SPEAKER_04 0:00

Finally on a whim one day she sent me that building which I'd seen a million times um you know being in the village and she's like or you could always run a bed and breakfast and I was like oh gosh like I I have always wanted to restore an old building and you know do a bed and breakfast and here's another new big house I could fill with energy. We went and looked at it in October and it would not leave my brain. Like just I started an Apple note like of all the things I would do to the rooms and the names I would have and the things I'd have in the right like and it just wouldn't leave. Find out what the passion is about it because there are gonna be really hard times that make you, you know, want to quit. And if you don't remember your passion about it, you're gonna walk away from it. And just that nagging voice that kept being in my head made me realize, like, this is it. So funny enough, I was like, well, I don't, I've been also searching for another corporate job just for security's sake. So finally I pulled the trigger in January and I made him an offer, but I don't know what I'm doing. Like, I don't have a real job to pay the bills. I'm gonna like totally pull on savings to do this, but whatever, God won't let it leave. So here we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Welcome to the Studio 321 podcast, powered by Brightway, the Steve Trout agency. We're sitting down with real estate pros, insurance nerds, mortgage masterminds, and local legends who are making moves on the Space Coast. Hosted by the best insurance crew in the 321. At studio 321, it's all about community, real connections, and sharing a few laughs along the way. Strap in, let's launch into today's episode. Our guest today is Christy Everingham, 16 years on the Space Coast, 25 plus years as a global business and technology leader, currently at ServiceNow. Mom of five daughters, a community builder, and since February 1st of this year, owner and proprietor of the Parish Grove Inn, a restored 1901 historic boutique inn right here in Cocoa Village. How she got from there to here is a story worth hearing. Her motto, things always work out the way they're supposed to. Let go trying to control the outcome. Welcome to Studio 321. Christy.

SPEAKER_04 2:15

How are you? Thank you. Gosh, that's easier said than done sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

I know it. It's uh when I read that, I was like, it is hard not to control, you know, not to want to control the outcome. And especially for you, somebody that's got their hands in so many different things, right? And you want it to be perfect.

SPEAKER_04 2:34

Yeah, all the time, right? I think a lot of people struggle with that when they're growing up. Just this like, I need to be perfect. And having five kids actually helped chill that out for me a little bit, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:45

When you have the more kids you have the first one I feel bad for, because you're just like, yeah, the second one, third one, do whatever you want, buddy. We got you. And you have five. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

And then twins at the end. That really made things go. That's when you were just like, yeah, we're not in control anymore. This is all happening on its own. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yeah. So tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and kind of what shaped you to where you are today.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

Oh, long stories. Um, I mean, you know, I've always um I would say probably around in my mid-20s, I started to realize the importance of community. I was married at the time. I had a newborn, we were living in Denver. My husband was in the military, we didn't have a lot of friends, and just feeling that like isolating pe I worked from home, so there just wasn't like connection. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I just started to realize this thing is important, this community thing. And I remember talking to my dad who lived here at the time, my parents, like, I just want to live somewhere, mom and dad, where I know people. And he's like, You want to see them at the grocery store? And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, that would be really cool. I spent years trying to get you here. I know. And so um I live here now and I love it because I do see people at the grocery store, and I have people everywhere that I know and that I feel that connection to, and really a part of a community. So I think that's always been sort of my motivator since my 20s of just like, how do you find a place? You know, and and how do you create a place, quite frankly, that people want to be a part of, whether that's like you as a person or spaces that you create that people want to be in. I mean, I think in a nutshell, that's kind of how I wound up getting all the way to the Parish Grove Inn, you know, um, through all the different things.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Do you want to talk about like how you were in a corporate job for so long? Sure. I mean I've been still doing, yeah. So you're doing both. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

I mean, I think when I first started out after I I grew up in Cincinnati, and when I moved out to California right after graduation is when I started falling in love with like cute, charming places. And that's like Carmel, California is adorable. And then I lived in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and all these things are so adorable. And so then when my parents wanted me to come here, I mean, Cocoa Village, Tropical Trail, these were all the things that made me be like, Oh, okay, these are adorable and charming here too. I could do this area. Um, and the weather was much better than Portland, Oregon weather at the time. And so I've all I mean, since I've been here, I've always loved like the cute things that are happening in Cocoa Beach or Cocoa Village or Melbourne or look at surfing Santa, how big it got. I mean huge. There's just a real opportunity, I think, here to see the character of the city.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

