We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michele Cozzens a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Michele, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I write about how I came up with the idea for our business, Sandy Point Resort and Disc Golf Ranch, in my 2002 memoir, “I’m Living Your Dream Life: The Story of a Northwoods Resort Owner.” I wrote the book to not only explain how we came up with the idea for the world’s first disc golf resort but also to tell the truth about what it takes to make a so-called ‘dream life’ come true.
My husband and I worked as a stockbroker and a journalist respectively in the San Francisco Bay area during the 1980s when we were in our 20s. In our spare time, we were avid disc golfers and traveled to play courses wherever we could find them to play both recreationally and in professional competitions. In 1991, we were responsible for creating the NorCal Series, which was one of the first regionally-organized PDGA-sanctioned tours in the world. This series led to a flood of interest in the sport and remarkable growth in tournament participation.
Later in 1991, I took a hiatus from my job as a newspaper columnist and graphic artist and traveled to East Africa to spend time with my sister, who is my Irish twin. Her husband worked for the UNHCR and managed a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya during the Somali civil war. It was a dangerous place that grew from 100 to 10,000 to 100,000+ refugees seemingly overnight. Spouses of UN workers were not allowed there because of a lack of room on evacuation planes should the need arise. Alone in Nairobi indefinitely, my sister asked me to join her for a five-week adventure around the country.
My friend, Ed Headrick aka “Steady Ed,” who invented the modern Frisbee for Wham-o, the game of disc golf, and the first target basket, the Mach I, heard about my plans to go to Kenya, and he supplied me with a duffle bag full of royal blue prototype discs to “bring disc golf to Africa for the first time.” And I did. While traveling through the country of Kenya, we visited places where my sister had lived and worked as a teacher, farmer, and construction worker. We stayed in several different guest ranches where I made friends with the staff, distributed Ed’s discs, and taught the game of disc golf. My sister joked that the discs would more than likely serve multiple purposes in their communities beyond the game of hitting trees as targets (plates, tools, decorations, etc.).
There was one guest ranch in particular that made an enormous impression on me. It’s known as Lewa Downs, located in Laikipia between Mt. Kenya and the Great Rift Valley. It is famous for being the world’s largest rhino sanctuary as well as the setting for Prince William’s proposal to Kate Middleton (several years after I was there). At the time, the Craig family managed the ranch and we joined them at their home for meals. They had two young daughters, who drank in everything about my sister and me. They asked endless questions about our lives and what it was like to grow up in the United States. The Craigs provided their daughters with an ongoing International education, which I thought was a remarkable way to raise children in such a remote environment. I hadn’t given much thought to having children prior to meeting the Craigs, however, they set an example that I couldn’t shake.
In addition to the rhino sanctuary at Lewa, there was an extensive rug-making operation that employed the local Kikuyu women. The hand-woven rugs were exquisite and to this day I regret not having the ability to purchase one and get it home with me. I was impressed by the cottage industry attached to this guest ranch as an income expansion opportunity and how it offered additional employment to the native people of the land. After touring the plant, the sanctuary, and the nearly 40,000 acres on horseback, jeep, and airplane safaris, the beauty and love exuding from the entire operation sewed an adventurous seed inside my always-active imagination. Lewa Downs is where the idea for our future business, a disc golf ranch, was born.
In 1992 we sold our California real estate and purchased an existing resort on 40 acres of property in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, which had been operated by a long list of families since 1935. We officially established our disc golf course in 1994. Today it ranks #1 in the state of Wisconsin, #28 in the world by UDisc, and it is home to the Wisconsin Disc Golf Hall of Fame. Disc golfers and non-disc golfers alike come back year after year to experience the magic of Sandy Point. And just like the Craigs at Lewa Downs, we were lucky enough to raise two beautiful daughters in a very special and loving environment.
