Speaker 1: 0:31

So. So let me in How's everything been going since, like in terms of just life and life.

Speaker 2: 0:38

I don't know. It's been good. It's been different. For sure I think Loudoun's a whole different crowd than, like Manassas and Prince William, but not in a bad way. We've had like a lot of interest for like corporate bookings and team buildings. People are loving like the massive space, so they walk in there like you have 20,000 square feet. You know, yes, we do, yeah, we do, and that's the cool part. So they're like do you know what this used to be? And I'm like, yeah, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it. But yeah, the mall also just got sold. So I'm kind of waiting to see what. You haven't heard anything yet. No, we've heard. It won't affect us, so we'll see, I guess. But he's trying to attract more like entertainment venues. So we're good and that's, that's better.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:20

If anybody can fix that mall, that will be a miracle Because of the how down it's. Yeah, it's just. I mean there's not much to do, right, like the shopping is kind of done and people just come for the entertainment and there isn't a lot of that besides, like the movie that are. Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1: 1:36

I'm not sure I'm thinking like when I go.

Speaker 2: 1:38

I know yeah, no, it's all like kids stuff. To drop my daughter off Right. Like your stores are what forever 21. Like, how many of us are actually going to shop there Like?

Speaker 1: 1:48

it doesn't work.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Yeah, you're right, but I went to Faroax yesterday and it was kind of the same thing. I ended up going to Tyson's, like I was like there's no point.

Speaker 1: 1:55

But do you feel like the mall game is just kind of going out of style at this point with all the online shopping? Probably, but then they have to redo it for something.

Speaker 2: 2:05

Right, they have all these massive spaces and yeah. But if they could do something like I don't know Tyson's too did, where they did like a bowling alley and made it all like the furniture stores and just like a one stop shop, like it could work. It just depends on what they do with that. Yeah, as long as I don't have to move, I'm good.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Yeah, as long as you don't have to rebuild, I'm okay. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Yeah, we have a three year lease, so they said it doesn't affect that for now, so we'll see, but okay.

Speaker 1: 2:32

I don't know what have you learned on your business journey so far, because we've been doing this for a little bit now.

Speaker 2: 2:37

I have. What have I learned? It's never the same thing, like it changes constantly. So I've learned that I'm not a very good boss. Like I'm too sympathetic and I can't like be assertive in what I need to be.

Speaker 1: 2:51

I'm not feeling that You're off for a week. You're good, I will pay you Exactly. I'll bring you chicken noodle soup.

Speaker 2: 2:57

Exactly that's kind of the problem. My husband's like you need to stop buying them lunch every day and I'm like I feel bad. They're broke college kids, you know, but yeah, so just basically like trying to manage and figure that out. I've also had a lot of like customers that have complained a lot, not because there's something wrong with the business, but because either is too expensive or they don't think it was worth it, or they thought it was too hard and didn't want to do. You know, but you know. So we're just kind of learning like, okay, well, what hints can we have to help?

Speaker 1: 3:28

them. I gave us so many hands.

Speaker 2: 3:29

I pushed that button so many times, yeah, and so we're under the desk, yeah, and usually most escape rooms only do two to three hints. We do unlimited. So we've literally had people ask for every single hint for every single puzzle and you're like you like, can I just come in here with you?

Speaker 1: 3:44

I know, no, I can feel like my six year old be like can you stay in the room?

Speaker 2: 3:49

I'm like, you know it's all dancers, you don't want him. No, no, no, we do no. That's why we're in the room, Like this is a bad idea. But you know, yeah, what people do, yeah so funny, it's crazy.

Speaker 1: 4:00

Yeah. What are you guys gonna do? Just shift that? Like, how are you working on that type of problem? So?

