Season 12 at Lake Hickory Haunts in Hickory, NC

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Lake Kykree Haunts is celebrating its twelfth
season, but getting here wasn't easy.

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That's coming up on today's show from
the Haunted Attraction Network. I'm Philip and

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this is our sixty one day Haunted
On, where we're counting down to Halloween

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by celebrating haunted houses daily via videos, podcasts, and VIP in person experiences.

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Since his podcast is only one part
of our hand on, the best

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way to follow along is by subscribing
to our newsletter or by checking our website

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at Haunted Attraction Network dot com.
Spanning thirty acres and thirteen attractions, Lake

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Kkree Haunts has grown into a full
screen park in Hickory, North Carolina,

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but it's been quite the Jerry.
The owner, Ryan Settlemeyer, started the

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Haunt at seventeen and threw himself completely
into it, even dropping out of college

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and leaning heavily on the support of
family to do it. But we're getting

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ahead of ourselves. We'll hear about
all of it today. Support for this

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episode comes from Haunt Pay. Their
support allowed me to go out and speak

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with Ryan. We also made a
full video walkthrough of Lake Kickrehants. If

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you're curious about what we're talking about, and that is linked in the show

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notes. Haunt Pay is scary simple
ticketing and payments made for your Haunt attractions.

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Check them out at hauntpay dot com. Okay, now here's Ryan and

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I speaking in person at Lake Kickrihants. My name is Ryan Settlemeyer. I'm

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the owner and director of operations at
Lake Kickreehants. I've been doing this my

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entire adult life. It's been my
full time job since I was seventeen years

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old. Lake Kickree Hants is my
life. So we have thirteen attractions that

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all guests experience. So all of
those attractions are included with admission, whether

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it's genero admission VIP FastPass. We're
an indoor outdoor attraction with a unique setting

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that features water, so as you're
walking through the attractions, you walk around

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water and across the water and then
along the lake. Lake Kirckree Haunts was

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started back in twenty twelve and then
since then. This is our twelfth season

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in twenty twenty three, so every
year we've grown it as much as possible.

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You arrive and you enter into the
Midway of Mayhem, which has the

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photo ops. It's a dj it
looks like a nice hangout place to be

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in. Yep, Yep, and
then you'll go down to the ghost Town

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before you enter the queue, and
the attractions are all in a linear pathway.

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That's right, So our midway we
have, of course concessions. We

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have six midway attractions. Those are
an additional ticket, most of them are

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five dollars a piece. Summer ten, we have the four D Asylum Experience,

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which is a simulator. We have
Buried Alive coffin rides. We have

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a many escape room. We have
Dracula's Dizzy Darts, which is a custom

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made game that we made back in
twenty twelve that you will get to see

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tonight. We also have ax Thirring
and the Monster Mash. And for our

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VIP customers, we offer a VIP
Lounge on our Midway, so that's an

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exclusive area where only VIP pass holders
can go. Then the ghost Town is

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an attraction in its own as well. That's a transition between the Midway and

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the beginning of the real scary stuff, if that makes sense. So the

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ghost Town is you could call it
like a scare zone, and then like

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you said, Nightmare Factory all the
way through Mangler at the end all of

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those attractions, it's NonStop scares all
the way through. Can you give us

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a rough estimate of the square footage
of everything altogether? So square not square

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footage, I could say we're operating
on about thirty acres of land total that

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includes our parking. We have lots
more room to grow though, So total

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we've got seventy five plus acres and
we're utilizing less than fifty percent right now

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and we plan to continue to grow. Yeah, how long does it take

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somebody on average to get through the
attractions once they start at the night?

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Are factory on average between forty five
and fifty five minutes? It all depends

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on the night and the group.
Big Top is new for this year.

