00;00;00;00 - 00;00;14;29UnknownWhere are your hosts, Aaron Backus and Jason Kindler? We like to sit down with our guests to hear their journey, their challenges, and how they impact the local community. So grab a seat. Tune in and let's get inspired by Jacksonville's everyday workforce. Welcome to Hometown Jacks.00;00;14;29 - 00;00;27;17UnknownWell, this is a special episode. I have Laura Zorn here, owner of Bravos. But, you know, we're. This is personal here. I mean, we go all the way back to high school and probably beyond.00;00;27;17 - 00;00;47;01UnknownWe probably didn't even realize we knew each other way before we knew each other, right? I couldn't agree more. Gainesville's an awfully small town. It is an awfully small town. Gainesville, Florida is where we both grew up. Laura's family's there. My family's there. Her husband's family's there. My wife's family's there. It is deep roots here. Very deep roots.00;00;47;01 - 00;01;08;18UnknownAnd. Yeah, I hope we're not going to get too personal. No, no. Telling what you might pull out of this is, this is serious stuff, but it could go either way. This is serious stuff. That's, that's the short clips later on. But, Laura is an accomplished, entrepreneur, business owner. Amazing mom, all kinds of world class skier.00;01;08;18 - 00;01;31;06UnknownThere's so many accolades that go along with her. But I want to focus on kind of the main thing, on what she owns right now. It's Brava. So what is Bravo's? Laura, explain to everybody what that is. Okay. Bravo's is a 40,000 square foot indoor trampoline, park that contains multiple other attractions. So we like to call ourselves a full family entertainment center.00;01;31;09 - 00;01;52;10UnknownRight? We've got three different rock climbing options. We've got a ninja course that's the largest in town. We've got a foam pit, a basketball slam dunker. We put in a new ride about a year and a half ago. A drop tower ride. We've got mini bowling and the greatest thing is our laser tag. We've got a two story laser tag arena.00;01;52;10 - 00;02;12;00UnknownThat's one of the kind in the country, and people love it. It's really great. So it's not just trampolines. Oh, gosh. No, no, we've got something for everybody. 40,000ft², so that's hard to even visualize. So your average house is about 2000ft². So that's a lot of houses and a lot of houses a lot to maintain. Yeah. It is indeed.00;02;12;03 - 00;02;30;12UnknownWell I want to go in a lot of different directions here because I have so many questions for you. But I want to know the crazy I like to start off fast, like what's the what's a crazy story that you can remember off the top of your head like some crazy thing happened, or weird coincidence, or someone fell to the trampoline?00;02;30;12 - 00;02;51;27UnknownI don't know what's crazy. Can you remember a story that comes to your mind? You know, we're really blessed in the sense that we get to remember fun things. Yes, right. It's like we're in the business of fun. People come in there to play and exert energy and celebrate birthday parties. And so nothing really sticks out in my mind is crazy.00;02;51;28 - 00;03;09;03UnknownI'll tell you what was crazy earlier today. The daycare center next door, the microwave, blew up and closed fire. So I walked out of my office to find, you know, 40, 50 kids sitting on the floor that were maybe two years old playing with Legos. Now, it was kind of crazy. That's what happened just today. That's interesting. So you have a daycare right next to it.00;03;09;03 - 00;03;28;29UnknownThat's actually probably a good we do their toddlers there, but they're they're not quite our age group. Like the parents coming in and seeing that. Sure. For us yeah. No I understand a daycare next great exposure. I want to And where are you, by the way? We are at the corner of Old Saint Augustine Road and Phillips Highway.00;03;28;29 - 00;03;47;10UnknownOkay, so here on the south side of Jacksonville, kind of headed towards the Nocatee area. Okay. Easily accessible. All three interstates literally straddle us. So you can get to us very easily from anywhere. Awesome. That's awesome. Well, crazy story, I meant to I meant to say like, it could have been a good story. And that's great.00;03;47;10 - 00;04;06;16UnknownI want to go into that too, because I think you make a lot of memories there. You said that on your website. Family business. What made you start this kind of business? I mean, it's like, isn't like just your standard business that you start. I mean, this is a massive undertaking. Well, in the beginning, it was me with three children.00;04;06;16 - 00;04;25;10UnknownYeah. As you well know, two of them who are older, one who struggles behind for years, taking them to places here in town that the older two were having a blast and the little one couldn't do anything right, and me chasing him all over the place because there was nowhere nice and relaxing for me to sit down and take a break and enjoy myself.00;04;25;10 - 00;04;44;18UnknownRight. And so what should have been fun for everybody wasn't right. It was fun for the older too, but not so much my youngest and myself. So I was at a point in my career where I was told that I my position was being phased out if I did not relocate to Orlando full time and I didn't want to go right, like we love right?00;04;44;20 - 00;05;08;25UnknownThis is home, right? And so we came across the concept of the trampoline park one day down in Tampa, okay. And I looked at my husband and I said, oh my God, like, I think this is it. I want to do it better, right? I wanted to create that place here in Jacksonville that gave families with kids of all ages some place to go, not only for the kids to have something to do, but for the parents as well.00;05;08;26 - 00;05;25;10UnknownRight. And so, as you know, in the center of our facility, we have a bar, we have a restaurant. Excellent. The parents have plenty of seating. They can sit there, watch TVs on or watch games on the TV, work on their computers, whatever it may be, and they can see their kids anywhere as they run by and play.00;05;25;14 - 00;05;48;20UnknownAnd so to me, it checked a lot of boxes. No, it sounds I mean, obviously I've been there several times and it's all under one roof, under, you know, one entrance, very safe and contained. So what a relaxing thing for parents, for sure. Yeah. And and we see it all the time. Summers moms are sitting there on their computers, working all day long while the kids are taken advantage of the play.00;05;48;20 - 00;06;03;26UnknownAnd and the thing about our attractions and the thing that's so important to David and I, is keeping kids active and healthy. Yeah. And you and I know we have two teenagers that we're all over them all the time. Put your phone away. Get your phone, get our phone right. And we do a good job managing that with them.00;06;03;26 - 00;06;26;13UnknownBut it gets them