Bolder Business with Paul Fontanelli

Ep 001: Leaving Corporate Life to Become an Entrepreneur

• Paul Fontanelli • Season 1 • Episode 1

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In this pilot episode, host Paul Fontanelli launches Bolder Business Podcast with the story behind Bolder Adventure Park — and a look back at a virtual conversation with Ron Lotti recorded five years ago that helped spark it all. From leaving a high-earning corporate career to building a 66,000-square-foot indoor adventure park, Paul shares the lessons, pivots, and mindset shifts that shaped the journey. 

Along the way, he opens up about risk, resilience, and why building something meaningful often starts before you feel ready. 

If you’re an entrepreneur or dreamer ready to take that first imperfect step, this episode will give you the push — and the proof — that bold moves build momentum.

Welcome To Boulder Business

SPEAKER_03

What's happening? This is a brand new podcast called Boulder Business. I'm Paul Fontanelli. Just launching this podcast. This is episode one. There's really, I'll tell you a little bit about what the podcast is going to be. There's going to be three different types of episodes. I'm the CEO founder of Boulder Adventure Park, and there's always different things going on with the park that I think would be interesting from a business perspective to be able to share to our listeners that are interested in business. That's why the podcast is called Boulder Business. Some form of the episodes we're going to talk about the business as a whole. We're also going to do clips of like motivational speakers, motivational clips. I'm always motivated by little short clips and things like that. So we'll have some episodes that are just purely motivational. And then third, we're going to interview other entrepreneurs, other business owners, other people in general, anything related to business that we find interesting to just share, bring people on the podcast. So those are the three different types of episodes we're going to have. Today I'm just going to give you a quick little intro to each one of those types so you can kind of get a feel for what it's going to be. We'll just get this going. So one time I remember hearing, I don't remember where I heard it, that when you do something for the first time, you then get better and better as time goes on. You should always be embarrassed by that first version. So this is kind of this first version of the podcast. I know it's not going to be perfect. I know it's not going to be great, but the only way to get started is to actually get started and launch it. And that's what we're doing today. Even though I know it's not going to be perfect, we're getting it going. When we first had the idea for Boulder, that first draft is terrible compared to what the final version was. At some point, I'll share kind of that first draft of Boulder and how far we came as kind of an example of that. But let's start with a quick chat about Boulder business. So, what is Boulder? So, Boulder Adventure Park is a 66,000 square foot indoor entertainment center in Grand Prairie, Texas. We opened about two years ago. I'm the founder, CEO, and there's just a lot that goes on in running that park that I thought would be interesting to share on the podcast. And one quick story that is very recent is some marketing challenges that we've had, which actually in turn led to starting this podcast. So in the fall, we changed some marketing tactics that we were doing that we thought would be better for the business to obviously make awareness, help people come to the park. And in hindsight, those changes actually hurt us more than helped us. So much so that our website traffic to the park, obviously traffic in the park, dips significantly. And in hindsight, probably cost us a half a million dollars in lost revenue by that marketing mistake. You know, we're a new business, two years in. So learning from those mistakes, identifying them, reacting quickly is key. And one thing I'm going to talk regularly about on this podcast, we're not profitable yet. We can't afford to be losing half a million dollars on revenue and marketing. But obviously, we've got, you know, financial partners, things like that that help us get through these tough times. But it is just the ongoing challenge of running a new business that we're we're always dealing with. And so that's just one very short example. Obviously, I'm not going to go in depth on it on the first episode, but stories like that I'll be bringing to this podcast of what's actually happening behind the scenes, running the business that have real results, good, bad, ugly, whatever it is, we're going to share it here on the podcast. So if you like hearing the inner workings of a business, that's exactly what this is going to be. The second type of episode we're going to run, as I mentioned, are more motivational clips. Those will be shorter episodes, but I'm always inspired by short little clips here and there. I've got one here that I'm about to play as an example and I'll talk about it. I just recently joined a fitness app called Ladder. And the way Ladder works is you basically have a coach that tells you what workouts to do and all of that. And it's just a phenomenal app. Check it out if you haven't. This is not a plug, or it's a plug, but it's not sponsored by any stretch. Our only sponsor today is Boulder Adventure Park and the Epic. We're shooting this podcast here at the Epic Rec Center. Great partner in the city of Grand Prairie that we've got here at Boulder. But, anyways, back to the clip ladder workout app. There's a coach where I'm on what's called Team Vitality. His name is Brian Pruitt, phenomenal fitness expert. Anyways, during the workout, he'll come on and give me like motivational talking. That's just inspiring, which I love, especially while I'm working out. So I'm going to play that clip as an example of the type of motivational clips that we'll play, and I'll talk about here in a second.

SPEAKER_01

All right, collectively, let's breathe in through our nose. Breathe in.

What Is Boulder Adventure Park

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You are powerful, you are unique. There's never been someone like you who's ever lost. Performance or something yourself. Performance reminds you of the fact of the story. Trust in the process, knowing you have what you want to do with potential with some possible. You'll keep someone yourself, keeping consistent in your continuing, you're stepping into your greatness. So wherever you are on the journey, write your own story today, flip the script, take a negative from yesterday, turn it into a positive today as you see life happening for you, not to you. I love you.

