How I Quit My Job & Became A Professional Glamping Host

Hey everybody. Welcome to the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the trainings but most importantly the confidence to go out there and get more direct bookings. And today we are going behind the host with another interesting short term rental hospitality host and to ask questions about their hospitality business to extract some juicy answers, things which you can learn from their inspirational stories but also some tricks and tips that you may be able to implement within your hospitality business. So my name is Liam Carolan, Mark Simpson's co host and today we are joined by Chris Dube. He's been in Hospitality since 2019 and he owns Monument Glamping and you can go and check them out@monumentglamping.com so we are talking about Glamping today. So thank you for joining me today. Chris, welcome along.

Well, thank you for having me on Liam. I appreciate it.

So to get started, Chris, can you introduce yourself where your business is based in the world and what sort of model you use?

Sure, sure. Well, I started in 2019. Monument glamping is based in Monument, Colorado. So it's really easy to come up with the name because it was, it was just an easy name to come up with. We have three properties actually. One is very stable. That's my property. We kind of fell into it by mistake. It's, it's a nice story about how that happened but we have eight units on this property. We have a second property that's in the special use phase right now we're aiming for 16 units on that property and then we are in, in the process of closing on another property which is hopefully have 70 units on it. That's one balance about four times bigger than these other two. And I hope to have five properties in the makes by the end of this year.

Amazing. That's really cool. So before we dive into to your business, what I'd love to know more about is Kim, can you tell me anything about your, your family I guess and also how you got into hospitality in the first place?

Sure. My family is kind of an icebreaker. We have 16 children so I'm one of these really large families. We, but most of them are adults. Most of them have gone and grown up and they're on their own and, and, and they're all into short term rentals in some form even though they own them and do them on the side while they're working through college. I have one daughter who's going through law school and they are living off of the income from their short term rental. I have Another son who's into an RV park down in Oklahoma. He's developing a 300 unit RV park. I have another son who's out in Tennessee working some, working some short term rental deals and I have a son in law and daughter who's into cleaning and some tiny homes. They actually built a couple tree houses. So all that to say we're all sort of into this and I've only had five children at home right now, so I feel like this is, I'm sunsetting the parenting, the parenting world. But those two, they too are into the business here. They oftentimes might clean some tents and deliver some goods to some, some guests or something like that, kind of into the hospitality world. They're all teenagers right now. Well, my Youngest is an 11 year old and, but he's still very active. He takes care of the hot tubs and things like that. And so it's all, it's a big family. It's. Well, it's turning into a family business. I think Wendy and I started off thinking this was going to be our thing or it was going to be a side hustle and it turned into something, not only something we love to do, hospitality turned out to be just a, just a. We just love pleasing people who come to our property and we love giving them the best time of their lives. So that's, that's, that's, it's, it's almost like a little high we get when we, when we, when we treat people well and. But then they got into the business too. They, they like doing it also along with their studies in high school and stuff like that. So, so that's just, just, just to.

Jump in on that for anybody who's watching on the YouTube. Me and Chris were talking just before we went live on the recording and he's actually got a wall of, of all of his family, 16, Which is amazing. And I love the fact that hospitality, we see this quite a lot. Where it starts off as more of a, hey, this could be a side gig, this could be an extra income. And then people get the hospitality bug and not only yourself, but obviously it's passed through to the next generation, which is amazing.

That's a really good story you want to hear. You want to hear the story?

100%.

