From Dream Manor To Living Zoo Retreat

What if your morning coffee came with a giraffe strolling past your window? We sit down with Molly to unpack the bold vision behind Wilde Manor, a restored 1854 estate in Halifax County transforming into a stay-over safari that blends hands-on animal encounters with real conservation impact. This is a rare peek behind the curtain of exotic animal care, hospitality design, and the relentless grit it takes to open a zoological facility from scratch.

Molly traces her path from vet tech school to exotic medicine while her husband honed behavioral training and exhibit design—two skill sets that power an experience built for animal welfare and guest wonder. We talk through the tough parts most people never see: zoning battles in one county that shut the door after a year of effort, fifteen-hour supervisor meetings in another, seven-figure insurance requirements, and the daily logistics of housing giraffes in Virginia winters, caring for African penguins, and coordinating specialized animal transport. Along the way, we explore why overnight stays unlock deeper empathy than a quick lap through a zoo and how thoughtful habitats, heated barns, and pasture design balance guest access with animal choice.

Money meets mission here. While zoological facilities can generate strong revenue, Wilde Manor hardwires giving into the model: a percentage of every booking supports conservation programs in Africa. Molly shares stories from multiple trips across the continent and explains how ecotourism dollars protect wildlife and communities. We also dig into the mental health benefits of immersion in nature—rolling hills, birdsong, and quiet trails—as a counterweight to the screen-heavy grind of entrepreneurship.

If you care about animals, meaningful travel, or the reality of building something original, this conversation delivers practical insight and honest encouragement. Come for the penguins and giraffes; stay for the blueprint on resilience, regulation, and purpose-driven design. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves wildlife, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

Transcript

Meet Molly And Wild Manor

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the You Can't Afford Me podcast, where we skip the fluff and dive straight into the drug. Real entrepreneur, real struggle, and the unfiltered journey to help you. Let's get into it. Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the You Can't Afford Me Podcast. Now, this is someone from an industry I have yet to have on the show. Um, and we're just chatting off camera about my newfound love for this industry, where I had it as a kid, but uh it's all of a sudden come back to me as an adult. Um I'm gonna I'm gonna allow her to explain the business model and and what it is they do, but uh today we have Molly on the podcast. Molly, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I'm doing good, I'm doing good. Thank you for having me.

The Vision: Stay-Over Safari Experience

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Absolutely for sure. Um, yeah, give us a quick rundown of who you are and what you do.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Okay, so uh we are opening a facility called Wild Manor, um, Wild with an E, it's our family name, and it's in Halifax County, Virginia, and so it is um in the zoo world, so it's somewhere that you can come stay, and we are gonna have giraffes and penguins and lemurs and flamingos and a battered fox. Um, so what it is is there was a uh manor that was built in 1854 and it was for sale and it was had started to deteriorate and had been left sitting empty for like 25 years. Um, so when we saw it, we were already trying to create this business where it's kind combining like animal experiences and education and conservation with lodging so that you can actually come stay on grounds, really get to you know be engulfed in the the uh the facility and get to know the animals on a much personal level than walking through a zoo. Um so when we found this place, it just was like it looks like giraffe manor in Kenya where the giraffes are sticking their heads through the window while you're having tea, and it was just gorgeous. And so we decided that this is this is the place and put all our eggs in that basket.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Um and then we've been renovating it for a year, and so when you come there, it's like a safari style facility. Um, it's a bed and breakfast. So you can come and stay and learn all about conservation, um, meet the animals, really get to know them, and then um yeah, in support of the property. It's done 37 acres and it's just like rolling hills and beautiful. And when you get into the property, you just disappear from the rest of the world. So we're that sounds real good, right? Yeah, we really, really want people to come and just disconnect. Yeah. Doing a nature trail through the woods by the creek. Like we really, you know, this is appreciate nature, have these experiences, disconnect.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Love it, love it. Let's let's go back in your journey. So, like, how does someone get into an industry like this? So, did you go to college to study this? Like, what was what was the role?

