Guest Bio
Sharyn Means is the CEO of Doves Rest Cabins, a unique getaway located on the rim of Palo Duro Canyon. Hailing from New Zealand, Sharyn’s career in project management has seamlessly blended with her passion for hospitality and customer service. She is the creator of the Kia Oro customer service brand, which cultivates a culture of excellence by anticipating guest needs and exceeding expectations. Sharyn is deeply committed to providing a personalized and seamless experience for every guest at Doves Rest, where natural beauty and luxury meet. Through her leadership, she instills a spirit of respect, generosity, and kindness in both her staff and guests. When not crafting marketing strategies or leading her team, you can find Sharyn spending time with her Texan husband or enjoying a protein bar.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Sharyn Means, CEO of Doves Rest Cabins, about her journey from New Zealand to the U.S. and how her background in project management and construction has shaped her approach to hospitality. Sharyn discusses the importance of creating a welcoming environment for guests, providing excellent customer service, and managing the logistics behind running a hospitality business. The conversation also delves into the significance of disconnecting to reconnect with nature and oneself. Sharyn shares her philosophy of listening to both guests and staff, fostering a culture of excellence, and maintaining strong processes as the business grows.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Doves Rest Cabins combines luxury and nature for a truly unique guest experience.
- ✓ Sharyn’s New Zealand roots shaped her approach to hospitality, emphasizing respect, generosity, and kindness.
- ✓ The importance of logistics in running a successful hospitality business.
- ✓ Creating a welcoming environment is essential for ensuring guest satisfaction and repeat business.
- ✓ Listening to guests and staff is crucial for long-term success in the hospitality industry.
- ✓ Nature and wildlife enhance the overall guest experience at Doves Rest Cabins.
- ✓ Training staff through hands-on experience and personal interaction ensures a high level of service.
- ✓ Scaling a hospitality business requires strong processes, systems, and a solid foundation in customer service.
- ✓ Guests often have common concerns about amenities and services, and addressing them proactively ensures a smooth experience.
- ✓ Disconnecting from daily life allows for a deeper reconnection with nature and oneself, making Doves Rest the perfect escape.
What You’ll Find at Doves Rest Cabins
- ✓ Luxurious cabins with breathtaking views of Palo Duro Canyon
- ✓ Personalized customer service inspired by the Kia Oro philosophy of respect, generosity, and kindness
- ✓ A perfect balance of comfort and nature, providing a serene escape
- ✓ Opportunities for disconnecting from the daily grind and reconnecting with nature
- ✓ A staff trained to anticipate and exceed guests’ needs for a seamless experience
👉 Visit Doves Rest Cabins Official Website to learn more about their unique lodging experiences and Sharyn Means’ dedication to creating memorable, nature-filled getaways.
Learn more about Doves Rest Cabins and connect with Sharyn at:
https://dovesrestcabins.com/
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.098)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back today. And I’m also super excited because I’ve got Sharyn Means here with me. Sharyn is the CEO of Dove’s Rest Cabins. Sharyn, welcome. Nice to see you again.
Sharyn Means (00:18.66)
Nice to see you too, thank you.
Jason Elkins (00:21.292)
Yeah, this is going to be going to be quite a pleasure. You’re doing something a little different than some of our guests that we’ve had on the show. But you and I had a nice conversation last time a couple of weeks ago. And I just thought, you know, you’re an interesting person. And and I do believe that what you guys are doing are of interest to a lot of the listeners of the show. So I’m really appreciate you taking time to come back and chat with me.
Sharyn Means (00:43.58)
Welcome. It’s fun to be here.
Jason Elkins (00:43.692)
before, yeah, before before. Yeah, yeah, cool. Before we get too far into I’m really interested in your story. Like I mentioned, you’re an interesting person. I want to kind of dig into you and figure out what got you from where you are, where you were to where you are now. But before we do that, let’s give everybody kind of the 30 to 60 second elevator pitch on what is Dove’s Rest Cabins.
Sharyn Means (01:07.696)
Doves Rest Cabins is a mixture of 20 different cabins, six different wedding ceremony areas, a venue patio, and it’s all mixed in with nature. It’s everything here is about natural. Everything is about peace and serenity and enjoying the beauty of the natural.
elements within the Palo Duro canyon and then adding some very unique art and different things that you’re going to find here that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.
Jason Elkins (01:49.742)
Okay, well that’s a good point for me to ask you when you say anywhere else, where are you located?
Sharyn Means (01:55.994)
We are located on the rim of the Palo Duro Canyon. So if you don’t know where that is, it is 35 minutes southwest of Amarillo, right at the very top of the panhandle of Texas. So we’re remote, but you’re still pretty close to towns and cities. But when you get out here, you just don’t believe that there is anybody else anywhere near you.
Jason Elkins (02:12.269)
Alright.
Jason Elkins (02:20.846)
you
Jason Elkins (02:25.806)
That’s very my favorite type of place. Tell me this, do you use, I’m trying to figure out which word you use that most closely aligns with what you’re doing. So there’s words like resort, there’s words like lodge, there’s probably other words, but is there a word that you feel aligns with what you’re doing?
Sharyn Means (02:51.004)
probably resort. The level of service and concierge service that we do and our capabilities and everything from ensuring a couple can have a peaceful time right through to doing 150, 200 guests, wedding, business groups. So we’ve taken what everybody
Jason Elkins (02:52.886)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (03:18.318)
you
Sharyn Means (03:19.448)
originally thought was a short-term rental type venture and turned it into an inclusive but not inclusive so you can have everything you want it’s just not here sitting in your face in a big building so the restaurant’s not here but tell you what our private chef drives up to your cabin you would think you’re in a restaurant with what he gives you so anything that you want
Jason Elkins (03:36.686)
So, we’ll talk to you up here, but we’ve got that for you.
Sharyn Means (03:48.581)
need, there is a 99.9 % chance our concierge and our guest services team is going to be able to put it in your cabin.
Jason Elkins (03:58.422)
Wow. Okay. And I bet there’s some stories there and hopefully we’ll come back to those in just a minute. Cause, cause I’ve worked in a remote place. worked, I managed a small, we’d probably also use the term resort, but it was 30 miles offshore in Belize and it wasn’t always possible when people, know, Hey, can we have guacamole tonight? You know, it’s 30 miles on a boat to go into town to get some avocados and, and they’re not actually, they’re not actually that
common in Belize is there in most of Central America. So I get that can be a challenge. Let’s real quick also touch on what kind of activities, what can people do there besides just totally chill out and disconnect.
Sharyn Means (04:41.98)
And you’ve got everything from horseback riding in the canyon to Jeep tours to museums. know, the Panhandler of Texas has some of the most incredible museums and there’s art galleries. You’ve got the Texas musical that plays down in the canyon in the open amphitheater. And if you’ve never been and listened or been part of watching
play in an open amphitheatre that’s inside the canyon so the acoustics by using the canyon walls just makes the listening and experience. The show is the history of how, you know, good night settled here, how the West was bought, you know, was settled here, the Indian Wars that took place here, and how hard it was.
