Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi, I'm Alexa and I'm Rory, and together we are the Romies. We are married To each other. Right? We are a touring musical duo.

Speaker 2: 0:11

And our music has taken us to all kinds of places all around the world and keeps us always on the go.

Speaker 1: 0:16

So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while running around working to keep all your plates spinning.

Speaker 2: 0:22

And we hope to facilitate your busy lifestyle and feed your inner travel bug. Welcome to our latest episode. We're excited to continue part two with our conversation with Brian Montgomery of Serenian Bay Resorts and Villas. I would love to continue that thought process with your staff and let's kind of take a little virtual tour, like that you gave us in real life, of the way that the staff are taken care of. Beyond just the leadership training that you offer them, you also take care of them, like physically.

Speaker 3: 1:01

In Belize, since we are in the southern part of Belize has become a pretty expensive area as it's grown more touristy. You know it happens in the world when areas get touristy, cost of living becomes more expensive. So the majority of employees can't really afford to live in the southern part of Belize and most of them live an hour, hour and a half, two hours away and even though there's good transportation systems in blaze with the bus systems and stuff, it's still a long way to travel every day yeah so we provide housing for a majority of employees.

Speaker 3: 1:34

we have, between here and captain jack's, about 150 employees and we house about 75 of those employees. Brent and I believe that we're not going to have somebody stay in something that we would not stay in. We've invested, actually a significant amount of money in buying three and a half acres of property here. That's just a mile down the road, where we have a five-bedroom house, we have multiple one-bedrooms and two-bedroom houses that are all air-conditioned. By the way, all staff housing typically does not carry air-conditions. Ours do because, again, we want our staff to be comfortable and feel at home.

Speaker 3: 2:16

I get staff meals here on property. We have a staff kitchen. We have two dedicated staff cooks that cook for our staff every day and our staff gets to eat for free. Uh, we have some staff that live on site. So we have, uh, I think, seven houses we have here on site where they, uh, our staff that has to be here to respond, like for maintenance, for emergency housekeeping, for emergencies, our executive chef. Those positions stay on site so they can respond faster to guests. But, yeah, the housing and the meals, it's a high expense but it's like in training, it's an investment. You know that little investment in your staff, for you feeding them, for your housing them, really goes a long, long way on how you care about your people, right?

Speaker 1: 3:00

Because it's not only about telling them how you feel, it's about showing them how you feel, yeah, so yeah, so Yep, and their service pours out of that because they feel loved, they feel cared for, they feel safe, they're enjoying life, they're comfortable, all of those things that when you pour it into them it's going to come back out. And as us visiting the resort man, we saw that for everyone. I kept waiting for someone to drop the act Because you're like, do I need to walk on eggshells Because everyone seems so happy? But it's a real thing. No, there was no act going on. It was just such a wonderful experience getting to know your people.

Speaker 1: 3:44

I felt like, um, the first day I arrived and I was like, oh man, he and I really bonded. Oh, that's cool, we've got a great bond. And then the next guy and I was like he and I really bonded, that's really great. And then I go over and on salmo, uh, I was like, wait a minute, he and I just bonded too. What's what's going on? I feel like I'm bonding with every person on staff. What the heck? That's the feeling. It's really a counter.

Speaker 3: 4:07

They know your name right off the bat. Once you first meet them, they're going to know your name. They remember your name.

Speaker 2: 4:13

And that's something.

Speaker 3: 4:14

Yeah, honestly, I did not teach them that. I did not teach them how to know. Because I'm horrible with names, with all the radiation and chemo I went through. My short-term memory is not the best in the world, but it's a bleached culture of servanthood mentality. Uh, at least culture loves to serve people. You know, they love to show people around, they love to help people, they're there for anything you need. So that comes across in their own mentality. Right, I, I didn't teach them that, right? Um?

Speaker 3: 4:45

But but even beyond the people, what brennan and I decided to do as well was, uh, we wanted to make sure we wasn't dependent on outside support. We want to make sure that we want to be able to control our guest experience so that when the guest comes to blaze, they're going to be happy and going to have an incredible BLEEZE experience. And by doing that which is why Captain Jack's was so important by offering the tours. Captain Jack, we know you're going on a good boat. We know you're going to boat that has a new engine. We know you're going on a staff that's been trained, you know, we know that we're not going to, you're not going to break down in the van, you know. So that's why we Captain Jack's was so important. But even deeper than that, if you had an opportunity I don't know if you got to see our wood shop I know a tour guide on the wood shop.