It's weird, even like he and I both left for college and we came back. But every time I drive over the bridge, I'm like, okay, this is why I love this place. Yeah. And you know, we go out to dinner sometimes and we're like, we used to know everybody. Now there's so many different people, which is cool. Yeah. But um, yeah, it's grown and changed. And um, I remember you too looking at like the Harvey Grove thing. This thing to find an inn was always your dream.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

So how yeah, it is. I've always I mean, so I I started in corporate right out of college. Well, I worked for Clint Eastwood first. That was like kind of what took me to California, and I was doing golf. My family's huge into golf. My dad was a golf pro at Savannah's for a long time, and my brother's a caddy on the tour, and I grew up in his golf course and I wanted to be in the golf world. But so that's what took me out to California into working for Clint Eastwood. And after that, I was like, you can't live in Carmel, California and make $13 an hour. Like, this isn't gonna work. So I was gonna leave, and one of the members there at his golf club, they were all really wealthy, really like high-level executives at different companies that I knew nothing about at the time. Um, but one of them said, you know, how about you come work for my company if you're gonna leave golf? And I was like, sure, I'll come work in a marketing organization. Um and that was the start of my corporate career, and I went for 25 years, and throughout all that time I was raising my family, and I was the breadwinner, and it was just sort of like you can't quit this thing. It was like a drug. You had to keep going if you wanted to sustain your family. But I always had this thing in my head, like, I'd love to be an entrepreneur. Do I have it in me to do that? Like, I think it'd be so cool to create something really unique. Yeah. Um so yeah, many times, even when I was married, we would look at ideas like Harvey Grove that I loved that old building. They've now torn it down. But I was like, this would be such a cool, like, old brewery with a event space, and right. I'm always loving like reviving these old places.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

I would have loved that. That would have been awesome.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

That was when you first moved here. Yeah. You were looking at that. I was because I had young kids and I had been inspired by different like breweries in Nashville where they would bring like a pizza truck and a band, and you could just play as adults and kids and enjoy, you know, that kind of space. We don't have any, we still don't have anything like that here, really, unfortunately. Um I'd still if I just had more capital, I have more ideas. I need more money. Um But so I was always looking for something like that, to be honest. And there were different fits and starts and things that always held me back, like, oh, I don't have the time, or I don't have enough money, or I don't have like the, you know, whatever, the connections. And um in April of 24, I wound up getting laid off from my job, and I'd been a SAP for years. I mean, that whole career, and I'd grown and done a ton of different things. It was a fantastic opportunity, great company. Um but I was like, okay, wow, this is a good reset. And my uncle had just passed away, and my some of my kids had left the house and were moving on to college and their grown-up lives, and I had to all the stars aligned. Yeah, and I only have a couple now, and my house is so empty now. Like I used to have this really big, full house of busyness all the time, and now there's a lot of quiet in there. And so it was picture home alone. Yeah, where the family's packing and leaving. We definitely left children at times. That happened, that happened. Um, so it was just an inflection point where I was like, maybe this is the time to do something different. And it's kind of funny because I have a real litter friend, um, Jen Penna, who's amazing, and I kept like making her take me to places during that downtime of being laid off, and I got a lovely severance, so I was enjoying like just downtime after 25 years. Time that you never had to yourself. Never, and it was summer, so the kids were home and it was just lovely. Um, but I'd always be like, Hey Jen, I'm thinking about starting a laundromat. Can we go look at some places? So, you know, so I was always bugging her. Finally, on a whim one day, she sent me that building, which I'd seen a million times, um, you know, being in the village, and she's like, Or you could always run a bed and breakfast. And I was like, Oh gosh, like I I have always wanted to restore an old building and you know, do a bed and breakfast, and here's another new big house I could fill with energy that mine's leaving. So it was really funny because um we went and looked at it in October and it would not leave my brain. Like, just I started an Apple note like of all the things I would do to the rooms and the names I would have and the things I'd have on it, right? Like, and it just wouldn't leave and wouldn't leave. Yeah, and I read this book at the time that was um about second acts, and one of the things it said is like find out what the passion is about it, because there are gonna be really hard times that make you, you know, want to quit. And if you don't remember your passion about it, you're gonna walk away from it. And just that nagging voice that kept being in my head made me realize, like, this is it. So funny enough, I was like, Well, I don't I'd been also searching for another corporate job just for security's sake. And um, but I was like, Oh, I don't know, I just don't think I want to do it. I'm gonna do this. And so finally I pulled the trigger in January and I made him an offer.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

And um they How long had that build-in been taken?

