Episode 91-Happy New Year with Robert Nulton

Music. Is haunting you i'm john shelf i'm keone hutton and i'm leslie reed happy new year everyone and welcome back to the haunting you podcast oh my gosh i'm you know i'm saying happy new year but i recognize that it's february and we're like a month behind but we're a month behind so i haven't got to say it to you yet so i'm sticking with it it is it is in fact happy new year welcome to 2025, Oh, my gosh. 2024 was chaos.

Les, you okay? Have you recovered? I am recovering happy in my new role. So yes, we are making good progress there. You're a recovering 2024-er. Yes. 2024-ic. Something like that. 2024-ic. 24-aught. Exactly. Exactly. Well, we are finally kind of settling into, I'm going to call it normalcy or something like that. You all know what our 2024 was like. I'm not going to get into it. We have found a steady state and things are starting to get back to normal.

And so we are determined to make an effort to get back to normal on the podcast as well.

And as part of that, we have welcomed back our favorite sponsor from the Chamber of Haunters, the president of the chamber of haunters mr robert knowlton is back with us for a special chambers corner. To tell us all about what the chamber of haunters has going on for 2025 so rob welcome back to the podcast, Thank you. It's good to be back. We are so excited to have you back. Let's start by talking a little bit about 2024. Tell us about your season. What have you heard from the industry?

How did things shake out for you last Halloween? Oh, well, as you said, I'm a recovery 2024. I'm still recovery. Yeah, I mean, the season was definitely not what we expected.

That i mean we my haunt like i said it's hidden screams haunt attraction lewistown pennsylvania, i've been in operation for five years now but but at the current location only two this is our second year yeah and last year we did we did really well but this year it was it was rough and we didn't expect that because we had a we had a lot of good publicity i mean word of mouth but i mean a lot of publicity from all the people

that had come through everybody seemed to like it they loved that we were there providing more entertainment because the area just doesn't have a whole lot of entertainment there's not a lot to do so for us to really be able to bring that to the area made a huge difference but we hope we decided this past season we i talked with a couple plan owner friends and we were talking about you know the difference between just being open in

october which is what we were last year versus this past season where we're like hey we're going to open in September. Say open until November, get, you know, a couple extra weeks in. Cause I thought, well, man, if we did as well as we did in October, if we would have been open a little longer, we may have had more people. So that was the theory behind, instead of being open for, you know, you know, two, four, six, I think it was eight nights last year.

We opened for 12 this year and we had less people come through this year in 12 nights that we did. Oh, that's so frustrating. Yeah. And it was like, and I, and honestly, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I know the economy was a factor. I mean, heck, everybody we talked to and we did up our price because once again, we, we ended up putting a lot of money into some renovations and trying to make it bigger and better.

Yeah. So, I mean, overall, it was not the kind of show that we were looking for in 2025.

Four but i mean we're excited for 2025 and we had we had our right afterward we had a christmas show which is the first time we did that um last year we had two off-season shows this year we have four going on yeah the christmas one we had a it was silent fright a crampus christmas story we had a huge turn we were busy from 10 minutes before we opened we had a line of like 30 40 people out the door and we were busy non-stop until 9 10 9 15 when we closed three hours later i

mean it was a steady stream all night long i mean from from other haunters from other areas that want to come check us out to just fans we had colleges come out i mean it was insane we had tons of people i mean from hours away coming to see our show so i mean it was phenomenal i'm super curious how does the the number of patrons you get on a special event night like this compared to a normal night during haunt season like are you getting more people because you've got a one

night show that's super special no one else is doing anything does that increase the the number of people you're seeing or is it relatively comparable i mean if i don't know if we could compare it to haunt season itself.

Only because like i said i mean it's tricky because like for constantly you need to be open you know multiple nights to get the numbers and the finances you need to run the haunt sure but yes i mean when you're looking at the way i try to compare it is we so last year we put it this way i compared it more to our offseason events last year even though this year we're gonna have four last year we had two the difference with last year last year we didn't do so with our offseason events which

it was here nor there you know that's not our main money maker it's the haunt season so it wasn't a big concern that's just like extra money to help do upgrades and renovations get caught doing stuff like that but we did notice a new trend which is something i was trying out and it seemed to have it seems to have worked i many of my staff were like hey we should do two nights i'm like no because we were i mean even though yes we're we're

there in the building year round it's like i feel like if we push them to one night we'll have better success because what ends up happening is so you say you're open friday and saturday. A lot of people are like, well, I worked today. I'm tired. We'll go tomorrow. But then you get busy on Saturday, you forget about it. And then Sunday rolls around, you're like, oh, crap, I forgot to go Friday and Saturday. And you're like, well, they'll have an event in two or three months.

We'll go to that one instead, you know. And but the same process happens at every show, you know. Yeah. And maybe not with the same person, but, you know, people are doing the same thing. I'm not saying everybody's doing that, you know. but i did notice that when i compared the christmas show with our halfway to halloween show last may and our and our curse of leprechaun show last last march almost a year ago.

And two nights we didn't even compare to the one night in december i mean we had more in one night than we did in either the two night events that we had in the off season last year yeah and actually even during the haunt season we had more in one night during our off-season event making a one night only show than we did even throughout all of october and november and september i mean wow we had more people in that one yeah i mean it was insane so i think

having those one night only events is more advantageous just because you're forcing them like this is it it's a one night only event you don't make this one you're not seeing it again for a year because every off-season show is different we we try to be unique in what we do so let me share this real quick not take too much time but i but this is something that we have found unique for us and i'm sure there's other haunts

that do it but i i i haven't heard other people doing it the same way so but now i'm putting the secret out there so someone's gonna get you know as haunters we're gonna copy you know we all do it i've done it everybody does and i guess it's a serious form of flattery so it's all right it's right i'm doing it right someone's gonna take it.

What we try to do, so when you go to most off-season events, you know, whatever haunt is open, you know, and we're all trying to break into this year-round industry. We're trying to find holidays where we can pick up and make it work, you know, and that's a great thing. We're doing it, too. But the one thing I noticed before we would do it, when I'd go visit these other, my friends who own haunts all over, and I'd visit them, great shows.

I love them, but I'm a haunt enthusiast. Like I can go year round and have fun, but your average customer isn't going to, because this is the thing. They're going to see a similar show to what they see in October, because most people don't change the show. I mean, it's the same show, but you put some Christmas lights up. You've dressed some of them in elf costume, but the rest of the show and scenes of decor is the same as you saw in October.

If you get my drift. I mean, I'm not judging. I'm just saying that's what you're getting. You're getting the October season show just with some little decorations of, you know, leprechaun stuff here, Christmas stuff there, Valentine's stuff there. But it's the same show. You're not really changing anything. And granted, we don't change our sets and scenes either. But what we do to make it unique so when they come back every time, they're not like, oh, I saw that in February and Christmas time.

I don't need to see it in March and May and then in October. So all our off-season events are interactive meaning there's a purpose to it like so for example christmas they had to escape krampus like literally escape krampus you know that was the whole theme of the thing and so they're doing different things to escape krampus.

Whenever they do our valentine's day show it's a murder mystery style so it's a walk through murder mystery they're solving a murder mystery while they're going through so there's going to be clues throughout trying to figure out who did it, and if they win, the winners will get, a certain percentage off tickets for the for another show and we also have a gift raffle from our sponsors like we have like seven or eight sponsors that sponsor our show they're all

pitching in you know giving us whether it's you know discount tickets free admission to movies prizes you know food different things so i mean one person's going to win this really nice huge you know gift basket at the end so and everybody that comes through has a chance to win this prize and that's all thanks like i said all all the all the stuff is thanks to my wonderful staff that i have i mean i i have an amazing staff i can't be more grateful you know i have stacy,

gabby you know britney's come on board you know we have dan is right or our manager of the haunt you know there's so many people you know it's like you know trevor's our security guy i can name them all kevin and you know there's i mean like i said it would take me an hour to go through all our staff that are wonderful you know but just you know our managers even you know maya has done her makeup she's done a fantastic job you know getting

that together and keeping everything organized it's just it's been fantastic to work with so many great people.

So i'm grateful for them because without them i couldn't i couldn't have the show that we have now i mean it's i've i've gotten it started but they're the ones that carry the vision even farther so i'm grateful but like i said you know going back to the february thing you know like i said murder mystery style so they're having to solve a mystery and and they get prizes and everything and in march the same kind of thing we did last year everybody gets flag football belts.

