Season 12 at Lake Hickory Haunts in Hickory, NC

0:08 Lake Kykree Haunts is celebrating its twelfth season, but getting here wasn't easy. That's coming up on today's show from the Haunted Attraction Network. I'm Philip and this is our sixty one day Haunted On, where we're counting down to Halloween by celebrating haunted houses daily via videos, podcasts, and VIP in person experiences. Since his podcast is only one part of our hand on, the best way to follow along is by subscribing to our newsletter or by checking our website at Haunted Attraction Network dot com. Spanning thirty acres and thirteen attractions, Lake Kkree Haunts has grown into a full screen park in Hickory, North Carolina, but it's been quite the Jerry. The owner, Ryan Settlemeyer, started the Haunt at seventeen and threw himself completely into it, even dropping out of college and leaning heavily on the support of family to do it. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We'll hear about all of it today. Support for this episode comes from Haunt Pay. Their support allowed me to go out and speak with Ryan. We also made a full video walkthrough of Lake Kickrehants. If you're curious about what we're talking about, and that is linked in the show notes. Haunt Pay is scary simple ticketing and payments made for your Haunt attractions.

1:17 Check them out at hauntpay dot com. Okay, now here's Ryan and I speaking in person at Lake Kickrihants. My name is Ryan Settlemeyer. I'm the owner and director of operations at Lake Kickreehants. I've been doing this my entire adult life. It's been my full time job since I was seventeen years old. Lake Kickree Hants is my life. So we have thirteen attractions that all guests experience. So all of those attractions are included with admission, whether it's genero admission VIP FastPass. We're an indoor outdoor attraction with a unique setting that features water, so as you're walking through the attractions, you walk around water and across the water and then along the lake. Lake Kirckree Haunts was started back in twenty twelve and then since then. This is our twelfth season in twenty twenty three, so every year we've grown it as much as possible.

2:08 You arrive and you enter into the Midway of Mayhem, which has the photo ops. It's a dj it looks like a nice hangout place to be in. Yep, Yep, and then you'll go down to the ghost Town before you enter the queue, and the attractions are all in a linear pathway. That's right, So our midway we have, of course concessions. We have six midway attractions. Those are an additional ticket, most of them are five dollars a piece. Summer ten, we have the four D Asylum Experience, which is a simulator. We have Buried Alive coffin rides. We have a many escape room. We have Dracula's Dizzy Darts, which is a custom made game that we made back in twenty twelve that you will get to see tonight. We also have ax Thirring and the Monster Mash. And for our VIP customers, we offer a VIP Lounge on our Midway, so that's an exclusive area where only VIP pass holders can go. Then the ghost Town is an attraction in its own as well. That's a transition between the Midway and the beginning of the real scary stuff, if that makes sense. So the ghost Town is you could call it like a scare zone, and then like you said, Nightmare Factory all the way through Mangler at the end all of those attractions, it's NonStop scares all the way through. Can you give us a rough estimate of the square footage of everything altogether? So square not square footage, I could say we're operating on about thirty acres of land total that includes our parking. We have lots more room to grow though, So total

3:43 we've got seventy five plus acres and we're utilizing less than fifty percent right now and we plan to continue to grow. Yeah, how long does it take somebody on average to get through the attractions once they start at the night? Are factory on average between forty five and fifty five minutes? It all depends on the night and the group. Big Top is new for this year. Can you tell me about that? So the Big Top Circus features three buildings within it, So you could say the Big Top Circus has three attractions in its own, but we just call it one. So each of those buildings are about one thousand square feet, so you've got over three thousand square feet there in the Big Top Circus alone. We have one attraction there, which is the Freak Show, one that is the fun House, and one that is Boss the Clown's top secret laboratory. So the idea is, and this is a good snippet of behind the scenes how our creation of the attractions goes.

