MC Fireside Chats – March 22nd, 2023

Brian: Welcome everybody to another episode of MC Fireside Chats. My name’s Brian Searl with Insider Perks here as always with Cara Csizmadia from the Canadian, Camping & RV Council. We’re [00:01:00] really excited to have our recurring RV industry and outdoor recreation show for you all today. We’ve got a couple recurring guests.

Hopefully Shane’s gonna show up. He did email and say, I have 45 minutes. I’m, in a rush. I’m, we’re probably be there for the beginning of the show, so maybe you will pop in and join us. We are missing Phil Ingrassia today. He is, he has other commitments, but we do have Eleanore Hamm here from the Canadian RVDA, as well as Susan Carpenter from the RV Women’s Alliance.

And two guys who you probably don’t know because they are really newbies in the industry. They just popped in last week. We were really intrigued by their story and so we invited on the show. We like to expose new faces and new people. That’s Bob Zagami and John DiPietro from NERVDA, and well, 25 other things that all started in the last.

Which is really amazing. So do you guys wanna introduce yourselves and talk about what you’ve done in the last seven days? 

Bob: Yeah, now we can add Jude to the roster too, that we appeared on your show, Brian. 

Brian: No, that’s not notable at all, sir. That’s actually a negative to appear on the show.

Bob: That’s, that’ll hurt us.

Brian: Yeah, that’s hurt. Yeah. 

Bob: Oh, John and I have been working here…. 

Brian: don’t tell anybody you were here 

Bob: ….for about 13 years. RV Insights is our [00:02:00] consulting company for media and marketing, and I’ll let John tell you about our television programs. 

John: That’s all you’re gonna say, Bob? You’re gonna leave that up to me.

Okay. TV shows we do two national, I guess if you’re on the internet, it’s national no matter what, but ….

Brian: …worldwide, Give yourself credit. It’s worldwide. 

John: You know what? You’re absolutely correct. Thank you so much, Brian. We do two shows. One is in its eighth year and was of started as a lark to see how we would do with it.

It’s called RVing in New England. But we really need to change the name of it to RVing from New England, because it’s not just about RVing in New England anymore. And you know what? That is going great. We do that live every Wednesday night on the Facebook page of the New England RV Dealers Association.

Bob: Only seven, seven years. Not eight years. 

John: Going on eight years. Going on eight years. I could say going on 10 years if we. If we’re real marketing…. 

Brian: ….round up, like in high school or college, they told you like [00:03:00] five and up is route to the nearest. So five round up 10. 

John: There you go. Round up. Yep. And the other show that we do is called the Camper Report Show, which airs every week, comes out every Friday on the RV Life Network, a group of RVers of about 2 million people.

And we don’t do that live. We tape that Bob does a segment. We, here’s what we do. We introduce ourselves and we tell the people what we’re gonna tell them. Then we tell them and then we told them what we told them. Tell them what we told them. Does that sound right, Bob? Perfect sense. Yeah.

Crystal clear over here. And Bob does depart on the industry, Insider stuff. Corporation presidents to manufacturing presidents and that type of thing. And I do the part which I consider the fun part. I deal with the real campers. Between that and Bob being executive director of the New England RV Dealers Association, the largest [00:04:00] multi-state dealer group in the entire United States and on top of that we’re retired.

Bob: Terrible word. Terrible word. 

Brian: Not in our vocabulary. No, I’m never gonna retire.

I said, I’m never gonna retire. I’m having too much fun. I think you guys 

Exactly. 

John: Yeah, 

Brian: yeah. I’m really, is that it? Do you have more? You can keep going if you want. 

Bob: Brian, he could go on for another hour. 

Brian: All right. I’m gonna stop him there. But really I’m very impressed with all the things that you guys have done.

I think I met you for the first time in, we were discussing before the show 2020, I think, at the Boston. RV show just in person. But I’ve obviously known of you, I’ve been in the industry since 2012 and just really impressed with all the things that you guys do, all the contributions to the industry.

I think you’re right about RVing in New England and I don’t catch the show as often as I should be able to given my schedule. Same thing with Camper Report, but from what I’ve seen of the episodes, great. Put together really valuable industry resources and I hope you guys continue for a long time.

John: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Appreciate the kind words. 

Brian: Yeah. So what do we have, what do we have we wanna discuss in the RV industry today? What’s going on?

John: Maybe Bob wants to discuss because we attended several shows. Maybe [00:05:00] wants to yeah. Okay. What, there’s media reports out there saying that, the figures are going down normalizing, but I’m sure Bob would tell you and Eleanor as well because they’re on that side of the, that side of the industry that the enthusiasm at the shows, I’ve never seen it any higher.

And the diversity in the demographics, Is absolutely amazing. Would you all agree with that? ? 

Bob: Yeah. I think, and it goes beyond the shows, what we’ve seen. We, we had a tremendous show in Boston in January, and it’s carried over. And I think for the most part, the deal is that we talked about here in the Northeast the crowds are still doing.

I’ll talk to dealers in the middle of the week on a Tuesday or something, and they’ll say, I can’t believe it. I’ve got 10 people in the showroom on a Tuesday afternoon. And the weekends are very popular. Now, the interesting thing is they’re selling almost as much as they were. It’s down maybe 10, 20%.

There’s less people coming, but the people who are coming are buyers. And we’ve broadened [00:06:00] the demographics of our industry right now have been broadened from everything from. 19 year old kid getting outta high school and hopping in a camper van to, mature retired couples. So we have products that fit every classification and within the products we’ve got.

John: You’re retired. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re mature though. 

Bob: We’ve proven that we’ve…

John: ….retired immature people are now heading hitting the highways more than ever before. 

Brian: You’ve gotta recruit ‘ em from anywhere you can. That’s why Bob’s on a beach right now recruiting tourists at resorts. For Florida by RV… 

Bob: I’m not doing any more winters in New England ever again. 

Susan: Aren’t you seeing more ethnicity too? I know I went Camping last year cuz right now obviously it’s too cold to camp. But I was really blown away and I absolutely love to see so many different walks of life.

in the Campground that, I hate to say this, but it’s notoriously always been [00:07:00] that the white class No. In the Campground. And now it’s not like that at all. And I absolutely love it. It’s so great to see. 

John: Susan you bring up an excellent point and Bob introduced me to a gentleman who started a organization called Black Folks Camp two.

Yes. About maybe you wanna talk about a friend, 

Bob: Earl Hunter? Yeah. We’ve known Earl since his days at Sylvan Sport and it’s great organization and he’s now hooking up with associations also in addition to the companies that are representing him. In fact, I just signed a partnership agreement with Earl that we’ll be announcing in the next, I think two weeks.

Brian: You just announced it Bob 

John: actually, you just announced Yeah, you just announced it. You just announced it. Bob. 