So I was a teacher and so I taught at a school here in town and English teacher, English teachers don't make a lot of money. So I had a side business on the side which was a publishing company. So I published curriculum for academic speakers and debaters. And so that was my. That was my shtick, and that kept us here at this house and on this property. It's a nice property. It's six and a half acres. It's got a creek in the backyard and everything. Well, I had my summers off, so I. So in 2019, Wendy and I said, well, you know, let's remodel the bedroom. It's kind of outdated. We need to. We need to really do it. And a total remodel, like, to the studs and tore everything out. So I sat my hunting tent out in the backyard, put it up, and moved my master bedroom outdoors. Loved it. Oh, it was so nice. The kids were indoors, we were outdoors. We were. We were just having the time of the moon comes up over the creek and everything. It's really a beautiful property. And. And at the end, when. When we were done with the remodel, about a month later, we decided that, you know, let's put it up on Airbnb and see what happened. We booked out for the rest of the summer. I couldn't believe it. And it's like, wow, this is. This is. I'm making money off of my hunting gear. I couldn't believe that. So. So the next summer, we decided to take it a little bit more seriously, and we put up a second tent about halfway through the summer. So I can give you some numbers here. This might inspire some people out there. So. So the first. The first summer, we made $2,400, and I was like, wow, this. This is good money. And. And the next summer, we. We cleared almost $20,000 off of 10, two tents. Now, that was the COVID summer. So we thought maybe it was just a fad and this was going to pass, but it at least was like validation, like, wow. And not only that, Liam, we loved doing it. I mean, this was something we didn't know we would enjoy so much because none of us worked in hotels or any kind of hospitality. The hospitality wasn't even in. I mean, we like to throw parties. I guess that's hospitality. And so the third year, that's when the lid blew off the pan, and we were like, wow, this is something. Because we. We cleared nearly $70,000 in the summer, and now we took it seriously. We. We. We started winter glamping, I think is a thing that glampers should be doing because there is a demand out there. We. We expanded to container homes. My son, one of my sons, was a welder, and he. He, He. He created these container homes that are really cool, and we partnered with one of my neighbors and do some of her land and stuff. So there, there were some things we did, we really did expand. So that number isn't. Well, the number is still impressive, but we're working it and we were really enjoying it. That's when we started to get in trouble with the county and the county. We had a neighbor who did not like what we were doing. This one, this one. That's all it takes. And then we. It was actually a year ago this month. No, wait, it's February. This is coming out of the spring. Anyway, it was, it was early 2021, 2022 rather that I had to work with the county to get properly permitted. And at first that was a, that was somewhat devastating because we were really on the roll. I, and I had left teaching and I, I, I sold my, my business. So I was like my, my publishing business. So I was, I was all in. Wendy and I were in. We were, we were like, this is the coolest thing since sliced bread. And I'm, we're, we're, we're on it. But then, then that threat was coming in of being shut down. We really turned that to our advantage. And that's, that's the good story. I gave a presentation at the American Gaptic association in October that went, didn't really go viral, but it went, it got very popular among the clamping professionals. So I encourage people to go and look at that video. I've got it online, so I think you could do a YouTube search. But it tells a story of how the, the enforcement officers actually became almost advocates for us. And they really not, they can't advocate for you. They can't do your business for you. But they all thought what I was doing was really cool. Even one of the meetings, they're like, wow, this is really neat. We look what. How can we pave the path for the joobs to get to do this glamping operation in El Paso County?

Let me just jump in with them to say that's, that's a testament to you and your business of how good or idea it was because people will buy into, you know, people's belief about something and also the fact that it's a good product and ultimately it's bringing money to the county, isn't it? So, yeah, that is, that's really good. But yeah. How did it go then? What, what happened with them?