4:42 So you could say, you go into the Big Top Circus and there's this freak show, right, and for some reason people are attracted to freak shows. They like it, right, So that draws people into the Big Top Circus. Then you go through the funhouse after the freak show, and the funhouse is like candy Land's the best way I could describe it, and it's amazing. It's where the clowns are overloaded on sugar, just pure pleasure. Right. And then Boss the Clowns laboratory is right after the fun House, so it's like you've been tricked. Now you're in Boss's laboratory. And Boss the Clown's goal is to turn the humans into clowns so that he can take over the world. That's Boss the Clown's backstory and our clowns story as a whole, So our circus attraction has always been different. Boss the Clown is also the character that I played originally created back in twenty thirteen. I played that character through twenty seventeen, I believe, and then I had to pass it on because it's just too hard to manage this many people and everything with a mass boss the clown lives on though we actually have multiple boss the clowns throughout the Haunt. But anyways, so that's the new big Top Circus.

5:50 Well, that's exciting. And you also mentioned Aquaphobia as being a pretty unique one for you guys. Yep. So Aquaphobia we created back in twenty twenty. And as we are on the water, that is the on the water attraction. While you'll go across the water and buy the water throughout other attractions, Aquaphobia you walk across a floating dock out across the water and then you go into this abandoned fishing village and then it's just it's hard to explain. You have to see it for yourself, but it's the city of Aquaphobia was sunk and flooded years ago. The backstory is back in nineteen thirty one, this fishing village was doing very well. It was prosperous. The people living in the village were just trying to make as much money as they can, fishing too much, basically killing all the fish. And then this water demon came from the depths of the water and flooded the village. And then now one hundred years later, that village has risen from the depths of the water and now all of those fish creatures, sharks, krakens, all anything water you could imagine is back to get you. And our center character of aquaphobia is body Annoy. Body Anoi is a creature that looks like an anglerfish mixed with a piranha, and he's a really unique character as well. So it sounds like you use the asset that you have, which is the water that you have naturally here, you're incorporating that into some of these attractions when there's water around, right, yep, that's a great point. That is

7:23 one thing that truly we've always tried to do here is utilize the lay of our land and to highlight what is natural for us, because again that's what makes it unique and for me on a personal level, it's family land, so it's a heritage thing, right, and it's we want to make this the coolest it can be and have people come from all over and enjoy it. We do have an overlook as well. The overlook is between the Midway and ghost Town and that's a really cool spot that you'll see where you can oversee almost the entire Haunt, and the Haunt is way down in this hollow and you're up here on this overlook and you can see all the attractions you're about to go through. And our attractions are also different levels because of the fact that we have water, So where Aquaphobia is, it's down here on this level, and then where Voodoo and Slaughterhouse descent or they're up a level.

8:18 And then you go up to Nightmare Factory layer of the Undead Big Top Circus, they're up higher. Then you go to ghost Town and then Midway and then up here at the box Office. So it's like the further you get into the Haunt, the further down you are and the further away from safety quote unquote right, that's the feeling. So it's a I think you'll see it's a very unique atmosphere overall excellent. So you're playing with levels as well, Like you mentioned the descent, you're going down, so you're playing with that. Assume people people can feel that when they're going up and down the elevation like that, even though it's it's not like one thousand feet it's but you can still feel it pressure. Yeah, that's excellent. Let's let's talk a little bit about the founding. You mentioned that it was that it's a family property and that you started that it became your full time when you were seventeen, But before that, what were you doing haunting? How did you start? The way that I started was my dad, Scott. He was acting in the Hudson Jc's Haunted House back in the eighties, right, so the volunteer Jc's Haunted House, and he got into it when he was sixteen years old. That's back when it was black plastic on the walls.

9:28 And then when my dad was older and I was a bit older, I was probably I was seven or eight seven, and we did a volunteer haunted trail at our house where we donated the money to someone with cancer, and we did that for a couple of years, and we just did it for the fun of it, right, And then I just had always had this dream of making this a full time job, and many family members, lots of people said you can't do that, and of course that destrobed me even more to do. So I worked one regular job, which was waffle house. That's the only real job I've had, and then I was like, Nope, gonna stick to haunting. And my favorite part about what we do is creating an immersive atmosphere for people to enjoy. And I was also inspired by Disney World, as I'm sure many people are. When I went to Disney as a child, it was really weird because like, my whole family was having a fun time, and I was having fun too, but like I was noticing weird things. I was like, this bathroom looks cool.