Speaker 2: 4:04

we're just trying to change it to make it more like all access. Like most escape rooms are small, claustrophobic, scary in the middle of nowhere, kind of like our Manassas one right, like typical escape rooms. This one is it right, and so that's what people are amazed by. They're like what we've gone to, ones in malls and it hasn't been this way. We have some of the highest tech rooms in the area. You can't find them anywhere.

Speaker 1: 4:28

We say tech rooms. What does that mean?

Speaker 2: 4:29

like technology is intense, like the time machine room is a Jurassic Park. Back to the future base room. When you switch rooms it literally is supposed to make you feel like you've traveled into the future. So just like all the machines in there and all the puzzles are insane. They're like dinosaur Pac-Man and you know.

Speaker 1: 4:47

Is it like a company that you buy from?

Speaker 2: 4:49

Yeah, yeah, so Manassas, they were designed by the previous owners. Okay, for this one. We picked them out and then we customized the puzzles, so you can literally pick and choose what you want in the room. Okay, but they make all the puzzles, because I'm not very tacky at all, at all.

Speaker 2: 5:07

Not in that sense at least, I mean, it works out. And there's also, you know, drawbacks, like a whole machine stops working and you're like on the phone with Europe being like I need this fixed, and they're like, oh well, everyone's asleep, sorry, like wait till tomorrow. When we first opened, lord of the Rings wasn't working, so I was just like we had a whole room down for a week. Oh, so we could figure it out. So it just kind of depends, yeah. But we have customers that are engineers and they love escape rooms and they offer to come for free and fix it. Like it's just cool because people want to see you do.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Well, tell me about the community support. It's been awesome. It's been, you know, I think part of it like the 40 under 40 and just like being so involved in the community it's been great. I've had a lot of people come out and be like, oh, we want to. You know, try to host events. The chamber hosted a networking event there, you know. So people have been awesome, even just the chamber. At the opening. They all showed up and it was a blast, so it's been fun.

Speaker 1: 6:03

Yeah, yeah, I sense some kind of hesitation as you're talking what's been like a struggle that you've been dealing with.

Speaker 2: 6:11

I think it's when you know someone that there's almost that sense of entitlement, right, like, okay, well, I know her, I always see her, whatever. So instead of just booking on the website or whatever else, it's like the constant messages are Caused like, oh, hey, can I come in? Yeah, just book. Like, if you want to just count code, I can give you that, but you know I'm not your secretary, you know what I mean. Like so it's the constant like oh, we know hers, so we can show up 30 minutes late to a booking and it's not gonna affect anyone, or so it's been a little bit of that. But also, just, obviously, the nice boss Competition, it is right. Like when you're nice, that's sort of the problem. And then when you're like no refunds, like well, how could you do that, you're so expensive. It's like, well, what do you expect? You want private rooms, you want unlimited hints, you want like 10 people working so you have the full attention, but you don't want to pay the price for it.

Speaker 1: 6:59

So it's Kind of like a lose lose battle at that point. How do you fix that, that challenge?

Speaker 2: 7:05

We just keep going. Some people will hate it, some will love it, and we just kind of work with that.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Yeah, have you considered and you probably already do this but setting those expectations, aka they call you on the phone. Hey, can we, is it? I'm so sorry we're running 20 minutes late to be like. You know it's an hour booking so you can try to get it done in 40, but we've tried.

Speaker 2: 7:31

I mean to be completely honest, it's one of those things that I'm not there 24 seven. You have kids running the place. They're amazing at what they do, but they freak out at the smallest things and then the whole oh, I need to speak to a manager, and then you know after that they're over it. Yeah, but, like you know, there's other side of it too. We've had amazing customers who've absolutely loved it and shouted out our staff by name and given us their feedback, whether it was good or bad, and like, wanted to see, like, how well we do. We've also had people come and do five rooms in one day.

Speaker 1: 8:01

I will, so it's not, my brain would explode, I know mine too.

