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Behind Our Doors #7 - Uptown Jungle: From Trampoline Idea to 10-Location Empire
Sponsored by Intercard!
Discover how a simple investment meeting blossomed into Uptown Jungle, a thriving family entertainment brand with ten locations across the southwestern United States. President & CEO Brad Collins shares the fascinating journey of creating a city-themed indoor playground that reimagines active play for children ages 1-10.
Whether you're an established venue operator looking to refine your approach or an entrepreneur exploring the family entertainment space, this episode offers practical wisdom from someone who's built a successful brand through thoughtful evolution, operational excellence, and a deep understanding of their audience. Tune in to learn how clarity of purpose can transform a business from a single location into a beloved regional brand.
Every venue has a story. Today we gather round to hear another. Welcome to Behind Our Doors. Travel with us as we navigate behind the scenes of location-based entertainment venues Brought to you by the LBX Collective your community to connect, engage and inspire. Lean in folks. Some of the best-kept secrets await.
Speaker 2:All right, well, welcome everybody to Behind Our Doors. I'm Brandon Wiley, and today we are heading to Uptown Jungle in Levine, arizona. Uptown Jungle is a city-themed indoor playground and they've really really imagined family entertainment after play, with their focus on immersive design, making sure that kids are out there and running around, as well as community connection they really wanted to found. There's some of the belief that kids deserve more than just a bounce house or a jungle gym, and so they combine trampolines, climbing walls, obstacle courses, massive soft play, interactive features and a bunch of other stuff all under one roof. With multiple locations they now have across the Southwest, this brand has earned a loyal following for its clean facilities, energetic staff and great birthday party experience that kids absolutely love. So today, uptown Jungle continues to grow as a standout in the family entertainment industry by blending creativity, safety and operational excellence. So, without further ado, let's check out Uptown Jungle.
Speaker 3:Hi, welcome to warm and sunny Phoenix, arizona. We're here in Levine, which is in southern Phoenix, at Uptown Jungle. My name is Brad Collins and I'm the CEO and president of Uptown Jungle. We're going to give you a nice little behind-the-scenes tour today, so come on in. This is one of our 10 locations throughout the southwestern United States and we have more to come, hopefully to announce soon.
Speaker 3:So as you walk into Uptown Jungle, you'll notice we have a main check-in area for all our regular attendance guests and some waiver stations where everyone signs waivers, and off to the side we have a party check-in so we are able to keep the party guests a little bit separate from the regular guests, and we have our lovely assistant manager, alexis, ready to check you in when you arrive. So that way it keeps all the hustle and bustle of busy Saturdays separate. So everyone signs a waiver when they come in and they get checked in right here. We have different pricing based on weekdays and weekends and also a toddler time in the mornings on weekdays. We do require grip socks and we're pretty proud about some of our different grip socks that we have. As you can see, we have everything from dinosaurs to tails and and unicorns with wings and pizzas and popcorn and skeletons. So really hits all the uh the kids favorites.
Speaker 3:Uptown jungle is, uh, definitely built for kids ages one to ten. As you see today, once they start getting around that 11 or 12 age, they start aging out a little bit. So we'll go through some of the attractions we have. Most of our locations have similar attractions with a few one-offs here and there. So one of our more popular attractions are climbing walls. As you can see, we have at this location seven different climbing points. Kids love to clip in and test their abilities and go as high as they can and even in some of these walls race each other. This one with the individual pillars is very exciting because obviously there's really nowhere to put your hands. So it adds another level of fear fear into it, but it's definitely very popular. And then we have our trampolines, which are always popular. Just a small set here, but perfect size for a small game of dodgeball or jump around or to see what kind of skills you can do. But nice and simple and small and enclosed. Kids love the trampolines and testing out their acrobatic skills. And also inside our locations we'll throw in some other fun things such as photo booths and hurricane machines. As you can see, we'll also have a few claw games for people to participate in. And then, over in this corner, we have what we call our Uppie Mart. Uppie is our mascot and his mart over here is where we sell our food and beverage.