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Can you tell me about that?
So the Big Top Circus features three buildings

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within it, So you could say
the Big Top Circus has three attractions in

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its own, but we just call
it one. So each of those buildings

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are about one thousand square feet,
so you've got over three thousand square feet

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there in the Big Top Circus alone. We have one attraction there, which

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is the Freak Show, one that
is the fun House, and one that

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is Boss the Clown's top secret laboratory. So the idea is, and this

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is a good snippet of behind the
scenes how our creation of the attractions goes.

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So you could say, you go
into the Big Top Circus and there's

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this freak show, right, and
for some reason people are attracted to freak

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shows. They like it, right, So that draws people into the Big

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Top Circus. Then you go through
the funhouse after the freak show, and

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the funhouse is like candy Land's the
best way I could describe it, and

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it's amazing. It's where the clowns
are overloaded on sugar, just pure pleasure.

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Right. And then Boss the Clowns
laboratory is right after the fun House,

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so it's like you've been tricked.
Now you're in Boss's laboratory. And

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Boss the Clown's goal is to turn
the humans into clowns so that he can

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take over the world. That's Boss
the Clown's backstory and our clowns story as

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a whole, So our circus attraction
has always been different. Boss the Clown

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is also the character that I played
originally created back in twenty thirteen. I

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played that character through twenty seventeen,
I believe, and then I had to

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pass it on because it's just too
hard to manage this many people and everything

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with a mass boss the clown lives
on though we actually have multiple boss the

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clowns throughout the Haunt. But anyways, so that's the new big Top Circus.

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Well, that's exciting. And you
also mentioned Aquaphobia as being a pretty

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unique one for you guys. Yep. So Aquaphobia we created back in twenty

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twenty. And as we are on
the water, that is the on the

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water attraction. While you'll go across
the water and buy the water throughout other

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attractions, Aquaphobia you walk across a
floating dock out across the water and then

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you go into this abandoned fishing village
and then it's just it's hard to explain.

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You have to see it for yourself, but it's the city of Aquaphobia

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was sunk and flooded years ago.
The backstory is back in nineteen thirty one,

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this fishing village was doing very well. It was prosperous. The people

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living in the village were just trying
to make as much money as they can,

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fishing too much, basically killing all
the fish. And then this water

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demon came from the depths of the
water and flooded the village. And then

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now one hundred years later, that
village has risen from the depths of the

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water and now all of those fish
creatures, sharks, krakens, all anything

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water you could imagine is back to
get you. And our center character of

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aquaphobia is body Annoy. Body Anoi
is a creature that looks like an anglerfish

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mixed with a piranha, and he's
a really unique character as well. So

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it sounds like you use the asset
that you have, which is the water

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that you have naturally here, you're
incorporating that into some of these attractions when

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there's water around, right, yep, that's a great point. That is

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one thing that truly we've always tried
to do here is utilize the lay of

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our land and to highlight what is
natural for us, because again that's what

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makes it unique and for me on
a personal level, it's family land,

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so it's a heritage thing, right, and it's we want to make this

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the coolest it can be and have
people come from all over and enjoy it.

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We do have an overlook as well. The overlook is between the Midway

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and ghost Town and that's a really
cool spot that you'll see where you can

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oversee almost the entire Haunt, and
the Haunt is way down in this hollow

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and you're up here on this overlook
and you can see all the attractions you're

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about to go through. And our
attractions are also different levels because of the

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fact that we have water, So
where Aquaphobia is, it's down here on

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this level, and then where Voodoo
and Slaughterhouse descent or they're up a level.

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And then you go up to Nightmare
Factory layer of the Undead Big Top

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Circus, they're up higher. Then
you go to ghost Town and then Midway

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and then up here at the box
Office. So it's like the further you

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get into the Haunt, the further
down you are and the further away from

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safety quote unquote right, that's the
feeling. So it's a I think you'll

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see it's a very unique atmosphere overall
excellent. So you're playing with levels as

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well, Like you mentioned the descent, you're going down, so you're playing

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with that. Assume people people can
feel that when they're going up and down

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the elevation like that, even though
it's it's not like one thousand feet it's

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but you can still feel it pressure. Yeah, that's excellent. Let's let's

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talk a little bit about the founding. You mentioned that it was that it's

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a family property and that you started
that it became your full time when you

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were seventeen, But before that,
what were you doing haunting? How did

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you start? The way that I
started was my dad, Scott. He

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was acting in the Hudson Jc's Haunted
House back in the eighties, right,

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so the volunteer Jc's Haunted House,
and he got into it when he was

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sixteen years old. That's back when
it was black plastic on the walls.

