============================================================
TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
============================================================
[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:06] SPEAKER_00: Hello, this is Robert Slagel,
[00:07] SPEAKER_00: coming today with Canada's podcast,
[00:09] SPEAKER_00: where we talk to young people
[00:10] SPEAKER_00: who are making it happen here in British Columbia.
[00:13] SPEAKER_00: Today, our guest is Josh Green.
[00:15] SPEAKER_00: Josh was born and raised in Vancouver,
[00:18] SPEAKER_00: quit when I'm actually until he was 18.
[00:21] SPEAKER_00: Raised by a single mother,
[00:22] SPEAKER_00: got his first degree in theatre
[00:23] SPEAKER_00: and worked in the film industry,
[00:25] SPEAKER_00: traveled a lot while he was growing up
[00:27] SPEAKER_00: and then went back to school
[00:28] SPEAKER_00: and got his BBA from BCIT.
[00:31] SPEAKER_00: Now he runs an open world fantasy adventure,
[00:35] SPEAKER_00: think Westboro,
[00:36] SPEAKER_00: but with fantasy creatures,
[00:38] SPEAKER_00: still small but growing,
[00:39] SPEAKER_00: and is now in his fourth year.
[00:42] SPEAKER_00: And I believe it's located in Burnaby,
[00:44] SPEAKER_00: if I was correct last time we talked.
[00:47] SPEAKER_01: That is correct.
[00:48] SPEAKER_01: It's located at WarnerLote Park in Burnaby,
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: BC. And thanks for having me.
[00:54] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for coming.
[00:56] SPEAKER_00: What's the name?
[00:58] SPEAKER_00: The amusement park.
[00:59] SPEAKER_00: It's called the empty chest.
[01:01] SPEAKER_00: The empty chest.
[01:03] SPEAKER_00: It sounds like it's very interesting.
[01:06] SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about this.
[01:09] SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit more about yourself.
[01:11] SPEAKER_00: We know you're growing up in Vancouver
[01:13] SPEAKER_00: and all that kind of stuff,
[01:15] SPEAKER_00: but give us the details,
[01:16] SPEAKER_00: kind of a recap of your business
[01:17] SPEAKER_00: and how you got going
[01:18] SPEAKER_00: and what that looks like for you,
[01:19] SPEAKER_00: and what you guys do.
[01:22] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
[01:22] SPEAKER_01: Growing up was,
[01:23] SPEAKER_01: I kind of always felt
[01:24] SPEAKER_01: that I was the entrepreneurial kid
[01:26] SPEAKER_01: amongst my friends,
[01:27] SPEAKER_01: while everyone else was kind of running around playing.
[01:31] SPEAKER_01: I would also in play,
[01:32] SPEAKER_01: but I'd also like go to the local golf club
[01:35] SPEAKER_01: and jump into the pond
[01:36] SPEAKER_01: and pull golf balls up
[01:37] SPEAKER_01: and sell them back to the players for 25 cents a piece.
[01:40] SPEAKER_01: I was the first one of my friends to do,
[01:42] SPEAKER_01: like, the lemonade stand as well.
[01:44] SPEAKER_01: Just anything,
[01:45] SPEAKER_01: just like, get out there
[01:46] SPEAKER_01: and get my hands on some form of business,
[01:49] SPEAKER_01: I think.
[01:50] SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I liked it so much.
[01:51] SPEAKER_01: I just did.
[01:54] SPEAKER_01: And yeah, then,
[01:55] SPEAKER_01: I'd say the first time I did the Honda Tows
[01:57] SPEAKER_01: I was standing in a lineup
[01:58] SPEAKER_01: for a Honda Tows and it took about an hour, hour and a half
[02:01] SPEAKER_01: before we got in.
[02:03] SPEAKER_01: And then it took seven minutes tops to go through.
[02:06] SPEAKER_01: And I was like, that wasn't great.
[02:09] SPEAKER_01: I like the experience of a Honda Tows,
[02:11] SPEAKER_01: but I really just like,
[02:13] SPEAKER_01: the amount of time,
[02:14] SPEAKER_01: like, you spend more time in the lineup
[02:15] SPEAKER_01: than you do in the hunt.
[02:17] SPEAKER_01: And so I was like,
[02:17] SPEAKER_01: I'd like to like find a way
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: to do a combination of,
[02:22] SPEAKER_01: like, escape rooms
[02:23] SPEAKER_01: and haunted houses
[02:24] SPEAKER_01: and all the video games I like to play.
[02:26] SPEAKER_01: If we could do that in real life,
[02:28] SPEAKER_01: that'd be great.
[02:29] SPEAKER_01: And then so I did the first taste of it
[02:31] SPEAKER_01: about eight years ago.
[02:33] SPEAKER_01: In my front yard,
[02:34] SPEAKER_01: I built this giant pyramid
[02:37] SPEAKER_01: just like out of wood
[02:38] SPEAKER_01: and some kind of grit paint
[02:40] SPEAKER_01: and we just put it together
[02:41] SPEAKER_01: and like, people would just walk past
[02:42] SPEAKER_01: and be like, what is going on?
[02:45] SPEAKER_01: And I'm like,
[02:45] SPEAKER_01: oh, we're doing this thing for Honda Tows,
[02:47] SPEAKER_01: all the proceeds go to the BC Children's Hospital.
[02:49] SPEAKER_01: We're just trying to see
[02:50] SPEAKER_01: if people would be interested in something like this.
