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Main Street Reimagined Podcast
This is a podcast for dreamers, creators, developers, and entrepreneurs to learn, share, and be inspired to change your community through small business.
Main Street Reimagined Podcast
Episode 46: Preserving History Through Modern Hospitality: The Inns at 8th and Main Story
When Amy Smith was a young volleyball player traveling to away games, she'd always press her face against the bus window to catch a glimpse of two beautiful historic buildings on Main Street in McConnellsville, Ohio. Decades later, those same buildings would become her home and livelihood – The Inns at 8th and Main, a bed and breakfast that's helping bring vibrance to this village of 1,700 people.
What began as a "weekend project" for Dan and Amy quickly evolved into something far more significant. The 1835 stone house (originally a stagecoach tavern) and 1844 Morris House (with original pressed tin details from the family's tinsmithing days) now offer five unique suites where visitors experience hospitality in its purest form. Each morning, Dan dons his apron to prepare breakfast served on vintage china – always with dessert first – while Amy ensures every detail exceeds expectations.
Their signature touch? Percy the Flying Pig – a whimsical mascot appearing on custom wooden coasters that guests collect over repeat visits. This playful branding element perfectly captures their philosophy: "We make pigs fly" by creating extraordinary experiences in an unexpected location. But the true magic happens during what they call "the golden hour" after breakfast, when conversations flow and lasting connections form.
Perhaps most surprising was discovering their primary clientele wasn't weekend tourists but business travelers. When companies realized they could house European executives and meeting attendees in this charming setting rather than chain hotels in larger cities, the Smiths found themselves hosting guests who stay for weeks at a time. These visitors now support local restaurants, coffee shops, and boutiques – creating an economic ripple effect throughout McConnellsville.
After earning recognition as Ohio Magazine's "Best Hometown" for southeastern Ohio, this river town is experiencing a renaissance. From summer art walks and lavender festivals to historic locks reopening for river travel, McConnellsville demonstrates how authentic hospitality can transform not just individual businesses but entire communities.
Guest Links:
Website: www.facebook.com/innsat8thandmain
Main Street Reimagined:
Facebook: facebook.com/MainStreetReimagined
The Main Street Reimagined Podcast, Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqfkmF5bRH0od1d3iiYKs3oEn_gvMYk7N
Henry Development Group:
Facebook: facebook.com/henrydevelopmentgroup
Website: www.henrydevelopmentgroup.com
Developing News Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/33110524eb5c/developing-news
Luke Henry:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/luhenry
Facebook: facebook.com/luke.henry.148
#SmallTownBigDreams #HistoricHospitality #InnsAt8thAndMain #McConnellsvilleMagic #CharmingStays #MakingPigsFly #WhimsicalBranding #GoldenHourMoments #OhioGetaway #BoutiqueInns #HeartfeltHospitality #VillageRevival #FromDreamToDestination #HospitalityWithHeart #SmallBusinessRippleEffect #MainStreetRevival #TravelBackInTime #TinCeilingsAndTradition #DessertFirstAlways #FlyingPigWelcome #BnbWithSoul #PreservingHistory #ModernStagecoachStop #CommunityCatalyst #McConnellsvilleRevival
oh gosh, what's our gene going to look like? Oh my gosh. And I immediately have to snap myself out of it because I know it's going to be okay. It's going to take. As long as you do everything that you can do to make it be the best that it can be and be as authentic as possible, it's all going to take care of itself.
Speaker 2:This is the Main Street Reimagined podcast, a show for people ready to turn visions into realities and ideas into businesses. Hey, I start a movement, their ideas, their mindsets and their inspirations, as well as some of the highs and lows along the way. This is a place for dreamers, creators, developers and entrepreneurs to learn, share and be inspired to change your community through small business. Enjoy the show. Hey, friends, this is the Main Street Reimagined Podcast. I am Luke Henry and I am so glad that you joined us again this week for another episode. I'm excited for this one. I am thrilled to have in the studio today Dan and Amy Smith from McConnellsville, Ohio, so they were traveling and stopped to see me to return the favor. When we went down and visited them and just dropped in on a random Tuesday afternoon or something, and Amy was so hospitable, gave us the warmest tour and download of all the things going on in McConnellsville. So thanks so much for being here, guys.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. Sorry, we look a little tired and haggard.
Speaker 2:Hey you know you're like on vacation, which I understand you don't get very often in your line of work and we'll talk about that. But I'm thrilled that you came to spend the afternoon in Marion and so we just finished a walking tour of our downtown here talking about some of our, our projects and some things going on in Marion and what our journey has looked like. And you know lots of you know we really enjoyed our visit to McConnellsville.
Speaker 2:It's been I don't know, I think it was last spring probably around this time and my wife Lindsay and I came down and we had seen in Ohio Magazine. So McConnellsville earned a very nice award and that was what drew us to the area. So talk a little bit about that real briefly, will you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so last year we had the honor of being Ohio Magazine's best hometown for southeastern Ohio region and it was a wonderful honor and it's brought a lot of people through McConnellsville because of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean again, it worked to bring us in. So Ohio Magazine is a publication here, obviously in Ohio, and so Ohio Magazine is a publication here, obviously in Ohio.
Speaker 1:And they select each year five best hometowns in like five different regions of east, west and central. There you go, yeah.
Speaker 2:Five different regions in Ohio and McConnellsville, one for the southeast region, and it is that's a lovely, charming little downtown. There and right, nestled kind of on the edge of the downtown, is the inns at 8th and Main, which is your business. If folks have not been to McConnellsville and they are walking down the sidewalk and see this charming little corner like we did, what would they find if they walked in the front door?
Speaker 1:What would they find Dan?