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Yeah, it'd been for sale, I think for almost like seven or eight months before I made, and then I sat on it for like three more months where I was like, eh, I don't know. And kind of I lowballed them a couple times just to see if they would do it, and they didn't go and they didn't bite. And so, yeah, it was about February that I was like, all right, Jen, I know what number they want now. I'm just gonna make this offer, but I don't know what I'm doing. Like, I don't have a real job to pay the bills. I'm gonna like totally pull on savings to do this, but whatever, God won't let it leave. So here we go. So I made the offer, they accepted it, and I was and that was on a Thursday. And on Monday, I got this call from an old colleague that I is just a great guy, and he's like, Hey, I know you've been looking, and I've got this job. Like, I don't know if you'd want it, you'd work for me, and I know we're normally peers. And I was like, Okay, yeah, David, I would love this job. Like, it's a great company service.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Now I was on my radar of one I wanted to work for, and um so I accepted the job offer, and um now you have income coming in, and yeah, all in the same week.

SPEAKER_04 11:52

Yeah, all in the same week. And I was like, oh God, you are funny. Like I was just gonna bite this off without any plan, and then you threw this in front of me. So okay, let's just do both. Yeah. So I really quickly pivoted to, okay, this is gonna be your full-time job, Christy, to how do you do this with also keeping like this, you know, corporate job. And so that's kind of what I've been on that adventure for the last year, basically.

unknown 12:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Yeah, so how long did it take you from the time you purchased it to opening?

SPEAKER_04 12:20

Yeah, we closed on I closed on it on the end of May and we opened February 1st. Oh, so you guys moved pretty quick. We did. And I mean it was in really good shape. They had done some really great caretaking over the years on it, and um the there was a uh real estate office that owned it before me, and they'd done some updates.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

But the work, what are the like logistics about buying a historic house?

SPEAKER_04 12:41

Yeah. The biggest part is that because it changed use from being a real estate office to now going back to being a bed and breakfast, because there's history, right? It used to be a bed and breakfast. Yes, which made all the new codes have to come up.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:55

So I had to put in fire sprinklers and fire alarms and all these things that they didn't have to do back in 2010 or 20 when they were at bed and breakfast because they could I could grandfather it all in. Um so that was a big one, and that was hard, you know, because it's like there's gotta be a way around it. Right? You like I for a while I would sit on some of these things like there's gotta be a way around it. Do I really have to have fire sprinklers? I mean, it's such an expensive thing, you know. And I was also worried about how it would look aesthetically and ruin the building. And um, the we had some really great vendors that did a great job at doing this. Um, and it looks great. You would never even notice them if you're in there. But it took a while, and I will say, you know, because I knew I was gonna do the corporate job, um, I really quickly was like, who and like how do I do this? So I hired one of my very dear friends, Bonnie Bell uh Weido, who's a great caretaker. Um, she actually had worked for me at SAP as my assistant, so I knew we already as friends could work together. Yes. Which is, you know, something people always make you nervous about. Like, yeah, it's a scary situation. Yeah. If things go south, so does your friendship. Yeah. And we'd been friends for 10 plus years before that. But she's fantastic. She came right in and would become a general contractor basically through construction and all of that. So she was on site to see everything. She was there every day with all of the contractors, running the things, finding fixtures, finding things, like making it easy for me to just sort of dip in and make a decision and back out, you know. Um and you know, it's all growing pains. We're all learning, and now we've shifted shifted kind of into running the business versus building it. And that's a whole different animal, too, right? She's there every day. She's got great customer service, and she's like the face of the inn and um, you know, meets with people who want to do events for the case.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

I think of like Sweet Magnolia. Have you seen that show? No. Oh, it's a cute show. It's a little it it's a southern show. I think they're in South Carolina, but she opens.

SPEAKER_04 14:55

Okay. A lot of people always say Gilmore girls because they're like Chip and Joanna Gaines. Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_00 15:01

So how how many rooms in the end?

SPEAKER_04 15:02

There's six. They all have their own um bathroom, so they're completely private. Yeah. And then the whole downstairs space is common space um where we have a dining room with a seating for 12. You could do like baby showers or board meetings there.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

And you guys just did a derby day.

SPEAKER_04 15:19

We did a derby day. It was so fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

I always see your events. The pizza the pizza one looked pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

Pizza on the porch, yeah. Like, so it that's where we're kind of just trying to figure out what makes sense, right? Right now it's a very small group of like Bonnie Belt, my sister Jill, you know, is um great with events, so she's also kind of come on board now and helping out with some of those like hosted events that we're doing. Um, Hannah, my oldest, is our social media coordinator. You know, Jen Penna, my realtor, is now there doing breakfast for us sometimes. Like, it is a family affair.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

Family and friends affair, which it makes it a lot of fun for us to participate in it too, because you know, even pizza on the porch, I mean, my sister and I were in the kitchen making 60 pizzas that night, but we had a blast. And you know, we walked away at the end of the night and we're like, this wasn't work. This was actually like a fun thing to do, which makes it really nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

How does that work like with guests, like in the future, if you're having an event? Have you had ran into that problem?

