 Good morning and welcome to Moments with Melinda. I am your host, Melinda Moulton. And today my guest is Roxanne Scully. Hey, girlfriend. Hey. Thanks for being here on my show today. Thank you so much for having me. Well, let me tell my viewers a little bit about you. There's a lot about you, but let me just see if I get this right. Community organizer, restaurateur, developer, redeveloper, retailer, meditation instructor, entrepreneur, athlete, resort owner and change maker. Did I miss anything? Sounds good. Perfect. Didn't want to miss anything. You are an extraordinary woman. And I'm so excited to be able to interview you today and share you with my viewers. So let's get right at it, Roxanne. Tell us a little bit about your childhood, where you grew up and a little bit about your youth and growing up. Great. Well, so I grew up in a small town. It's a town in mid-state New York, Johnstown, New York. It's really, I think the population is like, I don't know, 10,000. So definitely a rural upbringing outside of Albany, outside of Saratoga Springs. I grew up very simply with a very nuclear family for people in my family, my brother, my mother, my father, extended family in the area as well. And yeah, my childhood was pretty simple, basic, loving and also quite tough now looking back. I had a father who's bipolar, brother's bipolar, lots of mental health, lots of alcoholism in my family. So that has really shaped me as an adult. Well, you and I share in that. My mother also had an alcohol problem. So we share in that. We'll talk about that. Yeah. We get together. So who would you say is your greatest inspiration? And tell us a little bit about your teen years and where you went to school and what landed you here. But who was your greatest inspiration in your life, do you suppose? Well, that's a big question, Melinda. I don't know if I have a specific person, I would name that. I would say that I had many, many, many teachers and mentors along the way from childhood educators in school system, public school system to my martial arts dojo instructor. I was into the martial arts when I was a teen. And I think that shaped me to other friends and family members and nature has been a huge teacher. So I think it's really kind of broad. And I don't think I can answer that question specifically with one person. So you're comfortably inspired by things that you are engaged in. Yes. That's a gift. That's a gift when people can be inspired by just what's around them and their moment. So you're one of those moment inspirational people. Yes. So what about your teen years and your college years and meeting girls? All that good stuff. So yeah, teen years, I think I was, like I said, I was highly inspired by martial arts and the discipline and the body centered awareness that came with all of that. I got dealt deeply into that in my teen years. I had great friends that surrounded me. I was always kind of like... Excuse me, what kind of martial art was it that you were engaged in? Tell us a little bit about it. I did a Shodokan karate, a small dojo there in Johnstown, New York. Michael Campos was my instructor. And I think what I learned and loved there was not only like my own body's wisdom, but my ability to tap into being a woman in a mostly male dominated sport. So I'll just leave it at that. I excelled in sparring and kattas and I would perform and go to competitions, local competitions. And I just remember feeling like I, not special at all, but like that I was kind of special in the field and that I think really empowered me at a young age. Well, but there's a lot of people out there who thought you were special and you are special. You're very special. So tell us a little bit about running into this gentleman who ended up becoming your husband and your lover and your business partner. Well, how did that all take place? Yeah, how did that all take place? Russ Golly, how did that happen? Yeah, it was really serendipitous actually. I ended up doing really well in my public high school. I did not come from having a lot of financial backgrounds. So I got a scholarship to St. Lawrence. And so I ended up going there because it makes a lot of financial sense. And also it put me into a world that was a little different than the one I grew up in. It was very, at that time St. Lawrence was very much a private school environment, small private school with a lot of people who had a lot more means than I had. So that was a learning curve in and of itself. And I did a lot of growth there and I really resonated with some people there. And one of the people was this guy, Russ Golly, who was in my friend group. And we were actually very, very good friends all through college. I was always dating someone else and he was always dating someone else. And then we fell in love senior year. It was actually just, we both kind of fell in love. It was really kind of strange, but maybe universal. I don't know, influence there. And then I moved with him out to California after college. So we graduated at St. Lawrence and moved out there. And I feel like that was another big influential period when you asked earlier