New Hospitality Brand Freewyld Launches in August (Ep581)

In this episode of “Get Paid for Your Pad,” I am thrilled to share the exciting news about our latest project, FreeWild. Together with my friend Eric Moeller, we are embarking on a journey to help people disconnect from the digital world, reconnect with nature, and be fully present in the moment.

FreeWild is not just another ordinary short-term rental concept. It's a unique experience that allows guests to choose between two modes: “Free Mode” and “Wild Mode.” In “Free Mode,” guests can enjoy all the modern comforts they're used to, with fast internet, streaming services, and full connectivity. But the magic truly happens when you decide to switch to “Wild Mode.”

In “Wild Mode,” we encourage you to put away your devices and embrace the natural surroundings. Our properties are strategically located near beautiful nature spots, such as mountains, lakes, and beaches, offering the perfect backdrop for reconnecting with nature and yourself. During this mode, you'll discover a world of offline experiences, from old-fashioned board games and vinyl records to treasure maps that lead you to explore the area.

The inspiration behind FreeWild came from our own experiences during the COVID pandemic. It was a challenging time when we felt the need to find balance between staying connected and taking a break from technology. After going through our own journeys of self-discovery and reconnection, we realized that there's a demand for such experiences. That's when FreeWild was born, a place where you can escape the digital noise and immerse yourself in the beauty of the world around you.

We want FreeWild to be more than just a short-term rental concept. It's a movement, a lifestyle, and a community of like-minded individuals who value being in the moment and finding joy in nature. Through our Instagram page @freewild , we will keep you updated on our progress, share stories, and inspire you to incorporate “Wild Mode” moments into your daily life.

Our vision is to expand FreeWild globally, touching the lives of millions of people who long for a genuine disconnection from the virtual world. By embracing Wild Mode, we hope to create more meaningful experiences, deeper connections with loved ones, and a greater appreciation for the natural wonders that surround us.

So join us on this adventure, and let's make FreeWild a place where you can truly be free, live wild, and cherish the moments that matter most!

Jasper Ribbers:
Welcome back to get paid for your pads coming to you from a very, very hot, uh, North County, San Diego. We just, we're dealing with a heat wave here. So it's a, it's really, really hot here today. My guest on the show is Mr. Eric Mueller. He hasn't been on the show for a while. So we're very excited to have him back. Uh, we're very excited to hear what he's been up to in the last couple months. Well, I already know, of course, but

Eric Moeller:
Hmm

Jasper Ribbers:
you guys don't. So Eric, welcome back. We're going to talk about FreeWild, which we are about to launch very soon, which we're super excited about. So Eric, welcome back to the show.

Eric Moeller:
Thanks, man. Thanks. Even though you're so close, we're still pretty far away here with this podcast.

Jasper Ribbers:
You

Eric Moeller:
But soon, we'll get it in person.

Jasper Ribbers:
That's right. That's right. We're going to set up an amazing studio where we can do this podcast. But yeah, man, it's good to see you on the podcast again. It's been about two or three months. Why don't

Eric Moeller:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
you give us an update, man? What have you been working on?

Eric Moeller:
Oh, dude, where do I start? Where do I start? Yeah. I mean, dude, I mean, there's been so much going on, so let me know which direction you want to take the conversation. But yeah, I mean, kind of give everyone an update. Over the last few months, we have decided to kind of shift overnight success a bit to where we're dialing back on the… on the scale of overnight success to go all in on FreeWild, which has been a big decision for me to kind of step away from overnight success and just focus on FreeWild as a main company. And dude, it's been, as you know, it has its challenges, but it's been absolutely amazing. So again, let me know where you want to take the conversation, but the last few months have been awesome focusing on. brand, folks say on the renovation, now we're folks say on the launch of the hotel and the team, we're fundraising, we're kind of, we're doing quite a bit right now. It's been an eye-opening experience for sure.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. And I actually have been able to visit our cabins in Idlewild for the first time since I moved to the States. So it's been super exciting for me as well to actually walk around there. We're getting close to the launch of the brand. So let's just go back a couple of years. I'm sure there's a lot of new people listening to the podcast right now. So let's do a little recap of what FreeWild is. Why don't you share? a little bit about the history of like how you came up with, it was really you came up with the concept of this and what we've been up to in the last couple of years leading up to this point.

