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Diaries of a Lodge Owner
In 2009, sheet metal mechanic, Steve Niedzwiecki, turned his passions into reality using steadfast belief in himself and his vision by investing everything in a once-obscure run-down Canadian fishing lodge.
After ten years, the now-former lodge owner and co-host of The Fish'n Canada Show is here to share stories of inspiration, relationships and the many struggles that turned his monumental gamble into one of the most legendary lodges in the country.
From anglers to entrepreneurs, athletes to conservationists; you never know who is going to stop by the lodge.
Diaries of a Lodge Owner
Episode 108: Fishing, Finding Purpose, and Full Circle Moments
Have you ever wondered what life might look like if you actually pursued the thing that makes you leap out of bed in the morning? Jake Monk's journey offers a rare glimpse into what happens when passion meets opportunity and purpose finds its perfect home.
Jake's adventure begins unexpectedly when, as a teenager obsessed with fishing but with limited experience, he wins a contest for a stay at Chaudière Lodge. That single trip plants a seed that would take years to fully bloom. Working at the lodge as a young adult, Jake develops foundational skills in outdoor hospitality while forming connections that would shape his future. Though his path leads through boat sales and various careers in the marine industry, something keeps pulling him back to the water.
The turning point arrives when Jake makes the bold decision to leave Southern Ontario behind and relocate to Sault Ste. Marie in the Algoma region. This move isn't just about the dramatically more affordable housing (though finding a three-bedroom home for under $350K certainly helps); it's about reconnecting with what matters. The slower pace, the genuine community connections, and most importantly, the unparalleled access to world-class fishing waters creates the perfect environment for Jake to build something authentic.
Now guiding full-time in a region where nearly every freshwater species swims within a two-hour radius, Jake has discovered what many spend a lifetime searching for – work that transcends the paycheck. "This is the one thing I would say in my whole life where I wake up excited, I enjoy doing it, and if I won the lottery one day and money was no object, I would still want to do this," he shares with the kind of conviction that can't be manufactured.
His story serves as both inspiration and practical roadmap for anyone questioning their current path. The career satisfaction Jake found didn't come from chasing status or money, but from creating experiences that mirror the transformative moments from his own youth. Every client represents a chance to spark that same love of fishing that changed his own life trajectory years ago.
Ready to reimagine what your relationship with work could be? Listen to Jake's full conversation and consider what might be possible if you followed your own compass north – whether literally or figuratively – toward the life that's been waiting for you all along.
this is the one thing I would say my whole life.
Speaker 2:Where it's, it's I, I wake up and I, I'm excited, I enjoy doing it, and if I won the lottery one day and money was no object, I would still want to do this this week on the outdoor journal radio podcast's Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North, we have the pleasure of spending some time with a former Chaudiere guest employee and now Algoma Region fishing guide. We get a rare full circle look into the life of this once teen who is now 29, and explore some of the highs and lows in his journey so far. And I am really excited to introduce to all of you this amazing young man who I call my friend, jake Monk. On this show we talk about how we came to meet, working together at the lodge and how those early life experiences helped shape a path leading him through the outdoors to a place where he has found passion and purpose. So if you love great stories and learning about how people find purpose and joy in life, this is an inspiring one for you.
Speaker 2:Here's my conversation with Jake Monk. So welcome to the showaudière Lodge employee now, Jake Monk, joining us and also guiding now, which is a new venture for you. Which is a new venture for you and one of the things that I would love to dive into here in a minute. But I would love for you to tell the story from your point of view on how you found me.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Okay, that's a great way to start actually. No thanks, Steve, Thanks for.
Speaker 2:Because you came into my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I did. You didn't really have a choice. Actually, I very much inserted myself, I guess. Yeah, no, it was. It's a really cool story. First and foremost, thanks for having me on Love it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Active listener as well. So it's cool, it's cool to be on the platform, but yeah, when I I was, it's a, it's a really cool story. I mean, it's one of the I would say it's one of the like pivotal memories that I have of of fishing in general from when I was, uh, when I started, when I was really young, but we uh, I think that might have been around 11 or 12 years old and I just started really getting into fishing. My dad I guess a little bit of context knows nothing of fishing, right, like I kind of took to it myself, but he started taking me to a bunch of shows and whatnot. We used to go to the fishing and boating show, we went to the sportsman show, right, and at the time you guys, all the lodges, would do the giveaways and whatnot and the tickets, and I think we must have spent like two hours going around and filling them out and making sure that we hit every single one, and Shoddy Air being one of them, and to this day I think it's one of the only things I've ever won.
Speaker 1:I think I don't typically win a lot of contests, but yeah, we ended up winning and I remember my dad getting the phone call. I remember him thinking you were some sort of telemarketer. That's how much we don't win things. But um, yeah, so we won. We won a trip for a few nights to Chatier. I'd never been to a lodge really of that caliber before. I mean, we've rented cabins and stuff but this was completely different, outside of what we knew, and loved the stay Absolutely. I absolutely loved it. We got a boat rental, I think for the first couple of days we were just in one of the cedar strips and didn't know anything at all and we struggled. And then by the last day we were there, I was introduced to one of my like yours and one of my longtime good friends now Pat Pat Trion.
Speaker 2:And friend of the show.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah right and we are to this day. We are very, very good friends and he was my first guide ever. So it's kind of it's funny, I think, about this, about these circumstances too, and it's almost like a very full circle type of thing that's been laid out. But I went out with him. I had the best I had ever had fishing at that point, which, when I look back at it, it might have been 10 or 12 walleye, yeah, but at the time it was amazing. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced, and that is something that I like to share with people now. And I remember how I felt when I was, when I experienced it for the first time and uh, yeah.
Speaker 1:But after that, a few years go by and I'm out of high school and I think I dropped out of my first year of college and after that I ended up working as a dockhand. We stayed in contact and worked with you for a season and learned a bunch, learned a bunch of things that to this day, I think are like a good foundation of what I've learned with my career, going forward in a lot of different ways. Customer experience you're very big on that. You always stuck with me and, yeah, worked.
Speaker 4:And here we are 10 years later, what is it?
Speaker 1:10 years or must be. It was 2015,.
Speaker 2:I think it was longer than that. It was 2015 that you worked for me yeah, it'd be 10 years, yeah, yeah, wow. That you worked for me yeah, it'd be 10 years. Yeah, yeah, wow. And when you won that contest, the one thing that I remember vividly was the story that you told me about your Lake Simcoe experience.
