How a Haunted House Taught Me to Be a Business Owner
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Image courtesy of The 13th Gate
Halloween has long been my favorite holiday of the year and with good reason. For six years, I had the unique opportunity to stage manage one of the most famous haunted houses in the country. Back when it was a start up.
I’m going to tell you this story because I learned the key components needed to build and run a successful business when I was 20-years-old from one of the most brilliant people currently living on the planet.
I had no idea at the time that this experience would pave the way for my own entrepreneurial experience in helping small business owners get their companies off the ground.
Before I venture back in time, I’ll list those key components here for those of you who like bullet points.
You gotta have a vision, a clear one.
You have to start today, even though your plan might not be perfect.
You have to believe in yourself and have some grit, despite anyone else’s opinion of your dream.
You need to hire the right people, in the positions where they’ll excel.
You have to feel passion for what you’re doing, and you gotta have the talent to back it up.
Your company’s culture is its foundation and you’re the one who sets the tone.
You have to build relationships with the right people.
You have to keep learning to stay relevant and to scale your business.
Now, back to 1998, when I was a Theatre major at LSU in Baton Rouge, and my improv teacher told our class about an audition for a paid gig at a haunted house where I’d get to scare people for a month if I got picked…
I showed up for my audition at the designated time at the old rodeo barn on LSU’s campus where the haunt would take place. I had no idea what to expect, but when I entered what I saw didn’t seem very promising. Piled in the middle of a dirt floor were several towering stacks of large, black wooden panels, and off to the side, a small trailer that would serve as both the office and temporary home of the owner, Dwayne Sanburn.
During the audition, I learned that Dwayne lived in Alexandria, LA and that he also worked as a nurse. He’d be traveling back and forth in between weekend show dates to tend to patients at his “real job.” The piles of black wood on the rodeo floor would become the haunted house’s walls in just a few short days. It would be called The Dungeon.
I learned within the first five minutes of meeting this man that he had grit, sheer determination. He believed this could actually happen!
The opening was only a couple weeks away and Dwayne had no actors to fill the space, but here he had already rented the barn and transported a whole haunted house–walls, sets, costumes, props–in truck loads to build it, only to take it down a month and a half later after Halloween was over. This seemed like an awful lot of work (and it was!) for something so temporary.
What I didn’t understand at the time was that Dwayne’s unique vision extended far beyond the present moment.
He knew that if he put the word out that the right people would come. In other words….
He launched his dream before it was completed, before it was perfect, before it was audience ready.
I thought he was crazy! As a former competition dancer, I was used to rehearsing until I could barely stand. Our dances had to be perfect before they were performed in front of judges, so this went against everything I had learned since I had started competing at age eight.
I don’t remember what I had to do for the audition–scream, recite scary lines, tell him my favorite horror movie–who knows?! But when it was over, Dwayne didn’t offer me an actor role.
Instead, he asked me if I would be the stage manager.
I was disappointed. At the time, I really wanted the acting gig. I was used to being onstage in full costume and makeup. I didn’t want to be behind the scenes because I didn’t think it was that important of a job, plus I didn’t have any prior experience managing anything.
But I guess Dwayne saw something in me that I didn’t.
Dwayne & I this past Saturday night (24 years after he first hired me!)
I accepted the job and in just a week’s time, those black wooden panels had formed into an intricate maze filled with some of the creepiest stuff I’ve ever seen. While the crew was building, I was learning all the actor positions, organizing the costume room, shopping for live rats and snakes, meeting the cast, discovering secret entries to get in and out of scenes quickly, and tending to whatever odd task Dwayne threw at me. It was the strangest and most exciting job I’d ever had!
I learned very quickly what a creative genius Dwayne is. He had transformed a freakin rodeo barn from heaps of wood into a whole different world of pneumatics, lights, sounds, brilliant scenes within a few short days. I was astounded at the transformation.
