Podcasts about north star

Raj Mehra had it all: a personal reason to build, a hot new technology, a sector ripe for disruption. Then he put his product in front of real users and watched them fail to use it. So he did the hard thing. He listened. What he learned wasn't just a fix. It was a completely different company. This is the story of Sage Healthcare, and it's also the story of what it takes to break up with your own idea. 0:00 – Intro: the "forbidden love" of founders and their original ideas 1:36 – Meet Raj Mehra, CEO & co-founder of Sage 2:33 – What Sage does today (senior care tech platform) 3:14 – The origin story: his grandmother's fall 3:57 – The original hypothesis — building a voice app (Alexa/Google Home era) 5:24 – Building the "expensive paperweight" before validating with users 7:56 – The co-founders join, and the decision to finally talk to users 8:56 – What they learned: hardware was outdated, but voice wasn't the answer 11:44 – Feeling relief, not defeat, when the original idea didn't hold up 12:46 – Finding the middle ground: off-the-shelf hardware + exceptional software 16:39 – Taking the product to market — first customer deployments 17:00 – Solving the hard technical and life-safety challenges 19:27 – Using design sprints to navigate every major crossroads 20:36 – Filtering ideas through the "North Star": does it improve care? 22:15 – Advice for early-stage founders navigating a new market 23:57 – Advice #2: knowing when the technology is actually ready 26:15 – Where to find Sage, and closing thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar,” Caesar makes a bold proclamation: But I am constant as the northern star, / Of whose true-fix’d and resting quality / There is no fellow in the firmament. Caesar turned out to be not so constant, of course. And neither is the northern star. In fact, Earth sees a cycle of North Stars – a cycle that lasts for 26,000 years. The current North Star is Polaris. It stands almost due north. So from the northern hemisphere, all the other stars appear to wheel around it as Earth turns on its axis. But Polaris will slide away from that honored spot over the coming centuries. And about 1200 years from now, it’ll be replaced by Errai, in the constellation Cepheus the king. We go through a sequence of north stars because of a slow wobble in Earth’s axis – the result of the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon. When you combine a star’s brightness and its proximity to true north, Polaris may be the best of them all. Errai appears only about a third as bright as Polaris, and it won’t get quite as close to due north. Even so, it will reign as the North Star for about 2,000 years, before passing the crown to another star in Cepheus. The king is high in the north at nightfall, to the upper right of Polaris. It looks like a child’s drawing of a house, although it’s upside down during the evening hours. Errai is the peak of the house’s roof – a future inconstant North Star. Script by Damond Benningfield

Two well-known star patterns highlight the northern sky this evening. The Big Dipper is low in the north-northwest at nightfall, and in the northeast at first light tomorrow. And W-shaped Cassiopeia is just the opposite – in the northeast at nightfall, and the north-northwest at dawn. As that sequence tells us, both star patterns make a big circle around the sky during the night. They circle the North Star, Polaris – the hub of the sky. All the stars in the northern sky appear to move around Polaris – the result of Earth turning on its axis. For much of the United States, the stars of the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia never set – they’re close enough to Polaris that they never drop below the horizon. So they’re in the sky every day and night of the year, endlessly circling the North Star. Such stars are called circumpolar. The number of such stars from any given location depends on your latitude. From 30 degrees north, anything within 30 degrees of Polaris always remains above the horizon. From 50 degrees north, it’s anything within 50 degrees of Polaris. So as you go farther north, more stars are circumpolar. And if you go all the way to the north pole, all the stars are circumpolar – nothing ever rises or sets. Each star follows the same path across the sky night after night – circling Polaris, the hub of the northern sky. Polaris won’t keep that position; we’ll talk about its successor tomorrow. Script by Damond Benningfield

To “leave the land better than we found it” should be the ethic of all Gardeners. It is the North Star ethic of regenerative and organic farming leaders: Lundberg Family Rice. Third- and fourth-generation stewards of rice, land, and planet, Bryce and Brita Lundberg join Cultivating Place this week to share why, and all that grows from that single dedication. Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast likes it when ski areas are run by people who are good at running ski areas. Please subscribe to the email newsletter to get new posts the moment they're live. Thank you for supporting independent ski journalism.About CamelbackOwned by: EPR Properties, managed by Peregrine Hospitality (formerly KSL Resorts)Located in: Tannersville, PennsylvaniaYear founded: 1963Pass affiliations:* Ikon Pass: 7 days, no blackouts* Ikon Base Pass: 5 days, holiday blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Shawnee Mountain (:24), Jack Frost (:26), Big Boulder (:27), Skytop Lodge (:29), Saw Creek (:37), Blue Mountain (:41), Pocono Ranchlands (:43), Montage (:44), Hideout (:51), Elk Mountain (1:05), Bear Creek (1:09), Ski Big Bear (1:16)Base elevation: 1,252 feetSummit elevation: 2,079 feetVertical drop: 827 feetSkiable Acres: 166Average annual snowfall: 50 inchesTrail count: 45, with three new trails for 2026-27 (not on the map below, but discussed on the podcast)Lift count: 12 (1 high-speed six-pack, 1 high-speed quad, 1 fixed-grip quad, 2 triples, 2 doubles, 5 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Camelback's lift fleet)For reference:The Zoom transcript (click “transcript” above for the Substack transcript, then click on any text block to teleport to the associated point in the video; timestamps below DO NOT MATCH THE VIDEO)00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:37.000Stuart Winchester: Welcome to The Storm! I'm your host, Stuart Winchester. Today is Wednesday, September 16th, 2026, and I've got a really good show for you today.00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:45.000Stuart Winchester: we're going to talk some Pennsylvania skiing. And Pennsylvania skiing is a really interesting thing. As I travel around the country.00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:56.000Stuart Winchester: and ski at all these different places in the Midwest, and out West, and in New England, and in the Mid-Atlantic. Uh, and as I talk to folks who… who don't ski that much, or only ski at the big mountains.00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:05.000Stuart Winchester: I'll often bring up some experience I had at a Pennsylvania ski area. Pennsylvania has quite a few ski areas as 21.00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:20.000Stuart Winchester: public chairlift-served ski areas, and it does 2.6 million skier visits on average per year. That is more than any state except for Colorado, California, Utah, Vermont, and New York.00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:26.000Stuart Winchester: It's more than Washington, it's more than Oregon, it's more than Montana, it's more than New.00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:39.000Stuart Winchester: So, Pennsylvania is a really important ski state, which is probably why Vail Resorts owns 8 ski areas there, because it is really close to a lot of population centers. In western PA, you have Pittsburgh.00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:54.000Stuart Winchester: and Seven Springs, and Laurel, and Hidden Valley, and then you have Philadelphia on the east side, and you can also draw up from Baltimore and D.C. for Round Top and Whitetail. And uh…00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:57.000Stuart Winchester: And Jack Frost's Big Boulder up in the Poconos. So…00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.000Stuart Winchester: Vail has a big presence there.00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:15.000Stuart Winchester: Icon has a presence there with Camelback and Blue Mountain. Uh, and then Indy Pass just signed their 8th ski area in Pennsylvania with Spring Mountain, uh, down near Philadelphia. So, so it's, it's a place where a lot of skiers start.00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.000Stuart Winchester: And it's a little bit of a funny place to ski, because…00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:29.000Stuart Winchester: it tends to have an outsized number of novice skiers, which is great. They're very good at doing that. Uh, but it can make it a little chaotic.00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:38.000Stuart Winchester: And the lift lines can get a little crazy, and people are all over the hill, and sometimes they're walking down the hill because they're frustrated and they're giving up.00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, and…00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.000Stuart Winchester: You take that as your baseline in Pennsylvania.00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:49.000Stuart Winchester: And you had any sort of complications.00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:54.000Stuart Winchester: And things get out of hand really quickly. And in general.00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:00.000Stuart Winchester: For that reason, the ski areas that have survived in Pennsylvania.00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:07.000Stuart Winchester: are among the best operators in the world, and I would put that up against anyone.00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:14.000Stuart Winchester: It's a very, very challenging environment, not only because you have a high number of novice skiers.00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, but also because you have…00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:31.000Stuart Winchester: not a ton of snow, sometimes in the west part of the state, where there's higher elevation, they do get a lot of snow, but… but not as a rule, you couldn't count on it for natural snow. Uh, you get a lot of rain, you get a lot of warm-ups.00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:35.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, and… and you, in general, have to rely on…00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:42.000Stuart Winchester: a very short season, generally mid-December-ish to mid-March-ish.00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.000Stuart Winchester: And the skiers there…00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:52.000Stuart Winchester: They're they're accustomed to a pretty high standard, so.00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:57.000Stuart Winchester: So when things do get out of control, uh…00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:04.000Stuart Winchester: They really rebelled, and they really noticed. So, a couple years ago, this is what happened at Camelback. So, Camelback…00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.000Stuart Winchester: You know, I don't generally do ops stories, uh…00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:10.000Stuart Winchester: You know.00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:19.000Stuart Winchester: ski area didn't groom this run, or they haven't opened this lift, or, uh, you know, they usually let this bump up, but they don't, or, or…00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:27.000Stuart Winchester: you know, they… they are trying to save money, or they're being cheap. I generally don't bother with those, even though I get a lot of messages.00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:32.000Stuart Winchester: Complaining about things like that, because there's almost always a pretty good reason.00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:38.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, and it's almost always temporary, and it's really not worth the effort.00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:48.000Stuart Winchester: to write the story if I'm just writing about, you know, why Stratton or Mount Snow or Magic Mountain didn't open a certain lift on a certain day.00:07:48.000 --> 00:08:04.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, it's, it's a lot to track down and it's a lot of, uh, this person said this and the other person said that. It's just not the kind of thing that I'm want to cover with the storm, right? I want to do bigger stories. I want to do trend stories. I want to look at the culture and evolution of skiing.00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:11.000Stuart Winchester: And the passes, and all the infrastructure, and all the fun stuff. So I don't generally cover the day-to-day stuff, just because…00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:18.000Stuart Winchester: The ski areas that remain in 2026 are, for the most part, run by really good operators.00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:32.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, it… because… and they've survived. Most of the bad ski areas that were either mismanaged or were in the wrong places, they went out of business a long time ago, which is why the number of ski areas has been stable for around 25 years now in America.00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:35.000Stuart Winchester: So I but I started to notice.00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:45.000Stuart Winchester: several years ago that I was getting an outsized number of complaints around one ski area in particular in the Poconos.00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.000Stuart Winchester: And it was Camelback.00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:51.000Stuart Winchester: And Camelback had a long history of being an independent.00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:52.000Stuart Winchester: And…00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:54.000Stuart Winchester: Really…00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:59.000Stuart Winchester: the way it's been described to me by… by season pass holders, and I've skied…00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:04.000Stuart Winchester: some at Camelback, but I don't have that depth of knowledge of having grown up there.00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:20.000Stuart Winchester: That Camelback for a long time, for decades, set the standard on snowmaking, on grooming, on just general maintenance of lifts in the ski area in the Poconos. And that was why they had chosen to ski there all those years.00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:30.000Stuart Winchester: But things had started to fall apart when a new owner showed up in 2019. It was at the time KSL Capital, who was.00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:43.000Stuart Winchester: was managing it for EPR Properties, which is the entity that bought it, and they own a bunch of ski areas, EPR Properties, including a bunch owned by Vail, including North Star, and a lot of the old Peak Resorts in Ohio and such.00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:50.000Stuart Winchester: And KSL Resorts was a division of KSL Capital.00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:53.000Stuart Winchester: which is a part owner of Altera.00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:58.000Stuart Winchester: But for some reason, Altera, which is very good at running ski resorts.00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:00.000Stuart Winchester: did not…00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:15.000Stuart Winchester: get assigned as the… as the owner of Camelback. And when KSL Resorts purchased Blue Mountain, not in Ontario, the Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania, that's about 45 minutes from Camelback, two years later, in 2021.00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:26.000Stuart Winchester: That ski area also did not fall under Altera's ownership. And it was an odd choice to make, because Altera's really good at running ski areas, and they run…00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:35.000Stuart Winchester: Mammoth, and Deer Valley, and Steamboat, and Solitude, and Palisades Tahoe, and Stratton, and Sugarbush, and they definitely have.00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:41.000Stuart Winchester: the institutional knowledge and internal firepower to be able to run these ski areas in the Poconos.00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:43.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, Blue Mountain…00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:47.000Stuart Winchester: Had the benefit of a long time tenured management team.00:10:47.000 --> 00:11:02.000Stuart Winchester: That kept the place, by all accounts, running pretty well. Camelback, on the other hand, seemed to be falling apart before our eyes, and before the eyes of the loyalist skiers who loved the place so much. And they were really, really concerned, and I started to…00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:08.000Stuart Winchester: Because they had put, uh, a management team in place, it seemed.00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.000Stuart Winchester: that…00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:22.000Stuart Winchester: was not familiar with the… with the inner workings of a ski area. Uh, I… I hosted Dave Makarski, the former general manager of Kalenbach, on this podcast.00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:33.000Stuart Winchester: and very nice guy. We had a great conversation. Uh, he's not a skier. And, and, you know, sometimes you can be not a skier and run a great ski resort. Uh, look at Bill Stritzler up at Smuggler's Notch.00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:43.000Stuart Winchester: Bill hasn't skied in years, and he snowboarded for a little bit, but he's not a daily skier. Look at Shawnee.00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:54.000Stuart Winchester: that where the owner… that's one of the most modern, nice ski areas in the Poconos, uh, and the owner has not skied in decades. So, so it's not always necessary, uh, but…00:11:55.000 --> 00:12:10.000Stuart Winchester: It does help and it's certainly a benefit. So everyone I talked to, I was, I was gathering all this stuff for a story and I was gonna write about Camelback and, and it, it really seemed like it was the worst run ski area anywhere that I could find based on the amount of feedback I was getting.00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:25.000Stuart Winchester: I was gathering all this feedback from all these long-time pass holders, and then they hired a new general manager, and so I scrapped the story, but I still wanted to get it, and by all accounts, Jason Bays, who I'll bring on the podcast in a moment.00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:34.000Stuart Winchester: has really done a nice job of turning CamelBak around. So, so let's go to Jason now.00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:16.000Stuart Winchester: My guest today is the Vice President and General Manager of Camelback Ski Area in Pennsylvania.00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:26.000Stuart Winchester: Camelback runs six chairlifts, or maybe seven. I might have had a typo there. Serving 45 trails on an 827-foot vertical drop.00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:41.000Stuart Winchester: Prior to taking the top job at Camelback, he was general manager for Great Wolf Resorts around the United States. He also spent time as chief operating officer and general manager of Mountain Creek Ski Area in New Jersey and director of operations.00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:54.000Stuart Winchester: for Jay Peak, Vermont. His very first jobs as a teenager were as a lifeguard and ski instructor at Camelback. Jason Bay is my guest. Jason, welcome to the Storm. Awesome to have you. How you doing today?00:14:53.000 --> 00:15:00.000Jason Bays: Thank you, Stuart. Great to be here. I've been a listener from day one, so excited to join you.00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:14.000Stuart Winchester: I love that. I'm so hyped to hear that. I know I started with a little Northeast focus. You know, you're the… you probably know this already, but you're the second straight guest I've had on. There was a Mountain Creek alum, Chris Haggerty, on yesterday. Are you acquainted with Chris?00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:18.000Jason Bays: Yeah, Chris and I worked together, um, back in our days at Mountain Creek, great guy.00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:33.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, I'm, uh, I'm not sure, I'm sure you're aware I'm based in New York City and Mountain Creek is one of my go-tos and, and was my home mountain before I started traveling all over the place for the storm. So, so, you know, Jason, I, I think it's awesome that you grew up at Camelback. Tal.00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:41.000Stuart Winchester: your childhood Camelback. What was the kingdom of Camelback like to you, uh, when you were growing up skiing there?00:15:40.000 --> 00:16:03.000Jason Bays: Yeah, look, I, you know, took, I grew up in Pocono Kid, born and raised 10 minutes from the resort. After school ski program was the first, you know, first sort of foray into life at Camelback and was immediately hooked in the summer as a swimming pool and two water slides. I thought that was the most awesome place in the world too.00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:45.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:55.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:04.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:21.000Jason Bays: And my parents thought it was a great babysitting service, you know, relative to that. So it was just an awesome, awesome place to grow up and, you know, be part of the small but mighty ski community that is Tannersville, Pennsylvania, in this area, in the Poconos.00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:39.000Jason Bays: um, you know, when it came to get a first job, uh, there's no place I was, uh, gonna consider other than Camelback. It's where all my friends were, it's where we all hung out all the time, and, um, you know, really just got introduced to, uh, to the sport, and, um, had some freedom. It was the first time I had some freedom, and it was to be at Camelback, so that's.00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:56.000Stuart Winchester: So you worked there, and you were part of the machine, so to speak, and I realized you were sort of on the peripheral of the machine, as opposed to in the center of it, as you are now. But, you know, you grew up in the Poconos, and had that experience, and you had this vision of Camelback in your head, right? Then you went off and had a big life, as…00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:57.000Jason Bays: Yes.00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:00.000Stuart Winchester: as people do, and you went and worked at all these places that I just mentioned.00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:03.000Stuart Winchester: And then you came back to Camelback.00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.000Stuart Winchester: When you, when you arrived.00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:10.000Stuart Winchester: How had the place changed? And I just want to tee this up. I, you know.00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:19.000Stuart Winchester: before you came on, I was talking about how I don't generally write operations stories, right? Because it… there's usually a good reason for why a trail is closed, a lift's not running.00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:26.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, but a few years ago, I started to get an outsized number of complaints about Camelback.00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:38.000Stuart Winchester: And so I started to write a story about it, and then when you came along, I shelved it, because honestly, everyone immediately was like, oh, this is so much better. So, you know, how had…00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.000Stuart Winchester: Camelback changed.00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:42.000Stuart Winchester: when you…00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.000Stuart Winchester: Came back to work there.00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:51.000Stuart Winchester: And what were the challenges facing the resort? What did you focus on immediately?00:17:50.000 --> 00:18:08.000Jason Bays: Yeah, I'll just back up to say, you know, just to contextualize, um, from when I was there as a teenager and, um, through college on the ski team, too, I would say that community was a really big word, um, that was used all the time. You, you felt like it was, it was the Camelback community, and there's a really big emphasis on the ski product.00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:28.000Jason Bays: Um, as a ski instructor, like, what we were putting out, how we were doing lessons, how many lessons we could do, and the experience that was surrounding that. And same thing on the water park side. And, you know, I think the, um, you know, some of the observations, um, coming back to Camelback was, um, I think there's a little bit of focus, um, focus direction for, for, like, to focus on the ski product.00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:44.000Jason Bays: and focusing on the water park product, and I sort of look at it as, like, a… as Disney World, right? Whereas we fill out… if we do the ski part well, we do the snow tubing part well, we do the water park well, that puts heads in beds, um, versus trying to put heads in beds.00:18:44.000 --> 00:19:01.000Jason Bays: And then have them do the activities. We're leading with an activity front and centered focus. And that means making the strategic investments in the ski product, in our recreational product, and making that the very best that it can be.00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:23.000Jason Bays: back in 2008 when I was here as a teenager, that was all there was. There was no hotel product, right? So the ski product got outsized attention just naturally because it was a 560-acre resort that identified as a ski area and a water park. And I think some of the context that was missing was that while there's been a great evolution of Camelback as a four-season resort.00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:16.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:40.000Jason Bays: It's really important that, to me, that each of those business units gets the time and attention that they would deserve if they were stand-alone units, particularly because a cog… it's a cog in the wheel, and that wheel is… it's a flywheel. It needs to… it all needs to turn at once, and so we lead with.00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:43.000Jason Bays: the recreational offerings first.00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:48.000Stuart Winchester: You know, you mentioned the community, and I wasn't aware…00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:59.000Stuart Winchester: that there was such a strong community around Camelback, and I'm not surprised, because most ski areas have that group of folks who, you know, they're retirees, and they boot up at 8am, and they take runs together.00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:14.000Stuart Winchester: But they were really passionate, and the running theme, Jason, in the emails and messages that I got from Camelback locals was that they loved Camelback. It wasn't that they hated Camelback, they hated to complain about Camelback.00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:18.000Stuart Winchester: They wanted to love it, but they couldn't. There was there was.00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:34.000Stuart Winchester: a lot of things they cited, uh, not making snowmaking when it's cold, understaffed grooming, uh, missed lift inspections. I don't know if this is true. This is what people were… they were reaching, I think, for answers. Uh, put it all together, and there was… it was definitely…00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:47.000Stuart Winchester: seemed as though the ski product was not the focus. So when you came in, what did you focus on right away and say, okay, this is what we gotta change, you know, we have to cover every trail 100% right away, or whatever it was?00:20:47.000 --> 00:21:09.000Jason Bays: Yeah, I think that's, look, I would start, you hit the nail on the head that there's a very passionate skiing community here at Camelback and in the Poconos and it means a lot to people. This is second, third generations that are learning to ski here, bring their families here and be part of this. And to your point, everyone wants to be prideful of Camelback, right?00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:24.000Jason Bays: This was the, this was family run for a really long time and, you know, very focused on sort of the, you know, season pass holders renewing year after year.00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:40.000Jason Bays: You know, a couple of things. One is I think that how we authentically tell our story isn't done in a way that is, you know, is done in a way that's authentic. A, bringing back the Camelback Mountain Facebook page that communicated ski related content.00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:39.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:21:40.000 --> 00:22:06.000Jason Bays: Right? I think that, you know, there's only so many things you can say about a hotel room and how exciting it is. Like, we really lead now first with authentically telling the story. Our snow report got a lot more detailed, gave granular information as to what was going on. So, you know, did we have a perfect winter last winter? By all means, no, but we communicated that authentically. And where we messed up, we took.00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:23.000Jason Bays: the blame for it, and said, hey, we didn't get this right, and where we were working to improve the experience, we communicated that… communicated that story. So, to me, it started from a communication standpoint, that we were authentic, that we were honest, that we were truthful, and that we were communicating on a medium that.00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:31.000Jason Bays: our guests would see, um, and relate to. So I think a big miss was, I think, admittedly, a big miss was removing the, um, Camelback Mountain.00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:53.000Jason Bays: social media pages, um, and bringing those back were really important so that, um, we could tell the story authentically. I think SKUs really appreciate, um, knowing what's going on, and to your point on, hey, there's sort of this rumor flying or that rumor flying, um, you know, we were able to, uh, sort of hone in and, and tell, tell that story. Secondarily, I think from an infrastructure standpoint.00:22:53.000 --> 00:23:09.000Jason Bays: um, we really needed to make sure that we had, um, the right team in place. And we have an amazingly talented team at Camelback, um, but we did not have key positions filled, um, in certain areas. Um, and so, we bolstered up the snowmaking. Snowmaking team went from.00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:05.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:08.000Stuart Winchester: Like, what areas?00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:30.000Jason Bays: you know, 3 to 4 to 30, um, this past winter, um, that makes a big difference, right? Our trail rollout was, um, you know, first to open in the East, uh, for Pennsylvania, um, and, uh, um, and, and focus on the core products. Um, same thing with lift operations. We brought in a really experienced lift, uh, maintenance manager.00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:13.000Stuart Winchester: Hey!00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:14.000Stuart Winchester: Wow.00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:16.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:21.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:46.000Jason Bays: Um, to our team that really helped, um, support our Lyft, um, uh, operation. Um, decisions on when Lyfts ran and what time they ran, uh, you know, our thought was, let's, um, be more… like, you have to run the Terrain Park Lyft every day.00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:47.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:23:46.000 --> 00:24:06.000Jason Bays: to me, that's a commitment. We make that every day. We say we're running the Glen Lift every day. It services great novice terrain. It services the train park. And so, looking at the operational plan and saying, okay, what are ways that we can give back, you know, and make deposits back to our skiers? And in turn.00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:24.000Jason Bays: that builds momentum, right? People talk, and, like, the ski community is so connected, right? It's like, if you do something, like, people find out about it, because they're really, you know, they hear about it. And so, for us, focus on the core business was, um, you know, from a ski standpoint, was really important, and the infrastructure.00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:13.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:19.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:41.000Jason Bays: to be able to do it. And I would just, lastly, just say I go back to making sure that our team had the resources to do their job. We're supported, we're empowered, collaborative leadership, you know, we sat around the table and said, this is the operating plan, this is what we're going to do for our guests.00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:46.000Jason Bays: And then go out and execute it to the best we can.00:24:45.000 --> 00:25:03.000Stuart Winchester: You know, Jason, I, I, I think you could have run for governor with one of the first things that you did, which was get rid of paid parking. I, I, I don't think that I've ever, uh, heard people happier about anything. Now, now, and let me, let me qualify this, right? I think in, in some instances, paid parking and parking reservations.00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:05.000Stuart Winchester: make sense.00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:18.000Stuart Winchester: you know, super high volume days. Arapahoe Basin, I think, is a model in Colorado where they only charge for certain days and certain times, and they keep backing off which days as they learn when they really need it. Camelback was charging every day.00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:36.000Stuart Winchester: All day, you know, a Monday with, you know, 10 people on the mountain, they were charging for it. And, you know, acknowledging that sometimes it's appropriate, I think Camelback got pretty out of hand with it, and when I had Mr. Markowski on the podcast, great guy, we had a great conversation, but he was not backing off that. He said, nope, paid parking.00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:51.000Stuart Winchester: we're all in. You said no. So talk about that and how you sold. I'd imagine it was a revenue stream, right? And you had to sell management on that, and I don't know if I'm giving you credit for something someone else did, but talk to us about parking and the evolution there.00:25:51.000 --> 00:26:12.000Jason Bays: Yeah, that was a week one decision from the Camelback team when I got here made from our leadership team at Camelback that everyone was in alignment on our senior leadership team here at the property and myself to remove the paid parking. And I think definitely there's actually you have so many nice pictures behind you.00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:30.000Jason Bays: I have a picture of the old paid parking sign behind me there, if you can see it on the corner, and it actually serves to me as a reminder of the guest experience, because someone's put a sticker on that paid parking sign that you probably can't see there, but it says, Ski Camelback, we're not happy until you're not happy.00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:48.000Jason Bays: Um, and it's a reminder to, to me and our team, um, that we're here to have fun, and we're here for the guest experience, and we're here to live, live and breathe fun Camelback style. This is not a, um, you know, we want guests to look forward to, to being here. And I think, you know, yes, there was.00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:38.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:26:48.000 --> 00:27:05.000Jason Bays: So obviously we ran a financial model. We didn't just, you know, get rid of paid parking and not assume, you know, that there wasn't some revenue to be recaptured elsewhere with a strategy to do it. But I think more importantly, you know, think about it.00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:22.000Jason Bays: a non-busy day, it might even be raining, it's 40 degrees, the last thing you want is someone running around a parking lot telling you, like, hey, I need you to hand over $15, and by the way, then you're gonna schlep your stuff up two different levels of parking, um, you know, that might be even charged higher, and then get to.00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:38.000Jason Bays: uh, the mountain and go to guest services. You know, I have a 3-year-old. If my wife and I went skiing, that would be an incredible amount of friction, um, just to get to, uh, the front of the mountain. And so I think putting ourselves in the guest lens of saying, is that really what we want the guests to experience?00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:30.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:53.000Jason Bays: Um, it's not, and, and it was a burden to everyone at this, you know, you think I'm talking about, we talked to frontline associates too, like, the first thing that they had to tell people was that they had to pay for parking. You just imagine, sort of, the cascading effect that, that, that, uh, that that had, and we said, look, is there.00:27:53.000 --> 00:28:09.000Jason Bays: Um, is there a better way? Um, can we run shuttles to these lots and pick people up and bring them to the mountain and make them feel, um, you know, like our valued… like our valued guests? What does that arrival experience look like? Um, you know, that's really what we… what we looked at, and then said, okay.00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:25.000Jason Bays: can we… ultimately, will we drive more volume here? Will more people come because of a better guest experience? And I'll say that I would rather grow the sport, grow the industry. Our team would rather grow the sport and grow the industry than figuring out how to.00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:35.000Jason Bays: You know, sort of, you know, run a secondary ancillary business that's not to our core product and what we want our guests to experience here.00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:48.000Stuart Winchester: You know, it's a little counterintuitive, but sometimes, by removing a revenue stream, you get that less-is-more effect. Another example, your season pass, you know, according to my records.00:28:48.000 --> 00:29:04.000Stuart Winchester: Starting in 2020 to ‘21, the season pass was $599 at its early bird price, and it hovered between that and $649 for the next five years. This year, you put it on sale for $399. It's still at that price for unlimited Camelback.00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:20.000Stuart Winchester: That's a great bargain for, uh, for a season pass on the East Coast, and, you know, for the listeners, you are competing with the Epic Pass, which has Jack Frost, Big Boulder, right down the road, a couple exits down I-80, and their Northeast season pass is pretty affordable, and it's a pretty good deal.00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:33.000Stuart Winchester: So… so talk to us about that decision and… and… and how… how that $399 is worth it. You also wrote back, if you want to talk about, uh, the… the triple pack. I thought that was great, and I don't have the price right in front of me, but… but you've really done a lot to… to…00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:39.000Stuart Winchester: create more of a value experience for that loyal Camelback skier, from my point of view.00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:55.000Jason Bays: Yeah, thank you, and that's definitely the goal. Um, you know, I think our thought process here is let's get more people on Snow, um, and have them have a great experience while they're here. Um, I would love to tell you that there's some master business plan behind this.00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:52.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:10.000Jason Bays: But, you know, truly, at the heart of what we do is, let's figure out how to get more people on snow, get them to a spot where they want to come back and learn and be part of it. And guess what I would just share to that is.00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:24.000Jason Bays: you know, we were charging a day ticket in 2025 of $169, um, at its highest point, right? And I would rather have a lifelong… I would rather have one per… I would much rather, I think from business proposition, we would rather have.00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:17.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:39.000Jason Bays: one person definitely not come and spend $15 to $40 to park and $169 and say, I'm never coming back, versus $399, now they're like, wow, this place is awesome, I'm getting a great value, I bring my family.00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:33.000Stuart Winchester: Damn.00:30:39.000 --> 00:31:01.000Jason Bays: I want to come enjoy food and beverage. And hey, by the way, we also have this great snow tubing park and this great water park. And would you like to stay at our hotel when you come with your season pass and enjoy Aquatopia? And we're debuting The Curse of Camelback this fall, right? Which is the Halloween, if you haven't heard, it's a Halloween 13 scare zones. Take a chair, lift up to it.00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:03.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:24.000Jason Bays: But I say all that to say we've got so many great cross marketing promotional opportunities at Camelback that that really becomes a super compelling business case for us. And I think it's the right thing to do for the sport is grow it, make it more accessible, allow more people to come here and see what we have to offer. I can't tell you how many people I meet, whether it's snow tubing, skiing.00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:41.000Jason Bays: water park, the hotel, whatever they're here for, CBKMA or Adventure Park, they have no idea that the other part exists to, um, the resort. And I'll share that that's been the case even in, like, when I was, uh, at Jay Peak running the water park.00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:34.000Stuart Winchester: Hmm. Okay.00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.000Jason Bays: People would come there, and they'd be like.00:31:43.000 --> 00:32:02.000Jason Bays: what is this mountain that is here? And it's Jay Peak, like, one of the most hardcore ski resorts in the world. And there were people that were coming there and were like, I had no idea there was a ski resort here. So, if it's true at Jay Peak, it certainly is true at Camelback, where.00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:52.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:53.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:00.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:02.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:19.000Jason Bays: we have all these different offerings that people don't know about, maybe necessarily about all of them, so our fundamental business philosophy is make it accessible, make them lifelong, um, skiers and riders, and introduce them to everything that we have to offer here in the Poconos. And I would just argue, when I say Poconos.00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:41.000Jason Bays: Like go, like experience Shawnee and experience Jack Frost Big Boulder and experience, you know, the other great ski areas in this region and Mountain Creek and wherever else and get a flavor for it. I think that's, we could use more skiers in the industry and to grow the sport. So for us, that's sort of the long-term business model that we're using.00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:58.000Stuart Winchester: So, I just looked at the triple ticket, and it looks like $149, and I think that's no blackouts. $199 includes rentals. That's pretty amazing. So, talk about that product, and then you mentioned the $169 peak day ticket. Have you settled on prices yet for 2020?00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:03.000Stuart Winchester: 6, 27. I should have checked your site in advance, but I didn't. So I don't know if you've.00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:21.000Jason Bays: Yeah, we have not, uh, posted, uh, day ticket prices for this year. Last year, um, we didn't exceed around $110, um, on a day ticket. Uh, so we kept it, I think, pretty reasonable for, for, for a, for a Pocono offering. Um, triple tickets, massive, um, success, uh, for us.00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:12.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, okay.00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:15.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah.00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:37.000Jason Bays: Um, and when we talk about, like, again, getting more people introduced to the sport, you don't necessarily pick up skiing on the first time. Um, you think about that rental product, which we, um, tremendously… whatever we had on the pro forma for that was, uh, blown by by, like.00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:30.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:53.000Jason Bays: 400% on the triple ticket with rentals. And what I really believe in is that, you know, you become a lifelong skier by getting repetition, not by going once a year. It's really hard to sustain as a skier going once a year.00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:52.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:33:53.000 --> 00:34:11.000Jason Bays: and saying, oh yeah, that was our trip. We're really trying to create a guest for life and get them to return visit. That's in many ways more important to us than, again, trying to get, like, the highest yield on that one day that they picked. Like, come back and visit our resort and, um, you know, again, the business side to this is.00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:28.000Jason Bays: we're cross-marketing across all of our other offerings here that we have on this campus to say, come and visit us again. And again, to us, that's more important than, you know, the highest yield that we can get to. So the triple ticket's really successful. And I think one last thing I would share.00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:46.000Jason Bays: a lot of season passes in the market right now, um, the triple ticket's a great opportunity for people to get a couple of days at Camelback, even if they've committed somewhere else, and particularly, you know, our long season, um, there's plenty of time to use it, um, as well, uh, from the, uh, long season that we established from last year.00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:50.000Stuart Winchester: Jason, I think that's a really smart way to look at it as…00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:57.000Stuart Winchester: a… creating a habit rather than pulling as much yield as possible. And a lot of the larger operators.00:34:57.000 --> 00:35:11.000Stuart Winchester: get frustrated with me and the rest of the ski media because they don't understand why we focus on that peak price, right? Because the peak lift ticket this year at Beaver Creek is $392, set to be. Probably almost no one will pay that price, but…00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:28.000Stuart Winchester: What it does is it acts as a, a billboard for the rest of the ski industry and especially so, so Camelback for, for people who don't know when you're driving on I 80 I mean, you see it, it looms right over the highway. It is one of the major interstates in America, especially at night. The thing is lit up.00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:46.000Stuart Winchester: And so, chances are, if people think about skiing, and they think about where to go, they're gonna think about the most obvious one, and that's Camelback, and that's why, for many years, it was that, or Seven Springs was the busiest ski area in Pennsylvania, traditionally. So I think that's a really smart way to look at it, because if people show up that one time, and.00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:59.000Stuart Winchester: cost them, you know, $500 for 2 people, they're just not gonna come back, and they're not gonna try Shawnee, or… or Blue Mountain, or Jack Frost, or Elk Mountain, or Montage. So, um, I wanna talk about… Jason, I wanna talk about Lyft.00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:16.000Stuart Winchester: And… can you see this trail map? This is an old trail map. I mentioned that I know this, so for those watching on StormSkiing.com or YouTube, you can see this. So there's been a ton of changes, and I want to break all these down with you. The first I want to talk about is, over the past couple years.00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:32.000Stuart Winchester: Mark Antony and Cleopatra, these two lifts right here, an old triple and an old double, have been removed. Can you talk about why you took those lifts out of service, and if you plan to replace them with anything, or what you planned, or what the rationale was behind it?00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:49.000Jason Bays: Yeah, I appreciate that. Uh, that does predate my time here, that they had reached the end of their, um, uh, ability to operate. Um, and so they have, um, both been, um, sort of partially disassembled. Um, there is unfortunately not.00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:37.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:41.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:47.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:36:49.000 --> 00:37:05.000Jason Bays: I, by the way, two of my favorite lifts when I was a ski instructor, because you could get right up and not wait in long lines on the weekends, so absolutely realizing and recognizing the capacity that they brought, but no opportunity for us to.00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:02.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:23.000Jason Bays: um, reinstate those lifts as presently, um, as presently, uh, uh, sort of, um, situated, um, and, and not, not, not able to, uh, um, not able to, uh, rerun them. It will require a, um, new, uh, chairlift to, um, to ultimately replace.00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:37.000Jason Bays: those two lifts. It saddens me to share that, but that is, in fact, what has happened there, and I've been very open with our season pass holders about that messaging and the why behind it.00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:41.000Stuart Winchester: So, so in fantasy ski resort world, Jason.00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:46.000Stuart Winchester: Would you put a new lift here, and what would you put, if you could?00:37:45.000 --> 00:38:04.000Jason Bays: Yeah, absolutely. Um, same thing. We've, uh, we've made clear, uh, with no time, no official time frame to share, um, but certainly, uh, we've, we've, um, had, uh, preliminary conversations, um, about a fixed grip, um, quad that would, uh, would be able to take the place of both of those lifts, uh, and create that.00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:04.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:10.000Jason Bays: original redundancy that those two lifts brought to the resort when they were in operation.00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:27.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, that would be really nice. So, so, so these are gone and I, I have a, a current trail map now. So, um, and, and it's not completely current. We'll discuss the new trails in a moment, but this is the most current posted on your website. So, uh, we go over, these are the lifts that remain and see, uh, yeah, I, I miscounted in my intro, so sorry about that.00:38:27.000 --> 00:38:42.000Stuart Winchester: So this one is Stevenson, and Stevenson was, uh, it's a high-speed quad, uh, for the listeners, and it… it was a real junker. It was always stop, stop, stop, and, you know, it was… it was really… seemed to be falling apart and have a lot of issues. Now, uh, in 2020…00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:51.000Stuart Winchester: 5, this year, or 2024, I believe, Camelback, uh, McCarthy, the GM at the time, sent out a letter saying it was due for a…00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:53.000Stuart Winchester: Waltz.00:38:53.000 --> 00:39:02.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, let me see what he said… like, a complete modernization of Stevenson. So, so did that happen? And talk to us about Stevenson, and what kind of shape it's in right now.00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:20.000Jason Bays: Yeah, great, um, yes, that was a, uh, look, an amazing, um, project that was completed by, uh, by Dave and team, um, to modernize that lift. Um, it has, essentially, Doppelmayr came in and put in an entire new, uh, minus the, uh, minus the, uh, uh, the terminals and the.00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:09.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:35.000Jason Bays: Um, uh, and the structure itself, um, essentially all new components, all new electrical, um, uh, wiring components to it, a lot of the things that had plagued it. Um, and last year, uh, it operated 138 days.00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:36.000Stuart Winchester: Unbelievable.00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:53.000Jason Bays: Uh, which for Pennsylvania, uh, that's pretty darn good. I think we recognize it's a workhorse, um, it's key to accessing some really, um, fantastic terrain for us, um, and that modernization project with Doppel… in, um, partnership with Doppelmeyer that was done in the summer and fall of 2025.00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:54.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:53.000 --> 00:40:08.000Jason Bays: um, was, uh, very, uh, so it's all immediate impact, um, with, uh, Stevenson Reliability this past year, and we expect that to, uh, you know, knock on wood, to, uh, to continue going forward. We essentially, again, have a brand new lift, minus the, uh.00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:10.000Jason Bays: Uh, minus the physical pieces.00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:26.000Stuart Winchester: That's a really smart way to do it because they are tremendously expensive, these new lifts. And for folks who are watching or listening, this Stevenson is really important because you walk out of this giant hotel that's right here, that's not on the trail map with 400 and some rooms, and that is how you get up the mountain. Otherwise you got to.00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:41.000Stuart Winchester: pull your way over, so when that lift is not running or has problems, it's a real big issue. So, the alternative was, over here, Black Bear 6, uh, you replaced an old high-speed quad that was there, and… and I love this Black Bear 6 lift. It is…00:40:41.000 --> 00:41:01.000Stuart Winchester: Freakin' Ferrari, man. I think the price they gave me was something like $12 million that they spent, or maybe it was $10 to put that in. So that's the alternative, right? If you don't just modernize that current lift, you replace it. So, uh, Black Bear is awesome. I love it. It has bubbles. Is it too much? I mean, I know that KSL Now Peregrine had reasons for.00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:16.000Stuart Winchester: for putting it in, but what have you learned from a couple of years of having BlackBerry around, which is, again, probably the nicest lift in the state of Pennsylvania and one of the nicest in the Northeast, but maybe a little heavier than what you need for CamelBak, but I don't know, you tell me.00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:41.000Jason Bays: Yeah, you know, you know what I would share to that, um, you know, we, we brought it back for scenic chairlift rides this summer, and I mean, it's a massive hit. The summer, summer guests love, uh, the bubbles, they put them down when it's sunny, they put them down, um, probably gets more use in the summer as a bubble lift than the winter, uh, but look, it's, it's nice to, uh, have on the days where, you know, there's some liquid precipitation out here. It certainly happens in the Poconos.00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:24.000Stuart Winchester: Hmm.00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:35.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:58.000Jason Bays: um, and, uh, and, and or, um, uh, you know, other, other weather events, it's, it's, it's a nice to have, um, and it certainly, it gets you up in, you know, a little bit over two minutes. Um, it's a smooth ride, it's a great ride. Um, you are not going to get any complaints from me that we have a, um.00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:48.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:52.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:11.000Jason Bays: bubble, D-line, six-pack, um, in place, uh, and able to operate as our main workhorse lift. Um, and, uh, I think the six-pack versus the quad was absolutely the right, uh, call. Um…00:42:11.000 --> 00:42:27.000Jason Bays: from my experience being here before with the Sullivan Express, um, with the four-seater, the six-seater, just the… the added, uh, ability, uh, there is, uh, is… is well worth it. So, uh, we're happy to have that… happy to have that lift. I… I wouldn't, uh… I wouldn't…00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:31.000Jason Bays: We won't be trading it in at this point. Let's put it that way.00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:38.000Stuart Winchester: It is a gorgeous machine, and I have to tell you, I'm that weird person who, if there's a line on one lift.00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:56.000Stuart Winchester: And no line on the lift next to it. Even if it's a slower lift, I'll take the slower lift, because I just would rather not deal with the hassle of the line. So right here, for those who are watching, is the Bailey Double, and this is an old chair lift. It's an old slow double, it runs almost exactly parallel to Black Bear 6, doesn't land quite as high.00:42:56.000 --> 00:43:16.000Stuart Winchester: on the mountain, but functionally, it does about the same thing for you. So I like Bailey, and I was glad to see that not only did you keep it, and it does run, and that was true even under the previous regime, but you got a new gearbox for it, which is a really big deal for a lift like this in several decades. Also, talk about the work you've done on Bailey, and how you hope to use that lift.00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:18.000Stuart Winchester: this year to complement Black Bear.00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:21.000Jason Bays: Yeah, so, um, Bailey Lift…00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:32.000Jason Bays: full disclosure, Bailey Lift, Meadows Lift, Raceway Lift, and our season pass holders are very aware of this. Um, unfortunately, uh, we're not, um…00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:41.000Jason Bays: ready for day one of last year, um, or even close. And so, uh, we had to do a lot of, um…00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:35.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:57.000Jason Bays: normal PM maintenance, um, throughout the, um, end of fall and into winter to have all of them operational. Um, what I share to that is, um, we will run, just level set here really quickly, we will run all the lifts that we have on this trail map.00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:44.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:02.000Jason Bays: Um, and take care of them, maintain them, operate them.00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:18.000Jason Bays: Staff them, everything that you would do to run the extra capacity, we certainly need it. We'd like more capacity, actually. So that being said, Bailey Lift is critical. We got it back online.00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:10.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:34.000Jason Bays: End of January, it ran for 2 or 3 weekends, and we had a failed gearbox, um, on it, which is really unfortunate. Um, this off-season, uh, we've replaced the gearbox, we've done a full PM over the course of the summer on it, which is…00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:50.000Jason Bays: the, as you, as everyone knows, the ideal time, uh, to be, um, conducting such work, um, so that it is ready on, uh, day one. Um, it is a critical backup lift. We will run it every weekend.00:44:50.000 --> 00:45:07.000Jason Bays: Um, that we're, you know, in season, I would say in the heart of season, we're gonna run it. Won't be shy to not run it. Um, same thing with the Meadows, same thing with the Glen, same thing with the Raceway, which, um, you know, I know that that was, um, certainly chief among the complaints of.00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:22.000Jason Bays: locals and guests who were visiting from out of town alike was Lyft availability, Lyft reliability. That was something that we focused as fast as we could on last year, but we're setting ourselves up this year to be.00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:39.000Jason Bays: um, very proactive to that, and recognizing the importance of, of each of, uh, uh, you know, each of these. And look, every once in a while, uh, if the, you always want to have, like, Bailey is critical because it's the only other, if there's Black Bear, without Black Bear, it's the only other thing left, right?00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:38.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:55.000Jason Bays: Um, and so, uh, you know, I think the, you know, back in the, when I was here, like, every Lyft ran on the weekends. It was Camelback. Um, it was busy, right? Like, everything was going. That's, that's essentially our, our, our philosophy, um, will continue to be our philosophy going forward.00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:48.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:55.000 --> 00:46:11.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, Jason, I'll admit, I didn't come to Camelback last season, so I wasn't able to experience it firsthand. I really wanted to come to your May thing, which I'll talk about, I'll get to in a minute, but I had a shoulder surgery, so I wasn't able to do that. But I wasn't only basing my perceptions of C.00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:19.000Stuart Winchester: on locals' reactions. I had skied there myself in recent years, and the lift line management, I have to say.00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:21.000Stuart Winchester: It was…00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:33.000Stuart Winchester: really frustrating from a skier point of view, when you're waiting for the Stevenson lift, and there's a big line, and every chair is going up with one or two people, and this is not peak COVID or anything else, this is several years later.00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:50.000Stuart Winchester: So, you know, and I had a lot of locals tell me, oh, we walk up Sun Bowl because the lift line is just too chaotic. People come from both sides. No, no, again, that was all before. What's your philosophy of lift line management? How have you tried to tame that? And there's always, it's always going to be a little wild and hard in Pennsylvan.00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:56.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, but they could definitely have been managed better. Is that something that was important to you, that you focused on?00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:15.000Jason Bays: Yeah, we focused on that. We have a new lift operations manager that was hired in November of 2025, who took the bull by the horns. We developed a supervisor team in fairly short order to that as well, to build out a well-rounded team. And then I would just share that our lift attendants.00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:32.000Jason Bays: All hired locally within the community. And I think that we were fully staffed in LiftOps this year, which was a big, very big win. It starts there, right? A, the people, and then B, the right people.00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:49.000Jason Bays: um, on the, uh, on the bus, um, as a catalyst to drive, uh, lift operations forward. Um, and then absolutely, uh, we focused on, uh, line management, queuing, um, we set new, in some cases, new queues. We had, um, uh, supervisors, in many cases, out.00:47:49.000 --> 00:48:04.000Jason Bays: um, putting up chairs, um, and, um, and managing the lift line. We added, once we got that right, and we felt like we were in a good spot, and we, you know, look, I think, admittedly, a couple technology hiccups here and there, it was not a perfect, uh.00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:17.000Jason Bays: we didn't, like, on opening day, it wasn't perfect, but, uh, we improved, it was a big focus for our team, and I think when we talk about fundamental ski operation, um, if we just were a ski area, we would absolutely be focusing on.00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:08.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:36.000Jason Bays: lift queuing, but we have to do that, like, we have to execute that every day because we are a ski area, um, and that's core to our business, and so that's important. Um, then we added, once we got queuing, uh, uh, correct, we added surprise and delights. Lift, uh, chocolate chip cookies were massively popular.00:48:36.000 --> 00:49:04.000Jason Bays: We handed out over 15,000 chocolate chip cookies this winter at the Stevenson lift line. And so, you know, then it becomes fun, right? Then it's the hospitality side of the business of how do we engage with our guests now that we have full chairs going up for the most part off of the Stevenson and the Black Bear and the Sun Bowl. So we hired extra associates to do that, to surprise and delight, to help our guests.00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:42.000Stuart Winchester: Cool.00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:20.000Jason Bays: The one other thing I would just share is Sunbowl is a great example. How many people get down to the Sunbowl and have never ridden a lift before? And so you need that extra human touch to be able to help. It's not even just putting people in groups of four. It's just helping them with like, here's where you go to load the lift. Here's what you do.00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:14.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:21.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:33.000Jason Bays: Um, I think that that investment in our people to provide that service to our guests is very well worth it, and it's the difference between someone having a bad experience getting on a lift and never coming back.00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:43.000Jason Bays: or having a great experience, feeling well cared for, and wanting to try again. Um, and so that, that, that was, um, you know, I think that's a core, um, focus for us.00:49:43.000 --> 00:50:02.000Stuart Winchester: So, one of the ways that I can tell the resort is being run by a skier, in addition to all the things you just said, and your passion for the minutiae of things like lift lines, which I share, is that you're cutting 3 new trails in a resort that's 60 years old, and I love that. So, talk us through these trails, Jason. I'll do my best to trace them.00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:08.000Stuart Winchester: on the trail map. I don't have the updated trail map, I don't know if you've created it yet, but talk us through these three trails.00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:25.000Jason Bays: Yeah, so we're really excited. Look, this, you know, came after, you know, the so many guests, new guests that visited us at Camelback this past season. We said, you know what, let's do something fun and exciting. And like, you know, you think about how.00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:43.000Jason Bays: Um, yeah, I just, you know, if someone said, anyone puts in a new trail, uh, the skier in me wants to drive to that resort, no matter how big or small, and be like, alright, like, let's do it. Um, and our team feels, uh, you know, much of the same way. So, um, that being said, uh, we had a lot of natural snowfall this year, so…00:50:32.000 --> 00:50:33.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:36.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:37.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, sure. Yeah.00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:59.000Jason Bays: I was acutely paying attention to where people were skiing when we had natural snowfall, where they wanted to go, and then, you know, maybe following those lines, too, and seeing what the fun was about. So, my point to all of that is, we said, let's create some, and I think for Camelback, too.00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:48.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:15.000Jason Bays: it's very, um, you know, we wanted to create something that was sort of unique. I didn't want to just put in, like, regular trails that, A, we don't have a lot of space for regular trails, and B, um, we really wanted to create sort of unique experience. So, right underneath Black Bear, um, in between Sullivan and John Bailey there.00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:09.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:30.000Jason Bays: um, there's a, um, there's a chute, um, where the old Alpine Slide used to go. Basculus goes back into Rocket, uh, but underneath there is some really fun rolling terrain. Like, it's, it's because the mountain, the, uh, Alpine Slide.00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:28.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:54.000Jason Bays: back in the day did had several dips and curves and so we're going to lean into those dips and curves and create something sort of fun that you can get some you know launch some airtime off of if you want or carve a turn over it but it'll have some some really nice terrain variation in a way that most trails at Camelback don't have and they're coming off of an expert trail there so.00:51:54.000 --> 00:52:06.000Jason Bays: um, gives, uh, you know, anyone skiing Asp, Hump, Rocket, um, or Basilisk would be able to reach that trail, um, and, uh, and be able to, uh, just have a little bit more excitement on the way back down.00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:08.000Jason Bays: Um…00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:20.000Jason Bays: Upper Cleopatra there, if you go to the, uh, where the U is, uh, or where Upper is, we're gonna cut a trail through the woods there that's going to end up on the bottom of Big Pocono.00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:21.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:31.000Jason Bays: Um, so it's gonna go down and across. So, um, that… um, and I see where your cursor is. If you go to the… where it says Upper on Upper Cleopatra.00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:29.000Stuart Winchester: So, like, here? Or…00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:32.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, upper…00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:54.000Jason Bays: So, Big Pocono, that's Uncle B. Yeah, right there. Yep, we're going through there. Yeah, so that's gonna be, that's a narrow blue square. So, you know, I think one of the things that's fun for us is we're gonna create a blue square there. That used to be a trail back in the 60s and 70s, fun fact, when Walter Foger was designing Camelback.00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:37.000Stuart Winchester: Upper… oh, this one. Okay, so you're cutting through here?00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:39.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, cool. Okay.00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:51.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, cool.00:52:54.000 --> 00:53:09.000Jason Bays: Um, that being said, um, the… actually, it got filled in with pine trees, so it's gonna be really cool, because there's pine trees on both sides. Um, we made it narrow, so we kept the pine trees, um, and so that's gonna be a really fun, um, sort of narrow… I think about, like, the, um.00:52:58.000 --> 00:52:59.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:03.000Stuart Winchester: That's cool. It's pretty.00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:26.000Jason Bays: the ending of Jay Peak with some of the blues at the very bottom there by Interstate. We're trying to sort of have that, obviously in a much smaller zone, have that same effect, though, where you're feeling like you're really in the trees, and you've got some nice twists and turns to it. It's not terribly steep.00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:13.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:44.000Jason Bays: Um, two things on that trail. One is, it takes traffic off of Honeymoon Lane, which is a main boulevard, it pushes it onto the Sphinx, which has much more trail capacity, which is great, um, comfortable carrying capacity, and secondarily, um, on weekends, we're gonna have a hot chocolate, um, hut that people can ski up to.00:53:31.000 --> 00:53:32.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:52.000Jason Bays: Um, and get shots of hot chocolate, um, as well, so we're excited to, um, uh, to offer that to our guests. We think that'll be really fun.00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:47.000Stuart Winchester: That's cool.00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:53.000Stuart Winchester: That was awesome.00:53:53.000 --> 00:54:17.000Jason Bays: And then the Stevenson, it's going to drop on the cliffhanger side and drop down that lift line and go right down into the Faroe there and follow that lift line. Vermont skiing in a very short array but very much Vermont skiing, that's an intimidating drop. Stevenson for those that may not be familiar has a extremely.00:53:53.000 --> 00:53:55.000Stuart Winchester: And it.00:53:58.000 --> 00:53:59.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:09.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I think so.00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:34.000Jason Bays: extremely tight, um, and high, uh, crest of the lift, because the mountain crests, um, really steeply. Well, we're gonna ski that, um, and, uh, and make snow on it, and, uh, and, and, uh, and allow our guests to, uh, um, and allow skiers to, uh, to, to, to test, um, you know, a more narrow.00:54:34.000 --> 00:54:44.000Jason Bays: um, uh, trail up there that has a really great expansive view ov

