1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,520 So I remember our first little adventure 2 00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:04,100 in kind of remote management. 3 00:00:04,100 --> 00:00:07,120 And it's definitely not the way we do it now, 4 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:09,960 but we had a woman that had been doing the laundry 5 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:11,860 for several weeks for her stay. 6 00:00:11,860 --> 00:00:14,920 And we said, I won't mention her name, 7 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:17,720 but we said, hey, a few of the guests 8 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:19,820 wanna go do the snowshoeing thing. 9 00:00:19,820 --> 00:00:20,660 Do you wanna come? 10 00:00:20,660 --> 00:00:22,380 She said, no, I'll stay here. 11 00:00:22,380 --> 00:00:24,180 And we said, well, if you're gonna stay here, 12 00:00:24,180 --> 00:00:25,880 do you mind just running the hostel? 13 00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:30,880 I mean, you know, it makes sense. 14 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:32,560 If you can do laundry, 15 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:34,360 you should be able to run a hostel, right? 16 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,440 Hello, friends and travelers. 17 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:38,360 Thanks for listening. 18 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,440 You are riding along on the Hostel Road Trip podcast. 19 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:43,280 Our mission is to spread awareness 20 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:45,840 of the true hostile experience in the Americas 21 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:48,040 and share stories from the fascinating hosts 22 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:50,240 who create those unique facilities. 23 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:51,480 I'm your host, Jimmy Black, 24 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:53,000 joined alongside co-founder 25 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,560 of International Travelers House, Bobby Dyer. 26 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:58,360 Each session, we sit down with hostile operators 27 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,280 or travel influencers to hear about their road success, 28 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:04,680 discuss trending hostile topics, 29 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:06,680 and close with tips for travelers 30 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:08,800 who are seeking to have the ultimate experience 31 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:11,040 when visiting each destination. 32 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:13,040 You can't afford to miss this trip. 33 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,480 Now fasten your seat belts and let's hit the road. 34 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:16,980 ["The Hostel Road Trip"] 35 00:01:16,980 --> 00:01:20,740 ["The Hostel Road Trip"] 36 00:01:20,740 --> 00:01:24,080 Welcome back to the Hostel Road Trip podcast, 37 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:26,360 episode two of the day. 38 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:29,880 We recorded with Dave Cook at the Barn Door Hostel 39 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,040 in New Hampshire earlier today. 40 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:34,360 And now we are with Jay Greggs, 41 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:39,360 co-founder of the Bunkin Brew Hostel up in Oregon. 42 00:01:39,580 --> 00:01:43,000 And I'm with my business partner, Bobby Dyer, 43 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,280 and co-founder of IGH Hostels. 44 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:48,400 Thank you so much for joining us, gentlemen. 45 00:01:49,780 --> 00:01:52,640 Awesome, yeah, thanks for coming on, Jay. 46 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:54,240 I'm gonna rock on. 47 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:57,920 So, wanna jump in more so, Jay, 48 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:01,560 to your personal experience. 49 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:03,680 I always love to start the episode 50 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:07,920 with how you first came in contact with hostels personally. 51 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:09,820 And I know that you've got a beautiful story 52 00:02:09,820 --> 00:02:11,980 of how you and Frankie came together 53 00:02:11,980 --> 00:02:15,640 in a chance meeting of sorts through a soccer league. 54 00:02:15,640 --> 00:02:16,480 But yeah. 55 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:17,320 Oh, wow, you remember. 56 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:18,960 Yeah, I smoke a lot of weed, 57 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:20,440 but I got a memory like an elephant. 58 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:24,560 But I wanna hear about your personal, 59 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:27,420 like when was your first exposure to hostels? 60 00:02:27,420 --> 00:02:30,360 Yeah, you know, Frankie, he can tell his story 61 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:32,360 and he's been in the game, not in the game, 62 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:35,100 but he's been aware of hostels much longer than me. 63 00:02:35,100 --> 00:02:36,760 For me, it was very late in life. 64 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:39,080 He was traveling at a pretty young age. 65 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:40,600 I didn't really leave the country 66 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:42,320 until I was pretty much 30. 67 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:44,560 So I kind of already had a career. 68 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:45,400 I was a lawyer. 69 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:49,240 I was doing this and that, working in an IT company. 70 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:51,760 So what happened to me was I was in the Midwest. 71 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:53,120 I didn't really love it out there. 72 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:54,600 I'm more of a West Coast kid. 73 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:59,160 And I said, well, I need to do something different. 74 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:00,000 And I wasn't sure what. 75 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,440 I didn't find anything I liked on the West Coast. 76 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:04,160 So I said, well, I made some money out here. 77 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:06,680 Let's just try traveling, kind of get some exposure. 78 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:11,680 So it was about 2016, I think. 79 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:14,240 And I bought a truck down in LA, 80 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,600 like a big black, like oversized tires. 81 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:19,720 And I just drove south as far as I could go. 82 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,160 And so I made it through every country till Panama. 83 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:25,280 And I didn't really know what I would expect, 84 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:28,400 but one of the things I discovered there was hostels. 85 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:31,160 I just had no idea about this concept. 86 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:35,360 And so I made it that far, 87 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:37,760 ended up spending a few months in Cuba, 88 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:39,280 just to kind of finish things out 89 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:40,640 and then came back to the States. 90 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:42,800 And I just thought I'd go back to lawyering, 91 00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:44,480 but instead I just decided, 92 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:46,480 let's try this hostile thing in the States. 93 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:48,080 There isn't a lot of them out there. 94 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:49,400 I had a good time. 95 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:51,680 Frankly, I was surprised there weren't more of them 96 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,480 in the States, considering the experience that I had. 97 00:03:58,320 --> 00:03:59,880 When you're cruising through, 98 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:03,640 cruising south through Central America, 99 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:05,400 what were some of the iconic hostels 100 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:07,960 or most inspirational hostels that you found 101 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:10,400 that you were like, whoa, really opened your eyes? 102 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:11,640 Oh yeah, there were a few. 103 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:12,640 And let me tell you, 104 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:15,360 you couldn't do what I did there in the States. 