10:31 This is just the bathroom, and so then I was like, it would be really cool to create those immersive atmospheres. So then when people come to Lake Hickory Haunts, my goal is our goal is to allow people to forget about all their everyday lives, and especially nowadays with social media and the way information travels, there's so much stress sometimes with families with relationships. So when those people come here, at least during that time, the goal is to make have them forget about all of those problems, and then when they leave, they're happy, they're closer with each other, and it's really serving that overall larger purpose of just bringing people together having a fun time, feeling alive and that's our goal. So I think I got a little off track there, but so it sounds like you you got into it a little bit like inspired by your dad, right or you and your dad, Yes, we were you and your dad close. It was that thing where you're like, oh, this is so cool that we're doing this. Yes, absolutely, that was something that my dad and I were were brought together by. And my dad and I have always had a close relationship. My dad has a construction background. He actually teaches masonry at a high school. That makes sense, but he was a general contractor. So my dad introduced me to building, learning how to build and all of that, and of course that was a huge help in getting started with haunting. Yeah, I was gonna say, because it's there's so many there's so many skills you need to have because it's a small business. But it's also a construction, a challenge, and

12:03 a show and a show. Yeah, there's the entertaining. There's a lot of skills to have to it. When you think about that, like, how do you think that you acquired those skills or you had the construction from your dad obviously, and then maybe did he also give you some of the business advice or where'd you pick up all these skills? So waffle house not waffle house, that's for sure. It taught me some things, but most of it has just been learned the hard way. I me personally, I don't think that college is necessary for most fields. Some fields it's necessary. The best way to learn is to just go do it. And for me, I just knew and I set my mind and I said, you know what, I'm going to do this, come hell or high water, and I'm going to learn how to do it. And I can tell you a story. For example, it was back years ago I didn't know how to wire anything. So I was like, I'm going to learn how to wire lights. So I got a power supply and it probably took me two hours to wire up one light. Right now, I mean, it's such a simple thing that we all the time. Now we have a team. But all of these skills, whether it be marketing, building, leading, it's all come from the experience of operating lea kickrehunts, learning the hard way, doing it wrong, figuring out how to do it right. And yeah, it's just been just been learning the hard way. Yeah, so you didn't go to school for like entrepreneurship bringing. So I did. I did go to school for entrepreneurship and accounting, and I was one semester away from graduating,

13:35 and I decided to drop out because I thought to myself, why am I doing this? Why am I going to college? And I said, I'm doing it because other people want me to. Family members want me to. And then I said, you know what, I'm just gonna not do it because I don't want a backup plan. I just want to go all in on Lake Kickree haunts. And so I basically said, all right, no other backup plan. College isn't a backup plan. Let's go all into Lake yorckreehunts. So I do have some education experience, but it's so funny but now looking back, but I did purposefully quit college just so I could tell myself, I'm going to do this without a college degree, to show people that it can be done. Was that your thought at the time or at the time, because in my brain, I'm thinking, Okay, you are seven teams when you started doing it, but that's before the college, right, So basically you were trying to run a professional hunt and be a college exactly. So I was in class it sounds like too much. Yeah, right, And I was doing social media and then having to leave class and go get ready, and then I had homework, and yes, that absolutely added to it. And I was like, this is too much.

14:46 I need to go all in on this thing because that's what I'm passionate about. I'm passionate about lake kickkreehuants. I care about it. I think it helps a lot of people. I think that it helps our community, and I truly believe that. For me, it's about putting it all into one thing and then that one thing can do the best that it can do for others. Yeah, how did your family take it? When you're like, I'm going to drop out to make this thing happen. So I have divorced parents. I have great relationships with both of my parents. One half of my family you could say, is more focused on education. The other half is more focused on trade. So one half of the family was supportive of it and the other half was not. So it's a funny situation, but my background, I do have a I see it as a blessing having diversified family. It's really been a benefit in business. Yeah, tell me how it worked financially? Because I would say most haunts, I'm not going to say he blessed me about the Haunting Street. I tell them haunts are like restaurants, except harder. It's a heavy capital investment, and you lose money every time you turn on the lights and you have your cast. You have so many temporary workers that coming out, and there's so many challenges with it.

