water coming in here and
there, but as long as we'refaster than the water coming in,
we'll gain on it.
So we had two big four inchpumps going.
It took us two days.
The first, the first day, wefailed.
We got three quarters of theway done and we couldn't get it
complete so we needed to come inwith a bigger pump.
So anyway, second day, we gotthe two bigger four inch going
(44:44):
and it was like we pumped it outand it was like three quarters
out and then the hull startedlike it was like making noises,
like it was going to twist.
So what had happened is it sunkin the mud.
So the bottom of the barge wascompressed and suctioned down
(45:07):
into the mud.
So while we're pumping water,adam had to get in his boat and
put a chain on and suck it uptight and kind of just suck it
out, kind of thing Like just getsome pressure on it and it
would suck out.
So we ended up getting thebarge off bottom.
So Two Rivers Lodge on Facebook.
I'm going to post thesepictures if anybody wants to go
(45:27):
there.
But I'll post pictures of ourbarge float.
It was crazy.
It was crazy.
So, anyway, clint's had to tellthat story because it was not
the story.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
No, no problem.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
So yeah, so now you know, you got your fuel
suppliers, you got your foodguys, you got all these people.
These people are important.
You know Chris Thompson he'sour Cisco guy up here.
Or Chris Davidson I'm sorry,chris Davidson.
Chris, he invited us the otherday to go learn, to go sit with
some chefs in July and we'regoing to learn some culinary
stuff.
I'm not a culinary guy at all,but I need to.
(45:58):
I want to know what's going onand when these guys offer these
little training ops and takeadvantage of them.
You know, if they offer anyhelp, take advantage of them.
You know, noah, we had to.
Another service we had is LodgeVault, the booking system.
So it was our booking system.
So like your hotel bookingsystem, I guess you know it's
(46:20):
virtually the same thing, butit's a Lodge, it's based on
Lodge.
Is this one, Noah?
He's been a guest on our showbefore.
Let's give him a shout out toNoah.
Anybody looking for softwarefor the Lodge industry.
You're silly not to be callinghim because he's second to none.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
And it's incredibly easy to use.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, super it is.
It's user-friendly and the guyyou can get a hold of him at any
time.
I called the guy last week andhe's like answers the phone.
I'm like where are you?
He's like I'm in Austria.
I'm like, oh my God, it set usup.
But he answered the phone andhe actually worked through
(46:58):
setting me up.
I was having some revenueaccount issues on the software
and he had to help set me up.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Anyway, there it is, the key Answer.
Your phone People do Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
And he, that's right, absolutely, that's super
important.
So, yeah, so, absolutely,that's super important.
So then, so yeah, so things arecoming together.
You know, in that aspect, youknow you have to set up your
payment system.
So like, how are people goingto pay you?
Are they going to pay you witha credit card?
If they are, how are you goingto take that credit card?
Our software has that creditcard information so we can just
(47:29):
pump it in there.
We're thankful enough to havethat.
That's something you can goonline and Google.
How do you get those things?
Excuse me, I've got to take adrink of water.
I'm getting a little dry honey.
See, I'm talking too much folks.
Doctor says shut up, willie,shut up.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
It wasn't a tough week at all.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
So, yeah, so you know , all of these things you got to
pull together.
We had to do them rapidly thistime.
Last time I still had to dothem rapidly, but at least I had
six months.
This time I got weeks, but it'sdoable, you know, and if you're
out there listening to thisepisode and you're like man, I
(48:13):
could do this.
Like you know, I got 20 or 30grand and that's all you need to
start Get going.
Start a little thing, you know.
Go and find your dream.
And you know there's privatepeople selling.
There's lots of people forknowledge.
Reach out to Steve too, at theFish of Canada show.
You know Steve here, our hoston the show.
(48:35):
The guy's got a world ofknowledge.
He helped me so much inbuilding my second place.
I can't thank him.
I'm forever in debt to him andyou know there's lots of people
that'll help you guys.
So if you want to do this, takethe chance, take a leap of
faith.
Yeah, believe in yourself yeah,because it can be done.
Leap of faith yeah, believe inyourself.
Yeah, because it can be done.
(48:57):
It can be done.
I think that's what else we gotto talk about, honey, on our
show today.
We have lots of shouts out, Ithink we're.
So.
That's the.
You know, that's the gist ofhow we got going.
That's where we're at right now.