Speaker 1:Why don't you tell us a little bit about that story? Yeah, so.
Speaker 2:When you were a kid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, actually it's funny because it's all coming. It's all coming back now because that happened right prior to us winning. Yes, and we didn't have a boat, because we just rewind a little bit we my, my, my dad, my friend and I were in like a. My first boat was like a little 14 foot Grumman, like a little tenner, with like a six on the back. I don't even think it was a nine-nine, but anyone who knows Lake Simcoe will like know it was.
Speaker 1:We were out of our minds to do this, but we would go from like Cook's Bay and run between Snake and Fox Island Probably took like over an hour with that boat and the wind picked up, it turns into a different lake in minutes. And, long story short, we were both sitting at the bow of the boat, a friend of mine and myself. We were like 14, 15. A wave that was a little big came in. The motor of the boat went to 12 o'clock. We completely flipped it and capsized it. York Regional Police pulled us out. We were on the news and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:Was your dad driving yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yep, they liked that. We were all wearing our life jackets at the time because my dad's a safety nut, so that worked in our favor. So it wasn't dark but it was evening. So they, like it was it wasn't dark but it was evening and they pulled. They used the red uh, like the um, like the night vision red light stuff to locate us and whatnot. My buddy had to pull his phone out of a waterproof container that he had Cause as we were falling, he had grabbed it and tucked it away. The boat was upside down. We put them up on top of it and we added service to call. The water was 66 degrees. I put them up on top of it and we added service to call. The water was 66 degrees. I remember that it wasn't warm, it was fairly cold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but anyways, I lost a bunch of stuff. My boat was out of commission for a while and then I guess things had a way of balancing itself out and we won a trip and I was able to fish a little bit more that year. So yeah, it was. And.
Speaker 2:I was able to fish a little bit more that year. Yeah, it was great. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome, like I mean just the way that things work. And then you come into the picture and then you started working for me at Chaudière and I remember when you left you were like 14, 15.
Speaker 2:And I think you were one of the first people to win one of those trips and what I used to do is at the Sportsman Show. It was all to collect emails, to build a base of people to email deals to and things like that. This is back when, you know, in the infancy or at least for me, the infancy of online marketing, and I would use these trips to do that. And I think it would have been around 2011, 12 maybe, when you won that trip and when you left the dock, you said listen, man, can I come and work for you? And I said, well, I don't usually hire people until they're like 16, 17, because you need to be able to drive one of the bigger boats. You've got to like. I just didn't hire young kids.
Speaker 1:Sure, and I had an absized one at that point, so I'm not a good start.
Speaker 2:Wow, hey, listen, the thing is, you learn a lot from a situation like that, right, um? So I said, uh, call me when you're a little older. And uh, like clockwork, you called me. And as soon as I got that call from you, I was like, yeah, okay, like clockwork, you called me. And as soon as I got that call from you, I was like, yeah, okay, yep, come on up. And I don't remember it was maybe a year, for sure, maybe two that you worked with us, but they were really good years. They were great years.
Speaker 2:That was really for me, the heyday at the Chaudiere Lodge was those, you know, 2014, 15, 16, when I really kind of started to figure my shit out and not only figure it out, but there came a point where I could afford to fix things For sure, and I wasn't worried about making payroll every week, and it started to take and the occupancy was becoming impressive and I could start to see that this ship was starting to rise and and that those were really great days, you know, and I'm I'm really happy that you were a part of it. But so tell me a little bit about your, your venture after Chaudière, because you've been involved in the outdoors and in some way shape or form, whether working directly in it or thinking about getting into certain situations. So tell me a little bit about the direction that your experience at Chaudière kind of took you.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. No, you're definitely right when you say that I mean after. When I decided to work, like when I got that first year at Chaudière, it was right after school that didn't end up really working out. The ironic thing is it was for small business and entrepreneurship and I didn't like it and look what I'm doing now.
Speaker 2:Well, the great thing about small business and entrepreneurship is you can apply that to anything that you love.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, Right, Exactly no, you're, you're absolutely right. And after after that, uh like that, uh like that that year was I like I worked for you took the year off. I went back to school. After I went, uh, for marine engine mechanics to work on boats and um ended up completing that. But, like during the experience I'm at I'm six foot four. Right now I'm probably about 250 pounds, so during college maybe I was a bit lighter than that, but I realized that it's not a tall guy's thing. You got to get in bilges and all sorts of stuff. You know you're not ideal, right? I learned it the hard way, Um, but uh, after after that, I decided um to instead of working on boats, I always wanted to get in sales. At the time I loved just talking to people, the interaction with people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's always been something that's been fairly natural, I guess you could say. I wanted to explore that when you're starting out. One thing that, like I learned, is it's very, very hard to get your foot in the door right when in the marine industry doing that, you usually have to start in parts or something like that Right. So that was that was fairly difficult, but I ended up. The first sales job that I had was at Bass Pro Shop and Vaughn selling trackers, and I did that for a little bit and then shortly after that, I would say where I learned the most and I really it was kind of like my first big boy job. Yeah, I worked at Legend Boats, just on the 400 there for a few years and learned a lot about the marine industry, learned a lot about sales and whatnot. And then from there I guess, and whatnot, and then from there I guess, uh, sales became uh like a, a, a very large part of my professional life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and um, yeah, it's just well. You did very well for legend from what I heard through Pat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it was, uh, it was. It was great, it was. It was a great uh time that I was there. I learned a lot. They have a very, very good process. It's very organized, which is unheard of in the marine industry I feel. The structure isn't a very common thing when you go to a marine team it's love, shooting from the hip and whatnot, but Legend definitely has. They're like the apple of marine sales. I think they have everything dialed in and I learned a lot and I owe a lot to them, just based on what I've learned and what they're able to share with me. So yeah, and then from there I went into other sales roles and whatnot.