Speaker 3:Well, they would find two historic homes, one we lovingly call the Stone House, which is all made out of sandstone a big two-story about a 5,000 square foot structure built in 1835.
Speaker 1:Which he did. A fleet of maintains yes.
Speaker 3:Right and beside it is another one built in 1844, which has gone through many changes.
Speaker 1:So the Stone House, we actually took it back to its original roots. It was actually built as a stagecoach and tavern house back in 1835.
Speaker 2:So cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the house next to it. The Morris House actually has roots tied to the Morris Hardware which is on Main Street, which is one of the I think it's like the third oldest family-owned hardware store still.
Speaker 2:Right. What generation are they? On Sixth, I think.
Speaker 1:Sixth. That's what I was thinking. Yeah, tom's on the sixth.
Speaker 2:Incredible.
Speaker 1:And the Morris house was actually built by the Morris family and it was built originally as a duplex and George and Margaret, the parents, lived on one side, their daughter Maria lived on one side and their daughter Maria lived on the other side and they were actually tensmiths before they started the hardware store, and so we have original press tin work on the house. So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gorgeous place. So it is today a bed and breakfast that Dan and Amy operate and just very cool. Tell a little bit about. You've got different rooms, kind of different's. A, it's a bed and breakfast, it's not an Airbnb. This is a, a real bed and breakfast. Dan dons the apron every morning and prepares a fresh breakfast, right and and so yeah it's quite an experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, we're a traditional bed and breakfast. We're traditional so much in the fact that Dan and I live on site. Originally we lived in the stone house, so we actually lived amongst our guests, and recently I guess it was about a year ago we moved over into the Morris house and kind of had a little bit more of our own space. But, um, we greet the guests when they come, we make sure they're situated, we make sure that they know where to go to eat, we make sure you know if they're looking for things to do, we're here to help basically be their private concierge service. Um, and then dan fixed a great, amazing breakfast. But with that, just like to know. Let everybody know that I know how to cook too.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, so how many, how many suites?
Speaker 3:in total were there five, five right okay, three of them in the stone house. Now we have three and a half. We just created a bonus room that the two upper suites whoever would lease it first. But if they need an extra bedroom, they got this bedroom they can rent and it doesn't have its own bathroom. They have to use whatever room. Rented that room as a bonus room, but it's unique. We just got it done, haven't rented it yet. That actually was our room.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I was going to say I don't remember that one, yeah it was actually our room, and I think when you were there, we actually had an assistant and keeper living in too. So we kind of changed all that.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And then in the Morris house it's a duplex, so on one side we live, and originally we had the antique stores. We unfortunately had to close that and then so Dan and I took over all that whole space. So it's kind of weird for us to go from a really tiny bedroom to a whole entire apartment and then on the other side we have two rooms upstairs and those are what we consider our extended stay rooms, because we do get a lot of guests in that come, especially business travelers that will stay for seven, eight, ten days at a time. We get some people that come back to visit friends and family, and COVID has changed a little bit how people travel and it's still kind of like that they don't like to stay at houses of families. It gives people more space. And then we actually do have a first-floor tenant. That we acquired when we got the buildings in Helen's in her late 80s.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:And so it's just kind of nice having her there, in case the rooms are empty for a little bit. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I have a lot of questions I want to dig into. Some I kind of think I know the answer to because we've talked before, but some I don't. I think I know the answer to that because we've talked before, but some I don't. But I'd like to start first for the people that are like starting to listen to this and thinking, gosh, I didn't know that people still own bed and breakfasts.
Speaker 2:And like, how in the world did they get to this point? Little bit and kind of talk about you know, some of your, your past history and what sort of led up to having this and this really being, you know, at least for Amy, you're you're pretty much full time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's pretty much dance full time when we travel. A lot of it is. We're always looking for experiences. So traditionally when we would travel, I used to travel a lot for business, as did Dan. He obviously didn't stay in the same places that I stayed in, because it was a different business type, but I stayed in a lot of B&Bs. I would stay in a lot of boutique hotels because that was the industry that I was in at the time. It was hospitality furniture and mine was more of that side. But that's not really how we. I mean, it wasn't one of those things that because we get guests all the time that say, oh, I'd love to be an innkeeper, that's not how this all happened.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we weren't looking to be innkeepers, no, it kind of came to us Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:The really cool, unique story of all this is that we're not from McConnell, mcconnellsville originally. We're from up north dance, from zanesville and from dresden, but my boys summered in mcconnellsville. They grew up in the summers because that's where their grandparent, their grandmother's from. Actually, okay, but myself as a child, our school would play morgan School during like sports and football, volleyball or whatever, and I played volleyball. And I can remember being a little girl driving through Main Street downtown McConnesville and I would always gravitate towards that side of the building or the bus not the building, the bus and I always looked at those buildings not the building, the bus and I always looked at those buildings. And then the really cool part is is that when we moved to McConnellsville and the job that I took, which was on the hospitality business, our building, our office, was the first floor where our tenant lives at now.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:And we actually ended up when the Stone House or what a lot of people, locals refer to it as the Christie House when it was put on the market after Mrs Christie passed we actually had went in and looked at it and we ran, we ran fast.
Speaker 3:Lots of work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a lot of work. It hadn't probably been touched in probably since the 70s. Yeah, okay, and I'm sure you've taken some old wallpaper off.
Speaker 2:You're right, yes, oh yes.
Speaker 1:And we had just recently been married and I was traveling. It wasn't a point in our life that we were ready for.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm, no, so we went right past that. So we went right past that.
Speaker 1:And then walked in my boys.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And they followed us back to McCombsville. My youngest son graduated college from up in Cleveland area, or my oldest son, I should say, graduated college. My youngest son came back from the Coast Guard, okay, and they wanted to become real estate tycoons in Morgan County. I'm sure you can.