Speaker 2: 5:30

Yes.

Speaker 3: 5:31

We've invested in our own wood shop where we have all grizzly equipment, all high-end wood shop equipment, and we have seven carpenters there, you know, for a resort that only holds 75 people we have seven carpenters Right there.

Speaker 3: 5:48

You know, for a resort that only holds 75 people, we have seven carpets, right? Uh, but what we do, every piece of wood you see at the resort was built by those carpenters, right. When we need something for a wedding, we want your wedding to be special. We don't want your wedding to be cook junk. If you want an arch that spans, you know, 10, we'll build you an arch that spans 10 foot. If you want a special champagne wall, we'll build you a champagne wall, right. So we've even built ring boxes small, little small ring boxes that they're going to design on right so we can build anything you can imagine our team can build.

Speaker 3: 6:22

So it does save us money, because in Belize, wood doesn't last long because of being right on the Caribbean Sea, it does fade really fast. So it's something you will spend money on, but I know if I can control that internally, not only do I get more people that I can touch and I can work with and I can train and I can help, but I get, in turn, saving money on using outside sources and I get more customization, which raises our customer experience as well.

Speaker 2: 6:52

Right, well, that even feeds in. Yeah, sorry well, even each door, on each villa yeah was hand carved by your team and you know so we had weren't we in pelican? Yeah, we had a pel, you know. So we had, weren't we in Pelican?

Speaker 1: 7:05

The Pelican yeah, we had the Pelican Pelican, yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:07

You know, there's a carved Pelican on the door and that was the name of our villa that we stayed in, which you guys will hear about in next week's episode. But we just those hand-carved things were gorgeous.

Speaker 3: 7:20

So, yeah, everything here has a story. You were talking about the carvings on the doors. Every room was named by an animal of the Belize, and it's the reason why you were in Pelican. Pelicans are high, looks down. Well, that's what you see out over the beach and a pool.

Speaker 3: 7:46

They all have stories, right? Wow? So everything here has a story behind it. So I'll go back to the wood shop, even deeper than the wood shop, and I can do a maintenance staff, for example. We're not dependent on outside work for our maintenance team. We do all our own internal maintenance, all our ACs, all our internal plumbing, all our electrical, with the intent that we actually can build our own rooms and we are expanding the resort. I don't know if you guys had a chance to walk to the marina when you went on the catamarine.

Speaker 2: 8:18

Yes, we did.

Speaker 3: 8:20

That area back there. We're going to be building a new spa back there. It'll be a six-room spa. That that area back there we're going to be building a new spa back there.

Speaker 1: 8:26

It'll be a six-room spa.

Speaker 3: 8:26

That'll be awesome. We're building 15 more two-story rooms which will give us 30 more accommodations, which will all be Lagoon View. Lagoon View Sunset rooms which, even though they're not on the Caribbean, the view back there is amazing.

Speaker 1: 8:42

Bro, I got a time lapse of the sunset from the second floor of the office building there. Oh, the office building. Yeah, looking back over where you're talking about. I don't know if I sent it to Toby. I'll have to send it to her. It's absolutely amazing.

Speaker 3: 8:56

Well, that's from the Sunstar Martini Bar, right. Yeah, that's it Another one of those something nobody else had in Blaze that we wanted to do. We had this concrete building, as you remember, was an old broadcast center when we first bought it. It used to be a broadcast center. Oh, wow, Come on. Yeah, and the conference room which I think I brought you to the conference room yes gorgeous. That's where I did my music training.

Speaker 2: 9:22

Yes.

Speaker 3: 9:22

The top floor was the martini bar, which you get to see the whole view back.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3: 9:28

The bottom floor was the gym right.

