THANKS for doing that
A podcast CELEBRATING people and ideas that make this world a better place by exploring the things we do, the reasons we do them, and why IT MATTERS.
THANKS for doing that
Swinging for More: Building Community Through Skylark Golf with Steven and Ally Wright
“We want people to golf more. Golf better. And golf in community.” – Steven Wright
"Just because you love something doesn’t mean it fits the life you want. Choose your work with your values in mind.” – Alli Wright
What happens when a love for golf, a heart for people, and a dream of flexibility come together? Skylark Golf.
In this episode, Heather sits down with Ally and Steven Wright, founders of Skylark Golf—Northern Colorado’s first membership-based Trackman golf experience. They share the story behind launching this indoor golf community, balancing entrepreneurship and family life, and what it means to “golf more, golf better, and golf together.”
Whether you’re a lifelong golf sicko or simply golf-curious, this warm, honest, and insightful conversation will leave you inspired to take the next step in your own dreams—and maybe even swing a club.
💡 Topics We Cover
- What a Trackman experience actually is—and why it’s a game-changer
- “Golf sickos,” zombie-targeting games, and making golf fun for kids and newcomers
- How Skylark builds community (not just swings)
- The balance of launching a business as a married couple with three kids
- Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: from nap breaks to EOS systems
- Why your dream should serve your life—not the other way around
- Favorite reads, dream drinks, and 24 hours in San Diego
📚 Resources Mentioned
- What the Heck is EOS? by Gino Wickman
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- My First Million podcast
📍 Skylark Golf
Website: skylarkgolf.com
Instagram: @skylarkgolf
🎉 Now enrolling Founding 40 Members at a discounted rate! Email Steven at steven@skylarkgolf.com to try it out.
Catch more of the story @thanks.for.doing.that.podcast!
Hey there. You are listening to. Thanks for doing that. A ah, podcast celebrating people and ideas that make this world a better place. I am Heather Winch, your host and chief enthusiast, and I'm on a mission to bring you conversations that encourage, inspire and delight. So stay tuned for another episode where we explore the things we do, the reasons we do them, and why it matters. Welcome back. Today I am joined by Stepven and Alli Wright, and they are the visionaries and owners behind Skylark Golf, Northern Colorado's first and only member based trackman golf Experience. And they have set out to help golf sickos get more playtime, hone their skills, and build a community to share the joy with. And you might be listening today thinking that's cool, but I m am not a golfer and I'm actually not either. But I am curious about the sport and I'm curious about what the process of launching this resource into our community has looked like. So for those reasons, Alli and Steven, thank you so much for joining me today. I would love to kick off our conversation with a bit about you and what life looks like for you right now.
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, thanks, Heather. Thanks for having us on. I'm Steven, my wife is Alli.
>> Alli Wright:Hi.
>> Steven Wright:And, what life looks like right now. Well, we launched this business middle, of April, so pretty new business owners. we have three small children. Seven. Three and one. And, Allie, on top of helping out with Skylark, also is a PA in several of the UC health emergency department. So maybe you've seen her, maybe you haven't if you live in Fort Collins. but that's kind of life in a nutshell.
>> Heather Winchell:Very cool. Okay, so I have to admit that even as I introduced you, there's a couple of these terms that I'm going to need you to unpack for me. And the first is what does it mean that you offer a trackman experience?
>> Steven Wright:Yeah. So Trackman is the leading launch monitor kind of in the golf industry. And so Trackman is the technology, the equipment that when somebody comes to our facility and they swing a club and hit a ball, the radar picks up every little piece of data at the moment of impact of their swing to know exactly how far it goes, how much spin was on that ball. you know, did it go left, did it go right? However that ball would normally react if you were just hitting out on a real golf course, the trackman radar is able to pick up that information right away in that split second, from when you hit that ball. So Trackman, in essence is Just the technology provider that we're using for our simulators and they happen to be, you know, the best in the business, kind of by far. they were the first to market several, several years ago. and they continue to be, you know, really top of the line. A lot of the professional golfers use their equipment U and trackman even sponsors, sponsors the PGA Tour. So if you watch, really if you ever watch golf on the weekends, you will have seen the trackman logo and name and seen some, maybe even some of the golf ball tracers after people hit on, on a real course you can kind of Trackand technology will be used to, to show where that ball is going in the air and where it's going to end up landing. So just one of the, the top technology providers in the golf simulator space.