Speaker 3:Currently, uptown Jungle does not do any hot food, so everything's prepackaged. But we are just a month away from getting into hot pizza. So we've been in the process of purchasing new ovens and kitchen equipment and really excited to offer hot and fresh pizza to all our guests. Hot pizza. So we've been in the process of purchasing new ovens and kitchen equipment and really excited to offer hot and fresh pizza to all our guests. So it's going to be a change we're going to be announcing here in in about a month's time. So, as you can see, everything's pre-packaged and and as it is now, and. And.
Speaker 3:The next thing I'll take you to is our sports court. We do have an air floor, but it is under maintenance right now, but we do put just padding down if people just want to simply play a fun game of soccer or basketball, but usually there's an 8-inch inflatable floor throughout. That's just getting maintained today, but a very fun spot for kids to hang out, and especially the adults. Adults always claim they don't want to play, but it's very easy to catch them shooting some baskets when no one's looking and asking if they want to play after that and then we start getting into our main play structure. It's kind of all connected. We do a lot of bridges and connectivity so kids can get from one side of the park to the other without even going back on the ground level. So it's a lot of fun. A lot of slides throughout, different ways to enter Stairs, warp walls, so just a lot of different ways to get in and out, which kids really love.
Speaker 3:Excuse the piano in the background, but this is our toddler area for children five and under, so it's a big hit. Parents love that there's a place to play for the little ones. They don't have to get trampled by the big kids, and it has kind of smaller versions of everything what the rest of the park has to offer, everything from the light, bright, and up there we have bricks that kids play with. They can pretend like they're building their own little wall up there kids play with. They can pretend like they're building their own little wall up there. They have a roller slide, a little ball pit and a little merry-go-round and some teacups to spin around too. So again, it's just a really nice area for the little ones five and under to play without getting trampled by those big kids, because those big kids they start playing and they're just running around everywhere. So we also have it it gated in, so that way a parent can sit here to not worry about their kid, keep trying to run out quickly, and the parents can sit down too and rest for a few minutes while the kids exhaust themselves. So there's another section of our play structure here. This is more of the play structure that's a little bit closer to kind of a ninja course, if you will. It's a little bit higher difficulty, but again, kids of all ages enjoy and play on it. And it's got two levels with four lanes on each level. So a lot of different challenges for them to come and try and test their skills.
Speaker 3:And then we're going to walk over here to one of our more popular attractions. We call it the Volcano or the Climbing Mountain. It's also garnered plenty of other nicknames as well, but pretty much it's just a really long piece of really thick vinyl stretched out and anchored down for kids to run up and try to get to the top, and it has just a really nice soft, spongy landing so they can attempt again and again without worrying about falling. And again, as as we try to do, everything connects to areas around it so they can enter into the whole rest of the play structure through bridges and connectors just from going up the volcano as well. And then now we're going to walk into the main part of our play structure. Really popular is the Spider Tower, where kids get to go up and down through a series of these elastic bands and land softly at the bottom. It's very popular, sometimes a little scary for parents to watch, but we promise they're made in a way to create soft landings, no matter what level they're at.
Speaker 3:And then one of the more popular areas in here is the ball shooter area. So we have a bunch of foam balls that shoot out of cannons up there around in this arena and then a big ball shooter that that will push them around as well. Um, so it gets pretty chaotic in here with lots of balls moving around. Um, there's also a uh, a ball dumper up there so they can move balls up there and fill, fill it up and and dump the uh balls out. Um.
Speaker 3:So, with a lot of kids in here and a lot of balls shooting, it's pretty chaotic but pretty fun at the same time. The nice thing is these are really light in foam so no matter how fast they go, they really won't cause too much damage. So a lot of fun throughout here. And then that brings us back to our party rooms. In the back we have four party rooms that can open or close into four individual rooms or one really large room. But we do a lot of birthday parties, especially on the weekends Always a good time and we have different packages that offer different times in the party rooms, as well as number of people and food and beverage as well. So, yeah, that's about a wrap for Uptown Jungle. Um, thanks for uh following along and hope to see you at Uptown Jungle soon.
Speaker 2:All right, well, that was awesome. So, uh, joining me today is actually Brad Collins, who you saw on the video. He's the president and CEO of Uptown Jungle Fun Parks and he grew up in San Diego, got his degree from the University of California, san Diego, but now he resides in Phoenix, arizona, with his wife and five kids. He worked in retail and construction before moving over to the family entertainment sector, and he started Uptown Jungle with his father and his father's best friend and has grown it from one to 10 locations, with more on the horizon. So we'll learn, hopefully, a little bit more about that and we'll bring him in after a quick break.
