MC Fireside Chats - April 30th, 2025 - MC Fireside Chats, an Outdoor Hospitality Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian Searl (00:46):
All right, so that was super weird.
I don't know if I'm broken over hereor not, but did you guys see the intro
stutter or did it play okay for you?

Heidi Royle (00:51):
It played fine for me.

Okay, so it's just me.
I'm broken over here.
Like I couldn't operatemy mic before the show.
These wonderful women were trying to hearme and I couldn't talk into the right mic.
And then the intro is like all stutteringfor me when it was playing on my side.
So I'm glad it worked out well and Ijust emBahrassed myself for no reason.
But anyway, welcome everybody.
It's, see another episodeof MC Fireside Chats.
My name's Brian Searl with Insider Perksslash Modern Campground here for one

(01:14):
of our kind of rare fifth week episodeswhere we just have a couple people on
here, no regular guests but it usuallyends up in an interesting conversation.
So excited to be here.
Do you guys wanna go around and justintroduce yourselves real quick?
And is that fair?
Like I say guys, and I reallydidn't mean to say that, but I
realized I said it, so I'm sorry.
Or I dunno.

Mychele Bisson (01:33):
That's totally fine.

Go ahead, please.
Whoever wants to start.

I guess I'll start.
My name's Mychele Bisson.
We purchase campgrounds around thecountry and we try to revitalize them.
So we buy them from momand pops revitalize them.
Try to add new elements tothem and then push them out.
But we wanna keep them true to the legacyof the family that actually created them.

That'll be interesting to talk about.
Okay.
I don't know if I ever knew thatabout the legacy portion, so that'd be

Yeah.
We like to keep 'em as true.
Like it, that's the thing is mom anddad like build these things to last
and then, go through life and realizetheir kids don't wanna take it.
'cause I saw mom and dad runningit their entire lives and they were
tired and exhausted and so we just,to keep that memory alive for them.

Yeah, that's gonna be a cool story.
We'll talk about that after we talkabout like your core business of course.
But I wanna, I want to try to comeup with hypothetical scenarios
where you would break that rule.

Okay.

So it'll be interesting.
Maybe it'll be interesting for me.
We'll try to make it interesting for you.
Mary, go ahead.

Mary Sparrow (02:32):
Hi, my name's Mary Sparrow and I, with my husband,
we own a boatyard on the NorfolkBroads in the east of England, and
we have floating glamping pods.
And they're kind of unique to thearea and they're really lovely.
And we started with houseboats, butwe added glamping pods when some
of the houseboats were about 80years old and a boat drove in the

(02:53):
side, put a big hole in it, and wethought maybe we need to change it.
And we've won the East of EnglandGlamping Camping Award for 2025.
And we are finalists for the UK GlampingCamping Awards in Brighton next month.
So we are looking forward to find outwhether we're bronze, silver, or gold.

Obviously it's gonna be gold, so there's some mystery here.
But thank you for being on the show.
It looks like Yeah.
You have a great place.
We got your website pulled up.
We'll share some pictureswith everybody later.
And go from there.
Heidi?

Yes.
My name's Heidi Royle andI own the Grove Glamping.
It was an idea I had.
I was a solo parent, who inCovid, got a little bored.
I was working like three part-timejobs and decided why don't I
also start a glamping site.

(03:40):
So we are right across from a statepark, like a favorite state park in
Minnesota, and we're really closeto a very quaint little small town.
And so just have a reallyspecial experience.
We feel like we get a offer to ourguests who come in and it's a lot of fun.

Let's start with you Heidi.
You're right here.
So how did you get, howdid you get started?
How did you decide?
One is are you from Minnesota,I guess is the first question.
So let's do that.
Are you from Minnesota?
'cause that'll inform my next question.

Yes.
Yep.
I am from Minnesota.
I live in the Twin Cities, soI'm about two and a half hours
away from our glamping site.
But I put this site on some landthat my family's owned for years.
Okay.
And in the small town I grew upin, the town is like 850 people.
So it's one of those towns that liketriples in the summer and then dies

Yes.
As a lot of Minnesota andWisconsin does in that area.

Yes.

I've been to Minneapolis, St.
Paul, I've driven across there, but Iprobably haven't been to your small town.
Yeah, that was more wheremy question was gonna go.
Like, how did you end up in Minnesotaand then you answered all the things
by saying I was born in Minnesota andmy family had a plot of land here.
And so that's good that it'sright outside of the state park.
That would probably keeps youbusy without trying too hard.

Yeah, it's really helpful.
The state park has gotten more popularand they put in two yurts in the
park and those were really bookedout, so that kind of made me feel
a little more assured that there'splenty of visitors coming to the area.
They have a great like bike trailthat's right across the road from
us, and you can bike into townor you can bike through the park.

(05:15):
And just a lot of access is really close.

So what's the big draw for the state park there?
Is it just like a, I don't wannasay typical state park because that
undermines the beauty typical state park.
But I think you understand what I mean.

Yeah.
I think it's really gorgeous woods.
There's just something aboutthe woods up there and being
able to like hike through them.
And then there's also a chain oflakes that goes through the park.
So we are like right next tothe creeks and so you can get on
the creek and you can go throughfour different lakes if you want.

(05:50):
And the creeks are likecrystal clear water.
It's amazing up there ofjust how clean the water is.
So, we kinda have like our secretlittle loop that we tell guests
of like where they can do liketheir own lazy river float.
And then we partner with, a boat rentalcompany and they rent out paddleboards
and kayaks and canoes and so there's alot of fun lake things to do really close.

I will tell you that crystal clear water thing, like I
never used to imagine that was a thing.
Like I always wanted to be around water.
I always wanted to live on the river or Ialways enjoyed going the oceans when I was
kids or a kid to the lake, whatever else.
But and I can't remember everobviously it exists, you're saying
it does in the United States.
I was born in the United States,grew up in Cleveland, Ohio for
all of my life moved up here toCanada four years ago in Calgary.

(06:38):
It was about 45 minutes from Banff andthat was the first time going to Banff
on a hike when I came here that I likeremember seeing like completely clear,
like all the way to the bottom water.
And it just is, if you haven'tseen it in person, you, there's
no real way to explain it.

Yeah, it can be pretty amazing.
You can go out and see 30 feet down onsome of the lakes, or if it like, freezes
perfectly in winter before there's snow.
I always love that.
'cause you can like, walk on the iceand watch fish swimming under you.

Yeah, I think it's for sure.

But nothing like Banff.
We're no Banff.

Well but the clear water, right?

It's own beauty.
Yeah.

I'm for sure it's spoiled, like to be clear, right?
Yes.
But yeah, like the clear water thing isjust that, I don't know, it's just a draw.
Like I think it for surekeeps people coming back.

