Ep 008: From One Struggling Kid to a $13M Mission

In this episode of the Bolder Business Podcast, Paul sits down with Ryan DeJoy to talk about the unexpected path that led from helping one struggling student to building Windham Woods School — a mission-driven organization that has grown through trust, community, and purpose.

Ryan reflects on nearly two decades in education, the decision to step into uncertainty, and how one conversation opened the door to something far larger than he ever imagined. Together, they explore what it means to recognize opportunity when it doesn’t look like a traditional business plan, why focusing on strengths changes outcomes, and how real growth is built through people, not systems.

The conversation also touches on fundraising, leadership, and the realities of building something meaningful without losing sight of why you started. It’s an honest look at entrepreneurship, education, and life — and a reminder that progress often begins by listening to the signal telling you it’s time for something different.

Transcript

Welcome & Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, what's happening, everybody? Welcome back to the Boulder Business Podcast. Today we have a special guest, Ryan DeJoy, joining us. Say hi, Ryan. Hello, everybody. All right, awesome. I'm excited to talk to Ryan. So I'm going to give a little bit of a context intro as to how I met Ryan, and then we're going to dive into Ryan's story. Essentially, what we're going to do today is talk about Ryan's story as it relates to his business that he's running. And then he actually reached out to me for some thoughts, questions that he's got that I'm hopefully able to help him with out in kind of the second part of this episode. So I got a text from Ryan a couple days ago and just said, hey man, would love to pick your brain about a few things. So I called him up, and turns out he got my number from another vendor that I had worked with. But in talking with Ryan, I always want to hear more about what they're what he's working on. Anyone that reaches out to me and he started telling me his story about a school that he started and how it got started. And we're like five minutes into the conversation. And I'm like, Ryan, stop right there. Like, I want to hear a lot more. And I'm starting this new podcast. Can you come on my podcast? And he was he was game for it. So I'm excited to have you.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

Uh thanks again. I I'm really excited to be here. And uh I think this is such an important thing that's happening. And uh I really appreciate you uh allowing me to come share my story with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah, you got it. So let's start with that, Ryan. Tell us what you're doing now, and then I'll kind of back it up and we'll talk about how you got there.

Windham Woods Overview And Growth

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Sure. Um so I am running a school in Wyndham, New Hampshire for students with learning challenges. Um, mild in the mild to moderate range, we go grades one through 12. Okay. Um we opened in uh 2019 for students, and uh it's just been an amazing journey and something that I never really envisioned that I would be doing. Um, but sometimes, you know, what as a business owner, you're just you see an opportunity and you just kind of you thrust into it and really exciting.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

That's exactly right. You gotta just go where the where the opportunities take you. And so when when we talked briefly, when you opened in 2019, how many students did you have then? And how many students do you have now, you know, five, six years later?

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Oh, it was an amazing journey. Uh, we started with 46 students in 2019, and what a first year we hit COVID. Yeah. Um not ideal for your first year when you're launching a business, but uh it was actually an amazing opportunity for us because when all the students went remote, uh their families started to see the gaps in the educational system that led them to realize wow, this isn't working for my child.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

And so as that sort of progressed, um, we grew. We started with 46 students in 2019 and 17 faculty members. And then this year uh we have 204 students and 104 faculty members.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Wow. That's like a 5x growth in five years. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Yeah, it's been an amazing journey. It's been a it's been an interesting and a really uh incredible learning experience throughout the the whole sort of the uh spectrum of what we've been doing, but uh it was uh it was a really an incredible opportunity that we had to just start something that really is breaking the mold for education for these kids.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Oh, I love it. Yeah, that's incredible. So and tell me the name of the school.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Yeah, it's it's Wyndham Woods School. It's in Wyndham, New Hampshire. Okay, amazing.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

And all right, so that's you know where it started, what you're doing now. Take me back to uh even before the school started. Tell me about kind of your career progression, kind of what got you there, and then transition us to how the school actually got started.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Well, it's funny. Um I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and um my parents were both educators. And when I went off to school, I went to college in Boston at Emerson College, and I went for communication. And the one thing both of my parents suggested the field that I really be careful about getting into is education. Uh, you know, there is very pro-education, but you know, if as far as a livelihood and a career goes, it's not always the most uh profitable one.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Um so they were uh they they were really supportive of this though. And once I decided um, you know, I really wanted to help kids, I went right out of Emerson College and I went to a school where um it was just again, it was another opportunity to work with kids that were really struggling, but had tons of potential and just needed to a different learning environment to find success. So that's where I started. I was there for almost 19 or 20 years, and then uh it was just time for a change for me. I had been in education, I had gotten into the administrative side of the school, and uh, you know, I was ready to do something else for a different crowd. Um, so that's that's how Windham Woods, the the birth of Wyndham Woods started at that point.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Yeah, I think a lot of people can relate to hey, I've been doing this for however long, and internally you just know you're looking, you need something different, but it's really hard to know what that different route should be. You know, in my case, I was in finance accounting first, then finance 15 years, and then eventually got to the point where I was like, I want to start something different, which I clearly we we did much different in building uh the adventure center. But when you made that transition to starting the school, talk me through that part of the story because you shared just a little bit with me on the phone call, which is super intriguing as to how you got the land of building that. Tell us that story.