And there's coins on them and you have to survive the leprechauns going around trying to take them and you know so i mean if you come out yeah so if you come out with you know with any coins intact you kept your soul if your coins are gone they've taken your soul so i mean very interactive you know you're doing things you know the halfway to halloween show we usually put letters spread out throughout the haunt you know on on on stickers

but they're big stickers and they have to take a paper around and solve the riddle to find out because our halfway to halloween show introduces our october show it's that's the way we do our half way that always introduces the theme for october because from there we're building the rest of the year we're getting the next show ready so that show is specifically designed to introduce any new characters for the for the haunt season or the new theme itself like so that's what it's designed for so

they do almost like a scavenger hunt with letters trying to figure out so they'll get these jumbled letters they're trying to figure out what it is if they if those who do they get a prize as well but like i said they are essentially helping us roll out our show as the customers it's not just us going out there and announcing well this is our show here's our our new characters like. They're the ones rolling it out to the public through their attendance. I like that a lot.

Yeah, so it's just, our belief is like, I want them to come to every show. So when they get to October, they're not like, oh, I saw that show in December and February and March and May. And they're like, why do I go to October if I'm seeing the same show four times before? So we want to make it so when they come back, while we can't always change the sets and scenes, we get that. But you can make the show unique still, even with that. And that's why we do

what we do in the offseason. So that way, October is simply for scaring. Come get your scare on. But in the offseason, we're going to be more interactive and have a little more fun with you. So I think you're going to spend a little more time in the haunt than you would, you know, in October. Because we're just there to, you know, scare the bejesus out of you and get you out. We're being honest. That sounds phenomenal. And now that I'm back in Maryland, I really want to

come up and see it. Where are you located again? So it's Lewistown, Pennsylvania. so we're we're just 30 minutes south west state college if you know where penn state is we're just 30 minutes southwest of there so it's it's 19 south brown street sorry three that you're three and a half hours for me like that's doable that's a weekend yeah i mean it's really not far i mean heck come on up see the haunt and i'll show you some good places around i like it i like it we got some good

places less i think i stepped on you what were you gonna say oh sorry well oh Oh yeah, I was going to say, it's also a really, really great way to...

Build some ownership in for your community for the customers like we're there because they're announcing what your next theme is because they're doing all of that they have some ownership and like i was part of that instead of just i was a person i instead of being just an audience member they become a participant and that gives them it's a nice thing and a nice way to kind of build that repeat clientele yeah seriously right and that's our whole point i mean we want people

to keep coming back but we don't want to come back saying oh i saw that show five times over like i want them to come every time and say wow you know how do you because i've had people ask like how do you change up your show like that and the funny part is like.

They don't realize we haven't changed the sets and scenes i mean yeah we do we dress it up well enough that it looks like we do but i mean we don't tear down walls and put new ones up you know we're just dressing things up well enough to make it look like we've done that but i get people all the time they're asking like how did you you how'd you make that look so christmasy i'm like well we busted our butts for you know months and a week you know to get that to happen uh i've heard not flicking

switches yeah yeah exactly i've heard that before with haunts that do like a blackout night where people will come go through the regular show and then they come to a lights off show and they're amazed like how did you make it so where up it will swear up and down that it's a completely different show and nothing's changed except they turned off all the lights that that happened to us because we we did that last year but we did for one night only yeah yeah exactly so we we did this year for two

nights and it's like we got the same response we got people like hey like i swear like i'm going through different places and i didn't go those days before and i'm like no you did you did you didn't realize it but you did because i mean so one thing we had that was new for this year was a swinging door that was a moving wall. So I built this eight by eight foot.

Moving door slash wall and i built by myself at the time and that was not fun i'll tell you if you ever want to build an eight by eight foot wall slash.

Moving door yeah have some people with you because doing it by yourself is definitely not a fun adventure okay it's not it's not my my definition of a fun night so we i i was one night i wanted to i thought about this for the last year before i built it i was like i really want to have like a moving wall where i can have them go down one path move the wall and now it's changing like i just went that way and so during the haunt season i had this wall that literally as they would

go through i changed the one entryway they would go through they push through one way come back into our manor and be greeted by the same person who just pushed them through and you know we sometimes we'd have them go through that same path like two or three times just to play with them we're like hey like you're supposed to go that way and they're like we just did but it brought us back and we're putting them through again and they'll come back and they're like okay we're

going the wrong way we must have missed the door but so they'll go through the third time they're feeling the walls you know they're like there's gotta be a trick doors here and there is but it's the wall right there where they first went in they don't realize it so like then by the third point when they're going around like we quickly move the wall they come back and we're like go back through and they're like we just did three times they're like there's no door back there we're like just

go and then they're like they're like looking around they're like.

I swear we went through here three times and they were you know they're not they're not getting it it's like we totally moved the wall and they have no clue and it's just it was the funniest thing i'd love to stay i always would stand there's like a corner i created i could stand and watch and i'd watch the one actor she was phenomenal name is maya she would just torture them and there was one group i think she put through five times because we were a little slow for like an hour and she

just played with them she keeps jamming them through and i was just busting a god i mean i had to do it quietly because you know i don't hear you but i'm there like trying to hold it in but i thought it was the funniest thing i ever saw because they're just they're getting frustrated in a good way i mean they weren't like you keep sending us through this is like the fourth time you know and she just does it again and finally she's like okay move because we did a special knock that she'll do

and she'll knock and then the guy knows to move the wall and she did and then they're like like we're done we're gonna go the other way because obviously so they went backward the wall had already moved they couldn't come back they're like what the heck they're like confused as all get out come back around and like the wall has moved they're like okay like what happened so it's just i mean that was fun to play with i mean it's a big

wall and it's heavy i'm sure so i mean it's not one we're gonna keep because we're tearing down the second attraction this year to make way for our new theme but but man it was it was fun to watch this year that was one thing i enjoyed watching was people being played with time and time again. I love that. And if people want to come and see all of this ingenuity that you are putting into your haunt, where should they go to get more information?

They can go to our website. It's www.hiddenscreams.com. That's where they'll get more information. We're just now having the Valentine's show information added. So that'll be up, I think this next coming week. But like I said, they can go there or our Facebook page, Facebook and TikTok. Honestly, if they can find us on there and follow us, we are on there constantly. I mean, my marketing manager, Stacey, she is a godsend, literally. I I mean, she has really raised our visibility to the public.

I wish I would have brought her on in that position. She was with us before, just not in that position. And I really wish I had brought her on that position much longer because I think we would have had a better season, even with the economy. I truly believe we would have had a better season. I mean, who knows by how much, but I mean, like I said, to turn around a month later and get us in one night, sometimes almost double what we had during the Haunt season in one night.

Yeah it was phenomenal i mean she just blows everything out of the park so yeah i mean that that put us on the map for with what she's been doing so we are on tiktok like crazy i mean we're putting storylines out there just blips out of time trying to tease people clues different things so i mean we're on tiktok and facebook all the time so between our website he said hidden screams you know haunted attraction on facebook and hidden screens on attraction on And TikTok, I mean, follow us.

And like I said, you'll see all our characters at play and, you know, the different things we're doing in the events. As well as, like I said, every event we have, we do charity. So we pick a different charity like we did for the high school I work for. They have a carrying closet. So we don't we have people donate bags and boxes of clothes. And we took in, I think, like four or five garbage, like like like construction garbage bags of clothes to help them out.

We did a coat drive for a local area here, and we had a full box that was probably, you know, four feet high, full of probably like 100 coats. We did a blanket drive. Once again, we had like 100 blankets we donated. We're this summer doing a food drive. So, I mean, we try to make sure not only do we provide entertainment to our community, but we're trying to show them that we're there to help them.

Because I'll be honest, in our community, it's and I don't know your communities, how they're like, but we're in one of those communities where it's some people are very deeply religious. I'm a religious person, too. I mean, you know, I am. But but I love Halloween, too. So it's like it's like a conflict. But you get some of those people that are just like, oh, you're the devil.

You know you do this yeah it's like no i don't worship that it's like i'm having fun like we're entertaining people like this is like me putting a skin on like we're putting a play on and would you go to a school and bash somebody for putting on a play about you know you know the the night before christmas would you be telling them they're up to do it because they're doing that like probably not but it's like they'll persecute us so we

do deal with that kind of stuff here there is some of that with our community but that's why we're trying to do some of the charitable stuff to show them like, hey, we're not evil. We're human beings just trying to entertain and have fun. This world is crappy at times. We're trying to provide a positive influence by just letting people come and scream their cares away. Sometimes you got to scream it out. And what better way than to come and let us scare it out of you?

Let's scare the stress right out. Exactly. So listeners, check out the show notes. You'll find a link to the haunt. And prepare yourself for an epic 2025. Yes.

