MC Fireside Chats – October 14th, 2026

[00:00:45] Brian Searl: I almost made it. I was so close. I forgot my sweatshirt and it was cold outside, so I had to run- … upstairs while the intro was playing, and then grab my sweatshirt and run back down. Like, two seconds away. Was so close.

Welcome everybody to another episode of MC Fireside Chats. My name’s Brian Searl with Insider Perks and Modern Campground.

We’re excited to be here with you with the second week episode. Uh, we’re gonna have some good conversations today. We got a couple recurring guests here. We’ll go around and introduce everybody. We got Kaleigh, Jeremy, Tom Mason, and a special guest. Is it Pawel? Is that how you pronounce that? 

[00:01:17] Pawel Sikorski: Pawel, yes. Rhymes with gravel. 

[00:01:20] Brian Searl: Thanks. Okay. From, uh, Cyprus. He’s gonna tell us all about, uh, the Cyprus camping scene.

[00:01:24] Pawel Sikorski: Cyprus, yeah.

[00:01:24] Brian Searl: I’m really excited to learn about that. Cyprus or Cyprus? 

[00:01:28] Pawel Sikorski: It’s Cyprus. 

[00:01:30] Brian Searl: Okay. So I did get it right the first- 

[00:01:31] Pawel Sikorski: Cyprus … 

[00:01:31] Brian Searl: okay. So let’s go around and briefly introduce ourselves. Uh, Tom, do you wanna start?

[00:01:38] Tom Mason: Sure. My name’s Tom Mason. I lead, uh, IVEE Management Group, and, um, head that up, and we have 15 parks across United States, and we’ve been in business since 2017, and great team to, uh, make everything happen at the parks we manage. 

[00:01:58] Brian Searl: Awesome. Excited to have you here again, Tom. Uh, Jeremy? 

[00:02:02] Jeremy Johnson: Hey, everyone. Awesome My name’s Jeremy.

I’m one of the owners of Kona Hills Campground in Marquette, Michigan, on, on the southern shores of Lake Superior. 

[00:02:11] Brian Searl: Awesome. Thanks for being here, Jeremy. I wanna talk to you about some of your revenue, if you don’t mind sharing some of the things you’ve posted on LinkedIn. I think you went to a couple of conferences this year, right?

[00:02:19] Jeremy Johnson: Uh, no conferences this year. I skipped out on… well, outdoor conferences and regional conferences, but I skipped out on all the glamping and camping conferences so far this year. 

[00:02:28] Brian Searl: That’s what I meant. I’m curious your takeaways from some of the other different conferences-

[00:02:32] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah …

[00:02:32] Brian Searl: ’cause I’m not going to anything this year except for the Canadian one. I took off this year too, so. 

[00:02:37] Jeremy Johnson: Nice. 

[00:02:38] Brian Searl: Kaleigh. 

[00:02:40] Kaleigh Day: Hi. My name’s Kaleigh. Uh, my husband and I own Surf Junction Campground out in Ucluelet, BC, and we have about 100 campsites, and a surf school, and a surf shop, and we’ve been operating it since 2012. 

[00:02:56] Brian Searl: Awesome. And last but not least, our new friend, Pawel of Cyprus. How are you, sir?

[00:03:02] Pawel Sikorski: Hi, I’m Pawel Sikorski, uh, founder of Yurt in Cyprus, which I run together with my, uh, wife, Justyna. Uh, we’re a small independent, um, owned and operated business, uh, set in, uh, Paphos District in, uh, Cyprus. Uh, it’s, it’s an island nation, uh, kind of eastern Mediterranean so- 

[00:03:23] Brian Searl: Near Turkey, Lebanon … yeah. 

[00:03:24] Pawel Sikorski: We got the good weather. Uh, yeah, close. Yeah, kind of between, squeezed between Turkey, uh, Lebanon, Israel, and, uh, and, uh, Egypt. 

[00:03:36] Brian Searl: Kind of like, uh, the east of, like, uh, east of Greece. Like, a w- a while away. It’s not super close to Greece, but yeah. 

[00:03:42] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah, yeah. It’s, yeah, it’s a f- a few hundred miles, uh, from, from the nearest Greek island, so we are, yeah, quite, quite far away from Greece actually.

[00:03:51] Brian Searl: Okay. 

[00:03:52] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah. 

[00:03:53] Brian Searl: Well, welcome, sir. I’m excited to learn more about, uh, what you have going on over there with glamping and- 

[00:03:57] Pawel Sikorski: Thank you. Thank you for having me here … 

[00:03:59] Brian Searl: and some more about the glamping industry as well, just on Cyprus and, and being that it’s an island, how do people get there, how do some more of them comparing it to…

We have, uh, uh, Simon Neal as a regular guest on the show in another week. He’s from Croatia. Runs a really good- 

[00:04:12] Pawel Sikorski: Uh-huh … 

[00:04:13] Brian Searl: Camp map company. So he talks to us about the European scene quite a bit, but just interested to see what you guys, what your perspective is of that glamping side and all that. So before we get there, though, um, to our recurring guests, I typically always start the show and say, like, is there anything that’s come across your desk, Tom, Kaleigh, or Jeremy, that you feel like we should be talking about this week since we’ve last met together?

[00:04:35] Jeremy Johnson: I feel like for most of us, we’re probably just wrapping up the season. I think that’s probably top of mind. 

[00:04:42] Tom Mason: Brian, your break, break went out. 

[00:04:43] Brian Searl: I’m breaking up? Sorry, it’s kinda windy out here. Just, uh, just, uh, any ideas that you guys have, uh, had since we last came together. I think Jeremy started to answer it.

Did I break up for you too, Jeremy? 

[00:04:54] Jeremy Johnson: I can hear you right now. Um, but I, I was just saying I think for most of us, top of mind is probably just closing up for the season. Um, I, I know that, um, at least up here, we had 70 degrees last weekend, but now it’s, uh, th- about 35 degrees Fahrenheit and starting to get cold 

[00:05:12] Kaleigh Day: Do you guys stay open for the winter, Jeremy?

[00:05:15] Jeremy Johnson: Not yet. We don’t have… We’re fully rustic, so we don’t have any, um, like cabins or glamping at the moment. So once it gets cold, we shut down and we stay open. We have a big film fest in Marquette the third week of October, so we stay open for this weekend, and then we shut it down. 

[00:05:33] Kaleigh Day: Nice. It’s a good feeling.

We close down for winters too, ’cause the storms just are too… It’s unsafe to camp 

[00:05:39] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah … 

[00:05:39] Kaleigh Day: where we are. So but yeah-

[00:05:41] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah …

[00:05:41] Kaleigh Day: we just closed on, we closed on Monday. So. 

[00:05:44] Jeremy Johnson: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Tom, do, do you close a lot of your campgrounds? 

[00:05:49] Tom Mason: What about…

Um, we have, uh, Wisconsin we close, New Jersey we close, and I have three, uh, three in Colorado, two of which we close. And one, uh, the latest we stay open is November 1st, and that’s the New Jersey one. Okay. Uh, all the other ones, like today we’re closing Wisconsin, uh, Colorado, two of the… One of the two is closed, the other one will, kinda weather dependent, we’ll see if we can last till the end of October, but not sure if we can.

So, and, uh, but yeah, we, we shut ’em down. Um, we tried to keep one of the Colorado ones open in the winter. It’d be kind of a partial open, certain part of the park, but it wasn’t worth it, the effort. And then if you had one pipe break, you had, you know, you’re done for the year kinda thing. And so we just shut it down completely.

[00:06:52] Brian Searl: All right, so winterization’s on the top of our minds. 

[00:06:55] Kaleigh Day: Yeah. 

[00:06:56] Brian Searl: Do, do we really wanna dive deep into that topic on the show today, or do we have… I feel like we must have something else that’s going on. Tell us about your conferences, Jeremy. What did you, what did you… First of all, why did you decide, if you’re willing to share…

I, I mean, for me it was more like a, I have lots of things to do building AI stuff that I skip the conferences and- 

[00:07:13] Jeremy Johnson: Sure … 

[00:07:14] Brian Searl: you know, it’s really expensive to travel to the States from Calgary a bunch of different times. But, uh, you know, why did you decide to go to different conferences this year, and some things that you picked up, uh, along the way you think might help your business maybe?