The One Student Who Sparked A School

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Well, you know what's amazing about any sort of business adventure is you never know the twists and turns and how things are gonna get started and then where it's gonna go. And I feel like I have an entrepreneurial spirit inside me. I always have. So um the idea of building something, the idea of figuring out how something grows has always been really attractive to me. And but you do have to keep your mind open to all avenues. Um, this school formed because uh there was one child who was not finding success in school at all. And no matter what was happening in the classroom and different learning environments, it just wasn't clicking. So this parent asked me to work with the child um and do some tutoring with them. And I I, for a couple of years, I was doing pretty intense remediation with this child to just get the skills where it needed this child's skills where they needed to be to find success in school. And I get emotional about this because it means so much to me. Um there's been nothing more important than helping students realize that when you're struggling at school, it doesn't mean you're not capable. It means you need a different path. You there's so many strengths and abilities that you have that are inside you that our traditional educational setting doesn't help develop. And so um this parent came and said, you know, my child is really learning with you, finally. Um, he's feeling confident, he's growing his skills. And I was expecting that that was going to lead to it, it was gonna have a stopping point. I was gonna get to a point with the child, they were gonna be able to access the content in school that they needed to, and then that was gonna be it. But what in turn ended up happening is this child got into the school that he could not get into over and over and over again. And then I called to let the mom know that this was happening. She's she wasn't as happy as I thought she'd be. And I was that that was strange for me. And I said, you know, like this is the goal that we've been working towards was to get your son into this school. She said, Ryan, it's great, but what about all those other kids out there who don't have a you or can't find that educational space where they feel comfortable and confident and don't have a great educator to sort of lead them forward? And I put some thought into that, but you know, I didn't think much past that comment. And about a week later, she called me and she said, I want you to meet me in Wyndham, New Hampshire. I said, Okay, and I said, What's in Wyndham, New Hampshire? She said, just meet me. Okay. So uh I drove up to Wyndham, New Hampshire to meet her, and she showed me a 250-acre property that she owned, and she was running a science learning center here, and it just wasn't quite achieving the mission that she had set out for it to achieve. And she said to me, I want you to think about starting a school here for kids like my child who just cannot find that home, cannot find those educators who understand how they learn, why they learn this way. And she said, more importantly, I just want to have this be feel successful so that I don't feel like I've wasted an opportunity with this beautiful land and this building that I've uh constructed. So, next thing you know, um I said, Well, can I have the weekend to think about that? And uh, you know, you went home and I spoke with my wife and I told her about this opportunity, and she's she was a founding member with us, and she was completely on board. And uh what a what a blessing. You know, how many times does something like that happen where somebody is so generous, so thoughtful, so caring to give you a gift like this? And that's how Wyndham Woods, that was really the roots of Wyndham Woods.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Wow, what a phenomenal story. I mean, throughout, like I got chills hearing that. Obviously, your emotions behind it. To your point earlier of like sometimes you gotta just go where the opportunities take you. But you know, obviously you did some phenomenal work with her son, um, and it just created that opportunity. But uh to me, that's a fascinating story. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

Well, there's so many, there's so many people that have so much, but don't necessarily know how to put it into practice. Absolutely. And um, this this incredible, incredible opportunity only came about because somebody said, I want to make a difference. And I I may not be the one to make the difference. Uh I I don't have that expertise, but I know somebody that does. And putting that trust in myself, but more importantly, in our entire team that we built, uh, this is such a group effort here. Um, and I think that's one really important thing that I've that's become even more evident to me as this business has grown. You have to have an incredible support system around you for uh any entrepreneur to have their business take off and fly the way it's supposed to. You cannot do it all by yourself.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Absolutely. I love it. Um take me through, so I'm gonna kind of just go where my mind's taking me with questions. The point you made about just because a student is struggling in school doesn't mean they don't have the capability. It's just not the right environment for them. I have a feeling that's gonna resonate with many, many, many, many people, either for their own children, maybe for themselves. Can you just talk us through like what advice do you give to parents or to people that find themselves in that situation that might not have a school near them? Or just what advice would you give to someone that's that's struggling with that?

SPEAKER_03 11:33

I think the most important thing for all of our parents and people in the community that know their own child, you know your child best. One of the things that happens with kids that have learning challenges is that their hope and optimism gets diminished in a school setting. And that's what has to stop. That's what we're doing at Wyndham Woods. We're shining a light on these children and we're highlighting their abilities, their strengths, uh, their amazing um traits that it's so funny in the business world are valued. Uh if you think about things like communication, your um ability to engage with others, your ability to lead a group. But in school, a lot of times those are those are not the skills that are highlighted. A lot of times it's how much content can you take in in a particular subject, and then how do you uh how do you take that content and then spit it back out? Um and so really what's happened here is that we're trying to put the life skills that you need to be successful in a career setting into practice in school. So, as a parent, when you have a child that you know has these amazing capabilities, you want to make sure that there's opportunities where you can uh have those strengths flourish. For example, it was fun, it's funny the tutoring example that I used earlier. You when you're in school, you get tutoring because you're struggling in an area, typically. But in the real world, in the business world, you you identify and you sort of highlight your weaknesses and you try to move away from those.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Yes.