The Marketing Miss And Lessons

SPEAKER_03

All right, that was the clip from Coach Brian. What's important to know is that's not him talking to me. He just puts that on the app. Thousands of people go through that. He's talking to everyone. So that motivational clip hopefully is resonating with you and where you are in your story, in your life. But most important thing is to show up, which is why I wanted to show that in episode one, because we are just getting started, but we got to show up. We got to get it started. So that's kind of an example of a motivational clip. Hopefully it's good for you. Certainly motivates me. Coach Brian is definitely an awesome motivator that I you know work out to you know a couple times a week. And then the third one is gonna be bringing guests on the podcast, which I'm excited about. So if you're running a business, have a story to tell, reach out to me. LinkedIn's definitely the best way to reach me. Again, Paul Fontanelli, love to have you on the podcast. I'm looking forward to different guests. So the other thing I want to do in this episode, today, it's 2025, the year 2025. I actually wanted to start a podcast way back in 2020. And a buddy of mine, Ron Lottie, and I were going to start the podcast. We actually recorded the very first episode, introducing ourselves, our story, our background. And then obviously COVID hit, we got distracted, and we didn't follow through. Which again, listen to Coach Brian, like you have to show up. It's just the beginning of the story. Well, it doesn't do us any good if we don't keep going. And so I wanted to actually flash back and on this episode play a good portion of that first podcast that I did with Ron five years ago, because that will actually give you a lot of context into Boulder as a business, my background, how I got into it, all that stuff. Instead of me in this first episode just trying to tell you that story, better to let you just listen to you know interview that Ron and I did. He asks questions, kind of goes into it, and it's a really good intro to what Boulder is, who I am. With that, we're gonna flip over and jump back in time to 2020. Now I'm gonna play that episode now so you can hear that story. But again, keep in mind this was shot five years ago. So much has changed. In episode two, I'm gonna actually come back and talk about what's happened since that episode for five years leading up to today. But let's flip back to 2020 and let you kind of hear the origin story of Boulder from me and Ron's conversation.

SPEAKER_02

If you could tell me, tell our listeners, tell me a little bit about yourself.

Motivation Segment Setup

Coach Brian’s Clip Playback

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, happy to do it. I mean, I think the the easy answer is I think about telling about myself, is talk about my family first. Uh they're they're definitely the biggest priority of my life and driver of that. So I'll start there. Uh I've been worried married to my wife Jessie now for 17 years. Um and we met in college at Texas Tech, which I could talk a little bit about that, um, and got married really young uh and have been together ever since, obviously. And we have three young kids. Um I've got Ethan is my oldest, he's now 11. Uh Haley is our middle at nine, and then Shaylin is our youngest at seven. Um so that's kind of the who we are. Uh I'll share a little bit about each one of us, if that's all right. Uh quickly. Um, my wife Jessie is I call her the rock of the family. Um, she has been a stay-at-home mom since the day our son was born, and uh, we were both very passionate about that. I grew up with a stay-at-home mom myself, and uh we we recognize um that we wanted to do that for our family, and so my wife has made that um just a huge part of her life, obviously, and just been phenomenal for our family. Uh the sacrifices that she's made, uh, it's just been incredible. So she's the rock of the family. Everything I'm doing today, which you're gonna hear about much later, she is the most supportive one. Um literally couldn't couldn't do it without her and that support. So it's critical. Um and and she's just awesome in that front. So her name is Jesse. If I didn't say that. Uh and then just a run through on Ethan. So Ethan's my son, my firstborn, um, which he he was the boy in the family, which was important for us because I was the last boy male Fontanelli. So without him, the name would not have carried on. So we were glad to have that taken care of. And he's he's all boys, so he plays basketball, baseball, you name it. And I I love helping to coach his teams, uh, be out there with him and do all that fun stuff. Uh Haley is our second child, and she was the first girl in the family, which my wife and I are really excited about. You've got a daughter, you know all the greatness that comes from um you know having a girl, and she's uh into gymnastics, love that type of thing. And then our youngest is Shaylen. Um and we uh Shaylen is now seven. Uh we adopted her. Uh we foster cared through the state here in Texas. Um we're blessed with her. She came to us when she was three days old. Um, and she's been with us ever since we're able to adopt her at 11 months old. Um, and she's a firecracker of a personality, just loves having fun, brightest smile in the room, we'll light it all up, and uh stays really active. And so we're we're blessed to have uh the family in that way. And then uh myself, I'm just a big kid. I guess is the best way to explain it. I love doing everything my kids do. Uh, you know, in addition to all their activities and the fun stuff they do, I'm a thrill seeker. I love going on roller coasters and uh being outdoors, adventure stuff, um, you know, go to national parks, all that stuff. That's kind of where I really find some fun. So try not to drag on that point. That's just some little bit about myself, uh quick hits and the family.

SPEAKER_02

No, that's good stuff. You talked a little bit about the thrill seeker and uh, you know, and you know, getting getting involved in the outdoors and things like that. Was it similar for you when you were a kid as well?