Speaker 2: 8:04

My husband and I were ready to kill each other when we did them Like. I will tell you, we are not a good team when it comes to like working together on stuff like this. Yeah, but you know, you kind of work your way through it Like we all have our strong points and it's better if you like split up to that point and you do what you need to and let them do what they're good at. Yeah, yeah. So like with me it's I don't like managing money, so I'm like anything financial is my husband's problem. Like either tell me we can afford it or we can't. Like don't make me think about this stuff, but I like like coming up with the ideas and the concepts and sort of saying.

Speaker 1: 8:37

OK, well, I suck at it. I'm so bad. Is that a story that you're telling yourself? No, I just don't want to know.

Speaker 2: 8:45

It stresses me out, like I just I've always been that kind of person, though I guess I don't know. It was always like a daddy's girl and it was just OK, if I want something, I get it Right. It's always dad's fault and I don't know. And then with my husband it was either can you just say yes or no. It's not that I'm asking for permission, I just want to know can we afford it now or do I need to wait a month? Like yeah. So it's always been one of those things and it kind of continued with the business and yeah, it's worked out because it keeps me less trust.

Speaker 1: 9:14

You're like everything is still paid, we're good.

Speaker 2: 9:17

Yeah, he might be losing sleep, but I'm good.

Speaker 1: 9:21

So, yeah, I mean you're the visionary and he's money man Sort of.

Speaker 2: 9:25

Yeah, I mean he has a full time job. He's busy with that. He's amazing at what he does do, but it's nice to have the help and support, especially when he's not busy with that.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Who are you outside of this the business?

Speaker 2: 9:37

Oh my gosh, just a mom, a mom to a very high maintenance six year old who thinks the world revolves around him, probably because it does in our house.

Speaker 2: 9:46

So you say one day where he is so spoiled I you know, we adopted him as an newborn. He's my whole world Like he really is, but he knows he is, so he takes advantage of that. He's also convinced he's the boss and it's his escape room. So we've been having a lot of fun with that. Yeah, yeah, sounds like it. Yeah, the other day he reset a running room while people were in it because he thought the wrong room ended. Oh, and so we have to like walk in, apologize, have them step out, reset it again and bring them back in and you're like you're not allowed to step in again.

Speaker 1: 10:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:19

I try, that's what I said, but oh no it doesn't work out.

Speaker 2: 10:23

No, he's like, but you told me I can have five escape rooms when I'm a grown up and I'm like. I said you can try. I didn't say you can have them, I'm not, but then you have to work there. I'm like not. If this keeps going on, I'm not doing anything. He's right. Oh my gosh, he's a lot. He's a lot, a lot, but in a good way. Customers on them, they. He's always sitting at the desk waiting for them on the weekends. He cries when he can't go in. He's like it's not fair that I have to go to school and you get to go to work. And I'm like I'll go to school, you go to work. So he gets really upset, like when he can't be there.

Speaker 1: 10:55

What was the story behind that adoption journey?

Speaker 2: 10:57

So kind of like we were talking about earlier. I lost twin boys after five years of IVF and it broke us, like to the point where I was like I can't keep doing this to myself, I'm measurable, forget all this, like I'm just going to go live my life. So I joined a company in DC, was doing reporting for a website. I have a journal with a background. You know we're supposed to be going to the Cannes Film Festival to cover like us today party, like literally living my best life. And we got a call saying this family is having another baby boy and they want to give him up for adoption if we're interested. And the next day I quit my job, flew to Pakistan, was in the delivery room when this kid was born and have had a mother since Wow, I know it was just somehow meant to be so you didn't go through an agency.

Speaker 1: 11:45

No, we did.

Speaker 2: 11:47

I mean like we and then we had to do it all the right way and we started the process, sort of just to be like, okay, at least we're doing something about this right, like if we're not doing IVF anymore and we know we want a family, like what are the next steps? So we were doing all of that. But then, you know, the people who wanted to give him up for adoption worked at a family member's house and they had a kid and they couldn't afford another one and we said, you know, it doesn't ever work like that, like it's never that easy. So there has to be a reason it's happening. Yeah, you know, and it's like, okay, let's see what happens. Good morning. Honestly, I've had him since day one and even if I couldn't bring him back here, I probably would have moved there, I wouldn't have come back, but he's literally our whole world, was it?