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: Like, you know,
[02:54] SPEAKER_01: a version of an adventure,
[02:55] SPEAKER_01: but that's also scary, you know.
[02:58] SPEAKER_01: And so using our knowledge,
[03:00] SPEAKER_01: we got a bunch of like,
[03:01] SPEAKER_01: or I got a bunch of stuff together
[03:03] SPEAKER_01: and made some conopic jars,
[03:06] SPEAKER_01: had made some connections
[03:07] SPEAKER_01: with some of the people in the film industry.
[03:08] SPEAKER_01: And it was like,
[03:08] SPEAKER_01: hey, can I borrow a skeleton?
[03:09] SPEAKER_01: Hey, can I borrow this?
[03:10] SPEAKER_01: Hey, can I get this?
[03:11] SPEAKER_01: Like just reaching out to as many people
[03:13] SPEAKER_01: as like, kind of borrow things,
[03:14] SPEAKER_01: buy things, whatever.
[03:15] SPEAKER_01: Like, I had no idea how to use tools.
[03:17] SPEAKER_01: So it's like on YouTube,
[03:18] SPEAKER_01: like, how do you use a drill?
[03:20] SPEAKER_01: No, you should get an impact drill.
[03:21] SPEAKER_01: I'm like, all right?
[03:22] SPEAKER_01: So I built this whole thing.
[03:25] SPEAKER_01: And then on the day,
[03:26] SPEAKER_01: we were like,
[03:26] SPEAKER_01: we were just going to kind of run
[03:27] SPEAKER_01: for the weekend, the Halloween weekend that year.
[03:29] SPEAKER_01: So just like a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
[03:31] SPEAKER_01: And there was this lineup
[03:32] SPEAKER_01: around the block down the street
[03:35] SPEAKER_01: across the crosswalk police.
[03:37] SPEAKER_01: We're like, what's going on?
[03:38] SPEAKER_01: We got to do something.
[03:40] SPEAKER_01: And we're like, oh, it's for the BC Children's Hospital.
[03:41] SPEAKER_01: They're like, okay, cool.
[03:43] SPEAKER_01: Let's just see if we can get this under control.
[03:45] SPEAKER_01: And we were supposed to close every night,
[03:46] SPEAKER_01: like, 10 o'clock.
[03:48] SPEAKER_01: But their lineup was so big,
[03:49] SPEAKER_01: we ended up going to like 12,
[03:50] SPEAKER_01: 1 o'clock sometimes.
[03:52] SPEAKER_01: And yeah, that was kind of the very first thing
[03:54] SPEAKER_01: that ramped up that this has a potential
[03:57] SPEAKER_01: to be successful.
[03:58] SPEAKER_01: Because when people were in the lineup,
[04:00] SPEAKER_01: what we did is we gave them a lantern,
[04:03] SPEAKER_01: a little satchel bag,
[04:04] SPEAKER_01: like an Indiana Jones bag
[04:05] SPEAKER_01: that has like some tools in it.
[04:07] SPEAKER_01: And it's pitchflock.
[04:08] SPEAKER_01: And you just walk in with your little lantern
[04:09] SPEAKER_01: and you walk around and you start to explore this pyramid.
[04:12] SPEAKER_01: And you have to kind of solve the puzzles.
[04:13] SPEAKER_01: And there's zombies kind of in there.
[04:14] SPEAKER_01: And mummies in there trying to get at ya.
[04:16] SPEAKER_01: And then you get out the other side.
[04:17] SPEAKER_01: It was great.
[04:18] SPEAKER_01: I was one of the mummies the first year.
[04:19] SPEAKER_01: Cause it was like,
[04:20] SPEAKER_01: it's gonna be me.
[04:21] SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that was the first version of it.
[04:25] SPEAKER_00: Okay, good.
[04:26] SPEAKER_00: Now sounds expensive to start something like,
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: wait, you're good barking upon.
[04:31] SPEAKER_00: How are you financing all this?
[04:34] SPEAKER_01: So I worked at that time.
[04:35] SPEAKER_01: I was working in the restaurant industry
[04:37] SPEAKER_01: and just, you know, saving up money,
[04:39] SPEAKER_01: just paying my rent, doing that,
[04:41] SPEAKER_01: and just putting like, you know,
[04:42] SPEAKER_01: $500 a month away if I could.
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: Anything I could put away.
[04:45] SPEAKER_01: And then like, basically,
[04:46] SPEAKER_01: I'd say that year cost me about $5,000.
[04:49] SPEAKER_01: And then we made about $5,000,
[04:52] SPEAKER_01: which was great.
[04:53] SPEAKER_01: And then we just gave it all to the BC Children's Hospital,
[04:55] SPEAKER_01: which was great.
[04:57] SPEAKER_01: And so it's like one of those things where,
[04:59] SPEAKER_01: like, that was my vision of like,
[05:01] SPEAKER_01: okay, I didn't cost that much to build this kind of thing.
[05:06] SPEAKER_01: But again, it was a lot of my labor.
[05:08] SPEAKER_01: Like, I was like, at the time,
[05:09] SPEAKER_01: I was like, yeah, my labor is fine.
[05:11] SPEAKER_01: Like, I can take a weekend off and do this and make this happen.
[05:14] SPEAKER_01: But if I was to pay someone else to do it,
[05:16] SPEAKER_01: yeah, it'd be,
[05:17] SPEAKER_01: it's extremely expensive.