>> Heather Winchell:So is the sensor in the ball? Is the sensor in the club?
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, all great questions. The sensor, the radar, sits at the top of what we call our cages. So it's mounted just over 10ft above where a golfer is goingna take their swing. People use their own clubs, their own balls, so they don't need anything special from a club or a ball standpoint. They just have to be kind of lined up underneath that radar and then the radar is able to pick up their shot with any club in their golf bag.
>> Heather Winchell:Very cool. The second term that I would love to hear you guys speak to is the term golf sickos. I had never heard that before and I'd love to know what that means.
>> Steven Wright:I really want Alli to have to answer this cause she doesn't love the term just means people who love golf, they just, they're crazy about it. They're kind of psychotic about it, potentially. People who play a ton but certainly want to play more, they're watching it on the weekends. They know who the best players in the world are. They have an understanding, of their own golf game. Whether it's a quality golf game or a poor one like my own. You at least kind of know the different aspects of your game. So yeah, some who loves the game, you know, maybe in your world it'more like, you know, just a podcast. Siko who just listens to podcasts all day long and can't get enough content into their brain.
>> Heather Winchell:Sure, sure.
>> Alli Wright:There's been some debate over the use of this term because I feel like it's weird, but Steven is entrenched in the golf community and assures me that it's a normal term.
>> Steven Wright:She'd much rather use something like Avid golfers or golf enthusiasts. So that's a pretty good comparison there.
>> Heather Winchell:Okay, so, you know, we were chatting a bit before this, but I would just love to hear more about how Skylark came to be. Like, you know, you said that you are more of a golfer than Alli. Maybe Allie's getting into it. But how did this idea start for you? When did you decide that this was something you wanted to do as part of your work or like what you offered to the community?
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, so probably about 15 to 18 months ago, we started to take some serious steps forward with this particular idea. I think for a long time I wanted to do something, build something for myself or our family. Didn't ever really know what it was, honestly, and with my background, thought that it would probably be something more in the digital space, you know, some sort of Internet based business. but as we did more research, a friend of ours was doing similar research in South Carolina on the same type of business, kind of a members based golf simulator business. And so we were sort of doing some parallel research. And I feel like it was just kind of a slow thing. We just kept doing research, we kept taking some next steps. And eventually, you know, probably around this time last year, late summer, we decided, hey, we're gonna give this a shot. Started talking to some people in Fort Collins about commercial real estate space. And we just kind of kept taking one small step and here we are. We tried to launch in the fall. one of the spaces we looked at didn't quite work out, so we had to make a quick pivot, found this new space that we'in probably November, signed a lease in December and got the property in January and spent three months renovating it, passing inspections. And we got open on April. I think it was 17th.
>> Alli Wright:Yeah, somewhere around.
>> Heather Winchell:Very cool.
>> Alli Wright:I feel like Steven is very entrepreneurial, but he's also like a very cautious and calculated person. And those things don't always go together. starting something has been kind of a dream of his. And this one just made so much sense once we started looking at the numbers and even just the need and the community that there's so many golfers and so little options that it's made a lot of sense and came together.
>> Steven Wright:In a lot of ways. I look at Fort Collins as both golf crazed but also golf deprived. And what I mean by that is there's just so many people who love the game in northern Colorado. one way that's super is that it's incredibly difficult to find a tee time to play golf at any of our public courses, unless you do it seven to ten days in advance, it's just extremely challenging to find times to play. and then in the winter time, which, you know, six months out of the year at least, you can't play outdoor golf here. There are some other indoor places even in Fort Collins and in northern Colorado. And again, without doing a good bit of kind of advanced research and trying to figure out, you know, five to eight days in advance, you just aren't then gonna have a chance to play. And so I think that we think the demand is here for this exact thing. And, the members that we're getting early on, I think are showing that we've gotten so many comments about, you know, we've wanted something like this forever. This is perfect. Exactly what we're looking for. Or I've thought of this. I wish we would have done it, you know, and we were getting that a lot. And this business is not a unique idea in the US or certainly in the world. These indoor golf facilities, I think in South Korea are like Starbucks is here in the United States. They are all over the place. And it's just ingrained in culture in other parts of the world.