Eric Moeller:
Yeah, for sure. So, you know, you know, obviously free wilds, a short term rental focus company. And what I love like, you know, with us raising right now, it's forcing us to like get our messaging down, right? And it's, you know, of course what we taught in and teach in legends X of understanding the identity behind your company. And this is the, this company, like we were putting so much effort. towards truly understanding the identity of the brand and like who we're serving, how we're serving them. What's the unique factors that we're bringing to the market? What problems? This is the one thing that I'm really enjoying right now because we're getting so close to launching this property is solving so many different problems for the guests that I know are like small little things and challenges that most short-term rental guests experience in their properties and we're solving those problems. problems now with our standards, our trainings, our, you know, the, the design that we're putting into the properties. So I'm really, really enjoying this phase that we're going through right now, because it's like we're, we're at the, the goal line, right? We're right freaking there to get, to get this thing launched. So, but yeah, because we're raising, it's forcing us to put our messaging together and Uh, you know, really what we're focused on right now as a company is, um, buying old vacation rental communities and boutique hotels and converting them to modern short-term rental experiences. Um, and what we're focused on is buying these old cabin communities that already have the infrastructure. They've been ran as a old vacation rental communities for, for a very long time. And they're in great locations, great nature locations. Uh, you know, we're, two to three hour drives for metro areas. And our goal is to go in there, buy these awesome properties that we all love, but have been updated, you know, for years. Uh, we come in and completely transform the space and we focus on high level design. We want people to be inspired when they're at our property through the design, everything from tile to, you know, the furniture, to the paint, to the concept, the whole thing. Uh, and then also, uh, helping them, be inspired to when they're at our properties, be in the moment, disconnecting from technology and being in the moment in our properties, being inspired by our properties, inspired by the areas as well. So, yeah, our first location is going to be launching here shortly, which I'm excited for men. Ottawa, California is just like has a, you know, has a spot in my heart because you know, I've been going up there for so many years and so many major milestones have happened up there. And, um, The fact that we were able to buy this perfect property, perfect timing, perfect partners, perfect, uh, you know, contractors, designers, the whole thing to come together and create something incredible. So yeah, I'm excited for it. I'm excited to launch this, see how it goes, uh, you know, get the feedback from our guests and then obviously, uh, start expanding by more

Jasper Ribbers:
No.

Eric Moeller:
of these properties and expanding out.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah. And for those who want to follow the journey of us launching this, literally launching this brand, how we're doing the marketing, the design, and how we were introducing this to the public, like go follow us on Instagram at stayfreewild. Okay. At stayfreewild, we'll be sharing a lot of content, a lot of behind the scenes in the next few weeks. So I think it's going to be really, really cool content for you to follow. One thing I want to touch on and one thing as, so last. four or five months we've been going for renovations on this property that we bought a couple of years ago. And one thing that I have noticed is you're putting so much attention to detail. And you just mentioned that of like, hey, I'm really enjoying solving the problems for guests, right? Can you give us some examples of little details that other hosts might just overlook that we are really focused on to really make the experience cohesive? and unique.

Eric Moeller:
Yeah. So, you know, this is something I was working on today is, you know, When we're designing these properties, every decision is coming from what is the guest experience? How will the guest experience, how will this affect the guest experience at our properties? Every single decision that we're deciding what couch to put in. Literally, the debates I've had over couches for our properties with our designers is hilarious because as I'm like, yeah, this is a beautiful couch. as I'm looking at it, I'm putting myself in the guest experience of like, okay, they're at our property. They're, they're in the mountains. They probably just went hiking. They're exhausted. They want to sit down. They want to relax. They want to watch a movie. This couch is a designer, friendly, uh, like an amazing couch, but it looks super uncomfortable, right? It's super low to the ground. It's, you can't lay down on it. Like, you know, all of that. So we, you know, I'm, I'm challenging the team to think, broader and making a decision around like, how do we, what is the guest experience when they interact with this thing and the property from, you know, something as small as the couch to the TVs that we're buying and putting in the properties to, you know, what I was focused on today was the, the guest experience when they check in that first, like 15 minutes of when a guest checks in is really going to set the standard for the stay for the entire week, given that you're a professional host and everything else is in place. So I'm in the mindset of, okay, the very first thing that guests really look for when they enter into the property, they want it to be, you know, easy to get into, right? Seamless check-in. And for our guests, they don't want to meet somebody there. They just want to check in and have it be easy. Obviously, you know, there are some standards there. The property has to be clean, right? Uh, it has to be welcoming, right? Uh, as far as if someone checks in late. Lights are on temperatures, comfortable music, some music is playing, you know, the property is ready for the guests to check in at that moment. Right. And there's some breakdowns when that happens because, you know, our properties can sit for a few days before somebody checks in and it may not be ready. Right. So I'm trying to think through that process and we're, we're introducing, even though. I don't want to say we're an anti-tech company. We'll get into the brand of like FreeWild and Wildmode and how we want to help people disconnect from technology while they're at our properties. But I want to leverage technology to make our guests experience seamless. So everything I just talked about, I was mapping out today through smart home technology on how to streamline that. first 15 minute connection when they enter into the property, right? Which is really cool. And it's, you know, it's, it's pretty simple once you understand the technology. But it's something that we, you know, we'll invest a few hundred dollars per property, but then we can manage this incredible check-in, right? For the guests, the standard, the experience, the moment they walk in, where are they smelling? Where are they seeing? Where are they feeling? What are they hearing? Right? And we can control all of that through some basic technology, right?