Speaker 2:Okay, yes, it's a little bit different than what it is in Marion, I know the type right.
Speaker 1:Yes, you might know that type and they actually ended up with the block of buildings.
Speaker 2:Oh, so they bought those buildings.
Speaker 1:They bought those buildings, they bought those buildings, and then our youngest son and his family lived in the stone house for a while.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And they eventually moved out. And then they're like this isn't a house that you can turn into and you've been in it so you understand it's not something you can turn into an everyday rental. And so they're like our oldest. My oldest was like, you know, you and dan should turn it into b&b. And then our friends, dean and jennifer, they uh took us to, as Dan alluded to earlier, and kind of nailed the cough on the rest of the way.
Speaker 2:What was that conversation like then?
Speaker 3:They took us out to dinner and wanted to talk to us, and we had no idea why.
Speaker 1:We thought one of them was dying.
Speaker 3:But they were putting in a brewery, started getting it during COVID or just prior to COVID. They bought the building in 19. And they heard rumors from Amy's son that we were thinking about putting a bed and breakfast in which we really weren't thinking very hard.
Speaker 3:But the thought had been there and planted, but anyhow, they said it would really be good. A brewery is a destination and we need places to stay in this town. And the town itself was starting to spin up. It was starting to get revitalized, some new stores and younger people coming in to open up stores. Just the timing of it all was just great, yeah, and then yeah, but we opened in the middle of COVID.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if timing was that great, but in hindsight we're okay with that. I think we all are. I mean, it gave us the opportunity to ease somewhat into it, I mean, and it created its own challenges and I think it made everybody become better about pivoting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, exactly. So you know, we like to talk about kind of the leap segment on each show when we can talk about you know what, if you can remember that moment and it sounds like it was after this dinner with your friends opening the brewery, and you know, I imagine that you're either driving home that night or you're, you know, sitting at home or lying in bed and it's kind of like what are you thinking?
Speaker 1:I don't know what are you thinking and where did it go from there and this relationship, we don't leap. Amy charges through doors.
Speaker 2:That's always been Run off the cliff.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 3:She kicks many, many doors open. I'll let you tell your side, you go ahead, tell the real side.
Speaker 2:Dan said no, amy said yes, so they compromised.
Speaker 1:After we had the conversation with Dean and Jennifer. We were pretty much Dan and I love antiques. I mean, you've been in the house. Dan is an amazing Finnish carpenter so we were he had already had that. He has his own business. I had kind of a little business going with my accounting world and so I was like you know why? What's one more business?
Speaker 3:And we thought it would be a weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we truly did. We thought that this would be a weekend gig and we love to travel and, being that the one business was keeping us grounded. This was a way that we could bring people to us, we could meet people and we've always we both together love entertaining. And then in the beginning it was really much. It's funny how naive we were, Because in the beginning it was just like you know, we wanted to preserve the house, we wanted to preserve that block, and we started with the stone house first and that was the big thing. And then, when we first started I don't know if I told you all this I was just diagnosed with and then, when we first started, I don't know if I told you all this.
Speaker 1:I was just diagnosed with thyroid cancer when we first started, and so I pretty much was I could do anything I wanted. All I had to do was ask and maybe throw out the cancer card, as we jokingly say amongst each other. But yeah, yeah, yeah. But Dan now trumps me on that, but anyways, so that was the big motivator, was you know, we didn't think about the cooking, we didn't think about the days that we would be tied to it, we didn't think about the housekeeping aspect of it the laundry, the laundry, the dishes. I couldn't wait until my boys moved out and all that went away.
Speaker 2:but now it's come back like tenfold.
Speaker 1:We didn't think about any of that. It was more of decorating and you get caught up in those design aspects of it, all the fun parts yeah, and we didn't think about what we call the amy and dan factor. Um, none of that until once we started and once covid got it yeah got over and we got through all that craziness and figuring out how to do all that. But yeah, it was pretty much after Dean and Jennifer.
Speaker 3:Yeah that's the leap that would have been in. And again we thought, well, we could do this and it would be. We would live there. We had a place just outside of town and we thought, well, we could move in there and work on the place and start it going and open it slowly, which we did, but it, uh, it took off. And then she keeps saying, after covid, as we wound up having a lot of there's businesses, factories in town that have a lot of that are out, uh, out of country factories, yeah, yeah, and they started coming in.
Speaker 1:It was not even on our radar that they would be a client for us and it's funny, even without them, how many other businesses that are there. I mean just so many quirky things that happened through that little town that we were just I mean this has been a really weird year for us. I think it's because we're finally out of COVID and I mean the majority of our business is business travel.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:I mean we get a lot of. I mean we're busy on the weekends, but it's not crazy, crazy busy like it used to be during COVID. You know everybody was trying to get out and you know you're seven days a week, and especially afterwards, but but yeah, but now it's. It started that level off and and and, like any business owners, you know we change. We've changed Right, we've morphed with it.
Speaker 2:You've evolved the businesses as, as the world has changed, some, yeah. So I mean you kind of alluded to during and after COVID there was kind of all that pent-up demand. So it sounds like you saw a lot of people just coming seeking out the experience. And what I think that you know for our listeners, like what I've seen you do very well through social media, print advertising, your website, seo, you know work that you've done is really sell the experience of coming and staying at your bed and breakfast. You've done a great job kind of cross promoting the other local walkable places the brewery, restaurants, coffee shopping. You know there's some really great ways that you've tied all that in, as well as local tourism with hiking, I mean with any business like ours.