Opening night arrived and along with it, a crowd of thrill seekers. We had no idea what to expect. Would people like it? Would they be scared? Would the actors be any good?
Image courtesy of The 13th Gate
It turns out Dwayne had a talent for placing each of us exactly where we needed to be. From my role to the girl in chains to the train conductor, everyone was in the right spot.
I had never seen so many grown men screaming like girls, pushing their girlfriends ahead of them because they didn’t want to go first! I’ll never forget doing one of my walkthroughs one night and rounding a corner to find a heap of audience members piled on top of each other because the leader of the pack had tripped, causing a domino effect of falling bodies, all too frozen in fear and laughter to get up and keep moving forward!
People freaking loved it! We all learned what Dwayne already knew. It is a pure adrenaline rush to scare the absolute crap out of people. We were giving the audience exactly what they wanted. I mean, if you show up to a haunted house, you are asking to be freaked out.. Win win!
Image courtesy of The 13th Gate
It’s true that we didn’t have air conditioning, and every single one of us blew out black boogers night after night from inhaling barn dirt, but it was so worth it!
That first year, we only had a cast of 25-30 people. It grew each year after that, but that first core group… We were the ones who built the foundation under Dwayne’s leadership, setting the company culture of being the best at what we did, enjoying the thrill, and building beautiful, lifelong friendships in the process. While we’ve all moved on, I’m thrilled to see that the next generation has continued this practice, even now, 24 years later.
We spent another three years in that barn, with Carnevil 1 and 2 (scariest clowns you ever knew) and Psycho Cinema. After that, Dwayne secured a permanent building in downtown Baton Rouge, an old, gigantic warehouse that allowed for his vision to really come to life because sets could become more permanent and intricate, and he’d have the entire year to build it and dream up some of the freakiest, haunting scenes no one but he could imagine.
Image courtesy of The 13th Gate
With that move, the house got a permanent name: The 13th Gate.
I stayed on for another two years at The 13th Gate before moving to Austin in 2003. But I have come back often over the years to visit and see what new wickedness Dwayne has dreamed up.
He has continued to attend Halloween and entertainment conventions each year, so he always has new ideas brimming, including the addition of eight escape rooms that run year round providing another revenue stream and making The 13th Gate a sustainable business all year long.
Another step in the right direction? Dwayne has built solid relationships with other business owners over the years who return year after year as sponsors.
Image courtesy of The 13th Gate
I walked through the haunt this past weekend and it was pure nostalgia to visit with Dwayne and reminisce about those days back in the barn and to witness just how far he’s come. I am blown away at the level of professionalism and sheer talent this house exudes.
He has a cast of 160 actors, professional makeup artists, a year-round crew, a stage manager who has five assistants, a full security team, and a line around the building and two blocks long to get in.
And the haunt itself? It takes 40 minutes to walk through and is filled to the brim with terrifying scenes, brilliant jump scares, actors flying on tracks and rooms that the only way to get through them is with your eyes closed. Even as someone who knows Dwayne’s scare tactics well enough to know exactly what I should be looking for, I dropped the Eff bomb on at least 15 occasions. IT IS THAT GOOD!
I will be forever disappointed in every other haunted house I go to because no one can level up to this man’s brilliant talent. I won’t be giving away any secrets or spoilers here, so if you love Halloween and you want to see what I’m talking about, you need to go ahead and plan your trip to Baton Rouge next year.
Image courtesy of The 13th Gate
I smile remembering how it all started: in a barn with a dirt floor, a mobile trailer and a few piles of walls. An advertisement that there would be a haunted house before there were even actors to fill it. A clear vision of what it should look like, and then with the help of only a few extra hands, a transformation from the ground up.
What an incredible journey!
You can do the same for your business, too. Start now.
You can find The 13th Gate on their website, Facebook and Tik Tok. There’s also an awesome behind-the-scenes video on YouTube where you can see this year’s set design. Creeeeepy AF!
SWEET DREAMS, MY PRETTIES!