16:04 And most haunts I know are not cash flow positive for like for five years plus. And I'm just like, this dude, drop. This dude starts his hunt at seventeen, but he's also paying for college, but he's also trying to run a haunt. How did that? Like, how could you possibly make that work? So I literally I lived in my dad's house until I was twenty three, got and I did that on purpose to be able to put everything back into the Haunt. The first year, we charged thirteen dollars a ticket. It was what we could come up with as far as the experience. We did what we could, and we started small with advertising. That was one strategy that I don't know why. I couldn't tell you why, but I just had this feeling. I was like, the show's not as good as it will be one day and that was the opening year, right, And the next year, I said, it's better now, so let's advertise a bit more. And then over the years I advertised a bit more, and then there was one point where it came, which was twenty twenty one, where many of the visions that I had had planned for years had finally came together. In twenty twenty one, I said, all right, now let's market it, because now if people come, we are going to give them the experience they're looking forward, no matter where they're coming from. But every single year we put every single dollar and more, I mean you so much stress every year because literally running out of money in early summer, late spring, and then the rest of the year going unborrowed

17:36 money, and then halfway through season before we even break even, and then at the end we barely pay bills and then do it again. And that's one thing that for me, I'm okay with risk, which is easy when you're single and you're young and you're living with your parents. So then when you get older and now I'm married, that's when the stress becomes a bit more because not only my family is depending on me, but also employees. We have full time employees, so now it's not just me, so that risk balance is something that's a challenge for me now that I'm learning to work with. Yeah, you could say, yeah it it sounds like you, I guess to verify when you started. Has it always been in this footprint, like, so it's always been on your family land? Yes? Okay, So I think that's probably a big piece of it too. It's not like you were going out and trying to get a lease. So it's like you had the land and you started small with what you could afford to buy with putting all your personal savings and money into it. Absolutely, and then and now I think to give listeners context right for those that don't understand, right, Like the way any seasonal business like this works, it's like you have to pay all your bills up front because you have to pay for the construction costs and for makeup and for you all that marketing, all that, and then you don't get money until people buy tickets. Yeah, exactly.

18:56 And then sometimes depending on your ticketing, some of the ticketing people hold the portion of that money until after the ticket has been redeemed or after the event sell date. So some platforms will hold on to some of your cash as well. So generally unts have to get short term loans to cover that time period between when you have to start putting in money and then time when you get your ticket sales in and they have to go to bank and get all that stuff. So give context on that. That's what when you said earlier, when you're like, you're like getting loans and then and that's what it was terrifying each year, Yeah, because then you don't know if you don't sell the tickets, you have all these loans you have to pay back. And that's something that people don't see. And I know, of course, I'm not the only person in the haunt industry that has experienced that. Almost every single successful haunt has done that. One thing I see, uh and in the industry is oftentimes I see haunts who go for marketing first because they're chasing the money. I'm not calling anyone out specifically, and I genuinely don't have any single haunt in mind on that note. But that's one thing that I always told myself was I'm not going to chase the money because I'm faith driven. I am a Christian. That's just my personal belief but I've always had faith that if I do it for the right reason, then the other stuff will come. And I really try to keep it that way, because once you could say, once the money does start coming, it can become hard to not make it about that. And for me, it's just this thing that I've got where I'm like, Nope, still going to put it all back into it because it's about the show. That's what God is here,

20:26 That's what will keep us going is reinvesting, and that's what our customers are. Our customers are investing in us. Right when our customers come here and they pay for an experience, that's an investment, and that's their money. That's the way I look at it, and it's what are we going to do with their money? Are we going to put it in our pockets and go buy a huge house and this and that, or are we going to give them a better show and that helps them, That helps the community, that helps the industry. And yeah, that's what we've always tried to do at the Kickree Haunts and so long as I'm alive, Lord willing, and hopefully we will continue to do that. Tell me about when did you get married? Twenty one but bought a house and got married during the same year when I said, let's go all in on Lake Kickree Haunts marketing, and how is it? How is that going? Is it? Because you hear all the time about you still as memes right where the Haunts where It's like you tell the wife, I'll see you in November. That kind of a thing. Does Does your wife work with you in the business or does she do something else? Yes, she does work with us in the business.