Strengths-Based Learning Philosophy

SPEAKER_03 13:11

You try to accentuate your strengths. And in it's sort of the same thing of, you know, we'll put a we'll put a child on a soccer team, a select group, or we'll have somebody go into a rock climbing uh club because they love it and they're really good at it. But we don't do that in school. If your child is a great writer or a great reader, you usually don't get tutoring around those strengths. You get tutoring around the areas where you're really struggling. When in actuality, when you go to college or you go to university or you go into a career, you're looking for the things that you do really well. You're picking a major that you love instead of um gravitating towards the areas where you really struggle. So it's a bit of a different mindset shift that we're trying to promote here at Wyndham Woods is we know you have strengths. Let's do more of that. Let's dig in more into what you love. What because by the way, when you are passionate and you're engaged, it's amazing what you can actually show. Um, and that's really what our world is becoming is what can you show? So, as a parent, I think the most important thing that we can all do, whether your parent is neurodiverse or not, is put your child or children in those situations where they can really thrive and excel and do more of that. Uh, and then encourage those things. And then when it's amazing the resiliency, the confidence that builds when you're doing when you're starting from an area of strength as opposed to an area of weakness. The sky's the limit for these kids. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Wow. Ryan, thank you for sharing. I mean, that's absolutely spot on. I'm over here like signaling Protham to make a little timestamp note. So I'm gonna kind of this is a good point for us to transition to part two of the conversation. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

But before I do, I'm sorry, I could talk for hours on this.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

I love it. We'll keep going. But uh, what I want to talk about is like, okay, now from a business perspective, like the podcast reaching people, what I'm thinking about doing is how do we market? Because business all comes down to marketing, in my is what I'm learning. The more you can get better marketing out there, things like that. I mean, one of the main reasons I wanted to start this podcast is to talk about the business, but hopefully listeners will hear and go, oh, maybe I want to go attend Boulder Adventure Park or have an event at Boulder Adventure Park. Well, anyways, what I see podcasts do really well is take small clips and then go put them on social media, right? Like the Kelsey Brothers podcast is phenomenal. And they all I've always tuned into their little clips, and then it makes you want to go listen to the whole thing. So, anyways, while you're sharing those awesome stories, I'm like, brother, take take note of that. And we're gonna use that as a little clip to put on social because I think everybody's gonna relate to that and how cats need to learn different. And your your point, the most important, is focus on your strengths because that's what's gonna drive your future. Yes, we we can't have complete holes on our weaknesses, but we we really want to put more emphasis and time on our strengths, which the child is gonna enjoy more.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

Well, if you think about if you think about it from a uh business perspective, and I love to do this because I feel like at Wyndham Woods, we're we call it doing school differently. And we we have a um our whole vision is how are you gonna be successful in the world, not just at Windham Woods? Oh and so what we have, for example, one of the big initiatives that we have going at Windham Woods is we have a student-run food truck. And so, you know, you have these sort of activities, but this is a real world. The students designed the outside of it. Um, the students designed the menu, they come up and do the shopping, they go and do all the measuring, they go through and figure out how much things are going to cost, and then they work together in a business setting to accomplish a goal and learn by doing. So that's one of the things that we really feel is so valuable. And Paul, to your point, school is not set up this way. That's why we're really doing everything we can to change the narrative about how these kids learn. If you think back to your school days, if you weren't interested or engaged in the material, you don't remember it. So if you think about what you actually take with you from your life, it's through experience and it's through something that left a made an impact on you. And a lot of times in school, the reason why the kids have trouble recalling, or I am gonna have trouble recalling something from calculus class, is because I remembered it in that moment and I'm not applying it now, and I didn't do a project with it to show me how it all linked together. Brilliant. So at Wyndham Woods, we are project-based, and then we're also taking real entrepreneurial topics and linking those as to uh how our kids learn and and the concepts that you would go over in a an algebra class and uh a writing class and a marketing class, like how that actually applies in school.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Wow. Uh Propham signaling me now. He's got a few thoughts. He's on camera, but go for it, Prophet.

Project-Based Education In Action

SPEAKER_00 18:17

You know, first off, I would like to say that I genuinely love the way you've created your school and like all the ideas of it. I am currently a sophomore in college and have a younger brother who's in high school. And personally, I don't feel like I was the best learner in high school, you know, like I just hated the education system, none of it made sense to me. My brother hates school, you know. So it's really different that you kind of bring this side of the perspective into it because I've always thought that, hey, what's the plot uh point of this English class or what's the point of this algebra class? You know, like when am I gonna put use of this in my life? And I just love the entrepreneurial idea of okay, this is the project you're going to be doing, and this is how you're going to implement these specific things into your life. So honestly, listening to all of this just really puts me at ease that hey, the change is coming, you know. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Well, I gotta tell you, thank you for sharing that. And and again, stop me if I'm going too long, but I just I I just want to tell you guys the most important thing about any school setting is that the children actually want to come. So all of our kids actually get excited to get out of their car, come into the school every day. There's a classroom that we have that has it's an animal classroom. There's snakes, there's guinea pigs, there's um all different kinds of wildlife in there. And so, yes, you're it's like you're sort of in a magical environment where it's very hands-on and there's a lot of learning going on. But through that experience, students are also giving presentations. They're going through and getting engaged in a topic that maybe they were completely terrified to um to speak in front of a group before, but they will speak about Monty the Python. So, you know, that's a it's just one of those situations where if you can find the little the the um the engagement level, if you can just activate that, you really can see what these kids can do. And then they push themselves internally without even knowing it because they're so active and engaged in what they're learning. So I appreciate that's why we're trying to really make a movement here at Windham Woods to say, how is education impactful and how can we make it more real-world every single day uh related?

