MC Fireside Chats – July 8th, 2026

[00:00:45] Brian Searl: Welcome everybody to another episode of MC Fireside Chats. My name is Brian Searl with Insider Perks and Modern Campground. Zach Stoltenberg sneaking in here during the intro, that was a really magical appearance, man.

[00:00:57] Zach Stoltenberg: Had another, uh, meeting run a little bit late, so I’m here.

[00:01:01] Brian Searl: That’s all right, welcome sir, welcome. Uh, excited to be here for another second week episode, uh, in the middle of July, well through July 4th now in the camping season. Some kind of anecdotes, Matt from Micro was out of town, depending on where you are in the country, what type of resort you run, uh, which you’ll apparently be following whatever Jeremy’s doing, he’s doing great. Uh, so maybe we should touch a little bit on that, Jeremy, when we get started here.

 Uh, but let’s go around briefly and just introduce ourselves. Let’s start with our recurring guests, uh, Jeremy and Zach, and then we can move on to Izaac.

[00:01:32] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah, um, my name is Jeremy Johnson. I am the co-owner of Roam & Roost Campground in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Um, we are located on Lake Superior, um, just outside of Marquette in 250 acres of private forest right on the lake. So we’ve got awesome views and, uh, we operate a rustic campground. And we’re, we’re just getting ready to start phase two, uh, which includes our first couple of permanent cabins on the property.

[00:01:59] Brian Searl: Awesome, excited to learn more about that. I know we talked about it briefly, but I’d be interested in like how you’re deciding what kind of accommodations and what market research you’re doing. Because I know you’re really deep into figuring out, you know, what other people are doing that’s successful and taking kind of pieces of that and making your own thing. So.

[00:02:13] Jeremy Johnson: Trying.

[00:02:15] Brian Searl: Well, we all are, right? So.

[00:02:16] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah.

[00:02:17] Brian Searl: I wish I had my lake view back. I was telling you before, like I’m at like shoe flopping and smoke blew in over the water overnight.

[00:02:24] Jeremy Johnson: I’m sure, I’m sure it’ll get to us soon, but right now we got clear skies.

[00:02:29] Brian Searl: Zach, please introduce yourself, sir.

[00:02:32] Zach Stoltenberg: Uh, Zach Stoltenberg, I’m a licensed architect, um, that works with owners, developers, uh, campground operators to help them design, permit, plan, build, um, unique experiential stays.

[00:02:50] Brian Searl: Welcome Zach, thanks for being here. And last but not least, our special guest, Izaac Rains.

[00:02:54] Izaac Rains: Hey.

[00:02:54] Brian Searl: By the way, spelled with a Z. Izaac Rains. Sounds like a, some kind of rock musician or something.

[00:02:59] Izaac Rains: My, my parents were a little crunchy, so I got a, I got a cool name out of it. They like to keep it interesting.

 Um, yeah, so my name is Izaac Rains. Uh, I own and operate Dappled Light Retreats. We are a, uh, an outdoor retreat center and, uh, short-term rental glamping operation in Eastern Kentucky, uh, right outside of Red River Gorge, Kentucky. Um, so 50 acres of beautiful national forest on site.

 Uh, we have 10 units to sleep in. Nine of those are luxury glamping tents, elevated slightly into the canopy. Uh, we also just finished up a huge, uh, event space and communal space.

[00:03:45] Brian Searl: Nice. Yeah, that area of Kentucky is really beautiful. Like I haven’t been there in probably like 12 years, but I remember going through like Carter Caves State Park and a bunch of the other ones we stayed at.

[00:03:53] Izaac Rains: Yeah.

[00:03:54] Brian Searl: The state parks where we did videos of their cabins, years and years and years and years, years ago.

[00:03:57] Izaac Rains: Oh, that’s cool. 

[00:03:59] Brian Searl: Park, beautiful areas, yeah. 

[00:04:00] Izaac Rains: Dude, you gotta come back. You gotta come back. It’s beautiful out here. Cliff lines are insane and the geological features are just beautiful. Um, it’s awesome forest.

[00:04:10] Brian Searl: Well, we’d love to, but honestly, like I’ll tell you, I look out my window and there’s like damp and like shoe flopping everywhere.

[00:04:17] Izaac Rains: I understand. I mean, I, no flight up here. I can drive. There’s a flight there. Totally get it.

[00:04:25] Brian Searl: To our, to our recurring guests here, uh, Jeremy and Zach, it’s been a month since we’ve been together on the show. Is there anything that’s come across kind of your desk that you think we should be talking about? Obviously there’s, you know, how did July 4th go and all that kind of stuff. I’m not saying we have to take that direction, but what else have you guys seen that you think is worth paying attention to or talking about?

[00:04:48] Jeremy Johnson: Man, I’ve been so focused on the campground, my, my own campground that I feel like I haven’t seen too much news lately. Um, I, I…

[00:04:56] Brian Searl: Make the news then. You can be the news. What are you up to?

[00:05:00] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah,

[00:05:00] Zach Stoltenberg: Nah, you don’t want to be in the news.

[00:05:04] Jeremy Johnson: I, I mean, we, I’ll just say we, you know, kick it off with the small talk. We, we had a great 4th of July weekend and the rest of July and August are shaping up awesome for us too. So, um, you know, I’m, I’m always curious to see how these predictions will play out. People thought there’d be less travel, but I think at least in Northern Michigan and, uh, it sounds like everywhere the World Cup is happening is, is having good results too despite some of the negativity.

[00:05:33] Brian Searl: Yeah, it’s interesting. I don’t know that, and I wish Scott Bahr was here to have kind of more of the macro picture. Hopefully he’ll pop on later with me, but I think the general sentiment was like, not less travel, just less far travel. Right. People staying closer to home. And we are seeing that, you know, we talked about, I don’t want to dive into Michael Scheinman’s post or anything, but he talked about some of the occupancy numbers and things like that.

 We’re seeing higher site nights in Canada for sure. And I think, uh, just last week Simon Neal was on the show from Camp Map in Europe, and we had, uh, I think Ward on there from, uh, Yelloh! Village, uh, franchisor in Europe. And they said their early season had started off slow, but then it picked up and they, now Europe is supposedly poised for a really, really good summer. As well, even with all the heat waves over there.

 So it sounds like maybe just there’s a softening in the US market. I don’t know if I want to go all the way there, right? There are outliers. That’s a macro level picture, right? Plenty of smaller micro operators like you, Jeremy, who are seeing success.

[00:06:33] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah, I wish I knew more on the, the nationwide side of it. Um, I’m just so focused on this like region, but I mean, we’re, we’re poised to have a record-breaking year again. Um, and I don’t, you know, I think some of that’s probably because of things like that heat wave last week. You know, down in Kentucky, down in Ohio, down in even Detroit, it’s 100 degrees and almost unbearable. So people want to head north to the lake, you know.