Career Path Into Zoological Care

SPEAKER_01 2:51

So, I uh as we talked earlier, I had gone to VCU for biology. I knew my whole life it was animals, like in second grade, they're like, What do you want to be? I wrote zoologist, my mom still has it. So um, I always knew it was that, but I didn't know what route. And I went to VCU for a couple years for biology and just it wasn't what I wanted to do, it wasn't feeling right. And so I decided to step away and go into veterinary medicine. And the second that I got into the world of veterinary medicine, like I started at 18 going and working in vets, and like once I was really into it, yeah, um, I knew that was it. So I went to vet tech school and got licensed in the state of Virginia. Um, but I always wanted to do ex like work with exotics, so in 2005, I started uh volunteering at a zoological facility, and um, and then by 2010 they hired me as a full-time. And so that's how I got on that that path. Uh, and then my husband, there's this college in California called Moore Park, which is like a behavioral training and management of zoo ecological animals. So he went to that and then actually worked in like Vegas with the big cats and like you know, the MG and Grant and all that. So he did a lot of stuff, and then he was a director in a couple facilities. Um, and then he opened his own business doing design and exhibit building. Um so that's his so he does design and exhibit building, and then I kind of focus on medicine.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

So that's how the yin and yang doing. I got the yin and yang. Yeah, those are two like really big components that you know can be the costly components. So we have, you know, I have a lot of really good friends in the veterinary industry who so we've got three like incredible veterinarians, and I'll do day-to-day stuff, and he's doing all the design and and building. So nice. Yeah, so we just then we knew we wanted to start something like a really small, really well done facility. Um and we really wanted it to be where people came and stayed there, where it wasn't, you know, I every zoo's room dueled so much and so much educating and so much conservation work, but we really felt like you know, you kind of just rush through them, you don't really get that connection. And so we were like, if we can bring people to stay here overnight, we can just get to know them, they can get to know us, we can really, you know, show them that's such a cool experience.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Like just thinking the people that love flexing on the gram and and doing all those different things, yes, like to wake up in the morning and have an Instagram video of like you're laying in the bed and the giraffe just walks past your room.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah, because the way it's set up is is you absolutely have views of the animals from the rooms, and we did each room in a different kind of animal style. So we had some fun. So the the like I said, the manor is gorgeous and it's all made out of granite. Yeah um so like interior, exterior, the whole thing is stone, it's wild. Um, but yeah, different. We had some fun. There's like some fun wall. We wanted it to be like classy but not boring.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

So it's a fun time in there. And then yeah, you can see flamingos and the giraffe walking by, have a cup of coffee in your window seat and watch some animals.

Design, Medicine, And The Yin-Yang Team

SPEAKER_00 6:00

That's awesome. Let's let's talk about the development of this business because this is not like a lot of people I've had on the show. Like, you know, I'm in a service-based industry, like it doesn't require a ton of capital to get started in certain industries. You're dealing with exotic animals, I'm sure laws and state regulations, and you know, you got to talk to politicians like to open up a business like this. So for someone that may be listening to this and they're like, this is an idea I've always had, this is something I'd love to do. Kind of give us an insight onto that side. So, number one, like you said you were on Zillow. I think this is when we were talking probably. You were on Zillow and this property just propped up and you were like, yo, this is it. Leading up to that, like how much work had to be done in terms of regulations and like getting things approved to get this business off the ground.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

This has been like a four-year journey, so this is not this has been a lot. It's taken a lot of patience and a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Um more people quit after four weeks. I can't see a lot of people sticking around. We're really stubborn.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