about the person, I think more of place. And so California became kind of a place for me to do a lot of internal growth. And so yeah, Russ and I moved out there and then he asked me to marry him about five years later and we moved back and that's when we moved back East. So where in California were you? We were in a place called Santa Barbara. Oh, Santa Barbara. Yeah. And a beautiful place to be in your 20s as you can imagine, wild and free as we were. And did a lot of restaurant jobs there. And that's I think when I really kind of solidified that whole idea of working in the restaurant business and service industry. And although I never worked in the kitchen area, I did have a lot of growth in the front end of the house. And that's kind of certainly later at the spot restaurant. Were you a surfer? I was not a surfer in California. Talk about that. No, no, no, no. I was a water girl from growing up on lakes in the Adirondacks and I was a big water skier. My dad's a big water skier. So I knew water, but I knew lakes. And so when I moved out to California and became immersed in the ocean, it was pretty scary. Like I was scared of sharks. I was scared of like the waves. I was, you know, my guy friends would go surfing and there were no other women out there that much then. And so I was like, no, this is not for me. And then so it was years later in my 30s when I fell in love with surfing. And now, yes, I am a surfer. And now you are a surfer girl? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, talk to, talk to, so you came back to, you came back to the East Coast. Did you come to Burlington or did you go other places before you landed here? Yeah, so that's a little story there. Russ and I wanted to come back to be closer to family as we started to think we wanted to be married. We asked me to marry him. So we moved back here and we had three places that were intriguing to us when we were considering coming back. We wanted to be near water. So it was Rhode Island. We wanted to maybe be under the ocean. So Rhode Island was in the mix and then Boston because we might want, maybe we want to be in your city. You know, I don't know. And then Burlington showed up in the outdoor magazine as a place to raise family and it's up and coming. And he and I had gone when we were friends at St. Lawrence, we came and went to a samples concert and we're like, oh, Burlington is really actually kind of cool. So do we know anyone there? And we had a friend who lived here. So we moved here, sight unseen really, we'd been there once and decided to kind of just give it a shot. And to be honest, it didn't really settle with me right off the bat. I mean, we moved from Santa Barbara, which was beautiful. And we moved here in October, which you can imagine, stick season. And yeah, so it was not really, other than the lake, I was like, why is this so, why am I here? But then the people, the people that I started to meet and the relationships that I started to form just, yeah, I think kept us rooted here. And you understood the weather because you were, you know, from the Africa Springs and were you a skier? I was a skier, yeah, I did love to ski at that. At that time, I would say that was my biggest winter sport, skiing, cross country skiing, downhill skiing. So yeah, so just getting outside, connecting with nature, like the beautiful spaces that we have here in Burlington. I mean, that was something that I definitely think held us here. And a great community. So you come on back, you choose, you know, over Rhode Island, Boston, you choose Burlington and you move on back here with your husband. And what inspired you to do what you started to do? What was that spark? Yeah, it inspired the two of you to do what you first did, which was I believe the spot, right? Yeah, I think that, you know, so at the time, so what year was this? What year was this? 97, 97. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so 97. So, you know, I can say all these things now reflecting back, right? So at that point in time, when I moved back, you know, I was in my late 20s and I, you know, I got my degree in government for all things from St. Lawrence, four years there. And then when we went to St. Lawrence, I went to Santa Barbara, I, I don't know. I decided I needed to go back to be a teacher. I had some teaching in my lineage with my three aunts and they're all teachers anyway. So I became a teacher. And so I went, you know, I have four more year schools, school years of becoming a teacher out in California, elementary ed. And so when I moved back, you know, I, it was in that timeframe of teaching when it was like really hard to get a job. Like there weren't teaching jobs. Like there, it was for some reason, it was just really hard. So I became a paraeducator. I worked in Charlotte Central School. I also worked in Huntington and I did a lot of like paraeducated stuff, even though I had a full-on teaching degree. And then I landed my first teaching job at JFK Winooski. I was a fifth grade teacher there for a number of years. And that was in the public school system. Anyone who's worked in that knows what