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is made in the USA. Thank you for supporting independent ski journalism.About CaberfaeOwned by: The Meyer FamilyYear founded: 1937Pass affiliations:* Ikon Pass: 2 days, blackouts* Freedom Pass: 3 days, no blackouts Base elevation: 1,076 feetSummit elevation: 1,561 feetVertical drop: 485 feetSkiable Acres: 200Average annual snowfall: 120 inchesLift count: 5 (1 fixed-grip quad, 3 triples, 1 carpet – view Lift Blog's inventory of Caberfae's lift fleet)The Zoom transcript (click “transcript” above for the Substack transcript, then click on any text block to teleport to the associated point in the video; timestamps below DO NOT MATCH THE VIDEO; also since Tim and Pete were on one screen, the transcript does not differentiate between them).Stuart Winchester: Welcome to the storm. I'm your host, Stuart Winchester. Today is Thursday, September 17th, 2026, and we are going to mix things up a little bit today. Instead of starting with the takes, we are starting with the guests, and I have some great guests today.00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:40.000Stuart Winchester: They are the general managers of Cabrifay Peaks, Michigan, with over 200 acres of terrain served by 4 chairlifts across 3 peaks, with a 485-foot vertical drop.00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.000Stuart Winchester: Cabar Fay is one of the largest ski areas in Michigan's Lower Penins.00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:49.000Stuart Winchester: The ski area averaged 120 inches of lake effect snowfall per winter.00:22:49.000 --> 00:23:06.000Stuart Winchester: Their family has operated Cabaret since 1980. They are co-general managers, with Tim Meyer on the right, handling everything on the mountain, and Pete Meyer on the left, taking care of everything off. Tim and Pete, welcome to the storm. I'm always hyped to talk Cabaret. How are you guys doing today?00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:11.000Pete Meyer: Good. We're doing awesome. Thanks for having us. Yeah.00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, and trigger warning for any Sparties or Buckeyes out there who want to go to the video version on stormskiing.com or YouTube. Me and Tim are both proudly rocking our Wolverines gear. This is a shirt I wore to the maze out when Michigan blasted Oklahoma in the big house this past weekend. So we're feeling.00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:31.000Stuart Winchester: Although I understand Tim's also got a little Sparty, side loyalty.00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:35.000Pete Meyer: Yes, my children, both my sons are Spartans, so that's…00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:44.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, as soon as my daughter got into college, I bought all the gear for her place. So, you know, there's tons going on at Cabaret, and I want to start…00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:36.000Pete Meyer: It.00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:54.000Stuart Winchester: with this coming expansion, and you, you announced this a while ago, and I'm gonna share my screen here so that everyone can see, uh, see this as we talk through it.00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:13.000Stuart Winchester: And this is where I am never quite as fast as I want to be. Uh, but… okay. So, here is the Cabra Fay trail map. This is the one I took off your website this morning, so it's the most current that I have. Uh, and last time I talked to Tim in, I think, 2021, when you came on the podcast.00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:15.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, it…00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:31.000Stuart Winchester: This East Peak triple chair was still still in a theory phase and you hadn't built yet. Now that's in place and we'll talk about that in a minute and how that's gone. But talk to us about the Green Mountain triple chair, what we're getting and why you're building it.00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:34.000Pete Meyer: Yeah, so, um…00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:40.000Pete Meyer: I'm going to start with why, because it's kind of an interesting story, you know.00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:51.000Pete Meyer: we… when we put in the East Peak lift, we took out the shelter chairlift, the double. They started in almost the same place, but the shelter… the shelter lift.00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:47.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:54.000Pete Meyer: let off about halfway up the hill.00:24:54.000 --> 00:25:04.000Pete Meyer: And because we we have our dads before us and then and then we also have continued to develop the terrain.00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:13.000Pete Meyer: the terrain changes and the flow changes. And what happened over time, like, especially over the last.00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:16.000Pete Meyer: 25 years or so.00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:23.000Pete Meyer: we kept adding on to Smiling Irishman and making it wider and wider and wider, and it got busier and busier and busier, so…00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:29.000Pete Meyer: The shelter chairlift was essentially letting off these new skiers.00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:33.000Pete Meyer: in the middle of flowing traffic. And…00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:37.000Pete Meyer: We thought when we put in the East Peak lift.00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:41.000Pete Meyer: Now we're gonna take these lower end skiers to the top.00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:55.000Pete Meyer: we're going to give them a longer run, and the new part we're giving them is actually the easier half. They're already negotiating the tougher half, the steeper half, and the narrower half. If we add the upper half, it's easier, it's wider, it should be fine.00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:51.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:06.000Pete Meyer: And that's what we thought. And so we put it in and then but then what we found and this is the this is the piece that you learn as you go.00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:07.000Pete Meyer: is…00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:15.000Pete Meyer: The new skiers accepted being let off at the lower level, and having to merge into traffic, because.00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:32.000Pete Meyer: They didn't really know any different and that it was the psychological factor. Well, I'm only halfway up the mountain. I can, I can do this. When we took them up to the top, you know, that East Peak lift actually feels like a out, it almost feels like an out West lift. It has.00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:43.000Pete Meyer: like, three rises, you know? So you ride… you go up over a break, and then you… and then you go again for a while, and then up over another break, and then you're coming into the top, and you… you know, you're above…00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:47.000Pete Meyer: Tree line, basically, and you can see the horizon, and it just…00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:51.000Pete Meyer: would kind of psych out that new skier, you know, they would just, they would.00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:51.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:55.000Pete Meyer: They'd get up there and kind of freeze and panic, and…00:26:55.000 --> 00:27:06.000Pete Meyer: say, there's no way I'm gonna go down, you know, I'm not gonna go down that hill. And, uh, so we found our ski patrol having to give a lot of lessons just to get people down the hill, and…00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:00.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:13.000Pete Meyer: And, um, and so we, we just, we kind of knew that we had a, you know, a little bit of an issue that we had to work through.00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:21.000Pete Meyer: And so Pete and I would be talking, you know, and I would say, I think I have it all figured out, you know, I'm saying, um…00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:34.000Pete Meyer: we just need to give them… make sure that all the… every single new skier gets a lesson, and we get them ready to… you know, we get them ready to go. And a lot of the… a lot of this is the school groups, you know, the different groups, and we do offer lessons.00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:40.000Pete Meyer: to everybody, but sometimes they don't take them, and, you know, they slide, they slide through, and…00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:42.000Pete Meyer: And so.00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:50.000Pete Meyer: Pete and I were having a meeting on Green Mountain with our ski patrol director, Katie, and Dennis, one of our top instructors.00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:59.000Pete Meyer: And we think we have it all figured out. You know, we're just we just need to put them through a lesson and then and then problem solved.00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:00.000Pete Meyer: And…00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:12.000Pete Meyer: And Dennis, our ski instructor, was like, almost grabbed right onto my jacket. He's like, you don't understand. I can't get them ready for East Peak on this.00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:23.000Pete Meyer: we need something in between, and I… and… and so it's like, oh, oh, well, what do you need, Dennis? And he pointed up at the Green Mountain, and he said, we need that.00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:14.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:41.000Pete Meyer: And I… I said, well, I think we have a plan for that on a cocktail napkin somewhere. We could go look at that again. So basically, what… what hap… what it was is we… we had always had this. We… we actually had lift lines staked out, and we hadn't been looking at doing this. We just thought it would be…00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:51.000Pete Meyer: the last thing that we do. We thought we would… we would continue to develop into the… into the backcountry area, and then do the Green Mountain expansion later.00:28:51.000 --> 00:29:06.000Pete Meyer: But what the… what the customer told us was, no, you need the Green Mountain expansion now. So that's the why and the how, that all of a sudden that thing kind of appeared out of nowhere, and why it was a two…00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:14.000Pete Meyer: why it's a two-year construction, because there's nothing over there. No services. Um, so we've had… we had to…00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:18.000Pete Meyer: You know, we had to do the final planning kind of fast.00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:30.000Pete Meyer: so we wanted to take 2 years to do it. Um, and so what are you getting? You're getting about 135 vertical feet, a brand new Doppelmayr triple.00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:38.000Pete Meyer: uh, that's just like East Peak and just like Vista, so it's gonna show this, you know, it's gonna take the new skier, um.00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:43.000Pete Meyer: Uh, and get them going on a lift that's similar to what we have throughout the area.00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:55.000Pete Meyer: it runs a little bit slower, has a bigger chair spacing, so it's going to be a little bit easier to load and unload. And when it's all built out, we should have 4 or 5.00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:00.000Pete Meyer: really, uh, easy trails, but with character. I mean, these aren't just…00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:14.000Pete Meyer: you know, a football field at 10 degrees that doesn't have any character. These are, you know, tree-lined, um, interesting slopes. Uh, the lift itself actually goes through the woods.00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:20.000Pete Meyer: and part of the way, and it's just a really neat development. So we think that.00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:32.000Pete Meyer: You know, even though it's not big vertical, it lifts about a thousand feet long. The terrain has really good character and we think it's going to be really popular.00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:47.000Stuart Winchester: I've always loved that about Cabaret. My favorite section of Cabaret for the folks who are watching is this sort of lower section where all the trails split off. And I've always found it a little confusing and fun. And I like confusing. I like it. I feel like it makes ski areas feel bigger than they are.00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:59.000Stuart Winchester: I want to zoom out a little bit and connect this expansion to some larger ski industry narratives, because the narrative that won't die is that the big corporate consolidation and big passes are killing the independents.00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:15.000Stuart Winchester: here I'm looking at Cabra Fay, family-owned for the last 46 years, and in 2016, you put in a brand new triple chair right here on North Peak. In 2022, you put in the brand new East Peak triple chair, and then you're putting in this brand new Green Mountain triple chair next year, at least that's the plan. I mean…00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:31.000Stuart Winchester: So you're affording three new chairlifts. Uh, you know, Monarch was willing to tell me out in Colorado. Yeah, we, and we paid cash for them. I don't know if you, if you have, you know, theories on debt. I know a lot of scare operators like Platykill in New York, like to stay out of debt, but, but how did Cab.00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:40.000Stuart Winchester: How is Calgary managing all these capital upgrades, and what does it say, do you think, about independents competing in 2026?00:31:41.000 --> 00:32:05.000Pete Meyer: Yeah, I don't have access to the checkbook, so you have to let me answer that one. No, that's a great question, Stu. And Tim kind of hit on this on his first podcast with you, but when Tim and I got moved back here in 2001, we had what I call like soul crushing debt. You know, it was just crippling, like every dollar we made had to go and service the debt.00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:08.000Pete Meyer: Uh, we didn't have…00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:18.000Pete Meyer: really any money to even make capital improvements or to do much of anything. So our our main mission early on was try to try to get out of debt and get out of that hole.00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:35.000Pete Meyer: And, you know, our dad's done a nice job developing and building, and they got it out of bankruptcy. So when you get something out of bankruptcy, they've already cut every corner and done all kinds of deferred maintenance, pushed it all off. So we had quite a bit to deal with, and it was a long…00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:36.000Pete Meyer: Um…00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:46.000Pete Meyer: the long slugfest. Tim and I call those the dark days, you know, about 10 years of just really grinding. And then, finally, right, you know.00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:58.000Pete Meyer: about 2015, we were able to, uh, to get out of debt, and then… and then we started to, um, really put capital back into it, and that's why we decided on… on…00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:02.000Pete Meyer: Uh, putting in some new chairlifts, and yes, we have not gone back into debt since.00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:14.000Stuart Winchester: That's fantastic, and as you think to the future, okay, you have this North Peak quad chair, built in, I think, 92, and then you have the South Peak triple, which I think early 80s lift, it's a riblet, which…00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:29.000Stuart Winchester: As you know, is out of business now. I think this one's a SeaTac. So, I don't know if when, you know, you give a really good summary, Tim, of how East Peak changed traffic around the mountain. Uh, I, I've seen a, there's a ton of comments. I was just scrolling through, through Lyft blog for the folks watching.00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:41.000Stuart Winchester: to show Peter's excellent pictures of that lift. And the Cabaret page on there has a ton of comments, and I'm sure you've seen them. So, there's a lot of wondering, it seems, among skiers.00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:44.000Stuart Winchester: Why the quad is still here, because it…00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:57.000Stuart Winchester: they don't seem to think it runs a lot, and they think the triple does the job. Is there any thought of moving the quad, or do you really need 7 seats here? Or, just thinking long-term, what does the lift distribution look like across Cabaret Fay as you look at this map?00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:13.000Pete Meyer: Well, I think that we do need the quad on the busiest days, right? Otherwise, the reason we put the Vista Triple in there is the lines on the quad used to get so long. And it was like, that's the artery. I mean, you know, more people.00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:02.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:04.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:17.000Pete Meyer: go through the North Peak complex.00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:34.000Pete Meyer: every day than than the others, you know, because it's the middle. And so it's you go through there on your way to and from South Peak, and a lot of people just ski there because it's really really good inter advanced, intermediate and intermediate type terrain, and even some advanced beginner terrain. So it.00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:43.000Pete Meyer: It services a wide range of abilities. So I think you want to have the two lifts.00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:45.000Pete Meyer: Um…00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:58.000Pete Meyer: I think ultimately, though, we want to have more places for people to go, more pods of skiing, so that actually you do run the quad less and less, but you have it there so that on the really busy days.00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:14.000Pete Meyer: you can turn it on and have, you know, a lift that doesn't have a line that somebody can sit on and ride up. But, um, I don't know if that answers the question. Yeah, right now, Stu, we run it 3 days a week, Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays, the busier days, and so…00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:13.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:24.000Pete Meyer: Uh, we don't run it, uh, Monday through Thursday, just because it's a redundant lift, and we don't need the uphill capacity, um, is… is why people say it's not running some of the time.00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:41.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I guess what I was getting at is, is there a world where you move the quad over here to serve some of this backcountry terrain and in the top of Green Mountain? As it's, as there's kind of open space on the trail map and, and knowing Gary Milken, how he designs maps, he sometimes leaves that space.00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:57.000Stuart Winchester: for expansion. So, so what's the thought around, you know, and you alluded to it earlier when you were thinking about a lift for backcountry, and Tim, you had mentioned even maybe reviving those halls. I don't know if that's still a possibility. I don't know if they're still sitting at the bottom of the mountain here, but what's the thought on.00:35:57.000 --> 00:36:02.000Stuart Winchester: potential expansion over in this area or lifts in this area long term.00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:17.000Pete Meyer: I think that would be the next frontier. So, somewhere in the bottom… because you've skied here, Stu, you know if you go through the backcountry, you run out of gas, and then you have… and then you have to walk, and that's why we call it backcountry, because it's a…00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:10.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:12.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:27.000Pete Meyer: Because it's a tearful experience for many people coming out of there in the flats. And so somewhere down in that basin.00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:40.000Pete Meyer: there could, there could be a lift someday that goes up to east of the top of East Peak. And Stu, what Tim had alluded to earlier in his first answer is that that was our original plan, so that would have been.00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:34.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:58.000Pete Meyer: Uh, that was the plan to be our next chairlift, was to service that area. But due to the reaction and the response of our skiers, you know, we deviated and focused on… and moved to Green Mountain. Um, and, you know, one thing we found is that transition from the magic carpet, right there on the trail map, you can see, to the East Peak chair.00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:57.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:36:57.000 --> 00:36:59.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:15.000Pete Meyer: was just too much for most of our skiers. And not only were we not doing Cabaret any favors, but we're not doing the industry any favors. You know, it's just, it was asking them to do too much, too big of a, make too much of a jump. So by putting in this East Peak.00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:03.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:30.000Pete Meyer: chair, and then we'll have all green runs that'll all be, um, varying degrees of difficulty of a green run, but all of them will be in between the Magic Carpet slope and the Smiling Irishman slope, so it'll be a really nice.00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:18.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:43.000Pete Meyer: transition, and quite frankly, we think a lot of school groups and a lot of skiers are going to come out, um, and never get off that chair, and stay on Green Mountain all day, and have a wildly successful day, and want to return, um, to not only Cabaret Fay, but to other ski.00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:48.000Stuart Winchester: I love it, and I can confidently say, because I ski all over, uh, that Cabaret is now…00:37:48.000 --> 00:38:04.000Stuart Winchester: And, and especially once you put in this new lift, it's one of the most modern up to date ski areas in the entire region. And, and that wasn't always true. When I first skied at Cabaret in the nineties, it was a lot of haul double chairs. I mean, these, these guys were over here, the, the quad and the, and the triple, but.00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:11.000Stuart Winchester: that, that throwback feel to it. And I know, Tim, when you were on last time, uh, you, you talked, you lamented a little bit.00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:23.000Stuart Winchester: getting rid of the last rope toe for the carpet, and just sort of the emotion of it, even though you knew it was logically the right thing. What if you could bring back a little throwback by putting a little rope toe right here to bring people out of the backcountry?00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:27.000Pete Meyer: Well, you know, it's funny, I…00:38:27.000 --> 00:38:36.000Pete Meyer: I was kind of slow to warm up to getting rid of that rope toe. I guess, you know, I always had that old school…00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:52.000Pete Meyer: you know, I learned on a rope toe, my kids learned on a rope toe, your kids are going to learn on a rope toe, which is just backwards thinking, right, for a for a ski area manager to have that kind of thought process. I'm not sure. I know where you're going. I mean, no one knows what the future holds.00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:41.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:43.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:38:52.000 --> 00:39:09.000Pete Meyer: I do see ski areas having a lot of success with train parks with fast tows that service them. Again, another cocktail napkin plan that we have that we're not going to get into in this interview is something like that on our property down the road.00:38:58.000 --> 00:38:59.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:16.000Pete Meyer: Um, so there, you know, I could see that kind of a thing, but, um…00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:26.000Pete Meyer: And… but I think… I don't know if we would ever want to put a surface tow out of the backcountry area unless, for some reason, we weren't going to lift serve it.00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:27.000Stuart Winchester: Got it.00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:31.000Pete Meyer: But, you know, I guess, you know, no one knows for sure.00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:31.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:37.000Pete Meyer: Um, but I wanna… I wanna back up on the Green Mountain expansion a little bit, if… if you'll let me.00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:36.000Stuart Winchester: Sure.00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:38.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, do it. Let's do it.00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:44.000Pete Meyer: When we were at the Midwest, uh, show this year, there was a, there was a fireside chat, and we were talking about.00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:54.000Pete Meyer: We're talking about, you know, turning first-time skiers into second-time skiers, and making the experience the best it can be.00:39:54.000 --> 00:40:06.000Pete Meyer: And so that we have… we have success in that arena. And the Green Mountain… the Green Mountain is… is really a missing piece, because you're looking at our trail map, and you see how the parking lot is laid out.00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:07.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:12.000Pete Meyer: Um, so if you're, you know, trying to make it as easy as possible for somebody who's never skied before.00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:17.000Pete Meyer: You can park on pavement right in front of our ticket office.00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:18.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:24.000Pete Meyer: Get out of your car, walk a short distance on heated sidewalks to the ticket office.00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:36.000Pete Meyer: Get… pay for everything you need. Pay for your skis, pay for your ticket, pay for your rentals, pay for your lesson, and then walk up to the… walk up to the, um…00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:37.000Pete Meyer: Rental.00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:38.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:52.000Pete Meyer: In your, in your regular boots, so it's easy walking, go inside, take your stuff off, take your boots off, get your boots, get your skis and come and then, and then secure your lesson at the end and then walk out the door.00:40:52.000 --> 00:41:09.000Pete Meyer: And you're 30, you know, you're 30 feet from where the ski school meets and you're right at the bottom of the conveyor. So it's really easy to start out and we can get you going on the conveyor. We can virtually get anybody that can stand up on skis or snowboard up to the top.00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:10.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:13.000Pete Meyer: And then put, you know, all their energy into getting them down the hill.00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:28.000Pete Meyer: And then once you outgrow that, you just get off the conveyor and you ski down a little slope right onto the East Peak lift. Or, I'm sorry, onto the Green Mountain lift. So now you're right there, and you have this real easy area.00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:24.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:37.000Pete Meyer: to learn to ski, and then when you, when you're ready, you just ski down, just ski down the hill to the east peak lift. So the, the flow.00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:42.000Pete Meyer: for that never ever in the in the ah, the the.00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:51.000Pete Meyer: possibility of getting them to come a second and third and fourth time is really real, and I think… I think we're in, like, a new stratosphere for getting…00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:59.000Pete Meyer: you know, getting people, uh, skiing. And then as it flows, you know, the next step, the next place to ski is East Peak.00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:10.000Pete Meyer: And then as you get a little more daring, you work your way into the North Peak complex, and then eventually over to South Peak. So the flow is really natural, and I think it's going to work out extremely well.00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:21.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, it's like a mini, uh, Copper Mountain. I know you're a Winter Park guy, but it, you know, the, the, the viability… You know what, the exciting thing, I think, for skiers who are not novices, who know Cabaret Faye well.00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:12.000Pete Meyer: Yeah.00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:38.000Stuart Winchester: starts to creep back into old Caber Fay. And, and when we've talked a while ago, Tim, I, I didn't have a good perspective, but some new maps have popped up on ski map.org, which is my go to for old trail maps. And this one I think shows the old terrain really well. So here's the road looping around, here's the parking lot.00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:47.000Stuart Winchester: And then here's all the terrain. And so I… Google Earth also makes it really easy. So as I go here…00:42:47.000 --> 00:43:02.000Stuart Winchester: I am, for those who are watching, I am zooming in on… so this is what you were talking about, you kind of just park on pavement, you get out here, for those watching on YouTube or StormSkiing.com, the carpet's right around here, and then this will be green, is that right?00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:07.000Pete Meyer: No, if you go, if you, if you go back to that old, old trail map, like you can see right to there, there's a.00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:06.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:14.000Pete Meyer: A rope toe — there's two rope toes right there, right up that line, top of that peak. There was two rope toes.00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:12.000Stuart Winchester: Right there? Okay.00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:13.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:19.000Pete Meyer: Uh, heading up that way, and another rope tow coming out at 90 degrees from… from the top.00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:19.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:19.000 --> 00:43:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:43:19.000 --> 00:43:37.000Pete Meyer: And that shack still is up there to this day. It's a two-story tow shack where we had three different rope tows coming in. So it's going to come right up to the top of that. And that area was always called practice area. That was the old name of it. So if you look at old trail maps, you'll see that word practice area.00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:24.000Stuart Winchester: That's cool.00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:41.000Pete Meyer: It's a great name for a learn to ski area.00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:54.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, here's another map, the 1971 map has it as practice area. Okay, so I was assuming that you were digging that up, but I guess you're taking earth from there for the other… is that where you took it for East Peak? Is that what this big sandpit is?00:43:53.000 --> 00:44:07.000Pete Meyer: Oh, that's more of the West Ridge area out into that area. So we're actually off to the left. It's all still green. Up into there, yeah, so it'll be a nice natural hilltop with big mature trees, tree line runs. It's gonna be really, it's gonna be really nice.00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:57.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:59.000 --> 00:44:00.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:02.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:44:07.000 --> 00:44:18.000Stuart Winchester: So as you… so you can see, for those watching, this is old cab buffet. These are… this is all abandoned, right? I… do you still own this? I mean, it… because once you put the lift up here.00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:37.000Stuart Winchester: It seems like it could potentially open some of this backside terrain. I know people would love that. It also makes you very big. I don't know if that's on your radar as Cabaret continues to grow and succeed, but what are the thoughts on this really cool abandoned terrain that you have back here? And Tim, I know we talked about this a few years ago, but I also know that thoughts evolve over time.00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:44.000Pete Meyer: So we do still own all of that. So that area you're looking at, we do own it.00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:41.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:55.000Pete Meyer: I think that we don't have any plans to go back into that area at this time, but you never know.00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:52.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:54.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:44:55.000 --> 00:45:04.000Pete Meyer: Going back, though, a little bit, we don't want to get too far into the weeds. Unless you want to get into the weeds, we can go. Um, I brought my machete, so we can…00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:06.000Stuart Winchester: I live in the weeds, man, that's, uh, my…00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:22.000Pete Meyer: we can do what we need to do. But when… way back, going way back to 1982, 83, when South Peak opened, you know, South Peak was redeveloped, all that… a lot of that terrain was still running back then. We were riding T-bars and rope tows on the North Ridge, and West Ridge was alive, and.00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:09.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:13.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:18.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:21.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:31.000Pete Meyer: The practice area tow was still running. So I remember that stuff, you know, as a kid, all happening. And when South Peak was built.00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:43.000Pete Meyer: it was so much bigger than all that, you know, vertical-wise. It was, like, twice, you know, twice the vertical, um, real snowmaking, real grooming.00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:37.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:56.000Pete Meyer: people just abandoned the back… the back hills. They just went… they left that. They left that area, and they went to Salt Peak. And that's really why it all closed, is people just stopped going back there. It just wasn't as good. So…00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:46.000Stuart Winchester: Or did they?00:45:56.000 --> 00:46:00.000Pete Meyer: I often think maybe it just is better to be a memory.00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:05.000Pete Meyer: But but who knows? You know, down the road it could be what it could be.00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:16.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I think between opening the backcountry and that, uh, the Green Mountain expansion, I think you excited some folks. Alright, that, that's, uh, that's, that's all really cool. I appreciate you taking me inside that. Let's talk passes now, and I'm.00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:19.000Stuart Winchester: the screen share here. So, uh…00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:36.000Stuart Winchester: Cabrefe joined IndyPass as an inaugural member in 2019, and has been on that pass every season since, for the 2026-27 season. Cabrefe has, and I'm just laying this out for the listeners, uh, Cabrefe has departed the IndyPass and has joined.00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:51.000Stuart Winchester: The full icon pass, uh, on their two day tier, which is only on the full icon pass, not on the icon base, there's no access, and there's also holiday blackout, so the only mountains that are holiday blacked out on the full icon are the, the two day mountains, of which.00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:55.000Stuart Winchester: Cabaret is now one. So, so talk us through.00:46:55.000 --> 00:47:03.000Stuart Winchester: your experience with IndiePass and the decision, ultimately, to leave that partnership and to join up with ICON.00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:09.000Pete Meyer: Yeah, sure, Stu, we have a feeling this might be a topic of conversation today, so…00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:08.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:11.000Pete Meyer: So we.00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:11.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:47:11.000 --> 00:47:22.000Pete Meyer: There's a lot of layers to this answer, and this decision was not made quickly or lightly, and a lot of analysis and discussion went into it.00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:37.000Pete Meyer: To be quite honest, we were… we've been frustrated with the IndyPass a little bit for a couple years, and we kind of… we kind of laid out a bunch of, um, the pros and cons list, and the cons list was a lot longer than the pros, and so we… we ultimately kind of came to this decision to exit, and um…00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:53.000Pete Meyer: We're going to talk about — I'll talk about a couple of those reasons now. But before I do, I think it's important to provide some history and some context with Cadbury and IndyPass. So as you mentioned, Indy launched in 2019. We were an early adopter. We had some great conversations with Doug Fish that summer.00:47:39.000 --> 00:47:41.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:46.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:47:53.000 --> 00:48:10.000Pete Meyer: Doug worked really hard to get this pass going. We really enjoyed our conversations. He kind of could answer the questions that nobody could answer. He knew things that nobody else knew. And I still remember to this day, I'm like, Doug, how do you know all this? And he's like in his raspy voice.00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:21.000Pete Meyer: I just know, you know, so it's like, it was kind of cool. So we had confidence that, uh, that he could implement this pass and make it successful, um, because he knew what it took. So we…00:48:19.000 --> 00:48:26.000Stuart Winchester: I'm sorry to interrupt. I may have been the first ever Cabaret Redemption on the Indie Pass since November 2019.00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:25.000Pete Meyer: You know what? That's this.00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:30.000Pete Meyer: It wasn't, it was December 5th, 2019.00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:31.000Stuart Winchester: Okay. It…00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:39.000Pete Meyer: So, I was gonna get into that in a little bit, but now I'll hit on that. So then, um, in digging through all these redemptions, which I was gonna get into.00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:34.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, okay, go ahead.00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:40.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Sorry, I spoiled it.00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:56.000Pete Meyer: And pouring this data, I was like, Stuart Winchester, you were redemption number one for us. I don't know if you knew that. And I remember it to this day because I never heard your name. I never heard of your podcast. I don't even know if you had it going then.00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:42.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:48:47.000 --> 00:48:49.000Stuart Winchester: Wow, that's cool.00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:53.000Stuart Winchester: Yah.00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.000Stuart Winchester: It launched, uh, that October, so it was brand new. Mm-hmm.00:48:57.000 --> 00:48:59.000Pete Meyer: That October? Okay.00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:14.000Pete Meyer: So the… our… my office is right behind the ticket window, and the ticket teller… our office… the ticket manager wasn't in there, so the ticket teller came and got me when he came to the window. I have this, uh, IndiePass, I don't know what to do with it. So I was showing her how to…00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:04.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:09.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:18.000Pete Meyer: redeem it in in Brooklyn.00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:43.000Pete Meyer: New York pops up. Oh, I got to talk to this guy. I go, you mean that you drove all the way here just to ski at Cabra Faith in Brooklyn, New York? And you're like, yeah, I did. And I thought, I'm like, this pass is awesome, right? It's great, guys. But then we talked a little bit more and you said you had family in the area and we're in the area for a while. So I was really high for a long time on the UniPass because of that. But I didn't know it was you until I was digging through the data. I'm like, oh, that's.00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:20.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:36.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:37.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:40.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so.00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:44.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, that's cool.00:49:43.000 --> 00:49:58.000Pete Meyer: That's that's so. So anyways, anyways, we'll where was I? So okay, so then we were the first as part of that. Then we were the 1st ski resort in the Lower Peninsula to to commit to the to Indy Pass, and I'm not sure about.00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:46.000Stuart Winchester: Love that.00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:01.000Pete Meyer: Um, the UP, uh.00:50:01.000 --> 00:50:16.000Pete Meyer: But the only one in the Lower Peninsula. And so we knew at that time, well, this isn't going to do anything unless we get a couple more ski resorts to join. So we had reached out to a few. And Pete Bigford was interested. And he was the CEO and president of Shanty Creek at the time.00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:30.000Pete Meyer: And Pete had said, yeah, we'll do it, but we need a couple of downstate resorts to join as well. So then we reached out to Jamie at Swiss Valley, she said yes, and Doug at Cannonsburg, and he said yes. So that first year, we had four.00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:33.000Pete Meyer: Um, resorts on the Indy Pass. And…00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:45.000Pete Meyer: During that time he that 1st year he charged resorts a thousand dollars to get in. So we we had conversations. We're like, well, let's let's try it. The worst we can do is be out a thousand dollars right? So we had these.00:50:45.000 --> 00:51:00.000Pete Meyer: 4 ski areas in, and we did… I think we did 44 redemptions that first year. It was… it was virtually nothing. I don't even think it covered the… the $1,000. It might have come… but… but we liked the concept, it was neat, and the word got out, and then… and then Crystal Mountain joined, um, the next year.00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:53.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow. Okay.00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:06.000Pete Meyer: Uh, and then, so we kind of hit a critical mass there, and then it was a really good pass, um.00:51:06.000 --> 00:51:16.000Pete Meyer: for a long time, for a while, for several years. And one thing that Doug had said, and during that first year, I think in 2019, they had about 50.00:51:16.000 --> 00:51:32.000Pete Meyer: ski resorts on the pass, if I remember. And he said, I really hope to get it to 80 to maybe 100 passes. Um, and you as an early adopter, um, Cabaret will have say who gets in, in, in your particular region, because I really want to keep it, do just a couple ski resorts per region.00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:37.000Pete Meyer: not to not to oversaturate the market. Like, yeah, great. This sounds sounds really good.00:51:37.000 --> 00:51:40.000Pete Meyer: So then as we go on, um…00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:50.000Pete Meyer: he sells the pass to, uh, Entebani and Eric. Um, and great for Doug, we're happy for Doug, he worked really hard to make that pass, good for him for selling it. Um, can't fault him.00:51:50.000 --> 00:52:05.000Pete Meyer: Um, and then we like to say, like, Eric, Eric took the pass and put it on steroids. You know, it's just, he, he's, he's done a wonderful job with it. You know, he's obviously very, very intelligent, very successful, running three different businesses, um, um, and doing well at all of them.00:51:56.000 --> 00:51:57.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.000Pete Meyer: But he's blown it up. He just had a different mission.00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:13.000Pete Meyer: than than Doug had. Right? So what did that evolve into?00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:14.000Stuart Winchester: Blowing it up, you mean making bigger, right?00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:22.000Pete Meyer: Yeah, making it bigger. Like, Doug was gonna keep it small and couple to each region, and we were gonna have an input on, you know.00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:15.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:17.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:35.000Pete Meyer: to try to prevent it from being oversaturated. So, I know the Midwest has a lot of ski areas on the pass, but, like, our world is Michigan and our, more specifically, northern Michigan.00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:27.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:36.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:38.000Pete Meyer: So it got down to where we had 6.00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:56.000Pete Meyer: um, ski resorts within a 60-mile radius in northern Michigan, right? So if you drop a pin, you can drive within, within 60 miles, you can get to six resorts on it. Um, that density just became too much for us, because that's 12 visits, right? If a skier buys an Andy Pass, they can ski 12 times, two at each place. It's great for them, they get a lot of.00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:43.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:52:57.000 --> 00:53:12.000Pete Meyer: Um, the problem is, is what we're seeing, and we're watching the numbers every year, um, and it was easy to do because there's not a ton of redemptions, but how many of those people were former Passovers, right? And that percentage kept rising every year.00:53:11.000 --> 00:53:12.000Stuart Winchester: Mmm.00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:25.000Pete Meyer: So what it became and evolved into is just a direct competitor of our own season pass product. And that's ultimately reason number one why we — it just oversaturated.00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:25.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:26.000Pete Meyer: And.00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:27.000Stuart Winchester: So, go ahead.00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:28.000Pete Meyer: And, you know, so…00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:34.000Pete Meyer: I and I think the the Indy Pass really for a lot of ski resorts.00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:51.000Pete Meyer: doesn't move the needle a ton, um, financially. Uh, for… for us, it really didn't, and I felt like we were… did a reasonable number of redemptions, so we could… we could take it… take it or leave it. It doesn't have a big impact. It affects the customer more. Like, that decision was hard, the person who bought it in the past.00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:56.000Pete Meyer: Um, but I think Eric's a stand-up guy. He'll let anybody who…00:53:56.000 --> 00:54:07.000Pete Meyer: who bought an E-Pass, and their favorite resort is not on that, they'll give a refund to anybody who wants one. So the Cabaret listeners know that, and I think that's nice of him to do. Also, for those.00:54:01.000 --> 00:54:02.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:19.000Pete Meyer: um, Cabaret, uh, listeners who bought an Indy add-on. He'll honor that for this year, from what I understand. So, it's a couple of really good things that he's doing there, so we're thankful, thankful for that. But, um.00:54:19.000 --> 00:54:28.000Pete Meyer: through conversations, and we just decided it was time to get out. So that's reason number one. I got a couple more reasons if you've got time.00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:41.000Stuart Winchester: Well, let's linger on that for a second. I mean, for me, it just comes down to good old-fashioned free market competition, right? Where there's another pass available that is looking for smaller mountains like Caber Fay. It also signed mountains like Buck Hill and.00:54:41.000 --> 00:54:58.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, and uh… Wild Mountain over in Minnesota, just small areas near populations that are popular. I saw you catching some heat in comments to me, you know, on my platforms and social media, because you go from the Indy Pass, which maxed out at $419.00:54:58.000 --> 00:55:16.000Stuart Winchester: to the full Icon, which is $1,449 right now, and I know you can upgrade and buy a discounted Icon session pass, but I don't want to overstate it. What's the reaction been like from your pass holders, and how have you handled that?00:55:16.000 --> 00:55:24.000Stuart Winchester: The fact that you're no longer available on the cheap discounted pass, multi-mountain pass, but you are available on the very expensive one.00:55:24.000 --> 00:55:27.000Pete Meyer: Great question, great question, because we've been getting…00:55:27.000 --> 00:55:42.000Pete Meyer: Uh, we've been getting both, uh, good and, and bad feedback from it. So, what, what it comes down to is the, is the decision to, to, uh, leave Indy and, and join OCCON. Those, those decisions were, were mutually exclusive. Like, like, we had made the decision to.00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:43.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:52.000Pete Meyer: to leave Indy, um, before we even started to Icon. And we had a lot of conversations of, hey, let's just… let's just be… let's just be independent and not on any… any, uh…00:55:52.000 --> 00:56:08.000Pete Meyer: Multi resort pass, you know, there's a lot of really successful and really nice ski resorts that have that model, like Perfect North Slopes, Cascade in Wisconsin. We always go out and ski somewhere every spring and I went out to the Tahoe area this year and skied at Mount Rose, you know, that place is.00:55:58.000 --> 00:55:59.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:56:01.000 --> 00:56:03.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:09.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:18.000Pete Meyer: that place is phenomenal. They're not on any, any, um, any pants. And, um, it was neat to ski there, and just see they had a similar vibe and feel that, um, Cabaret had, right?00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:11.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:13.000Stuart Winchester: Right. That's right.00:56:17.000 --> 00:56:18.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:56:18.000 --> 00:56:23.000Pete Meyer: So quite a bit more, quite a bit more. Yeah, yeah.00:56:18.000 --> 00:56:21.000Stuart Winchester: Just a little more elevation.00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:24.000Stuart Winchester: They're at, like, 9,000 feet.00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:27.000Pete Meyer: Absolutely, but it was great terrain. So.00:56:24.000 --> 00:56:25.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:56:27.000 --> 00:56:29.000Pete Meyer: After we left the Indy Pass.00:56:29.000 --> 00:56:31.000Pete Meyer: Then we, um…00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:46.000Pete Meyer: Started talking to the folks at ICON, and I want to give a shout out to Aaron Keene and Caitlin Windauer, those girls are really sharp and would answer all the questions. It kind of reminded me of the early DuckFish days where they were all knowing and knew a lot of answers to everything.00:56:46.000 --> 00:56:53.000Pete Meyer: We talked to them for a long time. We weren't in any rush to make a decision to go down this road.00:56:52.000 --> 00:56:54.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:57.000Pete Meyer: And you know what ultimately decided for us is.00:56:57.000 --> 00:57:10.000Pete Meyer: We want to do what's best for our core customer, and our core customer is our season pass holder, okay? And this IndyPass or this IconPass brought on this reciprocal benefit of a three-day.00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:27.000Pete Meyer: 3 day session pass you can get for 50% off. Right? And that adds a lot of value. To our pass holders. And so we've been hit as much as the negativity that you've seen online for leaving any pass, we've been getting messages from our pass holders saying, hey, thank you for this benefit. This is great.00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:13.000Stuart Winchester: It's.00:57:13.000 --> 00:57:15.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, three day. Yeah. Okay.00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:19.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:57:27.000 --> 00:57:43.000Pete Meyer: I'm gonna use it. I'm gonna take a trip. And then we've known we've gone out west together and 3 days of skiing is plenty. Like we like to ski bell to bell and it's you're by that 3rd day you're waking up and you're like you can't even move your legs for you know we're so so we think it's a nice.00:57:29.000 --> 00:57:31.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:38.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, yeah.00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:41.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:57:43.000 --> 00:57:55.000Pete Meyer: Uh, you can ski locally here, you can head up in, um, hit up, hit up both Boyne Mountain and Boyne Highlands, or drive over to, uh, Blue Mountain, Ontario, so you don't have to get in a plane. So it's.00:57:55.000 --> 00:58:11.000Pete Meyer: Uh, of our pass holders. Cause we know, we know, Stuart, that nobody's going to buy a full icon pass for two days at Cabaret. We, we know that that wasn't even the, like Pete said, we're, we do like our independence and, and.00:57:57.000 --> 00:57:59.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.00:58:03.000 --> 00:58:04.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:06.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:58:11.000 --> 00:58:25.000Pete Meyer: And we like to create these partnerships that are good for our core customers. The people that commit to us, we're going to give you the best we can. And so, you know, that that three day session pass is just it's it's.00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.000Pete Meyer: It's a it's a great benefit for our core customers.00:58:29.000 --> 00:58:47.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, it's like you take a trip to Steamboat, or Palisades Tahoe, or a lot of the mountains that are on that. So, you know, it all makes sense, and I like the, you know, Boyne, Cabaret, sort of on one team, and then you have Nubs, and Crystal, and Treetops, and Shani on the other. I think that's good for skiers, it's good for.00:58:47.000 --> 00:59:03.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, two more, two more things I wanna talk about and then we'll get out of here. Uh, I, I really wanna talk about your season pass. $299 unlimited. I think it was even a little cheaper for early birds, but that's what it is right now. Uh, 219 for weekday, 129 for Sunday. That, that's an awesome, awesome deal.00:59:03.000 --> 00:59:18.000Stuart Winchester: by any measure. I noticed you no longer have the Saturday-Sunday pass, and I think it's been a couple years, and it also… Saturday lift tickets are more than Sunday, so it seems as though, from my point of view, you're really trying to manage the experience on Saturday. So, talk about your season pass suite.00:59:18.000 --> 00:59:27.000Stuart Winchester: And how that relates to your mountain management as far as making sure when people show up, they have a good experience.00:59:27.000 --> 00:59:42.000Pete Meyer: No, you're exactly right. You hit the nail on the head right there. We're trying to preserve the Saturday experience. That's the day everybody wants to ski. So if you're going to be on a pass and ski at Calgary on a pass, you got to have the seven-day week pass.00:59:42.000 --> 01:00:00.000Pete Meyer: And we wanted to protect that experience and not get overcrowded, not get overrun, and that's one of the main reasons that we got rid of the weekend pass. The weekend pass, we roll out, it was a $99 weekend pass in 2007 when we launched that, and that thing went all the way till.01:00:01.000 --> 01:00:14.000Pete Meyer: I think 2000 or 2001, we had that, so we had that for a long time, and that brought a lot of skiers here and exposed us as we continued to get better, and they saw the resort that we had, and all the work that Tim was doing on the hill.01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:21.000Pete Meyer: And then that just evolved into trying to manage the volume levels on Saturdays.01:00:21.000 --> 01:00:38.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, it's a, it's, it's a great deal. And, uh, you know, even, even as it's risen past 99, I mean, you know, 299, there's, there's a lot of resorts in the West that are charging more than that for a day this year. Beaver Creek's topping out at 392. So I love it. Okay. The last thing I want to.01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:48.000Stuart Winchester: This one's a little personal, and I know I talked to you about this, uh, it was about 4 years ago, Tim or Pete, I forget, it was maybe both of you I was talking to. So I want to talk about this Trail Starkey.01:00:48.000 --> 01:01:03.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, I knew Dick Starkey. I'm friends with his daughter Crystal from way back. We went to school together. Uh, and, and I met him and I, I was always just remember being very impressed by him. He had a really good presence. Uh, he was, he was very fit and active and, and did a lot of things.01:01:03.000 --> 01:01:09.000Stuart Winchester: Um, I didn't know him super well, but I met him a few times, and… and I… I just want to talk about, you know, he passed.01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:25.000Stuart Winchester: Four or five years ago now, and I noticed this trail and, and I said, oh, is that, is that named after Dick? And, and you said it was. So, uh, can, can you talk about the Starkey trail? Talk about Dick Starkey and, and, uh, his legacy at Cabre Fay and, and, and why it was fitting to name a.01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:34.000Pete Meyer: Yeah, Dick was a volunteer patroller at SP, patroller at Caber Fay for…01:01:34.000 --> 01:01:42.000Pete Meyer: I think… I… I think as long as… as my dad was around, you know, uh, Dick was there, and so, you know.01:01:39.000 --> 01:01:40.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:01:42.000 --> 01:01:52.000Pete Meyer: 40… however many years, 40… 40-some years, he was a patroller at Cabaret, and uh… you know, just had a big presence, you know, you knew him.01:01:52.000 --> 01:01:53.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:01:52.000 --> 01:02:01.000Pete Meyer: Played football at Ferris. Great stories about that. He was a captain and so he's tough.01:01:54.000 --> 01:01:55.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.01:02:01.000 --> 01:02:02.000Pete Meyer: And.01:02:02.000 --> 01:02:17.000Pete Meyer: just a… just a great guy, great patroller, great mentor, um, a ton… lots and lots of stories about Dick Starkey for another day, but, uh, just somebody that we wanted to honor, and, um, so, you know, we made that change.01:02:17.000 --> 01:02:21.000Stuart Winchester: And why this trail? Why this, uh, why did you choose this one?01:02:24.000 --> 01:02:35.000Pete Meyer: you know, that… I don't… I don't know why we picked that one. We just… we… we… I think we… the, um… the previous name was an old, you know, an older name that… that… that honored a…01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:47.000Pete Meyer: an older ski instructor, but I think we thought, you know, maybe… maybe it was time for a change there. Some… maybe just something a little more relevant to… someone more relevant to…01:02:41.000 --> 01:02:43.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:02:47.000 --> 01:02:52.000Pete Meyer: You know, this this last, you know, 40 years of caprophage tradition.01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:57.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. And, and I believe, I believe Crystal still, uh, volunteer patrols there as well, right? Yeah.01:02:56.000 --> 01:02:59.000Pete Meyer: Yes. Yes, she is.01:02:57.000 --> 01:03:03.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, that's great. I haven't talked to her in a minute, but hi, Crystal. Hope you're doing great. Pete.01:03:03.000 --> 01:03:05.000Pete Meyer: No, no, not about the trail.01:03:04.000 --> 01:03:22.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, okay, all right. Well, hey, listen, guys, I really appreciate catching up with you. There's so much always going on at Cabaret, and we were long overdue, so let's do it again soon, and I gotta get up there and ski that East Peak lift, because I haven't been in a minute, so I really appreciate that, and I'll talk to you guys soon, and thanks so much.01:03:22.000 --> 01:03:25.000Pete Meyer: Thanks, Stuart. Thanks a lot, Stu. Appreciate it.01:03:24.000 --> 01:03:26.000Stuart Winchester: All right, talk soon.01:03:26.000 --> 01:03:28.000Stuart Winchester: All right, let me just…01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:43.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, that was Tim and Pete Meyer of Cabaret. I love Cabaret. It was my pseudo home mountain when I lived in Michigan. It was just 90 minutes down the road, so I never had a season pass there.01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:51.000Stuart Winchester: but I would go there a lot. I mean, and this was, you know, lift tickets were $20 or something back then, so it didn't really matter, and they had a lot of specials. So, I want to…01:03:51.000 --> 01:03:57.000Stuart Winchester: wrap up today, I want to talk about lift tickets a little bit, because there's some lift ticket deals going on.01:03:57.000 --> 01:03:59.000Stuart Winchester: And…01:03:59.000 --> 01:04:14.000Stuart Winchester: I'll tell you about the deals first, and then I'll, I'll tell you what I make of them as a, as a theme. So we're gonna focus on Colorado for a moment. So Arapahoe Basin, to celebrate its 80th anniversary, is doing $80 lift tickets every Wednesday.01:04:14.000 --> 01:04:29.000Stuart Winchester: from late December through April, except for December 30th, which is holiday week, of course. Uh, they are $50 on Wednesdays outside of those windows, so early season at A-Basin, and then late season, and of course, uh, the mountain typically goes until June.01:04:29.000 --> 01:04:35.000Stuart Winchester: $80 lift ticket today, based in on their anniversary weekend, Saturday and Sunday, December 5th and 6th.01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:45.000Stuart Winchester: Also, anyone born in 1946, making you 80 years old, skis free all winter. Uh, A-Basin has a lot of ways to get in cheap. They have 3-day packs.01:04:45.000 --> 01:05:00.000Stuart Winchester: With no blackouts, any day, use any 3 days for $249. They have midweek packs, 5 days for $319. Midweek season pass is $539, and a full is $699, and of course, A-Basin is unlimited on both the Icon and the Icon.01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:03.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, base pass, and I wanna see…01:05:03.000 --> 01:05:08.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, they did get rid of the fall pass. I had…01:05:09.000 --> 01:05:21.000Stuart Winchester: I had emailed, because… because A-Basin used to have this great pass for, like, 250 bucks. It was from opening day until Christmas, but they did get rid of it. Uh, and… and they… Shayna from A-Basin emailed, and she told me.01:05:21.000 --> 01:05:37.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, for background, that was a very small audience for, for us who were interested in the Fall Pass pack. So, uh, so thank you, Shayna, for getting back to me so quickly, and I'd sent that right before the podcast started. So, so A-Basin deals on Wednesdays, you know, put that down in your.01:05:37.000 --> 01:05:55.000Stuart Winchester: List if you, if you wanna actually day ski and maybe you have an epic pass, but you wanna, you miss a basin. Uh, and then Thursdays Copper Mountain is again doing $99 Thursdays. They're play for every Thursdays and a portion of that goes to a good cause. They're doing that every Thursday from January 7th to April 8th.01:05:55.000 --> 01:06:04.000Stuart Winchester: Including the holiday week in February, I don't know if that's a mistake, but grab it while you can, because I don't think they can take it back once you buy it. Uh, and then.01:06:04.000 --> 01:06:05.000Stuart Winchester: $99 a copper.01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:19.000Stuart Winchester: starting Monday, April 12th, which is pretty awesome. So, if you wanted to do a little day ski, and, you know, right now you can still buy tickets and everything, or still buy passes, because we're recording this on September 17th.01:06:19.000 --> 01:06:30.000Stuart Winchester: But if you're listening in the future, you could do a Wednesday $80 a day basin, a Thursday $99 at Copper Mountain. It's not a bad couple days in Summit County for a pretty reasonable price, given.01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:44.000Stuart Winchester: prices in 2026 for lift tickets at most mountains. Uh, down the road, Aspen, for its 80th anniversary, is doing $80 lift tickets Saturday and Sunday, December 12th and 13th. They also offered…01:06:44.000 --> 01:07:01.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, tickets for $3 and 75 cents for Monday, December 14th. But those are sold out and they, I'm pretty much sure they sold out instantly. And it's funny ‘cause they didn't even market it at first. And, and Aspen folks tell me they just blew off the shelves. So that is for Aspen's 80th anniversary.01:07:01.000 --> 01:07:17.000Stuart Winchester: Same year as, uh, a basin is celebrating right now. And of course, some of the little guys around there, you know, ski Cooper hasn't announced their lift ticket prices yet. And I know it's small, but it's still, it's, it's a place you can go. It's high. There's no snow making. It's all natural snow.01:07:17.000 --> 01:07:22.000Stuart Winchester: $49 midweek tickets at Ski Cooper last year, maxed out at $99 on weekends.01:07:22.000 --> 01:07:30.000Stuart Winchester: Down the road, if you're on your way to Aspen, Sunlight, which has 1,750 feet of vertical drop.01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:46.000Stuart Winchester: And two brand new lifts. Well, one was from a base and used, but it was only 20 years old. So they put in two brand new lifts last year. Big vertical. Uh, their lift tickets max out at $109. Midweek, they're $74 to $94. It's a fun little area. It gives you Colorado.01:07:46.000 --> 01:07:53.000Stuart Winchester: with a little bit more of a… a throwback Colorado, old Colorado feel. So, so the question here is.01:07:53.000 --> 01:07:57.000Stuart Winchester: Are we starting to see a rationalization?01:07:57.000 --> 01:07:58.000Stuart Winchester: In the lift ticket market.01:07:58.000 --> 01:08:04.000Stuart Winchester: Are we starting to see ski areas value the skier that.01:08:04.000 --> 01:08:19.000Stuart Winchester: maybe has an Icon Pass, but wants to ski another mountain for a day? Or I guess more in this case, since Copper and A-Basin are both Epic Pass mountains, are we seeing them take advantage of the fact that right now, if you look at prices for.01:08:19.000 --> 01:08:27.000Stuart Winchester: Breckenridge, it's $153 to ski on Friday, November 6th. Who knows what they'll have open? Probably not a lot.01:08:27.000 --> 01:08:43.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, it's 180 that day. Breckenridge goes over 300 for peak days. Uh, and on Monday, April 19th, as, as copper has dropped to 99, Breck right now is set to have a $179 walkup price for Monday, April 19th. So.01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:49.000Stuart Winchester: I think you're seeing some smart reactions from some of the…01:08:49.000 --> 01:08:55.000Stuart Winchester: larger players and showing there's still a competitive market in Colorado. The question is…01:08:55.000 --> 01:09:07.000Stuart Winchester: will Vail follow? In their earnings call, one of their earnings calls recently, uh, Rob Katz, or their end-of-year earnings, their CEO, Rob Katz, said that Lyft ticket sales had softened considerably.01:09:07.000 --> 01:09:14.000Stuart Winchester: To absolutely no one's surprise, uh, because of the price of lift tickets. So, Ken Vale…01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:27.000Stuart Winchester: find a way in the softer seasons to start to compete, because it's clear that their direct compe