Yep.

And helps 'em tell their story.
So tell us about your clamping operation.
You just do what's what do youhave there for accommodations?

So we have currently we have five glamping tents, and
then we have a shared bathhouse.
We're looking at building outpotentially to nine to 10 sites
just we're working with the countynow to see what approval we need.
But yeah, it's just ona five acres of land.
And then just close,right close to the park.

So for all the smaller operators out there, what are some of the
struggles that you ran into when you werefirst trying to promote the site to get
people to be aware that you were there?
Those kinds of things.

At first it was helpful, I think what's actually been most helpful
for us is like at the beginning I justdid a, some exchanges of stays for
influencers to do some posts and that hasprobably gotten us the most attention.
To be able to just let people knowthat there is glamping in Minnesota

(08:19):
and that it's accessible and allthe things to do in the area.
So that was and continues to probablybe our most helpful way to promote
our site and bring awareness.

That glamping word is so interesting to me.
And if any of the other two, Mary orMychele, you wanna ask questions or
you feel free to interject I don't meanfor this to be like a turn base thing.
'Cause the less I talk,the better the show is.
But like for the wordglamping is interesting to me.
And we talked about this likefor 10 seconds before the show.
But just the fact that like in the UKfor example, Mary knows this glamping

(08:51):
has been around for a long time.
The United States and Canada,I feel are just catching up
to what glamping could be.
But also like we technically havehad glamping for a long time 'cause
there's been campgrounds with yurtsand there's been campgrounds with
cabins, if you consider that glamping.
Like I think the consumer definitionof glamping is something that really
interests me because like I wasover in the Netherlands a couple
years ago in Amsterdam and there'sthis huge I don't know, crane

(09:14):
hotel that you can go stay up in.
They call themselves a crane hotel.
But I consider that glamping.
Like I'm up in the air, I'min the middle of nowhere.
I can go out on a hot tub and a balcony.
Like I can see it with a city.
So to me that's glamping.
But it's interesting how consumerbehavior shifts into, now we're
gonna search for this word or thatword, but it's the same thing.
Just maybe a little bit moredifferent and unique and able
to be marketed more broadly.

(09:35):
Does that, you guys resonate with that or,

I think personally that it was one of those.
Oh, sorry.
I think it's one of those thingsthat it's been, it might have been
something that has been out there,but it wasn't something that had
a label to it until people startedactually putting it out on Facebook
or Instagram or anything like that.
And then it morphed intothis whole thing of its own.
And and then from there, I thinkthe first glamp ground that I ever

(10:01):
heard of was owned by who is it?
It was the guy who, ownsTed's Montana Grill.
He owned a big glamping ground up inWyoming and it had all these tents
with all these amazing luxurious beds.
And then he would bring in like a cookwho would cook over an open flame,
but they called it something else.

(10:21):
At that point it was likedude ranches or something.

I don't know.
I don't know if I've ever heard of that.
Like I'm sure I must have come across itat some point, but like mine was under
Canvas collective retreats, I think forthe first time when I realized it was a
big like thing that was gonna be right.
But yeah, please, no, sorry.
Did I cut you off?
I didn't mean to if you had more to say.

Oh no.
I was just saying I think thata lot of it has to do with that
whole Instagram movement whereeverything in Instagram just started
propelling everything forward.
And then as that started getting more andmore people started doing it, and then
it started like morphing into these otherthings like houseboats or the domes or
tree houses and all those other things.
And so it just became its own beast.

(11:02):
And now it just blankets this wholeterm of lots of different experiences.
And it's not so much just theRV anymore, now it's like these
experiences that you have.
So when you're glamping,you're expecting an experience.

Which I think is good, right?
Like I, we were talking, I thinkour last week our show was the RV
Industry Outdoor Rec, and we had RVDAon here and we were talking a little
bit about the end, about like flyingcars and how they're gonna be a thing.
And there's companies that are gettingFAA approval this year, and that's not
the thing I wanna talk about, but wewere talking about how like, recreational
vehicle can mean so many different things.

(11:36):
And so the RV industry actually hasthis huge opportunity in front of
it if they wanted to really redefinewhat a recreational vehicle is.
Just like glamping can redefinedto be anything they want it to be.
But yeah, like I wonder, it would beinteresting to do a study on that because
again, like Mary, have they called itglamping for, they call it glamping
for a while in the uk, haven't they?

They have glamping, remember quite a bit, and glamping
really is, it started out in the UK aspeople who were like me, I'm not really
into getting a tent down, putting up.
You turn up and everything's putup for you and it's all there
and you've got a comfortable bed.
So that was great.
And then when I went glamping beforewe bought here, I didn't like the
fact we had shared showers and stuff.
I was like, oh, I'm not so keen on that.

(12:20):
So the way that we've put glamping hereis, everyone's got this almost like a
luxury hotel room floating on the river.
Really.
And there's glamping sites full oftrains, glamping sites full of airplanes.
Like you used to describe the place inHolland, there are some really quirky
way out places to stay and they all comeunder this big loose umbrella of glamping.
And when we were trying to get, we hadsomething called Visit England here,

(12:43):
where you get a status, a star rating.
When we were asked them to assess us fora star rating visit England, they were
like we can't really assess you underself catering because your properties are
a bit small compared to self catering.
But they're really interesting,they're really different, they're
really unique and we have a glamping.
Area so you can get astatus as a glamping site.

(13:04):
And I think in glamping now,really anything goes, if you can
make it a nice place for peopleto be and somewhere different

Yeah.

Then it's glamping.

That's the most interesting part to me is the the inability to
sometimes find a category and then theyhave to dump you into different things.
And that's like we we've talked,we've heard those conversations
quite frequently in the United Stateswith the permitting and the, the
towns you have to go to and what areyou actually, what does that mean?
What do you do?
How do you, how are you different?
I even dealt with that like earlier today.
I was on the phone with like insurancecompanies trying to explain like, we do

(13:35):
website design and marketing, but also AI.
They're like website design's risky.
We don't really care about the AI.
So I'm like but they stilldon't understand all the things.
So it's interesting how theyget you into that category.
But I'm glad that somethinglike I've known glamping has
existed for a while in the uk.
It's interesting.
It would be interesting to study how it.
Social media for sure played a partin it, but what was that overlap with?

(13:57):
Airbnb would be interesting to find out.
Which one drove the most awarenessof the unique accommodation overall?
And then the, and then maybe sparkthe imagination of some entrepreneurs
like we were talking about, tocreate something really cool.

Don't you feel like Airbnb though was like pushed in a
certain direction because of social media?
Because I know like when I first starteddoing Airbnbs, like they were literally
you could tell that they were thesehouses that they had, that they would
throw like their extra furniture in.