And we really want to do it. And we yeah, it's I just think that we're just the right type of people to, you know, you keep going and you adjust to things as they change and you know, just keep pushing.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Um but yeah, we had to we tried uh to start it in a county, a neighboring county, and they decided that they didn't want any animal facilities in the county. So we went through like a year-long journey with them. But when we got to Halifax, you first have to get permission from the county before you can even start any of the federal stuff. Like it has to start locally, so you go through a board of supervisors meetings and all kinds of stuff. And we pretty much went to them when we saw this property because we were like, oh my gosh, this is it. Like we both just knew this was it, and said, Is this county is the county interested in having um an animal facility? And Halifax was just lovely. They were like, absolutely like lovely. Yeah, and then we sat in you know, 15 hours of meetings and and figured it all out, and uh there's a lot of licensing, and we're gonna be an accredited facility as well. So we're you know in the process of doing all that now. But yeah, it's a long journey, and it's been a costly one. Um, but we've just kind of like I said, we just kept kept making it work.

Why Overnight Changes The Connection

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah. I mean, even from the legality standpoint, like when you're dealing with live animals and different things like that, talk like my first business was uh Richmond bubble soccer. You put on those huge bubble suits and play full contact soccer. So that was a logistics nightmare in terms of insurance because number one, we were one of the first on the East Coast to bring that business to the United States. So we could not find an insurance company that would get us covered. And then finally, when we started to, like the prices were just outrageous. It was like we can't run a business if we have to pay this much in insurance. Luckily, something ended up popping up, we were able to make it work out. What was that process like with you guys?

SPEAKER_01 8:52

I will tell you that you know, no offense to all the insurance people out there, but it's been like my least favorite part of just so there's you know, brokers and there is insurance um companies that are covering facilities that have lodging and animals. Yeah. But it's been we've been on like a year-long journey of like trying to pair us with it. The what we ended up doing with the county is that we're required to have a minimum of like a million-dollar policy to cover if anything happens. So uh I have a broker I've been really happy with, and he everything's submitted, and he's got two companies he's working with. So hopefully soon it's all squared away. Um we're opening May 22nd, so we have a little bit of time to get it figured out. But yeah, it's been a million pieces of paper.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

I'm sure. And I'm sure somebody's listening to this, like, how much can an industry like something, a business like this, like gross per year? So and you guys research, obviously, you guys are opening up later this year. You don't have to give exact numbers, but like if someone's looking to do this, like within the first five years, how much do you see this business being able to generate?

Regulations, Counties, And Approvals

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Oh yeah, the any zoological facility can easily be like a multi-billion dollar facility. It's it's uh there's a lot of uh it's yeah, there's a lot of money to be made in it. Um we are actually one of the big things that we want to do, because while we do need to recoup what we're putting in, personal loans and stuff like that, um we are doing a nonprofit component too, because we really did want to be able to, we're doing a percentage of every booking that goes into it that will go directly back to Africa. Um, but we want to do like a conservation gala and stuff like that. So it's it is important to us that we really are, you know, putting our money where our mouth is and giving back. But yes, we do hope that it's very successful, makes a lot of money so we can get the loans paid back.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

I hear you on the back.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

And then we can just you know enjoy sit back and enjoy it a little bit. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

So let's talk about that nonprofit connection. And like, I'm gonna have to do something right now I've never done on a podcast before. I see someone that I'm meeting with next is like blowing up my phone. So I'm gonna have to like respond to this person while we're chatting, but I promise you I'm good at uh multitasking at multitasking. So I can I can do both at the same time. Um for the nonprofit piece, like a big part of what we talked about was Africa. And you you mentioned to me in the call or in our chat prior to coming in here that like you've been to Africa like five times. Yeah. I told you I'm planning a trip to Africa this year. And I hit you with the fact that I'm not sure you had heard before, but that um 60% of the world's population in the next 10 years under the age of 25 is going to be on the continent of Africa. So there is a lot booming in Africa, and I think the media's done a piss poor job of portraying what Africa really looks like. Like there are parts of Africa you go to, it's just like Chicago or New York City. Like it's not like all these people running around in loin claws like speaking a different language. Like they're in the clubs bunking Biggie and Tupac just like we are. Um obviously there are some remote areas just like you have here in the States where like it's a little bit more slums and people don't have access to certain things. Um talk about the nonprofit piece and and why you guys wanted to contribute anything to a nonprofit in Africa and what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Okay. So uh Africa's just my favorite place on the planet, and Nick and I have both been numerous times, and it there's just something like when you get there, it really does it feels magical. Like something takes over. It's jaw-dropping. Um, we've gone mainly for animal stuff, uh, so a lot of safari. Um, the first time I went, I went and saw mountain gorillas in the wild, and it was just the greatest experience. Well, all right, so life.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Let me let me ask you, this is this meme has passed us.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