Well, I submitted for what's called a special use permit. So that's, that, that is somewhat familiar when you, once you get into now this was all brand new to me. So this whole thing of county planning and setbacks and subducting upgrades and electrical, all the stuff that goes in it. There's actually. When this happened, this is what the county. The county brought me on board. I was. I became kind of a developer. I never saw or never would call myself a developer. I'm in a glamping. I mean, I got a tent in my yard. I want. I want to show you a good time. That's, that's, that's, that's my, that's my shtick. But. But I am developing my property. So my property is. Is a rural residential property. It's six and a half acres. It's one of the bigger acreages in the neighborhood, but all the, all the acreages in the neighborhood, at least five acres. And it's a beautiful area. It's. It's. It's gorgeous. But most of the people here are single. Single residents, single family residences, and they just. What I'm doing is somewhat out of the ordinary. However, there is a part of the code that allows for what I'm doing, and it's called the recreation camp. Now, there's no glamping code there. There's. That's, that's a. This is a gray area in land development. So this is, this is a gray area. But they had this keg hole that they could fit me in. They said, hey, you're a recreation camp. I said, yep, that's what I am, the recreation camp. And, and, and then they. And then. So the criteria for that, I had to. I had to kind of listen. I'm in a debate. I'm a debate coach. And like I said, I published debate curriculum. So I became kind of a debater and said, I. My premise is that I am a recreation camp that will do. That will help the county move closer to its master plan. And they had a master plan. They had just come out with a master plan, actually, in my county. I was very blessed because the whole. Through Covid, they. They totally recalled their master plan. And I read it word for word. 190, 98 pages. And I. And I read. Read it word for word and, and, and highlighted the whole thing, really studied it. And, and we are in a tourist area. We are. We. We have. This is the Pikes Peak region, Purple Mountain Majesty and our Star Spangled Banner was. Is. Is named after Pikes Peak, which is one of the 14ers. That, that, that is picture picturesque in Colorado Springs. We have trails. We have Guard of the Gods, which is One, one of the greatest parks out there. And we have an ag hiking trail is just a couple miles from my house and where literally you can walk to and, and walk your, walk your dogs through these trails. It's just beautiful. So the master plan rides on that. Well, I wrote my letter of intent to the county that was very, very persuasive. People can download it, you can go to the county and look on their, their website. There it is, my letter of intent. And I, and I pulled out all my persuasive techniques possible and said El Paso county really, really wants monument glamping to succeed. And then the rest were just details. You know, I had to get a water lawyer. I had to upgrade my, my, my well permit. I had to get. Oh, and that's one thing I did get. I did get a lawyer. And he was a former county commissioner. I actually knew him beforehand. He was. He. So he's, I consider him my friend. And, and he knows land codes, like in and out. I was, I was, I was calling him quite often, saying, hey, this is what the county wants. What, what's, what do you. Well, you know, what's a title commitment? I have no idea what that is. And he would explain, okay, this is what you got to do. This is the fee you got to pay, blah, blah, blah. And it costs, it costs a lot of money. At first it was somewhat eye opening, just, just pushing papers in my county. It's about a $12,000 bill. That's just this, that and it, and it's, it's not erecting anything in my yard. It's not giving it. It's not a asset. It's just the proper permitting. And it to, I think, to beginning Lampards, I think in 2019, if that, that would have been told to me that, oh, it's going to cost you $12,000 to get properly permitted. Probably would have walked away from it, said, no thanks. You know, I got other things to do. I can make money elsewhere.

But the good is because you cash flow and buy that time, you can see the opportunity.

Exactly. Exactly. I mean, it's not. Now I'm making $80,000 in each summer. I mean, like this is, you know, take my money. I got this, I got this expense covered. And once it's done, it's done. You know, you go through the process. Now here's that, here's kind of the interesting story is that that one neighbor that I mentioned, she really did put up a fight. I mean, she drove all over the neighborhood and, and, and tried to get people on her side. And she went on social media next door neighbor, which is a social media group here. And she, she really tried to, she tried to shut me down. Not the county, but the. But, but my neighbor did. But she has property rights too. And so, you know, she can, she's looking over the fence and she's looking at my stuff and she doesn't like what she sees. So she has every right to appeal to the county and say no to that special use. But I fought fire was fire. I actually went to my neighbors also, and I've lived here for 22 years, so I know my neighbors. And I said, you know, this is really a good thing for our neighborhood. And wouldn't it be cool to have a glamping operation? A cool glamping operation. It became kind of a study in logical fallacies because I was being straw manned by my neighbor, you know, oh, it's a tent. Call that a tent community, a homeless shelter. You know, just riff raff is going to come. And she, she was exaggerating what, what I was bringing to town. Well, I was going to my neighbors and saying quite the contrary. When you're paying two, $300 a night for a tent, you're not going to be attracting the, the riffraff in town. So, so this is. Yeah, yeah. And, and then they started to think, you know, it'd be kind of nice to have a glamping operation in the neighborhood and that, that turn. Actually, if you go to my, if you go to the county, you actually see the history of the special use, which I bet you a lot of your audience would be very interested in that just to see, because all the documentation is there. There are six letters of support and one letter of concern I was going to present in front of the county commissioners. And I was locked and loaded. I was ready to go and I had, I had neighbors who were going to come and testify for me saying this thing is great. And well, then my one neighbor decided that she was alone. I mean, she, she didn't convince anybody. And so, so she withdrew her opposition. It got downgraded to a letter of concern, which, you know, I'm concerned about fire, I'm concerned about water. And that was all cool. That actually the, the process of the special use permit forces you to consider those things, you know, to make sure those things get done. So yeah, fire mitigation. So those are the considerations that the whole special use forces. And so really all the concerns were answered. And then the county staff, who will put it in front of the commissioners. These are elected officials or, or just allow it. Well, they decided to just allow it. So in July of last summer I was awarded the special use the one of the. Yeah, yeah, you bet. I think it's awesome.

