Hone in On What Makes You Stand Out - April Brown and Sarah Sklash

Shaun Majumder: You feel that leaning into that niche market has really paid off?

April Brown: We were sold out that first summer. We were featured in Vogue. It was a wild ride that first year.

Sarah Sklash: It's bad when you need a sign, which meant people were gutting fish in it.

Shaun: There's a real magic that comes with honing in on what makes you stand out. Not many people know that better than April Brown and Sarah Sklash, the two best friends behind the iconic June Motels, and Netflix's renovation show Motel Makeover. April and Sarah joined me today to talk about their journey to finding June, who may or may not be a real person, and how embracing uniqueness really helped them find their niche and help to create the successful business they have today. Wow. April, Sarah, this is so exciting. Thank you so much for joining me today. How are you doing?

April: Good.

Sarah: Yes.

Shaun: Love it.

Sarah: Happy to be here.

Shaun: I love it. Listen, this story is so inspirational, it's amazing. I want to start at the beginning. I can only assume that obviously you two went to some mountain town in Switzerland and trained to be world-class hoteliers before you started on this journey. Is that correct? Is that a fact-based assumption?

April: Honestly could not be further from the truth. 

Shaun: Let's start at the very beginning. How did The June Motel come to be?

April: Sarah and I, we've been friends for 20 years now, maybe a little bit more than 20 years. It was 2016 and we were both working separate 9:00 to 5:00 jobs in Toronto. I was working for a PRM marketing agency, Sarah was working for the Ontario government, and we both really dreamed of doing something different with our lives and our career. We were looking for something that would bring a bit more meaning and purpose to our lives at that point. We got together one day. It was the beginning of the year. We cracked open a bottle of wine. We're like, "This is the year we're going to make some changes." We probably brainstormed 50 different side hustles, honestly.

They weren't even like, "We're going to quit our job and become a motelier." At this point, we were like, "We're just looking for a weekend thing." There's this little area outside of Toronto that's called Prince Edward County. It's an up-and-coming, or at the moment, at the time in 2016, it was an up-and-coming region with wineries and breweries, cool restaurants. We had been going out there with our girlfriends, drinking wine, seeing it evolve, seeing the opportunity, and we were like, "Oh, wouldn't it be cool to do something out there?" Actually, one of the ideas that we had come up with in that brainstorm was this idea of hosting a weekend wine camp for adults.

Shaun: Camp. Oh, I like that idea. You guys would be the head counselors.

Sarah: Of course.

April: Of course. Drinking all the wine.

Shaun: Right.

April: We were just looking for a place to host it. Sarah knew that there was this motel that was for sale outside of Picton, and said, "Oh, maybe we would take over for the weekend, and make it cute, and host everybody there." We start thinking through this idea. It was honestly minutes into this brainstorm that we looked at each other and we were both like, "We should just buy that motel."

Shaun: Wow. When that light bulb goes off, I assume at that point, you're probably two or three bottles deep?

April: At least a bottle. Let's assume at least a bottle.

Shaun: Just to get to say, "We should buy that instead of just going and hosting a girl's weekend," that's a huge leap. That's epic, but why not? That sounds exactly in line with your personalities and what you were feeling at that time. That's a huge leap.

April: It was a massive leap. I want to say we had that conversation in January, and a couple of months later, we're literally putting an offer in on this motel. Couple of months after that, we are quitting our jobs, packing our bags, moving to this town of 4,000 people, and actually living at the motel.

Shaun: Wow. Do you remember what the name of the motel was before it became The June Motel?

April: Yes. It was called the Sportsmen Motel and it was a popular stay for fishermen and hunters. To paint the picture, it was musty blue carpets, those old floral quilts on the bed, and the only art in the room is this laminated sign that says no gutting fish in room.

Shaun: I think that's a quality rule. I think you should not gut fish.

Shaun: I live by that in my house.

April: Me too.

Sarah: It's bad when you need a sign, which meant people were gutting fish in it.

Shaun: Yes. Right. "Frank, I've told you, every season we've talked about this. You've ruined the table every year now, please. You know what, Helen? Let's get a sign. Let's paint a sign, put it in each room." Wow.