Brian: Don’t tell. Nobody watches the show anyway. So you’re safe.. 

Susan: I’ve seen Spanish people, I had a young Japanese couple, and you know how we argue when we’re backing in something?

They were arguing too, but in the language I didn’t understand, but the body language was exactly the same. 

John: So it sounds different [00:08:00] in Japanese, but the is the same. Oh, backing up. Oh, okay. Okay. So they know how to swear in a, in different languages. 

Susan: Oh yeah. Oh 

Cara: It’s a marriage tester, regardless of your language.

Bob: For the most part, that carries over to the shows. Also, we’re seeing a lot more diversity in the shows, which is good. Now the industry’s doing a good job at, reaching out to blacks and Hispanics. So we are seeing a lot of that. We had a lot more this year, which, there were years, to your point Susan, that you wouldn’t see a black person in the Boston show.

It was crazy. But, they love it as much as we do, and they, what Earl is doing is Creating a welcoming environment for people to invite other people into the lifestyle. So I think it’s all good for the industry. 

Brian: Yep. Yeah, we’ve had a role on the show before. We had a diversity focused episode, I think maybe a year and a half ago, Cara, something like that. We had, yeah, it was really, 

Cara: it’s a time mark now. I can’t even remember the order, but yeah it was a bit ago. We should have him back. I think it’s worth the conversation given, I know up here we definitely have events and strategies [00:09:00] targeting new campers, new demographics. It’s something we’re absolutely focusing on.

And so I think, it’s a good conversation.

Bob: I always knew where to find Earl at the show because whenever he was doing a presentation, he would have a crowd around him. They, you couldn’t get through the aisles cuz he’s so dynamic in his presentations and his enthusiasm for the lifestyle and for any product that he’s selling.

And he is not selling, he’s really converting people and he just does a fantastic job. So we love to have ’em on. Yeah. 

Cara: Yeah. Yeah. He’s a very passionate man about it. 

John: Yep. When we were in Florida for Tampa, for the Florida RV Show in January I ran into a couple called Adventuresome Couple. No, wait a minute.

Yeah. Is it Thama or am I mixing them up with another one from Lawyer’s 

Brian: That’s them now. So we’ll just go, we’ll just roll with it. 

John: Yeah. I think it’s called the Adventuresome Couple. 

Bob: There is something like that. Yeah. Yeah. 

John: They’re from Georgia or Alabama, somewhere down there, but they’re full-timers. They’re all over the place.

And the thing is when you’re in a [00:10:00] Campground, the, it’s not black campers, white campers, Hispanic campers, it’s campers. Say that’s, if the rest of the world was trying to look at a way to welcome diversity, I dunno if that’s the right word or not. Okay. Use the Campground industry as an example, because.

I’m sure you would all agree that there’s no black and white at a Campground. 

Brian: And I think that’s the value of what Earl is doing. And certainly, I’m definitely not an authority to speak on this, but I feel like the industry as a whole has always been to a greater extent, inclusive.

It’s just getting that message out more so that and obviously there are people who aren’t, right. They’re very small, few and far. , but getting that message out to say that, campers are campers. 

Susan: Yeah. Mean pet’s. Another one that’s revolutionizing, women going out on their own too and not needing, the guy to, to drive the truck to back the RV.

And, what’s really neat about when you talk about, that community in a Campground it’s almost like it used to be that you don’t see color, you don’t see income bracket, you don’t see [00:11:00] any of that. And if your neighbor is struggling with something, you go over and help ’em.

It’s just like it used to be. That’s the way it should be. It’s, you go over and help, and you strike up a conversation and everybody’s friend. Nobody, there’s no barriers in a Campground. 

John: And Susan, you talk about that socioeconomic misconception in a Campground.

But now you run into every different walk of life in a Campground and the reality is, If you were having trouble with your unit and you needed help, wouldn’t you prefer to the person next to you to be a, an electrician mechanic or a carpenter rather than an accountant or a college professor?

They ain’t gonna help you.

Brian: It depends on what kind of trouble you read into. I just gonna, literally speaking 

Susan: and you’re having trouble with your awning and they know awnings, accountants know awnings, right? 

Brian: Or like your awning is angled at the wrong degree calculation, figured out the 30 degrees, maybe an accountant.

Susan: So they were, and you left it out and left and so your neighbor went over and [00:12:00] as wasn’t put it up. 

Brian: Don’t knock accountants. 

John: Eleanor, you’re just taking this all in, aren’t you, ? 

Eleanore: I’m just, yeah. Laughing at your, hopefully we don’t have too many accountants watching cause they might take offense, but accountants too.

No, it’s, a lot of it’s really interesting because we talk at our, Goring Canada and our marketing strategies on how to attract, new Canadians right. To the industry. And I think it’s communicating and getting the message out there of exactly what you guys are saying, everybody is everybody’s equal, everybody’s out there.

People will help you. And, trying to get through the potential objections or, people not quite understanding what Camping is. So we work very hard in marketing and with Parks Canada to try to get different people coming into the industry so that, hopefully they may start Camping in a tent, but then, eventually move into the RV lifestyle as well.

John: Yeah, gradual. 

Cara: I think presentation is so valuable too in all that marketing strategy where you see that really diverse representation [00:13:00] within ad campaigns and things like that. That’s something more. Definitely. I’m definitely seeing, in my Instagram feed and things like that, a very, a much more diverse population represented Camping visually in those places, and I think that’s really helpful too.

Brian: And again, that has to be like a conscious decision, right? And I don’t think it’s an unconscious decision to say we’re not going to include those people in our photos. But previously, like I, I we have a subscription to Shutterstock for our marketing agency, for all the people we do work for.

And, four or five years ago, that’s all you would find in Camping related stock photos is that, and so unless you were willing, it’s not that you were intentionally excluding. But you just didn’t have the resources maybe or didn’t put the thought into, oh, maybe this should be different.

And I think that’s part of what Earl and other people are helping change is everything you look at under a microscope to say like, how can I be more inclusive? 

Bob: . The other thing that helped us out if there was anything that, any good that came out of Covid, it was the exposure to the RV industry, to the masses of people that truly didn’t understand it.

They may have [00:14:00] known that their neighbor had a trailer in the backyard or rented a motor home for vacation, but the penetration over a two year period, the media covers the different stories that people had. And that’s why I wouldn’t, when I talked to analysts and stuff, I don’t think we’ll ever see the impact of the recession of 2008 to 2012 again, because the base is so much larger now.

Yeah. And so many people know it’s really, it’s mainstream. And once you’re mainstream, you don’t go back. Because people talk about it. I There isn’t a family in this Canada or United States that if they sit down right now and say, what do you want to do this summer? And yeah, they might talk about going to Disney or taking a cruise or taking an airplane, but you can bet your life that RVs are in that conversation.

