Boomerang Management - Brian Stenzel, President

Brian Stenzel, president of Boomerang Management, joins hosts Mary Rhode and Rick Sense to discuss how the Green Bay-based management company has embraced the meaning behind its name—creating experiences that keep patrons coming back. With a diverse portfolio of well-known sports, music, and entertainment brands across Northeast Wisconsin, Boomerang Management has spent years delivering memorable moments for thousands of guests through exceptional service, top-tier talent, and outstanding entertainment experiences.

Resources Mentioned

• Boomerang Management: boomerang-management.com
• Epic Event Center: epicgreenbay.com
• Green Bay Rockers: northwoodsleague.com/green-bay-rockers
• SCORE Northeast Wisconsin: score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin
• National Independent Venue Association (NIVA): nivassoc.org

Thank You to Our Sponsors

We would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support of BizTalk with SCORE:

• Heling & Associates LLC: hhttps://www.helingandassociates.com/
• Johnson Financial Group: https://www.johnsonfinancialgroup.com
• Community First Credit Union: https://www.communityfirstcu.org
• Baird: https://geenengroup.bairdwealth.com/ 

Transcript

SCORE Northeast Wisconsin and WHBY are pleased to bring you BizTalk, a chance for you to hear from entrepreneurs and professionals as they share their experiences. From starting to sustaining growth, learn the skills needed for your business to be successful. If you miss anything, you can catch the BizTalk podcast at score.org/NortheastWisconsin. And now, from the Myron Construction Studio, it’s BizTalk on WHBY.

Mary Rohde: And a good Saturday morning to all of you. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of BizTalk with SCORE here on WHBY. My name is Mary Rohde, and I am joined this morning on this beautiful July Saturday morning by Rick Sentz. Rick, good morning!

Rick Sentz: Good morning, Mary.

Mary Rohde: It is definitely beautiful out there. We are in the middle of summer, the heat of summer, and I think our guest today may know a little bit about what summer brings, and the busy season, although he's probably busy year-round, so we're going to talk to him about that, and all that he has going on. We're so pleased today to be joined by our guest, Brian Stenzel. Brian is the president of Boomerang Management. Brian, good morning.

Brian: Good morning.

Mary Rohde: Thanks so much for joining us. Boomerang Management may or may not be familiar to some of our listeners, but before we kind of dive deep into what Boomerang Management is, why don't you go ahead and take a little bit here and introduce yourself to our listeners, give them a little glimpse of your very amazing professional background, and really your career path, and what led you to this role with Boomerang Management.

Brian: Yeah, certainly. I'll try to keep it as succinct as possible, but yeah, happy to be here, happy to talk about it a little bit. 

My path is an unusual one, I guess. It's not the typical go to high school, go to college, know what career you're gonna jump into, and just go. Mine started very early, 11 years old. I started caddying at a place called Branch River Country Club in Manitowoc County. Did that for a couple years, which wasn't necessarily an easy job. I love golf, and it was so awesome to learn how to caddy, but when you're 11, 12, 13 years old, working for some executives on the course and learning how to act professional and not goof around like a little kid was kind of a challenge. But that was my first job ever. It was one day a week, it was Saturdays at that point. And then I wanted to do some more, and work some more, so I started caddying Thursdays and Saturdays. During the summer, I would bike from my house down. It was a little 5-mile bike ride to the golf course. 

And then got into the kitchen. Wanted to work even more than that during the summers and make some money. So I started dishwashing in the kitchen at Branch, and within 3 months, the lead chef there took me under his wing for some reason and said, come on over, I want you to help me on the line. So I started line cooking, 13, maybe 14 by that time, and I did that until my early 20s. Moved all the way up to a sous chef, and even executive chef, without any schooling at all, just learned on the fly. 

