Diaries of a Lodge Owner
Episode 53: Navigating the good ship Chaudiere into profitable waters W/ Coleridge Beadon
Have you ever wondered what it takes to turn a quaint lodge into a flourishing business? Meet Coleridge Beeden, our guest for this episode, whose extraordinary life spans continents—from his childhood in Trinidad to his pivotal role as the bookings and office manager at Chaudière Lodge. Col has worn many hats, and today, he shares his riveting journey, offering valuable insights into how he helped transform Chaudière Lodge into a profitable venture, drawing from his own rich tapestry of experiences.
Imagine busking through Sweden in the 60s, and extending a short stay into a six-month adventure filled with music, friendships, and unexpected opportunities. In this segment, Col recounts his youthful escapades, including his serendipitous meeting with his future wife in the Grenadines. Their love story unfolds beautifully as they sail and work together, making this chapter not just adventurous but also heartwarming and deeply personal.
But the surprises don’t end there. Picture a chance encounter with Randy Carlisle, the coach and general manager of the Anaheim Ducks. Even if you're not a hockey fan, you’ll find Col's tale of meeting such a significant sports figure both humorous and awe-inspiring. From initial disbelief to a memorable, positive interaction, this episode captures the essence of unexpected moments that make life so fascinating. Tune in to celebrate the incredible journey of Coleridge Beeden, a multifaceted individual who enriches every path he crosses.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to turn a quaint lodge into a flourishing business? Meet Coleridge Beeden, our guest for this episode, whose extraordinary life spans continents—from his childhood in Trinidad to his pivotal role as the bookings and office manager at Chaudière Lodge. Col has worn many hats, and today, he shares his riveting journey, offering valuable insights into how he helped transform Chaudière Lodge into a profitable venture, drawing from his own rich tapestry of experiences.
Imagine busking through Sweden in the 60s, and extending a short stay into a six-month adventure filled with music, friendships, and unexpected opportunities. In this segment, Col recounts his youthful escapades, including his serendipitous meeting with his future wife in the Grenadines. Their love story unfolds beautifully as they sail and work together, making this chapter not just adventurous but also heartwarming and deeply personal.
But the surprises don’t end there. Picture a chance encounter with Randy Carlisle, the coach and general manager of the Anaheim Ducks. Even if you're not a hockey fan, you’ll find Col's tale of meeting such a significant sports figure both humorous and awe-inspiring. From initial disbelief to a memorable, positive interaction, this episode captures the essence of unexpected moments that make life so fascinating. Tune in to celebrate the incredible journey of Coleridge Beeden, a multifaceted individual who enriches every path he crosses.
This episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner is brought to you by Nordic Point Lodge. A luxury outdoor experience with five-star service.
Speaker 3:Because of that sort of you know rapport that we developed with guests. I mean, we had a lot of return guests at that time and we still do. Yeah, we have a very I don't know compared to other businesses exactly but we have a very high percentage of return visitors, some who come every single year, some who maybe miss a year, they come every other year or they come back every third or fourth year, but we have a very, very high percentage of return guests and I think that says something. Oh, it does, and it's key.
Speaker 1:This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio podcast Networks Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Speaker 2:We talk with one of my very close friends and one of the many key people in my life who helped me become successful, when he joined the crew of the good ship Chaudiere.
Speaker 1:he brought strength where I was weak and helped us to finally break over the crest of the wave and become a profitable company. Naturally talented at everything from mechanics and boat building to playing guitar and singing, this well-traveled gentleman is truly a wealth of knowledge.
Speaker 1:And it is with great excitement I introduce to all of you another outstanding scholar and fine drink of whiskey, coleridge Beedon. On this show we talk about the road that took him from England to Trinidad and around the world. We find out what it was like to busk in the streets of Sweden in the 60s and what it is like to live on a yacht for over a decade and, ultimately, how he became the bookings and office manager at the Chaudière Lodge, where he is still today.
Speaker 2:So if you love great people and interesting stories and memories from our lodge days together, and wonder just how he helped harness enough wind to carry the good ship Chaudiere into the black.
Speaker 1:This one's for you, and, you never know, we might learn a few things along the way. Here's my conversation with Coleridge Beeden.
Speaker 2:Welcome, Col. Well, hello Steve, how are you?
Speaker 3:doing? Oh, just the same as ever.
Speaker 2:Well, col, I've been thinking about having you on the show now for quite a while Because, to be honest with you and to this day I still tell people this I didn't start making money at Chaudière until Cole came.
Speaker 3:Is that a fact?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you didn't tell me that at the time. Oh well, I'm telling you now. You're probably worried I would ask for more money. No, cole, you were out of all of the people for all you out there listening. Cole Beeden is a gentleman and a great friend of mine who I met while I was working in my sheet metal shop in Orangeville. I met while I was working in my sheet metal shop in Orangeville and you were working in Rob Emmons' shop and then I was working with Damien Huckle and at the end of those leases, those three-year leases in those separate shops, I think Rob left and started.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he closed down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he closed down and then started working for somebody else, and Damien. Well, I guess he moved in with us.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he did. Yeah in the beginning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So Cole and I decided that we were going to move in together, share some shop space. Yeah, were going to move in together, share some shop space. And the guy that I was with, damien, who was a bit of a machinist I don't know what else he did he did a bunch of different things had a plasma table and I was running the sheet metal and, cole, you were making carbon fiber sailboat masts. Yep, that's right. So listen, why don't you actually, you know what? Remind me. We'll come back to that, but I would like and because I know you fairly intimately over the last while we lived together at Chaudière for about seven years, I would think it was in that neighborhood.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a good seven years, if not a little longer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and to give the folks an idea, you've now been at Chaudière longer than I owned it. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm part of the furniture now.
Speaker 2:You're a seasoned veteran yeah, really. But because of that knowledge, I would love for you to talk a little bit about your dad. My dad yes, oh, really, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, that's an interesting one. Yeah, okay, because my dad was well, as you know, I grew up in Trinidad. Yeah, yeah, because my dad was what we call a colonial policeman, that is to say, he was a British policeman, but he didn't work as a policeman in England. He worked in the colonies and in 1948, he was transferred to Trinidad, and that was literally a few weeks after I was born in England. There I was, in Trinidad, you know, with my father starting a new job. So that's how I ended up growing up there. And he did that job for 13 years. Yeah, he finally retired in 1962. And that's when we came back to England.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you always told me a story about how, for your first 13 years of life, you never put on your socks by yourself. What was it like to live in that part of the world at that time with your dad? Now, he was more than just a beat cop there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was the commissioner of police. He was basically the chief of the police force in Trinidad and Tobago For the whole country. Yeah, yeah, from 1949, he started officially in the position until he retired in 1962 from that position.
Speaker 2:So it was a full 12 years that he was actually commissioner of police. So compared to Canada or the United States, this position is like the director of all police, basically.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and you know, in those days too, when it was still a colony, the post, you know it was more than being a policeman. You were a little bit of a diplomat, representative for the British government and that sort of thing Secretary of State I guess Fancy term but you know your responsibilities went beyond more than just being a policeman. I mean when, for example, visiting dignitaries to the island, like when American warships, would you know, pull into Trinidad, we often had to entertain captains and admirals and people at our house. So you know we'd have a cocktail party at our house at least once every couple of weeks and we'd have major dinner parties every month or two months for various people. So yeah, it was an interesting time, an interesting time to grow up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you had people that worked in your home maids and butlers and cooks.
Speaker 3:Well, butlers, not quite, but yeah, it was a little bit of a spoiled life. I mean, yeah, we had a full-time maid and a full-time cook and a full-time driver and, you know, full-time somebody looking after the gardens and stuff. So yeah, yeah, it was a different lifestyle, yeah.
Speaker 2:Put it that way. Well, and I think that might have given you the bug for the South.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah for the South. Well, yeah, I mean I've. You know, the Caribbean, the West Indies, is in my blood, you know. I mean I might not have been born there, but I have a huge attachment to that part of the world.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure. Not only that, you've got the dialect that you use down there is perfect. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn't see a white British gentleman, you would see a Rastafarian.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that surprised you, I think the first time you heard me Absolutely. Yeah, I have to explain to people. It's almost like being bilingual. Yeah, Because it's not an imitation of. It is actually a part of my language. That's in my brain and when I switch to that, I think in that media as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Do you have anything off the top of your head that you can say, no, I'm not going to do that right now.