[00:07:25] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. Um, I mean, I think first off, some context. I’ve only ever been to one camping conference, uh, and it was OHI last year in Louisville. So-

[00:07:35] Brian Searl: Okay …

[00:07:35] Jeremy Johnson: I, I haven’t really, you know, immersed myself in that world. But, um- For me, you know, I went to multiple regional conferences that were outdoor and tourism focused this year because those were, are the ones that addressed my concerns more than anything.

Um, I, I live in a very rural area and, you know, post-pandemic we saw tourism kind of explode and so while it’s an old industry for this area, it’s never been at this level. Um, and we’re, we’re dealing with new problems that we’ve never dealt with before. You know, like our, our little towns and, um, townships are, are starting to get a little overrun by, by people coming from Chicago, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Minneapolis.

And so there’s a lot of more local and regional issues that I wanted to be present for the conversations in, you know? 

[00:08:33] Brian Searl: What is this … Pawel, I’m curious from your perspective, ’cause I know almost nothing about the tourism industry in Cyprus. Uh, what does it look like over there from a-

[00:08:41] Pawel Sikorski: All right

[00:08:41] Brian Searl: perspective of like running a business from a support system first? ‘Cause I wanna hear about your, your property and all that stuff, but just for what we’re talking about, are there glamping associations?

[00:08:52] Pawel Sikorski: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:52] Brian Searl: Are there people you can turn to for legislative help? How does that kind of ecosystem work in Cyprus?

[00:08:59] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah. Well, first of all, I, I missed, uh, quite, uh, quite a bit of the conversation ’cause something got, uh, uh, the connection got, got frozen. Uh, but, um, yeah, Cyprus is quite, quite tough at the moment, and it has been for me since the beginning. I started in 2013, so 13 years ago, uh, as a completely, you know, novel thing.

Like, uh, you know, people were scratching their heads thinking, “Why going this way?” Because the, the main, uh, product when it comes to accommodation is either hotels of different grades or, uh, or self-catering accommodation. There are some campgrounds, but, uh, but very few. Uh, so generally the… Basically I was pioneering, uh, here from, uh, starting in 2013.

Uh, so it was really tough at the beginning. There were no regulations, uh, and actually there’s still no regulations, uh, uh, for glamping. Uh, the government is trying, and has been, has been trying for the last few years To introduce a, a legal framework. Uh, but they’re struggling to, to get through, um, uh, through the parliament, uh, with the voting.

Basically there’s quite a lot of pushback from the, uh, uh, I think from the Green Party, basically. They’re- they’re worried that, uh, you know, this will impact the, uh, the environment, this kind of a, a spread of, uh, uh, of this, uh, this kind of accommodation. So they want to have more control, and it’s like, it’s really slow.

Uh, I lived on an island before, and generally things on islands happen very, very slowly. Like, everything is always a little bit backwards. Uh, like not in necessarily in a, in a bad way, ’cause also-

[00:10:40] Brian Searl: Yeah …

[00:10:40] Pawel Sikorski: also people come here because it is- because things are a little bit backwards. But everything is super slow.

So I wouldn’t necessarily, uh, uh, compare Cyprus to the rest of Europe, like to Europe mainland, where there’s more competition and people have to be more proactive. Mm. So things are really slow. So I’ve been operating for 13 years and, and it’s been, it’s been a wild journey. Like the first three years I got like quite a lot of harassment from the authorities.

Um, then, then they thought, hang on a second, he’s doing something there. Like, I got featured in a bunch of newspapers, magazines, you know, TV was curious about it. Um, I got like a big travel feature in The Guardian two years ago. Uh, so there’s like a lot of interest from the media, like, what is this guy doing over there?

And I’m like a micro setup. I have four, four keys. I have four accommodation units. So I’m like nobody. Um, so people started getting curious, and then in 20, uh, 2022, uh, like during COVID, I was taking part in the, uh, consultation process for the, for the legal framework with, uh, PricewaterhouseCooper. Um, uh, they got basically hired by the government to, to work on the legal framework.

Uh, and it’s, you know, it’s been since then, since 2022. Now it’s 2026, and not much happened. There isn’t such thing as, as, uh, as an association. There’s literally a bunch of, of, of glamping, uh, uh, glamping, um, uh, well, I wouldn’t call, I wouldn’t call them even resorts because literally there, there could be like two, three accommodation units, like very small.

Uh, because it’s difficult for people to, you know, to invest, um, themselves, um, either with the time or, or money in something that is a little bit unstable and, uh, and not necessarily you wouldn’t know where it’s gonna go. Uh, but definitely the, the, there is, the government is keen on s- on, on resolving this, but it’s just not, not happening yet.

[00:12:44] Brian Searl: I will tell you the more that I learn about Europe, Asia, China, South America, like all the campsites, properties, camping resorts, caravan parks, whatever you call them in, in each different portion of the world- Yeah … the more everything seems the same. Would you agree, Jeremy? Like, we’ve ta- I think we’ve talked about this before with like zoning and permitting and dealing with the community and all those different things on different episodes.

And Tom, we’ve run into it too, and Kaleigh maybe a little bit too. Um, just the, the more everything seems the same. 

[00:13:14] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. 

[00:13:15] Brian Searl: It’s really nuanced differences, right? But they’re very much the same. 

[00:13:18] Jeremy Johnson: We’re not quite on an island, we’re on a peninsula. Um, but I mean, it’s, it’s slow, man. 

[00:13:24] Brian Searl: So even that Jeremy-

[00:13:25] Kaleigh Day: Yeah. Oh …

[00:13:25] Brian Searl: you feel like you put out here and be like, “No, Brian, you’re wrong. We’re on a peninsula.” 

[00:13:28] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. I’m saying- I’m saying you’re right, you’re right. I mean, we, we deal with the same thing. I mean, earlier, earlier this year, we, uh, our, some of our building inspections got delayed because the, the local building, the, you know, the one guy that does the building inspections couldn’t pass his state level exam.

Um- And, and so all of a sudden we had no building inspector. Uh, and we still don’t. So that, that’s how slow things move up here, for sure. 

[00:13:58] Pawel Sikorski: Wow. 

[00:14:00] Brian Searl: So tell us about your, tell us about your property, Pawel. What are you, what, what, what, how… First of all, let’s, let’s back it up here. First of all, let’s back to 2013.

[00:14:07] Pawel Sikorski: All right.

[00:14:08] Brian Searl: How do you decide that you wanna start what became what you have today? 

[00:14:13] Pawel Sikorski: Well, it, it, it seems like, uh, like it was a, a, I don’t know, a, a, it might sound weird, but it was like a, like a little boy’s dream, like something that you always think about. Like, you meet sometimes people and they talk about these ideas that they have, they just never get to do it.

Uh, so I was at a, at a, a stage in my life when, like, I, I didn’t care much. Like, you know, if things don’t work out, I could just take it, absorb it, and move on and do something else. Yeah. Uh, so I’ve had this wild idea of, of creating this, uh, a, a nature retreat, um, something remote but not too remote, uh, where people could just, uh, take some time off, reconnect with, you know, with nature, with themselves.

Uh, uh, and it, uh, in my head it was always something small, so, so not a big scale, like a small scale accommodation. But something special, something unique. Uh, and then I had no property, so I thought yurts would be a good idea because in theory they are portable. Like, you can take them down, right? I mean, not anymore.

I mean, they’re pretty solid. Uh, but that was the idea. And, and I literally, I don’t know, I made the decision very quickly, ordered the yurts, the, like, authentic Mongolian yurts, and, and then my, my journey started. Uh, I started in a, in a different location at the beginning. The, the, the first location didn’t work out.

There was a human factor. Then I moved to the place where I am right now. Uh, and I’ve been here since, uh, January 2014. A- and it’s been an amazing journey. I, uh, I love it. Uh, until to- I don’t feel actually that I work. Uh, so my whole experience is, is basically around the lifestyle. Um, and again, it’s on a very small scale.

The whole place is off-grid. So we have four units on 10,000 square meters. I don’t know how it, how that relates to, uh, however you guys measure the, uh, the land area. So it’s, it’s quite a lot of space for, uh, for four units. Um, and, uh- 

[00:16:12] Brian Searl: I understand why you travel. They’re, they’re American. Well, no, Kaleigh’s Canadian too.