Speaker 1:I lived in Muskoka for a little bit, bounced around everywhere. I was just kindoka for a little bit, bounced around everywhere. I was just kind of figuring out what I wanted to do. And about three, almost four years ago now, I moved up to Algoma because my girlfriend and I we were ready to buy a house and, as you know where we're from, we didn't have a million two lying around anywhere. So, yeah, no shit, eh Right. So we made the move up here and I couldn't imagine myself living anywhere else. It's been fantastic.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, yeah, so tell me a little bit about living in the Algoma region and, more specifically, are you right in Sault Ste Marie?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm right in the east end of Sault Ste Marie.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what is it like living up there for all of those people that are in your shoes, or are in your shoes now, that you were then and they're looking to buy a house when things are so unaffordable in southern ontario, um up in the sioux, and to give all of you folks out there who may not exactly know from um the uh, the gta to get to sioux, saint marie, you're, what about 10 hours?
Speaker 1:Yeah, between eight and 10, depending on where you are. Yeah, I think I've done it in six and a half from Barrie before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's, that's clipping along, yeah, but you know, like I mean, you're, you're, you're fairly far North, so just tell the people out there listening our, our, our wonderful family, what is it like to have lived in southern Ontario for the majority of your life, which is the, you know Barrie, shelburne, orangeville. You know the southern Ontario that we know um to moving to Sault Ste Marie?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. That's actually a really good question. I'd love to elaborate on that, because I talk about it all the time when people ask me. It's kind of funny because when I guess one thing that I didn't expect when I came up here, because it sounds comical, honestly, it sounds a little silly, but there was an element of culture shock for sure, it or not, even though it doesn't seem like it's that far. But one thing that I noticed I wouldn't say for I would say culture shock for the better too, like a big, a big thing that I noticed was the people.
Speaker 1:First and foremost, it's a lot more of a slower pace, which I like myself. Yeah, people aren't as in a hurry as much I. I say it all the time, but one thing I had to get used to was people asking me how I'm doing in the grocery store and coming coming from the gta. You, you kind of just automatically have your guard up and you think it's backhanded, but no, it's just genuinely an old grandmother asking you how you're doing, um, up here and uh, it's more like, yeah, so slower pace, I find people aren't as in much of a hurry. Um, it's almost like a time capsule a little bit, because anyone who knows who's been to sioux saint marie and I guess for the people that haven't is it's very much isolated from a lot like the next major city east is sudbury and then west is michigan, right and then I guess wawa is north but there's not a whole lot around it.
Speaker 2:So like couple of hour drive yeah in every direction to find the next populated area yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 1:so there's a lot of like, um, things don't get as changed frequently, I guess. Guess is the right built up quite as much. They have the restaurants look the same that they have been since the 80s and whatnot, which I love that. I think that's awesome, and it's just a lot slower if you're in a position like I guess a bit if you're my age, like and you're looking, or in the position to look and your age is like late 20s early 30s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just turned 29. So I got one year left till that day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one year left and then you officially become old. Yes, yes, exactly right, I'm officially become old. Yes, yeah, exactly Right. Um, I'm officially really old. Yeah, I'm 49.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, but I would, I would encourage it to anybody, anybody. But the biggest thing is, uh, you have to love the outdoors, because if, if you don't, I would, I would advise against it because, other than, like, we have a lot of people think that there's not as many amenities here, which couldn't be farther from the truth. Like we have movie theater, probably 10 grocery stores. There's more than enough here. But if you don't like any type of outdoor activity, if you don't like camping, fishing, hunting, it's probably not for you. Sledding, yeah, sledding, powerding power sports, boating, all those things, but if you do, it's you. It's one of the best places to live in the country. I think it's. It's fantastic. One. One thing that I learned about it was like when I moved up here was like if we get into to fishing, you can target almost any freshwater species ever within two hours of Sault Ste Marie, which is like amazing, that's awesome. I love that. Yeah, yeah, gotta like the outdoors for sure?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So all the amenities are there in the Sioux. You've got I'm sure you've got a wonderful hospital there. I know that, carol Caputo. She lives just outside of the Sioux and she's the for all of you folks. I'm sure you've heard Carol's name here before, but she is the Queen of Ontario and I love her to pieces. But she took over Jimmy Grayston's position as head of OTMP and she always well, the Sioux is her home, right, so she always tells me about it. And I've been through the Sioux, stayed at the Quatro we shot a show there with Tyler, you know, and it's a freaking, it's an awesome spot. It really is. And like I mean, the property there I think is fairly affordable. Like I mean, I'm not sure what is a regular run-of-the-mill home in the Sioux worth these days, do you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, I mean I like I love uh, talking about, like, my experience as a whole. I like being fairly transparent with it, because it's from people from the GTA. They think it's insane and, um, a lot of people like in that younger generation that think it's completely like impossible to even entertain the idea of it. You just gotta. You just gotta move a little farther away, right, like we, like I said we were here about four years ago, um, we got our three bedroom house and that was really in the height of, yeah, of the market here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was four years, three, four years ago of course.
Speaker 1:no, you're, you're, you're bang on. Uh, it's like. Our house is like a three and a half bedroom, two bathroom. We got a finished basement. I have a shop in my backyard and it was for under 350K Wow. So definitely doable. And you can find places as well, like on the, whether it's the outskirts if you want to live a little bit more remotely, which is a goal for us too in the future, we want to do that, yeah, but it's definitely possible, for sure and I know that, um, in today's changing world, um, a lot of people can work remotely, right, but is there any?
Speaker 2:is there any industry or or jobs within the zoo that, uh, that people are working where they have a nine to five or like if you've got a young couple who are thinking about you know, moving and looking for work? Is there anything going on up there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I can't really speak on. All I can really talk about is from what I've heard, because I haven't really You've Been looking. Yeah, when we came up here, I believe, for the first year, I worked for a power sport dealer and then, after that, kind of went into what I'm currently doing. But from what I've heard, it's harder to find. Like, if you're a trades person, right, yeah, you need more trades people and you're pooling from a smaller demographic up here, right. So, like, if you're from the small business owners that I've talked to and whatnot, the general consensus is it's harder to hire because there's not a whole lot of qualified people. Yeah, so a lot of people look at these like people.
Speaker 1:If you're from Toronto as like, oh, he's from Toronto, he's moving up here, he must, must know shit. Yeah, which was you know? So, um, it's there. There's definitely opportunity for that. Uh, a big economic driver for the city is definitely the steel plant. Like that's what kind of dictates the economy of Sault Ste Marie, like from what I've heard. But no, there are definitely opportunities up here. Obviously not as much as the GTA, but you just have to dig.