Can your mind actually change the way you experience your health, your life, and your future?In this powerful episode #5 of the Self-Care Goddess Podcast, Dr. Sachin Patel, a father, husband, philanthropist, author, speaker, breathwork facilitator, and functional medicine practice success coach, explores the incredible connection between the mind, body, breath, and mindset and how it can shape lasting transformation.Dr. Sachin Patel is the founder of The Living Proof Institute and creator of the Perfect Practice Mentorship Program, through which he empowers practitioners worldwide to transform healthcare and help people activate their own capacity for Self-Care and healing.This podcast invites you to question some of your beliefs about health, reality, and what is possible when you become more conscious of your thoughts, habits, environment, and choices.✅ Why your mindset matters and how your worldview can shape the way you experience yourself, your health, and the world around you✅ The conscious and subconscious mind and why becoming more present can help you take back control✅ Why distraction destroys your destiny and how constantly shifting your attention can affect your ability to focus and create✅ How to build healthier reward loops instead of relying on habits that leave you feeling depleted✅ The importance of knowing your “North Star” and using clear goals and feedback to make sure you're moving in the direction you truly want✅ The “law of attention” and why focused intention needs to be paired with meaningful action✅ The power of community and how the people you surround yourself with can influence your growth and the person you become✅ How discomfort can become part of growth and why stepping outside your comfort zone can build resilienceNOTE: This episode #5 is being re-released as part of the Best of Self-Care Goddess Podcasts, a collection of some of the most insightful and impactful conversations from the podcast archive.