(49:18):
So we are.
We've got all of those thingsdone in the last two weeks that
I've just talked to you about.
I'm going to talk to you guysevery time I'm on here and keep
updating you as to where we'reat, so the evolution of your
knowledge and learning cancontinue.
Right now, we're in the middleof a fire ban, actually.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Fingers crossed, toes crossed, ears crossed.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Everything's crossed.
We have sprinklers set up onour property from the M&R fire
and I need everybody here tocross your fingers and pray that
nothing happens to my camp.
Last time we checked, we haveactually images that the fire
was two kilometers away andthere's alerts going out today
that everyone needs to.
It's already evacuated, butanybody in the area needs to be
(49:55):
over there as of today, evenfirefighters.
So we will uh, we'll keep youupdated on that.
Our current situation is thatwe have everything here ready to
go, Company's ready, we haveclients booked.
All we got to do is we got afew minor maintenance deals up
there.
We got to get ready.
We got to put a new set ofdocks in and play with some
(50:17):
generators, get some watercoming around and then but we
are all sitting on the edge ofour seats waiting to get out.
What a scary thing fire and itis, though, rick Payne.
He told me the one fire took a20-kilometer run, folks,
overnight.
Overnight, yeah, 20 kilometers.
Just imagine going to bed and20 kilometers away and waking up
and fire at your doorstep likethat fast.
(50:39):
That's insane.
I'm about to play with.
We gotta get ricky back on herefor an episode.
He's.
He's super busy right now, butI'm gonna catch him here
sometime when he has a coupledays off and we're gonna get him
on because he has so manystories.
He's's great.
Our new partners yes, two RiversLodge, baby, here we go again.
Another venture, Folks.
(51:02):
I want to say thank you toLakeside Marines Andrew Johnson
you guys got to which, by theway, is a partner in the lodge
as a sponsor he's.
We would only rep his sponsor,we would only rep his equipment,
we would only purchase throughhim.
He is amazing.
His customer service is secondto none.
I'm going to go all the way toRed Lake for any of my equipment
(51:25):
and or he'll be here for that.
Lakesidemarinecom, check themout, get online fishingcanadacom
and check out their giveaways.
Um, garvin's always giving awaystuff there.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
You know, you can see pete and ang and uh, their
handsome faces and uh, yeah well, I'm so proud of you, honey,
and I'm so proud of all theseventures and all the support
from everybody around.
Thank you so much, baby.
Thanks for coming on the showtoday and uh.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Support from everybody around.
Thank you so much, baby.
Thanks for coming on the showtoday and keeping me down to
earth and keeping me grounded,and let's do this again.
I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Me too Go, team go.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Awesome TwoRiversLodgenet folks.
Thus concludes another episodeof Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Stories of the North.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
I'm a good old boy, never meanin' no harm.
I'll be all you ever saw beenrailin' in the hog since the day
I was born, bendin' my rock,rock, stretching my line.
Someday I might own a lodge,and that'd be fine.
(52:46):
I'll be making my way the onlyway I know how, working hard and
sharing the north with all ofmy pals.
Well, I'm a good old boy.
I bought a lodge and lived mydream.
And now I'm here talking abouthow life can be as good as it
(53:10):
seems.
Yeah, good as it seems, yeah.
Hi everybody, I'm Angelo Violaand I'm Pete Bowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
Speaker 5 (53:28):
That's right.
Every Thursday, Ang and I willbe right here in your ears
bringing you a brand-new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Speaker 3 (53:35):
Hmm, Now what are we going to talk about for two
hours every week?
Speaker 5 (53:38):
Well, you know there's going to be a lot of
fishing.
Speaker 4 (53:40):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 3 (53:45):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors, from athletes, All theother guys would go golf, from
athletes to scientists, to chefsand whoever else will pick up
(54:12):
the phone.
Wherever you are, our OutdoorJournal Radio seeks to answer
the questions and tell thestories of all those who enjoy
being outside.
Speaker 5 (54:20):
Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 6 (54:28):
As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(54:49):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal use by
Indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
After nearly a decade of harvest, use, testimonials and research
(55:12):
, my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
life dedicated to improving thelives of others through natural
means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
That are shaped by our naturalworld.
(55:32):
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast.
I'm going to take you alongwith me to see the places, meet
the people that will help youfind your outdoor passion and
help you live a life close tonature and, under the canopy
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
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