21:30 She is here right now. Actually, Morgan is my wife's name, and she manages the box office. Okay, so she's our sales manager. She is also a nurse, so she works night shift as a nurse during Hant season. She adjusts her schedule. She works in the critical care unit, so she works during Haunt season Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, sometimes Thursday, and then she gets off for the weekend to be able to be here. And so it's pretty crazy for both of us during season. Sure, yeah, but at least I think that's a common thing we hear too, is at least your families together. I'm not that's very It's just so tough running a show that consumes your whole time, right, It is do you ever think about what you have sacrificed to be able to do the Haunt?

22:15 Oh? Yeah, yeah, I sacrificed a lot, which you know, I don't want to come across in a braggadocious way, right, But in my twenties. I'm twenty eight now, so I'm not thirty yet. But when I was twenty twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, my friends were going out partying. I was at the Haunt working I had and my wife and I were dating. Many of those years and lots of that time, it was insane how much I worked. Okay, it was it was like seven days a week, like fourteen to eighteen hours all year long, just because I wanted to make the best show that could be made. And that was before there was money for staff. And I lost a lot of lost a lot of friends over that because I just didn't have time to be able to go and be social. And then eventually it was like, okay, now things now we have a team, Now things operate themselves better, and now it's just a totally different world. It's hard to explain, but yeah, there was so much sacrifice to get to this point.

23:18 I could go on forever about it, but lots and lots, Yeah, I find it. It always is like money is one thing, and you hear a lot of people talk about the money. But I find for me when with my Haunt and for the stuff that when I was a pro hunters, I feel like it's more the time and the people. But yeah, and it's almost that you, like a lot of hunters that you lose out on those moments to make friends or you just yeah, and a lot of people just don't they don't get it or they don't you have these relationships and they're like, what do you mean You're not going to be available for three months? And then it's I think that's why when you the Haunt family comes in because it's those people that are there with you, so you just kind of you see them because they're there working with you or acting with you or whatever. Yeah, and that is that's true. It is a Haunt family. The people that are here. It's like a lot of times we have many different people, right. We have people who you could say are redneck. We have people who you could say are goth or hippie or every side of the spectrum. But the Haunt brings everyone together, and that's a really awesome thing to see as well. When you're thinking about this whole journey that you've gone through since when you were first starting at seventeen to where you are now almost your thirteenth year, how much fit do you think was luck?

24:33 And how much fit do you think is hard work. That's a good question. Might have to take a minute to think on that. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and opportunity comes to those who look for it, and if you are prepared when the opportunity comes, then that's what people call luck, and you can call it luck. But the way I see it is every year from twenty twelve through twenty twenty, I was putting everything in that I could not getting really anything back, like pretty much given it all.

25:15 Everything was going out, emotions, time, sleep, everything you're just given and given and just trusting that one day that will pay off. And for me, that was it, just continuously doing it, and then in twenty twenty, in twenty twenty one, it's that's when the opportunity came. And because I had been working NonStop, literally, I was prepared for that and everything just fell right into place. That way. So I would say, to be successful, you do need luck, and you do need hard work, but don't worry about the details. They'll take care of themselves because the only thing you can control is how hard you work, and that is the one thing that differentiates anyone because talent is one thing, skill is another thing. But the one thing that you can affect no matter who you are, is how much you put in. And that's when people aren't watching.

