Creating Happy Campers

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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: Hello, I'm Mario Tonigusy, managing editor of Canada's Podcast.
[00:10] SPEAKER_01: My guest today on Calgary's Podcast is Dave Wald, who is owner of Karma Campervan's
[00:16] SPEAKER_01: thanks for joining us today, Dave.
[00:18] SPEAKER_02: No, no problem.
[00:19] SPEAKER_02: Good to be here.
[00:19] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
[00:21] SPEAKER_01: All right.
[00:21] SPEAKER_01: Let's talk first of all a little bit about the business.
[00:24] SPEAKER_01: Tell me what you folks do.
[00:27] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so Karma Campervan's is a campervan rental company primarily.
[00:34] SPEAKER_02: However, we're pretty unique in that we actually manufacture our own bands and then put them
[00:43] SPEAKER_02: into the rental fleet.
[00:44] SPEAKER_02: So we build out our own campervan's and then we rent them out out of our locations in Calgary,
[00:53] SPEAKER_02: Vancouver, and Takedin, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Moncton.
[00:59] SPEAKER_02: Wow.
[01:00] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're in six locations across Canada.
[01:03] SPEAKER_02: When did you start?
[01:06] SPEAKER_02: So Karma started in 2018.
[01:09] SPEAKER_02: So early 2018, we got our first van.
[01:13] SPEAKER_02: Early 2018, we built it out ourselves, myself and my two business partners.
[01:18] SPEAKER_02: And then we started operating just in the north end of the city.
[01:24] SPEAKER_01: Okay, how did you start?
[01:25] SPEAKER_01: Like, what, how did this idea come about?
[01:29] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I'll kind of give you the Cole's Notes version because there's a longer story
[01:36] SPEAKER_02: involved.
[01:38] SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of backstory here, but ultimately, yeah, I kind of grew up in the RVing industry
[01:45] SPEAKER_02: and cut my teeth working for RV dealerships and eventually running my own marketing agency.
[01:55] SPEAKER_02: And a lot of my clients were RVing and camping brands.
[01:59] SPEAKER_02: That then parlayed into understanding the industry really well.
[02:06] SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I had a really good handle on the RVing community and the industry from a manufacturer's
[02:13] SPEAKER_02: perspective from a customer's perspective.
[02:18] SPEAKER_02: I also started my own little media company or media brand called Modern Camper Magazine
[02:24] SPEAKER_02: a long time ago where we started sharing all the cool stuff happening in the RVing and
[02:31] SPEAKER_02: camping industry.
[02:34] SPEAKER_02: So that was all happening.
[02:36] SPEAKER_02: While at the same time, took a trip to Iceland in 2013 with my family.
[02:44] SPEAKER_02: And while we're there, we were doing the whole circumnavigation of the island.
[02:50] SPEAKER_02: And I started spotting all these little converted board transit connect little cargo vans.
[02:58] SPEAKER_02: They were all converted into these little campers and that bright painted exteriors.
[03:09] SPEAKER_02: I could see on the brand on the side.
[03:12] SPEAKER_02: And so I started looking them up and started learning more about them.
[03:17] SPEAKER_02: And realized that these were little converted campers that were driving around Iceland
[03:23] SPEAKER_02: with all their guests and they were camping out and doing their travel and all that stuff.
[03:29] SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I just thought, man, this would go great in Calgary.
[03:35] SPEAKER_02: I think it would, Calgary would be a great market for something like this.
[03:38] SPEAKER_02: And it never existed, nothing like that ever existed here.
[03:42] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, fast forward five years started chatting with my business partners.
[03:50] SPEAKER_02: And we got formulating a plan, a business plan, and started putting some stuff together.
[03:55] SPEAKER_02: And made it happen in 2018.
[03:59] SPEAKER_02: Wow.
[04:01] SPEAKER_02: How many vans did you have?