Speaker 3: 9:30

Yeah so we had the gym to go with it A very nice gym, by the way. Yes, man, an interesting story too that I'm not sure if I shared, which is kind of cool. That was a broadcast center, as I mentioned, called Mission Bay. There was a huge satellite dish that broadcast the Christian broadcast center back there. We took that satellite dish and, if you remember walking the beach, there was two signs on each side that says Welcome to Seringham Bay. Yep, they were oval shaped. That's actually the old satellite dish that we cut in half, sanded it up, rebranded it and placed it on each side of the property, welcoming you to Serenian Bay, come on. So we repurposed that satellite dish from way back, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 10:13

That's so neat, that's awesome man. The little details, yes, the little details.

Speaker 3: 10:16

Yep.

Speaker 2: 10:17

The little details yes, the little details, yep. And the stories behind things. So you talked about the story behind each little villa name. Tell us the story behind the name of the resort itself.

Speaker 3: 10:28

Awesome. I'm glad you asked that Because a lot of people think it's Serenian named by Serenity, not commons and stuff it's not actually.

Speaker 3: 10:37

So when we purchased the property, the property was called Manatee Bay Estates. That was what the property was called, and the lots that was here was all individual lots, right? So when we started buying the lots and we decided to do the resort, we had to come up with a name. The natural name would have been Manatee Bay Resort and Villas. That's not a very Sazam name. As Brenda said, brenda goes, we want a Sazam name, right, one of their nice. Well, I wanted a name that you're proud to say. I wanted a name that employees would be proud to say I work far, and Manatee Bay was not yet. So I researched, I'm going to research it. I researched, I come across a story with Christopher Columbus. When he was sailing the seven seas, in his captain's log he documented seeing a siren. Well, we know a siren is a mermaid, right?

Speaker 3: 11:31

We also know it's a mythical creature. They're not real, right? It was proven that that siren that he saw was actually a Durlong sea cow, manatee. Therefore, manatee got a Sirenian is a scientific name for manatee. Wow, so you look it up, true story. So a Sirenian is a manatee. So, go well, sirenian Bay is the same as Manatee Bay and Sirenian sounds way more sexier than Manatee, right? Yeah, totally so. That's how Serenian Bay got its name, as a derivative of Manatee Bay, which is what it's been called for years and years for that. So, yeah, it's a cool story. And you've got to ask, of course, about Snooty's, of course, snooty's Bar, you've got to Snooty's.

Speaker 2: 12:18

Of course Snooty's bar.

Speaker 3: 12:18

You gotta tell us that story, he has a buddy bar at the main pool. Snooty was the oldest living man that he ever known. In captivity in Florida he was a world famous. People travel every year to come visit Snooty for his birthday. He died. I believe it was three years ago. This past June he died at 69 years old, very unfortunate death. They actually let the manhole open and he went into the manhole and he couldn't turn around and he drowned. What? And you know, manatees have to have air every once in a while. It's a very sad story. But you know what we did. We memorialized Snooty at Snooty's Bar at our pool.

Speaker 1: 12:56

So that's how.

Speaker 3: 12:56

Snooty's Florida got its name in the memory of Snooty the Manatee in Florida. We came up with the garden and we had met. Actually, it started because we met a gardener, mr Jose. If you had a chance to meet Mr Jose while you're here, mr Jose is an amazing man. He was one of the best known gardeners in the whole country of Belize, right, and we had introduced to him and he was looking for a change. We didn't have a garden and we had introduced to him and he was looking for a change. We didn't have a garden and we didn't know who wanted to garden. But when we met Mr Jose, the love, the passion he carried for gardening touched our hearts and we said you know what, mr Jose? Come to work with us, we're going to make you a garden and that's how the garden started. So we actually made him a garden. We built him a garden. You guys saw it. Hopefully, any of the guests comes. We have tour paths that go through the garden.

Speaker 3: 13:48

Mr Jose, I built him a home inside of his garden. So Mr Jose lives within his garden. Even Mr Jose will not take a day off. Even when he's off, he stays in garden. So nothing happens to his garden. And now we've since added another gardener to help him because unfortunately Mr Lois is getting a lot older and he wants somebody to take care of his garden. Because he tells me, mr Brian, when I go to heaven I want to look down, I want somebody to be taking care of my garden. So we've hired him an assistant now that he can start training and be comfortable that when he does go to heaven hopefully no time soon, we hope. We love Mr Jose, but he has somebody he'll trust to leave his garden with.

