IAM634- Camp Director Provides Camping Services for Kids

Andy Moeschberger (mesh-burger) is a camp director at Gold Arrow Camp in central California. He spent 14 years as a high school social studies teacher before he transitioned to camp full-time. He has two young daughters and is a Griffyndor married to a Slytherin.

• CEO Hack: A goals sheet with weekly recurring tasks, big projects and goals, smaller projects, and unexpected tasks
• CEO Nugget: Stay true to your vision
• CEO Defined: Making sure you get the same train going to the same place

Website: https://goldarrowcamp.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoldArrowCamp
Instagram: https://instagram.com/GoldArrowCamp
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/GoldArrowVideo

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

Transcription

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello. Hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Andy Moeschberger of Gold Arrow Camp. Andy, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Andy Moeschberger 0:38

Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to chat about camp and Steve.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

Absolutely. It'll be definitely great to hear a little bit more about you. So before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Andy so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Andy is a camp director at Gold Arrow Camp in central California. He spent 14 years as a high school social studies teacher before he transitioned to camp full-time. He has two young daughters and is a Gryffindor married to a Slytherin. Andy, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

[restrict paid=”true”]

Andy Moeschberger 1:05

I am ready and excited. Let's do this thing.

Gresham Harkless 1:07

Awesome. Let's do it. So as I said, as we talked a little bit before, I was saying it's really gotta be really interesting to have a Griffyndor married to a Slytherin thing that keeps things exciting.

Andy Moeschberger 1:17

Yeah, it's, she does all the plotting and scheming. And I do all of the get in front of people and execute the plot in the scheme. So it's a good combination.

Gresham Harkless 1:24

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, teamwork makes the dream work, as I like to say. And so I wanted to hear a little bit more about your story. Can you take us through your background? And what led you to your current position now?

Andy Moeschberger 1:34

Sure. You know, I got out of high school, and I thought, how can I get paid to talk about history because I really loved history? I really love politics, I thought well be a high school teacher, I'll get to do that. And as an added bonus, a lot of my summers are off. This seemed like a great plan. I met my wife, she was teaching at the time. Then she worked at Gold Arrow Camp, in the summers. She was a camper there. So she had this long relationship with the camp. So two years into our marriage, I had, you know, really fought the idea of coming to work at camp. Because I wanted that summer off. He said, No, it's different for school. And so I came out once and you know, 14 years later, here, I am working for camp full time. So that's kind of me getting to camp in a nutshell.

Gresham Harkless 2:10

Yeah, I love that. It's so funny. I think that I'm just in from my perspective, I just think of my summer camps and all the awesome things and fun things that we did, it was one of the most enjoyable times of my childhood. And I can imagine that it wasn't just me, probably a lot of you know, directors like yourself, probably really take a lot out of it and get an opportunity to kind of have a fun aspect. In addition to that almost all the work you're doing as well.

Andy Moeschberger 2:30

Yeah, I think you know, it's a lot of people who work full time in camp didn't get into it thinking about running a business, they got into it thinking about I really love camp, and camp was important to me. And if you stick around long enough, and you display kind of some competence in it, you end up in one of these full-time spots. And then you end up figuring out that there's, you know, underneath the water, the Ducks legs of running the business are always there. But on the top, it's it's fun. It's camp. So that's that's certainly what I've experienced.

Gresham Harkless 2:57

Yeah, that makes so much sense. So for those that may not be familiar, can you take us through exactly what Golden Arrow Camp is where you guys are located and what areas to use, or what I guess people come to the camp?

Andy Moeschberger 3:08

Sure. So we're what's referred to as a children's resident camp, which means we're like an old-school overnight camp. We serve children. From ages six through 14. We're in the central Sierra of California. So we're on a map wedged between Yosemite National Park to our north and Sequoia National Park to our south. We're an alpine lake at 7000 feet. We draw kids from all over the country and really the world. I think last year, we had campers from 24 states and 11 countries somewhere in that neighborhood. They come to us for two weeks at a time for a totally unplugged rustic environment. So they live in these big tents in groups of 10 with a couple of adult counselors. There's no power in the tent, the tent doesn't have a door. It's for kids who live in an environment now, where we're constantly connected to one another via you know, kind of electronic devices and social media. It's 13 days of digital detox, where you're actually talking to people face to face, and interacting with them. Maybe in the way nature intended.

Gresham Harkless 4:12

Nice. And I'm sure the parents that are probably listening to this are really shaking their heads just because as you said digital detox is, is so necessary in this day and age where we're so constantly connected, that sometimes we lose that connection or lose the ability sometimes maybe you didn't make the connection. And a lot of times it sounds like your camp is able to kind of facilitate a lot of that for the kids.

