Guy Steele

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From Rock Star Dad to Entertainment Empire

[0:00] We lost our old building because some cryptocurrency miners came in. They set

[0:07] up a huge wall of machines. I mean, this operation was crazy. This whole wall was

[0:13] just blinking and mining cryptocurrency. There were times, Dimmitri, we would go in and the whole lights, all of them

[0:20] were off because they were cutting the power to the main lights to reroute the power to get more machines.

[0:26] Let me count it. You run a balloon twisting business. You have a mini golf.

[0:31] You have escape rooms. You do foam parties. You do a bounce houses. You

[0:37] have a pizza restaurant and more. Like, how do you manage it all? Hey everyone,

[0:42] on today's episode of Attractions Insides, we are talking with a multi-talented entertainer and

[0:48] attraction owner who turned being a rockstar dad into a fullscale family entertainment empire. I steal from

[0:56] balloon twisting and magic shows to bounce houses, foam parties, portable

[1:02] LED mini golf, escape rooms, and now a full indoor 3D black light mini golf

[1:08] center with a Hank handcrafted pizza. Guy has built one of the most diverse

[1:13] entertainment brands in the Washington. We'll dive into how a simple hobby grew

[1:18] into a business, what it takes to run so many different attractions at once, and

[1:24] how guy keeps creating magical moments for kids and families in his community. Let's jump in. So, it's so so good to

[1:31] have you. Thank you so much for joining. And I guess let's start with a simple question. How does wanting to be a

[1:37] rockstar dad turn into a full-time entertainment business? Sure. And I suppose I included that

[1:44] because I wanted to be all that I could be for my own kids. And it just so

[1:49] happened that my community benefited from me just wanting to be the fun, cheerful dad that I really wanted to be.

[1:57] As I started to grow a family and my wife and I, we started we started having kids. And I suppose I

[2:04] just wanted to be the the dad that nobody else had. And you look young. Like how old are

[2:10] you? Yeah. So, I'm 43 now, but I started having kids at Yeah. My

[2:15] daughter's 17 now. I'm an old guy, man. Well, I can tell you this. You look

[2:20] good. Thank you. Good for you. What made you fall in love with the

[2:26] balloon twisting? And tell us more about balloon twisting. Unusual. Yes. I started that when I was in

[2:32] college. Life handed me some lemon so I made lemonade and I was in found myself

[2:38] in college. So, I really took on this thirst for knowledge, I should say. And

[2:45] I also want to say I kind of traded one addiction for another. So, that's kind

[2:50] of a little bit of backstory. When I started learning about balloon twisting, I found out that there's nothing in the

[2:57] world you can't create. You can make an apple out of balloons. You can make a building out of balloons. And so, just

[3:03] that unlimited capacity when it came to balloons. Plus, what kid doesn't like balloons? when it came to the unlimited

[3:10] capacity that just intrigued me and I was like I have to learn more. I have to know how to do it and that's what really

[3:16] just kept it going started it and maintained my desire for it. Nice. When did you realize this hobby

[3:23] could actually become a business? I suppose there was a time when I got so good at twisting and I could do

[3:29] characters. I started getting into Disney characters with Goofy and Mickey

[3:34] Mouse and all these uh all these Disney characters, Cinderella, you name them,

[3:39] princesses. And there were a few friends that started to say, "Hey guy, could you

[3:45] make me a this?" And of course, I would make it and then they would tip me. And I made this massive. It was It was

The Journey of Balloon Twisting

[3:52] incredible. It was a steam from Minecraft. And I made it for my nephew. And I just I probably spent like three

[3:58] hours on this thing. and my brother-in-law gave me 20 bucks for

[4:04] it. And I was like, "Oh, you didn't have to do that." And he was like, "No, you just put in a ton of work." And and I

[4:09] did, but he ended up giving me 20 bucks. And I was like, "Huh, maybe I should start charging for balloons."

[4:16] Nice. How from balloon twisting you ended up discovering Shanks 3D Mini Golf

[4:23] and I know uh you mentioned that it was closing so you guys took over. Can you tell us a little bit story behind it?

[4:29] Yes. So, I was I was working a job out of college, finally graduated and I had

[4:36] this desire to sort of have a family entertainment center, but I thought it was going to be bounce houses. I really

[4:43] wanted to look at some properties and maybe set up some bounce houses in an area, let the kids run around, but I

[4:49] found out that real estate or even renting buildings was so expensive. And I'm like, man, this is just not going to

[4:56] be not going to happen because I I'm just a small poor kid just trying to entertain kids and so I'm not I don't

[5:03] have any funds or anything like that. Well, through talking with people and

[5:09] especially this location, there was a business. It was called Erands. It moved out of the location I was looking at.

[5:16] And I thought, I'm going to go talk to Brandon. And he used to manage this location, this business that was in the

[5:22] location. And so I talked to him and he said, "Guy, that's $12,000 a month." And I was like, "There's no way I'll ever do

[5:29] that." And he said, "But go talk to David Shanks. I think he might be looking to change chapters in his life.

[5:35] Well, I went and talked to Dave that day and he was very interested in handing

[5:40] the business off. He didn't know what that looked like. I didn't know what that looked like. But what we did was he

[5:46] gave me an opportunity to take it over. I tried it out for six months just to see how things went and I was able to to

[5:54] turn some things around and then we ended up deciding to fully

[5:59] take it over for my wife and I. Wow. Okay. That's interesting. Was there any

[6:04] money exchanging hands or you just literally just took over? I just took over. He said the

[6:10] arrangement that him and I had was I will run it the way that I'm going to run it for six months and I can choose

Creating Magical Moments for Kids

[6:18] to leave any time because I'm the one taking all of the risk and it's my time, but I'm going to pay him half of the

[6:24] profits. And so, and that also goes comes off of the agreed upon amount that

[6:30] we had sort of been negotiating through. It was kind of a it wasn't a hard number, but it was something that we

[6:36] were shooting for. And so, what I found out was, well, we were able to make money. And so, I thought, "This is good.