Yeah.
Oh yeah, I completely agree with you.

They bought, yeah, and then all of a sudden it became an
experience and then they needed to likeup the game and that's when all the other
kind of experiences and like the Instagramwalls and the pools and, the hot pink,
backyards and all that stuff came about.
So I feel like it's, Airbnb camefirst and glamping came first, but
it wasn't really projected untilwe started posting everything.

Maybe, yeah, I have no data at all to refute that, and it makes
complete sense, so we'll go with it.
So Heidi, where would you take the grove?
If you if you had your way maybe you haveplans to do this already but if everything
went right for the next five or 10 years,where would you see the grow of that?

That's a great question.
I would see us built out to ninedifferent sites and potentially
like five of those being year round.
So it could potentially be like ashipping container kind of set up or
like A-frame, just a really like basicA-frame kind of glamping experience.

(15:29):
So yeah, I would love to see that

We got your website pulled up where we're looking through.

Yeah.

Anything you wanna highlight on here?
You want us to show?

Oh, that's a great question.
I should have thoughtof that ahead of time.

We didn't think about it ahead of time, so don't be bad.

Yeah, so those are, there's that crystal clear water you're gonna see.
Those are like the creeks.
And then, yeah, we just have each tent setup uniquely and lots of families come out,
lots of couples come out, girls weekends.
What I like a lot about our siteis it's a really nice size right
now for like groups to rent it.

(16:02):
So that has been bachelorette parties.
It's been like family gatheringsjust people hosting retreats
outside, and that's been really fun.
I love when the whole site is takenover by one group and they just get to
fully embrace it and have a ton of fun.
And so that feels something uniquefor us and that people really enjoy.

That's really interesting to me too, because like I had, and
I'm purposely just saying the stateto not narrow it down, to give away
who it is, I don't think they care,but like we had a, we have a client
in Colorado who does something similarwith a smallish luxury upscale glamping
resort, and they were saying the samething on a call to us the other day.
Like we have, like we wereexpecting, people to come here
and be transient 'cause we'renear a city like an hour away.

(16:45):
But we're getting like just aton of bookings for weddings
that just want the whole thing.
'cause we're right here on a river.
And I think that's kind, that's almosta hidden opportunity for people.
Just the, not necessarily like weddingsis, of course, and groups, of course.
But just the ability for, and this isjust me speaking as a marketing person,
but just the ability for you to reachout and touch those niches of people

(17:05):
who might otherwise not be aware or besearching or be cognizant of the fact or
know the word glamping or whatever it is.
And whether you add a page to yourwebsite, like what was my advice to them.
Add a page about weddings andlet's SEO for weddings in city.

Yeah, that's true.

Whether you're doing that for the different types of buyer personas, I
think if you can talk to those individualpeople it would be really interesting.
Lisa's typing in the chat, inthe private chat right now.
Mychele, is there a website?
Yes, it's Bison Peak Ventures.
We can share Mychele's website.
It's right there, Lisa.

Oh, that's actually our that's our fund webpage.

Oh.
So she was.

So if you were gonna go to.

Okay.
Sorry Lisa.

Each of our parks and each one of our parks have their own webpage.

All right which one is the most nicest park webpage
that you have to show off?

Let's see.
Let's go with Papa Chubbies.
How about that?
papachubbies.com.

All right, there you go.
Lisa Papa Chubbies.
It's a fun name to spell too.

Right?

While she pulls that up, let's talk to you Mary.
'cause I know it's late over there.
I appreciate you being on so late.
What time is it over there?

It's about quarter past seven in the evening.

Okay.
Not too late, but still appreciateyou sharing the evening dust.

Yeah, not too bad.
The sun's still out there.
It's beginning to set slowlybehind me, so that's nice.

That's the one thing that like I miss up here in Calgary
is the sun doesn't set in the summertill 11 o'clock at night here.
And then you get up and it's six o'clockin the morning again, during the summer.

The latest it sets here is gonna be 9:30 in the summer.
That's the very latest sunset for us.
But yeah.

Tell us about what you have over there with your
so start with your background.
Which is interesting to me.
You mentioned it was either beforethe show or in the beginning.
I think you talked about thehouseboats that you started with.

We started, we bought the boatyard about 11 years ago and we live
on a barge, so we needed somewhere tokeep our barge and we'd been looking for
several years for somewhere to keep ourbarge and this boatyard came up the sale.
So we bought it 'cause we liked it andwe thought we can probably make it work.
We had no experience oftourism at all at the time.

(18:58):
And, we thought we'll give it a go.
The worst thing that's gonna happenis it's not gonna work out and
we are gonna have to rethink it.
And they had six, five houseboatsfloating when we bought the business.
And they hadn't really been touchedprobably since the 1970s very much.
They were very antiquated.
And so we set about slowly improvedin the houseboats and make better

(19:21):
offer and a stronger offer.
And then as we did that one day, oneof the higher boats around the area
drove into the side of one of thehouseboats and put a big hole in it.
And we just thought, no, this houseboatsseem better days, this isn't gonna work.
And my husband came up with theidea of floating a glamping pod.
And just because glamping was, is, wasbeginning to be a really big thing.

(19:41):
So we thought let's put a floatingglamping pod and see how that works out.
And we had a look around on theinternet, we couldn't find anyone else
who'd actually done it at that point.
So we thought, we'll give it awhirl and then see what happens.
So we did, and it worked.
So then we floated a second glamping pod.
And then we've got a third glampingpod, and that one's our land-based
pod, which always makes people laughthat we say it's land-based, but

(20:03):
it's got a hot tub and a fire pit.
Because you can't have a firepit on a floating glamping pod.
You're not allowed to have fires onthe riverbanks of the broad nation.

Yeah.
I mean you could logistically, but you'reprobably shouldn't is what you mean.
And you're not allowed.

Yeah.
And you're not allowed to.
We get into a lot of trouble,so we're like, okay, it has to
be six meters away from the edgeof the riverbank and the broads.
'cause the Broads National Park is aprotected area and it's a beautiful area.
So although we own the park that wehave, we still have to be custodians
of the national park and look after it.

Absolutely.

But it is, it's lovely.

I think I know I think you've told us how you've come to this
idea that you started glamping on boats.
But was it difficult toget where you are now?
Did you have to be like how do you turnsomething like that into a glamping
unit, I guess is where I'm going with it?
Sorry, I don't know if you.

How do you make the glamping pod become a floating glamping pod?

How do you make the boat become a glamping unit?
I dunno if
she can
hear me.

I'm reconnecting.

Okay.
Yeah, we'll come back to her in a second.
But that's, that was a hopefully,that's an interesting question.
If you can hear us and reconnect,we'll get back to you, I promise.
Mychele, Bison Peak Ventures yougot a lot to talk about over there.
Are you busy?
I see you everywhere.