off the phone and doing something fun, active and healthy. It's helping. Rock climbing helps them build muscles, right? The Ninja course is full of all sorts of upper body and lower body exercise. When you say Ninja course, is that like something you see on TV where they're climbing and jumping on different things? Yeah. Oh, exactly like the TV show.00;06;26;14 - 00;06;48;05UnknownOkay. Yeah. All the things. Okay. And so to me it's super important, especially this day and age, to encourage that healthy, active play with kids. Yeah. And our place does that. And it it's important for them because it's so easy these days to let your kid be on their phone or let them be in front of the TV and you say go outside and play.00;06;48;05 - 00;07;06;14UnknownWell, it's usually with the last couple weeks, except as an exception, right? It's freezing. Right? It's usually hotter than Hades, right? And so they only want to go outside and play until they're too hot and sweaty and they don't want to do it right. We give you that. You know, climate controlled indoor environment where they can play for hours on end.00;07;06;14 - 00;07;25;20UnknownYeah. No, I was going to say climate control. That's a big thing especially here in Florida. What like but this go back to like okay you saw it and you're like man I want to do that. But how do you get from that all the way to, to when you open your doors? I mean, it just seems like a lot of moving parts to, to wrap your hands around.00;07;25;25 - 00;07;55;23UnknownSo we started as a franchise. Okay. So the blueprint was there, the blueprint was there, and it it didn't take long to we opened as 20,000ft². Okay. It didn't take long to realize that the franchise is what most franchises were are you know, not all they're cracked up to be, you know, in my experience anyway. And so we decided after about a year and a half in, like, we want to be bigger than they are, right?00;07;55;25 - 00;08;19;28UnknownWe have a different vision for this than they did. Right. And so it was a year later that we added another 20,000ft² to the space, doubled in size. And that was a huge undertaking, right. Like we were just getting our legs under us as just a trampoline park with 20,000ft², which still in itself is huge, right? And then said, hey, what if we throw in a couple different attractions, right.00;08;19;28 - 00;08;38;01UnknownAnd let's see how this goes. And and that's what we did. So we added that additional 20,000ft². And back then it was laser tag but on a much smaller scale. We did archery tag, we expanded the restaurant, we expanded our party rooms. We didn't add a ton of attractions, but what we wanted to do was test the waters.00;08;38;01 - 00;08;56;26UnknownSo was the trampoline always the centerpiece of it? It is, you know, I think, and David and I talk a lot about, you know, our trampoline are they here to stay? Right. But, you know, even here in Jacksonville, there were trampolines, public trampolines you can jump on in the 60s. Okay, so back at the beach, at the pier, they used to have trampolines.00;08;56;27 - 00;09;14;28UnknownInteresting. Very interesting. So it's not a new concept. Maybe indoors. Yeah. It's a new concept, but, Yeah. So we just decided, hey, let's add to it and see what happens. And the response from the public has been great. It's great because you can come. And now there's so much for the kids to do. They don't get bored.00;09;15;05 - 00;09;34;00UnknownAll they do is have fun. They want to stay longer. Which is why we have gone to unlimited play. So when you come into our place, we're not charging by the hour. We charge for all day play. Interesting. Do you ever, like, do you ever get full that you know you can't let anybody else, you know, back in the good old days.00;09;34;00 - 00;09;53;05UnknownYeah, yeah. So much lately. Yeah. But the reality of it is the, the play is so intensive, right? Like, they're climbing up rock mats, they're doing this ninja course. They're running up and down a two story laser tag arena. Right. They are exerting so much energy that the the average customer, I would say stays about three hours.00;09;53;05 - 00;10;13;27UnknownInteresting. So you've always got people rotating out. So there's room for more. Yeah. Yeah. And that and I know you're an expert at what's the word. The schematics of like the details of how many people are in there. How long do they stay? How much do they spend? Yeah. I think that's really interesting that we'll get into right there.00;10;13;27 - 00;10;32;21UnknownAnd you, you mentioned on your website that you're really big on and you mentioned it earlier, making memories with the kids. That's kind of, that's kind of what motivated you to get started. Did they work in the business when they when they started or your kids? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And then we talk about your kids. Yeah.00;10;32;21 - 00;10;53;19UnknownOkay. So John, our oldest is 22. Okay. John worked with me at one of my other businesses at the boutique, and, is now a pastry chef at snow based and Resorts in Utah. Extremely talented. He's a great kid. So proud of him. Natalie is a senior at the University of Utah. Okay. Natalie did work at Bravo's.00;10;53;19 - 00;11;10;11UnknownOkay. She got some time in there and at my boutique. Okay. Cooper, our general manager, Brittany, who I don't want to fail to mention. Like, you're so blessed to have Brittany. And I know we'll probably get into people. Yeah. Important. They are, like, has been with us for 12 years. She's a part of our family.00;11;10;11 - 00;11;31;08UnknownShe's been there since the day we opened. And, Brittany will tell you, Cooper, when he was 12 years old, was the best pizza maker we've ever had. So, Cooper, 16 now, he is my snowboard mountain biking enthusiast. And, yeah, he's he is so truly, truly a family business. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Where does where does hobby come into play here.00;11;31;11 - 00;11;56;28UnknownSo Dave and I make a great team, right. David's a CPA by trade. Real estate development background. Yes. Very, legally, you know, he's he's an expertise in the area of legal and financial, right? Me? Not so much. Right. I'm an operations girl. My background is in making things better and getting those processes down pat. So they're as good as they can be for business and and not just our business.00;11;56;28 - 00;12;18;13UnknownBut that was my my previous experience as well. So David handles the the money and the business side of things. I do all the operations. Interesting. Is, is working with your spouse easy? No, it's not, it's not. No. I mean, I'd ask you, but it's, it's positives and negatives for sure, right? There are pluses and minuses.00;12;18;13 - 00;12;34;18UnknownYeah. Yeah. Right. Because it's hard to draw that line and go, okay, the work day is over, especially when you own your own business. Well, the