Yeah so we've survived 2024 you know mostly unscathed relatively speaking so mostly, chambers of haunters is now coming into their fifth year which is amazing so what do you guys have planned so like i said this is our well like you mentioned this is our fifth year as i've talked in the past you know i hate to even ever mention covid you know this you mentioned it and people just no it's like they get that glare in their eyes like they could just hurt you a little bit of acid reflux mention that

word again it's just like everything just kind of gets tunnel vision and you just go wait what it does it's just like don't look at it you know but i mentioned it because like i said it's one of those things where it happened you know we have we can't not acknowledge it especially like i said having been so as the founder and the president of the chamber of haunters and having a national organization where we have you know hundreds of members you You know,

the wonderful thing is, like I said, I mean. In 2019, 2020, when we started, we didn't know COVID existed at the time. And we heard about something coming about, but didn't think it was anything to be worried about. Like, oh, it's another flu kind of thing, you know. And so it wasn't anything on our radar. And so as we're starting the chamber and we're having that upward movement, you know, we're all excited and like, you know, things are going great.

Members are coming on board. you know we're seeing this national chamber of commerce really take off all over the country, and then three months or so four months later you know we're told shut down it's like you know in a day literally i remember being at work where i worked for myself at the time but i remember literally when i got the news like i met up with the guys i worked with i'm like we had to stop operation like at that point like we shut everything down like there

was no like oh we'll finish at the end of the day it was like no we're stopping this second, And that was just the worst. I mean, I've never experienced anything like that in my life for 40 years. I've never experienced that. You know, it's like, what is that? And so to be told like, hey, you can't work, you can't do anything.

I mean, I remember having people like when I'd be out and about, you know, just to check on the places I managed, you know, there were people driving in trucks trying to report people if they saw them working, you know, it's just a crazy time to be living. it. I mean, just, I never expected to ever experience what I experienced then. And so the reason, like I said, I go back to COVID is because, like I said, it happened within months of starting the chamber.

Trying to start this national organization and push it out there for the betterment of the construction industry, just provide another avenue of assistance for them. I mean, there's other organizations and associations out there, and that's wonderful, and they're all great, but we can always have more. There can always be more assistance.

There can always be more help more service you can never stop you know helping people and that was the whole goal when i when i founded it with the members i did was to create an organization similar to a national chamber of commerce but within the industry that could provide even more help on top of what was there and it was just such a downer and very disheartening to have that hit and then pretty much with you know for a whole year or over a year

i guess to not know are we going to make it because As I'd mentioned in the past, you know, after the first year, we froze membership dues. Now, that wasn't for new members. That was for current members. New members had to pay to get in, but we froze for any new member for about a year. We told them like, hey, we're not going to charge you. We're going to leave it be.

And we took a hit for that. I mean, we survived it. But obviously, that's one year's worth of recurring income that we didn't have. And I would gladly do it again, because my whole philosophy is we're here to help people. And that's what we're trying to show is like, look, yes, we'll take the hit. And it really sucks. It really does. But we're here to help you. And we don't feel right taking your money in a time

when nobody's getting any. You know, we're all trying to survive on pennies and dollars at the time.

So, you know, we were like, hey, we're going to continue to try to do our best of our ability, provide you the service and help and assistance you need and try to get you open for October.

Because that was by the time everybody was opening that october it was in pennsylvania it was they didn't allow us to have the choice like we could open but we had to mask up you had to have six feet distance you had to check temperatures you know you had to buy temperature thermometers and everybody had to be checked on the way i mean sorry ridiculous i mean you know it's like and and covid's not gone but we're still operating in this you know with covid so it's i don't

know like i said i don't want to get into that section but you know what i'm saying like. The whole world didn't know how to handle this, and we're trying to help other haunts navigate per their state, because every state had different rules. Their governor or their governor would say, hey, you can't do this. You can do this. And so, like, we were constantly fielding calls from members and non-members alike. It wasn't just members.

It was just everybody. Just they knew we were around, and they knew we had people who had experience, whether it was 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years of experience. They were calling for help, and we were constantly, like, on the phone, like, trying to guide them, like, well, what's your state? saying about this. And we'd have to look stuff up on their end and be like, well, this is our suggestion. And, you know, we can help, you know, with some flow on this. And we suggest this.

But we're, you know, we tell them like, look, nothing's like we're not lawyers, but we're just saying, hey, you know, you might be able to get by with this. Just depending on what they say, you know, you can probably try to do this. And, you know, I would take these precautions, you know, just to be safe for you and your actors and your customers.

You know, so we're constantly trying to guide people in whatever direction would best suit them so they can make the best decision, sorry, decision, whether that was to open or even to not open that year. And so, like I said, that's one of the things we do is people don't understand, like we field phone calls like all the time. Like I get phone calls all the time as president. I give them my number. I don't think it should be a hard task for somebody to call the president of

an organization. Not that I want a million calls, but I want people to feel confident that, hey, if I need that one guy, I can get a hold of him. I don't, I, I've never liked, and once it's personal, not to get off track, but I've never liked organizations where it's like, oh, I'm the president. You can talk to every peon below me, but you can't talk to me.

Like, I just, I've never been that type of leader and, and not that I'm a great person or anything, but I've always been the kind of person, like, I feel like I'm lower than everybody else. You, you lead by example, you know, among the crowd, you know, you don't always have to be in front, you know, with the sword wielding and, you know, like, oh, you follow me in the battle. You know, it's like, it's like sometimes you lead among the people.

And so that's more of the style I have. It's like, I want to be among the people helping them because I have the same struggles. You know, it's like, I've gone through them too, or I probably will go through them. And so I want to be there to help them. I'm there to, it's a service opportunity. I mean, that's why I look at leadership as, I mean, you're serving them. You're not there to tell them what to do. You're there to serve them.

And so once again, that's where it all goes back to. And, and that's a lot of what we provide is that kind of service. Like they know they can come to me and any chamber member anytime they want for any kind of help and we'll gladly help them through. And that's for anybody. I mean, you don't have to be a chairman member to get assistance from us.

I mean, to get the benefits that I'm sure we'll discuss here in a minute, you know, that's a different story, but to get help, you can call anyone at the same time and anybody will pick up the phone and gladly speak and help anybody that calls well that's actually i think a perfect segue let's talk for a moment about those benefits and kind of what the chamber offers to its members.

That's wonderful yeah so as a chamber like i said i mean the the one of the biggest things is that those networking opportunities i mean like i said it's it's funny because people will knock that because they're like oh i can call you know so and so i get a hold but then it's like when i ask them the question okay well who are you going to call you know who do you know in the industry and especially newer people who are trying to break in whether as actors or as you know home haunters,

small haunters, or just, you know, commercial versus non-commercial haunters. I mean, some people will knock it, but it's like, okay, well, the ones that are knocking networking are the ones that have been doing it for 20, 30 years and know how, but you've got people who are just trying to come in. They don't know. And that's what a chamber of commerce does.

I mean, that's really one of the primary focuses of any chamber of commerce, no matter, you know, if it's a state chamber, a local chamber, or a national chamber, including what we do. I mean, we're a chamber of commerce. Our primary focus is, how do we get you in front of the right people? How do we help you find the right people to talk to? And I think what I love most about the Chamber of Honor is you have people for just about anything that I could possibly need.

I need website design. You have somebody. I need legal advice. You have somebody. I need, how do I paint my wall to make it look realistic? You got a guy. If you need a guy to do just about anything in this industry, the Chamber has someone who can help you do that. And even if you don't know what guy you need, if you call and you get to them with your problem, they will find the guy that you need and be like, hey, this is actually your problem.

This is the person you want to go talk to. This is the guy you need. Yeah. Yeah. So even if you don't know what your problem is, they will help you find out what that is and provide you with solutions and options and a place to go to get a solution. There's a lot of value in that. Yeah. There's a lot of value in that. and that translates to money i mean i know people don't look at it that way but it's like i can't tell you how many just and from my experience alone i mean i'm sure everybody has.