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And then when my dad was older
and I was a bit older, I

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was probably I was seven or eight
seven, and we did a volunteer haunted

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trail at our house where we donated
the money to someone with cancer, and

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we did that for a couple of
years, and we just did it for

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the fun of it, right,
And then I just had always had this

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dream of making this a full time
job, and many family members, lots

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of people said you can't do that, and of course that destrobed me even

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more to do. So I worked
one regular job, which was waffle house.

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That's the only real job I've had, and then I was like,

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Nope, gonna stick to haunting.
And my favorite part about what we do

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is creating an immersive atmosphere for people
to enjoy. And I was also inspired

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by Disney World, as I'm sure
many people are. When I went to

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Disney as a child, it was
really weird because like, my whole family

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was having a fun time, and
I was having fun too, but like

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I was noticing weird things. I
was like, this bathroom looks cool.

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This is just the bathroom, and
so then I was like, it would

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be really cool to create those immersive
atmospheres. So then when people come to

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Lake Hickory Haunts, my goal is
our goal is to allow people to forget

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about all their everyday lives, and
especially nowadays with social media and the way

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information travels, there's so much stress
sometimes with families with relationships. So when

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those people come here, at least
during that time, the goal is to

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make have them forget about all of
those problems, and then when they leave,

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they're happy, they're closer with each
other, and it's really serving that

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overall larger purpose of just bringing people
together having a fun time, feeling alive

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and that's our goal. So I
think I got a little off track there,

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but so it sounds like you you
got into it a little bit like

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inspired by your dad, right or
you and your dad, Yes, we

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were you and your dad close.
It was that thing where you're like,

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oh, this is so cool that
we're doing this. Yes, absolutely,

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that was something that my dad and
I were were brought together by. And

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my dad and I have always had
a close relationship. My dad has a

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construction background. He actually teaches masonry
at a high school. That makes sense,

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but he was a general contractor.
So my dad introduced me to building,

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learning how to build and all of
that, and of course that was

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a huge help in getting started with
haunting. Yeah, I was gonna say,

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because it's there's so many there's so
many skills you need to have because

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it's a small business. But it's
also a construction, a challenge, and

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a show and a show. Yeah, there's the entertaining. There's a lot

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of skills to have to it.
When you think about that, like,

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how do you think that you acquired
those skills or you had the construction from

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your dad obviously, and then maybe
did he also give you some of the

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business advice or where'd you pick up
all these skills? So waffle house not

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waffle house, that's for sure.
It taught me some things, but most

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of it has just been learned the
hard way. I me personally, I

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don't think that college is necessary for
most fields. Some fields it's necessary.

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The best way to learn is to
just go do it. And for me,

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I just knew and I set my
mind and I said, you know

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what, I'm going to do this, come hell or high water, and

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I'm going to learn how to do
it. And I can tell you a

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story. For example, it was
back years ago I didn't know how to

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wire anything. So I was like, I'm going to learn how to wire

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lights. So I got a power
supply and it probably took me two hours

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to wire up one light. Right
now, I mean, it's such a

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simple thing that we all the time. Now we have a team. But

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all of these skills, whether it
be marketing, building, leading, it's

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all come from the experience of operating
lea kickrehunts, learning the hard way,

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doing it wrong, figuring out how
to do it right. And yeah,

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it's just been just been learning the
hard way. Yeah, so you didn't

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go to school for like entrepreneurship bringing. So I did. I did go

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to school for entrepreneurship and accounting,
and I was one semester away from graduating,

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and I decided to drop out because
I thought to myself, why am

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I doing this? Why am I
going to college? And I said,

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I'm doing it because other people want
me to. Family members want me to.