26:11 That's when people just like you, just like this channel, the Haunt of Attraction Network. You see all these polished videos and all these followers and all this awesome stuff going on. I know that you, Philip. I know that you put time in for years and years and years before anything happened, and then people say, look how lucky he is. No, it's not luck, it's hard work, and then the opportunity comes. So I think luck is a funny word. I think. I don't want to offend anyone, but I think that luck is a word that some people use to make themselves feel better. Yeah, yeah, I just it's an interesting thing I think about too, because on the one hand, I think with both of us, you could say that we were lucky in that when I did my haunt, and then after that, I it's very similar around I could live with my parents, like I could live with my family, so I could put some money into the haunt. And even now I can be flexible.

27:02 I have a flexible job, so I can. So people could look at that and say it's luck, but then I'm like also they also there's the working sixteen hours a day and literally ignoring my friends for months, or just not having not being able to date because there's no way there's It's one of those things where it's yeah, you had, you know, just like me too with the family, but then you had land that you could go on, so you don't have to find a location. But on the other end, you had to make the location work. Right. If somebody's looking to be successful, use what you have. And everybody's given different opportunities. Right, I'm not good at everything. I can promise you that, right, But there's some things I'm good at and I try to double down on my strengths. And I think, like in school, and we could go on with this forever. But like in school, they say they teach you to focus on your weaknesses. It's if you're not good at math, get better at math. My philosophy is focus on what you're good at. Ye.

27:56 That's the kind of world we live in. This is the twenty twenty three, no matter how it looks, this is the best time to be alive ever, and there's opportunities everywhere, especially with social media. So use what you have and use that to the best of your ability and make the most of it and it will work. Like you said, I was blessed with family Land, with the opportunity to create an experience for people, a large show, but everybody's different. Yeah. The last question I have for you to before we wrap up here is we have a lot of younger listeners that listen, and we get a lot of people that write into the show and they ask us like how do I do this or whatever? What would you tell somebody who is around your age I think at that time, like thinking of going to college or still in high school and they want to do this.

28:45 But let's just say that it's somebody you know, maybe they don't have the land, or they don't have the just a regular kid. What would you tell a regular kid that wants to do this? So if you mean when people ask ask for advice. I see that often where people on Facebook or social media will say, hey, what should I do? Or can you help me with getting started? And this and that, And I say, if you need reassurance to be told that it's going to work for you, don't do it because it's going to become so hard at times that if you don't love it, and if you're not doing it because of the drive that's within, you'll quit. If you need somebody else's validation to follow your dream, then just don't do it. But if you have this burning desire that you want to make this thing happen, then my suggestion is just make up in your mind, come hell or high water, I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to learn it. And the biggest thing is I'm not going to quit. And that's one quote from Babe Ruth baseball player that sticks in my mind was he said, usually it's the person who refuses to give up who wins. And I think that's true. So if you want to start your own thing, tell yourself say I'm not going to quit, and I'm going to learn. Use Google, use YouTube, use the internet.

30:10 And if you get to talk to somebody with experience. That's awesome. Use that advice that helps save you lots of hard knocks learning right. You can read a book and it can save you tons of experience. Life is the best experience, teacher. But if you can learn it, if you can learn things with books and with information on the internet, and learn things the hard way, and you just keep going, you will be successful. If you just don't quit. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you found today's episode insightful, please share it with someone you know. Support for this episode comes from haunt Pay. Hont Pay is scary simple ticketing and payments made for your quantat attractions. Find them at hauntpay dot com. Today's episode was produced and edited by me Philipernandez, with post production by David Swell and original music composed by Chris Thomas. We're counting down to Halloween with daily podcasts, videos, and events in our sixty one day Hauntathon. Follow along at the link in our show notes. Our Hantathon is made possible through generous support from Gantum Light and Controls. Gantum illuminates attractions worldwide with the world's smallest intelligent spotlights. See what You're missing with the free demo. Sign up at dantum dot com slash demo. That's gantum dot com slash demo. Our Hantathon team includes Daryl Plunky, Emily Luis Rua, Megan Spells, Gavin Burns and omni Adventures, and our content partners for this year include Attractions Magazine, Creepy Kingdom, Freaks of Jgen, Hon Topic Radio, Kevin Heimbach News TV,

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