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Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having us and thanks for checking out Uptown Jungle Fun Park in Levine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So maybe we can start from the beginning. What inspired you and your father and your father's best friend to start Uptown Jungle and what was the original vision for the brand in the first place? Because I'm sure it's evolved quite a bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it has, and yeah, I'm happy to dig in his friend were invited to a potential investment opportunity for more of a straightforward trampoline park back in 2012, 2013. Back when, at least in Southern California, it seemed like trampoline parks were growing pretty rapidly and the new and hot thing. So they were invited to investment meeting and they attended and you know, we're kind of kind of intrigued by the whole concept of it. But, you know, started thinking, you know, maybe maybe there's something different we could do. You know, maybe there's something more we could do. And that's and that's where the concept of Uptown Jungle was, was kind of born.
Speaker 3:You know, let's let's do a large number of different activities and attractions and, to be honest, we didn't know where we were starting and didn't know anything about all the different wonderful associations in the industry and vendors and we're just kind of finding and buying and ordering things attractions from new and used, from different many places, from play structures to trampolines to inflatables but, lo and behold, we got enough to create an indoor entertainment center and our first location was in San Diego, california, and so, yeah, we put it all together and thought, hey, this is going to be great. You know, made the assumption that, hey, hey, this is going to be for everybody too, and um which I'm sure any marketing person out there's cringing a little bit. Like you know, you need a niche market, um. So, uh, we opened the doors and we're successful. Um, we even tried a few, uh, teen nights. I got some really loud speakers and a DJ, and all that Wow a teenager in.
Speaker 3:Uptown Jungle, we learned that the teenagers didn't come. But you know, we turned inwards and embraced our concept and what the market was giving us. As you know, younger children that's what Uptown Jungle is. It's really for kids 10 and under, maybe even 11 and 12. So we learned quickly what and who, I should say who comes and adjusts it accordingly. So it took us a year or two to figure that out, not just the market but also just operations and our systems and all that. And we said, hey, this is looking pretty good, let's grow it. And had some trouble finding new locations in Southern California. Someone said, hey, try Arizona, and there's much more opportunity. And so that's the point that I moved out to Arizona is, we found some opportunities out here and and kind of, the rest is history Now. Now we're up to 10 locations. So we have six locations in Arizona, one in California, two in Las Vegas area and one in Utah, so with a couple more on the horizon. So I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Maybe you could talk a little bit because the first year you said obviously you dealt with some of the challenges of just figuring out the right market, figure out operational, Maybe walk through some of those early challenges that you faced when you just had your first location. We can talk about challenges that happen when you start to grow to second and third locations. I know that changes things too, but yeah, maybe talk about a few of the things that stood out in your mind from some of the struggles you dealt with early on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the first one was a little challenging because you know when you're diving in like that, it's a new business that automatically becomes very kind of mom-pop type. You know you have family members doing this or that, whether it's for free or discounted rate, whatever it is, and you know you have to create a model that you know is expandable and say, hey, I can't have my mom doing the payroll and schedule anymore. I got to have a manager in here that's actually going to run it so I can replicate this. And so it's all those little small things that that kind of make it a small business with mom and pop, that that you kind of have to take out, even if it's going to cost you a little bit more money, just so you know what the realistic cost is and and that you can replicate it. So once you do that, it's very helpful.
Speaker 3:I wish I had known more about, like I mentioned earlier, the wonderful organizations out there like IAPA and IATP and so on and so on, and to learn, connect with vendors more, from everything from insurance to parts to attractions and marketing. I think it's just one of the things we had to learn um, the hard way, but um, but uh, yeah, once, once we kind of got to that point and could take a step back and say, okay, this, this location is operating on its own, um, all the costs are realistic, um, and what it's profitable. You know? Now we said, ok, now we can make more of these. You know, we can replicate this. We have a model we can replicate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. When did you first come across some of the associations? I mean, maybe you knew about the Trampoline Park Association because you had been approached, but maybe not right. Yeah, I still didn't?