>> Heather Winchell:Yeah, but it sounds like it is a really unique offering. I mean, I know I said that it is the first Trackman experience in northern Colorado, which I guess given the large golfing community we have, is a bit surprising, like you said, but it sounds like what you guys offer is way more data. Correct. Like it's not just an opportunity to play, but it's an opportunity to get a lot of feedback about how you're doing.
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, and so we're not exactly the first Trackman facility. There are others, even in Fort Collins, who use the same technology.
>> Alli Wright:I saw an earlier version of it.
>> Steven Wright:The biggest difference between us and them is that membership part.
>> Heather Winchell:So.
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, there are other places in northern Colorado who offer similar technology. A lot of those places are attracting golfers who are also coming for an entertainment aspect. And by that I mean food and drink. One of the things that sets us apart is, yes, we offer top line data, and there are some other places that will do that here in Fort Collins. But what we're offering is an experience where it's about the golf. People are coming for the golf. We're trying to provide a great experience for them. And we offer complimentary drinks and snacks, non alcoholic drinks and snacks. We have a couple of TVS in there. We have ways to, listen to music. We can make it feel nice and special to our members. But really it's a golf first experience, not a golf and something else experience.
>> Heather Winchell:Gotcha. Okay, that's really helpful. So for people like myself who are not golfers, haven't really, you know, given it a shot yet, what would you say to nudge us towards giving it a try?
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, there are so many ways just to come in and have fun swinging a club in a very like low impact, very friendly confines type of way. You know, I was playing golf this morning with a couple of people and if anybody were to hit a shank or a bad shot, you know, they're having to walk over into the weeds or the woods and maybe into near the water and go try to find their ball. At skylark, whether you're great and you're hit in the middle of the club every time and it's going 300 yards or you, you hit a few shanks here and there, the ball is staying inside that cage. And so you're not going to have to go find a ball. You're not going to have to go, searching for something that you hit, you know, 100 miles offline. So that's a fun way to do it. And then there's also just so many little games. We have our seven year old in there all the time and hes not often playing an actual round of golf or really caring about the data around his golf swing. What he'looking at is oh, Im'm hitting a golf ball and then this figure on the screen is launching an arrow and it's catching zombies. So there's just fun little games that people can play. They're still getting to hit a golf ball, swing a club. But it's a really low stress environment and a lot of fun along the way.
>> Alli Wright:I think it's great for kids and it's not a bar like a lot of these other venues. So it's a great place for kids to come and work on things. Or if you're trying to get your kid into golf. But also if you wanted to have a party and have this as a fun activity, you could rent out the space as well. Or just a girl's night and you could go and there's no one else really judging you or watching per say, you would have the space to yourself.
>> Heather Winchell:Alli, you said something that makes me curious because it is membership based. But am I to understand that people that aren't necessarily members could also utilize the space?
>> Alli Wright:Yeah. So if you're a member, you can come whenever you want, you can bring guests. We Also do have the option to rent it out even if you weren't a member. If you had a corporate event or a birthday party, there is the option to rent the space out as well.
>> Heather Winchell:Okay, so I know you said that people are coming for the golf, but I think from even looking at your website, I understand that you guys are trying to have a community, you know, kind of build a community aspect. So I guess what are some of the values that you are holding as you move forward in that, you know, you said one of them was golf first. Like it's, it's kind of no nonsense, it's about the game. What are some other values you would say?