SPEAKER_03

You know, what's funny is no. So my dad, he'll tell you he's he's not into camping or outdoor stuff at all. So we never did it growing up. I was a member of the Boy Scouts for like a year or two, but I wouldn't say we did anything special. I didn't get into being outdoors until probably maybe even four or five years ago. Wow. Um I just started looking into it, and I think I the the biggest moment I really realized I wanted to be outdoors more and do that kind of adventure stuff was we were watching a documentary on Netflix about someone hiking the John Muir Trail up in Yosemite, and I remember my brother-in-law, brother-in-law and I were watching it, and we were like, we should do that. And our wives look at us like, you've never spent a night outside in your life. What are you talking about? And so, like six months later, we're we're in backpacks hiking seven days in Yosemite, and it was just the most awesome trip. Um, and since then we've done uh you know another trip like that, and we my family and I now do some camping excursions and things like that. But that was that was kind of the start of it. Wow. Just had the idea and went after it.

SPEAKER_02

That's interesting. Yeah, I that that sounds like stuff I've done too. Like, oh, I could do that. And then I realized halfway through I can't though. So good for you, you did it. Yeah.

Why Showing Up Matters

SPEAKER_03

With a lot of mistakes though, like my pack weighed like 58 pounds or something because I was just stuffing everything in it, which if you know anything about hiking, you do not want a 58-pound pack on your back if you don't if you can avoid it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that reminded me of uh when I was in the infantry of the army, yeah. So I avoid that as much as much as you possibly can. Uh you mentioned you went to Texas Tech. What did you study at Texas Tech?

Inviting Future Entrepreneur Guests

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so I studied accounting um at tech and went through what they call a five-year program where you graduate with your bachelor's and your master's all at the same time, which then allows you to sit for the CPA exam when you have um that amount of hours of credits. Uh which it's it's funny even to think back of how I got into accounting. So you know, when you're 18 years old going to college in my case, um, you have to make a decision of what your major is. And as a kid, ultimately, I mean 18 is obviously an adult, but you know, still very young, you don't realize how important that decision really is. Which in my case, accounting was a good fit. Um, but it definitely was something I had an interest in. So it wasn't like a bad decision or something I regret by any stretch, but I certainly didn't put the amount of thought into it that I should have. And I I think a lot of people probably are in similar boats. So I made the decision to go accounting based on three very simple things. It was, what am I good at? And I was good at math. So I was like, oh, okay, I'm good at math. What would give me a secure job and where might there be some good income potential? And so my mom had worked with an accountant previously, and so she said, Hey, you should consider being an accountant. I was like, okay, and that was my major. It was just that simple. Like, oh, okay, that sounds good. And in hindsight, it's like of those three things, like a secure job, obviously it's important, but you can get that in a lot of places. Potential for income, again, you can get that in almost anywhere. Um, but what you're good at is important, and that obviously should play a big role in it. But I didn't really try to learn about what was out there, I didn't learn about what I was interested in. Um, and obviously we'll come to how I ultimately changed out of accounting once I got into the real world. Um but uh in hindsight, I probably should have paid a little more attention to what I was selecting as a major early on.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I mean, Paul, you bring up a great point, and I think that's something that I'll be interested to hear from everyone as we get a chance to talk to them is there's a lot of pressure to try to figure out what the heck you want to go to school for. And uh, you know, I'm I'm gonna be 39 here in a couple weeks, and I'm grateful for what I'm doing, but I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, you know. So the fact that um 18-year-olds have to figure it out is tough.

Flashback Plan To 2020 Origin

SPEAKER_03

So uh, yeah, and I bring it up because once you start down that path, whether you get the major, and certainly as you get experience in your career, it's really difficult to change. Now, obviously, I'm in the midst of a big, big change myself. Um, but once you get that experience and that ball is rolling, most of the time you you stick with it. So it it's tough for sure. Yeah. It's something you try to help my kids on as they get closer and just see how I'd be able to guide them a little more on that, but I haven't figured that out yet. I got some time.

SPEAKER_02

There's plenty of books on parenting, but I don't know if any of them talk about that. So that's right. Um you talked a little bit about accounting, right? So is that what you did? You start right in accounting right out of college?

Family And Personal Backstory

SPEAKER_03

I did. Yep. So worked at a small public accounting firm in Lubbock, um, right there, TechStech. Jesse was finishing up her major, uh, her master's degree. So we stayed there for a few years um doing public accounting. And then probably the the move that I made early that was, we'll call it in line with kind of a bolder life, doing something to kind of really do something exciting and uh fulfilling in our life was Jesse and I went to a beach for vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and we've probably been married a year and a half, two years, living in Texas, or living in Lubbock, working accounting, and we're sitting on the beach, and I remember looking at her going, We can live anywhere in the world that we want. Why are we living in Lubbock, Texas? Because I'm sitting on the beach looking at this amazing beach. And she looked at me and she was like, What do you think? Like, let's let's figure out what we'd want to do because we had no kids at the time. And obviously we'd both graduated, so we had um degrees and some mobility there. Went back home a week later, was just searching on monster.com, if that tells you how long ago this was. And two weeks later, we were moving to Florida. Wow. Um moved to Orlando, got a new job, and it was a huge change, but it was awesome in the moment. It kind of gave us something new, exciting. Yeah, kind of that bolder life in that at that phase of our life for sure.

SPEAKER_02

No, that makes sense. Uh you know, it's funny because that can kind of light a new fire under you a bit. Did your career change at that point? Like what you were actually doing for a career?