April: Exactly.

Shaun: How much of it did you just look at online and fall in love with at first? How much of it was going there to see it? At what point did you say, "This has got to be the property that we have to purchase?"

April: I think we went there with some conviction that this was going to be it. I think we joke when we look back on it now we saw past a lot of things. The floors were sloped, the place was extremely run down, but we had such a strong vision at that point that we showed up and we were like, "This could be amazing. This is it. We need to do this." I think it was that vision and that conviction that we had for the idea that I think just propelled us to see past the sloped floors and the imperfections of this place, and see past what it was and see what it could be.

Shaun: Take me through the idea because if you're sitting there, you obviously have gone through a big list of side hustles, and then you honed in on this idea. Was this an inspired idea from that conversation and you just worked it out as you were having these brainstorming sessions, or was it something that was always in your back pocket and you thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could find something to do?" What was the idea, per se, Sarah? What were you guys honing in on?

Sarah: I think we knew Prince Edward County was a place that we knew people were going to want to be. I had purchased a cottage out there, I think, two years before we started looking at this place. There was more and more talk of Prince Edward County, and yet there weren't that many places to stay. The Drake Devonshire was opening up around the same time, but they were only 10 rooms. The other options were dingy roadside motels or old-school B&Bs.

We saw that there was this motel and we thought, "It can be a blank slate. It can be whatever we really want it to be." Really put ourselves in our own shoes and the shoes of our friends and said, "If we were going out to wine country for the weekend, what is it that we would want to have?" Kept going back to that as we thought, "How do we take this dingy roadside motel and make it into a it destination for people to travel to?"

Shaun: Now all of a sudden, as you're going through this process, you have to think, what is that it in the it destination? It sounds like you were using your own wants and desires to be the guiding force, correct?

Sarah: Yes. We like to call ourselves moteliers. We weren't the first moteliers, but I think we were the first in Canada. We were looking people were doing this in Miami and Texas. We were finding some good inspiration out there. We knew others had been able to take these dingy roadside motels and turn them into something cool. I think the other thing was back to April and I having no experience in hospitality before this, it really gave us fresh eyes as we looked at the entire experience and so went step by step.

One example of that is hotel check-in processes. Everywhere you go, some are starting to get better, but overall, they suck. They're slow. They're boring. They're often impersonal and they take a weird amount of time. This is back in 2016 and we're like, "You know what would make this better?" The very first thing that we did was do is like, "Hey, are you checking in? Would you like a glass of welcome rosé?"

Right away, that makes the checking process significantly more fun and sticks out, and gives us a chance to really warmly welcome guests to The June. That was just one example, but we kept going piece after piece of this experience and what we could do to make it not just a place to stay, but be an experience and a home base for people when they're traveling in wine country.

Shaun: That is that feeling when you show up anywhere and they say, "Here's your welcome drink." I'm like, "Can I charge this to my room?" "No, no. This is on us." That's so nice.

Sarah: It's so nice.

Shaun: That was something that obviously you would wanted in your own experience wherever you guys went. When you pictured the girls going away, Prince Edward County, just for a weekend, how much of those ideas played into and then certainly clashed a little, probably, with the motel when you went there, and you're like, "Oh, can we even make that dream a reality?"? April, how much of that was a challenge to bring together in the ideas process?

April: I think, again, like Sarah said, we really saw that motel as a blank slate. There was nothing we were really attached to. We could wallpaper with funky palm wallpaper. We could put the neon signs up. We had this strong vision and we had this blank slate that we could apply it to, but it was pretty hilarious. I think we had such a strong vision, but we had engaged so many family and friends in helping us to create The June and the first motel in Prince Edward County. It was like we were home stretch, we're a couple of months away from opening, and we had that last big decision to make, which is, what color do you paint the doors?

We had a really strong vision for a perfect shade of millennial pink, almost like it was a little sun faded like it had always been there. Again, we drew such inspiration from places like Miami and California and we knew what we were trying to create. When we asked all of our family and friends what color or what shade of pink they liked best, every single one of them was absolutely horrified that we were going to paint those doors pink.