SPEAKER_04 16:15

Yeah, they weren't do they usually just jump into the event or they're sometimes like Derby Day, we did have guests that they had they were actually their coolest. We get to meet the coolest people because of this. So they came by boat, they were they're cruisers, like you know, on their boat up the river. They wanted to be in our marina in Coco Village, but it was full, so they went to the Titusville Marina, parked there, got in an Uber, came to Derby Day, stayed with us for the night, and then went back to their boat. So, yeah, sometimes they just hop right in and they do whatever. Um, other times we're normally really careful about quiet hours. Like by not if we do an event, we normally try and end it by like nine in case they're not participating. Um and if we're doing an event, they're not allowed to go upstairs. Like that's private for guests. You know, so um we try and respect that. I I think sometimes we just have to trial and err it, you know. I mean, in the beginning, like that was a conversation we had. Are guests gonna be bothered if we're having an event down here? But if you go to a hotel there, there are people around, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

And you just we went to a hotel in Philadelphia.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

For me personally, if I was a guest and you had another thing going on, I'd be like, sweet. Let's hop in.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Let's hop in. You know, we had a we went to a hotel in Philadelphia. We had all the kids with us, and we didn't know that at 10 p.m. it turned into like a full-on nightclub. And we were like that was a little different. Thank God it was like 44 subs.

SPEAKER_04 17:32

But we'll keep getting on the on the you know, PG at the parish grove in. Yeah. Um I think I I wish that we could figure out, and maybe this will be part of our evolution of like how to make it feasible to do like a restaurant on Friday and Saturday night. So anybody can pop in and you know, if you're a guest or just the community or happy hour or things like that, because I do want it to be a place that everybody can be a part of it, uh, even if you're not needing to stay over here.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah, like you're in the village walking around, say, hey, let's go see what's going on at the end.

SPEAKER_04 18:03

We have a great back porch. That was one of the things that we did. We built a barch like I would love to do that at some point. I mean, right now, if you stop by, that's not an option. Yeah, but that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Even last night we ate at Cafe Margot. Yeah. And there were people that were just sitting at the bar, and I was like, Oh, I never even thought about this place to just like pop in and have a drink. So that would be a cool Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 18:23

But it's hard because I mean, uh, you know, with running a business, like everything has a cost to it too. So if you're not making a revenue that's big enough for your costs, like, is it a good idea to do? And that's what I'm learning as a new entrepreneur is like, how do you balance that? Oh, it's just a cool thing to do with an awareness building versus like, okay, yeah, but we're killing ourselves and not making any money.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Yeah, I wonder if something like that maybe you start like just doing it like two nights a week, just a trial, right?

SPEAKER_04 18:48

Yeah. It is fun. And we I I do think that is the right approach. We have a lot of people reaching out, like other uh businesses that want to collaborate, which I think is super cool. Um you know, there's uh just some different things that we're getting ready to try out, like Rebellion Wine Bar is going to do their wine education classes at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Like a wine tasting.

SPEAKER_04 19:11

Yeah, they do it right now in the restaurant. Um, and you know, by the time this is all of aired, you'll know that they are going to be shutting down in the village. And so we're they but they want to continue to collaborate and be a president in the village. And so, you know, we want to think about ways that we can do that with them because they they they've got a great reputation and there's some stuff there. They're just keeping their cocoa beach location. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, they're gonna keep their cocoa beach location. Um, but they've they're great. And so we've talked about like, ooh, could you do supper clubs there with us, you know, that are just like uh every now and then when you want to test out a new you know, recipe or something like that. Like I think those are the kinds of things that could be really interesting. I want it to be, you know, I want the end to be a backdrop for people's ideas. I don't need to run at all. In fact, I'd rather not. Like I'd rather just create the space that people can come and use and we figure out how to make it work for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

So, what's your favorite event you guys have done so far?

SPEAKER_04 20:04

Hmm. I the pizza on the porch was pretty fun, I have to say. It wound up just being at the end of the night, this collection of people sitting around on the porch having drinks and hanging out, and just that energy and the feeling of like everybody being there was great. I wish I could have figured out how to get out of the kitchen a little more, but um but that was really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

I saw the photos from that and I had a little FOMO. Yeah, good. Yeah, it looked like it looked like a lot of fun. Yeah, it looked like a good time for sure.