[04:05] SPEAKER_02: So today on the road, active rentals, we have about just over 80, 80 vans.
[04:12] SPEAKER_02: Hold it.
[04:13] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[04:13] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. So we've actually built over 100 units.
[04:19] SPEAKER_02: We're actually building right now in our shop in Calgary.
[04:22] SPEAKER_02: We are building our number, 115th vans.
[04:28] SPEAKER_02: So yeah, we are pretty proud of that and it's been a long road, but we're having a ton of fun.
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, everybody when they think about, you know, RVs, they think about the big honking
[04:49] SPEAKER_01: things, right? And think about the movie with Robin Williams.
[04:56] SPEAKER_01: How popular is, you know, my wife and I driving around recently and noticed one of those vans,
[05:04] SPEAKER_01: like almost like a regular van, but obviously a little bigger, right?
[05:09] SPEAKER_01: And now popular.
[05:10] SPEAKER_01: And why is it becoming so popular?
[05:13] SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, it's popular.
[05:14] SPEAKER_02: It became popular.
[05:16] SPEAKER_02: So first of all, it's been around forever, right?
[05:18] SPEAKER_02: It's been around for decades, right?
[05:20] SPEAKER_02: You think about the the 1960s and 70s, the little like the VW, you know, camper.
[05:26] SPEAKER_02: That's where it all kind of started, right?
[05:29] SPEAKER_02: And that then morphed over time.
[05:32] SPEAKER_02: You know, it kind of went away a little bit, but then in the, yeah,
[05:36] SPEAKER_02: and kind of the 2010s started becoming really popular again, because people across North America
[05:44] SPEAKER_02: started converting vans and living in them, right?
[05:48] SPEAKER_02: That's right.
[05:49] SPEAKER_02: The whole like hashtag van life thing.
[05:53] SPEAKER_02: And obviously with the rise of social media, that just started spreading like wildfire.
[05:59] SPEAKER_02: People started, you know, seeing it online, following people on social media.
[06:05] SPEAKER_02: Of course, it's all the glam of van life and things that come with it.
[06:11] SPEAKER_02: And so that that's really what turned it into the popular form of travel that it is today.
[06:18] SPEAKER_02: Now, on top of that, though, is that these vans, they are, you know, their cargo vans.
[06:25] SPEAKER_02: They're not big motor homes.
[06:26] SPEAKER_02: They are, you know, they are easy to drive.
[06:29] SPEAKER_02: They're very easy to handle.
[06:32] SPEAKER_02: Our vans in particular have everything you need in them to have this really enjoyable camping
[06:39] SPEAKER_02: experience. And yeah, it's everything you need for a great road trip, honestly.
[06:45] SPEAKER_02: So I think easy to drive, you know, easy on the pocketbook too, a little bit more affordable
[06:51] SPEAKER_02: on the gas. Yeah.
[06:53] SPEAKER_02: And on the materials and supplies, makes it a great way to travel.
[06:58] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[06:58] SPEAKER_01: So when you got into this, you know, and running your own business, especially like this,
[07:04] SPEAKER_01: what was, I say, the biggest challenge you had?
[07:09] SPEAKER_02: So with the biggest, you know, honestly, the biggest challenge we had to begin with was
[07:17] SPEAKER_02: meeting with our guests at a specific time of the day in order to do the walkthrough of the van
[07:24] SPEAKER_02: with them, right? So you go, let's say you're, we go to rent a car. Now back in the day, you,
[07:29] SPEAKER_02: you went to the, to the desk, you, you talked to the desk agent, then they got to your car,
[07:34] SPEAKER_02: you did a walk around on the car, same with RVs and campers. You, you, you can't, you arrived at
[07:39] SPEAKER_02: the location, you did a walk around of the camper that you had to teach them how to use it,
[07:46] SPEAKER_02: because not everyone's got one of these things, right?