Somebody even said, "You don't expect the fishermen to come if the doors are pink. No fishermen are going to stay at a motel with pink doors." It was in that moment that we realized they don't really understand what we're creating here. They're supportive, they're showing up, but they don't really understand our vision. It's our job to stay true to that and stick to it, and so we painted those doors pink. Honestly, it was one of the most iconic elements of The June .

Shaun: Oh, that's so awesome. You had, like salmon, going upstream, heading towards the old Sportsman's Lodge to be gutted in a room. You guys were going upstream and you had lots of resistance out of the gates. Let's just take a step back for a second because government worker, publicist, a big idea. This can't be cheap. You guys are starting out-- obviously. it's 2016 markets. Is it cool to ask, we're talking to REALTORS^® here, what was the price point of this building to get started and how did you manage to pull that off?

Sarah: 2016, Prince Edward County, times were different, and I think motels too. We were, again, on the early side, so not everyone was seeing these places the way we were. Our friends were out there buying houses in Toronto in the $1 million range. That's the same thing that we were looking at motels in Prince Edward County. We also joke, if our budget had been higher, we probably would have looked at historic inns or waterfront resorts, but motels were in the price range where we could figure out how to pull the financing together.

Getting into the numbers a little bit there, so we bought just right around a million. We got great advice from our lawyer to try and get them the sellers to do a vendor take-back mortgage. Banks were a little iffy on this boutique motelier or motel idea. Instead of getting a traditional bank loan, we were able to have the vendors have about a 50% mortgage on the property, which was great.

Budget's tight, this is our first time doing it. We had a renovation budget of $250,000, which that's to renovate 16 rooms, a lobby, the exterior, landscaping, indoor-outdoor lobby bar. To this day, $250,000, crazy what we managed to do with that, but it did mean April and I were rolling up our sleeves and inviting friends and family out on weekends saying, "Come to wine country and bring stuff to wallpaper and lay flooring."

Shaun: Right. Was that discouraging at first, or were you guys like, "We are leaning into this."? Could you see how satisfying that was going to be, or was it just like, "Oh my God, why am I doing this ourselves?" Other people get crews. How much of it was satisfying, how much of it was terrifying, or all of the above?

Sarah: Again, we didn't maybe make this clear, but April and I ran the Sportsman Motel for a season.

Shaun: Oh, as the Sportsman Motel?

Sarah: As the Sportsman Motel.

Shaun: Hey.

Sarah: We were checking in the fishermen. Oh, yes.

Sarah: This was living our Schitt's Creek era.

Shaun: Oh, wow.

Sarah: Yes, but midway through that season, we knew that's not what the envision was. Midway through the summer, we tore out one of the rooms and DIYed the renovation to one room and we called it the prototype room, which was an amazing exercise and something we still do to this day, was see the transformation, get a sense what's working, what's not. Right off the bat, got that little bit of inspiration. We still say that year of renovating was so fun. We were superhuman. I don't know how we did it, and to this day have never been able to do it quite at that level of involvement again. We really created that place. Every aspect of it, April and I touched and designed and installed. It was pretty amazing.

April: I think we also only remember the positive highlights. That's what sticks with you, but there were some dark days of it's the middle of winter and you're going back into that room to lay some more flooring,-

April: -you're covered in glue everywhere. It was a lot.

Shaun: You are still friends.

April: Yes.

Shaun: That to me sounds like a miracle unto itself. What were, if you don't mind sharing, some of the creative differences that you were able to find alignment on? Tell me a bit about that process because that had to have been a challenge as well.

Sarah: Let's fast forward maybe for that because it's been almost eight years, I think, since we did that. We've opened in Beaver Valley. I'm sure we'll hopefully chat about that a bit.

Shaun: Oh, for sure.

Sarah: April and I think it's good. I think it's great to have a business partner that you challenge one another, that you don't always see eye to eye on everything. April and I, it tends to be the little things that we will strongly disagree with one another on. Our latest project, it was what side of the bed the garbage cans were going to go on. Was it going to be the first thing when you walk in the room, are you going to see the garbage cans? Are you going to hide it on the other side of the bed?