SPEAKER_01 20:43

That's spot on. I mean, Protham's points are what I hear from my own kids and others. How does this apply to how will I ever use this? And you're bringing that to life for them. And clearly it's resonating with me as a parent, it's resonating with Protham as a student. Um, he's relating it to his brother. I mean, you you're hitting all cylinders here, Ryan. So awesome.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

By the way, Paul, all the research says this is the right way to approach this. We are a research-based school. Um, we have a lot of students here that have ADHD. Um, the recent studies have indicated that one out of every nine students in the United States has ADHD. Uh, and if you have ADHD and you're really struggling with your intention and focus, how successful is it going to be if you're sitting at a desk for 45 minutes listening to a teacher up at the board? That just doesn't make any sense. So, and if you think about the entrepreneurs out there, these guys are people that think out of the box. They want to get creative. They have an idea that doesn't look like somebody else's, it doesn't fit in a narrow window. Well, you're not seeing any of their abilities and capabilities by just having a lecture style in a classroom. But if you do some project based learning or you have other opportunities, it provides complete autonomy for a child to say, I can take this. On let me do it my way and let me show you what I can learn and where this goes.

Student Engagement And Animal Classroom

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Yeah, I heard I hear that. Ryan, your passion for is contagious. Like, wow. Thank you. Um, all right. So let's now I I could like you, I could talk about this all day, but let's now transition to why did you reach out to me? How did you find out about me? Like it was just a wild little text. So let's kind of kick into that if you can.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

So one of the things, first of all, I am talking about passion and excitement. I am so pumped up on the Boulder Adventure Park. I I cannot tell you when I went to your website, I probably spent, I don't know, three or four hours just watching that looped video of your drone taking me to every spot. And I thought to myself, wow, I didn't, I didn't think it was possible to have everything in one place. And it seems like you've been able to do that in an incredible way in a dome. And then I as the way that I heard about you, um, let me back up for a minute.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

So in this whole scope of what we're doing at Wyndham Woods, uh, when we took over the property, as I may have mentioned earlier, it wasn't set up as a school. So sort of the basic campus layout that you'd have at a school, we don't we didn't have at Wyndham Woods. Got it. So things like a gym, a performing arts center, um, an art studio, like those are all components that you'd have at any campus that our students should have, but we didn't have. Um so as we're we've now expanded, we've done three building expansions since we opened uh in 2019. We've raised over$13 million, uh, and it's all gone back into facilities infrastructure and more classrooms and spaces so that we could help more students. Now our focus at Wyndham Woods and our incredible board of trustees, who's really behind every single effort that we do, um, even as even as some of them are a little uh off the wall and crazy, like we have that support is to build out the campus. So when we were looking at how to make that happen, um we needed a field, we needed some court space, we needed uh pickleball, we didn't have a rock wall. So all of these components are things that our students should have in their learning environment to sort of support our mission, but we didn't have any of those. So I thought a long time about well, do we just build a gym and we put it on our uh the spot that we have for it? And it's about a six million dollar project. And then the more I got to thinking, it's just wasn't a great use of our resources. So we decided we were going to do an airdome. And when we did an airdome, I just was blown away by the efficiency of that structure and what you can fit inside an airdome. And the cost of it seemed very reasonable. So as you can imagine, not many uh, you know, not many private schools around our area have an airdome. I don't know that any of them do. Uh, but as we were thinking about, well, do we just want a field and some quartz? We thought, let's go big, let's really get every single thing that we can think of that our kids would they'd be able to find those strengths. Let's do that. Um, and as we were going through this process, one of the really key components is we don't want to just have an air dome that's only has fields in it. We need to have something for those athletes that don't necessarily want to participate on a team but still want to be active. Uh, we started looking at a 50-foot rock wall, and that's when I got um in touch with Dan, our dome supplier. He goes, I know the guy that's got your rock wall. And I I uh just had an incredible experience just connecting with you, Paul, and just hearing more about that. I can't wait to learn more. Um, but I think that what you guys are doing uh is incredible, and it's sort of what I want to do in a school setting so that students can find those strengths and talents outside of just what they do in the classroom.

ADHD, Autonomy, And Real-World Skills

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Awesome. I'm happy to help. I mean, anytime someone reaches out, has some questions, I'm I'm an open book. So that's that's why we're here. And selfishly, I was like, Ryan, you come on my podcast, let's talk about it on the podcast. You're like, well, let's set up a meeting first. I'm like, no, man, I want to hear it for the first time live. I'm way better at questions when it's just going. So, okay, so you got introduced to me from the vendor of the uh AirDome that uh it's not the one we use, but it I had talked with him, he had my card. So you reached out, and what type like how how can I there's a few, my mind's like going in five directions right now. I'm not gonna lie. So, one, I'm gonna definitely want to talk about how you raise$13 million because raising money for business is you know paramount, it's a lifeline, but we're gonna come back to that. Um, we'll kind of close with the the financial side of things. But how can I help you? I guess is my question.