Speaker 1: 12:30

hard to bring him over.

Speaker 2: 12:32

No, we'd done the process and we kept doing it. So, no, if I think about it, I was there for six months. So if I think about it now, look, if I want to adopt again and take him not my ideal situation I don't want him in Pakistan with me for six months, missing school and all of that. But at that point it was just, it was all I'd ever wanted.

Speaker 1: 12:54

So it almost was a word that you know it's crazy, Such a weird feeling yeah, I was thinking of that.

Speaker 2: 13:00

I was like I just want to go to, like I'm going to at least infiltrate and just adopt, like seven kids and I'd said that when I was little and I never thought that would happen, but in it is. It's not an easy process, but if you can but.

Speaker 1: 13:11

I wouldn't want to go through an agency, though. Because I know that it's a different piece I just want to be like oh, you don't want those kids.

Speaker 2: 13:17

I'll take them, please, yeah, and thank you. No, but you know we had to do it that way. Most most, some countries don't let you adopt unless the kid is abandoned. If you know, pakistan doesn't let you adopt if it's not a newborn. So if they're older than a year or two you can't adopt them.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Then they're stuck in an orphanage forever, basically because They'll let them stay in an orphanage, but you can't. What's the reason behind that? I don't know.

Speaker 2: 13:42

I don't know what the exact reason is. I'm assuming it is with a newborn, they can adjust better and you know that way. But when they're older maybe it's religious. I don't know because I'm not very religious, but it you know, we said we wouldn't mind an older kid, we wouldn't mind siblings, like we always had conversations like that, but it was, it's always been newborns. Ok, yeah, so like warrants, I know, yeah, it's fun, though Like it's, it's always an adventure, right, yeah, but mine looks just like my dad and me. He's like my twin and nobody ever believes it.

Speaker 1: 14:13

Yeah, when I saw it, nobody believes it. Here's this picture. I didn't really see it.

Speaker 2: 14:16

Yeah, so I mean, I think, when it's meant to be, it just, and I have so many other friends that have adopted and it's the same thing. They look just like one of the parents. It's crazy. So, it really is meant to be. Yeah, it's crazy. Oh, it's so crazy.

Speaker 1: 14:30

What do you see yourself in like the community, as a business owner, as a friend in the future, I think?

Speaker 2: 14:36

I more of just what I've been doing. We've had a lot of people reach out to like one host charity events. I finally have a 200 percent event space, which never needed it. But now that I have it, like I would love to be able to contribute more and, you know, do events there and that's sort of the point Like it's not expensive, you can bring in your own drinks, you can bring in catering. Like let's make it easy, let's connect with other businesses and let's like make everyone's life easier at some point.

Speaker 2: 15:02

Like being a mom, I'm sick of going to birthday parties where I have to pay extra to bring in my own food because my own laws might not eat something, or you know where it's always just an extra charge for less work, almost because it's convenient, right. And so with this, we've just wanted to have like a place where we've done you know Lua's, we've done. This weekend we had a Christmas of Princess birthday party. We had all the princesses there, so just parents having the ability to be able to do more and not break the bank like so, instead of spending, you know, $2,000 on the birthday party for 15 kids, maybe spend five, six hundred, have the space all day and have fun with it.

Speaker 2: 15:43

Like, don't be stressed, we had Jenny do a Pokemon theme birthday party for Maverick there. It was really, yeah, I should have my staff to our set in a Pokemon costume, because only Jenny can convince people to do that, which is a different story. But you know, it was cool and it was nice to see how you really can do basically anything. There we have somebody doing a 50th birthday party. Each is actually an event planner and she's doing a dance off.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Wow, I know so you better get some behind the scenes.

