The Energy Eye: Getting Your Time Back

Written by a machine from the recording, so a word here and there may be off.

Theme: Up before the sunrise, there's 100 things to do. The phone won't stop ringing and the work keeps coming through, but you didn't. To live behind the screen, it's time to head back outside, back to the place you dreamed.

Brian: Welcome to the LodgeOS podcast. I'm Brian Putnam. I own Kohl's Resort on Big Turtle Lake, and I'm one of the founding architects of LodgeOS.

Amy: And I'm Amy Janzen, the resort growth partner and founder of LodgeOS. This show is for resort owners and operators who want their time back.

Brian: Quick version of what LodgeOS is for anyone new. It's the operating system for an independent resort. Reservations, guest messages, the crew's daily playbook, scheduling, the money side, all in one place.

Amy: But the real idea is bigger than software. Everything that lives in the owner's head, how you turn a cabin, when the boats get fueled, what you say to a guest whose fish didn't bite, gets written down and built into the system.

Brian: The owner curates the system, the people run the system, and the system runs the business, whether the owner is on the property or out on the lake.

Amy: Which brings us to today. We both read Jon Gordon's book, The Energy Bus. If you haven't read it, A guy whose life is falling apart ends up riding a city bus, and the driver, Joy, teaches him 10 rules for running on positive energy.

Brian: And I kept thinking, every resort owner I know needs this ride, but we're lake people, we don't take the bus.

Amy: We take the boat.

Brian: We take the boat, so we told the story our way. A few weeks ago. We were chatting with an owner up on Lake of the Woods. We'll call him Ralph.

Amy: Ralph was tired, short with his staff, short with guests, and he admitted even his wife Betty was getting the worst of him.

Brian: He's sitting on the walleye capital of the world and couldn't remember the last time he wet a line. Never took his family out for a ride. Never had the time.

Amy: So here's Ralph's story and his ride on a charter boat called the Energy Eye.

Brian: Eye as in walleye.

Amy: Of course it is. Let's go.

