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June 26, 2024 15 mins

In this episode of the United States of Small Business podcast, host John Quick sits down with Jay and Kelsey Wagner, the passionate owners of Rivershire RV Resort & Camping in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Jay and Kelsey share the inspiring story of purchasing the RV park, the challenges they faced during the renovation, and the joy of seeing it go viral on social media. They delve into what initially inspired them to buy Rivershire, their vision for the park, and the hard work involved in transforming it into a thriving community space.

Jay and Kelsey also discuss how their individual business experiences—Jay’s in outdoor adventures and Kelsey’s in creative marketing—complement each other and contribute to their success. They highlight the importance of balancing multiple ventures and the support they provide each other. Tune in to hear about their future plans for Rivershire RV Resort, their dedication to providing a unique experience for visitors, and how the viral attention has impacted their business. Don't miss this insightful conversation about entrepreneurship, teamwork, and community building.

Check out the RV park here: https://www.rivershirervpark.com/

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the United States of Small Business, a podcast where
the essence of American entrepreneurship is celebrated
in every episode, with host JohnQuick at the helm.
Join us as we embark on a journey through the heart of the
nation, uncovering the inspiringstories of small business owners
from coast to coast. Experience the vibrant energy of

(00:20):
bustling cities and the serene beauty of Small Towns Hall while
discovering how individuals are turning their entrepreneurial
dreams into reality, even against the greatest odds.
Each episode brings you face to face with the dreamers,
creators, and doors who form theeconomic backbone of our
country, all sharing their spirit of innovation and

(00:40):
resilience. Whether you are in the early
stages of sowing the seeds for your own business, scaling new
heights in your current venture,or simply captivated by tales of
grit and triumph, you are in theright place.
TuneIn on platforms like Spotify, YouTube, Apple
Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora and beyond.

(01:01):
For deeper insights and to connect with the heart and soul
of America's Main Streets, visitUnited States of
smallbusiness.com. Subscribe to United States of
Small Business with host John Quick now and be inspired by the
powerful stories of entrepreneurship, community, and
the unwavering pursuit of the American Dream.

(01:22):
Begin your journey of inspiration with us today.
Welcome everybody to the United States of Small Business
Podcast. I'm your host John Quick, and
today we have Jay and Kelsey Wagner, the power couple behind
RV Shire RV Resort. Jay, an experienced camper and
scout master alongside Kelsey, owner of a monthly magazine and
a creative agency have transformed their RV park into a

(01:43):
thriving business. They went Facebook viral a
couple months ago and tell us all about that experience.
It'll be fun to listen in to them.
So without further ado, Kelsey and Jay, welcome to the United
States of Small Business podcast.
We're. Happy to be here.
Thank you. Well, this'll be fun, and it'll

(02:03):
be fun to hear a little. Bit about your story, I think
small businesses, as folks can tell it's the title of my
podcasts are a big deal in the United States.
They make the wheels kind of churn for our economy.
And so this'll be really fun hearing a little.
Bit about your story, getting toknow you a little bit and really
giving folks an opportunity to check you out.
But first tell me you all purchased an RV park.

(02:26):
It's very unique, very awesome. My family and I RV all the time.
Tell me what it was like to purchase an RV park.
What made you want to do it? Well, it was silly enough is I
do real estate photography on the side and so I got into that
and then I took pictures of thisreal estate, I'm sorry, this RV

(02:46):
park, I don't know, 6-8 months before I even had the idea to
purchase it. So just kind of lightning struck
me one night. I was working overnights at the
refinery where I have my full time job and it just, you know,
I said I called Kelsey and I said, you know what, I think
I've got a crazy idea, hear me out.
And so I gave my little two-minute elevator pitch to her

(03:07):
and she says absolutely, it's doit.
So. Through all the process of
buying thin. It, it really kind of fit his
personality because he's a scoutmaster and he loves camping and
he's been camping for over a decade, so it really made sense
for our family. That's awesome.
So what what goes into, OK, you,you buy, you buy, you get the
keys, you know, per SE, like didyou have to fix it up a bunch?

(03:31):
Was it turnkey? Talk to me a little bit about
what that process looked like a little bit.
So it was a little bit turnkey and previously it'd been an RV
park had all the full hookups and everything, but a lot of it
had it also been a little dilapidated.
The electrical system wasn't up to code so and then there was a
lot of just elbow grease I need to put into their trim trees

(03:53):
back and, you know, make sure toget it mowed real well.
There's a bunch of junk sitting around that was kind of hitting
off the spot. So I took several months just
trying to clean the place up andmake it presentable.
I was able to get some gravel back down onto the the main road
so that it was you know, it wasn't so bumpy for the the
campers to come down the hill and they've got some good solid

(04:15):
pads for now with the gravel pads we.
Have so it also wasn't online. It didn't exist online.
So we had to go completely from the ground up on Facebook page
and the website and the booking software.
So there was a lot to it. Yeah, talk, talk to me about a
little bit about that. You know, what was it like
building the kind of marketing side of it?