Jason Elkins (05:32.382)
you
Sharyn Means (05:39.78)
And really what, I was gonna say our ancestors, because I am an American now, but your ancestors, what they did to create and build this part of the country was phenomenal. When you see what those canyon walls are and go, they came over here on a horse and cart. I don’t even wanna walk it, let alone bring a…
Jason Elkins (05:39.854)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (05:47.054)
You
Jason Elkins (05:57.93)
See
Sharyn Means (06:10.172)
cart down here. So there is just so much history here and that play gives you a very broad window of it. So it is a big attraction to here. But yeah, the off-roading, the hiking, the mountain biking, we have a lot of events out here with mountain biking. It is very much an active place.
Jason Elkins (06:19.858)
Okay, yeah, that’s very cool.
Sharyn Means (06:38.288)
And then what we provide you with is that quiet solitude to come back and relax or soak in the hot tub or just wander around the walking trails that we’ve created. We heard a lot, we listened to our guests and we heard a lot, you know, we have a lot of older guests and we have a lot of younger guests that have smaller children, four or five years old. And they can’t walk, they can’t do the hikes a great deal.
So we’ve just finished another section of trails that takes you down and sits you right on the edge of the canyon. And listening to the kids come back and so excited that they got to see right down inside a canyon, it’s very rewarding. And so as guests give us ideas, we look at a way of being able to do something to achieve it for them.
Jason Elkins (07:36.497)
Yeah, that’s very cool. And I bet a lot of these kids, this is the first time maybe they’re being exposed to something like that. Just, you know, if they’re living in the city or whatever, it sounds like… So there’s the term, you know, we discussed terms. There’s a term called, you know, dude ranch, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. Does that apply to what you’re doing? Do you use that term sometimes?
Sharyn Means (07:43.077)
Yeah.
Sharyn Means (07:55.324)
Mm-hmm.
No, no, because a lot of the activities that we do and that we help people access are all within a couple of mile radius, but you know, in most parts for them to get to. What we do here is try to keep it more surreal, just where the guests that are here to be quiet.
not disturbed by the noise of an off-roader. But the off-roader only needs to go 500 feet down the main road and they can go jeep touring through the canyon. So it was finding a balance to be able to let people do what they want to do, not be dictated to.
Jason Elkins (08:49.528)
Right. That’s, that’s, that’s super cool. that was, I think we covered a lot of really cool stuff. know we’re going to come back to some of that, but I also want to make sure we get into, like you mentioned your, you know, you’re a U S citizen now, but you know, I hear in your voice and we discussed this last time. Let’s, let’s dig into your story. Where, where did this all start for you?
Sharyn Means (09:13.308)
was born in New Zealand, so and again it’s probably like Palo Duro Canyon, a lot of people don’t know where it is. And it’s so…
Jason Elkins (09:22.804)
New Zealand or the town?
Sharyn Means (09:25.808)
New Zealand, you’ll be amazed how many people. That’s near England, isn’t it? And I’m like, no, you’re on the wrong side of the world. I actually got asked on that accent. Somebody thought I was Irish. And I just looked at them and I’m like, you’ve never left your hometown, you? Because a New Zealander and an Irish accent couldn’t be the most different in the entire world. But you know, we are down under, we are at the
Jason Elkins (09:27.798)
Yeah!
Sharyn Means (09:55.366)
bottom of the earth. you know, growing up, my husband and I talk and he’ll mention things, you know, certain types of cereals or TV shows. And I’m like, we never got that. We had one TV channel until the late seventies. That was it. And it finished at 10 o’clock at night. It just stopped. So I grew up in a very
Jason Elkins (10:09.11)
You
Jason Elkins (10:19.886)
No.
Sharyn Means (10:25.836)
Very low key farming town. So my childhood was very much outdoors, very much in the farming situation. You’re riding a tricycle to school at five years old. You just can’t even imagine that here. So I don’t know if I’d call myself a tomboy, but
Jason Elkins (10:28.032)
you
Jason Elkins (10:46.722)
Mm-hmm.
Sharyn Means (10:52.928)
I was very active, always outside, and I actually spent more time with my dad working on building and cars and in the garden. I’d mow the lawns before I’d bake a cake. So that kind of created me into being more interested in construction and building, and I love building things.
Jason Elkins (11:07.47)
you
Jason Elkins (11:20.973)
Yeah.
Sharyn Means (11:22.362)
I did try the girl type job. I worked in a bank for about six months. I’m kind of like, this is not me. So I’ve come from a very strong construction project management background. So very logistical, very analytical, very detailed and process driven. But at the same time,
Jason Elkins (11:38.638)
You know, you mentioned your dad. Sharyn, you’d mentioned your dad was, you know, that you’re spending time with him building projects, cars and stuff like that. Was that his work or was he a farmer? What was his kind of job?
Sharyn Means (11:48.954)
Yeah.
Sharyn Means (12:00.22)
He was an engineer.
Jason Elkins (12:04.662)
He was. OK, that makes sense.
Did you have a chance to travel? Did your parents talk about traveling? Was that a big thing as you were growing up?
Sharyn Means (12:19.116)
You know, in the 60s and 70s, no. It really, like I said, we’re so far away from everything that traveling, the only place you really could fly to comfortably back then was Australia. So we did some trips to Australia. It wasn’t until the late 80s that really started getting those long haul flights.
And that’s when the first time I got on a plane to come to the States.
Jason Elkins (12:54.03)
Okay. How, how old I, maybe I shouldn’t ask this question, but how old were you the first time you went somewhere other than Australia?
Sharyn Means (13:01.82)
28
Jason Elkins (13:06.646)
Okay. All right. And what, I mean, maybe your parents didn’t care at that point. don’t know, but what did, was that like a big thing for you to be going off to the U S or were they supportive of that or were they involved?
Sharyn Means (13:17.5)
Yeah, considering I was, yeah, I was here for quite some time. So yeah, and it was a lot different then. Now I can messenger with my mom and I can FaceTime her. Back then it was still the connected, up the phone and dial the number. and writing letters, were really…
I mean, what was it? 8990 when the first lot of MS computers came in. So there was, you know, was good old writing letters home and sending stuff. it’s very, very different to now. But yeah, it was.
Jason Elkins (14:00.504)
But were they excited? Were they supportive of this? did you get a little bit of, why do you have to go so far away?
Sharyn Means (14:05.008)
supportive, yeah, no they were supportive but they were also I think very anxious but they never they never stopped us from doing anything. You know if if we had a goal or we wanted to do something they let us go and that was the same as you know climbing trees, putting a towel around your neck and jumping off the garage roof and being
Superman. Like, you know, my poor mother, I mean, my brother and I must have given her so many heart attacks, but you know, it’s, they let us experience to learn. And you only did something stupid once.