Yeah.
It's been a kind of acrazy busy year, but.

That's a good problem to have though, right?

Yeah, no, it's been a great problem to have.
And so we've been very blessed andit's been a fun activity to do.
We actually had started investing insingle family homes and then moved
over into building like a stick andmortar luxury resort in Scottsdale.
And so that's how we startedand fell into our first RV park.
Almost literally.
Weren't looking at RV parks, reallydidn't understand them, didn't know them.

(21:52):
And then happened to see an offeringfor one at the bottom of an email
and started underwriting it.
And we were like, why have wenever looked at these before?
And so that kind of took usto, okay, let's go visit it.
And then we purchased our firstpark, which was pretty much a scrap
yard at the time that we bought it.

Which one was the first one?

It was Hideaway actually.
You helped us with that one, I think.

Yeah, that's what I was asking.
I was wondering if how Yeah.

Yeah.
Yeah, we bought that one.
Had to completely clearit out and start over.
Had to creatively figure out howto, get a drug dealer out of it.
That was fun.
Actually really had this idea to go in andtold him that we had made a relationship
with the local police department and thatwe allowed them to train the dog unit,

(22:39):
the canine unit on the park, and thatthey were gonna come in later that week.
And he literally took everything andtook off in the middle of the night.
So.

That's a good idea.
We're gonna have to steal that.

Yeah.
It worked really well.
So he left, he took all of hislittle friends with him and all
of his stuff never came back.
And and that kind of kicked that off.
And so we bought that first one.
Didn't really know the potential ofwhat we could do with it, and then
just fell in love with the space.
It was one of those things where we just.
Started to see these familiescome in and started to see these
kids like acting like children.

(23:09):
They were out riding bikes and meetingnew friends and hanging out, and
there was these family connectionsthat didn't involve cell phones and
iPads, and it was just this magicalkind of thing where I was like,
I don't see this everywhere else.
Like I own this luxury resort inScottsdale and I could not tell you who
stays in it, but I am on this campgroundand I know all of these people by name.

(23:33):
So that kind of actually sparkedmy first love for these parks.
And then we turned around and purchasedour second one because we really wanted
to grow in the space and went through thesame experience, met a lot of retirees.
It's on Route 66.
Brought my dad in to run it fora little bit so that he could see
the magic of what was going on.
And the whole family got involvedand it just became this thing where

(23:55):
once we started really understandingwhat we had we started moving
into more family focused park.
So like our Lake Ridge Park is completelyfamily focused, where it's all about
families coming together and we'vegot water slides on it and hiking
trails and it's 94 acres in Virginiaand it's just this great place where I
see all these families coming togetherand I just love to see all of that.

(24:17):
And so from there it just wasone of those things where.
We decided to build somethingbigger on just what we were doing.
And instead of it being about makingmoney, we really wanted to actually
put something back in for all theexperiences that we were getting.
And so that's when we decidedthat we were actually going to
build out a bigger plan with it.
And as we're acquiring the parks,we want to build out heart camps.

(24:39):
And my son was born with aheart condition and had a heart
transplant when he was 11 weeks old.
And so from there he had a veryhealthy life and we lost him
when he was six to rejection.
And so family time isvery important to me.
Very, Very close to my daughters.
But it was one of those things where Iwas like, it would be really cool if we
could take all of our campgrounds andget it so that they were so profitable

(25:04):
that we could basically have people withchildren with heart conditions come onto
the park one time a year free of chargeand just actually let them be kids and
just have a good time and let them havea connection with other families and
have that real genuine connection thatI see everywhere else with all the other
families that come onto the park wherethey can meet families who just understand

(25:26):
completely what they're going through andlike they can just be kids and families
having a good time on a campground.
And so that's where we'regoing with this vision.

And that's where I like I was gonna, first, I'm sorry for your loss.

Thank you.

I, that's where I was gonna go with it.
I like, and then you told your storyof how you got to the, I wanna focus
on families and maybe that ties in, I'msure it does in some way to keeping,
like you were talking about beforethe show to keeping the campground
like the original owner's vision.
But yeah there's so many different ways.
There's so many things I could say here.
I'll say this first.
I don't know if you know this, and maybethis states me, but I used to work for
Lakeridge too, way back when Bruce Bryantowned it as part of Legacy RV Resort.

Did you really?
Was that when it was theoriginal R and J Ranch?

Right after that.
It was called Lake, it wascalled Lakeridge RV Resort
already when we were so.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, it was right after.
I think he rebranded it, but theystill had those really cool cement
slides that killed people, like

Yes.
And we have pictures of themall over the camp store.

Yeah, there's still probably photos around
of my stepdaughter was there.
We have pictures of her in the pool.

Oh gosh.

On the lily pads and in the game room.
And I don't know what you've changed.

You're gonna have to send me pictures of
that 'cause I wanna see them.
But it's funny 'cause I have peoplewho still come in and they're like,
let me show you my battle scars.
From this concrete slide.

Yeah.
I miss it.
I never went down one of the slides,but I would've gone down one of them.
This is totally off topic, but ifyou're ever on Netflix, you should
go watch, all of you, should go watcha documentary called Action Park.
It's in New Jersey.

Yes, I've seen that.

You've seen the documentary?

Isn't that the one where it was like, it, was
outlawed because it was so crazy?

Yes.
Yeah.

Yeah.

Like people were getting injured and dying and oh, I can't remember
the different pieces of the show, butnot that Lakeridge was that crazy, but
something like similar to that Lakeridgeis probably like 20% towards that maybe.

Yeah.

But that's what I always think about when people
ring up the Lakeridge slides.
But back to your, so thatthe family thing, right?
Yeah.
That I wanna dive in to unpack that.
I think we'll start, let's start withthe inspiration for the kids to come
there, who have the heart conditions.
Because that's one of the big reasons andI'm sure you're familiar with Care Camps.

Yes.

We I remember like we, we started working or we not started
'cause we still don't continually butwe'd started doing some things for
Care Camps back in 2011, maybe 2012when it was still KOA Care Camps.
And we went to some of the camps and wedid videos for them and they showed it
at KOA convention for a couple times.
And, but that's the same, like obviouslyHeart Condition versus Cancer, but

(27:54):
same type of and then I guess the otherthing is that Care Camps, which I didn't
understand at the beginning, doesn'tactually do it at KOA campgrounds.
So that's a little bit of a differencethat you're, that you sound.

Oh really?
I didn't know that either.

I didn't know that in the beginning either.
But no they fund like they do it at likestate parks, rec area, stuff like that.
It's different, but they don'tactually do it at private campgrounds
to the best of my knowledge.
I think it might be aninsurance thing or a, anyway.