Speaker 3: 14:30

The negative of the garden is he can't produce enough to keep up with the restaurant. It does all the mints and a lot of the cilantro. It does a lot of supplies but nowhere near enough that we need to produce farther the garden, I mean for the restaurant. We would need 10 acres, you know, to be able to keep up with the restaurant. But it does produce to help a lot. But it's also a big touristy thing that we love our guests to go back there and look at the organic garden and meet miss jose. You know it serves an incredible purpose Because we do a lot of weddings, we do a lot of corporate events, we do a lot of takeovers, we do a lot of companies.

Speaker 3: 15:08

So we have a lot of people that buy out the whole resort. But the sweet spot we discovered was about 100 guests. 100 to 110 guests is what we discovered was the sweet spot. We couldn't do that at Serenity Bay. You know we capped at. About 75 people is really our cap. Saba came along to help us with that. It allowed us to have more rooms that we could supplement what we do here. It also allowed us to have Saba is not the five-star resort. We still have the same service, which is five-star service, but the accommodations are more of the three-and-a-half-star level, which is great. It's still a fantastic resort, but the price point allows us to attract every guest At their price point. They want a little lower. If our price point is a little lower, we can attract guests traveling with any budget. So that's why Saba was important to us. The enclave came along a couple months ago. The enclave was looking at selling and they came to me wondering if I wanted to buy part of the enclave and I first no, I don't want to buy anymore.

Speaker 3: 16:14

I'm, you know, I'm done buying. My wife would kill me and divorce me if I did more, right? Uh, so I said, said no. They said well, you know what, though? We're wanting to change our concept, because right now, their current management company is more of like a VRBO rental, more Airbnb type rental. We want to make it a resort feel and you guys can do that. So we started discussing it and they have seven rooms. It's on a private island, just off the coast of the end of the peninsula beautiful, beautiful rooms, beautiful little pool, kitchen area and all that.

Speaker 3: 16:48

So, yeah, as of august 1st, we take over the enclave and what we're looking at doing is taking it to another level. I'm making it a resort feel, looking at taking it all inclusive and being part of the overall feel so that you guys could come back. You know what I want to spend two nights on an island. You go spend two nights on an island and come every four nights to Serenity Bay or Saba. So give you a rightful, encompassing feel of your trip and the personal attention you get. You know, know, we're looking at up in the service level there a bit, offering that more direct resort field service level and being able to tie it into. You can come eat at serenity bay, or do we just say, but you know it doesn't, you don't have to be on the island all the time, right? So so I'm really excited about it. Actually, I'm really excited about taking over the team.

Speaker 3: 17:38

We've done something here that I've had, mr Brown, why do you do that? We brought every member of Cerulean Bank out to the island if they want, and what we're trying to do is get that buy-in and ownership that they feel like they own part of this Right. So most companies would probably say, hey, we have an island, you're going to work on that. We're going to start August 1st. That's not how we swing and bend work. We're allowing all of our housekeepers to go out and look at it A lot of maintenance guys so we take them out, tour them around.

Speaker 3: 18:09

The excitement is built now within the company. Not only are people wanting to I want to go work out there, I want to go work out there but it generates excitement for the whole company that we're growing and the buy-in. It's been really exciting to watch the staff really adapt to growth of the company Instead of having people go. Why in the world are we doing that? Why are we growing? Why don't we just be out here? They're now going hold on. What's next now? What are you going to do next?

Speaker 3: 18:35

So Catamaran, as you guys, went out on is that same part of that offering a catamaran experience to guests. Eventually, we'd like to say, hey, if you want to come out and spend the night on a catamaran, one of your nice gear, we spend out because it's a four-bedroom catamaran, yeah right, spend right on the ocean and then come back and stay a few nights on island or go up and stay a few nights at serenity bay. That's the whole concept that we're trying to accomplish with our portfolio of companies. Yeah, very cool. Get away with us talking about my same-by kids.

Speaker 2: 19:04

Come on, Tell us yes absolutely Please.