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And then I said, you know
what, I'm just gonna not do

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it because I don't want a backup
plan. I just want to go all

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in on Lake Kickree haunts. And
so I basically said, all right,

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no other backup plan. College isn't
a backup plan. Let's go all into

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Lake yorckreehunts. So I do have
some education experience, but it's so funny

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but now looking back, but I
did purposefully quit college just so I could

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tell myself, I'm going to do
this without a college degree, to show

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people that it can be done.
Was that your thought at the time or

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at the time, because in my
brain, I'm thinking, Okay, you

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are seven teams when you started doing
it, but that's before the college,

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right, So basically you were trying
to run a professional hunt and be a

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college exactly. So I was in
class it sounds like too much. Yeah,

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right, And I was doing social
media and then having to leave class

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and go get ready, and then
I had homework, and yes, that

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absolutely added to it. And I
was like, this is too much.

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I need to go all in on
this thing because that's what I'm passionate about.

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I'm passionate about lake kickkreehuants. I
care about it. I think it

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helps a lot of people. I
think that it helps our community, and

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I truly believe that. For me, it's about putting it all into one

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thing and then that one thing can
do the best that it can do for

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others. Yeah, how did your
family take it? When you're like,

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I'm going to drop out to make
this thing happen. So I have divorced

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parents. I have great relationships with
both of my parents. One half of

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my family you could say, is
more focused on education. The other half

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is more focused on trade. So
one half of the family was supportive of

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it and the other half was not. So it's a funny situation, but

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my background, I do have a
I see it as a blessing having diversified

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family. It's really been a benefit
in business. Yeah, tell me how

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it worked financially? Because I would
say most haunts, I'm not going to

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say he blessed me about the Haunting
Street. I tell them haunts are like

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restaurants, except harder. It's a
heavy capital investment, and you lose money

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every time you turn on the lights
and you have your cast. You have

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so many temporary workers that coming out, and there's so many challenges with it.

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And most haunts I know are not
cash flow positive for like for five

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years plus. And I'm just like, this dude, drop. This dude

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starts his hunt at seventeen, but
he's also paying for college, but he's

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also trying to run a haunt.
How did that? Like, how could

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you possibly make that work? So
I literally I lived in my dad's house

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until I was twenty three, got
and I did that on purpose to be

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able to put everything back into the
Haunt. The first year, we charged

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thirteen dollars a ticket. It was
what we could come up with as far

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as the experience. We did what
we could, and we started small with

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advertising. That was one strategy that
I don't know why. I couldn't tell

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you why, but I just had
this feeling. I was like, the

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show's not as good as it will
be one day and that was the opening

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year, right, And the next
year, I said, it's better now,

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so let's advertise a bit more.
And then over the years I advertised

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a bit more, and then there
was one point where it came, which

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was twenty twenty one, where many
of the visions that I had had planned

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for years had finally came together.
In twenty twenty one, I said,

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all right, now let's market it, because now if people come, we

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are going to give them the experience
they're looking forward, no matter where they're

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coming from. But every single year
we put every single dollar and more,

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I mean you so much stress every
year because literally running out of money in

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early summer, late spring, and
then the rest of the year going unborrowed

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money, and then halfway through season
before we even break even, and then

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at the end we barely pay bills
and then do it again. And that's

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one thing that for me, I'm
okay with risk, which is easy when

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you're single and you're young and you're
living with your parents. So then when

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you get older and now I'm married, that's when the stress becomes a bit

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more because not only my family is
depending on me, but also employees.