(04:36):
You know how I found you all wasone of your Facebook posts kind
of went viral. But my guess is a lot of work
pre work headwind into that. Like you just said, websites,
building those social media pages, getting copy and content
and all those kinds of things. Talk to me a little bit about
that, 'cause there's folks out here that, you know, a lot of
people that watch this podcast are aspiring small business

(05:00):
owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, and this kind of stuff just
doesn't happen overnight. So how much work went into that
side of it? Well, so my background is in
marketing. I run a digital media agency.
And so I did everything that I knew how to do with, you know,
building the website and doing acomplete rebranding.
We, you know, game planned on what we wanted it to feel like.

(05:22):
So we went with Rivershire RV. We really wanted it to be like
a, a beautiful Riverside RV parkfor people to escape to.
So we had done kind of all the work that we knew how to do.
But the missing piece for us, I realized was that we didn't
have, even though we had campingexperience, we didn't have RV
park experience. And so, you know, when we bought

(05:44):
the RV park in November and Jadedid a tremendous amount of work.
And I'm, I'm also a writer. I own a magazine.
So I, I do writing and I'm all over Facebook and I'm kind of a
tech nerd. And so we bought it in November.
We closed the park down in February and March to do a ton
of work. And then we reopened at the
beginning of March And, you know, we had just done

(06:04):
everything that we thought we could do and we thought people
would just start booking. It's beautiful.
It's, you know, amazing. We had, you know, been doing
social media and the month started ticking by and we didn't
have anybody booking. We had one person book, but I
think it was in May. And so we'd really started to
get stressed and Jay was callingme and saying, Kelsey, I don't

(06:24):
know what we're doing, we need to do more.
And so we just were, we're kind of at our wits end.
And it was May, I think 12th. And so he had called me that
morning. It was a Saturday morning, and
he was so stressed. And he said, Kelsey, I think
we're going to have to sell the park.
We've done everything we know how to do.
I don't know what else to do. I actually was home with a sick
kiddo. I was on the way to the doctor.

(06:45):
And I thought, you know what? I'm just going to ask for help.
I literally wrote that Facebook post in about two minutes,
posted it without even thinking about it.
And by the time I got to the doctor's office, it had already
been shared like 110 times. And then it went to 1000, and
then it went to 5000 and it wentcrazy.
So what was the post? Tell folks that that haven't
seen it. Kind of give us the recreated

(07:08):
version of it. Yeah, well, I had a picture of
my husband the day that we bought the RV park.
And you there was kind of some dead trees in the background,
but he was so happy and proud and the sun, you know, and I so
I took a picture of him and I put that a picture of him up and
I just said, hey guys, I need help.
You know, my husband bought thisRV park.
We've done a tremendous amount of work and nobody's booking and

(07:30):
we don't know why. You know, he is an Iraq veteran.
He served in the war. He's a troop master.
And I basically just said, you know, we need help.
And whatever I did, however I phrased it, it just must have
struck people in a certain way. I actually had people after the
fact say, did you know that was going to go viral?
I'm like, I don't think anybody knows the the perfect recipe,

(07:50):
but it just it hit people a certain way.
We we got thousands, thousands of phone calls, thousands of
messages. It took us two or three weeks
just to answer all the messages and phone calls.
I bet that was nice to see the support after all the hard work
and really thinking crap we're gonna have to sell this thing
'cause we're not one person booked.

(08:14):
Yeah, it literally saved the day.
Within 12 hours, we had 150 bookings or something.
And so we've we've had a tremendous amount of support.
We have people call us that don't own an RV that never are
going to camp just to tell us that they were were going to
pray for us or that they wished as well.
So just that outpouring of support, I think, you know, it

(08:34):
did you a lot of good. That's proud.
It was very helpful, you know, that like it's like she said, I
was, I was pretty stressed out, didn't know it was going to be
out in a few weeks to a couple of months where it was running a
little low on, on the savings that we had set aside for this
RV park. And so, yeah, I think however
that went viral, it did, I thinkthe last time we saw it, 75,000

(08:57):
or so shares, which is insane tome.
But no, we, we appreciate everybody's support, the out,
the outpouring of love and everything that we've had.
It's, it's been a great experience so far.
So we're on the right track now.I've been able to actually eject
a lot of the money that we have earned over the last few months
to fix some of the other things that I knew needed to be done.