[00:16:17] Kaleigh Day: I’m Both.

[00:16:18] Brian Searl: They use this weird measurement system that no one else uses in the world

[00:16:23] Pawel Sikorski: Okay. 

[00:16:24] Jeremy Johnson: For, for the people on the US, uh, it’s, it’s about two and a half acres, so- 

[00:16:29] Kaleigh Day: Yeah … 

[00:16:29] Jeremy Johnson: that’s about- 

[00:16:30] Pawel Sikorski: Okay. Yeah, that’s about right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two and a half acres. So it’s, it’s qui- quite steep land. It was basically a wasteland.

I have no idea why I wanted to start here, because it was just completely, like, totally unattractive, very steep, um, uh, kind of barren. Like, there was no, no much vegetation over here. Literally, uh, you know, five trees maybe across the whole land, so not much. Uh, and it’s just, I got this idea in my head. Now we’re looking at the photos, like, looking back, I, I would probably not do it again.

Like, it was just a wild, crazy idea. I used to go to the village, to the nearest village, uh, to, like, see people there and, you know, have a coffee. Uh, and I could hear them whisper behind my back like, “Poor guy.” Like, they felt literally sorry for me. They thought I had this stupid idea, like, this is gonna fail for sure.

Uh, they would give me bags of tomatoes. You know, I never paid for coffee. Uh, that’s my, my closest village of, of Simu. Uh, and I always heard that behind my back. They, they, they literally fe- felt sorry for me for quite a long time. And when they discovered that, uh, you know, the, like, um, uh … They were basically

They, they would me- measure people, the, the, the, the, the social status by, you know, the cars they drive and the jobs that they have. So when they realized that you get, like, I don’t know, people coming from the embassies or United Nations, you know, some people with some kind of a, a, a social status, uh, then they started thinking, “Hang on a second.

Something’s going on over there,” across the river, because I’m kind of on the other side of the river from the village. Um, so yeah, I had that, uh, they felt sorry for me for quite some time. Um, and then I just rolled up my sleeves and, you know, I started, uh, uh, working a lot on the land. Uh, it’s a completely, uh, um, a comp- completely off-grid, so electricity and water.

Uh, uh, I’m independent in, in those, uh, resources. I use a lot of permaculture principles. We grow a lot of our own food. Uh, we have a bunch of things that you can do around here, like, for recreation. You know, e-bikes. Uh, there’s a, a horse riding place nearby. Uh, my wife does pottery as well. Um- And we have basically four accommodation units.

Three Mongolian yurts and a tiny wooden house that I, I built myself. 

[00:18:49] Kaleigh Day: Do you guys have any employees or do you guys do everything yourselves? 

[00:18:52] Pawel Sikorski: No, it’s just the two of us. Uh, sometimes I have no idea how we do it. Like sometimes I sit down and when I start talking to friends or family and they go like, “Oh, so what’s been happening in this past year?”

When I start listing the things that we’ve done, I say to myself, “But this is impossible. This must have been, you know, previous year or something like that.” But I don’t know how we do it. Somehow we manage it all. I have no idea. I also, I started beekeeping last year. Um- There is always, there’s always some building.

Always. There’s always some, uh, improvements. Uh, yeah, planted 500 trees. Um, uh, yeah, there’s a lot going on and, yeah, I have no idea. It’s just the two of us, and sometimes we get help like, uh, sporadically we would get, um, kind of random help from, from somebody from outside that would come. We have this Dutch guy that visits us from some, from time to time, and he’s in his, uh, mid-20s.

Uh, so he throws his, uh, his, you know, youngster energy sometimes-

[00:19:52] Kaleigh Day: Oh, got it. …

[00:19:52] Pawel Sikorski: into our place and, yeah. Yeah. Get some muscles. Yeah, but otherwise it’s just the two of us on day-to-day basis. Uh, we do all the cooking, you know, serving breakfast, uh, dinners. 

[00:20:03] Kaleigh Day: Sure. You guys serve- 

[00:20:04] Pawel Sikorski: Uh, the farming. Um, mm-hmm. Go ahead.

[00:20:07] Kaleigh Day: You guys serve food for your guests? 

[00:20:09] Pawel Sikorski: Yes. Yeah, yeah, breakfast, uh, breakfast every morning, and it’s like a breakfast experience. Like my wife does, you know, beautiful breakfast. Uh, so it’s like an experience basically. Uh, uh, our guests never want to leave. Like, you know, it’s checkout time, like we have to push them out through the door.

Like, “Come on,” like we have, we have new arrivals. Uh, so, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s great. I, I, I love it. Uh, we both love what we do. Um, so yeah, we don’t feel like I, we actually work. 

[00:20:37] Kaleigh Day: And do you guys, uh, close, do you guys close for the season? Sorry I’m asking all these questions. I’m so curious. 

[00:20:42] Pawel Sikorski: No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the previous conversation.

Yeah, we don’t have seasons. Like, we, uh, like we work all year round. Uh, so, you know, starting in the summer, like we sometimes take time off in, uh, in Cypress high season, which is July and August. Like this year we went away for two weeks in July, and it was fine because for us, it doesn’t matter when we close, uh, and we, we take our time off.

Uh, so normally in Cyprus you have high season, you would consider between June and September.

Uh, and for us, it just doesn’t slow down. It’s, it’s all year round, pretty much the same, uh, flat out. Yeah. Uh, we definitely get like, super busy in August. Uh, we get, uh, busy in October. Like right now, we’ll be very busy.

Uh, November as well, December, Christmas, New Year, like we’re always packed. Uh, and then February, like, uh, Valentine’s, school holidays, uh, March, April gets booked as well. Always, uh, yeah, quite a lot. Uh, May too. I don’t know. We don’t really have- It sounds like you’re- … really have a downtime … busy year round.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 

[00:21:48] Brian Searl: So you’re saying if anybody in the States watching us is dealing with low occupancy, maybe you should relocate. 

[00:21:53] Kaleigh Day: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:21:54] Brian Searl: Other side of the island from Pawel. He doesn’t need that problem. 

[00:21:57] Kaleigh Day: Or make breakfast, yeah. Or, or make really good breakfast, you know? And then they- 

[00:22:01] Pawel Sikorski: Or make a really good breakfast, yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Grow your own tomatoes. I mean, I don’t know. There is something there. But, uh, but I think also it goes down to the fact that we’ve, we’re very small. Like it’s, it’s basically a micro operation. Uh, it’s, it’s, you know, four keys. It’s, it’s, it’s nothing, right? But, uh, yeah, and we’re totally like off, uh, off the main tourist track.

Like there are not many attractions around us. Like literally the road ends, you know, uh, 500 meters from us. And then to get to us, there’s a, there’s a very narrow track. Uh, you know, you can approach it easily with the regular cars. So, so, so getting here is not a problem, but it’s just in people’s mind.

Like they look on the map of Cyprus, usually most of the business happens, uh, around the coast. Like that’s where the concentration of the tourism is. Um, but inland it’s always much quieter 

[00:22:50] Kaleigh Day: And how d- how do people find you, um, back in the days when you were struggling? 

[00:22:54] Tom Mason: Yeah, yeah. Do you have a website 

[00:22:55] Kaleigh Day: or- Yeah, or like how-

[00:22:56] Tom Mason: Yeah

[00:22:56] Kaleigh Day: is it just word of mouth or like when you started getting this like-

[00:23:00] Pawel Sikorski: All right.

[00:23:01] Kaleigh Day: Yeah. How did- 

[00:23:01] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah … 

[00:23:02] Kaleigh Day: how did you go from this small off-grid, uh, you know, business where people felt sorry you’re, you’re, you know- … sorry for you go to this, you know, obviously real- a booming, uh, little cute business. Not little, but- 

[00:23:17] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah. Well, but yes. Well, it is, it is little, you know. It’s, it’s yeah, micro, micro size. Um, but basically 90% of our business is direct. Uh, it’s the direct bookings. Uh, about 30%, uh, we get it through Google search, like all kinds of online search that people do, either on Google Maps or on Google or any kind of a search engine.