Speaker 1:you're nothing without those businesses.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:I mean, we all have a hand, you know, in everything that we do. I, my boys, were born and raised, and I grew up in Dresden, hung along with their baskets. My mom still lives there, my aunt still lives there, and so Morgan County is completely different than that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean it's Well and another great case study for creating a destination. I mean, they made baskets. I mean it was a factory, but they created this whole experience around coming and they I mean the place looked like a huge basket, which, in and of itself, was something you got to see.
Speaker 1:But what's funny about Morgan County is you had asked me kind of sort of to think about. You know what makes us special. Our business owners make us special too, but our community is so supportive of businesses like ours, of all of our businesses, our guests. One of my prime examples is we had a gentleman that came. He was from Savannah. He called me on a Saturday I don't know if I told you this story and he says how can I get to Morgan County through public transportation? And he had just heard through a TikTok video.
Speaker 1:We, a we have a local gentleman that is a TikTok phenomenon, but he had did a post about us being awarded best hometown and I said well, sir, there's no really public transportation to get here. You'd have to, you know, fly in, rent a car. And he goes. Well, there's a problem with that. And I says what's the problem? He goes I'm blind and I'm going oh, okay, okay. So I figured out. I'm like, let me think Okay, we have a great transit, morgan County transit. They pick people up at the airport all the time. So I gave them the number. He made all that happen. But what was the really cool thing was how our local community embraced this gentleman. He was with us for a week. We celebrated his birthday with locals. Oh my goodness, he's walking down the street and you've been to our square, is it square?
Speaker 3:It's not square.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know, with his blind stick and people helped him get across the street. And that's really how truly every guest that says to us, you know like they meet so many locals and it's truly the locals that make us who we are, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:They embrace the out-of-towners, which is really unheard of in a lot of places. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:The out-of-towners go into any of the establishments to eat or whatever, and they're all welcomed and everybody says hello to them.
Speaker 1:You know, in a small town everybody knows everybody Right, Everybody knows that you're not from around here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, again, we experienced that firsthand. And, uh, you know we had stopped into to the coffee shop there and got to chatting with misty, the owner, and you know we chatted with her for I don't 30 or 40 minutes and she, in between you know anybody else that walked through the door she called him by their first name hey, joe, hey, darren, darren, what's? You know, I mean every single one of them. So we witnessed all this. And then she's like, you know, of course we told our story and that we were just visiting, just kind of studying downtowns. And she's like, well, you got to talk to Amy down at the end. And you know, just walk down there and just tell her I sent you down.
Speaker 2:And you know, so we just show up at the front door and knock and you know, here's Amy. She's taking a charcuterie board up, I think, to one of the guests and she's like who are you? Yeah, sure, yeah, just come on in, make yourself comfortable, I'll be right back. And I mean so, you know, this is just a beautiful small town hospitality, just a beautiful small town hospitality. I mean it really is charming.
Speaker 1:It is, and then I mean I know when we took the leap. The big thing for us is and I alluded to this earlier is Dan and I do. Basically everything we do is to make sure that we spend time together, and I'm sure there's days where he doesn't want to do that.
Speaker 2:Well, you work long enough with your spouse. There's going to be a few of those days.
Speaker 1:There's going to be a few of those, but yeah, but for the most part, we wanted to make. It's the life that we wanted to create, and this truly allows us to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's so cool. I mean, we were talking about that as we were walking around town a little bit, and yeah, I mean there's a there's a lot to be said for that and I think that same as an income that they're trying to replace. But the experiences, the richness of life, the balance, you know, and the family time, you know, and you've really kind of architected this lifestyle that's allowed you to do what you want to do.
Speaker 1:I think in the beginning. I mean because we started with a stone house first and then we built out the Morris house, like right after, because of the business travel, because we had the demand and we knew that the demand would be short term. I mean, everybody did, Everybody knew there would be like a threeyear period after COVID and everything would kind of level down. But we had this especially, I guess it was this winter, early spring. We were letting the business run us, we were letting the business exhaust us and as we said earlier to you is we had stayed at a few places, had been to a few different, because hospitality is in so many different ways.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 1:It's just not an inn or a hotel, it's a restaurant, it's a barbershop.
Speaker 2:It's boutiques. I mean, we talked about that.
Speaker 1:Everything I mean hospitality, is everywhere. It's just not. But we had a few friends that we knew that were in the hospitality business. They were just exhausted and we never want to appear to that to anyone like that that were exhausted, which is why we just got off of our first vacation in two years to appear to that to anyone like that that we're exhausted, which is why we just got off of our first vacation in two years, for six days away.
Speaker 1:Yes, Because that's not what you want somebody to remember, right, you know, and you want them to come back.
Speaker 1:You know, a large portion of our business now are repeat guests, and we experienced the friendship factor last year. My dad passed away in an accident over Labor Day weekend and we didn't know how to handle that because, as you know, our life is public and we've made it that way. As much as Dan likes to be behind the apron scenes, that we do, but our life is public and we've made it that way, right, right, yeah, as much as Dan likes to be behind the apron scenes, that we do, but our life is public. And so we had to figure out a way to how can we gracefully step away for a minute to have a little bit of space and ask for that grace. And so we both agreed. I remember the night we were on the way back from the hospital, we sat at a restaurant and I crafted out something and said you know, we had this happen. This is where we're dealing with it. We need some time with our family, our friends, and I mean the outpouring was just. I mean it just took us away.