Speaker 3:It took us a few years. Well, someone's like hey, come to this thing called IAPA, and you know, you go out there and there's 30,000 people, or however many it is. You're like, you know, your eyes are wide open and you're just kind of taking everything in, you know, from a fire hose, from classes and education to new and potential vendors and everything in between, and one of the IAAPA trade shows.
Speaker 2:How much did your concept evolve or change or your attraction mix evolve or change for future locations? As a result of now your eyes are opened to all of the things that are available.
Speaker 3:It changed a lot. I remember attending IATP, which is for trampoline parks and adventure parks, and they definitely dial in on safety. Um IATP, um, which is for trampoline parks and adventure parks, um, and you know they they definitely dial in on safety and um proper policies and procedures, and that was very eye opening. You know you realize you have a lot of work to do, um to to catch up and and do your operations the right way. Um, so that was really helpful. And then, um, um, both iatp and iapa were very helpful with with uh finding uh solid vendors.
Speaker 3:You know, some of these vendors are huge, they're, they're some of the best in the world and and do things the right way. Um, they don't, they don't cut corners, um, and and it's not only the equipment they're providing too, but also the service, the expertise. You know it's not just an owner's manual, it's a way of doing things the right way and trying to, you know, hold safety in the highest regard in these parks as well. So those steps into those vendors were extremely helpful and we changed. You know, our second park, from our first park to our second park, was completely different. You know these. We had these great vendors that we still many of, and most of who we still work with today, come in and help us design parks the right way and and operate in the right way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you maybe you could talk a little bit about the selection of the theme and the concept. So you obviously chose to go a soft play, uh, more like active play. We'll call it active play. It's not all soft play, but like active play, entertainment. But but you also have a theme involved, that city theme, what you know, going down that choice. So maybe talk a little bit about that. And then, um, how you think about branding all of your stuff, like custom videos, custom signage, like when did that come into play as well? Was that right out of the gate or was that something that evolved over time?
Speaker 3:um, that was right out of the gate and then, um, but evolved as well. You know, right out of the gate it was city theme, but it was much more I don't know how to say I guess adult looking. It wasn't attractive to kids and young parents. As I mentioned, when we first opened, we thought this was for everybody, so it was much more universal looking. Universal looking and then, as we, as we realized, you know, the the younger kids are much more our, our, our niche, that's. That's when the solid, brighter, primary color started coming in and more kids playing, actively, playing on the equipment and things that would appeal to young parents with with kids of that age. So so yeah, right out of the gate, we were pretty strong about it, but we definitely had to evolve and even with that evolution, it continued.
Speaker 3:You know, we try to keep our theming and branding up to par with what connects with those younger parents, Even right now, and it's not just us, I think, you see it everywhere. For example, you know, nostalgia is huge and retro is big and connects with millennial parents, and so you see a little bit more of kind of that 80s or 90s influence and some of the branding today. And that's ours too, because we need it to be attractive, those millennial parents. We're trying to secretly do it. We're pretty open about it. I know there's a lot of other brands that do it as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you've pretty much embraced the Uppie mascot that you've created. Maybe you talk a little bit about when uppie came into play, like where, the, how you went through the creative development of that as a mascot, why you chose to go with a mascot in the first place. And, yeah, just talk a little bit about uppie and what uppie has maybe done to elevate your brand yeah question.
Speaker 3:So ever since we opened, everyone kept telling us you need a mascot, you need a mascot. And and we just kept saying we just we don't want a mascot. Just to have a mascot Like, it needs to have a little bit more purpose behind it, you know, and fulfillment behind it. But it it got to a point where our our Jeff, my brother and I kind of put our heads together and we said, well, you know, if we are going to do a mascot, you know how can we make it more than that? And so we did do a mascot and his name is Uppy. He's a friendly kind of teal colored monster.
Speaker 3:And we did tons of research, looked up every mascot we possibly could out there and, you know, took notes down on what makes this mascot work, why do people like it and all those things.
Speaker 3:But even almost more importantly, that we paired up with the mascot is we have a YouTube channel for the mascot and it's really for kids, maybe eight and under, and it's fun and it has a little bit more educational purpose to it.
