Tish Squillaro 0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Tish Guilero, and welcome to Candor with Tish. Each episode, we have a new set of leaders that talk about their amazing experiences and how they drove their business through the teams they built. Today I've got something extra special. I have a husband and wife team, Lance and Chrissy Walker, who recently bought into a new idea on how people have the most immersed experience as they travel. It's called Mineral Resorts, and their first is called Jade, which is located in Belize. They're going to talk to us a little bit how that all came about, how this idea came about, and how they together had her transform the teams that they're going to build to create this very new and special adventure. Welcome, Lance and Chrissy. I'm excited to have you here today.

Chrissy Walker 0:47

Thank you.

Tish Squillaro 0:47

We're happy to be here, Tish. So tell us a little bit about what brought you to build this new type of immersed experience that I'm excited to learn about because I've never been able to really dive into the cultures on my vacations. I'm always so busy doing things, but I think this is built into how people travel. So I'm really excited to learn about it. And then tell us a little bit how you're going to build the business with the teams that you have to build to get it to work.

Chrissy Walker 1:12

Well, I would say the way we ended up there is we had done a lot of different businesses here in Utah. We are serial entrepreneurs and we just became really burnt out. And we decided to find what our iki guy is. I don't know if you're familiar with that concept, but it's a Japanese concept of it's kind of a Venn diagram and overlap of what you're what you're really good at, what the world needs, what people pay for, and what you are passionate about.

Tish Squillaro 1:43

Should be a foundation for all decision making, quite honestly, because mine is a lot smaller. I say what you're good at, you will do well. I keep it quite simple. I have to add the other pieces to it.

Chrissy Walker 1:55

Yeah. So we kind of went on a journey to figure out what is that for us. And we came to the conclusion that we really wanted to be in hospitality. We never really imagined we would be in Belize, but we ended up connecting with our now business partner who had already found the resort in Belize, this giant 300-acre off-grid property. And it just was a really good fit. It felt meant to be. And two weeks later, we were down there checking it out. We fell absolutely head over heels in love with the property. And we decided to move our family. We have four kids, and we decided to move our whole family there. And we lived there for three years and bought this jungle resort.

Lance Walker 2:36

Yeah. So we spent the last three years building the team, as you mentioned, and really refining this concept of the most immersive civilization experiences in the world. So in Belize at Jade, it's the Maya history. And there's a lot of Maya history in Belize and specifically on the property that we purchased. And we think that's really important. You know, in today's world where everything's becoming more automated, more connected, more AI, we're kind of going the opposite direction and saying, how can we revisit the past and figure out how to connect more with ourselves and our own purpose, with each other when we travel and with nature and with the divine and really feel something. So most of our guests are people who can afford to go to the four seasons or wherever else, and they've done that, but they came back kind of feeling the same. And so our our goal is to not just entertain people, but transform people through immersing them in these ancient cultures of the world.

Chrissy Walker 3:42

And I love what you were saying, Tish. The number one thing to accomplish these goals is to have an amazing strong team. And that was the first thing that we set about doing. We, because we were buying a current resort, we did inherit the entire team. And so our first really big job was to come in, understand what the culture was first and foremost. There's always a culture, whether it's intended or not, of course. That's true. And then decide who could go on this journey with us because we were doing something so out of the ordinary, so different from how that resort had been run before, we weren't really sure if anyone on the team would be willing or could come on the journey with us to totally transform, which you don't know, right?

Tish Squillaro 4:32

Because it's not even their fault if they can. I mean, a lot of times businesses, when they go through a transformation or a new acquisition, the journey to the new place, the 2.0 version or the brand new transformation may not have the same things that person wants anyway, or the skills or the behaviors that they need to actually achieve it. What made you realize that the current team you inherited may not? Because this is always a great thing for people to hear. Like, what were the triggers? What were the first things you noticed about the team at place when you knew they probably weren't going to be the team of choice as you navigated this transformation?