It’s on the same level. And they know people who have done it. They know people that purchased during covid. So the expansiveness of that is gonna bring a lot more inclusivity to the industry. 

Brian: But is it just our I know we’re talking about RVs on the show, right? But is it just RVs or is it [00:15:00] the inclusivity of glamping and the more luxurious accommodations that are bringing in different demographics too?

Bob: I think the coverage, I think the coverage that we’ve gotten has covered everything from tents to glamping. Yes. Yeah. So there’s been enough of us. So people and that’s a good point, Brian, because a lot of people think they’re just trailers and motor homes. No, there’s a lot more.

Activity, in when you get to the campgrounds with the cove wagons and the yurts and park models and the stuff that we have. So they’re seeing the industry on a much higher level. And so they’re intrigued about what the different components are. 

Susan: You think about it, if there’s nowhere else out there that you could go and say you got such variety, you could either rough it out in a tent without any utilities in the middle of nowhere, or you can go up to this multimillion dollar unit.

That has more than your house does, and you know everything in between. Where else can you experience so much in one 

Brian: industry? You absolutely can’t. You, there’s no way you can, and it’s future-proof. It [00:16:00] doesn’t matter what you imagine in the future with his or with the, future tech or AI evolving or what, like there’s gonna be Camping and glamping on Mars.

There’s gonna be like glamping accommodations that float above the earth in a bubble. That’s 300 years from now, I don’t know, but gl But my point is that can be adapted. Our industry can be adapted to fit almost anything, whereas hotels are in a 

John: narrower box. Oh, totally narrow tell.

Bob: Oh yeah. I’ll tell you a funny story that, that, that hits close to home and every time they tell this story, people just, their eyeballs roll to the back of their head. But don’t worry, it’s a clean story. My two daughters are 45 and 41. 

John: They don’t want to hear, they don’t want you saying that publicly. A

Brian: Nobody watches the show. So they wont 

Bob: they’re not watching. So the only way they know John is if you email and said, look what your dumb dad did on a program this week. I will then. So we were getting together and talking last year. Now they know dad’s been an RV for 40 years. [00:17:00] They know, I know a little bit about the industry and we started talking about what they were gonna do for vacation and my youngest one says we just get back from glamping.

That’s really, we didn’t know they were going, but they went to Temore up in Acadia. . And they had a wonderful time. And my other one says I’m taking Bobby to auto camp on Cape Cod next week. His two adult children, if you will, that without any assistance in Dad, without asking Dad anything, do you know anybody at koa?

Do you know anybody at as, no. This generation, they were so thrilled with what they were seeing in the marketplace during Covid that they made a decision on their own to enter into the lifestyle without ever saying anything to mom and dad and yet knowing my experience in the industry and they said, dad we have good jobs and it’s nice, we can afford it and we can [00:18:00] do it.

And they did it. And they went through glamping areas without saying, do you have a recommendation for a Campground? Or should we rent an RV? They didn’t need any assistance. And that’s when I look at the broadening of the marketplace, I think that’s a fantastic story. because if it can happen that close in a family that’s been Camping for 40 years, that hasn’t integral integrated into the RV industry, just think of all the people that we don’t know who are having that same conversation, whose kids are doing the same thing.

And we wouldn’t have even counted them in the industry two years ago. 

John: Let me go back to something that Susan just said a few moments ago about the wide variety of people that are Camping now. Whether it’s a a tent, a pop-up, a travel trailer, or a 45 foot diesel pusher with electric floors and et cetera, et cetera.

I love the specifics. Yeah. The one thing that they have in common, not in the methodology of how they camp, it’s the campfire [00:19:00] because every one of those people at sometime during that Camping experience, whether it’s a week or a weekend, They’re getting around that campfire, and when you get around the campfire, the demographics are gone.

It’s the magic of looking through that campfire and seeing your kids whether they’re 41 and 45 years old, or your grandkids that are four and five years old, the magic that they have. In fact, even Brian, even in your intro there was quite a bit. It was toasting marshmallows, and there was campfires.

Brian: We are called Fireside Chats, 

John: That’s exactly right. I guess it’s video appropriate. 

Susan: That’s my favorite place to be, Camping. I raised my kids Camping, so my favorite thing was, other than when it rained, my daughter loved when it rained because that meant we all got stuck indoors and we played games.

But sitting around that campfire, other than, we’ve lost that sitting around the dinner table. Now it’s the campfire. Where you sit around, you catch up, you connect, you talk, you connect. And multi-families will sit around the [00:20:00] campfire and just enjoy the outdoors. 

John: I know with the groups that we camp with a couple times a year people that camp and can revolve around a charity they’ll get some campfires going and everybody, you bring your chair , starting at nine o’clock at night, and then little by little people start dropping off.

 As they can’t stay awake anymore. But the magic of the campfire is whether it’s 90 degrees out or 45 degrees out, that campfire, just think of the sparkle. And I don’t mean the snap, crackle and pop, but just the light in the kids’ eyes. And that kid’s, regardless of what age they are, 

Susan: it’s how close you sit to it.

John: And it’s an international thing because when we’ve gone north of the border up to Canada same thing. You don’t know that, you’re leaving New York and going into Ontario, you don’t know you’re leaving Montana and going into Alberta, you don’t know you’re leaving ca what Argon or Washington and going into 

Susan: Some of my favorite stories is for the longest time my son lived in [00:21:00] Michigan.

We lived in Buffalo, New York. So for the 4th of July weekend, we’d meet halfway in between. And so we’d spend our 4th of July in Canada.

Bob: everything was open. 

Susan: It wasn’t as crowded, but they have some beautiful provincial parks, like right on, on the lake and stuff like that. So we would just kinda laugh that we flee the country for the 4th of July. it was, their campgrounds are, I would equate them to like the New England campgrounds, that they’re very wooden and they’re beautiful and well capped.

Cara: I have to say, when I was the Campground owner, the 4th of July was one of my top weekends. I had tons of Americans Every year for 4th of July come, we always did a big like dinner event and live music and all of that stuff. It was a big driver for me. The timing fell nicely with the Calgary Stampede right after.

It always starts …

Brian: canada Day too, so it’s a…

Cara: we would do one after the other. We’d have Canada Day, then 4th of July, and then Stampede would start. Those were big drivers of traffic for me [00:22:00] back in those days, and the 4th of July party was always very well attended. 

Brian: You should get Bob and John up here for Stampede.

I think they would enjoy it. 

John: When is 

Brian: it’s in July. It’s the greatest outdoor show Earth. 

Cara: July 7th. Yeah. July 7th to the 16th. 

Susan: Huge. 

Eleanore: It’s huge. Yeah. And actually our board is meeting our board the RD of Canada National Board’s meeting in Calgary on July 6th. Wow. Just so that people can stay and potentially go to the stampede.