[6:43] We can actually pay for it." Then, so six months came and I almost had the

[6:49] whole thing paid off. You said no one did magic balloons or kids entertainment where you grew up. How much does this

[6:56] drive your mission today? It's 75% of it because I still ask kids,

[7:02] "Hey, have you ever got a balloon before?" And kids will be like, and I'm like, and I love that because I'm

[7:09] creating this magical experience in front of them. Like the magic of just watching somebody create out of a

[7:15] balloon is wonderful. And then also, I get to hand it off to them. There are

[7:20] kids every single event it seems like that have never had a balloon. And that's that's exactly why I do it is

[7:27] because there are kids out there that just don't have somebody in their life doing this for them.

[7:32] What does it feel like when you see kids light up during your show or party or when you present them a balloon?

[7:39] I feel like I'm inspiring them. I feel like I'm inspiring them to have a

[7:45] colorful, wonderful, exciting, creative life, too, because boy, I tend to think

[7:51] that life can get pretty serious at times. And I'm I'm guilty of it. But I think that when I go out and I just have

[7:58] fun and I bring the fun, like kids forget all the being serious and all the homework and this, but it allows their

[8:05] imaginations to run and that's it just lights me up. Why do you believe the

[8:10] small moments matter so much for families? I would say because there aren't many of

[8:16] them. The parents are so busy and if you don't purpose the time to be with the

[8:22] kids, then your time just goes and you lose it and you don't get that back. And so I think that it's precious because

[8:30] boy, life is very busy and it's very fast. And so I think these moments where

[8:36] we can cherish the togetherness, it means more to kids than we'll ever truly

[8:42] know. Well said. Where did the character Mr. Twister come from?

[8:48] So where did that come from? My sister was making fun of me. I was telling her about the balloon and how that was

[8:54] going. She I think she popped off with something like, "What are they going to call you, Mr. Twister?" And I said,

[8:59] "That's actually really good." I didn't have a name at the time. And so I I felt

[9:05] it. I really embodied it and I just took it and stole it and I said, "I'm going to be Mr. Twister." That was 14 years

[9:12] ago. Beautiful. What makes your show different from any typical like kids entertainment show?

[9:17] I include balloons. I include balloons in every one of my shows. And for not every magic trick, but every trick that

[9:25] most every trick that I do includes a balloon that I present and I give to the

[9:30] volunteer. And so a kid that comes up leads with a balloon in their hands. Nice. What's the wildest or most

[9:37] memorable like show moment you've ever had? I would say I felt like VIP this day.

[9:43] And so a Thousand Trails, which is a camping it's a camping resort kind of.

[9:48] They invited me up and I had to drive like two two and a half hours to get there. And they set me up in a cabin and

[9:56] I got to present my magic show to all the campers and kids. I probably had a

[10:01] group of maybe 30 kids, right? Very small group, but I felt like VIP get in

[10:07] my own cabin. I was driving up to an event and it was like an all expense

[10:13] paid trip. Oh, and I got to bring my family, too. So, bringing my family was magic because I'm just trying to be the

[10:19] best dad ever. Uh, and so I got to bring all of them. And so, just that whole environment really made me feel special.

[10:27] And I and I look back on it and playing in the pool with my kids and then going and doing the show. It's just I'll never

[10:33] forget it. Nice. Nice. You I also noticed that you

[10:38] offer a very big discounts on Mr. Twister for party packages. Why did you

[10:44] create that offer? Well, I want to just kind of create a draw. One, I love people coming to

Innovating with Shanks 3D Mini Golf

[10:50] shanks, but I also love being at people's birthday parties. And so I thought that if I just combined the two

[10:57] and made it more affordable, then families would be more inclined to take me up on the offer. One, I want to twist

[11:03] balloons at the kiddos's birthday party because we bring magic and have fun, but I also want families into Shanks to

[11:09] support my cause as well. I love I love the community supporting my business as And I see your uh what is this? Hoodie,

[11:17] right? Uh Shanks hoodie. Yes. I love this. Yeah. So tell us a little bit more for people who haven't seen

[11:24] your place yet. What's Shanks 3D? What it is and how it's different from a

[11:30] normal mini golf course? You bet. So it's an indoor course. So

[11:35] it's different because it is indoors and it's different because it's 3D as well. And so here in Washington where we live,

[11:42] it just rains all the time, which is why Shanks is so it's a desirable

[11:48] destination because you can be warm and indoors during the winter time and we

[11:53] keep it cool during the summertime. So you don't have to battle the elements on that. And then also it's since it's

[12:00] indoors and it's black light. So our walls are painted neon, the black light

[12:05] shines down on them and that creates a very very colorful environment, but then

[12:11] it's also a 3D. So that's unlike any other golf course out there. How is 3D element works?

[12:17] So we use light defraction glasses where we'll put on the put on the glasses and

[12:22] what happens is those light defractions push the purples and the blues away. it

[12:29] would pull the oranges and the yellows to you and then the greens are kind of

[12:34] neutral and so it creates that layer of D just from the light defraction

[12:40] glasses. Interesting. Okay. When you took over, I'm assuming you went through some

[12:46] changes like can you tell us what was the changes and how it's impacted the business bottom line?