SPEAKER_04 20:29

It was, and I love that. I mean, the thing that I think is interesting is I know people from all over different parts of my life, right? Like my book club and all of my great friends and from there, and you know, you guys from my early days of living here. Like there's just people all around, and they're all great people. Like I love that this could be a place that they all get to intermingle here in this space too and realize. Like the idea of that separate club. I'm like, I would love for that to be six unique couples that have never met and just see what transpires in that conversation around that dinner table. Like, that's fun to think about putting together, you know?

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Because everybody has a different path and a different story.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

I really think this end like fits you well.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Oh, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Like, you know, obviously me and Diana have known you a long time and we've been to your house plenty of times. You host amazing parties for family and all that. And you know, we've had some really good times with you at your house and everything. And uh when I saw the end coming together, because you did such a good job on your house remodel.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

And then when I saw the end coming together with all the photos, you know, and everything, I've been watching her from afar, and uh I was like, man, this is perfect for her. It just fits you. It fits your personality, it fits who you are.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Like a community person. And it's been really cool to watch. So I'm super proud of you for doing it.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

And you took a leap of faith.

SPEAKER_04 21:44

Huge leap of faith. I'm still taking it. But um but yeah, thank you. I do feel like that made it easier, knowing it was kind of an extension of what was already pure to me. And I and just sort of like opening it up to beyond my little core. group of people that I do these things with already.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

And I feel like with any business in the beginning it's you know trials and tribulations and what works and what doesn't work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:08

Yeah. You gotta like fail and fail fast and then move on, right? And just let it be like, oh we tried that, that didn't work, let's keep going.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Yeah, and that's part of it.

SPEAKER_04 22:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

But I see this being very successful. I think the community is excited about it. I think that's you know, especially like I I love the idea of you were saying if you guys can get it to a point where if you know people can just come in from their stroll around Cocoa Village and have a quick drink or stop by for you know maybe you do some live music every Friday or something. You know I mean making it up.

SPEAKER_04 22:38

But no I love that I mean this Friday actually is Iration in the village and we're sold out. We've got the whole house full of people coming in for the show. And even that I'm like I'm just gonna go at three and open up the bar and like have a little happy hour for anybody getting ready and hanging out. You know like that's kind of fun too. It's what I would want to do if I was coming out too because you can kind of micromanage all that.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Like you're going in because you want to and you want to serve the guests that are at your thing but every it's kind of cool because every day's different every weekend's different every event's different.

SPEAKER_04 23:13

Yeah. And I that's one thing that I've been trying to get comfortable with since we opened is not letting it rule me but let it be what I want it to be. Because you know it is so easy to just I mean people are reaching out do this, do that, da da da da da and you could say you can stay busy 100%. But is it am I a slave to it or is it this is what I wanted to do and this is how I saw it kind of coming out you know out. And that can shift and change over time of course but I just don't want it to burn your business should work for you. That's kind of how I've been trying to put it on because you know Monday through Friday I'm at a desk at home corporate service now all day. And so then if I'm dreading what I have to do on the weekend there, like I've had some of those weekends and it's just sort of like man this is a grind. I don't want it to be a grind. It's supposed to be fun.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Oh absolutely so but it's good that you found something you're passionate about because that definitely helps you get through those weekends where you're like all right to do this.

SPEAKER_04 24:09

Yeah totally totally and then really enjoy your downtime when you're not doing any of it.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Yeah absolutely so what did your family and friends say when you told them that you were going to buy this did they think that you were crazy or they were supportive or I would say it was mixed overwhelming support though frankly like right I think like any good parent they're gonna have reservations because they just don't want to see you overdo things.

SPEAKER_04 24:32

Like I am a single mom. They know I already carry a lot they don't want to see me fail but they're all you know everybody's so supportive certainly like my you know friends are just like my biggest cheerleaders about it all the time and my family too of course but yeah I think there's always that like oh are you taking on too much what does this look like kind of thing. But I feel like you're one of those people that like to be busy. I do I do as I'm getting older I'm trying to like get okay with not being busy more I know I have some friends that say yes to everything and he always told me just say no. I say no well because I I what I'm starting to realize in my older age about it is being busy all the time can make you miss some of the things that you should be savoring more. Like my children's time like my time with them right like three of them are almost out of the house well two are definitely out of the house one's almost out I only have two left like when I am so busy wait where was my time to just like sit and hang out with Olivia and Kennedy you know so I'm trying to not let that be my mantra and make it be a little bit more about what actually matters to me versus just staying busy. But um yeah I think in general everybody's just been great about it honestly and the community too I mean the city of Coco was su I I would never have been able to get through I mean permitting is hard guys if you've never done that that is hard stuff and I don't know how people do it. I mean starting a new business is no joke. You don't know anything. So if you don't find people along the way that are like here let me help you right the people that know yeah and thank you for chat GPT also by the way because starting a new business without that would have been a lot harder as well. I know people can have a lot of negativity about AI but there I was thinking he loves Claude now he's negative I know Claude is cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah Claude's the new and then I'm one of the people that I've used Chat GPT like three times.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