That is one of those things where when you've had a big battle like this in any area of hospitality and I'm sure there's a lot of people listening who are aware that, you know, regulations are coming in across the globe. You know, like you certainly hear in the UK across, in the US I know certain areas there's a lot more regulation. There are a lot of neighbors who oppose, you know, and many of the times we will, yes, we're trying to have a good cash flow in business but actually the money that it brings to the county, the community, the benefits and also if it's an awesome product, if it's an awesome experience, will naturally people, especially if there's a buy in from people and they can see your vision then it's one of the lessons which, which I take away from this and also not to be put off by, by the potential obstacles. If I read this thing the other day, the four stages of, of competency and the first one is unconscious incompetence. You know, like we don't know what we don't know so we blindly charge ahead and that's kind of what's happened. And then as you start to learn more, you go, oh, hang on, I should have been doing this, I should have been doing this. But actually by that stage you've already got some momentum and you soon become consciously competent and you know, unconsciously competent after that, which is where you're able to just do this stuff. And like you say, if, if you had the same opportunity now, well, it would be a no brainer. I'm going to go right ahead and, and get this through by getting the community on the side by making sure I've read through the documentation that I'm putting everything in place, getting the right people on the team with, with the lawyer, as you said, and just you know, know, not letting naysayers and people who don't see your vision, you know, sort of get in the way and.

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The great thing is, as you said, now where you cash flow well each year. What I'd love to do then is to dive into your. Your business. What would you say has been the. Why do people come and stay? What is it that attracts them, your guest avatar to your particular business? Is there any amenities or anything that people listening should be considering putting into their glamping business to achieve the same results?

Yeah, I am becoming more and more a student of hospitality the more I get into it. Now I mentioned before I was a business owner of a publishing business. So I guess the business side of things I understood or I wasn't intimidated by. Every business owner would say they learn as they grow. So they get into it right away and they kind of get their grease in their fingernails while they're working and they, and they, they make things up as they go. And, and that's, that's the secret success model for any business person. But the more I get into it, the more I really understand that, boy, hospitality is an art. And, and I have to read not only books on financing and accounting and, and marketing and stuff like be a business person. I have to get into. I have to get into hospitality because that's the core of what I do. So for example, I just finished the book this morning. It's called Unreasonable Hospitality. It's a bestseller out there in the business world, but it's all about restaurant hospitality. And I'm not doing restaurant hospitality, but I have to become a master of the idea of hospitality. I stay very close to the people who kind of get that and understand that. I'm a big fan of being a member of the American Glamping Association. We get together every week. I sit and sit in there. I very much appreciate the ones who are former hotel hospitality managers and stuff. And now they've got this clamping business going. I kind of like them sponge to what they have to say about how to treat a guest, how to make the experience magical. Let me give you a couple examples of things we do on our property that that's unique because there is a sense of improvisation that that comes with hospitality that makes it magical. And we try to process it the best we can. But if you get too processed, it doesn't become magical anymore. So one of the things we did, we got a. What's called a BNB liquor license here in Colorado. And so we're allowed to give away our homemade wine. So we make homemade. So everybody comes here, gets a gift of homemade wine. And boy, they love that. They just, they just get a kick out of it. And we don't tell them they're getting it, so we don't advertise it. So when they get here and there's a, there's a. Oh, here's another thing about hospitality that this is another trip to the trade that somebody could take with it. We let them self check into our tents. We used to be there at the tent and try to try to meet them at the door kind of thing. Check them off and, and green there. That's not nearly as good as what we came up with. We let them self check in and give them. And we can see them from a, you know, we can peek around or in our, you know, it's out the window and stuff. To make sure that they're, they're getting settled in. We let them check in for about 10 or 15 minutes and then we roll in on our little, you know, ATV and stuff like that. Hey, how you doing? You got any questions? So that's a very strategic move because there's. They're exploring for 10 or 15 minutes. You see, I mean, they drive up to the tent, they walk up on the deck, they look at the fire pit, they look at the grill, they open the grill up. They see the, the cast iron pan, they open up. Oh, there's a sign there. Welcome to, you know, relax. Sit back and relax or glad people. Oh, here's the hot tub. And they, and they have this awesome moment of discovering. And then here's me coming up, or Wendy coming up, or one of my kids coming up and said, hey, how you doing? And here's a. And we would like to gift you with this bottle of wine. We're like, whoa. And so now they're like, this is over the top. And, and that's how you get a five star review every time. And I'm consistent with five star reviews on my OTAs. So that's the magic we create in there.