[12:52] Yeah, one change we did was we upgraded our our arcade. So, we had a guy who was

[12:59] helping us out and I asked him about different machines and so we started to get newer machines in there. Kids really

[13:05] did enjoy that. The old owner, he wasn't providing the

[13:10] 3D glasses like we were. We knew that we had to offer the 3D because it was such

[13:16] a wonderful part of the journey that you would go through on the mini golf. And

[13:22] so, we had to offer that. But then we included a glow pack. And what that is is it's a golf ball. I wish I had one

[13:28] here, but it's a golf ball that we put a glow stick inside. And then when it's spinning, it's bouncing around. It looks

[13:34] like a little lightsaber that's bouncing around. And that's another thing we quickly added. So on top of that, we

[13:42] started to add some snacks, some light snacks, and just really incorporate some food because we knew people wanted to

Building a Handcrafted Pizza Restaurant

[13:47] chew on something. We're just snackers, right? So, and kids are snackers, too. Kids love eating stuff. And so we we

[13:54] started to increase some food and that was at our old location, but we started to recognize and then we also started to

[14:02] structure our birthday parties and started adding birthday party packages which didn't exist before, but we

[14:09] started building out packages to really offer just more stuff to do with Shakes. Nice. And so food, tell us more. I know

[14:16] that right now you decided to do handcrafted pizza restaurant.

[14:22] Tell us what's the thought process behind it. Well, what I saw was an opportunity and

[14:28] not an opportunity to make more money, which is better because I need my business to run and to grow so that I

[14:35] don't shut down, but an opportunity because parents were coming in with pizza and they had to stop somewhere

[14:42] else before they got to me to go get their pizza. And I thought to myself,

[14:47] one, I know I can create a great pizza because my best friend showed me everything that he knows. Thanks, Josh.

[14:54] He's He's been in the pizza industry for 25 years. But they were coming in with

[14:59] stacks of pizza boxes like this tall. And I was just like, "Look at all that pizza." And so, uh, that was one of that

[15:07] was one of the main factors that really gave me the motivation for that. But also just to make it more convenient.

[15:14] They don't have to worry about food anymore. They don't have to worry about going somewhere else. We can provide it

[15:19] right here. Okay. Did you buy a pizza machine? Like what what involves in making pizza?

[15:25] Yes. Oh, like I said, my buddy Josh, my best friend ever. He was my first best friend. He's been doing it for 25 years.

[15:32] And he says, "Guy, this is what you need." And he said, "I need a dough sheet. I need a dough mixer because we

[15:38] make our own dough. And I needed a pizza ovens with the we have to have the stone

[15:43] slate and then we had I had to build the whole entire kitchen. And so we're talking down to the hot

[15:50] water tanks down to the triple basin sinks. We had to build it all.

[15:55] What about city? Did you have to go through the city inspections or you just did it? Oh yes. Oh yes. I had to submit my

[16:02] plans. So the city was my biggest fan because they told me what to do. I don't

[16:08] have experience with this. I'm just a balloon twister and a kids entertainer. But of course, I want to provide extra

[16:14] things. So, I asked talked to the city first and I said, "One, is it possible

[16:19] that I do this?" They said, "Yes." And then I said, "Okay, what do I have to do in order to do it?" And they said,

[16:25] "Okay, you need to follow these things." And I said, "Okay." So, I followed these things. And then I said, "All right,

[16:30] city, come on in and check it out." They looked at it and said, "Guy, you're doing great. You can sell pizza." That's

[16:36] a very very uh sort of short story for a very long adventure that we had to go

[16:41] on, but the city eventually said you guys are awesome and we got our our food license.

[16:47] So for somebody who is watching us and they also would like to have a pizza or

[16:53] serve some kind of food, do you know like estimate or do you know exact numbers like how much you spend? How much is this project of adding uh pizza

[17:01] costed you? Yes, it was over $10,000 and it wasn't as much as maybe I would

[17:06] thought. However, I would, if I was guessing, all said and done with wiring

Navigating the Loan Process

[17:11] and contractors and stuff, I'm guessing around $20,000.

[17:17] But also, I must say the kitchen hood was already here because we bought a

[17:23] building that had a big kitchen hood and the floor, it had the drainage and the

[17:29] grease trap already installed. And so we bought, luckily our building was

[17:36] prepared for it and it was just it was a blessing. It truly was. And so we were all we had to do is put all the pieces

[17:42] together because the the infrastructure was already in place.

[17:47] Okay. And financing for this came from where we haven't talked yet about because

[17:53] first when we took over Shanks, we ended up running it for 5 years. Then we shut down and had to buy a new building. So

[18:00] there's a big gap with a really big uh a big kind of unknown. So when we bought the new building, we ended up having

[18:08] savings from running shanks for five years. And so what we did with this new location that we bought is we spent

[18:15] everything that we'd ever made for the last five years. And that was and in total it was like $250,000

[18:23] to one pay for the down payment and then remodel this building and then also get

[18:28] the kitchen in place. But once we open now once we opened we didn't even open

[18:34] with seating, right? I like to say we're still building we're building the plane as we fly it because we're not even

[18:41] done. And we weren't even finished when we opened. We just knew we had to open up so that we could bring in more money

[18:46] to finish the rest of our plans. We financed it ourselves. We don't owe

[18:51] anything except for the building. However, it's been just a slow process.

[18:57] We don't move forward with a plan or a goal unless we have the funds for it. That's super cool. And how did you make

[19:04] decision going buying route versus uh leasing? We came from leasing our building and

[19:11] that was nice. made sense. We're paying about 3500.