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, so I think as we were building this and got closer to launching it, three things sort of came to mind. One, what do we want this to be for people? What do we want to provide? And number one is we want people to golf more. And that can mean a whole lot of things to a whole lot of people. We just want to provide an opportunity to get in there and hit the golf ball more than you currently can do. Because golf can be, one, fairly expensive and two, fairly time consuming, A round is typically going to take about four hours. If you're playing 18 holes outside, this eliminates that you can play the equivalent of 18 holes in 45 to 60 minutes. Or you can just go to one of our virtual driving ranges and hit a bunch of golf balls and get a little bit of a workout in and have a ton of fun doing that. The second part of it, and this is where the data piece comes in, is we want people to golf better. So we want them to golf more and we want them to golf better. I, think just like with anything, the more reps you get, the better you get at something. Then you add on the data piece and you can see exactly how your ball flies, how far it goes. Some things that you need to change, there's a little bit of video within the trackman system itself. And then we'll have the ability down the road to add some other video components too, so people can actually watch themselves swing. so the data and just the repetition is going to. Helpfully, our members play better golf when they go out and play outdoors. We're not trying to convince or convert people that indoor golf is better than outdoor golf. Like, we own the business, and I don't believe that myself. I'd still rather be outside and playing golf outdoors. But this is an opportunity again to do those first two things pretty well. And then that third piece is golf community. I think right now, 95% of our members are adults in the workforce. And with a lot of research and anecdotal evidence, it's just harder to make friends as an adult. And so golf can be a great way to bond with people through the game, whether it's finding a group of one or two or three other people that you get to play with all the time, or in my case, I've gotten to meet so many different people, 20 to 30 to maybe 50 people through the game, really, in this last couple of years. We want this to be a place that people aren't necessarily just come in and putting in their headphones and working on their own game or in their own little world, which does happen at times, which is great. Ultimately, we want people to come in and meet one another. We're go going toa host events, we're go going toa have leagues. We're to do things exclusively for our members to help build that community and hopefully that camaraderie. even today, this morning, I got to play golf with two of our members and one of their kids. And so I've gotten to know both those people. One's been a friend for a long time. One person I met through this business, and then they got to play golf together for the first time today. And hopefully, you know, they exchange numbers, and hopefully they get to play some more golf here down the road. So those are the three things were really, that would keep kind of top of mind. So golf more, golf better and golf community.
>> Heather Winchell:That's great. I really love that. Is the setup such that a person goes to that individually, or could two people play in one cage, like a game together, or how would that work?
>> Alli Wright:Yeah, so you could definitely have multiple people playing on one cage, depending how much time each person wanted. You could probably have four to eight people even on one cage at a time.
>> Heather Winchell:So would it be like a traditional setting where one person would take a turn, everybody else is kind of, you know, standing around talking like, ooh, ah, that was great shot. And then the next person goes. Or would they all golf simultaneously?
>> Alli Wright:so if you were all, you know, in caage, you and some of your buddies, it would be that kind of setup where you're taking turns hanging out in the chairs, watching each other, waiting for your turn. But you could also have multiple bays going, and an individual at each bay is also a possibility.
>> Heather Winchell:Like I said, I am very golf curious because I, you know, I mean, I host a podcast. I really enjoy talking to people, and golf strikes Me as the kind of sport that you can linger with people, you can have slow conversation. You're walking. If you're outside, you're walking. So it just. There's a lot of elements of it that I'm like, you know what? I think I would enjoy this even if I'm not good. I think I would enjoy the people aspect, the being outside aspect, and just kind of the leisurely pace. Maybe that's me completely misunderstanding what it's actually like to play a round of golf. But a couple of summers ago, I feel like I talked about golf a lot.
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, you're right. I mean, that's been my experience again, going back to just the number of people I've met, the number of friendships that have come now outside of the game. But the first interaction was on a golf course, or vice versa. You know, having friends for decades who, you know, one of our favorite things to do is to get together and play around the. Golf gives you an opportunity to catch up on. On life and at this stage, you know, see how our kids are doing, see how work is going for everybody. And certainly there's a lot of much deeper conversations that have happened out there, too, and then some that are just not deep and completely superficial and just a ton of fun. So there's room for all of it. The only thing really, that most people care about when you're on the course is that you play fast. That doesn't mean that you play well or you take few shots. It just means you get to your ball, you hit it, and you get to it again, and you hit it again quickly, as opposed to kind of dawdling around and lingering too much. But that. That makes it great. You know, I m. I said I'm. Alli makes fun of me because she says every golfer says that they're not very good at golf. I have a lot of data to tell me that I'm not very good at golf. But what's great about it is I can play with people who are way better than me. The way that golf is structured and even some of the scoring systems, it allows you to play on an even playing field and compete against people of all skill levels, which, for me, a former athlete, I played volleyball in college. Like, I just love that aspect of it right now because it gives me an opportunity to still compete at something I'm not great at yet, but something I'm getting better at and can compete with people who are even way better than me.
>> Heather Winchell:So kind of pivoting in our conversation, I'd Love to just kind of explore what it has looked like for you guys to enter into this venture together. You know, I can imagine that being a married couple starting a business has some unforeseen blessings and maybe even some challenges. I'd love to hear you guys speak to those.