[05:18] SPEAKER_01: But because it was just me,
[05:19] SPEAKER_01: it didn't cost that much.
[05:20] SPEAKER_01: And because it bore anything's friends,
[05:21] SPEAKER_01: it didn't cost that much.
[05:22] Speaker UNKNOWN: But like,
[05:24] SPEAKER_01: okay.
[05:25] SPEAKER_01: Now, a lot of the funding, yeah.
[05:27] SPEAKER_00: It sounds like a very intricate business.
[05:31] SPEAKER_00: I want you to give me a key piece of knowledge or information
[05:34] SPEAKER_00: about this industry that listeners can learn from.
[05:37] SPEAKER_00: Being that is multifaceted,
[05:38] SPEAKER_00: there's a lot of moving parts and so forth.
[05:40] SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me something about the general person,
[05:42] SPEAKER_00: you know, standing in line,
[05:44] SPEAKER_00: where it takes to put something like this together?
[05:46] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[05:47] SPEAKER_01: Like, one thing I'd recommend for anyone doing this is to like,
[05:51] SPEAKER_01: connect with other people in the industry.
[05:53] SPEAKER_01: Like,
[05:53] SPEAKER_01: Seagrassity Adventures over in Toronto does a great version of stuff
[05:56] SPEAKER_01: like this.
[05:57] SPEAKER_01: And I just like connect with them at the time when I first started,
[06:00] SPEAKER_01: when I did that first one,
[06:01] SPEAKER_01: where I borrowed a lot of my stuff from was a guy named Brad Leath.
[06:04] SPEAKER_01: And he ran the Dunbar haunted house here in Vancouver,
[06:07] SPEAKER_01: like, 17 years.
[06:09] SPEAKER_01: And so just like reaching out to him and asking him all the questions
[06:12] SPEAKER_01: of like,
[06:12] SPEAKER_01: what kind of stuff am I going to run into with the city,
[06:15] SPEAKER_01: with police, with fire, with coding, with,
[06:17] SPEAKER_01: like, so finding people like that,
[06:20] SPEAKER_01: it's like super helpful just to like pick their brains.
[06:23] SPEAKER_01: And because the things that, yeah, the things you run into
[06:24] SPEAKER_01: is like,
[06:25] SPEAKER_01: police want to know what your,
[06:27] SPEAKER_01: like what your plan is for this,
[06:28] SPEAKER_01: like when you're applying for permits,
[06:29] SPEAKER_01: like,
[06:30] SPEAKER_01: the fire wants to know like how close to a building is it,
[06:32] SPEAKER_01: like,
[06:32] SPEAKER_01: is it indoors?
[06:33] SPEAKER_01: Is it like, is there a roof over here?
[06:35] SPEAKER_01: Like, just so many things.
[06:36] SPEAKER_01: And I did make a mistake by doing an indoor year one year.
[06:40] SPEAKER_01: And it was a nightmare that we just couldn't get off the ground.
[06:42] SPEAKER_01: Like, no matter how much we tried,
[06:43] SPEAKER_01: the permits wouldn't come through.
[06:45] SPEAKER_01: And then like,
[06:45] SPEAKER_01: by the time that came,
[06:46] SPEAKER_01: like, opening day,
[06:47] SPEAKER_01: we just didn't have the permits.
[06:49] SPEAKER_01: So now we do it outside.
[06:50] SPEAKER_01: And like, you don't have to deal with a lot of those like,
[06:52] SPEAKER_01: building code permits and stuff like that.
[06:54] SPEAKER_01: So that's why we do it outside.
[06:56] SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of people that follow the outside,
[06:58] SPEAKER_01: hot version, like,
[06:59] SPEAKER_01: man's farm does it outside,
[07:01] SPEAKER_01: like the P&E kind of technically does it outside.
[07:04] SPEAKER_01: So you kind of are pretty,
[07:06] SPEAKER_01: you can get around a lot of permitting laws and like building codes
[07:10] SPEAKER_01: if you just do it outside and put up tents and like,
[07:13] SPEAKER_01: event tents and stuff like that.
[07:15] SPEAKER_00: Good.
[07:16] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[07:16] SPEAKER_00: Let's talk a little bit about doing business in Vancouver,
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: British Columbia.
[07:19] SPEAKER_00: What are the biggest benefits for you at being an entrepreneur in Vancouver?
[07:23] SPEAKER_00: I want you to give us some of the good points about starting a company here.
[07:26] SPEAKER_00: But I also want you to give us some of the tough things or challenges you had
[07:29] SPEAKER_00: over the years for our listeners.
[07:31] SPEAKER_00: So they can keep you guys out for them.
[07:33] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[07:34] SPEAKER_01: So the benefit of Vancouver is you get this like huge multi-cultural city
[07:38] SPEAKER_01: of like just so many people lots of people coming here.
[07:40] SPEAKER_01: The tourism is a huge thing in Vancouver.
[07:43] SPEAKER_01: So being able to connect and make those connections with like Vancouver is awesome
[07:46] SPEAKER_01: or any of the tourism channels or Burnaby Tourism is a huge partner of ours,
[07:50] SPEAKER_01: which is really helpful,
[07:51] SPEAKER_01: which really helps.
[07:52] SPEAKER_01: So you have these connections of so many different people.
[07:55] SPEAKER_01: And then the population,
[07:56] SPEAKER_01: I think you can pretty much do anything in Vancouver.
[07:58] SPEAKER_01: And you'll find a group or a part of people that are interested in doing that.