Jason Elkins (14:52.014)
8.
Well, oh, well, maybe you only did something stupid once. I’ve been known to take three or four times before I realized I shouldn’t do that again. So, but, know, there’s, there’s a common, common thread in the people that I work around. know the people you’ve worked around and definitely people we’ve had on the show is that that just kind of like got to be a little outside the comfort zone and go do things that maybe the rest of the world doesn’t think we should be doing.
Sharyn Means (14:57.916)
you
Thanks.
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (15:24.014)
or whatever and that’s definitely a common thread that I’ve seen come up through the show. And you also mentioned construction and engineering type of stuff. what did you end up, what were you studying in school? What was like, what did you do? What were you doing in school? Did you have a job working something before you picked up and went to the US?
Sharyn Means (15:47.898)
And, and, and well, yeah, I did. Like I said, I did the bank and did the normal sort of girl type stuff and retail, but it just, I couldn’t.
Jason Elkins (16:00.172)
I’m happy you’re saying that. cannot, I’m not going to get away with saying that.
Sharyn Means (16:05.596)
But I couldn’t sit still there was something that just wasn’t It’s like there was an itch, you know, I’ve got to do more and so I did work for a window company and that’s where I started getting more involved in the project management and that sort of stuff and then when I came to the US I came with my
at that time, husband. And so I got to work while I was here. We were here for nearly 10 years. And, but I, that’s where I really started getting into the construction, roofing companies, construction companies, project management, and just everything settled down. It was like,
Jason Elkins (17:00.622)
Thank
Sharyn Means (17:03.066)
Yeah, now I don’t have to put together furniture when it arrives. you know, that was, I was trying to get fixes in other places to do what I wanted to do. But I loved being in construction. I really enjoyed project management.
Jason Elkins (17:06.766)
was trying to get fixes in other places.
Jason Elkins (17:25.996)
What was it do you think? was the draw now that you’ve had some time to reflect and I know I sometimes reflect back on some of the things I was doing. Could you put your finger on what it was about construction that did it for you?
Sharyn Means (17:34.984)
You’re-
Sharyn Means (17:38.65)
Yeah, there’s no drama. It’s black and white. Point A and point B is the only way you can join it together. You can’t throw another piece in there and expect it to work. There is a methodology to how everything fits together, whether it’s a window, whether it’s a roof, whether it’s a house, whether it’s a piece in your car. You can only put…
Jason Elkins (17:42.935)
Hmm.
Sharyn Means (18:07.192)
certain things together. So it was always very structured, processed and detailed. You know, can’t take a half inch hole and try and put a three, three quarter inch screw on it, because it’s not going to work. there was there was no drama, it was always laid out, it was drawn out, it was set out. And and I think that’s what I liked was it was so much it aligned with the analytical
Jason Elkins (18:31.886)
you
Sharyn Means (18:37.178)
and logical part of my brain.
Jason Elkins (18:40.366)
So the question that seems obvious to me in my mind is obvious is that what you just described sounds of a stark contrast to dealing with guests. And most of the listeners to this show know exactly why I’m asking this question is how do you reconcile that? And because guests at a resort or in any sort of hospitality industry is they don’t fit in the way that
Sharyn Means (18:58.789)
It is.
Jason Elkins (19:09.666)
There is no like a fits with B. So.
Sharyn Means (19:10.35)
I don’t know. And you know, I actually never imagined myself in hospitality. Okay. And it was never something I even investigated doing. But I think what it is, is my upbringing and my New Zealand culture is taking, you know,
What we offer here is what we’ve really labeled Kiora service, which is Kiora is the spirit of welcoming somebody, generosity, respect and kindness. And those are not elements that you can get trained in, but the elements I was brought up with. I was raised in that environment.
Jason Elkins (20:01.879)
Mm-hmm.
Sharyn Means (20:07.792)
Really, it just came natural to me to the fact that that’s how I like being treated. And when you come into my home, which the resort is, I’m gonna treat you like my family. I’m gonna treat you with that same wellness and kindness and generosity that I do when my family comes here.
Jason Elkins (20:16.174)
Mm-hmm.
Sharyn Means (20:36.738)
And so I didn’t even have to think about it. I just did it. And it was my staff and my husband that just sort of said, how do you do that? And do what? How do you take somebody from being so upset that you could see it in their face to next thing that wanting to give you a hug and I’m like, you just respect them.
Jason Elkins (20:37.152)
And so I didn’t even have a thing in it. I just did it. it was my start and my end goal. I said, why didn’t you do that? How did you take somebody who had been so upset that you could see it in their face, to do the same thing that one person has been
Jason Elkins (21:05.962)
Mm-hmm Yeah
Sharyn Means (21:05.977)
I said, you respect people and you listen to what they’ve got to say and you put yourself in their shoes. And initially we all react. We all react to situations, but actually stopping and listening is a skill that a lot of people are losing. And just being able to do that allows our guests to feel like,
man, I was made to feel so welcome. And I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t have to tip the person to make them like me. I just had to show up at the gate. So, I’ve worked a lot with our staff in that same respect as, just show respect, show generosity, show kindness, and never ever say no.
Jason Elkins (21:40.526)
didn’t mean to do anything. didn’t tip the person to make them like me. just had to show up for that. So, you know, I was off for a while, and then I got the same speech. And I just, so I just showed him off. I just took a walk home and made him say hello.
Sharyn Means (22:07.472)
The word no does not exist here. The word maybe does. But because until you research it and you know for sure, but don’t just initially, you know, because you’re not having a good day saying, no, you can’t have that. Well, that’s not that person’s fault. It’s your fault.
Jason Elkins (22:07.694)
The world knows it’s not existing. The world may be, but because until you research it and you know for sure, don’t dismiss all your responses because you’re not having a good day saying no people don’t care about Well, that’s not the question as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you think that your attitude and approach, because you mentioned
kind of your background in New Zealand. I’m curious if you were to split it up in percentages. What percentage is just New Zealand? Is there a Maori influence? Is it just your family living, spending time outdoors? Like, what is it, or is it just a mix?
Sharyn Means (22:52.732)
It’s kind of a mix. The married culture is very, strong in New Zealand. back in the 60s and 70s when I was a child, and that’s your formative years, once you reach a teenager, you don’t listen to anything, doesn’t matter who you are. Why, no, I didn’t.
Jason Elkins (23:21.518)
I think you’re right though. Based on my own personal experience, I think you’re right on that. Pretty much all teenagers.
Sharyn Means (23:23.002)
Bye.
Sharyn Means (23:28.476)
But yeah, no, was just, you know.
The Murray culture has its own formalities and a lot of that I was not raised with because my parents are not. But all of their beliefs and cultural aspects at that time were just integrated in the whole society. It’s just how everybody was. I’d been in a small town.
Pretty much everybody knew that I was Robert and Betty’s daughter, which was great when you were young, but as a teenager, no, no, no.