Yeah.
Actually, and that's where I got the idea.
So originally the ultimate goal with ourentire portfolio across the board was to
be able to start building grants to helpfamilies pay for medical bills that go
with heart transplant with their children.
Because families, they have this brandnew baby, they come home and they're like
faced with these huge medical issues andthe baby's got these medical conditions

(28:40):
that they now have to deal with.
And usually one of the family members hasto stop working to be home with the child.
'cause the child can't usually gointo daycare or anything that would
promote germs or things like that.

Yeah.

Because they've gotta stabilize them.
And so originally what we wanted to do waswe wanted to build these grants to help
and medical costs for a transplant withlike after insurance is about $250,000.
And so that cripples the family.
Like it devastates them and you'vegot this young family with a
child with a condition and now youbring 'em into an unstable home.

(29:12):
And it just seemed like this, situationthat if we could help somebody avoid
that, we would really like to do that.
And so that actually was, is theultimate goal with everything that we're
doing across all our entire portfolio.
But then I was talking to somebodyat OHI and they had mentioned that
there were Care Camps and so theywere explaining that vision to me.

(29:34):
And I was like, I would loveto do that on my campgrounds.
For people with children with heartconditions, because that's one of the
biggest things is we're so stuck inthe day to day and trying to make sure
they get to their doctor's appointmentand their medication and their immune
suppressants and, all these things thatare going on that it's really hard to
just be a family and let the kid be a kid.

Yeah.
I don't put down, sorry, go ahead.
Please.

Oh no, and I, and and to have people who understand that on
the other side of that, to have yourneighbor understand how protective you
are of your child and know that, youcan be protective of their child too,
because you guys are all going throughthe same battles, I think is one of
those communities that in the heartcommunity is so hard to come by because
there's not that many of us togetherin areas like we're all spread apart.

(30:24):
And so it was definitely one ofthe hardest things was finding
a community that understood.

Do you have a sense of, because I feel and it's definitely not the
case, factually, but I feel like wheneverwe hear about large organizations trying
to help people, it's typically Cancer.
Do you, but there's obviously lots ofother people with heart conditions and
hundreds of other things that couldbenefit from a program like this.
Do you have a sense of how many kidsare out there with heart conditions that
would benefit from something like this?

I remember not too long ago there was a study, but it
actually is more children die fromheart conditions than from cancer.

Wow.
I would never guess that.

Yeah.
And but there's so many differenttypes of heart conditions.
They're not all the same.
Like there's not all the same cancers,there's not all the same heart conditions.
And so it could be something like a minorheart condition or it could be a deadly
heart condition like my son was born with.

Okay.
Yeah, I'm, I like I wouldlove to see obviously I wanna
see your program succeed.
I wanna see Care Campscontinue to succeed.
It would be interesting if there was,maybe we'll do that with Scott Bahr or
something sometime, if he wants to diveinto that with me and some of our data
just to look at what those numbers areand how many of those kids typically would
enjoy the outdoors or could be introducedto it and, 'cause that's a big thing.

I know my son loved the outdoors.
Like he was able to join CubScouts for the small period of time
that he was actually here, and heloved the camping aspect of it.
And so he would come in with all these bighandfuls of worms and he would just be so
thrilled that he caught all these wormsand he could scare his sisters with them.
But those are thememories that I remember.

Yeah.

And those are memories that I would like other people to have.

Yeah.
That's the thing, like I think it's justan introduction to that experience, right?
We talk about it not obviouslychildren are very important
what we're talking about rightnow, but it's all at all facets.
Like it's Earl with Black FolkCamp Too, who's trying to introduce
black people to the outdoors.
It's the people who live in urban areas.
Like we were talking about flyingcars for a little bit on one of
our Outwired shows, 54% of peoplein New York City don't have a car.

(32:26):
And they don't, aren't, how are they gonnaget to your campground if they want to go?
Like they might wanna go.
So it's just interesting the amountof people that like we think outdoors
is wonderful and it is, but the amountof people who would enjoy it if they
were exposed to it, could get there.
Didn't have to fight throughthree hours of traffic.
Like the market is crazy.
Which is, and I don't want to talkabout this today, but which is why those

(32:47):
flying cars were so interesting to me.
'cause it can just get you outta thecity to a campground in 20 minutes.
Those are gonna be.

That's kinda actually awesome.

But anyway, back to the more important stuff.
So, what's your plans hereto put this program together?

So actually I have to reach out to Care Camps 'cause I was
gonna chat with them and talk abouttheir model and plan all that out.
But I wanna probably launch itprobably in the next two years.

Okay.

And do our first one, we'll probably do the first one on Lake
Ridge because it is so family focused.
And the park manager at that parkactually is my best friend, who is
the mother of my son's best friend.
So she's like really on board and reallywants to be a part of the launch of that.

Lisa, can we see some pictures of Lakeridge?
I just wanna see if I don't know who doesyour website now, but I just wanna see
like some of the pictures so they canget a grasp of where this is gonna go.
But also my daughter's picture usedto be up there still for a long time
after we didn't do the website anymore.
So I was just curious.

I didn't realize you guys did the website, but it's so cool
that you guys were like, went down there.

It was a long time ago.
Do you have a photo galleryon here or something, or no?

I think if you scroll down a little bit.

Yeah.
I think we designed that logo,but when we designed it, there was
a water slide in it at the top.

Yes.
That was the logo that wasdone before the last owners.

Yeah.
I'm not a big fan of it.
Like it was not my, I meanI didn't design it, but

Yeah, we weren't too big of a fan of it either.

Scroll down.
Yeah.
But go.
Yeah, there, right there.
So click the one wherethe rope swing is there.
That's my daughter or stepdaughter.

Is it really?

Yeah.
In the purple, likehanging on in the purple.

Oh, that's so cool.
look at that.

That's Sarah.

Very cool.

So we came here and we took pictures of it and everything else.
So there was a whole suite of pictures.
Anyway.

Wow.
See you're already apart of my campground.

It's memories like you said.

Yeah, and that's the thing is it's just, it's so
fun to watch everybody just runaround and have a good time.

And that's the secondary piece of it, right?
Is the, like everybody, it's easy foryou to say, not you, but people to say
that, memories is my most important thing.
Families are here, thisis what's critical to me.
But you can come into this industry andyou can do so many different things.
You can take the path that you've chosento take with the heart conditions, but
also with families and honoring thelegacy of the owners and things like that.

(35:10):
That's the harder path, right?
We talked about entrepreneurshipversus business ownership and all that
stuff versus investment even, right?
I think there's probablya third category in there.
And so there are easier pathsto making a lot of money with
RV parks and campgrounds.
Not that's a wrong path,but it's a different path.
So.
You're laughing.
Like maybe is it you're, you can sayit's the wrong path if you wanna say it.

