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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The world that we live in is so artificial in every way imaginable. I mean, your relationships with other people are artificial. A lot of the content that you see, and even more so now with AI, right? And I think that our brains as humans aren't really designed to function like that, right?
I think that we're designed to have real connections with real people, not online and certainly not AI connections. It's really deep, intrinsic, embedded need that people have to connect with nature. One thing that really, really would help an entrepreneur, if you're trying to build any sort of business,
My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life.
Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Legacy Makers Edition, also 10X Red Life Edition. For Inside Success, I am Ray Gutierrez. Now that we've got all of our brands and IPs out of the way, let's see. Let me look at my notes here. Who do we have next here? Spencer Christensen, my friend.
Chapter 2: How did Spencer Christensen rebuild after bankruptcy?
How are you, buddy? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on. You come with a vision. I've heard of a lodge. Tell me about this kingdom that you are building and we'll call it a lodge.
Yeah, so it's a lodge in western Colorado. It's on a mountain called Grand Mesa. The lodge itself is called Grand Mesa Lodge. It's 15, 16 cabins and a main lodge. And I think that we're the highest lodge in the continental United States that operates year-round. Very cool. So we're about two miles above sea level.
Right on.
10,500 feet.
Chapter 3: What challenges does a mountain lodge face in harsh environments?
I'm eager to know more about this lodge, because I come from the video game world, and boy, have I solved a lot of murder mysteries in lodges, and so has my partner, Lauren. Tell me about the mystique about this lodge, especially out in the Colorado. What have you built, sir?
The mountains are really interesting, and the lodge is very unique. The lodge was actually started not by me. It's existed since the 19th century. It was started in 1897, I think. And in the early days, it was just a fishing lodge where people would ride their horses up and stay for a couple months in the summertime. It has... Obviously trade a hand several times.
And when I came upon it, it was the main lodge was in was really nice and was new. But the the buildings were very old and run down. And it's like this is a really cool place. It would be awesome to have somebody that could run it and could build it. and could like bring it forth in like all of its glory.
Chapter 4: Who is the target clientele for the Grand Mesa Lodge?
The mountains really, it's kind of tough to run a lodge in those situations. The reason I mentioned earlier that it was the highest lodge in the continental United States that's open year round is the difficulty of running a lodge in an area that gets so much snow. Yeah.
Oh, for sure, dude.
So we get, on average, about 400 inches of snowfall per year. There's like 30 to 40 feet of accumulation. And obviously very cold. And so there's just a lot of operational challenges when you have that much snow that, I mean, six months out of the year, it's just snow, snow, snow, snow, snow. And we run year round.
So when folks visit the lodge, they're getting 20% of the experience while 80% it's really maintenance, operations, things that are happening behind the scenes? That's,
Yeah, that's probably a very good way to express it. I mean, just to show up, just the amount of snow removal and the amount of other maintenance that needs to go into the operations, whether it's keeping the cabins unfrozen, whether it's keeping power to them, and all the other things that go along with running in a very, basically a very inhospitable place. Wow.
I mean, that much snow, very cold.
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Chapter 5: What unique experiences does the lodge offer to guests?
You've got other issues too. I mean, that high, we get a lot of thunderstorms. A couple of years ago, we were in the main lodge and it sounded like artillery fire outside. Lightning struck the lodge and also struck a tree right next to it. And the tree was huge. I mean, at the base is probably four feet.
I can see you're a tree hugger. I recognize a good tree hugger.
Well, the lightning bolt definitely wasn't. It totally destroyed the tree.
That was technically you from a different dimension coming down saying, it's your time.
It's your time to go. I mean, there's tons of trees up there. So it's just the one. It's still a beautiful place.
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Chapter 6: How does Spencer incorporate systems and SOPs into his business?
But yeah, there's just a ton of challenges running a lodge in a pretty remote place that high up in the mountains.
I gotta ask, who the hell goes to a remote place where it sounds very challenging to relax? Like, who is your clientele? What happens in this lodge?
So we have two different kinds of clientele. The first type of person that we have is the scenic byway traveler. And this is summertime, mostly. Oh, right on. So we're a little off of I-70, which obviously is a major corridor. And then we're on a scenic byway. It's called Highway 65. And we're about 30 to 45 minutes off of I-70. But the scenic byway, Highway 65, is marked on maps, well-known.
It's labeled and marketed and known as this beautiful scenic bypass, right? Yeah.
Chapter 7: What lessons can entrepreneurs learn from Spencer's journey?
So we get a lot of people in the summertime that are just passing through. And we're right off that main road. It's not a highway. It's not a freeway, but it's a highway. And so we get a lot of people that are just walking. This is in the summertime. They just walk into our store, our restaurant. We have a bar, a grill, a little convenience store. They walk in and they're just passing through.
So that's one kind of person that is there. Those people usually are just there for a day or so and then they move on. I guess there's two other kinds. There's people in the summer that are there because they're fishing or they're camping or they spend a little bit of time totally disconnected from the world. Typically up on the Mesa, you don't have a connection.
And you do at our lodge, but if you go anywhere outside of that, we have Starlink and so we have internet there, but people go and camp and stay in the cabins and it's just a way to go camp and get away.
Chapter 8: How can listeners connect with Spencer and learn more about the lodge?
So you've got that.
Right on.
And then you have the winter clientele, which is totally different than your summer clientele. In the wintertime, we don't really get just scenic bike traffic or people just passing through. It's almost all destination. And it's mostly snowmobilers. Really? Coming to ride. The Mesa's...
mesa is a really interesting place the mountain upon which the lodge sits the the locals call it the highest flat top mountain in the world it's uh like it says about 10 11 000 feet and it's relatively flat on top and so it offers endless amount of rideable snowmobile terrain whereas a lot of other mountains you know if you've got a mountain like this
there's a lot of terrain that's inaccessible to backcountry, whether it's snowmobiling or backcountry skiing. And so the terrain of the Mesa kind of offers this really unique place to ride snowmobiles.
And so we get a lot of people that come in from all over the United States, especially the Midwest, obviously people in Colorado, and they're there to tear up our snow, you know, shred the mountain.
I like these folks that are the explorers that are just the wanderers. How many of them are entrepreneurs trying to look for a purpose? Like how many eccentric folks do you see?
I think a lot of people that go to the mountain, whether they're entrepreneurs or whether they're just looking for clarity in life. I think a lot of people retreat to the solitude of the mountain because they're looking for clarity in their life. And a lot of times it's business related. I think a lot of people, they are, you know, maybe their company that they're building.
I think the snowmobilers in the wintertime, I think that group of people, probably most of them are business owners. Right on. Snowmobiling is a very expensive sport. I didn't think snow was expensive. Yeah, the snowmobiles especially. I mean, snowmobiles are far more expensive than dirt bikes or four-wheelers.
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