>> Alli Wright:It's been great working together. I've really loved it. One of the reasons that we chose this business was that we wanted to be able to spend more time with our family, with our kids. And I think this is going to be a business that allows that and with each other. I feel like we're a good team. Owning a business requires a lot of different hats. It's been cool to see Stepven thriving in that environment and just really enjoying his job and doing really well. I think we work together well. We each have different things that we're good at. Steven is putting more time towards the business than I am because I'm still working in medicine. But we do a lot together. I would say one of the challenges is that we have three small children that do require a lot of us. And, you know, if we want to have a weekly meeting together, that's something we have to fight for. But it's something we have been able to do. Just, a very, yeah, focused weekly business meeting. But it can be challenging some weeks with all the little kids.
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, even today we had it on the calendar, but we, after another few meetings that we had were like, what if we just bump this to tomorrow so Alli can go nap for 30 minutes? so, yeah, there's a lot of flexibility in that. But I think since we've launched the business, I think we've been able to do that. We have actually had, that meeting every single week. I think we just learn so much about what each other's thinking about the business in those meetings. But then we were able to take away so many actionable things and just get a lot of stuff done, and we know exactly what each person is responsible for. Before we meet again that next week, we do work pretty well together. I think we've, know we've had other roles where we've been pretty interconnected. I worked for our church for a while, leading a college ministry, and that was effectively a second job for Ali as well as while I was the one, you know, getting paid to do that and doing more of the work again, she was still sacrificing a lot of her nights and weekends to come alongside me and kind of both be a bit of a cheerleader and supporter of me. But Also getting her hands dirty and doing a lot of that work. We've been overseas several times, both short term and long term. And so that takes a lot of planning and execution and being able to pivot and deal with unforeseen things. u. So we've had a lot of experience even leading up to this, as I'm saying some of these things for the first time. But yeah, it's been great working with her, and I think we do work well together. I appreciate this. What feels like sometimes blind faith, she puts it in me, but I am appreciative of it. And yeah, it's been exciting.
>> Heather Winchell:That's really great. And I guess what advice would you guys have? You know, maybe for others, whether it be a couple or an individual that. That have a dream of something they'd like to start and just need some encouragement to make it a reality.
>> Steven Wright:One thing Alie said a second ago that I think ties in here a little bit too was that we're trying to build this business in a way that really serves our family. We want the business to serve our members first and foremost, but the business itself, we want it to serve our family, and we don't want to be a slave to our business. we're trying to be pretty intentional right now to set up systems and processes where the business can mostly run without us. We were able to stress test that a little bit last week. I was gone for three days. We're getting ready to go on a vacation for six days. Then we got one later in the summer that we're going to be onne for 12 days. So we're going to know pretty quickly here if we're doing very well at setting this up to be able to run without us. But we'll know a lot more by the end of the summer. But I say all that to say that I would encourage people to make sure as they're jumping in, like, is this goingna be the thing that takes, you know, 70 to 80 hours of your week every week, or are you building something that can serve you as opposed to you just serving it? That's not important, as important to everybody. But for us in our stage of life, having worked, you know, we've been working for a couple decades now. We just wanted something that, that again, could free us up a little bit from what we have been doinge before.
>> Alli Wright:You jump into something, just, I would make sure it aligns with your values and what you want your life to look like. Like, just because you are good at cooking doesn't mean you should buy a food truck and start running it, because that might not be the day to day life that you want just because it's something that you love and are good at, you know? So thinking about it beyond just the work aspect, but like, what do I value in my life outside of work too?
>> Heather Winchell:Yeah, that is really important. Like, not only is this fulfilling and do I enjoy it, but is it sustainable? Is it, you know, long term, healthy? How is it impacting other meaningful things in my life?