[19:17] We were about ready to pay 3,600 and it was 7,000 square feet. I live in a very small town and there's not a lot. And so

[19:24] maybe that has something to do with it. Where I live, we live in a in a county with maybe a 100,000 people in the

[19:32] entire county. And it's the biggest county in Washington. It's just very rural.

[19:37] And so the reason that we bought is just because our payment was going to be roughly the same anyway, but at the end

[19:45] of all of it, I might be able to own my own building. And when I'm making improvements, it's improvements that I

[19:52] am investing in, not necessarily making improvements for somebody else's building because I wanted to do so much.

[19:59] And so, a little bit into the story of why we had to move. I didn't want us to

[20:06] be forced to move again either because we were forced to move our location from

[20:11] where we were. Gotcha. And so tell us a little bit more about applying for the loan process.

[20:17] What kind of loan did you did you use? How much the building cost was? When did

[20:22] you buy it? Okay. Yeah, it wasn't a good time when we actually took out the loan because

[20:29] our loan percentage is at 8.5 and now that's very very high. But it was also

[20:34] at here in Washington and maybe even across the US, we're just facing this

[20:40] shortage on inventory when it comes to real estate. But now commercial real

[20:45] estate is very expensive, too. It's just crazy. And for a small family business,

[20:50] it's really not feasible. However, if you save your pennies, which we do, we

[20:57] just don't live above our means, then you can buy your own spot. Now, at 8.5,

[21:03] we found a local bank. We found a local bank that was willing to invest in us.

[21:08] We showed them our numbers. You have to have all of that stuff. So, you have to show them your taxes. Show them that you can make money. And so, that's what we

[21:15] did. We just said, "Hey, this is where we're at." And a local bank that wants

[21:20] to invest in the community will work something out. And and so for them, they

[21:26] carried the note there. And so we ended up buying a building for $400,000

[21:32] and it's more than we wanted to spend, but it was the biggest building that we could actually afford at the time, but

[21:40] it was a huge fixer upper. I put on a construction hat. I did a lot of the work myself just because also labor is

[21:47] expensive. So be ready to get your hands dirty. Be ready to buy some tools from Home Depot and be ready to learn how to

[21:53] use them. And so with that, uh, I started working on it. Of course, we

[21:59] paid 20% down, so that's 80,000 bucks. And our loan ended up coming out to

[22:04] $320,000. We've been in this building for maybe

[22:09] three years and we still owe more than $300,000 just because our interest rate is so high. So, if you are thinking

[22:17] about going into and getting your own building, just know that paying it off, it's a very slow process, but you got to

[22:25] have something that people want to support. And you also have to have the motivation to stick with it or you just

[22:32] have to find something else to do. And it's what kind of loan? SBA loan. It's not an SBA loan. No, it's a maybe a

[22:38] conventional. I don't even know. I kind of just signed the papers. Wow. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. And it's

[22:44] 30-year loan. It is a 30-year loan. Yep. You didn't you decided not to go through SBA route or you just didn't know about

[22:50] it? I think I think I didn't even know really what they were about. I want to

[22:56] say that when I reached out to a local bank and I reached out to two and then

[23:04] the one that gave us our loan, they were just so willing to work with us and he was very communicative that I thought to

[23:12] myself, well, this is just my option. SDA didn't even enter into my mind. Interesting. Okay. And I'm assuming with

[23:18] this loan, you have personal guarantee. How scary was it to like sign for something like this for a big amount of

[23:24] money? I wasn't scared. I was excited because I knew that I was saving my business and I

Overcoming Adversity: The Yardbirds Experience

[23:30] knew that what I'm capable of and I I I know how hard I can work. I know the

[23:36] long hours that I put in just in this business alone. I wasn't willing to let it go. I wasn't and plus I didn't want

[23:42] to go get a real job. [laughter] So, so um just knowing all that, I was just

[23:48] excited to get to work. I had already kind of looked at the building and I saw the potential and I just see pictures

[23:55] and so I saw everything that I could do with it and I just knew I could turn it into the shanks that our community would

[24:01] love and we lost shanks and so I'm just excited that we our business our

[24:07] community supported us but also we had a place to finally go and start over. Did you find the property first before

[24:14] you start applying for the loan? Yeah, I found the property before I started applying for the loan just because I

[24:20] needed to know like where I was going to be. Once we lost our old location, our

[24:25] location had me and my wife had to decide, do we go get real jobs or do we

[24:31] look for a place to be? And so I think we were looking for a place to be, but once we started talking to real estate

[24:38] agents, they were like, "You need to get preapproved." And so it was kind of one in the other. They were very close to

[24:44] each other when we were finding the building and when we were getting preapproved.

[24:49] And again, you're saying that you lost previous building. Was it because the lease ended or something happened?

[24:54] We lost our old building because some cryptocurrency miners came in. They set

[25:02] up a huge wall of machines. I mean, this operation was crazy. This whole wall was

[25:08] just blinking and mining cryptocurrency. Well, what I didn't recognize was when

[25:14] you're running cryptocurrency machines, it uses a lot a lot of power. And so,

[25:19] one thing is we they racked the electricity bill up to $113,000

[25:26] and they weren't paying it. And so, the city decided to shut the electricity off

[25:31] to the whole building. And this was a 200,000 square foot building that had

[25:37] probably 16 businesses in it. And so we all came in and we saw boards all over

[25:43] the walls and we were told that we can't enter because there wasn't a sprinkler

[25:49] system that was active cuz the building didn't have power anymore. Wow. Okay. And so how did you end up

[25:56] dealing with the landlord? What did the landlord do? Did you get reimbured or you were just kicked out?