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We have full time employees, so
now it's not just me, so that

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risk balance is something that's a challenge
for me now that I'm learning to work

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with. Yeah, you could say, yeah it it sounds like you,

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I guess to verify when you started. Has it always been in this footprint,

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like, so it's always been on
your family land? Yes? Okay,

256
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So I think that's probably a big
piece of it too. It's not

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like you were going out and trying
to get a lease. So it's like

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you had the land and you started
small with what you could afford to buy

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with putting all your personal savings and
money into it. Absolutely, and then

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and now I think to give listeners
context right for those that don't understand,

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right, Like the way any seasonal
business like this works, it's like you

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have to pay all your bills up
front because you have to pay for the

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construction costs and for makeup and for
you all that marketing, all that,

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and then you don't get money until
people buy tickets. Yeah, exactly.

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And then sometimes depending on your ticketing, some of the ticketing people hold the

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portion of that money until after the
ticket has been redeemed or after the event

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sell date. So some platforms will
hold on to some of your cash as

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well. So generally unts have to
get short term loans to cover that time

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period between when you have to start
putting in money and then time when you

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get your ticket sales in and they
have to go to bank and get all

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that stuff. So give context on
that. That's what when you said earlier,

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when you're like, you're like getting
loans and then and that's what it

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was terrifying each year, Yeah,
because then you don't know if you don't

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sell the tickets, you have all
these loans you have to pay back.

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And that's something that people don't see. And I know, of course,

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I'm not the only person in the
haunt industry that has experienced that. Almost

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every single successful haunt has done that. One thing I see, uh and

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in the industry is oftentimes I see
haunts who go for marketing first because they're

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chasing the money. I'm not calling
anyone out specifically, and I genuinely don't

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have any single haunt in mind on
that note. But that's one thing that

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I always told myself was I'm not
going to chase the money because I'm faith

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driven. I am a Christian.
That's just my personal belief but I've always

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had faith that if I do it
for the right reason, then the other

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stuff will come. And I really
try to keep it that way, because

285
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once you could say, once the
money does start coming, it can become

286
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hard to not make it about that. And for me, it's just this

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thing that I've got where I'm like, Nope, still going to put it

288
00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:26.480
all back into it because it's about
the show. That's what God is here,

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That's what will keep us going is
reinvesting, and that's what our customers

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are. Our customers are investing in
us. Right when our customers come here

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and they pay for an experience,
that's an investment, and that's their money.

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That's the way I look at it, and it's what are we going

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to do with their money? Are
we going to put it in our pockets

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and go buy a huge house and
this and that, or are we going

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to give them a better show and
that helps them, That helps the community,

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that helps the industry. And yeah, that's what we've always tried to

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do at the Kickree Haunts and so
long as I'm alive, Lord willing,

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and hopefully we will continue to do
that. Tell me about when did you

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get married? Twenty one but bought
a house and got married during the same

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year when I said, let's go
all in on Lake Kickree Haunts marketing,

301
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and how is it? How is
that going? Is it? Because you

302
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hear all the time about you still
as memes right where the Haunts where It's

303
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like you tell the wife, I'll
see you in November. That kind of

304
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a thing. Does Does your wife
work with you in the business or does

305
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she do something else? Yes,
she does work with us in the business.

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She is here right now. Actually, Morgan is my wife's name,

307
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and she manages the box office.
Okay, so she's our sales manager.

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She is also a nurse, so
she works night shift as a nurse during

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Hant season. She adjusts her schedule. She works in the critical care unit,

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so she works during Haunt season Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, sometimes Thursday,

311
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and then she gets off for the
weekend to be able to be here.

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And so it's pretty crazy for both
of us during season. Sure,

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yeah, but at least I think
that's a common thing we hear too,

314
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is at least your families together.
I'm not that's very It's just so tough

315
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running a show that consumes your whole
time, right, It is do you

316
00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:15.480
ever think about what you have sacrificed
to be able to do the Haunt?

