The Camp Consultant

Look Mom, I’m on a podcast!

The Camp Consultant’s first podcast appearance recently went live, check it out here on the Go Camp Pro website or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Liberty Lake Day Camp owner/director Andy Pritikin was nice enough to invite me on the podcast after we crossed paths at an ACA NY/NJ day camp conference (I had met Andy once before at ACA Tri-state, underscoring the value of conference attendance highlighted in my previous blog).

The podcast experience felt natural and I’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback thus far… podcasts may be something I continue to experiment with as I create The Camp Consultant material.

Touching upon takeaways from my summer tour and this blog post, the ~45 min episode is full of helpful nuggets for all people-focused leaders, both inside and outside of camping.

I really encourage you to give it a listen and let me know what you think!

-Mario

P.S. See below for a short excerpt of the podcast, highlighting the power of camp in a child’s identity creation…

Andy:

So Mario, tell us a little bit about the secret sauce behind success in camping?

Mario:

When you ask people what the secret sauce is behind camp, they tend to say “the people.” But I want to go underneath that, and understand a little bit more: what about “the people” creates such a magical experience for both staff and campers ? I think it stems from two main things.

First, it’s the ability to create a space where you can be yourself and then second, be welcomed for that best self.

Andy:

Wait… Is this for a staff person, a camper or all of the above…

Mario:

All of the above. What makes camp special is consistent across all tenure levels, ages, and types of people. Camp opens its arms, or let me rephrase, the best camps and the camps that really change lives, open their arms to allow for and welcome people who are bringing their best selves to camp. And so to talk a little bit more tactically:

-what types of training do counselors and leadership go through to enable them to create this space?

-what types of characteristics and behaviors and habits do these counselors use when interacting with each other and interacting with children to create this welcoming environment?

These are the important questions.

Andy

So you’re, you’re saying that like all these eccentric personalities that come to camp… big ones, little ones, introverts, extroverts, annoying people and really awesome people…A great camp is a place where all people can flourish to some degree? So it’s like a very inclusive community. Right?

Mario:

Yes, it’s an inclusive community and I think it’s one step beyond that. At camp, you get to choose who you’d like to be in that community. When you come to summer camp, you’re not beholden to the same preconceived notions that maybe the other students in your school have, or at college your friends may have put you in X, Y, or Z box. You can reinvent yourself each summer at camp and you have the liberty to do so. And importantly, you’re accepted with whatever best version of yourself that you want to place forward.

Andy:

I always say that it’s a great place because kids and staff can go to camp and reinvent themselves. They’re not coming with their whole class of school, which maybe they’ve been in the same class with for the last whatever years. They can literally choose a new nickname. They can make a new brand for themselves in many ways. You know, the kid that’s a little weird sitting in the back, all of a sudden can be seen as the really cool kid because of some aspects of his or her life. That everybody really embraces and celebrates this at camp is so powerful.

Mario:

Yes! And they can take that new found confidence from camp and then bring it back to the rest of their life. That was something that I felt very personally following my seventh grade year. I had experienced some harsh bullying in middle school and I was feeling really down on my luck on the friendship front. Then I went to camp and in my first year of kind of the middle school program at Tom Sawyer was able to

-find a great group of friends and

-really re-establish to myself that I could be liked,

-I could make friends,

-that I was worth it.

And then take that confidence back with me to school….