Jason Elkins (24:10.99)
Not so good as a teenager. Did your parents, I’m curious, did your parents, my grandparents used to do this to me. I used to spend a lot of time with them in a small town. And it was pretty much every time I left the house, it’s like, remember, like my grandfather was, remember, I know everybody in this town. So if you do anything that you shouldn’t be doing, I’m going to hear about it. It was a constant reminder.
Sharyn Means (24:32.7)
Well, yeah, I got reminded of that. My dad was one of seven and my mum was one of seven and pretty much all of them lived in that same town as well. So I mean, I had like…
Jason Elkins (24:45.88)
Mm-hmm.
Sharyn Means (24:49.488)
what, people between aunties and uncles who were scanning throughout that town. So there wasn’t even a safe zone. There wasn’t even a place that you could go to that you could kind of maybe think nobody would be around there. So, it really is how I was brought up and I didn’t realize I had so much of that influence.
Jason Elkins (24:50.638)
Yeah, just joking.
Uh-huh.
Sharyn Means (25:18.902)
And so when I retired, courtesy of my husband, and I was just meant to be involved in some of the back office stuff. Somehow or other, I went from four weeks of retirement to CEO running the whole resort. And he looked at me and he said, can you do it? And I’m like, I guess so. I mean, okay, I’ll take on any challenge, but…
What it has done is it’s allowed me to the cure service in, but then my logical analytical process of driven part of me, which is a very strong part, has taken us to the next level. It’s taken us into developing a strong website, marketing.
Jason Elkins (25:56.718)
But in my logical and analytical choices…
Sharyn Means (26:17.446)
processes, operation processes. So when you look at part of our plan for our future growth and being able to do that, you’ve got to have strong processes in place to be able to offer that service. So it’s become quite a mix. the hospitality side, I didn’t know I had it.
Jason Elkins (26:33.166)
All right.
Jason Elkins (26:46.35)
you
Sharyn Means (26:46.908)
but it’s not a skill I’ve learned, it’s a skill I grew up with. So it’s embedded. And I had one guest say to me, you can’t learn what I do because it’s just who I am. It’s like trying to mimic somebody, you can get it 80%, but you can’t get…
Jason Elkins (26:51.331)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (27:03.758)
We’re here.
Sharyn Means (27:15.64)
everything that they bring to it.
Jason Elkins (27:19.244)
Right. And it sounds like, you know, because I know a lot of tour operators that maybe that the people part, they’ve got it, they were born with it, they got that all figured out. But where they lack is in the systems, the processes, the marketing. So they’re constantly working really, really hard. They’re really good at the people part, but you know, the bank account hasn’t been balanced in three months.
Sharyn Means (27:41.852)
Thank
Jason Elkins (27:47.278)
And their guides are trying to figure out, am I working tomorrow? Am I not working tomorrow? And it sounds like you bring a unique mix of that part, whereas most tour operators need to go find a partner that can do that. They’re going to go find the project manager, the engineer, the systems person in order to make it work. And it sounds like you’re very fortunate to have just kind of have that built in.
Sharyn Means (28:03.388)
Mm-hmm.
Sharyn Means (28:14.276)
Yeah, and I mean, I…
came into this with thinking it was all going to be my project, detail, mind. And the other stuff just flowed. I didn’t even realize half the time what I was doing. wasn’t until a couple of staff and my husband kind of said to me, how did you do that? How do you get off the phone or walk away from them and now they’re your best friend?
Jason Elkins (28:29.71)
Mm-hmm.
Sharyn Means (28:48.506)
whereas they were ready to tear my head off. And I really had to stop and analyze what I’d done and thought about it and tried to work it out. And then it was actually Jeff that said to me, he said, it’s just who you are. He said, how you were brought up.
Jason Elkins (29:10.872)
which is probably a challenge for someone that is so analytical engineer type of brain. Because when someone says, how did you do that? You’re like, I don’t know. Let me figure it out analytically. A equals B equals C. Because if I can figure it out, then I can train my staff to do it. can build it into the systems and da da da da da. But it’s counterintuitive because it’s not one of those things you can
Sharyn Means (29:22.552)
I know, I was trying to approach you, sir.
Teacher!
Jason Elkins (29:40.418)
really figure it out because the subtleties, know, just the micro expressions and people’s faces. How do you train somebody when somebody’s left eye gets a little tight? That means that they’re getting ready to get upset. So you need to do this. You need to do that. It doesn’t flow charts don’t work really well when it comes to, you know, interpersonal communication, diagrams, schematics, blueprints. So I hear you and and
if you want to have a team and you’ve got a large you’ve got a large place there it’s obviously not just you and your husband so how do you
Sharyn Means (30:20.284)
So my team, yeah, so my team, I spend a lot of time with them, even just in fun stuff. I get out and I work with them hands on an awful lot too. But, and so in general conversation, you know, sometimes rather than sitting down in a classroom,
Jason Elkins (30:20.482)
How do you use that?
Sharyn Means (30:49.922)
everyday experiences are teachable in different ways. So we have a lot of fun when we do stuff, but at that same time teaching them to watch body language and they’re actually they practice on each other in regards to how they’re reacting to something, how they’re handling something.
And just having some of those resources in place, when you can make a difficult job enjoyable and fun and achievable, then you can actually help someone create a better response to negative stuff. you know, that’s been where I’ve put a lot of time and effort in and I’ve split people’s roles up.
I’ve watched them and kind of worked out personalities and our Concierge Guest Services group and wedding coordinator, she just loves that. You can just see in her eyes, she just, I’ve got to put this wedding night cabin together and I’m going to put lights here and I’m going to put roses here and I’m going to do this. And it’s like, she’s in this whole bubble of excitement. And that little bubble of excitement,
then makes her excited to talk to every single person that comes on. So it’s finding the role for the right person. And once you do that, you can help them create their own cure service because they’re excited about it.
Jason Elkins (32:41.806)
I’m curious, because as I listened to you discuss this, I know there’s tools out there, we can call them psychometrics, like, know, personality styles, tests, there’s disk assessments, there’s Myers-Briggs, there’s, you know, the five personalities. I’m curious, do you implement any of that in your training with the team or in hiring or anything?
Sharyn Means (33:04.156)
And I kind of do some of those questions when I’m hiring if it’s for more of a management team level. But talking to somebody face to face and working alongside them, you can learn so much more than a written test because you’re getting their instant reaction. You’re not getting them going, am I empathetic or sympathetic or
You know, it’s like, I’m seeing how you react. I’m watching your body language. I’m feeling any kind of vibe you have. And so that’s where I think, because Jeff and I are so hands on here with our staff and with our guests, we actually just listen and learn to recognize things.
and then be able to help.
Jason Elkins (34:06.296)
So I suspect and I appreciate that response. And I suspect that for you, it feels very natural to spend some time with somebody and figure them out and okay, what are they likely to need in this moment or how are they gonna respond? But it’s not that way for everybody. And it’s hard to hire a whole staff of people that can do that. So I guess the follow-up question is, do you feel that some of those tools, so for example, I worked in real estate for a few years.
