Spotlight on Business Owners Mike and Ryan Hvizda

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Interview by David Tirrell-Wysocki

Mike and Ryan Hvizda have a deep love for the outdoors and for using the opportunities they find outdoors to recharge, ease stress and enjoy life. They especially love that they can step off their porch in downtown Concord for long hikes or bike rides on beautiful, nearby, protected land.

As owners of Hvizda Realty Group, Mike and Ryan do more than sell property. They have built a reputation for honesty and integrity in bringing landowners and land seekers together in a way that balances the need for development and the need to sustain agricultural land and conserve property for future generations.

As a member of the Five Rivers Board of Trustees since 2019, Mike works to help Five Rivers conserve property so more people can appreciate and benefit from sustainable farms and nature’s beauty.

Please introduce yourselves and explain your business.

Ryan – We have a couple of businesses. One is a real estate business called Hvizda Realty Group and we serve buyers and sellers all over New Hampshire. We also co-own Bona Fide Green Goods on Main Street in Concord that helps people with a zero-waste or low-waste life.

Mike – I run a coaching business for business owners in real estate who are looking to either grow teams or develop their team and develop leadership skills around sustaining that growth. That’s what I do day in and day out, which our real estate career has paved that path for me to do.

How did you first become aware of Five Rivers?

Ryan – It started when we first got into real estate. We had farmed for five years and in our journey of looking for property to farm, we had an experience with our traditional residential real estate agent and they really didn’t understand what we were looking for. Then we made the purchase and we got really entrenched in the farming community and realized there were a bunch of other beginning farmers who made similar decisions as we did. So, once we made the step into real estate, I personally felt compelled to make positive change and saw that there was a gap in that industry especially in New Hampshire around people who want to help beginning farmers make better decisions. We started the Land and Farm Access Info session where we collaborated with Five Rivers, NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire), Farm Credit East, and Land For Good.

Mike – Basically, we took the people looking to access farmland and we took the people who had the farmland and brought all the resources together, put them in the same room, and we just started to do information sessions and see what kind of organic conversation developed from that. Five Rivers was one of the resources we brought in to help.

Ryan – So that’s how we got started with Five Rivers. Then, we moved to Concord and realized there are amazing trail systems everywhere, walkable from our house. We just started to see how Five Rivers was so relevant to balancing conservation and development and supporting farmers. They are just a great organization, then we stepped up.

Mike – When I heard about an opportunity to serve within the organization, I jumped at it because of the agricultural connections, the working farmland, the rivers and all the outdoor recreation that we just love. It’s just a privilege to be able to work with the organization and continue to conserve land.

How does your day job intersect with your affiliation with Five Rivers?

Ryan – It’s a symbiotic relationship. I am a huge advocate for New Hampshire affordable housing, but in areas where there already is density and allowing for more housing in those areas, versus a beautiful hundred-acre open farm field, which is super rare in NH. There has to be recognition of what’s the appropriate land to protect and where is it appropriate to put the housing we need, because we do need housing.

Mike – Because of what our passions are, some of the developments that we are putting a lot of our energy to are around agriculture, around community, around shared resources, around natural landscapes and just pushing the possibilities, while not compromising when it comes to development.

For you, what’s the most important function Five Rivers serves?

Ryan – I am a person who thinks generationally, so whenever I’m in a new landscape I think about all of the human manipulations or extraction or involvement in the landscape way back to indigenous times. I have a mindset that whatever I do in this place, I want seven generations forward for people to look back and think there were a group of people who were still holding the land sacred and making sure it’s in the state of protection, or reverence, seven generations forward. Five Rivers is one of the organizations that is thinking generationally and saying this land is worth being here seven generations from now, versus a concrete parking lot.

Mike – Five Rivers plays a really important role in the community of letting people know there are options, but also being that resource, that conduit that can help pave the path because the bigger picture, everything Ryan just said, is absolutely why everyone does it. That’s the goal, but breaking it down into a manageable systematic approach, that’s a really important role Five Rivers plays to kind of lock arms with people and get into step with helping them. Whether it’s a working landscape like Bohanan Farm (in Hopkinton) or a Swope-type property (Marjorie Swope Park in Concord) with trails that are very well maintained, the process is very important to get down to that practical side.

What is your favorite Five Rivers property right now? Why?

Ryan – Winant Park and Marjorie Swope Park. This last year was very stressful for everyone. Every single day last spring, the only way I was able to tap into reducing my stress was by going on 11-mile walks from our home all the way to Marjorie Swope and back and be able to do that all on trails. I was doing something like 50-60 miles a week pretty much in March and April. It was the only way to stay sane. I am so grateful these woods exist and are protected because as I walk through them, I always think the housing market in Concord is so tight, those woods would be the first place to build a ton of neighborhoods. I think there are lot of people who have a refuge in those woods.

Mike – I would agree. I love to mountain bike, and I can mountain bike the same area right from the front door.

What question do you wish people would ask you about Five Rivers?

Ryan – How do I get involved?

Mike – How can I have the greatest impact on continuing and perpetuating what the organization is doing? Everyone can do something. Once someone asks that question it’s easier for someone like myself as a Board Trustee to respond or to reach out to someone else on the Board and make that connection and really help carve our path. Whether it’s a land steward who monitors one of the properties, a volunteer on a committee or someone who donates.

What’s your favorite way to spend a free day?

Ryan and Mike – OUTSIDE!

Ryan – Being out in nature. For me, it’s hiking.

Mike – It’s always outside. I am always seeking out ways to maximum my opportunity to mountain bike, to surf, to ski, to hike. It’s what grounds me and gives me the capacity to deal with all of the other stuff lifve throws at us.

As a business coach, I have 40-plus clients that I talk to every week and coach them into growing their businesses. I’m probably underestimating, but 50 percent of that time or more is really into slowing people down and getting them to do the things outside of work that give them the capacity to thrive in the professional setting.

What else do you think people would like to know about you or do you wish we’d asked?

Mike – What it really comes down to is standards. I think that’s the most important thing I’d want people to know. One of my favorite sayings is: ‘Decisions are easy when standards are clear.’ That’s what it all stems from. We can have the higher level of conversation and fantasy, but when you put standards in front of what you tolerate in life, that’s when you start to get what you want. And it’s hard.

Ryan – Those standards — one of these is making sure we are part of organizations that protect what we love.