105 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:18,440 So I knew my house would be somewhat limited, 106 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:19,280 at least not legally, 107 00:04:19,280 --> 00:04:21,560 but and down there, who knows what was legal or not. 108 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:25,240 But God, I mean, I remember one morning waking up, 109 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:26,120 I didn't even wake up. 110 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,760 I was woken up by a couple of bros in furry suits 111 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:32,680 with a beer bong at like seven or eight in the morning, 112 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:36,080 basically commanding me to climb the roof of this hostel, 113 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,800 take a beer shot and jump into a pool from the roof. 114 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:44,360 And then I was like, whoa, this is, you know, 115 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:46,960 and I was saying yes to everything back then, you know, 116 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:48,240 I just wanted to experience. 117 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:50,440 So I'm lucky I made it like many of us. 118 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:55,440 But yeah, that was a great experience. 119 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:57,080 You know, there's some other cool ones too 120 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:58,400 that just had really inventive ideas. 121 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:01,880 There was this one that was just a bunch of trampolines 122 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:03,560 and you would just kind of on an island 123 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:05,960 and you just, you'd stay on this. 124 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:08,440 The whole hostel was a wooden dock, 125 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:10,480 kind of on the edge of the land. 126 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:13,160 And then you'd jump on trampolines into the water 127 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:14,840 and it was beautiful, you know, 128 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:17,080 and Central America has some great settings. 129 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:21,040 So yeah, yeah, there were some great ones. 130 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:25,080 There were tree house hostels, just all trees. 131 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:26,200 Yeah. 132 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:27,040 Awesome stuff. 133 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:28,920 So you come back from that trip 134 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:31,760 and find yourself in Bend, Oregon, right? 135 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:33,720 I actually came back to Portland first, you know, 136 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,960 that was kind of, Ben was on the radar to me 137 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:38,520 because everyone in Portland goes there. 138 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:41,280 It's like the outdoor adventure hub of Oregon, right? 139 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:43,960 But at the time I really didn't have an exposure. 140 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:45,640 I just had heard about it. 141 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:46,480 Okay. 142 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:48,560 So you met Frankie when you were in Portland. 143 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:49,560 That's right. 144 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:50,400 Okay. 145 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:52,280 So now, so that's where you two hook up 146 00:05:52,280 --> 00:05:54,480 and tell a little bit about how like, 147 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:55,680 yeah, that's a very unique thing 148 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:58,520 that you both met through the soccer league, 149 00:05:58,520 --> 00:05:59,720 through like a mutual friend that was like, 150 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:01,520 I got a buddy who's trying to open a hostel. 151 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:03,080 Well, that's the weird thing, you know? 152 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:04,920 It's not weird to meet interesting people 153 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:07,000 through the things that you have passions about 154 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,280 that are, you know, normal commonplace things. 155 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:12,240 But what's weird is when you find two people 156 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:15,440 in a country that isn't doing that thing at all 157 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:17,040 and you run into each other. 158 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:20,400 So when I first heard about it from our, 159 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:23,840 kind of the captain of the team, he just said, 160 00:06:23,840 --> 00:06:26,360 hey, there's this guy on the team that's also running a, 161 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:27,560 wants to start a hostel. 162 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:28,400 You should talk to him. 163 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:29,320 And I didn't believe it at first. 164 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,000 They said he probably means a hotel or an Airbnb. 165 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:33,680 This guy doesn't know, you know? 166 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:34,520 Yeah. 167 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:35,360 But it turns out he did. 168 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:39,920 And so, yeah, so we decided we would do it together. 169 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:41,320 Wow. That's awesome. 170 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:42,160 Yeah. 171 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,320 And I know from experience with Bob, 172 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:47,200 it really is a much different experience. 173 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:49,320 And for me, a much more enjoyable experience 174 00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:52,120 to have a partner in that process, 175 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:54,640 especially if you could find someone 176 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:56,520 that has a lot of the opposite strengths 177 00:06:56,520 --> 00:06:58,560 and that can counteract your weaknesses. 178 00:06:58,560 --> 00:06:59,520 Yeah. And I think that you 179 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:01,560 and Frankie have a similar relationship 180 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:03,760 and working relationship that Bobby and I have. 181 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:05,840 And I can see the same benefits 182 00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:08,160 that you two have drawn off each other in that way. 183 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:09,760 So that's so cool. 184 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:13,760 Now, tell us a bit about, now you've met the person, 185 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:16,120 your business partner, Frankie, 186 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:18,120 you want to open up this hostel, 187 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:20,000 you both jump on board together. 188 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:21,600 Take us a little bit through the process 189 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:24,480 of how you found yourself in Bend, Oregon, 190 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:25,960 as opposed to Portland. 191 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:29,080 And of course we know Jim Kennett was a big part 192 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:30,480 of being a mentor for you. 193 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:33,320 So give us a little bit about how that all went down. 194 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:34,160 Yeah, that's right. 195 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:38,080 So Jim Kennett had the main hostel in Portland, 196 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:41,520 and we weren't going to compete against him 197 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:42,560 without talking to him. 198 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:44,360 So we just decided, hey, 199 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:46,000 frankly, we didn't even know what we were doing anyway. 200 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,040 I mean, we came from different backgrounds. 201 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:50,120 Frankie came from Washington in medical, 202 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:53,000 I came from California and doing law. 203 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,040 So we were a little bit clueless. 