You make a really good, good point with that because I actually had one of our owners, I managed for other people, and I had one of our owners today say, hey, are these cookies really necessary? Is this really necessary? And you go, well, yes, they are. This is, this is hospitality. This isn't, this isn't any other business where you, you're trying to build relationships with people. And what you've just mentioned of given that extra that they don't expect, that's so important. And I'd love everybody listening to this to think, hey, what can I do for my guests? Which gives them a little bit extra that they didn't necessarily expect that they're getting. And by doing so, there was a study which basically found that if a talking about waitressing and hospitality and that side of things that when a waitress or waiter gives you the bill and then they leave you some mints or whatever it is, then you may tip, you know, if the service was good or you may decide sort of a varied amount. However, when that same waiter turned around and said, do you know what? Actually have an extra few more. You've been a great, you know, sort of customer. Have an extra few where the customer didn't expect to be getting that. That's when the tips rose crazily. You know, that where they went up. And that's exactly what you've done there. Where somebody is come in, they've got, oh, I've got a hot tub. Yeah, this looks like the pictures are. This is exactly what I was picturing. And then you've come in with the. The wine is homemade as well, so it's unique to you guys go.

That's what knocks it over the top.

Yeah.

Because Airbnb is. They. They you can get. Well, like I said, I got the BNB license to do it. To give away wine, I could buy a bottle of cheap wine, and I've done that. I've gone to Airbnbs and there's a bottle of wine. I appreciate it. But it's becoming systemized. It's kind of almost becoming an expectation. And now we do process it. So we do have a kind of a routine now of keeping our carboys going to make sure that wine is ready for the summer. Like, right now, we've got a big stock because we're. It's early in the year and we got to get ready for the summer to keep doing that. But who knows, maybe that maybe everyone will start doing, you know, homemade wine, because who knows?

It's one of those things which, if. If that isn't a thing that you can do within your business. And definitely the idea of just give extra and make it, you know, make it personalized or about you, your brand. And this is the great thing that we talk about hospitality. There's a street in the UK and Whitby, which Mark Simpson talks about, where every single property is a bed and breakfast. But what is different about that is that the person inside, you know and what you decide to do.

The message that could vary that it's from person to person. In fact, my, my son and my son and daughter in law. That third property I mentioned is they're going to be the managers of that property and they're looking forward to it there. Right now they're living in an apartment and, and stuff like that. They're looking forward to living on a piece of nice property and being managers. But she makes some killer pumpkin bread. I mean she's like the queen of pumpkin bread making and, and so she's always bringing it over and things like that. That's her gift. Well, guess what she's going to do for the glampers. We making pumpkin bread. They get sick of it. But they, but that is, that's going to be one of those gifts that it's like oh wow. And what got me on that was I attended a. I stayed at an Airbnb in Minnesota we were traveling through. We just stayed at this farm place and they had homemade salsa for us and we're like yeah, like dish it up. You know, and we, we ended up buying some from them and things like so, so but, but that, that got me thinking. We got to do something homemade. We got to do something unique. And that, that's just, that adds to the experience for our guests and then that leads to great reviews and then we just keep improving.

So you make a good point. I've got to ask, do you upsell. Is it a chance can they buy the wine from you? Can you make some income from that?

Not yet. That we're just not licensed to do that yet. So that, that's like the next level up for a license. And but we've investigated in it and I'll give you numbers. It costs $6,000 to, to get licensed to get a proper lawyer to get that kind of. And go, go commercial. We're trying with that. It might be worth it, I don't know. But right now we're just enjoying the gift side of it. But yeah, there might be Jube family wine in the future.

Nice. Nice. I like, you know this is the great thing about hospitality because it's a feel good factor. You know, what do we do? We get paid when people have a great time, you know, like so it is. And then there's lots of avenues off that. Like you say, you know, your family could start selling the pumpkin bread. You know that, that side of things. There's so many different ways you could go with that. So one thing I'd love to dive into is is there any tech or any kind of gadgets that you use in your business or what channels do you market on? I guess whichever avenue you want to go down out of those two.