Am I invited to that meeting? 

Brian: Do I ? 

Eleanore: I’m here. I, you’re in Calgary. We might have to have you make a presentation . 

Brian: I don’t know about that. I’m getting nervous on Cara. Oh, okay. 

Eleanore: But no, it’s so great opportunity if you guys, anybody from the south wants to ever come up. Cara knows more about it cuz she’s from Calgary.

But really a huge looks like a fabulous event. 

John: When you’re in New England you’re Canadian affiliation is Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, yeah. P ei and you go out West Ontario, you got Quebec in Ontario, and then after that I’m not [00:23:00] as geograph, I’m geographically challenged, but news definitely 

Bob: I think happened. New England thinks that Canada stops at Montreal. They don’t realize it extends across the whole, 

Brian: I feel like they could say the same thing about the United States, that it stops like Ohio , 

John: Maybe. And then you go to California. 

Brian: Yeah. Ohio. That’s how it works, right? And it’s been a long time since I was in social studies

John: but Cara, let me ask you this. with the summer of 20 being closed borders and 21 being closed borders , I think the Canadian. Because I think in 21 the Canadians could come into the us right? The snowbirds could they go down to Florida? 

Cara: As Yeah, I believe starting in, it was starting in 2021.

They could, okay. No I don’t think so. Actually, I think it was… 

Brian: late in 2021. I think they opened it. But you still, I think had to have a vaccination or something to come. 

Eleanore: There were sort workarounds. It was closed to non-essential travel, I believe till January of 22. Yeah November, because I’m trying to think.

[00:24:00] We had our conference, I did go to the RV d a in, in November of 2021. But you still had to do testing, so it was all the testing of before and after quarantining. It definitely impacted people’s travels. But it was great for domestic tourism, in Canada. 

John: We did lots of interviews with Canadian publications.

. About how the Canadians really think it was harder to get to the, from the US to go north than it was the other way around. So your Campground owners were saddled with more restrictions on the US market than , I think the other way around, if I recall, yes. 

Cara: We’re really, right now, 2023 is really the first year we’re not held back in, in any sort of significant limitation way. We’re expecting in international market to re reopen all the RV rental agencies are amping up and gearing up inventory and all of that and seeing, significant booking numbers. So the international market is reopening to operators up here.

And then, yeah, I think there’s a significant amount of strategy around [00:25:00] welcoming back our American guests. I know I was talking to a park that’s on the Alaska Highway. And they’re seeing lots of bookings for Americans heading back up that way that they haven’t seen for three years. My park was roughly 35% of my guests at my park were from Europe.

They were from Germany. And so that was a significant blow to that business during Covid. And so I think they are now, the park is still there. I’m not involved anymore, but I think they’re definitely now looking forward to welcoming back those guests and that will have a significant boom to their bottom line that they’ve lost out on the last handful of years.

Bob: I think you bring up a good point, and I don’t think we’ve seen as much coverage on the international and then the European travelers as we have Americans going to Canada or Canadians coming down here. Tonight on our show we’ve got Ali Rasmuson from Spacious Skies. One of her, one of her campgrounds is.

Minute Man, which is about 30 miles, 20 miles outside of Boston, and about a [00:26:00] third of their guests each summer are international travelers. Yep. And when you combine that is, that starts to pick up now too, because we didn’t talk about that as a, another revenue source at the Covid, but that in all the restrictions being off this talk down here in Florida, that if somebody’s thinking about coming down to Florida, the snowbird this year, they can almost forget it.

The Parks, parks and so forth. The parks down here are now taken reservations for 2024, winter of 2024. And, so that, that’s gotta be an issue. And people talk about it, we sound like a broken record every week on our, on we talk about, on both of our shows to make your reservations early.

I don’t know from that side of the table what can these campgrounds do? to make people understand that you have to make these reservations Earlier we preaching to a blank wall or are you seeing an activity where people are truly doing it? I think most ground are ahead. 

Brian: I think this is [00:27:00] very market dependent too, right?

Because we work with 400 plus campgrounds just on the marketing side of Insider, Perks and I think that there’s no doubt that Florida is exactly as you’re describing, right? And I think a lot of the tourist areas are still filling up. I think it’s a little like hit and miss though, given the way the economy has been trending in some of the other areas of the country.

It’s certainly not a negative anywhere, but sometimes it’s a negative from 21. 

Cara: Folks are booking with less time in advance. In advance, yes. Yeah. And in some of those areas, and I think from the Campground side, It’s, it is tough to communicate that to folks to pre-book. I think the market, like Brian is saying, really dictates the consumer behavior.

If you wanna get into those parks, you gotta book early, and if you don’t, you’re missing the bus. 

Brian: See? So I think that’s what I’m saying is that’s negatively impacting, I think I think they were doing good in 2021 or 22. Sorry. Because they learned from 21. Yeah. But now the economy is causing them to have to wait and see and maybe put off and they’ll [00:28:00] still go Camping.

But that booking window is shorter, so then there’s gonna be a big rush and then it’s gonna be the same problem again that they had in 21, that there’s not gonna be anything full. 

Bob: To alleviate that problem in Florida at least. What Sami hasn’t told you. But I have sped that have told me he is currently painting his house bright yellow and has got two hookups in the front yard.

And he was on the phone with Toby O’Rourke today trying to become a KOA property 

Cara: Smart strategy branding. 

Brian: It really makes sense cuz KOA’s got Terra more at the high end. And then they’ve got their resorts and holidays and journeys and really there’s a entry point level there, I think for the two spots.

John: Oh, driveways. 

Brian: The house. Yeah. 

John: Driveways . He doesn’t qualify as a Harvest host because he doesn’t have a gift shop, 

Eleanore: You bring that up. But it does. While. Campgrounds are going to be full and there’s gonna be limited space. It does bring avail opportunities for other types.

I’m not necessarily saying Bob’s [00:29:00] driveway but for the other campgrounds that potentially would have less traffic or, are not at one of the big, they’re not in BAM for Jasper, they’re in different areas. It really opens up the opportunity because people are now wanting to go Camping, they’re looking for places to camp, and now these campgrounds can say, have you thought about here?

And it will bring more exposure and potentially, bring people to camp in different areas that they haven’t necessarily gone to before. 

Brian: Literally isn’t a terrible idea. Like it wouldn’t make financial sense, I don’t think we’re a KOA. But it really doesn’t, it really isn’t a bad idea.

Like a, just pretending playing on KOA. KOA Express that is, five to 20 sites or something like that. 

John: But Brian still is very high standard in quality one. One of the stories that we’re gonna talk about tonight, as we tape our camper report show this week, is that love’s truck stops.