Speaker 2: 16:09

I know right, I'm excited, I am so I'm excited that that place is there for that, and then just companies and teams and groups being like oh, we really can all be in one room. Yeah, oh, this is nothing like I thought it was. And, you know, my favorite are the mall walkers who've been so curious about what's going here, have no idea what an escape room is, but now they're so curious they're gonna come back with their grandkids, you know, and they're so excited to see it and support it.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Give them an easy room like yeah, don't that's our sisters are easiest room.

Speaker 2: 16:38

So I don't know how many people actually want that. What is it? That's their sis. Oh, we had a church group the other day. I'm like I'm assuming you don't want the easiest room and they're like no, nothing to do with the devil or being possessed. Thanks, I didn't pick it, I'm just, you know, trying to help you, but it just sort of depends. It's cool to have like these themes and the technology. Oh, it's cool to see little kids so excited about like Jurassic Park and dinosaurs and be in there and be so proud of themselves. We actually have a wall for anybody that solves like their room in an hour. Their pictures go up on a wall. So we have had a lot of people come back.

Speaker 2: 17:15

Yeah, my picture wouldn't go, it would we give unlimited hints. I could. I Actually had a friend call me in the menace with, and say hey, I'm here with my kids and I want to sound really smart, so can you give me all the answers? So I was literally texting her the answers. She was pretending she forget them out herself.

Speaker 1: 17:31

So her son expect that those kids now have further.

Speaker 2: 17:33

I know right, see, yes, that's exactly my goal. But yeah, no, and you know, same thing, like my husband I'm we try to like clarify what a puzzle is or how it works, like if one of us figures this out and the other we tease each Other for hours.

Speaker 1: 17:48

We're like can't believe you didn't know that Now I know going into these rooms being like I'm gonna be the dumbest person in this room, you're, but I'm here to just pay the bill and pretend like no, just I'm contributing.

Speaker 2: 18:01

It's, you know, it's fun. It is like that's the different right, like it's not about can you solve it, can you know? And that's sort of where we like stand out like no, there's no hints, you can buy extra time. You can, yeah, you know, do all of that to where let's just have fun.

Speaker 1: 18:16

It's not all about being in a competition and being yeah and finding the answer so quick, yeah at all. Where it takes me when I played it is being like the 12 year old kid playing like this video game on the computer, solving the clues right, getting into the next room Right. And I was like, oh my god, this is like. I used to daydream about that when I play the games we like. Oh, this would be cool, we could do it in real life.

Speaker 2: 18:42

Yeah, it's so different. Here we're an adult too, but no, that's the point. Right like it's, and you can, and you know why not escape and go to a zombie apocalypse.

Speaker 2: 18:54

Yeah, in the middle of the day, or, you know, go through Alice in Wonderland. I mean, that's kind of the coolest part, right. Oh yeah, I must not literally will tell customers to like those are my blood prints. I'm like, um, that's fake blood. Stop saying that, you're gonna Get me in trouble. So you know just sort of that excitement of like you're here, like let's see how this goes. Game of thrones. We actually have like the iron throne in the room, oh my god. So people love like putting the crown on and taking pictures at the end and if you're running out of time, let's go.

Speaker 2: 19:24

Yeah, yeah at the end now we and we try, you know we try to keep like it's based out so you can have extra time if you need it. So we're very lenient in Escape rooms. I feel like most people are like oh, you give tours, you allow people to see the rooms before and yeah, it's yeah because we want to change the misconceptions. We're probably one of the only handicap accessible escape rooms to which people have loved.

Speaker 1: 19:47

I love that, but I will say I wouldn't want to see the rooms beforehand. I think that's part of the excitement it is.