SPEAKER_03

It did. So we I was public accounting in Texas, and the job I got in Florida was basically corporate accounting. So still under the accounting umbrella, but a much different world. It was all about um, you know, internal accounting, the PL, you know, monthly, quarterly business updates, those types of things. Um in hindsight, which I didn't notice at the time, but the company I was working for was actually ramping up to get bought out by Home Depot. So there's a lot of focus on the efficiencies of the business and all of that to get it ready to ultimately be bought out, which I had no clue at the time and didn't find out until after I'd left the company that they were getting acquired. But in hindsight, I can see that's kind of what was going on uh at that time for sure.

SPEAKER_02

You were getting them ready for the show.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I was playing a very, very small part just trying to move move some things between uh cost centers and stuff like that. Pretty boring. That was funny.

SPEAKER_02

And uh, how long how much after you left there, you mentioned where did you head after that?

From Outdoors Curiosity To Adventure

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so the move that I made from there from Florida, basically what happened was we loved living in Florida. We got to know awesome people. I mean, basically, by making that move, you meet a whole new network of people. Um that was fantastic. The challenge was home prices were crazy expensive. So that was in 2005, right at the peak of the home market before the crash. So the house we bought in Florida we definitely paid more than we could afford at that time. So we were under a little bit of stress for that. Um and then I was also just not happy with that job. Uh at that point, I was probably five years into accounting and just realizing, like I talked about earlier, I made the decision to go accounting, but I'm not sure this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. And my sister and college roommate, uh best friend, had been working at Fidelity Investments. Uh, and they were doing really well, um, candidly making more money than I was and really enjoying it. Um, and just hearing how good of a company Fidelity was, I said, Hey, I think I want to try to get in there. Uh but before I do so, let me just see kind of what I can do here at the company I'm at. And so what was interesting is I I went to uh you always hear at least advice that you can just go ask for a raise and try to negotiate a raise. So I'm like reading Kiplinger's mag magazine while I'm working at the accounting company in Florida. And Kiplinger magazine you know kind of gives advice on how to ask for a raise. And so novice me is like, oh, this is gonna be great. I'll just follow these three steps to get a raise, as the magazine says, and it's gonna work out great. So I walk into my boss's office and I make this whole pitch for why I should have a raise. And I'd been there about a year. Uh and he's like, All right, let me see what I can do. Calls me back in like two or three days later, and I was like, Yeah, no, there's there's nothing we can do here. Basically, the three steps didn't work. Exactly right. And so that kind of was just a nice kick in the butt to be like, all right, I see what my sisters got, my best friends got at Fidelity. Let me explore that, and ended up getting hired onto Fidelity, and Jesse, my wife, got hired onto Fidelity as well. So both of us joined Fidelity at the same time, which was the job was back here in Texas, which is where my home is, my family's from. So it actually caused us to move back, which at the time was great because we sold our house in Florida, literally at the peak of the market, which is pure luck. Um, no other reason behind just the timing of moving and basically starting a new career, if you will, Ron, of personal financial planning, which I have a much bigger passion for. I mean, that's what I was reading books about at night. That's what I was reading magazines, is just that not even the stock market. I wasn't so much into investing, I just liked planning with it, what it related to saving and retirement and all of that. So moving to Fidelity was a change of career, but still in the realm of business and and finance.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. No, that makes sense. Um how soon after that did you start growing the family, so to speak?

College Choices And Accounting Path

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, about three or four years. So we moved back, started at Fidelity in 2005, and my son was born in 2008.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so you'd still it was still the two of you, you moved back. It was kind of kind of an maybe an easier shift, but still a Exactly. I would still call it a bolder choice. You still made the leap, right? Coming now, you're switching companies, going to Fidelity. Um, and now I I know we we touched on it in the first segment, um, but how long were you at Fidelity?

SPEAKER_03

Uh 13 years. So 2005 through basically middle of 2019.

SPEAKER_02

And talk me, talk us all through a little bit about where the career went.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So that was truly a phenomenal experience. I can't say enough about Fidelity, but it was about trying to move up the ladder, sure, if you will. And so I had a variety of different jobs, some of which were personal financial planning, where I was the advisor, meeting with clients. I was in that role during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. So really seeing the challenges that that brought to people's lives and seeing that firsthand. I mean, I remember being on phone calls with people crying, not knowing what to do. I mean, it was incredibly difficult for everybody, but being a financial advisor at that time really put things in perspective of the importance of having plans, but being able to weather storms as it relates to the finances and that kind of stuff. So that was certainly some pivotal times. Uh and then once uh eventually I moved into more of a coaching, a consulting role, that's obviously where I met Yuron in those types of roles, and just really progressed the career to where I was able to get promoted and find new opportunities every two to three years, which was very fulfilling and very exciting uh to grow and kind of move up that corporate ladder per se. But without going into details, that's kind of the theme of of what I was doing at Fidelity and just trying to progress the career, if you will.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, and that's fair. And what's interesting about it too is um it's almost like you still had some, I don't want to say constant change, but there was there was some change going on, right? Which I think helps drive someone like yourself that was uh you're driven by that, you're driven by finding that new adding fuel to the fire, so to speak. Um and then we touched on it last segment too, but then now we're we're we're working our way into into uh into the new venture, right? So talk to us a little bit about about Boulder Adventure Park. Talk to me about that.