Why Ryan Reached Out: The Air Dome

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Well, I think one of the things that's really striking, and I just cannot say this enough. Uh, when you build something or you've got something that is unique, um, that's a huge selling point for me. Uh my crowd is unique, they're looking for opportunities that are unique. And the Boulder Adventure Park is one of a kind in my mind. If that was here in New England, uh that facility would be so popular because it's really tough to find land here. Um, that's one of the huge restrictions that we have. But also the amount of thought and effort and intentionality that you put into that space and how that's designed, it blew me away. And I just want to say, as a as a business owner, um, I've had several businesses, they've all been uh they've had their own challenges, but their own triumphs. I that is such a triumph when you can actually have something that you've helped create with your group that ends up looking like that. It's a showstopper. And of course, there's hurdles, there's things that are challenging, there's a lot of bumps in the road. But for somebody like me who's trying to really break the mold and do something very different than you'd see in an educational environment, to see what you've built in practice there just really inspired me. It gave me a lot of really incredible ideas that I'd like to forward now that I had the opportunity to look at that. Our Air Doom is a little different. Um, we have five basketball courts and volleyball courts that are going in there. We have a full-size FIFA regulation soccer field. Um, there's a Sky Deck, uh, a viewing deck. It's got exercise equipment. We have golf simulators. So I never thought that something like what we were designing, I've never seen anything like it until I saw yours. And I just it was sort of proof positive that what we were thinking could actually work. So again, just I I just commend you on that. Ours is 125,000 square feet, it's a big one. That's double five stars. Yeah, but that's that's primarily because we have the field space um and the the court space, but uh I just was really blown away by it. And I just want to say too, like I think it speaks to as a business owner, why you want to do something that looks really, really tight and professional from Jump Street, and the um you can just tell that you guys really thought through how that was organized. Um, the other thing I would mention too that really impressed me was the um the all the different seating areas and the um the ability to have parties in there and food. It just was so well thought out. Uh, and in some of the spaces that I've visited um that are just a for-profit business that's trying to do something similar, even if it's just for rental for fields, it's not well designed. Got it. Uh, and I left that uh I left feeling that from your design that you guys really had a plan when you went into that.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Oh, you're awesome. This isn't even sponsored by you, you're just saying nice, nice things. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Yeah, I I tell you, I think I'm um as I went through the video, I think the focus for us is primarily on the rock wall. Okay. Um, you know, we've got the field space sort of sorted out, but um, just walk me through how that got designed and um how big is it? Just sort of some of the logistics of it.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Yeah, you got it. So the rock walls are like definitely what makes Boulder unique. Uh, they would not be possible without our engineer. So I will plug him. He's a phenomenal engine, structural engineer. His name's Matthew Parker. Uh I'm sure he doesn't mind the free plug. Um, but he it all starts with engineering, right? So he's he had already worked with companies on artificial rock before. Um, and that's you know, ultimately, so he had a very good understanding of what the artificial rock needed to be. But essentially what it is, is it's a steel pipe inside the rock, 12-inch steel pipe, I mean really big steel pipe. And then he basically designed it so it's like cubes act on top of each other with the steel pipe obviously just going up, and then he obviously designed cross bracing within it. So you have like this steel structure. I'll try to edit some photos in of how that looked during the build. Then what they do is they put rebar all around the steel, and that's where they get the shape that they want of the rock, and then they come in with basically concrete, shotcrete, and shoot it, coat one, and then they come back and shoot it again and they hand carve it. So all the rock walls are hand-carved, which the guys that do that are phenomenal. We had a couple of different vendors, so I'm not gonna plug one or the other on this, but I'll introduce you to them. Uh, but having the guys that know how to shape the rock, sculpt the rock, make it look realistic, because still to this day, people come in and they're like, Wow, like it looks real. Prophet, you thought it was real.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

Yeah, so I actually like rock climb a lot. I've been outdoor rock climbing, indoor rock climbing, and all that. But when I looked at these rocks, like I was like, dude, these have to be real. Yeah, there's no way they're not real.

Designing A Multipurpose Campus Dome

SPEAKER_01 32:21

You know, they're definitely not real because it was a flat piece of dirt in Grand Prairie, Texas, where we don't have rocks. But to to Popham's point, the team that did this, I take no credit for, right? The engineer designed it, the artist, they are artists of hand carving the rock, all of that um is is the key. So, and then to answer your question about some of the specs, they're our our tallest is the big arch, is 55 feet tall. Our rock walls, where you do more traditional rock climbing, which is obviously what you're gonna be doing, are 45 feet tall. And then what we did is the guys that carved it, again, they carved rock for other climbing gyms before. So they know how to put holds at certain places so that there's different climbing difficulties. So when you work with them, you'll kind of say, Hey, I want so many routes to be very beginner, some to be a little bit more advanced. And then what we did is we actually came in and we put uh artificial hand holds in certain places on the rock to make it easier. So when people are climbing, they can choose, hey, do I want to just climb the rock? It's gonna be a little bit harder, or do I also want to use these artificial hand holds and use those to make it a little bit easier? So you can kind of pick your difficulty level within the rock, but it all comes down to the the guys that carve it knowing exactly how to do it. So you got to have the right sculptors, if you will, which I'll introduce.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

How how big is that? I mean, how many do is it um do you have I guess it's sort of a weird dimension because it's not just a linear thing, but uh it looks like it takes up about half of the facility, I would say. Does that sound about right?