Sharyn Means (34:23.61)
No.
Jason Elkins (34:35.838)
And my team leader really pushed on us understanding the different personality styles. Specifically, we used one called the disc assessment. was, you know, direct and driven, the interpersonal people, the security-based people, and the cautious analytical types, so that when we met somebody, we could fairly quickly figure out, okay, this person’s more worried about cautious and analytical, so they need to know that…
Sharyn Means (34:43.921)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (35:02.926)
this horseback riding trip is gonna be from such and such a time to such and such, and we can experience this and this is what’s gonna happen when we get back. And then there’s other types like me, my personality is like, hey, this sounds like fun, let’s go. And I don’t care when we come back. So I’m just curious, like, do you have systems in place or ways to help teach your staff to kind of…
Sharyn Means (35:16.284)
Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (35:30.114)
Real recognize those things in clients or do they just is it just by spending so much time around you?
Sharyn Means (35:36.228)
It’s a bit of both. Like, so there’s really only three of us that are involved all the time with any kind of guest contact. So, and one of them, she started as a cleaner with us. Now our cleaners and our maintenance guys, they never really have any contact with the guests. They’re here, you know, when a guest leaves and…
Jason Elkins (35:44.238)
in the
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (35:58.688)
same
Sharyn Means (36:05.04)
they leave before the next guest arrives. So that’s a whole different section of our business. But the two women actually, two women that are part of our management team, they are the ones that I work with. Now, yes, we do do different training programs.
Jason Elkins (36:25.368)
Yes.
Sharyn Means (36:32.902)
but we kind of focus those normally all together. Brandy started as a cleaner with us three and a half years ago. And as I’ve watched her develop and we’ve given her little steps of growth, now she could run this whole place. And again, short bursts of phone calls and guest contacts then evaluate.
Jason Elkins (36:54.272)
Mm-hmm.
Sharyn Means (37:02.508)
short bursts evaluate. Now both of those ladies handle the phones, they deal with guest contact, so I was pretty lucky in my hiring and then pretty smart on how I brought them through to the fact that hiring somebody and just giving them
Jason Elkins (37:09.189)
So, I was pretty happy.
Sharyn Means (37:29.052)
10 pages of written instructions and this is how you do it isn’t how I work. You know, I’ve still got the 10 pages of written instructions but I… Yeah, they have to.
Jason Elkins (37:35.707)
Right. Of course you do because you’re an engineer type. You probably do have flow charts and spreadsheets, right?
Sharyn Means (37:50.2)
Yeah, only a couple. But I’ve got a lot of spreadsheets. We work a lot off spreadsheets. The three of us actually all like spreadsheets. We use them a lot. But it’s more just developing them step by step. I think sometimes too much is dumped on people at once. Rather than, you know, it’s like when you’re going up a flight of stairs.
You don’t start on the bottom one and jump to stump, you know, step number 10. We take one step at a time. And, you know, maybe step one, two and three, you can get through pretty quickly. But letting people master and guide them through each section of whatever their role is, or allowing them to be immersed in a situation.
that may only pop up once more in the whole time they’re here. That is how we’ve been able to train, not even train or teach and still, in both Brandy and Ashley, how it needs to work here and how we want it to work. And not because it’s a rule, but it’s just because who we are.
Jason Elkins (38:49.102)
.
Jason Elkins (39:08.655)
you
Yeah. You know, what came up for me when you’re describing that the, the steps analogy is actually just this past weekend. went and I’m in Quito, Ecuador and a friend invited me to go to a bachata lesson. thought it was put out as a lesson. So in my mind lesson means we’re going to start with step one, you know, and I quickly realized shortly after we got there, this was more of an advanced technique lesson and
Sharyn Means (39:32.262)
Learn!
Jason Elkins (39:42.744)
I remember the thought I was having and I’m very open to experiences. I’ve done all kinds of weird stuff and my comfort zone is very, very flexible. But even then I’ll tell you, walking into a room full of people, they all speak Spanish much better than I do because they were born with that language and these advanced steps that they were doing. And I remember feeling this almost the fight or flight trigger, like, my gosh, I need to get out of here quick.
Sharyn Means (40:08.912)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (40:13.006)
And thinking, you know, if we could, if I could just practice, you know, a really, really basic thing for a while and work my way up, this would be great. But I was, I was feeling like I need to get out of here. And that’s something that just happens in life. I’m talking about a dance class, but that could be a new job. You know, you show up for a new, a new job first day and the person that’s supposed to be training you is like, okay, here’s how you do it. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And, and now show me how you.
Create the pivot table on the spreadsheet so we can figure out, you know, how much, how many onions we should order for dinner service. And you’re just like totally overwhelmed. And one of two things that’s going to probably happen to fight or flight is like, you know, Whoa, get me out of here. Or you just dig in your heels. Like, you know, looking for all kinds of reasons that this is not going to work. And these people are crazy here. and I, I think that’s super relevant to.
Sharyn Means (40:45.104)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (41:10.606)
to hiring and training. yeah.
Sharyn Means (41:13.648)
Yeah, and you know, we all fail. We all have things that we fail at. But we actually don’t mind a bit of failure here because when you fail, you learn. And we kind of encourage that. But I have a fantastic team. We have a head of maintenance as well. And he’s involved a lot with the three of us.
Jason Elkins (41:28.61)
Mm-hmm.
Sharyn Means (41:43.856)
He’s slightly outnumbered, but he copes very well. But then him and I get our time together and it’s like, hey, we’ve got to build this and I’m sitting out there doing stuff with him. And so that’s my fix on that side. But he also gets excited when we have a big event because he gets to be involved with creating this stuff for the girls.
Jason Elkins (42:01.243)
huh.
Sharyn Means (42:13.926)
So they work very, very well as a team and they are so obliging to the guests and that is the big thing for me and for Jeff. Jeff’s the visionary of this team. He can picture things that it takes me a little while to kind of
Jason Elkins (42:28.014)
you
Sharyn Means (42:42.844)
put it through the process brain and then I do sometimes say, you can’t do that. It is physically not possible to do that. Let’s tweak it. But from his original vision, we always end up with something really cool at the end.
Jason Elkins (42:54.254)
from his own personal life.
Jason Elkins (43:01.548)
What’s his, what was his background?
Sharyn Means (43:04.732)
This background, he actually was 30 plus years in the incentive business. He’s been to 50 different countries around the world. He had some very big clients cause a number of large clients. So he got to experience worldwide.
Jason Elkins (43:15.384)
Okay, wow.
Sharyn Means (43:30.726)
five-star accommodation, five-star hotels, resorts. Yai’s done the Amazon with a tour group that he took over there. And he always thought his end game would be a bed and breakfast. Yeah, I’m just gonna chill. Well, kinda didn’t happen that way. Little overboard. But.