Chrissy Walker 5:13

I would say it was more of a journey. It wasn't really something we knew right away. It took some time to get in and work with each of the individual people and give them more responsibility, start teaching some of the concepts that were so important and give them some time to decide if they wanted to be there or not. In hindsight, you know, some of those decisions we wish we had made a little, a little faster, but we were navigating a new culture. So there's an entirely other, you know, a different layer to this than you would normally have sharing the same culture. And then it took time because we had to renovate the property. We had to do an entire new menu for the restaurant, and we were adding on additional units. So there was a lot going on all at once. But maybe you can speak to that a little bit.

Lance Walker 6:05

Yeah. I mean, I one of my favorite books on transition is by William Bridges. It's called Managing Transitions, Making the Most of Change. And he talks about how you can't really have a new beginning without an end first. And so we came in at the beginning, we sat everybody down and we're like, hey, this is the end of the old way of doing things. Here's a vision for where we're headed. And you can make these kind of ceremonial. I think it helps if there's some kind of you know official party or almost like a wake, right? Like, hey, we're having a funeral for this old way of doing things. We're celebrating where it's gotten us to this point, but it's ending today. And now we're move, we're going on this journey together.

Tish Squillaro 6:45

And not a lot of leaders, Lance, are that transparent. You talk about, even Chrissy, you mentioned we were building the business. Like the bus is running and we're changing the wheels while the bus keeps running because we have to keep going. And so you're also distracted by all the other business things that have to keep the bus running, but you also are paying attention to who can be on the bus with us, right? So that's one. Two, celebrating where we were is always a nice way to have people feel like it wasn't a mistake and it didn't fail. It's just going to be different. And that gives a different feeling about whether or not you do leave because it wasn't a failure, it's a change. Or if you do stay, that means you have to change too. And so it sounds like you were able to address those options up front by being honest. And I have worked with many companies where they try to say nothing's going to change, we're going to let you run solo like you're supposed to, we're not going to integrate when you know they are going to have to do that. There's going to be redundancies. We're going to be changing stuff. Forms are going to go out with different procedures. And when they don't offer that up front, it then creates the distrust among the team because now they never can believe. So you set a very trusted foundation to make sure the team knew we're not going to do things the same, but maybe together we can build how we'll do it by us learning what we need together. And that gave people hope.

Lance Walker 8:10

Yeah, absolutely. And what I've found is when you do that up front, some people self-select immediately. But it's like, hey, I don't, I don't want to go on that journey. You just painted the we didn't know exactly where it was headed, but we knew enough to paint the vision. And some people opted out immediately. We encouraged a lot of feedback of like, hey, what what do you wish was different? We're going to be changing a lot of things. We'd like your feedback. We'd like to know, you know, what in your job you need that you haven't received. We immediately bought new equipment in certain departments that was requested. We immediately renovated, we house a lot of the staff on site when they stay. So we immediately renovated the staff housing. So, like you're saying, building this foundation of trust, of like, hey, we're we're not gonna mince words, we're gonna be very upfront about where we're headed, and we're gonna invest in you and and we care about you. And we want you to come on this journey with us if you're the right person.

Tish Squillaro 9:03

That's where you want to be. And that's and also you do have a choice, right? I like that people were mature enough to self-select out. You know, sometimes people don't do that, and they want you to do it for them or to them, and that doesn't work for anyone.

Lance Walker 9:16

Yeah. One of the best examples of this, I think, was one of our chefs in the beginning, and Chrissy had to have a very direct conversation.

Chrissy Walker 9:25

And I think she was the head chef over our restaurant and was really just not performing at the level she needed to. And I sat her down and I said, Okay, this is where you are, and this is where I need you to be. And there's a big gap between those two. And I'm gonna be unrelenting. I'm not gonna give up. I'm not gonna stop pushing and expecting the very best out of our team. And that's gonna be hard. You're gonna have to work harder than you've probably ever worked in your life. And if that sounds like too much, I totally understand and I completely support and, you know, will wish you the very best to move on. And if you do want to do that, I think you'll be happy here if you're willing to do that, but it's up to you. And within a couple hours, she had, you know, let me know that her choice was to move on. The kind of uh funny thing about this is that now we're three years later and she just applied for a job with us again.