Speaker 2:Well, the problem with the GTA is sure, there might be opportunity, but it's very unaffordable for people. So there you go, folks. That's all of you young folks out there looking to get a new start. Look north, because it sounds awesome. So now, on that note, why don't we talk a little bit about what you're doing now? Sure, sure.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, it's, uh, it's been I've I've wanted to do this for like a little while. I mean, uh, when I, when I started, even working at Chaudiere, I think I did a few trips when.
Speaker 2:And we're talking about guiding. Yeah, yeah, for sure, yes, right, um, and it's very interesting, yeah, um, because a lot of, a lot of the shows that, um, that we've put together in the past are guide-based shows, and really for me to have somebody on that has gone through what you've done and now you're getting into the guiding area. A lot of people, young guys and girls, want to know how to become a guide and folks listen up, because this is another one of those stories. Sorry for cutting you off, no, no, it's all good, no problem.
Speaker 1:It's kind of funny how it, how it happened. I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that it would, I wouldn't say that it was something that I I went out of my way to pursue. If I'm being completely honest, a lot of this opportunity was presented to me. Yeah, and um, I just I just chose to capitalize on it. It's, uh, it the first thing that I'll say about it.
Speaker 1:This year is my second year full-time. Doing it full-time is you definitely don't do it for the money, that's for sure. You do it for the passion. That's a big thing, and when you're starting out, I definitely recommend to have something else that can supplement it, because it's a lot of building, um, it's building a clientele. But one thing that I love, one thing that I love about it that that translates to my career previously, is it's you meet such um, you meet such like-minded, great people and and building those relationships are, are so important.
Speaker 1:But, um, I guess I'm I'm going on a tangent here, but how it uh essentially started was I'm, I'm friends with the like, all the guys up here, like you did a show with tyler. Tyler's a good buddy of mine. Yeah, um, another guy like up here, adam valley with angling algoma. He's a very, very good friend of mine as well and we all work together collectively and I ended up bouncing they bounced the idea off it with me and there is a demand for a certain niche right, like inland stuff and smallmouth and walleye, a little bit on the St Mary's and whatnot, and there's room for it. So I ended up just helping them out at first and it ended up getting to the point where there was enough room to have me there too and we help each other out. If they have a big group, they'll ask me. If I have a big group, I ask them if they're available and whatnot. And it was one of those things that happened very organically and it's been extremely positive ever since.
Speaker 1:But I chose to pursue it because, coming from the GTA and moving up here, a lot of the motive behind that was to slow things down. I think working in a dealership setting it's it's so monetarily motivated right and everybody's chasing the next thing and and money and this and and whatnot. And it was. It was something that I, I wanted to. I wanted to shift gears on and uh and and, and this was a great way to do that and to get in touch with more people, get in the outside, share the knowledge that I've been able to obsess on for the majority of my life and, uh, make great memories with, with families.
Speaker 1:That's why I like doing it as I didn't know I would, but now that I've been doing it for a little while, it's it's it's it's sharing an experience with somebody that, um, it's like that's relatively new to it and hasn't had a really good day and whatnot. And I see myself in that. You know what I mean. When I came to Chatier for the first time and everything was such a big deal, I mentored Pat was a big mentor to me throughout a good portion of my life for fishing and to have that same type of dynamic is great. I love that For me, folks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you mentioned there that you wanted to kind of slow down, right, and now that you've been in this for two years, have you Like? Is it what you thought it was going to be as far as slowing down, or what is that experience that now you're two years into it? You had the rat race of the monetary chase in the sales world. Has it turned out the way that you thought it was going to turn out?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good question, and the short answer is no, not at all.
Speaker 2:So elaborate on that a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I would. I mean, yeah, it's, I'm definitely, I'm definitely busier right and it is a fast pace, but I like it because it's for different reasons. I think we share the same quality. Pat has it as well, and even the guys like Tyler and Adam. We all kind of have this same type of mindset. I think if you're any type of like entrepreneur as if, like what I've learned I guess so far is yeah, it ends up being it's more than just the like, like the numbers behind it, like there's a greater purpose for it, and, um, this is the one thing I would say my whole life where it's, it's I, I wake up and I, I'm excited, I enjoy doing it, and if I won the lottery one day and money was no object, I would still want to do this right. Yeah, I think that that's. That's the big, the biggest differentiating thing, for sure. So, um, it is a faster pace, but I think it's. The motive is very couldn't be farther from what I'm used to and that's what I value the most about it hands down.
Speaker 2:The one word that you use there that is, in my opinion, one of the most important words that anybody can grab onto and hold onto is purpose.
Speaker 2:And when you have a purpose that you love, all of a sudden it's not work anymore.
Speaker 2:And it's interesting the way that you answered that, because you were like I wanted to slow down and in some senses you did, because you weren't on the chase for the almighty dollar and in competition with the people that you're working with, because sales is competition very much right where you get into this type of atmosphere and and I felt it a little bit at chaudiere with other lodges, some not so much, but I've always said all ships rise with the tide right.
Speaker 2:So when you can work with other people to make everybody better and you have a purpose that you love which is giving people the experiences that you've seen and loved and and you get to kind of relive through them, and and I just had a conversation with JP Bushy, uh, another one of the guides at Chaudière and and he's on Georgian Bay, and he talked a lot about um being able to experience um fishing through the eyes of his guests, and every fish seems like the eyes of his guests and every fish seems like the first fish for them and that is such a powerful thing, right, and I'm so happy and proud of you for being able to, at your age, find a purpose that you love and turn it into something that is very sustainable. Hey, it's a lifestyle, like I mean, millionaires aren't going to be born guiding, but it's a lifestyle. And, like you said, even if you had a million dollars, yeah, you're going to have a nicer boat, yeah, you might have a great gun collection for hunting.
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Speaker 2:This is another question that is a bit backloaded, because I know you very well and what it pertains to is with what you're doing with your guide friends up there and building a clientele. Do you foresee at some point that you may actually invest in a lodge?
Speaker 1:Hmm, that's, that's a good question.
Speaker 2:And I know you've kind of walked down the garden path here or there, right.
Speaker 1:Yep For for sure, and we like and.
Speaker 2:I, or are you happy where you're at?
Speaker 1:I think no, that that's uh I. I'm actually really glad that you asked that, because that's uh, that's something that I contemplate a lot, right. So out of one thing that I learned about a lot, right. So out of one thing that I learned about, like about lodge ownership initially, just from working with you, is is, it's not, it's not what a lot of people think, it is no no, not by any means and it's a lot of um.