Speaker 3:And, as I think I explained to you, it's you kind of got to be there, I've got to be there and I'm hearing it, and then I sort of fall into it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, folks, like I say, I was very impressed, to say the least, the first time I witnessed it live on location. Yeah, but we can talk about that a little bit later. So then you moved back to London, mm-hmm, and you lived in London from the age of 13 to.
Speaker 3:Well, not all that time in London. When we went back to England, we were in London briefly, yeah, and then we moved to the Isle of man. We were in London briefly, yeah, and then we moved to the Isle of man, which is in the middle of the Irish Sea, but it's a British territory, and that's where I sort of finished school, yeah, and graduated from school, and then I went to London to go to college and then I lived, you know, when I finished that, I lived in London for about 12 years and then, before coming sorry, not before coming to Canada, before going back to the West Indies, I went back to the West Indies, but to a different area. I didn't go to Trinidad, I went to the St Vincent Granadines, yeah, and I spent about nine years in that part of the world, was that?
Speaker 2:on a yacht, on a living on a yacht. There's one story that I want to go back to. Before we get to that, tell me about the caves. The caves, yes, the caves. Isn't that the place where you, as a young man in Britain, would go and watch people play?
Speaker 3:music. Oh, yes, yes, yes, you're talking about that was in. That was, let me see, that would be the late 60s. That was when I was in college and the place where we were living all the college students was in a little town called Chislehurst, which is in the suburbs of London. It's just inside Kent, yeah, and there is inside Kent, yeah, and there is a very famous caves. I think they're actually man-made caves that were dug out as a shelter during the Second World War and they were used as a venue for music.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and yeah, I think what you're leading up to is that's where I saw people like Jimi Hendrix play live. Tell me about that night In 1968. That night, well, you know Jimi Hendrix had come to England but he was pretty much unknown. Yeah, and I was in the caves with, I think, a couple of my friends and possibly a girlfriend, I can't remember and we were watching this fellow playing the guitar and he was pretty unusual. He could play it brilliantly, but he could play it with his teeth and he'd hold it behind his head and play it?
Speaker 2:Didn't he play a right-handed guitar, left-handed?
Speaker 3:That's right. He played it backwards and you've got to understand that Gisela has caves. I mean it wasn't a stage. I mean they had a little area marked off with stones and the band stood behind that and the crowd stood in front of it. So, you know, you could stand up as close to them playing as I am to you now, a few feet apart. So that's how we were watching this fellow playing, but we had no idea who he was. You know, we thought that was a little. And then, not long after, that was when he released. Maybe it had already been released, but I hadn't. Hey Joe, oh, hey Joe, yeah. And then we, oh, so that was Jimi Hendrix we saw, but we didn't think much of it at the time because we had no idea.
Speaker 3:You know who he was going to become yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but the raw talent must have been ridiculous.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it was very different.
Speaker 2:You know, you realize that straight away, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Do you remember who else you saw there? Anybody interesting?
Speaker 3:who else you saw there, anybody interesting? You know what? Gosh, it's so long ago. Yeah, the only other name that rings a bell was Muddy Waters. In fact I have a feeling Muddy Waters was playing the night that Jimi Hendrix was playing, because the caves were divided so you could go off down one cave and the sound just didn't travel. So you know, you could go off down one cave and walk sort of 30, 40 yards and there'd be somebody playing down that one and then you could walk around the other one and and and there would be somebody else playing and, and the two sounds you couldn't hear one from the other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and then didn't. From there, before you went back to the west indies, didn't you spend a little bit of time busking?
Speaker 3:uh, that that in. Let me see that would have been Because you're a fairly accomplished guitar player and vocalist yourself.
Speaker 2:Well that's a little bit of exaggeration. Well, I would put myself in that category as well. So I can't put you there. I can't put me there if I can't put you there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, all right. Well, yeah, that came about by chance. Really, I was living in London and you know, I had a bit of spare money and I wanted to travel and I'd met a German friend and we ended up going to Sweden. And not long after I was in Sweden, it turned out to be a lot more expensive than I thought and I was running out of money pretty quickly I was spending it so fast. And I'd met a Swedish guy and we'd played guitar together a couple of times, singing a few songs, and he said, oh, why don't you try busking? You could make some money doing that. And I thought, well, you know, I'd never thought of anything like that. I mean, in London, london, there were buskers everywhere, yeah, but in Sweden, in Stockholm anyway, there weren't any buskers. There was one French busker who used to busk occasionally, but it wasn't like London where every street corner had a busker and every subway had a busker. So I thought, oh well, you know what, I'll give it a shot.
Speaker 3:But I didn't really know any songs properly. I didn't know the words, you know. I knew how to play a few songs, I didn't really know them. So the first song. I learned all the words through because it's a nice long one. I learned Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone. Lots of verses. It goes on for quite a long time.
Speaker 3:Lots of verses and it goes on for quite a long time and I started playing that in a couple of subways and I started making a lot of money. I mean, you know people would stop. I would go early in the morning so I would catch people going to work, so I'd be, you know, 7 o'clock in the morning. I'd be down there in the subway and I'd have my case set out open in front of me and I'd start playing and people would stop and they'd chuck me kronas like nobody's business. And of course there were some nice Swedish girls who would stop and talk to me and ask me where I was from and all that sort of stuff, and give me their phone numbers and with bad accent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I ended up spending I'd originally intended not to be in Sweden more than you know three or four weeks or maybe a month. Yeah, ended up being there for six months because I was making quite a bit of money busking and then I had people stop and ask me say you know, I own a little pub somewhere and you know, would you like to come and play in the pub? And I ended up playing in two or three pubs in the evenings as well. So, yeah, it financed my stay in Sweden. I ended up being there for six months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so back in those days, Coleridge, what were the Swedish girls like? Oh, I don't know if I should?
Speaker 3:I don't know if I should let's just say they were lovely, they were lovely, they were lovely.
Speaker 2:And a little on the liberal side.
Speaker 3:Sweden was known for being liberal at that time. Yeah, I don't know how much so nowadays, but yeah, they were very friendly. Let's put it that way.
Speaker 2:And were all of them as good looking as we all imagine swedish girls to be?
Speaker 3:well that there are a lot of very good looking girls in sweden and they're aware of it. They, they have they are they have. They have their own swedish saying, which means swedish girls are beautiful.
Speaker 2:Nice, that's great. So then you found yourself back in the West Indies, yeah, in the Grenadines and St Vincent. Talk a little bit about that, because I know at that point in your life you were married. No, I wasn't.
Speaker 3:Not at that point, not when I went out. No, no, I met my wife out there. Oh, that's right.
Speaker 2:Not at that point, not when I went out. No, no, I met my wife out there. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. So talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, you know, I went out there initially. My brother had a big boat and he wanted somebody to live on it. Look, take care of it. He was in the oil business, so he kept the boat in the Grenadines but he was traveling around the world drilling for oil because he worked for a big oil company at that time. So I was on the boat looking after it and, you know, making a little money with it, charging and so on. And that was when I met my wife. She and a friend had missed a ferry back to an island where they were staying and they didn't have anywhere to stay. And I offered them to stay on the boat for the night so they could catch the ferry the next morning. Yeah, and that was how we met.
Speaker 3:And I happened to be getting ready to go down island to take the boat out of the water, to clean the bottom and repaint it and everything for the beginning of the season.
Speaker 3:And I said to them well, she was with a friend, a female friend. I said, well, look, if you want to come on the trip down, I'll take you down free of charge, but I'm going down to haul the boat out and if you want to help me. You know we'll be out of the water for a day and a half, two days clean the bottom and repaint the bottom. You know I'll take you down island and you'll get to see the islands. And so, yeah, they came with me and we sailed down island, down to Union Island, which you remember, union Island, where I took you, and there used to be a slip there in those days. Then we slipped the boat and we cleaned the bottom and painted it and then we you know we island hopped on the way back up and that's how we met um and she ended up going back to Canada you know, wind up all her business there and coming back out, and was with me from from then onwards.
Speaker 2:yeah, so, you met her over this, this um impromptu trip. Yeah, On that trip you guys fell in love. She went back to Canada, packed up all her shit and then moved back out with you and lived on that yacht for a decade.
