We recently connected with Mallory Wheeler and have shared our conversation below.

Mallory, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

The answer to this question determines whether or not you’ll be successful. Are you willing to pay the price? Whatever you want to achieve has a price. If you want to be successful, you must invest the time and energy it will take to achieve your goals. Tuck and I worked full time jobs, raised two kids and built our retreat with our own two hands. Seven days a week, long hours, no days off for 14 months straight. We gave everything we had to build The Getaway Ranch.

To be successful you have to be open to change. Change is scary and is what stops most people from reaching success. We moved our family from our hometown to start and build The Getaway Ranch. We had many fears and questioned if we were making the right decisions. We could have easily given up, said this is too hard, and walked away. People questioned the hospitality business as this type of industry took a huge hit in 2020. But to be successful you must be willing to push through other people’s negativity and your own fears to reach your goals.

When building a business, you must be prepared for setbacks and failures. How you react to these setbacks and failures will measure if you will be successful. Throughout our process we had many setbacks and failures. Ideas didn’t work like we thought they would, supply and demand affected the price of materials as well as the ability to get the materials when we needed them, and our opening date was pushed back several times. We had so much money going into the ranch and nothing coming in, we were definitely defeated at times. We viewed our setbacks as opportunities, choosing to learn from our experience, and turned our setback into a comeback.

When people picture success, they often envision a life where they spend time doing what they love and want to do. Every path to success requires you to do things that just aren’t fun. We had many sleepless nights, worked tirelessly, cried both happy and sad tears, and were definitely not having fun most of the time. Looking back starting this business was the most challenging thing we have ever done both physically and mentally. Persevering through this time together made us stronger both individually, as a couple, and as a family.

What does it take to be successful in our opinion? Commit yourself, learn from your journey, be persistent, and work hard. No matter how you feel get up, dress up, show up and never give up.

Mallory, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are Tuck and Mallory Wheeler and together with our children we created The Getaway Ranch. We wanted to build a place where families or couples like us could go to escape city life, reconnect with each other, and disconnect from the outside world. After many months of contemplation, we decided to take a leap of faith and follow our dream of creating the Getaway Ranch. We both left our 9:00-5:00 jobs and moved our family to the Texas Hill Country. We began developing the property, carving out roads, clearing the land, installing utilities, and creating sites where we wanted to build the glamping structures. We wanted to provide a unique and one-of-a-kind experience for our guests.

We meticulously designed four tents to provide all the amenities of a luxury hotel while providing an authentic outdoor experience. We also disassembled three silo grain bins from an old farm and created a patio and pool with these materials for our common area. With Tucks construction experience and my niche for interior design, we were able to complete the Getaway Ranch project ourselves and only had to rely on contractors for the utilities on property. We are definitely a DIY couple, and we were able to repurpose and build everything on the property.

As a family we manage The Getaway Ranch including the booking website, social media accounts, cleaning of the tents, washing the linens and setting up special events. We chose not to hire a property management company so that we can make sure that everything is taken care of and done correctly, we want our guests to have an amazing experience when they visit our place. We are also not listed on any online travel sites as we want to keep the bookings for clients personal and be able to be there to handle any problems immediately without our guest having to go through a third party if they need anything. Our guests receive texts from us with all of the information they need to help prepare them for their stay and we let them know that they can call or text us if they need anything at all before, during, or after their stay. We take a very hands-on approach to our business and strive to provide the best customer service.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing our clientele has been to create a relationship with every guest that visits our ranch. From the time our guests book they will be greeted with a text and email from us thanking them for their reservation. As their reservation approaches, they receive documents with restaurant recommendations, local attractions, and a list of items that are provided at the ranch along with things they may want to bring. A few days before their stay they will receive gate codes, door codes, and other helpful check in and check out information. Tuck and I visit the property daily as we have animals on our ranch that we tend to, so we always make sure we introduce ourselves and talk to our guests while we are there to ensure they are having a good time and don’t need anything. This always leads to long conversations where we get to hear back stories and learn about each other. If you read our reviews on TripAdvisor, almost every review mentions us as we strive to make our guests experience an experience they won’t forget as well as tell their family and friends about! Word of mouth is the best form of advertisement in our opinion.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We started to build The Getaway Ranch right about the time that Covid turned our World upside down. Pricing for building materials skyrocketed and supplies were scarce. Our water well, septic system for the property and electrical meter boxes were not only costing us double than what was expected, but we also couldn’t get our hands on many of the materials that were needed to complete these items. Without these utilities we couldn’t open our business. This put us behind in opening our property, as well as diminished our budget for other things that we had planned for the property. We had put all of our money, blood, sweat and tears into building this place and we couldn’t open due to circumstances out of our control. We were overbudget and overworked. We are not quitters, and we relied on our family and faith to get us through these difficult times. Despite the many setbacks and obstacles we ran into throughout the process, and trust me there were many, we persevered and opened The Getaway Ranch five months later than expected. Through these times you learn that you are capable of more than we ever thought possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.getawayranchtx.com
• Instagram: @getawayranchtx
• Facebook: @getawayranchtx
• Other: TripAdvisor https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g55837-d23677260-Reviews-Getaway_Ranch_TX-Fischer_Texas.html

Image Credits
Grant Pittman