Speaker 1:If I were to just describe it in one word is it's a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure, a lot of responsibility and a lot of stuff that that is so far removed from fishing. I think fishing is probably like 98 on your list. I don't think. I saw you on the boat one time, maybe once when you did shows, I think, but it was, it was very you were, you were very busy.
Speaker 2:I think. But it was, it was very you were, you were very busy. Yeah, um and uh, often said. The only time that I actually got to go fishing and it wasn't even fishing, it was guiding unpaid was when I either overbooked my guides and had to go out or one of my guides didn't show up and there were people standing on the dock waiting to go fishing.
Speaker 1:For sure. And then I have to go yeah, exactly, you don't have a choice.
Speaker 2:And guiding isn't fishing.
Speaker 1:No, I think that's a big thing to talk about too, because that's not at all what it is. It might sound silly, but it's so far from fishing. That's one thing I learned quick what a big thing with with guiding is I I will want for me, that's that's that's really important is is is communication like just the, the overall cut, like the client experience, like the customer experience is good. One thing that you've always said I'm sure you've said it on the show too but what makes, what makes a good guide is that is how the guests feel when they have a bad day of fishing. That's right, and fortunately right not to my own skill.
Speaker 1:I am lucky enough to live in an area that is very, very good right. But I've had a few days, and I think I try to remind myself of that, and it's all about making sure that they have a good time. I think sharing knowledge is great. I think people should know how you're doing what you're doing and adapting certain things to certain skill sets too. That's one thing that I feel like a lot of people don't think about when they're getting into it. It's great that somebody can go out and smack a bunch of smallmouth on a crankbait bite or a jerkbait bite or something like that. But your family of three that goes out every like, maybe twice a year, isn't going to be able to do that. You got to adapt something to make it work for them, right? So anyways, I'm kind of going off here.
Speaker 1:No no that's good, right, so anyways, I'm kind of going off here. No, no, that's good, um, but about the, the lodge ownership, we, we went down that that road a little bit like uh, closer to when, like, we first moved here, right, um, and uh, actually not really, maybe in the middle, what is it?
Speaker 2:maybe about a year ago maybe a year, a year and a half.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:It went on for a long time, but you reached out to me and were asking advice, and I'm was more than happy to uh the best to help you out yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:You were. You were the best with it. I learned a lot throughout it and I was. I was able to learn a lot of things that I should be aware of, that I that I didn't know about. And, and Steve, you couldn't have been better with that. I learned so much about it. But an opportunity had presented itself and we chose to explore it a little bit.
Speaker 1:But, as some things happen, like it just doesn't work out right, it didn't fit, didn't fit, and at the time we were incredibly disappointed because it felt like it was meant to be. It truly did. It was like one of those things that everything kind of just aligned, felt like we were getting brought to this place for a reason as silly as that might sound, but I do believe that that is the case, just as life in general. But it didn't end up working out and it sucked. But I do think that, like, after being able to reflect on all of that and being where I am now, I do I do find a lot of peace in only managing myself. Yeah, I love that. That's one of the things that I really do like about guiding and I think about it. I try and compare it to, like my, my career in high ticket sales and whatnot, and a lot of people would want to get promoted and move up to sales management and manage a team, and I had never wanted to do that. It's just the honest truth. I want to be responsible for me, and me only, and have the control and whatnot.
Speaker 1:So I mean, anything can happen, right, but where I'm at now is I feel like it's, it's very comfortable, I feel like it's very natural and um, although I love the idea of it, but there are a lot of things to kind of to think about and whatnot. Right, yeah, yeah, it's a lot of um, you have to be very, you have to be very resourceful. That's one thing that I kind of admired about you when you were doing it. You had to. There was a lot of you're very like transparent in the sense of when you didn't know something, you, you you didn't hide it, yeah, and didn't hide it, yeah, and you learned and you would have to figure it out, yeah, if you're a lodge owner, you're a plumber, you're a framer, you're a siding guy, you're a player, this you're that, you're everything Right, and uh, yeah, you have to be very resourceful.
Speaker 2:So, um, yeah, it was. Uh, it was a huge learning curve for me right from start to finish. And, um, that's one of the things that I love the most about the lodge was every day was a new challenge. Every day was a new challenge and you either choose to say that's good. You know, somebody comes in and says the boat, somebody smashed the bottom end of the boat and it's got to be fixed and we need to have it ready for tomorrow. I would always try, in my mind at least, to say well, that's good. Yeah, because when you say that's good, then it changes the perspective in your mind, because if you say, oh, my God, what a freaking shit show this is going to be, all of a sudden your, your mental capacity and your vibrations all turn negative. But I used to say and I think this, this come from Aunt Beth, uncle Barry or Graham or or mom and dad or whoever was up there with me I would always say that that, okay, well, that's good, we're going to learn something new today For sure, right.
Speaker 2:And then you got to decide, you got to make it work Right, and ultimately understand that tomorrow's going to come Like. There's going to be some people there expecting a boat and tomorrow is gonna come. So you got to figure it out whether whether it's it's you get it fixed and whether you got to drive to to bury to pick up a new bottom end. Whether you've got to, you know, rent a boat from a neighboring lodge to replace that boat. It's's going to happen, tomorrow's coming and your job is to figure it out. And that's where the pressure comes from, because you know you get that. And then all of a sudden, now the shit pipes out behind the lookout are busted in the bush and you got to go fix that. And you know there's a bear tormenting people, or there's a bear tormenting. You got to go deal with that, absolutely right.
Speaker 1:Pest control. There's another type, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uncle Barry had his trap lying out the back there to keep all the pests down, and you know there's a lot that goes along with it and I can totally appreciate people when they start looking into it. That's why it was very important for me when you asked to have you go through number one a business plan For sure and plan out everything, think about everything right, because I wasn't sure if it was right for you or not, and I could never be sure because it's you and your partner right. Of course, yeah, but to try and give you the tools to figure it out is important, and I don't think that you're not going to think about it in the future. And what you're doing right now is you're building a great foundation on the aspects of running a lodge right and you're learning. And not only that, you're building a network of people through your guiding business that could someday become very valuable.