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Good question. So we have two things that we use the rock walls for. One is called Via Ferrata, we call it the mountain experience. That's where you clip into this cable and you're like following a trail all around the rocks. I don't think you're gonna do that unless you you want to. That's purely for the entertainment experience. Um, and so that's why you see there's four different uh rock structures in the park, and they all have different names, which is fun. Um, but you're basically following that all around. The actual climbing area is quite small and it's just in between it because all you need is a vertical wall. So depending on what your goals are, if you want the full mountain experience, then yeah, you need to allocate a lot more space for it. But if you just are trying to do traditional climbing, I mean, one of our structures is called Grits Peak, is basically just a square. I think it was like 10 feet by 10 feet square, and it has four different faces to it. So you could easily, I mean, in our case, we only climb on two of those faces, but you could easily just do something like that because the benefit of the the dome is there's no structural conflict. So you could put this wherever you want depending on the height, um, and you could just have people climbing on all sides of it. So I guess um it shouldn't take a significant amount of space, is the bottom line, if you're mostly doing climbing. But I guess it it kind of depends what your your goals are for the rock.

SPEAKER_03 35:24

Well, you know, I was I I had a certain thought to it, and now I've watched yours, and now I have a different thought, which is I guess another good a good lesson for all of us who are, you know, to be flexible. And I actually feel like that's a really important thing that I've learned is you never want to have a fixed mindset when it comes to any project, because you know, as I mentioned, I was so inspired by what you were doing there with that structure that I'm thinking about zip lines now and adding some of those, and um, you know, which would mean I'm guessing that we'd need multiple um multiple locations at different elevations for the zip lines and things like that. So I I just I we actually have a pretty sizable area set aside for this structure. I mean, it's um 70 or 80 feet long, potentially by 30 or 40 feet wide, not including the whatever the um matting would be underneath it. So it's a it's a gonna be a feature. Uh I just was really excited to see that. I mean, is that would you say that's one of your most popular uh places in the dome? Or how does that work? Like, do you have you noticed a trend uh of what people seem to like more than or not more, but just like uh the popular areas in your structure?

Inside Boulder’s Rock Walls And Engineering

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Yeah, I mean, by far, our two most popular attractions are the zip lines. So you're very smart to put zip lines in, uh, and our slide. But what is most unique and what really makes Boulder stand out are the rock structures. And the only reason they're not as popular is because there's certain minimum weight requirements to go on what we call the mountain experience. You have to weigh 88 pounds based on the way we designed it, um, because there's just different fall factors and it's all this technical stuff. But because there's a minimum weight of 88 pounds, a lot of kids, like 10, 11 year olds, don't weigh 88 pounds, so they they gravitate more to the ropes than the zip lines. But from an experience perspective, I I believe strongly that the mountain, the rocks are by far our most unique, cool experience in the park. Um, but I just say they're not as popular because it has that weight minimum that a lot of people don't qualify for. Uh but the climbing, I mean, everyone comes in and does climbing. Uh you know, we use true blue auto blaze, so that's something I'll definitely be able to help you with because you know, for safety, obviously you want to have there's different ways you can do climbing. You can do auto blaze, which is what we do, or you can do you know, true belay where you actually have a person belaying them, which you might you might want to do both. Um but in our case the auto belays make more sense.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

Yeah. I just I I can't even, I just again, it's it's sort of mind-blowing what what you guys have done in there. And I just uh I I think that up here for us, uh some sort of a structure like that, you just don't you don't see that. I don't know if uh I don't know if I've ever seen that anywhere. So the unique factor, again, as a business owner, I'm always looking for that. I don't want Wyndham Woods School to be like any other school in the country. Uh we work with a crowd that's very unique here. They're incredibly talented and capable, but they just need to learn differently. And if you're learning differently, then everything about your campus should be customized. So that's why the dome was really appealing to us. It's it's uh it's just you feel special when you're in a dome, too. It feels like a uh you kind of you're walking in a in a just a totally different environment. And for our students, I think they deserve to have that feeling of pride, that sense of accomplishment when they go on one of these features. That's another reason why the Rockwell is just again, just so um so unique. It's a challenge. You can tell, you can push yourself however you'd want to. Uh, I just I think it was uh it just left a real mark on me. Your whole facility. And I think that that's sort of what we're trying to do with our kids is get them to push themselves, test their limits, and sort of realize their capabilities that they didn't even know that the you know where the the heights where they could go.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Literally, that's a great, great uh analogy there, the heights. Um, and you're spot on because when they climb the wall, they might make it halfway up one time, but then they keep working on it and then they progress. We actually put bells at the top of our walls. You get to the top, you can ring the bell, and there's that audible sense of accomplishment, right? One of my team members' daughters, she's like eight or nine, climbed and rang the bell, and she was so proud of that accomplishment. Like it was just super inspiring, even to see how excited she got with it.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

By the way, I would just say too that I'll bet you a lot of the the kids that come over and use your facility. Um I would venture to say that many of them don't shine in school. And these are the kids that you you're seeing that have these incredible capabilities, but they if you think about what you've built, none of those elements are in a school.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Absolutely correct.

SPEAKER_03 40:23

And if you and these students are in a school most of their life, yeah. And yet all of these skills, talents, um, these areas of competency that aren't just out of a textbook, uh they don't get a chance to work on those, to have those flourish. Uh, when you think about a PE class, none of the elements that are in your facility really are highlighted in a physical education environment. And my question is why? Yeah, um, that's that's something that we want to get to the bottom of because when you can do something that isn't engages these kids in a different way, they're more apt to give you a better effort. They're more apt to want to come to your class, want to come to your facility because they're getting that unique experience. They're getting something that's fulfilling them. And that's that's another reason why we're excited about sort of this out-of-the-box thinking. Um, you know, we we just another quick example, we're building an animal barn at Windham Woods. So we're bringing horses and donkeys and goats onto the campus because I've seen this huge trend with our students wanting to get um into these fields with animal science, the veterinarian fields, just amazing opportunities to grow and learn and thrive. But you know, why can't those be in a school setting?