But that was a job I just kind of fell into, and I was actually pretty good at, but it wasn't a passion of mine. So I kinda thought, what's next? What do I want to do? That's actually a passion, and I thought of it, and it's music. You know, I wanted to either be a bass player, or a sound technician, or a record producer, a manager, promoter, talent agent, any of that stuff. So I actually did pretty much all of those things. There's a band called Sweet Leaf that was playing at a bar called Studio East in Green Bay, and my wife was working at Days Inn at the time. And she got a band photo of them, and in the bottom right corner, it said, Direct Hit Productions, Talent Agency, right here in Green Bay. I'm like, oh my god. I thought you had to be in New York, or LA, or Nashville to work for a talent agency. So, I said, this is what I want to do. I want to get involved in this industry. So, I called and called and called and called. And finally, they broke down and said, well, I'll give you a chance. Agents make commission, only commission, are you good with that? And I'm like, well, I need to pay some bills. It's like, well, I also flip apartments on the side, are you handy at all? Well, I grew up pretty poor in Manitowoc County. My parents, we didn't hire anybody to do anything. If something broke, we fixed it. So, being that kid holding the flashlight on every project, I think I picked up some things, and so in the morning, I would flip apartments, and in the afternoon, I was a talent agent. So I got doing that for a couple years, and then being an agent, it's up and down. One month is feast, next is famine. 

So I dove in, I started being a sound technician. Started going with some bands out on the road in northeastern Wisconsin, making some side income. The local band Annex was one of my pet projects, so I started kind of managing them a little bit. Took them on the road down to Club La Vela in Panama City Beach, Florida, where they played for the MTV Spring Break. Although everything was going great, it just wasn't making a lot of money, so I always kept getting some side jobs, and those side jobs typically were with some bands and stuff, but there were some also, running events, getting involved in the planning of those. So at some point, I'm like, alright, I just want to have a little bit more of a steady paycheck. So that's when I looked at Cumulus Broadcasting, actually. I'm like, it's entertainment, it's music, on all the stations, promotions, marketing, so I wanted to stay in that entertainment path, but have something a little more stable, so I jumped into that. Started out in the sales department for a little bit, then moved into promotions and marketing, and was there 17 years. And we all know radio, you're not gonna get rich quick by any means, so I had side jobs again. I kept the band stuff going, I kept the running stuff going, just anything I could do to make a little extra money. 

And then we got to a point with Cumulus where it just wasn't the culture I wanted to be in anymore. After 17 years, and radio changed, and the company changed, I wanted to look and do something else. So I got to a point where I realized, I'm just gonna pivot out of entertainment if need be, and find a company that has really good culture. And over the years, doing events, seeing this company out and about at the same events we were at, the only company that came to mind was Festival Foods. I'm like, I want to work for that company. That company has really, really good, positive culture. So, just like I did with Direct Hit Productions, I called and called and called, and knocked on the doors. About 2 years later, they brought me on as a public relations supervisor, and within a couple months, I took over the department, and we renamed it the Community Involvement Department, because it was more proactive than what public relations usually is. That's usually a very reactive way of looking at things compared to community involvement, getting involved, getting out in the community. 

So, my path took me to a spot where I thought, okay, I've landed, I'm now in just plain old corporate America. Entertainment's just something by the wayside, maybe keep some side jobs doing that stuff. But as I was doing those side jobs, the Festival Foods Turkey Trot was actually one that I helped start. So, I kept that going, and then it became part of my job at Festival Foods. So I'm like, that's my tie-in to these events and the entertainment side of things, is the Turkey Trot. I also worked for a band called Replica at that time, so I kept my hands in it a little bit. 

But then one day, Mark Scogin came to me, and he's like, you know, with your radio background, band background, I've always wanted to do a concert venue. If we find a place to do it, would you be interested in helping me? I'm like, sure. So we took… it was about 4 years. We were looking for places, nothing lined up, nothing worked. And then finally, the Gordman's department store was gonna go through bankruptcy, and the building was gonna come open. And we went and looked at it, and Mark's like, yeah, we can make this work. He's like, do you have any ideas? As a matter of fact, I do. I said, back in the mid-90s at Direct Hit Productions, me and Pat Hibbard, who was working with me at the time, we literally went through an exercise where, like, if we won the lottery, what would be our ideal venue? And we wrote down these notes. And I showed them to Mark, and he's like, yep, make it happen. So, that became Epic Event Center, and I would say 80% of Epic Events Center came from those notes. The other 20% was an improvement on some of those notes. 