Speaker 3:Well, it was probably because I met her. I mean, I went out in late 78, so 79. Yeah, I met her in 1980. So we were together most of the time living on the yacht for about eight years. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And in that time you had two boys.
Speaker 3:No, I just had the one. Oh, the one, I had, lee, my oldest was born there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so he was born there in 85, gotcha and then and then, first of all before, before I move on, um, what's it like to live on a yacht for that long?
Speaker 3:um, well, you know it put it this way, it's something I would do again in a heartbeat. You know, and you had a little bit of a taste of it when I took you out there for two weeks. Yeah, you know, it's a very laid back lifestyle. I like the privacy of the yacht, you can. You know, as you know, we weren't in marinas. We anchor somewhere off a beach, somewhere nice, in a protected harbor, so you have your privacy on board. If you've got a reasonably big enough, comfortable yacht, you've got your little dinghy tender for going to shore and back. You can eat on the yacht or you can go ashore and eat at the little bars and restaurants. There are a lot of other people who live that lifestyle. So you know, we had lots of friends who were also yacht people living on boats.
Speaker 3:A community, right, yeah, it's a whole community. You know, I mean people would call you up on the. Those days there was no cell phone, we all used VHF radio, you know. So people would call you up and say, oh, you know, you want to come over for drinks, or you go to somebody else's boat for drinks or dinner, or they'd come to yours, or you'd all meet up at a little bar and a shore.
Speaker 3:And if you, if you've sailed out to another Island, like say, sometimes we'd sail overnight and go up to Martinique to go and buy, you know, food and stuff, cause they, they had a lot of choice of wines and cheeses and stuff you know you'd almost always in the harbor there, you'd look around the harbor and you'd see a boat, somebody that you knew there, you know, yeah, it's, the yachting community is quite a big community and it's got you know, of all ages and all nationalities. Yeah, which makes it more interesting. I mean, we had Canadian friends, we had canadian friends, we had german friends, we had italian friends. Yeah, you know, yeah, so it's a, it's a lifestyle on its own and and one that I, I miss sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no doubt. Well, it's. Uh feels like the owning a lodge, it's a lifestyle, so one I sometimes I miss, but yeah, you know. So then you come. Uh, beth was from. Uh was from Canada.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, she's from Richmond Hill actually, yeah.
Speaker 2:Richmond Hill and um what motivated you guys other than Lee, yeah to leave the yacht and come back home?
Speaker 3:yeah, well for her yeah, well, it was. It was essentially, um, you know, he was getting to an age now we needed to school him, and so on. So we decided to pack up the art business and we had a choice. I mean, we could have gone to England, back to England. We could have gone to Canada. I'd never been to Canada. I had no particular desire to go back to England. At that point I thought, well, I've never been to Canada, give that a shot. And that's how we ended up here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you settled in a place, in Alton. You had your next boy, alex.
Speaker 3:Now yeah, that's another story again, because not long after we came to Canada, my sister and her husband he had inherited a hotel in the Channel Islands in the UK from his grandfather and he was actually in the army and he was a captain in what's known as the Queen's Gook, as Royal Engineers, and he was coming out of the army but he was waiting for, you know, discharge and he had inherited this hotel and he needed somebody from the family to be there to look after it until they could come and be there.
Speaker 3:And they knew we'd just arrived in Canada and we weren't fully settled yet and they said, you know, would you like to go and, you know, take over this hotel and be there? This is the hotel in Sark. This is the hotel in Sark, the island of Sark in the UK Channel Islands. So we said, yeah, why not? So off, we went to another island in another part of the world, a little island, yeah, yeah. So it, the hotel, had been sort of on a lease for 30 years and it had been run down by the lady who leased it and we were taking it over and trying to build up the business again. And that was my first experience of any sort of hotel business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it was a great experience. It was one that you told me about when I got involved in this.
Speaker 3:Well, you remember when you wanted to buy this place. You remember me saying to you are you sure you know what you're letting yourself in?
Speaker 2:for yeah yeah, you and Ange, both were like I don't know man, you better think about this.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, you had this. I don't know if you remember, but you had this idea. You're going to come and run this place. You know you were going to be out fishing every day and enjoying yourself and the place, would you know, would staff would run it and you know there wouldn't be much to worry about, you know.
Speaker 2:I remember, I think on a couple of occasions I told you my vision and that was, you know, I was going to get up every morning early and grab my fishing rod and I was going to jump in the canoe as the mist was coming off the water and I would paddle down the French River and catch bass out in the back of the boat. And you know, just be one with nature and I never really thought about any of the other stuff that went along with it.
Speaker 3:I don't think in the years you and I were with it, I don't think in the years you and I were here together, I don't think I ever saw you manage to achieve that even one day.
Speaker 2:I never, never mind fishing from a canoe. I never got into a canoe and very little fishing, like I mean the only fishing that I did. And folks, you know I've said it, I've said. If I haven't said it once, I've said it a hundred times the only time that I got fishing was when I overbooked for my guides or a guide didn't show up and I had to guide.
Speaker 3:Well, I remember when I was here working with you and managing and having to try and get you to go and guide one day, certain days, because we needed a guide and we didn't have one and you were very reluctant to do it To the point where I think, at some point through the years, I actually said listen, I don't guide.
Speaker 2:I called, don't book me. And you know it just reminded me of a story I remember. You come to me one day and you said, steve, listen, I know you don't guide, and I'm like, oh, cole, don't tell me, don't tell me. You said and you might start to remember this story you said, well, a guy called and he wasn't rude, but he was very I forget how you put it very stern and he wanted a guide for Friday and I just don't have one. So, and he sounds like he's got lots of money, and I just don't have one. And he sounds like he's got lots of money. So you're it. And the name in the book was Randy Carlisle.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, you remember, yeah, but of course you know you've got to remember not being a hockey person, the name meant absolutely nothing to me.
Speaker 2:Well, and to be fair to that statement, both Chef Dave Quinny and I saw the name on the and I'm sure folks you know, when I was here and you probably still do it we would make charts two weeks out and have all of the inbound names and what cottages are going in and everything else. So we put them up in the kitchen and in the laundry room and.
Speaker 2:Chef Dave and I, because we're both sports fans. Dave come to me and he said hey, steve, look who's coming next week. It's Randy Carlisle. And we were laughing and joking about it, not thinking that it was the Randy Carlisle, that it was the Randy Carlisle and I to the point. And I remember thinking, wow, if I've got a guide, at least it's with a Randy Carlisle. Yeah, yeah. And so the time went on and the days got closer and I remember we had a guest by the name of Scott Scarpelli here, and then there was another group coming from New York.
Speaker 3:Scott was a lawyer from New York, wasn't?
Speaker 2:he yeah, that's right. And I was down on the Saturday on the inbound day. Scotty had got into camp and I went down to his cottage and you know, when people are returning guests I would always go and spend a little bit of time and anyway. So I'm sitting down in Scott's cottage and over the walkie like just happened, peter, the same guy that was on that walkie he walkies me and he's like Steve, you got a copy. I'm like yep, go ahead, there's guests here that I think you should meet or I think you should come and see. And I said, oh, okay, and I'm thinking it's Mark Tober and his family, because at the time Mark had two little boys, vance, and well, it'll come to me, but anyway. So I'm thinking, oh, mark's here, because you know my kids were the same age and you know Melissa's around and I'm not sure if she was around at this point. I don't think, but they were anyway. So in my head I'm thinking Mark Tober.
Speaker 2:So I jump on the old golf cart and I come down the path from the Loon or the Lark cottages. I'm driving across the front and down the path towards the dock and I look up and and, lo and behold, right in front of me is Randy Carlisle, and I'm sure a lot of you know who Randy Carlisle was, but Randy was the coach and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was the GM for the Winnipeg Jets. He played for Winnipeg and at the time he was the coach and general manager of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Well, I don't know if they were the Mighty Ducks then or if they had already switched to the Ducks, but that doesn't matter. He was the coach and general manager in Anaheim.