204 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:56,120 We just had this vision 205 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:57,880 and we were kind of tired of what we were doing. 206 00:07:57,880 --> 00:07:59,840 So we just were kind of rolling the dice a bit. 207 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:01,560 But so we figured it'd be a good start 208 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,040 to just invite this old man to have a beer with us. 209 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:06,000 And it was, it was a great idea. 210 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,240 He was very generous with his time. 211 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:09,680 He basically said, I'll tell you boys, 212 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:10,720 anything you want to know, 213 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:12,480 as long as you don't compete with me in Portland. 214 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:14,280 And we said, okay, where do we go? 215 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:16,360 And actually a side story is 216 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:18,240 he didn't even tell us Bend at first. 217 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:19,760 He told us Seaside, 218 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:21,640 because he had owned a hostel in Seaside, 219 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:24,560 and he had left to consolidate his empire, 220 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:26,800 so to speak, in Portland. 221 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:29,720 And so we actually negotiated with the woman 222 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,160 that he sold the Seaside hostel to, 223 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:34,640 which is out on the beach about an hour from Portland, 224 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:37,240 kind of the quickest beach access from Portland. 225 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:40,000 And those negotiations fell through. 226 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:41,760 And that's when Frank and her saying, 227 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:45,080 well, okay, so what kind of hostel do we want? 228 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:46,840 Jim was just kind of teeing us up for that 229 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:48,480 because it was already a hostel. 230 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:50,200 But we knew we could just build 231 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:52,000 whatever we wanted anywhere we wanted. 232 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,160 So we did a search all over Oregon 233 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:56,080 and we determined that 234 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:58,120 because we were both into outdoor adventure, 235 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:00,160 and that's the reason people come to Oregon, 236 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:03,360 we would start it in the capital of outdoor adventure, 237 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:04,200 which was Bend. 238 00:09:05,560 --> 00:09:06,400 Amazing. 239 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:08,920 And also like a big brewery town as well, right? 240 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:11,120 Most breweries per like whatever, 241 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:12,840 isn't that a fact there? 242 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:13,680 That's right. 243 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:15,960 So yeah, Bunkin Brew, that's our name. 244 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:18,360 And so we had to build into the beer scene. 245 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:21,320 So I know down in Sandy, pretty good scene too, 246 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:24,960 but in Bend has some of the, let's see, per capita, 247 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:27,120 more breweries than anywhere in the world. 248 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:28,200 Yeah. 249 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:29,040 That's, yeah. 250 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:31,600 And I always loved the name that you came up with there. 251 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:32,560 Thanks. 252 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:34,720 Yeah, super creative and inclusive. 253 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:36,600 There's actually a funny story to that too. 254 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:38,000 We were in- Go, go, give it. 255 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,240 And I thought this would be the hardest thing 256 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:42,000 because it's gonna go into everything, right? 257 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:42,840 And we're setting up, 258 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:44,840 this could take weeks and months, we don't really know. 259 00:09:44,840 --> 00:09:47,640 We sat down, in fact, with the soccer coach 260 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:50,360 or captain of our team and his girlfriend 261 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:52,440 in a bar in Portland, and we asked them, 262 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:54,720 we said, well, help us out. 263 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:57,040 You got us together, now what do you, 264 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,000 we're gonna film this back wall. 265 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:00,120 It's where it's gonna be. 266 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:04,280 So we're like, you're off to a pretty good start. 267 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:05,680 He's like, well, tell me again, what are you gonna do? 268 00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:07,600 Well, we're like, we're selling beds. 269 00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:08,440 He's like, all right, all right. 270 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:10,360 Well, you can't just do bed, that's pretty plain. 271 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:11,600 So what's another, what kind of beds? 272 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:13,320 We like bunk beds, there is like bunk, got it. 273 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:14,440 All right, so what else are you gonna do? 274 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:15,640 We're gonna sell beer. 275 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:17,240 All right, well, it can't be bunk and beer. 276 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:19,040 Give me any, you know, whatever, brew, brew. 277 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:20,360 Okay, bunk and brew. 278 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:22,600 And we just never found a better name. 279 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:24,880 Oh, no, it is a great one. 280 00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:27,080 It is a fantastic name. 281 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:30,000 Now we were there and had the opportunity 282 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:32,640 to go and stay at your hostel, which was so cool 283 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:34,680 after the last conference 284 00:10:34,680 --> 00:10:36,240 for the North American Hostel Association, 285 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:37,680 which we'll ask you more about that 286 00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:39,240 a bit later in the episode. 287 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:41,960 But as far as going to your hostel, 288 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:43,120 I thought it was so cool. 289 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:44,960 I love that it's out of a historical building. 290 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:47,120 We operate out of a lot of historical buildings. 