In today's episode, I sit down with Sascha Doering, COO of Bugatti of the Americas, to discuss building a brand at the pinnacle of luxury, performance, and innovation. Sascha shares why understanding your audience is the foundation of strong operations and how Bugatti creates lasting value through craftsmanship, exclusivity, and relationships. We talk about perceived value, balancing emotion with logic, and staying true to a clear North Star as technology evolves. Sascha also shares his path through the automotive industry, the value of education and experience, and why having a plan, giving your best, never giving up, and having fun remain essential to long-term success.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jonathan Evens is a product lead at Google DeepMind, where he has spent more than a decade applying machine learning and AI across industries — from the smart grid at AutoGrid, to detecting roads and buildings from satellite imagery at Planet, to recommender systems, Google Search's AI Overviews and AI Mode, and now live avatars. He is also an advisor to the Evens Foundation, where he is building a "digital citizenry": a democracy sandbox that uses synthetic citizens to pre-test how the public might react to a policy before it is written.Jonathan returns to The Product Experience, where hosts Lily Smith and Randy Silver pick up the conversation they started at MTPcon London, to dig further into what actually separates an AI product manager from a product manager who simply uses AI tools, why product principles have to come before evaluations, and how synthetic users can help — and mislead — at very different scales of product.We discuss:1. Why "AI product manager" has become a near-meaningless label, and the two distinct roles hiding underneath it: the modelling product manager working on core model capabilities, and the AI feature product manager building AI-powered products2. Why using an LLM as a thinking partner or a coding assistant does not make someone an AI product manager — it makes them a product manager using AI tools, full stop3. How Google Search's North Star metrics have stayed constant even as the proxy metrics beneath them — side-by-side win rates, user ratings, RLHF signals — have had to be rebuilt from scratch4. Why product principles, not evaluations, are the real starting point for any AI feature, and how Google Search resolved the problem of trustworthy sources disagreeing on basic facts5. How Google Search builds trust into its AI Overviews through sourcing, citation placement and UX cues such as highlighting, so users can judge at a glance what to verify6. Where synthetic users genuinely help — cold-start problems, privacy-sensitive research, automated regression testing — and where they fall short7. Building the Evens Foundation's "digital citizenry", and the core technical problem behind it: AI-generated personas that are less diverse and more extreme than real people8. How team size and structure differ between a fully resourced lab like Google DeepMind and a resource-constrained non-profit team, and why Jonathan resists a single answer for the "right" team size9. How the product manager's job is shifting as engineers absorb more of the evaluation work themselves through prompting and iteration10. Jonathan's advice for product managers building AI features, and his case for following the Makers Manifesto Key takeaways"AI product manager" covers two distinct jobs. The modelling product manager defines and measures a model's core capabilities — factuality, reasoning, long context — and that role is concentrated almost entirely inside frontier labs. The AI feature product manager builds a product or feature on top of an existing model, and needs domain expertise and user empathy far more than technical depth. Conflating the two is why the title has become so diluted.Using an LLM to think faster or write code faster does not make someone an AI product manager. It makes them a product manager using AI as part of their toolkit — the same as any other knowledge worker. The distinction matters because it clarifies what skills are actually being tested.Product principles have to come before evaluations, not after. Before Jonathan starts building an eval set for a new product, he first asks what the product is meant to feel like and what values it should encode. Google Search's response to sources disagreeing on a monument's construction date, or to large language models hallucinating at scale, came from principles about trustworthiness established before any metric was built.Trust in an AI feature is built through sourcing and interface design as much as through the model itself. Google Search's AI Overviews are constrained to draw only from ranked, trustworthy documents rather than the model's own memory, and users are given UX signals — citation placement, highlighting — that let them judge at a glance how much to verify.Synthetic users add genuine value in cold-start scenarios, privacy-sensitive research and automated regression testing. Where they fall short is diversity: AI-generated personas tend to be less varied and more extreme than real people, which is the central technical problem behind the Evens Foundation's digital citizenry project.There is no fixed answer to the right team size. Jonathan sees a gradient, from a senior developer working entirely alone, up to the Evens Foundation's single product manager with AI-assisted development skills, up to a fully staffed Google team — with the deciding factor being how unsolved the underlying problem is, not company size.As engineers absorb more evaluation work themselves through prompting and iteration, roles are blending. What still sits with product management is the judgement calls that follow from product principles — deciding, for example, which technical trade-offs actually matter to the use case, rather than which are easiest to measure.Features links- Evens Foundation — https://evensfoundation.eu- Makers Manifesto — https://makersmanifesto.org- Google DeepMind — https://deepmind.google- AutoGrid — smart grid AI company where Jonathan began applying machine learning to industry- Planet — satellite imagery company where Jonathan worked on automated road and building detectionWe're refreshing The Product Experience and want your input. Take our two-minute survey and help shape where the show goes next! Our HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.

Send us Fan MailWe walk through the moment Jordan Edwards realizes his “dream job” points to a life he does not want, then follows the question that drives everything: what separates people who build the life they want from those who never do. We dig into why money amplifies who you already are, how the 8 PM restlessness steals your attention, and how identity-first goal setting creates results that actually last. • spotting the “same seat” future and choosing honesty over autopilot • more money as an amplifier, not a fix for anxiety and doubt • asking what you think will be different after “the number” • the 8 PM problem, handled mornings and unstructured nights • building a life plan, picking one evening mission and sticking to it • moving from numeric goals to a North Star you can picture • identity, then clarity, then execution as the right order • using the grandfather frame to admit what you already know • the five pillars of a whole life, with physical health as the truth you cannot dodge If you want to sit in on one, come in and sit in. Send me a message on Instagram, JordanF Edwards, and send me a DM.  To Reach Jordan:Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93ZwFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://tidycal.com/m4j6dvm/breakthrough-strategy-session

Patrick Yalon's story is one of the wildest comeback stories we've had on Run the Riot. In July 2024, Patrick went surfing at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. A freak accident drove his head into a sandbar, leaving him face-down in the water and completely unable to move. His friend John eventually found him, pulled him from the water, and began CPR. Patrick survived, but the road ahead looked completely different. His legs weren't moving. He underwent a major spinal fusion surgery, spent weeks in rehabilitation, and was told that walking again would take a tremendous amount of work. But Patrick had something sitting in the back of his mind: The Moab 240. It became what he calls his “North Star.” His mantra became: “If I can stand, I can start.” Incredibly, just months after the accident, Patrick showed up at the starting line of Moab 240. Still recovering, still dealing with pain, and nowhere near fully rebuilt physically, he made it 144 miles before finally deciding that continuing could cause serious damage. For most people, that would have been more than enough. For Patrick, there was still unfinished business. He returned the following year—15 months to the day after his accident—and faced brutal rain, mud, lightning, damaged feet, exhaustion, and everything else a 240-mile race can throw at you. This time, he finished. And there was an incredible full-circle moment waiting for him: John—the same friend who had pulled Patrick from the water and helped save his life—joined him for the final 40 miles to the finish. In this conversation, Patrick and I talk about much more than ultrarunning. We talk about gratitude, faith, resilience, recovery, purpose, suffering, and what happens when life forces you to discover what you're actually made of. Patrick also shares the book he has written about his experience, his continued recovery, and why he now thinks of the years since his accident as his “second life.” In this episode: How Patrick went from rugby and surfing to ultrarunning Why he jumped from shorter ultras straight toward Moab 240 The surfing accident that nearly took his life Realizing he was paralyzed while face-down in the ocean The friend who found him and performed CPR Spinal fusion surgery and learning to move again The tiny movement of his big toe that changed his mindset Why “If I can stand, I can start” became his mantra Showing up for Moab only months after his accident Making it 144 miles during that first attempt Why he knew he needed to go back Rebuilding himself physically and mentally in Thailand Returning to Moab 15 months after the accident Surviving brutal storms, rain, mud, and lightning The emotional moment when he yelled, “I'm still here” Finishing the final 40 miles with the man who saved his life Gratitude as a tool for getting through suffering His upcoming Tahoe 200 The book he has written about his story What it means to make the most of a “second life” Follow Patrick Instagram: @bodiezepha415 You can also find Patrick Yalon on Facebook and LinkedIn. Run the Riot If you're working toward your first ultramarathon—or your farthest one yet—make sure you're subscribed to Run the Riot for more conversations about ultrarunning, mindset, training, and doing hard things. Episode Sponsor — Mount to Coast I've been putting miles into the Mount to Coast R1 road shoe and T1 trail shoe and have been impressed with their comfort and durability for endurance training. Use code RIOT10 to save 10% on your order.