[26:02] We basically got kicked out. We weren't able to go into the building until they

[26:08] got the electricity turned back on. So therefore, they needed to work with the

[26:13] work with the city to pay their $113,000 bill and then get the power on so all of

[26:19] us could get our stuff out. It was very very shady, Demetri, what was happening

[26:24] there. I'm making a very long story short, but the only reason I know it was

[26:31] 113,000 is because we did a public records request and we requested all of

[26:36] the written communication between the city employees and the management of it

[26:42] was called Yard Birds. And so they were just bouncing checks and making promises

[26:48] that they weren't keeping. I don't know what exactly the landlord was trying to

[26:53] do, but it just wasn't good. So, was the landlord mining or one of

[26:58] the tenants? So, it was the landlord and a tenant that was mining together. It was a

[27:05] maintenance guy who was mining crypto. Came in, started doing maintenance, got in the ear of the owner of the building,

[27:14] and he basically gave him the idea to mine crypto and make some money. There's

[27:19] nothing wrong with that. Now, I will say this is during COVID as well. So, this

[27:25] new owner of the building that we were in comes in, COVID happens, and all of the sudden his plans were kind of put on

[27:32] hold because CO did slow a lot of people down. But now he's having some issues

[27:37] with getting big events back in into the building, which was kind of a big revenue builder for that building.

[27:44] people didn't want to gather in big numbers, nor were they allowed to. So his expectation to have big parties was

[27:52] very squashed. And I think he had to pivot in order to subsidize the the

[27:57] large rent that the huge building was. And so he did that knowing that he could

[28:02] maybe it would help out. And then it just kind of grew out of control where

[28:07] the maintenance guy now brought in a cryptocurrency mining business to come

[28:12] in and help out with that. Now the operation is it's not just a personal project anymore. It was a huge sort of

[28:19] buildout and they were there were times Dimmitri we would go in and the whole lights all of them were off because they

[28:26] were cutting the power to the main lights to reroute the power to get more machines more plugins. Luckily for us at

[28:33] Shanks we had our own sort of external breaker. So, we were like on our own

[28:38] power thing and they were even in there looking at our power box, seeing where they could, you know, maybe reroute some

[28:46] power line. I don't even know. But, you know, it ended up tanking yard birds.

[28:51] And again, over 15 businesses and these are small businesses over 15, maybe even

[28:57] 20. We all lost our businesses that day. And so, one day you came in, there is no lights, you cannot come in. And

[29:04] basically, what did you have to do? I'm assuming you had some bookings. You had to refund people and apologize and like

[29:10] all of us. Yes, that's exactly what we had to do. We had to reach out to everybody that we had and tell them the state and

[29:17] everybody knew about it in our community because it was all over Facebook. It was like yard bird shut down and we were

[29:24] just one they were asking us well when are you going to be open and we just didn't know. So we refunded everybody

[29:29] and then we just kind of were waiting to gain access. Now, don't I'm going to

[29:35] whisper this. We had access through a back door. We were kind of a big part of

[29:41] the business and so we had another door that we could get into and we started to dismantle our golf course while people

[29:49] weren't really allowed in the building because of the sprinkler. We were already taking our stuff down and doing

[29:56] all that because we knew that the business wasn't going to open up and be available. We knew that our time is

[30:03] done. let's just get our stuff out. And so we were starting to just pack up

[30:08] shop. And so that was a nice help because we got like a jump start to

[30:14] finding a new place and even removing our panels. It was such a huge process

[30:20] and we were able to get a jump start to getting into the new building. Okay. And new building is the building that you bought.

[30:25] Yes. This is the I'm in the building that we just bought and these are all the handprints of the birthday parties

[30:30] that we've had in. And the other wall is way huger in the other room. But yeah.

[30:37] So you got kicked out from there. You took everything. Where did you put it? You put it in storage.

[30:43] The greatest thing is since we weren't able to get into the building, we just

[30:49] left it in the building. Okay. So you took it apart, left it at the building and start looking for

[30:54] property to buy. And then in December, we ended up getting the building. We're working

[31:00] through it and as we are finalizing documents, we get access to the

[31:06] building. So, it was like, "Thank you, Jesus." The building opened up and we were able to just move our stuff right

[31:13] into our new building. How long it took before the previous place got shut down and before you

[31:19] acquired the new place? Let's say it was probably five months. It was a

[31:25] long time. Okay, man. What a story. Listen, this is crazy. We went through it.

[31:32] Wow. Okay. This is this is something. So, I guess what did you learn from this

[31:38] experience? Not a lot of people go through something like this where they just got shut down in one day and nothing you can do about it. Did you, by

[31:44] the way, did you guys try to sue the landlord or Yeah. No. No, I didn't try to get my

[31:50] money back, anything like that. It wouldn't have been good with my heart. And plus, it wouldn't have I don't even

[31:56] think it would have mattered. I just um I'm going to focus on what I can control in myself and that's just what I move

[32:03] forward with. I I don't really like taking anything from anyone else. I just I just want to do what I'm going to do

[32:10] sort of with my business and not not think someone else is going to help me out with it, I suppose.