291 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:48,920 I love the character that comes with it. 292 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:51,600 But obviously there's also the challenges of, you know, 293 00:10:51,600 --> 00:10:53,440 oh, this walkway is gonna be changed 294 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:56,160 or this room upstairs you can't use 295 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:57,640 and different things like that. 296 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:01,280 You know, so I wanted to ask a bit about those challenges 297 00:11:01,280 --> 00:11:02,720 you went through so people could hear them. 298 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:06,040 And then I also wanted to talk about the awesome 299 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,600 like shower house that you made, you know, 300 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:12,000 like the washout, which is so cool, 301 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:14,000 how you separated that and how I can see 302 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:16,800 how that can be so efficient, 303 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:18,400 not only like cleaning and things like that, 304 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:20,320 but if you have an historical place, 305 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:22,400 a lot of the things you can't touch or amend, 306 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:24,000 so the bathrooms are, you're kind of stuck 307 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:24,840 with what you got. 308 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:26,880 So I love that you built this bath house 309 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:29,560 that now that functions adjacently 310 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:32,480 to the historical building, which allows it to be. 311 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:34,640 Then you brought in all these vendors 312 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:37,120 with food trucks and bars and cars. 313 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:40,920 So give us the listeners a bit about that process 314 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:43,760 of going into an historical property 315 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:46,480 and then bringing in those outside vendors 316 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:48,760 and maximizing the property with your, 317 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:50,320 what do you call them, dirt bags? 318 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:51,360 Yeah. You're at campers. 319 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:54,040 Dirt bags, got the dirt bag deal for the dirt baggers. 320 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:55,400 Yeah, yeah, that's it. 321 00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:57,200 Give us a little bit of insight into that 322 00:11:57,200 --> 00:11:59,480 because I really think you guys hit it out of the park 323 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,360 as far as like maximizing opportunity 324 00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:04,000 within the historical building. 325 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:04,840 Yeah, yeah, we have. 326 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:05,800 I'd like to think so. 327 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:08,280 And you're right, we had all the challenges you mentioned 328 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:11,760 and we were lucky because we were onto a good thing 329 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:12,600 from the beginning. 330 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:15,600 So Bend didn't have a hostel. 331 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:18,280 It's becoming unaffordable for many people, 332 00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:19,880 inflation, all the things. 333 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:21,880 So the hostel was an opportunity 334 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:24,840 to basically serve this market that people didn't, 335 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:26,480 wasn't served, people just passed their Ben 336 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:29,040 or they do day trips or they camp outside of the city 337 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:30,840 because they didn't have any access. 338 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:33,480 So at first we just threw an Airbnb. 339 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,160 We just put in a bunch of thrift store furniture 340 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:38,680 and we just said, let's test the model, right? 341 00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:40,760 It's a cool house, it's right downtown. 342 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:42,200 You can walk everywhere. 343 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:44,040 Let's see what happens. 344 00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:47,960 And so we were already profitable in our second month 345 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:49,840 and that's when we knew we were onto something 346 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:51,800 and that it's worth investing more 347 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,280 because we bootstrapped from the beginning. 348 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:58,640 And so what we found is that a lot of people would come 349 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:00,040 and they would already have a rig 350 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:02,800 that they were sleeping in an RV, something like that. 351 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:04,200 So they didn't need a bed, 352 00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:06,600 but they did need a place to like be close to the city, 353 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:10,400 reconnect, resupply, take a shower, get a beer, 354 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:11,640 that sort of stuff. 355 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:13,720 So we said, well, how do you, this is our market, 356 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:15,920 but we're not like, we don't have a product for them. 357 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:18,560 So how do we take advantage of this property to do that? 358 00:13:18,560 --> 00:13:22,760 And so we already knew that in this historic house, 359 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:24,120 there weren't enough bathrooms. 360 00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:26,960 When we tried to join HI originally, we couldn't do it 361 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:29,360 because we didn't meet the metrics that they had for 362 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:30,960 our bathroom and stuff. 363 00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:33,480 And we made it work because again, a lot of these guys, 364 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:35,200 they're pretty easygoing, 365 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:37,560 their standards are pretty flexible. 366 00:13:37,560 --> 00:13:39,200 And frankly, as long as they have a good time, 367 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:40,040 they don't really care. 368 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:41,760 And that was one thing we always delivered. 369 00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:42,840 Maybe you know something. 370 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:47,840 We can, because of the experience we deliver, 371 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:49,520 people will overlook a lot of flaws. 372 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:51,960 So, and that was the first one in the early days. 373 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:54,920 So anyway, so we said, okay, what can we do? 374 00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:56,160 We need more bathrooms. 375 00:13:56,160 --> 00:13:59,400 Let's maybe keep the dirt outside and do something new 376 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:01,040 because something new, we don't have to deal with all 377 00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:03,880 the intricacies of blowing out the house. 378 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:05,840 And we had this, as we built this bath house, 379 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:08,120 we said, why we're at it, what else can we do with it? 380 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:09,240 And we got a great designer. 381 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:11,000 She said, you can add a sauna. 382 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:12,240 I loved it. 383 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:14,800 You can add lockers, you can add laundry, 384 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:16,520 you know, all the things that these guys can just have 385 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:19,120 their own little space out there and kind of the people 386 00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:21,600 who want to have the private rooms and kind of, you know, 387 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:23,360 they have, you know, their own kind of thing going, 388 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:25,400 can be a little separate from these guys. 389 00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:27,400 And so, yeah, it's worked really well. 390 00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:29,800 And we basically invented a new category of travel 391 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:32,120 for that area that didn't exist. 392 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:33,920 Awesome. 393 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:35,440 And the food trucks, how you tied in, 394 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:36,600 that was really fascinating too. 395 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:37,960 You guys really used the whole property. 