SPEAKER_02 41:44

Yeah.

Climbing, Zip Lines, And Experience Design

SPEAKER_03 41:44

So we're uh the other component of that is if you're struggling with anxiety or you're really nervous about going to take a test. Um, one thing the animal classrooms taught us is that you know, these animals calm students down, they ground them. And so when you're ready to go in, or if you're having a bad morning, uh, or if you're not excited about reading to another person in your class or in front of somebody else, you may feel comfortable going to read to Lilac the horse. And the lilac's not going to judge you. Lilac looks at you and says, with your teacher, okay, you know, they they sit there, they're calm. Uh so the there's just so many different experiences that should be happening in schools uh so that students feel comfortable and confident. And then when you see that start to happen, they're willing to take a risk. They're really willing to go the next step. And these students are amazingly talented, but they don't ever realize those talents until they've struggled for years trying to figure out a career or launch their own business. Um, we have amazing entrepreneurs that come out of this community, but they shouldn't have to struggle out of the gate. We can help them in school uh to launch into a career more easily, more successfully.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Wow. Okay, so I'll definitely uh make some introductions for you, get to where you need to go. I'm happy to help. But even I'm now thinking, like, all right, right, I'm gonna become a D because we do field trips a lot at Boulder, right? And right now the field trips are hey, just come, they're more recreational. But what I'm hearing from you is like, wow, there's a way we could use our facility to help teachers with education, difference, whatever it ends up being. And maybe we can, you know, I'll reach out to you and see what thoughts you have of ways that we can, you know, support local schools around here to come in and use the park for educational purposes beyond just the you know the fun field trip side of things.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

Absolutely. I mean, one of the just to keep it brief, but we when we introduce our rock climbing wall, we're gonna have our own rock climbing team. Um and we're gonna invite other schools, we're gonna see if they are they're interested in getting this alternative sort of activity together. Um, you know, and then you really get a sense of

SPEAKER_01 44:00

um that child that doesn't that doesn't feel comfortable on a larger uh soccer team or a lacrosse team or uh even in a basketball setting but they have this aptitude for this amazing talented um uh this little experience that they can have and then they're still be they can still sort of contribute as part of a group but in in a skill set with their skill set that makes sense yeah absolutely i mean even Pratham said he does climbing so it it is such a popular sport unique and different than the traditional team sports we see in schools I love that totally um all right let's now I teased it earlier I wanted to talk about it but give me some thoughts on financing what avenues of fine I mean obviously I'm not gonna ask anything that you're not comfortable talking about but just generally speaking you said you raised$13 million obviously you're gonna continue to raise as you build this part of the project out like what are your fundraising sources? How do you come about it?

Making Movement Part Of Education

Field Trips With Purpose And Team Sports Alternatives

SPEAKER_03 44:56

I think it's always interesting to hear different avenues of financing absolutely um I do have a a background in fundraising um so I was in the education space for a while um for a long while I loved it and then uh as I kind of went through the ranks in a private school setting I I did get an opportunity to move to the admin side and one of my primary roles was lead gifts. So I would go out and do a lot of fundraising for various initiatives. The part of this that's a challenge is that in our school we just launched uh this is our sixth year and we have 204 families so that's not a a huge pool of people to draw from however in our pool we have some incredibly supportive members that understand why we're doing what we're doing and and understand the need to break this mold of education and the way it's been done. So we have we have a tremendous number of people who have stepped up to help us with this goal and if you think about just how we began I like to say that everything at Wyndham Woods is a gift. We have no debt so um we have just continually grown but we've done it on the backs of people who are with us in this mission. So when you start off with such an incredible 250 acres in a in a beautiful building and that's your starting point that's a what a what a way to get off the ground. So we were very fortunate to have a great beginning but I will say that it takes a village to make any initiative like this work. And you want that you want multiple people involved in your project because then everybody has a a lot a vested interest in its success. Yeah and I think that's really important. A lot of the businesses that I find that are around that I have contact with you need that you need that base of support. So we have a lot of individual donors that have stepped up we do some grant work but I would say it's limited. The grants that we go for are larger grants because I don't have uh fundraising staff it's me um so and I know that all the entrepreneurs that are out there know exactly what I'm talking about. You wear 80 hats and somebody says that and it's kind of feels kind of offensive it's like actually I wear about 8000 hats. But when you're doing it when you're doing it you have to you have to love it and you don't always love your job you don't always love every day but you love the mission. You love your goal you love where you're going. And everything about Wyndham Woods is about the is about these kids and it's not about any of the adults and I think that that's a really important uh concept that has been lost in education it's not about the adults it's about how do we help these kids unlock their potential how do we push them forward in a way where they feel good so as we talk about funding we we have individual donors we have um some foundation support but then we have some corporate partners that were are being introduced from the dome project and if you think about sponsorship and ability to get sort of your name out there because we're going to be renting the dome when we're not in it during the week on the weekends and in the afternoons and evenings and potentially tens of thousands of people will be visiting this dome every single year. And that's uh I would say a conservative estimate because that's who's coming uh we have a lot of corporate partners that are starting to step up who really want to put their company's logo either on the dome in the dome they want we have naming opportunities all through the dome with every single space from the courts to the rock wall to the field. And those are people that I'm trying to get in touch with more and more across the country because Wyndham Woods is not just a school in Wyndham New Hampshire Wyndham Woods is a movement and a change in education. Brilliant so that's um that's a little bit about that history and I will say that it takes time to develop relationships just as I'm sure you guys have found but um the optimism that you have to carry forward as leading an organization or leading your business it's crucial.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