[32:16] So, what happened with the building with the landlord? Did they lose the building or They did. The building actually went

Expanding into Escape Rooms

[32:22] back to the very previous owner and the one who owned it before, he

[32:28] didn't want it. He wanted to sell it and retire, but he's like, "Okay, here's this building again." And so he he

[32:33] finally sold it. But yeah, that guy ended up I don't even know where he went

[32:39] or what happened with the whole workout. I just I just know we got our stuff out of there and we were like, "We're going

[32:44] to focus on us." Wow. Okay. All right. So super super unique story. Now let's shift our

[32:51] attention to escape rooms. Can you tell me more? I know you building right now like finding big food escape room. And

[32:58] is it in the same building or where are you building? Yep. So we are here in our square

[33:04] footage here is like 5,400 and we have one room that we can do something with.

[33:10] So I'm building it inside our new location. and your mini golf. Total square footage

[33:16] of the building 5,400. What's the dining area looks like? And

[33:22] you have what? One course. And is it 18 holes? Yep. I've got one course. It is 12 holes

[33:28] because with the square footage we did lose from our old building. We lost

[33:34] about 1,500 square ft. So, we had to reduce 18 holes into one space. And

[33:40] which is really nice because now when you go in there are props and decorations everywhere because we added

[33:47] all of the magic from 18 holes into 12 holes. So it's just really really done

[33:52] up well. However, the mini golf is about 2/3 of what it used to be.

[33:59] Do you find anyone complaining about like why it's 12 holes? Uh you know it's

[34:05] not 18. Yes, we do. Yeah, that's matter of fact, that's some of the feedback that we get

[34:11] is that it was it's not as long as the other as the other golf course that we

[34:17] have. And that's something that we just don't know how to fix. We did what we could with the space that we had. And

[34:24] it's it's kind of it can be discouraging to know that you still have people that are maybe not quite as appreciative of

[34:32] what we had to go through to even save it. But, you know, this day and age,

[34:37] it's just hard to please everybody. So, what we're focusing on is what we can control, which is just making the

[34:44] experience when they do come in an unforgettable one, rather than worry about we lost square footage in the golf

[34:51] course. Like, yeah, but that shouldn't be the deal breaker. And if it is, then uh well, we'll just hope to see you next

[34:58] time. What's your prices? So we charge $9.95 for an adult and then 950 for seven and

The Impact of Pizza on Business Growth

[35:07] up and then from 3 to six we charge 850. Interesting division. Why not the same

[35:13] price or why not a bigger spread? Yeah, because I want to give people a discount because I want want to just

[35:21] help out I suppose. And it seems to me like when you go to a movie, there are kids prices, there are youth prices. And

[35:28] so I really want to give those breakdowns. We have a military discount as well. And then if a kiddo wants to

[35:34] golf and they're they're 2 years old or younger, we'll give them a golf ball for

[35:40] free because we're just trying to entertain them at that point. Like just try to give them something to do while

[35:45] everyone else is golfing, too. Nice. How for how long you had uh pizza now? We've had pizza for almost two

[35:52] years. In March, it'll be two years. How did you see the difference in profitability as far as like adding

[35:58] pizza? Do you see more people coming out? What's the also what's the percentage difference with the food? You

[36:05] know, your sales increase so much. Do you see the difference? Yes. Yeah, we do. At first, we did not.

[36:11] It was a very, very gradual sort of growth phase. And we're still growing.

[36:16] Not many people know that we do pizza. We're we're on Door Dash now to help get our food out there. But we started out

[36:23] selling maybe maybe like five a weekend and then we got to a point where I was

[36:29] celebrating last year and I was like we sold 50 a weekend in one week or in a week and I thought that was the greatest

[36:36] thing. And now we get we're up in there. But I'll back up. When birthday parties are booking that's

[36:42] what sells a lot of pizza, right? because birthday parties aren't booking and we're providing pizza.

[36:48] During the summertime, it's really slow, but during the winter winter months like we're in now, people are booking a lot

[36:55] of parties and we can sell 75 pizzas. So, what what I'm finding is we added

[37:01] maybe an extra $700 per week and and in

[37:07] revenue using the kitchen. People are coming in just for the pizza because I

[37:12] had mentioned my best friend. He's been doing it for 25 years. And so the word

[37:19] of our pizza starting to get out, it it is very good pizza. I I'm still so

Expanding Attractions: Escape Rooms and Jungle Gyms

[37:25] impressed with our pizza. And so when the word keeps getting out and uh people

[37:31] are showing up just for the pizza and it's really really encouraging as well because I'll see on Facebook when

[37:37] somebody will post um hey where who has good pizza around here and Shane speedy

[37:44] black light mini golf and pizza are now getting tagged in these posts and so

[37:49] that's just like hey the word's getting out there and that's great and that's also why we rebranded from Shanks 3D

[37:56] black light mini golf to Shanks 3D Blacklight Miniolf and Pizza in the name for SEO purposes.

[38:02] That's smart move. I love it. Um, okay. Back to escape rooms. How many escape rooms do you have?

[38:08] Yeah, we I've only got one, but I'm building another one. I know that you have plans of building a

[38:15] threetory jungle gym. Yeah. What's the vision behind it? And like where is this idea coming from?

[38:22] I know. And well, it's it stems from this real passion to to provide a place

[38:29] for kids to run around, right? And so I think that if I build this three-story

[38:36] jungle gym, and I have to build a building for it and everything, but they'll have a place to be out out of the rain, they'll be out of the wind,

Managing Multiple Ventures: Strategies and Challenges

[38:44] and they'll just have a place to run around when it's kind of icky outside. We live in Washington, it can get just

[38:49] nasty for months and months. And you just said that you're planning to build the building. So you want to do from

[38:54] ground up. Yes. Yeah. Because we don't have the space, but we have property out back. So

[39:00] we have I don't know, maybe 30 feet out back plus

[39:06] close to 80 ft. 30 by 80. This is so cool. I really like it. Let

[39:11] me count it. You run a balloon twisting business. You have a mini golf. You have

[39:16] escape rooms. You do foam parties. You do a bounce houses, you have a pizza

[39:22] restaurant, and more like how do you manage it all? What a great question.