[00:07:05] Brian Searl: Well, but you were seeing success long before that, right? Your numbers have been up for a while. I’ve been following some of your LinkedIn posts, maybe not as much as I should. Um, but I’m curious what you think, like, is it your product specifically in Upper Michigan? Do you think it’s more of a, you’re still getting your feet under you after a couple years, you’re still doing more marketing, turning on more things, pulling more levers that a new operator or owner could do?

 Uh, or do you think it’s, uh, maybe people are trading down to a little bit more affordable accommodations from their glamping resort or maybe accommodations above?

[00:07:40] Jeremy Johnson: I, I think, I think it’s more so that we’re still getting our feet underneath of us. You know, I, I wish I could, um, attribute the success to my marketing, but I don’t think it has much to do with it. Um, I think it’s just the fact that we, we are a little more visible year two and we just have a lot of room to grow.

 Um, and then on, on your second question, like, I don’t necessarily think people are trading down either. Um, I just think it’s a different part of the market. I mean, we also operate, um, at one point we had, um, four or five Airbnbs that are a little bit higher end. We’ve gotten rid of, we’ve gotten rid of, um, three of them. So we just have two left.

 Um, but we launched another one this year, uh, and you know, our ADR on that is $550 a night and it’s, it’s booked up through October. You know, and I mean, I don’t think people are trading down at all. I think it’s just different parts of the market. Um, you know, you got the high end that wants those accommodations that sleeps 10 people.

 Um, we got families visiting from, uh, you know, uh, everywhere from Royal Oak and Chicago to the Twin Cities. And then we’ve got our campground that, uh, maybe draws a little bit of a smaller group, but like those people, I mean, if I, if I had nicer units at my campground, I bet those would be booked up too.

[00:09:08] Brian Searl: Is it, well, another thing too is, is it fair to say that your specific type of product with the experience that you built was also underserved too, which certainly helps?

[00:09:18] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah, yeah, there is just nowhere to, Michigan’s and Izaac, maybe you guys have this down in Kentucky too, but um, we don’t have BLM land. You know, a lot of people think like, oh, who wants to stay at a rustic camping site? Um, and they, they think like, oh, you can camp for free anywhere. Um, that’s not true. At least in the Midwest and I think most of, I think honestly east of the Mississippi.

 Um, you know, and in our city actually, Marquette, the city banned camping on city property last year because it became such a problem. People were coming into town and instead of, um, you know, finding a normal place to camp, they were just like, ah, whatever, I’ll park my van on, you know, downtown Washington Street and I’ll wake up at 6:00 AM and stretch my arms and go find a coffee or whatever.

 Um, so that, that became such a problem that, you know, they actually had to enact a new city ordinance. And there just wasn’t a place for people to either pitch a tent or pull up a Sprinter van. Or, or a truck camper, you know, I mean, we, we had all these RV sites. I mean, we’ve got probably 300 plus RV sites in Mark, in like a five-mile radius of Marquette, but we just didn’t have a spot for, for campers or, or van people, you know.

[00:10:39] Brian Searl: Which I think just goes to show the power of like, if you put some thought into what your market is and build something that they want, then you can be successful like you are in many cases, Jeremy.

[00:10:49] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah, yes.

[00:10:50] Brian Searl: Because you see some operators who just put down like, I’m gonna build an RV park. Well, okay. You need some strategy.

[00:10:55] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. How many, how many RV spots do you have in your market already? Do you really want to compete with that?

[00:11:01] Brian Searl: Not now. I read another article Scott Bahr sent me, it was like 19% uh, retail purchases are down.

[00:11:09] Jeremy Johnson: On the RVs? 

[00:11:11] Brian Searl: Yeah. Yeah, people aren’t stacking. It’s not pretty.

[00:11:14] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. That’s fine.

[00:11:16] Brian Searl: I would, I would rather be in the tent or luxury glamping market. But that’s something you do too, Zach, at your firm, right? Is you help people understand kind of what they should be targeting and building and getting the science of that down.

[00:11:26] Zach Stoltenberg: I would say on the development side, um, we’re definitely not seeing a slowdown right now. Um, we’re still, I mean, we kicked off, we kicked off a new project last month, we’re kicking off a new one this, this month. Um, I think it stayed fairly consistent. Um, where, where we have seen a lot of, especially the bigger developers, focus is more on acquisition and reposition rather than, you know, greenfield new, new ground up.

 But we are still doing several new ground ups. Um, and, and the one that I’m most excited about, I can’t talk about yet. Um, but suffice it to say when it does go public, uh, we’ll, we’ll probably have to do a whole podcast episode on it because it is going to be really, really incredible.

[00:12:17] Brian Searl: Um, but I’ll tell anybody if you want to share it.

[00:12:22] Zach Stoltenberg: It, it will be out soon enough for sure. Um, but, you know, yeah, I mean, we’re still seeing movement, um, and there’s, there’s still very active development going on. Um, I think in certain parts of the country, we’ve seen a little bit of a pullback, especially some of those areas that are really super saturated.

 Um, you know, and, and I think in some of those areas, uh, we’ve seen a big focus, kind of to echo Jeremy’s point, on more high-end, more luxury. Um, and, and even on the new ground up stuff, you know, it’s not enough to, to just throw a tent up and, you know, get it out there for 100 bucks a night. Um, and, and the established developers who did that, threw a tent up and got 100 bucks a night a year ago, they’re now going back in and figuring out how do we elevate this experience?

 Is it more furniture? Is it nicer furniture? Is it building experiences on site? Is it adding amenities? Is it, um, you know, including F&B? Um, and so I, I think really the, the focus today, what we see most of, is a focus on a higher, better level of, of what they’re already delivering.

[00:13:41] Jeremy Johnson: Zach, I forget the name of that one just outside of the Twin Cities that you guys did, but um, I, I know that like right now as I go to get financing for my next phase, I’m using that as a comp because those products don’t exist near me today. So I actually have to go, I actually have to go five, six hours away from my market to even find a high enough end comp to show my bank, you know. It’s kind of, it’s kind of crazy.

[00:14:08] Zach Stoltenberg: Well, and I think that’s, um, that’s a good point too, um, talking about again those areas of saturation areas. We’re seeing a lot more movement in some of those states you wouldn’t typically think of first on the list for glamping. Um, I mean, we’ve looked at three different projects in Michigan. Um, there’s actually, there’s one I need to talk to you about because he’s looking for a management operations partner. I think it could be a good deal for you.

 Um, but, you know, yeah, Michigan, um, Minnesota, Wisconsin, uh, New Hampshire, Upstate New York, um, a lot of those northern states, uh, we’re, we’re still seeing a lot of movement, active projects in there. Um, really, I’d say the biggest drawdown or pullback that we’ve seen is just from states where either the jurisdiction or the state laws and regulations are really burdensome.

 Um, and make it like, you know, yeah, you can do it there, but it’s, it’s going to take two or three years for you to get, you know, just through the preliminary stuff and, uh, developers and banks especially are, are just really gun shy about any of those. And it’s much harder to get a project financed if there’s a big development hurdle from a jurisdiction or planning and zoning perspective.