[08:02] SPEAKER_01: Like I've,
[08:03] SPEAKER_01: I've run little businesses from like a cookie dough business,
[08:06] SPEAKER_01: like a baking business over to like the haunted house,
[08:09] SPEAKER_01: to many different things.
[08:10] SPEAKER_01: And I think there's something in Vancouver for everything,
[08:13] SPEAKER_01: whereas like you know certain small towns or certain other places,
[08:15] SPEAKER_01: just this wouldn't work as well.
[08:17] SPEAKER_01: Like it's got a decent population.
[08:19] SPEAKER_01: It's got just a lot of different people with every kind of culture,
[08:24] SPEAKER_01: nerd culture,
[08:26] SPEAKER_01: like sports culture.
[08:27] SPEAKER_01: Like you can pretty much do anything in Vancouver.
[08:29] SPEAKER_01: And that's would be the benefits, I'd say, of Vancouver.
[08:33] SPEAKER_01: The downfalls is pretty much the no fun city.
[08:37] SPEAKER_01: It's really hard to get a lot of permitting.
[08:39] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's so difficult to get permitting.
[08:42] SPEAKER_01: It's so difficult to get people on board.
[08:43] SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if this is just the general population of who's in office,
[08:47] SPEAKER_01: just being a little maybe a little bit older,
[08:50] SPEAKER_01: a little bit more reserved.
[08:52] SPEAKER_01: But like you tell them any new idea and they're like,
[08:54] SPEAKER_01: whoa, what?
[08:55] SPEAKER_01: I've never heard of that.
[08:55] SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that is.
[08:56] SPEAKER_01: And it's like, okay, like I don't know how else to explain it to you.
[08:59] SPEAKER_01: And like, like for example,
[09:00] SPEAKER_01: like I would travel to like Japan or South America and these,
[09:04] SPEAKER_01: I'd see these amazing events or amazing,
[09:06] SPEAKER_01: like business opportunities and I'd bring them back to Vancouver
[09:09] SPEAKER_01: and they're like, oh, no, you can't do that here.
[09:11] SPEAKER_01: I was like, well,
[09:12] SPEAKER_01: they seem to be doing it just fine in Japan and no one's dying.
[09:16] SPEAKER_01: So like, you know, like I don't see what the, like why,
[09:18] SPEAKER_01: where their hiccup is.
[09:19] SPEAKER_01: And so a big benefit is don't take no for an answer.
[09:22] SPEAKER_01: Just keep finding like, okay, like what, like,
[09:23] SPEAKER_01: how could we adjust this to make it work in your head?
[09:26] SPEAKER_01: And I remember when I was doing the food truck here in Vancouver,
[09:30] SPEAKER_01: I was part of a huge community of food,
[09:33] SPEAKER_01: foodies who literally have to go to the health Vancouver health code.
[09:37] SPEAKER_01: And like they, they teach them, like for example,
[09:40] SPEAKER_01: they're like, oh, you can't eat raw eggs.
[09:41] SPEAKER_01: I'm like, and they're like, nope, it's a delicacy.
[09:43] SPEAKER_01: You absolutely can eat raw eggs if they're prepared properly.
[09:46] SPEAKER_01: If they're clean, like, but they just in their mind,
[09:48] SPEAKER_01: like an old wives tell, like, nope, you'll get seminele.
[09:50] SPEAKER_01: You'll die.
[09:50] SPEAKER_01: We can't have raw eggs.
[09:51] SPEAKER_01: And it's like, no, we're like, same thing with oysters.
[09:53] SPEAKER_01: Like oysters is a big thing with like, oh,
[09:55] SPEAKER_01: like, no, you can eat them.
[09:56] SPEAKER_01: There's reasons why here's the health benefits and the negatives.
[09:59] SPEAKER_01: Like, it's totally, it's like teaching the city is a,
[10:02] SPEAKER_01: is an important piece of any kind of business when you're starting something new.
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: Okay, interesting.
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: Okay, you've been through a lot.
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: So if you were to start all over again and you just moved the Vancouver BC,
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: but this time you don't know anyone knowing what you know now,
[10:17] SPEAKER_00: everything you've gone through, what would you do differently to start all over again?
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: It's not to be more.
[10:22] SPEAKER_01: Do I have the money I have now or the money I had back then?
[10:26] SPEAKER_01: No money.
[10:27] SPEAKER_01: No money.
[10:27] SPEAKER_00: Starting out starting from scratch.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: First time running in Vancouver.
[10:31] SPEAKER_01: I would make more connections sooner.
[10:34] SPEAKER_01: I would start slower.
[10:36] SPEAKER_01: I think one of the big problems that I had that kind of screwed me over was
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: like, my vision was very big.
[10:42] SPEAKER_01: And even now, I'm not at where I want to be.
[10:45] SPEAKER_01: But my vision was big and I tried to do too much too soon before I had a market
[10:49] SPEAKER_01: built up of a new idea.
[10:50] SPEAKER_01: Same thing with Red Bull.
[10:51] SPEAKER_01: Like, when the guy from Red Bull took it over from like,
[10:54] SPEAKER_01: like, Thailand and brought it kind of like to the rest of the world.
[10:56] SPEAKER_01: And it was like, we're doing Red Bull.
[10:58] SPEAKER_01: He didn't just be like, okay, we're going to spread this out.
[11:01] SPEAKER_01: Like, he had a systematic plan of how to get it across.
[11:03] SPEAKER_01: And so, with Nike, Nike starts an Oregon and becomes bigger as it grows over.