396 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:40,080 Talk about how you guys did that. 397 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:42,440 Yeah, so the next step was, again, we have this land 398 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:43,600 and we're like, how do we use it? 399 00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:46,840 And so, you know, everyone enjoys the restaurants 400 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:50,200 and the bars downtown, but we started having people 401 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:52,760 that were staying longer and longer periods of time. 402 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:54,600 And so they can't either, they either don't want it, 403 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:56,400 they get tired, they just, it's not affordable 404 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:57,480 to just eat it out every night. 405 00:14:57,480 --> 00:14:59,640 So we said, well, we have this land 406 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:01,640 and we had other food cart pods in the city, 407 00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:04,080 but none of them were right downtown. 408 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:06,640 So that's when we started building out that infrastructure. 409 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:09,440 And so now we have three food carts and one bar. 410 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:12,520 And the bar is an old 1970s bread truck 411 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:14,000 that we just bought. Yeah. 412 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:15,840 Very cool. 413 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:17,520 I loved it, I loved it. 414 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:19,320 Yeah, we just really focused on character 415 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:20,760 and finding interesting things. 416 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:23,880 And that was kind of a staple to the yard. 417 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:28,000 Yeah, I think it's, yeah, go ahead, go Bob. 418 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:29,680 I was gonna tie into kind of the next step 419 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:30,960 of the operations wise. 420 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:32,560 I'd love to hear like you were, 421 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:35,480 you know, you traveled these hostels, 422 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:37,320 you had some wild times in Central America, 423 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:40,160 became a fan of hostels, met up with a buddy, 424 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:41,600 got a hostel going, but you never, 425 00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:43,520 you weren't like a hostel manager for years 426 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:45,560 before you took on this vision. 427 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:48,760 What was that, tell us about kind of opening the hostel 428 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:51,560 and kind of those first days, maybe opening day, 429 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:52,800 things you had there. 430 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,520 Well, yeah, that was as wild as my travels were. 431 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:57,960 I mean, that was my only experience anyway, you know? 432 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:02,960 So we were taking cash, we were exchanging services, 433 00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:07,960 stay a night for doing the laundry, you know? 434 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:10,000 It was kind of a relief, gave us a break. 435 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:12,040 I mean, it was pretty wild. 436 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:13,800 I mean, after a couple of months of that, 437 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:16,440 we're just, you know, when Frank and I were up all night, 438 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:18,840 you know, just doing it all ourselves, you know, 439 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:22,320 going from being a lawyer back to scrubbing toilets, 440 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:25,400 so, and making beds, but it was a lot of fun 441 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:27,040 and we knew people really appreciate it 442 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:27,920 and that kept us going, 443 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:29,360 but we knew we couldn't do that forever. 444 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:31,880 So I remember our first little adventure 445 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:33,480 in kind of remote management 446 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:36,480 and it's definitely not the way we do it now, 447 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:39,360 but we had a woman that had been doing the laundry 448 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:42,760 for several weeks for her stay and we said, 449 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:45,600 I won't mention her name, but she, we said, 450 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:49,200 hey, a few of the guests wanna go do the snowshoeing thing. 451 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:50,040 Do you wanna come? 452 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:51,760 She said, no, I'll stay here. 453 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:53,560 And we said, well, if you're gonna stay here, 454 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:55,280 do you mind just running the hostel? 455 00:16:55,280 --> 00:17:00,280 I mean, you know, it makes sense. 456 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:01,920 If you can do laundry, 457 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,640 you should be able to run a hostel, right? 458 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:08,480 So anyway, the sense or not, we did it. 459 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:09,880 We left for 24 hours. 460 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:11,920 We had a great time snowshoeing with our guests 461 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:13,520 who had also stayed for quite a while. 462 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:15,520 When we came back, everything seemed normal 463 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:16,600 and we were pretty happy about it. 464 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:17,600 We got the keys back. 465 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:20,160 We said, thanks, you can stay another week for free. 466 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:22,880 Well, it turns out one of the guests had left 467 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:26,240 her some stuff in her car and that stuff was gone. 468 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,120 So we traced it back to the same woman 469 00:17:29,120 --> 00:17:31,400 who had basically taken the keys, 470 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:33,560 taken everything out of this woman's car, 471 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:37,120 stuffed her credit cards under her own mattress 472 00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:39,000 and we had the police take her out in handcuffs. 473 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:40,160 And that was it. 474 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:41,480 Oh wow. 475 00:17:41,480 --> 00:17:42,320 First lesson. 476 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:44,680 So we had to tighten up a little after that. 477 00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:45,520 Not much though. 478 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:46,840 But it's a little. 479 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:49,800 No, that is something. 480 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:53,360 Now we've been doing, at the past couple of episodes, 481 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:58,880 some of the operators are in the mode of, 482 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:00,320 they live on site. 483 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,640 You know, every in the line one of them used was, 484 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:06,200 hostels is life and my life is the hostel. 485 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:10,880 And we've been talking with them about how that is a classic, 486 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:14,240 you know, genuine old school way to run a mom and pop hostel, 487 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:17,720 but could really burn you out over time 488 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:21,880 as you don't get off site or it really does consume your life. 489 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:25,200 And I think it was cool to hear from them 490 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:28,080 so that people that are going through that can, you know, 491 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:30,360 have some camaraderie or understand 492 00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:32,040 that that is a possibility. 