Speaker 2:And it's one thing to meet a player, but until you like I mean these general managers and coaches to get the 21 of 28 positions at the time, they have such an aura around them. They're the guys that control my heroes. They're the ones that tell all those guys what to do. And if you don't like it, you come sit right here, son. And I saw him and I stopped, I got off the golf cart, I walked up to him and I put my hand out and and you can probably account for this, cole For one of the first times in my life I didn't know what to say.
Speaker 2:I was, I was speechless, and he said to me he said hey, how you doing? I'm Randy Carlisle, and this is my wife and my friends and I was still like Tongue tied. Wow, hey, randy, it's my pleasure. But and it was a great he turned into a wonderful guy. Yeah, like they all do. Well, he came back a few times. Yeah, like they all do. Well, he came back a few times. Yeah, he did Absolutely. He come back a few years in a row with the same couple and I remember that first year we went out on the guide. That was the day it was the Friday, because the Friday he came in and the reason that we were kind of scrambling for a guide was because he wanted to go out after dinner, if you remember.
Speaker 2:I don't remember that detail. So I took him out after dinner that night and got to know him a little bit. You know I didn't ask him anything about hockey or nothing like that.
Speaker 3:I hope you caught some fish?
Speaker 2:Oh I think, well, I'm pretty sure we did, he was happy anyway. So, whether I caught fish or whether I entertained them, whatever it was, he was happy. And then, uh, I got to know him and then you build a bit of a rapport, and then he was out with Billy, uh, the next day. And, um, they come in and, randy, they wanted to come in a half an hour early because I think they just kind of liked their privacy a little bit or whatever, and they wanted soup and we didn't have it on the menu. He said, dave, you think your chef can make some soup? And I said, I'm pretty sure Dave will make soup for you, randy. So I went back to Dave. I said, hey, dave, randy's requested soup for their dinner and they're going to be a half an hour early. He's like, oh man, I'll make Randy Carlisle whatever he wants. So they come in half an hour early and started their dinner and my routine all through my tenure was, if I was here at dinner, I walked the dining room and I talked to everybody.
Speaker 2:I talked to everybody. I wanted to know how their day was and everything else. So I think probably I subconsciously did this on purpose and did not start with Randy's table. Right, because I don't know if anybody would have known who Randy was and there's a very good chance, that being four hours north of Toronto, that some of the guests in the dining room would know who Randy Carlyle was. Yeah, so I didn't start with his table because I didn't want people to feel, like I was, that they were special and they're not. So I just start at the same spot in the room. I always start and go around.
Speaker 2:Well, because they started a half an hour early, they were done and they got up and started to leave and I was about two tables away and, as Randy's walking by, he's like yeah, steve, you talk to everybody, but you don't come talk to us. And he said it in jest, right, but I'm like, oh sorry, randy, I'll tell you what. I'll come up and see you after. We're having a jam night tonight, by the way, you know this and that, right, and they were staying in the Hoppy Gang, right, and they were staying in the um in the um, um, happy gang, the big three bedroom on top of the hill.
Speaker 2:So after dinner, obviously I'm gonna go. I went out to the happy gang because, uh, it was basically an invite to go see another one of my heroes right. And, um, um, I went up into the Happy Gang and they were all all four of them were already sitting in the screen porch and they had the music going and the drinks flowing. And you know, I go up there and I'm chit-chatting. I'm like, yeah, there's going to be a, there's going to be a jam night. And I had already told the whole dining room there's going to be a jam night. And Randy's like, yeah, yeah, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, here have a drink.
Speaker 2:Very rarely would I would I drink. Yeah, um, while the season was going, yeah, on duty as it was, you know. Um, but having you here give me a little bit of flexibility on those special occasions where I could have a few. So I had a drink and it's Randy Carlisle, like I mean, jesus, you know. So anyway, I walk into the, the, the screen porch, and they hand me a drink and I sit down and we start chatting. And it wasn't five minutes where we're into light conversation. Randy looks at me and I purposefully put my Leaf shirt not a jersey, but a T-shirt Toronto Maple Leafs and I had my Leaf hat on. Yeah, and this is after Randy's tenure in Toronto and now he's in Anaheim.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And he looks at me and he says, Steve, you're not going to wear that shit in here, are you? I'm like what shit, that Toronto Maple Leaf shit. And I said you're goddamn right, I'm going to wear it. Randy, Don't forget who owns this building.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we started laughing back and forth. And now we get into a bit of a lighthearted debate with hockey, yeah, and it didn't last very long because I come over the top. But Randy said to me, he said yeah, and this would have been, I don't know, 2015, 2016, somewhere in that neighborhood. And he said to me you know, we have a way, way better defense than you, and he's referring to we as the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, who he really is general manager and coach, and he's referring to me as you, as the Toronto Maple.
Speaker 2:Leafs, so I'm the Toronto Maple Leafs representative here in this conversation. So he comes and he says you know, we have a way, way better defense than you. We have a way, way better defense than you and you win Stanley Cups with solid, outstanding defense. And I said to him and at the time the Toronto Maple Leafs had just hired Mike Babcock as head coach and Randy was the head coach of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks at the time so Randy fires this shot about the defense and the Leafs defense suck and we're way better defense and you can't win without a good defense, which, I give him credit, is all 100% true. But I looked at Randy, with his wife and friends sitting around, and I said yeah, randy, I give it to you, you're absolutely right, you have a way, way better defense, but we've got a better coach.
Speaker 2:And he looked at me, he said you, son of a bitch and everybody started laughing. And then he started laughing and he said you want another drink? And then the music went. Needless to say, I didn't make it down for the jam night that night, right, right. But it was one of those magical Chaudiere moments for me where you know, you get to meet these people and it was really a cool night, but um, yeah, so I, I remember when I first brought you up. I'm going to rewind to the beginning of our tenure, which really was the beginning of mine, because you know, I had, in the beginning, no clue on how to run this business.
Speaker 2:I know, you know you know better than most, right, because I had the sheet metal shop and run that business and lived with you in the building together and it was a very linear business. Yeah, buy steel, make something and sell it. Or go to a customer measure up something that they need manufactured out of steel, get the steel make it done. That they need manufactured out of steel, get the steel make it done. Very simple, linear, not a whole lot of moving parts. And then I got up here and I've got like I mean, it's like a goddamn jellyfish. You try and pin one side down and everything else is going every direction. Right, I'm looking after a kitchen which I'd never done.
Speaker 3:I'm looking after, and didn't we have a great first chef? Do you remember John, john?
Speaker 2:Oh, with us. Yes. Yeah, that was he was, and I don't think he lasted much longer than maybe a couple of months, if that, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was a couple of johns well, I'm, I'm talking about the one, if, if, you know, if, if a guest asked for an extra rush or a bacon, I mean he went into a, he went into a flying rage.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, he was, um, he was the younger, dark-haired guy. Oh, yeah, yeah, he was about my third or fourth chef, was he? Yeah, yeah, because, and but you know what I love chefs? Don't take this wrong, and I know they won't, because they all know yeah, yeah, yeah, chefs are crazier than shithouse rats.
Speaker 2:I've never met a normal one I've never had a normal one yet no, I know I uh, I've uh, I've talked to uh a couple on the podcast, great, great people and they all know it like. I mean it's uh, it's just one of those uh positions that I think comes with enough stress that over time it just at some point it's going to get to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it forms your personality.
Speaker 2:I think yeah and you need to find ways to deal with the stress and manage it, because it is a very stressful job. Yeah, yeah, for sure you know. But, um, yeah. So in the beginning I had the kitchen, I had the marina, I had a hotel, I had all of this shit going on and folks, you know, I've told you before I thought that I could run this business with a, with a, with a cook, one housekeeper, server, one guy on the dock and me. And that's the way I started, yeah, and um, yes, my occupancy was very low, like it was. We were entertaining sometimes less than 10 guests a week, but in hindsight it was a good thing, because I quickly realized that there was no way on God's green earth that I could, even at occupancies at that level, operate the business. No, no, no.
Speaker 2:And word traveled quickly throughout my family and my Aunt Beth and Uncle Barry, they got the message and Aunt Beth called me the one day and you've all heard the story, I've told it on a number of occasions, but this story is worthy of more than a number of occasions. But Aunt Beth called me up and she said than a number of occasions. But Aunt Beth called me up and she said Stephen, I hear that you might be needing somebody to maybe give you a hand for a little bit up there. It's getting pretty busy. And she was politely saying that I was way over my head and they wanted to help. Way over my head and they wanted to help. And I cut her off. I said Aunt Beth, yes, yes, yes, are you saying you can come up here and help me? Yes, when can you be here? And Aunt Beth said well, uncle Barry and I are already packed. We can be there in four hours.