(35:32):
I'm being diplomatic.
This is not my controversialthat's coming up in two hours.

No.

Go ahead.
Pick your mind.

I, no, I agree.
My husband and I, we had careers beforewe ran a glamping site, and we always
say, if you wanted to make money, youwouldn't go into running a glamping
site because it's a lot of work.
And the profit on them isn'tnecessarily great unless you can scale
up like you are doing Mychele, likescaling up is what's gonna do it.

(35:58):
But unless you can scale up andmake lots more of it, it's not
profitable, but the lifestyle thatyou get from it is second to none.
So for us, it was a massive lifestylechoice to do what we are doing so we
could spend time with our son growingup and enjoy being with him rather than
being on the grind and working and cominghome for maybe three hours and maybe

(36:19):
seeing him two hours a week and possiblyat the weekend if we weren't too busy.
So it's glamping is about makingmemories for everyone, and it's when
you run a glamping business and a smallglamping business, you're also making
a life and memories for yourself.
And I don't, I've never earned aslittle money in my life as I did
since we've run a glamping park.
I've never enjoyed my life somuch either, so I agree with you.

And that's the interesting part, right?
Like we talk about these I talk aboutthese three different verticals, right?
The business owner, theinvestor, and the entrepreneur.
Like the people who are probablyreally successful are the ones who
are blending all three togetherin some way form or fashion.
But, and neither one of 'em isbetter or worse than the other.
But the investor comes in and typicallyhas other investors or co-investors
or goals to take that investment andmake x amount of profit from it, right?

(37:04):
And there's nothing wrong with that.
You can do that and you can also dothat really well while prioritizing
families and prioritizing an experienceand picking one of the parks to live
at, or something like that, right?
And then there's the business ownerwho I think you also are Mary, right?
Like you're clearly anentrepreneur because you built
something unique in my mind.
But like you're also a business ownerbecause like you've created this unique

(37:25):
business and you're not really lookingto scale it like somebody isn't.
I don't know.
Anyway, like we get into definitions,but I think that's I think that's really
interesting, like to talk about thatblend and how you don't have to pick one.
You can accomplish at leasttwo outta three, right?
But maybe three outta three andreally have the best of both worlds.
It just depends on what your ultimategoals are and who the people are

(37:46):
who are behind you, pushing youin certain directions, right?

Yeah.
And life has a way ofthrowing you curve balls.
I've had cancer, but I've had it twice.
And the second time I had, it reallymade me reconsider what was I here for?
Was I here to work and notspend time with people?
Or was I here and wanting to spend timewith my husband and son and enjoy life
and have a great time while I was here.
And spending time with family tookmassive priority and it was a bit

(38:13):
of a kick up the backside, but itwas a good kick up the backside.
So it made me rethink what'simportant to me, really.

And it's what's important to you that ultimately matters, right?
Like obviously the people around you.
But what's important to you is typically,like in your case, is your family
and your husband and your lifestyleand all those kinds of things, right?
And those impact so many otherpeople through the people who
stay at your glamping resort.
It's interesting how that crossover is.

Yeah.
And it was interesting listening toMychele talking and Heidi talking
about watching young people havingfun and getting back, because everyone
who stays here gets use of a rowboat.
They get us, they can try sail packand try sailing and because it's safe
in our river base, and parents can sitin the evening, they can have a cup
of coffee or a glass of wine and watchtheir children playing on the water.
And it's really wonderful listeningto children laughing and having

(38:58):
fun and splashing each otherand swimming and trying rowing
and sailing and it going wrong.
And you can see them, they're makingexperiences and they'll come back
time and time again because theyreally enjoy old fashioned fun.
Premo fun.

I really think that's the diff, and this is gonna be
controversial maybe a little bit, butI like for me, but I really think that
is the difference between a successfulglamping camping experience that's
long is somebody comes into it with apurpose other than to just make money.
Now you can make money and,but if it's just make money, I

(39:32):
think that's the problem, right?
But if you come into it with a purposewhether it's to spend more time with
your family or to get better experiencesfor kids with heart conditions or
to what to invest and then I thinklike those experiences for people,
whether it's a boat or family time orcool water slides or, yurts outside
of a state park or whatever it maybe, I think those are the long the

(39:54):
businesses that are gonna have longevity.

Yeah.
I think that it's a special thing thatwe are in a space where we can actually.
Do that.
And we can create experiences forother people and we can create all
kinds of different, 'cause all threeof us have different, completely
different models of a business.
And we get to create these experiencesfor all these different people
and all these different kids.
And I think we all said the same thing,is just being able to see families

(40:19):
connecting and actually hanging outand not watching a TV, which is what
they do when they're at the hotel.
I've been at a hotel with my kids.
We've gone to Disney and we sit inthe hotel at the end of the night and
they're in their room and we're inours and we're connected, but they're
like watching TV or their iPad orwhatever they're doing on their phone.
And we're just exhausted.
So we're just watching TV in ourroom, but we're not really connecting.

(40:41):
We're at a Campground.
I see them at the end of the day sittingaround a campfire roasting marshmallows
and giggling and telling ghost stories.
And so it's just a whole differentpart of an experience that you get to.
And it takes me back to when I was akid and we used to play outside all day.
And hang out with my cousins around thebonfire at my grandparents' ranch and

(41:02):
like those are the experiences that Iremember growing up and that I value.
And that's where I learned allmy lessons from my family and
got to hear all their stories.
And so being able to pass that on toa new generation is magical, I think.

It's interesting how you grow up shapes how
you perceive the world, right?
Because I'm in your camp.
I grew up, mom I need something to do, goout in the backyard and play with sticks.
We used to go to the mall to meetour friends and we had no idea meet
me by the water fountain over here.
And then like, where were you?
You never showed up.
I was at the water fountainat the other end of the mall.
We can't text each otherand everything else.
And like all the parents complainabout social media today and

(41:35):
say my kid's on social media andI don't know what he is doing.
What do you think he was doing whenhe couldn't share it on TikTok, you
think like at least he's sharingit there now you can try to follow
him and see what's happening.
But it's interesting how thoseperceptions shave our lives.
'cause I like the outdoors.
I like nature, I likedoing all those things.
We went camping a little bit whenI was a kid, mostly in a trailer.
But I think there's valuein all those experiences.

(41:56):
Like as much as I love the outdoors, andit almost pains me to say this I think
there's value in the digital experiencestoo, but you have to have that balance.

Yeah.

And that's different for every person.
There's no wrong way to do it, I don'tthink, except maybe to be glued to a
tablet 24/7, but that's just opinionated,that can't really say that's fact either.
But it's, yeah.
All that stuff fascinates me how peopleget to where they are and because you
see it's even as simple as you hearthe campground owners say why would
people ever go to a hotel when theycan be outside and talk to people?
Maybe they're grumpy.