Uh, then, uh, uh, 25% is social media, so Instagram and Facebook. We just started TikTok, but it’s like, come on, guys, like give me a break. Like I have no time for this- … but you gotta do it, right? And then 20% is word of mouth, so recommendations, like we get it quite a lot. Like a fifth of our business is, is, is word of mouth.

And sometimes overseas, sometimes local guys, um, but we get a lot of recommendations. And then 15% uh, right now is AI. So if you ask Chat, uh, for a, for an eco-friendly, sustainable, uh- You know, something unique in Cyprus that we, we always end up right at the top, at least for now. So that’s, like, something that we, we really want to keep an eye on and really work, uh, work a little bit harder on to get to…

To move this 15% a little bit higher. And then 10% is, is third party, so, uh, so platforms like booking.com or Airbnb. Uh, but 90% and sometimes even more is, is the, our, our direct bookings. So- uh, yeah, just stuff that we… Yeah, straight from our website, yeah. Which is g- 

[00:24:52] Tom Mason: Do you have plans to maybe-

[00:24:55] Pawel Sikorski: Which is great

[00:24:55] Tom Mason: do you have plans to add additional accommodations, or y- you like, you’re comfortable- … with the four you got? 

[00:25:02] Pawel Sikorski: Well, Tom, it’s, uh, it’s been on my mind for, for quite a while. Like, I, I, I always… I like to do different things a- and, you know, wouldn’t like to get stuck, like, with the same. Uh, but because until now I’ve always been busy doing some other things, uh, like adding additional units stayed in, in the back of my head, but it’s definitely at some point I would want to do it and experiment with different, uh, natural building, uh, techniques or natural structures.

Uh, but for, for now, the f- the four units, like, we can easily manage, uh, just me and my wife, uh, and that keeps us com- comfortable. Yeah. And I think increasing, we would need to probably double it in order to, to be able to, to then employ somebody. Uh, and then we did the maths and we were like, “I don’t know.”

You know, is it, is it really worth it? Maybe we’re not the best example for, you know, like entrepreneurs and, and people striving to get a, you know, a higher turnover and, and, uh, get another property, or maybe buy expensive cars. Uh, we’re just, uh, grateful when we can close sometimes for two months and go traveling.

Um, you know, we really appreciate that, and, and I don’t think we want to have the, the stress and the pressure of, uh, of high overheads, and then dealing with all the hassle of employing people. So I think four units for us- We- … is great. We made it work. Uh, you know, we’re comfortable financially. We don’t have any, uh, uh, we don’t have any debts.

Um, so, you know, everything is done with cash, uh, and we have no issues with that. And there is actually no need for us. We kind of… We figured out with our guests, we have this, this motto that, uh, less, less is more, and we actually apply this to ourselves as well, and it seems to be working. I don’t know how, but, uh…

I mean, I know how, but it’s kind of… There’s a bit of a magic there. 

[00:26:56] Brian Searl: What do you think, uh, you know, we’ve had this discussion over here with our… I think it’s probably safe to say our glamping industry is still in the early stages. Like, there’s been glamping here, but really kind of took off in the last maybe five, six years, somewhere around there.

[00:27:09] Pawel Sikorski: Mm-hmm. 

[00:27:10] Brian Searl: What do you think the… I, I think we went through this period and we’ve had these conversations on maybe not this show with this guest, but we’ve had it with other people, where we’re talking about the accommodation structure in the be- in the early stages of the glamping industry was kind of what people came out for because it was a novelty.

That, you know, they’d never stayed in a yurt.

[00:27:27] Pawel Sikorski: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:28] Brian Searl: They’d never stayed in a bell tent. They’d never stayed in insert blank. But then as the, the industry matured, even after a couple years, these same guests are saying, “Well, I’ve already stayed in one of those. Now I wanna move on to what experience are you providing me?”

And that’s where the breakfast and the personal touches and the things that set you apart really make you unique and make people come back. So how would you say that’s balanced at your, you know, at a property like yours in, in Cyprus, is it still the accommodation that’s the big wow factor, or is it the experience?

I mean, I know it’s both, but I’m asking you to kinda choose. 

[00:28:01] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah. I, I think, I think it’s the combination because, you know, I look at our return customers, and some have been here, like, 20 times. Uh, they’ll, they just keep coming. They never want to leave, and they kind of, they turn up for longer, longer stays.

And, like, the m- the main, definitely, like, a huge part of it is the, the, the accommodation, the experience of staying in the yurt. Like, people always, uh, comment how, how, how- uh, how serene they feel and how much they relax inside the yurt. Some, some, uh, say it’s because of the, the round structure. You know, some lie in- lay in bed and start counting the poles in the, uh, on the ceiling, kind of makes them calm down.

Um, but def- partly definitely it’s the structure, but I think there’s a huge part that goes down to, to the actual hospitality and, and people feeling welcome. Uh, definitely having, you know, good meals, uh, good space, uh, basically being close to nature, uh, really helps them to relax. And nowadays you can hear more and more, like in maybe especially since, since COVID, like since maybe 2022, like more and more it seems like unpolluted sky and silence is a luxury.

Like, people literally, they don’t want anything else. Like, we have a long list of things to do. I, I get a lot of messages from people asking what could they do. I’m sure I could automate that soon. Uh, uh, and basically they get a list of things to do that, that they, they have a overloaded program and I look at it, I’m thinking, “This is too much.”

And they get here and they just want to relax. They actually don’t want to go anywhere. They park the car, they order all the meals. They say, “Just, you know, throw the car keys away. I don’t want to go anywhere, and I just want to read the books and play some games.” It’s also great to see kids, like families coming with kids, you know, with board games, kind of going old school and keeping the phones and screens away.

Um, so I think it, there’s a bunch of, bunch of, uh, reasons that people feel attracted to these kind of properties. And I think there will be some that will be searching and going for different experiences, like different types of, uh, accommodation, uh, be in yurts or domes or, or tiny houses, uh, whatnot Uh, but with our guests, f- for sure it’s the accommodation, it’s the, the, the hospitality, the feeling welcome.

Uh, especially with returning guests, like a lot of them that kind of feel like part of community. Uh, I think a lot of this is, is missing in people’s lives, so when they can find it in a place like this, even for two days … Like this morning we had this couple who stayed back in August. Not back in August, back in May.

Uh, and they literally f- they live 10 kilometers from here, which is what, like six miles. Uh, so they came on, you know, on a little break, like a two-night break here. Uh, just 10 kilometers from their home, which is, you know, for me it’s kind of weird. Like, I’ve never done that myself. Uh, and, and prior to that we had another couple also, like, you know, 10 kilometers.

They live 10 kilometers from here and they came to stay here for, uh, you know, for, for the weekend. It was, it was somebody’s birthday. So we gotta get people to celebrate this a lot. So it’s, it’s quite interesting, you know, how, how little sometimes people need, um, to, to, to have the experience. Uh, and, and, and, and yeah, appreciate that a lot of places, especially in Cyprus, like the, the, the glamping, uh, unit, the glamping resorts that are popping up, uh, they offer more high-end experience.

Uh, you know, hot tubs and, and all kinds of things that you, that you can get on site, and more like a, like a luxury, um, uh, type of accommodation. And we stuck to very, very simple, very simple accommodation. Our bathrooms are outside. Like, you, you are forced to go outside. Like, we force our guests to go out, um, go out to the bathroom.

Uh, that’s actually part of the philosophy. Um, so yeah, I hope this answers your question. 

[00:32:07] Brian Searl: Yeah, absolutely.

Jeremy, I’m curious, you were kind of on a journey, or you still are, maybe you’re finished, on what kind of accommodations you wanna add to your property. Where are you at with that? 

[00:32:16] Jeremy Johnson: We, we haven’t finished, um, but I, I’ll say very similar.

Um, we’re, you know, we’re fully rustic. We’re, we’re not connected to any grid, and, uh, part of the allure is being outside. And, you know, we, we’re very lucky that I think most people that stay with us recognize that and appreciate it. Every now and then we’ll get somebody that is like, “Well, what do you mean it’s a vault toilet?”

You know? Like, “I don’t flush the toilet?” Um, 

but- … uh, uh, you know, for the most part, I, I think there is a big push to, you know, kind of experience that simpleness. Um, and, and similarly, too, we get a ton of people that are coming here from nearby. Um, we just got, uh, another one of our Google reviews. Um, I think they said they came from about an hour away.