Jason Elkins (43:51.045)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, you guys went a little overboard, didn’t you?
Sharyn Means (43:59.184)
Ham and I both have a passion for the land. And so being able to incorporate luxury cabins that are still feel like a family type situation, but putting it in the middle of nature. And so Jeff’s right now has his passion and it has been for a long time at this landscaping.
He’s creating an area out there that is a mixture of natural elements, keeping the land natural. I actually never ever realized that landscaping is harder to keep something natural than it is to plant a garden. I mean, we spend a lot of time and a lot of money on keeping things in their natural environment.
Jason Elkins (44:43.124)
It’s not good.
Jason Elkins (44:47.884)
Yeah.
Sharyn Means (44:58.778)
We have, I mean, kids are getting to see lizards and geckos and doves and birds and or dad. I mean, we have the or dad running around there and they’re so friendly. they’re or dad.
Jason Elkins (45:13.928)
So, what is it? Okay, tell me about that. thought I knew everything about everything, but maybe not. What’s an out ad?
Sharyn Means (45:20.348)
So, I… Ordead is like a Barbary Sheep.
Jason Elkins (45:27.247)
okay. They’re not native to that area, are they? Okay.
Sharyn Means (45:28.174)
Okay and we have no no they got imported here and now they’ve overrun the place so we’ve got the white tail deer and the meal deer but these they run in herds and of course you have the buck and then you’ve got the does and the the babies but they’re so used to us out here now that they’ll just stand there and look at you and
Jason Elkins (45:35.662)
Sharyn Means (45:57.167)
heaven forbid they want to cross the road, the buck will stand in the middle of the road and he will let everybody walk single aisle across that road and you have to sit there and wait for them. But the guests love them because they’re so unique. The babies are just so cute. But there’s about five different herds. We do feed them. So we bring them out 7 a.m. in the morning, 5 p.m. at night.
Jason Elkins (46:04.846)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Sharyn Means (46:27.036)
and they’ll wait about 30, 45 minutes before feed time. They start gathering in different areas. So that things that we’ve created, they were here, but we’ve created it more to where it can be a guest experience. And for those hunters that are listening, no, there are signs around here that says hunting not permitted. And
Jason Elkins (46:47.052)
Okay. You know, that’s a good point. I’m happy you brought that up. So what I hear you saying is you don’t host hunters, even if they’re going to go offsite to hunt or… Yeah. But…
Sharyn Means (47:05.488)
They can go off site, yes. You does not let it, you know, on the counter that’s sitting there where you can view stuff, it really is a great place to set up that scope and gun and that’s not permitted.
Jason Elkins (47:11.256)
But
Jason Elkins (47:20.202)
Okay. And probably bringing their game back and hanging it out in front of their cabin is probably frowned on as well. Yeah. Okay. I like to ask the hard-hitting questions. Let’s like cut to the chase. And you know, another question that I really probably should ask, if you’re open to discussing, I’m sure you are. We actually touched on this last time we spoke was, I’m sure there’s people listening. North Texas out in the wilderness.
Sharyn Means (47:27.802)
God, yeah, a little bit.
Jason Elkins (47:47.98)
lizards, birds, deer, all this stuff. What about the things that some people really do not want to see? So snakes, spiders, stuff like that. So what do you want to share with the person that’s listening to this saying, I’d love to go there, but.
Sharyn Means (47:59.548)
Okay.
Okay, so we obviously have just brown snakes, normal snakes that aren’t gonna hurt us, but they are part of the environment. Every single creature is part of the environment. They have a reason for being there. We do have rattlesnakes here. However, around the resort and around the cabins, we do use a snake away. And we are very vigilant on making sure that that is…
kept up once a week and it’s done.
Jason Elkins (48:33.974)
And snake away, you told me last time, because I asked about this was snake away is not a toxic. It’s not a poison. It’s just a deterrent. That’s natural. It’s a natural substance that keeps them away. Right.
Sharyn Means (48:37.02)
Thank
Sharyn Means (48:42.126)
It’s a deterrent. Yeah. So spiders, look, you’ve got the normal daddy long legs and whatever, but we do have tarantulas. Now for people that don’t know, they’re not going to hurt you. They are big. I think they’re beautiful. Some people think that.
Jason Elkins (49:04.876)
not so easy to convince people. Because I’ve spent a lot of time in places where they have tarantulas and people are like, they won’t hurt you. Okay,
Sharyn Means (49:14.596)
Yeah, but they’re an incredible creature. You will predominantly see them more in September, maybe early October, and typically it’s the males because that is mating season. But everybody needs to put it into context. Once he’s found that female, he’s dead. I mean, she kills him.
You know, let him cross the road without squashing them, please. it’s, yeah, yeah. So he is just crossing the road. Let him do his thing and just move on. But you don’t, you’ll see them early in the morning when it’s cooler, but they’re not, they’re not gonna hurt you.
Jason Elkins (49:49.454)
That’s a whole other conversation for a whole other podcast, but I did not know that.
Jason Elkins (49:59.128)
So be nice, let him do his thing. He doesn’t have much longer to do it.
Sharyn Means (50:13.18)
We do have coyotes here. Again, you might be fortunate enough to see one or two. They’re not going to come near the cabins. But you can sit on your patio at night or if you’re an early riser like we are and you’ll hear the packs sound off and that is pretty cool to hear. from our patio out in that direction of the canyon there’s five packs.
and they work from right to left and you can, each one will sound off. It’s like a morning roll call and it’s pretty cool. But very, very rarely will you see them. You’ll occasionally see them maybe scooting across a pasture or something like that. But again, they stay away.
Jason Elkins (50:51.022)
Wow.
That’s very, cool.
Jason Elkins (51:07.618)
Are there, I should be relaxed. I shouldn’t probably even ask this, but I know that when you deal with people at a certain place, you get questions that some people might say, well, this is the number one dumb question we get. But we’re not going to use the word dumb because if you don’t know, you don’t know. But I’m sure I see the look on your face. I’m sure there’s this one that just popped into your head that people ask you on occasion.
Sharyn Means (51:19.441)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (51:35.394)
But we’re going to reframe this. We’re not going to say it’s a dumb question, but what’s the question that sometimes people ask you that you want to just go ahead and give people the answer now so that when they show up, they don’t feel embarrassed when they sit down and ask it at the dinner table.
Sharyn Means (51:48.693)
Yo, you asked one, we get so many.
Jason Elkins (51:53.678)
Remember, you get so many but they’re not dumb questions. Okay, give me a few. Give me a few.
Sharyn Means (51:58.542)
No, no they’re not. one of them is does the AC work? And I’m like, yeah. But I think what highlights that is they’ve been to other places that they’ve determined is an Airbnb or a short term rental and the AC didn’t work. a lot of the
Jason Elkins (52:19.704)
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Sharyn Means (52:23.27)
questions we get actually have stories behind them to why we get those dumb questions.