And that that optimism that hope you don't always know how you're gonna get to the end you just know you're going to yeah one step at a time um Brian you've inspired me today and that's part of like why why did I want to start the podcast I mean I talk about this openly boulder's not profitable yet we're still trying to get there we got a lot of things to improve on but two things you just said that resonated with me because I'm trying to learn and grow as much as I can too is one there's sponsorship opportunities within the dome. And my one of my investors Dory is her name has been telling me that from the beginning I just don't know how to connect to those sponsors and get people to come in. Plus it's like you said we're wearing 80 different hats with the priority of like okay what's next most important I just haven't had the ability to make that connection but I I should right so because we have a couple hundred thousand people a year coming into the park. And so thinking of sponsorship opportunities inside the park is a takeaway for me. And then to your point of it takes a village I mean we have 45 different investors and I historically have not been good at continuing to update them and involve them in things because again I'm buried in 20 other things all the time but that was a hope of this podcast too is like hey my investors others can listen to this get updates so on and so forth.

Fundraising Strategy And Debt-Free Growth

SPEAKER_03 50:55

So it's just good feedback for me to hear like okay I need to prioritize these things a little bit more to help our business because do you mind if I give you a little quick uh insight into and somebody who's never been there and and sort of a a thought on it do you mind if I do that? Please so Paul I just want you to understand like when I saw that video I see your dome as a destination it's not just something that's there in your community. I think if if I was approaching that and that's what I want to do at Wyndham Woods I'm building something that's unique because I want families to come and see this and go, my child would flourish here. In your situation I see um so many avenues for you to take your concept and blow it up to not just a local concept but to something much bigger. And I'm sure you've thought of this and I'm sure you guys have kind of spitballed around these ideas but there is you guys have the unique factor that if I didn't get your business card I wouldn't have known about but by the way I would take my kids to Texas to come visit the Boulder Adventure Park. So like this but that's a really important point because I think if you can sort of widen the net a little bit and I'm sure you guys are thinking about that but it it made a huge impact on me. And I think you know it it's a lot to get a family to Disney. Yeah it's not as much to get you know to the Boulder Adventure Park. So and maybe there's some other activities that are around um your area where you could make it so that you could uh maybe have a partnership with some of those other places and then the next thing you know some a family like mine who's in Massachusetts um may travel down for a three or four day experience and you've got a package going and I'm getting excited. So I I would love to uh that's what I'm trying to do at Wyndham Woods and I hope through this podcast potentially somebody's out there who remembers what it was like to sit in that desk and go, why am I doing this? I'm not learning and who's really successful now and who says we should not have kids going through this educational process like this anymore. I want to I want to help be a part of making that change. And and that's a real shift that I've tried to make here at Wyndham Woods is not just thinking about us in a local way but in a national way. I love that I would say the same thing for Boulder Adventure Park I mean I was blown away as I mentioned and you guys are a destination in my mind.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

Thank you. That's the dream right and I I think you're you're pointing it out that we need to market it as such and prepare because we're blessed to be in the city of Grand Prairie our business was built as a public-private partnership with City of Grand Prairie phenomenal and I'm right now in what's called the Epic which is their huge rec center right across the street from Boulder there's an indoor water park right next to me. There's all so it is to your point it's a destination that a family could come here go to Epic Waters Water Park one day, Boulder Adventure Park the next day and to your point it's going to be 10 times cheaper than going to Disney which I love Disney don't get me wrong but it not every family can afford that every year all those types of things so our facility this area we could do more of a destination marketing whereas right now 99% of our marketing is all local um so thank you I mean that's great advice that's what I hope to gain from these podcasts personally and so I'm definitely going to be strategically thinking we do have a little bit of a package right now with Epic Waters but I think we could do more. I mean heck there's hotels right next door to me too so we it's definitely an awesome point Ryan thank you um man I so impressive it's so impressive what you've done.

SPEAKER_03 54:48

Yeah we gotta get to I I I keep I keep saying that because I I'm somebody who's hoping to do something kind of close to what you've already done. And um it it just it really should be highlighted because you guys it's so clear how much work you've put into it and uh I I definitely will come down. I can't wait to bring my my kids down. I have four kids. Okay. And it's funny I I go 18 down to three. Okay. So there's it seems like there's something there almost for everybody. There is and uh so anyway it's really exciting.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

Yeah we'll entertain them all all ages uh that's one of our our key missions that we try to accomplish is regardless of my dad holds the record as he says for being the oldest person going on our mountain experience um he's he's 78 now um and so he's so proud of himself um for doing that and um and then yeah the three year olds they have fun too so three to 78 or or older come have fun uh we're gonna give you a good time um yeah we don't have sponsors for the podcast so our sponsors for today's podcast are boulder adventure park in Wyndham Woods uh we appreciate you coming on Ryan man I am thrilled to talk with you you and I are gonna keep the conversation going any way I can help I'd be delighted clearly I'll reach out to you for help as well but thanks for joining us I I really appreciate the conversation absolutely thanks again for having me all right cheers