Um, and, you know, they wanted to come spend time here even though they’re surrounded by nature, too. Um, so I, I don’t quite know- what, why people are doing that but I’ll, you know, when I think about our accommodations I think that like we just have to continue to build for our audience and, um, you know, we, well I do know we are going to build four more like high-end cabins.

They’ll, they’ll, I say high-end but they’ll still be solar powered, they’ll still be w- well water, you know, fully disconnected from the grid. Um, we will build four of those but those will be like the fanciest thing on the property. You know, like everything else will be more natural structures whether it’s a yurt or, you know, we’re, we’re lucky that we have a lot of craftsmen in the Upper Peninsula and so, you know, the guy down the street does hemp structures.

Um, maybe we’ll end up doing some hemp structures. Oh. Um, but it, it’ll I think, you know, at least for us people are coming here for that type of experience and so we, we obviously have to cater to it. 

[00:34:15] Brian Searl: Tom, I’m curious, do you find that there’s a mark- 

[00:34:18] Tom Mason: Jeremy, how many accommodations do you have at your park? 

[00:34:21] Jeremy Johnson: What was that Tom?

[00:34:21] Brian Searl: Go ahead, ask your question. 

[00:34:22] Tom Mason: Jeremy, Jeremy how many accommodations do you have at your park? 

[00:34:26] Jeremy Johnson: We, we’re licensed for 40, um, spots and today we have 37. Um, actually we’re licensed for 44 spots and we have 37 today. 

[00:34:37] Kaleigh Day: Like camp- campsites or mixed accom- 

[00:34:39] Jeremy Johnson: Just rustic campsites today. So no… The first two structures on the property were the vault toilets that we built, um, and then we’re slowly adding.

We’re, we’re only in our second year, so, um- 

[00:34:51] Kaleigh Day: Oh, nice … 

[00:34:51] Jeremy Johnson: yeah, one, one thing at a time. And I wish I could say I had zero debt, um, but we do have a little bit of debt for, from purchasing the property. Um, but it, it’s, it’s very manageable and a- you know, going forward we kind of just do things as cashflow allows.

Uh, so that makes it a little bit nicer, you know? 

[00:35:14] Kaleigh Day: At least you don’t have to, uh, put in a septic system, ’cause we just had to replace ours and- 

[00:35:18] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah … 

[00:35:19] Kaleigh Day: that, that’s not, that’s not fun. 

[00:35:20] Jeremy Johnson: I, I would like, I, one day I would like to do a central bath house with, with a septic system, um, just for that, like, more cozy experience, if, if you will.

Like being able… We, we get a lot of outdoor enthusiasts who do, like, w- uh, there’s a bike race called the Margie Jessek here, and it’s, like, billed as the most difficult 24-hour race in the United States. Um, and all those people stayed here two weeks ago, but then they get done with this grueling 24-hour race.

They’re covered in sweat, they’re covered in mud- … and they have nowhere, nowhere to take a shower. So we’re like, “Well, you know, the lake is across the street if you wanna go join the lake.” Um, so I do wanna do a, a, a septic system one day so we can have people rinse off, but it would still be pretty basic, you know?

[00:36:12] Kaleigh Day: You could just do, like, an outdoor ’cause then our staff… So we expanded the original campground mainly for, ’cause a big issue in Ucluelet is staff accommodation. So we went, we have, like, 20 staff members between the surf school, surf shop, ground office, the whole thing. 

[00:36:29] Jeremy Johnson: Wow. 

[00:36:29] Kaleigh Day: And when we first started, everyone lived in town, but as the town expanded and tourism boomed, Airbnb really ruined where everyone…

Like, there’s no, there’s no places for locals to live. There’s no sh- like, long-term rentals. I’m sure a lot of you guys have experienced or heard complaints about this. Um, and so we expanded the campground. We bought the property behind us, and we built an off-grid camping area for- Um, like our staff and, like we expanded, we built like 25 camp sites and a, a different bathroom facility as well.

But, um, we do like, um… We got one of those propane instant hot water- 

[00:37:08] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah … 

[00:37:08] Kaleigh Day: um, shower for the staff to shower, so we have like this like pit toilet and that, and they like love it, and it’s like instantly hot. So like it took us a day to put up .

[00:37:17] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah.

[00:37:18] Kaleigh Day: So it could be like a little interim, like, you know?

[00:37:22] Jeremy Johnson: We- I don’t know what your health department is like. Um, our, our health department is very strict and, uh, w- you know, we’re, we’re constantly going back and forth with them. But like one of the issues we’ve run into is they, under our state license designation as a, a rustic campground, we’re not supposed to have water under pressure, and, um- 

[00:37:43] Kaleigh Day: Oh, interesting.

[00:37:44] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. So like even our, even our hand pump, uh, even our well that people, um, people drink, like get drinking water from, it’s a hand pump well. Which to me, I’m like, “Well, you’re putting it under pressure ’cause you’re pumping it,” but, you know, whatever, semantics. 

[00:37:59] Kaleigh Day: Yeah, what is pressure? 

[00:38:01] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. I’m like, I’m like, “Gravity?”

[00:38:03] Pawel Sikorski: Could, could you not have like, like, like buckets, you know, buckets fill- filled with water, like hanging- 

[00:38:08] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah … 

[00:38:08] Pawel Sikorski: hanging up-

[00:38:09] Kaleigh Day: Oh, yeah …

[00:38:09] Pawel Sikorski: and just pull the cord and- 

[00:38:11] Jeremy Johnson: So the second problem-

[00:38:12] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah, one of those …

[00:38:12] Jeremy Johnson: is that, uh, any, any fixture they want it to be potable water. Uh, and so-

[00:38:19] Kaleigh Day: Yeah, do you treat, with your well, do you treat it or is it- 

[00:38:22] Jeremy Johnson: No, no, we’re really lucky that, um…

So we’re, we’re on top of a dolomite rock outcropping, uh, which is part of the appeal for a lot of people but then also has a lot of restrictions for us. Um, but we- our well goes about 400 feet deep, and it taps into a-

[00:38:40] Pawel Sikorski: Wow …

[00:38:40] Jeremy Johnson: really, really nice aquifer. Um, and then the, the p- the ironic part about this is that the pressure from the rock pressing against the aquifer brings the water back up to 380 feet.

So w- we have great, a great water source and, you know, we’re one of the few people that tap into that aquifer. So it’s a really r- we, we, we’re actually, we’ve, people have, um, added us to the list of, uh- I, I don’t know what it is, but there’s these maps on the internet where you can like find, you know, natural drinking water.

And so we’ve, we’ve gotten added to those lists, and people that aren’t even camping with us will be coming through town and they’ll be like, “Can I fill up my rig?” And I’m like, “As long as you don’t mind-

[00:39:25] Pawel Sikorski: Wow …

[00:39:25] Jeremy Johnson: hand, hand pumping 40 gallons worth of water, sure.” 

[00:39:30] Tom Mason: Wow. 

[00:39:31] Kaleigh Day: And, and so is it not, like when you’re like, “It has to be potable water,” does the city, is it considered potable or is it, are you, do you go by like non, like what’s your, uh, like- 

[00:39:42] Jeremy Johnson: We have to have it tested once a month.

Um, and so i- i- if it’s from a well, you have to test it once a month, bring it, bring it, we have to bring it into town and have it tested at the lab. Um, but then if it’s like running through, uh, o- o- other, basically we can’t do, even though the state allows rainwater collection, our local municipality doesn’t count that as potable water.

So if we did rainwater, we’d have to treat it. Um, so there, there’s a lot of goofy things about it and, uh, in all reality like the s- the state wrote their rules in 1967 or something, and like hasn’t updated them. And then our local municipality is pretty behind too. So like we, we just need some reform to kind of bring things in line ’cause there’s a lot of unnecessary, I’m, I’m sure it’s similar in all the places that you guys operate in, but a lot of unnecessary restrictions that just make it more difficult, you know?

[00:40:44] Kaleigh Day: Well, we would be like, as long as it’s not, our restrictions are just like drinking water, so like for like an outdoor shower or something like that. Like, uh, well, I don’t know, maybe the staff area. I don’t know if it’d be different from main showers, but I think, yeah. 