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Eric Moeller:
And then with that in mind, we're also thinking, you know, I just stayed, um, at this awesome Airbnb on Vancouver Island with, uh, with family. And within the fit, what I noticed is within the first 15 to 20 minutes, the entire family is walking around trying to find wifi. Even though we got

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Eric Moeller:
messages, even though it's on Airbnb, you know, even though it's in the book, everyone's trying to stumble around trying to find the wifi, right? So like something as small as What is that experience on how the entire family can share and connect to wifi immediately, right? Are like these small little touches that we're putting into the property, but then also making sure that it matches the brand of free wild, which is this elevated design forward brand, right? So I don't know if that makes sense. That makes sense in my mind, cause I can see it all, uh, putting that to words. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but, uh, you know, the idea is like, thinking through the process and every single thing needs to be intentional. Otherwise, like that's where your guest experience starts breaking down and the brand as a whole gets impacted.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yep. Yeah, no, I mean, the first impression is super, super important. Like I can't tell you how many Airbnbs I've walked into where I either had a problem like getting access, right? Because it wasn't clear like, you know, how to get access, how to even open the door. And then number two is the first thing you walk in, you're looking for the light switch because it's dark, right? Now you find the light switch and now you're looking for the wifi and you could easily spend like the first, like you said, the first 15 minutes, 15, 20 minutes just trying to find things, which is, you know, the rest of the state could be perfect, but you're never going to, you can never make up for the first impression. Right. So

Eric Moeller:
Mm-hmm.

Jasper Ribbers:
I think that's super important. And, you know, I think the mindset that we have to have is like, as you, as you mentioned, is like, we have to put ourselves literally in the shoes of the guest and walk into the space and literally ask ourselves, like, what are we experiencing right now? Right. And that's the, that's the level of detail. that I think we have to put into that. And there's a lot of detail that you can add. Like you mentioned, the Wi-Fi, you've shown me a couple options that we have with QR codes, but not just a QR code on a piece of paper on the wall, but a nicely designed little cubicle or cubic. I don't know, what's

Eric Moeller:
Oh,

Jasper Ribbers:
that thing

Eric Moeller:
cube.

Jasper Ribbers:
that you showed

Eric Moeller:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
me? Yeah, the cubes. Those are really cool.

Eric Moeller:
Yep. Yeah. So it's small things like that. Right. And this is, it's funny as I'm talking about it, I'm trying to think like, is this like standard practice for short-term rental hosts and brands to think through these processes? And I think it's like, it's somewhat obvious that as a host or as a hospitality company, providing an easy check-in should be like an obvious thing, right? And providing a welcome check-in. I'm reading for, I think the 34th time now, the Marriott way. So I read that a few times last year and I'm reading it again. And they talk about, even in the first like two, couple of chapters, they talk about how their standards for their guests across every single brand is so freaking high, Doesn't matter if you check into a property in LA or Chicago, it's like the same experience, right? And how welcoming it should be when guests arrive. And he's like, you can arrive sleepwalking and we're going to check you in easily and escort you to your room. Right? So it's like, how do we do that with Airbnb's and short term rentals when previous to the Vancouver trip I just talked about, I was in Jersey and staying with some other family. and we rented another Airbnb and it was a brand new Airbnb. And this property was, it was so underwhelming and so disappointing, right? Of every aspect. Like we walked in and we could just tell like, no one stayed there for a while. It was hot. It was, it was, you know, you smell all the cleaning materials, you know, cleaning products, because they had all the windows shut. And, you know, it's just like, no one's been in there for a few days. And it was super. disappointing just to enter into it. And the entire trip was just set with now we're just picking out everything, you know, we're picking out that furniture is cheap and no one, no one's focused on lighting or no one's focused on all these different aspects. Right? So all these items, like they feel like they're standard, but the execution of it just takes time, you know, like it takes time to think through the process and the brand and the, the experience you want your guests to have in your property. For us, like for FreeWild, it's, you know, we're a two hour drive at a bare minimum to most of our guests on where they live, right? Like LA, Orange County, San Diego County, right? Like they're all gonna be traveling for their 99, 90%, right, making that number up. But 90% of our guests are gonna be driving anywhere between an hour and a half and three hours to get to our property, right? That first connection on how to find the property, where to park, how to enter and serve property, easily in the woods, a cabin in the woods where it can be dark and, you know, the whole thing and enter into something that is just like, you know, a kid walking into Disneyland, right? Just like completely in awe of the property and the experience. And this is why I love Disneyland and Disney World is because of the, the level of detail they go into for the experience. They don't just put rides that are fun. The entire experience is thought of. So my process now is like, how are we bringing that into the short term rental world at a high level? And then the next thing will be, how do we scale that across the world, across multiple locations? So yeah, I don't know where I was going with all that, but the level of detail on this problem I'm just like obsessed with and like the QR codes for not just putting it in a, in a box or in a binder, but thinking through that process and then connecting the materials from inside the property to the, the full experience of the brand that you're trying to, trying

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah.

Eric Moeller:
to create.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, I'll give another example of we were up there, I think it was like two or three weeks ago, and one of the units has a bar on the kitchen. And

Eric Moeller:
Which

Jasper Ribbers:
this

Eric Moeller:
unit?

Jasper Ribbers:
unit is a juniper.

Eric Moeller:
Juniper, yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah. So this unit is most likely we're going to have groups of four people staying there. So we spent quite a lot of time looking at that bar putting the chairs around it and figuring out like, okay, how, how are people, are four people going to be comfortable sitting here and literally like walking behind the chairs to see if there was enough space and, you know, eventually you made a decision of like, okay, we got to, we got to like shorten this, the, the length of the bar a little bit, you know, just to make sure there's enough space that somebody would walk. around it, right? And we were literally envisioning like, okay, well, there's four people, one person is probably going to be cooking, you know, three people are going to be sitting here, they're going to be drinking a glass of wine and really like visualizing that. And I think we probably spent like an hour and a half just on that little detail of like, you know, should we cut the size of this bar by like, you know, five inches or three inches to make it perfectly designed, right? So that's just another example of like the amount of detail that we're putting into it.