[00:15:30] Brian Searl: Well, this is why I think it’s hard to pinpoint. Like you’ll get people who say the market is up, you’ll get people who say the market is down, you’ll get people who say it’s somewhere in the middle. And I think it’s because there are variations of that that are all happening at once.

[00:15:40] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah, I think it’s all those things. I think there are markets that are down.

[00:15:45] Brian Searl: The high end has never stopped because of the K-shaped economy we talked about. I think people are pushing more toward low end because of the same K-shaped economy, and they’re staying closer to home or trading down in some cases. I think the middle is the one that’s in trouble, and that’s where you frequently hear like, well, and that’s most RV resorts, right? That have been built in the last 40, 50 years are kind of generally right in the middle, some higher end, middle, some lower end, middle.

[00:16:07] Zach Stoltenberg: Well, and don’t forget either, um, on, because RV is kind of a whole different ball of wax. We do a lot of RV as well. Um, you know, I love how people want to, and, and in the past it hasn’t been a bad metric to use, to look at RV sales as sort of how is the RV economy doing, right? That was a picture, you know, a known metric that we could use to make some assumptions about everything else.

 And I think one of the things that makes that not as good of a data point anymore is that one, we saw this giant bubble through COVID of a lot of people buying new RVs. Um, setting record sales, you know, and that’s starting to, to plateau. And a lot of those are now being sold secondary market. And so because we have this flood of inventory of used, they’re not going to sell as many new ones.

 Um, we’ve also had a massive increase in the RV share business. And, you know, for a lot of people getting into outdoor hospitality, even people that are established, will can say, you know, yeah, we bought an RV. I just sold it because we used it five times last year. Um, we’re still going to go RVing, but from now on, I’m just going to rent one anytime we want to go. And it’ll cost me less, um, you know, over the year.

 And so I think the RV share and so many used RVs being available right now, of course that’s going to drive down numbers for sales of new RVs. And they’re going to stack up inventory. Um, and that should start driving the prices down, which would get more people back into it. Um, but is that necessarily an accurate reflection of how many people are going camping? I don’t think so.

[00:17:53] Brian Searl: No, not at all.

[00:17:53] Zach Stoltenberg: Not at all. Yeah.

[00:17:55] Brian Searl: It could be a forward indicator in two, three years, but it’s not today.

[00:18:00] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah.

[00:18:03] Brian Searl: And it depends on whether you define camping as camping to me is RVing, but it’s all the things, right? So that’s, yeah.  Um, go ahead, Jeremy. 

[00:18:14] Jeremy Johnson: Um, I don’t think  our, I don’t, I don’t know, this is probably a debatable thing, but I don’t think RVing is camping. I just think there’s such a, I think glamping is probably more similar like, I mean, Izaac, you’ve got these nice glamping tents like I’d say that’s more similar to camping than than pulling up a 40-foot RV.

[00:18:35] Brian Searl: Yeah, I mean, we’re using like, I’m using a roll-up term, right? Outdoor hospitality is maybe the business term and I was like, I think everything, at least of all the words we’ve heard and we’ve had this debate so many times on the show, right? There’s no good word and nobody has a good definition for it, but I don’t know, anything outside with not four walls around you is camping to me, but.

[00:18:54] Jeremy Johnson: Well, an RV might have four walls.

[00:18:57] Zach Stoltenberg: So do cabin tents. Yeah.

[00:19:04] Brian Searl: Actually, four walls and a roof is what I meant to say, like a motel, like another room on the side of a house, that’s what I meant.

[00:19:09] Zach Stoltenberg: I actually looked up, um, Izaac before I jumped on, um, and I mean, I gotta say man, like your spot looks absolutely stunning. Like, just incredible.

[00:19:24] Izaac Rains: Thank you. We are really, really lucky. We, and we’ve worked, we’ve worked hard to, to curate it, but, um, thank you so much. Yeah, we we feel so lucky to, to be able to offer such a beautiful space to people. Um, it’s actually been in my family for almost 25 years now.

 Um, so I was, I was six or seven when we, um, when we bought the property, went in, went in on it with a few friends, uh, at the time. And for 15 to 18 years, it just kind of sat as our family and friends kind of campground, place that we would go, we would, uh, have community out there. Um, and then about five years ago, we started developing it and, um, yeah, I just, I feel so lucky every single day. It’s, it’s so special to get to offer that space that I have that personal connection with to other people.

[00:20:23] Zach Stoltenberg: Well, and I love what you’ve done from a branding perspective too. I mean, anybody who’s spent more than 20 minutes on Instagram knows that, uh, bird watching and, um, all this is like all the rage right now. It gets the the thing, right?

[00:20:37] Izaac Rains: Yeah.

[00:20:37] Zach Stoltenberg: I tease my wife, she has the the app on her phone that tracks like all the birds that she’s seen and I was, oh, we’ll be out someplace. I’ll see a bird and I’m like, hey, you better get that one, put it in your birdy decks, you know. Better log it or it doesn’t count.

[00:20:53] Izaac Rains: That’s right.

[00:20:54] Zach Stoltenberg: So I love like that theming element and pulling in some of the colors and things that you did and kind of playing off the the names of the different birds and theming each of your units. I think it’s really cool. And it’s like spot on trend for right now. So that’s awesome.

[00:21:08] Izaac Rains: We kind of fell into that by accident. We just, our, our family loves birds and, um, and, uh, we thought it would be fun to kind of name these nests after, after different, uh, different local birds. Um, with the exception of our property manager cabin, which we call the Puffin’s Nest. Um, that’s an ode to my, my Nana who, uh, who passed a few years ago. She was from Newfoundland, so had to get the puffin in there somehow.

[00:21:38] Brian Searl: What if I just told you a puffin is a bird too.

[00:21:43] Jeremy Johnson: But not local.

[00:21:45] Brian Searl: Oh, that’s true. Is a puffin actually a bird? I don’t even know. I just…

[00:21:49] Izaac Rains: Yeah, I think so.

[00:21:50] Brian Searl: Yeah, that’s what I thought too, because we saw them in Iceland. We saw little baby ones that were, kids were tossing off cliffs.

[00:21:55] Izaac Rains: Oh my gosh, that’s so fun.

[00:21:57] Brian Searl: Yeah. All right, so they are a bird. I’m not crazy. I thought I was just…

[00:22:01] Izaac Rains: No. They look like little dinosaurs though.

[00:22:06] Zach Stoltenberg: They’re, I was heard they’re the only penguin that can actually fly.

[00:22:10] Izaac Rains: I could see that.

[00:22:14] Brian Searl: Are they actually from the penguin species?

[00:22:17] Zach Stoltenberg: Uh, they’re black and white, they kind of look like penguins, but I don’t think they are.