Speaker 3:So it's on, it's out there on YouTube and we get a lot of compliments that it's not just some of the junk or what people refer to as brain rot, now out in the video space for kids to watch. That it's just good, wholesome, educational entertainment for kids and so we have that YouTube content out now and kind of made that the meaning of the mascot. But I will say it's definitely exciting when I'm visiting a park and some little kid walks in with her Uppie shirt on and her Uppie plush doll and she's like where's Uppie at? And we're like, well, we're planning on bringing upi today, but since you walked in, we definitely will have upi come out today, you know, um, so it definitely enhances the, the experience, um and hopefully take helps uh families in a good, wholesome way. Um, take upi from the park into their own homes by being able to join, enjoy it on the YouTube channel as well.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's awesome. I did not know that you had a YouTube channel as well for it and I mean, like you were probably doing that even before Chuck E Cheese maybe, maybe right around the same time. But I mean that's, that's impressive to develop a whole YouTube channel and content around your mascot as well. So that's great. Keep them engaged in the brand as they go home and then obviously they love. I mean it's an adorable mascot, like very well done. So that's awesome. And I love that you've some of the signage around is like you had the up dog for the hot dogs is the up dog at the uppy mart and so like again, you've done, you've done a great job taking that and fusing that across your entire excuse me, entire venue as well. Thank you, um. With the merchandise you mentioned, the, the girl comes in with a little uppy doll or the uppy shirt. How has that really helped to? Has that really helped to elevate any revenue levels or has it really just been more about marketing and branding? It's more about marketing and branding.
Speaker 3:We don't make too much off of those, but for the kids who really like them, it's perfect for them. So it's mainly for the marketing and branding branding and even though some of those t-shirt designs, we try to make it in a way where you know as parents my, you know as a parent myself and and also our marketing director and designer, you know being parents too, like let's just create a shirt that's nice, looking for a kid that they could wear to school, not not some junk take-home thing that you consider throwing away once you get at home. So I'm just trying to make some good quality shirts and that way, those that are really fully, and you know, putting themselves into into the, the marketing and branding of uppy and the show and that have a little something else here to take home as well yeah, yeah, and like, I'm sure, the shirt, the, the quality of the shirt and the feel of it too.
Speaker 2:It's not like one of those free shirts you get at a football game or basketball game. It's like shot out of a cannon or something you know. It's like the, the, the size of the shirt and the. You know you're never going to wear it. So, yeah, that's awesome. So you mentioned that safety is really important, and so how do you balance making sure the kids are having fun, they're climbing on stuff, with safety and then also just operational efficiency in like a super active environment with kids running everywhere and parents that aren't necessarily always able to see where their kids are?
Speaker 2:Yeah great question.
Speaker 3:It starts with design. You know we really try to design things that you know are not high risk in the best way we can. We're constantly changing too. We're constantly challenging what we have and saying can we make it safer? What can we do without ripping out the fun aspect of it? So we're constantly challenging ourselves and then we just try to make our safety operations very simple and straightforward.
Speaker 3:I constantly refer to two videos when it comes to safety and safety operations, and that's the, the old Geico commercial with. You know, so easy a caveman can do it. I was like we have to make it that easy. And there's another really funny YouTube video out there about kids giving their father directions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and he takes all their directions very, very literal, to the point. He's just messing up every sandwich until the kids finally catch on that the directions have to be so detailed and so direct and so spot on. You know so he even puts the lid on right or uses the right side of the knife. You know all these things. So we're constantly referring to the Keiko commercial and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as making sure our safety operations are very, very simple and straightforward, but check all the boxes as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. What are some of the systems and tools that you that have been like? I would say yeah, I would say like game changers or elevator, like helped to like move things up a step function within your, for your team, in terms of just streamlining operations or enhancing guest experience or whatever that might be.
Speaker 3:We recently switched to a product called Jolt. We were using some other kind of checklist apps before that, but Jolt has the ability to assign specific tasks to people or in general, and so it's the way we kind of do it is. It's kind of nice you know, our managers and staff like it that they can show up to work and it's like, oh, I have exactly what I need to accomplish today, and so now there's no guessing work, there's no questioning like, oh, did I get everything done? As long as they know that they fulfilled their checklist, then they're good to go. And it's not just checklists. I mean, it includes QR codes to make sure they're checking things. There's triggers throughout it, so if something wrong does happen, it triggers a series of follow-up and involvement of other people and all those things that you can kind of set it up and leave it and let it do its thing without having or without the need of constant supervision. So it's been really nice and we implemented that a few months ago and continue to implement even more through it as well.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So this is something that's relatively new, and you've already seen a profound impact from the implementation of a system like this.