Eric Moeller:
Yeah. And it's like, you know, like we're, we're blessed to be in a position where we can invest into such high level designers who, and contractors that can help us go through that process. Right. And from the beginning, free wild has always been that, that thought. And we can go into like the org origin story in a bit of like how the idea came, came about. But what I wanted to create were, you know, I'm just, I absolutely, despise going to Airbnb's or shorts or rentals that zero thought has been put into the guest experience. It's all about, let's just throw furniture in there. Let's put some beds, beds in place, just put it up on Airbnb and make some money. Right. And it's like, oh, you're not happy. Why aren't you happy? It's a great place. You know, just be happy. I'm like, I want to be inspired by this. Why I love some of these new companies that are popping up like the company They're investing in buying and building these incredible single family homes. And if you watch their video, I haven't stayed at the properties, but if you watch their videos of their properties, every single detail is thought of from like their focus of their guest avatar is a traveling worker, right? Like someone who can travel and they're, they need a professional setup, but also is tech savvy and they have like the app and they have the, the home is all hooked up to the app and they have Tesla's and it's just incredible that thought that they put through that. And the experience is like a Disneyland experience versus going to like a seven 11, right? It's like, you know what I'm saying? It's like going to a Michelin star restaurant or a, I don't even want to say McDonald's because even McDonald's, every aspect is thought of in that company, right? They've created that experience for their restaurant and their, their customers, right? But it's like going to a, I'm trying to make an analogy here. Michelin star restaurant or like a hole in the wall restaurant that hasn't been taken care of, that hasn't been thought of, and they got a million different menu options that are on there. It just doesn't feel good to interact with it.

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Eric Moeller:
And the only benefit of staying at those properties is budget, right? Of

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah.

Eric Moeller:
like potentially save some cash, right? But then you're sacrificing your experience of staying at that property. I just, I personally, I want to bring a different product to the world that inspire people through the space, through the design, the products. And this is why everyone should follow us on Instagram is because now that we're finally able to get this property to a showing condition, we're releasing, we're just showing all the products and all the… I spent three hours today choosing what soap we're going to put in the bathrooms. right? And aligning with the right companies and finding the right brands that align with our brand, right? Like everything has intention behind it. And if you put that work in early, early enough, and then you can maintain it, you can scale a real hospitality company that is known just like, you know, Marriott is known for their standards across the board, no matter where their properties are. We can do that in the short term rental space, but we got to get away from this whole you know, just focusing on heads and beds and start focusing on

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Eric Moeller:
experiences.

Jasper Ribbers:
I think I've got a good analogy here for when it comes to the restaurants. Do you know, I don't know if you have this term here, but where I'm from, we have a term for a restaurant that's called a tourist trap restaurant.

Eric Moeller:
Mm-hmm.

Jasper Ribbers:
It's like, it's those, those restaurants that are in very like touristy areas where they typically have pictures of the food outside, right? There's typically a guy standing in front trying to lure people in. And you just know, as soon as you walk in there, you sit down at the table, you just know like, okay, this restaurant is not relying on repeat customers. It's just like, literally just giving you a bunch of food and that's it. There's

Eric Moeller:
and

Jasper Ribbers:
nothing

Eric Moeller:
they don't care.

Jasper Ribbers:
else about this yet. Yeah, because there's so many, there's so much inflow of tourists, first time customers who will fall into the trap. Like they don't need anybody to come back, right?

Eric Moeller:
All they care about is all they care about for me, from my point of view, I don't know. I don't, you know, I'm not inside their minds, but from my experience of staying at shorts or rentals like that or going to a restaurant where they're not investing in good food products, they're not investing in the experience, they're not investing in the right people to like hosts and, or, you know, like waitresses and all of that stuff. They're not investing in training those people. They don't care. They only care about just making enough money to pay the bills and whatever else. right? So that exists in the shorts or mental space. And I would say a majority of hosts that are out there lean more towards like, how do I on a budget stage this property, get a bunch of cheap stuff in there, and then just host whoever comes through? Obviously that's shifting quite a bit. And we're part of that trend right now. And I don't even want to say trend that. new shift in the industry where we're focused on high level guest experiences in our properties from design to location to brand to standards.

Jasper Ribbers:
Let's dive a little bit into the thought of FreeWild when it comes to the technology side, right? How we want to be the middle ground between being completely off-grid or being fully connected. Right? Yeah, why don't you give us a quick recap of that journey that you went through after COVID when you stayed at all these different Airbnbs? Because that's kind of how FreeWild was born.