L O V E S Yep. Are now building RV hookups. They’ve got , 10 properties, no 30 properties with about 360 sites throughout the country. They’re not just in one [00:30:00] area and they just want to get that camper who’s going from one place to another. They just want hookups. And Brian, the thing that I know cuz I’ve used in myself is the Ohio Turnpike has eight.

Properties going east and west that have RV hookups at their rest areas. , and loves and I’m, I’ve heard that even there are some Marriott properties that are considering putting in some. 

Brian: Of course super low barrier to entry, got restaurants and you’ve got shops that loves and they’ll spend more money.

Susan: It’s brilliant. It really is a brilliant idea. And for one of those people that would be going on a long trip and spending the night in a Walmart parking lot or loves, and it’s not that we didn’t wanna stop at a Campground one, sometimes availability wasn’t there. Yeah. Yeah. And two, yeah, it’s too far off the road.

And two is if you’re driving till 10 o’clock at night and all you wanna do is sleep like six hours, six, hours or whatever before you get back on the road to, to get into a [00:31:00] Campground and all that kind of stuff. tends to be quite the hassle. And we’re talking a quick overnight.

It makes all the sense in the world because people are already doing it. 

John: Somebody brought up Harvest Host, but we’ve had Joel Holland on our show several times and he is the first one to admit that he is not in competition with our RV. 

Brian: He’s been on our show and said the same thing.

John: Yeah. 

Brian: And I agree with him. 

John: He’s complimenting them and they’ve come out with this camper card just a couple weeks ago that it’s a discount card for RV facilities. There’s a card right there, campers. 

Brian: I think he was, how many weeks ago was it? Were you on that show? Cara, but he was on here talking about campers card and we we did a little grilling of Joel, but we ended up on the same page where we think it’s a good idea.

John: Yep. And now he’s he just bought a property in England called Brick Camp or something like that. 

Brian: Joel did, yeah. 

Bob: Case I think it is. Yeah. It’s. comparable to Harvest Host in England. 

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Company. I thought you meant bought like a Campground or something. 

John: No. Oh, yeah. I didn’t talk about a person who is an innovative [00:32:00] marketer.

Yeah. Then when he I don’t know if you got, are any of you members or stayed 

Brian: I couldn’t afford to afford an RV? I’m waiting for NERVDA to sponsor my show and I’ll be able to afford. 

John: He he bought the golf course thing. So then now there’s 300 to 400 golf courses. Now you say what do RVers are?

Are they golfers? Not necessarily, but golf courses have parking lots, big parking lots that are not used at night, and they also have great dining. So at night you can have a meal in the clubhouse, sleep in the parking lot, and then in the morning, Because golfers start early. They usually have great breakfasts.

Brian: That’s just a great idea. The tea before everybody else. 

John: And they’re quiet. They’re quiet as well. 

Susan: And statistically there’s more campers than there are campsite available. So it’s not like you’re taking business away. No, you are helping the industry [00:33:00] as a whole for those that are getting aggravated cuz they can’t get somewhere.

If it was flipped, then I could see a little bit more of a, aggressiveness between all the different companies that are coming up with innovative ideas. But for now, I think it’s brilliant. 

Brian: One of this we talked through with Joel where I think it’s just a lack of understanding on the part of some Campground owners, how their guests get there, who they are, what they’re looking for, the different types of Camping they do throughout the year.

They might go to harvest us and then come to a private Campground or, stop on the same trip. So I think it’s a lot of it is just a, I don’t understand my market demographic. Because I don’t look at the analytics of the data or understand the marketing, and so therefore I don’t understand that, that my guests might compliment each other very well or they’re not pulling or stealing from me or something like that.

Susan: Yeah. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t wanna camp at a large truck stop . 

Brian: Not at a golf course, maybe. Maybe. 

Bob: Yeah. But you hear somebody, everyone’s complain about, harvest Host or somebody sleeping in a Walmart on your show. Have you had anybody [00:34:00] that addresses an area that John and I have talked about before is why aren’t more campgrounds starting up an RV service center on the Campground?

It’s a tremendous revenue. Now, my dealers don’t like it when I say that, but the fact of the matter is, we have a Campground in Connecticut, lone Oaks campsites. That has not only a service department, they got three service technicians. They people, there are people who make reservations in the Campground to go on vacation in that Campground so that they can have their RV repaired.

It’s a ready made audience. You don’t have to advertise, just make sure that it’s out there and that people know about it. Everything is automated. They get everything on an iPad. You go off and say, I need a new AWN installed, or Can you fix my brakes or something. You go out for the day, the service techs go down, you come home at night, they give you an iPad, you sign off on it, you pay them.[00:35:00] 

John and I did a, presentation once to camp. One of the associations here, we didn’t even get a question at the end. They looked at us like we had eyeballs in the back of our head. But if I’m a Campground owner, which I’m not, and I’m looking for additional revenue sources and yeah there’s other competition or what have you.

this is money dropped at your doorstep. Have you guys covered that at all? Or.

Brian: We have, I remember the conversation coming up because we had talked to Kurt from RV, t i about techs and the ability for them to be flexible and do, there’s a shortage of them, obviously his efforts to train them.

And I feel like at some point it’s come up I Cara like I, I feel like we definitely have maybe not an expert in that or that Campground owner who already has that, but I know it’s been brought up about having repair guys who stay at campgrounds and are available at least, yeah, maybe not the Bay. 

Cara: I know of many campgrounds who have great kind of relationships and partnerships with like mobile techs and things like that.

Our, there are several limitations I think up here that maybe don’t apply in other areas of the world, but if we have [00:36:00] serious significant architect shortage up here, I’ll maybe let Eleanor touch on. Some of that, cuz I think she’s got Yeah. Not the dealer 

side. 

Eleanore: From the dealers obviously they’re, they’re the, we have a huge shortage.

It’s North America wide right. In terms of having technicians. The dealers are always looking for people. The other thing too is that we do have some pretty strict provincial standards. . So in Alberta, for example, where Cara is, you need to either be, we have a program called the Red Seal Certification for all trades in Canada, and we have a national occupational standard for the RV service technician.

And so in Alberta, you either need to be licensed as an apprentice or have your journeyman papers. So it’s actually, it’s illegal to just be a tech and not be one of those two things in the province of Alberta. And it’s a designated trade in every. We wanna just make sure that , if people are technicians, they need to be working at a dealership.

They need to be registered in the apprenticeship program, they need to be going to school. Once they have their papers and their journeymen. Yes, [00:37:00] potentially they can be mobile text. But it just, we just have to be careful. 

Bob: Do you have independent and mobile checks up there? 

Eleanore: We do have some, yeah.

We do have some. Not as, as many, I think as as there are in, in the us Obviously we have, fewer people up here anyways. , most of them are affiliated with dealerships. And actually we do find that, that some of the campgrounds, while they have mobile techs, a lot of those techs may be affiliated with a dealership.