So, I was doing both duties at that point. Community involvement with Festival, overseeing Epic Events Center, and we had a full staff at Epic, so it wasn't like I had a lot of day-to-day there, but it was driving that bus forward a little bit. And then the Green Bay Booyah at the time was coming out of COVID, and the owners were looking to sell, and they approached Mark because they didn't want to just sell to anybody. They knew Mark was a big baseball fan, and at Festival Foods, we sponsored a lot of the Northwoods League teams. So, they reached out, and Mark called me and said, if I buy a baseball team, you want to run that too? Sure, absolutely. Because the realization of it all was, you know, baseball, concerts... the music and the baseball are just mediums for entertainment. 

So it all fell into the same wheelhouse, so did that for a while, and then we realized there's a vacant spot right next to Epic Events Center. What can we do with that, so we don't just pay taxes on an open spot? Well, we realized, you know, Epic's got sound checks, and there are loud concerts at times, so it had to be the right tenant. So we're like, well, let's build some baseball cages, because the Rockers, which we changed the Booyah to the Rockers after year one, could practice there, but there was also a need in Green Bay. There's a lot of baseball kids in Green Bay that don't have a place to practice. So we built that, and then for about 5 years in total, I was doing double duty, and then here in March, I actually left Festival Foods and decided to focus on Boomerang Management. So, as of today, Boomerang Management is Epic Events Center, the Green Bay Rockers, the baseball cages, Boomerang Catering, which is our catering wing, from the stadium, and then everything that goes on at Capital Credit Union Park.

Mary Rhode: What an amazing story. I mean, as a kid who's also played at Branch, I can only imagine, as you were 11 at the time, and it was a private country club back then. What is something that, you know, as that 11-year-old kid, and going through kind of wearing those multiple hats growing early, early on in your career, what was something, kind of one thing that you really took from those early experiences that maybe helped mold a little bit of who you are now?

Brian: Yeah, I think one of the biggest things was just understanding, kind of, that work-life balance. I would see a lot of these people coming out to golf, and this was well before cell phones. But you could tell the ones that were really into getting away from the business, spending an afternoon on a Thursday golfing with their buddies, and the ones that would come screaming in late, be in a frazzle to get onto the course, and just not in a good mood, and it really looked at these people, and they were able to afford being at a private club. They were in leadership roles, and you could just see the difference in them, between the ones that had pretty good time management skills and the ones that were just always trying to catch that carrot that's dangling in front of them and could never get there.

Mary Rhode: So, before we move on here, we're gonna take a quick break. You are listening to BizTalk with SCORE here on WHBY, and we will be right back after these messages.

Rick Sentz: Welcome back to BizTalk with SCORE on WHBY. I'm Rick Sentz, along with Mary Rohde this weekend, and we are having a great conversation that we're going to get back to in just a little bit with Brian Stenzel, who's president of Boomerang Management. But first, before we do that, I'd like to just spend a few moments talking to you about SCORE. SCORE Northeast Wisconsin serves a 30-county area, primarily in Northeast Wisconsin. We have more than 30 volunteers, each an expert in their field, offering entrepreneurs no-cost and confidential mentoring. Those areas of expertise include IT, social media, marketing, cash flow, accounting, strategic planning, workflow, retail best practices, and many, many others. In order to register for a no-cost confidential mentoring session, and or learn more about SCORE Northeast Wisconsin, please visit our website at score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin. 

You can learn more about how the SCORE chapter can assist you with starting and or growing your business, and you can complete an application for a mentoring session. Simply complete the online form and submit it to SCORE. Within a few days, a SCORE mentor will be contacting you to set up a meeting. Remember, SCORE is no cost, and offers experts who can offer assistance in many different areas. To get started, please visit our website at score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin. And to support small business people, SCORE Northeast Wisconsin is always looking for new mentors. If you have experience that you'd like to share with others, we'd love to talk to you. We welcome volunteers with experience in all aspects of business. Small business owners need your help, and your experience can make a real difference to their success. Go to score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin. Click on the volunteer button and fill out the short application, and we'll get back to you to explain more. 