493 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:35,720 But I think you guys portray the exact opposite end 494 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:38,600 of the spectrum, which is great because it shows 495 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:42,680 that there are options and styles of running your hostel 496 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:43,720 and managing it. 497 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,480 And I was always very impressed with how you 498 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:48,440 and Frankie started the place. 499 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:50,240 You went in full bore, like you said. 500 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:51,080 Yeah. 501 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:54,080 You were doing the hostel is life, life is the hostel. 502 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:59,160 But then very successfully, you both pulled yourself out 503 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,040 and were able to explore and go travel 504 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:05,360 and as if you were still a backpacker. 505 00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:06,840 And there was a few times where I was like, 506 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:10,560 these motherfuckers, how are they pulling that off? 507 00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:14,400 Like, you know, like, I mean, I was trying to figure out 508 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:16,120 how I could replicate this. 509 00:19:16,120 --> 00:19:19,960 So I'd love to hear a bit and I'm sure others would as well 510 00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:21,960 about how you did that transition. 511 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:24,240 Like, you know, you mentioned your first gamut at it 512 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:25,320 was unsuccessful. 513 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:26,160 Yeah. 514 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:27,000 We've all been there. 515 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:27,840 Exactly, yeah. 516 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,920 But how did you then over time get yourselves to the point 517 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:36,680 where you guys are both now running this place 518 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:38,600 and doing different things? 519 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:39,360 That's right. 520 00:19:39,360 --> 00:19:39,960 Yeah, we are. 521 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:42,840 Yeah, Frankie's in Portugal and I'm a bit of a nomad, 522 00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:44,120 but I get to travel a lot. 523 00:19:44,120 --> 00:19:46,880 And yeah, that's right. 524 00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:49,320 So we put in a few years of hard work 525 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:50,640 and it was a bit of a transition. 526 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:52,520 So maybe a year and a half, two years, 527 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:53,720 we were there all the time. 528 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:55,160 And then one of us would leave for a month 529 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:56,400 and the other would stay. 530 00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:58,200 We just kind of back each other up. 531 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,720 And then I think after, God, actually, 532 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:03,560 even after one year, we took a month off together 533 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:05,400 and the hostel didn't burn down. 534 00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:08,040 So we said, OK, maybe we take two months next time. 535 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:12,120 And then, yeah, and eventually we have managers come in 536 00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:15,760 and with sufficient training and systems, we could leave. 537 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:18,440 And so we've been doing this now, I think, seven or eight 538 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:19,400 years. 539 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:23,400 And I'll tell you this much, like, where the hostel is now 540 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:24,720 is not where I thought it would be. 541 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:27,120 At some point, we basically handed it over. 542 00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:29,360 You know, we have our kind of, you know, 543 00:20:29,360 --> 00:20:31,400 these are the limits on the far end of things 544 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:32,400 and they're pretty far. 545 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:34,800 And then everything within it can be organic 546 00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:36,880 based on customer demand. 547 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:40,560 And as long as our managers are keeping their ears open 548 00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:42,320 for what customers demand. 549 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:47,400 So although the exact shape of it has changed and morphed 550 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,520 and we've accepted that, one thing we knew for sure 551 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:52,560 is that we couldn't do it forever. 552 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:54,480 And so from the very beginning, I 553 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,280 told them we focus first on profitability 554 00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:01,760 and second on sustainability because we needed something 555 00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:04,080 that we could deliver to management 556 00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:06,440 to be able to operate in their sleep with no training. 557 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:09,360 What I often tell people and my managers is, 558 00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:14,160 I need to have a system where if you win the lottery 559 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,240 or get hit by a truck, this hostile will continue. 560 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:18,480 You know, just a real visual. 561 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:22,360 Like if you disappear, who's going to know what to do? 562 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:25,080 Every time you do something, manager, 563 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:28,040 please think if I didn't do this, would it get done? 564 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:28,960 What would happen? 565 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:31,320 How would that affect the business? 566 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:34,960 And so instilling kind of that from the beginning, I think. 567 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:38,400 And also, you know, people appreciate having you 568 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:39,960 put their trust in them. 569 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:40,840 Sure. 570 00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:43,960 And so I won't say we're gone 100% of the time. 571 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:47,240 We do come back when we do big management changes. 572 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,880 But we had one recently where two left and nearly 573 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:51,680 the same time. 574 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:54,680 But as long as we just have one there and one transitioning 575 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:58,200 out, we can do most of it remote now. 576 00:21:58,200 --> 00:21:59,560 That's awesome. 577 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:03,120 And again, a testament to show the wide range 578 00:22:03,120 --> 00:22:05,800 that you can attack this hostile in game 579 00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:08,560 and from the point of you're on site all the time, 580 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:10,600 you live there, you're raising your kids there, 581 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:15,440 to you're running it remotely with systems, with training. 582 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:17,920 But I do love that you're doing it in a way 583 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:20,400 that you're not micromanaging, which that is, again, 584 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:21,640 pat yourself on the back. 585 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:24,080 Because most people, when they try to remove themselves, 586 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:25,680 they're remotely micromanaging. 587 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:26,440 It's their baby. 588 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:26,920 It's hard. 589 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:27,440 I get it. 590 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:29,680 And you talked about you and Bobby 591 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:31,840 having kind of remote into the spectrums. 