In this episode, I dive into the essentials of creating a high-impact strategic plan for your nonprofit. Last week, we explored the importance of a well-structured planning process and clarity about your end goal. This week, we focus on the content of your strategic plan, ensuring it's both inspiring and actionable. Whether you're leading the process or working with a facilitator, understanding these elements is crucial. What You'll Learn:How to articulate a 10-year guiding vision that serves as your organization's North Star.The importance of defining 3-year strategic priorities and goals.Effective strategies for engaging stakeholders and maintaining flexibility in your plans.Key Takeaways:10-Year Vision: Define a long-term vision that inspires and guides your team.Strategic Priorities: Choose focus areas that maximize your impact over the next 3-5 years.Goals vs. Activities: Set strategic goals as end results, not just a list of tasks.Core Strategies: Outline broad approaches instead of detailed activities to stay flexible.Stakeholder Engagement: Involve key stakeholders in the planning process for better buy-in and support.Want to work together? Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   Connect with me!LinkedInInstagramYouTube

 EPISODE DESCRIPTION I sat down with Todd Ault III, founder of Ault.com, a man with 37 years in traditional finance who has seen the future , and it is fully tokenized. Todd walks me through how Ault Markets is being built as a Bloomberg-style platform for Web3, why he borrowed $50 million in DeFi in 20 minutes on Morpho, and why he believes every stock, bond, piece of real estate, and commodity will eventually trade on Web3 rails. We get into stable coins, the dominance of the US dollar, why AI is creating jobs not killing them, and what founders can do right now to tokenize their assets on Ault's platform. If you want to understand where institutional finance meets blockchain, this episode is for you. DISCLAIMERNothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/ CONNECT Ault Website: https://ault.com/Todd Ault Twitter/X: https://x.com/ToddAultIII?lang=enTodd Ault LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miltontoddault/Web3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS • [00:00] Sam introduces Todd Ault III and frames the episode around tokenization and the RWA space• [00:56] Todd shares his 37-year background in traditional finance and how he discovered Bitcoin around 2011• [02:35] Why TradFi won't disappear overnight , Todd compares the shift to a generational standard-of-care change in healthcare• [03:34] Ault Markets explained: a Bloomberg-style Web3 platform with a DEX, lending, staking, tokenized stocks, commodities, and more• [05:28] How Ault integrates with DeFi Capital Markets, Universal Mint tokenization platform, and the Only Bulls wallet via Privy• [06:50] Why stablecoins are still massively underutilized and what gets tokenized next , stocks, commodities, and eventually real estate• [10:00] Todd's real-world DeFi story: borrowing $50 million against Bitcoin on Morpho in 20 minutes• [12:25] Why Todd built Ault's own blockchain after being debanked 10 times in the US for Bitcoin mining• [13:33] Bitcoin Max explained: trading Bitcoin down to the Satoshi level, denominated via a Swiss-based trust• [14:06] The 98% US dollar dominance in stablecoins vs 55% in fiat , and why Todd sees dollar dominance continuing• [17:25] How Ault uses AI for financial modeling, market making, staff accountability, and an integrated AI layer in Ault Markets• [20:10] Sam shares how AI is actually increasing workloads for lawyers and why history shows tech creates more jobs than it destroys• [23:38] Todd's goal to tokenize 100,000 assets over 10 years and grow TVL to $100 billion• [26:28] How founders can use Ault right now to tokenize securities, raise capital, and list on the DEX• [28:28] North Star metric: growing TVL, with 97–99% of all protocol revenue used to buy back the Ault token daily on a TWAP• [29:50] Todd's key asks: traders, founders wanting to tokenize, and hiring in tokenization , contact todd@ault.com• [33:15] Todd highlights Holiday as a standout payments innovation backed by Andreessen Horowitz• [34:36] Ault's hybrid private equity arm: owning and planning to tokenize hotels, a crane company, and other hard assets

Michael Clinton

In this episode, Brig recaps the three drains that can leave women exhausted before they ever get to their impossible thing: the Vigilance Drain, the Relationship Drain, and the Decision Drain. She explains that exhaustion is not always coming from the work itself. Sometimes it comes from watching yourself, giving to everyone else, and deciding everything from scratch every single day. By the time you get to the business, the body, the book, or the life you want to build, you are already running low. Brig revisits each drain and gives one simple step for each. Track the moments when you edit yourself or monitor the room. Do an honest relationship audit and ask whether each relationship deposits or withdraws. Then make one North Star decision that helps smaller decisions become easier. This episode is for the woman who feels tired, scattered, and frustrated because she is working hard but moving slowly. Brig reminds us that we are not lazy. We are drained, and once we know where the energy is going, we can begin to close the drains. What You Will Learn What the Vigilance Drain is and how it keeps you watching yourself all day. How the Relationship Drain shows up when everyone leans on you, but you have no one to lean on. Why the Decision Drain happens when you have not made clear North Star decisions. How North Star decisions make smaller choices easier. How to start locating the drains so you can protect your energy. Why This Matters Brig reminds us that working harder is not always the answer. When your energy is leaking through vigilance, relationships, and constant decision-making, effort alone will not fix it. You have to see where the drain is happening before you can redirect your energy back to your impossible thing. Take Action This week, Brig invites you to: Track where you edit, monitor, or second-guess yourself for one day. Do a relationship audit and ask: does this deposit or withdraw? Make one North Star decision that gives your next decisions a clear filter.   MENTIONED — 264 Why You're Exhausted By 12pm and You Ain't Done But One Thang 265 The Hidden Problem With Being Everybody's Person — But Nobody Is Yours 266 When Nothing You Try Seems to Work- Try This   STAY CONNECTED — Website | Instagram | Facebook

Nadav Zysblat has just begun his posting as Israel's new Consul General in Toronto and Western Canada at a particularly difficult moment in Canada-Israel relations. In the days surrounding his arrival, Canada announced it would bring forward measures to ban trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, while a boycott campaign targeted pro-Israel singer Boy George's Vancouver concert. Zysblat, a career Israeli diplomat, says his job is to strengthen—not retreat from—the relationship. Pushing back against calls for boycotts, he wants to expand trade and business ties at the provincial level, restore direct flights between Canada and Israel, and support local Holocaust education initiatives. Zysblat has served previously in Washington and Shanghai. Two days before the Carney government's West Bank announcement, Zysblat sat down with The CJN's North Star podcast host Ellin Bessner to record his first Canadian interview. He told Bessner he wants to find new areas of cooperation with Ontario, the Prairies and B.C., particularly in sectors including natural resources, health care, AI, quantum computing and secure technology. They talked about how boycotts are not helpful to building relationships, how they hurt Canada's interests rather than solve the problem in the Middle East, and why he feels Israel could actually be “an answer” to Canada's current push to diversify its economy, amidst the economic trade war with the U.S. Related links Learn more about Prime Minister Mark Carney's recent announcement on Sept 8 that Canada will cut off imports of products made in illegal West Bank settlements and also East Jerusalem, and go after companies and entities who finance the settlement movement, in The CJN, Discover the background to a protracted Canadian case brought by anti-Israel activists in 2017 over labelling of wines produced by Psagot and Shiloh wineries located in the West Bank, and the last development in 2022, in The CJN. Read the Israeli Embassy's statement Sept. 8 condemning Canada pledging to join the U.K. and France in banning imports of products produced in West Bank settlements. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Welcome to another episode of LIFTS, where we explore the future of fitness, wellness and human performance. In this episode, hosts Matthew Januszek and Mohammed Iqbal are recorded live at the Life Fitness and Hammer Strength YMCA Innovation Summit, where they're joined by four YMCA leaders: Boyd Williams, Hodge Patterson, Crystal Trawick and Ernest Kaehler. The YMCA has been around for more than 180 years, yet it continues to operate in a fitness industry transformed by new technology, changing consumer expectations, boutique concepts, strength training, recovery and an increasingly sophisticated member. So how has it stayed relevant? Boyd Williams, CEO of YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, explains why community remains the organisation's north star. While equipment, facilities and technology are important, he believes they are ultimately a conduit for building relationships, creating healthier lifestyles and making a lasting impact on people's lives. Hodge Patterson, Chief Executive Officer of Santa Monica Family YMCA, discusses why the YMCA has always been about much more than "gym and swim". From fitness and wellness to social responsibility and community programmes, he shares how the Y has become part of the social infrastructure of Santa Monica and why that role became particularly clear during the Palisades fire when members simply said, "Meet you at the Y." The conversation also looks at the business fundamentals required to sustain that mission. Hodge discusses the importance of creating value rather than relying on discounting, while Crystal Trawick, Vice President of Healthy Living at YMCA of Greater Charlotte, explains why "there is no mission if there's no margin." Crystal also shares how different YMCA locations are adapting to the specific needs of the communities they serve. That can mean recovery and Pilates reformer in one location and digital literacy programmes for older adults in another. She explains why innovation doesn't always need to be flashy or expensive and how AI can help remove administrative tasks, giving teams more time to focus on the member experience. Finally, Ernest Kaehler, Senior Operations Director at St. Paul Midway YMCA, discusses how younger generations are changing expectations of the gym floor. While boomers have traditionally been an important YMCA demographic, Gen Z members are increasingly looking for plate-loaded strength equipment, different layouts and a different training experience. Across four very different YMCA communities, one message remains consistent: staying relevant isn't about chasing every new fitness trend. It's about understanding your community, building relationships and continuing to evolve without losing sight of your purpose. In this episode, we cover: How the YMCA has remained relevant for generations Why community remains its north star Why relationships can transcend fitness trends How technology and AI can support rather than replace human connection Why every YMCA needs to reflect the community it serves How the YMCA is moving beyond the traditional perception of "gym and swim" Why creating value can be more powerful than discounting The importance of balancing mission with commercial sustainability How recovery, Pilates, HYROX and holistic health are changing member expectations Why Gen Z is changing the gym floor How social media is influencing younger members' training expectations What the wider fitness industry can learn from the YMCA's longevity Recorded at the Life Fitness & Hammer Strength YMCA Innovation Summit. Life Fitness: https://www.linkedin.com/company/life-fitness/ https://www.instagram.com/lifefitnessofficial/ Support fitness industry news by sponsoring future LIFTS episodes. Contact us at wendy@liftspodcast.com for advertising opportunities. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and turn on notifications so you never miss a new video when it's published: https://www.youtube.com/user/EscapeFitness Or if you prefer, you can receive the latest news direct to your inbox by subscribing here: https://www.liftspodcast.com/newsletter Join the conversation at LIFTS: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liftspod https://www.instagram.com/lifts.podcast/ Timestamps 0:00 What Can Fitness Learn From the YMCA? 2:09 Why It's Not Just About the Equipment 3:42 Community as the YMCA's North Star 5:23 Staying Relevant as Communities Change 9:35 More Than Gym & Swim 15:04 "Meet You at the Y" – The Power of Community 20:30 Create Value, Don't Discount It 22:03 Why One Size Doesn't Fit Every Community 25:07 Innovation, AI & the Member Experience 28:11 "There Is No Mission If There's No Margin" 29:54 Beyond Gym & Swim: The Future of YMCA Fitness 32:27 How the Next Generation Is Changing the Gym Floor 38:38 Social Media, Influencers & Building Trust

If you're working on a major creative project, building a business, making a film or simply trying to finish your biggest goals before the end of the year, sometimes your year doesn't actually end on December 31. In this vlog, I talk about why September already feels like the beginning of my final push for 2026—and how having a clear North Star makes it easier to know what actually deserves your attention.For me, that means finishing the animatic for my 2D animated feature film The Arbiters by the end of October, preparing for LA Comic Con, the World Animation Summit and the American Film Market, and getting several major pieces into place before deliberately slowing down around mid-November and resting through the end of the year.I also share some upcoming changes and updates to my YouTube channel, what I'm thinking about creatively heading into the next chapter, and a look at the latest major behind-the-scenes update on The Arbiters.

Trixy Castro is a first-generation Latina entrepreneur, investor, and strategic advisor who built Genesis Capital and Genesis Auctions from the ground up before selling both companies to Fortune 500 firms Goldman Sachs and Fidelity National Title within nine months of each other. She has facilitated more than $20 billion in real estate transactions across debt and equity and continues to invest in real estate, fintech, AI, and sustainability. In this episode, Trixy shares how she went from tutoring elementary school students as a teenager to building billion-dollar businesses—and why focusing on the resources you already have can be the key to creating opportunities. On this episode we talk about: How Trixy started her first business at 14 with nothing more than time, creativity, and a stack of homemade business cards Why you should focus on the resources you have instead of getting stuck on what you lack How Trixy taught herself the real estate lending business while working at Wells Fargo and living in a college dorm The importance of understanding your customers' businesses and solving problems they may not even realize they have How listening to clients led Trixy to create Genesis Auctions and bridge the gap between banks with distressed assets and investors looking to buy them Why staying committed to your mission and vision can help you push through rejection and long sales cycles How Trixy's experiences with failure ultimately led to Success Unlocked, a free community designed to help entrepreneurs learn, grow, and build businesses Top 3 Takeaways Work with what you have. You don't need capital, connections, or expertise to get started. Your time, curiosity, willingness to learn, and ability to solve problems can be valuable resources—and they can help you earn your way into bigger opportunities. Understand the entire problem, not just your customer's request. Trixy built her businesses by getting deeply involved in her clients' operations and understanding where they were struggling. When you understand the challenges on both sides of a transaction, you can find opportunities to become the bridge. Keep your eyes on the North Star. Sales will fall through, prospects will say no, and progress will sometimes feel painfully slow. Having a clear mission and vision allows you to treat those setbacks as part of the process instead of evidence that your idea won't work. Notable Quotes "You can't get stuck with what you don't have." "When you help people make more money, they're like, 'Yeah, sure, come on over.'" "I learned more through failing than through winning." Connect with Trixy Castro: Social Media: Trixy Castro (@TrixyCastro) Website: SuccessUnlocked.com Community: Success Unlocked A Word from Our Sponsors: - The most successful business owners don't do it all themselves — they delegate. Upwork lets you build a team of highly skilled specialists for every function your business needs, so you can focus on what you do best and let experts handle the rest. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free! - Go to Leesa.com for 30% OFF select mattresses (through September 13, 2026) PLUS get an extra $50 off with promo code TMM, exclusive for my listeners Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Work crews affixed a row of black metal fence posts into cement around the front and along both sides of Beth Tzedec Congregation in midtown Toronto on Sept. 10, laying the foundation for a new permanent security fence at Canada's largest synagogue. The unprecedented installation is happening just one day ahead of Rosh Hashanah and subsequent High Holidays, which begin on the evening of Sept. 11. Synagogue officials say the fence won't be finished before the start of the holiday, but is being done to minimize the potential for a shooting from the street as large crowds gather over the next month. It's also to prevent people gaining unauthorized access close to the building. The fence will cover the entire property, except for the rear of the building where fencing has long been in place around the parking lot and school playground. The installation comes two days after Toronto police and Mayor Olivia Chow held a media conference outlining stepped-up security plans for the Jewish community between the High Holidays and Oct. 7 commemorations. “Jews, Jewish institutions and even Jewish neighbourhoods are being targeted. It is despicable,” Chow told reporters on Sept. 8. At Beth Tzedec, the security budget has doubled since the spike in antisemitism following Oct. 7, 2023, and is now approaching $500,000 a year, according to Senior Rabbi Steven Wernick. He says the synagogue estimates it needs another $1.5-2 million to reach what he calls the “maximum reasonable safety” it can achieve. The growing security environment includes lockdown drills, bollards, reinforced doors and armed police. But Rabbi Wernick also laments the normalization of safety measures which Jewish people have come to expect, simply to enter a synagogue in Canada. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Rabbi Wernick about the difference between being safe and feeling safe—and why the new fence will be a striking sight for congregants arriving for services. Related Links Read what the Toronto Police Service and Mayor Olivia Chow said they will do to protect “despicable” targeting of Toronto Jews, between the High Holidays and the Oct. 7 commemorations, in The CJN. Rabbi Steven Wernick of Beth Tzedec describes why his heart broke earlier this year while his congregation did a lockdown drill with Toronto police, in The CJN. Hear Rabbi Wernick's reaction to Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech on antisemitism omitting anti-Zionism as one of the causes, on The CJN's North Star, in June 2026. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Fifty four days out from South Africa's local government elections, Geordin Hill-Lewis told BizNews nobody else is even campaigning yet, and made his case for why the DA could end up governing seven of the country's eight big metros. Sam Montsi, whose memoir Defying Barriers charts a career from exile in Lesotho to running businesses on two continents, told Chris Steyn where the politicisation of state-owned company boards went wrong. Dr Duarte da Silva made the case that South Africa isn't running out of gold, it's sitting on 48,000 tons of it, and explained why almost nobody in Pretoria seems to be listening. And at BNC#9 in the Drakensberg, value investor Piet Viljoen answered a delegate's question about executive pay, incentives, and what he calls his investing North Star. Plus the latest from Wall Street, via Reuters.

In this episode of For Advisors By Advisors, host Evan J. Mayer and co-host Scott Brown sit down with Bob Milligan, owner of 1792 Wealth Advisors, for an unfiltered conversation about twenty-two years in the wirehouses before building a branch of his own, why he walked away as a founding partner of Concurrent once the private equity conversation started, the phone call that kept him at Raymond James with all of his advisors intact, and why enterprise value is the North Star for an advisor's practice.Bob Milligan and Scott Brown's participation in the For Advisors By Advisors podcast is independent of their activity as a financial advisor with Raymond James.

Teri Ann Hourihan won the No Labels Arizona gubernatorial nomination in Arizona's primary election. Paul Johnson didn't support her candidacy in that primary—and Hourihan believes he hasn't always treated her fairly.So they sat down across from one another.What followed was one of the most personal and often contentious conversations on New Frontiers.Hourihan says her North Star is fighting what she believes is corruption inside Arizona state government. She describes her own Medicaid-related case, alleges fraud inside government, names officials she believes bear responsibility, and argues that some should lose their jobs.Then the interview gets personal.Hourihan and Johnson confront the history between them and why she believes he treated her unfairly during the campaign. At times, the conversation becomes emotional.They also discuss Arizona's water future, education, Andy Biggs, Governor Katie Hobbs, healthcare, Medicaid, and other issues facing the state.The two disagree over white privilege. Hourihan challenges Johnson directly about his own privilege. Johnson says he considers himself enormously privileged—starting with being an American—but questions whether assigning privilege based on race can become unnecessarily divisive and obscure the hardships of individual lives.And then they reverse the interview.Hourihan gets the opportunity to question Johnson. She asks why the party hasn't endorsed her after voters nominated her for governor. She asks what he really thinks of her. Johnson answers both questions directly.This isn't always a comfortable interview.It's a conversation about alleged corruption, grievance, trauma, race, political independence—and whether two people who genuinely disagree can sit across from each other, ask difficult questions, and actually listen to the answers.Chapters: 00:00 - Coming Up… 01:04 - Paul Johnson's Opening Remarks07:51 - Meet Arizona Governor Candidate Teri Ann Hourihan08:41 - Teri Hourihan Alleges Fraud & Corruption in Arizona Government29:29 - The Feud Between Paul Johnson & Teri Hourihan46:33 - Teri Hourihan on Andy Biggs & the Arizona Governor Race48:42 - Arizona's Water Crisis & the State's Future55:22 - Should Arizona Give Trump Its Voter Rolls?1:01:28 - Democratic Socialism, White Privilege & Political Division1:13:35 - Fixing Arizona's Education System1:23:19 - Arizona Prison Reform & Reducing Recidivism1:27:14 - AHCCCS, Medicaid Cuts & Arizona's Healthcare Budget1:38:51 - Teri Hourihan Turns the Questions on Paul Johnson1:52:50 - Final Remarks and Conclusion

This week, the Toronto International Film Festival will take over the city's downtown. Among the many films slated for red-carpet premieres is Our Loves, the latest by award-winning Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher, which will receive its worldwide debut on Sept. 13.– the second day of Rosh Hashana. The film follows ordinary people navigating troubled relationships when Hamas's massacre unfolds on Oct. 7—but the plot stays focused on how it affects their personal lives, rather than digging into the graphic horrors of that day. Some anti-Israel activists have called for the film to be boycotted from TIFF, and some Israeli media outlets report that there will be protests. Last year's festival was mired in controversy over Barry Avrich's The Road Between Us, a Canadian documentary about one Israeli man's journey to save his son during Oct. 7, which was scheduled for a debut, then cancelled abruptly—and ultimately reinstated, with an apology from TIFF's CEO. But Nesher told Ellin Bessner, host of The CJN's North Star podcast, that he sees his film's global debut here in Canada as a victory against the growing international boycott of Israeli art and artists. Listen to the full episode to hear why he still believes TIFF is not a political festival, and how he feels about fictionalizing stories surrounding Oct. 7 only three years after the tragedy. Related links Learn more about Avi Nesher's Oct. 7 -themed film Our Loves premiering at TIFF on Sept. 13 at the TIFF Lightbox. Watch the trailer for the film. Read more about TIFF CEO's apology to the Jewish community in 2025 after cancelling, then uncancelling, Barry Avrich's Oct. 7 film, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

If you hear this objection all the time, Ray has news for you: the real problem is not the prospect, it is that you are focused more on your solution than their actual problem. In this episode Ray teaches exactly what to say when someone tells you "I need to think about it," and unlike a lot of objections that need a custom response, this one has the same answer every single time. Ray grounds this training in his four P method, specifically the pillar of position, and explains the number one rule when you cannot make progress in a conversation: fall back on position. He walks through the exact words to use, starting with putting the prospect at ease instead of getting defensive, then asking the simple question that uncovers what initially made them take a look in the first place. From there Ray shows you how to gently guide the conversation back to their real problem or desire, and why your job is not to defend your product but to help the prospect see clearly that their problem is something worth solving now. Ray closes with a reminder that objections are not something to fear or avoid, they show up in the majority of every sale he has ever made, and the North Star through all of it is always their problem.

Australian-born creative director, gardener, and entrepreneur Richard Christiansen takes us from his childhood on a rural Australian farm to the front lines of advertising, magazine publishing, and creative agency life in New York before revealing how burnout and the upheaval of COVID sparked a radical new chapter: Flamingo Estate. What begins as a conversation about career pivots quickly becomes a rich exploration of creativity, intimacy, and the price of speed. Christiansen shares the unlikely path that led him from law school to London agencies, from Benetton's provocative campaigns to building Chandelier Creative, and finally to transforming his own home into a living, breathing brand rooted in the garden.   Along the way, he reflects on what it means to create with softness in a culture that rewards hardness, why “scale is the enemy of intimacy,” and how nature has become both his business model and his North Star. He also opens up about the lessons he learned from farmers, the philosophy behind his books, and why he believes the world is craving more beauty, ceremony, and human connection. For more of the latest business and innovation news, go to https://www.fastcompany.com/news To listen to the latest episodes of Creative Control on Fast Company:https://www.fastcompany.com/podcasts/creative-control

Should your CX mission statement stay behind the curtain or belong in the hands of the people who actually deliver your customer experience? We tackle a sharp listener question: in a B2B organization with an exclusive customer relationship, can sharing your customer experience mission statement improve alignment, especially when that customer shows up as your retail front line? We start with what a CX Mission Statement is really for: a universal, aligned internal language that acts as a North Star for decisions and behavior. I explain why strong mission statements avoid corporate jargon, internal acronyms, and empty superlatives like “best” or “greatest,” and why the focus has to move beyond products and services to the real outcomes customers need. Then we dig into the risk of sharing it externally. If the mission is even slightly aspirational, customers can treat it like a promise and hold you to it when you're not meeting it perfectly. But partnerships change the equation. When a distributor, channel partner, or exclusive customer is helping deliver the experience, we can't leave them out. I share a practical way to bring partners into alignment: identify overlapping moments in the journey, translate the mission into clear expectations, and provide “mission moments” that show what the mission looks like in real life. We also connect the dots to B2B buyer trust, where competence matters most and consistency and dependability sit right behind it. Subscribe, share this with your team, and leave a quick review so more CX leaders can find the show.Resources Mentioned:Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.comLearn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.comWant to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)

He fell in the mud. No change of clothes. A client starting in five minutes… George turned the car around anyway. Rushed his son into the school bathroom. And in the moment he was about to solve and fix and firefight his way through, his son looked up and said: "I need a hug, dad." That three and a half minute moment is a better story than anything George has planned in months. And that's exactly the point. This is the implementation guide for the Elizabeth Brett storytelling episode. George breaks down her complete Story Alchemy framework: the before, pivot, after, and purpose; plus four story types, two traps that kill storytelling before it starts, and exactly how to build a story bank from what's already happening in your life. What You'll Learn In This Episode: The three traps keeping most entrepreneurs from telling effective stories Elizabeth Brett's four-part story framework: before, pivot, after, purpose What "before state texture" actually means and why skipping it kills the story Why pivotal doesn't mean life-changing and what it actually means The four story types: authority, North Star, origin, and real-time Why scripting your story word for word is one of the biggest mistakes you can make How to build a story bank from what's already happening in your daily life Key Takeaways: ✔️You don't have a content problem. You have a story problem. And the gold mine has been sitting in your commute, your morning, your conversations all along. ✔️The three traps: complacency (storytelling became transactional), performance culture (telling who you had to be, not who you're becoming), and waiting for the big story (the small ones are where most connection actually lives). ✔️The before isn't just what happened, it's the texture. What were you seeing, thinking, feeling? Without it, the pivot has nothing to pivot from. ✔️A pivot is a literal change in direction. It doesn't have to be massive. A five-second conversation with a stranger counts. ✔️The after state: what opened up and what it reveals about who you are, is where "that's me" happens. Skip it and the story becomes an anecdote. ✔️Purpose turns a story into a tool. A story with no purpose is just an event. Know whether you're building authority, connecting, explaining your north star, or enrolling. ✔️Don't script it word for word. Have the frame. Keep the telling loose. The presence is the point. ✔️AI can't write what happened to you this morning. Your story is the only thing left that no one can copy. Timestamps & Highlights: [00:00] — Mud, a missed call, and a hug in a school bathroom, the story that started it all [02:01] — You don't have a content problem. You have a story problem. [04:30] — Three traps that kill storytelling before it starts [08:00] — The four-part framework: before, pivot, after, purpose introduced [09:30] — Part 1: The before state, give us the texture, not just the facts [13:00] — Part 2: The pivot, what it is and what it isn't [16:00] — Part 3: The after state, where "that's me" happens [19:00] — Part 4: Purpose, four story types explained [23:00] — How to match story type to what you need the story to do [25:00] — Trap 1: Don't script it word for word [26:00] — Trap 2: Don't wait for the big story [27:00] — The prison drive home, a real-time story lived out loud [29:00] — How to build a story bank from what's already happening Your Challenge This Week: Before you open your laptop tomorrow, find one moment from today or this week. Run it through the four parts. Voice memo it. Share it with one person. That's it. That's the whole assignment. Follow George: @itsgeorgebryant Work with George: The Alliance — Community for entrepreneurs building businesses on story, trust, and real connection. 1:1 Coaching — Limited spots. Apply at mindofgeorge.com/coaching-consulting/ Live Retreats — In-person experiences where your story gets found and told.