Speaker 3:I said perfect, oh, I your family uh on a few occasions whenever we had issues coming to the rescue, and it was, you know, uncle barry and aunt beth and and your grandma, grandma and mom and dad and everybody.
Speaker 2:We had them all here at times, uncle charlie, and, oh yeah, a hundred percent yeah and um, and Aunt Beth and Uncle Barry, they come up that day with the intention of staying a week and ended up staying for about three years. Oh no, I know. And then I wanted to have you up as a guest, I wanted to show you the place. And in that first couple of years, when Aunt Beth was here doing the bookings and this and the kind of more, the finances, like I remember, there were lots of times where I'd come up in this office and she'd be sitting right where you're sitting and she'd be in tears saying I don't know how we're going to pay the employees. I just I don't know where the money's going to come from. Hey, the employees, I just I don't know where the money's going to come from. You know, uncle Barry, and I we'll chip in, we're going to help. And I would always say, aunt Beth, I don't know where the money's going to come from. Just, I've got faith, just, it'll be okay, it'll be okay. She'd say okay. And every time it happened, be, it'll be okay, it'll be okay. She'd say okay. And every, every time it happened, it was okay.
Speaker 2:We just scraped by a few times somehow, yeah, but she really took that that stressful burden of looking at those numbers and and thinking about them, because I didn't have time to think about no numbers and back in the beginning, my sole focus was on the people that were coming here, because I knew my job was to make sure that they had an outstanding experience. And for a while, like I'm talking, a few years I didn't know the best way to do that, but the one thing I did know was I needed to talk to everybody and when people weren't happy, I needed to be very humble and I would take a bottle of wine out to their cottage and sit down, would take a bottle of wine out to their cottage and sit down and, you know, even with some of the most difficult guests, sit down and really get down to it and say listen, I know that there's something that's bothering you and it's my job, and not just my job. I want to give you one of the most outstanding experiences here on a beautiful location on the planet. How can I do it? What am I missing? And I take notes and even if I didn't fix all of the things that they talked about the simple fact that I come out I took notes, I heard them out, every one of them was good.
Speaker 2:After that, yeah, and you turn those toughest people into your biggest advocates, like Mary Ellen Sargent. You know, wonderful lady, but very tough, like I mean, if she didn't get it the way she wanted it, she'd soon tell you, yeah, right. But so you know, aunt Beth gave me the ability to not even think about how I'm going to pay people next week when the bills are due, or who or what or how. I just focused on doing what I needed to do and those two people among the rest of my family, because they were all huge support systems, but Aunt Beth and Uncle Barry were here and they donated their time. I never paid them.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 2:And they really were the first. They were the first real key people to help me get my feet on the ground. And then Aunt Beth ended up getting brain cancer Right, I remember that and then she passed right and I was left without Aunt Beth. Aunt Beth and the one person that was like her not obviously in age or relation or whatever, but in trust was Coleridge Beagle, the guy that I worked with at the shop and got to know as a great friend so, and you had told me, like when you were trying to talk me out of buying chaudiere in the first- place in our shop?
Speaker 3:well, not necessarily, but not talking about what you were getting yourself into.
Speaker 2:Yeah you told me all kinds of stories from the isle of sark. Yeah, and your first experience with this business. Because, honestly, even after hearing your stories, I never understood them until I got here. You know, so, naturally, and you being a bachelor at the same time and maybe, if you don't mind, I don't think I've ever asked you this, but um, your wife Beth passed basically from the same yeah, from uh, from brain, brain tumor yeah, because I and I and I know this because when Aunt Beth was in that same situation, you were kind of coaching me along at what stage and how things were going to go.
Speaker 2:And you're absolutely right. So at that point in your life, when Beth passed, how old were your boys?
Speaker 3:Well, when she was diagnosed, they were, let me see, they would have been 9 and 13. And then, when she actually passed, my youngest was 12 and my oldest, lee, was 16. Yeah, yeah, what was?
Speaker 2:it like to be a father at that time and I know what, what I've seen with you in later life, but at the time, how, how difficult was that situation?
Speaker 3:You know it's difficult to say really. I mean it wasn't a sudden thing. It was something that happened over three years. I mean I knew what the eventual outcome was going to be, what the eventual outcome was going to be, so I had time to prepare for it. And you know, if it had been a sudden thing, like a sudden accident or, you know, heart attack or something, I'm sure it would be completely different. So, yeah, it was just something you learned to accept and you knew you had to deal with it, just like everything else in life. And you knew you had to deal with it, just like everything else in life. And you find a way to deal with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And the boys I'm sure it was hard on them too at the time. Yeah, yeah, Like, but you've done such a great job with them.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you. I mean, I've got great boys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do so. At that time when, when Aunt Beth now she was diagnosed uh, from the time she was diagnosed to the time she passed was less than a year, yeah, so you know, I had the person that was kind of running the part of the business that I, you know, I was still taking money from guests, I was still checking people out. She was kind of just more the financing and answering the phones and stuff, but I still was taking money. And this goes back to that quote that I said earlier. To this day I still say it. I didn't really start making money until coal came and the key factor was I had a hard time separating business from friends.
Speaker 3:Well, if I can sort of interject that, what I remember when I first came up, you were never, and probably still never, very good at getting money, asking people for their money.
Speaker 3:Because I remember coming here and you had sheets and sheets of bookings and you didn't know quite what you wanted me to do. And I was kind of like, well, what would you like me to start on? And you didn't really know. And I saw all these sheets and I said, okay, well, we've got all these bookings coming up. Have you taken deposits for any? You hadn't taken deposits for any of them, I know. So I just got on the phone and called them one after the other and said I need a deposit, I need a deposit. And I think in that first week I took about $20,000 or $30,000 in deposits, and that's the truth.
Speaker 2:That's the truth. And it was extremely difficult for me to go and get those deposits. And I remember I'm not sure if you were working with me at the time or not, but there was a guy who, a rich guy, who booked like three quarters of the camp, right, and I didn't take a deposit because I trusted the guy. He had already been up once or twice and, geez, I forget his name, it doesn't matter. Yeah, but he stiffed me two weeks before, yeah, and it was. It was like a $35,000 booking, you know, and and it was a total loss, and it was it.
Speaker 2:I was just not good at taking deposits and, even worse, at when guests would come and then I would build a relationship with them like a friendship, because that was a lot. That's, that was my goal, that was the mantra I used to tell the staff a lot. They come as guests and leave as friends, and if you can do that, then your job, your work is done and give them ownership of this place. Make sure you never say that this is Steve's place or that this is your place. It's always our place. And when you build those relationships and at the end of the week. Now you're sitting down and you've got to take that money from the friends that I've just made. And then, god forbid, one of them say well, you know, the pillows were awful lumpy, you know. Just so, you know, I just want to help you out. The pillows were where you should replace those pillows in the in the um, in the lark west.
Speaker 2:And I would say, oh no, I'm, I'm so sorry. I'll tell you what. If I give you a hundred, take a hundred dollars off the your, your uh bill, would that make things better? Because, uh it? Because it was partially the fact that I felt like they were friends and I was letting them down. But it was also a lot of the reason that I would do stupid shit like that was because I was terrified that they wouldn't come back. Right, and when you came and you started seeing this ridiculousness, this me giving money back, you're like what the fuck are you doing? You're giving all your profit back to the people You're not going to be here for. You're doing yourself and them a disservice because you're not going to be here next year to open the doors to let them come back. Did I tell you that? I don't remember telling you that but did I.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You sat me down, you said you're being stupid, you're giving all your profit away. And at that point so this was probably not long after you went through all the deposits and I said well, cole, I want you to look after doing the check-ins and check-outs Like, I can do some check-ins, but check-outs and all of a sudden, this wonderful for me dynamic happened, where Cole was the bad cop and I was the good cop. Yeah, yeah, and we retained that role through a hundred percent. It was perfect. And yet we would have these conversations and I would, you know, we would be making these decisions on putting the price up and on you know, we're gonna, we're gonna charge for this and everything else. And, uh, you're, you never gave money back.