Speaker 2: 19:51

But people are also so scared sometimes that if they don't see it, they don't know if they want to do it. We have like parents come in with their kids and their kids think like God knows what's gonna pop out. You know, I'm like I promise you, it's just dinosaurs. It's not scary, like trust me, let me show you, or just sort of like walking them through, like oh, this is Alice, you should come try it, or so. I mean, people enjoy that too.

Speaker 1: 20:16

Where do you get all your passion from? You talk with so much like, I don't know, excitement and passion.

Speaker 2: 20:22

I think it's. It's been fun. So like, like I said, I have a journalism background, I've done marketing forever and I was bored like I was so bored of doing the same old all the time. Especially after I became a mom, I was like I'm not doing this. Nine to five. I work for a nonprofit as a marketing manager. You know, same old every single day. I want to spend time with my son, I want to have fun, I want to do something different every day, probably the reason I went into journalism.

Speaker 2: 20:47

So when we bought the first escape room, it was, oh my gosh, like not only can I do something different, but I can help people, people that might not be able to afford it otherwise. Or, you know, groups, just take a break and get away. We've had a lot of, like you know, prince William County. People that came to Manassas were troubled teens. We've had girls come troops, we've had basketball teams, so just sort of like I love that people can disconnect from the real world for an hour and just be in the zone with their family. And, you know, you have the kids that are annoyed and on the phones and you have all of that. But there's always one point where, like you see the whole family connecting and you're like this is why it's worth it, because they finally got what they needed out of this, and that's rare. You don't get that when you're all at a restaurant with your phones or Agreed.

Speaker 1: 21:34

Yeah, and it's a sense of accomplishment. They are a connection point. Besides, at the very very end, when we accomplished it we're like oh my God, we're so smart.

Speaker 2: 21:42

Right, we did it.

Speaker 1: 21:43

Was right before, when it's like my 12 year old, like mom. Seriously, you didn't figure that out and I'm like no.

Speaker 2: 21:51

Once you know the answer, it always seems so logical.

Speaker 1: 21:54

But until you know it.

Speaker 2: 21:55

it's not Like and that's the problem, right? But and that's so my staff like will, actually for hints, one of them actually meows because you're supposed to touch a cat's nose. So they have fun with it too.

Speaker 1: 22:06

Will's like, I like that one. Yeah, she's our cat lady.

Speaker 2: 22:08

Yeah, so it's just. I think people enjoy, like we also have walkie-talkies for hints, so like random people will be like so what's your favorite color? They'll have full on conversations with our staff and they build that rapport too, and I think it's just different every day. I love the fun and not knowing what to expect.

Speaker 1: 22:26

I love that.

Speaker 2: 22:27

Yeah, it's not boring, ever for sure. Well, you're not a boring person, no, no, I get bored easily, though, so it's probably the problem.

Speaker 1: 22:34

So you bring the passion and the excitement. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:37

It's always something, always which you're in a fun industry, I know I was already telling my husband I'm like, I feel like we need to open in Tyson's. He's like, can you slow down? Well, they have hot wheels and they have in Contel and they don't have an escape room. And he's like Alina, can we at least pay back? Yeah, like let's, let's, let's load up On the money, man, remember that, right yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:57

Thank God, he thinks they know this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:00

He's gonna say no, so we're okay, just like what's next? Like let's do something, be excited about something. We've been talking about selfie studios and maybe incorporating that into the current escape room. Yeah, so just something different. We are rooms. We've been talking about maybe turning one of them and did that.

Speaker 1: 23:17

True, if you are right, yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:18

We've had people really mad at us that we didn't do a Harry Potter room and we did Lord of the Rings.

Speaker 1: 23:23

So that's been fun and I'm like, yeah, when do you switch up your rooms? I don't know, probably another four years, because he's gonna say no for a while. I'm gonna say because those are expensive right Because you have to pay for those. One room is 70 to 80 grand, like.