Speaker 3: 19:08

This may not be the right time, but I can't get by without talking about them. No, I love it. I love it. That is so cool. They are our future, right, mm-hmm? And when you look at what we're trying to do or the amount of staff housing we have to do and all this, you know it's kind of selfish. I'm gonna admit there's some selfishness to it. If I can get 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 year old kids mindset trained now about what leadership means and how to be better spoken and all that you know, when they get to high school and they graduate, I'm going to have employees that want to come work with me and I'm going to train. And guess what? I'm going to save on staff housing because they live locally already.

Speaker 1: 19:47

Yeah, that's the selfish guy. There's always something selfish.

Speaker 3: 19:50

That's my selfish guy, Matt, but in reality it's my love. I've had 30 kids the first class. We're hoping to start another class here soon, Wow, To get these kids. So I have a contact named Kerwin who is the most amazing mentor you'll ever meet. You know Kerwin came from a background of gangs, violence, drugs, alcohol. He came from the worst of the worst background. You could come from right, but Kerwin changed. You know, Kerwin found he found God for him as religion. He found out the way it turned him around and his love became changing people to not take the road he was on and he became a mentor of Sainbite and me and him have become very, very close.

Speaker 3: 20:40

I support his efforts and what he does. He supports the resort here. I can call hey, Corwin, I need a security guard. Okay, I got a good guy for you. He's not going to send me someone he knows is bad. He's going to send me the best of the best, right? So that's the selfish side of the best too, right? Corwin knows all these kids. He's known these kids since he's grown up.

Speaker 3: 21:04

So we pick the kids who we think, who we feel are going to be valuable to learn this, who are going to listen to us, number one, right, Not just come up and cause problems, which has not been an issue, but we hand select the kids. The kids come in and the way we do it every week and these last kids went for almost four months. So every saturday or sunday these kids would come in at eight o'clock. They'd stay here till 12. We feed them pizza, we feed them, feed them and then send them take them home. We started out teaching basic leadership, because this is what leadership means. Then we got advanced. Every week we advanced and advanced, and advanced, and I told them you as well have to do a presentation. We scared these kids to death. Doing a presentation right, I'll bet. But these kids came in and every week I would have a different department come talk to them. I would have woodshop come one week. Security would come one week. Food and beverage would come one week.

Speaker 2: 21:59

Housekeeping would come one week food and beverage would come one week. Housekeeping would come one week. So then again you're in again. That's brilliant for you.

Speaker 3: 22:05

They're volunteering. Can I come talk? Can I come talk? So they talk about that whether that drives the interest of a 10, 11, 12, 13 year old. Oh my gosh, mechanic I saw the club car mechanic. I think I want to be a mechanic when I grow up. Yeah, I don't think I want to. I think I want to be a mechanic when I grow up. I don't think I want to be a chef when I grow up. I want to work and get services when I grow up.

Speaker 3: 22:28

So they started learning what they may want to do and what their interest is. And then we'll tour. We go out and tour the departments and actually show them what the department work looks like. So then they come up. Then we start teaching them like job skills, how to interview, how to do a resume. You know how to do that kind of stuff. Then I start talking about how to do a presentation. I taught on PowerPoint. I actually taught them AI this year, so I taught them how to use artificial intelligence. Because I use artificial intelligence now I'm a big. I'm a big chat GPT fan now. I didn't think I'd ever do. I'm very concerned what it brings to our future, of course, like, I think a lot of people are Sure. I think as we grow in generation, generations will adapt, right, right right we adapted.

Speaker 3: 23:15

I did field service. I traveled 1,200 miles a week. I didn't have a cell phone, I didn't have a laptop, I didn't have internet, you know what. But I made it right so AI would be no different, generations right, so AI would be no different. How to use new technology, and that's my hope, but anyway. So I taught them all this and then I gave them two more weeks to prepare and I didn't tell them what their topic was going to be.

Speaker 3: 23:40

Talk about whatever you want, and if I told you some of the topics these kids did, it would just break your heart, right? Because some of these kids got up there and talked about the challenges of being a same-bite kid Sex trafficking, the mothers selling their daughters for prostitution to make money, drugs, alcoholism, getting teen pregnancy. They brought that up in the meetings and talked about how they're dealing with it and asking advice on how to deal with it. I mean, one kid asked me, 14-year-old. I said, mr Bryant, what happens if I get a girl pregnant? What happens? I go. Well, first of all, make sure, if that's a decision you make, you know and again we talked about decisions that's not a good decision, that's a decision you don't make.