Speaker 3:From guests. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, from guests that stayed with us cards, gift cards, I can't tell you, because they were worried about us eating. They were worried about whether or not we were getting enough food. I mean, we are so blessed with the friendships that we have truly developed through the guests that come and stay with us.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you have such a unique experience that you're providing in a lot of ways, but you know you're essentially welcoming people into your home. Oh, yeah, and so there's a real kinship that comes with that. And so there's a real kinship that comes with that. But I would even go on to say, you know, encourage listeners that are in. You know, as you mentioned, I mean hospitality is across all businesses. You know we're all being rated, whether overtly or not, on our level of hospitality that we're providing.
Speaker 1:Some people just call it customer service Exactly, but it's truly hospitality.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, that really falls flat. You know, I've shared before on the podcast that a friend of mine defines hospitality as we thought of you before you got here, and I think that's just such a lesson for any business to learn. I mean, we talk about our landscaping business, like how are we showing hospitality to our clients? You know it's it's in how we're answering the phone and how we're responding to their messages and all of that, but but you're doing it in a multitude of ways and so, anyway, it's not surprising that people felt like such a connection and that's just so beautiful that they supported you through that really difficult time. But I'd like to you know, kind of off of that, talk a little bit about some of the unique things that you've done that well I think are unique anyway. I mean some things we observed while we were there.
Speaker 2:Talk about your coasters, talk about some of the other things that you display and kind of sell in the rooms, and some of that Maybe somebody that has an Airbnb might want to you know, kind of rip and duplicate one of these ideas if they're not doing a full B&B, but you know just some ways that you show you know these are the things that are really unique, that make the experience memorable and that, I think, further endear clients to you. So talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about Percy?
Speaker 3:to you, so talk a little bit about that. You want to talk about Percy?
Speaker 1:You start it, I'll jump in. So when I was in the hospitality business, I used to work with designers from all over the world and I would help them redesign or value engineer furniture. And I had a designer one time say hey, I'm calling you because you can make pigs fly. And, as you know, I have a theme of flying pigs throughout basically the entire end. And so when we moved into the house, dan's like what are we going to do with these pigs? And I'm like, well, we want everybody to have a unique, stellar experience. So he's going to be everywhere and we want that reminder. And so we're going to. He's going to be everywhere and we want that reminder. And so we've taken that. And his name is Percy, and Percy is everywhere.
Speaker 1:And, as you just alluded to, luke, we have these little wooden coasters that have a picture of Percy on the front that says we Make Pigs Fly, and on the back there's a little special note from Dan and I that we want the guests to take that home with them. It's something that we want their experience to. When they look at that, they think of us, or they think of the inn, or they think of McConnellsville, and so there's probably I don't know, two or three Percys, probably in every room. And then actually I finally got around to a little project that I've been wanting to do for years. I actually have a frame of Percy with a little saying about who he is and why he's there and that and that he wants them to to have that elevated experience and that memory. So we have them everywhere now. He's on notepads and he's on mugs, he's on t-shirts. You have flying pig socks. It's kind of that's everybody wants wants a wants a flying pig.
Speaker 3:We had a guest just in the last month or so come in and they were talking about the coasters and she says I almost have a whole set. She's been back five times To me, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:It's just a little thing, but it was my. I love it when I go into a room after a guest is leaving especially our business travel and the coaster's gone, because a lot of times the business travelers, as you know the room never looks like it's been touched.
Speaker 1:You know, they're here to do their business. It's not like they're on vacation or anything like that, but yeah, so we do that and we always make sure we have a handwritten note in the room for the guests when they arrive. We have a lot of different add-ons the charcuterie plate and we have mugs and everything but it's really, truly, I think the biggest thing that we do for our guests is just to be present to greet them, making sure that they have everything. I love it when guests come in and they're surprised because we're in a small town and everyone's like I never thought that something like this would be here, you know. But that's and I know you have several Airbnbs, and don't get me wrong, because we stay in Airbnbs and we're staying in yours tonight.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to do so tonight, and I'm excited to do so.
Speaker 1:Have you seen the commercial about where it's the annoying innkeepers following them around?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not really like that. Most of the time I feel like maybe we're not paying enough attention to our guests, but usually once they get there and let me tell the world that most or most all, all of our, our B&B does have private baths, because that's still kind of, you know, like a a miss, a miss thing- that's the taboo in most people's minds is shared bathroom.
Speaker 1:But, our our favorite time, our favoritest time with our guests is after breakfast. That's what we call the golden hour. I'm gonna cry um, that's the time we um um dan does all the cooking or he does the girl cooking. No, I don't want to say all, didn't you even get there? Smith um dan does a lot of the majority of the cooking, or he does the girl cooking. I don't want to say all. Didn't you even get there? Smith Dan does a lot of the majority of the cooking. I'll come up with the recipes.
Speaker 1:We always serve dessert first. We always use vintage plates, napkins, silverware. It's special. We want breakfast to be special, just like their room. We want that to be special and we make sure all the little touches are in there. And that's one of the reasons why we went back to us doing a lot of the cleaning. I like having. I grew up in the era of Martha Stewart, you know, so I just I like having making sure that the bed's a certain way, the blinds are a certain way, there's there's chocolates, there's. You know, I like making sure. It's. Not that I'm a control freak, it's just that I want it to be special.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and people feel that again you thought of them before they got there. Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1:That's true. I mean, that is totally true, especially if it's a guest that stayed with us before. And I know that they like certain things or they don't like certain things. And we have one business traveler. He stays with us two weeks a month. He always has dark chocolate, coffee beans in his room because I know he likes those, you know. But. But the breakfast time is truly, is truly special and that's where we forged that relationship and that's kind of why we went away with a lot of our one night stays on the weekends, because we weren't really getting the time with our guests.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it forced things to slow down. So we went from having what 10 to 15 people on a Saturday to four to eight, and so now it's, it's, it's really gotten back to that heart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so do you have a two night minimum?