Their stories of similar things but for me it's like when i was put in front of the right people i mean that's worth its weight in gold i mean i get people who help like i said they didn't have to give me money per se but the advice they gave me the guidance they gave me made me money if i wouldn't have followed some of the things they said i probably would have made some of the money i made so i mean to to get that advice i mean like i said knock it all you want you

know and you may say oh it's not worth a hundred dollars a year or not worth fifty dollars it's like okay well then you try to find everything on your own and you try to figure the puzzle pieces out alone it's like we're providing you with a team that's going to help you every time you have a question instead of saying oh well go figure it out on your own every time you i mean like i've had people that have come to me five six times over for questions and

like who do i talk to about this or what i do about that and it's like you know how many people i mean like i said i i see people doing that in the haunt industry on facebook pages they're like well if you would type it into to the search you'd find it it's like yeah they probably would but maybe it wouldn't come up exactly because you probably got five different topics on that one topic rearranged in different ways or asked in different methods and they might it might take them

forever like and it doesn't need a exact situation well it's like sorry but i'm the kind of person just answer the stinking question like why do you have if you don't have anything nice to say why do they even say anything like people get on there be like you know say stupid stuff or just stuff that doesn't make sense to the question. It's just like, look, answer the man or the woman's question and move on.

Like, you don't have to say, well, if you go back 20 posts or you go back to July of 2023 in this, you know, this, you know, area, you know. You'll find what you're looking for. It's like, just answer it. If you know, just say, hey, this is it. If you don't know, move on.

You don't have to answer it. You know, it's like, and that's why the chamber's around for those purposes well and like you said that's that's exactly why we created this it's like we've never had anybody come to us i guarantee anybody you talk to that's come to us for help we've never been like oh no you figure it out on your own or you know we can't help you i mean even when we don't know the answer like like less said i mean if we don't know the answer we go find somebody if

we don't have somebody directly that knows it i i can't tell how many people have said hey do you know anybody that's dealt with this? I'm like, you know what? I don't off the top of my head, but I'll go find someone that does. And I will literally start calling everybody I know and everybody I don't or emailing and saying, hey, have you dealt with this? Have you dealt with this? And it's like, oh yeah. And they'll call me. I'm like, hey, this is the situation

I heard. Can I put you in touch with this member? And, you know, and they're, and those people will sometimes aren't even members. They're just people that, you know, I know that, that are not part of the chamber and I'll connect them. So like I said, that kind of help, It's the kind of help that, unfortunately, in this industry, there are many who will give it. But just as many as that will, there are that many that won't.

And trying to navigate that can be very stressful for a newer haunt. That's it. And if you don't have a place where you can go, like a safe place that you can go and not get ridiculed, a lot of people won't do it. Or they'll stop. They'll be asking questions. They'll be trying to learn. They'll be trying to make it work because it is something that they are passionate about. And to just be run into these walls.

Walls and the walls that are they're artificial i mean they're not even good haunt walls they're terrible haunt walls but you're running into this every turn every time you you try and ask a question well you know hey where do i get contacts that aren't going to damage my eyes well there's like 1500 posts about this just go find one or hey i have you know i have this specific thing about insurance oh well you don't need there's always somebody who's much more

willing to give you a non-answer and to shut you down than to say, yeah, give me a minute. Let me go look into that for you. Well, and, and too, like, and I hate to use this analogy, but I mean, I think it's very applicable. So like I told you guys off air, like, you know, a year ago, actually a year ago this month, I became a teacher. I was teaching, you know, for online Spanish for schools in Colorado, but this is my first time back in the school system.

And so, you know, after I've been working for myself for 10 years. And the one thing like I've learned, like I'll tell my students the same thing. It's one thing if I give them instructions and they keep asking the same question, because now I know they're not paying attention. You know, they're asking me the same questions after I I'll explain something and say, does everybody understand?

And sure enough, everybody will say yes. But then either no more than probably a few minutes later, I'll get one of two things. Either someone asked me the question and it's like, I just asked you, did you understand? You said yes or they'll do it wrong on a quiz or an assignment i'm like. I just explained to you exactly how I wanted this five minutes ago, and you can't do it right. So, I mean, as a human, that's where I get frustrated. But that's different than this, what we're talking about.

I think this is what frustrates me with haunters in general is I would understand if it was the same person after the same question five or six times. I mean, if you're going into the same haunt chat area and you're constantly asking, how do you build a haunted house? How do you build a haunted house? How do you build a haunted house? Yeah, that gets annoying. Okay, let's be real. That's like the students I do with my class. It's like, I just told you, stop asking and read the instructions.

That's one issue. But like I said, nine times out of 10, that's not the issue we're dealing with. It's people new coming on the scene. They don't know where to go. They're going to this page they just became a member of that has 20,000 members in it. And they're hoping somebody will step up and tell them how to do it. And so they're going in asking a fair question. How do I get into this industry?

And instead of somebody trying to be nice and say hey this is how i went about it i'm not saying it's going to work for you but this is how i did it and share positive stories you either get people who share negative stories i wouldn't do it because you know it's you know it's hard and it's like that's not what you treat the lifeblood as you don't come you know when people are trying to ask for help you don't come in and deter them i

mean i'm not saying lie to them and tell them it's wonderful and you'll make money overnight you know i'm not saying rosie you'll never get splinters your walls will always stay up nobody will try and never damage your actors it's just roses and sunshine there'll never be a bombsite clone there'll never be a bombsite clone rainbows exactly perfect yeah you'll never get yelled at you know people won't hate you i mean it's just like yes we

want to tell them the truth you know the good bad and the ugly i get that but i think when that's the first response you're like just going for you know you're literally going for the gun saying you know boom let's just get the negative out of the way it's like well hold on you know it's like let's talk about this more in depth like here's let's answer the question first here's how you would get started you know step by step by step then if they want to know more you say hey.

Just in case you want to go further with this, here's the good, the bad, and the ugly. But I just hate it when I see people going just straight to the gut with the negative. And it's like, I want to see lifeblood. Just simply answer their question. If they want to know the ugly bits, I'm sure they're going to ask. Because I guarantee you, nobody's going to be, I hope, that naive to think that it's that easy. I mean, I'm sure someone's going to ask eventually, hey, what's the ugly bits

about this? I mean, I usually see that as a follow-up question somewhere, but I think many times people get even scared to ask that because they're like, I just got a negative response to my positive question. I can only imagine if it's a negative one. Yeah, nobody wants to ask that. So I'm constantly having this problem. Is this just a me thing or is this normal? Right. Nobody wants to ask that when they're asking something simple. And now it's like, am I just an idiot?

Nobody wants to ask that when they've already been told that they're an idiot. When it's usually something that, no, no, yeah, we've all had that happen constantly. Here's how we deal with it. And I mean, the fastest way to kill an industry, to kill a hobby, and we're seeing this across so many hobbies and activities that were the lifeblood of so many people. It's like, who do you know that's into carpentry, like truly handicraft carpentry?

It's very, very difficult to find stores or experts in it. And the ones you find, they're on their way out. Same thing with so many others. And it's because they've maintained this level of gatekeeping of, oh, well, if you don't know, you don't know. And it's like, okay, well, that's.

Absolutely useless to build up a community and haunters are a community and we want to stay a community and we want to be a community that says because yes i've had that problem here's a solution or hey i have that problem i haven't found a solution let's try and find one together.

And that's how you keep building that's how you keep bringing people in and keeping this so it's not something that's going to die out in 30 years when we're all you know old and decrepit if i have too many walls fall on us yeah well yeah well and that's how i treat i mean you know with the chamber and even with my haunt you know i can't i tell people the same thing we're a haunt family you know you know at my haunt i think anybody that knows me at the haunt that knows me well enough,

you know, especially my management team, they know that I try to make that clear, not just with my words, but with my actions. You know, I treat them like family, because I do care about them. I mean, they have become like family, because my mother, going to my mother not to bring her in us, but she is the kind of person that taught me growing up, because I had a dysfunctional family, I had a broken family, I was raised by my mom and my grandparents.

And so a lot of people, you know, that, you know, that have similar situations, sometimes don't really, I don't want to say don't grow up bright because I don't want to judge him, but just like they have harder times, you know, especially as they get into adulthood. It's just, they don't know how to deal with it. And everybody deals with those kinds of things in their own way.

And for me, the thing I learned that my mother and my grandparents taught me was family sometimes isn't always blood related. You know, family's not always the people that you were born to.

And I, I learned that very quickly in life. And I've taken that with me since I was a kid now into my adulthood where like i constantly find myself adopting people so to speak into my family where it's like and and it's funny because like i i know my kids my wife don't understand that concept because they're like well family's family you know and it's but it's like for me it's like it's so much more you know if there's

people that that you find that you care about that care about you and see your vision the same way you do it's like how can they be anything less than family and And that's the same thing I've taken into the chamber is, you know, it's like, yes.