Speaker 2: 23:35

So they're not. Yeah, yeah, totally, especially with the technology that they have. And then if you count, you know, like the wiring for that and everything else, like To the VR. Yeah, exactly, I mean, and that's what people have been telling us At least have one of those, because those can constantly change, change. Yeah, so we might, I mean.

Speaker 1: 23:53

And the funny thing is I'm trying to remember the VR room that we were playing. I thought I was actually going through it and I was like, oh no, no, that's not actually real. It was yeah, you were just saying it, but it does.

Speaker 2: 24:01

It feels so real, especially with VR, now that it's actually you know, apple has the new glasses coming out and I'm actually really tempted to try with those and see if it could do. Yeah, so we'll see. I'm a big Apple fan so I'm like maybe those will be way cooler than everything else ever. Yeah, and we'll see.

Speaker 1: 24:18

So the one idea was the actual, like the VR, like the full. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it'll be fun.

Speaker 2: 24:23

Tilt it like the right way, otherwise, you couldn't quite like, right, see what was happening. See, those are the parts where I'm like that would just annoy me. I like the fact that you can walk around and do what you want. I've been thinking about like holiday themes and maybe turning like one end of the rooms into like a holiday room, like Christmas themed. I know like other escape rooms do that.

Speaker 1: 24:42

So I've been going back and forth on that, but we'll see, you know, what would be cool is if you could somehow connect people to play against each other Like let's say it's a corporate thing. You had your LA division Right. Okay, connecting with the DCV and then you bring in the New York. You know what I mean. Yeah, like you go to.

Speaker 2: 25:01

So we did that during COVID, but it was more virtual.

Speaker 1: 25:03

That's what we like. Yeah, so we've done virtual.

Speaker 2: 25:05

Yeah, we've done those. But right now what we do like here is they all go in different rooms at the same time and they compete to see who can get out first. Okay, I get intense. You can hear them screaming and laughing and oh my gosh, it's crazy and telling us like not to tell the other room that they asked for hints, that, and so this is a cool thing, right, like because of our event space. Now we have the space to where they can all hang out after and be able to eat and talk and sort of like process it, and that's the coolest part, because otherwise that doesn't happen. We have Loudoun County schools bringing almost 500 kids in the summer, like you know, each day dividing it up, and they're all kids from the gifted programs. So they're really excited that they finally have a space that they can take people to. That's so neat, I know.

Speaker 1: 25:53

I'm so excited you sound like it.

Speaker 2: 25:56

It's something new, right, like it's different and that's the fun part, like you get something new every day. Yeah, and kids love it. Adults love it too, Kids, you know yeah, but it's different when it's kids and they feel like they actually save dinosaurs from going extinct dirt. You know whatever else. I mean we've had kids in the exercise room that have loved it and not been scared, and then we've had screaming girls and screaming boys.

Speaker 2: 26:24

I have to go check this out, you do, it's a really cool and so we can see everything on camera right, Like we're trying to help you, so we're watching you. So it's really fun to see. And my staff will actually like play certain sounds in the exercise room when they see someone being scared to scare them more. So my six year old at this point he'll try to scare people in it too, See if I can make them.

Speaker 2: 26:44

yeah, like pass out, oh yeah, and I've had one like actually go in to try to scare. I'm like we told them no jump scares, please do not give them a heart attack, but they have fun with it.

Speaker 1: 26:53

That's the cool part. So just to kind of wrap this up, if you could give one piece of advice to a budding entrepreneur, what would that advice be?

Speaker 2: 27:04

Definitely worry about the money. Don't be like me and think you could afford everything. I think it's just follow your dreams. Like everything seems impossible. At first, I never thought I would open in a mall. I never thought I'd be able to afford opening in a mall. I never thought that I'd be able to get some of the top rooms and do what I'm doing now. So don't give up. Like, start with an open mind. Anything is possible. I think I love that. Yeah, that's fun.

Speaker 1: 27:32

Thank you so much Thank you, it was fun.