[39:28] I suppose I compartmentalize everything. I don't try to work on all of it all at

[39:34] once, but I just take what my priorities are and then I start there. And so there

[39:40] are times when I don't get to everything. There are there are certain things like right now I also I'm not

[39:47] marketing foam parties at all. The weather's terrible. Nobody wants a foam party. So there are also seasons that I

[39:54] go through where something is a good idea. And so all my indoor stuff is a

[40:00] good idea to market right now. What's the operational challenges you have and what kind of systems do you

[40:06] have in place? Right. I suppose I don't really use a system. I

[40:12] wish I did. I'm just very very fly. I'm go with the flow and I'm just kind of

[40:18] like I do it on the fly. And so I wish I did have a system where I'm trying to go

[40:23] and what I'm trying to accomplish in front of me in my mind and that sort of motivates me. Like right now I have a

[40:30] huge focus for my mini golf because I just got this miniature golf course. So, I'm in the process of building an entire

Marketing Insights: Strategies and Mistakes

[40:38] spreadsheet of schools, libraries, boys and girls clubs, our the our county's

[40:46] biggest employers, and then also what's another big one? Oh, summer camps, a lot

[40:51] of summer camps. I'm building these endless lists of these, and I'm about ready to start creating a flyer and

[40:57] market to all of them. And so, I don't have a process. It's just kind of when I

[41:04] know I need to do something for a certain part of my business, then I just do it. It's kind of just comes to me.

[41:11] Okay. So, you just kind of start talking about marketing. How do you approach marketing at all?

[41:17] Like for such a wide range of experiences. I'm real patient with it because I'm not

[41:22] very good at it. For example, if I'm doing a phone party, I'll take a bunch of phone party pictures and then I will

[41:30] just post about it. And then when I'm doing a magic show, I'll take pictures of my magic show and then I'll post

[41:36] about it. Boy, you're kind of helping me identify that I don't have a very good system for or at least a media calendar

[41:44] or a to-do list because I'm not doing it. It seems like I'm so busy with everything else. But when it comes to my

[41:52] marketing, I'm just doing it on the fly. It's I don't have any type of set

[41:58] strategy to it. Okay. What platforms work best for your audience as far as marketing?

[42:04] Facebook, hands down, I haven't really put much time into investing in any

[42:09] other platforms. I do have an Instagram, but it does not do as good as Facebook.

[42:15] I don't know what it is. Maybe I haven't spent enough time on it, but I focus just all of my efforts on Facebook

[42:21] because it's because I know it works and I know what's best or I know how to operate it maybe. And then word of mouth

[42:29] is huge. Word of mouth because I live in such a small town. Most people know who I am and what I do. So I just get hired

[42:34] in word of mouth. What marketing mistakes have you done that you can share with us? So the

[42:41] mistake I made was trying to advertise everything that I did all at once. And

[42:48] so I would post I I even catch myself doing this sometimes at Shanks. It's like, "Hey, come to Shanks. You can go

Overcoming Challenges in the Entertainment Industry

[42:55] to the arcade. You can have a pizza. You can do the miniature golf. Don't forget the 3D glasses." And there's just so

[43:00] much to a post where I learned that if you just take one aspect of the business

[43:07] and then focus on that for the advertisement and then be patient and then focus on another aspect and then

[43:14] another. Don't get in a rush to just blah. Really, just be patient and focus

Balancing Work and Personal Life

[43:20] on one thing at a time and eventually you'll get there. Be consistent though so you do get back to it. be consistent

[43:28] and eventually you'll be able to tell everyone about all the things. What motivated you on hard days to keep

[43:35] going? It was what motivated me. I didn't want to get a real job.

[43:40] I wanted to keep doing this and so I wanted to keep my dream alive and I love

[43:46] that I get to do this and I I fight for it every day and I work so hard just to

[43:53] be able to do it. How does running all these businesses impact your personal life?

[43:58] Well, I manage them both because my kids understand that their dad's a

[44:06] kids entertainer. And so, it's not like a crazy thing where I'm out of the house. I'm just at home, but I'm

[44:13] working. And so managing all of it is easy for me just because one I can work

[44:19] off of my phone so I can constantly work, but also understanding that my wife and three

[44:26] kids also would like to have their dad available. And so I think that it just comes down to being very busy and

[44:35] knowing when to prioritize the right things at the right time.

[44:40] What's one personal sacrifice most people don't realize you make? You will work when everybody is off work

Collaborating with Marketing Experts

[44:48] in the entertainment business. You'll work weekends. You will work late nights. I have a irregular schedule.

[44:55] What goes through your mind when attraction that you're working on like isn't performing well? I think that I'm

[45:01] just not marketing it very well or not enough people know about it because you can sell almost anything if people know

[45:09] about it for the most part. And so that's what goes through my mind is I just don't haven't dedicated enough time

[45:16] or resources towards getting the word out. And now that we're talking about marketing again, let me ask you so how

[45:22] did you make decision to work with our agency and you know how it's been? Yes,

[45:28] I recognize that my efforts for Facebook aren't as good as I want them to be. And

[45:35] I truly am too busy working on the ground level of making the kids happy,

[45:42] scheduling my things and even doing the job. I don't have time to go back and

[45:48] post. And I also don't have the knowledge to do campaigns, nor do I really want the knowledge. I could

[45:54] figure it out, but I just don't have the time to be an expert in social media marketing. I can post, do all that

[46:01] stuff, but it just seems like there is a better way of doing it. And it's allowing the experts to be an expert in

[46:08] that field for me, not trying to be an expert in something else that I really don't even want to be good at.