Tish Squillaro 10:25

Oh, well, that tells you a lot about your reputation now, doesn't it?

Lance Walker 10:29

Yeah.

Tish Squillaro 10:30

And that you're a trusted leader because you gave her an honest and very difficult conversation. And one of the biggest things I find teams suffer from is they can't hold each other accountable from the leader to the colleagues to the peers. They don't feel comfortable to have the tough conversation. And the longer we don't have them, the bigger the issue becomes. And it knew and for you, obviously the head chef, you know, you know if they're not going to improve, it impacts everything in the business because it's the central focus of where you have a lot of the service offerings. And if the food isn't of the quality, that's what people will remember. And if you're immersing them in the culture of one of the things is food, this will be a problem. And you'd be surprised how many leaders struggle with having that conversation. So the fact that you were able to have it fairly quickly, and she responded with what you probably knew the answer was going to be based on the lack of performing. How long did it take you to find that replacement? So now let's talk about the flip side. We made the changes. How did you identify? Because you two are forming the business and the culture as the bus is driving. How did you start to identify and close those right fits?

Chrissy Walker 11:45

Well, that is actually the most beautiful part of the story is that our hire right after this has ended up being one of our just absolute A-team players. She is phenomenal and really makes our guest experience and is this incredible chef, I think the best chef in all of Belize.

Lance Walker 12:05

Yeah. Her and and Chrissy were the just this dream team to create a menu that I think if Michelin came down, they'd they'd give us a star because it is it's that good. And if you go look at our reviews, you know, 4.8 stars, 500 plus reviews, almost every one of them since we took over the resort mentions food. And to your point, Tish, like it's so central to what we do. If you want to understand a culture and feel it, the food is so important. So you see how critical these conversations are to be able to hold people.

Tish Squillaro 12:40

And that role in particular, right? Like that role is like the nucleus of how the rest of the team has to behave. So that person has set the right example. If you would have kept the person who's an underperformer, you could have seen everybody not give 100% of their potential because unacceptable behavior was accepted. And so that change did a lot more than just, not just, but it did a lot more than the food becoming that much better. But I think you set the bar for what's expected to be on the team. And I don't know how many leaders realize by not having that tough conversation, not taking that critical position and really addressing it, the others around start to fall apart too. So I would imagine all the hires after her are going to be on that same level because her energy, the energy of a high performer, always bleeds to others. It just happens. Same way low energy bleeds to others. So tell me about some of the other positions. Have you started to see that that's changed even the way you've been hiring other performers around the table?

Chrissy Walker 13:45

Well, it took, I would say, all about a year and a half to really get through all of the positions and find these A-team players and really put in a tangible culture in place. It did take time. And that was really exciting when we were able to tap into that. And now we just have this team that is humming. There is a tangible culture that is just bright and happy. And every single one of our guests that comes to the resort says, You have the most incredible team. How did you find such great people? And really, it's just something that grows and snowballs and gains momentum. And that's where we're at right now. We're so grateful for that. And so I would say in almost every single department, we have the same kind of A player as a department lead. And then they in turn are teaching and hiring and training, mentoring their team.

Tish Squillaro 14:45

And I would be remiss if I didn't ask about the husband and wife dynamic. So, you know, you have to ask the question because I don't think I can work with my husband. Quite honestly, I probably would um have a challenge. We're very different. But what is that like? Because for you to be able to build the culture that is trusted, that means the two of you have to be aligned and show the trust. Just like your employees make their guests feel special, it's the little things. And I know even just going to my own vacation, if someone doesn't seem happy in their job, I feel it. So you know people feel and see. So how do you do that? Where it's your whole life, you live there, your family's there, you can't get away. How do you navigate that?

Lance Walker 15:33

You've highlighted one of the biggest challenges of the past three years. And when we went through our icky guy, the craziest part was we not only had to find the the center of all those four, but we had to find it that overlapped between the two of us because we had wanted to work together for years, but it just hadn't overlapped. I was doing this venture that she wasn't interested in, or vice versa. And so finding what we were both genuinely passionate about and wanted to do and were good at together was half the battle. And I think once we found that, then it's like, okay, now we can dig into this together. And another thing that I think makes it work for us is that we have very different skill sets. We highly respect one another's skill sets. And so there, yes, there's overlap and yes, there's consultation that happens when there are big issues that come up, but at the end of the day, we kind of respect each other's domains, and that I think makes it work.