317
00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:19.759
Oh? Yeah, yeah, I
sacrificed a lot, which you know,

318
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I don't want to come across in
a braggadocious way, right, But in

319
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my twenties. I'm twenty eight now, so I'm not thirty yet. But

320
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when I was twenty twenty one,
twenty two, twenty three, twenty four,

321
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my friends were going out partying.
I was at the Haunt working I

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had and my wife and I were
dating. Many of those years and lots

323
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of that time, it was insane
how much I worked. Okay, it

324
00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:51.240
was it was like seven days a
week, like fourteen to eighteen hours all

325
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year long, just because I wanted
to make the best show that could be

326
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made. And that was before there
was money for staff. And I lost

327
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a lot of lost a lot of
friends over that because I just didn't have

328
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time to be able to go and
be social. And then eventually it was

329
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like, okay, now things now
we have a team, Now things operate

330
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themselves better, and now it's just
a totally different world. It's hard to

331
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explain, but yeah, there was
so much sacrifice to get to this point.

332
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I could go on forever about it, but lots and lots, Yeah,

333
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I find it. It always is
like money is one thing, and

334
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you hear a lot of people talk
about the money. But I find for

335
00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:33.079
me when with my Haunt and for
the stuff that when I was a pro

336
00:23:33.160 --> 00:23:37.400
hunters, I feel like it's more
the time and the people. But yeah,

337
00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:40.119
and it's almost that you, like
a lot of hunters that you lose

338
00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:42.960
out on those moments to make friends
or you just yeah, and a lot

339
00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:45.799
of people just don't they don't get
it or they don't you have these relationships

340
00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:48.160
and they're like, what do you
mean You're not going to be available for

341
00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:52.960
three months? And then it's I
think that's why when you the Haunt family

342
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comes in because it's those people that
are there with you, so you just

343
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kind of you see them because they're
there working with you or acting with you

344
00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:00.880
or whatever. Yeah, and that
is that's true. It is a Haunt

345
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family. The people that are here. It's like a lot of times we

346
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have many different people, right.
We have people who you could say are

347
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redneck. We have people who you
could say are goth or hippie or every

348
00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.920
side of the spectrum. But the
Haunt brings everyone together, and that's a

349
00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:25.599
really awesome thing to see as well. When you're thinking about this whole journey

350
00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:29.119
that you've gone through since when you
were first starting at seventeen to where you

351
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are now almost your thirteenth year,
how much fit do you think was luck?

352
00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:37.440
And how much fit do you think
is hard work. That's a good

353
00:24:37.559 --> 00:24:41.799
question. Might have to take a
minute to think on that. Luck is

354
00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:51.960
when preparation meets opportunity, and opportunity
comes to those who look for it,

355
00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:59.319
and if you are prepared when the
opportunity comes, then that's what people call

356
00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:03.759
luck, and you can call it
luck. But the way I see it

357
00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:10.839
is every year from twenty twelve through
twenty twenty, I was putting everything in

358
00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:15.720
that I could not getting really anything
back, like pretty much given it all.

359
00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:21.359
Everything was going out, emotions,
time, sleep, everything you're just

360
00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:26.240
given and given and just trusting that
one day that will pay off. And

361
00:25:26.359 --> 00:25:29.359
for me, that was it,
just continuously doing it, and then in

362
00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:33.039
twenty twenty, in twenty twenty one, it's that's when the opportunity came.

363
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:38.480
And because I had been working NonStop, literally, I was prepared for that

364
00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:42.720
and everything just fell right into place. That way. So I would say,

365
00:25:44.039 --> 00:25:48.160
to be successful, you do need
luck, and you do need hard

366
00:25:48.200 --> 00:25:52.640
work, but don't worry about the
details. They'll take care of themselves because

367
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the only thing you can control is
how hard you work, and that is

368
00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:03.160
the one thing that differentiates anyone because
talent is one thing, skill is another

369
00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:07.880
thing. But the one thing that
you can affect no matter who you are,

370
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is how much you put in.
And that's when people aren't watching.