Speaker 3: 24:29

You have to own your decision. Now you can't own. Yes, you can admit it was a mistake, but that kid is not a mistake. That kid is your ownership right, right. And he looks at me and goes I don't have a dad Because my dad got my mom pregnant and left my mom. And I said that is something you should learn from and know you would never do that.

Speaker 3: 24:50

And if you happen to make that mistake, you still need to own that baby right and own your mistakes and he just sat there and just gave me the biggest hug I ever had and I asked him. I said is there something I can help you with? Has this happened to you? He says no, but it happened to my best friend, so he was trying to do for his best friend right.

Speaker 3: 25:12

So these kids are really starting to open their minds up and it's just amazing to watch them start to think at such a young age. But at the end of the day, if they're with me four or five hours every Saturday, that means they're off the street for four or five hours every Saturday, and they're more aware, maybe they don't want to go to the streets, right, right.

Speaker 3: 25:32

And the most amazing part was when they did the presentations and I took them to Monkey River. So I'm not sure if you guys got to tour Monkey River when you were here.

Speaker 1: 25:41

No.

Speaker 2: 25:42

We didn't get to.

Speaker 3: 25:43

But Monkey River is a tour if you come back you definitely need to do. You go through a little village. You see crocodiles, all kinds of birds, all kinds of species. It's a really, really cool, cool tour.

Speaker 3: 25:54

Right now I took these kids to Monkey River and these kids' eyes were just this big because it's in their country but they never knew it existed in their country. They never knew this kind of stuff existed in their country. Wow, and the time they had watching the joy in their country. They never knew this kind of stuff existed in their country. Wow, and the time they had watching the joy in their eyes, watching them laugh, watching them hear the hollow monkeys yelling at them in the trees right, because they had never heard a monkey before. And it's just like would just make you so. It makes everything you do in life worthwhile.

Speaker 3: 26:27

Pacincia if you look on the map and you go, I'm going Pacincia. If you look on the map and you go, I'm going to Pacincia, I mean that's what I'm going down to Pacincia. In reality, you're really not going to Pacincia. Pacincia is a village, about a 20-minute golf cart down the road, right. Yeah, that's the original village. That's where the fishing village came from. That's what really came down to this area and everything kind of expanded north.

Speaker 3: 26:48

Well, sainbite excuse me, sainbite actually is an original Garifuna village. It's one of the original Garifuna villages in Belize. Wow, it's where slaves actually initially came over and settled here and it developed Sainbite and that started Belize. And then Belize was part of, you know, the English colony and you know they separated, I believe in somewhere in 1982, 83, some time frame. Those villages are part of the history of Belize, right, and people are concerned that they may go away, and we hope not. We hope not Because that's what we want people to come to Belize to see. We don't want you to come here and see high-rise condos and high-rise resorts everywhere.

Speaker 1: 27:29

That's not my desire for this area right.

Speaker 3: 27:32

I think people really care about it. They want to see the villages stay in place. They want to see these jack stands. We get a lot of flack, so to speak, a lot of times from retirees down here about you're all inclusive, you're taking money away from other places. Well, to about you're all inclusive, you're taking money away from other places.

Speaker 3: 27:53

Well, to me, that is absolutely untrue, absolutely untrue, right, because you're pouring into the community. Well that. But I think even deeper than that when they think we're taking money away from barefoot or for tips of tune or from all these other places. We are absolutely not. When, I guess, come here, they don't stay at our resort six, seven days a a week. They're not eating here every day. They want to go out and see places. In fact, we encourage them to go out, right, so they're going out eating locally.

Speaker 3: 28:18

But you know what's getting them here, which is a little short-sighted thinking. All-inclusive, as you guys probably know, is the number one searched vacation word, right? When people look for vacations, the number one they search for all-inclusive vacations. Well, bleach doesn't have a lot of those. So if I'm going to get people to Bleach, I need to utilize those searches, right? So by getting people to come to Bleach, I'm getting more people to come because of my all-inclusive marketing. Therefore, bleach is going to make more money because they have more people coming. But when they get here, we're selling the local kajuis, we're selling the local stuff. We're bringing people to the community all the time. We're driving people to the village all day long. It's short-minded thinking that no one thinks about this. I'm such a big picture thinker. Anyway, you know they have a lot to offer. There's so many good places Burrito stands that you drive by. You know, go into some burrito stands, you're going to get the best burrito you've ever had in your life from this little stand on the side of the street.