Sure, sure. Too. I manage all my properties and to manage the OTAs, I use IGMs and I've looked into others and experimented with others. That's the one I kind of stuck with. I've been doing Facebook marketing a lot lately for direct bookings. I'm very much into Mark's idea of trying to get to that 65% rate. I think it's 65, 60, 65, 65% of direct bookings. That's been my goal this year is to move, move the needle. I'm very pent on OT as I used to be very, very dependent. Right now I'm at about 30%. So instead of all Airbnb, VRBO and Hip Camp is one that I'm really into and dirt and what other ones. But, but there does. I try to get on as many platforms as I can, but I want to move that needle to where that's just 30% of my company. So 30% and then 70% could be direct bookings. I'm trying hard and applying Mark's principles to do that. Like my automated messages, which IGMS is able to do. I have automated messages that remind people, hey, if you direct book, you get free probing. So early free, early check in. However, I'm making a lot of money off early check ins. Mark suggested in his book to charge for early check ins. So I started doing that and instead of people canceling and actually doing direct bookings, they're just paying me for the early check ins. Like, oh, okay.

It's a game changer because a lot of people worry about, hey, will this affect their experience? And you go, well, no. When they booked, they agreed to this check in time. If you do want extra, hey, it's only whatever dollars do not.

I mean, actually what I'm getting more of, I'm getting more of it's people saying, oh, we could direct book next time. Oh, okay, you know, and then now. So the return customer will be. They won't go to the ota. They'll come straight to my website. But I am doing strategies to get them on my mailing list so that their email doesn't disappear. So I follow up. And Mark was an influencer on this too, because he, he said, get on the phone and just call him. I do a follow up survey and I have yet to talk to anybody on the phone. I usually leave a message or I send him a text that hey, could you, you know, thanks for staying, we loved having you. Would you mind filling out this quick survey? I'll take just a few questions and it really is just a few questions. It's just hey, how was your stay? Anything we can improve on? Would you write a review for us? But the email addresses require text into the survey and, and the, so that I captured their, their email phone numbers are already given to you. So that's how I, that's how I asked them to survey. Instead of going through like the OTA through the messaging board, I go through their phone number. That was the direct suggestion that, that Mark made. It's like quit being sheepish, get on the phone, make it happen. And, and that, that's what I did and it's working great. So it's, it's slow season right now, but I'm getting two to six replies and, and, and filling it out from my units right now every week. And it's going to build up in the summer. We'll probably be flying fast. Fast and furious. So that was direct, influenced by, by Mark's book. And, and I'm, I'm, I'm going to be at that. I'm gonna be on 65% by the end of the year. That's my goal.

That is amazing. Direct bookings, you know it's music to my ears because you know, Mark genuinely does want to help, you know, a million hosts out there get more direct bookings and have less reliance on OTAs which just by his book, the book Direct Playbook which is available on Amazon and the book Direct Blueprint which is a second follow up to that. You can go out there and, and use some of this. Even if it's just inspiration to go out there and do some of this stuff then, then it works. One thing that came to mind as you were saying to get them to fill in the survey. One thing that to, to get people to share on social media. So we have Instagram accounts. We get them to, as they check in we've got a little welcome card which says hey, if you're enjoying your stay when you share use this hashtag, you know when you share on there. And we then check at the end of each month we pick out somebody at random to win and it's just simply we, we send through some called simple cake. We send it through the post which is like A letterbox hamper type thing. But for yourself, you could say, hey, fill in this survey. And if you do, we pick one person at random each month to win a bottle of our homemade wine. Do you know what I mean? Like, as in that kind of.

I love that.

That would be an awesome way to increase the number of people to fill in. And obviously what you get is the email out of it for one bottle of homemade wine, you know, that sort of thing. So, yeah, there's loads of exciting things and I'm excited for you. I mean, it sounds like very homely, hearty sort of business and one that's gone through challenges like, like you've gone through, but is, you know, well on its way now to an even brighter future. So what does the future hold for Monument glamping?