[00:40:58] Jeremy Johnson: The West C- I, I do, from traveling on the West Coast, the West Coast I think has a different viewpoint on it because water is more scarce often.

Um, I mean you’re like, you’re Northwest so it’s not quite the same. Um- 

[00:41:09] Kaleigh Day: Yeah … 

[00:41:10] Jeremy Johnson: but being in the Great Lakes, like our, our water protections are very intense and like everything, like we have some of the strictest water rules in, in the, in the United States. I don’t know about Canada. Um, and then like every- everything just has to be like treated pretty much, which is, I think, a little bit unfortunate, unless you have a designated well, which we do, so we don’t have to treat it luckily.

[00:41:40] Tom Mason: Jeremy, you said the lake’s right across the street. Is that Lake Superior? 

[00:41:43] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah, Lake Superior, yep. I’m, I’m 200 feet above the lake, so looking out my R- RV window right now I just see Lake Superior. 

[00:41:50] Tom Mason: Mm. Yeah. Beautiful. 

Well, I do know, I mean, the temperature at Lake Superior rarely gets above 62-

[00:41:58] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah …

[00:41:58] Tom Mason: degrees. So it’s re- it’s a refreshing lake. 

[00:42:01] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah, it’s definitely a refreshing lake. Uh, the best time to jump in is usually, like, late August, early September, and it’s, it’s usually about two weekends that are, uh, you know- bearable temperature. Otherwise, you’re, you’re, you’re going for a cold plunge for sure.

[00:42:19] Tom Mason: Right. Yeah. Right. Well, that’s pretty. It’s probably prettier. 

[00:42:22] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. I know it is. Gor- gorgeous. We’re peak, peak fall colors right now, so it’s amazing at the moment. 

[00:42:27] Tom Mason: Yeah. 

[00:42:28] Brian Searl: Tom, I’m curious from your perspective, like, running a, I don’t know if you wanna call them traditional RV parks- but what most people in North America I think would consider an RV park, RV resort, campground type, you know, experience.

[00:42:40] Tom Mason: Right.

[00:42:40] Brian Searl: Do you feel like there’s room for people who want to have a more secluded experience to be able to be served at resorts like this, or do they need dedicated glamping places? 

[00:42:49] Tom Mason: Well, I, we’re talking to two people who think, you know, that seem to be doing okay with that concept and, and growing it. So- 

[00:42:56] Brian Searl: Well, yes and no.

Like, sorry … I think there’s- Just yes and no, because, like, Pawel has this, this four glamping yurts that are separate, right? Jeremy’s got more of a rustic appeal. I’m talking about, like, blended with an RV park. 

[00:43:07] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. 

[00:43:08] Kaleigh Day: Well, I, I feel like that could be like- 

[00:43:10] Tom Mason: Oh … 

[00:43:10] Kaleigh Day: like, just like, you know, like a standard campground has like…

You know, for us we have about 40 RV sites, like full service, full hookups, and then we have, like, standard tenting sites. And st- like, where we are- Yeah … standard tenting is like, uh, very much still alive and well. And so I feel like it’s kind of, like, it’s a bit of a blend, you know? Like, I feel like there’s room for- 

[00:43:31] Brian Searl: Well, yeah, you can, you can- 

[00:43:32] Tom Mason: I, I agree with Kaleigh 

[00:43:33] Brian Searl: Go ahead. I’ll let you answer, Tom.

[00:43:34] Tom Mason: I agree with Kaleigh.

[00:43:35] Brian Searl: Before I give my comment. Sorry, go ahead. 

[00:43:37] Tom Mason: No, no, no. I agree with Kaleigh. I mean, we have parks where there’s tenting and we have rustic cabins at our, number of our parks, and they are full most of the summer. Uh, so yeah, there’s, uh… I, I think there’s a, there’s the ability to have both in a traditional park like most of the ones that we manage.

[00:43:58] Brian Searl: Yeah, I guess, like, and, and I just didn’t an- answer the question or perhaps ask the question correctly, I’m more thinking about, like, w- like we know your cabin rentals that you have at a lot of your properties, Tom. Uh, there’s obviously an audience for that. They’ll book the cabins all summer long, sometimes even into the shoulder seasons and in the winter.

I’m more talking about, like, if, if there’s a guest that wants an accommodation but wants a more isolated feel to it, is there room for that at a traditional resort? Because you’d almost have to landscape around it. You’d have to make it more peaceful or set it aside- … in a corner of the property.

Like, does that ever make sense for a park like yours, Tom, or one of the parks that you manage? 

[00:44:33] Tom Mason: Uh, I don’t have that luxury to have that extra land at our parks, but if I did, I would experiment with that, uh, and try to carve out You know, an isolated section as you described it to see what would happen.

Uh, because I do think the more variety you offer, the more attractive you are to a larger group of, uh, of the public. 

[00:45:02] Jeremy Johnson: I do, I do think it’s possible, but it requires the physical space to do it. You know, I mean, we, we get- people that, um… there’s a park down the street from us that opened two years ago, same time, same time as us, and we’ll get…

It’s a more traditional RV park, but they do have tent sites as well. And we’ll get people that show up on Saturday s- to come book with us who left that park on Friday because they’re parked next to an… You know, they, they thought they were getting a tent site, but their tent is right next to an RV with a generator.

And so they … they tried to do it, but they didn’t give the necessary space like Tom’s talking about. And without that space- … it just, you know, the two things don’t really… You don’t wanna be in a tent thinking you’re in the woods, and then some guy’s got his generator running and satellite TV going.

[00:45:56] Kaleigh Day: I think that’s also a good- 

[00:45:57] Tom Mason: I would compare, Brian, I would, I would compare it also, people try to do glamping because that’s the, the hot topic, but they don’t give it the space-

[00:46:08] Brian Searl: Yeah …

[00:46:08] Tom Mason: that a traditional glamping person is looking for, a glamping client is looking for, where they wanna be a little more isolated.

They just, to Jeremy’s point, they just move, they, it was, they take an, an old RV site and maybe put a few trees around it and, and throw up a tent and say, “Yeah, we have glamping.” When in reality- 

[00:46:28] Brian Searl: Yeah

[00:46:28] Kaleigh Day: Yeah.

[00:46:28] Brian Searl: That’s what I mean. I’ve, I’ve given this example on, uh, the shows before and then, sorry Kaleigh, I’ll let you go.

I apologize. We’re just kinda delayed now. Didn’t mean to talk over you. But I’ve given this example before where we went to Ireland like last, uh, September I think it was now. It’s been a almost a year. And, uh, we, we were looking at glamping places to stay, and there was two different types of glamping places in Ireland, just like there is in the United States and Canada and probably Cyprus and everywhere else, right?

Uh, is that there’s the one where people have put the units side by side by side, like a couple feet of space in between them, and they all look the same and they’re all organized the same way and like there’s no trees or landscaping or really anything except the accommodation there. And a lot of places in Ireland got away with it ’cause, you know, the walk out your front door and you’re looking at the ocean.

That’s okay in Ireland. you can get away with a lot more there, or Cyprus probably. Um, but if you don’t have that like wow factor as soon as you step out your door, then the difference is the people who have the space and the landscaping and curate the experience to really make them feel like it’s different.

Not necessarily isolated, although that’s one benefit of it. It doesn’t have to be that though. It just has to be different and unique. Appeal to their senses in a way that maybe they haven’t been able to experience often or at all, I think. I don’t own, I don’t own the property. You guys correct me if I’m wrong.

[00:47:39] Jeremy Johnson: No, I think you’re right. I, I mean, you know, if you, if you have a, if you have a wow factor, that can help mitigate some of the space issues. But, um, you know, it, it, it has to… I think no matter what you’re doing, it has to feel cohesive, you know? I mean, I was, I was just down in Traverse City for one of those conferences and, um, you know, there’s a really nice mo- more modern RV park.

Um, and everybody’s got their big RVs and generators, and some of them set up shop all summer long, and they’ve got, like, their little yard designs, and that, that works for that place, you know, ’cause it’s cohesive. But, um, I think no matter which direction you go in, you just have to make it cohesive, otherwise you get people who might value different things right next to each other.

And then, and then you’ve got, you know, again, the guy with the satellite TV and generator next to the guy who’s trying to watch the northern lights, and that doesn’t usually work together. 