In this episode, I sit down with Farla Efros, a retail turnaround specialist, former president of HRC Retail Advisory, interim CEO of True Religion, go-to expert on BNN Bloomberg, and author of Fuck Cancer: Commanding a Comeback When Your Body Has Turned on You.With a career built on walking into corporate chaos and driving transformations, Farla faced her biggest turnaround yet in 2023 with an aggressive breast cancer diagnosis. Together, we explore how she applied her executive strategy, data-driven mindset, and dark humor to become the CEO of her own health, navigating loss, treatment, and personal resilience.In this episode, we discuss:How a background in retail turnarounds prepared Farla for her diagnosisTreating her health journey like her most critical consulting projectBuilding childhood resilience by skipping grades and facing early adversitySetting an aggressive "North Star" goal with her medical teamApproaching medical appointments with agendas and objective-driven meetingsNavigating grief from family losses while undergoing active cancer treatmentsWhy hope is not a strategy when advocating for healthcare needsAssembling a personalized executive board of medical and wellness specialistsPractical steps for medical advocacy, specific tests, and health preparationGrieving a former career while finding new purpose through The Healing Rebel Protocol About Farla:Farla Efros is President of HRC Retail Advisory, part of Accenture retail strategy, former Interim CEO of True Religion, and author of F*ck Cancer. After receiving an aggressive cancer diagnosis on a client call, she applied 30 years of Fortune 500 turnaround strategy to her own treatment. Now she teaches patients to bring "CEO Energy" to the exam room through her Healing Rebel Protocol. Book:F*ck Cancer: Commanding A Comeback When Your Body Has Turned On Youhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GYTFD9JN Website: https://farlaefros.com/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/farla-efros-93b641bInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehealingrebelcaFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Healing-Rebel-CA/61575491335248/ -----Connect with Candice Snyder!Website: https://www.podpage.com/passion-purpose-and-possibilities-1/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/candicebsnyder?_rdrPassion, Purpose, and Possibilities Community Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/passionpurposeandpossibilitiescommunity/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passionpurposepossibilities/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicesnyder/Shop For A Cause With Gifts That Give Back to Nonprofits: https://thekindnesscause.com/Go to FusionaryFormulas.com and use code PASSION at checkout for 15% off your first order. Fall In Love With Artists And Experience Joy And Calm: https://www.youtube.com/@movenartrelaxation

In this episode, Brig closes the Drain series by naming the authority drain: the energy lost when you do not know what you are for, what you are building, or what problem you are actually solving. Brig shares how, early in her coaching business, she spent thousands of dollars on programs, courses, workshops, and certifications because she had not made a clear North Star decision. She was buying solutions to problems she had not confirmed she actually had. The issue was not her skill. The issue was clarity. She explains that North Star decisions are high-level choices that make smaller decisions easier. When you know who you are, what you are building, and what matters most, you stop starting from zero every day. You have a filter for what to say yes to, what to pass on, and where your energy needs to go. This episode is for the woman who has done the work, bought the programs, hired the coaches, and still feels stuck. Brig reminds us that the next step may not be another solution. It may be getting clear on the actual problem, making one North Star decision, and building a simple protocol that removes the daily negotiation. What You Will Learn What the authority drain is and why it keeps you stuck. Why more skill is not always the answer. How North Star decisions make smaller decisions easier. Why you need to identify the actual problem before buying another solution. How protocols help remove daily negotiation and protect your energy. Why This Matters Brig reminds us that clarity protects energy. When you do not know what you are for, every decision costs full price. But when you make a North Star decision, your choices become clearer, your energy stops leaking, and execution becomes easier. Take Action This week, Brig invites you to: Identify the actual problem before investing in another solution. Make one North Star decision about who you are or what you are building. Create one simple protocol that makes a smaller decision automatic. To stay connected and receive more insights, sign up for the Reduce the Noise Memo, Brig's weekly newsletter that dives deeper into the topics discussed on the podcast. MENTIONED — 264 Why You're Exhausted By 12pm and You Ain't Done But One Thang 265 The Hidden Problem With Being Everybody's Person — But Nobody Is Yours STAY CONNECTED — Website | Instagram | Facebook

Have you ever looked around at other interior designers and thought, What do they know that I don't? They're booked out. Their projects look incredible. Their social media is polished. They seem confident, successful, and completely on top of their business. Meanwhile, you're staring at a quiet pipeline, difficult clients, late shipments, team issues, or a slow month and wondering if you're doing something terribly wrong. In this final episode of Tended, Michelle Lynne gets unusually honest about a season when her own business looked successful from the outside—but felt anything but successful on the inside. After unexpectedly losing two key team members in 2023, navigating the launch of Studio Works and Sidemark, and then experiencing a prolonged slowdown in leads through 2024 and 2025, Michelle found herself questioning everything—including whether she should walk away from her design firm altogether. And yet, if you had followed ML Interiors Group on social media during that time, you probably would have had no idea. The projects were still being photographed. The posts were still going out. The business was still moving. That's the point. You are comparing your behind-the-scenes to someone else's highlight reel. And that comparison can lead you to make decisions based on information you don't actually have. In this episode, Michelle talks about: What it feels like to go through a genuinely difficult season while your business still looks successful from the outside Why social media gives you an incomplete picture of another designer's business The danger of assuming that a designer who is "swamped" is necessarily profitable or successful Why busyness and business success are not the same thing How industry events and conversations at market can fuel comparison Why year-end highlight reels can make a slow season feel even worse How Michelle pulled herself out of the comparison spiral by returning to her own numbers, pipeline, margins, clients, marketing, and team The difference between learning from another designer and reshaping your business because of what you see them doing Why slow seasons don't necessarily mean you're falling behind The reminder that you are not uniquely behind and probably aren't missing some magical secret everyone else has figured out The big takeaway The version of someone else's business that you can see is always edited. You don't know their margins. You don't know their client relationships. You don't know whether they're profitable. You don't know what is happening behind the beautiful project photos or the confident conversation at market. So before you change your positioning, blow up your brand, restructure your services, or decide that everyone else has figured something out that you haven't, come back to your own business. Look at your actual numbers. Your pipeline. Your margins. Your clients. Your marketing. Your team. Your goals. Your business needs a North Star—not a comparison. And perhaps most importantly, remember: You are not separate from your business. Tending to yourself isn't the soft work or the extra work. It's part of the work. Running an interior design firm is hard. You don't have to pretend otherwise. Ready for support? If this episode—and the entire Tended series—hit a little too close to home, private coaching may be the right next step. Michelle works with interior designers who want experienced guidance from someone who understands the realities of building and running a design firm. Learn more about Private Coaching at Design Bakehouse.   Join Michelle at the Northeast Design Conference Michelle will be speaking at the Northeastern Design Conference during the first week of October.  Use code MICHELLE10 for 10% off your registration. Check the show notes for conference details and registration information.  

Host Jennie Nash talks with novelist and journalist Caroline Madden about why writers crave traditional publishing deals and how that desire can become an unhealthy obsession tied to external validation and “pick me” energy. Madden recounts a 20-year path to publication, including losing two agents and dying on submission, then changing her writing through Lisa Cron's Story Genius, Nash's Blueprint for a Book, and Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook; her later two novels earned deals, including her debut The Marriage Vendetta (HarperCollins) and a forthcoming book. They discuss how redefining “why,” setting a bigger North Star (for Madden, contributing to feminist issues), releasing desperation, and defining success concretely can stabilize writers through rejection and shifting goalposts. Madden advises seeking blunt, market-informed feedback from industry professionals and emphasizes control through craft and writing rather than chasing validation.#AmWriting is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Books Mentioned in this Episode* Story Genius by Lisa Cron* Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass* The Marriage Vendetta by Caroline MaddenBlueprint Courses

This week's energy is all about the guidance that's already trying to reach you, especially if you've been feeling stuck, unsupported, or unsure what to trust.The cards are highlighting:The subtle nudges you may be overlooking right nowWhy the “stuck” feeling might not be the full truthThe perspective shift that could reveal what you couldn't see beforeWhere your emotions are trying to give you important informationHow to come back to your own inner North Star when the outside world feels confusingYou may not be as unsupported as you feel. This week asks you to listen differently, look again, and trust the guidance already moving through you.You're Being Guided — But You Might Be Missing the Signs | Sept 4–11#weeklyreading #tarotreading #energyupdate #spiritualguidance #joyfulmediumGet Joy's Free "Sign Magnet" 3 Day Mini Course HERE https://www.joyfulmedium.com/sign-magnetJoy's Website: www.joyfulmedium.comInstagram: @JoyfulMediumTikTok: @JoyfulMediumFacebook: @JoyfulMediumFacebook Group: Joy's Soul SpaYouTube: Psychic Medium Joy Giovanni 

A Question That Stopped Me In My Tracks Have you ever heard a question that made you stop dead? Not because you didn't understand it. Quite the opposite. Because you understood it too well. That's what happened to me. I was listening to Chris Williamson on the Modern Wisdom podcast when he asked a question that stopped me in my tracks. And almost immediately I started searching for an answer. Not because I didn't know the answer. I did. And that was the bloody interesting bit. I realised that knowledge wasn't my problem. Action was. I knew what I wanted. I knew some of the things I needed to do. I've been doing this personal development stuff for long enough to have a pretty good toolbox. So why wasn't I acting? That question took me somewhere much more interesting than I expected. It got me thinking about my own search for meaning, direction, purpose and my North Star. It made me wonder about the dreams, goals and desires we have — and what might actually be stopping us from moving towards them. Because perhaps sometimes the problem isn't that we don't know what to do. Perhaps there's something underneath that knowledge quietly saying: "Not yet." And that's where things like limiting beliefs, emotional blockages, self-doubt and our internal voice can start to show themselves. What happens when you see opportunity differently? In this FMQ, I start exploring what might happen if we could make our dreams and goals: Bigger Brighter Richer Quicker And, perhaps most importantly, more enjoyable to pursue Because achieving something isn't the whole story, is it? How we experience the journey matters too. I want to explore how the way we see the world, the things we believe about ourselves and that little voice inside our heads can influence whether we actually take action. And I've got a feeling that question might give us a rather useful way of uncovering what's getting in the way. This is the seed... This is a Five Minute Quickie, so I'm deliberately leaving the question hanging. I'd like you to think about something you're working towards right now. Perhaps it's: Work. Health. Relationships. A project. A dream. A goal. Or simply letting go of something that's been holding you back. Write it down if you can. Don't solve it yet. Just bring it with you. Because in the longer Deeper Dive, we're going to explore the question properly and see whether we can turn it into a practical process for uncovering what's stopping us — and perhaps finding a better way forward. And who knows? Maybe your answer will surprise you. That's certainly what happened to me. Have a think. And enjoy every heartbeat. Please Share and pay it forward https://personaldevelopmentunplugged.com/fmq-540-a-question-that-stopped-me-in-my-tracks And if you want to see m,e recording this https://youtu.be/QM19D4Hzu8I

SummaryIn this episode, Cyndee Woolley, founder and CEO of C Two Communications, shares insights on strategic communications, cutting through clutter, crisis management, and building a personal brand in the AI age. Discover how to navigate the evolving landscape of PR and stay authentic in a noisy world.TakeawaysThe importance of holistic strategic communicationsHow AI is changing the landscape of PR and content creationThe concept of cutting through clutter to stand outCrisis communication best practices and real-world examplesThe role of authenticity and trust in reputation managementDeveloping a North Star or guiding principle for your brandThe impact of personal branding on business successStrategies for effective crisis response and communicationThe significance of owning your narrative and controlling the storyBuilding trust before a crisis occursChapters00:00 Introduction to Cindy Woolley and her expertise in communications03:45 The origin of the concept of cutting through clutter05:49 Lessons from crisis communication and managing public perception07:52 The role of AI in content creation and the importance of fundamentals10:08 Authenticity and the risks of deep fakes and AI-generated content11:50 Crisis management strategies and real-world examples14:08 The importance of owning your narrative and controlling the story16:03 Building trust before crises and the concept of a North Star 18:08 The impact of social media and rapid response in crises20:03 The significance of authenticity and human connection21:53 Personal branding in the modern era and its importance24:00 Using AI tools responsibly and maintaining credibility25:55 Strategies for effective crisis communication and decision-making27:59 The importance of a tight-knit communication team29:58 Lessons from public health emergencies and natural disasters31:53 The dangers of speculation and the value of buying time33:47 Escalation of messaging during crises and direct communication36:01 Case studies: COVID-19, hurricanes, and community support37:58 The importance of trust and authenticity in reputation management39:55 The role of a North Star in guiding brand integrity42:06 Balancing personal and corporate branding in small businesses44:12 The impact of personal branding on business success46:04 Creating a consistent narrative across multiple channels47:53 The future of personal branding in the AI age49:54 Strategies for building and maintaining trust51:52 The interconnectedness of relationships and communication53:53 The importance of authenticity and transparency56:00 Practical tips for small business owners and leaders57:54 Final thoughts and where to connect with Cyndee WoolleyLearn more: https://www.c2-com.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyndeewoolley/Credits:Hosted by Ryan RoghaarProduced by Ryan RoghaarTheme music: "Perfect Day" by OPM  The Eggs Podcast Spotify playlist:bit.ly/eggstunesThe Plugs:The Show: eggsthepodcast.com@eggsthepodcast on X and InstagramMike "DJ Ontic": Shows and info: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠djontic.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@djontic on twitterRyan Roghaar:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠rogha.ar⁠⁠

SEASON 4, EP. 248Guest: Ryan Bartlett | Co-Founder & Chairman, True Classic | Los Angeles, CaliforniaWeb: trueclassictees.comLinkedIn: Ryan Bartlett (30,000+ followEPISODE SUMMARY AND KEY TAKEAWAYSRyan Bartlett flunked out of Michigan State, went broke trying to make it as a poker pro in Vegas, worked nightclub VIP rooms in Orlando and LA, and then spent a year quietly researching the most saturated, commoditized category in fashion before deciding to shoot his shot. That company is True Classic, now one of the fastest-growing D2C apparel brands in the world.But this episode is not really about T-shirts. It is about what happens when a founder with a service heart builds a company around the belief that the customer experience matters more than the money. Ryan and Bart connect over Ritz Carlton-level service, the Humanality framework, and a story that started with two canceled orders, a TikTok live comment, and ended with five brand new True Classic shirts showing up at Bart's door unannounced.Ryan talks about the parents who believed in him through every pivot, the stepbrother who reminded him of a promise he made at 19 in the Bahamas, the co-founder who ran with the culture from day one, and why he tells his customer service team to throw the 30-day return window out the window. Every time. No exceptions. At all costs.What You Will Walk Away WithAt all costs means exactly that. Ryan's customer service mantra is simple: the customer needs to have a good experience, period. Even if True Classic loses money on the transaction. The word of mouth from one bad experience costs far more than the refund. His team knows this without being told twice.Ritz Carlton service is not a hospitality concept. It is a business model. Ryan built True Classic's culture around the same standard Bart learned at the Ritz. Surprise and delight. Notice, anticipate, over-deliver. CSAT score of 4.97 at all times. These were not aspirational goals. They were the baseline.Parents who believe in you change everything. Ryan credits his parents more than any business school, course, or mentor. They backed every instrument, every idea, every pivot. That unconditional belief became the confidence that let him walk into the most saturated category in fashion and know he was going to crush it.Most people get into businesses they do not love. Ryan's fill-in-the-blank answer is the throughline of his entire story: most people start businesses for the opportunity, not the passion. And when year two or three gets brutal, the opportunity is not enough to keep you going. The love is what keeps you going.It was never about the T-shirt. It was about giving 6 million guys the confidence to leave the house feeling good about themselves. That was always the North Star. The revenue followed the mission, not the other way around.Optimization never stops. Ryan lives in what he calls optimization mode — constantly scanning for things that are a 7 out of 10 and figuring out how to make them a 10. His next chapter is not another product. It is teaching the next generation of D2C founders how to build and scale a brand using what he actually learned from doing it, not from repackaging other people's advice.

AI Can Accelerate Your Strategy—But It Cannot Choose Your Direction Before You Implement AI, Align the Experience Companies are moving quickly to implement artificial intelligence, automation and new digital tools. But speed without alignment can create a more efficient version of the wrong customer experience. Before an organization decides what AI should do, its leaders and employees must agree on the experience they are trying to create. A Customer Experience Action Statement, or CXAS, provides that direction. It translates an organization's broad mission, purpose and values into a clear standard employees can intentionally deliver during every customer interaction. In a newly recorded opening to this encore episode, Denise Thompson explains why the topic is especially important now: Before companies implement AI, their employees, departments and leaders must be aligned around the experience the technology is supposed to help deliver. Then, in the original conversation, Denise and customer service authority John DiJulius explain how to create a Customer Experience Action Statement, the three pillars that support it and the systems required to keep it alive long after the launch. What Is a Customer Experience Action Statement? A Customer Experience Action Statement defines what every employee should intentionally achieve whenever they interact with a customer, client, patient, guest or colleague. Unlike a mission statement, it must be actionable, observable and relevant during even the smallest interaction. John explains why a CXAS is not another slogan for the breakroom wall. It is the behavioral North Star that helps employees make consistent decisions, creates organizational alignment and turns a desired customer experience into something leaders can teach, coach and reinforce. The Three Pillars of a Strong CXAS Every effective Customer Experience Action Statement is supported by three memorable pillars: 1. Expertise Employees must be brilliant at the basics. They should have the knowledge, consistency and operational excellence required to help the customer confidently. 2. Human Interaction Customers want to feel seen, heard and cared about—not processed as the next transaction. This pillar defines how employees should intentionally make people feel. 3. Above and Beyond When an opportunity presents itself, employees should be empowered to own the experience, solve a problem or create a memorable moment. John shares examples from The DiJulius Group, KeyBank, Starbucks, Superior Glove, Domino's and John Roberts Spa to demonstrate how organizations turn these pillars into clear, repeatable behaviors. Why a CXAS Must Come Before AI AI can accelerate decisions, communications and service delivery, but it cannot decide what your brand should stand for. Without a shared Customer Experience Action Statement, departments may automate different priorities and customers may receive a faster—but increasingly inconsistent—experience. A CXAS gives leaders a standard against which every AI use case can be evaluated: Does this technology help us deliver the experience we have promised, or does it merely make an internal process more efficient? Creating a Statement Is Only the Beginning The episode also explores why successful customer experience strategies require more than a launch. Organizations must certify employees, measure execution, recognize examples, refresh the language through microlearning and keep the CXAS visible long after the initial excitement disappears. As John explains, world-class customer experience is not a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The statement becomes transformational only when it remains top of mind and influences daily behavior. Work Directly With John DiJulius and Dave Murray on September 14 On September 14 from noon to 2:00 p.m. Eastern, John DiJulius and Dave Murray will lead a live, interactive Experience Revolution Membership session focused on creating and implementing a Customer Experience Action Statement that is actionable, observable and capable of driving consistent results. Participants will have the opportunity to work directly with John and Dave to develop or strengthen their organization's CXAS. Register or join the Experience Revolution Membership: https://thedijuliusgroup.com/membership/ Key Takeaways AI will accelerate whatever direction an organization is already heading, including the wrong one. A Customer Experience Action Statement should guide how every employee approaches every interaction. A CXAS must be actionable, observable, memorable and relevant to daily work. Mission statements and purpose statements are important, but they do not tell frontline employees exactly how to behave. A strong CXAS is supported by three pillars: expertise, human interaction and above-and-beyond service. Operational excellence and human connection must happen consistently; above-and-beyond moments happen when the opportunity presents itself. Three pillars are easier for employees to remember, apply and reinforce. A CXAS should guide employees internally rather than operate as an external advertising slogan. Launching the CXAS is the easy part; certification, accountability, measurement and reinforcement make it sustainable. Every proposed AI application should be evaluated against the experience the organization has committed to delivering. Quotes From the Episode "The Customer Experience Action Statement is what each and every employee should intentionally be doing every time they interact with someone else." —John DiJulius "This changes the culture. This is transformational." —John DiJulius "The only thing my employees better know verbatim is the Customer Experience Action Statement." —John DiJulius "I want someone that makes me feel like a human being—not next, not a transaction. I feel seen and heard." —John DiJulius "The first two have to happen every time: Be brilliant at the basics, and make me feel like a human being." —John DiJulius "There's magic in three." —John DiJulius "Achieving world-class status is not a ribbon-cutting ceremony." —John DiJulius "The Customer Experience Action Statement and pillars are a game changer. They ignite your revolution." —John DiJulius Chapters 00:00 Introduction to The Customer Service Revolution 03:30 Denise and John Reconnect 03:58 Creating Sandals' Customer Experience Action Statement 04:16 What Is a Customer Experience Action Statement? 05:51 Why Mission Statements and Core Values Are Not Enough 09:05 The Structure of a CXAS 12:28 Why Every CXAS Needs Three Pillars 13:15 Examples From TDG, Superior Glove and KeyBank 18:18 How to Start Creating Your CXAS 20:40 The Six Steps Required to Sustain It 22:45 Keeping the CXAS Visible and Top of Mind 26:07 Drawing a Line in the Sand for Customer Experience 26:31 Kindness, Human Connection and Final Thoughts   Links: Experience Revolution Membership:  https://thedijuliusgroup.com/membership/ The DiJulius Group Methdology: https://thedijuliusgroup.com/x-commandment-methodology/ Company Service Aptitude Test:  https://thedijuliusgroup.com/c-sat-forms/individual-c-sat/ Schedule a Complimentary Call with one of our advisors:  tdg.click/claudia Ask John!  Submit your questions for John, to be aired on future episode:  tdg.click/ask Customer Experience Executive Academy: https://thedijuliusgroup.com/project/cx-executive-academy/ Books:  https://thedijuliusgroup.com/shop/ Contacts:  Lindsey@thedijuliusgroup.com , Claudia@thedijuliusgroup.com If you want to learn how world-class organizations build cultures customers cannot live without, explore The Experience Revolution Membership. Inside the membership you'll gain access to livestream workshops, practical frameworks, and proven strategies used by organizations around the world. Learn more at https://thedijuliusgroup.com/membership/ Learn More If your organization is working to improve customer experience but struggling to connect it to measurable business outcomes, The DiJulius Group can help. Visit: https://thedijuliusgroup.com Listen to more episodes: https://thedijuliusgroup.com/the-customer-service-revolution-podcast/ Subscribe We talk about topics like this each week; be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss an episode.  

Summer is OVER crusaders, WELCOME FALL! Snooki finally had her first drink post-surgery, meanwhile Joey is sipping on the streets, popping off at the US Open, and spending the last remnants of summer on a yacht. Snooki kicks off product show and tell with a secret gift in the mail from none other than Kristin Cavallari’s “Uncommon James.” While Joey shows off his new defense mechanism against the ravaging fruit flies in his kitchen. These are the products of adult dreams. Things are heating up in Hollywood as Leah Remini is set to join the Season 16 cast of ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.’ Speaking of queens, Celine Dion is kicking off her final tour and it’s already selling out. And if our hearts weren’t already heavy losing Hayden Panettiere, we’ve lost a legend in Tim Curry and our North Star in Dolly Parton. Joey reminds us to celebrate the people we love everyday, sharing the kind and wise words of Dolly and the immense impact she made on all of us. As the September Shift makes its move, Snooki and Joey are in full preparation for Fall, making their way to Home Goods and TJ Maxx. Joey predicts a ‘90s nostalgia Christmas theme takeover as we’re craving some home and comfort. We’re talking plastic Santas and tacky colorful lights. We’re here for the kitschy tchotchkes and done with over-romanticizing beige luxury. And no home fall transformation is complete without binging ‘Gilmore Girls’ or ‘The Craft.’ Finally, Bethenny Frankel made it to Burning Man, as if the besties are over the heat, they just have to say, they’re not festival people, but good luck Bethenny. Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wes Wheless got laid off twice inside a few years. COVID, then the tech downturn. He wasn't angry about the second one. He just didn't have the energy to go attach himself to somebody else's mission again and wait for it to get taken away.He didn't have a plan. He took a couple months, picked up some contract work to hold him over, and then a light bulb went off: if he could find enough of these, he might never need a full-time job again.Four years later he's got a practice serving independent consultants and a book, The Expert's Privilege, that I told him he should have written before I left corporate.The core idea is three stacked pieces:You've built real, transferable expertise over your decades in corporate.That expertise has been inefficiently deployed inside the corporate machine.You can deploy it far better on your own.His metaphor for point two is the one that stuck with me. Imagine running a cruise line with a hundred ships and fifty of them permanently tied up in port. That's what corporate does with what you know.We also get into the stuff nobody tells you. Why hourly pricing punishes you for being good. What happens when a client pigeonholes you before you open your mouth. How he figured out which part of his own service people actually valued, and then sold only that. And the thing I keep running into with Gen Xers: deeply experienced people who sit down, look at twenty-five years of work, and say "I don't know what I know."In this episode:Two layoffs, and the one that changed his mind about going backClient zero, and why hourly was the wrong modelGetting pigeonholed as "a writer" and the pricing that comes with itThe coach question that triggered his pivot: do you actually like doing this work?Writing daily for two years before there was a bookWhy he deliberately left AI out of the bookThe Expert's Privilege, definedIntellectual headshots, and how asking former clients one question reshaped his businessInvesting in yourself when corporate always paid for it beforeTIMESTAMPS00:00 — Intro01:43 — Two layoffs, and why he didn't want another corporate role03:26 — Why almost nobody who gets out wants to go back04:32 — He didn't know solo consulting was even an option06:43 — What the work actually was: executive ghostwriting and content strategy08:22 — Client zero, and the first lesson about hourly rates09:18 — Project fees, and putting guardrails on your availability10:44 — Getting pigeonholed as "a writer" before the conversation starts12:14 — When the business model started breaking13:11 — The coach's question: do you actually like doing this work?13:41 — The pivot to serving independent consultants14:59 — Brett's own winding path out of corporate15:53 — The three-tier offer, and why clients almost always pick the middle16:50 — Helping people map their lane while they're still employed17:47 — "I never gave serious thought that I could take the reins myself"20:18 — Building authority from zero, and writing daily for two years21:44 — You turn around and there's a library there22:34 — The self-doubt going into the book23:10 — Not the book. A book. Your first book.26:11 — Brett's stuck manuscript problem26:33 — The North Star workshop and the parachute metaphor27:44 — Why he left AI out on purpose30:04 — The Expert's Privilege, the three stacked ideas30:53 — A hundred ships and fifty of them tied up in port32:10 — In the corner four months ago, desperate for his brain today34:00 — Most businesses need level one help, not level three36:28 — "I don't know what I know," and why that trap is so common37:34 — Start with the problem, not with yourself38:48 — Need-to-solve versus nice-to-solve39:26 — Brett on chasing energy as the compass40:31 — Intellectual headshots, and the one question that created them42:08 — Saying no, and the add-on that killed Brett's margin43:18 — Investing in yourself when corporate always covered it45:39 — Laid off tomorrow: square one, or a head start?48:05 — You're a business with one client. Is that a good deal?49:28 — Where to find Wes and the bookQUOTES"I wasn't angry. I just didn't have the energy to attach myself to someone else's mission again, just for it to get taken away in a couple of years." — Wes"Imagine you had a cruise line with a hundred ships and fifty of them were tied up in port permanently. That's how we are in corporate." — Wes"I was that person four months ago that was getting put in the corner. And here, in a different context, they're desperate to know what I know." — Wes"If you're good at something, an hourly rate doesn't do you any favors." — Wes"Don't think of it as the book. Think of it as a book. Even easier, your first book." — Wes, on the advice that unstuck him"I don't know what I know. I've done so many things that I feel like I can't do any of them." — Wes, on what he hears constantly"Think of your current job like you're a small business owner with one client. Is that a good deal for you?" — Brett"If you were laid off tomorrow, do you want to start from square one, or do you want to feel like you had a head start?" — WesABOUT THE GUESTWes Wheless is the author of The Expert's Privilege: A Self-Deployment Guide to Leaving Corporate and Going Solo (July 2026). After two layoffs, including one from the tech education company Reforge, he built an independent practice helping solo consultants pull their expertise out of their heads and turn it into visual frameworks, something he calls intellectual headshots. He now also works with people still inside corporate who want to map and pressure-test a consulting lane before they need one.LINKSThe book The Expert's Privilege: A Self-Deployment Guide to Leaving Corporate and Going Solo https://theexpertsprivilege.com/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Experts-Privilege-Self-Deployment-Leaving-Corporate/dp/1788464028Wes's site and services https://bio.site/weswhelessWes on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/wwheless/The Collective https://trp-collective.circle.soQuestions or guest ideas? bt@bretttrainor.com