that's all about. So it's pretty broken system. And I also had a big heart. And I, so anyway, I didn't last too long. I burned out pretty quickly there. And so when I ended up getting pregnant with my first child, Baxter, I just left to the school system and I decided to be a stay-at-home mom. But anyone who knows me, that doesn't, there's a lot in me that needs to be expressed. And so when Russ and I saw this opportunity to transform this gas station, we decided to go with a restaurant. And with my background in the restaurant business and also I think Russ and my ability to call in humans to help when needed, we were fortunate enough to gather enough people and resources to make the spot restaurant happen. And so that's kind of where my focus went when I was a young mom, was being a mom and being a involves in that first business. So talk about the theme of the spot. And for all of my viewers who I'm talking with Roxanne Scully, the owner of the spot, it's on Shelburne Road. There's three of them now. There's one down the waterfront. There's one in your facility at Hula. And then there's the one, which your first one, which was on Shelburne Road. So talk to us a little bit about the vibe and the food because it tells us a little bit about how that came about. Yeah, I think it was just like this really great gift that I think Russ and I have of just like following our passions and like whatever we love to do, we like to bring other people along to do it. I think that it was Russ who was like, what if we make it like a surf, we have all these like great surf art and whatever like make it like a surf style restaurant. And then we had this really great restaurant that we and all the great food from California, all this fresh local like food idea. We just put together this menu. And I know I remember saying like, I just want people to be able to come and get whatever they want. Like I remember that was like, something that I really, and of course the chefs that I had were not so keen on that, but I really pushed that agenda because I really wanted that. I wanted to be able to go and be like sub the avocado for the spinach. And so we had to build your own omelet idea and the safari, the morning safari and all that kind of stuff. So it's really not, it was like, that's what I think Russ and I brought to it was the spirit of it. Less of like, how, what, why, how are we gonna do this? So luckily we had enough wonderful humans that worked with us around this idea and that created this, helped our vision become a reality. Does that make sense? An incredible restaurant. And it's really the morning to go to. It's the meeting place. You're gonna have a morning meeting or a lunch meeting. That's where you go. And you're right. You can get whatever you want in whatever way. I mean, I always, my favorite person there's Natalia and every time I'm there, she just, she goes, I know what you want. And off she goes. It's a great restaurant. So congratulations on that. Then you expanded to the waterfront, which is a very similar vibe, but you're right on the water. And let's talk a little bit about the Hula Lakeside incubator space, because that's where there is another spot. Talk to us a little bit about, because I think you did the spot and then you moved into the Hula incubator space. So talk a little bit about that transition. Yeah. So I think that was, you know, after it was, there's a few other things in there that kind of like landed us, I think here. Well, I mean, there's so much. It's, we did the spots restaurants, but then we also did the window wave surf shop. And all of these spaces just sound like they're like businesses, but they're really communities of people and intention. And again, it's not something that we were like really driving or efforting, making happen. It was just kind of serendipitous and one thing rolled into the next kind of like a giant snowball. So I think after we kind of created this community around the water and then we lived close by and we would ride our bike by the Blaja Oven Factory. And we had this kind of like, I guess a place in our life where we had more abundance to be able to do something like this. We actually just wanted the beach area of this whole enterprise. And that turned into the Burlington Surf Club, which is a place where people gather to do water sports. And also I run camps. I run she, girls, strong, healthy, empowered girls camps out of there, I've been surfing camps and that sort of thing. But then this became the next, well, it became the next kind of iteration of this whatever is running through Russ and I. And that is this now a community space to really cultivate the shared wisdom that we have here in Burlington, connection and innovation in a bigger way. I don't know, hopefully I'm making sense here. And that seemed to be the next thing that needed to happen for us. And that's what we've created here at Hula. And I mean, it just keeps surprising me with what's kind of coming out of here. And I know like a very small amount of what's coming out of here. Well, it's an extraordinary space and you have remarkable businesses. And anytime