[00:22:21] Brian Searl: No. Well, while we’re having another conversation that’s related to what our audience probably wants to hear, we can keep going. Uh, bring us, talk us through some of your accommodations here, Izaac. We have three of them pulled up.

[00:22:33] Izaac Rains: Yeah, so, um, I’ll start with the Cliffside Cabin right there in the middle. That is, uh, the oldest structure on our property. Um, and that is actually a carryover from when it was just a friends and family space for us. Um, so Cliffside Cabin, uh, is pretty small. I mean, it’s 400 square feet on the ground floor.

 Um, so nothing too crazy. It’s got a lofted sleeping area. Um, but we made the whole, whole back wall kind of windows, which you’ll maybe notice is a theme with us for our hard-walled structures. Um, just as many windows as possible. But I feel like the windows really kind of make the space feel a lot bigger and a lot more open.

 Um, it also highlights that, that valley view on the outside. The, the cabin’s, I mean, 20 feet, 30 feet from the actual cliff edge. So you’re, you’re right there, uh, looking at, looking at the cliff edge. And it started as an off-grid cabin. Um, that’s where we spent a lot of our holidays, a lot of my weekends as a kid.

 Um, you know, for the first few years we were just camping and eventually got a little, uh, yurt that we threw up. And then worked with a local builder to, to build this cabin. Um, brought it on grid about four years ago when we started, um, expanding and, and opening it up to people. Uh, but it’s a really simple little, little space.

 Um, and that’s kind of something that, that is intentional. Like with our spaces, we don’t like to do too much whenever possible. Um, because the whole, the whole reason we started and the whole, the whole kind of heart behind what we do is surely similar to, to what, what you all are, are doing as well. But we just, we want to make nature accessible to people and we want people to connect with nature, um, deeply whenever possible.

 Um, so we didn’t do anything super fancy inside, kept it pretty simple and let the, let the surrounding nature kind of do the hard work, hard lifting for us. Um, yeah, I rambled a little bit. Sorry.

[00:24:57] Brian Searl: No, that’s okay. I think there’s also a difference in the simplicity though. Like I was looking through the pictures, you can see them in the bottom corner here, like the little, the little games and stuff like that that just make it feel like a home instead of a hospitality or a hotel, sterile-ized hotel room or something like that, right? Just those little things that are hidden away still that keep it simplistic but just allow it to feel more like home, I think can make all the difference sometimes.

[00:25:20] Izaac Rains: Thank you. Yeah.

[00:25:21] Zach Stoltenberg: Talk a little bit more about that switch going from an off-grid dry cabin to, you know, fully connected.

[00:25:31] Izaac Rains: Oh man, what a journey that was. So for my whole childhood, we would, you know, cart in all of our water every time we came. We’d just be carrying gallons and gallons of water in with us. Um, we kind of, we started off no electricity and then ended up getting solar panels. Um, which was really cool.

 It was super fun to have the cabin kind of run off of just the sun’s energy. Um, but we are in an area that for part of the year can get pretty cloudy and dim and, um, you know, obviously for consistent rentability, um, the solar would have taken a lot to kind of upgrade, uh, to the point we would need to. So, you know, we, we started renting the space out off-grid and, um, we, we kind of set it up as best as we could to make the experience easy for guests.

 So, you know, we would bring in water for people, we would kind of, um, you know, explain the solar system to them, let them know about how much power they would have each day. People actually loved it. I was really surprised. Um, because we kind of put it up online as like a test just to see, will people connect with this? Will they enjoy this experience? Not really sure.

 Um, and people, I, I was blown away. People loved it. They were like, it’s so cool, it’s beautiful, it’s off-grid. Um, and so for our first year or so, we rented it off-grid and it went well overall, but it was a lot of work on the back end for us and for the guests who were having to kind of like bring in a bunch of supplies and that type of thing for themselves.

 Um, and so as we started hosting more and more people and kind of a more diverse selection of people started coming through, um, we, we started to realize that, okay, it might be time to add a few more of the, of the amenities for folks. That’ll open us up to a broader audience. It’ll make nature more accessible for more people. Um, and even though we love being off-grid, it just feels like this is kind of the way to go if we want to, um, if we want to successfully operate as a business.

 And so we ended up bringing in electricity at the, and water and gas at the same time that we were building our first round of glamping tents. So that was about a year, maybe a year and a half into this journey. Um, we had gotten enough traction that we wanted to do something, something else on the property, something unique.

 And so we looked at geodesic domes, we looked at, um, a few different options, some prefabricated options as well. And nothing was really speaking to us. Um, nothing was getting us super excited. None of that was really fitting the budget. And then we happened across some safari tents. And we were like, okay, this is cool. Like, coming from a family who loved camping, I, I just really connected with the safari tents and thought it was such a cool way to kind of get that feeling of fresh air and sunlight kind of diffusing into your space, hearing all the nature surrounding you. Um, while still having some more comfort than you would sleeping on a, on the dirt basically.

 And so we decided to build five glamping tents to start off. And, um, since we were adding electricity to those and, um, water and all this stuff and bringing in utilities for the bath, for the bathhouse that we were building for all of these tents, we decided, okay, it’s, it’s time, it makes sense. We’re sad to kind of see the cabin lose its off-grid, uh, status there, but feel like it’s the right time. So we ended up hooking everything up and, um, people ended up loving that version of the cabin as well. So, um, yeah, it’s been really cool seeing, seeing how people connect with the space in like every, every different phase, you know. Has its ups and downs, but every phase that we’ve had, I feel like we’ve, um, we’ve had some really generous, kind, um, and gracious guests come through and just affirm that what we’re doing is really, really meaningful to them.

[00:30:29] Brian Searl: Will you talk us through some of the design? Because to me this design, like the, the bright bold colors is intentional.

[00:30:35] Izaac Rains: Thank you. Yeah. Um, that aspect, not my specialty. Uh, I did help with it, but you’ll notice each of the tents kind of has a different color theme. Um, generally they correspond to the bird that the tent is named after. Um, and we knew we wanted to do something kind of simple, you know, a little, I guess bohemian, maybe you would call it. I’m not really sure. Again, not, not my specialty.

 Um, but we wanted something simple but punchy and beautiful and colorful. Um, because we love color. And I know muted is kind of the, the vibe for a lot of people right now. I think that is cool, but we’ve always just loved color as I’m sure you can tell from our website and our, our units, sleeping sites there. Um, so we ended up designing each tent kind of with the bird that it’s named after in mind.

 And, um, yeah, it was my sister Zoe who did most of the design, uh, which I’m really grateful for. She’s super talented.

[00:31:50] Brian Searl: It looks like it, yeah.

[00:31:53] Izaac Rains: And so we just did a lot of natural textures, um, lots of really, really saturated color when we could. Um, and kept everything pretty simple. So you have, you know, wood, metal, um, wood, metal, and canvas and some fabric. Uh, and that’s pretty much all that you’ll see going into the design, uh, for the most part.