Eric Moeller:
Yeah. 100%. I mean, I remember the moment where, you know, the exact spot where I was at when it's weird. Sometimes like I get these, I don't know what it is, but like this influx of like vision or ideas around something that just truly inspires me. It almost feels like a download in a way. Right. And you know, I had that with legends X on that exact same you know, connected the dots on like developing that, that program and what was needed. Uh, and on that trip, so it kind of give everyone some background. Like COVID hit you and I were like, you know, we almost went bankrupt with our company and you had to move back to Europe. I had to move out of our place. I bought a truck and me and Samantha just went on a road trip for about four months staying in different Airbnb's. And, you know, at that time we were able to get these for a fraction of the cost because nobody was traveling. And yeah, it was, it was such an incredible experience because we were able to stay at some of the most beautiful properties in some of the most beautiful parts of this country. And I remember we were in park city, Utah, and we had a whole bunch of friends in town and we were hiking that entire trip. And on this trip, we were staying in like these beautiful short term rentals. And we were staying at like off-grid properties, like tiny homes and yurts and stuff like that. And what we realized was like the off-grid properties, they were cool and they were fun and they were, they were a unique experience. But after a day or two, it was like, I, you know, I want the comforts of home again. I want wifi. I want to sit down and watch a Netflix movie. I want to, I want to connect. And then when we were at these bigger properties, that were fully connected, what we realized was even when our friends were in town, we were obsessed with just being on our phones and our devices and everybody was working and you know, it was like, you know, again, this is during COVID. So nobody was going out to, you know, public places and all that stuff. So everybody was just connected to their devices and we were out on this huge hike. It was like an eight hour hike. It was, you know, just like super challenging, but super beautiful. We got to the peak of this mountain. And there was a lake up there and we all went cold plunging and, and that's where I just started thinking of the process. I'm like, if I can create anything in this world, what would I create? And I realized like, I want to take all these pieces from this trip and create this company that I absolutely loved and that I would want to stay at personally and give that to, you know, people who are wanting to experience the same. And when I realized was like, there's nothing out there, that allows you to kind of teeter back and forth between fully connected and off grid. You're either fully off grid or you're fully connected. Right? So we started doing this thing at dinner, um, where we would invite our friends over on this park city trip and we started calling it wild mode when, uh, everyone would put their phone in a box. Um, and nobody was allowed on technology and we had some music playing. But everyone was just there connecting, cooking, eating. And, you know, it was just like an incredible in the moment experience. And I realized, I'm like, this is needed on trips. Like it's needed everywhere, but it's needed in short term rentals for people nowadays is to have the option to disconnect. So long story short, the concept came from that where FreeWild, which stands for Be Free, Live Wild, is all about bringing our guests to beautiful locations that are short drives away. They're all going to be about two to three hour drives for Metro areas. Our properties are going to be designed forward properties because a piece of the element that I absolutely loved was driving up to these properties that intention was put into the design and the flow and the experience of the property. Just absolutely love that stuff. Three is that they're in nature locations, right? Like we want these properties in locations. that also inspire us to, you know, inspire us to leave our phones back at home and go hike a mountain or go sit on a beach or go into a lake or something like that. Right. It's like we all need to reconnect with, with those experiences and reconnect with ourselves and nature. And then lastly is I want the option to fully disconnect, right. But I don't want to be off grid. It's just not something I enjoy doing. So we're, we've created something called the switch. And the idea behind the free wild switch is that every property comes with two modes. We have free mode and we have wild mode. Right. And when you switches in free mode, your internet's on, you have all the comforts at home, you're streaming online, you're watching Netflix, you're, you know, sharing stuff on Instagram, whatever it is, do whatever you want. But when you and your friends and family decide to go into wild mode and you switch to wild a whole new experience is created within the property, right? Where we encourage you through different designs and aspects of the home to completely disconnect from your phones, to lock away your devices. And then you're rewarded for that within that experience, right? Something in the property unlocks and you have access to lock away your devices. Then also you discover new things, right? old real life things, music, books, board games. We're creating a treasure map for Outer Wild, right? It's like, leave your phones at home, take this map with you and go explore and go to these locations and come back, right? And the idea is to help people fully disconnect at moments within their trip to be present with themselves, be present with their… people that they're traveling with and reconnect with what matters the most to them and create more moments that matter. Right. And I just, you know, I absolutely love it. And it's something that we've adopted here at home. I mean, Samantha, we have free wild Fridays where we do this every single Friday. Most nights now we just say wild mode and just one of us has to say wild mode. And that means, all right, let's put phones away and we're reading, we're talking, we're cooking, we're connecting. Right. And our friend groups, our friend groups are, are doing that now for, with their families. And I just realized it's such a, it's such a needed aspect for those types of travelers. Right. And then let the last piece I'll say on this and you can comment is, you know, we're not anti-technology, right? And we're not anti, like I love technology and I'm obsessed with it. And I think that's part of the problem, right? We're constantly in front of screens. I'm reading another book called The Comfort Crisis, and they say the average American spends over seven hours a day on their phones, and they spend nearly over 12 hours a day in front of screens. That's insane to me. That's insane. And when I look at the amount of time I spend on my devices, I'm like, this is freaking nuts, man. Like, we need to disconnect from this stuff. If I'm spending five hours on devices versus seven hours, I'm not, I'm not being more productive with those extra couple of hours. It's like on

Jasper Ribbers:
Hmm.