[07:49] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. So that was the biggest challenge because oftentimes, you know, these guests,
[07:54] SPEAKER_02: they're so, they're funny because sometimes they'll say, all right, we'll be there at noon or one
[07:58] SPEAKER_02: or two o'clock. And so we're there waiting and, and literally was meet myself and one other kind of
[08:05] SPEAKER_02: remote employee. So I would, I would tell him, be like, hey, can't, you got to be there at noon for
[08:09] SPEAKER_02: the guests pick up, right? We were running five or 10 vans at the time. And, and sure enough, we'd be
[08:15] SPEAKER_02: there waiting, we have the van ready to go, and we'd be there waiting for them. And then also,
[08:20] SPEAKER_02: we get a phone call from our guests and they'd say, or we call the guests and we'd say, hey,
[08:25] SPEAKER_02: we're here waiting for you to come pick up the van. And they'd say, oh, well, we just, we just landed,
[08:30] SPEAKER_02: but we thought we'd take some time to go downtown and do a little tour. But we'll be there soon. No
[08:36] SPEAKER_02: problem. You know, and meanwhile, we're, we're standing around waiting for them. So what we immediately
[08:42] SPEAKER_02: did was, in that, basically, invented the automated pickup. We've, we invented the
[08:48] SPEAKER_02: contract was picked up back in 2018, where like, this is crazy. Wait, let's, we don't have to be
[08:53] SPEAKER_02: here for this. We can, like these vans are so easy to operate. Let's send them a walkthrough video
[08:59] SPEAKER_02: ahead of time, right? Show them how to work everything ahead of time, teach them about, you know,
[09:05] SPEAKER_02: how to work the water system, whatever everything it is. So that they can watch the video ahead of time.
[09:12] SPEAKER_02: We have keyless entry pads and all of our vans, right? So when they got to the location,
[09:18] SPEAKER_02: assuming they watched the video, all they had to do is punch in the key code, the keys are in
[09:23] SPEAKER_02: their way and for them and off they go. Well, yeah, well, was originally a bit of a pain point,
[09:29] SPEAKER_02: was something that we actually turned into a unique selling proposition for economic
[09:35] SPEAKER_01: campaigns. I guess that's a, well, a key of being an entrepreneur is learning, learning as you go
[09:41] SPEAKER_01: along, the way that to how to make yourself, I know, more efficient and more streamlined as a business.
[09:48] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, look, every day is that opportunity to do something different
[09:54] SPEAKER_02: or do something better. That's, honestly, that's what gets me up in the morning is every day we come
[10:02] SPEAKER_02: together as a team, you know, as an entrepreneur and as a team to solve problems and create great
[10:11] SPEAKER_02: experiences for our guests. That is the number one thing that we do. Yeah, we rent camper vans.
[10:18] SPEAKER_02: We do, we rent camper vans, we build campers. But through and through, the thing that we do is
[10:26] SPEAKER_02: create amazing experiences for our guests. How we do that is the daily challenge. We solve problems,
[10:35] SPEAKER_02: we make things better, we streamline, we make more efficient. That's our job and that's what we do best.
[10:43] SPEAKER_01: Now, I know you're in a number of different locations, but, you know, your, your basis here in
[10:49] SPEAKER_01: Calgary. What, what do you like about running a business in Calgary and operating a business here?
[10:57] SPEAKER_02: I mean, gosh, Calgary is great. Like, I'm born and raised Calgary and this is a hard place to leave
[11:04] SPEAKER_02: Mariel. Like, it is a hard place to leave. There's so many reasons why I
[11:08] SPEAKER_02: not to leave this city. And as we know, a lot of people are coming to the city now, and for good reason.
[11:15] SPEAKER_02: Why we love operating here, you know, so access to, you know, materials, access to human resources,
[11:24] SPEAKER_02: the costs of running of business here are relatively minimal compared to other places across the
[11:32] SPEAKER_02: country. Yeah, we have, you know, we put out an ad for, for an employee, we're staffing up.