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Yeah, I would like to get to that. Five properties. So we've done some, some, some feasibility studies. I'm in the process of hiring another group to actually do a real one and that's more for financing, to get financing from, from banks to buy these properties. You had mentioned what model we had and I didn't fully answer the model that we're, we're differentiating from other galactic operations that I own the property. So there's a lot of, so it's mixed. It's. Land acquisition is, is kind of a, kind of a pillar of our organization. So. Or my company or my growing company. So I want to own five properties and then build the business of glamping on top of it with the proper person permitting here in El Paso County. So that's El Paso County. I would like to grow to other counties in the country. Like I said, I have a student, I have a son down in Oklahoma, he's doing an RV park, but we could do a glamping operation down there outside of Tulsa. Really beautiful area. And I have A son in Tennessee, the Gatlinburg area. He lives just south of Knoxville that way. I would love to get into that area that might be a little saturated, but. But still a very fun place. A lot of, lot of tourism there. And, and that's kind of the. There's a couple models there that I've copied. So the businesses just copy what other people are doing, what's successful. Yeah, a couple of models there was. I call it the Ray Kroc model that he's the founder of McDonald's. He's more in the. In the business of real estate than he is in the hamburgers. There's some truth to what I'm doing here is that I want to acquire the property. There is a model out there to lease property, to get on government property or something like that. And that I'm resisting that model. I'm more. I want to acquire the property and that becomes an asset of the company that we have fun with. The glancing operation on top of it. And then I don't know if I can call it the Rob Abasolo model, but he's one that really is advocating get close to state parks or tourist areas and national parks and things like that. Try to get close to them. Be the destination. You're not quite the destination, but you're on the way. And that's monument. I mean, I was just blessed to be been here for 22 years. I didn't quite realize how. How much of. How much we fit the glamping model or that model of being close until it happens. There is a model of going out in the boonies, going out in the middle of nowhere and being one with nature and stuff. And that's. We are one with nature, but we happen to have some really nice tourist. So the people who come here typically will enjoy their mornings and their evenings, but they're out and about all day long and they're out touring and being tourists or if they're. If they are sitting around, they're more staycationers. They're from Denver and Colorado Springs and they're just getting out of their apartment building and enjoying the evening, enjoying the day, doing something else. So that's a model. And a model that I've really been interested in is the Terramor model. That's the KOA brand for glamping. I'm very impressed with that. Their hospitality involves food. I don't think there's a tangent, but the idea that this is like a sandbox type of area. So one of the things that we've experienced experimented with is what we call a Colorado cookout where we'll make hamburger patties and put it in a cooler with some chips and some grilled items and things like that and seasonings and then they grill their own stash and, and that's they Terramore does what they call grill kits and it's much the same thing. So I'm kind of, I want to perfect that because there's not a lot of margin in it. It's kind of a hassle especially when you're busy and stuff. But I think we can systematize it. Kind of like what we did with homemade wine. We, I think we can get a, get a routine going and make it an easy add on. You know, pay 50 bucks and here's your, here's your meal that night and grill it yourself. But we're not going to be a restaurant. I don't want that. I don't want to us to have a restaurant. I think Terramor has a restaurant. But, but it's a short menu metro restaurant. And so you know what we got in the refrigerator, that's what we're going to cook for you. So. So it's that kind of thing. They also make sack lunches. I think it's a great idea. I think we're going to have sack lunches in our future. Well, because our avatar is actually going out and about. Well why not, you know, get a couple sandwiches, a couple bags of chips. Here you go. And they wrap it up, make it nice, a little message on it. We could make it really cool and then they could take it and go. It's a grab and go box lunch or bag lunch.

What I love about all this is that I mentioned this on a previous podcast is that when you niche down, you should go an inch wide but a mile deep. So really identify what your avatar needs. You just said they're on the move. So having these kind of add on services that you can offer, that'll do two things. First of all, you've got the add on sale but then also that makes you guys different again. So every time, every little aspect makes you different again to the point where people go, hey, where's the best place to go? Glamping and your name gets mentioned more. So what increases? Well, your direct bookings increase because you can start to shut off all of those dates on the OTAs and you know, just take the referrals, the, the email marketing ones. And it's also content, isn't it? Because all that stuff we've talked about, hey, we're now doing this. Well, that's an email that's a campaign that you can fire out saying hey, you want to come and experience the cookout? You know you can do so while enjoying this view, you know of, from, from the glamping. And you know that is, is just an awesome way to look at it. So I'm excited about what you're doing in the future as, as we bring these towards a close, we just love to do a couple of fun quick fire questions. So one question I've got for you is what area or skill do you personally excel at?

I was going to say teaching, but that isn't fitting in very nicely to treating my, my glamping guests well. I mean I'm not going to have classes for my glamping guests. However, I do take them on hikes sometimes. But we have good conversations on the hikes. It's almost like a different model. Is that teaching other glampers how to do glamping is, is or not about different models, a different audience. I had to separate my, my audience a bit. My website has developed quite a bit by the way, viewers can see it@miami clamping.com but I used to try to talk to glamping posts through that website and it just wasn't working because it's such a different people who are visiting, they don't care about opening up their own glamping sites or, or submitting for special use permits with the county. They don't care. So they want to have a pleasurable experience. So I guess that's a unique gift that I've got as a teacher that I've just not been able to do.