And we always recommend for many reasons that dealers get to know the Campground operators in their region. And that would be definitely one. 

John: Eleanor. We’ve never discussed what we’re gonna talk about on this show, but Bob and I spoke at a conference matthew’s campground four or five years ago, and we had Campground owners there and some people from Elkhart, and we asked about the relationship between dealers and Campground owners, and they looked at us like, are you crazy?

Why would we [00:38:00] want that? What do you do with your RV after you buy it from the dealer? You go to a Campground. Okay. And how much relat, how much interaction, how much speaking, talking communication is there between the dealer in the Campground? It may be different in Canada, but there’s very little in the US 

Bob: and and you’re right.

And one of the things when the deal is. . When they see me writing about that or talking about that they get upset. But then I say to them, you don’t understand that we’re all part of this, ecosystem. And it’s nice that we sell them as dealers, but their first impression of what the lifestyle is is going to be in a Campground.

So the ills of what got them into the Campground. So when their RV doesn’t work or it leaks, or the awning doesn’t go in, they’re gonna go to the office. And they think, because they may not know about the industry, that you’ve got people sitting there just waiting to fix your RV. 

Brian: They might have [00:39:00] loves, huh?

Bob: They, I wouldn’t be surprised if love takes that one more step because they have it for trucks. But wouldn’t it make a lot of sa and then the Campground owner and this, and they beat up on us pretty well. But the Campground owner that has a frustrated guest who can’t get service will say to them, we’ll call your dealer and see what they say.

And it could be a local dealer and the local dealer is not going to go out. Most of our dealers do not have mobile techs, so we have a lot of lot more mobile techs. But the dealer who just sold you something isn’t gonna go out to the camera ground to fix it three weeks later. Cause he’s busy trying to make money in the shop and doesn’t have enough people.

And they need, yeah. 

Susan: The wait. The wait is long too. And I gotta admit, so we’re doing are we technician classes throughout the country right now? We just did Texas. We have Oregon, Elkhart, Florida, and Pennsylvania still to go. And [00:40:00] we’ve had a couple campgrounds either go through the class or they Or signed up to do the class.

And true to what John and Bob are saying is some of these Campground owners are saying, one of the questions we ask to qualify for the class is what are you gonna do with your, your technician training? And the Campground owner says, I want to service the, my customers that are in the Campground.

So if they have an issue that we as a Campground can offer that service. So I think there’s a grumbling a good start to that. I know you guys talked about it 45 years ago, but I think people are starting to realize that this is going to be needed because whether they get at the Campground something break.

The local dealer can’t take care of ’em. Or if they can, they’re six weeks out. They can’t wait that long. They’re not gonna stay in the Campground that long. There’s gotta be a solution there. And I think some campgrounds are starting to see that light. 

Brian: I tell you, I think the push here honestly, is gonna be the economy declining and that need to [00:41:00] differentiate your Campground from someone else’s.

Yep. And that’s with an RV tech or a repair bay, or whether that’s with a new accommodation or serving cookies at the counter or whatever it is. For what, 10? Since 2010, right? When the economy started recovering from 2008 and really like you were recession proof, right? Yep. But assume that we’ve been going up and there hasn’t really been a problem.

You just opened your Kent ground and you’re basically full unless you do a terrible job or you’re really grumpy . So I think it’s just the same thing we’re seeing in marketing, right? We’re getting calls from people who didn’t call us for the last seven or eight years because they were just full and didn’t think they needed marketing.

Bob: That’s part of the question. They didn’t have to advertise, they didn’t have to market. They just. 

John: You’re a marketing guy and you brought up a very important point. And regardless of what industry you’re in or what type of business you’re in the big question is what makes you, how do you differentiate yourself from everything else out there? And if you pick up any kind of Camping directory and you look at, they all look the same but what is it [00:42:00] that makes your facility different? Is it the smile on the person that they greet when they first come in? Does the person look like they just came out from under a rock for three years?

And it’s, and… 

Brian: doesn’t have to be a huge difference maker, it has to make you memorable. 

Bob: The first thing that, the first thing they can start at, and John and I talk about when we talk to campgrounds in the Campground associations we bring this up and they don’t like it, but the first thing they have to start doing is take down the sign at the front entrance.

When you show up and it says You can’t do this, you can’t do this, you can’t do this, you can’t do this, you can’t. They give you 10 or 12 reasons to piss you off before you even go to the front office. Then it says, welcome . 

Brian: We can have a whole show on this guys. Cuz I agree with you, . 

John: Yeah, I think all of us here are under the impression, that impression, but the mindset that operating your Campground in the next five years has gotta be different than the last [00:43:00] 10 years.

Because, I always chuckle when I hear someone say, we really love Camping and when we retire we wanna own a Campground. And take it. Cara, 

Cara: I’ve had, in the 12 years I ran a park. I had weekly, multiple times, weekly. My guest saying to me, oh my God, this is the dream life.

You’re so lucky it this. I wanna do this when I retire and whatever. And yeah, I always had to laugh at it . 

John: And the reality is what are you gonna do to differentiate yourself And if you keep doing the same things, because now the marketing is totally different, the market is totally different.

It’s not the retiree that wants the 40 foot class a gas or diesel pusher. It’s, if five years ago if you said, I wanna buy a Class B, people would number once they’d laugh at you and the other half would say, what’s a class B? Yes. And the others. 

Bob: And the others wouldn’t know where to get ’em, because most of our dealers wouldn’t carry them.

Brian: But this is part of needing to differentiate [00:44:00] yourself because of the economy. And that’s gonna kickstart a lot of it. But the other part of it is that technology’s gonna force a lot of this to change. And we’ve talked about it on the show before, but the way they find your Campground and searches about Exactly.

Automatically, you’re not gonna have 10 blue links. So if you’re number four, not that answer in bing, you’re in trouble. 

Cara: The shifting demographics, I think are gonna drive a lot of this too. Yeah. As we see the demographic shift, the things they expect and want and desire from their Camping experience are going to shift as well.

And we have to stay on top of all of those things and find our niche within that expanding list. 

Brian: Which I found my niche. I’m just gonna talk about AI forever. And eventually they’ll be like, oh, that’s interesting. 

Cara: But literally can have no other conversation than that. 

John: I just wish they had that when I was in college having to do term papers.

That would’ve saved a lot of time. 

Susan: They just came out with 4.0 too, which is he thought 3.5 was 

Brian: we’ve only, yeah, we’ve only talked about.. 

John: I was happy to have a 2.0. 

Eleanore: Yeah, 

Brian: Eleanor gets that. I’m not [00:45:00] gonna pay, I’m not gonna play this whole thing. I’m curious, just because we’re talking about it for a second, I’m not gonna play this whole thing, but I prepared this video earlier just in case we ran out of things to talk about , which obviously I was stupid for thinking we’re having John and Bob on the show. 