But unfortunately, we have annual dues. Okay. Yes, you have to pay to be a part of this family. That sucks. Okay. Let's be honest. I mean, I'm not saying it's a positive thing, but you get a lot of value out of it. That's the thing. Like we're providing value. And like I said, we don't get paid as a board. This is volunteer for all of us. I mean, we put in our own time to meet on a regular basis, to go to conventions. We pay our own money to go to hotels, to, you know, attend these conventions

and trade shows. I mean, we're not getting paid to be there. It's not like we're getting paid by the hour to be at these places and come home and we've made $1,000, $1,000 every time we do something, you know, or $100 from every meeting. I mean, that'd be awesome, but we don't. And, you know, we do it because we sincerely want to see the industry grow, not just our members, but the industry as a whole.

But we make it clear our members that, yes, while you may pay your annual dues, you will find here a haunt family. We're never going to abandon you. We are here for you. Anytime you call, we are here. Anytime you need help or point in the right direction, we are here. Like I said, if you think about it, $125, $200 a year, some of those phone calls, for some people, have made them thousands of dollars based on whatever advice they were given or whatever decision they made.

That right there is that value I'm talking about. Obviously, what we're going to be offering a lot more. We offer a lot more than that, and we're going to continue to offer a lot more than that. But that's one of the main functions of a Chamber of Commerce is that networking aspect. Who do you know and how do you give in front of those people? I mean, like I said, we have other benefits such as discounts. We have final contact lenses. Don't jump into that yet.

We want to take a quick break, hear from our other sponsors, and then I want to dig into the other benefits that come with the Chamber of Commerce. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Music.

All right thank you for listening to those messages we are now back, okay so we cut you off a little bit there depending on how keoni does his editing but you started talking about discounts that the chamber offers so let's say to their members To their members. So again, you get a lot of things available to you just being able to utilize the Chamber of Haunters, whether or not you are a member. Members, however, do have some additional perks, some additional trainings,

some additional discounts. So let's talk about what else does the Chamber offer to its members?

Yeah so like i said you know besides the network and like i said that's to me that's the biggest value but like i said you have people that knock it but anyway we have other things such as you know discounts on contact lenses with primal contacts yeah they've been wonderful to work with i mean we love them so much stephanie's as our main supplier and she has been phenomenal to work with i mean like i said i mean you get them

for much cheaper than you would if you bought them anywhere else and and like i said you can get them you know in bulk a lot easier so i mean just that alone i mean people are always looking for contacts.

And like i said i mean we've never heard of anybody having problems with which is wonderful because we know that's a big issue like i said i i can't say anything legally as far as you know what they're like everything because you get into all that question i don't know but as far as their use i mean i have people in my haunt that use them swear by them you know people other haunters have sworn by them they're they're at least you know a great quality of contact lens that are used and

like i said they're great partners to work with i mean that's just one we were working with the goni studios they are have since you know decided to leave the business there they've gone through some hard you know difficult times both personally and professionally and after 50 some years they decided it's time to close their shop and and while we we mourn that believe it or not because i mean i just you know truly i mean when i heard it i really

wanted to just like break down cry because they are phenomenal people i mean you know it's just like most things where you want to follow the ground like why you know because they are just that awesome i mean janelle and franco i mean they've been great people to work with and to lose them not not so much as members but as.

As people in the industry, I mean, to lose the type of vendors that they are, I mean, they are genuinely great people who have really provided great service to the industry, not just our industry, but to other industries as well. I mean, comic industry, anime, I mean, they've really, you know, I've seen them at all kinds of conventions. So, I mean, they've gotten out there, but I know it's been a hard time for them personally, professionally.

So, like I said, we wish them all the best in whatever they're going to do next. But like I said, I mean, we had discounts with them, which was awesome, a 20% discount. I mean, now they still are honoring that until the last inventory sold. They're not making anything new, but they do still have some stuff online. So any chamber members up until that point can use a special discount code. They need to get a hold of us for that, or it's in the members-only area that that discount code is there.

But once again, you have to be a member of the chamber to use it. But it gives you 20% off.

So I mean, for some things you're saving $20, $30, or even more, sometimes 40 to 50 to 60 so i mean depending on what you're buying i mean it's it's a good chunk of change that you're keeping in your pocket but like i said they've been awesome to work with you know we work with vfx you know patrick voss he's just an awesome guy i mean we love that good things to say about him fantastic oh my god oh he is i mean i i remember the

first time a couple years ago at at transworld then again at east coast whenever we had east coast a year ago you know i saw him again but i mean just a fantastic guy i mean the first time i met him he came over, I told him who he was, and he just gave me a hug, met me, and let me play with some of his dolls, gave me a shirt. And I mean, he's just, I mean, one of the nicest guys. I mean, just phenomenal, very nice, very professional. Can't say enough about him.

We also work with the Texas Honors Convention. They're our home, our official home. So I mean, that's where we hold all our business annually. Now this year, it's going to be in a different location because they've outgrown their current location. So they're no longer in Mesquite. They're in Irving, Texas. Oh, that's exciting.

Yes the bigger convention they they're soon selling out of their booths i mean it's a lot of people are going to be there i mean i know cfx is there froggy's fog is there i mean so a lot of people you're seeing at you know a lot of the trans world shows are also making it there because it's like i said they're having success there i mean the show's growing they're having thousands of people attend so i mean i definitely suggest anybody it's a great

time we have a haunt tour which we sponsor so i mean we do that and that's always a great time i myself and a couple chamber Board members will go and we'll have a fun time with everybody that's there. It's a whole night thing. There's meet and greets. There's the costume ball, which is always really awesome. Costume contests. Then you have the floor stuff. Events for kids as well. I mean, it's just...

All over and just the board members of the of the tech science convention are just amazing people like i said it's been it's been an honor to work with them for the last five i think it's been five years now we've been working together and it's just been amazing how the partnership we have with them and we can't be more grateful to to work with them but like i said you get discounts as a member to attend there you know for for being a member so i

mean you know we love when members come out you know this year we're gonna have a big we're hoping to have a big celebration there i don't want to get into too many details just check we haven't made anything finite but we do some exciting things for us being there we will have a walkthrough we usually build a walkthrough for people i mean everybody can go through it but it's a free walkthrough a haunted house walkthrough along with our booth there so people can get to know us and

they can sign up on site so i mean there's you know it's it's just a great time to get to see everybody in person spend some time together we usually go out and eat some of us and you know do some activities together we will stay up late at night talk i mean just it's a great time to really talk with some people so like i definitely you know people want to come out it's the end of july when that be happening yeah and you often use the texas

hunters convention to push your education programs as well don't you yes i mean we'll do we'll do some of our educational programs there that's that's one of our biggest areas you know like so we try to do a lot of it online to allow people all over the country to really have the opportunity to do it on their time frame but we do offer in-person stuff so that way anything in person people can come down and get while they're there so i mean like the texas convention board has been really

great gracious and allowing us to. Initiate some of our programs and push some of our programs there. Like I said, because, you know, that's just, that helps us a lot. I mean, so yeah, we've been able to push a lot of things there, and it's been really wonderful to do. Talk about the GOES certificate that comes along with that. Yeah, so our GOES program, we started about a year and a half, two years ago.

What it's evolved to now is a safety program where we deal with things like fire safety, health safety.

Especially with COVID, like I said, I mean, it may not pose the same problems that we had, when initiated but it doesn't mean sicknesses i mean heck i mean i don't know if you may have heard some of the sicknesses that are coming out now but i know in my school teachers and students are dropping like flies i've had classes where i have 20 kids and five show up i've had days like this whole week where every day there's seven or eight or nine teachers out which is like,

insane i mean yeah there's been a you know crazy thing going around here it's crazy i mean it's just it's running rampant so obviously we're not immune and in october is not going to be any better you know as far as the sickness is going away so you know we have health you know different health trainings that we put people through and a sad one that we hate to have to even do but i mean this day and age it's it's happened at some haunts is is active shooter training i mean you wouldn't

think of that i mean for a long time nobody had that kind of training i mean you may have done it yourself as a haunt owner but it's not like we had anything like that industry and we we started doing that because once again we had i had taken training with the. Pennsylvania state police in active shooter training and i. Was like this is training that my organization the chamber of.