Meanwhile, in the early days, fellow Northwoods resort owners warned us that resort ownership was more of a “way of life” rather than a means to business success. They weren’t wrong. Fortunately, however, as the popularity of disc golf increased and we added a retail operation, our business became both successful and sustainable. It took a great deal of patience and physical labor, and a LOT of borrowed money, but we owe the success of our business not only to the courage it took to act upon a unique vision and a dream but also to the sport of disc golf.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I am a survivor of Irish-Catholic Midwest Suburbia, the fifth of six baby boomers born to parents of the Greatest Generation. I grew up with stories from the Depression and World War II, which I romanticized while pouring through photos of my beautiful parents and reading history books, biographies, and fiction – anything I could get my hands on — and I lived for watching old movies. These romantic, idealistic, patriotic, and faith-based ideologies filled me with love and confidence. I attended YMCA camp, spent summers on the lake, swimming, sailing, and waterskiing, and I was both athletic and creative. I showed a strong ability to write since I was in third grade and both my mother and my teacher encouraged me on this front. I grew strongly attracted to music and poetry, the writing of Gloria Steinem and the Washington Post reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, which led me to study journalism. My college minor was history. In my journalism career, I am most proud of my experience as a newspaper columnist and how I was selected for the job because of morning discussions in the editorial office. I wrote about whatever I wanted for the weekly column, provided that the material was true and “not too political.” I wrote about my life as a young married woman who was the newspaper group’s graphic designer, a league volleyball and softball player, a Deadhead, an outdoor adventurer, a gardener, a recovering catholic, and a professional disc golfer. Since creating our current business, Sandy Point Resort and Disc Golf Ranch, I have authored six published books, three non-fiction, and three fiction. My first novel won first place in the McKenna Publishing Group’s fiction contest. And in 1999, I started a jewelry business, which I eventually named “Dream Life Designs,” inspired by my 2002 memoir and first book, “I’m Living Your Dream Life: The Story of a Northwoods Resort Owner.” I specialize in beading and have an exclusive line of disc golf jewelry.
Lest I give the impression of an ideal existence, the most profound experiences I had as a child, adolescent, and adult, have been as a target of systemic bullying. Several people in my life from my past and even in the present, respect neither my confidence nor my abilities. As a result, I have made it my business to expose sexual harassment and attacks on human rights whenever I am provoked. Our business philosophy at Sandy Point Resort is to respect all people and make them feel welcome. In addition, we always try to find a way to say “yes.” This, however, does not mean that we don’t know how to say NO.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My co-founder and business partner and I have two versions of when and how we met for the first time. He will tell you that we first met in a crowded dorm room in Carbondale, Illinois in 1978. I believe that was the first time he actually saw me. I, however, am certain that my freshman roommate introduced me to Mike Cozzens at a men’s clothing store in Evanston, Illinois during our spring break in 1979. I clearly remember my first thought upon seeing him: “Wow. He is far too cute for me.” In other words, I didn’t think I stood any chance of him being interested in me. We became part of the same friend group, connected by a love of music, camping, and playing disc golf. Five years into this friendship, we happened to be the only two friends in this group who showed up for a date at the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, CA to see the Grateful Dead movie. That night I wore a flowered dress and a purple beret, and I remember every head turned to look at me as I walked into the bar. I fit in so beautifully with this artistic, musical, and peaceful crowd. They have always been my people. But that night at some point during the second showing, I only had eyes for Mike. With the movie screen behind us and the sound of Jerry Garcia’s guitar filling the room, he reached for my face and kissed me.
This kiss is still going on today. We had to climb a mountain to be together but our love prevailed. We were married in 1989 aboard the yacht California Spirit in San Francisco Bay. And in 1992 we soared from the mountaintop to the Northwoods of Wisconsin and created a business known widely as “disc golf heaven.” I believe our business is a success because of the commitment we have to one another.
Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?
We bought an existing business to use as a springboard for our business vision. In order to develop a disc golf course, we needed land. Since we couldn’t afford the appropriate real estate in California, we set our sights on Northern Wisconsin. Mike’s family had leased property in the Northwoods during the 1950s and 1960s for summer vacations, and based on fond childhood memories, his older brother suggested we look in this area. Because we would need time to build the course—and in the pioneer days of disc golf there wasn’t any money in it—it was important to our business plan to seek an existing income operation.
Therefore, on the floor of a hotel room in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, we used a dot-matrix MLS printout to identify a total of ten resort properties that had a minimum of ten acres. Our budget was $250,000. All of the properties were traditional, family-owned resorts and all were old and in a state of disrepair. The tenth property on our list, however, was the hidden gem. It had 40 acres, a sandy beach on 300+ feet of shoreline on a large, freshwater lake, five log cabins, and a chalet-style residence. Called Doorn’s Sandy Point Resort, it had been a beloved family vacation spot since 1935. The Doorns, who worked for the local school district, used the business as a summer hobby during the eight years of their tenure. Although bookings were strong, it was not a profitable operation and the work did not suit them. They welcomed our offer of $225,000 and agreed to give us lessons on how to be resort owners.
Thirty years later, we have been the longest owner/operators of this resort and we still have one family that we inherited from the Doorns. They stay in the only remaining original cabin for a week each July. We have rebuilt the old cabins, built two more ourselves—that was fun–and purchased the property next door in 1995. This added another five acres and 200+ feet of frontage. We were profitable by the year 2000 and paid off our debts in 2018.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.sandypt.com http://www.michelecozzens.com http://www.sandypointproshop.com
- Instagram: sandypointresort michelecozzens
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SPRDGR https://www.facebook.com/michele.cozzens
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/MicheleVanOrtCozzens
Image Credits
black and white photo by Dane Miller photo of Michele, Ed Headrick and Baby Willow by Rich Martin