Shaun: Take me through that process.

Shaun: How does one decide? Did you test it out? Did you flip a coin? How did that work out?

Sarah: The way that April and I tend to make these decisions is we'll go back and forth a whole bunch of times each of us making our point and arguing on why it's one or the other. In the end, there's always one of us that cares a little bit more about this decision than the other. In this case, April seemed to care more, although I've brought it up 100 times since, so maybe I do care. I think it's we both have a lot of trust in one another. We were willing to compromise every now and then on something, but I think The June is as great as it is because we're always bringing our own perspectives to it.

Shaun: Yes. I think that sounds like what comes from that design challenge is nothing but good because you guys are testing it, pressing it, and making sure. Then once it comes out the other side, it's going to be better for everybody. Let me ask, which side did it end up on?

Sarah: It's hidden. You walk in the door and you may never know that there's a garbage can there.

April: Also, not an eyesore.

Shaun: Right.

Sarah: Shouldn't have gone for the really expensive garbage can, should we have?

Shaun: I love that. June Motel. How did this name come about? How is June? What is June? Is it the month? I can assume it's a summer vibe, June Motel. Tell me about how the name came to be.

April: We get asked this question so much that I honestly wish there was some great-grandma June that I could tell you about. Not the case. June is a made-up fictional character.

Shaun: Character?

April: Character. We loved the name June because it was a retro-feminine name, but it also had that start-of-summer feel. When we came up with the name, we really developed a whole personality around who June is. She lives for summer, she loves a girl's getaway, she's a little bit old school, she's bold and free-spirited, and she's always chilling with a bottle of rosé for days like today because she believes in living the good life.

She's become a bit of our North Star. Every time we have a difficult business decision to make, a design decision to make, or we're even just thinking about where's that next property, we always stop, we ask ourselves, what would June do? I think because we have gotten to know her so well over the years, she really does keep us on track and keep us focused and doing what we do.

Shaun: Wow. This is such a beautiful picture, I can see. Here's a question. Who would play June in the made-for-TV movie about this fictional character? Who would you want to see play June in the movie about the birth of this amazing idea?

April: That's such a tough question because I think she's got a lot of different elements to her personality. It's tough to come up with one person. This is maybe more back when we created June in the beginning. She had a much more hippie, free-spirited vibe to her. I think she's evolved from there. Somebody I always pictured was Kate Hudson in Almost Famous. I think that visual has certainly stuck with us. She's fun, she's free-spirited, she's into wellness and yoga, and all of those things. She's grown up with us.

Shaun: Right, and she's your North Star.

April: Yes.

Shaun: Talk more about this North Star idea. Having that particular vision and a personified vision, how has that characterization of this brand helped in other ideas that you might have as you move forward?

April: I'll give you an example. First of all, we created The June in Prince Edward County. We went through this whole process of who June is. Then when we found that second property in Sauble Beach, we knew we didn't want to create exactly what we had created in Prince Edward County, but who is June in Sauble Beach? I think that whole exercise of who June is and really knowing her and thinking now about a new destination really helped us to evolve her a little bit. It was now like, "June has this cool beach house. What does that look like? What's the design aesthetic? How do we stay true to who June is but evolve her in a new location, in a new experience, and identity there?"

Shaun: Sauble is a different vibe than the Prince Edward County vibe?

April: Yes. We like to say that there's very similar characteristics. June is very feminine. She's bold. She's free-spirited. She loves patterns and wallpaper and those things, but how it shows up is a little bit different at each property. In Prince Edward County, it's the palm print wallpaper. In Sauble Beach, it's this sun-faded wave wallpaper.

Shaun: That's in this style and design. One thing it sounds like you guys have done a really great job at doing is finding a niche target audience. Talk to me a bit about that. Talk to me a bit about staying true to that niche market. Who is your niche market?