[11:07] SPEAKER_01: It's just like, my idea was like, let's make all of America see this.
[11:10] SPEAKER_01: And it's like, no, you don't have the money.
[11:12] SPEAKER_01: You don't have the knowledge or the business I came in yet.
[11:15] SPEAKER_01: So I think a big thing that I would tell myself or do differently is I'd start slow,
[11:19] SPEAKER_01: build my niche market up.
[11:20] SPEAKER_01: And then I continue to grow in that slow fashion because I did it big once
[11:24] SPEAKER_01: and just crashed and died.
[11:27] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about your morning routine.
[11:29] SPEAKER_00: What's that look like when you get up in the morning?
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: Give it a specific routine or a ritual that helps you get motivated to start your day?
[11:35] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like, the weekend is I kind of take off a little bit and my weekend
[11:39] SPEAKER_01: I leave a little more spontaneous.
[11:41] SPEAKER_01: But during the week, it's kind of wake up around like seven o'clock,
[11:45] SPEAKER_01: six, six, thirty seven o'clock in the morning.
[11:47] SPEAKER_01: I go to the gym.
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: I've had to pause that recently because of an ACL tear.
[11:51] SPEAKER_01: And but I've just started getting back into it, which is really nice.
[11:54] SPEAKER_01: Go to the gym.
[11:55] SPEAKER_01: The gym can consist of anything weights cardio doesn't really matter for me.
[11:58] SPEAKER_01: I just like to get my body moving.
[11:59] SPEAKER_01: I'm also an acrobatic.
[12:01] SPEAKER_01: So I like to do handstands and flip around.
[12:03] SPEAKER_01: So I like to keep the physical side of my body quite good so that I can do all the things that I love to do.
[12:09] SPEAKER_01: And then I've just been eating the same sort of breakfast for the last several years,
[12:14] SPEAKER_01: which is just a version of either oatmeal or some version of oats or wheat breakfast
[12:20] SPEAKER_01: with fruits, nuts and grains.
[12:23] SPEAKER_00: Entrepreneurs are very active readers.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about some of the books or even audiobooks that you're reading right now.
[12:30] SPEAKER_00: And can you recommend any books to our listeners who are also entrepreneurs?
[12:34] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[12:35] SPEAKER_01: Like it as far as the entrepreneur side of things go,
[12:37] SPEAKER_01: the things that influence me would be like the compound effect.
[12:40] SPEAKER_01: It's a really wonderful book that talks about like how just like one of the analogies
[12:44] SPEAKER_01: they use is like swapping out a can of coke for an apple.
[12:48] SPEAKER_01: It's not a big ask.
[12:49] SPEAKER_01: It's not you don't have to do that like a thousand times a day.
[12:51] SPEAKER_01: But if you did that like once a week for 52 weeks in the year,
[12:56] SPEAKER_01: the difference in calories and sugars and fats you'd have in your body,
[12:59] SPEAKER_01: like compounds quite a lot.
[13:01] SPEAKER_01: And it's like a little tiny switch.
[13:02] SPEAKER_01: And it's the same thing as with entrepreneurs like doing those little tiny steps,
[13:05] SPEAKER_01: really like instead of taking on too much too soon, just small little adjustments.
[13:10] SPEAKER_01: I think you're super important.
[13:11] SPEAKER_01: And that's the compound effect.
[13:12] SPEAKER_01: The hundred dollar startup is a really wonderful book that talks about how anyone,
[13:16] SPEAKER_01: because I did not come from much.
[13:18] SPEAKER_01: I came you know kind of group in a trailer park.
[13:20] SPEAKER_01: Didn't have a lot of money.
[13:21] SPEAKER_01: Didn't have a lot of good modeling around like business acumen or anything like that.
[13:25] SPEAKER_01: And so hundred dollars start up a great book that has like I think it's like 50 or 60 different businesses
[13:30] SPEAKER_01: that you can start today for under $100.
[13:33] SPEAKER_01: Like I have a friend that started who's in the book who started a snowboard company.
[13:38] SPEAKER_01: Just like doing videos online and selling those videos to like teach people how to do that,
[13:43] SPEAKER_01: which was really good.
[13:43] SPEAKER_01: Another guy did a graffiti business.
[13:45] SPEAKER_01: He just went and like grab some turpentine and some wipes and just went from business to business
[13:48] SPEAKER_01: being like, Hey, if you give me 20 bucks a month, I'll make sure your walls are graffiti lists for the rest of your life.
[13:54] SPEAKER_01: And he just like, that's what he did.
[13:56] SPEAKER_01: He just pounded the pavement with turpentine and like, and then of course he grew it over that.
[13:59] SPEAKER_01: But he started it all for 100 bucks.
[14:01] SPEAKER_01: So that's a great book for people.
[14:03] SPEAKER_01: And then I'd say the experience economy.
[14:05] SPEAKER_01: The experience economy is the one that I follow quite a bit because what we do is an experience.
[14:10] SPEAKER_01: And it's not about material possession.
[14:11] SPEAKER_01: So I highly recommend the experience economy, which I think has been recommended before.
[14:16] SPEAKER_01: But then I also for me, because I'm a nerd, I recommend the King Killer Chronicles by Patrick Rathfus and the Mistborn series from Brandon Sanderson.
[14:26] SPEAKER_01: Those are kind of more nerdier books.
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[14:29] SPEAKER_00: If you are doing what you do now in the amusement arena, what would you like to do for a profession?