Yeah, I mean it sounds good to teach at the end of the day. So one thing that I'd love to ask is what resources or where should people go and check out for more information things that they can learn around glamping. What resources has helped you? Who should they even be talking to or what websites or training programs? Where should they go and check out?

Yeah, I'll just give you some recent ones. Well, of course Mark's book. You get that book and start doing the direct bookings. You have to move in that direction. Avoid the temptation to stay comfortable in Airbnb or VRBO or it is laying in a comfortable spot. It's very easy to get started in those in that direction. But you've got to put your big boy pants on eventually and start to be a real host. And that means you're taking, taking Those bookings directly and treating customers like they want to be treated. That will help your retention rates, too, that the return guests will, will, will start to increase in that environment versus the person who's just traveling through and finding a place to stay on Airbnb so that you embrace Mark's work. That, that's, that's really, really important.

So thank you. Thank you for that. And lastly, what sort of saying or mantra really resonates with you?

Yeah, I was going to say something else, but this conversation has kind of merged to, to a different area. So I'm going to, I'm going to give you this. Embrace creativity. That's the secret sauce and the fun place to be. Anyway, we are in such a early industry of glamping. And I just watched an interview with the American Gladstone association with Wendy Scott of Terramor and of koa's branding, and it was excellent. And she said, and she's all big in the studies and reports and the data, the research. And she says, let the research. Well, I say let the research guide you. That's my debate teaching coming out of me. Let just follow that research. The research shows glamping's got a huge amount of growth in front of it. I mean, it's still, it's on an up wave. And let's ride that up wave. How do you, how do you ride that upright with success? It's through embracing creativity. I like to say creativity is an image of God. Traitor. Okay. That's what separates us from any animal, is that we create our own, Our own, our own habitat, our own structures, our own businesses and that embrace the creativity and create those, those wonderful things that make your place unique and experiential and wonderful and magical. You're not going to be unsuccessful. You're going to make this happen. And that's kind of who our family is. I mean, I've got 16 kids. I guess creation's a big part of our life. But, but that is a walk with, for people who have no kids or just a couple kids. I mean, it's like it's not the number of kids that, that make the Dubes kind of unique. It's. It's that we, we do. And especially my adult kids. I, I gave a presentation not too long ago to our area Chamber of commerce, and it was, it was surprising when we, when Wendy and I gave this presentation that when we were studying for it, that all of our kids become entrepreneurs. Like, all of them. I got a lot of kids and they're all, they're all doing businesses. And I like, we didn't set out to do that, but it makes sense that they did because who we are and what we do, what we exude in all of our glamping venues is creation. We are creating an environment that's beautiful and magical, wonderful and that is the magic is the creation side of things. So yeah, embrace creativity. That's, that's, that might be my motto from, for a while.

I love it. I love it. And thank you so much, Chris, for sharing your journey obviously into hospitality glamping. And certainly from this I've picked up some of the unique things that you can do to, to attract more, more people. Some of the more hospitality based sort of things which sometimes forget that people forget. This is, this is hospitality and ultimately how you've actually made this part of your, your everyday life and your family's life and thus the creativity, as you've just said just there, has sparked more businesses, more only good comes from the creativity and learning and you've created an awesome product there. So how can people listening come and get in touch with yourself or check out the business?

Yeah, I'd say go to monumentglamping.com Like I mentioned before, that's really geared to the people who are staying with me. But I honestly love it when other glampers reach out to me and say, hey, I saw you on this podcast or listen to you at the AGA or you know, we met somehow. Can you give me some pointers or some, some questions and stuff? I love this community of glamping, so. Or of glamp hosting. So ping me, you know, you know, send me a message and we could start a conversation. It would be, it'd be fun to, to connect with glampers all over the country. All over the world, really. All over the world. I have one of my daughters lives in Australia, so, so we, we make a trip out to Australia whenever we can.

So that's amazing. So thank you so much, Chris for this and thank you too. If you're listening to the Boostly podcast or on the YouTube channel, we know there's a lot of places you can put your attention. We thank you for putting it with Boost. Lee. Um, that's it from me. Chris, is there any closing comments or anything I missed?

Hey, no, no, this is a lot of fun. Liam, thanks for having me on.

Thank you buddy. And everybody, we will see you on the next podcast. Bye for now.