And finally, this reminder about the BizTalk with SCORE podcast. The BizTalk with SCORE podcast brings the same real-world information and insights from experienced entrepreneurs and business leaders, just like BizTalk with SCORE on WHBY. However, the podcast is available when you are, so listen and subscribe. Available on most podcatchers and podcast apps. 

So thanks again for joining us this morning on BizTalk, and now, Brian, you said something really interesting there in the first segment that I just kind of jumped on right away. You said you wanted to go work for Festival Foods because of their culture, is what drew you in. Can you maybe give listeners an idea what some of those things that you saw in their culture that appeal to you, and why that is why you wanted to work there?

Brian: Yeah, certainly. It really boiled down to one phrase, and it was a phrase I heard almost immediately when I arrived there from Mark Scogin, and his dad, Dave, would mention it over and over, too, and that's people before profits. So literally everything that company did was people-focused, whether it was the guest shopping or the associate working there. The decisions were all driven by, is it the right thing to do for these people, whatever it was focused on. I thought that was huge. 

Couple other things that the Scogin family really believed in was hiring character, and then teaching skills. So, get the right people on the bus first. And then teach them what you need them to do, and that mindset just put a lot of really good people under one virtual roof of that company, where it was just very enjoyable to work there, and the mood between all of the associates was very positive. I think one of the last things that was very powerful there, and I instill in everything I do with Boomerang Management is empowerment. 

You're hired for a reason, you're taught the skills for a reason, just let your people do it. I tell my people all the time, you're the CEO of your area, whatever that may be. If you're at a Rockers game, and you're at the stairs, and you're the usher checking for wristbands going upstairs, you're the CEO of that stairway during that time. So, you're empowered to make decisions you may need to on the fly. Come up with ideas that make things better. Treat everybody coming by like you own that stairway, and how would you want them to look at you? And those were all things we kind of learned at Festival, that the Scogin family really excelled in, and made a huge company out of that, and now we're able to take that over to Boomerang Management.

Rick Sentz: So you talk about the mood, and I'm assuming that you have a pretty upbeat, positive mood with everyone you work with now already, with what you're doing. So, and then you also mentioned the empowerment side. So besides empowerment, what other things did you bring along with for that culture that you've instilled at Boomerang Management?

Brian: Yeah, so at Festival Foods, they had 27 Boomerang basics. We brought our own version of that over to Boomerang Management, and the whole Boomerang concept was, you know, bringing people back, just like a boomerang. Every decision was, how do we get somebody to come back? But that was a concept Dave Scogin really put his arms around, and we brought that concept over in our own way with Boomerang Management, where, yeah, people have a lot of choices for their entertainment. How do we bring them back? 

So we made a playbook with 12 what we call key plays to help do that. Very first one is put the guest first. So every decision starts with that guest experience. How can we make it memorable? How can we make that guest feel like they want to come back? And it's not just the patrons that come to our properties, it's the people that work for us. How do we make sure those people want to come to work and have a good time while they're working, have a memory where they're, I want to sign up for another shift in a couple weeks at the next event, whatever it may be. 

So that was a huge one. And the other was creating experiences worth repeating. That's again, people have so many things they could do with their disposable income. There's so many different entertainment things out there. How do we create an experience that they're like, I want to come back to that. I want to go back to that Rockers game. I don't want to go to that next concert at Epic Event Center. How do we do that? And those concepts that we developed. Again, our guests and our workers, and it really helps, it works, it makes everybody feel as a team.

Rick Sentz: All right, we're going to take our next break. You're listening to BizTalk with SCORE on WHBY, and we will be right back after these messages.