Speaker 2:And maybe you never do biologic, maybe you think, well, you know what? It might be pretty cool to have maybe three or four cottages that I rent out and then I can guide those people, because now you're not only making money on your guiding fees, you're making money on the rental of a cottage and they can look after all of their own meals and everything else, and you're building your clientele on top of that. That's one of the things that I'm looking at doing on the island up on the French is building a few more cottages, renting those cottages out and guiding as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's like you can't beat that. That's fantastic, right. I feel like a lot of the where you get into where things get messy and dicey is when you get into like as a as an owner right, and where you get into the all inclusive aspect of it the food, the supplies, it's boat access and whatnot.
Speaker 2:And it's uh, the logistics of it were were huge for sure, and um, like I mean, and and having so many employees, you know, I half the time and, and you experienced it right from from the perspective of an employee, and, uh, half the time I felt like dr phil you know, because and it's inevitable when you, when you take and uh, 2015, you said so, 2015, I bet you at that time in, in my tenure, we would have had close to 15 employees, yeah, and another, you know, three full-time live-in guides, and then a pool of guys like Marcel and whoever else I needed to draw on, but there would have been Billy, there would have been Pat and I'm not sure who else at the time.
Speaker 1:I know Eric was there. I know there was the two oh man, I forget their names now, but it was the two younger girls from Ottawa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would have been Danielle and Shannon. Yeah, they drove the cart off the mountain by the Hoppy Gay.
Speaker 1:I remember that. Yeah, and Billy was there. Oh yeah, phil and Micah.
Speaker 2:Oh, that was really the dream team, and Jen and Pat.
Speaker 1:Other Jake was there too. Other Jake yeah, Jake was there too. Other.
Speaker 2:Jake, yeah, yeah, jake, clement, yep, yeah. No, that was a great year, but even at that, when you have those great years, when you take a whole and Diane and Cole and you take a whole team of people that range in age from about 18 to 70. And you're all living together in tight quarters on an island in the middle of the French River, yeah, exactly, you work long hours together and then you play together right out in the back. Inevitably, inevitably, shit happens.
Speaker 1:Oh right, oh yeah, for sure, and in your defense as well, it takes a special type of individual to sign up for it. I'm going to live on an island, isolated, with people I don't know. Oh yeah, for a whole summer and a bit more. Right? Yeah, not everybody. Not everybody, that's not everybody's cup of tea, right?
Speaker 2:no, and a lot of times the, the, the people that I hire don't figure that out until they get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. Realization like oh, okay you talk about.
Speaker 2:You talk about, um, culture shock. Moving to the sioux, well, think about the culture shock you felt when you come to work at a place and and you, you rarely get off the Island. Oh yeah, you know what I mean. And, um, um, managing the, the personalities of people and the relationships that happened. Like you know, that was one of the harder things for me because, as a business owner, I shouldn't be managing, or I shouldn't have to manage, sexual relationships between staff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're a couple's therapist too.
Speaker 2:There's no title. When the work hours stop and the social hours begin with the staff, there's nothing you can do, nor you can't legislate people's feelings for each other. And then what happens is, because it's a tight-knit group, then all of a sudden you get people that feel jealous, you get people that feel wronged, you get this, you get breakups. You get people that hook up together and then decide they want to leave early. Leaving.
Speaker 2:You know like I mean it was that part of the lodge is a tough one, right? So you have to kind of hire too many people in the spring because you know that you're going to lose somebody, because they just didn't understand what they were signing up for, no matter how hard you try to explain it to them, right? And then something else doesn't work out. You may have to let somebody go and you gotta, and it's very tough to fill positions halfway through a six month season. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So all of those things were were huge factors, you know, and, and, and I like to, I, it was just another challenge, right? Um and um. I as much as I say the biggest problem for me was staff, which you know that very well may be a true statement, but I can also say that the staff was one of the things that I loved the most too, of course, right, and I was very lucky to have two staff members, cole, who looked after the main lodge and bookings and checking people in and out, because until I got Cole, I really didn't make a whole lot of money, because I didn't like taking money from the guests because they come as guests but all of a sudden, four or five, six, seven days later, they leave as friends.
Speaker 1:I'm experiencing that now too. I totally know, what you mean.
Speaker 2:It's very difficult. It's very difficult and I can definitely see that parallel between your business and mine, because you know somebody would say you know, yeah, you know the pillows were just. I just want to let you know, steve, you know the pillows probably should be replaced in the Cardinal and you know, because they're like really bad, I didn't sleep well and I'd be like, oh my God, you didn't sleep well. I'll tell you what, if I knock off $150 off your price of your stay, would that be good? Oh, wow, that's wonderful, right.
Speaker 2:And you end up doing that too many times and all of a sudden, at the end of the year, you look back and you're like, wow, my numbers don't add up. This is not what I expected. And when Cole came, he was the bad cop and I was the good cop, right. And it almost seemed to me that people totally disassociated me from the business and Cole because, as they would be leaving all of those people that always would say something me from the business and Cole, because, as they would be leaving you know the all of those people that always would say something and I had them conditioned to. All you gotta do is say something and you'll get money back. Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:All of a sudden they're walking down to the dock and they're like, oh man, cole's tough. Yeah, like what do you mean? Send in the hammer? Yeah, like what do you mean send in the hammer? Oh, yeah, oh he, you know, we, we asked for a discount and cole said no, I'm like, oh, wow, geez, I'll have to talk to him about that. Yeah, well, it was me saying, buddy, we're not making any money. We got right. Oh sure, maybe that's something that you can. You can kind of incorporate with your wife and have her be taking the booking and the payment in advance or something. But I feel your pain.
Speaker 2:That's something that is very difficult and was very difficult for my personality, for sure, and it wasn't until I put somebody in place to deal with that problem that I really was able to free myself from it. Yeah, of course, and it worked wonderfully. And, like I say I was going to say about the staff again, true statement, most difficult part of the business. But again, I loved the staff. Once we was in that great core staff, diane was another great core person for me and she was tough. There is no doubt she was tough, but the one thing that I can say about Diane was and God rest her soul.