I’m not gonna play the whole thing, but check this out. We’re gonna do this maybe in the future if you guys like this, if we run out of ideas for the show. 

Announcer: One. I’m so glad to see you all again on another episode of MC Fireside Chats. Brian asked me to briefly suggest some possible conversation starters for this episode based on recent articles in Modern Campground.

Before I do though, welcome to the show, Bob and John. Glad to have you a pleasure to see our recurring week for guests as well, Eleanor, Shane, and Susan. Here we go. We’ve got four fascinating news stories that could spark some great conversation today. Let’s dive in. The RV Industry Association has created a sustainability committee aiming to promote eco-friendly practices within the industry.

This is a response to [00:46:00] growing consumer demand for sustainable products. What are your thoughts on the industry’s environmental impact and the efforts to go green? 

Brian: So I’m the whole thing, but I had three more stories. This conversation starters, so that’s all ai. 

Cara: It’s still creeps me out, like his mouth with the robot voice.

Brian: Mouth is a little bit off, but the voice is the voice. 

 We use it for all. Not that you hear the latest, 

Susan: somebody input out their information and it did. Its tax, its person’s taxe. Yeah. Yep. You put hundreds of thousands of people out of work. I know. I put my bio in there cuz my son let me, he gave me a limited account on the 4.0 because he’s still a beta tester for them.

So he gets a little bit ahead of everybody else. I put my bio in there cause they wanted to sound more professional. It rewrote it for me. Change your name. Oh no, it didn’t change her name, but wow. It made me sound so much more professional. 

Bob: So you mailed it out and you got five new job offers, ? Yeah. 

Susan: No, it wasn’t [00:47:00] my resume, it was just my bio, just simple words.

It changed on there and I’m like, why didn’t I think of that? It’s incredible.

Brian: It’s all about the time saving. Like it will eventually eliminate some jobs. It will also create new jobs, but it’s gonna enhance our productivity more than anything. And the problem that a lot of people are gonna run into is they don’t know the tech.

Yeah. And so you are already seeing it like you need experience with chat g p t to apply for this job. Like it’s already all over the place. Yeah. Yeah, because they know if they hire somebody with chat g PT experience, they can do in 40 hours. What somebody else would take 60 or 80 hours to do. Yeah.

They, 

Cara: I used it to write a description. I’m planning my 20 year high school reunion right now. I used it to write an event description. 

John: you say? 20 year? 

Brian: 20 

Announcer: years. Jeez. 

Cara: And I , it was fascinatingly hilarious. There was all these like early two thousands references throughout the whole thing. It was genius.

Like it just, and it did it in 90 seconds, not even. 

Brian: And did you see what do you guys use Microsoft Office 365? Did you see what they [00:48:00] announced? 

Cara: Oh yeah. 

Brian: Yeah. Like that. If you haven’t seen that, Bob and John go look at the YouTube video, like they’re gonna integrate it in all their products. So you can talk to an Excel spreadsheet and ask for financial data, and you can compare that and do a hypothetical and it’ll create a chart for you.

It’ll generate all the stuff in Word. It’ll, you can text and say, here’s a press release. Attach the press release file, create a PowerPoint for me, and it will do it like that. This is gonna change and it’s coming fast. 

Bob: Very fast. Just look at the last two or three months since it started to get out there and people started. Really play around with it and see what it could do. Yeah. 

Susan: Long time to get there, but it’s just in Incre. This is my son’s field of expertise in some aspects. And it’s just, he’s been talking about it for 10 years and I’m like yeah. And he is like, now everybody understands and now everybody wants to know about it.

He’s where were you 10 years ago when I was trying to tell you about it and nobody believed me. . 

Brian: That’s the thing, but there’s other benefits to it too, right? Like we’ve done, I don’t know, Bob and John, if you’ve seen, we did Campy the bot or whatever we put on Verde Ranch, Irv Resort in Arizona as a test, and he’s still there.

He does really well. [00:49:00] And we’re gonna launch that for our clients who have websites soon. But it like, we can train it on all the refund policies and cancellation items and every single thing about your park. And then it will actually have really good conversations with you. I looked at a log one time yesterday where somebody from, somebody named Cher and Message and said, Hey, I’m gonna be late for my stay at five 30.

She’s doing this with the ai. Didn’t realize it was an ai. . Thanks Sharon. That’s so great. I’ll, we’re ready to welcome you whenever you get here in our late checkout office, like it’s just completely flawless. It will compare and contrast cabins, even if you don’t program it to, it’s 24 7 reservations.

I was doing math the other day, like we charge, I dunno what we’re gonna charge for it, but it ended up being, I think we’re gonna charge like $500 a month for the bot and 500 for a website is what we charge normally. But if you take a part-time worker who makes $15 an hour and you save half of his day, not necessarily cutting his hours, but redirecting him to more valuable activities, I would do other stuff.

Yeah. And that’s $1,200 a month that you’re basically saving, which means to have us do your website in your chatbot and have one, you’re earning [00:50:00] $200 a month. 

Cara: And given the labor shortages and hurdles we’ve seen and are hearing from campgrounds the last year and a half, it those pain points where they’re struggling to meet customer service expectation and demand can really be helped and alleviated by a lot of this stuff, which I think is a really valuable tool to explore if you’re struggling to build the core team that you know, that achieve the level you want service.

John: If they could ever integrate that AI stuff with dynamic pricing, Cara, how many phone calls did you get? Saying How much is it tonight? How much is tonight? Should be like, 

Brian: it’s it will come. Like we’re, we’ve been in discussions with camps spot, for example, with their api, not about this specific thing.

But it’s crossed my mind many times. Where I said to them like, that needs to happen as a step. Because right now if anybody asks about booking or pricing, it will display the Camp Spott link and send ’em right there. Instead of discussing pricing because it’s dynamic. We don’t want ’em to do that.

And say it’s $45 and then they check in. It’s 85. Yeah. 

John: But Right. But covid [00:51:00] and dynamic pricing, they never, dynamic pricing probably would’ve never hit the campgrounds if it wasn’t for Covid, 

Cara: not in the Yeah. The broad sense that it has I think those top tier guys were, that were really pioneering that Yeah.

Would’ve done it anyway but yet really has pushed. Properties to embrace it.

John: People say, oh, campgrounds don’t, they shouldn’t do that. You know what? Airlines do it. Hotels do it, everybody does it. 

Brian: There’s Eleanor I don’t wanna discount the RV industry here. And Susan too, like this is very good for technicians and information too because this thing knows all of it doesn’t know current model RVs A as of right now, it will very soon.

But if you ha, if you have a pre 2021 model and you’re saying like, this is wrong with my RV. How do I fix it? Maybe it’s something very easy that they don’t have to take it to a tech floor. And then that tech can be available for somebody who actually does need them instead of wasting two hours trying to check on a problem.