Early Career And The Florida Leap

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So Boulder Adventure Park is what I'm pursuing full-time now and is our new job. And that's basically an adventure park. And so the way I like to explain it is we're taking attractions that normally you would find outside rock climbing walls, zip lines. We have like a tubing slide, but we're actually bundling them up and packaging them indoors. Um but if you go to Colorado in the summer and you think about the types of attractions they have outdoors in the summer, that's a lot of what we're trying to do in the adventure park. It's just that kind of theme, that kind of feel, uh, that motivation. And you know, I can kind of talk you through how I got started with that idea and how it evolved. Um, but building that adventure park is you know the full-time job at the moment, for sure.

SPEAKER_02

So where are you with that right now? Is it is you do you have an idea of when the goal is to open, or talk talk to us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so uh it's it's been a process. I mean, we're we're probably I I left Fidelity in May, which is nine months ago, um uh as now it's February. So basically I've been working on this full time for nine months. Um we're in the process of working through an agreement with the city of Grand Prairie right now, where essentially we can build the site on their land. They have some incentives uh that help us kind of get started in that in that way as well. Um but once we get that deal with the city, which really locks in the location uh and gets us started, then it's you know probably about a 12 to 18 month process to get it built. So we've got a ton of construction, planning, engineering, architectural, all that stuff is kind of in flight at the moment, um, but still a ways to go.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that that's fair. And that's quite that's quite um that's quite the leap. And a big part of it is uh I just think personally um what that would do to my psyche on the financial side of it, being financial planners, right? So talk a little bit about how you and your family prepared for this financially.

Pivot To Fidelity And Finance

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, tons we can talk to there. So um I'll talk through this one in a couple of ways, and it's gonna be a longer answer, I apologize, but I'm gonna talk through the emotional side of it and kind of why I even wanted to make that change, and then we can kind of talk through the financial side. But from an emotional perspective, I I think it's it certainly was important. Our story is I was in a position of fidelity that was making a really good income, like candidly, more than I ever dreamed I would make. Right. Like when I was in college in my early career, I always kind of had this number in my mind, six figures, let's call it, that if I can make that, man, that I just make that for 20, 30 years and I'm I'm set. And I reached points of fidelity that I was making well over that and was in a very good position. And so to leave that was not an easy decision by any stretch. Um, but I I think about a there's a lot of points that kind of came into why I ultimately wanted to pursue entrepreneurship and and start my own business. Um, but one of them that I like to share is Tony Shea, who founded Zappos, if you're familiar with him, he wrote a book that I thought he really summarized it well. He said, Look, there's four keys to happiness. Uh he broke broke those down. He said, There's you need to have a sense of control over your life, you need to have perception of progress, feeling like you're moving forward, you need to have connectedness, which is depth of relationships, and then there needs to be vision and meaning, kind of that higher purpose, being part of something bigger than yourself. And so I was reading that book, like right in the midst of trying to make a decision of, okay, do I really want to make this big of a leap? Et cetera. And I just did a self-assessment. And I just said, okay, do I have control over my life? And the answer to that was yes. I mean, I was in a good position, certainly had a secure job, but I wouldn't answer the question we talked about in episode one, where you said, Hey, if you could say what you want to do with your life now, like the eight-year-old self, yeah, would this be how I would draw up my life, working full-time at a big corporation, just trying to move up the ladder? And I in that way I didn't feel like I had control over my life. And so I felt like there's there's ways, things that I would do different in that way. Perception of progress is something I'm always looking for, and I've been able to find that at Fidelity to that point, but I was also reaching a level where it was becoming a lot, you know, you there just was only so much more that I could do to keep moving up at some point. I was kind of feeling like I was hitting a ceiling, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02

It does, yeah.

Climbing The Ladder And 2008 Crisis

SPEAKER_03

Um, and I was and I could talk more about that, but that was always something early on in my career, I was always worried about the floor, right? Base salary, got to have that protection. But I reached a point in my career where I was less worried about the floor. I felt confident in my skills and my experience, and I was now starting to say, hey, I'm starting to feel like there's a ceiling potentially that if I start a business, that maybe I can you know have more upside and I can bear the risk of no floor. But that's beside the point. I'm not hitting the four points clear. I apologize. Uh connectedness, I self assessed on connectedness, and in that place I was good. I love the people I worked with for fidelity. I love my family connected, very good relationships there. So that one was good and continues to be good. And then vision and meaning. And that's the one that probably just had the biggest hole was uh I I just didn't feel fulfilled anymore. And that's Yeah, if if you ask me why did I end up leaving Fidelity, it really was. I just felt like there was more to it than that. I was meant to do more. I had bigger ideas, uh bigger opportunities. And in the adventure park is is really fulfilling that of what I believe it can become for sure. And it's really exciting. I could see my family growing into it and all of that good stuff. But I was just looking for that vision, that meaning, which is obviously a pretty deep analysis. And at one point, I read a lot of books, and obviously we all watch documentaries and things like that. And I remember thinking to myself, I was like, would I watch a movie or read a book about my life? And the answer was like, absolutely not. Like, wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep. Wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep. Like it's it's good. Obviously, financially, I was good. And obviously, everything on the weekends and nights with the family, like that was fulfilling and exciting. But as it related to like what I was trying to accomplish and meaning of my life, it just felt very redundant and not fulfilling. And I just remember like, all right, you get one life. And I say that a lot, and it's always deep. You get one life. Like, is this really the life I want to lead? I wouldn't even want to read my own book. Scary. Yeah. And so I said, what could I do to really lead a bolder life? That's what it's all about. And that's when the idea of obviously starting my own business, but trying to find that right business that excited me and you know took advantage of the strengths that I have of creating something, driving a business, et cetera, but would be something of interest. And that's where the adventure park really came to be because it aligns with a lot of what we're interested in. And it's it's a great business opportunity that we've we've been able to develop. So that was purely the emotional side of it. Yeah. So I'll pause then.