work day, let's be honest, is really never okay. It's not your business. It's not. And that's one of the challenges of being in business is finding that balance. Right. Okay. We're turning work off now.00;12;34;18 - 00;12;54;08UnknownYes. Not the easiest thing to do. Right. But on the plus side, if I need something, my business partner is right there to go. Hey, can you help me with that? Right. And the trust is there. You don't have to work. I mean, that is absolute king. And I know you guys. I know over the years of watching you guys, I feel like you've been able to delegate very well.00;12;54;09 - 00;13;17;03UnknownLike, you know, you're not always in the business. You're hiring good people to run it. So I kind of have this thing that I try to stick to. Right? Okay. Stay in your lane, bro. Yeah. You'll hear it come out of my mouth. Not just to my husband, but to my staff. Right. And it's about people knowing their responsibilities and what they are and being accountable for.00;13;17;04 - 00;13;39;17UnknownOkay. And and sometimes there's crossover. Yeah. It has to be. There has to be collaboration in any successful business. And collaboration is one thing. But stepping into somebody else's zone, that's another. Right. So so you're real good about delegating the task and making sure everybody knows exactly what their tasks are. So they're not mixing it over and making it more confusing.00;13;39;23 - 00;14;00;22UnknownYou better believe it. Yeah, yeah. For sure. Well, we talked about husband and wife. That's interesting. I mean, you know, lots of husbands and wives out there. I'm sure they would appreciate that knowing that. But, man, I, I always see it as there's way more positives and negatives as far as that goes. When you're both when your goal is the same, I would assume both of your goal is the same where you're headed, right?00;14;00;22 - 00;14;23;15UnknownIt it makes life grand, if you will, because we have the same goals, we have the same way to achieve those goals. And it it's it's amazing when you work forward to make things happen. Right. Like if you're if you're separately employed you can still have goals, right? Right. But like we work on everything to make our goals right.00;14;23;20 - 00;14;40;09UnknownAnd it really is cool. It's a special thing that not everybody gets to do. But if you get the chance, I say do it. Absolutely do it. It's Well, I mean, and the reality is that you're the final decision anyway, so it doesn't really matter, right? David? David might agree with that. Yeah. Well, you know, we may not you may not.00;14;40;10 - 00;14;56;07UnknownWe know how a husband and wives or wives are very good at letting their husbands think they have an input. But at the end of the day, you know, they make the decision. I get that they do. But he he's important to influence me with information. Yes. Right. Like I have to have the information to make that final decision.00;14;56;07 - 00;15;21;19UnknownSo I'll give him credit. Right. Well, looking at your resume, I mean, you kind of started in the corporate world, medical billing things along those lines. That's kind of what you went to school for. But obviously there is an entrepreneur, Notch Preneur, deep inside. And it is keep coming out. You've done Bravo's, boutique. And and you do interior design now.00;15;21;19 - 00;15;42;04UnknownSo we talked about Bravo's. We'll continue to talk about it. Tell me a little bit about the boutique and your interior design. Oh my gosh. So I love interior design. Like it's my passion. And when you say that you mean like residential decorating a house or what? Well, I mean, I've, I've done our space Bravo's. That's right. That's okay.00;15;42;06 - 00;16;01;13UnknownI may or may not have done some work in the house that you. Yeah. I think you have a couple houses now, but, I love design. I have a passion for design. I feel like it's in me. You know how when you have something that's innate and you go, oh, I'm just good at that, right? Right. And I think that that that seems to be the common thread in all of it, right?00;16;01;13 - 00;16;19;06UnknownI look at things and in my brain I go, how can I make this better? Right? How can I make it more functional? How can I make it more beautiful? How can I make it work better for the family that's living there or the business? Right. Like that was my background. And so it's a natural flow into design.00;16;19;06 - 00;16;49;29UnknownI just happened to be given a gift that I can do. And I do think it's a gift, so. Well, I mean, 40,000ft², that's nothing to sneeze at. And it's really hard to figure out where everything goes. It may seem simple, but it's important where you place things where you want, like, you know, so we have a joke in in our house that when I opened my boutique, which has closed, yes, Covid, that the kids were so happy because they could always come downstairs and know where the living room furniture would be.00;16;50;02 - 00;17;10;06UnknownI have this desire to make things better, right? You know. Oh, this would be better over there, right? Oh, let's try this over here. Right. Well, where when I opened the boutique, I was forever rearranging merchandizing. So it killed the need to do that at home, right? Right. The kids were like, oh, we can come downstairs and flop on the couch, and the couch is still in the same place, right.00;17;10;28 - 00;17;33;16UnknownWhere we do it at Bravo's now is with our games and sometimes our attractions, because we try to keep it interesting. Yeah, try to keep it fresh. We want to. But most importantly, I want it to be a great experience. And the number one thing that's always in my mind at Bravo's when we're doing that is can the parents see the kids know that games go there, they can't see it, but it could be better over here.00;17;33;18 - 00;17;51;14UnknownAnd so it still factors into Bravo's every single day. And I imagine the the positioning of the stuff makes a difference on the knowledge used. Oh, about the psychology of. Absolutely. Yeah. It's got to be in front of people. You know, if it's a, if it's a game that it's got flashy lights and things like that, you know if it's beautiful.00;17;51;14 - 00;18;18;14UnknownYeah. We we look at what goes, is it a beautiful game. Does it need to be upfront or is it something that's a little older. And now maybe it doesn't need to take the spotlight. Yeah. So yeah it does. It all factors in. And I think, you know, listeners out there with young kids and I just remember that, you know, going to chuck-e-cheese or whatever and like panicking when you can't see your six year old or whatever, you know, probably doing a little helicopter, but it's important, just like you said, to have it laid out.00;18;18;14 - 00;18;42;29UnknownSo that's why they want to come back, because I, I just remember those days vividly. Like you're just desperately searching for a place you could go and lock