Speaker 2: 29:22

Yeah, and this is a guy from Texas, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 29:26

I mean, I know a good food bank in Texas, right, but you come here, you're going to get some good, good, fresh home cooking here, these local places, and we want you to experience that, right. Yeah, because we want you to come here and enjoy Belize. Yes, because if you come back to Belize again, whether you stay with us or not, you're still coming back to Belize, which is what I want you to really do, right to Belize, which is what I want you to really do. Right, we'll get our fair share of guests. I'm not worried about that. We'll always get our fair share of guests, but we're not for everybody.

Speaker 3: 29:53

Serenity Bay is not for everybody. You may want to go to a different resort for some other reason. You may want to go to more of a wooden structure, more jungly feel. That's okay. This is my last thing. Our mission statement is to create a return guest on our first interaction. That's our mission statement.

Speaker 3: 30:10

And when I teach that, I ask where does that start in your mind? Well, most people say, oh, it starts when you arrive at the resort. Oh gosh, no, it starts way before that. Right, it starts with our advertisement. It starts with our marketing. It starts with our social media. Right, there are millions and millions and millions and millions of options to go in this world. There are millions and millions and millions of options to go in this world.

Speaker 3: 30:32

Belize is a speck a speck probably not even the size of a needle on places to go in this world. So you have to get their attention right through your social media and advertisement. But even once you get it, you got to make sure you provide the right information. So to get down to come to Belize, to come to Pasincia, to come to Serenium Bay, is a long thought out process. Right, I said. But it don't stop there. You know when they arrive, as you guys experienced. You know our entry is curated Right, the gate is shut. It meets you when you walk in. Right, fresh towels when you turn the corner from front desk.

Speaker 1: 31:09

Yeah, you don't see the ocean when you're the corner for front desk.

Speaker 3: 31:10

Yeah, see the ocean. You're walking. I'm giving away. It's only if anybody's ready to come. I'm going to give away my secret, but you know my hope. Our employees curate that experience because you come to police for the ocean. That's really why you come. You come to see the ocean, right, and the beaches. So when you get here you don't see the beaches. When you first come up, it's all blocked on purpose. You don't see the beaches until you finally get your pretty welcome drink. You see the pool, then you see the open beach and that right. Then you get into your rooms. It's all curated so that every interaction we have with you is driving you to come back again.

Speaker 3: 31:47

That's awesome when you leave, the favorite thing we like to say when you leave. Oh my gosh, what happened to Lee? I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2: 31:52

We want to see you cry we want to see you cry because you're having a hard time.

Speaker 3: 31:56

I hope you don't have to go what I went through to teach me that life's too short to live. Right, I went through a lot to learn that lesson, and I wouldn't you. You know cancer, as you guys know, is horrible. Right, I wouldn't protect cancer on anyone, but I also would not change my past for anything either. That taught me to be who I am today. I mean, I was already a pretty decent person, I think. But you know, the cancer taught me it's not about me anymore. You know what, if you're talking about something you love, it shouldn't be hard. Nope, that's it.

Speaker 1: 32:24

I love resort I love Belize.

Speaker 3: 32:25

I love Belize, I love my people with all my heart, and it made it easy to talk about them. Thank you so much Hope to see y'all back down here soon. Absolutely, man, all right guys, all right. Bye.

Speaker 2: 32:41

We hope we've inspired you this episode, so join us next time. Please subscribe to rate and share our podcast with your friends or you know whomever? And please like and follow us on Instagram, youtube and Facebook.

Speaker 1: 32:51

We are also on X and on all social platforms. We are at TheRomies, that's T-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-S, and our main hub is our website.

Speaker 2: 33:03

At wwwtheromiescom, that's right, that's. T-h-e-r-o-a-m-i-e-scom. We'll be there until next time. Yeah, thanks for listening, bye.