Speaker 1:We do out of three out of the five rooms we do, and then usually if we have the other two rooms where the if they're rented one night, then I'll block the other night off, and then that that really kind of slows because we stay so busy through the week, um with business travel that it's. It's just nice to kind of have that slower pace and we're not you know, looking like a dog with our tongue hanging out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, I want to pull out what you said there and make sure I'm interpreting this the right way. But in essence, I heard you say we felt like we weren't giving the experience we really wanted to and people weren't getting the maximum value of what we offer.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And so we changed our offerings. And some people might be put off by that perhaps, but I think that it's really bold when a business understands what they do really well and then can lean into that to say listen if we can't give you the experience we're really trying to give you. We don't want to give you any experience at all. Not that we don't want your money, we don't want your business, but we want you to have the real full thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so let's you know, let's still try to be friends and maybe, you know, we'll be able to serve you at some point when we can give you the full deal.
Speaker 1:It's, it's, but that's. You are like spot on, because it that's how it was for us, because we were going crazy, doing one night stays and a lot of it. We were doing one night stays to just keep staff and then it was just like, okay, why are we doing this again? But the and it does because we wanted this true, true experience. And how many times have we kept on saying all we want to be is a bed and breakfast? And because during COVID, everybody was trying to do everything. We did dinners in the beginning, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Like we even tried.
Speaker 1:We did dinners in the beginning, which was crazy, because a lot of it was because we didn't know what restaurants were going to be doing. So we were offering dinners and then we would try to. We were trying to do events, and you know how crazy that can be and I was just like, okay, we have enough business being a bed and breakfast. Why don't we just get back to what we are good at, what we want to do, which in turn, gives such a better experience for the guests?
Speaker 2:Yeah, are you doing any events anymore? Did you completely stop? I remember last year we had talked like you were still doing like a few, like weekend, something, you know getaway type events.
Speaker 1:We just did a couple breakfast. We just did a couple breakfast events and after we did them they were through the week and they were for. One of them was for our local prosecutor's office. We did two big breakfast events for them and then another one was for one of the schools. I always say I'm never going to do them again.
Speaker 1:They're just Then the phone rings, and then the phone rings and somebody says come on, amy, we're not. We're not in that. We advertise it if somebody calls, if somebody wants to do it, and we're there to help. Support yes, but for us, again, that's taking away from what we do good at, and that's I mean being the bed and breakfast. Our favorite event that we do host is when a whole entire family comes to the house.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's very cool. That's what we like Right, Like from all areas of the state or country or whatever, and they come, they come um we have the Martins that come um probably every year.
Speaker 1:The first year they came, glenda and Dick had came and stayed with us during COVID and for their 50th wedding anniversary. That's what Glenda wanted she wanted her whole entire family to come and stay at the inn. They got married there originally and they redid their vows and Dick forgot his clothes. And Dick and Dan are about the same size, so Dick actually wore the same shirt that Dan married me in, so it was kind of cool. And then the following year Dick passed away but the family still came and um, so you know, it's, it's just those, those those special moments when the house is filled with laughter. We just, we just love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's really neat. What a, what a richness, and obviously you get a lot of joy from, from what you do, and I mean you can't put a price tag on that, you can't put a dollar of income on that, and I think that's, you know, really worth noting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I won't say that there's not a lot of hard work that goes into it.
Speaker 1:Because there is and there's days that we do get tired and there's days where I'll go to Dan and I'll say I'm kind of done peopling for a few days and he'll like find a place for us to go and relax and we take off for a few days and then we come back and we you know but we do, we do know that it's important, that that you have to be able to be ready to face everybody every day and you have to do it in a manner that they'll want to come back, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, interestingly, you know, as you're talking about some of this, it reminds me I just did a couple of episodes on self-leadership and self-care and you know, what I hear you talking about is is, you know, not being able to pour from an empty cup basically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that that you've got it. You know, especially in your line of work. I mean, it's, it's really almost 24, seven, and so you've got to be on, you've got to be available, you've got to be putting on a smiling face and that's hospitality in general. You know kind of the show must go on, type of thing. But you can only fake it so much and still give people that authentic experience.
Speaker 1:I don't think the phase fake it until you make it is good, because I don't believe in that. I truly don't. We listen to that podcast.
Speaker 2:Okay, I truly don't.
Speaker 1:we listen to that podcast. Okay, and I mean, like the whole entire time we were in Michigan, I took a nap every day, didn't I? And I slept in she's getting her restorative health back yes, you've got to yeah, because we actually, when we get home, we, we get home tomorrow, but Thursday we hit the ground running. We have a full house and it's pretty much full for the weekend, and so, yeah, summer season's upon us, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So shifting gears. Let's talk about McConnellsville a little bit. So first of all, I mean, it's not even a city, it's a village, right?
Speaker 3:I mean it's a village.
Speaker 2:Do you know about what the population is?
Speaker 1:The county is about 14,000. The village of McConnellsville is about what? Probably 1,700, 1800, I think. Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. It's very historic, it's been very well maintained. The homes are beautiful and pristine. Our business owner friends are awesome. They're the type of people that you can. If you need something you need help with, they're right there. I know some of the things that we've been through. You know even Missy. I know she's had a few plumbing problems and Dan stepped in and helped Luke and you know that's just. You know we have right now. I was telling you that it's harvest season for lavender.
Speaker 1:So we have yeah, so we have. I don't know how many plots of lavender we have in town, but Nick and Mark, they have a Bow Avenue, manor, so and we actually because of them in August we have a huge lavender fest. Last year they had over 300 people on their block where their store and part of their lavender fields are lots First year.
Speaker 3:First year, so we're all excited about this year.