them in and watch them while you relax, and and we're so careful. You know, we have some competition here in town now, and, and we're so careful to take the feedback that customers who have come back to us give us right.00;18;43;02 - 00;19;10;10UnknownOne of the things that resonated the most with me about, a customer's feedback recently was it was so crowded that I couldn't find my kid anywhere. Right. So some of these other places that we compete with, they have as much jammed into a small footprint or big footprint, you know, as they can get in their way. And then you're left in that situation you were just talking about, oh my God, where is my kid?00;19;10;11 - 00;19;31;09UnknownRight. And you can't see them for all the people. So we intentionally keep things spaced out. We make sure that, you know, it's clear and open. It's really important to me. Yeah, like we've had it happen. That's really cute story. Okay. And then we're memorable. Yes. I don't circle back. Like, we're probably two weeks into opening, so 13 years ago.00;19;31;11 - 00;19;49;00UnknownYeah. And a father comes up. And back then we were very crowded. Right. We're still only 20,000ft². And we were new in the first trampoline park here in town. And he goes, oh my God, I can't find my dog on my daughter, right? And we all panic and we have we have procedures. Yes. Right. Like somebody goes to the back door and stands there.00;19;49;00 - 00;20;03;01UnknownSomebody goes to the side door and stands there and people go in the front door. Nobody leaves. We have a missing child. And so that child is located and bless her heart, she was this teeny tiny little thing in a pink tutu. And she was in the foam pit and we just couldn't see her right in the like.00;20;03;02 - 00;20;24;29UnknownShe was playing, having the best time ever, and we just couldn't see her. Covered up with, right. It's one of those things where you have to find the balance, right? Where we have enough to offer people. But it's a safe and fun and and mostly comfortable environment for people, you know. Sure. I'm I'm super sensitive to the sound.00;20;25;03 - 00;20;54;18UnknownYeah, yeah, the sound is there to enhance the experience. Not overwhelming. Right. Yeah. Right. Right. Well, you know, you know, the theme of our show, our podcast is hometown Jax is people in Jacksonville with jobs running businesses, and you fit that mold perfectly. What are some things you've learned on running businesses? I mean, I'm sure we could do ours on that alone, but, my guess is people listening to that really want to hone in on that because you don't run a simple business.00;20;54;18 - 00;21;01;21UnknownIt's complicated. There's lots of different things. So we currently,00;21;01;23 - 00;21;27;10UnknownWe have about 75 kids on staff. Okay. This is coming off. So when you say kids, that's your that's the people. And I call them all my. Yeah, right there and and my management team. I'm so blessed. The majority of my management team has been with me, for at least five years. Wow. Brittany. All every year that we've been open, Tyler's been with us for six, and so I'm so blessed to have the same people.00;21;27;11 - 00;21;52;16UnknownYeah. And and that's what I would say is the key thing. It's all about your people, right? You've got to have the right people in the right place. Right. And as I was telling you earlier, I'm really focused on our customer experience this year. Right. And so while we are a great place and we're clean and we're fun, I see opportunities for us to make Bravos more for our customers.00;21;52;17 - 00;22;14;14UnknownRight? Like, I want my staff to engage with the customers a little more. And so right now, yeah, it's a lot to manage, right? 40,000ft², like you said, the maintenance is huge. My staff is a large number of people, and the majority of them are teenagers. And so the first job, we're one of the places in town that will hire people for their first.00;22;14;14 - 00;22;35;17UnknownWell, that's spectacular though. I mean, I know it's, you know, some difficulties come along with it, but that's pretty cool that you do that. It it does. Right. Like there are blessings and curses that come with it. Right. The blessing is we're not breaking bad habits, right? Coaching them. We're teaching them. We're trying to get them to understand the fundamental of having a job.00;22;35;18 - 00;22;59;29UnknownRight, right, right. So it's a challenge. Yeah. Right. But watching these kids go on and do other things is one of the most rewarding parts of this business, right? I, I'm friends with kids who worked for us ten years ago, who we have couples that have met and got married and have their own kids. Now that wow, we have groups of kids who they're each other godparents okay in their weddings.00;23;00;07 - 00;23;24;03UnknownSo it's like this. I thought you were much younger than that. Laura. Yeah, I am, but it's this beautiful progression of watching friendships form. Yeah. And this is part of the memory side of. Yeah. Like, not only are we creating memories for our customers, we try to create an employee culture where we're creating memories for the kids that were there.00;23;24;22 - 00;23;47;19UnknownBut the bottom line is the success of any business comes down to the people who are in it and how they execute their job. How do you how do you hire, kids like that? That's that's got to be very difficult. There's nothing really to go on. It's got to be a lot of good. Yeah. So we actually have everybody take a personality test, okay?00;23;47;21 - 00;24;04;18UnknownOkay. And if they answer it honestly, then we get a pretty good read on them. Yeah. And then that tells us based on their personality type what's the best position. Right. Do I want them at front desk right. Or do I want them to be a party server? Do I want them on or what we call our celebration crew?00;24;04;20 - 00;24;26;17UnknownRight. Do we want them on the trampolines? Do we want them at the attractions, interacting with the kids? So that personality test is so key to helping us get people in the right role. Then we bring them in for an audition where we have quite a few of them in the room together. Interesting. We play games we interact with or some questions out to, and then we see how they do, right?00;24;26;17 - 00;24;46;22UnknownWe read them right. If we like them, we bring them in for a one on one interview, okay? And that helps, right? Because kids these days are not the same as they were 12 years. Yeah, yeah for sure. That's a huge difference in the personality, the attention span, the demeanor of kids from when we first started to now.00;24;47;24 - 00;25;09;08UnknownSo we kind of do that double layer approach to the interview so we can really, really find that one that's really interesting because everybody wants to rush into the interview. So what you're saying is personality tests come kind of come in and socialize. And