A hundred men versus a gorilla. Who wins?

SPEAKER_01 12:35

The gorilla.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Every time.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Every time. They're so strong. It's it's crazy. Um, but we wanted to create this this place that's like this feels like you've gone on safari because a lot of people aren't able to. And um, but we didn't want to take away from what it actually does for the economy in Africa when you go to it. Like the ecotourism is really important. Uh, when you go spend your money there, that goes directly into protecting those animals. And so we didn't want to take away from that, and that was a good reason we wanted to do the nonprofit component. That we when people can come to us, they can, you know, there's a lot of like African flair within the manor, and you know, you can sit and see the the giraffe walking by and look like a Savannah. Uh, but we wanted to be able to make sure we weren't we were giving back. Yeah, so yeah, there's just a a lot of uh incredible species that need protecting.

Insurance Hurdles And Opening Timeline

SPEAKER_00 13:26

So to go back like to the beginning of your story, like I find it funny where as adults we typically end up coming back to the thing we loved as children. Yeah, so like I'm trying as a father, and my kids are super young, five and four. Yeah, I'm trying as a father to hear the things that they're interested in and what they are saying that they want to do that at this age, like my daughter wants to be a princess. Mine too. Well, what's her name? Uh who was the lady that she was on a TV show uh and she ended up marrying the prince of England or whatever. So it's extremely possible. It could happen. It could happen, so I'll never crush that dream. But like I remember someone asking me like how I got into this industry, and I was like, you know what? It kind of happened out of necessity because I needed it from other companies. But then I really sat down and started thinking, and I don't know why mentally I'd block this. I was in fourth and fifth grade, I was on like the TV crew, like in elementary school, and I was a cameraman.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Really? That's right.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

And for some reason I had forgotten all about that. All through elementary and middle school, like it was like one of my favorite things to do. So you know, when they do like the morning news broadcasts and schools and stuff like that, like I was a big part of that piece. So now I look back and it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Like it's always part of you. Yeah, yeah. Don't discredit like I think that children, you know, not always, but like if your children child is like really focused on something, yeah, lean into that, like help them explore that.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Yeah, it for me it was I didn't want anything that wasn't something to do with animals, and I mean from birth. Like it wasn't Christmas if it was like some kind of animal-related thing. I was like, I don't want a toy, I want a bird.