[11:39] SPEAKER_02: We have no problems hiring people here. There's, you know, people have gone to know us a lot here in
[11:46] SPEAKER_02: Calgary. We become more of a household brand here. So we become more well known. Yeah, but,
[11:52] SPEAKER_02: you know, running this business out of Calgary made a ton of sense for us. We've got these
[11:58] SPEAKER_02: great things called the Rocky Mountains right next door to us, right? I'm looking at them as we speak.
[12:04] SPEAKER_02: That's the other thing too. We don't, again, we don't rent camp revenge. We rent an experience
[12:10] SPEAKER_02: where people can go see those mountains experience the things that they're able to experience.
[12:16] SPEAKER_02: That's what we do. And that's why we're here. Okay. Do you use them as well? Personally?
[12:23] SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, I use them. I use them all the time. Now I should, sorry, I shouldn't say all the time.
[12:29] SPEAKER_02: I don't use them in the spring and summer because they're rented out. We can't, yeah,
[12:34] SPEAKER_02: use them. But in the off season, so in the winter, myself and some buddies, we always do an annual
[12:43] SPEAKER_02: ski trip in our camp revenge. We get, you know, a group of eight or ten guys jumping the vans.
[12:49] SPEAKER_02: Everyone, we've got like the, we've got our dates set and wherever the snow is, that's where we go.
[12:56] SPEAKER_02: And that's the great thing about our vans. They're off-grid vans. So we can pretty much take them
[13:01] SPEAKER_02: anywhere. We can set them up anywhere we want and chase powder. And that's what we do. And
[13:07] SPEAKER_02: let me tell you, Mario, nothing's better than waking up in a, you know, minus 10 or minus 20.
[13:12] SPEAKER_02: Our vans are toast to warm. And there's some fresh snow waiting for you on the mountain.
[13:17] SPEAKER_01: Wow. Yeah. What do you know when you talk about your customers and the adventures you have,
[13:25] SPEAKER_01: anything come to mind of some of the wild places that people have gone with these vans?
[13:31] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, gosh, we've had our vans go as far south as San Diego, as far east as well now
[13:40] SPEAKER_02: Monkton, New Brunswick. Yeah. We've, we had a couple of guys last year. I'll never forget it.
[13:48] SPEAKER_02: One fellow who's from Calgary had a friend fly in from China. He picked him up from the airport.
[13:57] SPEAKER_02: They drove, then drove to Vancouver. They then drove all the way down the west coast, all the way
[14:03] SPEAKER_02: across the US, all the way back out the east coast, back into Canada, and then back across Canada.
[14:11] SPEAKER_02: Wow. Calgary, I think it was like a 30 day trip, which doesn't seem like long enough to do that one.
[14:18] SPEAKER_02: But it was an epic, epic adventure between two really good friends who, you know, reconnected over
[14:26] SPEAKER_00: this, this great road trip. Canada's podcast is your gateway to success in the world of entrepreneurship.
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: Start listening today. Canada's podcast.com subscribe now.
[14:38] SPEAKER_01: Now, imagine Dave, you know, obviously running a business like this has been successful.
[14:43] SPEAKER_01: Takes up a lot of your time and you're all probably always thinking about it. But what do you do to
[14:50] SPEAKER_02: relax outside of the business? I always think about the business very, like how do you, how do you
[15:02] SPEAKER_02: have a dog? We, we love to spend a lot of time outdoors. We travel a lot. We, you know, we've got a
[15:12] SPEAKER_02: place in, in Ferny that we can go to that's a family cottage. So we get down there quite often.
[15:19] SPEAKER_02: There are kids group skiing on that ski hill. I go for walks with my dog every morning. I clear my
[15:25] SPEAKER_02: head. I call my coffee with me. That's how I, that's how I relax. Yeah, I, you know, at the same time,
[15:34] SPEAKER_02: like, you know, we love watching good, good movies on a weekend. We have a fire pit in our backyard.