Mary Rohde: And welcome back to this Saturday's episode of BizTalk with SCORE here on WHBY. My name is Mary Rohde, joined this morning by my co-host, Rick Sentz, and we are having a great conversation with Brian Stenzel. Brian is president of Boomerang Management, based in Green Bay, and Brian, if you want to just do a quick refresh here for our listeners, maybe just joining us, Boomerang Management, talk to them about, you know, what makes up Boomerang Management? What are those entities?

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. So, Boomerang Management's the umbrella company that oversees the Green Bay Rockers, the Epic Events Center, the baseball cages, batting cages, Boomerang Catering, and also the events at Capital Credit Union Park.

Mary Rohde: Awesome. So, all-encompassing of that entertainment industry, right? And the many facets of that entertainment industry, and as we closed out segment two, you touched a lot on what it means for Boomerang management. You touched on Boomerang, right? What is it? You throw it, it comes back to you, and that a lot of those There's been some synergy with that in terms of relaying to your team members what everyone is responsible for, what they all can do to not only make a great experience for your guests at all of those entities, but also how you can get those folks to come back. The job market across the board is really competitive out there right now, and what would you say, what are some of those strategies, perhaps, that Boomerang Management has in place to not only attract new talent for any open or seasonal or part-time positions that you may have, but how are you retaining folks that you already have at all of the entities?

Brian: Yeah, certainly the biggest thing is the hiring character and teaching skill. So we look for a lot of people who have that passion for entertainment as well, whether it's working a concession stand at St. Norbert College, where Boomerang Catering takes care of those concession stands, or if it's at a Rockers game or a concert at Epic. You look for that character first, you know, just good people who want to treat others well. Enjoy the service industry. Enjoy the entertainment industry. And get them on board. Once you have that right personality on board, then just treat them well. You know, listen to their thoughts. Let them brainstorm out new and better ways of doing things. Give them ownership of their area. Again, the CEO of your responsibility, that goes a long ways, and we've been very fortunate from the day we opened Epic Events Center to now, I think we've turned over maybe 4 people total. Green Bay Rockers is very similar, where we have ushers that have worked there since the Bullfrog days that are still there, and they keep signing up to work with us. So we've been very fortunate that we don't have a lot of turnover in our industry. In our segment at Boomerang Management, we haven't had a lot of turnover, and I think it's just by getting the right people on the bus first, and then finding their seat.

Mary Rohde: That's a great, certainly great philosophy, but also just a great story. I mean, I don't know how many companies that employ as many people as you guys do to say that you've had such limited turnover, so certainly that speaks to the culture, what you learned, and what are you and Mark both have brought to Boomerang Management. But certainly as you do see turnover, whether that could even be interns, right? Your summer interns, bringing them in to work at the stadium and such, how do you all kind of continue to build on that company culture, and really, to your earlier point, empowering your folks to really own and control their area, to provide those guests the best experience possible?

Brian: Yeah, it's really the same thing, even with the interns. We do operate with usually 35 to 40 interns every summer. And it's the same mentality. We'll teach you what you need to know, and then from that time forward, it's your area. How do you want to take care of that area? How clean do you want that area? Well, make it that clean. How good of a service do you want to provide? Well, then provide that service. It's kind of like, you know, a 16-year-old with their first car. They always go out, and they're cleaning it all the time, and waxing it, making sure it's just right. But that's kind of the same thing, is we give you all the skill, and now it's yours. We're gonna sit back and be that resource to help you, certainly. We'll remove barriers that might be getting in your way. But overall, this is now your area, take it and run with it. And that's worked very well for us, and we have a lot of interns that recruit new interns for the next year, or come back again. We have a couple that they're back this second year with the Rockers, and looking to come back a third, because they're just getting started in their college journey. And that speaks volumes of the culture that not only do we help get started, I like to say we're the kindling to the fire, once it's started, then it's up to them. Do they keep stoking that fire so it grows, and when you bring the right people on, they do, they're that billow that keep the fire going, nice and hot.

Mary Rohde: That's awesome, and especially if you have that stability at the management level, as those interns come and go, what a foundation you're providing for them of skill and knowledge as they go out into the world, and perhaps find their own way, just as you did, into the entertainment industry itself. Outside of talent and attracting and retaining it, what are some of those other challenges that you either feel as Boomerang Management or things that you know exist out there in the entertainment-focused business right now?