Tish Squillaro 16:28

That's the secret sauce. Yeah, I was gonna say that's the sacred cow, the respecting each other for their strengths. When you have co-founders, and Chrissy, I'll let you join in, but when you have a co-founder situation, the times I've watched it become off the rails is when the boundaries of those skill sets are misaligned or cloudy.

Lance Walker 16:53

And to be fair, like in the beginning there was some of that where it's like, well, I'm frustrated about this, and we had to kind of find those lines and find those boundaries. And it wasn't without hurt feelings and apologies and forgiveness, and those are all important parts of any partnership, whether you're and real, those things happy.

Tish Squillaro 17:12

I mean, look, that's life. I mean, even if you weren't married as a partnership, you have to be able to say, I made a mistake, I'm sorry, or I didn't mean it to be that way. If the minute you can't be vulnerable to say those things, those are the partnerships that I watched destroy the businesses because then they created this arrogance in how they were running the business around who's right and who's wrong. No one could ever be wrong. Well, everybody's wrong at some point. Yeah, right. What was the hardest decision you guys had to agree to that maybe one of you weren't aligned on? Or was there one?

Chrissy Walker 17:48

I feel like on most decisions we were aligned on, I think the biggest rub was maybe that we have different styles. Lance is much more of a planner. And I am much more like I'm on the far end of spontaneous of, well, we don't really need a plan. Plans usually don't work out anyways. Let's just go figure it out as we go. And so I would say that was probably the biggest rub between us is style. And it wasn't any one decision. It was more like, how are we going to fundamentally approach what we're doing here and make sure that we're on the same page and we both have buy-in.

Tish Squillaro 18:25

Which is great that you bring that up, right? Because sometimes people just do their thing and their thing doesn't match the other person's approach. So the approach to how you would make decisions, have those conversations, deliver a message to someone probably won't be the same. Chrissy, you may just say, I'm gonna go talk to Bob, and Lance would say, Well, no, no, no, we've got to think about what we're gonna say to Bob and when to say it. And, you know, we should prep it. Like give him a heads up. And that's like my husband and I were very similar to you two. I'm the let's just go do it. And he's like, no, no, no, let's wait. I go, what are we waiting for? Like, so I do think it's timing and pace, as they say. But the compliment means you, Chrissy, won't ever get yourself in a position you can't come back from. And Lance, you probably will complete everything you say you'll do because you'll be pushed to get it started. So there's that balance, right, when we're different, but it's bumpy when you're going through it, right? Like everything else, it gets bumpy.

Chrissy Walker 19:21

Yeah, I would say the beginning was there was a definite settling in period. And now we've gotten to a really good place where we, you know, have a good framework for how we make decisions and how we move forward on things. I think that's always good too. If you can have something outside of just your opinions on how something should be, to have an actual framework. That's the other thing that I think has been so powerful for building a team is we actually have a framework for how to hire people. We have a leadership philosophy, and we have daily guiding principles for each of our departments that our department heads go over every single day for their teams. So these systems that we've put in place, those have been hugely important in creating the business and the structure that we have, not just in managing our team, but also in how we interact together as partners.

Lance Walker 20:16

Yeah. Once you agree on those principles, they're kind of fundamental. You can weigh decisions against them, right? Like you have your core values and then you have your daily guiding principles. And it's like, well, how does this it guides everyone at every level of the company on how we make decisions. And people can make decisions with confidence, knowing that we're gonna whether it's the two of us, like I'm making a decision I know she's gonna support, because I can point right back to our core value and say, well, that's the way we do things. And so that that has been helpful, not just for us, but for the whole organization.