[00:48:38] Brian Searl: All right. Let’s spend the last few minutes asking each other questions. Tom, do you have a question for Kaleigh, Jeremy, or Pawel?

[00:48:46] Tom Mason: Uh, so Jeremy, uh, you’ve been there two years. How… I, I know you’re seasonal. Good, um, did you see nice growth from, from first year to second year? 

[00:48:59] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. Uh, we, uh, we grew revenue this year by about 50%. Um, so that felt solid but, uh, you know, a lot of that just comes with gaining awareness of, you know, the, the market and the people gaining awareness.

[00:49:11] Tom Mason: Yeah.

[00:49:11] Jeremy Johnson: So next year I’ve got our goal set, um, to, to grow by another 30%, so we’ll see if we can hit that. Uh, but so far so good. 

[00:49:25] Tom Mason: And you say most of your customers are Northern Wisconsin, Northern Minnesota, and Northern Michigan that you attract? 

[00:49:32] Jeremy Johnson: Um, mo- uh, a little bit. We, we do have a heavy, I would say maybe like 20 to 25% comes from like those regional northern areas, which is more than I expected. Um, but, uh, you know, 75, 80% of our customers are coming from the more metropolitan areas, so Detroit, Chicago, um, Minneapolis, Milwaukee. Um, the, it- it’s, it’s really interesting how many, you know, s- city people wanna come up and disconnect. Um, but we, we get a lot of…

We, we even get a lot of first-time campers, and one of the cooler programs that we’ve, um, got involved with is like, uh, uh, first-time camping for like youth. We, we work with a group in Grand Rapids. We work with a group in Hamtramck, uh, which is like a city inside of Detroit, and then we work with a group in Flint as well.

So we facilitate like first-time camping for all those, those kids that are like in a more urban environment, which is a lot of fun. 

[00:50:36] Tom Mason: Okay. I, I do… My next question-

[00:50:39] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah.

[00:50:39] Brian Searl: Go ahead …

[00:50:39] Tom Mason: sorry, Brian, if I’m asking too many, but, uh, are both for Jeremy a- and Kaleigh. Um, midweek, say Sunday through Thursday, w- is very soft for us.

Any ideas on anything that you’ve done that you’ve had some success to grow that time period? 

[00:50:57] Jeremy Johnson: I’ll, I’ll answer and then I’ll be quiet-. and we c- we can move on to Kaleigh. But, um, you know, I’m, I’m just, I’m lucky that I live in a very tourist heavy area. Um, and I, I think that, like, a big thing that’s helped not only my business but all the other hotels, and campgrounds, and accommodations near us is that, um, we, we have a, a countywide tourism tax that promotes, you know, every- everybody that has lo- I, I actually don’t pay it as a campground, which is kind of ironic.

Um, but everybody that has a tourism business pays 6% of their revenue, and then it goes to a DMO that markets our area, and that, that DMO will put on events. So I mean, like I said, we’ve got big bike races that happen during the middle of the week. We’ve got a beer festival that happens. Um, so I don’t, I don’t have to worry about it too much luckily, but maybe on an island that’s a bigger concern. I don’t know. 

[00:51:58] Kaleigh Day: Um, the, for us, when we were smaller, um, and we struggled a bit more to fill our midweek, we did a lot of surf… For us, we have our surf school, and so we have that activity that draws people in. And so, um, we would do midweek surf, uh, packages with surf rental and surf lesson packages, and we would make camping pretty cheap ’cause we wanted people in, and then do the upsell and everything else.

So once we get them in, then we have all the add-ons. So those for us, when we were really a lot smaller, um, really helped, especially in the shoulder season. So that’s kind of what we would do. We’d do that midweek surf rental, surf lesson package, and then, um, that really helped fill our, our midweek. And then activities, you know?

[00:52:45] Tom Mason: Yeah.

[00:52:45] Kaleigh Day: Like the good old classics.

[00:52:47] Tom Mason: Yeah. 

[00:52:47] Jeremy Johnson: Programming and events. Yeah. Yes. Yep. I just don’t do it. My county does it for me. 

[00:52:53] Kaleigh Day: Yeah. Thanks.

[00:52:54] Tom Mason: Yeah.

[00:52:55] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. There you go.

[00:52:56] Tom Mason: Yeah. Congratulations.

[00:52:57] Brian Searl: Jeremy, you have any questions for anybody? 

[00:52:59] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. Um, Tom, what, what’s your favorite out of all the locations you have?

[00:53:07] Tom Mason: Um, as far as, uh, uh, the best location we have is in Panama City-

[00:53:16] Jeremy Johnson: Oh, wow. Okay … 

[00:53:17] Tom Mason: in Florida. Yeah. Um, as far as, uh, my favorite is we have one in Navarre Beach that, uh, is very good, and then we have one in Durango, Colorado, which I love.

[00:53:33] Jeremy Johnson: Cool. Where’s Nav- where’s Navarre Beach? 

[00:53:36] Tom Mason: It’s in the panhandle of Florida

[00:53:38] Jeremy Johnson: Okay

[00:53:38] Tom Mason: It’s right outside Pensacola.

Unfortunately, this past week we had, uh, Hurricane Isaias come through and it came ashore just, uh, east of Navarre Beach. We came out, uh, pretty much unscathed but we have Panama City was affected by it, Fort St. Joe, Navarre Beach, and one in, uh, Alabama, uh, got a little bit of rain and wind. So we had to evacuate, so it hurt us for this past weekend pretty substantially, those four parks.

But Durango, Colorado’s a gorgeous park right on the river. Love it. A great setting. Obviously, it’s up in the mountains and, uh, it is a seasonal site but it’s, it’s spectacular up there. Year round Navarre Beach is pretty good.

[00:54:27] Jeremy Johnson: Nice. 

[00:54:29] Brian Searl: Kaleigh, you have any questions? 

[00:54:31] Kaleigh Day: Yeah, my question’s for, uh, Pawel. Um-

[00:54:35] Pawel Sikorski: Uh-huh

[00:54:36] Kaleigh Day: what’s your dem- what’s your demographic? Like, what’s, like, who’s coming and staying with you, and where are they from? Like, is it, do you get a lot of families, or is it… Yeah, just I’m so curious. 

[00:54:50] Pawel Sikorski: All right. Uh, yeah, so Cyprus has, uh, like over four million of, of arrivals, uh, a year, uh, of, of tourists. Uh, there’s like a million people living here, so four times the population, uh, you have that many arrivals.

There’s a huge, uh, uh, tourism is like a huge part of, of GDP in Cyprus. We get a lot of, um, a, a lot of people coming to, uh, to the island. And, uh, our demographics are probably like pretty much half and half. So half of our guests are, uh, based in Cyprus, so people doing the staycations, uh, people who are based in Cyprus that just looking for short breaks, two, three nights, sometimes four nights.

And there’ll be also of all kinds of nationalities. Uh, Cyprus is very, uh, you know, multicultural, uh, multinational. Uh, loads of people are based here, uh, from all over the world. Uh, so I wouldn’t pinpoint, like I don’t really have a particular, uh, nationality that, that, that I would see here more than the others.

Uh, there will be sometimes, like bank, bank holidays or some, um, some, uh, um, local celebrations, uh, where I would see, for example, more Cypriot guests. Uh, Cypriot holidays, uh, I would see more. Sometimes it could be a weekend there’ll be just Cypriot guests. Uh, but otherwise it’s a complete mix. Like sometimes you have people sitting around the breakfast table and they’re like, literally everybody’s from a different country, um, from all over the world.

Uh, like I’ve- There, there, there again, like there are sometimes some dates, um, I would say with s- with, with schools as well, like school holidays where you get obviously more families. 

[00:56:39] Kaleigh Day: Mm-hmm. 

[00:56:39] Pawel Sikorski: Uh, we get always like a lot of interest from, um, from, uh, British bases. There are some military bases in Cyprus. Um, so there is always a big, uh, a, a big following from there.

Um, yeah, Brits they, they love the, you know, the glamping or, uh, or this kind of stays, you know, out in the nature. Uh, it’s definitely their thing. So, so you d- you don’t have to sell, sell too hard this kind of an experience to them. Uh, but otherwise really it’s, uh, we, we are actually blessed because it also gives you a nice feeling of, uh, of being part of this huge community, uh, where you have people coming from all over the world and you have this cultural exchange and, uh, all kinds of, all kinds of things going on.