Brian: I think it's marketing. Marketing is just so scattershot out there. There's so many different mediums and algorithms that… I mean, I'm president of the company, and there's some posts I don't see in my feed. I don't know how that happens, but I would think my algorithm should show me that, and it doesn't. So, I think that's the biggest challenge, because we hear all the time, oh my god, I totally missed that concert, I had no idea that was happening, or when's the Rockers, when's their next home game, and some of these basic questions, and we have some amazing marketing professionals that are working on it with a lot of experience. It's just the society we live in right now, it's there's just so many different ways that people are marketing different things that you may not get to them. Back in the early days, it was easy. Newspaper, radio, billboard, TV. You hit the big four, everybody knew about it. Now, you can do all four of those, and still, people aren't necessarily watching the medium that you're on.

Mary Rohde: Yeah, thousand percent. I think Rick and I are both nodding our heads because you're preaching to the choir over here. We both of us in marketing, we feel those struggles and pains every single day, and equally beat our heads against the wall as you're trying… you feel like you're shouting from the rooftops, and you're not. Right? Because to your point, there's so many different mediums, and even sometimes the pay-to-play stuff still doesn't hit the nail on the head, it's just so frustrating. So, you know, you certainly, again, multifaceted business here. You're selling tickets for concerts, you're selling tickets for games, you're selling tickets for concerts at the baseball stadium, not just the Epic Events Center. All of these other events that you all host and the things that you do. How are you measuring your ROI? Not to throw too many acronyms out there, how are you guys measuring success, really, beyond just those ticket sales?

Brian: Yeah, the big ROI would be on ticket sales, and it's pretty clear there, but as far as what we measure is a lot of the community impact. Monitoring social the next day. Were there a ton of people who said, oh my god, I had so much fun here, you need to go to this next event, or concert or baseball game? Standing at the doors, our managers stand at the gate or the doors as people are exiting. Are they leaving happy? Are there big smiles on their faces? Are there cameras taking selfies and pictures? You can just feel the vibe of, did people have a good time? Did we create that memory for those people? And I think outside of the financials and the ticket sales, that's our biggest thing, is did we create that memory for someone?

Mary Rohde: So for those who have been to the Baseball Cages, Epic Events Center, Capital Credit Union Park, Green Bay Rockers games at Capital Credit Union Park, you are within eyeshot of a pretty big, well-known landmark here in Green Bay known as Lambeau Field. So, super cool, by the way, right? You can be walking out of a Rockers game and see that big ol' G lit up in the sky. So, for those of us that certainly live here, grew up here, whatever the case may be, I think sometimes we may take Lambeau for granted sometimes, but it has certainly brought a ton of notoriety to Greater Green Bay. Really, it's helped, it's put us on the world stage, and all of that, but having your companies based and rooted mere blocks from Lambeau, and just really based here in Greater Green Bay, how would you say that has impacted, really, your business operations as a whole? And you already touched on a little bit of community engagement, but maybe what are some of those ways that you're continuing to really ingrain your brand into the community?

Brian: Yeah, being right down the road from the Big G is definitely unique. The bands and players don't make decisions because of Lambeau being right down the road, but when they're here, it's definitely a highlight. So one of the things when we did Epic Event Center is we wanted to make sure we were very much band-focused as much as we were customer-focused. So the bands have workout rooms, there's a basketball court, they have showers and stuff. It's just their backstage area is second to none, because we wanted to make sure they felt at home when they're with us. One of those things for a lot of the sports fans that are in these bands is going down to Lambeau and checking out the rest of Green Bay. Everybody's very curious when they know how small Green Bay is, how legendary the team is. They want to see the rest of the town and just kind of experience the whole thing. So, we help to make sure that the bands and players are the same way, the baseball players, they're coming to town, it's like a mystique that opens a door. So they see Lambeau right away, they know about the Packers, and then they just want to check out the rest of the town, because they know how close-knit this area is, and they know there's more to us than just football. But it's a pretty good foundation to start.