[00:32:20] Zach Stoltenberg: So kind of a similar question or related question. Um, since the tents are dry tents, um, and you, you mentioned a bathhouse. Um, how are you from a guest experience perspective, how are you making the tents, you know, be comfortable, you know, have all the amenities, everything that they need, um, while keeping them dry? And then what are, what do you have in the bathhouse and like how far away is that? How are you, how are you making that work?

[00:32:56] Izaac Rains: Yeah, great question. And probably the biggest question that we get asked. I mean, that’s the first thing out of every guest’s mouth.

[00:33:04] Zach Stoltenberg: Because it’s not very clear on your website.

[00:33:06] Izaac Rains: Yeah.

[00:33:07] Zach Stoltenberg: You need some pictures of your bathhouse on your website.

[00:33:09] Izaac Rains: Really good feedback. Thank you. Um, I’m actually going to make a note real quick. Um, yeah, thank you for that.

[00:33:18] Zach Stoltenberg: Because I think that’s, I mean, my wife and I went up to visit my brother just a couple weeks ago in New Hampshire and we, we stayed in an off-grid cabin, so solar for the power, all that, and there was a little bit of a walk to the bathhouse. Um, and, and it was fine, and we had a blast. We spent two nights there. Um, but again, it was a little surprising when we first pulled up and my wife was like, oh, we have to walk to the bathroom. Because it wasn’t like clearly communicated on the website.

[00:33:48] Izaac Rains: Yes. So that is, like I said, one of the biggest questions that we get. Um, we do try and let all of our guests know as they’re booking, here’s the bathroom situation. Um, if that’s an issue, please let me know. We’ll refund you or figure something out. Um, but it’s, it’s been, even though it’s the highest source of question and maybe even anxiety for people, um, it’s not really been a huge issue for us.

 Um, so each of the tents we’ve set up with electric, electric running inside as well as gas heat. Um, and then we did pull water to the outside of each tent as well. So folks can get drinking water, they can make their coffee, um, you know, they have easy access to electricity and all that stuff. Um, and we built the bathhouse specifically so that it was, um, well, two, two things.

 One, we specifically built it so that it was a 30-second walk from each unit. So we tried to keep it really, really close. Um, and then two, we over-engineered it. Um, like probably way more than we really needed to. Because I’ve been in some raggedy bathhouses. I mean, I’ve been in some, some rough, rough bathhouses, um, you know, through traveling and camping and that type of thing.

 So we really wanted to kind of overdo it with our, with our bathhouse. Since we knew that that bathrooms inside of each tent wouldn’t really be viable for us at the stage that we’re at. Um, you know, to, to do that in our area, we would have to clear so much of the forest around the tents, it would just kind of, kind of ruin the, it would ruin the view just, just so that we could put septic systems in. And we kind of struggled with that a little bit. So.

[00:36:01] Zach Stoltenberg: Have, um, have you thought about doing even just like a, just a sink, uh, where like, you know, again, I always think about my family, my wife, uh, you know, would, would she want to stay there? Um, like a basic sink and a mirror, at least somebody can like wash their face before bed, if they gotta take out contacts or something like that, you know. And, and that’s not, usually sink water doesn’t always have to go, you know, all the way to a septic system. I mean, it can go to a bucket that sits underneath the sink that you, you know, change out when you, when your housekeeping crew comes through. Um, or have you thought about maybe like composting toilets to where, yes, if somebody’s willing to make the walk, you know, down, but if they need to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, you don’t have to get shoes and a flashlight.

[00:36:56] Izaac Rains: Yes. Yeah, so this year actually we’ve started exploring, um, sinks and potentially incinerator toilets and or composting toilets. Um, we’re kind of entering the, the next phase of building.

[00:37:13] Zach Stoltenberg: You’re, you’re hitting just what we were talking about. Like, you go through the initial and now it’s how do we upgrade? How do we, yes.

[00:37:20] Izaac Rains: Exactly. Um, so we’re kind of entering the next phase where we’re like, okay, we might want to throw a couple more hard-walled structures up and we might want to boost, upgrade what we already have, uh, as far as our tents go. And so, short answer to your question, I know I’ve been rambling for like 20 minutes now. Short answer to your question, yes, we have started looking into that.

 Um, and up to this point, it’s been, I’ve been surprised how, um, how happy people are with, with what we have even in its current state. Um, and we do a lot of work, I feel like, to set expectations with each guest as they book and kind of make sure that they’re comfortable with everything. So I think that does a lot of good for us. I, I learned that the hard way, I think. Setting expectations really helps. Um, but…

[00:38:20] Zach Stoltenberg: Probably the number one thing. Like setting, if you’ve built it and after you’ve done all the things, right, and put all the planning and the architecture and the design and like setting the expectation is the win.

[00:38:30] Izaac Rains: Yes.

[00:38:32] Zach Stoltenberg: So how much of that guest satisfaction that, that you’ve been successful in generating, um, how tied to that do you think your ADRs are? Because you’re, you’re at a very affordable rate right now. Um, so do you think that that, that kind of customer happiness is like, we’re happy with this because this is what we paid for it? Or do you think you could get to a higher ADR by adding some of those additional kind of creature comforts?

[00:39:09] Izaac Rains: Yeah, I think, so I think it definitely plays into it. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s hard to deny that the lower price kind of offsets any, any discomfort that folks have. Um, but that being said, I will say we keep our short-term rental prices pretty low because, um, our bread and butter is retreats. So full property events and retreats.

 Those events people are paying a much higher nightly rate, um, because they get the full property, because they get food catered in, because they get the event space and all this different stuff. Um, and even with those guests, some of, some guests who, you know, usually would be considered higher end or I don’t like that phrasing because I don’t think some people are higher end than other people, but guests that are used to higher end accommodations, um, have also really loved the space and connected with it. And we’ve gotten some feedback, you know, um, some things to work on from that, but 90% have been completely happy even in the current state, which is honestly surprising to me. Um,

[00:40:31] Zach Stoltenberg: Is there ever, for you from an operations standpoint, is there ever sort of any conflict with having a large group or an event where that whole property is booked out versus kind of those individual short-term stays? Like, you know, do you get those calls for somebody that wants to book an event and, and you’ve already got three short-term rental stays that, you know, those days and so you got to say no, that’s, you know, it’s not available or that pushes the group bookings, you know, months out in advance.

 Um, have you ever thought about maybe as you expand the property and you’re talking about, you know, some more hard-sided units, more soft-sided units, maybe kind of dividing that from a master plan perspective of like, these are, this is our retreat center and I mean, based on the events you’ve hosted, you know kind of roughly what those group sizes are and what works for that. Um, maybe just designating part of the property that this is the kind of retreat area and then maybe your expansion is, is into a newer area that’s more, you know, focused on just the individual stays?

[00:41:42] Izaac Rains: We definitely have thought about that. Um, so our property is, it’s 50 acres that sits on a horseshoe of cliff edges. Um, so it would be fairly, I mean, easy, easy is not the right word because it wouldn’t be easy, but it would be fairly, uh, achievable to split that horseshoe kind of in half and say, okay, this side of the horseshoe, that’s going to be short-term rental. This side is retreats only.