Tish Squillaro 20:51

And you know what's quite interesting, and I think gonna be something the listeners truly embrace is every business really needs to operate this way. And I've worked with ad tech and cybersecurity and law firms and private equity, and like you can go on and on. And I can't say I've had a lot of interaction with hospitality. Yet listening to you, you've structured your business and have gone through the growing pains. And I think what's fascinating is that there is a foundation, no matter what your business is, and no matter how you're going to grow it, the principles and the the way in which you build out what you expect from others and then live by that doesn't change. And I think that's just, you know, I think it's a terrific observation that even I've learned, and I love having these sessions because I learned so much from everyone, is that it really is something that is set by the principles and the guide rails. And no matter what your business is, and I think today, you know, you've shared with us a lot of great transformational lessons. One is when you take On a team and you have to transform it, how you did it. And I thought the transparency and the trust was terrific. Two the ability to kind of work together knowing that you're not the same. And how you did form that helped others to also build the framework. And these are just lessons, no matter what business at what stage. I don't think they're going to be as fun as your business, by the way, just listening to what your day's like and the I'm going to give you a moment to actually share a little commercial because I do think every business that'll listen to what you offer could be something they utilize for their business. Because I do think that when teams need to come together, I know I do a lot of off-sites with folks who want their teams to come together and build this relationship and trust. Your venue would be amazing. So I want to thank you both for sharing your story, but offer you a few minutes just to kind of let people know about how they can reach you because I think it's it's tremendous. And I do think in today's business with the lack of people connection, this is a way to bring teams together to find that connection again.

Chrissy Walker 23:08

Oh, absolutely. It's incredible to watch the teams and the groups that have come to the middle of the jungle. And it just takes you so far out of your regular day-to-day. We have Howler Monkeys, and like you mentioned, we're built around an ancient Maya Plaza. There are jaguars roaming the property. We have miles of hiking trails. It really is just the most incredible experience. And it brings people together in a way I have never experienced before. I have never seen it the way I have seen it at this resort. And that's really incredible. And in today's world, that is hard to achieve. How do we reach you?

Lance Walker 23:49

Give us a way to reach you so that jade jungle resort.com is our website. And if you're interested in a private retreat for your company, you can just select the private retreats page on our website and reach out. We host groups typically around 20 people right now. We're growing the number of rooms and we'll be able to host larger groups, but that's a good sized group, give or take, five people. Yeah.

Tish Squillaro 24:15

And usually teams are that size. When you think about a core functional management or leadership team, those are the ones I spend most time with. A venue like yours, structured around their goals and their strategic planning, could actually bring the harmony that's not always easily produced in the day-to-day world. And I think it would be terrific if people could utilize. Are you looking at expanding to any other places outside of Belize?

Lance Walker 24:43

Yeah, so we have 21 different locations planned under our parent company brand mineral resorts. Every one of them will be named after a mineral or an element that was significant to the place or people. So jade is the first, and that was sacred to the Maya people. And the next one will be Obsidian in Iceland, and it will be focused on the Norse and the Viking culture. So each one, the most immersive experience for that specific culture in the world. And we hope that as we build these out, people will feel drawn to experience each of these civilizations and be drawn back to their own humanity by looking at the past. And that's a lot of what we offer now. You know, going off-grid, being away from all the alerts and the notifications, having 300 acres just to your team and an entire staff of 20 plus people dedicated to making this day incredible is hard to beat. That's a hard environment to beat for exactly what you're talking about, Tish.

Tish Squillaro 25:43

No, and you brought structure though. I have to say I compliment you both. You took a fun atmosphere, but you knew it required business acumen. And everything that you talked about today, from, you know, acquisition, transformation, understanding what you want, transforming the next step, being transparent. I mean, these are all business growing paints. And no matter what the venture is, people need to be aware you have to have an infrastructure to support the growth. And I compliment you both. I would like to come work there when I'm retiring out of what I'm doing today because it sounds amazing.

Lance Walker 26:20

Don't wait.

Tish Squillaro 26:24

I'm just gonna put it on my docket. Well, thank you both, Lance, Chrissy. It's been tremendous meeting you both, and I'm sure, and positive, people will be learning a lot from what we talked about. And I bet you might get a couple of phone calls. Thank you so much, Tish. We appreciate it.