Mary Rohde: I think it sometimes surprises people, and even just within my circle of friends, we'll be talking about some of the upcoming events coming to the Epic, and some of the bands coming. There's a Pop 2000 tour that I think I'm looking forward to coming up here this summer. But some of the really big names that you are drawing to Green Bay. So, you know, you mentioned some of those amenities that you've provided for people. Are there other things that you feel are really attracting them, or that you're having so much success, I guess, attracting some of those big names, and even some of the very large bands that you've had perform, at the baseball stadium as well?

Brian: Yeah, it actually boils back to a lot of the stuff we talked about today. We treat the bands just like we do our customers, and like we do our associates that we work with every day. Make sure they have what they need, make sure you listen to their needs, accommodate for them where you can. A lot of venues I worked with in the past, the bands would come in with a rider that was super long, and you'd always negotiate that down to the absolute smallest thing. We don't. We look at the rider, and we're like, if that's what they want, let's give it to them. And at the end of the day, we look at our expense over the year. We didn't really spend that much more, but the experience, they walked in, and there's a tray of food that they asked for, and the right sodas, and beers, and food. We just feel like giving them that feeling that they're at home, they have what they need, what they want, it just makes them so comfortable from the get-go. And then the way the building was designed, I mean, it's super easy to get to the stage with all the equipment. The stage is nice and big. We have state-of-the-art sound and light, so everything is exactly what the bands want, and if it's not, we'll get it. Because we know they need the tools they do to put on the best show they can. So let's give them those tools. It boils back down to, okay, that band, they're the CEO of the stage that night. What do we need to do so that they can put on the best show they possibly can? Or, you know, like this summer, we have Megadeth and Leonard Skynyrd coming to Capitol Credit Union Park. These guys have been on the road forever. When they do their advance calls, and they're looking for all the details, we're like, yep, got it, yep, got it. And by the time they show up into town, they know we have everything handled and ready to go. It just starts everything off on the right foot.

Mary Rohde: So, as you guys are looking to the future, and keeping tabs on what's going on in your industry as a whole, and having those three brick and mortar businesses that you're trying to attract thousands to every year. What are some of those trends that exist out there in the entertainment industry that you guys are really playing some close attention to right now?

Brian: I think some of the biggest is that the Gen Z are really gravitating to rock and classic rock that they hear through TikTok. It is amazing how many of these classic bands that were unknown 4, 5, 6 years ago are now trending with the Gen Zs. That's something we're really paying attention to. We're also paying attention to the trend, on kind of a little sadder note, is the secondary ticket market. A lot of people are getting scammed by fake ticket selling websites. There's a lot of legislation going on right now to try to stop that. And we're definitely in support of it. We are members of NEVA, which is the National Independent Venue Association. We're trying to do our part to help stop that, but we're watching that trend as well, which isn't as fun of a subject to talk about.

Mary Rohde: Yeah, but certainly necessary, right? And it, you certainly don't want folks to have a bad experience before they even get to your gates or your doors, right? So, we are gonna go ahead and take our very last break of this episode. You are listening to BizTalk with SCORE on WHBY.

Rick Sentz: Welcome back to BizTalk with SCORE on WHBY. I'm Rick Sentz, along with Mary Rohde this weekend, and you're listening to a great interview and discussion we've had this morning with our guest, who is the president of Boomerang Management. That's Brian Stenzel, and we're going to get back to Brian in just a few moments, but first, I want to take a moment to thank our sponsors here at BizTalk. Hailing & Associates helps small businesses and individuals not just prepare tax returns, but plan for the future. Hailing & Associates, personal connection, positive results. Whenever you are in life, or the life of your business, Johnson Financial Group works to match the banking and wealth services needed to help you complete your mission. Thank you to the Business News for promoting our program in the bi-weekly newspaper. Serving Northeast Wisconsin with the latest business news and topics for the region. We are grateful for the support of Community First Credit Union. At its core, Community First is a community of member owners where people work together to improve their financial well-being and to help one another. New North, the regional marketing and economic development corporation, is an active supporter of SCORE. The New North facilitates economic growth and helps people in this region live their best lives. And since 1919, Baird has guided families through investment, trust, estate, and tax planning advice. So no matter what the future brings, you can be confident you're ready, because your family is Baird's focus. 