592 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:32,840 I'm more on that side. 593 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:34,480 And Frankie's more free will. 594 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,320 And I think the fact that we're both so far to the extreme 595 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:40,400 on this kind of forces this middle ground, you know? 596 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:42,280 So yeah, it's been good. 597 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:45,840 Magnets pulling. 598 00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:46,920 I think that's awesome. 599 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,120 And again, a testament to you guys in the ability 600 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:53,240 to do that, because it shows it is possible. 601 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:56,160 But it does rely a lot on systems and policies, 602 00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:56,720 procedures. 603 00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:58,880 But love that you give the creative freedom 604 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:00,800 and the empowerment to that person. 605 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:02,400 Here are the boundaries. 606 00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,200 But inside of that, be creative, be empowered, be trusted. 607 00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:05,960 And it is funny. 608 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:08,840 Sometimes I do show up, and the hospital 609 00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:16,560 can be littered with crystals and little flags of this and that. 610 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:18,160 I do have to do a little cleaning out. 611 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:20,680 But for the most part, the core of it 612 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,120 is built by the people who stay there. 613 00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:26,880 Yeah, and that's a great way to do it organically, genuinely. 614 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:31,960 Now, just to jump over now, the Bunk and Brew, obviously, 615 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:33,040 an awesome place. 616 00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:37,320 But a whole other venture that you have created, 617 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:41,120 which we're so grateful for, you, Jim, and Frankie really 618 00:23:41,120 --> 00:23:43,840 pioneered and spearheaded this formation 619 00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:48,120 of a legitimate hostile association in America, 620 00:23:48,120 --> 00:23:49,720 for all of North America, actually, 621 00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:51,880 called the North America Hostile Association. 622 00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:54,200 And we plug it during every episode. 623 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:56,880 And we always ask the person that we're interviewing 624 00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:57,840 if they're a member. 625 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,560 And then we scold them for a few minutes afterwards if they're 626 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:01,080 not. 627 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:01,560 Good. 628 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:02,320 Please do hear us. 629 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:02,840 Scolding. 630 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:04,280 It's one of our favorite methods. 631 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:05,200 So yeah, yeah. 632 00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:06,200 It's short, short, short. 633 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:07,520 It's public shaming. 634 00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:10,680 Public shaming live. 635 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,280 But if you could tell the people, 636 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:17,080 or we love it so much, and just to give an example, 637 00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:20,800 we met at the American Hostile Conference years ago 638 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:22,560 before the pandemic. 639 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:27,240 And then we went to Dublin at the same time afterwards 640 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,760 to go to the Hostile World Conference. 641 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:31,720 And we had a great time together. 642 00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:33,720 And I think that's one of the great things 643 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:37,920 that people are missing out on in these conferences. 644 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,240 Oh, I don't have the time to go. 645 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:42,880 But it's so worth it with the networking and the relationships 646 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,240 that you could create, especially in an industry 647 00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:46,920 where there's just not that many people that 648 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:48,280 know what you're doing. 649 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:51,320 It's very common that the hostel owner and manager, 650 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:53,640 not even their parents know what they're doing 651 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:55,280 and don't understand it. 652 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:58,520 So it's so great to have that camaraderie, that network. 653 00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:01,680 I love the WhatsApp chat that you have going on. 654 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:05,720 And it's really, as we've seen a few different people try 655 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:09,280 to pull off the association over the years, 656 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,040 I feel like this is the best effort in part because 657 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:15,880 of your legal skills in actually forming successfully it 658 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,560 to be, what is it, a 501C7? 659 00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:19,600 Six, yeah. 660 00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:20,880 Six. 661 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:22,240 And just the potential. 662 00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:24,640 Hey, you had a one in seven chance. 663 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:26,200 It's not bad. 664 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:27,160 I got the numbers. 665 00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:30,120 I mean, there's not an infinite number. 666 00:25:30,120 --> 00:25:35,960 So to tell the listeners a bit about what Naha is all about, 667 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,040 why was it created, and a little bit about where it's going. 668 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:42,080 Well, I'll tell you this. 669 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:43,520 You give me some credit for being 670 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,080 able to do remote management. 671 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:46,200 I only have one hostel. 672 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:47,480 You guys have quite a few. 673 00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:51,000 So I imagine it gets harder as you try to scale that model. 674 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,640 And maybe someday, Frank and I will do that. 675 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:55,880 But I think what I realized is being 676 00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,120 that I started hostels a little later in the life, 677 00:25:58,120 --> 00:25:59,720 I'm 40-something now. 678 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,640 I'm like, how much energy do I have to really build 679 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,120 a global hostel, whatever, at least in the States, 680 00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:08,440 which was kind of one of the ideas we had in the beginning. 681 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:10,960 And I quickly realized I probably 682 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:12,880 don't have the energy for that. 683 00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:16,120 And it's not going to be the easiest thing to do it 684 00:26:16,120 --> 00:26:16,760 on my own. 685 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,560 And so one of the motivations behind Naha 686 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,480 is to basically say, well, to your point, a lot of guys, 687 00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:24,920 even hostile people, they don't know what they're doing necessarily 688 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:26,120 because they're doing it on their own. 689 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:27,840 They're just figuring out maybe like I 690 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,560 did by going to another country and kind of learning it that way. 691 00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:36,720 So the idea of Naha was, how do we expand this network faster? 