April: It started as girls' getaways. It started as Sarah and I saying, "Hey, we're going to Prince Edward County with our girlfriends. What would we want?" We really leaned into that girls' getaway message, all of our photography with pictures of girls on wine trips at the motel. It also evolved from there. I think for us in the early days, it being all about us, designing this experience around us and what our girlfriends would want gave us such a clear picture of who that audience was. We could really visualize it. I think step one is just gaining that clarity.

It informs so much. It's like, what are the visuals that you see on social media? For us, it was a lifestyle photo shoot with a bunch of girls sipping wine in our lobby bar. Really bringing that story and that niche audience to life so that when she's scrolling Instagram, she sees that photo. She can see herself in that environment and she connects instantly with that. It's also all the copy, all the messaging, your newsletters. I think when you're speaking to a smaller, more niche audience, it's much easier to develop copy and messaging that is speaking directly at that person or to that person rather than having to be vague and be for everybody.

Beaver Valley is very couples-focused, but what we've realized, we've been at this for nine years, is the girls that were coming to The June in Prince Edward County were celebrating their bachelorette parties. They went and they got married and they have a husband now. Maybe they have kids five years later, and so really being able to grow the brand with her and focus on her as the buyer. She is the one that's making the travel decision. She's deciding to stay at The June, whether it's with her girlfriends, her partner, or her whole family.

Shaun: Right. There was no fear of exclusion there, I guess. It was more just staying true to your vision. Right, Sarah?

Sarah: Yes. I think we like to say that we are for anyone, but we're not for everyone. The audience that actually comes to stay at The June can look all very different and we are going to welcome them as warmly as we can and make sure that they have the best time. I think there's times where we've leaned into understanding who our core target is and what their needs are.

One example of that is we're really tech-forward. It's text message concierge and sometimes we're texting you your room code. It is that tech-savvy experience. As a business, we need to make some of those decisions and really lean in in some cases. I think it's okay to really lean into a niche. One of the things we also know is women make-- it's somewhere between 70% and 90% of travel decisions out there on behalf of whoever they happen to be traveling with. Again, creating this brand that really speaks primarily to her has really resonated and brought all sorts of people to The June.

Shaun: You feel that leaning into that niche market has really paid off?

April: I would accredit that to certainly a ton of our traction in those first couple of years. I think people saw us on Instagram, they saw the pink doors, they saw the photos that these girls were taking with the neon sign behind us and all of that. That started to create that word of mouth and brand recognition and really helped us sell rooms.

Shaun: Yes, that's amazing. Especially when you find success, when you guys start growing, expanding, ready to take over the world, it's good to hear that The June Motel and what you choose specifically was wired inside of you is to say, "No, you know what? We're going to stay true to our own voice to be an original voice and not some broad, generalized version of that. Have you ever had an Atom boys hockey tournament come through town and stay at The June Motel? I would imagine there needs to be room for these fellas too.

Sarah: Not yet. I think last year I was saying eight-year-old boys come and they love The June so much. They have a great time. We've got campfire s'mores, we've got lawn games. It's a paradise. Parents are having a great time too and motels are really well set up. Again, we've leaned into one target market, but it does still mean the people who enjoy the experience is really still pretty broad and we're going to make the most of every person's stay.

Shaun: It sounds like you're definitely hitting the market that I would need to have now. I used to be very, "I want to find these cool, young couples, me and my wife," and now with kids is like, "I need to have a bit of that vibe where I feel like I'm still that young party guy. At the same time, the kids have got to be able to go and do something fun as well." It sounds like you're hitting-

April: All the way.

Shaun: -all of that as well. Do you feel that there's some-- I wouldn't say resistance, but there is some expectation amongst investors? Do you have investors now? Are there other people that you have to please, that you have to make sure that they're happy with what's going on? How much are you still able to be like, "No, this is what we're doing one hundo. You can't shake us."

Sarah: One of the things we've been able to do and chosen to do is to grow without taking on investors outside of a small group of family that supported us along the way who really believe in what we're doing. As we continue to look to grow, we are looking for investors that understand what it is we're doing and believe in it. It's also proven it's successful as well. 