Honors needs like my members need this you're like if i'm coming and getting trained for this as as a local honor my members are definitely needed all over the country not just me here in in pa so like i said i mean those are just a few of the things that we provide yeah it's tragically become a necessity well beyond the scope yeah right and and like you said sadly it's like you hate to have to discuss it but i mean once again i'd rather my haunters be

prepared and know what to do in those situations than to react i mean i i remember once again not to get a lengthy story but short of sweet my friend and i went to a haunt when in the off season one night and this was like two years ago i think two three years ago and it was a haunt that's about three to four hours from me and my friend knew the owner i i didn't know this owner but he did and so we went to visit him and when we were coming so we

got to talk to him a little bit while we were there within i think a 10 mile radius there was another haunt nearby that had an accurate situation where a guy got mad about something in the line with someone else watched his car grabbed a gun came back and shot him right there and you know it's just like you never know what's going to set somebody off i mean it's sad that people can't just walk away from a situation but obviously you know we

don't know what's going on people's minds you know mental health is a big thing these days and and that plays a big part into this and so you know you never know what's going to snap somebody's mind and what they're going to decide to do. And so like i said we try our best to take the same training from the pennsylvania state police and take that training and provide it to our chamber members because once again i want to make sure that they are prepared.

I hope to heaven they never have to deal with it. But if they do, at least they're prepared. I mean, I don't know if you're ever truly prepared, but at least you know what to do. But even at a lower level, you know, someone gets injured on sight. Do you have procedures in place to handle it? If someone gets lost in the haunt, a child gets lost in the haunt, there's a heart attack, whatever.

What do you do? What do you do? And the cool thing about the ghost program is it's training haunters in standardized procedures to deal with unexpected situations. And I think for particularly the home hunters who are trying to go pro, this is absolutely critical information to help them be successful.

And even if you're just a home haunter, but your haunt is getting larger and larger, having more people show up and you're bringing on actors, it's just a smart thing to be able to say to yourself or to your staff or to your family, I at least have exposure to the basic training so I know what I should be doing. Whether or not anybody who has the ability to do that, because there's a big difference between training somebody and then having them actually be able to respond.

But at minimum, you have the training. You've been told, this is what this is. CPR is not about trying to keep somebody alive. CPR is about moving enough things around to keep them functional enough for the actual emergency medical to come in. That's what it is. It's not just, oh, I don't need it.

I'll never need it. it's you might and even if you don't need it in your haunt you might find it it's useful and you need it somewhere else and the thing about emergencies like it's too easy to get overwhelmed and freeze up if you haven't been exposed to if you haven't thought ahead. Trainings like this force you to think ahead so that you have a, plan. You don't have to come up with a plan in the moment. You have concrete steps that you know to take.

I do this. I do this. I do this. The first thing of CPR is call 911 before you do anything else. Call in the professionals so they can actually do the work. But most people are like, oh, well, I just have to start doing this. No, there's steps. There are steps.

All the steps. And the other thing too, those steps have changed since I learned them in babysitting, training in school when i was 10 yeah yeah yeah major things have changed since oh yeah i i when i was a lifeguard in high school so much has changed in medical science and response that being able to say i'm at least up to date within the last five years is crucial yep yep well and the thing is too and you mentioned home hunters which i think is very critical because i've met many home hunters

that just don't understand the importance of a lot of this stuff i mean even as far as insurance or you know the trainings that we provide i mean because like i said we work with insurance companies i mean we we have a lot of contacts we put people in touch with to get best rates for different things whether it's costumes props you know make maybe we will make we have makeup team we have conventions more than just texas convention we have we have a multitude

of conventions that we work with i mean that that's our home is texas convention but we have multitudes of conventions that we work with to help people. And so once again, you have your home hunters. And once again, I started off as a home hunter too, so I can attest to this. But home hunters are very naive in that they don't really know what they're getting into. I mean, if anybody was in need of protection more than anybody else, I believe it's a home hunter.

I mean, yes, commercial hunters, you want to CYA, you want to cover your butt. But home hunters don't really mean you're putting your home your personal home at risk when you open up whether it's your backyard or the inside of your home they don't get it it's like you are putting your personal possession it's not like i have my commercial liability this is a liability for your person for your property for your finances for your family something goes wrong it's not Oh,

my company is being sued. Well, that sucks. I have lawyers to deal with it. It's I'm being sued. My home insurance is going to skyrocket. I might not be able to keep my home. All of these things are suddenly so much more real, but they're not thought of because it's just a home haunt. We're just having fun. Yeah. Right. And they don't get that because, I mean, once again, I mean, when when you're not at the commercial level, because I hate when people say, well, they're not real haunts.

I mean, in my opinion, I mean, we that's why we have home haunters in our in our membership, because they are real haunters. I mean, sorry, if you're putting your home at risk, that's a hefty price. So in my opinion, they are. They may not be commercial. They may not be making money, perhaps, but they are just as much haunters like everybody else.

But the difference is many of them don't take this this part seriously, the part that we're talking about right now, where they're trying to get the training to know how do I keep I mean, their crew, maybe their family, that's fine. But how do you keep your crew slash family safe? You know, in the case of a fire, in the case of a health emergency, in the case of an active shooter, because you can't think, oh, because the home on I'm immune from those things.

It's like, no, they can still happen. A fire can still break out.

You know you're working with with fog machines i mean things that have the capability of causing a fire obviously you have the same you know the same problems that we're gonna face you're gonna face too you know so i mean and insurance i mean i tell people i can't stress enough like just because you're a homeowner doesn't mean you shouldn't go get insurance i mean i made sure i had insurance for my attraction when it was at my home because i thought if i get and i heck the one thing i tell lot

of people do you start a business you don't just open up a home haunt you know to your home up to personal liability without taking all the steps i tell everybody every home hunter i talk to i tell them before you open your doors to anybody get insurance get an llc protect your home protect your family protect yourself i'm not saying that they're not going to try to get things from you but you put that all under

an llc you get the right insurance at least you're providing yourself some kind of protection. You are protecting your personal property, your home, your family. The only thing they can touch then are the assets all tied to the LLC. Right. I'd rather than take all my props than my home. Yes, exactly. You're going to sue me. Take my plywood. Take my paintbrush. Leave everything else alone. Leave my truck, my home. And that's the biggest difference. And that's a knowledge thing.

And this is, again, why the Chamber of Haunters and what you guys are doing and what you guys are building There's so much value to the haunt industry, home haunters, all the way to, you know, your professionals. It's a knowledge thing. Most people, again, it's, I'm just having fun.

I'm doing this for my kids. Like the neighborhood kids show up, like, what's the big deal? It's not a big deal until it is. Until it's a big deal. And then as soon as it's a big deal, it's too late. So, you know, letting and providing this information and not just providing this information of, but how do you form an LLC? Yeah. Each state is different. But what does that entail? What is the value of it?

It is literally just a barrier of protection of anything that I have recorded to this, you can take. Anything that is personal, you may not. You can't. And, you know…, The knowledge base and what you guys are providing and making accessible is so, so valuable.

Yeah. So there's networking. There's discounts with all these partnerships that the chamber has created. There's education. There's the ghost program as part of the education. There's all the conventions that the chamber is part of. But what do you have that is coming new this year in 2025? Yeah. So as a board, we've been meeting and discussing some new things. We are getting ready to work on a brand new website and a redesign for 2025. Which I'm very excited to say.

Hopefully we will have all of our content on that website. It'll be a part of that for sure. Trust me. That's part of the whole rollout we're looking forward to. It's going to be a big year as we roll it out. And the whole entire rollout will take time as we roll the whole website out. Because once again, with the redesign, we're taking time with it. But it'll be exciting 2025 as we roll out the website and the new updates everybody's going to see.

So it's going to be really exciting, including, like I said, you know, having the ghost program available online for people at their disposal. They can take it when they need to. You know, like I said, I mean, that way fits your schedule. I mean, that's the thing we want to make sure of. I mean, when we had debated how to present the program or how to get it to people, you know, the first way was in person at Texas Arts Convention,

just do the whole thing there. but I thought, man, you got to wait a year to do it. And how fair is that? And we started doing it online where I, myself or another board member would teach a class. But then it's like, you're still putting people on time constraints. You got to try to get people from California, Florida. Missouri, Texas, all in the same timeframe. It's like some of them are one to three hours ahead or behind. And so you're like,

How do you how do you balance that? And so that's why, like I said, we have been working on, we're finishing up trying to make it an online program where you can get original content, original learning at your pace online anytime you want it.

But then we are providing online and in-person follow-up courses that whenever there's any new information that, you know, now we do update the courses as well, but we do provide in-person as well as online training to compensate for that because we know that you can't just learn just from simply watching videos or reading content. But we want them to be able to get the training at their pace, at their level, and on their time frame.

And so that's why we did that. And that will be available, like I said, on our website as well, along with the members only area and everything like that. So I mean, like I said, that's going to be rolling out. We're looking to provide, like I said, the one thing we're looking to try to do really as far as to grow our networking base is that lunch and learn aspect.