(42:25):
Maybe they don't wanna talk to people.
So anyway.

Yeah.
I think there's something just uniqueabout nature is such a healing place.
And so I think it's even all three ofthese sites that we're talking about is
when people do want to get disconnected.
Like that's one of my favoritethings of like disconnect from
the world, reconnect with nature.
Like when they're at my site likethat, people would just really

(42:50):
wake up to the bird singing.
Like I just, I feel like there's arefreshment that happens for people
like in their soul and in their bodywhen they're outside and they're playing
and they're, and these experiencesbecause of technology are getting
farther and farther in between.
And so I just love all the sites and allthe different locations that are offering

(43:14):
these experiences for kids and familiesand couples, because I also think it's
this place where people connect and theyhave the conversations that they haven't
been having, or they ask the questionslike when all those distractions are gone.
That is, like my favorite thingto hear from guests at the end.
I love hearing reviews and hearing whatthey saw and what they experienced and

(43:36):
just how they feel leaving and if theyfeel cared for and they feel refreshed.
It just feels like such a win.

The technology piece is interesting to me because I agree
with you that like the more kidsplay or people play on technology
or use technology, the less outdoorexperiences they tend to have.
But there's also a flip side ofthat argument because I don't think
technology is necessarily the problem.
I think it's the way we use ortake advantage of the technology.
And I think there's a lot of people likein, for adults and kids and teenagers

(44:06):
and everybody in between who just doesn'tperhaps market to the right audience
through their website or through imageryor through online directories or, we
were talking the other day about, Iwas talking to a client about this.
And like these are some of the crazythings we have on client calls.
We were talking about how like Meta's VRworlds and things like that are gonna be
a thing in the very near future with AI.

(44:27):
And I dunno if any of you guys saw ReadyPlayer One or whatever, where they're
strapped in the chair and that's how theylived or whatever, like that's gonna be
a thing and people are gonna be able toliterally do anything they want and feel
like they've been there and remember likethey're gonna be able to go to the Grand
Canyon and feel like they have been there.
But what if you could introduce themto the outdoors through your campground
there and I don't know, charge a dollara night to a hundred million people.

(44:47):
That's some good money.
And then you could introducethem to say okay, now you wanna
come experience the real thing.
Look where I'm at now, that you'vehad a taste of nature for all the
people who don't have cars or forthe kids who've never seen this.
Or for the black people who've never beenexperienced it for Earl's organization.
So I think there's ways that wecan use technology to further our
goals, is what I'm trying to say.

Yeah.
I think that's a big thing islike learning how to work with the
technology that's coming about andbe able to push things forward.
It's like with AI, everybody'snot everybody, but a lot of
people are all up in arms aboutthe whole idea of integrating AI.
I think we were on a post togetherabout it where somebody was

(45:27):
like, I would never do that.
And then I was like no, there's likesystems out there that will call and
they will book everything for you.
And I'm on one right now thatwe've been testing out personally
not on our campgrounds yet, butand, but people are like, I would
never take a reservation from that.
And I'm like, but you're gonna get toa point where you don't realize it and
you just, you have to learn to embraceit because, and younger generations come

(45:49):
up and they learn certain things andthose are the things that they need.
And if you don't roll withthe times, you're gonna die.

Yeah.
You're already there.
And I'm rarely if ever self-promotional,but that's like kind of what we do
is the AI Chats and AI phone calls.
And we've integrated with likesystems that like spot and
we're gonna move to New Book.
And so you can do thefull reservation, right?
But that's the argument that I madein the beginning is people were like I
don't ever want to chat with somebody.
Like, why would you wannaintroduce more tech?
The answer is because that tech canget them to the outdoors faster.

(46:18):
And then why would you everwanna talk to an AI on the phone?
Because the first time you talk to the AIon the phone, let's use a cable company
for an example, the first time that AI cansolve your problem in five minutes without
transferring you to nine different people.
And then saying, it's done,but it really isn't done.
Then you'll never wannatalk to a human again.

Yeah.

But yeah, those creative ways to use technology I think are
very important because not only do theyintroduce new people, but they just, yeah.
Anyway, that's my main point.
Mary.

Yeah, I just think that you have to embrace it, so.

Yeah, for sure you do.
Absolutely.
Mary, we, you got cut off earlier.
I was gonna, I was asking you aquestion about how hard it was to turn
and whether it's permitting or thelegalities of what you have to do,
but like, how do you turn a, I guessa regular boat into a glamping pod?

Okay, so it's, when we bought the boat yard, there're already
houseboats here and they were things.

You can play that video, Lisa.

Back in the forties and fifties.

Sorry, keep going.

Yeah, it's a nice one.
And it was back in the forties, fifties.
So our planning permission for havingfloating pods predates ever needing,
planning permission so we can keep thesame amount of floating pods as long as
we stay within the same amount becauseit's predates planning permission.
If we try to put extra in now,that would be a challenge.
So they don't, the floatingones don't have engines in

(47:38):
them, so they can't go anywhere.
They're not boats that go off, butthey do have, everything else in them.
And often people use it as akind of step towards a boat.
And the challenge of making itfloating is the one that you've
got the video on there, the pontoonthat it's on, is a pontoon that can
take boat that weighs up to 60 tons.

(47:59):
But the pod only weighsone and a bit tons.
But if we had a pontoon for a oneton boat, every time you stood on
it, it would be doing this tippy.
So you have to think about the peoplewant to float, but they don't want
to be falling all over the place.

They want the nature experience without the bugs.
It's similar.

Exactly.

Or you balance on the dock.
That's scary, but I wannabe outside by the water.

Yeah.
So it's all, it's all very differentand the pods are all absolutely
beautiful and they're small andthis one's small and compact.
Some of them are a little bit bigger,but they've all got a great big deck
outside that people can sit on andthey know they're sitting on the
river and the swans are coming upand they're feeding the swans and the
kingfishes are flying past and allthe different wildlife is happening.
And you can watch people, you can go outand your paddleboard from your front door.

(48:47):
It's quite nice.
So it's a challenge and I think peoplewanting to do it elsewhere in the
UK it's getting harder and harder toget more in spaces that you can use
and get planning permission for it.
So it's a tougher thing to do than itwas when we first we were lucky we owned
the boatyard, we owned the river and wepredate planning permission, but I've
tried to support other people to getthings floated in the local area and

(49:09):
it's harder starting out from nothing.
So it's easier if you bought somethingthat's already there and you convert it.
If you try to put something inwhen there was nothing there.
That's a bit of a strugglein the UK at the moment.
I think sometimes people arefrightened of new things and
people are worried it's gonna ruin.
And it's funny, with technology we'vecreated a lot of apps around the broads.
We've got a visit the Broadsapp, we've got a HIPS app.