[15:40] SPEAKER_02: We love having those fires. Like, to me, that's what we, we work to live. Mario, we don't live to work.
[15:49] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're, where I'm from. And we work hard and we play hard. And that's how I, that's how I grew up.
[15:55] SPEAKER_01: And that's how we do it. Yeah. Like, how important do you think that is for a business owner?
[16:00] SPEAKER_01: You know, obviously, as you said, you're always thinking about it. However, taking a break from it,
[16:09] SPEAKER_02: not burning out. How important is that? Yeah, man. Like, I, you know, I'm a, I love Fern believer in
[16:16] SPEAKER_02: taking that time off that you need time, you know, to take off. And that includes weekends. That includes
[16:23] SPEAKER_02: you know, a weekday evenings at five o'clock. Like, I'm usually
[16:27] SPEAKER_02: had an out the door because I have, I got dinner to prepare. I got my kids to take to sporting events.
[16:33] SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, I got stuff to pick up. So that, you know, obviously, there'll be moments where I can't,
[16:40] SPEAKER_02: I have to be on and I have to be working. But I, you know, there's some times where,
[16:45] SPEAKER_02: sure, I'll put the kids to bed and, and I'll pull up on my computer, my laptop, I'll be sitting in
[16:50] SPEAKER_02: front of the TV or, or have my earbuds in late at night and sometimes all of a sudden it's two
[16:55] SPEAKER_02: o'clock in the morning and I haven't stopped. Yeah, at the same time, I'll tell you, like, my Friday
[17:02] SPEAKER_02: nights are, are me and my family time. My Saturdays and Sundays, that's me and my family time.
[17:09] SPEAKER_02: Do I have to sometimes show up at the shop or take care of a few things over emails or phone calls?
[17:14] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure. And I will. But, uh, yeah, if you and oh, sleep, sleep, you know, become super important.
[17:23] SPEAKER_02: All of a sudden, how has it become important in all of a sudden, but it always has been.
[17:27] SPEAKER_02: And so, um, yeah, I sometimes, like I said, sometimes I'll catch myself up till two in the morning,
[17:33] SPEAKER_02: but most often than not, I know that if I don't get that good sleep, then I'm not going to be able
[17:40] SPEAKER_02: to perform the next day. I'm not going to be able to be here, be able to make those decisions, work
[17:45] SPEAKER_02: with the team, um, and be on top of things. So, yeah, you know, I try and take care of myself.
[17:51] SPEAKER_02: If I do, I work out regularly, we're pretty active, family and, uh, otherwise, you know, what is this all for?
[17:59] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So one last thing for you, Dave, if I was a young, young person, uh, looking for advice
[18:08] SPEAKER_01: on becoming an entrepreneur, uh, what would you tell me?
[18:14] SPEAKER_02: So, um, I did, uh, I did a little test one time in, like one of those behavior tests and it turns out
[18:21] SPEAKER_02: I'm a, what's called an activator. So I actually help people activate or do things, get things done. Um,
[18:29] SPEAKER_02: and one of the things I always tell people is if you have an idea, if you have this burning desire
[18:37] SPEAKER_02: to do something that maybe goes against the grain or is different or that needed, um, don't wait.
[18:45] SPEAKER_02: Like just, just do it. Get in there, make it happen. Yeah, you've got it in you. You've got support.
[18:53] SPEAKER_02: Um, there's nothing holding you back. Now is the time. Just don't wait.
[18:59] SPEAKER_01: All right, wonderful. Well, thanks very much, Dave, for joining us today.
[19:03] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, thanks for having me. It was really fun. All right. That was Dave Wald, who is owner
[19:09] SPEAKER_01: of Karma camper vans in Calgary. I'm Mario Tonogusi, managing editor of Canada's podcast today
[19:16] SPEAKER_01: with Calgary's podcast. Thanks for joining us.