Money, Mission, And Nonprofit Piece

SPEAKER_00 14:59

And talk about I'm sure, I mean, obviously, you're not like a licensed therapist or psychologist or anything like that, but talk about like just what this does for people's mental health, like being in a scenario like this. Like for me, I picked up, and we were talking briefly, I picked up the uh game of golf about four years ago. And for me, it was one of the best things I could have done for my mental health because business ownership had just been my hobby for the last 11 years. So it's like I wasn't getting outside, I wasn't enjoying fresh air, like you know, I was getting no vitamin D or anything like that. And then when I started golfing, it was like, holy crap, this is what fresh air smells like. And like now, my staff can actually tell the difference, like when I haven't been and played around in a couple weeks. Yeah. I mean, you might want to go, uh, it's a nice day, why don't you go out and play some golf? Yeah. So any any information you have on like what this does for people's mental health being in these types of environments.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Well, I can speak for myself too. The property, like I said, so it's rolling hills, and then when you get into it, like you can't see anything but trees. And um, it just you can't hear anything else but birds. And because I think the property sat empty for so long, there's like a nature mecca out there. Yeah, like not only the animals are you know that we're bringing in, but there's just animals everywhere. But starting this business has been hard and taxing, and um, like you said, it's I'm just at a computer way more than I want to be, and that's not what I you know, I want to be there with the animals and doing stuff. So getting it going is it's been challenging in that way. But I just go out there and even the animals that are living there already, I that's how I I feel better if I'm stressed out. I just go out there and I stand there. But it really does, it it like disconnects you from everything else. And um I mean animals bring people joy. They're happy and silly, and you know, you can just not worry about the rest of it. We're we're also making it so you can just rent the whole manor so that you can have like you know, uh we had someone who was interested in maybe hosting um a a group there that had like experienced loss and and doing some stuff like that, and I was like, that that's what I want to be doing. That's incredible to me to be able to have a group of of people come and kind of just feel some joy and experience the animals and be able to be together.

Africa’s Pull And Ecotourism Impact

SPEAKER_00 17:22

So yeah, yeah. And your your journey as an entrepreneur has probably been a lot different than what most entrepreneurs will experience in terms of like just a simple process, like this has been something for the last four years that you guys have been putting together and it's just about to open this year. Like I talk about people in the podcasting space. You can search any subject matter on a podcast, like go on Apple, go on Spotify, whatever. And you'll find a ton of podcasts on any specific subject. Vast majority of podcasts you'll find probably stopped at like episode four or five. Yeah. Because people just give up way too soon. They're like, oh, I didn't get a sponsor, oh, I haven't made a million bucks from this yet. This podcast thing doesn't work. Um so talk about the mindset you have to have in order to get to this point to build a business that takes this long. Because most businesses you can or turnkey, like you can get up and running in 12 months. Go put four years. Most people don't put four years into a relationship, let alone a business, uh, and you get some immediate response from relationships. So talk to us about the mindset you and your husband have had to have taking this long journey to get this going.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Well, so I think both of us are problem solvers. So I think that that's part of it. It's like if you go around, it's not working. Like, say, like getting a you know the loan or getting approvals or getting you know the property or whatever it is. And so it's you really have to have the mindset of like, don't be defeated when it doesn't work. It just means that that isn't gonna work. It doesn't mean it's not gonna work. And so, I mean, probably because we're a little bullheaded, we just are like, all right, well, that that route is not an option now. What's the next route? And I think that our brains have constantly been like, we know we're gonna do this, we know that it's gonna be successful and bring something really incredible to the community. Yeah, so the answer is gonna be yes at some point. So yeah, just don't give up. Yeah, don't give up, just keep keep going. And don't, you know, I like we have two kids, and I really just try to be as positive as you can. I usually, if something has been a big challenge, I'll give myself like that night to feel sorry for myself. And then I'm like, okay, well, next what's next? Let's figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

So that's probably the quality about me that drives my wife the craziest. Where like if there's a problem or something, I'm like, there's no point, like, and I understand like hard stuff happens in life sometimes, but typically I have a role like I got 15 minutes to whine and complain about this, and then after that, let's get working on the solution. Because sitting there and wallowing in it doesn't solve anything. It doesn't, it really can create more problems for you versus like okay, well, there's a solution for every problem. How do we get around this? Um, is there any obstacles in terms of like uh dealing with the animals? So obviously, like you can't just go in a petco and pick up a giraffe. Like, how do you develop the relationships and even deal with the purchasing? And is that even a thing? Are you purchasing the animals? Are you leasing the animals? Like, how does that look?