371
00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:15.400
That's when people just like you,
just like this channel, the Haunt of

372
00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:18.480
Attraction Network. You see all these
polished videos and all these followers and all

373
00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:22.920
this awesome stuff going on. I
know that you, Philip. I know

374
00:26:22.039 --> 00:26:26.599
that you put time in for years
and years and years before anything happened,

375
00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:30.119
and then people say, look how
lucky he is. No, it's not

376
00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:33.680
luck, it's hard work, and
then the opportunity comes. So I think

377
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:38.279
luck is a funny word. I
think. I don't want to offend anyone,

378
00:26:38.359 --> 00:26:41.759
but I think that luck is a
word that some people use to make

379
00:26:41.799 --> 00:26:45.480
themselves feel better. Yeah, yeah, I just it's an interesting thing I

380
00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:48.519
think about too, because on the
one hand, I think with both of

381
00:26:48.599 --> 00:26:51.640
us, you could say that we
were lucky in that when I did my

382
00:26:51.720 --> 00:26:55.720
haunt, and then after that,
I it's very similar around I could live

383
00:26:55.759 --> 00:26:57.279
with my parents, like I could
live with my family, so I could

384
00:26:57.319 --> 00:27:02.799
put some money into the haunt.
And even now I can be flexible.

385
00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:04.400
I have a flexible job, so
I can. So people could look at

386
00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:08.000
that and say it's luck, but
then I'm like also they also there's the

387
00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:14.920
working sixteen hours a day and literally
ignoring my friends for months, or just

388
00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:18.680
not having not being able to date
because there's no way there's It's one of

389
00:27:18.680 --> 00:27:21.920
those things where it's yeah, you
had, you know, just like me

390
00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:26.039
too with the family, but then
you had land that you could go on,

391
00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:27.319
so you don't have to find a
location. But on the other end,

392
00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:30.839
you had to make the location work. Right. If somebody's looking to

393
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:37.000
be successful, use what you have. And everybody's given different opportunities. Right,

394
00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:40.119
I'm not good at everything. I
can promise you that, right,

395
00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:42.519
But there's some things I'm good at
and I try to double down on my

396
00:27:42.599 --> 00:27:47.279
strengths. And I think, like
in school, and we could go on

397
00:27:47.400 --> 00:27:49.880
with this forever. But like in
school, they say they teach you to

398
00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:53.000
focus on your weaknesses. It's if
you're not good at math, get better

399
00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:56.440
at math. My philosophy is focus
on what you're good at. Ye.

400
00:27:56.799 --> 00:28:00.680
That's the kind of world we live
in. This is the twenty twenty three,

401
00:28:02.039 --> 00:28:03.960
no matter how it looks, this
is the best time to be alive

402
00:28:04.039 --> 00:28:11.079
ever, and there's opportunities everywhere,
especially with social media. So use what

403
00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:15.119
you have and use that to the
best of your ability and make the most

404
00:28:15.160 --> 00:28:18.440
of it and it will work.
Like you said, I was blessed with

405
00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:23.599
family Land, with the opportunity to
create an experience for people, a large

406
00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:27.039
show, but everybody's different. Yeah. The last question I have for you

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00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:30.240
to before we wrap up here is
we have a lot of younger listeners that

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00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:33.640
listen, and we get a lot
of people that write into the show and

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00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:37.359
they ask us like how do I
do this or whatever? What would you

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00:28:37.480 --> 00:28:41.640
tell somebody who is around your age
I think at that time, like thinking

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00:28:41.640 --> 00:28:45.880
of going to college or still in
high school and they want to do this.