 Um, but we don’t have the capital for that right now. So the way we’ve made it work is, um, sorry to answer your question, yes, there is some conflict there that we had to work through and our first six months especially were definitely like a huge learning curve of like, how are we, how are we booking these things? And how do we make, how do we do this in a way that, um, you know, allows us to actually make a profit of some kind, but also to where we’re not like leaving either retreats or short-term rental guests out to, out to dry basically.

 And what’s worked for us is allowing retreats to book, um, well in advance if they want, and limiting short-term rental bookings to a rolling, rolling 60-day ahead of time, uh, schedule. Um, because we noticed for our area or for our property specifically, most short-term rentals are booking within two weeks. Um, so kind of like doesn’t really make sense to have six months from now open for one individual stay if a retreat is going to be booking four months in advance and they want the whole property. Um, so that’s kind of how we’ve, how we’ve set it up currently.

[00:43:40] Zach Stoltenberg: That’s a really good approach. I think that’s a really good approach.

[00:43:41] Brian Searl: I think there’s a business here just for a second.

[00:43:44] Zach Stoltenberg: No, I said I think that’s a really good approach that, you know, understanding those markets, knowing the retreats are booking in advance and then being able to close out those windows and, and fill in the gaps with the short-term rentals.

[00:44:03] Izaac Rains: Thank you.

[00:44:04] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah, I want to hear about the event center because this building looks really cool.

[00:44:08] Izaac Rains: Thank you so much. Man, yeah, I’ll, I’ll run you through it real quick. I feel like I’ve been doing all the talking. Like I want to hear from Jayne as well and Jeremy and, um, but the event space, we call The Rookery. Um, kind of following that bird theme. A rookery is a space where, uh, birds or mammals in some situations gather in community to, um, to kind of rest, rejuvenate themselves.

 Um, that’s usually where a lot of the animals will take the time to give birth and start raising their young. Um, and so we wanted to create a space kind of central to our tents and all the, all the units on site where, um, especially retreats and, and events could gather. And so it would be a space where you could get up, unzip your tent and walk down the hill and, and kind of enter this space and have a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, start journaling, hanging out with people you came with, that type of thing.

 And so we decided, um, we had, we had a tent in the, in the spot that the rookery is now. We decided to take that down because it was this beautiful section of, um, of cliff edge that looks towards the sunset out over the valley. And we’re like, okay, this is where people are going to hang out. And so, um, we worked with an awesome local architect to the Northern Kentucky, Cincinnati area named Greg Tilsley, uh, and his team, Tilsley Architects.

 And they kind of helped us design, we went through probably five to 10 different iterations of what the space might look like. And they helped us kind of design a space that would transition fairly seamlessly indoor to outdoor. Um, and so again, like I said, the windows are kind of a theme for us. You’ll see most of the walls in this building are actually windows.

 Um, so that back wall that you’re looking at here actually points straight out into the valley towards the sunset. Um, and all of those doors kind of slide open to allow for a, a seamless transition from inside into the outdoor deck. Um, and so as we designed it, we kind of, again, really tried to keep it simple. I mean, it’s, it’s beautiful, it’s masterfully designed, I feel like.

 Um, and we didn’t overdo the features or anything like that, I don’t feel like, intentionally. Because what we’re hoping for is for groups of people to come and connect really, really deeply with each other, um, get vulnerable, um, you know, especially, especially for these kind of leadership team retreats, corporate retreats that we’re doing. We wanted a space that would take folks who are used to kind of being in an office all the time, they’re used to a very rigid schedule, rigid to-do list, um, maybe some stiff interactions with co-workers because you’re going through the motions every single day.

 Um, you know, I’ve, I’ve worked an office job before, I kind of, I remember how that felt to just like, you know, you connect with people, but it’s only so much. So we wanted a space where people could walk in and feel completely different than they normally would at work. Um, and so what we landed on was a lot of wood, a lot of warm colors, um, natural materials, I feel like really help bring people down to kind of a more grounded state.

 Um, and beautiful views. And so, um,

[00:48:27] Brian Searl: I don’t want to interrupt you, but I found the bathhouse.

[00:48:30] Izaac Rains: Please. Yes. That is our bird bath, our beautiful bathhouse. Um, individual bathrooms with their own personal heaters, uh, showers, sink, toilet, all that good stuff.

[00:48:45] Brian Searl: We need to change your subject. Sorry, I just…

[00:48:46] Izaac Rains: That’s okay. You’re good. Um, and so we kind of, we kind of designed the space to, um, to be really simple as a way to offer folks that, um, easier access to vulnerability and deep connection and, um, intentional kind of creative problem solving for groups that are in need of that. Um, so it’s got a large common area kind of in the, in the main area that transitions out onto a thousand square foot deck that I am in love with.

 Um, so that’s where most people spend the majority of their time is on that deck, um, either around the little fire pit or facing the sunset with a cocktail in their hands or coffee in their hands. Um, additionally, we added a pretty big kitchen. It’s not commercial sized. We didn’t, we didn’t want to get into all that, but it’s pretty dang close.

 Um, so big kitchen, tons of room for serving, um, tons of room to kind of set up appetizers, catering, um, mix up drinks, make your coffee in the morning, set up a breakfast bar. Um, when we did the grand opening for the space, we actually just turned the whole island into a charcuterie board, uh, which was super fun. So kind of set the space up, uh, for meals, for deep connection and conversation, um, and for time in the outdoors.

 And the feedback we’ve been getting has been, I mean, I, I almost feel like we don’t even deserve it. It’s been so good. That’s something broken inside me probably, but, um, people have been really generous with their feedback and have been loving the space. We’ve had experiences with groups where people are in tears over lunch, like an hour after they’ve gotten there, just because they so desperately needed that natural space to kind of release the tension and the things that they’re dealing with and connect with people that they’re close with.

 Um, and so it’s been really cool. Like I, I don’t feel like I’m exaggerating when I say like, we’ve seen lives already kind of start to be impacted and changed, um, by people coming out to the space, which is just such an honor,  um, to be able to, to offer a space to people for that. 

[00:51:51] Brian Searl:  Jayne, I know you snuck in here, uh, obviously a lot of experience with glamping and Campground consulting and, and certainly Jeremy, you’ve had your eyes on some really unique properties and of what you’re doing.

Do you guys have any questions here on what Izaac’s building or thoughts?

[00:52:04] Jeremy Johnson:  I, I, I really, 

[00:52:07] Jayne Cohen: Um, sorry Brian, I can’t, I can’t hear you.

[00:52:12] Brian Searl: Go ahead, Jeremy, and then we’ll get back to Jayne.