Speaker 2:She was fair, for sure, and not just fair with the staff, like between staff with me, if I ever walked out of line in any respect, she would be the first one to straighten me out and say, steve, you know that's wrong and and one of the things that she preached to me constantly. That was probably one of the more difficult things for me, but it was true. And she would always say, steve, you can be friendly with the staff, but you can't be friends with the staff. Yes, and, and I always had a hard time with that, because there were so many great people that come through and you know, you just kind of figure out who they are, because when you mention names like Phil and Micah and yourself and Pat and Jen, and those are people that are still friends of mine to this day. So, you know, for business owners and young business owners out there, especially in these types of niche businesses, that is something to be heeded. You need to heed that, but there's always exceptions to the rules, you know yeah of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I can you know you build that foundation that you're working on right now and then you know, how you said in the beginning, it just felt right when we moved up here and I started this. I think that if the right opportunity presents itself, then it will happen right and the tools that you're building right now are fantastic tools to do and your business. I can see that you're becoming very successful at doing what you love.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, man. I really appreciate it, thank you.
Speaker 2:It means a lot. It means a lot. It means a lot to me because and not only me, to all of those people out there I just got an email from a gentleman who said that he had built a number of different businesses, generating over $35 million, and he was not happy. And there's something to be said for that too. Right, and when you truly find your happy place and you can make a living doing it, and you can raise a family and and truly find that thing, god, it's a it's it's it's it's rare, and and I'm really, really happy for you.
Speaker 1:No, thank you Steve, I agree, it's it's. It's really nice to hear it too, because I remember like I think I've told you this when I was younger and I will kind of watch you do your thing too I looked at you as like the business guy, you're like the business owner guy, big deal. So it's kind of cool to talk about these things and whatnot and how things unfold, and a full circle moment. I agree with you 100 hundred percent. I think everybody should, should try, cause the way that I look at it is, for the most part, people have like some sort of most people have some sort of foundation in what they're doing for their career, whatever type of experience it is. And the only thing I can say to people is like you can always go back. Yeah, you can always go back to it. Always go back to it. Yeah, like I would rather. I'd rather fail. I'd know, know that I gave it a shot then then never do it at all, yeah, you know. So we're not here for very long.
Speaker 2:You might as well just give it a try, because you can always go back 100, 100, and that was part of the motivating factor for me to buy Chaudière in the first place. I um and it and it and it was linked to an experience I had about, oh, six years prior to six, maybe even seven or eight years prior to me buying the lodge in 2009. And, um, my mom at the time I was just out of high school, working in a sheet metal shop and making real good money, still living at home and mom's like Stephen, you've got to get out, you're making good money, You're not paying any rent and all you're doing is drinking your money away. And you know what. She wasn't far off the truth. She was exaggerating a little bit, as you know what she wasn't far off the truth. She was exaggerating a little bit, as, as you know, when mothers get riled up, they, they do.
Speaker 2:But I was partying on weekends and I was making good money and I wasn't paying rent. And, uh, she's like and I just got back from college, I, I finished college and so this would have been in like the late 90s and she said you got to do something with your money. And I was like, okay, so I decided I was going to buy a cottage back then and this was before any real boom and I found a cottage on Big Bald Lake, which is in the Kawarthas. It's a big bay at the top, at the north end of Pigeon, by Bob.
Speaker 1:Cajun.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, and it was one acre, it was drive-to, it had potable water, so it had a well and all of the things that I needed, so that the down payment was going to be 5% because you needed to have year round road access, potable water, um, so it would be considered a house, not a recreational property. And they were asking now this might surprise you, you, but in the Kawarthas at that time they were asking $55,000 for this property. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And at the time I was like, oh my god, $55,000. So anyway, long story short, I ended up being a kid and telling the real estate agent that I want these fishing lures written in the deal, and I want this, and I want that, and I want this, and I want that, and, and, and, uh, you know that gold fork in the in the thing. I want that, and, uh, I put an offer in at fifty thousand,000 and they come back the next day. And they said I thought they were going to come back with a counter offer, but he said, sorry, they got an offer for 52,000 firm and they sold it. And I lost that and I looked around. I never did find another cottage that fit the mold, and, and moving on ahead by a few years. Uh, in 2000, and uh and uh one, I bought my first house in Shelburne for 154, no, 179,000. Brand new build. Yeah, um and uh, and I didn't buy that cottage.
Speaker 2:Well, melissa and I got married in 2004. So this would have been a couple of years before we got married. We were, um, I was fishing, uh, bass tournaments. No, no, this is just after, because I was fishing bass tournaments. And I started fishing bass tournaments right after the last cull, which was that television show that Anjan and Reno did in 2004. So this was probably 2005.
Speaker 2:We were in Bob Cajun, melissa and I, and I was pre-fishing because we had made the classic for the Bass Mania Tour. Right, glenn Berry was my bass partner and I said, okay, I'm going to go and I'm going to pre-fish Cameron Lake, because Cameron was day three for the balsam. It was balsam for two days for the classic, yeah, and then Cameron for the third day. So we went in and we were fishing Cameron Lake and and um, we, uh, and this was a week's holidays. This is what I did with Melissa. We went free fishing, I fished and she was on the front of the boat, cool, so we went into Bob Cajun for ice cream one day and we walked out of this wee ice cream shop I looked across the road and there's the real estate agent office that I was going to, you know, six years, five years prior to this moment, and and I thought, oh, maybe, maybe there's a cottage out there for me, thinking, you know, yeah, they're probably more than $50,000, but yeah, you know, maybe.
Speaker 2:So we walked in and there was an older gentleman in his, you know, late 60s, early 70s, sitting behind the behind the front desk with his feet up reading a newspaper. I walked in, I said good day, sir, and he looked over his glasses at me and he said how are you doing today, son? I said pretty good, pretty good, listen, I'm just looking for a piece of property. It doesn't have to be anything Like, I just want waterfront on like big bald lake area. And I'm thinking back to when I had this opportunity and he said, son, if you don't have 350 to $400,000, don't even waste my time. And I was like $350,000, $400,000?
Speaker 2:While houses in Shelburne at the time were selling for like a total detached home was like $210,000. Was like $210,000. So they were that $50,000 property that I looked at in six years had gone up to the point where it was like triple, almost triple the cost of houses in Shelburne. I was like, oh my God, I couldn't sleep for months. I'm like, oh, you are such a stupid Like, why didn't you buy that? Yeah, I shouldn't ask for the lures. Yeah, wow, and that was one of the things that went through my head. I was stupid. Them stupid lures cost me that cottage.