then if we like you then we'll go to the interview. That's I mean what a great way to do it especially for someone in their first job.00;25;09;08 - 00;25;26;12UnknownI mean you're really looking for social skills more than anything at that point. Absolutely. Yeah absolutely. And capabilities. Yeah. Right. Can they converse. Can they converse in a group. Because while I may be able to have a conversation with any kid one on one, it doesn't mean that when they get in a group setting that they perform well.00;25;26;15 - 00;25;51;09UnknownSo what's the youngest you hire. Is it 1516 or 16? Okay. Yeah. 16 reliability to get to the job and all that. Well that's super interesting. Because I know there's a lot of people out there that want to know that secret on hired how to hire like that. And that's a really interesting way to put it. Let's figure out the social first and then drill into the other stuff that it works well in the entertainment industry.00;25;51;10 - 00;26;06;29UnknownSo Disney does a universal does a great point. You got it's got to be a fun place to work when you're young. Oh it is right. Like we got music on. There's kids running around. Yeah it is. It's a great place actually. It's got a good vibe. Yeah, yeah. And I imagine most of those kids are available after school.00;26;06;29 - 00;26;27;24UnknownI mean, how do you staff it during school hours? I mean, homeschool kids or. Yeah. So we were really only open Wednesday, Thursday, Friday afternoon and evening and then all day Saturday and Sunday. Right. But we do host groups through the week, right. Like will we open any time that we have a group that comes in and can meet our minimum for, for opening for them?00;26;28;08 - 00;26;49;27UnknownSo yeah, we're we're available seven days a week. That's awesome. Yeah. Going back to Bravo's, you've hit this before, but run through those attractions again and tell me what your favorite attraction is. Okay, so we have a main jumper. What's that that's described? So the main jumper is a giant trampoline with individual squares. Right.00;26;50;00 - 00;27;08;12UnknownAnd I want to talk about that for a moment. I can because we are different from other trampoline parks okay. The reason we have individual squares on our trampolines is because it's safer, right? Right. It's not one big. Yeah. When you have people jumping from square to square to square, what happens is somebody gets double bounced, they fall down, they can break an ankle, they can break an arm.00;27;08;12 - 00;27;27;02UnknownSo we it's one per square right. It's it's a safety thing. And I learned that with Cooper our youngest right. First week and we were open. The kid got his leg broken because he went into a square with somebody else. So, Yeah. So the trampoline, the main trampoline we have room for, I believe, about 50 people out there today.00;27;27;02 - 00;27;45;28UnknownWow. I'll close up. We've got a dodgeball. Okay. You know where we run games of dodgeball? We know a dodgeball is super fun, right? Amplified by bouncing on a trampoline. Okay, okay. We have our basketball slam dunker, which is trampolines underneath a basketball. Yeah, we can adjust the hoops up and down for the kids size so that it's very possible.00;27;46;00 - 00;28;03;22UnknownWe want every kid to be successful, you know? So if they're teeny tiny, we'll put the hoop down. We want them to have a good outcome while they're there. Right. We've got the foam pit that does have kind of a trampoline bed that you can do some flips and then land in the foam head. Three different rock climbing options.00;28;03;22 - 00;28;20;22UnknownLet me think. We've got a face off wall so it's clear. Okay. I have two people racing to the top and you can see where you're comfortable. That is really cool. So that's really fun, especially for team building. Yeah, that's a great one. Right. Then we have two others. One that's a timed wall that'll just, you know, time you as you go to the top.00;28;21;04 - 00;28;38;22UnknownWe have a leap of Faith tower. Yeah. Which is a tower that's built in the center of the facility. And you climb up and you jump off. Okay. On your bulletin. Great. You're you're safe. Yeah. Yeah. What? You go to the ground, but, you can jump out to a trapeze. Okay. What do you call it?00;28;38;22 - 00;28;54;01UnknownTrapeze bar. Right. And swing from there. Or you can just jump because we had another obstacle. But we found that, like most of the kids, they just want to jump there in a lot of people. They just want to see if they can conquer their fear heights. Right. But it happens. They'll get up there and they get freaked out, right?00;28;54;02 - 00;29;16;01UnknownAnd that's all, is it? So it we're 23ft to the deck. Wow. And so I think this tower is 20ft high, but maybe the platform is 20ft. Well, not not quite 20, but it's somewhere in between. And it's it doesn't look like much when you're standing on the ground, but you and you and I because. Yeah. Rides thing very well.00;29;16;04 - 00;29;36;19UnknownYou stand up there and you realize you're. Oh yes. Yes. So we have the leap Faith tower. We've got the ninja courses full of different obstacles to challenge all sorts of ninja, meaning that's where you go in the dark areas or. Now what's that? No, no, no, it's the more I talked about. Yeah. That's right. Laser tag. We do have a laser maze, which is really fun.00;29;36;19 - 00;30;00;04UnknownSo that's it. Shoots lasers into a different pattern, and you're challenged to get through there without breaking. Okay. The mini bowling, I, I actually love the mini bowling. You asked me about that, and I'll tell you why. It's great for little kids, right? Because it's duckpin mini, like it's a smaller ball game. And when you're teaching young kids how to bowl at a bowling alley.00;30;00;04 - 00;30;17;11UnknownRight. So this challenge, they can't get the ball to the end of the lane. They have to use the little rolly thing. They have to put the bumpers. So there's all these accommodations that are made for them. This bowling is so great for younger kids that are learning how to do it, because it is a shorter lane. It's a handheld ball that they can handle.00;30;17;11 - 00;30;34;18UnknownThey're not doing this big bulky thing. I love the bowling. Yeah. Why? Managers will tell you they hate it. But I think it's a great attraction because we have technical difficulties with the equipment. Right. People throwing the ball too soon, things like that. But well, it gives them the big bowling alleys. Hard. They probably lose. They lose interest, right?00;30;34;18 - 00;30;56;27UnknownThey do because they can't do it the way that it's meant to be done. Right? Right. So our mini bowling is so great for the younger kids. And then that ride that we added a couple of years ago, it's really fun. I, you I don't know if you've been it. We added that. So it's this ride that takes you all the way to the top of