Shaun: Yes. Boss. That's all I will say is boss. I love it. It's inspiring. It's amazing and probably really challenging in the world we live in now to stay true to that voice. Kudos to you guys for doing that. It's amazing. Talk to me about the future of June. You guys went from starting in Prince Edward County. Take me through the journey from starting there, then to Sauble. Now you have some future endeavors happening, and there was a Netflix show in there as well.

Shaun: Talk to me a bit about that.

April: There was. We opened The June Prince Edward County in 2017. I would say it was about a month or six weeks after opening that we really saw immediate traction. We were sold out that first summer. We were featured in Vogue. It was a wild ride that first year. We knew that there was such an opportunity. We needed more rooms for the demand that we had. Then on the flip side, we also loved the process of finding that diamond in a rough motel, re-imagining the entire experience of staying there. That was really what lit us up. I think we realized that when the renovation was done and it was just day-to-day operations, we were like, "Now what? We got to go buy another one."

We spent about a year and a half looking at destinations across Ontario and Quebec. We eventually came across this really charming little motel in the town of Sauble Beach. We knew the proximity to Bruce Peninsula, that there was a ton of opportunity in this whole region and that so many people were going there. There was no boutique motel accommodation and we could really fill that gap. As we were actually going through the process of buying this place, a friend of a friend, a friend of actually our graphic designer, was looking to create a show about a motel renovation.

She takes us out for a drink. She's like, "I have this great idea. You guys need to go buy another motel so that we can make a TV show." We're like, "We're actually already buying another motel in Sauble Beach." It was just these two projects really coming together at the same time. We went ahead, we purchased the motel. It was about six months later that we found out that Netflix wanted to make the show. Everything started. A couple of months after that, we were filming, we were renovating, and this is right before COVID hits.

Shaun: Oh, wow.

April: It's a whole disaster.

Shaun: A disaster you mean when COVID hit?

April: Yes.

Shaun: I assume this is all in the show.

April: It's all in the show. We had a completely demoed motel. Everything was taken apart. We were really just getting into the renovation at that point, and so there was no going back. Everything was gutted. Nothing was put back together. Construction had to come to a halt. Filming had to come to a halt. We're just sitting on this motel for months seeing our bank accounts drain, giving back deposits at our other motel in Prince Edward County because we had a full calendar of bookings that we couldn't open, we couldn't operate.

It was extremely scary time for us, but it has a happy ending. Construction resumed, filming resumed. Materials were impossible to get and we managed it all. The show is like a race to the finish line. I think it's five days before we're opening and we're still building the pool deck. It's not a lie. It was reality. It was a lot of tears.

Shaun: Nothing was invented. No producer was like,-

April: No.

Shaun: -"You know what would be a good conflict here?" It's, no, this was all as raw and reality TV as possible.

Sarah: Yes. I think early days, they were trying to find the conflict. We're getting along, things are going well, and then the pandemic, just TV gold.

Shaun: Yes. Right. We'll go back to what that hotel was when you bought it. What was it? Was that also a Sportsman's Motel? How did you land on that particular property?

April: It was partly the destination and we knew that there was opportunity in the destination. It was also the property itself, it was bigger. It was 24 rooms. It had a pool and a restaurant that had never operated in 10 years. It had this separate building that would eventually become the lobby bar. It was a step up in what we were looking for and it had a lot of mid-century motel charm. We saw the potential in it and we were excited to have a pool finally at the motel.

Shaun: How's that business doing now?

April: Great. Sauble Beach is killing it. It's super seasonal, so we open from May to October every year. We are mostly sold out there, every day of the week, all summer long. It's a really crazy intense period at that motel.

Shaun: Describe Sauble Beach before June Sauble and describe it after. By bringing that vibe into that strip, it wasn't always that. That vibe you said did not exist there, correct?

April: No, not from a hotel perspective. When we went there the first time, we did meet a few other people that were doing really cool things, which is always a really good sign, I think, when you're going into a new market. There was the wellness refinery and they were creating healthy smoothie bowls and avocado toast. It was a very cool, trendy little café, restaurant.