I love it though I mean it it I mean it's a big part of our business now. Yeah you know it just is honestly if you're not using AI right now you're kind of behind the eight ball 100% I I want to be I think sometimes people are pivoting well that's a whole other probably podcast but people can pivot and use AI for things that maybe we don't need to be using AI for right?

SPEAKER_04 26:47

Like we forget that our brain actually can process too we just like throw up in AI and be like make sense of this. You know wait I should actually put those pieces together myself.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Yeah and in your business I mean like in my business we're using a lot of AI to uh to kind of change the customer experience a little bit and that part of it worries me a little bit like you kind of almost lose that connection right yeah which doesn't really play a role in your business I mean your business is really about the human connection right the Parish Provided experience the whole experience there.

SPEAKER_04 27:22

So and that's I think one of the reasons why places like this can thrive right now because in this culture of like automated everything, don't talk to anybody like hey people we still are human and we do need to connect and people want to do that in unique and interesting ways. I mean even just the like going out to dinner is kind of boring for people nowadays I feel like they're looking for maybe a something a little bit more phone the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Exactly I mean I could see too like a lot of locals just going hey let's spend the weekend at Pericot the village is such a fun area. It is you know it is I you know I just see it being a cool little like weekend getaway for people.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

And there is so much to do like even as people who have lived here and you feel like you know it all like even just renting bikes and going up and down River Road if you're staying there local for the weekend that's probably not something you do very often, you know or there's like a a place called my maker's mark I think my makerspace they have like a black light room where you just put on a hazmat suit and go throw stuff at the walls and like like there's things you don't even know that are there yeah the painting with the twist like there's a lot there that I don't think as locals we necessarily do. Yeah yeah for sure there's a couple new restaurants that are opening up and good stuff happening at that beer garden and yeah there's lots of stuff I think well area I know I'd love to get somebody that has a sailboat that's willing to do like private stuff like that where I could refer that to my inn like right there off of the you know Lee Warner Park like hey go meet the kayaks or the sailboat yeah is there like paddleboard anything paddleboard kayaks nothing in the city not in the village right now nope I know that there is I think there's an opportunity for that though I'll have to look it up but I know Manatee Cove has like kayaks that sit there but I think the company is like mobile like they'll go where they come and drop I have to find that out because that'd be great for guests to like arrange and all the bioluminescence stuff's coming up and yes that's a big one that people come into town for we had some guests come for that actually so when you think about the inn let's try to pull out the crystal ball what is your vision for the in over the next five to ten years?

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Like when you like what would your ultimate like where you look back and go, wow we really did it and this is we're having insane success, right? Yeah. Like what does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_04 29:43

Well I think like on a um on a business level I would love for it to be you know the sort of self-running I I it doesn't even need to make a million dollars but just like the self-running thing that we're not stressing about money. As a business owner I feel like I'm always stressing about money.

SPEAKER_05 29:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:59

So I would love for it to be like a full book of business and a you know weekend restaurant and happy hours um lots of fun events that people want to have there. That energy I guess I'm looking for that energy to just sort of stay alive there. And then one of the things that kind of drives me and makes made me want to keep the Parish Grove in name is like people have memories there already. And so I just want to add to that I want I want to know like people have stories about oh I had my wedding there and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

How long was the Parish Grove in and in before before? About 10 years.