Speaker 3:Yes, definitely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, interesting, that's awesome. So how do you? You've you've got a large staff you know, across multiple locations, but then you also have corporate staff as well. What are you doing to help develop culture or you know certain values or the way that you make sure you're you know you're hiring and everything else within your, within your venues, but also the corporate level?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Um, we, we've changed our management structure um at both levels quite a bit, um, but one of the main reasons we have, especially at the park level um, is we want to make sure there's there's a clear um upward mobility. So if you're 15 and starting your your first job at Uptown Jungle and you can see like, oh, wow, I could be a manager someday you know there's a pathway for that instead of like, how do I ever become like them? You know they're way above me and they do all these things and I don't even understand. So we really wanted to create, you know, visible stepping stones for the staff. So the nice benefit of that is, as people get promoted or go on to chase their dreams, whatever it is, and we lose people, and we lose people most of the time.
Speaker 3:We have someone internal ready to step in, and so rarely do we have to hire from the outside. And then we also have several different corporate positions as well that people in the parks have filled. I think most of the people on my team, especially in our operations team, have all come from being managers at the park level. Actually, I can say all of them have on our operations team. So, yeah, a lot of upward mobility and clear paths that people can see and people like that. They like knowing that and seeing it. Even if it's not them, at least they know like oh wow, they're always pulling from within. They rarely go from external candidates.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that type of very visible history as well, where they can see it over time, I'm sure ripples through the rest of your staff as somebody comes in, and especially if somebody's new, they're getting trained, or like hey, yeah, like this is you have a very clear path because it's, it's, it's, you're doing it actively, it's not just something you're saying, so that's, that's great. When you began to expand to multiple locations, what were some of the lessons you learned? About just scaling both a brand, but scaling operations from, let's say, from not necessarily your second location, because almost probably like a first location, given the fact that you were alone in Phoenix. But as you began to expand to multiple locations in Arizona, and then as you thought about going to Las Vegas and Utah as well, yeah, the early days of expansion are really tough.
Speaker 3:early days of expansion are really tough and really what got us through it is is that I hired people. That are people who I would not hire today as a general manager, but at that point then I did hire. They were just much more entrepreneurial experience, could figure things out on their own. At that time I didn't have, you know, handbooks fully written out and processes fully ironed out. There's just some times where I would just have to give them the full autonomy to go figure it out and get it done, and you know, and so that's really what got us to where we're at today is having managers like that, that I could give that autonomy and trust to get it done.
Speaker 3:Where today it's different, I don't need those managers because we have all these processes in place and people to support them and handbooks and guidebooks and other people around them that do the same job that can help them out, and so it's just not that other people around them that do the same job that can help them out, and so it's. It's just not that there's there's. There's just not a need for that anymore. But uh, yeah, early on, going from, you know, location two and three and four and five. That that was, uh, that was probably some of the harder times, and what got me through it was having people like that that I'd hired. Um, that could just take the ball and run with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that it makes. It makes a lot of sense, as you. You know, as you, you shift your hiring model ultimately, but it probably makes it easier to hire now. I mean, you start hiring from culture and everything else, but you know, it's less of a very specific personality type you're looking for.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, exactly Now. The, the job of a general manager is much more cut and clear today than it was five to 10 years ago. For sure, yeah, sure, for sure.
Speaker 2:So, thinking about marketing, what were some of the marketing strategies that have worked best over time? Maybe work best currently for you for just driving guests through the door the first time, but also multiple times, and then you're a 10 and under 12 and under place, so birthday parties are a huge part of your operation, I'm sure, and revenue, and so also, you know, driving additional birthday parties.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that goes two ways. One, like I said, I'm a father of five kids and I'm cheap. I'm a cheap person and, and you know, sometimes, um, I challenge myself and others in the company. You know we get excited about a certain package or product getting really popular and selling well, and you know your first instinct is let's raise the price. You know, and, um, sometimes that's not. I mean, sometimes that is the right answer.