Then there was also a double-decker taco bus that was also super cool. Both female, young entrepreneurs doing just interesting things there. We, I think, saw those as a really positive sign that there was opportunity and that this place was evolving, and that our guests would have other things in this area that would be exciting and fit what they were looking for.

Shaun: Did you guys ever go to Sauble Beach when you guys were younger?

April: No.

Sarah: Neither of us. The first time we went was to see this property.

Shaun: Oh, wow. Anybody who knows Ontario, whether you're in high school or college or cottage country people, but Sauble is so unique. Wasaga Beach was so unique. They all had their own little Midland, that area in Ontario. They all had their own little thing. Wasaga had its own vibe. Wasaga, it feels very bro. I think it still is pretty bro. Sauble didn't have that energy.

April: Sauble's much more family-friendly, a little bit quieter. There's really no nightlife, to be honest. Everything is very chill after sunset. It's such a special place. We're three minutes to the beach. Everybody walks down to the beach to see sunset every night. It's really stunning. It's 11 kilometers of gorgeous sandy beach.

Shaun: Yes, it's beautiful. Tell me then now about your next property.

Sarah: Sure. After Sauble Beach, April and I just got the itch again to find a property. I think we're fast-forwarding, so this is 2021 that we're really in our first season in Sauble Beach. Things have changed by then. Everything's gotten a lot more expensive, and so we've really had to be a bit more patient to find the right property, the right price. What we're looking for wasn't really coming up, but then there was this one place. I've got the REALTOR^® app. I have my saved searches.

There was this one that I looked at, had put aside because it was only eight rooms. One day I was going back through what I had liked and saved, and there's this eight-room lodge in Beaver Valley, which is 20 minutes outside of Collingwood. It was right on Beaver River. It was a minute away from Heart's Tavern, which was one of Canada's best new restaurants, I think, in 2022. It felt like a place that was worthwhile checking out. When we visited, we found it very, very charming.

Shaun: Only eight rooms.

Sarah: Only eight rooms.

Shaun: Right, which is different from your 24 leap. You went from 16, 24, and now you're entertaining an 8-room.

Sarah: Yes. It meant we had to really think about, is this the right fit? There's a couple of reasons why we liked this idea of a smaller property. One was that we kept having groups that wanted to have exclusive access to the motel. With 16 rooms or 24 rooms, we were just a little bit too big to be able to accommodate that. With these eight rooms, a bachelorette could come in, they could take over the whole property, a corporate retreat, a wedding. We had been getting a lot of requests. I think that was something that, after the pandemic, was really desirable for people to just find these spaces to come together.

It's also a place where it's really like you're in nature, which I think was also something that people were craving. With Beaver Valley, so this was-- what year is it now? This would have been, I think, 2023 that we purchased it. I had to get creative. We've gone contactless there. Airbnb, a lot of people got pretty comfortable with being texted a code, and so we're like, "We don't need someone to just wait around all day to welcome guests. We can just find this interesting balance between an Airbnb and one of our motels. If you want to come for just a night and get just one room, we can accommodate that. If you want to take over the whole property, then we can also do that."

It's been a really interesting exercise. We opened about a year ago now and we're really excited. I didn't mention it's close to Collingwood. In Ontario, that's some of the best skiing that we have, and so we're pretty close to that. We finally have our first year-round property, which is exciting.

Sarah: Oh, that's awesome.

April: A really special place. Professionally, it was also a really great experience for April and I as we've grown. The first motel fully designed by us, fully renovated by us. This one, we've grown over the years and got the chance to work with Ashley Montgomery designs as an interior designer, worked with a great general contractor and his team. April, I, still end up doing a little bit of heavy lifting all the time, but it was a really great way to see how we can grow and work with great people.

Shaun: That's amazing. Going from a couple of friends sitting around drinking some wine to now being incredibly successful business people, do you take time and reflect on that very often, or are you just in the tornado all the time?

April: I feel like these podcast interviews, and we do some speaking gigs, it's always fun to think about our story and our journey. I feel like those are moments where we actually got a chance to reflect on those early days and relive some of those memories. Other than that, we're always thinking, "What's next? What's next?"