SPEAKER_02

If you don't mind, because that that it got me thinking of a few things. So first and foremost, you talked about you know the meaning, the deep meaning. Uh that's always a hard one, and and I can see that going multiple different ways. Um, but I I guess to the the the career choice that you have now to make that change, that's not just a small change. That's a massive, complete different way of life, so to speak.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

What I I understand you like this, you know, up till about five years ago, you like being outside. Uh, but I mean, my goodness, talk a little bit about what are you gonna be, what role are you gonna play? What's this gonna look like?

Deciding On An Adventure Park

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, the the being outside really has nothing to do with starting the adventure park by any stretch. But uh my role in the business will be the CEO. So I've got the financial experience, uh I understand the analytics of it, the the modeling of the business. We we've done feasibility analysis. So I'll be the CEO and kind of driver of the vision, the growth strategy, the execution, right? That's what a CEO does. And I'm highly confident in my ability to do that. What I won't be is the general manager, right? So I don't have experience uh running the food and beverage area in the facility, you know, running the uh employee training and hiring and all of that stuff. So we're gonna bring in general managers with that specific experience. Um but when we have our first location, I'm gonna be there day and night. I mean, obviously, not every day and night, because I have family and everyone gets some off. But the point is, I'll be there working it um just as anyone else, um, right in the in the depths of it, which I'm super excited about.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that makes sense. And that it's just it's just interesting to hear that that it's a complete life change, really. Um so then to talk a little bit about that, right? So in the beginning, it's gonna be some time you went you went from very stable income, which I think is what a lot of people are gonna listen to this and hear and say, man, I'm in that same spot. I'm so afraid to make a change. So how did you prepare, how did your family prepare for that financially?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's a big one, um, for sure. And uh it took a lot of time. So I guess what helped us was I've always been a saver.

unknown

Okay.

Role As CEO And Team Needs

SPEAKER_03

From the, you know, basically since I graduated at 21 years old, been saving, saving, saving. Now, originally all that saving was purely for the goal of retirement. Yeah. And and eventually I realized, like, man, I'm just saving and saving, saving for a date that's 30 years away. Um, and I don't even know if I want to retire in the normal traditional sense. Like it kind of goes back to those four things of happiness. Like, I'm always looking for progress and moving forward. I don't see myself just fully retiring. So I had that realization, like, man, we've got some savings. So the amount of time I had to build savings was very helpful. Um, and then the other thing that we did, which was a big move, was we downsized our house. Okay. So I had reached a point of fidelity where I was making good income and we bought our dream home, which we lived on an acre. We had a swimming pool right on a cul-de-sac, even had like a putting green in the backyard, movie, movie room. I mean, it was a we're in Texas, so real estate's a little cheaper, but it truly was our dream house. And we'd been there about two to three years when the thought of doing something different started to come to us. And I didn't even know what it was gonna be at that point, but I knew that a house of that size forced us to keep the income level that I had reached.

unknown

Okay.

Preparing Financially For The Leap

SPEAKER_03

And so if you're seeing as we saw the the potential to make a move where that income's gonna drop, which right now it's zero, so it clearly dropped a lot, we've got to find ways to reduce the expenses. And the house was an easy one to do. And so we ended up selling that house, which made good money on that, because obviously the market's been strong, uh, and moved into a much more traditional house. It's still a great house. I mean, it's still a big house. We've got a family of five. So it's I wouldn't say like we're in this tiny little cabin or anything, but it's you know well over half the price of our other one. Um, and much easier maintenance. It wasn't even just the cost of the house that was overbearing for us. I mean, the maintenance and the upkeep and the things that would go wrong. I mean, you know, the the bigger the house, the bigger the problems. And so that move helped us a ton. Um interesting. And it was a big sacrifice. I mean, my middle daughter still asks, why did we have to move? Like she doesn't get it, which is hard. Um, but it definitely was a a sacrifice, but you know, things that you have to kind of make those decisions.

SPEAKER_02

So that's interesting though, right, Paul? Because we're we we kind of grow up with these should have's and could have's and supposed to be ideas, right? It's the and I would argue it's a big thing that we have in this country, which is the bigger house, the night the more expensive cars. You you have to have the bigger televisions, and what I I think that gets us away from is our heart and what we're really drawn towards. And you and your family um basically said, Hey, we have a passion for something, we're gonna go after it. Who cares about the should have's and supposed to be's, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so I I love that. I love that you did it. But leading up to it, right? You didn't just all of a sudden say, All right, I'm done, let's move on and let's just start this completely new venture and I'll just figure it out. Which had to be some research that went into it. Talk talk me through that a little bit.