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: If I wasn't doing that before doing what you're doing now, what would you like to do?
[14:40] SPEAKER_01: I think like, I did stand up comedy for a long time and I really enjoyed it.
[14:45] SPEAKER_01: I'd love to just keep doing that.
[14:47] SPEAKER_01: Like I still do some improv.
[14:49] SPEAKER_01: I'd love to just be an entertainer.
[14:51] SPEAKER_01: I think that'd be really fun just to be an actor, not necessarily an actor, but I like the idea of being a comedian.
[14:56] SPEAKER_01: If I was going to be an actor, I'd want to be like small roles where I walk in and just like say my line of like, right, see you later.
[15:01] SPEAKER_00: Kind of job with you not like to do.
[15:05] SPEAKER_01: I did one job that I only did for a very short period of time.
[15:08] SPEAKER_01: I pulled a rebar for construction sites and I absolutely hated it.
[15:13] SPEAKER_01: I hated the like the people around me, which seemed to be pretty crappy people.
[15:17] SPEAKER_01: Like they'd make fun of you.
[15:18] SPEAKER_01: They'd say like pretty derogatory things in a regular basis.
[15:22] SPEAKER_01: So that part of it kind of sucked, but then also just like in the piss and range.
[15:25] SPEAKER_01: Like all day goggles on just pulling rebar getting rebar out of like construction sites sucked.
[15:30] SPEAKER_01: I would never ever want to do that again.
[15:33] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's talk about business again.
[15:36] SPEAKER_00: What's your favorite word, quote or sentence that you like to use?
[15:40] SPEAKER_00: Anything that you say to your staff employees, clients, people that he says that all the time.
[15:45] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a Raycrock one.
[15:47] SPEAKER_01: Actually, it's that luck is a dividend of sweat.
[15:51] SPEAKER_01: The more you sweat, the luckier you are.
[15:55] SPEAKER_00: So you get one.
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: What's your least favorite word or sentence you do not like to hear?
[16:00] SPEAKER_01: It is what it is.
[16:01] SPEAKER_01: I really just like it when people say it is what it is because it's such an unhelpful.
[16:06] SPEAKER_01: Like I think totology they call it like just like yes, I'm aware of that too.
[16:11] SPEAKER_01: That gives me no new information.
[16:13] SPEAKER_01: It's like it's so unhelpful, but like people are like I'm going to get the last word and say it is what it is.
[16:18] SPEAKER_01: It's like shut up.
[16:21] SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
[16:22] SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you had to pick one or two words to describe yourself, what would it be and why?
[16:29] SPEAKER_01: Tanecious.
[16:30] SPEAKER_01: I think is my biggest thing.
[16:32] SPEAKER_01: I'm extremely tenacious.
[16:33] SPEAKER_01: And the reason I say that is because I don't think I'd be where I am without how much I push for the things that I want.
[16:44] SPEAKER_01: Like for example, when we were trying to get the haunted house where it is now to the location that it is now like we were somewhere else and then we got to this one through like Bernabé tourism.
[16:53] SPEAKER_01: And the way I got connected was reaching out to a few different haunted houses making a lot of connections.
[16:57] SPEAKER_01: And they were like, oh, you can't go here because we already have something here.
[17:00] SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, is there a location like that?
[17:02] SPEAKER_01: And they were like, no, I was like, well, I know that you have a park connection when you're using.
[17:06] SPEAKER_01: Is that park available to like, no, I was like, well, it's never available ever or not available today.
[17:12] SPEAKER_01: And they're like, it's not available when you want it.
[17:14] SPEAKER_01: I was like, well, I'm telling you that I could do any time of the year.
[17:16] SPEAKER_01: It doesn't bother me.
[17:17] SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be Halloween.
[17:19] SPEAKER_01: When and they were like, talk to this person.
[17:21] SPEAKER_01: And then I go and talk to that.
[17:22] SPEAKER_01: Like, and just it basically went on for like a 36 email thread, 12 phone calls to the point where I finally ended up contacting the mayor because they're like, we just don't want you here.
[17:30] SPEAKER_01: And I was like, without a good reason of not wanting me there, it comes across like prejudice.
[17:35] SPEAKER_01: Is there some reason or something about me being who I am that you dislike me.
[17:41] SPEAKER_01: And so I just like, CC the mayor of the city on that.
[17:44] SPEAKER_01: And he was like, please give this guy a walk through and please don't tell him you can't have it for no reason.
[17:49] SPEAKER_01: And if there's no good reason.
[17:50] SPEAKER_01: And so then the next day went through a walk through they're happy to walk me through the site and say the reasons why they couldn't have it and what if I did want it.
[17:56] SPEAKER_01: This is what it would look like.
[17:57] SPEAKER_01: And they were like, and then that's when Chris, who's the director of Burnaby Tourism was like, oh, like you should get in contact with Chris.
[18:07] SPEAKER_01: I was like, great.
[18:07] SPEAKER_01: And so then him and I got connected and the rest is history.
[18:10] SPEAKER_01: But it took so much trying to get there.
[18:14] SPEAKER_01: And I think most people would have given up after the first phone call, let alone the 36th.
[18:18] SPEAKER_01: So persistence.
[18:20] SPEAKER_01: Yes.
[18:21] SPEAKER_00: Red Crocker be very proud of you.
[18:23] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[18:25] SPEAKER_00: Anything keeping you up at night.