Speaker 1:So we have our local wordery, does the heritage event, and two years ago was the first time they took that over and it's amazing that's on the square. It won't be this year. It'll be in the commons because our square is getting renovated after 4th of July. Right now it's fun to watch social media because our town is really pulling together because we're trying to raise funds for the fireworks, which, if anybody puts on fireworks you know it's about $ it brings in business. You know to all the out outline um area, um are the ends full. We have a family that comes every year for for the fireworks. Um, they're from moreton county originally, so um, so yeah, so that's. That's been fun to watch all the businesses challenge each other as far as giving money and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So it's a beautiful town, a beautiful river. Our locks were just redone. We got a new dam. Our locks are finally open. So if you're interested in locking down the river to Marietta, we get guests that do that from Zanesville In Kishocton. They'll lock down the river and we'll pick them up. Get guests that do that from Zanesville and Kishocton. They'll walk down the river and we'll pick them up and they'll spend the night with us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it is very picturesque Some views over the river it's it's beautiful. But, like you said, I mean it's not huge. I mean it's really remarkable, you know, but a but. A lot of the folks that we're talking with are in at least larger cities than that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have the Craft Brewery, as we've talked about a little bridge brewing company. They have great beer, great food, which is Ricardo's Italian Kitchen, which is a little odd mix in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we visited there. Yeah, it was a great spot. Yeah, chatterbox is great Visited there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a great spot. Yeah, chatterbox is, you know, and the cool thing for us is that we have so many guests that just park and then just walk the whole entire weekend.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:You know, the Big Musky Bucket, the Wilds is close by. Okay, the Wilds is about 30 minutes, which is part of the Columbus Zoo now. Mm-hmm, which is part of the Columbus Zoo now. And so, yeah, there's this. And the cool thing with MacDonald's is we're 45 minutes in any direction to any major cities. We're close to Athens, we're close to Marietta, we're close to Zanesville, we're close to Lancaster.
Speaker 3:Parkersburg, parkersburg, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Just kind of nestled in there, a little bit off the beaten path, but again, I mean, there's just a richness once you arrive there and a small town atmosphere and hospitality that's that's that are worth noting First of all. I mean, again, the downtown is. I mean it's only a handful of blocks, but I mean it's. It's robust, it's quaint, there's just so much pulling together and that's witnessed really through, you know, the fact that there's no formal like main street or downtown organization, so it's literally just business hope, owners helping one another, putting together events, working with, like you said, I mean the.
Speaker 2:Rotary Club kind of chips in and puts on this event and you've got just. It's very organic. It seems like the way that these things are pulling together. But I mean I saw signage and really nice public art that was coordinated with window painting displays.
Speaker 1:Our Morgan County Art Guild is phenomenal. The summer is cool because we'll have the summer art walk and they'll have you can I think it's $5, I think is the donation that you give. I think, okay, $5 or $10, I forget and then they'll give you a canvas, they give you paint and then they'll hang up. And then we actually had a couple of summers ago we had a guest in from California and he got up really early because he had like three paintings he wanted to buy and so he went and purchased the paintings and took them back to California.
Speaker 2:Put them in a suitcase. Yeah, put them in a suitcase and yeah so, um, so, then the proceeds go to the the art guild. Yeah yeah, that's really neat. Yeah, yeah, and I mean, there was there was really nice maps in the different businesses and again, this was just a collaboration and it was just like that.
Speaker 1:That was truly a collaboration. So we had a chocolate walk that Misty organized from Misty's coffee shop, and so from that money that was raised, she put that money aside to use for another project. Dan and I were in Hartville antiquing and they had a really cool map and I took the map back to Mark at Bell Avenue and we're like we need this map. And then so we had this money from Missy and then so that's just how it started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and and again, I mean, regardless of whether you know it's a, it's a town of 1700 or 17,000 or 50,000, these concepts are still the same that there just has to be the collaboration between business owners and really looking out for one another. I mean you said it when we were talking earlier that your experience is really nothing without all those other businesses being walkable and and and their, their opportunities are diminished without you, and so it's just this beautiful. You know symbiosis, that happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had. Um, we had one of the companies that were in last year and they were having their union negotiations and, um, the people that were staying with us were from the company and the majority of them were from, I believe, Michigan Detroit area and normally they would have held their negotiations up in Zanesville, which is 40 minutes away, and so they wouldn't have even stayed here, they wouldn't have even came into the community. But because of the end, and they were staying with us, they stayed with us. They had the meeting in town. So then they came back to us and we were talking at breakfast how they had a completely different experience because they got to go shopping in the afternoon, they got to have coffee at the McCoffee shop you know they experienced dinner here and because of our little inn, if we didn't have a place for them to stay, none of those businesses would have shared in that, and that, to us, is the beauty of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm interested. You know you mentioned that you never expected business travelers to be one of your primary business lines. I mean, how did you get your first and your second and your third? You know somebody's out there listening thinking the same thing. How did that happen?
Speaker 1:uh, it's relationships yeah it's, it's forging, um, forging those relationships, finding that right person they kind of found us HR departments are great resources for that and just developing those relationships, our one company that we work with a lot. We were supposed to. It was right after COVID and we were supposed to go. We were traveling a lot just because it was easy. Not a lot of people were flying, but this was right after COVID when travel opened up. We were headed to Arizona.