So yeah, I find it super attractive. 

[00:57:26] Kaleigh Day: Oh, nice. And then, um, age, is there like a particular age group that you find? Like is it, or is it still the same kind of across the board? 

[00:57:36] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah, it’s pretty across the board. But I would say, like, we, we don’t get too many young people other than, you know, kids coming with their, y- you know, with the parents.

Uh, and then pro- probably it starts around, uh, 30, like, uh, yeah, anybody up from 30. Um, yeah, 30, yeah, probably, like, there’s a big, a big part of it that people in their, you know, middle-aged, around 40, 50. Uh, a lot of retired people as well who come to settle in Cyprus, you know, the great weather, uh, and all of that.

Um, they’re, they’re, they’re also a big chunk of, uh, of our guests. So again, you know, can be anything from, you know, from infants all the way up to 90 year olds. You know, we get all kinds of, uh, ages. 

[00:58:22] Brian Searl: Pawel, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna guess what your age is. I’m 44 and I’m still young. I’m that middle age. I just wanted to clarify that for the- 

[00:58:30] Pawel Sikorski: All right. Yeah. Yeah, all right. Yeah. 

[00:58:36] Brian Searl: Do you have any questions for anybody, Pawel? 

[00:58:38] Pawel Sikorski: Uh, yeah, sure, sure. I would, uh, I, I would love to ask, uh, Jeremy, like, uh, you know, it sounds like your, your place is kind of, uh, uh, sounds very interesting with, with all these challenges with, with water and, uh, electricity. Uh, uh, I, I’m, I’m gonna look you up.

I, I haven’t looked at your place yet, so I’m really curious about it. Uh, what, what are your biggest challenges, uh, like around the place? 

[00:59:02] Jeremy Johnson: Oh, man. Uh, the, the biggest … uh, challenge originally was access. Um, because we’re 200 feet above the lake and above, uh-

[00:59:13] Pawel Sikorski: Mm-hmm …

[00:59:13] Jeremy Johnson: the rest of everything around us, it took a lot to get a road in and, and get proper access.

Um, and, and not just proper access, but, like, access that was safe for emergency vehicles, for firefighters, um, and, and that complied. We’re also located right off of a federal highway, so that makes it more complicated. Um, we’re on US 41, which runs from Copper Harbor, Michigan, all the way down to Key West, Florida.

Um, so it is the longest north-south highway in, in the United States, um, continuous anyway. Uh, but that federal designation made it really hard and really expensive. And a- access, I would say probably will continue to be, um, our, our biggest issue because we really wanna do things like, uh, you know, we have 80 acres, so we wanna get, we wanna get-

[01:00:07] Pawel Sikorski: Mm-hmm. Wow …

[01:00:08] Jeremy Johnson: access to the rest of the property, and then we wanna connect to, um, we wanna be able to connect to things like our, our gravel biking trails and our mountain biking trails to make the experience better for our guests, but that all takes a lot of coordination, a lot of permitting, and a lot of money.

[01:00:27] Pawel Sikorski: Wow. Wow. So when you say access, it doesn’t mean like building roads, uh, or- 

[01:00:35] Jeremy Johnson: Per- permitting, um, number one, so getting the ability to build the road, but then sometimes it’s-

[01:00:41] Pawel Sikorski: Mm-hmm …

[01:00:41] Jeremy Johnson: easements, so, like, getting access to our… We have one of the largest mountain biking trail networks in the Midwest. Um, and so getting access to that, that’s gonna require easements to go across land.

Um- Mm … and then building roads. And I, I don’t know how to build roads. Uh, so we often have to, um, you know, hire contractors, especially when it touches the highway. Um, but we’re, we’re learning and we’re building a lot of trails and two-track type roads ourselves at this point. Um, but the, the main roads are expensive and it takes a lot-

[01:01:18] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah

[01:01:18] Jeremy Johnson: to, like, plan it, you know, get permitting for it, plan it out, and then pay somebody- Mm … with heavy equipment to build them. 

[01:01:26] Kaleigh Day: Yeah, roads are-

[01:01:26] Pawel Sikorski: Yeah. And how, how’d you access, how’d you access the property… Sorry, Kaleigh. Uh, how would you access the property right now? 

[01:01:32] Jeremy Johnson: Uh, via, via a gravel road. So we- 

[01:01:36] Pawel Sikorski: Uh-huh … 

[01:01:36] Jeremy Johnson: we put in a gravel road that goes from the federal highway up to our property.

Um, it’s about, uh, s- it ranges from, like, a 7% to, like, a 10% grade in- incline is what- I don’t know what we call it in, in other places, but in the US. And then- 

[01:01:53] Pawel Sikorski: No, I, I get it. 

[01:01:55] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. 

[01:01:55] Pawel Sikorski: That’s steep. 

[01:01:56] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. And then we, we were lucky that we got, um, state funding to… ‘Cause it was expe- Just to put in the access road, it was, like, 150,000 US dollars.

Um- Yes … but we had $100,000 of that covered through a state grant to, um, promote tourism in our county. That’s, it- 

[01:02:14] Kaleigh Day: Oh, that’s nice. 

[01:02:15] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. It’s, it’s paid for, it’s paid for by the mines up here. So the, the mines take the resources, ship them overseas, but then we get a fraction of that money to reinvest back into our community, so…

[01:02:29] Pawel Sikorski: I love that. 

[01:02:29] Brian Searl: I wanna be con- I wanna be cognizant of everybody’s time. Yeah. We would love to… We can keep chatting, but, like, I wanna make sure we, you know, everybody’s got probably meetings they’re going to.

[01:02:36] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah, yeah.

[01:02:37] Brian Searl: Definitely a meeting that’s been going on in my calendar. But Tom, uh, you wanna wrap up and give final thoughts, and we’re gonna learn more about IVEE?

[01:02:44] Tom Mason: Uh, sure. Uh, like I said, I head up the IVEE management group. We’re in, uh… We have 15 parks in nine different states. Uh, we have a great team and deliver f- uh, great results for all our ownership groups and, uh, we’re, uh, we’re, we’re doing well. We had a good ’26 and looking forward to a solid 2027. 

[01:03:06] Brian Searl: Awesome. Thanks, Tom. 

[01:03:07] Tom Mason: I have to jump off now. 

[01:03:08] Brian Searl: No problem, Tom. Yep, appreciate you being here, Tom. Yeah, well. Thank you so much. Jeremy?

[01:03:10] Kaleigh Day: Bye, Tom.

[01:03:11] Tom Mason: Yep. Bye. 

[01:03:12] Brian Searl: Final thoughts, where can they learn more about what you have going on? 

[01:03:14] Jeremy Johnson: Uh, I’m shutting down for the season, so I’m gonna enjoy some time off and work on next phases, but you can find us at campconahills.com or, uh, I’m always on LinkedIn too if you wanna find me on LinkedIn. Uh, just search for Kona Hills Campground. 

[01:03:30] Brian Searl: Thanks for being here, sir. Kaleigh? 

[01:03:32] Jeremy Johnson: Yeah. 

[01:03:33] Kaleigh Day: Yeah. Uh, we’re closing up, or we closed, so just doing winter projects. And, uh, yeah, that’s pretty much it. You can, uh, find our website, surfjunction.com, and yeah, that’s that. You can see me there. 

[01:03:48] Brian Searl: Last but not least, Pawel. 

[01:03:51] Pawel Sikorski: Uh, we’re yurtsincyprus.com.

Uh, we’re open all year round. We never close unless we go on holiday. Um, and we are tiny owner-operated off-grid, um, nature retreat, uh, set in Cyprus on a, on a, on a, a Middle Eastern, um not Middle Eastern, a East Mediterranean island. Um, yeah, it was great to be here. 

[01:04:19] Brian Searl: Yeah. Thank you so much for being here, Pawel.

Kaleigh, Jeremy, everybody, thanks for joining us for another episode of MC Fireside Chats. We’ll see you next week, guys. Take care.

[01:04:28] Jeremy Johnson: Bye. 

[01:04:28] Pawel Sikorski: Thank you.