SPEAKER_04 30:33

Okay. Um they ran it and um you know it was probably a lower lower scale operation than what we're trying to do right um but tons of people have stories. They sat on the back porch they drank cognac whatever they did all the things and smoked cigars and they have stories for days and I love hearing it when they come in and I just would love to make the next set of those memories with the space that we've created now for people you know like people having their baby moons or you know we've got some weddings on the books already that's gonna be super fun to see happen. Baby showers bridal show we did a bridal shower already that was really sweet to see and it's fun to see what people do with the space too. Any big events coming up that you want to touch on yeah so um there's a really cute company called a Picnic Affair. They reached out and we're gonna do like a ticketed event where she's gonna set up all her picnics on the back patio and on the back lawn and have some live music and some vendors and um little bar action and stuff like that, which I think is fun. That's awesome. Yeah there's another um uh girl that is local that woman that is local she's young she's in college but she was really looking for that sense of community too and she does all of these um meetups where they'll do like a Pilates class and then have punch or whatever. You can do yoga on the we haven't done that yet. I'm open to somebody coming and doing that. She's gonna do a hot girl walking yoga instructor. Oh okay well there we go compare notes. She's gonna do a hot girl work down River Road and then we're gonna do a brunch for them which I think will be fun. Yeah I love these ideas of people just kind of coming with I feel like the ideas are endless to know there's so much to tap into that's it that's why we can't do it all and I need other people to to say or just for them to say like I have this idea to do it and I'm like yeah let's go you do it we're here like we'll support I provide the space and you take over yeah and we'll promote and we'll do what we'll help support but you know we can't we can't run them all or we'll lose it.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

That picnic in the park sounds cute. I remember my girlfriend lived in uh New York and they did something in Central Park and I was like why don't we have cool stuff like that but we do.

SPEAKER_04 32:47

I love it. I know I love it. And there's actually right next to us this big huge lot that like right away I was like ooh we could put tents on it. We could project movies we could have like cocoa at Christmas and things like that. So and um yeah so I think there's a lot of I think I'll probably run it till I run out of ideas and then I'll just be like all right somebody else take over.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

So if businesses or I guess anybody wants to throw a party or event at at the end, how does that look?

SPEAKER_04 33:18

What's that process look like Yeah so um you can always find us at our website theparishgrow in dot com um or call our main number stop by Bonnie Bell is there most most days and I'm there on the weekends a lot other people are there and most of the time you can just stop by or call ahead. We love it. We love having different event types we've got all sorts of things that are coming up from people just wanting to use a space. Yeah what's the what's the range you think like to uh how many people like our sweet spot yeah I would say anywhere from like thirty to seventy people is kind of our sweet spot seventy would mean we need to also be using the outside space. So like in the heart of August maybe smaller. Yeah so you're not sweating yeah yeah it's not gonna be pleasurable to be outside it's gonna be a lot to be outside at those temperatures.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

But the way the sun works too it is shaded in the evening so it's also kind of nice so summer months like 30 winter nice fall months I just I see it as just an amazing event space.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

It is you know like if you're a real estate office wanting to do an event I mean what a great spot to do it. Yes um we're gonna do happy hour there.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

I love it. Even if you I think about having I mean we've done some corporate parties too Rockledge Gardens hosted their Christmas party so I think that season will be good. We've got graduation parties coming up but yeah even realtors I've been saying you have people that come in town to look at properties. Like why wouldn't you want to put them in Cocoa Village? It's a cute area they can walk around and see what's so great about it. You know that is perfect. Send them our way you know right now we're trying to tap into to the cruise industry right we have a lot of people that come before and after I feel like the village has gotten better as like a point of yeah place for people that get off the ship because I mean we it's the coolest place. Yeah you got downtown Melbourne and Oga Ogale but yeah and Cocoa Beach but the nice thing about Cocoa Village too is you can walk to anything. Yeah and it's so difficult to stay where we are and you can walk to any spot you want in the village. So if you have a couple days to kill before or after you know it's not a bad spot to be now it's perfect. Yeah we really like it.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

Awesome so before we started this episode I I said Christy you're kind of like a Wonder Woman you got a lot going on all the time. Yeah full time job running an inn. Five girls five girls that's true that's incredible a lot of emotion anytime anybody has more so we have three boys anytime anybody has more than three I'm like you guys are crazy.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

No my brother has four and he's like you have like nine kids and he's like I have one more than you're but that one's like nine more I amplified it.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

Yeah well not to mention your last two are twins so that that was a curveball. Yeah so I mean big family in full-time job co-founder of Cami. Yeah let's talk about Cammy a little bit yeah what uh what is it and what does it do for the community?

SPEAKER_04 36:15

Yeah it's something that uh we I came about in 2020 my um girlfriends would sit around in our book club and talk about just where we live and we've all been well traveled and seen really cool things and we're like man Vier's got all this great stuff going on Cocoa Beach does you know Cocoa Village does. What is going on with Merritt Island? Like why can't we do something about this? And you know I'm a big believer in you can sit on the sidelines and criticize what's going on or you can lean in and try and do something about it. Which is kind of how we all felt so we incorporated a nonprofit profit in 2022 called Community Advocacy for Merritt Island. You know we don't have a city right that's hard. That's why Vieira has what they have there that's what all of those do right they have people whose full-time job it is to advocate for money and funds and projects and all of the things of the potential of Merritt Island.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

It's so frustrating like we were supposed to get the trader droves and it didn't come because they wanted to go to Vieira.