(49:32):
Which just puts everyone'sinformation into the customer's hand.
When they're on a mobile, whereverthey are, around the broad, they can
find something to do and it promotesbusiness and it's an easy way.
And when we first started doing it,some of the people who run the park were
like, oh, that's a bad thing, an app.
We don't want an app.
Or it's, it's, no one's ever done that.
That's ridiculous.
Now they love it.
Now put behind that app from theoutgoing, and I think that is one of the

(49:53):
problems, is people are scared of change.
They're resistant to it, but when theysee it working, it's suddenly their idea.

Yes.
Oh, absolutely.
People are terrified of change.
We do a whole episode on that, justlike we could probably do a whole
episode on like, why do the governmentpeople always ruin all the fun?

Yeah.

Like we used to be able to build fires wherever we wanted them.
Give us fun.
I didn't burn anythingdown, so I don't know.
I'm sure there was some kids somewhere.
It did.
But yeah they take away all the fun.
I remember like my girlfriend's parentsown a cabin in BC on Lake Shuswap.
Beautiful.
Like it's in a small little community,but they've their cabins were built so

(50:28):
long ago that they're like literallythis far from the water, there's
a little slope that goes down.
But if they had anyone that ever goton fire got damaged or think like they
could never build on the same pieceof land again, even though they own it
because the regulations have changedand they won't, they have to be set
back from all those kinds of things.
I don't know.
I think there's gotta be a balance there.
But that's a whole, like I said,that's a whole nother show that's super

(50:49):
controversial on do we like governmentor not like government, but we'll
save that for another conversation.

And it's always dependent on what's going on at the moment too.

Yeah, exactly.
Like we like 'em when we need 'em andwe don't like 'em at every other time.
All right.
Do we have any final thoughts?
Let's go with Mychele first.

Honestly, I think my final thought is that I just hope more
people will like, listen and wanna comeout to the great outdoors and experience
all these different kinds of experiences.
Because between the three of us, wehave different, they're all different.
I know if I'm going to the UKI'm definitely gonna hit Mary up
to come and stay in her house.
And I'm gonna come and try to seeif I can hang out in your little
glamping ground too, becauseI think that would be amazing.

(51:27):
Like, I've always loved glamping groundsand like taking my husband and going
and having those cute romantic weekends.
'cause they're just fun experiences.

Yeah.
Yeah.
That's the experience is what makes it,and I look, we'll have to have you back
on the show, Mychele, 'cause I wanna talk,I wanted to talk more about Bison Peak.
We just never quite got there.
We got to some of your properties.
But not as much of a discussionas I would've liked to have.
But yeah, it's always interestingthose I look for those unique
experiences everywhere.
When I went to Iceland, Iwas looking for glamping.
And I ended up staying inhotels 'cause Iceland's really

(51:57):
expensive without glamping.
And it was like $900, $1,200 anight or something for like in the
middle of nowhere with a field.
And there's no restaurants anywhere.
Like this would be beautiful to wake upfor, but I'm not quite that rich yet.
Not even a sponsor for the show.
But yeah, like I'malways looking for that.
Like you brought up Holland.
I remember like there was islike a giant sheep or something
in Holland you can stay in.

(52:17):
Like I remember looking for it andcoming across it like a couple years ago.
Just really weird quirky stuffall over the place, interests me.
Yeah.
But Heidi, final thoughts?

I think a final thought would just be that like, all of us and
everyone who's watching the show, thatcreates these experiences for people.
It's just the encouragement ofit sparks something in people.
It sparks connection, itsparks their own creativity.
Like I think that there's justsomething in being in like beautiful,
thoughtful places that get our ownminds going and get our own creativity

(52:51):
going and our own excitement going.
And so I just love all the differentvarieties that we've talked about
today and that are out there forpeople to go and to experience.
Iceland's one of my favoriteplaces to go to, and they do

Oh yeah.

Unique, unique spots.
But I've never heard ofa giant sheep to stay in.

Neither did I.
Like I didn't, to be clear,I didn't stay in there.
I think it was like 20 eurosa night or something too.

Wow.

It scared me that it was so cheap, I think.
But anyway, we only had two daysin Amsterdam but we're gonna find
out more about the Grove Glamping.

What's that?

Where can they find out more about the Grove Glamping?

thegroveglamping.com.
Or you can find us on Instagramor on Facebook or TikTok.
Just if you look at the GroveGlamping and just lots of fun
experiences there that you get to see.
You can book with us right there on oursite, or you can book with us on Airbnb.

And Mychele, I forgot to ask you that question, but you can't
rattle off like all 26 of your sites.
You gotta pick one or two.

Actually, if you just come out to my main
branded site at mychelebisson.com
or go out to my Instagram atMychele Bisson, then I have
links to all of 'em on there.

Perfect.
That's the way to do it.
See, entrepreneur.
Know exactly what you're gonna say.
And last but not least, Mary.

I would say, anyone listening, watching, enjoying
glamping, just keep trying things.
Try different things.
And if you've got an idea forsomething and someone tells you it's
ridiculous, then it's probably brilliantand you should definitely do it.
That's what I think.
'cause people told us we shouldn'tbuy a boatyard and we certainly
shouldn't float glamping pods.
And we said we'll just do it and then see.
'cause the worst thing that's gonna happenis it goes wrong and you'll do something
else with it and you'll learn from it.

(54:31):
So I think it's alwaysworth taking a risk.
It's always worth giving it a goand just put yourself at the center
of your own life and enjoy it.

Yeah.
The people who tell you shouldn't dosomething, unless it involves fire
or weaponry, are typically wrong.
Yeah.
They just don't have the imagination.
You do.
So I usually embrace those things.
There's probably a third one out there.
Somebody's gonna call me outon it and send me an email
and be like, what about this?
Anyway, thank you guys for joining us.
That was another good episode.
I appreciate all three of you ladies beinghere and sharing your stories with us.

(55:01):
Excited to see how you guys progress.
We'll be sure to check in with youguys and if any of you aren't tired
of hearing me talk yet we have anotherpodcast coming up in about an hour now.
With Scott Bahr and Greg Emmertcalled Outwired, a little bit
different format, uncensored.
We'll drink some whiskey and havesome fun and talk some data and
look at KOAs, North American CamingReport and all kinds of fun stuff.
We'll be there in about an hour.
Otherwise, we'll see you next week onanother episode of MC Fireside Chats.

(55:23):
Thank you guys, appreciate it.
Take care.

Bye guys.

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MC Fireside Chats - April 30th, 2025

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