Andy Moeschberger 4:30

Yeah, I think connection is a huge part of what we do. We realized, you know, almost a decade ago that kids were coming to us lacking friendship skills that we thought they had, we thought those were just innate things, that kids who kind of lost the ability to deal with each other and make friends face to face. And we talk intentionally with campers about the idea that these are some things you can do that will make other people want to be friends with you and kids want to do that and parents want that and for their kids. It's so good to be able to intentionally do that is a really big deal. We talk a lot about what we call real-ationships, this idea that, you know, Facebook says I have 1000 friends, how many of those do I really have relationships with, but it is in camp? You know, I have a real relationship with those 10 people in my cabin, because we experienced things together. And we really got to bond face-to-face. It's a really important thing.

Gresham Harkless 5:23

Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate you talking about, you know, kind of that, I guess, I don't know, if I want to call it transition, I guess, in maybe different generations. But as you said, and I think I assume probably a lot of people assume too, is that a lot of those skills were innate like you were kind of born with them, but not realizing that they are developed throughout the years. And if they're not developed in the same way as they were in a previous generation, then they won't be developed at all. So that's why I appreciate what you guys are able to do.

Andy Moeschberger 5:46

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. You appreciate it. I think one of the things like a very concrete example that we saw, and we thought about is how do you have a conversation? Right? So when you and I were younger, there was a lot of practice talking to people face to face verbally. And so you inherently learned through your mistakes, okay, I need to make eye contact this, I need to think just that millisecond before I speak. Why do they do so much of their communication via the written word? And so what we found is they aren't used to having a conversation where they can't edit it, right?

Because if I'm texting, or I'm on Snapchat, or I'm on Instagram, I can pick the best picture, and I can make sure everything says what I want to say. But in a face-to-face conversation, that doesn't work. And so really saying to them, Hey, when you're in a conversation, you need to think about what you're saying, that seems so natural to you and I tenure, who doesn't have a ton of that experience? That's like a revelatory moment. That, oh, I can't edit this. When I insult somebody accidentally. I need to apologize for that. That's how this word. And we've seen that kids really want that instruction, they want to learn about that stuff.

Gresham Harkless 6:55

Yeah, absolutely. I can imagine that definitely been able to crave that human. So it's so funny because I always say a lot of technology is obviously built, you know, around I think human nature, but it doesn't, to me at least. And I'm a techie too, to really fully create that connection that we're so much craving.

Andy Moeschberger 7:13

Yeah, I think somebody and I should be able to remember who it is. But they made the analogy that really social media, especially, is the Doritos of brain foods. So right your, your body is programmed to want kind of fat and sugar because you know, evolutionarily, those were things that you needed to stock up on, just survived a long winter. And so Doritos gives you that whenever you want it, which is why we have an obesity epidemic. Or the brain says Good, good, good, more, more and more, it's not actually good. And social media does the same thing with dopamine, right?

Every time you get that little red box, that little red notification that somebody's commented or liked your brains, like Ooh, I like social interaction gives you that little shot of dopamine high. And instead of getting a genuine slow release from having a meaningful conversation with somebody, what you're getting is a lot of these little dopamine shots. And so just as we've seen obesity, from a physical health point of view, what we're starting to see is mental obesity, I suppose from a social media standpoint, and it really does that impact, your ability to have regular interactions face-to-face.

Gresham Harkless 8:16

Wow, that's super powerful. I never thought about that. And I appreciate you for breaking that down. I bet you I don't know who said it, either. But I'm sure it wasn't anybody from Doritos. That's for sure. And I know it's so powerful. And Andrew, when you think about it, you know from those parallels, we definitely can understand the obesity epidemic and things that are happening, understanding how you know, that has to change and what can be what have been the things that have caused that. Definitely understand the exact same thing is happening from a social standpoint, a social media standpoint. So I appreciate you for breaking that down and do and I was going to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this is for you personally, or for Golden Arrow Camp. But what do you feel kind of sets you guys apart? What makes you unique?

Andy Moeschberger 8:55

I think what is magic for us. And I think it's what parents would tell you, if you ask them why send their kids to Gold Arrow versus another summer camp is relationships and attention to detail. summer camps are fair. They're seasonal, and they're often run by fairly people. All Fun means, you know, if you want to trust one of those camps to take your precious child for two weeks, you look at the website, it might have some typos like the communication might not like give you a lot of lead time. And so one of the things we're super intentional about is making sure everything is put together properly because I don't want a parent to say, I'm going to trust you to keep my child safe, but you can't spell Right. Like you can't do the little things right. And then the other thing is relationships. So you know, the average parent sends their child to us for two weeks.

I want to be communicating with them at least once a month while their kid is with us to communicate with them every single day. Hey, here's what we're doing. We're posting we have like a five-minute daily podcast that just kind of like, here's what we're having for food today, here's what cabins are going on backpacking trips, or going on other kind of big adventures, just so that they feel like they have a relationship with us. Like, one of the things that we do that takes a lot of time, but I think is really important is we have a section on our website called Meet to Staff where I have a pop-up biography of every single person we employ, my kitchen, people are on there, my maintenance staff are on there, the nurses and doctors, every single person who your kid might see at camp, you can see and you can read a little bit about them, and you can see their picture.