Speaker 2:And that experience was the experience that gave me the courage to go out and actually buy the lodge. And it goes back full circle to your comment about you've got to try. And thinking about losing out on that opportunity when I was buying the lodge was one of the things that gave me that courage, because I said to myself I do not want to go into the winter of my life thinking what if? Thinking what if I had have done it. And I wanted to know. And I come to the realization and I said to myself, yeah, I'm 33. I'm still fairly young. I'm going to. I mortgaged my house. I mortgaged my parents' farm. I borrowed money from loan well, they're not loan sharks, they were mortgage brokers but at 10% and $35,000 for the right to borrow their money. But I am either going to become independently wealthy or I'm going to go bankrupt, and you know what I'll just start over.
Speaker 2:And the time to do this kind of stuff honestly is when you're young, is when you're young.
Speaker 2:There's people out there that are my age and older who are getting into this type of business, and that's okay.
Speaker 2:But what I would say to all of you out there that are my age and older who are getting into this type of business, and that's okay, but what I would say to all of you out there listening, you better have a great backing financially, you better be able to manage people and you better want to work.
Speaker 2:Because I thank God every day, now that I'm 50, that I didn't decide to jump into a show to air now because it's. I'm not saying it's impossible for somebody to do it now, um, and it may and it it now and it may be easier if you've got the financial resources to do it. But understand that jumping into a full out lodge like I did, especially one that's depreciated to a point where it needs work, be ready, call me, call me, let me know that you're going to jump into something like this and I'll let you know what I've experienced. Yeah, for sure, it's something that it's um, it's something that, that, that, um, it's a wonderful, wonderful way of life, but there's a lot of shit you got to know, oh yeah, so many moving components you have.
Speaker 1:Uh yeah, so many things to be aware of for sure I can't imagine.
Speaker 2:And so many ways to do it.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, for sure, yeah, and there's like, definitely there I would imagine there's an element of trial by fire. No matter how well prepared you are, for sure and like you have to, it's better to learn at least I try to learn from people that have done the thing that I'm trying to do. I know what I mean, right? So it's always good to have a mentor like that, but I good to have a mentor like that, but I, I, I love the, I I love the idea of it, I love, I love going, like the idea of staying at lodges. I, I love that. I miss that. Yeah, um, there's something very peaceful about it, very like and whatnot.
Speaker 2:But now, well, you know, maybe there's a business model for you that, um, that doesn't include owning a lodge, but it includes, you know, taking your clients to lodges around and guiding for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, for sure there has been a little bit of that. I mean, I help some like cottage rental, like cottage rentals around like the area where I'll recommend guests to stay and whatnot, and there's a network of different lodges around here that I I try and help out and we try and help each other out and whatnot. So I'm just genuinely, I'm just happy to be involved with the industry. Still, you know, I'm just happy that I don't have to put on a button-up shirt anymore and dress pants.
Speaker 2:I'm good yeah yeah, yeah, good, yeah. Well, on that note, jake, how can people get a hold of you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, all my info is on my, first and foremost, my website. It's monkworksfishingca. Instagram handles just monkworksfishing, facebook is monkworksfishing and I Instagram handles just monkworksfishing, facebook is monkworksfishing and I'll have all my contact information there my cell phone, email, all that stuff. I do a little bit of everything up here and, yeah, it's a place that, more importantly, to like in Ontario as a whole from the fishing community, because it's so far sometimes it doesn't get thought of immediately right, uh, to like in Ontario as a whole from the fishing community, because it's so far, sometimes get gets like it doesn't get thought of immediately Right, but it's, it's a, it's, it's a great area, um, even like some of I, I, I I have a lot of um clients from the States that visit here. It's very easy to get to from, from that sense of it, and it's I love it.
Speaker 2:I love to share it with people more than yeah, yeah, well, folks, and listen, um, jake is, um is a wonderful guy. I've known him for a long time and um, for anybody out there looking to share an amazing outdoor experience, I can honestly say that this guy has it going on and has the resources to really show you a great experience of the Algoma region. And yeah, I threw the Algoma region in there for you, carol, and don't hesitate to look him up up Facebook all of those places he mentioned. Um, but, uh, this is uh, this, unfortunately, is the time that, uh, that, uh, I've got to tie things up and uh, um, I want to thank Lakeside Marine up in Red Lake. They are a wonderful supporter of the show and, uh, and if you're ever in that area and need anything, reach out, give them a ring. I also want to thank all of you for getting to this point and in the show and listening and supporting it means so much to us here at Diaries and the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network. Thank you so much. Like, subscribe, leave comments wherever you can, and you can also reach out to me at steven at fishincanadacom and leave any comments there and I'll tell you again.
Speaker 2:We've got some big things going on over at fishincanadacom with the giveaways. There are some really big ticket items coming up here, folks, so you've got to keep on checking that out and get your name in the hat for those. And I do want to say that I'm very excited and I wish that I could get in on these deals and night-night out there to my little buddy, nixon and folks. You all know he listens to us when he goes to sleep and he sent me a wee note the other day. I'm going to reach out and see if Nixon minds if I put it on the air here for all of you to hear. So on, that note thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner. Stories of the North.
Speaker 3:I'm a good old boy of Diaries of a Lodge Owner. Stories of the North.
Speaker 2:I'm a good old boy, never meanin' no harm.
Speaker 3:I'll be all you ever saw, been railin' in the hog since the day I was born, Bendin' my rock stretchin' my line. Someday I might own a lodge, and that'd be fine, I'll be making my way, the only way I know how.
Speaker 2:Working hard and sharing the north With all of my pals. Well, I'm a good old boy, I bought a good old boy, I buy the lodge and live my dream. And now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hi everybody. I'm Angelo Viola and I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's Favorite Fishing Show, but now we're hosting a podcast that's right Every Thursday.
Speaker 4:Angelo and I will be right here in your ears, bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio.
Speaker 2:Hmm, Now what are we going to talk about for two hours every week?
Speaker 4:Well, you know there's going to be a lot of fishing. I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors, from athletes.
Speaker 1:All the other guys would go golfing Me and Garth and Turk and all the Russians would go fishing.
Speaker 4:To scientists.
Speaker 5:Now that we're reforesting. And all that To scientists, to chefs. And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you are. Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside.
Speaker 4:Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3:As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Ouellette and I was honoured to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal use by Indigenous peoples all over the globe.
Speaker 3:After nearly a decade of harvest use, testimonials and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of the strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places and meet the people. That will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. Find Under the Canopy now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.