Special guest and familiar face, Charles Oswald joins the Suite Spot in his return to the TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. As CEO & President of Aperture Hotels, Charles shares his insights on AI & technology in hospitality, capital investment challenges, and his vision for the Aperture Hotels brand.  Tune in now to the full conversation. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, here for another edition of our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers. Technically, a look back on a few years back when we visited with this particular individual and company trailblazing and paving the way forward in hospitality. That is Charles Oswald, president and CEO of Aperture Hotels. Charles, thank you so much for being back here on The Suite Spot. Charles Oswald: Oh, it’s good to be back. Thank you. Ryan Embree: Yeah. You’ve been busy. It’s been a long time. I had to look back and see the last time we visited here on The Suite Spot. We did our original hospitality trailblazers, really in the infancy of Aperture Hotels back in December 2023. A lot’s changed on that since then, right? So catch us up a little bit. What have you been working on? There’s been some incredible growth that we’ve seen with your company. Congratulations on that. But catch us up since we last visited. Charles Oswald: First off, so at that time when we had launched Aperture Hotels, we were coming out in the, in the wake of the pandemic. So if you kind of think back where we were three and four years ago versus today, there were a lot of properties that had gone through this economic shock, and there were owners who were reeling from that experience, especially those that had corporate business travel hotels as opposed to those leisure destinations that benefited from the pandemic. And so during that time, Aperture actually went on and took on almost 30 different properties that we added to the portfolio, that were, driven by those owners who needed a new management company to come and take a look at their, their with fresh eyes and take a look at their top line strategies, their expense controls. And so we had a lot of properties, and they were 100% of those properties were not through acquisitions, but were actually just performance turnaround assignments where they were switching management companies, to somebody to take a fresh look. So, with all that said, we found ourselves, walking into properties that were on, like, the sixth or seventh year of a five-year hold strategy for private equity firms or high net worth individuals and so on. And that quickly turned into turnarounds, which the story from us lately has actually been sales, a lot of sales, 20 plus sales over the course of this last year. And so today, as we stand here, I’m actually more rebuilding the pipeline with a mix of more management change assignments, plus a few pipeline of new developments. And those new developments are mostly, like, 100 or 300 room soft brand properties across the country. So yeah a lot’s changed for sure. Really rapid growth, really rapid sales, and now more sort of measured one at a time growth. Ryan Embree: Yeah, and I wanna talk about that, because I’ve had the privilege to talk to some management company owners and leaders, and they’ve kind of echoed that same sentiment of not just growth, but strategic growth. And that seems to be where you are right now, too. So when you kind of take a look at. I know you mentioned that particular segment, but when you take a look at the hospitality landscape right now, what makes the right strategic partner for Aperture Hotels right now as you kind of enter this cycle where you’re trying to build back up a little bit? Charles Oswald: You’re right. The right partner, it’s about fit. And when you look at the experience of our leadership team, we’re really engineered towards compact, full service hotels, lifestyle, premium select service brands. They can be brand or independent. We’d like to partner with owners that have some portfolio stable scalability. Preferably they own by that, I mean, they own more than one hotel, and there might be more than one opportunity there. You know, we wanna work with those owners that know what they’re doing, right? They’ve got some, some governance, sophistication, some decision speed. Hopefully, they’ve not just made bad investments when they’re turning over these properties, but really, they’re looking for some performance turnaround in a good investment. And preferably those are longer term holds. As you can tell, we did a lot of hard work for some turnarounds and watched them sell. And they sold largely to owners who had their own management. So that’s tricky for us, right? That leads us looking for more opportunities. So in terms of us in aperture and how we see ourselves in competitive points of difference is we’ve got a group that has hundreds of hotels of experiments. Myself, I’ve managed about 300 hotels now over the years, and they’ve ranged from little 60-room properties up to a thousand plus room convention hotels and resorts. And so what we bring is, we’ve got big experience in our leadership team, but we’re in a small package, right? A boutique-sized company that can give more corporate support to property ratio. And we’re very data-driven in how we use our decision-making tools to uncover those hidden business opportunities and the potential to drive market share and outperform GOP. Big experience, I’d say that corporate support, the data-driven decision-making process and tools, I think is really what sets us aside. And by the way, I’ll just mention that our average RGI that we’ve achieved in the first 18 months when you put us in place after another management company, the average RGI growth or repar index gains is actually just over 10%. So we’ve had, like, incredible turnarounds at the top line, which leads them to great bottom line improvements as well. Ryan Embree: Which makes it so much more impressive, too, with the climate right now. And these events that we go to would talk about operating and margins right now, and trying to be just efficient as possible, because costs are, are rising right now. It is certainly difficult to navigate, and I’m sure that experience that you’ve had has certainly lended itself to some great stories that you can then share to help grow that portfolio. And the other part of the experience that you were talking about is you have the data and the insights. And one of the places you find that data and insights is obviously hospitality events that are going on. I’ve had the pleasure of running into you at quite a number of these. If I’m not running into you, Charles, I’m seeing you up on stage conducting interviews or, or sharing some of your takeaways on LinkedIn after the event. You got a busy second half of the year. I wanna talk about these events, though, and how you kind of leverage them, right? So, why do you think these events, especially now, are so important? And then, how do you measure success of an event once it’s completed, whether that be a lodging conference, an investment conference, or whether it be, just an educational data event? Charles Oswald: Look, that’s a really good question. When you consider the time, travel budget, and the opportunity costs on an executive’s busy calendar to get out to these conferences and spend three, four days between the travel and the time out there, we’ve gotta be, we’ve gotta be very intentional, right, about how we approach it. So, I see value in going to these conferences because of deal sourcing and the relationship capital that we pick up. Also, I think there’s that market intelligence and the pricing signals that we get from those from this conference. There’s the access to capital markets. That was particularly important for me here recently as I was looking to as I’m in the process of acquiring a property right now in Phoenix, and when we needed to raise LP capital and we had those relationships these are people, again, we met at conferences. I think talent reputation, right, it’s important to get out there and continue to manage that. So those, those are a number of the reasons why we wanna get out to these conferences and why we think they’re important. But the measure of success, you’re right, for a data-driven guy, I wish I could put a specific number to it. Like, here’s the ROI from each of these conferences. It’s really difficult to. It’s really difficult to do, but I can tell you that, I do look back and, and aggregate those. I look at the management contracts we picked up, and I think of, “Okay, well, where did I meet these folks? And so what’s the average return?” And I can put a number to that. And I would tell you that in terms of the immediate return, what I’m looking for is if I can have three to five specific follow-up conversations, a result of that conference, then the trip was worth the cost. Ryan Embree: That’s great advice for young hospitality professionals out there. I mean, we have a great industry, and one of the coolest parts of it is you get to rub shoulders sometimes with those executives. So even those younger hospitality professionals that might be tuning in here, it’s a great piece of advice to when you can, obviously, try to get that exposure of networking and get out there because hospitality is certainly a big world, but it’s also a very small world, and you run into a lot of the same people. And again, this, just like you said, Charles, a lot of the stories, success stories, whether it be business relationships, some of those transactions could stem from sitting next to somebody at breakfast – Absolutely. On day two of a conference. Love to hear that advice, love to hear that those stay beneficial, because we love those. We’re hospitality people, right? We’re in that industry. Now, another thing you become kinda famous for your takeaways articles on LinkedIn. My advice would be to encourage anyone, definitely give Charles if you’re not already a follow, because you have some great insights and takeaways from some of the events that he goes to. So I’m gonna kind of put you on the spot here. If you had to do a takeaways article for the first half of 2026, maybe give us a couple points, and then if you could, maybe share some predictions. We’re hospitality people. We love to kind of predict, try to predict the future a little bit, so. Charles Oswald: Yeah. Well, maybe, maybe the biggest takeaway from the first half is that we’re not great in hospitality about predicting future. Ryan Embree: That’s a good one. Charles Oswald: So, as we rolled into 2026, there were a lot of folks that were saying it was gonna be, like, Groundhog Day, that we’re looking at flat, very modest, RevPar growth and expenses that, outpace, the top line. And I think what nobody saw coming was US demand growth in the first half of the year. Now part of this, I will tell you, if we look back in some panels, a year ago, I called part of this, which is I asked why is no one talking about the impact of the $30 billion increase in tax refunds that we’ll see, plus the real wage growth that’s happening, and what impact that could have on our industry? And, and a lot of people kind of poo-pooed and they said, “Well, you know, we don’t really know that the tax refunds are gonna be there. We don’t really know how those are gonna hit.” Okay. But we do. There was some, some mirroring it kinda like during the pandemic when you put money in people’s pockets, there were a lot of people that just went out and spent it. And so I did, I think that had a real impact on the, on the first half of the year. And then the other part that none of us saw coming, and I didn’t, was certainly there’d be a war in Iran and how the general global conflict can would affect the outbound travel case for the American traveler. So, that outbound travel, international outbound decelerated, right, while domestic leisure demand, stayed strong. So, that helped prop up the first half of the year. So there are some trends from the first half that I think will carry out to the second half. So for not getting in looking forward, I’d say that second half of the year, there’ll be more bifurcation. You know, we’re gonna see a continuing challenge to new supply growth, and we’re gonna continue to see labor costs rising, but at a bit of a decelerating rate. So if I were to expand a little bit on that, on the bifurcation, we’ve heard a lot of talk about the K-shaped economy. And really in that bifurcation, there’s some people talking about this hollowing in the middle class, and, and, and I think that’s actually very, very misrepresented. What’s actually happened is we’ve seen a growth generational wealth, over the course of the last 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And this is a long-term macro trend, okay? The fact is that there are fewer poor today, about a third less than there were, you know, 40, 50 years ago. There are few, fewer lower middle class, and no longer is the core middle class the largest classification of income in America. But according to the BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is actually now the upper middle class is the largest class, right? So people are moving up on this continuum, and they’re more wealthy. So when you start thinking about that, what does that affect on our industry? That’s why we’re seeing this interest in, towards experiential travel, towards the soft brands, towards luxury, and why upper upscale and luxury tiers have been outperforming. So I think we’ll continue to see that as we go through the end of the year. And the other story I think we’ll continue to see is that new supply, right? Man, the plan, I mean, there’s, like, you know, 10% supply growth planned. But what actually happens, is just a, you know, a fraction of a percent. And so, in there, the challenge, you know, debt isn’t the problem anymore. It’s more about equity and construction cost relative to the commercial real estate valuations,in interest rate market environment that we’re in today. Ryan Embree: Yeah, so you have a little bit tampered demand, or tampered, building construction because of those construction costs. And do not underestimate, again, the willingness and ability for people and wanting to travel and have experiences. I still think they even the younger generation, they’re getting some more money in their pockets, and the first thing that they’re wanting to do is plan a nice trip, right, before they go out and, and buy those expensive things that, which was, was typically would happen. Charles Oswald: Yeah, and I wanna just comment one thing though is we’ve talked a lot about economic resilience, and that resiliency definitely exists in the US, and it’s more resilient than a lot of folks probably though it was when you look back in time. However, some of that does seem to be breaking here, right? You know, you are seeing rise of credit card debt. You are seeing some increases in folks, particularly at the mid-scale and, and, and lower income classes defaulting on car payments and things like that. And so if you start to make a decision about, you know, do I travel or do I pay my, my car, that is going to affect the industry, you know, as we go forward. And, and that’s gonna play a little bit in that bifurcation that we were talking about. Those who are on the upper end have watched unreal growth for the last few years in their stock market portfolios. You know, they, they feel a little bit more free and, and open travel. Ryan Embree: Yeah, it’s interesting. You’re right. You know, we always talk about still prioritizing travel, but travel over things. But when tho- those things become, like you said, payments or car payments, then all of a sudden the priorities start to shift a little bit. So it’d be interesting to see how that continues in the second half of this year. Now, another topic we that you’re gonna hear at every single hospitality show, it’s a bingo card, is AI and technology. And you, and you actually speak a lot. I’ve seen you on panels speak a lot to it in, in your interviews. Where do you think the hospitality industry, which we’ve said typically is one to slowly adopt technology? Where do you think we are in this cycle of AI adoption? And then maybe you could zoom in a little bit into your organization and, and where you’ve prioritized that, or maybe stayed away from it. Charles Oswald: Maybe we kind of break that down into sounds like three or four areas, right? I think, yeah, it’s what’s the biggest impact today? What’s kinda happening now? And maybe where’s it going? Sure. And, uh, and how do we play into that as a management company, right? Yeah. So I guess there’s four ways. In terms of the biggest impact today, it’s for sure it’s been, it, it, it’s been in distribution, right? Uh, GEO and AEO are the new SEO. And so, um, uh, maybe what’s accelerated hospitality is entrance into AI because the customer was using it to search for hospitality, and then all of a sudden we woke up and said what – Ryan Embree: Great point. Charles Oswald: It’s not just about keywords, but how, how do we become the answer to the question they’re asking? And so that’s, uh, that’s certainly the biggest impact today is on the distribution side. I think what’s happening in progress, we’re starting to see more in the areas of revenue optimization and design, right? Like on, you know, when it comes to new hotel renovations and they and developments. And then the future, where’s it going? I think we’re gonna see AI more in our, more closely integrated into our business analytics, like and that’s gonna extend into labor scheduling and productivity. I think we’ll see it help us in energy management and procurement. Things like F&B menu engineering both from the creative standpoint and kinda marrying that with the math, right? Like, what the cost of plate is and what the customer’s actually buying. And and that’s really important. IAnd by the way, that’s a weak spot, I think in the industry. There are an awful lot of management companies that are not very good on food and beverage side. So at Aperture, what are we doing? First off, I would say we lean really heavily on our tech partners to adapt, adopt AI for their analytics or reporting insights. And today insights has become the real opportunity, right? I mean, if you ask your BI system, you know, it’s one thing for them to be able to pull a report or show you some side-by-side comparisons, but the insights, like, why is this happening? You know, you can tell me, me what my flow-through is, it’s great, but, like, what should it be if we had run according to all the budget metrics that, like, that we put out there? They’re, they’re weak on that side, at least to date. So I think that’s gonna be the next step is that is conveying those analytics and reports to insights. And so, we’re keenly working with technology solutions that they can implement in those ways, and digital marketing efforts that help us improve the distribution that we were talking about earlier, GEO and AEO. And from a practical day-to-day standpoint, you know, we’ve incorporated, cloud enterprise solutions in our daily work and our applications, like, you know, Excel and SharePoint, et cetera, like a lot of other companies have. But we got plenty of room, plenty of runway there when it comes to AI. Ryan Embree: Absolutely. Yeah, 100%. So, uh, every day, yeah. every hour, it feels like sometimes with these announcements. Um, but yeah, you, you mentioned something really, really fascinating at the top of that, the answer of, you know, I think the adoption cycle sometimes with technology and hospitality has been slow because we’ve tried to, sometime, “Hey, download our app,” right? We’re, we’re trying to get the customer to move with the technology that we want them to move into, and the ecosystem that, that, “Hey, you know, do this.” And now, what’s happening is we’re seeing the consumer move into these LLMs and, and AI search, and now hospitality’s kind of been like, “We have to catch up because this is where our customer is,” right? So maybe that does cause a little bit of, uh, acceleration. So, because that is the biggest thing that we’ve been hearing as well, is just AI visibility. There is just this, this fear of a couple years ago, it was the fear of doing anything and being like, “I’m not doing anything with AI and technology. Now it’s like, now I have. My biggest fear is keeping me up, is I’m not being found on AI, uh, search engines and LLMs.” Charles Oswald: Yeah, let me tell you, like, just a great example, I was traveling not long ago, to Chicago, and I had a trip to Nashville, and I was just curious. I just, I went to Google – Yeah. And said, “Hey, what are the, what’s the best hotel in Chicago?” And it gave me a list of sponsored results. So it was like, I don’t know, half a dozen or so hotels there. And it gave me a list of, like, you know, here’s what says, and there’s like 20 properties there, and there is, AAA and Forbes, and there was the map and so all this stuff, and I’m like, “Wow, there, there’s, like, you know, 60 best hotels in Chicago.” And so then I moved over, just out of curiosity, I asked, uh, Claude, “What’s the best hotel in Chicago?” Gave me one answer, named one hotel, this is the best. And it gave me a little honorable mention list of three properties underneath it. I thought, oh, my gosh. And then I did the same thing with Nashville. I get one answer – Yeah. And it’s honorable mentions. And it really started making me think, oh my gosh, like, like, if, if only one hotel is gonna come up with that, how do I make that money? And, uh, and who is this, who is this, um, generative AI trusting? And so, so, so we began to dive really deeply in that conversation about, like, when, where are these trusted resort returns coming from, and how do we influence that, right? How do we make sure we appear there? Ryan Embree: 100%. Yeah, that’s the, the next race right now is to try to figure that out. And that’s difficult. Charles Oswald: Kind of back up and just elaborate, just one more comment – Yeah. Is just that, that, like, in Google, I mean, it’s, sure, it’s trusted. I don’t think anybody says that you don’t, you don’t trust Google on those returns and the 60 properties that it’s sent, but – Right. It’s returning the results that it wants you to see, the search engine. Whereas Claude, ChatGPT, Grock, others, they’re returning the results that, as the consumer, I wanted to see. Ryan Embree: And that’s, and that’s the, I think that’s the difficult because it almost changes into a little bit 40 chess, because I might ask the same question, and based on my search experience, it could look at a different best hotel in Chicago than could be your best hotel in Chicago. Once you go down that. Yeah. Charles Oswald: Are you Going there for business, or is it a wedding, or is the soccer team? Yeah, right. And it, it might know the purpose. It might know lis – a little something about you. You’re exactly right. Ryan Embree: Well, uh, uh, listen, I’m gonna take us back before we get to, into that to rabbit hole and, and lose everybody there, because one of my, uh, one of the favorite parts of the conversation, and we’ve done, you know, now this, I think we’re, we’re over 200 episodes here, but one of the, one of my favorite parts, uh, places of our conversation, Charles, back when we first spoke, was hearing the origin story of aperture hotels and, and the name for it. And so, uh, I wanted just to revisit that for those who may have missed that episode. Can you share that story again and why this whole shift your perspective, which you can find on your LinkedIn, your website, everywhere, that mindset has really resonated, uh, with, so well with, um, hotel owners, investors, and has, has been an important part of your s – your company’s success. Charles Oswald: Oh, wow. Um, you know, thank you for, uh, for asking that question, uh, and, uh, and it’s a reminder and the flashback. You know, so, uh, so what is an aperture, first off, right? It’s, it, it’s, it’s in that, you know, that, that, that camera lens that allows light, right, to, to, to pass through, right? So, so it creates a clear, well-composed image. And so I think from a hospitality brand, um, that maps into some of our values. Um, you know, we talk about transparency and accountability. We talk about clarity and vision, right? Like, an owner sees a, a hotel’s position, um, uh, potential, and we can help capture it, right? We help focus, bring focus. Precision and control, you know, I, I think that helps, uh, convey into our views on process orientation across the enterprise and, you know, and consistent execution. One of our core values is about being actively curious, right? Like, how do you scratch beneath the, the surface and shine a light on, on what that is, right? And, you know, what can we do to, to make, you know, to reveal those, those, the, the hidden business potential? We think about, you know, when we’re walking into the hotel and, and, and we’re touring our, our properties and, and, and looking for those, um, those guest experience improvements, it’s like, how do we make this, uh, picture perfect for the customer who arrives, right? What that arrival experience, what are the first moments of truth? And so I think all of those things, that, that transparency of clarity, vision, precision control, uh, you know, picture perfect, uh, all these things, um, sort of play into that aperture name. But I’ll be honest, there was another part of this, uh, which is that, you know, there’s, like, 400 hotel management companies out there, uh, and there’s hundreds more that used to be. Finding an original name is admittedly difficult. Every name you can think of has been, uh, used. Sure. Uh, we, we were fortunate, uh, to be able to find something that was original that didn’t, you know, pigeonhole us into something like, you know, calling ourselves, uh, Sunbelt Management or something like that. So, so, so that did work out well for us. Ryan Embree: Yeah. Well, I love it because, you know, you, you mentioned at the top that this was, you know, Aperture Hotels was really their origin story started during and during that COVID time, right? During and after that COVID time. And I think it was in those conversations, the companies and organizations that I spoke to that had a very clear North Star, a very clear direction of who they are and their culture during that time, because it was such a difficult time. So to have such a strong kind of name and you have all of those things, I’m sure that is, has been so beneficial for you as you continue to grow and scale, because you need that, right? You need something to kind of lean back onto and be kind of your Compass North, your North Star, however you wanna to phrase it. But I love to hear that. And like I said, it, it stuck with me all these years afterwards, so I wanted to touch on it again. And, um, I saw recently on LinkedIn that, uh, you and your team wrapped up a leadership conference in, uh, New Orleans. Tell us a little bit about that event and how, how instrumental the team has been, and also your, your success over at Aperture Hotels. Charles Oswald: Oh, that is. Well, yeah, that, that, that was a fun time. Uh, first off, getting together, getting our team together – Yeah. For that annual conference is my favorite part of the year really energizes me. Um, you know, I’m so grateful for, for, for, for the team that’s doing this work on the ground and, and the leadersh – uh, we have out there in the field. You know, I think often we talk about performance. We send around our balanced scorecard. We measure and we rank people and, and, uh, you know, we talk about process and so on. And that, and that’s, that’s an important part of the, uh, uh, of what we cover in the, uh, in, in our annual leadership co – uh, conference as well. But, um, but I think when you’re rubbing elbows, uh, you know, you’re in the same room with everybody. Uh, there’s, there’s a different level of, you know, preparation, focus, and curiosity, you know, team member bonding and relationship that happens. And, you know, and I love how in the aftermath of these conferences, we, you know, we hear about how, you know, the general manager, you know, in, you know, in the US West, it’s called the general manager in the US East, and they’re – Sure. They’re getting together and collaborating now on, on, on best practices and, and how they dealt with certain challenges maybe that are shared experiences that they’re having. So that’s where it happens, right? I mean, you get out there in a conference together like this where I think i- ideas get sharpened, uh, perspectives broadened. People learn, you know, here’s some insights, and they, uh, you know, share in their experiences. They challenge each other. And, uh, we, and, and we come out of it just, uh, winning together. And by the way, I should mention also, there’s some really great food, uh, so – Oh, I know. Yeah, yeah. Sorry. New Orleans. Uh, I’m a big eater. Ryan Embree: Yeah, that, that helps too. Uh, Charles Oswald: A few extra, but I’ve never missed one. And, uh, New Orleans is a great place for someone to like me, that’s for sure. Ryan Embree: Yeah. We, well, we talked about how quickly things are moving right now in hospitality, and it’s so important to kinda get everybody together in one place. And we’ve seen how you prioritize, obviously, the, the bigger hospitality events across hospitality. So sometimes to get that dialed in with your team, just so important. And great to hear that that continues to be. ‘Cause if you remember back in the day, we were hearing that that was gonna be the end of this, by the way. Everybody was gonna have these leadership conferences on Zoom, and everyone was gonna love it, and nobody was going anywhere. So, uh, love to see that that, that prediction didn’t come to pass. Now, you’re – Charles Oswald: Yeah, you know, the funny thing about that, Ryan, is – Sure. Is that we’re out there in hospitality on the sales front. We were telling our companies, our clients, why they all need to get together. And hospitality companies are like, “Well, but, but we’re gonna do it on Zoom.” Ryan Embree: Right. Right, exactly. Right? We gotta practice what we preach a little bit Charles Oswald: Both Sides of our mouth, right? Yeah. Yeah. And, and enjoying some of the hospitality, uh, that we provide every single day, right? So, so you’re headquartered in Atlanta, Charles, you’ve got. But the portfolio spans across the country, you mentioned it. Are there any particular markets that you’re seeing strong opportunities and maybe some that you’re cautiously maybe staying away from for a bit right now? Charles Oswald: Well, uh, first off, the Atlanta part. Um, right? I mean, we’re, we’re the transportation hub of the Southeast, but, uh, arguably the country and the world with the world’s biggest and busiest airport. So when we talk about, like, w- where we’re willing to go, we’ve got a competitive advantage from here in the, uh, in that we have more direct flights to more cities across the country and the globe than any other, an- anybody. Else, right? Uh, coming out of, uh, the world’s biggest and busiest airport. So, so that’s, uh, that’s, that’s really nice and not to mention there’s a, there’s certainly a lot of drive markets, uh, that are within four, four hours of, uh, of Atlanta. So, um, so yeah, that makes us pretty opportunistic when it comes to, uh, uh, hotel management assignments. You know, ideally, uh, you know, we’re looking, ideally we’re, we’re looking at, you know, those top 100 or so cities. Ideally, you know, we, we, we certainly have better presence in the eastern half of the US, but we do span from Florida beaches to coastal California. In terms of the type of markets that are, that are more ideal and better fit for us, you know, generally speaking, they’re, you know, a lot of the, the southern markets are, uh, you know, certainly performing well. They’re business friendly. We avoid union hostility, uh, where, whenever possible, right? Sure. And, um, you know, th- those are the type of markets where we’d wanna go. And in terms of, of the type of hotels, you know, again, I think leaning towards the bifurcation that we know exists in, uh, in the industry that kinda says, you know, you gotta be great at, uh, soft branding experiential properties, right? And some lifestyle assets. And, and so that we’re, we’re, we’re leaning that direction. And you see it in our pipeline. You know, so, so our pipeline includes, you know, includes today, uh, multiple Marriott, Hilton, soft branded assets, like, like Tribute and, you know, and Tapestry Autographs. We also have, uh, some brands like Compass by Margaritaville sitting in the pipeline, right? And, and independent. Um, so, so really cool, exciting places where we get to create our own brand, really, our own store – Yeah. Based off of the building that’s there. And all of those new development projects that we’re talking about have, um, they have a lot of credit. I mean, that’s the only way you can pull these off today is if you’re, if you’ve got historic tax credits, you know, so we’ve got that in multiple places and hundred plus year old buildings. It’s, you know, great stories to tell. Uh, we’ve got, uh, you know, tax increment financing, PIDs, we’ve got enterprise zone, we got the CIPLA, you know, many other different factors that have played into making a capital stat that actually works. Uh, and that’s the way to, you know, that’s, that’s the way we’re getting it done and, uh, on the new development side. Ryan Embree: Well, those are fun projects, let me tell you. Um, I, I, I’m sure to work on, because it’s like you said, I mean, you get to tell a story there. Um, sometimes there’s a story already ingrained with these historic buildings that then become a, a key foundational component of, uh, you know, what you’re building on, um, so to speak, and, you know, uh, literally and figuratively when, when it comes to your maybe digital story. So, yeah, very, very cool to see. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll be excited to watch, watch those come to, to life. I want to. We’re, we’re wrapping up here, Charles, but I always feel like it’s always my duty, you know, having the privilege to talk to leaders like you, try to just get as much inside advice as I can out of you during this time. Obviously, as a business owner, you know, starting a business never easy, so much vision, resilience, incredible amount of commitment, especially doing one where you started it during a historic time and around COVID, right? But looking back on your journey building Aperture, you know, what advice would you give maybe to the next generation of hospitality leaders? It doesn’t necessarily have to be about if someone’s wanting to build their own, uh, management company, but e- even just a hospitality professional just now today in 2026? Charles Oswald: That’s a good question. You know, some things that come to mind is, uh, it’s a one in whatever business you’re, you’re doing, if, if you’re trying to be entrepreneurial and you wanna be an owner, I’d say, you know, choose your partners carefully, right? If you’re coming up in the business, I’d say, um, master the numbers, you know, not just your gut. If you’re, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re in the hiring seat, uh, uh, as a, as a team leader, I would tell them to, um, make sure they treat people decisions as serious as the capital decisions, right? Very, very important. I think from a business development standpoint, uh, I say those guys that are trying to, you know, build a, a portfolio need to y – learn to, to read the deal and not just as an operation. I think young or old, we should embrace the tech shift. I couldn’t believe I, I have some college professor friends, I do some advisory work at several universities, and I listen to, uh, college professors and some students out there, uh, who are very, being very resilient, r- resistant to AI, talking bad about it, they view it as a threat. And, uh, I’m like, “Hey, guys, y’all need to know that we do employ people, employers are looking for those young folks to come out with some experience and exposure and learning, uh, you know, and, and, and to have some insights in how to, how, you know, we cannot adopt AI at our companies.” And, and, uh, you know, you’re doing an injustice if, uh, if you’re resisting tech shift. Uh, so, and lastly, I would say think about your reputation management, right? Like, like, protect your credibility with your owners, with your franchisors, like it’s capital, because it is. Ryan Embree: Great advice. Sound, sound about. We got. That was comprehensive. Thank you for, thank you for sharing that. No, really appreciate it. Like I said, you know, uh, try to glean as much as I can out of these conversations and share it. Um, all great advice. Um, you know, hopefully we don’t have to wait three years next time to have you back on the podcast. Would, would love to catch up with you then, but who knows where, where you’ll be and, and the growth, uh, of Aperture Hotels. But what’s next? Like, as we wrap up today’s final question, kinda what’s your vision for the future as you look into the, this latter part of the half of the 2020s, right, for Aperture Hotels? Charles Oswald: Yeah, I think, um, being involved in a few developments is, is, you know, the one side. I’d say there’s just ongoing organic growth of, uh, taking on, on, uh, new management contracts, and they’ll probably mostly still be through, management company transitions as opposed to actual ownership transitions. And then, look, M&A is on the table, right? We, we’ve studied, uh, a few other small management companies that we can maybe, uh, acquire or merge in with. And I think that’s, yeah, I, I’m continuing to be open to that, uh, that conversation and, and, uh, uh, I hope to probably do just one. Uh, I don’t think multiple, but, but, but probably just one that’s really the right fit and the right strategic play. Ryan Embree: Awesome. Well, we’re excited. It’s been cool to watch your journey and aperture hotels from when we first spoke with you to here we are now and wish you nothing but success. So thank you so much, um, for taking the time to, to spend some time with my, myself as well as our sweet spot listeners, Charles. Charles Oswald: Yeah. Thank you. It’s great chatting. I appreciate it, Ryan. Ryan Embree: alright. Thanks, everyone. We’ll talk to you next time on The SuiteSpot. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with cover art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host, Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.  