Shaun: That's awesome. That's so good. Is there something next? What is next? Is that next a part of The June? Is it all June? Is the brand June for every property?

April: Yes. It's The June Motel. We shorten it, so it's like The June Prince Edward County, The June Sauble Beach, The June Beaver Valley. We think that we've created something really special there. There's a lot of brand awareness that we've built. We have the Netflix show. It feels right to continue to leverage the name and the brand that we've built. It's something we're excited about. They will continue to be June Motels for as long as we think that has potential.

Shaun: I do love the personification once again. You've got the young, sassy, we're going to have a girl's weekend. Then June ends up marrying, having kids, goes to the Sauble. She obviously has a terrible breakup with her husband and then wants to just be alone. "I don't want to talk to anybody. I want a contact list. I want to hide out in Beaver Valley and go skidooing, become a survivalist." Wherever June ends up, I would like to see what's next. 

By the way, just for the record to all the REALTORS^® watching, they did not hire me to do any of their publicity because I am terrible, but I like having fun with this character. I love June. In terms of what's next, will it just present itself, do you think, when you see it you know it, or do you have a vision plan now, it's like, "We are ready to take over the world. June is ready to take over the world."?

Sarah: I think somewhere in the middle. We know we want to keep growing. We are always looking out for that next property. We're two people that want some work-life balance as well. I think our new plan is goal is to keep growing, but we want to wait. Finding the right property is so important for us. You just can't rush. There's not always the right place at the right time, and price and cost of everything. We're ready, but we're really just waiting for everything to align perfectly for that next one.

Shaun: Your story is so relatable to a lot of REALTORS^® out there, obviously, whether the REALTORS^® are dealing with individual families looking for their first single-family home or an idea around a business idea. What advice would you have for REALTORS^® about finding that niche market?

April: I think it's similar to what we've been talking about. It's hone in on what makes you different and lean into that. Not trying to be for everybody, but what is it that you bring to the table that's special, that's different, and own that.

Shaun: Sarah?

Sarah: I think what April said. I think that personification, sometimes even stepping away from who you are, but I think that exercise has worked really well for us. Maybe it's this alter ego character that can help you really think about who your business is representing.

Shaun: Awesome. Where can everybody find all of your assets? Not just the hotels, but in terms of socials and all of that. Tell us about that because I want to right now go follow all of them myself.

April: They're all under one social. It's @TheJuneMotel on Instagram and it's thejunemotel.com.

Sarah: Come book your stay. Come visit.

April: Yes.

Shaun: Oh, yes. I want to hit all of them too. I'll pay for my wife. I'll let her go to Prince Edward County. We've been in Prince Edward County. I've done standup in Prince Edward County. I love it so much. There's a surf scene in Prince Edward County too.

Sarah: Yes.

Shaun: I didn't even know that. It's incredible. Man, it's such a unique area. Then, of course, Sauble Beach as well, it's just so cool. I want to be gifting trips and going myself to all these amazing places. Thank you, guys. This has been so inspirational and exciting. It's so good to hear original stories, original ideas by two amazing boss ladies. It's awesome. I have two daughters and I'm going to share your story with them as soon as I can. They're three and five, so they may-

Sarah: Thank you so much.

Shaun: -not quite get the whole wine thing. but they'll get it. Mommy's aligned. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us on REAL TIME. This has been a great chat.

April: Thank you for having us. This was awesome.

Shaun: Awesome, guys. June Motels. The thing that makes you special, that's the thing that people will connect with. Once you find that quality, that offering, that experience, that's going to help you build a community that really, really resonates. Now, you may not get your own Netflix show out of it, but it'll always connect you with the right people, and that's never a bad thing.

If you like today's episode, make sure you head on over to your favorite podcast platform, like and subscribe, rate us and review. We really do appreciate it. REAL TIME is brought to you by the Canadian Real Estate Association, CREA, and production courtesy of Alphabet^® Creative. Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Shaun Majumder. We'll see you next time on REAL TIME.

Sarah: Right before this, I stuck a ball in the fringe because it's Friday.

Shaun: Love it. That cost you nothing, so that's good.

Sarah: Yes.