>> Steven Wright:I heard this recently. It's not a new concept, but somebody just said you can just do things. And that's been a, little bit liberating for me because I did not grow up in an entrepreneurial community, even family community. Creating businesses and plowing forward with your ideas is relatively new to me. What I'm seeing is that we can just do something. We built this business in less than a year and we're giving it a shot. And maybe it works and maybe it doesn't. We're seven weeks in, so there's a lot of time, hopefully to figure out whether or not this is going to be successful. Regardless if it doesn't work, we'have learned a lot. If it is successful, we'll have learned a lot and had some success. That is just a big takeaway, because I find a lot of people, there's so many great ideas out there, much better ideas, much more meaningful and impactful ideas than giving people an opportunity to swing a golf club more often. So many people are just either unwilling or afraid a lot of times. And I would include myself in that. There's a lot of fear still that comes with this. But we've taken, taken a lot of big steps and now we just have no choice but to keep running this business that we've created. So it's been fun, but also, you know, yeah, it's been fun just to take that step and get to this point.
>> Heather Winchell:Yeah, yeah. And I really do think it's worth it. I really do think it matters. So good for you guys. Okay, so I guess, just, you know, one more question around this vein to encourage and maybe equip others, but are there any books, podcasts, other resources you would recommend to people as they seek to start their own business or run it?
>> Steven Wright:Well, I gave Ali a book report assignment before we did this all. Let her share.
>> Alli Wright:Yeah, so, I mean, my background is medicine, so Steven has been in the business world much longer and assigned me a book to read called what the Heck Is Eos? And it's just about so great. just a business operating system that we just is a way that we decided to run our business. It's how we have our weekly meetings and our goals. So instead of just kind of floating through life, it makes us very intentional about every step of the way, all of our goals and whatnot.
>> Steven Wright:That is certainly one that's helped us like practically for our business. And it gives us common language to talk about and things that we can share on the business side of things. A way to back to our weekly meetings. Something thats helping us take steps every day, every week to reach the goals we have for ourselves. I listen to way more content than anyone probably should. Half of that is sports content and half of that is business content. For me, there's nothing. Well, maybe a couple specific that I listen to. One is called My First Million. It'not for everybody, but what I love about it is that again, it's just a bunch of these people who have just done stuff and some of it, like, is really cool and I can get behind. Some of it are businesses I'd never even consider. Some of them are businesses I don't even like. But regardless, it's just a bunch of inspiring stories of people who started with an idea or pitched investors and got a bunch of money or just created really cool things that you and I are now using every single day in our lives. I just love that from the idea generation standpoint. Again, just seeing so many people who have started, have plowed forward, have failed, have started again. And, you know, my first million is in reference to money, typically with these folks. So they've all been successful in some way. But it's, for me, it's been a great place just to kind of hear all these ideas and then gain some inspiration from that and be okay with taking some of these steps that we've taken.
>> Heather Winchell:Yeah. Okay, so what else can we tell the listener about Skylark and its offerings? And where can people find out more?
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, the best way to find out more is go to skylargolf.com or you can follow us on Instagram@skylargolf. Those are the two places that we're putting most, if not all, of our information. what we have going on right now is we're still in the middle of what we'calling our founding 40. We've been running a promotion to get our first 40 members at a discounted rate. So right now, our first 40 members can become members at Skylark for $195 a month. once we get to that 40 number, that monthly price will go up to$240 a month. And right now, at the time of this recording, we're at 22 members looking for our last 18 to finish up that founding 40 promotion. So if you're interested right now, probably between now and the middle end of July is going to be your best time to take advantage of that promotion. And if you just want to come try it out, if you aren't sure, hey, like, I don't know if I want to commit almost $200 a month to a golf membership, then just come check it out. Our phone number is on the website. It comes straight to my phone. You can email me, Steven, that's S T v e n skylarkgolf.com and I'm just happy to let you come in if you just want to come check it out. Come check it out if you want to play for a little while. We're offering ridiculously cheap hourly rentals. Our goal is not to make hourly rental revenue. Our goal is to bring in members. And so we just want people to come see it right now. And happy to do that in whatever way makes sense for you.
>> Heather Winchell:All right, And I will definitely link those things in the show notes as well. But guys, I really enjoy ending my interviews with just some fun questions, get to know you a bit more. So the first fun question I have for you is you guys have been surprised with, ah, a full day to hang out and do whatever you want. So like a date day. Okay, you can leave the kids at home there with grandma or a, trusted sitter, something like that. How would you spend that day?
>> Steven Wright:All right, so I'm. When I read this, I took this as 24 hours. I have 24 hours. Not just, you know, daylight.
>> Heather Winchell:Take it. It's.