(09:20):
So it got me a jump start and making sure the electrical grid
was completely up to code, make sure, like I said, we had all
the gravel put down. Now I'm putting in some stairs
up on the, you know, in the sideof the hill to kind of make it
an easier transition up to the shower house from the RV park.
So we've got many, many more plans in store, but you know,
it's going to take a little bit of time as as the money comes

(09:42):
in, we'll put more into the RV park.
That's awesome. So what is this experience kind
of taught you maybe in the business world and in life.
I'm sure it's been a whirlwind of experience.
Yeah, well, so I've been a business owner now for about 8
years. And so, you know, when when Jay
started talking about that, he wanted to own a business, you

(10:04):
know, there's a lot that comes with it.
There's a lot of hardship and difficulty that people you
really don't understand until you get into it.
But my message to small businessowners is if your business is
struggling, ask for help, ask your clients, ask your
customers, ask strangers. I mean, any kind of, I think
people sometimes get defensive and they, they don't want to ask

(10:25):
for help, they don't want to putthemselves out there.
And there's, there's a way to doit.
You can't ask for too much help.You can't be too vulnerable.
But but really just, you know, constructive feedback is really,
really valuable when you take itearnestly.
Do you think there's something to be said about being authentic
and being vulnerable? Because I think as we all know,

(10:46):
you turn on social media and it's like the perfect every
picture in the perfect post and that the sliver of authenticity
and vulnerability was maybe the light that shined in on your
business. Do you think that had to do a
little bit with you guys going viral with that post?

(11:08):
Oh, yeah, without a doubt. I assume that is it.
You know, me being, you know, a veteran and all those things.
Like there's a lot of pride thatkind of comes with us, you know,
we just kind of carry all the weight on our shoulders.
It's one of those things, you know, whether it's right or
wrong, it's something that we'rekind of, it's kind of ingrained
in a lot of this. So it, I don't know if I could
have made that post myself. I'm so glad that she did.

(11:30):
She had that foresight to be able to, to do that.
And I do think it helped and I appreciate everybody's support
in that way. It's not something like I said,
it's not something I think I would have done personally, but
that's to my own detriment. So I'm I'm very thankful.
What's hilarious about this situation is, you know, I'm a
techie. I'm all over social media,

(11:51):
Facebook. He really doesn't like social
media. He doesn't like being in front
of the camera. He's an introvert.
But now he's, you know, a socialmedia celebrity.
So he he has no choice now but to be a content creator.
That's amazing. So tell folks where the RV park
is AT and how they can find you.If there are RV folks out there

(12:13):
that are traveling through the US this summer and they want to
book a spot with the Rivershire RV Park, tell us all those
details. Sure.
So it's 2280 US 177. We're about 7 miles South of
Ponca City, OK. It's right along the Salt Fork
River. We share the banks with it.

(12:34):
So you're, you know, you're within a few 100 yards of it
even at the farthest RV slot that you have.
So it's got good easy access. It's great for kayaking and all
those. You can also find us at
rivershirerv.com or Rivershire rvpark.com.
And then you can look over all the specifics of our RV park

(12:56):
there. You can click the link in the
Rover Pass and then you can signup online, or you can always
give us a call at 580-716-0788 and we'll be happy to take your
call. Nice, Well do you have any last
minute thoughts, either one of you or both of you before we
head off here? 15 minutes has gone by in a
flash. Yeah.

(13:17):
I would just tell people who arethinking about jumping into
business ownership, just embracethe fact that you don't know
everything. You know, we didn't know
anything about an RV park. We're learning and it's OK to
fail. I, I, you know, like you said,
it's being vulnerable, being authentic.
It's scary and you have to put yourself out there.
But given time and practice and hard work, you can be

(13:39):
successful. Yeah, and it's just being making
sure that you get involved in a commute as much as possible.
Talk to your local Chamber of Commerce, go to some of those
events that your town may offer.Just mix and mingle and meet
with people and that's where youcan find a lot of support from
your just from your local. Community and, and one little

(13:59):
last thing, if you, if you're like, oh, Ponca City, I don't
know what I can do there. If you want to come camp, we
have a beautiful mansion called the Marlin Mansion that's on the
same level as a historic landmark as the White House.
So plan a trip, visit the MarlinMansion.
It's a it's a wonderful opportunity.
Nice. So for folks listening, I'll put
all those links in the podcast description and I want to

(14:20):
encourage folks, if you maybe just caught the tail end here to
go back and listen to the whole thing.
It's really great story on Kelsey and Jay and their they
went viral. Folks doing a Facebook post
being vulnerable and authentic about some of the ups and downs
of owning a small business. And for folks at RV around the
country, I know you're out there.
I want you to go check out theirRV park.

(14:41):
It's a river shower RV park. We hope everybody has a
phenomenal rest of their day. And until next time, I'm John
Quick from the United States, a small business podcast.
Thank you so much, Kelsey and Jay, for joining us here.
All right. Thank you very much.
Appreciate it. Thanks, John.
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