the ceiling and then boom, drops you down and it has all sorts of different bounces, things like that.00;30;56;28 - 00;31;12;20UnknownOkay. The squealing and the laughter that come from the kids that are on that ride, you get one extreme or the other, right? They either love it and they've got their arms up because they think they're on a roller coaster, or you've got kids that are like, oh, I got me on this thing. So it's, what would you say?00;31;12;22 - 00;31;30;14UnknownIs there one that's clearly more popular that like, people come in and they just head right for that one? I mean, it's usually the trampoline, okay. But that ride, it's up there. Yeah, yeah. It's we we get lines of the ride because the kids just love the thrill. It's a real thrill as you describe all those rides.00;31;30;14 - 00;31;50;08UnknownI'm thinking your maintenance man is probably the most important guy in the building. Yeah, yeah. We couldn't get by without Bill. And let me not fail to mention him. So Bill has been with us for almost ten years now, and he does everything, like all the things we have to change the springs on the trampolines. We monitor the trampoline beds to make sure there's no holes in them.00;31;50;08 - 00;32;06;17UnknownWhere the the maintenance on the ride, the maintenance on all the laser tag guns. He's a really busy guy and we couldn't do it without him. Is he kind of on call all the time, I think, yeah, I mean, if we date him because then there's the plumbing and electric and all those other things on top of the regular attraction maintenance.00;32;06;17 - 00;32;24;29UnknownSo yeah, Bill, Bill's amazing. You do it with a lot of things. Moving parts there. Yeah. Now you, serve food and drink it at Bravos. Now that that's kind of new, isn't it? Or have you always done that? Oh, no, we've always done it all too. Or. Yeah, we do have a bar with a beer, wine license.00;32;25;05 - 00;32;46;01UnknownWe have cocktails now that we're able to serve under that license. Oh, good. So okay. Like a bee's knees and a Bloody Mary. Excellent. We've got mimosas. It's it's a nice add. Yeah, yeah. Because parents are usually there for quite a few hours. And so I'm not. You know, we certainly don't encourage people drinking too much. Yeah for sure.00;32;46;01 - 00;33;07;08UnknownBut they're there along the amount of time that they can have a couple drinks. Yeah. No. Yeah that's awesome. And so yeah we do have a full restaurant. We've got burgers. We've got pizza, chicken wings, chicken tenders. It kind of, you know, I would equate it to a menu at Chili's basically. Right. Plus the bar. So it's a great add for parents and, and gives them a place to just decompress for a little bit, for sure.00;33;07;15 - 00;33;27;11UnknownDo you have someone who runs the restaurant part of it like a separate person? Because that's a business within a business. I mean, it is. Yeah. So I do a lot in the restaurant. Yes. Does Brittany. Yeah. General manager you know, the the attraction side of things kind of it it is what it is. Right. We've got it down pat.00;33;27;13 - 00;33;44;15UnknownWe've been doing it for years and years. The restaurant always needs it. Yeah, right. The food costs are ever fluctuating. The staff is I don't want to say ever rotating, but I'm just going to say restaurant people are a breed of their own, right? Right. So it is hard to get good cooks and people. So we've gotten to the point.00;33;44;15 - 00;34;01;22UnknownWe really just train our own, right? You know, and so but we're always worried about the quality coming out. Yeah. Monitoring it. So yeah we we have an expo position that's in there making sure that the food is as it should be before it goes to the table. Right? Yeah. The restaurant takes a lot of resources. Yeah, I would think so, man.00;34;01;22 - 00;34;17;26UnknownI mean, yeah, and there are days, I won't lie that I go like, I, I like, have somebody come in and take it. Right. Yes, yes, yes. But it's such a great job. Yeah. Well yeah I think it's absolutely needed. And I'm just thinking of all the different parts you have going on in this business all the time.00;34;17;26 - 00;34;35;11UnknownI mean, super complicated. You make it sound easy. What's the busiest, time, for the business? Like what day of the week? You know, how many people do you generally get in a day? They come through. So busiest day of the week by far. Saturday. And and it makes sense, right? Kids are out of school.00;34;35;20 - 00;34;52;03UnknownIt's free day for everybody. Saturdays and Sundays are pretty busy. And those are birthday party days. Yeah. So the majority of the customers that we will have in the facility on those days are birthday parties. Interesting. They make up a big portion of our money. And how many revenues do you have for parties? We have for private party birthdays.00;34;52;03 - 00;35;15;13UnknownAnd we turn them on the hour. Oh, wow. Yeah. And so, Wednesday, Thursday, Fridays, I mean, I always tell people, if you want the best experience at Bravo's, come on. Those every right. Because there's a handful of people there and it's basically like you're getting a private facility rental. Point for, you know, we have new specials, so buy one, get one on Wednesday.00;35;15;15 - 00;35;35;25UnknownRight. Like you can't beat the price. And to have not very many people, it's great for people with the younger kids. Yeah. Right. So the ones that are worried about all the bigger kids running around on the weekend, right. So. Right. Is there age restrictions on these rides or so we do have height restriction. Okay. That determines what they can play.00;35;35;25 - 00;36;00;12UnknownOkay. 48in and you can do it all. Yeah. How does like how does technology play into all of this. Like like what comes to your mind. Like what are what systems are you using? I know you're really good at advertising reaching out. Like how does tech what comes to your mind when we talk about technology? Well, as you know, because I was staying at your house most recently, I implemented a new software that uses AI.00;36;00;16 - 00;36;22;21UnknownOkay. Tell us about that. So this has been revolutionary for my events. Okay. Where we were spending 2 to 3 days trying to call every single birthday party that we had on the books for the weekend. Okay, we're now down to maybe four hours to get everybody confirmed by AI, which is amazing because the program knows who has a birthday party coming up this weekend.00;36;22;24 - 00;36;40;25UnknownSends them a quick text. Hey, checking in? Do you still have ten kids? Are you expecting more kids? Let us know. Right. And once we hear from them, we know that they're they're good to go for the weekend. Right? So it's significantly not cut my staff hours in the events office, because now I have them do more stuff.00;36;41;01 - 00;37;00;25UnknownRight, right. It just made one task so much easier. Wow. Technology is great. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And I imagine there's a lot of technology in the actual games too. Oh my gosh. Well, I that's way beyond my comprehension. Yeah. Does your maintenance guy know the tech part of it too. So we actually have a separate company that comes in and does the games okay.00;37;00;25 - 00;37;26;20UnknownYeah. And those guys they yeah they've got to be tech savvy. Yeah. Right. They're dealing with motherboards on all of these computer parts that run these games and make them work properly. Interesting a lot of tech a career path right there. Yeah. I mean and much needed. Let me tell you, people in the entertainment industry on all the forums that I belong to are always looking for good game techs, interesting game technicians like you don't really you don't really think about that when you're thinking about jobs.00;37;26;20 - 00;37;49;11UnknownYou think people, the kids, they want to be gamers. You don't think about the ones that service the games at facilities like yours. And they're much needed in the industry. Yeah, that's really interesting. We kind of talked about how you balance the entertainment for kids and, and parents. I think it's a very unique spot where it's contained that the parents can have do their thing and relax while the kids run around.00;37;49;22 - 00;38;09;07UnknownWe talked about the parties and events, like, can you remember, an event that was super special or jumped out of your mind, is it always kids or is it older kids is, oh my gosh, adults have parties or what? So we do, I mean, gosh, we we had a couple get engaged in one of our party rooms.00;38;09;07 - 00;38;32;23UnknownReally? Okay. That's really okay. Yeah. We do bar mitzvahs, bar mitzvah. Okay. Yeah. We do. Bachelorette party. Oh, God. Parties. You know, for people that are. And I. I think this is a trend, right? I don't know, maybe maybe you would agree. People are looking for experiences these days, right? They don't want the run of the mill.00;38;32;23 - 00;38;52;28UnknownWell, this is what you're supposed to do, right? For a bachelorette party or a bachelor party. They want to come up with something new and different and and make it an an experience for people. Yeah. So that's where we come in, right? Because our facility can fill. So check so many boxes. Right? Right. So we do a lot of senior skip days where they come to us.00;38;52;28 - 00;39;16;29UnknownOh that's great. Yeah. Right. But events in general, I mean, we used to be really involved in the guns and hoses tournaments. Okay. So that that was really fun. They came and set up the boxing ring in the. Okay. That's cool. Gosh, I mean, after 12 years, there's been so many. But corporate events too. Oh, one of the others that I love the we do sorry, a foster event.00;39;16;29 - 00;39;39;18UnknownRight? Okay. We we welcome there's different organizations in the town that are looking for homes for foster children that are going to age out of the system. Okay. So they will use Bravos as kind of a neutral ground for these kids to play and interact with potential foster parents. Interesting. And, that's probably one of like, you know, if you're if you're going to own a business.00;39;39;18 - 00;39;56;18UnknownAnd David and I are very, very big on giving back, right to our community. This is our community. This is where we live for about 30 years. Right. And so being able to facilitate things like that is one of the greatest blessings of owning it. Yeah. We there was a child that was adopted at one of those events.00;39;56;18 - 00;40;15;23UnknownAnd so her life is better. Yeah. Because of us. Yeah. Right. What a unique way to, to do that, you know, kind of audition for either side on the foster care. And they just don't think about things like that. It puts them in a different environment outside of something like this, where they would just be sitting across the table trying to get to know each other.00;40;16;13 - 00;40;39;29UnknownSo we've over the years, we've had so many beautiful opportunities to work in our community and help in, in ways that are really insignificant to us. But are meaningful to others. And that's so important. Yes. No, absolutely. We talk about that a lot. And our business, you don't. It's more than a transaction for a lot of people, depending on what you're doing.00;40;42;04 - 00;41;02;22UnknownYou know, obviously this was a business that was pretty affected by covet. That's a talking point to have a lot of the podcast like. Yeah. Was it absolutely shut down? You're done. Like, how how did that all this Covid over. Sorry. It's over. Yeah. Go. Oh. It is okay. All right. Good. I just wanted to say that, so, Covid killed us.00;41;02;22 - 00;41;23;16UnknownYeah. I mean, and there's no other way to say it. Yeah. And I, I do feel in many, many ways we are still coming back from Covid, right? But when you say but like you're a business that had to shut down Gary, there's no we we were we fell under the category. If my memory serves me, we were considered a gem, right.00;41;23;16 - 00;41;45;29UnknownYeah. So we were in that beginning phase where you were closed. Okay. And then when we were able to reopen, we reopened. But the sad thing was, the people weren't coming, right? Right, right. I mean, the last place you want to take your family is someone where there's hundreds of people in the facility and germs everywhere. And so I remember one moment I was so scared, right?00;41;45;29 - 00;42;06;08UnknownAs a business owner, to embark on this new environment. And and we had cases in cases of this hospital grade germicidal, which we still use. Right. But I was running around spraying every time a kid would walk around away from a game. I was walking and spraying and this sweet little lady came up to me and she said, honey, I know what you're trying to do.00;42;06;11 - 00;42;26;00UnknownAnd she said, you're either going to go broke using the amount of that that you are, or you're going to kill yourself doing it, inhaling all the fumes. Right? She was so cute about it. So thank God it's over, right? Like it's good to see the world getting back to normal. Well, the reason why I wanted to bring that up is because, like, you're you're.00;42;26;00 - 00;42;48;29UnknownThat's not a business. You go online, you know, it's not a paperwork pushing business. It is the real ground zero of what happened. And I think it's important to bring that up, that you made it through, very difficult times. But that's the real story. On what happened during Covid. Oh, business owners like you. Well, and I, I'm, you know, financial we still feel the effects of it.00;42;49;00 - 00;43;05;24UnknownRight. We still had to pay the rent for the entire time that we were closed. Right. We were keeping our staff on even though they're closed. And for a small business like us, it's just. It's mom. Where mom and pop. Yeah. I mean, we are the epitome of mom and pop us, that. Yeah, it put a hurtin on us.00;43;05;25 - 00;43;24;26UnknownWe're still feeling it, and we're trying to come back from. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, you've come back from it in a big way. And, I want people to understand the gravity of that. So we're happy to be here. Let me tell you. No, absolutely. All of our friends that close places, I mean, we I could name ten right now that closed businesses during Covid like ours.00;43;24;29 - 00;43;42;02UnknownAnd so we don't take that for granted. Right. We feel very blessed that we're here every single day after that. And and we don't forget and it's thanks to our community. Right. If it weren't for the Jacksonville community that loves us and supported us, there's no way we would be here today. Absolutely, absolutely. We're grateful for that.00;43;42;02 - 00;43;59;05UnknownAbsolutely great community. And actually, you brought up a different subject that you've mentioned before. There's kind of a community of you guys like that. Oh yeah, these kind of places like all around the country, like, haven't you like intermingled with them, like there's conventions and all of that. We do. Yeah. So it and that's the other thing. Right.00;43;59;05 - 00;44;16;04UnknownAll the friends that have been made through this in, in in an industry that I still shake my head in. Can't believe I'm in something. Right. Because it's fun, right? We deal in fun deal and happy memories and you get to meet other people who do the same thing. We're very open with each other. We share what's working.00;44;16;04 - 00;44;36;24UnknownWe share what's not working. I before I came, I was on a conference call with a guy who's gotten to be a dear friend, and, and, you know, we we help each other, right? He's the one that created the eye because he saw the opportunity to help improve our processes and improve how we're doing things via software.00;44;36;24 - 00;44;59;03UnknownRight. And Keith, Smith book more is absolutely amazing. If you have an entertainment center and you need to implement something, give him a call. But, yeah, we're we're very blessed. Right? It's not, a cutthroat thing where, like, we want to see each other succeed, for sure. We're up against the big guys, right? Like Dave and Busters.00;44;59;03 - 00;45;22;00UnknownWe're up and against them. We're up against Chuck-e-cheese, we're up against Urban Air and the other franchises that have these massive corporate presences that mom and Pops can't compete with, right? We don't have the marketing power. We don't have that corporate support. We're all doing it on our own and figuring it out for ourselves. Right. So having that community is important to successful for sure.00;45;22;02 - 00;45;50;13UnknownAnd I it's that's a I'm, I'm glad you touched on that. This is a very common theme with, people that we interview on the podcast that are business owners or whatever, abundance mindset of sharing, sharing, sharing. Because it comes back to you 1,000%. Oh, it's know. Yeah, there's no doubt it's, it's a beautiful industry to be in surrounded by beautiful people, not only in that industry but the ones that we serve, which is our local community.00;45;50;14 - 00;46;08;07UnknownRight, right. Yeah. So if somebody was out there listening and like, man, I really want to own one of these things, How do you even get started? Like how how many what would be step one? What would you do? Like, would you try to is the best way to buy it from somebody? Is it. It start from zero.00;46;08;12 - 00;46;30;02UnknownIt just seems like a very big task to start from scratch. It. I'm not going to lie. It is. Yes. You know, and it took a couple of years of research and, and development, right, to get Bravos to open. And then we grew, if we had started out planning to be what we are right now, like we evolved.00;46;30;02 - 00;46;45;16UnknownYeah. If we had started out and said, hey, we want to be this 40,000 square foot place, like it would have taken twice as long. Yeah. I think it's all about knowing your market. I think you've got to do your research. You got to understand the numbers. You got to understand the numbers aren't always the numbers. Right.00;46;45;16 - 00;47;08;13UnknownAnd you know that city business, right? Do your research, make sure, you know, the job that you brought that up, know your market, because that's very important, right? Yeah. Like what? What what's your demographic, who you're going after or how do I go after them? And it's different for all sorts of different entertainment industries. Right. So like Topgolf goes after a different demographic than we do.00;47;08;13 - 00;47;28;29UnknownRight? For their young adults and and adults. Chuck E cheese is going after the toddlers, right? We're more that 7 to 12 age. Yeah. Escape rooms while they work for everybody. They're really more geared towards adults. So it depends on where you want to go in the entertainment industry. Right. But there's tons of resources out there. There's tons of people that will help you.00;47;28;29 - 00;47;53;15UnknownYeah. There's some great consulting firms out there as well. Good point for you. Yeah. It's it's doable. Any business. Right. Any business is doable. But you really got to put the pen to paper and make sure it works before you go down the road. Because for one thing, that is prohibitive about going into the entertainment industry is, you know, it is a multi, multi, multi million dollar start, right?00;47;53;17 - 00;48;10;23UnknownFor sure. You know like $1,020 million. Yeah. Right. Oh absolutely. Absolutely. You've got to make sure you've got the capital to make it happen right. Right. And trust me when I say you want to make sure you have the capital. We did not when we started. Right. There's nothing worse than going into a new business going, oh my, oh my God, we're going to run out.00;48;10;29 - 00;48;34;07UnknownRight, right. Like and make sure you have the funds, right? Right. Well, this was awesome. I think we covered a lot of great points. You know, talking about Bravos a lot, talking about your history, talking about some of the cool things about owning a business, multi different departments and things going on. I loved what you're talking about, about your hiring, hiring young people and how you do that.00;48;34;07 - 00;48;45;25UnknownI thought that was super unique and just the different. And then in combination with the community and the family business, those are the recipes for success. So it was great to have you on, Laura.00;48;45;25 - 00;48;50;06Unknownthank you. Thank you for coming on. It was awesome. It's an honor to be here. Yes. Thank you.00;48;50;06 - 00;49;04;14UnknownThe Hometown Jack's podcast is recorded and produced by First Coast Mortgage Funding. Located in the heart of Jacksonville. Do you want to be our next guest? Visit our website at Hometown Jack's podcast.com. We can't wait to hear your story.