So this is stuff that helps the [00:52:00] RV industry and dealers tremendously too, if they’re willing to adopt it. Like I could service bought right now. 

Susan: Yeah. I mean that part-time, that person. Spending most of their time answering these questions with consumers that the bot can do it on. You could take that time and put them out into the Campground or even train them to be that mobile tech, they could be better used somewhere else and keep the everyday nuisances that nuisance.

Brian: But you can say have the bot say I don’t think you can handle this on your own. Maybe you should book an appointment. Here’s a link for the dealership. 

Cara: Yeah. That repetitive kind of on the phone. I used to have three or four girls sitting behind a desk in the early two thousands sitting behind a desk answering the same questions over and over all day long for eight hour shifts.

It’s, to alleviate all of that is, would be huge savings. Huge. 

Bob: It’s big, there’s a big application for the dealers because the problem we all know is we sold so many RVs the last three years. Gotta fix them. They’ve got all these new people, they’ve owned an [00:53:00] RV, they’ve, and how many calls do the dealers get to say, do I have to winterize my RV?

Or how do I winterize my, there’s so many of those items that could be automated and on the website and …

Brian: send me a dealer, bob and John and I’ll do one for free. Form ’em to show a use case. What’s that? I’ll do a bot for free for a dealer if you send me one and find me one who’s willing to be a test pilot and just use case.

John: And Eleanore I’m sure that another thing that’s an issue in Canada, maybe not as big as the US is consolidation of dealerships where, you know, in the US now what have we got? Five. Five mega companies. 

Brian: And we are by the way over, like I’m willing to continue, but if anybody has to drop off, please feel free to go ahead and do it.

John: We have to drop off in two more hours cuz we gotta do our other show. That’s fine. 

Brian: I don’t do anything anyway. 

Eleanore: Two more hours. But yeah, consolidation, we’re seeing it as well. Obviously not to the same degree. . I think the largest group in Canada has about 40 dealerships the leisure days group.

And then the next one down has maybe 12. But it definitely is is, has [00:54:00] pros and cons. But, on both sides they can streamline and become more efficient themselves. , but then it sometimes is harder for the smaller dealership in that area that’s competing with them.

Bob: It shouldn’t be though. Eleanor and Brian can attest to this from a marketing standpoint. I wrote an article in October 21. For RV Pro, and I called it David versus Goliath. It wasn’t beating up on the mega deals. Understand why there is always going to be a place for an independent dealer, a small business person.

And one of the, one of the sentences I put in the article, which I’m surprised, I got very little kickback on. In fact I don’t think I had any, cuz I expected Marcus Lomos to call me the next morning. Cuz I said that every RV dealer should go to bed at night and hope that Marcus Lamos opens up a Camping World store across the street tomorrow morning.

And they didn’t pick, but it’s the truth. They build the market, they bring more people into the market. They’re big, they have to go by corporate rules. They screw up more people, they piss off more people and they move [00:55:00] slower. The person looks across the street and they see the small dealership they go in, they greet ’em by name.

Yo, that’s business. But it, if you’re not gonna market that, and if you’re not gonna show people. That you are different if you’re going to, hide under a desk because there’s a mega dealer down the street, then get out of the business.

Susan: Camping, Camping World uses that dealership for parts that they can’t get fast enough.

So sometimes that independent dealership, their biggest is Camping world. 

Bob: Very true. You’re right. I’ve got dealers like that. Yep. 

Brian: But that’s the thing too if the playing field is more level now with all the technology and the marketing and things that Yes. That I can do for a small there’s big, huge companies that I know of very clearly who don’t do anywhere near the marketing that I can do for a 20 or 80 site Campground because they either move slow or they’ve got people who have degrees, they’re 20 years old and haven’t adapted with technology.

And so a lot of this stuff has leveled the playing field to where five, 10 years ago you needed you needed somebody from a franchise [00:56:00] perspective or somebody or like to, to. . Like you couldn’t buy the bulk radio ads, the bulk TD ads, the bulk, but now you can do Facebook. Of course you can.

Bob: So many changes. So many changes coming up. 

Brian: But I think they’re all great. Like I really like some of them, maybe not, but I think most of ’em are great depending on if you adopt them, if you can adapt to them, if you can use them and take and use them to your advantage. It’s part of the reason we’re doing this Insider, Perks marketing Basecamp podcast, right?

Like I’m basically doing 300 plus episodes every single day that talk about how to do something with marketing. And maybe that that’s just like harvest those, right? That’s not gonna take away my customer. Cuz if you want me to do the things for you that are super high level, you’re gonna hire me.

But if you wanna do that yourself, you were never my customer to begin with. Great. I’d rather you have the knowledge and do it right and succeed. 

John: I’m sure you’d agree that a lot of Campground owners think of marketing as something that you do when you don’t have enough business. Yes. And only then.

. And the reality is you do it when you do have business. and just keep that 

Brian: But especially because they don’t [00:57:00] understand why their business is there sometimes. Like the pipeline workers for example, that’s very easy to see why they’re in the area, but how do you know what’s gonna happen?

They could be gone tomorrow. So are you just gonna wait to market until they all evacuate cuz the pipeline got shut down or something. 

Bob: Wait, go to the next, wait for the next hurricane and get the electrical guys in. 

Cara: Yeah. I also think there’s a lot to be said for keeping that brand awareness stuff alive, continuing to drive consumer interest in, that park’s always full so it must be awesome.

So I wanna go there, but I can’t know that about that park unless I know the park’s there and it’s being marketed to me. So I think keeping those that kind of hot excitement around your park, even when it’s busy is really valuable to maintaining. Yeah, and 

Brian: I can talk about this for hours, but I do think we should wrap up and be respectful people.

 Although we’re having a good conversation as always. 

John: Pardon to Calgary is 2,500 miles. See you RV. Trip 

Brian: Stampede. Come on, let’s go guys. 

Cara: See you then. July 6th, 

Brian: Eleanor’s gonna be here. 

Eleanore: [00:58:00] Yep. Yep. July 6th. Come on down. 

John: I got Alberta mixed up with Manitoba. Oh.

Forgot about Saskatchewan . 

Brian: Alright guys, thank you so much for appearing on another episode of MC Fireside Chats. Thank Bob John, thanks for being, for having show. Again. If you guys are, don’t know who Bob and John are, make sure you tune in the show. What time’s your show tonight, Bob and John, 

Bob: seven o’clock Eastern Time, 

Brian: and on the Facebook page, for NERVDA

Bob: facebook com slash 

Brian: awesome.

So check out the show, check out campers report. We appreciate you guys. Susan, Eleanor, Cara, as always, we will see you next week for another show. 

Thank you so much.