The story: 6:15 a.m. Saturday in June. Cabin 3's toilet is running over. The fish cleaning house freezer quit overnight. My dock boy texted he's running late, which means he's asleep, and I've got a guest in cabin 8 who wants to know why the walleye aren't biting. Like I'd know. I haven't been out in 2 years. Ralph, you promised the grandkids a boat ride this weekend. Betty, I can't, not today. You said that last summer. Morning. You look like a man who's been bailing his own boat with a coffee cup. We're not open for charters. Who are you? Captain Joy, that's the Energy Eye. Grab a rod and hop in. I don't have time to fish. That's exactly why you're coming. 10 spots on this lake. I'll have you back before the 10 o'clock checkouts. 10 spots, fine. First spot, who's running your resort? Me, me and Betty. Then why does your phone steer? Every buzz, you turn the wheel. If I don't answer, nobody does. That's not captaining, that's drifting with the wind. A captain picks the heading before he leaves the dock. Easy for you to say, you've got one boat. Fair. So here's how the good ones do it. Before they touch the phone, they take 5 minutes. Who's arriving, who's leaving, who's working? That's setting the heading. The resorts on LodgeOS have it easy. The playbook is the first screen they open every morning. Arrivals, departures, the crew's tasks, all laid out before the first text comes in. The day doesn't steer them, they steer the day. Where's this resort headed in 3 years? Through the summer? That's a weather report, not a destination. Try again. Fill the shoulder season with ice fishing, fix up the 4 old cabins, keep a crew that comes back. Now you've got a waypoint, mark it, check it every month, and stop chasing every shiny thing that isn't on it. I've written goals before, they're in a notebook in my truck somewhere. Under the minnow bucket, I bet. That's the problem. 3 goals your whole crew can see beat 20 in a notebook. With LodgeOS, you put them on a goal board, revenue for the month, the year, by department, and everybody sees how close you are. There's even a spot just for you, the dreaming room, where those bigger ideas like the cabin remodels live until you're ready to make them goals. What's in your tank this morning? Coffee, a broken freezer, a guest complaining the walleye won't bite. Speaking of, fish on your rod. Whoa, whoa, that's a good 1, 22 inches, easy. Feel that? That's fuel. When did you last tell your crew a story like that instead of the freezer problem? I'd forgotten what that feels like. Your crew forgets too. So start tomorrow's huddle with one win before one problem. The kid who caught a walleye off the dock, the family who rebooked for next June. LodgeOS helps with that. Every crew member gets a daily hospitality quote on their dashboard, and there's a team game with a scoreboard. They're competing and laughing before they turn the first cabin. That's good fuel. Does your crew know where this resort is going? Betty does. Maybe my head housekeeper. And the dock boy who's asleep right now, he knows where the minnows are. Nobody rows hard for a trip they don't know the destination of. Tell them where you're headed and why their part matters. He's 19. How do I get him to care about rebookings? Show him his part. A dockhand who knows the goal is more families coming back starts learning names and fish stories. In LodgeOS, every role gets its own playbook. The dockhand sees his tasks, where the resort is headed, and his score in the game. He's not just pumping gas, he's crew on the boat. My maintenance guy fights every change, 12 years of it. How much of your week goes to that fight? More than I'd like to say. Invite him aboard, mean it. Then put your energy into the folks who said yes. The boat leaves the dock either way. But he's the only one who knows how half that place works. That's the real problem, isn't it? When the know-how lives in one guy's head, he's holding the whole resort hostage. Get it out of his head and into the system. LodgeOS keeps your SOPs right there for every role. How to winterize a cabin, how to change the pump on the fish house. Then a better way of doing things doesn't hang on winning an argument by the coffee pot. Roll it out with the folks who are excited and let the results do the convincing. Read that. No energy leeches. Cute. Some leeches are people. For owners, most are tasks. Typing the same reservation 3 times, answering what's the door code 40 times a Friday, fixing the schedule at midnight, tracking down who forgot to fuel the rental boats. That's half my day. That's half your life, Ralph. You didn't buy a resort on Lake of the Woods to be a data entry clerk. So what, I just stop answering? No, you stop being the one who answers. Count the hours this week you spent on stuff a system could do. Confirmations, door codes, directions to the cabin, who's on the schedule, fixing time clock punches. LodgeOS handles those. Guest messages go out on their own, the smart lock code shows up when it should. A map pinned to the exact cabin goes out before check-in. The crew swaps shifts in the app, and Porter, the assistant, answers the routine questions. Shake those leeches off and you just got your mornings back. Your guests can feel your front desk from the parking lot. What are they feeling at mine? Depends. Is your desk person greeting a family or fighting a printer and 4 programs that don't talk to each other? 4 programs on a good day, 5 if you count the sticky notes. And every one of them steals a smile. Energy's catching both ways. A crew that isn't buried in screens has room to wave, joke, and remember the kid's name from last summer. That's the beauty of one system. LodgeOS puts the reservations, payments, messages, and crew tasks behind one login, fewer clicks, so the smile has time to show up. Who are your passengers, Ralph? The guests and the crew, Betty. The grandkids I keep promising a boat ride. Love looks like time and attention. When's the last time you took your crew out after a big weekend? I say good job and go fix the next thing. Then stop the boat and celebrate. Celebrate how? I'm lucky to get payroll done. Hit your July goal, fish fry for the crew, handwritten notes, a trophy for the top performer. And here's the trick, most owners mean to and forget, because Monday shows up. In LodgeOS when a big goal gets hit, the celebration gets scheduled right then, so it actually happens. People remember the owner who stopped to say thanks. Why did you buy this place? My dad brought me up here every summer, one week a year, best week of my life every year. I wanted to give other families that week. That's your purpose, not the spreadsheet, not the toilet in cabin 3, the week. I haven't thought about that in a long time. Then write it down. Put it on the lodge wall and in the new hire handbook, so your crew knows why they're here too, and let the system carry the back office. That's what LodgeOS is for. So your hours go back to that week families came for, not the spreadsheet. You know what my name means, right? Joy. That's the job, bringing the joy back. That's why you got into this business. You just lost it somewhere under the paperwork. Last spot, look back at your resort. From out here it looks like the postcards. I forgot it looks like that. Then go see it from out here more often with Betty, with the grandkids. But if I'm out here, who's running the place? If everything you know is in the system, your crew is. That's the whole point. The best resorts are run by owners who still love the place, and you can't love it from under a pile of tasks. LodgeOS keeps the place running while you're out on the water with your family. You still check in from your phone if you want, you just don't have to. Here's your stop, 9:40. Told you you'd make checkouts. One question, what's your title? Owner, boss, chief, everything, I guess. From today, it's Chief Energy Officer. Your job isn't to do every task, it's to set the energy for the whole resort. You can't do that running on empty. Then who does all the tasks? Get what's in your head written down, how you turn a cabin, how you fuel the boats, what you say when the walleye won't bite. Build it into a system, then your people run the system, and the system runs the resort, even on the mornings you're out here. Ralph, is that a walleye? 22 inches, Betty, off the Energy Eye. I haven't seen you smile like that in years. Get the grandkids, we're going for a boat ride this afternoon. You mean it this time? I mean it. I'm the captain. That's the joy, Ralph. Don't let it slip back over the side.

Amy: I love that Ralph's first move was a boat ride with the grandkids.

Brian: That's the whole point. Nobody got into this business to spend half the day in the back office. We got into it for that boat ride.

Amy: So the takeaway for owners listening, get what's in your head into a system, curate it, let your people run it.

Brian: And let the system run the business, whether you're behind the desk or out on the water with your family. That's what we built LodgeOS to do.

Amy: If you're a Ralph right now, tired, short with people, can't remember your last cast, we'd love to talk.

Brian: We're bringing on Founding Resorts now. Visit lodgeos.io or call 833-845-6343.

Amy: So, Brian, final question, what resort is coming aboard the Energy Eye?

Brian: Grab your rod, we'll save you a seat.

Amy: This episode was inspired by Jon Gordon's The Energy Bus, the LodgeOS podcast. Get your time back, get your joy back.