And I think that's a really big deal for parents, and for kids like to be able to see before you get there. So if you're nervous about coming, you can say, Oh, I know these people I at least know who I'm looking at. That's that sense of comfort. And that's all about relationship building. Because again, it's a big ask, like, I think the commitment to come to camp for parents for the first time is almost never about the tuition. It's almost always about, Do I trust the most precious thing in my life, to go somewhere without me for two weeks, that's scary. The way you can offset that is by building relationships and showing your professionalism so that parents, feel like they know you even if we've never met.

Gresham Harkless 11:19

But I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this might be like an app or book or habit that you have. But what's something that has made you more effective and efficient?

Andy Moeschberger 11:30

I think something that's really important for me is I have a handwritten weekly goal sheet. Let me see if I can dig one up here on my desktop, probably not because I'm not here. There it is. And it's just four boxes. So it's the top box is like weekly recurring tasks, the right stuff that I have to do every week. The next one is like big projects and goals. So these are overarching things that like I'm kind of working on, but this week, then smaller projects, goals, and tasks, which is I need this stuff to be done this week. And then the bottom box is one which is unexpected tasks.

Gresham Harkless 12:07

Absolutely. No, that makes so much sense. I appreciate you for breaking that down. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine, what might you tell your younger business self?

Andy Moeschberger 12:21

I think it's really important that you stay true to whatever your vision is, or I know we talk a lot, at least we do about mission vision, and goals. And as we asked our customers, our parents, what do we do really well? Like? Why do you send your kids to us? The interesting thing to us was nine responses and none of them were fun. They were all things like gaining confidence and experiencing the law of nature. And so we printed those, it's actually in the back of our letterhead, and I have that hanging next to my desk.

Gresham Harkless 12:55

Nice.

Andy Moeschberger 12:55

And so the nugget for me is everything I do comes through the filter of how it relates to this stuff. So hanging it up keeps it always in the front of my mind.

Gresham Harkless 13:06

Awesome, awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. And I know you have a different perspective as well to be in the camp director. So what does I guess being a CEO means to you?

Andy Moeschberger 13:18

This means making sure you get the same train going into the same place. So like when you get to the upper levels. I don't necessarily like that term, I think, like we don't have a flowchart we have a bullseye, right, as far as an organizational chart goes, and the center of the bull's eyesight of that our support staff, so our kitchen people, our maintenance people, and outside of that is like directors, vias and that kind of stuff. And what we tell counselors is, at the end of the day, I'm the least important person to a camper. Like, I'm old, I'm not cool. Maybe I told a good joke at breakfast. Like, I don't really matter, the person who really matters is the counselor, because that's the person who the kid lives with every day. That's the person who they think, is a Bronze Goddess, who is just the coolest thing on the planet. And so my job is to prove to his customers, right, that person understands, at least as well as I do, why we do and how we do the things we do.

Gresham Harkless 14:23

Absolutely, no, that makes so much sense. And I think so many times and I appreciate the bullseye because I think so many times we might see one aspect, we don't see the other when we forget how in tandem everything is and it's not as much about titles or you know, whatever, you know, however we I guess term that is so much about hitting that Bullseye and how everybody might do that in a unique way. And it's important that everybody does that because what makes a kind of like the ship move forward and everything, hit that target. I definitely appreciate that. And Andy, I appreciate your time even more and what I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listen now. And then of course, how best they can find out about Gold Arrow Camp and all the awesome things you guys are working on.

Andy Moeschberger 15:05

People want to get a hold of me, they can find us on Instagram and Facebook, just search gold arrow camp, or check out our website goldarrowcamp.com. And that'll get you all of the information about our programming about what we do.

Gresham Harkless 15:21

Awesome, awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much again, Andy, we will definitely have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you. Definitely appreciate that reminder. I think I usually say we sometimes forget that when we pull back the onion of business, we forget that it's made up of people. It's made up of humans and we have things you know, that we care about, and no matter what industry definitely, obviously in some industries more than others, but at the end of the day, caring for people and making sure you're putting them first and having that impact on a person by person basis is definitely the best way to go. So I appreciate that reminder.

Andy Moeschberger 15:50

Yeah, I, again, I'm in the people business. So that's what jumps to mind. I also forgot to tell people but I'm gonna plug it shamelessly now. We have a YouTube channel Search Builder Camp there. We also have a podcast. It's daily in the summer. It's weekly in the offseason. It's called The Gold Arrow Camp, a pug cast podcast, which is a terrible name. But once you've named it, you're stuck with it. So there it is.

Gresham Harkless 16:11

There you go. We will make it even easier by having people able to click on the links in the show notes so that they can click right. Definitely appreciate you and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:21

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]