Jason Elkins (52:30.68)
Do you sometimes just say no? Does AC work? No. And they’d be like, okay. We didn’t think so. It didn’t work in the last three places we were at either. So that’s interesting.
Sharyn Means (52:35.353)
No.
But the.
Sharyn Means (52:43.076)
Yeah and like it really is just general reassurance questions that to us sometimes do sound silly but it also I think the number one question that comes up is how far are you from civilization and it’s like we are civilization.
Jason Elkins (52:49.198)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (53:10.307)
Yeah.
Sharyn Means (53:10.448)
I got asked that not long ago, how far are you from civilization? And I don’t know if they meant to use that word or were just sort of meaning how far are you from town, but it was just the way it was posed. And I had to pause for a minute because I really didn’t want to answer it smartly. I had to sort of think and go.
Jason Elkins (53:20.152)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (53:30.51)
Like a smart ass. I getcha. What do you think this is? Do you have any, do you have any idea how much money we spent to build this place? To make it feel like civilization?
Sharyn Means (53:39.196)
Well, my first response was, yeah, but it was my first response is, do you actually even know where you’re going? It’s like, have you even looked at the map to see where you’re going? But probably not, probably not.
Jason Elkins (53:58.67)
But also, if you’re from New York or you’re from Los Angeles, even if they look at the map, might be like, that might feel like a thousand miles from civilization. know, if they, yeah, interesting.
Sharyn Means (54:11.226)
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I mean we get asked does the toilet flush? Does the AC work? It’s like, do you have a coffee pot in the cabin? Does the stove work? It’s like, yes. And it’s every now and then we’ll do a fun social media post that just kind of makes a bit of fun of different stuff.
And we’re looking at doing, you know, every guest has a 50-50 chance of walking into the cabin and when they walk in, that light bulb in the living room goes out. Or those batteries in the Roku remote control die after they’ve turned the TV on. So we’re looking at doing a bit of a fun reel because we have…
Jason Elkins (55:05.998)
You could do, yeah, I think you could do some pretty funny little videos of kind of like the behind the scenes type of thing. Like, you know, your maintenance guy running around with a pocket full of batteries.
Sharyn Means (55:08.014)
on-site maintenance, he ran some batteries out to a guest last night at eight o’clock, the batteries died. So we thought we’d have a bit of fun with, you know, and that’s it, doesn’t matter, 10 o’clock at night, we go out and help a guest.
Sharyn Means (55:31.301)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (55:35.382)
Or I remember I managed to resort off the coast of Belize and we used the on-demand hot water heaters, but they were on the back of the building and they were not so good, I guess, because of the pilot lights. Out of the, I think we had eight cabins and chances are one of them is going to be out any given morning. The pilot’s going to blow out. So it used to be my job as a manager because I couldn’t get my staff to cooperate with me. So I would do it. So I’d get up before breakfast early.
Sharyn Means (55:48.028)
would go out.
Sharyn Means (55:55.612)
You
Jason Elkins (56:04.662)
and I would go check all of the pilot lights on the hot water heaters to make sure that they were actually lit. And even then one might blow out as soon as I walk away. So it was kind of that, you know, every morning if someone, someone was going to walk into the main lodge, yeah, we didn’t have any hot water. And I’m like, man, I was just there 30 minutes ago. People don’t realize what’s going on behind the scenes sometimes.
Sharyn Means (56:15.002)
Yeah.
Sharyn Means (56:26.81)
know and we’ll get messages or phone calls, we’ve got no power. And I’m like, okay, have you not had power since you got there? No, no, it just went out. And I’m like, okay, there’s a, said, you didn’t happen to have two women using hairdryers in each bathroom, someone using the microwave and boiling the kettle? Yeah, well the girls were drying their hair and I, so I’m like,
Jason Elkins (56:47.081)
you
Jason Elkins (56:52.782)
That be it.
Sharyn Means (56:55.632)
I’ll get maintenance over there and we’ll just flip the breaker for you. You get that sort of thing all the time. Just different sort of little quirky things. People turning up to their cabins early. My code doesn’t work. Yes, that’s because it doesn’t activate until 2.30 and it’s only one o’clock. so I can’t get in. No.
Jason Elkins (57:02.094)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (57:20.065)
huh.
Jason Elkins (57:24.494)
Yeah, the joys like we were talking earlier about, you know, A attaches to B in the engineering world. It’s just a little different in the, in the human, human world. So, but it sounds like you’re figuring that out. Yeah.
Sharyn Means (57:35.846)
But you know what? I love every minute of it. Even no matter how bad or busy my day is, I love talking to that guest. I love seeing them walking around and talking to them. And you know, know sometimes when you’re an owner and people know that you’re the owner, they tell you what you want to hear. Well, Jeff and I, every
Every couple of months, we’ll actually check into a cabin and we’ll walk around as guests and we talk to people and we talk to them as guests. We don’t ask them any pertinent questions or anything like that. yeah, so we do undercover boss in a different way.
Jason Elkins (58:19.246)
Mm-hmm. That’s you get the real feedback then, don’t you?
Mm-hmm. The staff knows who you are, but it’s, it’s, it is, it’s a great way. mean, I have done that as well in some jobs where I just kind of show up as though I’m a guest. used to go, I used to go do site visits for properties that wanted to be endorsed by Orvis. And I would go there and the staff usually knew I was the guy from Orvis, but the guests didn’t.
Sharyn Means (58:29.856)
yeah.
Sharyn Means (58:37.788)
Peace.
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (58:50.56)
So if I just go there and just hang out with the manager and the staff, they’re going to show me how great their operation is. But if I go sit down next to the other guests at dinner and I say, how was your fishing today? You know, and they’ll just start unloading stuff. It’s like, that’s the real true. That’s really what’s going on. So I, I get that.
Sharyn Means (59:09.404)
We have booked into a couple of our cabins under aliases so that the cleaner that’s cleaning that cabin doesn’t know us, that it’s us going in there. So we’ve done little spot checks like that too. Our cleaners are fantastic, but every now and then I just do a bit of a check and they’ve got no idea that it’s Jeff and I going in there.
Jason Elkins (59:15.19)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (59:19.57)
huh.
Jason Elkins (59:25.902)
Hmm?
Jason Elkins (59:39.15)
Well, it keeps them on their toes because if they know you’ve done it in the past, you could do it again in the future. I think there’s a whole industry and I’m sure there are people doing it, but in the bigger hotels for sure, you have secret shoppers that go into the bigger resorts and hotels. But I think just even in our space where it’s generally smaller, more intimate type of places, like, you know, I’m a digital nomad. I was thinking, man, should maybe just, maybe I don’t need to pay for Airbnbs or…
you know, rooms anymore. I can just bounce around and yeah, just, you know, go visit these places and I’ll be doing my podcast episodes from the bedroom, but, but then I can give them an honest, accurate report of kind of what the experience is. So if anybody’s listening to this and looking for someone to do it, give me a call. Anyway.