Eric Moeller:
YouTube and whatever else Slack and all these things that aren't really driving value to our lives. Right? So if we can help our guests impact and disconnect from that stuff, uh, and encourage them more to be out in nature and in the moment and focusing on themselves and their families and the reason why they're traveling, um, I think that's a hell of a mission behind just, you know, doing regular short term rentals, right? So that's our concepts. And that's, you know, that's the goal to bring that to the world.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that you said that I would love to comment on. So number one is you remember when the iPhones first started coming out. There, there was a brief moment in time where people were getting, um, pissed off at each other. The people that didn't have the devices yet were getting pissed off at the people that were having the devices because they would always look at their device. Like I remember going to dinner. It must've been like 2008, seven. somewhere around that. And, you know, to be five of us at dinner and three people had their mobile phone, right? And two people didn't. And then at some point, the culture became, hey, everybody puts their phone in the middle and whoever picks up their phone pays for the bill. That

Eric Moeller:
Love

Jasper Ribbers:
almost

Eric Moeller:
it.

Jasper Ribbers:
became like a little bit of a culture, but eventually that got lost because, you know, eventually everybody had a phone and it just became, you know, it's just no one was doing that anymore. But there was a period in time that people were doing that. And at some point it's almost like the world surrendered to the mobile phone and everybody just, you know, picks it up whenever they want and the notifications, the amount of notifications you get on your phone is just out of control. Right. So, you know, I think, um, it's one of those things where if you're a group of people and everybody is present and focused on something, it's, it's really fun and it's really cool. The moment one person looks at their phone, it completely breaks that presence, right? The whole experience is completely gone suddenly. And I started implementing this in a relationship with my wife as well, where we're like, if we're going for dinner, or if we're doing something social where we're connecting to each other, like we're literally like putting our phones away, right? And we're intentionally not looking at it. Even when we're watching a movie, for example, I've noticed… Since we started talking about FreeWild, I'm noticing it everywhere. Even when you watch a movie together, if one person just, even if you see a notification coming up on the phone, it kind of breaks, it breaks the whole experience, it puts

Eric Moeller:
100%.

Jasper Ribbers:
you, it takes you out of the moment and back into like, you start thinking about your own phone. You start thinking about all of the outside stuff that you're, you know, day to day that you're thinking about. So it's, it's super powerful to. be intentional with that stuff, right? And it's something that Eckhart Tolle talks about, which I thought was really interesting as well, like the analogy between, because our mind is also a tool, right? Just like technology is a tool, like our mind is also a tool. Like if you read The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle talks a lot about how we as human beings are kind of controlled by our mind. And he talks about how the mind is a super powerful thing that we should be super grateful for because everything that we've built on the planet, like, is a result of that, but we should use our mind as a tool and be intentional about using it and when we're not using it and it's not serving us, we can disconnect from it and be in the moment. Right. It's kind of the same with technology as well.

Eric Moeller:
You got to control it, you know, it's like, or else it's controlling you. Right. So another, you know, reference back to that book, the comfort crisis, which I highly recommend everyone who's still listening to this podcast to just buy that book or download it and listen to it. I've listened to that book. I don't know that one as well, like three or four times they talk about. So, so the whole idea of like, you know, watching a movie and then, you know, everyone's sitting down on the couch watching a movie and someone takes out their phone. and how it disrupts everything. What's actually happening is your brain is so trained on getting dopamine hits from notifications, from opening up and, you know, swiping to see what kind of notifications or comments you have and, you know, all that stuff. I find myself, today I found myself in that because I spent so much time on the computer that I'm constantly like jumping between Slack to email to Instagram to WhatsApp. and like all these different things. I'm like, what am I doing? I have to disconnect from it. But what's happening is like when someone in your group takes out their phone, not only are they distracted, but now your brain is triggered. You see it, it's almost like a drug, right? Or seeing like food, like seeing somebody walk out with like a hot pizza or something like that. You instantly want pizza, right? Like your brain, unless you're Elam, or a friend Elam doesn't like pizza, he never had pizza. crazy, but every other human being on the planet. But so that's what's happening, right? Is like your brain is looking for that drug immediately. So then you go to your phone and you justify it. Like, oh, I'm just, you know, I sent a message. I wanna see if, you know, everyone got it or I'm looking for this thing. We justify these things. And what's actually happening is just like these beautiful moments that we can have, we for some reason feel like it's not a beautiful moment unless we have to share it. right? And capture it. Right. And it's like, for me now, it's like, I don't, if you look at my personal Instagram, I'm doing my best to post once a day or, you know, a couple of times a week, just to stay relevant and keep everyone up to date on what I'm focused on and what I believe in. And I think it's a good, you know, like time capsule to see what you're focused on in that time. But even when I go out, you know, this Vancouver trip I took, it was one of the most incredible trips I've ever. done. I, you know, I went deep sea fishing for the first time, salmon fishing. I went golfing for the first time. We went hiking. We think we did all these beautiful things and I had zero desire to share it online because I wanted to be there in that moment. Right. And it's like those, those experiences are absolutely incredible. The moment that you take out your phone and you start sharing it, like you're in, you're, you're in this matrix staring at the screen versus staring at the, and experiencing the world. right? Um, and look, you know, I, I'm not, I'm not trying to tell everyone to throw their phones away. It's like, you know, you and I have built incredible, you know, lies for ourselves and businesses and all this stuff because of the internet, because of technology, right? But there, we need to develop the discipline, especially on vacation and disconnect from it. So even at our properties, you know, we've debated for a long time if we should put a workstations, you know, for long term,

