54 - The Ton of Bricks Moment: Leaving Corporate for a 200-Year-Old Inn with Bruce & Emily

These guests who are arriving for the artist retreats, we are the destination.

That's the whole purpose of them coming here.

And sometimes they get out a little bit and go at least stay an extra day and they go do some of the tourism that's nearby.

But it creates a whole reason for someone to come to this area and stay with us.

And this immersive experience, we hear so many positive thoughts from our guests in the artist retreats of everything was so well thought of.

Everything was taken care of.

It was so comfortable.

I didn't have to think about a thing.

And I could focus four days on...

My art and practicing and getting feedback from this artist I admire who has this very professional art presence online and in their own professional space.

getting the opportunity for absolutely anyone who wants to learn from this artist can come here and have four days with other people who are like-minded, who are all experiencing kind of similar things in their either hobbies or professional life with art and developing in the way that they create and are creative in their space.

Yeah, I think that's a really good point.

And Adam and I, we've talked about it several times.

It's something that we are very interested in.

And it's an artisan residency program.

So if you imagine during the slow season or the off season for us, that's about November, December, all the way up until March.

What if we hosted artists in the same way that you guys do? Page, Arizona, known for vast, expansive landscapes, a really good place to go and escape, whether you're a photographer, a sculptor, a drawer, whatever it is.

your art form be able to share that not only with us but with other people in the area and just get away make page the destination like you said and not only is that just a really good marketing point but it just drives so much more traffic and so much more attention that didn't exist otherwise So just thinking about ways to be different, ways to be creative, that artistry program is something that exists in many places across the nation and something we definitely want to take advantage of.

But I want to circle back around to marketing because we're both independent hotels and the world of marketing and advertising and brand awareness is something that Maybe a flagged or a franchise hotel never has to worry about because their corporation and their franchise spends millions of dollars per year to get them that brand awareness and that presence.

Whereas for us, everything that people know about the Wesley Hotel or about your hotel, I'm sorry, blanking on the name, the Landgrove.

Landgrove.

if anything that they know is because of what we have done personally, right? Whether that's marketing, OTA sponsored ads, whether that's branding, influencers, artists, it's things that we have to initiate on our own.

And it's something that's ongoing, which is probably the most important part because a lot of people think, oh, you put some money in marketing and it's like a one-stop shop and you're done.

But oh my God, is that not closer to the truth? This is something that it evolves and it changes.

And the way you market during busy season is significantly different than the way you may market during slow season.