Sharyn Means (01:00:06.96)
You can just Venus.
Sharyn Means (01:00:15.355)
Yeah.
Sharyn Means (01:00:23.91)
Well, I tell you what, when you’re back on the US side, you can come do a secret sleeper at our place.
Jason Elkins (01:00:29.452)
All right. All right. Sounds very cool. I would love it. I did want to ask you before we go though, this particular property on, you said it was the Palo, which what’s the name of the canyon? Palo doro. Did you guys have a connection with that piece of property beforehand? Was it like, well, someone in the family, was it Jeff’s family or something? Or did you specifically go out and look for a piece of property due to this project?
Sharyn Means (01:00:41.372)
Paladuro, Paladuro, yeah.
Sharyn Means (01:00:58.438)
Jeff originally, 2010, he was looking for somewhere that he could have as a getaway. Just himself, just, you know, somewhere to get away. So he got built the very first cabin, which is Fortress, which is probably one of our most popular cabins. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Then he ended up having to go back to Austin for work.
Jason Elkins (01:01:09.038)
Just himself.
Sharyn Means (01:01:28.916)
and so he put it onto BRBO. He thought, don’t want it sitting there empty. Consequently, he never got to come and stay back in his cabin when he wanted to. So he actually built a relationship with one of the builders out here who was good friends with a gentleman that owned a lot of the Marshall Ranch. So it was him and their
Jason Elkins (01:01:34.156)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:01:53.806)
So it was 10 and it was 10 for the area.
Sharyn Means (01:01:57.456)
his passion for the area that grew through that and then his vision and the owner of the properties out here and they still own a lot of land surrounding us here. He liked the vision that Jeff had. He liked the builder and the owner were very good friends. So Jeff became very good friends with them and
Jason Elkins (01:02:16.502)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:02:25.806)
Mm.
Sharyn Means (01:02:27.324)
Every year, you’d thought, okay, this is it, this is it, and then they’d turn up and say, do you want to buy this 30 acres? Oh yeah, okay, well, let me build you these and this is what we can do and you want, you know, why don’t you look at doing this and yeah, so 2010 was one, 2015 there was five. From 2018,
Jason Elkins (01:02:52.558)
you
Sharyn Means (01:02:55.644)
to 2020, we went from five to 20 cannons.
Jason Elkins (01:03:01.262)
so much for his little retreat to get away from it all by himself.
Sharyn Means (01:03:06.108)
Yeah, so that running five units is a piece of cake. Running 20, you can’t run 20 like you can five. That’s where my skill set of project management, do diligence, systems, processes, that’s what’s allowed us to actually develop
Jason Elkins (01:03:24.558)
Systems and all that good stuff.
Sharyn Means (01:03:34.796)
even more than we were to be able to provide the cure service, to be able to provide everything that we do, to do large events, corporate business meetings. I’ve got a couple of big board meetings for companies and I can’t say who that are going to be on site for their board meetings. So you’ve got to have the staff
Jason Elkins (01:03:37.112)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:03:43.15)
you
Jason Elkins (01:03:49.442)
picture of me.
Mm-hmm.
Very cool.
Sharyn Means (01:04:05.83)
the passion and the processes. And you can’t miss one of those elements. Otherwise you can’t create.
Jason Elkins (01:04:15.182)
Yeah, you got it. Yeah, I can imagine. It just falls apart at some point if you can’t scale it and you can’t make it work on that scale. You go five to 22 and then all of sudden before you know it, you’re down to zero because the bank took it away or whatever, right? I mean, it’s a tough thing.
Sharyn Means (01:04:20.785)
You think?
Sharyn Means (01:04:32.636)
Yeah, now how we’ve got it set up at 20, we could comfortably take it to 30, 35 houses and run it in that same process. Once you get past that 30, 35, the processes would have to change again. And a lot of people don’t look at that. even in a smaller scale,
Say you’ve got one short-term rental and then you go and buy another one, you can’t clean both those houses yourself if they both depart in one day. And especially if they’re apart from each other. So it’s all about understanding logistics.
Jason Elkins (01:05:17.506)
Yep. It’s, it’s not just twice the work. It’s oftentimes more than twice. It’s like kids, you know, having one kid or having two kids. It’s not twice as much work. It’s like three or four times. I think. Yeah. And you say, well, they’ll keep each other company. Yeah. Right. Now you’ve got fights to break up. You know, one of them puts gum in the other one’s hair and it just gets, you know, drastically more complicated.
Sharyn Means (01:05:29.452)
One dog or two dogs?
Jason Elkins (01:05:44.846)
Sharyn, we’ve discussed a bunch of things. know that you and I could just probably keep chatting all day. And I’m curious, what did I forget to ask you that maybe I’ve already asked you this and we kept going. I don’t know. I don’t even remember where we’re at in the process. was such a great conversation. But is there anything else I forgot to ask you that you want to make sure we cover?
Sharyn Means (01:06:02.072)
I think we went through everything. you know, we’re about experiences, no matter what your experience is. And I think we covered, covered all of that. And just getting service and not just someone bringing a dinner plate to your table, actually getting good old fashioned good mornings and hellos and.
thank yous and yo, all of that sort of stuff is service.
Jason Elkins (01:06:36.462)
And there’s a lot of people that I just, when you said getting good mornings and hellos and stuff like that, it occurred to me. It’s like, it’s not an everyday event in most people’s lives, you know? And when they go to a place where they do get it, it stands out. It’s like, wow. And especially, you know, maybe your stuff I don’t know, but presumably probably knows people by name. Hey, morning, Mr. Jones or Mary, how are you doing today? How was the horseback riding yesterday? And who gets that in their normal life?
You know, maybe if you go to wake on Monday, maybe one of your colleagues might say, Hey, did do anything fun this weekend? but it’s, it’s a special thing that kind of helps us reconnect with each other and as humans. So very, very cool.
Sharyn Means (01:07:19.268)
And that’s a saying here, you come here to disconnect, to reconnect. Now if you’re disconnecting is hiking and jeeping and everything, you are still disconnecting. That allows you to reconnect back to your busy, busy life because that is what immerses us now. And we don’t take the time to disconnect and reconnect.
Jason Elkins (01:07:24.738)
Yeah, I love that.
Jason Elkins (01:07:41.944)
Yeah, absolutely.
Jason Elkins (01:07:47.278)
That’s good way to leave it. That’s a wise message. so anybody listening to this, please click on the link in the show notes, go take a look at the website. And if it’s something that seems like it’s, if you want to disconnect to reconnect, it sounds like a great place to do it. And Sharyn, I appreciate you. Look forward to working on some projects with you in the future and doing that secret chopper thing is on my list. So I’ll take you up on that. Sharyn, thank you so much. I appreciate you joining us.
Sharyn Means (01:08:11.227)
You
Sharyn Means (01:08:14.992)
You are very welcome. Thank you, Jason.
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