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Eric Moeller:
long time, get paid for your pad listeners heard us for many years, just preaching that like, Hey, every Airbnb, every short term rental needs a workstation. You need fast internet. You need a dedicated workstation, uh, add all the extras in there, the screen, the camera, the light, the whole thing. Uh, we debated for a long time if we were going to do any of that. And aside from, you know, the fastest internet we can get in that area, which is actually really freaking good, surprisingly. Um, we weren't going to create any other workstations in that property because like even though work is important when you're at free wild, like you could post up anywhere and get some work done. But when you're at free wild, we want you to focus on the moment. We want you to break out a pen and paper versus a laptop, right? We want you to read a book versus sharing something online, right? And we want you to connect on that level. And afterwards, when you go home, share about it, talk about it, do your thing, but be present. in the moment. And that's to me, I think is combating this challenge that we have in society around technology and not being present. So yeah, we're all addicted and trying slowly to not be addicted to this stuff.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, no, it really is. It really is a, uh, an addiction, but I think it's so powerful to add intention to it, right? Like even if it's like two or three hours a day and you know, I think what's really cool is that, you know, I think everybody understands this concept, but it's, it's kind of like this, this thing where it only really works is everybody does it. Right. So if you're traveling in a group, like each individual person probably realizes like, Hey, we would all disconnect from our devices. We would have a great time. But, you know, something has to drive that everybody's actually doing that. Right. There has to be an incentive or some education or like a. You know, there has to be some driving factor because otherwise everyone's going to think, well, I can put my phone away, but if everybody else is looking at it, what's the point, right? So there has to be something that drives people to do that. And I think it's really cool and unique that we're doing that because I don't think anybody else is doing it, but also people can then take that culture home. Right. And introduce that, like you said, like you, you introduced it to your friend's group and now people are your friend's group is being more intentional. Right. Of like, Hey, let's go into wild mode. Right. Um, and what's cool about that is because that really could have a very positive impact on people's lives. Cause literally like the difference between spending two hours at dinner with your wife, right. And I'm married, so I know what I'm talking about. Yeah. I, you might be married soon too. So,

Eric Moeller:
Pretty much

Jasper Ribbers:
um,

Eric Moeller:
married.

Jasper Ribbers:
The difference in spending two hours with your wife at dinner, right? And talking to each other and asking each other questions and getting her to show perspectives versus doing that same thing, but then having your phone there and every five or 10 minutes somebody's looking at their phone, it's

Eric Moeller:
Mm-hmm.

Jasper Ribbers:
a completely different experience. And you know, the benefits that you get out. out of these disconnection times is usually beneficial for your relationships with your wife, your family, your friends. It's incredible, the power behind it. So I think it's just super awesome that if we can, through these experiences at Free Wild, if we can have that positive impact on people's lives where they go back and then introduce this concept. to their friends, their family, their loved ones and everything. And if we can get everybody to just like be intentional one or two hours a day and connect with each other, like that has a huge impact on Peace Ball's lives. And that's what I think is so cool.

Eric Moeller:
100%. Yeah. And that's the intention behind this is not only our guests staying at our property and we're trying to help, we're helping them disconnect and be in the moment, reconnecting to the moment. But we also have the concept of how to bring that back home, right? So through certain, through the brand, we also want to stay connected to our guests while they're home and in wild. right? And then, you know, we'll save this for a different podcast, but then the, you know, the, the membership side of becoming our guests are called wilders, right? And as everyone can hear, we're not just buying cabins and renovating them, renting them out on Airbnb. We're putting a lot of intention into the brand and the customer and connecting with that customer. And, and you know, bringing them into the brand and the lifestyle of free wild, right? So our guests are wilders and the concept is to also support them while they're at home to be in wild mode. And I suggest everyone tonight, when you're listening, you know, after listening to this podcast, if you're, you know, with yourself or with other people is introduced the concept of wild mode and enter into it for, for a couple of hours, right? Where everyone either puts all their phones, you know, if you're out to dinner, everyone puts our phones, in a box. And what I found is like, we have to put our, it has to be at a site, right? Or else people are going to continue

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Eric Moeller:
to pick it up. So we put it in a box in the living room and we live it alone, but answer into that and then be the leader to, to start conversations. Right. And you know, like humans love stories. And that's the one thing that we really are missing nowadays is real stories, not conversation behind what you saw on Instagram or what the new the news headline is today, right? The new outrage, like that's not real conversation. Real conversation is the things that inspire you as a human being, the things that you've learned through this journey, the things that you want to experience, the things that you want to learn, right? It's like, we have to get back to talking about that stuff. And like, it just makes us like, I'm getting amped up just thinking about that stuff because I love those deep, deep conversations. So for the people that are listening, just like introduce the concept of wild mode to everybody. Um, tonight or whenever you go out to dinner or whatever you want to reconnect and connect, be in the moment, go out into nature, get away from technology. And it's, it's so freaking refreshing. Right?

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Eric Moeller:
So coming back to the whole membership side, the idea would be not only are wilders having that connection while there are properties, but they're bringing wild mode back home. Their everyday moment, uh, everyday life. And then over time, our membership process is you're earning points, wild points by doing that, right? And by being in wild mode, which will then convert to discounts and future stays or whatever, whatever we decide that, you know, to, to be right. So we want to incentivize people to do that. And yeah, we're still V one of all this and I'm excited to,

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Eric Moeller:
to expand all this out. And, you know, what I see is in like 10 years being able to do this with millions of people around the world. It's like that's such a major impact and mission to be behind.