Speaker 2:If somebody come and said you know, yeah, you know, the food on Tuesday night was a little subpar, and you know, I just wanted to let you know. And you'd be like well, thank you very much for letting us know. I'll talk to the chef. And what would your suggestions be? Yeah, right, not any of this. Given money back. And then that same person would come back on the way out as I'm taking them across the water and they'd say, geez, that Cole is a tough dude man. I didn't get it. I didn't get a discount at all and I'm like, yeah, I know, cole's, he's a tough guy. Meanwhile, both you and I are on the same page about it. So that was the moment that turned things around and I started making money. Yeah, I didn't realize that at the time.
Speaker 2:Well you said it yourself Back in those days, the first year you came, my gross sales might have been half a million dollars, maybe a little bit more, for an entire year, for an entire year Seatbelts entire season, yeah. And you come in and you took $30,000 back in deposits in the first week. You were here, right, you know, and I believe that to be true, like I mean, and if it's not 30, it might have been 40.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I forget how many. I just remember there were a bunch of sheets there with no deposits.
Speaker 2:Oh 100% and I just sat on the phone and called one after the other and I would have people call and cancel on me all the time. Yeah, yeah, all the time, you know. So it was that point that really turned things. Anyway, cole, let's take a little break here and we'll come back and wrap this up. All right, why don't we do that? That a boy In every angler's heart lives a fishing paradise With stunning scenery and wildlife, on a trophy multi-species fishery, having outstanding accommodation and a food experience to die for. They treat you like royalty, tailor-making a package that works for you. Nestled in northwestern Ontario, nordic Point Lodge is that paradise, and Will and his team can't wait to show you a luxury outdoor experience and five-star service.
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Speaker 1:Hi everybody. I'm Angelo Viola and I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's favorite fishing show, but now we're hosting a podcast.
Speaker 7:That's right. Every Thursday, Ang and I will be right here in your ears bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio.
Speaker 1:Hmm, Now what are we going to talk about for two hours every week?
Speaker 7:Well, you know there's going to be a lot of fishing. I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors, from athletes All the other guys would go golfing, all the other guys would go golfing Me and Garton Turk and all the Russians would go fishing.
Speaker 6:To scientists. But now that we're reforesting and letting things breathe.
Speaker 7:it's the perfect transmission environment for life To chefs, if any game isn't cooked properly, marinated, you will taste it, and whoever else will pick up the phone.
Speaker 1:Wherever you are, Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside.
Speaker 7:Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Diaries of a Lodge Owner folks. We're here with Cole Ridge-Bedin and Cole, where were we before the break?
Speaker 3:I think you were just talking about how we're finally starting to make money at this business, Steve.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and that's the God's honest truth. Everything that we were the one that turned helped me turn the corner to make money. I'm uh now you know, and uh, and it was uh really a monumental shift in in the business because, um, you can only skate along so long. You've got to turn the corner.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean you know I think that's a little bit exaggerating my part I mean you had everything in place, you know, and it was starting to work. You just were never, and probably still are not, very good at asking people for their money.
Speaker 2:And that's the truth.
Speaker 3:You know and that's a separate part of the business you know I could keep my distance from them. You know, be polite and professional with them, but say you know, could you please settle this bill or pay this deposit? You know we need to secure this booking and know that you're coming. And yeah, yeah, I mean, and that was that was something I learned to have to do. You know, in my limited experience at my, my brother-in-law and sisters hotel in in Sark well, yeah it was.
Speaker 2:It was really key for me because you're absolutely right, and I'll be the first to admit it that was by far my greatest weakness in that bit in this business was was looking people in the eye who I had built a relationship with and then I almost felt like I was taking advantage of them, which I wasn't. And you, you, you clearly pointed that out. And when you look at it from that perspective, when you look at it from the perspective of, I need to charge you fair value for this experience so that I can continue to give this experience to you and everybody else that comes in the future. Because folks, businesses like this, the overhead is is massive and you'll, you'll, vouch for this call. It didn't matter whether it was my third year or my ninth year.
Speaker 2:When the season was over, there was always a wee breather, you know, a little bit of time to do some maintenance and you're really not thinking about bookings. And at that time in my head I'm always like, okay, I got to do something for Christmas, send out Christmas cards or some sort of a marketing, da, da, da, da, da and with my family and everything else, that that never happened. Sometimes it did, but more often than not, nothing happened. And then, you know, january would roll around into the new year and I hadn't even thought about bookings. And now I'm thinking, wonder how many people are coming back. You know, like I wonder how many people are coming back. You know, like I mean, the overhead for this business at that time was pretty close to three quarters of a million dollars, which means I needed to make three quarters of a million dollars before I made any money. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I would constantly call you in a paranoid state, to the point where you would say we're okay. But I would say, cole, how's the bookings look? And you would constantly reassure me that you know what they're good. But to make you feel better, I'll look at last year's bookings and compare them to where we are now bookings and compare them to where we are now and you would always give me the last year's comparison to this year's comparison on January 15th or whatever day I called, stressed because I was always worried about am I going to be able to fill it again? And having you there to watch the bookings and this, and that was important too.
Speaker 2:But it was never a feeling that I ever. Maybe in the last year or two it was a false comfort because it just year after year when you're consistently turning about the same profit, which was a good margin we were running at pretty close to. If you're looking at occupancy, there's two ways you look at it. You can look at filling beds or filling cottages. Right, if you looked at cottages, we were pretty much 100% booked for most of the time.
Speaker 3:We were doing pretty well, yeah, pretty much 100% booked.
Speaker 2:For most of the time we were doing pretty well, yeah yeah, but we always looked at beds to try and maximize the beds. Well, that number will drop to. You know, you look like you're 80% full when really you have no more inventory because you're not going to turn away a group of three and a four-bedroom cottage, but it leaves one bed empty. So if you're looking at your beds in that one cottage in particular, it would only be 75% occupied.
Speaker 3:Well, actually it's funny you mention that because I remember when I first came here, because you had so few guests, I mean, you had a few guests who were used to coming and taking as many cabins as they wanted. If they're before them, I'd say, ok, we'll take that cabin and that cabin. Yeah, you know, and they're taking up eight bed spaces for four people. Yeah, and I still remember to this day the time one of them called to book and said you know well, we want to come on such and such a date and they'll remain nameless. And they said know, well, we want to come on such and such a date and they'll remain nameless.
Speaker 3:And they said, okay, well, we'll take X cabin and Y cabin. And I said, well, no, I'm sorry, you can have X or Y, but you can't have them both. Oh, why we normally take both. And you know I said, well, yes, but you know we need the bed space because you're only four people and I can't give up eight bed spaces for four people. And they were a little upset, but they settled for, you know.
Speaker 2:And again, that's one situation where I know, if it was me on the phone, I would have given up the bed spaces and lost potential revenue, because when I'm giving up these bed spaces, if somebody calls to book now, I don't have any inventory right. So that was key for me were all of those little changes that needed to be made, that and you needed to be stern with those people and not worry about whether they're going to book or not, because you knew there was another booking coming, sure, sure, right.
Speaker 3:Well, you hoped there was anyway.
Speaker 2:Well, you hoped, but you had to do it that way because if you would do what I was doing and in the beginning I could do it because the space was there and I would just upgrade people, yeah Right, you know, and and I probably shouldn't have back then, but I did and it brought people back and it was good, like I mean, they always talked very highly of of of the place, even though there were some shortcomings in some spots. I did my best to to to do that. So you know, in hindsight it all worked out. But you need to make those decisions because you can't grow if you don't.
Speaker 3:No, and you know what I mean. And because of that sort of you know rapport that we developed with guests. I mean, we had a lot of return guests at that time and we still do. Yeah, we have a very I don't know compared to other businesses exactly but we have a very high percentage of return visitors, some who come every single year, some who maybe miss a year, they come every other year or they come back every third or fourth year, but we have a very, very high percentage of return guests and I think that says something.
Speaker 2:Oh it does and it's key. Like I mean, if you think that you can rely on a new pool of guests every year and you can treat people without respect, you're sadly mistaken In this business. Like, I was uncomfortable if I felt that we were getting less than 70% returning yeah, and if you can have 70% of the people returning, you've only got to have 30% new people coming in yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You know, Well, I mean, that's why you can come here even now and recognize guests, absolutely Because the people that have been coming for years I still have them text me all the time.