Research, Differentiation, Feasibility

All In, Savings Runway, Mindset

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, a ton of research. So the idea for Boulder Adventure Park was born based on just my kids and I go to these entertainment venues around town all the time. And so I had known I was looking for something. Again, I I talked about it wanted to start a business, but didn't know what. And then the idea of an entertainment business kind of hit me when I'm standing there and watching all the people come check in and birthday party after birthday party, like, man, these look like pretty good businesses. It doesn't take a um a big financial analyst to figure out that they're probably pretty profitable and they're springing up all over the place. And so that's that's where the idea came from. And then I just came home and started doing research on Google, which is always a little dangerous, but it at least allowed me to see, okay, there's profitability here, there's certainly uh opportunity. Now it just has to come down to what are we going to do that's gonna be unique? Because originally we just wanted to start like a trampoline park. It was kind of the thought. Like, okay, the relatively low c cost of capital to build that appear to be pretty financially profitable, but I did more research and realized pretty quickly that that opportunity really wasn't gonna be a good fit because they were already everywhere in the area. They're pretty saturated. Okay. That decision would have been a lot better five years ago when they were just getting started. And so I was kind of in a pickle of, okay, I know what the industry can do, and I think this is where we want to be. I I really have a an excitement about it, an understanding of it, uh, and just a connection to it. But we had to figure out what. And the key is always what's going to differentiate you. Uh and I'd say what really helped us with the adventure park side of things is I went on a business trip with Fidelity to uh Park City, Utah. Okay. And one of the afternoons, we had a team outing, which is, hey, let's go out and do some things. And we went to uh Olympic Park in Park City, which is where the uh Winter Olympics were, um, and they had the ski jump and all that. And you can look it up online, but they've converted that Olympic park into an adventure park. Okay. They have zip lines and they have ropes courses, and the most incredible thing they have is a tubing slide that you slide down the face of the mountain on the ski jump, and it's intense. So, anyway, that's gonna be crazy. I had a time in my life because it's outdoors, it's exciting, it's thrill sinking, right? And I just remember going, all right, how do we bring this indoors to Texas? Which is not easy because we don't have mountains. There is no ski jumps, right? So obviously things got scaled down significantly, but the theme of the attractions we were able to pull off and come up with a design and a really unique facility that takes advantage of height. I mean, our our ceiling height has 75-foot-tall ceilings. We're gonna have rock climbing, you know, rock walls that are 60 feet tall and zip lines across the park. So, and then we do have a tubing slide of similar material to what we we went through there. But it was just being aware of what we want what I want to do, and then that event just helped me dial into it. And then from there, it's just a matter of trying to really piece things together. Uh and then lastly, I'll and then I'll pause. We hired a consultant to do a feasibility study because my research on Google said these businesses can be profitable, but there's no reason to make a life-changing, this big of a decision unless you can really get um expertise to weigh in. And so we hired a company that specializes in the entertainment industry. They ran an analysis of what we wanted to do, the demographics, and kind of put a financial model together for us, which was not cheap, but it was an investment into what we felt could be our future. And at the time, I still had a job. And if it turned out it wouldn't work, that was an investment I was willing to risk losing. Yeah. Um, but when it came back that it did work, we had a decision to make. And it was all right. And by that point, we had sold our house. We had already made that move. And so it was just a matter of a couple months after we got that feasibility study back that we said, yeah, we're we're gonna go for it.

SPEAKER_02

It's go time. Yeah, that's just that makes sense. Um okay, so so you you did a ton of planning, uh, you did a ton of research, then you paid an outside company to kind of help make sure of some of the stuff, which which I can understand. But even then, right, there's still a giant leap. Uh there, or we'll maybe we'll call it a zip line.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you're stepping out. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Or a base jump, depending on what you want to.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Right. Um, what did that look like? Like what made you say, all right, I it does the feasibility test came back good. We have a decision make to make. What was like, all right, I'm I'm ready. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_03

Uh uh It really came down to the only way it would possibly happen was to go all in. Okay. Because I had a full-time job. Um, I was the sole income provider for my family, which you know is another big challenge with it all. But you know, I could only do so much on the idea of starting this business while working full-time, you know, at nights, some weekends, that's about it. Um, and so it came to the point where we said, okay, we got the feasibility study, but the only way we're gonna really be able to make this happen is to go all in. Yeah. And do we believe in this enough to do that? And I I I've read, obviously, I talk about books a lot, but one of the stories that I'm always inspired by is Richard Branson's. And so he's got a couple of books out that talk through his whole story and the Virgin Brand and all that. But but one thing he said in a book that I wrote down, I try to keep notes on a lot of this stuff. He said, successful people start before they feel ready. And the reality is you'll never feel all the way ready because the only way to get all the way ready is to be all in.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