SPEAKER_01 20:16

So you can you you technically can do both. You can do loans from other facilities. Um, you can also do purchases. Um, so zoo like we are working with other accredited facilities to have the animals come in.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Um, but yes, there is challenges too, because the giraffe, for example, they need it to be a certain temp.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

So in the winter, yeah, I was gonna say, can giraffe hang in this one.

Childhood Passions And Finding Your Path

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Not in this current. So, yes, they what you do is they have a humongous barn, and that barn is heated to like 70 or higher. So um if it's really bad weather, they stay inside the barn. Uh, which luckily Virginia, although like right now, I know nobody would believe it because it's like 13 degrees outside, but most of the year is very nice. Yeah, and so as long as like the sun's shining and you know you're in the 40s, upper 40s, they can go out for a while and have access to the barn and stuff like that. So most of the time they get to and they they're gonna have a huge space where you have like a seven-acre pasture in the front and like a two-acre pasture in the back. So nice. And we're getting two boys. Um, but yeah, and then the penguins, people, you know, are always like, are the penguins gonna live here? But they're African penguins, so they're they're used to it being warmer. They have some air conditioning inside and stuff. So yeah, there's some challenges in that. But yeah, animals are um I know it's like funny parts of the industry, like uh somebody was talking about transporting them, and I was like, that's a whole industry that people don't even think about. Yeah, and and it people make a lot of money on it, like transporting animals from zoological facility to zoological facility. So, yeah, there's a lot of moving parts of the lot of factors involved.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Um, as we wrap up, like one question I like to ask every guest is I want you to think of your most trying time as an entrepreneur. What was your biggest struggle, and how did your

SPEAKER_01 22:02

I think my hardest time was after we put a year into the county we started in to have it not work.

Nature, Animals, And Mental Health

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Um it was financially really trying and it just took a lot of my you know I just put so much time and effort and energy into it and then to have it fail I that really I did have that moment like this is you know uh oh um but I just yeah I just overcame it by knowing that that this was a really good project and that I we were gonna make something really wonderful to share with everybody and that it didn't work like I said it just because it didn't work here doesn't mean it won't work somewhere else and my husband is not he doesn't get too ruffled up about stuff so he helped he was just like on to the next thing and I was like but it was a it was uh it was scary how much we put in to have it not work to try to go do that again yeah um but I just put my big girl pants on and and did it and it it was like night and day experience the sec the the second time around was perfect yeah worked out beautifully so yeah the lessons we get as entrepreneurs like that's why I've you know it's cliche to say there are no L's in life they're just lessons but like if you literally look at that in the course of building a business like you look at those moments where you thought you were a failure yeah but now like something happened to us a couple months ago and I'm like yo if this had happened to me four years ago this would have broke me in hell yeah but I'm like now I'm like that's a Tuesday problem yeah yeah like yeah call this person do this we're good to go you think I learned so much in that year like you're saying that prepared me to go at it again yeah and I just took all of that knowledge and was like all right well you know now I I I know how to m maneuver some of these issues that may come up and luckily they didn't really come up again but I you know I had the the knowledge to deal with it if they didn't have the skill set now yeah yeah yeah all right this is this place is opening up in May yeah May 22nd May 22nd if people want to get more information follow you guys on social media get all the info where can they find you guys yeah so uh we have a website up it's www wildmanor.com and like I said wild is our family name so it's W-I-L-D-E and then on Facebook Wildmanor and we're just open to have people be able to book for the end of May and then we're also doing a founders club um with just people being able to like get in from the beginning and kind of be part of the the family in the process so nice all that's on the website or on Instagram Wildman. Well I can tell you for certain me and my family are gonna be making a trip for certain my kids love animals. Thank you um they go to the zoo all the time during the summer so like this is going to be something exciting.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Thank you for having me. This was really wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Yeah absolutely it's a very unique business uh something to definitely get the message out there and I think it's it's something this area can use. So appreciate you being on the show today. Thank you. Absolutely we'll see you guys on the next episode