Speaker 2:You know Bruce and Jackie, they're coming up here shortly and they texted me saying hey, sent me a video of a jam night and all of these people. And my island is right across the water. So I always tell people hey, if my boat's there, stop in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and speaking of jam nights, we had some jam nights, didn't we?
Speaker 2:Oh buddy, we had some great jam nights.
Speaker 3:It was quite a mix. I mean, you took the country and western side and I took some of the old 70s rock side, oh yeah. And then we had PJ here and he played quite a few songs.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he was quite an entertainer and bud would come over from the marina and guests. Were you here? Um, I'm sure you were here but I'm not sure if you were down downstairs. But one week we had a couple um and um. I always told you and whenever I answered the phone and we're taking bookings, I always made a point of mentioning hey, if you play an instrument, bring it, because you have jam nights. Well, this week in particular there was a couple from kentucky and they were the um, the Kentucky State champion, banjo, like bluegrass players, and man, they brought a mandolin and the banjo and I don't know if they had a fiddle, they may have brought a fiddle, I don't remember a fiddle, the mandolin and banjo for sure.
Speaker 2:And that was a magical night and a lot of times, you know, you just never knew who was going to show up and who could play. And I've told you all before folks, I think, and if not, this was a key way for me to bring people together and to get a little bit of intel. And still to this day, I put three guitar hangers right to the left immediately when you walked through the front door of the lodge and there's still a couple hanging. And there's still a couple hanging there and I made a point of either you know, greeting the guests, actually going to pick them up and bringing them back, and then the dock hands would be taking all their gear to their cottages, and then I would give people a tour. I would make it a point that when we come to the main lodge, I would walk through the door first and hold the door for everybody. And what they didn't know was I was watching every person that come in, because if there was a musician in the group, the first thing that they would do is they would see the guitars and they would look at them Because they were decent, good-looking guitars, right.
Speaker 2:And if somebody played, I knew right away, yeah, yeah. So I'd say, hey, you play guitar, don't you? And I get one of two answers yeah, I play a little. And then you knew the person was really good. Or they'd say, no, man, I don't, but he does, and he'd sell out his buddy, right, right. So then I knew who would show was, who were, were players and and I could, I could at dinner.
Speaker 2:Or you know, I say, well, we jam and it's really informal and impromptu and it's nothing serious, but we have a great time. Feel free to grab the guitars anytime. Practice up, we'll jam together and those jam nights were magical. They'd bring, and they would bring 90 of the people in the lodge together and and and nobody really needed to play, like if you had one guest and us and and a couple of the staff members. You know pat um, try on. He plays the, the guitar and you play the guitar and sing very beautifully, like I mean the one, the one song you sing. Don't you sing the Simon and Garfunkel song? Do you sing? Is it the Sound of Silence?
Speaker 3:No, that wasn't me. No, I think my signature Well, hallelujah you do that one for sure. I did that one. No, I think my signature tune was David Bowie's yes, ziggy Stardust, yes, yes and yeah.
Speaker 2:And the um, and lola. Oh yeah, lola is a great, yeah, yeah those were a couple of my.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that was always a bit of fun yeah, yeah, no, and um and play the guitar.
Speaker 2:great, you play far better than I do, that's for sure. I just bang on the guitar chord. You play far better than I do, that's for sure. I just bang on the guitar chord and do my best. But then, you know, I decided to sell the business and I don't really remember when I came to you and told you Do you remember at that point how it went down?
Speaker 3:No, I don't really, you know. I do sort of remember telling you, when you finally told me that you know you wanted to do that, saying well, no, I could understand, because my sister and her husband had run the hotel in Sark after I, you know, got in there and got it up and started and then they took over and they ran it for about 12 years and 10, 12 years is about as much as most people can take. Yeah, yeah, and you were at that point, you know, so yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know it was. I remember kind of feeling a little run down and it was a lot about family, you know, missing a lot of key moments.
Speaker 3:It's very time consuming. I mean people don't realize it takes up your whole life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, but you stayed, yeah Well you know, it's for me, it's good, I mean it's a good job, I mean I could be retired now. But what the hell would I do if I retired? Well, yeah, and I'm here for five months and it's a very busy five months, yeah, but then the other seven months, yeah, we forward this phone to my home and I have a separate line at home and I take bookings on the phone and on the computer at home all through the off-season. But you know that's a very slow pace and it gives me time to do other stuff. And you know, take a couple of weeks off and go sailing Absolutely which, by the way, I'm planning to do again this year and wondering if you're going to come again.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what? Shoot me the dates, buddy. That was a great experience for anybody that who? Who hasn't experienced the yachting lifestyle? Yeah, um, the year? Was it the same? It it was 2019, I think it was. It was right before covid was it 2019 or 18?
Speaker 2:yeah, one or one or two maybe it was the fall of 18. Yeah, I remember I had sold the lodge. I didn't own the lodge anymore and one of the most monumental travesties in Canadian history while we were gone happened and that was the CBC firing Don Jerry. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah, just, it's a Canadian travesty and everybody over at the CBC and Rogers or Sportsnet or whoever the hell was involved in that should be ashamed of themselves and taken out in the back and beat with a hickory stick because that is a bunch of bullshit. But the trip itself was just outstanding. We took a direct flight to St Vincent. Yeah, we got on a yacht and it was what? 40 feet, 50. 50-foot yacht, yeah, which was great, like, I mean, the room that you had down in the berth of this Come on cabins, cabins, the cabins.
Speaker 2:There was four.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wasn't there four cabins Four cabins, four heads.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the kitchen, the main area, and then you had your cockpit up in the top with a table and we lived on it for two weeks, two full weeks, yeah, yeah, two full weeks and traveled. We started St Vincent, then went to Beckway and we spent Taiwan and Mu Union Island, yeah, and Petty St. Vincent.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, and well and that's another part of your life that we didn't talk about was your time spent working at the resort, and I don't know whether you were actually working. No, I wasn't. You were building little cars. I built that car for them.
Speaker 3:but I mean, I used to go there quite often. It was one of our favorite spots and we knew all the stuff and just so people understand Petty St Vincent is what a couple hundred acre island. Not even that. No, it's probably less than a hundred acres yeah Out in the.
Speaker 2:is that part of the Grenadines?
Speaker 3:Yes, it's one of the furthest south islands of the St Vincent Grenadines. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you built these fiberglass bodied cars, yeah.
Speaker 3:Mini Mokes, mini Moke, yeah yeah, and they're still running there. Oh, they're still running, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we Mini Mokes, mini Moke, yeah, yeah, yeah, and they're still running there. Oh, they're still running, yeah, yeah, but we sailed all the way down there and spun it around and all the way back. And one of the islands that we spent a lot of time at was Beckway. Yeah, yeah, and honestly, my most favorite part of the trip and, folks, you've got to understand, I was new to this whole idea of sailing on the ocean and pulling in and harboring on these islands and taking the dinghy and going into these little towns and villages. And in Beckway, what was the name of the village that we were always going into?
Speaker 3:Or was it just called Beckway? Well, it's Port Elizabeth, but it's the main harbor. In Beckway it's the main anchorage, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, you need to picture if Wayne Gretzky was walking the streets of edmonton, okay, and all of the, the, the local folks um are going up and uh, shaking his hand and telling stories. That is cole, and beckway cole is like a, a celebrity um, and it's because you got you, you built um a sailboat and down and and and the. The real um truth of the matter is in beckway um, regatta is like the nhl for them yeah, right like there's not really any deal
Speaker 3:for them.
Speaker 2:That's the biggest national pride kind of sport deal that they've got going is are these regattas and and and boat races?
Speaker 3:right, yeah, a lot of the islands hold them and they're one of the islands that holds the regattas every year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and there's, there's national pride, because you're, you're, you're sailing against other islands and they're separate countries right, oh yeah, yeah, I mean, you know well, a lot of the boats come in from all over. That's right.
Speaker 3:You know American boats and Canadian boats and British boats and you know and local island boats, yeah, and you were tell me about the design and creation, in particular the use of plywood. When you built the sailing vessel called Punk Well, yeah, I mean it's a style of manufacturing it's known as the West System it was essentially marine plywood and epoxy and thin skins of fiberglass. Yeah, so I built that.