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00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:48.920
But let's just say that it's somebody
you know, maybe they don't have

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00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:52.119
the land, or they don't have
the just a regular kid. What would

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00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:56.119
you tell a regular kid that wants
to do this? So if you mean

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00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:03.279
when people ask ask for advice.
I see that often where people on Facebook

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00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:06.519
or social media will say, hey, what should I do? Or can

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00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:10.759
you help me with getting started?
And this and that, And I say,

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00:29:10.839 --> 00:29:15.960
if you need reassurance to be told
that it's going to work for you,

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00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:21.279
don't do it because it's going to
become so hard at times that if

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00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:26.160
you don't love it, and if
you're not doing it because of the drive

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00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:30.160
that's within, you'll quit. If
you need somebody else's validation to follow your

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00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:36.599
dream, then just don't do it. But if you have this burning desire

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00:29:36.759 --> 00:29:41.519
that you want to make this thing
happen, then my suggestion is just make

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00:29:41.599 --> 00:29:45.440
up in your mind, come hell
or high water, I'm going to figure

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00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:48.759
it out. I'm going to learn
it. And the biggest thing is I'm

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00:29:48.759 --> 00:29:53.119
not going to quit. And that's
one quote from Babe Ruth baseball player that

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00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:59.480
sticks in my mind was he said, usually it's the person who refuses to

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00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:03.240
give up who wins. And I
think that's true. So if you want

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00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:06.319
to start your own thing, tell
yourself say I'm not going to quit,

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00:30:06.599 --> 00:30:10.519
and I'm going to learn. Use
Google, use YouTube, use the internet.

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00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:14.119
And if you get to talk to
somebody with experience. That's awesome.

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00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:18.920
Use that advice that helps save you
lots of hard knocks learning right. You

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00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:26.000
can read a book and it can
save you tons of experience. Life is

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00:30:26.039 --> 00:30:30.160
the best experience, teacher. But
if you can learn it, if you

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00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:33.960
can learn things with books and with
information on the internet, and learn things

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00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:37.480
the hard way, and you just
keep going, you will be successful.

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00:30:37.599 --> 00:30:41.680
If you just don't quit. Thank
you for listening to today's episode. If

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00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:45.160
you found today's episode insightful, please
share it with someone you know. Support

439
00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:48.759
for this episode comes from haunt Pay. Hont Pay is scary simple ticketing and

440
00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:55.160
payments made for your quantat attractions.
Find them at hauntpay dot com. Today's

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00:30:55.160 --> 00:30:59.960
episode was produced and edited by me
Philipernandez, with post production by David Swell

442
00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:04.079
and original music composed by Chris Thomas. We're counting down to Halloween with daily

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00:31:04.119 --> 00:31:08.200
podcasts, videos, and events in
our sixty one day Hauntathon. Follow along

444
00:31:08.200 --> 00:31:11.559
at the link in our show notes. Our Hantathon is made possible through generous

445
00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:17.039
support from Gantum Light and Controls.
Gantum illuminates attractions worldwide with the world's smallest

446
00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:21.799
intelligent spotlights. See what You're missing
with the free demo. Sign up at

447
00:31:21.880 --> 00:31:27.039
dantum dot com slash demo. That's
gantum dot com slash demo. Our Hantathon

448
00:31:27.240 --> 00:31:32.960
team includes Daryl Plunky, Emily Luis
Rua, Megan Spells, Gavin Burns and

449
00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:37.960
omni Adventures, and our content partners
for this year include Attractions Magazine, Creepy

450
00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:44.279
Kingdom, Freaks of Jgen, Hon
Topic Radio, Kevin Heimbach News TV,

451
00:31:44.680 --> 00:31:48.720
omni Adventures, Scare Track, Sharp
Productions, That Halloween Podcast, The Horror

452
00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:53.359
of Being, Emily The Scare Factor, and This Weekend with Nick Pelliochini.

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00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:57.119
The best way you can support us
as Halloween season is by sharing our Hauntathon

454
00:31:57.319 --> 00:32:00.519
with someone you think will enjoy it, and to follow along to our Honton

455
00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:06.880
sign up for our weekly newsletter at
Hantattraction Network dot com. We'll catch you

456
00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:13.839
back here tomorrow and every day until
Halloween until next time see Scary. This

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00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:16.240
is a Haunted Attraction Network production