Like I said, it's harder with the National Chamber of Commerce because it's not like we can say, come here to Pennsylvania and we'll do a lunch and learn. And, you know, go from California and join us for an hour of, you know, fellowship and friendship. You know, that would be awesome. But I don't see anybody paying tickets, you know, for a few hundred dollars to come spend an hour and turn right back around and go home.

So we are we have decided we're going to find online ways, which we've discussed. We're pretty confident about how to do that. We're going to have those opportunities where they can come and it'll be a mixture of things. You know, it might be one of those mixer kind of deals where you come and we discuss amongst each other the different things to get ideas among 10, 15 different people on how they did things.

Some will be where you're instructed, where you have people that ahead of time are providing questions and will take the time to answer those questions, you know, in an online format. We'll be like, hey, we were given five to 10 questions. Here's how we're going to present them. Because once again, people should feel comfortable, like we said earlier, should feel comfortable to ask questions. Even if it's been asked 20 million times, they're probably asking it for the first time.

I highly doubt many of those people are coming back and being like, well, I just want to annoy the bejesus out of somebody. So let's ask it for the umpteenth time. Like, I highly doubt that's the case nine times out of 10. I really believe that people are just, once again, they're new to the industry. They're interested. They'd like to see if they have a home here or a place in this industry.

And so they're asking the right questions, but they're getting the wrong responses. And once again, I'm all for giving them the truth, the good, the bad, and the ugly. But I think we need to be more sincere and more cautious and just simply answer the dang questions and say, okay, here's the answer to your question. Now, would you like to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly of the industry? Or do you just want to be left alone to your own devices?

Let them decide if they even want to hear it. Maybe they don't care. Maybe they're like, you know what? I'll figure it out on my own. Some people got to learn the hard way. That's right. I'm coming here because I'm trying to do something else. And the haunt industry, for whatever reason, is the first place I found that I could ask this question with people who might have the answer.

I'm not actually interested in joining. But let's be the place that we can people can come to for information, regardless of whether or not. Yeah, I want to be a haunter or I just had a question and you guys seem like the right group of people to answer it. Yeah, that's all. That's all we want to provide is those opportunities. So we have a different we have different sets of ideas as far as how to make that happen. Well, we'll switch it up on a monthly basis.

But we're hoping that's one of the first things we're hoping to roll out here, hopefully between February and March and the first quarter to really get some of that stuff moving. As well as, you know, we have our legal team who, like I said, they're in all 50 states. We work with a national law organization who anytime that somebody needs something, they get an hour free consultation.

And then after that, they need representation. They'll put them in touch with, you know, a lawyer local to their region. I mean, once again, what region that is, you know, that depends on where they live. But once again, we can get lawyers off of these states that deal with the entertainment industry or even haunted attractions.

So, I mean, this is more of a localized grassroots approach because once again, while it may be an off of these states, a national organization, we have people that can help you locally in your area with your own state or local problems and specifically in the industry itself. Meaning that it's not just some lawyer that's going to tell you, oh, well, I would do this, I would do that, who has no experience in this type of law because you have those types of lawyers out there that push this.

And it's like they try to pretend like they know what's going on or they know what they're doing because they're just trying to be helpful, which is fine. But they might not be giving them the right advice that they need based off of the industry and what's going on with their situation. So having an organization like this partner with us and being at our disposal to use is, once again, worth its weight in gold.

I mean, you're talking lawyer fees. You're talking hundreds of dollars sometimes just in consultation. So if you need to ask a question for an hour's worth of time, right there is probably your annual fee. You have paid for it. Exactly. Your annual fee is paid for itself. Yeah. So you talk to a lawyer one time, you pay for your annual dues.

Everything else that is icing on the cake. Exactly. I can talk to a lawyer that specializes in your region, in your state's laws, in the entertainment industry, not just going to Reddit and being like, hey, Reddit, I'm getting all of these. Well, I'm not a lawyer, but, or I'm a lawyer, but I really do child custody cases. But here's my two cents where it's like, yes. But. But. And this is also, you know, what's the cost of free advice?

Nice well in this case you know hey we have an entire organization it's designed to connect me with somebody who actually is in a position to give me legitimate information for my specific area and needs much better and that's what we're like so that's what we're trying to do is just make sure we connect people with with the right people you know get them in front of the right people help them to know the right information i mean that like i said is so crucial i mean you know.

Heck i mean like i said i'll pay all i mean like i pay the annual fee i'm the president i still pay the annual fee and for me it's worth it like i said even as a president even though i i'll be honest i i'm selective in what i partake of because i don't want to take advantage of any of the things that we have because as a president you don't really look at that person because like i said it's more for our members but i mean heck just for that alone i've had to use

that already i've had to use that consultation a couple times and that in itself i mean i would pay the annual you'll feel alone just to have this situation. I'm like, hey, I might have a problem that may or may not be a problem. And can you tell me if it is or not? And that one hour has been so crucial and let me know like, hey. Thank you for telling me this because otherwise I would have paid someone hours worth of hundreds of dollars and hours worth of labor to get this answer.

Whereas in one hour they gave it to me because they knew what they were doing.

They could do it in that hour, saving me all that money and now I didn't have to go hire a lawyer because not saying it wasn't it couldn't be a problem but it's not a problem now and they were able to advise me what to do to keep it from becoming a problem to be proactive exactly reacting so like I said I mean once again I mean people have to remember because I mean you'll get people out there that say well I'm not getting the value and

I get that I mean I know everybody wants discounts they want this and they want that but it's like to have the help and the assistance when you want to be able to call any board member and get the help you want, to have the training available at your fingertips, which is what we offer, to have a legal team at your disposal. I mean, granted, you have to be available when they're available, that kind of thing.

But I mean, to have that though, just to have somebody you can talk to for an hour to make sure you're not in some kind of real danger or trouble. I mean, in the networking, in those things alone, you're talking hundreds of dollars of value just in that that doesn't include the discounts that doesn't include you know.

The ghost program that doesn't include you know we're gonna start pushing out merch soon you know because we've had members saying we want new merch and it's like well that's awesome we'll look into that so we're looking into that as well i mean you know there's there's a lot of great benefits that we're looking to add but it's like just in those three to four things i mentioned just you know just before i mentioned those last couple you have hundreds of dollars of value and Sometimes that's

hard to see because that's what I call the unspoken money because it's like it's blind. You don't see it. You know, it's like, well, yeah, you know, when I network, like, yeah, I don't see money floating around. When I go talk to the lawyer for free, I don't see money floating around. You know, it's like they're not seeing the money being crossed, but it's like you're getting these services for free. For free. Where you might not have gotten that or if you would have gotten it

for free, it might not have been the advice you needed. Yeah. You know, because it might have been what people want to give you, but not the advice you actually needed. And it's like there's a difference between someone just giving you negative responses or just answering to be a smart aleck versus actually truly answering your question, you know, to answer it. And then, like I said, you want to tell the ugly bits? Fine. Do it after. But answer the question. That's my biggest pet peeve.

Just answer the question. They ask a sincere question. They obviously do not know. And they always and every new person starts out with the same thing. They always say, I'm new to the industry. That's how they start to make it clear. I think they're all afraid. So they say, I'm new to this. It's my first time. How do I start? And yet you still have this. And it's the same people hopping on the bandwagon. Well, you know, I wouldn't do it. You know, I don't think you understand how hard it is.

And, you know, there, these things can happen and people can see. And it's like, yes, that can happen. But let's not scare them away from the industry. We do need some blood to come be, you know, come flowing back in. If we scare everybody away, instead of trying to say, hey, yeah, there's some scary bits, but as a chamber of haunters, what we tell them is, hey, look, yeah, it can be scary, but we will hold your hands in the process. We will help you go through this.

Like, you have a family and a team on your side now that can help you not only legally because of the law team, but also has many of us have been in this for 20, 30, 40 years.

You know, many of us have been, I mean, I've been haunting for almost 30 years. so we we there's people that have been in this industry long enough that they know what they're doing they can provide the real life help that you need not saying it's going to be easy but we can make it maybe one or two percent easier than it would be on your own and right there like i said you're talking a huge value that you're not you're not seeing it you know it's like but when you start making your

thousands of dollars and you've got people coming through your door because you took the risk and you followed the guidelines and advice that we've set before you to have that success many people don't don't go back and say oh yeah you know thanks to you i made twenty thousand dollars my first year they just see oh well i'm not getting this physical thing you know i don't have this physical thing to hold you know like keys like i don't have these physical keys that i know how to value

it's that unspoken money where you don't see it floating around in some physical value and it's like yes we all want the physical value but that unspoken value where you can't see it is the biggest value you're going to get it's the value that is going to actually make you the money i mean yeah i've got teeth but they don't make me money yeah i think i think you just summed up the chamber so beautifully that that really is what you guys are all about providing all of that value for.