[46:15] Okay. And so, how did you find us and how long ago it was? Yes, it was in July. I reached out to

[46:21] Austin because of a Facebook ad and he had an ad going that had highlighted

[46:28] influencers coming to family entertainment centers and make content.

[46:33] Okay. How is how is the experience? How is the results? Yes. So, the results are starting to

[46:39] pick up. One thing I recognized was that I wasn't providing the right tools for

[46:46] Austin and Blue Apple for them to be successful. my booking system wasn't

[46:52] trackable. We couldn't measure conversions. And so Austin and Blue Apple had some conversations with me

[46:58] that said, "We're going to be limited in measuring our efforts." And because

[47:04] Austin wanted to be able to track the marketing dollars and stuff because he's

[47:09] he's got spreadsheets and all that fun stuff where I'm like, "This would be awesome." However, my booking system

The Value of Experience in Marketing

[47:15] wasn't able to do that. So now I got a new booking system and we're moving

[47:20] forward with that so that Austin can use those numbers to measure how his efforts

[47:25] are doing. And I will say from when they first started, they have only gotten

[47:31] better as I've been able to relay to them sort of my expectations. They're

[47:36] communicating back to me what they're doing and we're now talking and agreeing

[47:42] and they're learning what my uh preferences are and they're they're listening to me. They they're fixing

[47:48] everything that I asked them to fix and we're learning each other very well. What's the value Austin and Blue Apple

[47:54] Marketing bringing to your company? Blue Apple is helping me understand where my

[48:00] business needs to be if I want to be just like these other successful businesses. So Austin took the time to

[48:08] show me other clients that he's working with and he's letting me know that their

[48:14] website and their conversions and stuff look like this. and he's encouraging me

[48:19] to use the same type of system and putting the different softwares in place so that eventually maybe I can get there

[48:26] and I can increase my revenue but I have to change some things to get there and so we're slowly starting to get there so

[48:33] that my business will perform better. Austin and Blue Apple Marketing they are in the same entertainment world they run

[48:42] some entertainment businesses themselves and understand the process how to market properly for entertainment. Do you think

[48:48] it helps? Absolutely. And it's one thing that Austin did for me when I was uh speaking

[48:55] with him in the beginning was he actually gave me some very good data on. And so just by his personal experience

[49:02] alone, he is helping me navigate what industries not to get into, but also

[49:09] what things to add to my business because it's already working for them.

[49:14] Now that his experience is super super helpful.

[49:19] Okay. Awesome. So, I'm gonna ask you a question and it's just one word answer.

[49:24] One word answers. Okay. Yes. Meaning like one or another. So,

[49:30] okay. Glasses. Wear them or skip them. Wear them. All right. Pizza or mini golf?

[49:36] Mini golf. Bigger thrill. Is it building an escape room or performing as Mr. Twister?

[49:42] Ooh, Mr. Twister. Hands down. Foam party or balloon show? Ooh, foam parties. Kids laughter or

[49:50] adults screaming in escape rooms? [laughter] Kids laughter.

[49:55] Portable LED mini golf or 3D black light mini golf? 3D black light mini golf.

[50:00] Bright neon or deep glow? Bright neon. Build it yourself or hire it out? Ooh. If you can afford it, hire it out.

[50:08] Magic trick or puzzle reveal? A puzzle reveal. What would you do if you weren't doing

[50:13] this? I would probably be working in mental health. Risk or stability? Risk.

[50:19] Chaos or structure? I like structure. Indoor uh glow golf or outdoor events?

Final Thoughts and Future Plans

[50:25] Nah, indoor glow golf. Craziest idea you haven't built yet? Craziest idea I haven't built yet would

[50:32] be a go-kart track. Would you recommend Blue Apple Marketing to anyone else who owns a attraction?

[50:39] Absolutely. I would 100% recommend Blue Apple Marketing for anyone that owns a

[50:45] family entertainment center business or in the entertainment industry. And why? Because they have the experience

[50:52] already. They're already managing their own businesses. And so the models that

[50:57] they're using are the models that they're sharing with us and using for us to be successful.

[51:03] So guy, tell me uh where Shanks is located. If somebody lives in the area and they want to visit you,

[51:08] you bet. We're at 50 Northeast Median Street in Shahalis, Washington. And we

[51:13] are right next to McDonald's and right across the street from Shahalis Outfitters.

[51:18] Okay. And your mobile experiences, like how far, what's your distance, how far you travel?

[51:24] Yep. If you live in Washington State, I will travel to you. Nice. What an awesome conversation. I um

[51:31] is the perfect example of how a simple passion makes magical moments for kids

[51:36] and how you can grow into a full entertainment brand that impacts an entire community. From glow-in-the-dark

[51:43] mini golf to handcrafted pizza, escape rooms, balloon shows, massive future

[51:49] plans. Guy provides that creativity that doesn't have to stay a hobby. It can

[51:54] become your life's work. Visit the link in the description to check out Shan's 3D black light mini golf and pizza and

[52:02] all the experiences guy is building. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with another attraction owners or creators.

[52:09] Subscribe on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. Want to be featured on one of the episodes? Visit

[52:16] attractionsincight.com. And thank you for watching.