Denis O'Shea, Founder of Mobile Mentor, helps organizations pursue a clear goal to simplify your tech environment while strengthening security and empowering employees to remain productive. Driven by the joy of learning and intellectual adventure, Denis left a 15-year career at Nokia to build a company that learns about emerging technologies, translates them into business outcomes, and mentors customers through change. In this conversation, Denis introduces The Tech Stack Streamlining Framework: Understand Current Tech Stack, Assess Capacity for Change, Benchmark to Peers, Build the Roadmap, and Deliver Simplified Tech Stack. He explains how immersing his team in a customer's environment, asking thoughtful questions, and benchmarking the organization against its peers can reveal a clear path toward a simpler technology stack. Denis also discusses Mobile Mentor's fast-growing mentoring service, how its Microsoft partnership transformed the business, the challenge of finding technology professionals who are natural mentors, and why people must remain responsible for the quality and accuracy of everything they produce with AI. — Simplify Your Tech Environment with Denis O’Shea  Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here, Management Blueprint Podcast. And today my guest is Denis O’Shea, the Founder of Mobile Mentor, a technology service provider helping thousands of clients find and maintain the right balance, securing devices, protecting data, and empowering people to be productive. Mobile Mentor is also a five-time Microsoft award winner. So Denis, welcome back to the show.  Thank you, Steve. Thank you for having me back. And I have to say, you look fantastic. You’re aging gracefully, and I hope I’m doing the same.  Well, unfortunately, my barber is on vacation, so I couldn’t visit him last week. But it’s great to have you back on the show, and we couldn’t agree whether it was two or four years ago that you were here. Anyhow, it’s great to have you back, and I’ve got some questions for you that I’m curious about. And first and foremost, the question is, what is your personal Why, and how are you manifesting it in your Mobile Mentor business?  My personal Why is probably learning. And I think the reason I went into business in the first place was to learn and grow as an individual. It certainly wasn’t money. I expect money as an outcome from the process, but I didn’t go into it for money. It was really to learn, and the trigger for me was I did an executive education program in Switzerland. I was living there for a few years, and that blew my mind. That just exploded my mind when I started learning all about mergers, acquisitions, turnarounds, management buyouts, all these different ways of growing a business that were nonlinear.  And that motivated me to go on and do an MBA, and that then motivated me to leave my employer, who was a great company. I was working for Nokia for 15 years. They were amazing, but I decided to leave them and go out and embrace all this nonlinear stuff and found a company from scratch. And one day I thought maybe I’ll do a spin-out, or maybe I’ll do an acquisition, and I’ll do all these different things. And it was purely for the joy of learning and the intellectual adventure. So I think that’s my Why. It’s learning.  Yeah. Well, learning is great, and it’s a big driver of businesses when they are able to learn, especially in today’s age. So tell me a little bit about how Mobile Mentor is reflecting this way of learning. Is it a learning organization, and in what way is it?  Oh, that’s an interesting question, Steve. I would hope we are a learning organization. Something I’ve been saying to my kids and my staff for years is, “We’re a learning species. We can learn anything we put our minds to.” And so I would hope we are a learning organization. And the word “mentor” plays a huge part in not just our brand, but how we work. So we’re a technology service company. We’re always unpacking the latest technology and helping customers figure out what to do with it and how to extract value from it.  So I would hope that we’re good at learning what the technology can do and then translating that into outcomes for customers and helping people unlock the full potential of the technology they’ve just purchased. And when we started 22 years ago, we were focused on mobile devices. That’s why the company’s called Mobile Mentor. Nowadays, it’s mainly AI and security and all that. And by the way, we’re going through a rebrand. The company’s just going to be called Mentor going forward. Just Mentor. So that we can work with all technology, so we remove any association with that small device where we started 22 years ago. So I think we are very good at learning, internalizing the new technology, and then translating that into business outcomes for our customers.  Yeah.  That’s what I feel like our core skill is.  Yeah. And I love this concept of mentoring because essentially it’s not about teaching people, it’s about helping people discover how to be great. And if you can do that, that’s amazing. So that brings me to the next question, which is about frameworks. So this, as you know, this podcast is about frameworks, and what I’m curious about is, what’s a framework that has helped you grow this company, build this company, or help your clients or mentor your clients? Maybe it’s a mentoring framework. Maybe it’s a technology framework. So something that comes to mind that can be explained in three to five steps to our listeners.  Sure. We have a really strong framework at the front end of our sales process. It’s an assessment and roadmap we do for customers. And it’s something that’s on our website. It has a price point, so it’s got a value, but we choose to give it away for free when we get a strong, well-qualified opportunity, or when we have a channel partner bring us a strong lead. We will use this assessment and roadmap process to build a vision for the customer. And the way we do it, we’ve got a good framework for this.  We go through an assessment. So we tell the customer, “We’re going to have a look at your environment holistically and get a really good understanding of the technology stack you have today, all the different technologies you’re using, and also get a good understanding of your organization’s capability and capacity for change, and how you embrace change, how you make change happen. “And we’re going to show you how you compare to a whole bunch of other organizations.” I think we’ve done 174, 175 of these in the last maybe three years. And so we show the customer how they compare to others in their industry and also against others roughly their same size. And then, most importantly, we build out a roadmap, and we show them, “Here’s how you can potentially go from where you are today with today’s technology stack,” which is usually very busy, it’s usually a long list of technologies, “to a much simpler technology stack in the future if they’re willing to consolidate on one or two platforms and do all the possible integrations, automations, and simplifications so that they’re extracting much more value from one or two platforms, like Microsoft, than having a whole colorful mix of different technology vendors.”  So we’ll say, “Here’s a journey you could go on,” and then we describe it in vivid detail, showing all the different parts and how they would go passwordless, how they would automate setting up new employees and all the technology they need, how they would automate all their patching and security, how they would embrace AI into their operations, how they would use AI for productivity improvements, and kind of show this technology journey. That process, or that framework, of doing an assessment, and it covers 120 different topics. So we do the assessment, the comparison, the roadmap.  We find that to be extremely powerful because customers will look at that, and they’ll look at the destination and say, “Right. We want to be there. We want to get that outcome,” and then they’re buying off us. We’re not selling to them. They’re basically saying, “Okay. We want to get there. How do we do it? Help us. How can you come in and help us do it?” So the narrative flips from us being a sales organization to then being a mentor and helping the customer figure out how to get there.  And of course, we want to sell services, and we want to sell long-term contracts to say, “Yes, we can take you from here to there, and it’s a three-year engagement to do all those changes.” So that’s what we want. But the customer is buying it off us because they’ve bought into the destination.  Yeah. And that’s the modern buyer’s journey, right? They research you. Before even they come to you, they want to listen to you because you might have something for them. So I love this framework. So what I noted down was step number one, understand the technology stack that they have. Step number two, assess their ability to manage change or to handle change.  Yeah.  Then you benchmark them to others in their industry or in their peer group. Then you build the roadmap, and then you show them the simplified end state, the simplified tech stack.  Correct. Correct. And then we give them options around how we can help them to get there. Usually, there’s three options. And we say, “Well, what style of engagement works best for you? How would you like us to work with you?” And then it becomes a very comfortable, easy sales process from there, and it becomes easy because we’ve done all the listening.  So when we do the assessment and we cover 120 topics, we do 60 questions in 60 minutes. So it’s two one-hour sessions. And we call it our “friendly interrogation.” But what happens during that time is what I call a selfless immersion in the customer’s world. So we don’t talk about us. We never talk about us. Everything is about them, their technology stack, their environment, their processes, their technical dependencies, all the things about their organization.  So we get this really rich understanding of their environment. And at the end, guess what they say, Steve? Or guess what they say at the end of that interrogation or that assessment session?  I don’t know. Give it to us. What do they say?  They say thank you, which is extraordinary, and it surprised me when it started happening. But people love to be heard. We’re not selling. We’re not pitching anything. We are just seeking to understand their environment and asking a whole bunch of really good questions. So we don’t need to tell them who we are and what we’ve done, that we’ve won Microsoft Partner of the Year and blah, blah, blah. We don’t need to do any of that.  They know that we know our stuff because of the questions we’re asking, because those questions have been refined and refined and refined. So we’re able to get right into the heart of their issues, and they tell us all about their environment and their issues and concerns and frustrations. And at the end of the assessment, they say, “Thank you.” And I remind them, I say, “We haven’t delivered anything yet. All we’ve done is asked you a whole bunch of questions.” But they feel like it was almost a cathartic process of unloading and sharing all of it. And then we do the second session, and the rapport gets even better, and they bring in some different people.  So by the time we get to the end of the assessment, we’ve had a really good conversation about 120 different things. There’s now a high degree of trust. And so when we come back in the third session, we say, “Okay, we heard you. Here’s where you are. Here’s how you compare to others. Here’s where you could be, and here’s what the journey would look like to get you there, taking all the complexities into account, all the dependencies, all the legacy, all the technical debt you might have. “Here’s what it would take to get you to where you want to be.” They’re now listening and they’re trusting us because we’ve listened to them.  Yeah. I love that. That is very powerful. And asking good questions is actually not always easy. In the age of AI, answers are omnipresent, but good questions, good prompts, that’s a skill, right? To ask the right question.  It is. And it’s interesting you mention AI because we’re not using any AI in the way we do this. We could choose to send out a form to the customer and say, “Please fill out this form.” Actually, we tried that. We tried that 10 or 12 years ago in our New Zealand operation, and it was a complete disaster. Nobody wants to fill out a long form and answer all those questions. But if you have a conversation face-to-face, on Teams or Zoom, whatever, you can have the conversation. You’ll get all the information.  But now we’re establishing rapport between us while we do that, and that also gives them a flavor of what it’s like to work with us. How we interact and how we follow up the question, how we drill down, how we clarify and confirm, “Did I understand that correctly?” in a way that you don’t get from just filling out a web form. And we also don’t use AI to analyze the transcript and try and fill it out. We actually do it based on us understanding it, because we find we get way more detail and nuance than relying on a transcript.  That’s very interesting. Definitely, when there’s a human on the other end who is interested in what you’re saying and is listening deeply, it’s a highly motivating and even inspiring thing. That’s why it’s hard to make a talk without the audience, because you need the energy of the audience. So you provide the energy for them to come up with the goods and explain where they are, right?  Yeah, yeah. So let me switch gears and ask you this. What drives growth in your business?  What drives growth? Two things. One, that process sets us up to be able to sell something. The fastest-growing thing that we sell is a service called mentoring, which is very closely aligned to our brand and the way we work, and it’s something that’s very unique to us. So what we figured out is that there are some customers who just want to bring in a partner to build something for them let’s say to deploy some new technology, and then they want the vendor to go away and leave them with it. There are other organizations who don’t want to touch the technology. They want somebody to provide a managed service, so you get all the outcomes.  And those two technology service categories have been around forever, right? Microsoft has 400,000 partners doing this kind of work, doing project work, or providing managed services. We found a huge white space in the middle between those two. We found there’s a big white space in the mid-market, in particular mid-market organizations, where they have their own IT team. They don’t want to give the keys away to a managed service provider and let go. They want to learn all about the new technology.  They want to internalize the knowledge, and they want somebody to come in and help them deploy it with them, and be hands-on-keyboard, and do it together with them, and do lots of knowledge transfer, and help them build the documentation and the knowledge base, and get the experience and the skills so that their skills grow, their confidence grows. And we call that service mentoring, where we’re doing that for them. So we’re not just building it and walking away, we’re building it together with them. And it can be a one-year, two-year, five-year engagement where we’re building out this complex technology capability, but we’re doing it together, and they become the experts over time. That is our fastest-growing, top-selling service.  That’s fascinating. So it’s essentially coaching, mentoring, and still you turn it into an ongoing engagement because it’s not simple, right? There are a lot of layers to it. And what’s the timeline of such a relationship?  Typically three years. Typically. It can be as short as one, it can be as long as five. But for most of the technology transformation projects we’re doing, I would say they’re two, three, four years for the organization to change and embed all the changes and turn off all the legacy technology and fully embrace the new way of working. So our typical contract is three years. And then we set up all the cadences so that we’re working together every week through specific things, and there’s a weekly cadence, our engineers doing all that stuff, and then monthly coming up for air to see how we’re doing against the roadmap. Do we need to make any changes? What’s the focus for next month? And that’s a rolling process that keeps going on and on. And so the two teams end up working extremely closely.  Our engineering team, and we’re bringing in different architects, engineers, and there’s obviously a consistent project manager across it. And on the customer side, they’re bringing different engineers or architects depending on the piece of work we’re doing. But it’s generally all modernizing the way they work with Microsoft technology primarily, and changing from legacy stuff to very modern, invisible security, embedded AI, really trying to accelerate their maturity as an organization.  Yeah. Love it.  Does that make sense?  So it makes sense. I’m wondering, I mean, most businesses these days, they want to have recurring revenue, and even though you have a three-year engagement, it’s still not an evergreen engagement. So what do you do to turn these engagements into more of an enduring one, or you’re not trying to do it because it’s not the purpose?  That’s the $64 million question for our business, Steve, is how do we turn a two-year or three-year engagement into something longer? And it actually comes back to where you started with the learning thing. So what we need to be doing, and this is a constant battle for us, is learning about the latest and the newest technologies and staying ahead of the customer. Always staying ahead in terms of our knowledge so that we can keep adding new things to the backlog of work that needs to be done.  So that we might deploy technology A and get that done and do the migration and modernization, but then we need to move on to B and C and D and E. And there’s always new stuff, and actually the rate of change is accelerating now with AI. Everything is changing so fast, it’s unbelievable. But our job is to stay ahead so that we can always have something new and edgy that we can bring to the relationship. That we’re always able to give new knowledge, information, value.  So is it a managed technology business or is it more of a consulting business?  Ah, we are three different things. We do a lot of project work where people will come in and say, “Migrate us from platform A to platform B.” So we do that. We do this mentoring service where we’re doing the change and modernization together with the customer. We’re also a managed service provider. We have a lot of small and medium businesses that say, “We don’t have an IT team. We don’t want to have an IT team. Manage this stuff, make it invisible to us. Just give us great service and give us great reports and be transparent with us.” And that’s part of our business too.  So I would say we’re roughly one-third professional services, project work, one-third mentoring, and one-third managed services. So more than half the business is recurring revenue in any given year.  So what makes this kind of business hard to scale, or what makes it easy to scale?  What makes it hard to scale is finding great people who can learn and share that learning with customers, so people who are natural mentors. So what we do not want is to hire geeks who want to just put on noise-canceling headsets and sit in front of a screen coding all day. They would not work for us. We want people who are head up, good people skills, want to learn it, but want to share it. Naturally very good at sharing. So getting the right people, that’s one constraint to growth. The thing that makes growth easy for us is our relationship with Microsoft. That’s unbelievable.  We didn’t have a relationship with Microsoft 11 years ago, and they came to us and asked us to become a partner, and we did. And they asked us to work with them on a specific technology that was very immature at the time. And I set a goal for our team. I said, “What would it take us to become the best in the world at that one specific technology? To become the best in the world on that technology as it matures and grows?” And we set that as our North Star and really went after that and focused everything on that.  And that enabled us then to win Microsoft Global Partner of the Year based on our focus on that. And by winning that award, that got us noticed because they got 400,000 partners. So at the time, I was based in New Zealand, so basically the second-last rock before the end of the earth. And so we were nobody in a nowhere place and not noticed, and we’re just one of 400,000, completely lost in the noise. We got noticed when we won Global Partner of the Year and when we got recognized for being the best in the world at that one technology, and that changed everything, and I moved to America.  Then Microsoft introduced us to a whole bunch of customers, including the largest healthcare organization in the world, the largest education provider in the world, and largest government departments. And so now our business is totally different to what it looked like 11 years ago before Microsoft. And this goes on and on. So almost every day, they contact us to say, “Hey, we got this customer over here, and they got this problem, and we thought of you.” And then they introduce us, and we do our assessment, show them how they compare, build a roadmap, and say, “What would you like to do from here?”  Yeah. I’m just very curious about what is that technology, and what is the ideal customer for you for that technology? That technology is a platform called Intune. It’s a device management platform, so it’s for managing desktops, laptops, MacBooks, smartphones, tablets, and all that. And everything we do, of course, starts with a device. And so it’s the technology that secures and manages and configures our devices. Microsoft Intune is the name of the product, and that’s where we’ve got very, very deep expertise. But that leads us to all the other parts of the Microsoft 365 environment, and most organizations are using Microsoft 365 to some extent.  So in most cases, they’re coming to us and saying, “Hey, this customer has bought our licenses. They’ve got Microsoft 365 E5 or E3, whatever. They’re not using it all. They’ve got all these overlapping competitive products. They want to consolidate, reduce costs, or they want to improve security, or they want to simplify their environment. Can you help?” And we’re like, “Hell yeah, we can help. That’s right in our wheelhouse.” And so we have a discovery call with the customer. They tell us what they want to achieve, and if they’re a good fit for our assessment and roadmap, then we’ll propose that. So we’re not trying to sell anything at that stage, and we’ll do that.  It’s many, many hours of work. We’ll do that roadmap and assessment at our cost. Sorry, that’s our investment. That’s our investment in the relationship, so that we’re showing that we’re giving value back to the customer and to Microsoft because they brought us that lead, and we’re creating value from day one. And sometimes the customer will go, “Thank you. We understand the journey. We’re going to do it ourselves,” or, “We’ve got an existing partner,” or, “We don’t have budget,” whatever. And so we don’t land them all, but we’ve got a very high conversion rate. We land a lot of them.  And even if we don’t, I know that we deliver a huge amount of value through the process, and the customer goes, “Wow, that was great. That was a great process. We learned a lot. We can see where we need to go. We might be back in touch in the future when we do have budget or when the stars align.”  Or they refer someone else.  Yeah.  So if you had a magic wand and you could fix one thing in your business in the next 12 months, what would that be?  I would say it would be doing more with AI internally. Some days I feel like an imposter because we are selling a lot of AI services, and we do a lot of AI work for our customers. But I, as the leader, I don’t do enough. I’m not doing enough with AI. I’m not building enough capability. I’m leading the charge, but I’m not savvy enough myself. And I feel like our leadership team could be doing more. So I feel like doing more, embedding more AI into how we work, is something I want to change or fix in the next year. Not just doing it for customers.  Yeah. I mean, you can never do enough with AI, right? There’s so much out there and so much changing, and to stay ahead of it, one’s head is spinning all the time. It’s very inspiring, but can be also overwhelming.  That’s true. And one of the things I’m dealing with is managing what we call AI slop, where we see people internally and externally producing things that are not good-quality outcomes because it hasn’t been double-checked. So just because it could be produced quickly and easily by AI doesn’t mean it’s great or specific enough or detailed enough or accurate enough for the result, whether that’s an internal report or an external thing.  So the coaching I’m giving people is you’re still responsible for the thing, the quality of the thing. You have to read it, make sure it’s on point, it’s detailed enough, the customer’s going to be happy with it or your manager’s going to be happy with it. We are still responsible for the thing we produce. Let’s not get lazy.  Yeah. And the more content you generate and the more solutions you generate with AI, the more the mental load on the decision-makers to actually filter out what’s not real and what’s real.  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  Yeah. I can see that happening. So if someone is listening to this and says, “Wow, I love this idea that you benchmark me, you figure out what our tech is, learn our tech, benchmark us, come up with a roadmap, and evaluate the organization, how fast we can manage change, and then come up with a roadmap and mentor us to get there and simplify our tech stack,” and would like to learn more and perhaps connect with you, where should they go? Where can they find out more information?  I’m on LinkedIn only. I’m not on other social platforms. I’m a bit of a Neanderthal in that regard. But Denis, with one N and O’Shea, O-S-H-E-A, on LinkedIn, and my company is Mobile Mentor. It will be Mentor soon, but we’ll keep the Mobile Mentor alive for quite a while. And so go to the company, mobile-mentor.com. And yeah, love to talk to any of your listeners and audience if this is a technology journey they want to go on or want a partner to work with them. That’s the role we play, being a mentor and helping people get the outcomes, but internalizing it and becoming experts while doing so.  Yeah. So if you want to filter out the AI slop and the AI noise, and you want real people who will look at your specific situations and help you and mentor you and help your staff get up to speed and simplify, then reach out to Denis. And if you enjoyed this conversation, stay tuned because every week I bring a couple of entrepreneurs who are sharing their frameworks of how they’re improving and growing their businesses, and you can implement some of these things yourself.  So thanks, Denis. Denis O’Shea, the founder and CEO of Mobile Mentor, soon to be called Mentor. Thanks for coming on the show, and thank you for listening. Thank you, Steve. Always a pleasure. Important Links: Denis's LinkedIn Denis's website

If you've ever worked in New York, you may know the feeling. The city is fun, and you may even have your own "big, badass office", but those long commutes are expensive. They drain you of precious time and key family moments- that you're missing. John Duffin interviews Derek Fredrickson, a fractional CEO and longtime COO who has lived in Paris for 10 years. Derek shares how he left a Wall Street career during the 2008 financial crisis to join his entrepreneur wife's coaching business, where they aligned on complementary “front stage/backstage” roles and grew to multiple seven figures. Derek explains how their family planned a move abroad, first considering Switzerland, then choosing Paris, and how they prepared by shifting the business online in 2015, using Skype/Zoom and asynchronous tools, while maintaining critical non-negotiables: no nights or weekends. Derek describes using nightly gratitude at dinner to help his kids adapt. He also outlines his COO approach: shifting founders from operator to owner, focusing on systems and accountability, implementing processes in phases (do it for you, together, then by yourself), delegating outcomes, not tasks, and using a “North Star” why and delegation audit to guide change.To learn more about Derek Fredrickson, check out the links below.https://thecoosolution.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekfredrickson/https://www.facebook.com/derekfhttps://www.youtube.com/@TheCOOSolution00:00 Remote Work Prep00:50 Podcast Welcome02:36 Why France03:37 Wall Street Exit06:12 Train Aha Moment08:14 A Family Affair- Joining Wife's Business09:33 Risk And Safety Net14:30 Life After Leap16:28 Plan To Move Abroad18:49 Settling In Paris21:39 Business Goes Online23:18 Family Gratitude Ritual25:10 Fractional COO Insider26:53 Bob Is The Bottleneck27:23 Operator To Owner Shift29:51 North Star Why Question32:24 Careful COO Integration33:32 Three Stage Process Rollout36:35 Make It Up Make It Real37:37 Delegate Outcomes Not Tasks40:44 Accountability Culture Metrics42:45 Hiring His Own COO45:42 Delegation Audit Steps48:03 Gratitude Family Wrap Up

Great ventures often begin in the places you least expect them. In this episode, Paco Magsaysay, founder of Carmen's Best, shares how his journey from sales in the US to working in his family's cable business led him to an unlikely calling in dairy, shaping his approach to entrepreneurship, leadership, and building a business from scratch.Explore how Paco turned surplus milk into a premium ice cream brand, tackling the challenges of building trust in a new category, scaling production, and creating a business rooted in resilience and hands-on grit.00:01:07 – Meet Paco Magsaysay and the story behind Carmen's Best00:08:51 – Working in the US and learning the value of hard work00:13:05 – Selling long-distance packages and discovering his strength in sales00:18:19 – Understanding your audience and learning to listen00:22:51 – Learning the ropes and earning the respect of his father's employees00:28:38 – Learning to make ice cream through YouTube00:31:32 – The story behind the salted caramel flavor00:36:35 – Why Paco initially resisted the dairy business 00:38:44 – Starting Carmen's Best without a business plan00:50:03 – Sticking to your strengths and hiring to complement your weaknesses00:53:40 – Scaling through smart sales and partnerships 00:58:27 – The numbers that matter when running a growing business01:02:14 – Having a North Star and chasing meaningful goals01:07:43 – Why doing what you enjoy makes work easier01:09:44 – Building a business that works and continues to growWebsite: https://carmensbest.com/HustleShare is powered by PayMongo, the financial operating system for growing businesses.Learn more about PayMongo's product suite: https://pay.mg/pna-learnmoreSign up for free in as fast as 5 minutes: https://pay.mg/pna-signupPayMongo is regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.Build your empire—subscribe and hit the bell for a new masterclass every Monday!

Send us Fan MailSend us Fan MailIn this enlightening episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we are joined by David Nassief, author and creator of the One Page Wealth Compass. After spending 40 years in corporate America, David faced a life-altering moment at 63 when he was unexpectedly fired. With a cardboard box in hand and uncertainty ahead, he transformed his financial situation from impending bankruptcy to a seven-figure portfolio in just six years. David shares his powerful journey of resilience, revealing how he developed the One Page Wealth Compass to assist others facing financial stress.David discusses the importance of mindset shifts during his transition, emphasizing how separating his identity from his corporate job allowed him to rediscover his true self and purpose. He explains the concept of automated stewardship and how his simple yet effective wealth-building strategies can lead to financial freedom without the complexities often associated with investing.Listeners will learn about the nine trail markers and five North Star principles that form the backbone of the One Page Wealth Compass, providing actionable steps for anyone looking to improve their financial health. David also shares insights from his best-selling book, which is designed to be engaging and accessible, filled with true stories and practical advice.What You'll Learn in This Episode:- The pivotal moments that led to David's transformation- How to separate your identity from your career- The fundamentals of the One Page Wealth Compass- Strategies for building wealth with minimal risk- Insights from David's best-selling book and how it can help youFor more information on David Nassief and to download your free One Page Wealth Compass, visit onepagewealthcompass.com/free Don't miss this opportunity to take control of your financial future!Support the show

I sat down with entrepreneur and business coach John Glon for a conversation about something I've experienced personally—and something I see happen to so many founders: the moment when hard work, grit, and determination that once built the business start becoming the very things that hold it back. John shared his journey from running a successful electrical manufacturing business to realizing that his deeper calling was helping leaders and their teams communicate, execute, and lead better. We explored what happens when founders become the person everyone depends on, why "I'll just do it myself" becomes such a dangerous habit, and how growth can eventually demand an entirely different skill set than the one that created the business in the first place. I also shared a deeply personal story about a painful decision I made with a business partner, the consequences of stepping too far away from my own company, and the years of costly mistakes that eventually helped me develop a better way forward. At the heart of this conversation is a simple question: What if the solution to your business problems isn't working harder, but learning how to lead differently? John and I unpack structure, vulnerability, curiosity, presence, accountability, and the importance of creating a business where everyone understands their role, knows the North Star, and has the freedom to do their best work. If you're a founder or leader who has built something successful but feels like the business is demanding more and more of you, this conversation may help you see your situation—and your next move—in a completely different way. Highlights (01:32) – John explains the philosophy that guides how he shows up: love, care, and compassion, and how his entrepreneurial journey led him toward helping other leaders. (02:52) – Why John walked away from a seemingly reliable and profitable business path after realizing that success wasn't filling his cup or allowing him to help enough people. (05:32) – We explore the idea of turning years of costly mistakes into a shortcut for other entrepreneurs, so they don't have to spend years learning the same lessons the hard way. (05:59) – I share a powerful storytelling lesson: how saying "I worked so hard to figure this out, and now I have the shortcut for you" can transform painful experiences into authority. (08:23) – John reveals the three things he believes make his coaching different: structure, vulnerability and curiosity, and being fully present with the people he serves. (10:34) – Why vulnerability can unlock a completely different level of trust inside an organization—and why admitting that you don't have all the answers can actually make you a stronger leader. (13:05) – The warning signs that a founder may be operating out of alignment: the business is growing too quickly, the wheels are falling off, or the owner desperately wants more time away from the business. (15:04) – We uncover a major trap for high achievers: you can't outwork every problem in your business—and you definitely can't outwork problems in your family. (17:29) – Why entrepreneurs often need someone outside themselves to help break habits, patterns, and "scar tissue" that keep them stuck in the same leadership cycle. (18:14) – John describes what becomes possible on the other side: genuine smiles, more engaged employees, higher-level work, more personal freedom, and a team that is finally rowing in the same direction. (20:02) – John tells the story of a painful decision to exit a business partnership—and how acting from shame and frustration created consequences that went far beyond the original conflict. (22:52) – A powerful lesson about the danger of using an "easy button" in business: stepping too far away can cause you to lose touch with the heart and soul of the culture you created. (24:36) – John discovers that his results-driven approach was alienating employees who had been drawn to the company because of its heart-centered culture. (26:18) – An emotional conversation with a key employee forces John to confront a difficult realization: he was no longer operating in alignment with his own values. (28:59) – John looks back on a period when his business finally felt joyful—employees were laughing, money was flowing, the team was connected, and he was able to create balance outside of work. (31:25) – I tell the story behind my own transformation, beginning with the question that stopped me in my tracks: "Why do we need to babysit you?" (34:00) – I reveal the process I developed through years of painful mistakes: creating structure, vulnerability, curiosity, and presence so leaders can bring their businesses and lives back into alignment. (35:53) – John reacts to hearing his story reflected back to him—and explains why experiencing a story can sometimes create more transformation than simply intellectualizing a problem. (37:53) – John shares why storytelling has become such a powerful leadership tool for him, and why the best speakers don't always need slides or complicated frameworks to make an impact. (38:59) – John shares his closing thoughts and where you can connect with him and learn more about his work.

The biggest emotional moment of the show centered on the passing of country music legend Dolly Parton at age 80, with the crew sharing personal memories and celebrating her impact on music, philanthropy, and culture. The conversation was amplified by tributes from stars including Beyoncé, who called Parton “the North Star” and praised her influence on generations of artists following their collaboration on Cowboy Carter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Rickey Smiley Morning Show tackled a mix of major headlines, celebrity news, and cultural conversations, starting with the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily pause immigrant visa appointments worldwide while consular officers undergo additional training tied to screening applicants for possible reliance on public benefits. The show also highlighted actor and singer Tyrese Gibson’s arrival in Uganda, where he is helping launch the country’s “Explore Uganda Coffee Tourism” campaign, a nationwide effort designed to showcase Uganda’s coffee industry, cultural heritage, and tourism attractions through visits to the Source of the Nile, coffee farms, and the Africa Coffee Park. Recent reports note that Uganda is using high-profile international figures like Tyrese to boost global awareness of its coffee sector and tourism potential. The biggest emotional moment of the show centered on the passing of country music legend Dolly Parton at age 80, with the crew sharing personal memories and celebrating her impact on music, philanthropy, and culture. The conversation was amplified by tributes from stars including Beyoncé, who called Parton “the North Star” and praised her influence on generations of artists following their collaboration on Cowboy Carter. The show also explored Tyrese’s claim that his hit “How You Gonna Act Like That” was inspired by Kim Kardashian’s first marriage, while a lively debate broke out after 50 Cent declared that hip-hop is a “young man’s game,” prompting pushback from Rick Ross and others who argued that artists should continue creating as long as they remain connected to the culture and their fans. Along with Wellness Wednesday advice from Dr. MJ Collier, the morning was filled with heartfelt tributes, celebrity tea, and thought-provoking discussion about legacy, longevity, and cultural impact. Website: https://www.urban1podcasts.com/rickey-smiley-morning-show See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm breaking down the biggest ways I think we sabotage our own healing, relationships, and lives. This conversation came from a post that resonated with millions of people and grew into a series because these patterns are so common - and so easy to mistake for growth. I talk about why insight isn't the same as change, why breakups aren't something we simply “get over,” why divorce doesn't automatically mean failure, and why chasing happiness can keep us disconnected from a life that actually feels meaningful. I talk about: Why knowing my attachment style doesn't automatically change my behavior. How self-awareness can become another place to hide. Why healing eventually becomes about execution, not explanation. Why I don't believe we truly get over people we deeply loved. How grief includes losing the future I imagined with someone. Why divorce doesn't erase a real or meaningful marriage. How staying because of fear is different from staying because of love. Why happiness was never meant to be my permanent destination. What I've started choosing instead of making happiness my North Star. If this episode resonated with you, be sure to follow the podcast, leave a rating, and share it with someone who might need to hear it.

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In this episode of The GaryVee Audio Experience, I sit down for an interview about legacy, parenting, and why my North Star is admiration - not money. I share why my parents' nudge into the liquor store worked and why I'm leaving an uncomfortable amount of money on the table on purpose. I also discuss why work ethic beats talent, why I'm not a fan of most masterminds, and the daily habit that keeps everything in perspective.You'll learn about:• Why Admiration Beats Money• Nudging vs. Cramming in Parenting• Why Work Ethic Beats Talent• Producing Content at Scale• A Daily Habit for Perspective