Get In The Game: Practical Advice

SPEAKER_03

And so, yeah, when I left Fidelity, I felt comfortable and I felt like there was enough there to give it a shot, but it by no means was ready. I mean, here I am nine months later, and we still haven't secured our land. Um, so we weren't ready, but we had done enough to at least make an informed decision. Um, and we had enough savings to to last us about two and a half years. Okay. And that we didn't talk about it, that's kind of the financial side, but I I knew that my goal was I didn't want my family to make lifestyle sacrifices more than they already had. Um like we're we're we're obviously watching our our budget more now than we did, but I still want to be able to go on vacations. Yeah, I still want my kids to be able to play sports, my daughter to do gymnastics every month. Like I didn't want to have to sacrifice so much that they're paying the price. So we that's where the savings came in, right? But we had about a window of call two and a half years that we said, look, let's go for it. And if at the end of two and a half years, if for whatever reason it didn't work, I can go back to work. I've got incredible relationships, great experience. Yeah, I won't be at the level I was when I left, but I can come in and work back up. And in the grand scheme of things, what have I really lost? A few years, and maybe I have to work a few more longer before I can retire, but at least now I know I I went for it. And it goes back to that Bezos quote we talked about in the first episode, but that was kind of the decision. The way I would answer that is you know, you're not ever gonna feel ready, but do what you can to at least have some confidence and and then you just gotta make a decision.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, all right. So I appreciate you sharing that. It definitely makes sense. Um I I guess with that being said, for those who are listening here today, Paul, what are so what are some any final thoughts or advice you might give to anybody that's kind of in that spot where you were a few just a few months ago, right? Saying, Man, I I I really feel like there's something different. What would you say to them?

Accountability And Future Episodes

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, um, everybody's vision of what a boulder life means is going to be different, right? When I was young, the bolder life was simply moving to Florida, um you know, making a change, which is exciting. So it's always different based on what you're trying to achieve. But the best advice I can give you was actually given to me by a very good friend of mine, um, Kerry, and his advice was, he said, you just have to get in the game. He said, Whatever it is you're thinking about doing, whatever it is you want to do, just get in the game. And that doesn't mean you have to go all in, but by putting yourself out there, by talking to people, you know, maybe it's a certain job you want to start or business you want to start, you got to get in the game and start learning about it and meeting the people. And that's what's been really most helpful to me is even meeting the people in the entertainment industry and starting to work with different people that are helping put the business together and investors and so forth. By being in the game, so much more opportunity comes out of that. Whereas if you just think about things and you don't actually start taking action and getting in the game, it's all just in your mind and nothing will ever happen. But if you actually start talking about it, start asking people, meeting with people, seeking mentorships, getting in the game, you'd be amazed at the network you're gonna start to make and things will start coming together just by putting yourself out there.

SPEAKER_02

I like that. That's good. Paul, I appreciate you sharing some of your story here today.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, Ron, thank you, and uh I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02

All right, Paul. Hey, I appreciate your sharing a story. I'll I'll add to that, get in the game. Maybe it's kind of like getting in the pool, right? Start at least start putting your feet in there, which is definitely good. Uh to all the listeners out there, thank you so much for listening to us. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, sarcastic remarks you'd like to leave for us, hit us up on LinkedIn. Uh, I'm Ron Lotti. This is Paul Fonnelli. We are uh helping you live that Boulder life, and we're looking forward to uh getting to know a lot more people out there. So we look forward to hearing from you. See ya.

Meet The Interns And Closing

SPEAKER_03

That was again shot five years ago. Hopefully it gives you great intro to who I am, how Boulder got started, a little bit of that story. Ron is still a good friend of mine. He'll be joining a podcast here. He said in a couple months he'll be ready to join and kind of talk about what he's doing. I also talked to Ron last night, got his permission to use that clip uh in the episode, and he's gonna hold me accountable. So Ron is gonna come on in episode 10 to make sure that I actually recorded 10 episodes and hold me accountable. Because if you don't have someone holding you accountable, it's way harder to accomplish things. And so I encourage everyone, if you're trying to do something and you need that accountability, have a friend hold you accountable, set a goal. And so I talked with Ron, he said, look, man, just send me a text right now of what your goal is and I will hold you accountable to it. And I said, All right, I want to have 10 episodes done, you know, within a month and a half. And so he's gonna talk to me in a month and a half and join the episode and make sure he's holding me accountable, which is super helpful to me so that I don't do what I did in 2020, record an episode and never do anything else. Uh, the other thing I want to do is put Protham on the spot a little bit. He's not on camera. He said he's got to get a haircut before he shows up on camera. No, I'm just playing with him. We don't actually have the setup to get him on camera today, but say hi to everyone, Protham.

SPEAKER_00

Hey guys, how's it going? All right, perfect. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Um, so I'm currently a college sophomore, and I'm pursuing a finance degree for myself, and I hope to honestly own a business one day. There you go. And one of the main reasons I love working with Paul here is because I feel like he's giving me a perfect stepping stool into the real world and what I actually want to be doing. So yeah, that's a little bit about myself.

SPEAKER_03

Awesome. We're pumped to have Protham. He is one of our marketing interns. Christina's our other marketing intern. She'll be on here uh from time to time as well. But Protham is gonna be like my go-to man helping me out with the podcast. He's gonna he'll get on camera next time because we'll have the setup ready for him. He'll have a nice clean haircut ready to go. Um, but essentially what I'm asking Protham to do is like represent the voice of the listener. Like you heard, he wants to start a business. He's trying to learn those skills, just also wants to hear the background, being a finance major that he is. That's you know my background as well. He's gonna help me dig into what's interesting to share. What are people interested in? Because if he's interested in it, our listeners are gonna be interested in it as well. So he's representing the listeners. Glad to have Pratham on board. With that, that's episode one. Like I said at the beginning, if you're not kind of embarrassed with the first shot, you're not taking that first step. So apologize if this was a little bit clunky, wasn't exactly where we're hoping to be in the future, but you got to start somewhere. Uh, just like Coach Brian said, just show up, get going. Um, your story is just beginning. Thanks for tuning in to the Boulder Business Podcast. And um, we'll see you in the next episode.