[00:52:15] Jeremy Johnson: We can hear you, Brian. Um, but I think I’m, I’m really curious because I’m going through a lot of the same things that you’re talking about right now. Um, and you’ve already done. Do you think it would have been worth it to preserve the off-grid electricity with like a solar system? And do you think people seem to really like that? Like, do you think if you would have spent that money, that would have kept like some, some like cool factor to it that people would have appreciated?

[00:52:44] Izaac Rains: Hmm. I think it would have kept some cool factor. Um, but I don’t know.

[00:52:52] Zach Stoltenberg: You can do both.

[00:52:54] Izaac Rains: That’s true.

[00:52:54] Zach Stoltenberg: You can do solar and still be grid-tied.

[00:52:59] Izaac Rains: That’s a really good point. Um, yeah, I think, so I think it would keep, it would have kept some of the cool factor, but, but I’ve never actually regretted putting it on the grid. Aside from, you know, the fact that we aren’t operating off of renewable energy for that one anymore is like a bit of a bummer, you know, like I would love to keep that and implement that wherever we can. Um, but from a business perspective and in a, in a kind of high-level perspective, I don’t think it would have done enough for our guests to justify, um, the size of the investment, the amount of work, or the potential troubleshooting that came along with it.

[00:53:52] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah.

[00:53:53] Izaac Rains: Um, now, when my electric gets knocked out from a snowstorm later this year, maybe ask me again and I might have a different answer, but…

[00:54:03] Jeremy Johnson: I’m literally weighing the cost of like a pretty substantial battery bank right now because I, you know, I mean, I’m, I’m on top of a rock outcropping and just to get electricity up to my property, it’s, it’s substantial. You know, and I mean, the battery bank is more expensive, but I’m like, it might be worth it in the long term.

[00:54:21] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah, I will say, you know, on the properties that we’ve done development on where we’ve looked at it both ways, um, it has never penciled out that off-grid was more cost-effective. Um, even, you know, looking at some established operators that are off-grid, um, when I asked them like, hey, are you happy with that decision to, you know, to be 100% solar? And, and they come back and said, no, hell no.

 Um, like we did it because, you know, they got that sticker shock. They looked at having to run, you know, a half a mile or a mile of underground or overhead and, and it looked really, really expensive. And they looked at solar and said, well, that’s about the same price, but we could do it faster or it’s a little bit cheaper with the incentives. But they’re all still running backup diesel generators.

 They’re still running, you know, some alternative because from a guest experience perspective, you know, I’m sorry it was a cloudy day so you have a cold shower tonight isn’t good enough. Um, and so, you know, I think I, I love the altruistic part of wanting to do it, wanting to be good stewards of the environment and, you know, there’s certainly a marketing angle that could be run with that. That’s why I said you can do both. Um, you know, net meter it and, and say, hey, we generate, you know, enough power to offset what we’re using, right? But yes, we’re still grid-tied.

[00:55:57] Brian Searl: You’re still solar powered. If you really are, you’re just eliminating

[00:56:00] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah, you can. Absolutely you can. Yeah, we’re, we’re powered with renewable energy.

 Um, but I think there’s still enough questions with reliability, capacity, you know, when you start pricing out some of the big battery banks and the installation, not to mention that they do have a finite lifespan on those. Um, you know, I know my in-laws just replaced all the batteries in, in their off-grid cabin and that was less than 10 years, uh, that the batteries that they had in previously were there.

[00:56:35] Izaac Rains: Oh wow.

[00:56:36] Zach Stoltenberg: And it was not cheap to, to replace that. And so, you know, I think when you look at that whole picture, there’s, you’ve got to evaluate guest experience, you’ve got to evaluate reliability, and you’ve got to evaluate life cycle cost. And over that long term, grid-tied is still really, really hard to beat.

 Um, so I, I think you did the right thing there, but I think again from a marketing perspective and from a guest experience perspective, put up some solar, you know, especially in some of your visible areas. You know, you brought up a good point about, uh, not wanting to cut down a bunch of trees for a septic system, but you can do an elevated, uh, solar field over that septic system.

[00:57:22] Izaac Rains: Oh, yeah.

[00:57:23] Zach Stoltenberg: And that, that becomes a lot better, you know, oh gosh, they cut down all the trees. Yeah, it’s because they brought in solar. Um, and it, you know, sometimes we look for sort of compatible uses with that, right? Um, to not just lose that space or lose all of those trees, but is there something else that we can, can use that space for?

 Maybe it is a big lawn that’s adjacent to your event center, um, to where if you had an event that was too big to fit in the rookery, that you could put up a big tent on the lawn outside and, and host a larger group or gathering. Uh, so I think, I mean, I think you got some, some options there with that. But I, I will say when it comes to the question of solar, um, over the long term and the life cycle, it rarely pencils out unless it’s your only option. 

[00:58:15] Izaac Rains: That’s really wise. 

[00:58:17] Brian Searl: Jayne, can you hear us now? Or me?

[00:58:21] Jayne Cohen: I can hear you, Brian. Can you hear me?

[00:58:24] Brian Searl: Yeah, welcome. I saw you snuck in here a little bit ago. Sorry I didn’t have a chance to get to you. We only got a couple minutes left, but Jayne, do you have any questions for Izaac or?

[00:58:31] Jayne Cohen: I, I don’t. I, unfortunately, um, I have not met Izaac before and I haven’t had an opportunity to look at his website, but, um, it does sound interest, very interesting and I am going, I’ve made a few notes and I’m going to go look at his website right after this meeting. I do, um, not the problem, but the thought, what I always think about is what is the repeat and return value on the experience? And with any glamping, not just this particular property, you know, is it really just a novelty experience or is it something that creates repeat and referral business?

[00:59:20] Brian Searl: I think you send them a little back into the real world, they get stressed out again, they need to come back. So seems to be pretty repeat. From his, what he’s built, right? On the cliff side with all the decor and views and I mean, you tell me Izaac, what do you think? do you have data on that already?

[00:59:37] Izaac Rains: Yeah, so I think, I think that is a really good, really good mindset. I think when we first opened up, we were kind of like just testing the waters a little bit, you know, oh, people are, people are into glamping right now. This is cool. Like we’ve camped before, but we’ve never glamped. Like this is a unique thing that people are into. Let’s, let’s open up space for people since we have the space for glamping.

 Um, and so, you know, we definitely noticed when we first opened, it was kind of during that initial recent boom in the last five years of glamping, outdoor recreation, that type of thing. And so we definitely noticed like, oh wow, like the interest is super high, people are coming back, people are loving it. Um, to your point, it did start to dwindle a little bit after a couple years, which we expected.

 We’re like, this isn’t going to last forever, you know, but what a cool opportunity to kind of curate this space for people. And I don’t think people are ever going to get tired of getting outdoors personally. I think that’s going to be something that, that people continue to do for as long as we have the outdoors available to get outside into. Um, so our mindset was, and please if, if I’m not answering your question, please let me know.