SPEAKER_04 37:14

Right, right. And I think there's no one that is sitting there advocating for that every day on our behalf as Merritt Island. But the thing is is we've got a beautiful space. Like we have more river you know coastline than any other part of Space Coast. The homes are gorgeous like the community is great the schools are good. Like we just the we really aren't great with business around Merritt Island unfortunately or be so anyway the the mission was really around not so much business but that's a big part of it in like promoting how we can get better businesses. But it's really around conservation and beautification and just civic education. Like how do people even find out about things in Merritt Island? We don't have a paper anymore. Like you know it's so since 2022 we've been doing different beautification projects we've been um one of our annual traditions that we've tried to create is the holiday illumination event in December that we do at the Veterans Memorial kind of trying to make that space be our hub of community because we don't have a downtown and they did a really good job with that new park. I just walked the other day for the first time and the amphitheater's great and so I think there's a lot of potential in that space so we try and draw attention to it with that holiday illumination event and I think we're on our we've done three years up to like a thousand people who attended every year. This year we're gonna do like a big bang of Merritt Island Christmas with the parade and the run that we do now there and then the lighting tree lighting afterwards all in one day. So it's just sort of like Christmas in Merritt Island Day. I wish the mall is a really tricky one because all of those anchor stores own their real estate and so you can't just have like one big developer come in and take over you've got to now work with Sears and Pennies and I didn't realize that part of it. Yeah so it's only the inner space that you can so my idea is tear down the whole inner space, leave the anchors and build like a nice outdoor space that has shops and restaurants.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

But again I have ideas no capital anymore put it all into the end I mean I would love to see the area down by like Grove and all that really turn in I I envision that as being almost like a Cocoa Villa honestly there's a lot of great where you can really you park and walk around and spend the evening there and um you guys should have come to our first ever Merrit Island battle that Cami put on.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

It was great we had like 150 people show up 15 plus businesses participated and so did a lot of people bring like food like vendors in because down there's only is there Ola and then Ballybar?

SPEAKER_04 39:47

Right so it was more about the Grove? Yeah there were a couple of restaurants um but then we also had just even like the insurance businesses that were there with seven tents we reality did um trade wind builders like a lot of those businesses um opened up and just had a a tent out front where they had some drinks you know that they served and some snacks a lot of yeah it was all of them but what we found too is that Ola and Ballybar and Garden on the Grove they all were so busy that night we brought so many people down there that enjoyed us yeah it was great they're all like when can we do another one? That's awesome. And we raised a lot of great money the money that we raised is going to go towards signage at the beginning of that neighborhood because to your point it is charming and we do need to bring more down there and I think more a lot of people don't even know that exists in Merritt Island.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

So I know my brother comes from Tampa and I'm like it's downtown Merritt Island and he's like Diana there's barely anything there. I'm like but it is it's like the heart we love going to Ola.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Yeah what a cool spot and if you could kind of build on that yeah I mean what an amazing place that area could be I agree.

SPEAKER_04 40:51

I love Garden on the Grove. I think that's adorable and ballet houses that that's where the charm is of some of the architecture that we have in Merritt Island you know keeping it the same yeah updating it and making that into something new. Exactly we have a lot of you know the concrete block homes in Merritt Island that were put up really quickly back in the space race and so you just don't have like those bungalows and cute you know unique spaces back there like you do.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

So before we start to wrap up what is the one thing that you definitely want people to take away from this as far as the end goes like uh what do you want them to really be thinking about when they think of the end?

SPEAKER_04 41:29

Let us share your milestones. Let us share your you know great things that are happening in your life and use it as a place to connect with other people that you don't know already, right? Like minded people who just want to have a little bit more a little bit more of an experience in the way that they you know gather and feast and stay and and and all of that yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

Awesome. I think I think that's a I think that's a perfect perfect way to end it. Thank you so much for coming in and spending time with us we really appreciate it. Absolutely you're an awesome guest and uh an inspiration so thank you for what you're doing with the end I think it's really cool. I think uh Coco Village should be uh super proud to have you so thank you thank you all right we appreciate it thanks for the time yeah thanks for coming in it was awesome thank you that's a wrap for this episode of the Studio 321 podcast powered by Frightwood the Steve Trout Agency we can't thank you enough for being part of our journey if you enjoyed this episode be sure to subscribe leave us a review and share it with a friend until next time 321 we're out