692 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,320 And maybe we can do that by having a network. 693 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:44,240 So me, Jay, I can provide my skills to this organization. 694 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:49,080 And they can replicate it across many different individuals 695 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:50,120 who want to start a hostel. 696 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:51,960 So I don't have to create 100. 697 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:55,160 If I can teach in one room 100 other individuals 698 00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:57,040 how to create theirs, if that makes sense. 699 00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:57,680 True that. 700 00:26:57,680 --> 00:26:58,880 True that. 701 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:00,640 I know that makes a lot of sense. 702 00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:03,240 And then what about going forward for the Naha? 703 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:07,400 Now that we've got momentum, we got a great conference 704 00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:11,200 this past April in Portland that we went up to Ben to visit your place. 705 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:16,000 What do you think are some upcoming exciting things going on with Naha 706 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,440 that you might be able to share with some of the existing members 707 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:20,440 and potential members out there? 708 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:24,400 Yeah, one of the things that's cool is we started with just kind of a ragtag 709 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:28,120 group of whoever was just willing to give it a chance 710 00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:30,720 and just fly and meet us and have a good time. 711 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:34,200 And everyone did, but no one really knew if we'd take off or how realistic it was. 712 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:38,760 But after 100 plus attendees at the last one, we figured we're on to a big thing, 713 00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:39,040 right? 714 00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:40,600 People picked up attendees. 715 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:45,280 So we are trying to get the next one actually down in Mexico. 716 00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:48,960 And so there's some debate about how often we should be doing this. 717 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:51,080 And as long as we have people that are willing, we're going to try. 718 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:52,920 So we're trying to do that. 719 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:57,480 It is good for our representation to kind of bring it between US, Mexico. 720 00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:59,280 Maybe the next year we'll do one in Canada. 721 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:03,600 So right now we are adding new board members. 722 00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:07,600 So the first board members had put a lot into it, 723 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:09,120 because it was the only ones doing it. 724 00:28:09,120 --> 00:28:13,560 Now we're forming committees to kind of spread the burden and that sort of thing. 725 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:17,480 So as we prepare for next year, I think in filling the board. 726 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:19,720 The other thing we also did, by the way, at the last conference, 727 00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:22,400 we tried to figure out what do members want? 728 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:22,800 Yeah. 729 00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:26,160 How do you make an organization that's actually continuing to deliver what people want? 730 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:27,880 And what's it going to cost? 731 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:31,080 And what are people willing to contribute for those benefits? 732 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:34,240 So right now we're actually doing the math and figuring that out. 733 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:38,040 What is, you know, and you'll see some surveys coming out, 734 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:40,760 this and that about what you want and how to deliver it. 735 00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:43,520 And so that's I guess that's the stage we're in now. 736 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,880 Hopefully we'll have something to share next year in Mexico. 737 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:51,560 Well, yeah, it's really exciting to hear about the the Mexico location. 738 00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:56,920 I think that will be a lot of fun, although you guys smashed it out of the park in Portland. 739 00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:00,120 So definitely some shoes to fill for the next person. 740 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,640 Because those things are so they're so hard to pull off and coordinate. 741 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,600 So I really always give so much credit to the people who even try, you know, 742 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:12,640 and then when you when you actually do it well, you know, that's a smashing out of the park. 743 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:17,680 And I'm so glad that you guys took on that task because the first one has to go well 744 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:19,200 or there won't be a second one. 745 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:20,760 We certainly felt that pressure. 746 00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:30,920 I mean, you know, again, just overordering on booze was definitely an intentional element. 747 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:34,520 Maybe we can go a little lighter next year. I don't know. 748 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:35,840 No, you guys did a great job. 749 00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:37,600 It was a lot of fun. 750 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,440 Yeah, it was amazing. Really well put together. 751 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,960 So next year, that'll be something. 752 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:48,520 We encourage all those hostels out there listening that haven't become a member 753 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:56,280 to join up and embrace the community and the movement as we're stronger together than apart. 754 00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:59,160 So great things going on at the Naha. 755 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:01,560 Very excited for the upcoming conference. 756 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,600 We always love to go and tear it up and have a great time. 757 00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:08,200 So you can count on us being there in depth and in numbers. 758 00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:08,920 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 759 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:14,200 Yeah. So but just great having you, man. 760 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:17,400 And so excited to see what you got coming with the Naha. 761 00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,120 I'm excited to see the new board members and new blood. 762 00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:22,440 There's rumors Bob Dyer might be a board member. 763 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:24,040 We're very proud of him there. 764 00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:25,880 So we'll take him if he'll have us. 765 00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:26,680 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 766 00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:28,200 Yeah, very exciting. 767 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:30,440 He's hard to pin down, but I think you can get him. 768 00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:35,640 But I think the future is very bright for the Naha and also the bunk and brew. 769 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,080 And thanks so much, Jay, for joining us. 770 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:41,480 And of course, Bob, for co-hosting with me. 771 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:46,920 And we'll be meeting with Frankie Medusa in our upcoming episodes to hear a bit 772 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,040 about his story alongside you. 773 00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:51,720 Yeah, I'll be curious to hear that. 774 00:30:51,720 --> 00:31:17,960 We'll see how many memories have faded.