Jasper Ribbers:
100% Yeah, we I mean, we could talk about this for hours, right? But we'll wrap it up. And it was very hot in where you are. I started to see the sweat appear.

Eric Moeller:
Yeah, I'm looking at the camera here, I'm sweating my butt off. My hair looks very shiny.

Jasper Ribbers:
But I wanted to wrap this up with an experience that I had, I think it's about like a year and a half ago now, where me, back then my girlfriend, now my wife, we rented an Airbnb actually in the mountains near Panama City where we were living. And I was thinking about the whole concept of FreeWild, and I recognized, I was like, okay, well, we need a driver, we need something that pushes us to say, okay, let's put our devices away, right? And then… We also, because people have kind of forgotten like how to have fun without devices. Right. So we also need to educate people on like, Hey, well, what can you actually do? Right. Cause you know, especially younger people have kind of, they're used to always having their device, right. So they didn't really know what else to do. Um, and you know, I was there with my girlfriend and a couple of her girlfriends, you know, and they're all a little bit younger than me, not, not super young, but like, at least like, you know, slight. Almost like a different generation. I feel like the mobile devices is split in generations, right? If you're, if you had a mobile device from when you were young, in my case, I didn't have that, you know, until I was about 18, 19 years old or so, my first mobile phone, but anyway, like I, I was thinking like, okay, what's something cool that we can do now, now that we put all of our devices away and we're sitting in the hotspots and I said, well, let's do, let's do circle appreciation. And I don't know if you've heard of that concept, but some concept that I learned a long time ago, where essentially for those who don't know what that is, essentially what you do is you go around the room and you just say what you appreciate about the other person, right? And so we did that, and we ended up spending about two hours, like it was only four of us, you know, but it resulted in like new understanding of the other person. new perspectives of like, oh, I didn't really even realize that that's something that you appreciated about me, you know, like, so it's almost like you learn something about yourself and it was a cool, super cool experience. And to this day, um, my wife's girlfriend still mentioned that experience as one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had in life, right? So I think that's, that's not a side to it is like, you know, kind of our mission to educate people and like, Hey, here's Here's things that you can do that will have a real impact, that are beautiful experiences and give them people options, right, to do that.

Eric Moeller:
percent, man. I love that. I love that. And that's, you know, that's the whole thing. It's like you spent two hours going through that process and you know, one, it feels great because everyone's just like, you know, saying positive things about each other, which

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah

Eric Moeller:
is, you know, we need more of that in the world. But two, it's a, it's a more memorable experience than anything you could do on your phone. Right.

Jasper Ribbers:
100%

Eric Moeller:
It's like, no matter what, what it is, it's like, it's more of a memorable experience. You know, if we can create more of that in the world or just within ourselves and just us enter into wild mode more, you know, I think, you know, I think we can just kind of enjoy this ride a bit more. You know, we can, we can enjoy it a bit better. And instead of spending seven, eight, 12 hours a day looking at screens, you know, if we're kind of, we're kind of forced to do that because of our, our lifestyle or, uh, I don't even want to say lifestyle. way of living our, our livelihood of working off of computers, we have to work in those wild mode experiences into our place. So, and that's the concept too, behind, uh, once you enter into wild mode at free wild, we have those concepts there to help you pick and choose what you want to do in the moment, right? From board games to conversation cards to, you know, treasure maps on the property to, um, you know, vinyl records and old books and you know, all of that stuff to bring us back to the moment and be where our feet are, you know? And that's awesome, man. I love that. We're going to do that tonight at dinner. Appreciate.

Jasper Ribbers:
Awesome. All right, man. Well, I appreciate you being on the podcast.

Eric Moeller:
appreciate

Jasper Ribbers:
There you go.

Eric Moeller:
it for having a podcast.

Jasper Ribbers:
You get your first appreciation item here.

Eric Moeller:
Thanks man.

Jasper Ribbers:
All right, cool, man. Well we'll be talking a lot more about FreeWild in the next couple weeks or months as well as we launch this brand. Again, if you want to follow our journey and learn more about what we're building, go ahead and check us out on Instagram at FreeWild. stay free wild. And with that said, that's the end of this podcast. And one more thing.

Eric Moeller:
Yeah. One more thing. I don't know if we explained this, but, uh, free wild is spelt with a Y instead of a I, right? So stay

Jasper Ribbers:
Great points.

Eric Moeller:
free wild w YLD one word. Um, but yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
That's a very

Eric Moeller:
well,

Jasper Ribbers:
good

Eric Moeller:
we'll

Jasper Ribbers:
point.

Eric Moeller:
talk about that and how that came up. Um, but yeah, stay free wild, Instagram, uh, myself and K our team member are going to kind of be leading that, giving everybody some updates. So I'm excited about it.

Jasper Ribbers:
Sweet. Awesome. And well, we're going up to Adubile tomorrow, actually. So I'm excited about that. And for the listeners, hope you enjoyed this podcast. We'll be back next week with two more podcasts. So have a great weekend, and we'll see you soon.