you walk in, there's lots of incredible stuff happening and you give an opportunity for people to come in and just work there for the day and open up their computers and do their work. And everyone I talked to is at some point in time who's doing anything that's really exciting will have had a spot in your Hula incubator space. So congratulations on it. I'm just somebody who's into redevelopment. I'm just blown away what you've done down there. Now I want to talk a little bit, I know the Wind and Ways, which is WND and WBS surf shop, which is off of Pine Street, that's that you are a retailer, right? That's your- Yeah, on the outside it looks like a retail shop. And on the inside, I guess it does too. But I think there's a bigger intention there and that's this connecting people to nature, connecting people to healthy lifestyles. And like I said, it's a community of people. I mean, now we've been in business for over 10 years and in the middle of winter, you can go into a space and feel something, right? I love it. Feel like connection and opportunity and hope and, I don't know, that's what I hope that Wind and Ways is. Well, I love your clothes, quite frankly. Yeah. And you can go online. Is it windandwaves.com? What's the website? W- Yeah, that's it. And it's WND, Ampersand, WBS. No, WNDN, as in Nancy, WBS.com. And so it's also got great, great products and great, great clothes. And then we're gonna move, because there's so much about you, we're gonna move from Wind and Ways surf shop on Pine Street, check it out everybody, to your resort in Puerto Rico. I mean, that's remarkable and fabulous too. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, it's a great story there as well. Yeah, Villa Playa Maria is a place in Rincón, Puerto Rico that we started, I guess it's about eight years ago now, it's two villas right on the ocean, it's ocean side. And there's a long story there, but basically it's another great connection with a wonderful human who basically said, Roxanne, you need to come down here. And I went down and I felt an energy. And I was like, this is amazing, we need to do this. And then we were so lucky to be shown this place and we renovated it. And over the course of the last eight years, we've run all sorts of things from retreats, corporate retreats to, I run mindfulness meditation retreats now three times a year. We do open stays where people come down and just rent rooms and kind of connect with Roxanne. We rent it out to people we don't know and it's just a business. But it's a really, truly beautiful place. And again, it's place, it's this beautiful place in connection with nature and letting that just do the magic that happens when people of like mind and spirit and wanting to just grow and evolve and with curiosity and wonder connect in a place. Yeah, like Rincón. You are a wonder provider. Can you give us the website for the resort? What is it? Sure, it's just villaplyamaria.com. Villaply? Plyamaria. Plyamaria.com. Yeah, dot com. It's beautiful. And Puerto Rico is such a beautiful, beautiful place. So let's talk a little bit about a film that you all made recently called the film for the dream with Ben Gravy. And it's a hero story about Ben's journey to sobriety and he surfed in all 50 states. Tell us a little bit about that film. That's incredible. I feel very, very honored and grateful to have been given this opportunity. It's an incredible film for everyone. It was incredibly humbling and beautiful to work with a team of people to create something like this. And I am a recovering alcoholic. So I was deeply touched by Ben's story. And yeah, I just think it's an incredible thing to check out. And I just, like you said, it's a hero's journey. So it's incredibly inspiring. And I guess the message of the story is through hard work, anything is possible. And I feel that's true. Yeah, I feel that's a true statement. Nothing comes easy sometimes it does. And when it does, that's great. But it does take effort and perseverance and a knowing and a reaching for something greater than what you have in this very moment. Well, you are a perfect example of all of that. And I myself too have not had a drink in 20 years. So here, here on that in solidarity with you. But it's a great, it's an incredible film. So for my viewers, film for the dream, the story of Ben Gravy's journey to sobriety, Google it and check it out. Let's talk a little bit about your meditation because you hold meditation sessions at Hula. And tell us a little bit to my viewers how they could get involved or can they get involved or what has meditation done for you? Yeah, wow, okay, that's a lot. Let's see, real succinctly. So I did create, I have some wonderful humans, younger women who have taken me on to kind of get me kind of in a vein of sharing more of what the gifts have been given to me. So I do have a website, roxanskully.com. And there it's very much just a placeholder right now but there are retreats that I do that are always available on that website. And also it gives my, I have two weekly gathering, meditation gatherings via Zoom. If I'm home, it's in person, but I do Zoom