 I’m sorry, I’m starting to lose the thread a little bit, but, um, as we kind of, kind of worked through things, started noticing some trends through the couple, first couple years of business, we realized that glamping itself in our region, um, at the level that we were doing it and wanted to do it was not going to be a viable, uh, business option for us. And so, you know, there, there are other people in the area who are very successful with glamping.

 Um, I think we’re one of maybe three or four glamp grounds in the area. The other places are awesome. They do a great job. Um, and it seems like they stay, they stay nice and busy. Um, but because we started to notice a little bit of dwindling and we wanted to do a little bit more with our property, we, that’s actually the reason that we started hosting group events and retreats and kind of catering to that experience was because we had the realization that, you know, year over year, short-term rental glamping the way that we’re doing it is not going to, um, feed us the way that we, the way that we want to be fed.

 And so we started figuring out like, okay, let’s do events here. Oh, let’s tack on this amenity or this experience. Let’s partner with this local business and kind of started like reaching out and growing, um, growing out instead of piling onto the, the original plan, which was let’s put some tents in the trees and just see what happens. Um, so.

[01:03:00] Brian Searl: I think there’s too many people who do that, but it sounds like you’re definitely not one of them.

[01:03:04] Izaac Rains: Yeah, we try not to be. Yeah. I think, um, I think we really have a passion for, um, true hospitality, like helping our guests. And I think most people in the industry do have a passion for hospitality. Um, but I don’t think we would be comfortable just setting up something and letting it be whatever it is. Like we want to offer a curated kind of experience for our guests. Um, so.

[01:03:40] Brian Searl: All right, well, we’re a couple minutes over, so I want to just wrap up the show real quick. Uh, I always hate cutting it off, but let’s just get final thoughts from everybody here, Zach, final thoughts and where can they learn more about, uh, your architectural firm?

[01:03:52] Zach Stoltenberg: Um, I just want to give Izaac some props. Uh, like I said, I think he’s done a really incredible job with what they built so far. It’s exciting to see, you know, them kind of in that growth model now and progressing, um, and continuing to do wonderful things. So, you know, congrats to him and, um, keep it up.

 And, uh, for anyone that is looking to get a hold of me, um, you know, LinkedIn, Facebook, the socials, all of that. You can email me zstoltenberg@lja.com. Um, that’s where I hang my hat and, uh, I’d love to chat with anybody that’s looking for help getting started and, and, you know, making a splash like Izaac has in outdoor hospitality.  

[01:04:37] Brian Searl: And you specialize in elevated solar panels over septic tanks, right? 

[01:04:42] Zach Stoltenberg:  Have done it before? Yes, I have. I don’t, that’s awesome. I dunno that I specialize, but yes. 

[01:04:48] Brian Searl: Thanks Zach, appreciate you being here. And Jayne, final thoughts and where can they learn more about Campground Consulting Group?

[01:04:54] Jayne Cohen: Um, Campground Consulting Group, we’re also our sister company is Glamping Consulting Group, not as well known as Campground Consulting Group. Izaac, how long have you been at this for me? I just asked that question. Last question.

[01:05:07] Izaac Rains: Uh, five years.

[01:05:10] Jayne Cohen: Five years. And, uh, it’s obviously a passion. Right?

[01:05:17] Izaac Rains: Yes.

[01:05:17] Jayne Cohen: But are you profitable?

[01:05:20] Izaac Rains: Uh, not in the way we want to be yet. We will be, uh, we will be this year hopefully.

[01:05:28] Jayne Cohen: Okay. Okay. I just like to ask these questions. I, I, uh, I think that at Campground Consulting Group, we, um, and Glamping Consulting Group, we come at it, uh, as definitely hospitality people, but we also understand that we need to turn our passion into profits. And so we work with clients like yourself of all sizes and, uh, we work on that and we look at paths to, uh, include vision with profitability.

 And I think that’s very, very important. Um, and also help you look at key metrics that you should study as you get go along the way. Right?

[01:06:14] Izaac Rains: Awesome.

[01:06:15] Jayne Cohen: Um, and I apologize for, uh, not being able to attend the entire meeting. Uh, like all of you, this is the busy season. So I got tied up. But, um, good luck. I’m going to study your website. It looks, I’ve looked a little bit, it looks beautiful. And thank you for sharing everything.

 And if anyone needs to get a hold of me, uh, I’m of the older generation, so I don’t do a lot with LinkedIn or any of that, but just give me a call on my cell phone, text me or email me. My cell is 603-455-1884. Happy to help anyone.

[01:06:56] Brian Searl: Thanks Jayne, appreciate you being here. And last but not least, Izaac, final thoughts and where can they learn more about Dappled Light Retreats?

[01:07:02] Izaac Rains: Yeah, I just want to thank all of you. Um, I was super nervous. I’ve done a couple podcasts before, um, but I still get the shakes every time. So thank you. Thank you. You guys made it so easy and, uh, asked great questions and I’m just really, really grateful to be on here.

 Um, I don’t know if you remember Brian, I was, uh, my dad and I were actually, when we first opened, we were on an episode, but our internet connection at the property was so bad that like, we basically had to, had to leave. Um, so I’m glad to have a redo.

[01:07:44] Brian Searl:  I don’t remember what I had for breakfast. I’m very old and 

[01:07:47] Izaac Rains: That’s okay. 

[01:07:48] Brian Searl: But yeah, we discussed all this, right? But I’m glad to see your internet connection is better now.

[01:07:53] Izaac Rains: Yes. 

[01:07:53] Brian Searl: It’s been a good conversation. I appreciate you being here. 

[01:07:57] Izaac Rains: Thank you.

[01:07:57] Brian Searl: What’s your website again for everybody who doesn’t have it?

[01:07:59] Izaac Rains: Yeah, so anybody who wants to reach out, uh, or check us out, you can go to dappledlightadventures.com. Um, you can also reach out on LinkedIn under my name here, uh, Izaac Rains with a Z. Um, and yeah, we’re, we’re hoping to book another 40 retreat nights this year. So it’s a big lift, but, um, but we are looking to talk to people. So anybody who’s interested can reach out, shoot me a call, shoot me an email, and, uh, always happy to chat retreats with folks. See if we can create a unique experience.

[01:08:39] Brian Searl: Awesome. Let’s see if we can get there. Well, thank you for joining us. Another episode of MC Fireside Chats. Thanks to Jayne, Jeremy, had to pop off to another meeting, Zach, and Izaac for all your great, uh, knowledge and sharing all your, all the great things you’ve done with your property.

 If you’re not sick and tired of me already, you probably should be, but, uh, if you’re not, then I’ll be back live with Scott Bahr in about 51 minutes. We’ll be doing an Outwired talking about, uh, marketing and how that’s maybe a little bit broken the way we, uh, deploy it today and where it’s going to go in the future and then some other economic stuff and things like that that we do on Outwired all the time. If not, we’ll see you next week on another episode of MC Fireside Chats. 

Thanks guys. Appreciate it.

[01:09:12] Izaac Rains: Thank you.