[18:27] SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
[18:29] SPEAKER_00: Besides the ghouls and the goblins and the fumbkins and the witches and the black cats.
[18:35] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. And like besides like the world in the turmoil that it's in on a regular basis.
[18:39] SPEAKER_01: I would say that.
[18:40] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the things that keep me up at night are the large amount of like delivery dates not being met when someone's like, oh, this is going to be delivered on Tuesday.
[18:48] SPEAKER_01: And then it's Wednesday.
[18:50] SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, where?
[18:51] SPEAKER_01: Like I had that ticked off my list is good to go, which is another thing I'm learning like don't count your eggs before they hatch kind of thing like until you're holding in your hand.
[19:00] SPEAKER_01: It's never been delivered.
[19:01] SPEAKER_01: And so many times like delivery truck just don't deliver things.
[19:05] SPEAKER_01: They don't call.
[19:05] SPEAKER_01: They just eat the you just find the note on your door the next day and you're like, we needed this.
[19:10] SPEAKER_01: What why didn't you deliver it?
[19:11] SPEAKER_01: I was home.
[19:12] SPEAKER_01: Because I work from home to so it's just like really frustrating.
[19:15] SPEAKER_01: And so there's so many things with very specific dates.
[19:18] SPEAKER_01: Like we have.
[19:20] SPEAKER_01: Because we have to set everything up very circus style where like we bring in all the tents and all the structures we bring it all in one day set it all up.
[19:26] SPEAKER_01: Rehearse.
[19:27] SPEAKER_01: And then we go.
[19:29] SPEAKER_01: That day is so key that like.
[19:30] SPEAKER_01: The whiskey barrels arrive that day.
[19:33] SPEAKER_01: The tents arrive that like everything has to rise is like it freaks me out when someone calls and they're like, sorry, not going to make it.
[19:39] SPEAKER_01: And you're like, so there's a lot riding on that.
[19:42] SPEAKER_01: So that kind of keeps me up at night.
[19:44] SPEAKER_01: It also reminds me of a time I was at my friends wedding.
[19:47] SPEAKER_01: And.
[19:48] SPEAKER_01: Everything was going really well that all of a sudden someone walks up to like, Josh, do you play piano?
[19:51] SPEAKER_01: I was like, kind of not really well.
[19:53] SPEAKER_01: I thought like our pianist just said that they're not coming last minute and we have no one to play music for our wedding.
[20:01] SPEAKER_01: I was like, that's ups.
[20:03] SPEAKER_01: And so it was just as it was a really quiet wedding for about two hours.
[20:07] SPEAKER_01: And then someone finally plugged in a phone was like, I'm just going to put on Spotify.
[20:11] SPEAKER_01: And I was like, like those are the kind of things you're like, you think it's okay until all of a sudden they call you and they just don't show up.
[20:17] SPEAKER_01: That keeps me up at night.
[20:19] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I guess because realistically, I mean, probably this time of the year, you're most busiest, I would imagine.
[20:24] SPEAKER_01: Correct.
[20:25] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[20:26] SPEAKER_00: So you got to have all your ducks in a row.
[20:28] SPEAKER_00: I mean, you must have contingency plan after contingency plan.
[20:31] SPEAKER_01: We do like I have like we do contracts with several like fencing companies, for example, because we have to like block off parts of the park and make sure it looks a certain way.
[20:40] SPEAKER_01: And so we contact the fencing company and they haven't let us down yet.
[20:43] SPEAKER_01: But we also have a backup benzike me.
[20:45] SPEAKER_01: I was say, hey, are you able to on this day deliver if by this time, and then you just have to give us 24 hours notice.
[20:51] SPEAKER_01: And so everyone like I got a bunch of like on 24 hour notice calls, like same thing.
[20:56] SPEAKER_01: I've had actors like day out be like, hey, I'm not going to make it.
[20:59] SPEAKER_01: And like the first year it was a nightmare.
[21:01] SPEAKER_01: But every year moving forward, I've just hired extra people so that I don't have to deal with that because they do like so you have to have contingency plans or these people literally.
[21:09] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it does.
[21:11] SPEAKER_01: And so that's why they totally destroys the party. So you're like that the show must go on.
[21:15] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[21:16] SPEAKER_00: Do you have any advice that you may have received from someone else that you can pass on to our corner stroke Canada.
[21:23] SPEAKER_01: The big one I would say that.
[21:26] SPEAKER_01: Is it's passion.
[21:28] SPEAKER_01: Like someone said like find something you're passionate about. I'm trying to think of what the quo is.
[21:32] SPEAKER_01: I mean, like if you do it for the money, you'll have dollars to count.
[21:35] SPEAKER_01: If you do it for the passion, you'll have countless dollars.
[21:37] SPEAKER_01: And I was like cool.
[21:39] SPEAKER_01: And I didn't really like I thought it was like that's a neat little thing.
[21:41] SPEAKER_01: But like as I'm doing this, the businesses that I wasn't really passionate about.
[21:46] SPEAKER_01: I like when it failed, I was like, oh, this sucks.
[21:50] SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to do.
[21:52] SPEAKER_01: Down it goes.
[21:53] SPEAKER_01: Whereas this one when I make mistakes or something comes up where like for example, one of our grand Scott pulled.
[21:58] SPEAKER_01: I was just immediately like hitting the pavement looking for sponsorship and then was able to get sponsorship, which was really nice.
[22:04] SPEAKER_01: So you know, we were able to cover that grant.