from Puerto Rico. So one is Tuesday at 12 o'clock. That's just a short set, 15 minute, the Pasana style, which I'll tell you about in a second, meditation, no sharing. And then on Thursday, 515, I have a 45 minute group. It's a 20 minute set guided by me and then a little bit of sharing if you want to. So those are my two gatherings right now that I do that are open to everyone. And then as I said, I do three retreats a year down in Puerto Rico. Those are two are closed, one is open right now, meaning they're just sold out. One is open in February. So I have about four more slots open for that one. And again, you can go to my websites to see when those are. And the Pasana is, I'm schooled under Tara Brock and Jack Cornfield. They are the Pasana style meditation teachers, mostly body centered, breath centered practices. And then just in general mindfulness, I teach a lot of, I do one-on-one mentoring with people, 30 minute sessions for that as well. And right now everything is kind of word of mouth. I just, yeah, I only have so much energy, but I'm very, this is my focus now. I am, I truly feel like it's probably, through a lot of hard work, I've been given a little bit of a gift here to spread this beautiful practice. And yeah, so that's it. So to my viewers, because I'm gonna, I'm going to join you on a Thursday. I'm gonna have to change an ongoing appointment that I have every Thursday at five o'clock it's actually my piano lesson, but I'm gonna have to change that because I wanna do your 45 minute meditation. To my viewers, it is Roxanne with two ends and it's a C, Scully, S-C-U-L-L-Y dot com. And if you're interested in getting involved in meditation, go to Roxanne's website and you can get involved. What a great gift you're giving the community as, as always, I mean, all the work that you do is a gift to other people. And one of the amazing things about, about you, and I think about Russ too, is that in my interview with him, as well as with you, you always give credit to other people. You always, I mean, anything that you've done and accomplished is always the result of other people who have been involved. And there's not a lot of humanity who is, who does, who does that. And I so deeply appreciate that in both you and Russ is that, is that your, your gratitude about the people around you, who, who have been on this journey with you is, is, is all about the love, right? Right? Yes, yes. And you couldn't have said it better. I mean, I couldn't have said it better than what you just said. I feel so honored and grateful for who I have been touched by and continue to be touched by. And I, I very much feel like people who come to me with a question or think of me as their mentor, I'm learning from them as well. So I just, I'm, if, if there's any message I would want to get across is that there is no siloing. There's no, I've got this figured out. There's no, this is the one person. It's like all collectively together. I am super hopeful for what is to come. So, so interesting because my question, as we're marching or tiptoeing to 2023, my final question for you in our interview is any words of wisdom for young people? You have, is it, is it three sons that you have? I have two sons. Yep. But many other sons too, that I call sons, but yes. Well, there you go. You've got a lot of sons. So the words of wisdom for young people today in the world that they're living in, what, you know, Roxanne Scully, what would be your words of wisdom for, for young people today? This is a piggybacking on what I just said. You do not need to do this alone. You're not meant to do this alone. We are a collective and we're all connected. And the more we can lean into that awareness and touch into that in whatever way speaks to you, find it, there's the answer. Fantastic. So what's next for you? We have a few minutes left. What is the next iteration of Roxanne Scully? What's going on? Well, ma'am, I'm about to embark on a really amazing project with a dear friend spent in the making for about five years. It's something called Babarusa. It's an immersive art experience that we're hoping will be at the heart of Burlington to help heal people. So thank you and gather. You and Teresa, and all the people that I've been a supporter of that too. Here with her and her husband and you and my efforts to save Memorial Auditorium. And this is such a perfect, perfect use of this building. And so talk about the cosmic gather to create this. I have no doubt in my mind that that is exactly what is going to happen at Memorial Auditorium and no one better to take for that extraordinary building. So to you and all that you do and bring to our community, I'm so grateful to know you and I want to get to know you better. Our community, thanks you for all that you've done. And to my viewers, what a great half hour with Roxanne Scully and to all of you, I want to wish you a happy new year and I want you to know that there is hope for a better world ahead and let's move into this year with that in our hearts. Okay. Thank you, Melinda, so much for having me on your program. I appreciate it so much. Thank you, my friend.