>> Steven Wright:We had it. We'd find like an evening flight and we'd fly to San Diego, get there, say, the night, and then you wake up with the sunrise, hit a few of our favorite spots in San Diego, have breakfast, have lunch, you know, just bop around the ocean for a little while and then get on a flight to come back. You know, plenty of easy direct flights from Denver to San Diego. And that's how I'd want to spend 24 hours.
>> Alli Wright:It's funny because my first thought when I read the question too was also, where can we go? I do like northern Colorado, but, we both also really like to travel. But realistically, if we didn't have a thousand bucks to throw away on a fun adventure, probably hiking, hanging out enjoying just beautiful nature around Colorado.
>> Heather Winchell:Okay. But if you were in San Diego, I think that's such a fabulous plan, such a fabulous way to spend 24 hours. What kind of food are you hitting up? like, what are you, like, seafood or what's.
>> Steven Wright:You would definitely find. We don't trust Colorado seafood being very landlocked. We've lived in coastal states before and have an appreciation for good seafood. So we don't typically get into that here in Colorado, but probably some seafood and we'd find some tacos and we might even combine the two and get some shrimp tacos.
>> Alli Wright:I feel like getting some Mexican food or even there's a lot better Asian food options there. So I don't know, we would maybe eat a lot, it sounds like.
>> Heather Winchell:Okay, so what book or books could you reread every year?
>> Alli Wright:well, the first one that comes to mind for me is the ruthless elimination of Hurry. Have you ever heard of that book?
>> Heather Winchell:Oh, yes.
>> Alli Wright:I just feel it's a really good reminder of what's really important in life. Like what should our relationship with technology be, both for our kids, but also like, as an individual. And it just, it feels like something I need reminded of frequently.
>> Heather Winchell:Yeah, same here.
>> Steven Wright:That's a hard one. Heather. I don't know if I like your question, but I'm just kidding. I find myself like, I do read a lot, but I don't reread a lot. There was a book I read, an old classic book I read maybe eight years ago called east of Eden by John Steinbeck. And I'm like, you know what? I think I could reread that often. And then when I went to reread it, I reread it maybe five years after I read it the first time. And we went from zero kids to maybe two kids at the time I reread it. And I don't know, but it hit me differently five years later. And I'm like, you know, I don't know that I need to read this book anymore. that was the answer until I actually reread it. And then it didn't hold up for me like I thought I would. The other one I would want to read. And I read it. This might be 15 or 20 years ago and maybe especially now, like, you know, running this membership based business, but Dale Carnegie's how to Win Friends and Influence People. And I just remember, you know, thinking about like one remember people's names. It's the sweetest sound that they ever hear is their own name, you know, Remember that? And just like smile and say hi to people and be kind and like, you end up just making so many friends just by doing, all these little things that are like all no brainers but like, people just don't do well. And so that was one that I have not reread. But again, 20 years later, I feel like some of those lessons have stuck with me.
>> Heather Winchell:I know you said that Skylark does have drink offerings. If you guys were going to serve a specialty drink. And one was called the Stepen and one was called the Alley. Something inspired by each of you. What. So, Stepen, what would Ally's drink be and what would be in it? And Allie, what would Steven's drink be and what would be in it?
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, so just for the record, we don't serve any alcohol. We can't do that. But we do have all sorts of other non alcoholic things. But if we, you know, just bypass the rules for one night. And I created this drink I, you know, we can call the Alley. I decided to call it the Wave Rider. Going back to Sango or think, you know, maybe Hawaii some. Definitely a beachy type of drink. I don't know how all this stuff works together, but it's gonna be pineapple, some pineapple juice, some, some bourbon, some muddled, like acai berries in the bottom of that thing with some mint. And then the rim is going to be lined with like some coarse sea salt, you know, just to really make it feel like we have that, the Pacific Ocean going on.
>> Alli Wright:I like it. That sounds good.
>> Heather Winchell:it does sou good.
>> Alli Wright:Mine for Steven is basically an Old Fashioned made with Kentucky bourbon and with cherries in it because he likes cherries. And I would call it the Old Stevie instead of an Old Fashioned.
>> Heather Winchell:Oh, I love it. You guys, you, gotta find some way to have some kind of party where you can like have these drinks. They sound amazing.
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, I gotta. We gotta try this out.