Speaker 2:And what did the locals? Now you've got to understand. The locals were climbing up the mountains and cutting their own wood and building sailboats traditionally right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they built their boats a more traditional style that's been around for years. You know their boats were planked and corked and you know frames. They cut their frames from local trees and they built small runabouts with, you know, 40, 50 horsepower outboards and also sailboats that were anything from 12 to 18 feet using that type of construction, which they've been doing for 100 years or more Of building process.
Speaker 2:They've used for obviously a hundred years and you bring this new idea to them with the plywood and epoxy and fiberglass and all of this stuff. And then, to be quite honest, I remember the day when you guys take that punk of Beckway and there's a photo of I don't know how many people, like 40 or 50 or maybe more of all of the people that live in this town, carrying punk on their shoulders across the street and into the ocean.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I mean, it was a 30-foot boat with a lead keel, you know, and it weighed about 3,000 pounds and we literally had to carry it by hand and up high because it had a keel with a five-foot draft, so we had to carry it up high on crossbeams, across the street and into the water. But you know, there's a boat building spirit there, I mean it's a boat building island and they knew I was building a boat.
Speaker 3:And you know, if they were building a boat, everybody went and helped each other when necessary, and they're master boat builders themselves. They just weren't used to this form of construction that I was using.
Speaker 2:Well, and then what happened next was you started entering in a lot of these regattas representing Beckway, because you were punk of Beckway, yeah, and kicking ass Like you knocked the shit out of a lot of those people for a long time. So how many regattas do you remember?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, in the end, because we did leave, you know, a couple of years later, we, only two years running, we did the regattas there and certainly the regattas in Beckway, which you know, boats come in from all over, they come in from other islands, you know, boats traveling through, american boats, canadian boats, et cetera, and it's it's a, it's a general regatta that anybody can enter.
Speaker 2:So that's right. But not everybody can win. You know, and and the, the listen. You know and the listen. I don't know how many of those races you won in punk. I'm assuming quite a few.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we won a few, yeah, in 2018, and this goes back to my original point and the absolute most favorite and memory that will stick with me forever. Number one was everybody on the island basically knew you or knew of you, and I remember one night we were at one of the bars it was more of like a more dancey bar, you know the one that was kind of not the one where we were up singing Johnny Cash with the guys the one night and not the Mangipani.
Speaker 3:Yeah, frangipani yeah.
Speaker 2:Frangipani, it was the one in the middle.
Speaker 3:Right right.
Speaker 2:And there was a younger guy there, maybe 18 or 19, and we walked in.
Speaker 3:Well, he's a bit older than that, I think, but Maybe he was call him Probably.
Speaker 2:Oh no, he had to be, he had to be older because he come up and knew you from looking at you and said, cole, you're Cole, you're Cole punk. I remember punk and this guy remembered when you were building, punk was a kid like eight or ten years old. Yeah, he used to come and watch and talked about how proud he was of that boat and all of the races that it won and was so excited to tell me, your friend, how much that meant to him. So you know you kind of I talk about this national pride thing. Well, like I mean national pride in Canada, the United States is a little bit different for one simple fact, and that's population. Like I mean, the population of Beckway is what? Maybe 20,000, 25,000? Probably half that, actually 12,000?
Speaker 2:But at the end of the day it doesn't matter, because national pride is national pride and you have a place in history there, you do, and it's very cool and it was a memory that I'll take to my grave and you should be proud of that for sure.
Speaker 2:Like I mean, you've done a lot of very cool things in your life and had a lot of very cool experiences and I'm just lucky to have met you in the beginning and spent the time getting to know you and getting to know how to and love you and understand how you are and be confident that we could live together. Because, basically, when I asked you and this goes back to the point even farther before the last one that I was making, when you were the natural replacement when Aunt Beth passed, it made it very easy for me to lobby hard to try and get you to come and leave your mass building business and come and with me and, um, I'm forever grateful, um, because, um, it worked out wonderfully, we, we, for for a decade, um, you, there was nobody other than maybe my wife that I was closer with or spent more time with.
Speaker 3:We lived together for six months yeah, you know like I mean we, we saw everything from you know.
Speaker 2:You know like I mean, we saw everything from you know. Musky hooks in the side of ladies' arms. And to you remember the night I come up and woke you up in the middle of the night saying a guy's having a heart attack out in the flicker's nest. Oh, is it the Flickers?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're on 911 holding a walkie and I'm on a walkie in front of the guy because there's no cell service. And you know, there's just so many experiences that we went through and I wish we had time to talk about them all today, but the good news is we'll have time to do it again on another show. Yeah, we'll have time to do it again on another show. Yeah, and I just want to thank you for the decision you made to come up and help me, because you know, you say well, you know you had everything in place and yeah, I guess it was, but and I was ready for a change too- from what I was doing, so it was not just.
Speaker 2:It was a match made that that really worked out and and, um, uh, you were, were as much, uh, a pivotal and an intricate cog in in the dream that I had. You were just as as as integral as everybody else, as Aunt Beth, as my family, as Diane, you know, um, and I can honestly say without those people I would have never made it, and you're included in that without I mean Diane, we, we all miss Diane.
Speaker 3:So I mean, you know, she was magic.
Speaker 2:I called her my and I don't even know if this is proper to say in these days, but I called her my little Hitler because she was a ball breaker. Yeah, and it was. Sometimes, you know, she was very, very tough and sometimes she was soft as a fuzzy little bunny rabbit. She had a great sense of humor, A wonderful sense of humor, and all of the people and people that worked with us, if they made it through the first month with Diane, they always, at the end of the year, if not totally loved her, respected her and and appreciated what she did for them and teaching them how to work. And, um, yeah, she was great, but, um, you were right there, you were, you were right there with all of those people. So I just want to thank you and thank you for your time here today.
Speaker 2:On location at Chaudière. I've been thinking about this moment for a long time and you know I've got my girls over at the island and it's raining this morning and I don't think they're going to want to go fishing in that. So I thought you know what, let's get this done. I called you last night when I saw the forecast and you were all good with it. So on that note, folks, it's time. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:Business goes on.
Speaker 2:The business goes on.
Speaker 2:I'm going to have to take this call and, on that note, folks, we're going to leave Coleridge on the phone and doing business at Chaudière and listen. If you love this content, let me know. You can get me at stevein at fishincanadacom by email and go to fishincanadacom. Check out all the free giveaways. It's great. It costs you nothing. There's always amazing stuff and folks. Thank you for making it this far. I really appreciate you. I really appreciate your time. And thus brings us to the end of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Speaker 1:All you ever saw been railing in the hog since the day I was born, bending my rock, stretching my line. Someday I might own a lodge, and that'd be fine. I'll be making my way the only way I know how, working hard and sharing the North With all of my pals. Well, I'm a good old boy. I bought a lodge and lived my dream, and now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems yeah, as good as it seems yeah.
Speaker 7:What brings people together more than fishing and hunting?
Speaker 1:How about food?
Speaker 7:I'm Chef Antonio Muleka and I've spent years catering to the stars. Now, on Outdoor Journal Radio's Eat Wild podcast, luis Hookset and I are bringing our expertise and Rolodex to our real passion the outdoors.
Speaker 6:Each week we're bringing you inside the boat tree stand or duck blind and giving you real advice that you can use to make the most out of your fish and game.
Speaker 7:You're going to flip that duck breast over. Once you get a nice hard sear on that breast, you don't want to sear the actual meat. And it's not just us chatting here. If you can name a celebrity, we've probably worked with them. And it's not just us chatting here. If you can name a celebrity, we've probably worked with them. And I think you might be surprised who likes to hunt and fish. When Kit Harington asks me to prepare him sushi with his bass, I couldn't say no. Whatever Taylor Sheridan wanted, I made sure I had it. Burgers, steak anything off the barbecue. That's a true cowboy. All Jeremy Renner wanted to have was lemon ginger shots all day. Find Eating Wild now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4:As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Ouellette and I was honoured to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal use by Indigenous peoples all over the globe.
Speaker 4:After nearly a decade of harvest use, testimonials and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of the strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people. That will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. Find Under the Canopy now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.