Meet Our Keynote Speakers: April & Sarah of The June Motels
Hi, we’re April Brown and Sarah Sklash, and we are Moteliers!
If you don’t already know April & Sarah of The June Motel it’s time and you’re going to love them!
Starting from zero knowledge or experience in the industry April & Sarah built their own motel empire (and it’s still growing!) throughout southern Ontario. AND got themselves a Netflix show in the mix too! (swoon!)
Here’s a little interview with these babes to prime you for Camp Rover Conference 2024 and their keynote session.
What is the hardest part about what you do?
The hardest part of what we do is wearing all the hats! There are a lot of hats to wear.
What is the all-time dream part of your job? The thing you still pinch yourself that you get to do? And, tell the people how often you actually get to do it.
The thing that lights us up is finding those diamonds in the rough motels and reimagining the entire experience! We bought our first motel in 2016 and really discovered a true love for designing the experience and the physical space. In 2020 we got to do it again in Sauble Beach. And, we are just now working on our third motel project in Beaver Valley! We want to keep growing so that we can keep doing the work we love.
If you could tell your Day 1, starting a biz self one thing what would it be?
We've got this!
There have been so many points along this journey where we've had to really dig deep and figure some hard things out.
When you're starting something new, and you're new to the entire industry, it's all scary and hard and there is so much to navigate every single day. That feeling strangely doesn't go away, because you just have bigger goals and new challenges along the way. We have to really believe in ourselves and believe that we have the ability to problem solve and overcome those challenges that will undoubtedly appear along the journey. And it means showing up consistently, every single day with this "we got this" attitude.
Someone wants to get into photography & become an Educator. What advice - from an expert - would have saved you a lot of time, sweat, and tears?
We have had to learn a lot about housekeeping operations, and it's been a long journey. We could have gotten here a lot faster by bringing on a consultant or hiring someone with a lot of experience in this department at the beginning.
Fun fact about you?
We were both sorority sisters! That's how we met!
Fav book? Fav show? Your All-time go-to movie while working?
We're big Brene Brown fans, so love Dare to Lead and often reference the lessons we learned in this book! Our favourite show is definitely Schitt’s Creek!
Any closing thoughts for the Camp Rover Community?
We can't wait to share our story of building The June from one dingy roadside motel to 3 motels and a Netflix show. While it might seem like instant success, we promise you that we didn’t get here overnight. We’ve been building The June for 8 years now, and it’s been a series of leaps of faith and moments where we’ve had to step up to grow our business.