>> Heather Winchell:Well, now I would like to invite you guys to give your own shout out. Who would you want to tell? Thanks for doing that and why.
>> Alli Wright:So I mean, I would say our life group, which is like our, our small group from our church. They have helped us every step along the way for our business. I mean, they've been so supportive. They love us, they love our kids, they watch our kids, they painted walls, you know, bought us cute golf ball shaped plates, everything. So I feel the most gratitude towards them and also to you, Heather, for just giving us the chance to talk on here. It's been fun.
>> Heather Winchell:Yeah, yeah.
>> Steven Wright:For me, I mentioned earlier, you know, I didn't really grow up with anything business related on my mind. And if anything, business was sort of kind of an icky term. Like, I don't know why I thought that, but, it just. I didn't have any desire to be a quote unquote businessman. again, as a kid was just, I don't know, all of the whatever negative stereotypes there are around businesses or business people. I probably had those. And so it wasn't really until my late 20s when I got introduced to business and just saw one the good it can do and the impact it can have. And then also the way that businesses can set up your family for the long term if done well. And even if they're just, you know, they don't have to be crazy successful businesses. Just, just nice businesses that can really provide for your family in a great way. So I'll shout out the person who really introduced me to that was, my first boss in the business world. His name'matt. He owned a little digital marketing agency at the time. I got in there and got to do a lot of things really quickly. He gave me a lot of responsibility that I probably wasn't qualified for, but gave it to me anyway. He started to let me travel with him to different conferences and I got to see more businesses and meet more people and just see how this kind of game of business was played in all sorts of different ways. And since then have just really been fascinated with it. Most of my background from my time with him has been, on the sales and marketing side, just seeing ways to be creative and ways to grow things from nothing to something. I've got to watch him have a bunch of really successful businesses and start with this one small digital marketing agency that he grew and sold and then now doing other fun things throughout the country in the hospitality space. So we'still good friends. We keep in touch quite a bit. Just want to shout him out for giving me that first opportunity in the business world and getting to really being a resource and asset for us to be where we are here too.
>> Heather Winchell:Yeah, that's great. I love just that, you know, Alli, what you spoke to and seeing your community, like really show up and be your community and support you guys in kind of every aspect of this endeavor. And then also stepven, just what you said about how this man kind of took you under his wing, gave you opportunity, challenged you and reframed what business could be, I think that I share. You know, you said, oh, Maybe it felt a little bit icky. And I think that there's a part of me that also felt that way towards business. But, you know, I'm even reminded of my conversation with Andrew Hendrickson, who you mentioned earlier, and just how he spoke to how healthy businesses are really, like, essential for a thriving community. Right. And just thinking about what somebody stewarding their business well, and the impact that has not only on your own family and your own family's ongoing stability and ongoing flourishing, but that of your community as well. So I do think that there are really beautiful ways that business is used for the greater good. And so I'm just really pleased to be able to speak with you guys and kind of showcase how you are seeking to do that in our community. So thank you, guys.
>> Steven Wright:Yeah, thank you. And, you definitely need, now that you're golf curious, as you say, you know, come and give it a shot, play around, bring the kids or whatever.
>> Alli Wright:Try it out.
>> Heather Winchell:Yeah. Well, you know, if we can ever get a date night, which, I'm hoping and praying will happen soon, maybe Joel and I can come in and do one of your, like, hourly things to just kind of steal it out, but that would be fun. But, guys, I don't know if you know this, but the way I end my show is actually by presenting you with a haiku that I've written just for you to kind of speak to why I wanted to have you on the show. And yeah, just to thank you for that. So I'm going to share that with you now. Sound good?
>> Steven Wright:Yeah. Speaking to my soul.
>> Heather Winchell:All right, here it is, guys. More than a golf club. Grow your game and share the joy. Thanks for that skylark. Thanks M for doing that. Is presented to you by the Aviary, a place for beholding and becoming. And thank you for joining us for todays episode. Before you go, I have a couple of invitations. If you found it meaningful, could I invite you to take 2 minutes to rate and review the show? I also invite you to help me create an upcoming episode of thanks for doing that. By nominating someone or suggesting a topic. Let's link arms. To call out the good and the beautiful that we see around us. Because I really believe that finding delight in our divided and difficult world could make all the difference.