All right, thank you again to our sponsors, and Brian, can you give listeners some information on how they can get ahold of you, or learn more about the organization?

Brian: Certainly, our website is boomerang-management.com. There's a link there for each one of the individual entities, along with ways to get ahold of me if you'd like.

Rick Sentz: All right, and with that, I'm going to turn the show back over to Mary.

Mary Rohde: Alright, so as we closed out our last segment, we touched on trends and some of those things that you all are paying attention to when it comes to the entertainment industry. But let's turn the table here just a little bit and talk specifically about Boomerang Management. What do you guys have right now in your windshield, so to speak? Things that you guys are looking to, whether it's something you're aspiring to, looking to do, or build, or add? But also some of those things that are maybe exciting to you guys, and things you're looking forward to, whether it's the latter half of 2026 here, or beyond 2026. What's in focus for you guys right now?

Brian: So the biggest focus for us right now is finishing out the rest of the summer, looking at the Rockers. We won the championship two out of the last three years, and we're looking to make a run for that again yet this summer. So that by mid-August, we'll know if we succeeded there or not, but the team looks good, looking forward to that for sure. Two big shows, the Leonard Skynyrd Megadeth Show, those are in our sites. Definitely putting a lot of focus on that for this summer as well. And then outside of that, with all of our entities, the focus is really filling that need in the community. We like to say that entertainment's a need, just like education, healthcare, infrastructure. A healthy community needs entertainment, and with us being close to Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis is within routing, Detroit. We can bring a lot of quality entertainment here, whether it's baseball players, whether it's bands, you know, it's we want to bring the best entertainment we can to Northeast Wisconsin, so there's really no, like, magic fairy dust or anything we're looking at, in the future, or a big redevelopment or anything like that. It's just keep doing what we're doing and bring the best we can to town.

Mary Rohde: Well, as someone who has personally experienced many, many entertainment situations from a lot of your companies, I can confidently say you guys are doing it right. And I can speak for my family and say we have come back, and we will continue to come back, because you guys truly are top notch in everything that you put forth, so kudos to you and your entire team for all of the amazing memories that you've created for so many folks in the greater Green Bay Area and beyond.

Brian: That's exactly what we were looking for right there.

Mary Rohde: So, whenever Rick and I host an episode of BizTalk, he always has, I think, the best question to kind of close out the episode. So I'm going to pitch it back to Rick and let him ask his question.

Rick Sentz: Okay, Brian, you ready for this question?

Brian: I'm ready.

Rick Sentz: Alright, are you having fun?

Brian: I'm having a lot of fun. I look back as I tell my career path, and I just did this earlier this summer to the interns as well, and gave them a glimpse of what my journey entailed. I had fun doing everything I did all the way around from start to finish. I don't feel I've worked a day in my life, even though I put in 18-hour days, 5 days in a row. I feel like I'm energized going into it because I am having fun, so yes, absolutely.

Rick Sentz: All right, Brian, thank you so much for being our guest this morning. Again, folks, if you have not had the chance to go and take in a Rockers game, or a concert at the Epic Center, or the batting cages, and all the other things under their purview, you do yourself a favor. You hop in your car, head to Green Bay, and take advantage of that great resource that we have here in Northeastern Wisconsin. Thank you again for being a guest this morning, and for the listeners out there, thank you for listening to the show. Without you, we wouldn't have a show, and thank you again to our sponsors. And just remember that we do have a lot of resources available to you on our website, and feel free to check those out. Most of them are at no cost to you. And you can go ahead and check them out, and hopefully apply some of those things that you're looking to do in your business, and maybe have some expertise and advice along the way with that offering we have there. So, thanks again for listening, and have a great rest of the weekend. Take care.