Speaker 1:Well, we were trying to go to Arizona and I received a call that they were bringing in their CEO from Europe and we're like oh well, we're going to be on vacation that week and it's it's typical for us to let business travelers say, especially repeat guests that know how the house operate, you know that kind of stuff. But, um, so we're like you know, is this, is this a big thing? And they're like well, he's never stayed in the cause of all before. I'm like, oh, it's a big thing. Um, so I called Dan and I'm like what do you think we should do? And he's like we should cancel.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh my gosh we already got everything paid for, we got our plane tickets, we got you know, so, anyway, so we ended up canceling and then, um, we hosted him and it was phenomenal. Um, he was great. He was in for one night, Um, but you know, you kind of, cause we all, we are a small town at heart. We truly are. I mean, yeah, we travel and everything, but you think of, oh my gosh, this guy, he's probably stayed in some of the most amazing places and he's probably eaten some of the most amazing foods. And we ended up hosting because we canceled our vacation. We ended up hosting a luncheon for them. Because we canceled our vacation. We ended up hosting a luncheon for them and it's like, well, what do you feed somebody? That's? You know what you feed them? White bean soup. It's very Appalachian.
Speaker 2:You stay true to your roots. You don't waver out of your.
Speaker 1:you know you don't waver out. Yeah, I love that, but after that, I mean, we forged a really great partnership with them. You know we had an agreement with them. We housed all of their out-of-town people and so but that's truly how you just it's. You know it's in any business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you still have to network. Yeah, yeah, well, if you have a shot, you got to work to nail it. Yeah, yeah, well, if you have a shot, you've got to work to nail it. And I mean you know that's. I mean let's not miss the fact that you canceled a vacation to host this guy We've never made it to Arizona yet either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we lost that whole vacation. Yeah, we lost that whole vacation.
Speaker 3:But that was our first business traveler. So then of course we have these conversations of okay, what else is in town, let's reach out to them to their HR department.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like the light bulb went off. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then we had somebody. There's two nursing homes in town they had the director of the nursing home had either retired or left for whatever reason, so they had interim directors coming in with no place to stay. So they wound up with us and it was just okay. All these businesses that you didn't even think of would have overnight capabilities.
Speaker 1:And it's funny because you think we all have those moments of like oh my gosh, how are we going to fill this? I mean, I'm sure yours doesn't have much grandeur or scale than ours is, but we still have we, we all have those feelings of how are?
Speaker 1:how are we going to do this? And then you know, when you get somebody that comes in and I mean, we had one gal that stayed with us for like three months, isn't it? But there's always somebody else after that. You know, there's always, there's it, just it. Just you know. And I and I, and I can remember, I don't know last or a few nights ago, I was looking at reservations and cause. You know, everything's right at your hands anymore. You know we have that on our phone and you know I can make reservations from anywhere. But I think, oh gosh, what's our gene going to look like? Oh, my gosh, you know. And I immediately have to snap myself out of it because I know it's going to be okay. It's going to take. As long as you do everything that you can do to make it be the best that it can be, yes, and be as authentic as possible, it's all going to take care of itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's perfect. Well, that's a great way to kind of land the plane here. I mean I could sit here and listen to your stories for hours here. I mean I could sit here and listen to your stories for hours. I'm sure you've got an amazing, just one after another, of all the different people that you've hosted in the stories and we shared some incredible ones there along the way Really inspirational and just appreciate what you guys are doing and it's so cool. I'm glad that I got to see it. I'm glad that you got to come and visit us here. It's been great. It's been great.
Speaker 2:We've kind of, you know, stayed in touch through, uh, you know, since our visit there and so to be able to see uh, you know, in real life, uh, both of what we're working on is is fun. So we're looking forward to uh, to coming back down and and staying. We just we kicked ourselves all the way home that we had, uh, you know, not made overnight arrangements. We didn't have any of our stuff or like we literally would have uh. We went to Marietta after McConnellsville for a while. We were like man, we would have uh in an instant, you know, canceled any hotel to to to come back and stay with you anytime, but we will.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's a, it's an, and we do it's, it's, it's, and, and we do it's, it's. We just love it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's obvious, and I mean it comes through in the brand of hospitality that you're offering and just the small touches and and homey feel there. So so if somebody is listening and they're like, ok, well, we found out where our next road trip is going to be, let's make sure that they know how to find you and how to make a reservation and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, you can find us by visiting our website at nzathandmainecom, or just Google McConnellsville places to stay in McConnellsville and we'll pop up number one usually. It's a short list, but we do have state parks near there, so there's lots of hiking and outdoor stuff too, if you like to do that. But you can book online. We have all of our rooms listed on there and you can always just. We're on Instagram. We're on Facebook.
Speaker 2:They're a good follow.
Speaker 1:They're fun to watch some of the escapades.
Speaker 2:As you said, you guys are very open about what's going on and make it fun to see behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:We do. Dan loves it, don't you Dan. I make him do some things. But yeah, follow us along for fun and we're looking forward to our stay here in Marion tonight. As I told you, we popped through and stayed at Ray Ray's on our way to Michigan. And so tonight we're looking forward to eating some Italian.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yeah, it's going to be great. So, yes, we hope that you'll enjoy your stay and give us your feedback if there's ways that we can continue to improve and we all get better together here.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's what it is and that is perfect. To end on better together. Yes, that is so true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah Well. Thank you again, dan and Amy, for joining me and for sharing what it looks like Some great conversations here Listen back about hospitality and taking the leap and really not being afraid to craft a lifestyle around your business that works for you, for your family, for your relationships, and does some really great things for your community and for the world. So Dan and Amy have been a great example of that. So we hope that you'll tune in again next time. We love your rating and review and sure appreciate you coming around. Join us next time on the Main Street Reimagined podcast. Thanks for listening to the Main street reimagined podcast. To learn more about main street reimagined henry development group or our work in downtown marion, ohio, please visit mainstreetreimaginedcom. If you want to connect or if you know someone who we need to interview, shoot us an email at info at mainstreetreimaginedcom. Until next time, keep dreaming and don't be afraid to take the leap.