[22:06] SPEAKER_01: It was like a fifth supposed to be a $15,000 grant ended up being a $15,000 sponsorship, which is really, really helpful for our actors for all our stuff for the people that we pay.
[22:15] SPEAKER_01: It's just super helpful to have that kind of stuff for advertising budgets.
[22:17] SPEAKER_01: And when it goes away, like because I'm passionate about this, I'm like, and never miss a beat just onto the next thing on to the next.
[22:24] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[22:25] SPEAKER_01: Whereas when you're not passionate about it, like I think like if you have all the money in the world, maybe like passion not having passion can be a luxury of the rich or like the really well connected maybe.
[22:33] SPEAKER_01: But for me, it's like it's a must you have to have passion or you'll just be okay with it.
[22:39] SPEAKER_01: Not going the way I'm.
[22:41] SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing the kind of the is it bearing fruit profitable?
[22:47] SPEAKER_00: I mean, at this point when you ring your company, I mean, being through everything you possibly could imagine heard everything you possibly can imagine.
[22:54] SPEAKER_00: And you've got to this place and in time where it's successful now, is it starting to really bear fruit and be profitable for you make it worth your while and all your hard work and persistence.
[23:07] SPEAKER_01: This is the year that it finally is like so this is our fourth year of this iteration.
[23:14] SPEAKER_01: And finally, I would say this is the year would actually make sense before then it was a lot of like blood, sweat, tears and our own money putting into it and then it kind of like almost breaking even and being like, okay, like I'm in like, you know, a couple thousand dollars of debt nothing crazy.
[23:29] SPEAKER_01: I can pay that off throughout the year and then we can start this again the year after but with we have a more knowledge and be more equipment.
[23:35] SPEAKER_01: And then we do the next year and be like, we need to get a little more equipment to adjust this.
[23:38] SPEAKER_01: And we got to do this. And so you know, you spend a little more and like we're kind of like always in between breaking even and not.
[23:44] SPEAKER_01: And then this year it's like, okay, now with we've opened it up into this open world version.
[23:49] SPEAKER_01: It's much larger could have the much larger capacity of people.
[23:53] SPEAKER_01: And so now we actually can like.
[23:56] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's at a space where we no longer have to be so concerned about it.
[24:00] SPEAKER_01: We can like get more money to charity or money to our artists more money to ourselves.
[24:04] SPEAKER_00: Good. Is this something you can franchise out to other people say that it comes.
[24:09] SPEAKER_00: Someone comes from another country sees what you've done here being that it is so difficult for you in British Columbia to create.
[24:15] SPEAKER_00: They can take what you've got and franchise it out and say build it in Florida.
[24:19] SPEAKER_00: Did you do it? Some like that.
[24:20] SPEAKER_01: I think you absolutely could. I think that like we have a lot like we have a story writer a set debt creator.
[24:27] SPEAKER_01: And so like you just have to be like, yeah, I think it would be easily scalable for sure.
[24:32] SPEAKER_00: Okay, good. Okay, we're going to wrap things up Josh. How can our listeners get hold of you?
[24:36] SPEAKER_00: And is there anything you like to add before you do this thing?
[24:39] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure. You can get a hold of me like personally at Joshua Owen Green is my Instagram.
[24:45] SPEAKER_01: But I think the best ways to go to the empty chest.com and check out the haunted house.
[24:51] SPEAKER_01: Check out. You can also like info at empty chest.com is a great way to like just email me.
[24:55] SPEAKER_01: I monitor that one all the time.
[24:57] SPEAKER_01: And anything I personally want to say.
[25:00] SPEAKER_01: I think I used to believe something when I was a kid growing up and it's just like not true.
[25:05] SPEAKER_01: And it comes from a field of dreams. The whole build it and they'll come.
[25:09] SPEAKER_01: It's just not true anymore. And I don't know how many people still hold up.
[25:13] SPEAKER_01: But I know I like I was off. I just build this people shops like with marketing today and TikTok and social media like.
[25:19] SPEAKER_01: People ain't coming to crap unless it's got good reviews.
[25:21] SPEAKER_01: People like it and people are talking about it.
[25:23] SPEAKER_01: So it's like having that marketing mentality around your thing of like it's it's not enough anymore to just build something.
[25:28] SPEAKER_01: You really got to has to be good. You have to have a quality thing that people actually enjoy and then reach out to the right people.
[25:35] SPEAKER_00: I think you need two things. You need word of mouth momentum and social media momentum, which is kind of overlap.
[25:42] SPEAKER_00: And I think you've got to have those two things going for it. And when they get there, the experience they have right and it exactly part of the brand.
[25:50] SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, Josh, thanks for coming on the show. I've learned a lot about you. And I'm sure Richard has had as well.
[25:55] SPEAKER_00: And we'll see you next time and to all our listeners, if you are in burn to be, when's the best time to come take part in this.
[26:03] SPEAKER_00: This great event you've got going October 21st to the 31st.
[26:08] SPEAKER_00: Okay, fabulous. And great time for Halloween. And I'm sure we're like lots of people go and get know of there and checking it out.
[26:16] SPEAKER_00: And experience all your hard work and making it fun for all ages, I imagine.
[26:23] SPEAKER_01: We're actually more 19 plus we're like an adult version. So leave your kids at home.
[26:27] SPEAKER_00: Okay, 19 plus interesting. Okay, that was okay. Thank you, Josh. And we'll talk to you next time.
[26:33] SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for having me, Robert.