A tiny fee comparatively and it's the goodwill calculation it's it's not tangible but the value of it can be incalculable so we are right about the hour mark i think we're a little over the hour mark what have we not covered is there anything else that you wanted to bring up about that the chambers got going on this year i mean other other than the things i mentioned me the biggest things would be like i said please i mean everybody should be following us on social media we're

really going to up our social media presence. You know, we're looking forward to that. So like I said, watch us on Facebook and other social media outlets to keep up with what we're doing. We're going to let people know about events and different things. We'd love people to attend. Once again, many of them are not just for members. So that's something to keep in mind. On that note, what conventions are the chamber, is the chamber going to be at?

If people want to, you know, find a board member, talk to them in person, get more information, where can they find you during the convention season this year? Yes. So we've been invited to a couple. Many of us travel to Transworld. I mean, we're not going to have a booth there this year. We're probably going to try to next year. But this year, we're going to go just as customers. But many of our boardrooms will be there and we'll be available to talk after hours.

Or if you see us on the floor, please talk to us. I mean, obviously, we're not going to be going around. I mean, we don't do the suitcases either. We're not going around the talk field. But I mean, if you see us on the floor, I mean, obviously, if you ask us a question, we're going to answer it. But our purpose isn't to go around and do that. You know, we try to respect the show because, you know, Jen and Rich are awesome people.

And we've, you know, we've talked to them in the past. And they're just amazing people. They allow us to come to Midwest and to East Coast, which will be at East Coast. We're trying to be at Midwest. It's a lot of logistics. We're trying to get our different board members to attend.

But like I said, you know, we will be, I'll remember, we'll be at Transports, especially after the show ends. you know, If you want to go out and eat and get to know us better, we'd love to go out and meet new people and just talk. So we'll have people in attendance. Just won't have a physical booth there. But I do tell people, please go to Transworld. We love Jen and Rich and the show they provide. They are some of the most amazing people I've ever met. Seriously, I mean, just great people.

And they have amazing, obviously, those who have gone know the remarkable show they have. So please go. We do plan trying to be at East Coast and Midwest this year. We may be at other new cons like GalaxyCon. There's some other cons that joined the chamber and they've invited us out. So we're looking into the possibility of what it would tell to get some of those. And then obviously our home, which is the Texas Honors Convention, we'll have a booth there.

We'll have a walkthrough haunted attraction that they can go through. It's just a short one, but we provide that for all the customers and kids to come through. And then you ended our booth and you can come get to know us better and some can sign up or renew if it's that time of year for them. So we'll be at those places. And like I said, I mean, we're trying to get out to other places, whether as, as having a booth or just an attendance so that way we think we can be seen.

I mean, like I said, we're just there to be seen and, and, and show the people that we're normal hunters than everybody else. But yeah, I mean, have your eyes out on social media, especially keep, keep up, you know, watch our website for the updates, but we'll, we'll be keeping everybody up to date. It's supposed to be a big year for us with being there our fifth year. So we're really looking to celebrate in a big way.

Yeah. And if you need more information on any of those conventions that Rob just mentioned, go check out the Haunting You website under our events tab, and you can find links to all of those conventions as well as the dates that they are going to be running. Well, Rob, it is always a pleasure to have you come out to the Haunting You podcast, and we love hearing what the Chamber has in store. I am so excited for 2025 and your fifth year and all the exciting things that you're going to do.

I'm planning to get out to more conventions this year because I'm back on the East Coast. I'm close to East Coast, so I'll be up there at East Coast. I've already paid for a booth at Haunters Against Hate, so we will be there in August. I don't know when I'm going to get out to Texas. I'm never in that direction, but we'll see what happens. I know it's a hard one.

I can't. I'll tell you what, if you can make it, I mean, we used to fly out, now we drive out, and it's a long drive, but I'll tell you what, it's a fun drive. You can see a lot of stuff in the United States, but if you ever get a chance to make it to Texas House Convention, you will not be disappointed. I can promise you that much. It's an amazing time show. If they're getting a new venue this year, it sounds like it's going to be a good year to be there.

Oh, it will be. I'm going to be in Boston that weekend. Long direction, Les Sister, concert. Fair Well, Rob, thank you for coming out And we look forward to everything else that we Get to do together this year Rob, thank you so much Thank you guys, I appreciate it Great to see you Good to see you guys too, you have a great night You too, we'll chat later, All right, let's wrap it up Yeah, so it's always a pleasure having Rob come on and give us an update on the Chamber of Haunters.

Definitely go check them out at chamberofhaunters.com if you want to learn more or find them at one of the conventions coming up this year. Speaking of which, let's go do a quick run through because this is our first show of the year and we're getting into convention season. In fact, convention season kicks off right at the end of this month, February 27th. Trans World's Halloween and Attraction Show in St. Louis, Missouri will be the first convention of the year.

And that will be followed very quickly by haunt fest april ghouls in fact we will have roseanne back on the haunting you podcast probably in march to discuss all the fun things they have coming up for haunt fest that is april 4th through 6th down in athens georgia, Then at the end of April, East Coast Hunters Convention is back for their second year, Oaks, Pennsylvania, April 26th and 27th. I intend to be there just as an attendee because I'm on the East Coast and it's pretty damn close to me.

I'm very excited to see what they have there. Then Midwest Hunters Convention, June 6th through 8th in Rosemont, Illinois. Midwest always has just an absolutely phenomenal show. Highly recommended. If you're in the area, go check them out.

Rob mentioned the texas hunters convention the official convention of the chamber of haunters that is in july july 26th and 27th this year he said where they are now i'm gonna have to look it up because irving irving irving texas it's right between dallas and fort worth on the dallas side of the equation just a little bit north so perfect easy to get into easy to get out of much larger location and there's going to be a lot of things to do if you want to make it

a longer weekend and book some time on either side of the event they're still finalizing all of the classes and everything because i was you know snooping around their website because of course i am, tragically i will not be in texas to die at the end of july i will instead be in boston dying of humidity at the end of july oh awful i was gonna ask you when it was i thought you said sheds you earlier that's too bad so the

next event will be haunted haunters against hate the event number three season of the witch that is the uh we will have a booth there that is august 8th through 10th in louisville kentucky uh at the crown plaza so very excited to be heading out to haunters against hate phenomenal organization and. I absolutely adore their mission. So I'm so excited to be supporting them during this event. Yeah.

And then finally, Midsummer Scream will wrap up convention season August 15th, 17th at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. That is a really fun convention. They have the horror. They bring in so much from the horror industry as well as the haunt industry. It's a great convention in Southern California. The weather is always phenomenal.

Go check them out if you are in that area as well. so huge year for conventions coming up we are very sad to say that fear expo and haunt con had to cancel this year and it sounds like they are not planning anything for the foreseeable future of course if we hear anything come out of there we will report it on our website haunting you.com john do you want to give us a rundown of the rest of our social media and where people can find us i would say you can find us on instagram at

haunting university you can find us facebook facebook.com slash hunting you youtube is just what is youtube hunting you at haunting you yeah at haunted youtube.com slash at haunting you then you can find the podcast anywhere you can find any podcast apple spotify amazon audible anything any place you can find podcasts you can find us exactly exactly anything else that we should talk about before we close it out lady and gent we're back we're back very

excited we're going to survive 2025 we have big plans in store thank you for that we have big plans in store for halloween 2025 and we will be talking about them on future episodes of the podcast so definitely go subscribe so you can keep up with all of the excitement that we have going with sanguine creek. In the meantime, I think we call it a night. So from all of us here at Haunting You, happy hunting.

We are incredibly thankful to all the sponsors who make this show possible, particularly our premium sponsors, the Chamber of Haunters and Fear Expo. You can learn more at chamberofhaunters.com and fearexpolive.com. Music. Check out the Haunting You podcast at hauntingyou.com for more information on everything that we do. Thank you. Haunting You is a production of the Rocky Mountain Home Haunters LLC.

Llc all audio clips and sound effects are used under a creative commons attribution or public domain license from purple planet music at purple dash planet.com or the sound bible at sound bible.com please see the show notes for more information on all the clips used in this episode, in case in case he's a heart enthusiast which i highly doubt and and stuff just we we miss you miko if you're listening we do miss you miko but we're really

really happy that out of all the places you got traded to. At least it's not a place we hate. That's going to be the post-credits drop. I watched him score his first school. Aww. Yeah.