Speaker 3:I'm not not taking away from that and sometimes it's not. You know you got to put yourself, take off your your you know corporate hat and put on your, your parent hat and say there's no way I'm paying that for that. You know, and just be real. Try to be real with yourself as a parent. You know what makes sense, what are people actually going to pay, and be happy about it, and so it's. It's really important to make sure you're you're, you know, touching grass and down on earth when you're considering things like that and and being a parent. And the number two is I feel like our niche has just really helped us be in, and not that because of the specific niche we're in, but just because we know our niche. And so all our marketing is definitely more towards the millennial age parent, you know, with kids ages one to 10. And so we can get very specific on on what that looks like and what that means.
Speaker 3:Um, and so I just I just really encourage anybody make sure you really know your niche. And if you don't, you know, see, try, try creating some marketing pieces that are really and um, see, see how, uh, see how it responds. But figure out your niche and get really specific with your marketing. And I've had people who are over 60 and have an empty nest at home. They're like, well, I don't see your marketing. I'm like that's perfect, that means it's working. I don't want to waste marketing dollars on some of that. And so, yeah, so know your niche and make sure the marketing dollars are well spent towards it. And, lastly, I would, I would strongly encourage I'm I know a lot of like us and trampoline parks and other FECs require waivers or collect other customer data, whatever it is. Dial into that customer data and use it well. It's out there for you, so use it well and appropriately and you can send very specific marketing pieces to very specific small groups of people that are very effective.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Having a birth date and an email address attached together through a waiver is the best marketing goals you could ever. Have to do something with it, obviously, but but just having the data is, is, is, is huge, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I would also encourage people not to not to be afraid to get involved in text messaging with people. It's so convenient, it's less disruptive. People don't want to be disrupted by a phone call or some of that. It's like convenient, it's less disruptive. People don't want to be disrupted by a phone call or some of that. It's like text message is so easy. Yeah, so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome. So, looking to the future a little bit, how do you envision the brand, the overall experience, with maybe potentially new attractions? You've already mentioned some changes to your F&B. How do you see the brand and just the experience evolving over the next five to 10 years?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we really like what we're doing, and myself and our team constantly try to challenge what we are and we aren't doing.
Speaker 3:And so, yeah, like I mentioned that video, we're selling pizzas in some of our locations now and soon all of our locations will have it in the next couple of weeks. It's a big change for us and we expect food and beverage to be a bigger driver for us as we dive more and more into that, into that. So it's it's not just constantly changing everything we're doing to increase the experience, increase the profit, profitability, increase safety, whatever it is. So at this point we feel like we you know we're we're through our 10th opening of a park and we really like the design of our ninth and 10th parks. The Levine was our ninth park and like our tenth park in Sandy, Utah, the design is very similar. We're really excited about those designs and kind of want to keep those moving forward and then hopefully, behind that, continue to push what we do internally, and sometimes it's not about increasing sales but finding ways to increase customer spend within or more profitability with what we already have.
Speaker 2:So yeah, what advice? So? So final, final question here, I guess. So what, what advice would you give to new or aspiring fec we don't even it FEC, but, like location-based entertainment, active play operators who are looking to get started or just getting started?
Speaker 3:I. My advice would be to learn as much as possible. Like I mentioned, the first year I went to IAAPA you know we were already a year or two in it was difficult for me to only be there for several days. I needed more time, both connecting with vendors but also partaking in all the education sessions. I'm grateful for all the people out there that not only taught the sessions but then answered the dozens of questions that I had afterwards or took time to exchange emails with me. I even had some of that you know, met with, met, met me for lunch at one point and answered probably less of 100 questions I had.
Speaker 3:So learn, learn as much as you can. There's some people that are already doing things in an amazing way, so don't don't make yourself learn the hard way. Take, take their advice and run with it. There's just there's just so much out there to learn from. So definitely just learn as much as possible. And and I know I keep mentioning IAPA, but IETP for trampoline parks and Adventure Parks is a great place. I know there's a birthday university and all sorts of different things and things that LBX puts on as well.
Speaker 3:But yeah, just try to take it all in and learn as much as possible.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. Well, brad, thank you so much. Congratulations on building a great I mean, it's a great brand, it's great venues, great business. So, and thank you so much for taking the time and joining us for Behind Our Doors.
Speaker 3:Thank you, brandon, it's a pleasure, all right.
