Critical To Your Business - The Future Of Haunting Panel! - Haunted House Forum - Halloween Haunted Houses at www.Hauntworld.com

Larry,

I meant no disrespect to you or anyone. The point I was making is that the name of the seminar refers to the future of the industry and to me, it appears that the 13th floor group is the future. They represent what's next instead of what's existed up until this point, those guys are going to dominate the industry nationally and no one has done what they are doing in the past that I know of. Everyone know the other 4 and knows they are/were industry leaders but I think for the most part they have peaked, with you being the exception perhaps due to your expanding next year and you are the top dog in the industry overall and you run the best magazine.
It's no disrespect at all, but Cydney talking about the future of haunted houses because she went to a bunch this year is as absurd as having Leonard Pickle on as an expert on the future of haunting. She was a legend, I went to Rocky point at least 5 times when it was open. But she did have something the majority of us didn't band that was connections in hollywood and she acquired props and set pieces and even talent that someone in say, Idaho, could never get. She was in the perfect position to be highly successful and she did an amazing job.

Jake

Jake,

Could what you said be any more wrong or insulting? I mean seriously wrong! Let me start from the top...

1) Cydney Neil: For starters her haunted house did things yes 10 years ago that haunts TODAY still can't accomplish. Not only that the quality of her haunted house is still better from 10 years ago than almost EVERY SINGLE haunted house in the nation today with the exception of maybe 2 or 3. I mean her haunt is still legendary and always will be... you talk industry leader she was racking up awards left and right before 13th Floor even thought of doing a haunted house. And btw that is not a shot at 13th Floor because I'm sure they would agree with me. Lastly she just went on this marathon tour this past October and visited dozens of haunts so she will bring some interesting perspective.

2) Ben Armstrong; OMG you must be kidding to call him old news. Seriously? Netherworld is the #1 haunted house in the NATION BY ATTENDANCE ALONE. You don't accomplish that by being old news. I would ask if you own a haunted house and if you do is your haunted house featured on national TV or have academy award winning actresses like Jennifer Lawrence or the entire cast from Walking Dead coming by year in and year out? I mean you have to absolutely kidding me with that comment. And again not a shot at 13th Floor or my own haunt for that matter it would take MULTIPLE 13th floor haunts in MULTIPLE cities to equal the attendance of Netherworld. Additionally it would take ALL THREE of my haunts to equal their attendance and honestly I still don't think I can beat them. OMG you are so wrong. I'm just sitting here and my head is spinning to consider the owner of netherworld old news yesterdays trash. My head is just spinning with that notion.

3) Randy Bates: Not as much is known about Bates Motel because he doesn't go around blowing his own horn because he likes hanging out in the mountains, spending a lot of time with his family but let me bring the reality to you for a moment. There is MORE top level haunted houses in Philadelphia than anywhere in the whole entire WORLD and his haunts are the top of the food chain in the most competitive market in the entire country. There isn't a SINGLE {PERSON or COMPANY in this ENTIRE industry that would even CONSIDER opening a haunt in Philly ... if you had to choose between DEATH by firing squad or opening a haunt in Philly the easy avenue would be just shoot yourself. So all credit there. Again you are so wrong.

How does one compete in a market filled with that many haunts... well don't attend and you won't learn anything. Your loss.

4) Now the big one ... ME! You talk OLD NEWS HOLY COW now you really hit the wrong turn and actually flew off the cliff. I'm the ONLY one in the industry that publishes a magazine that helps haunts with great information. I'm the only one with a data base helping people find haunts across the country that is attracting over 10 million visitors. And OMG I Just created the first and I mean the first time EVER where a haunt owner created an online ticketing company that is actually better than the other ones out there and is CHEAP. I started this for the entire industry to help you save tens of thousands of dollars... who else did that?

I also produce tons of how to dvd's, I post on this board every single week answering questions, I have a facebook page with 460,000 followers, we promote the industry, and lets not forget the haunted house tours which I believe have helped thousands of people advance their own haunts. This wasn't done for money it was done to help the industry. And if I was going to continue this show coming up that has created hundreds of new companies offering thousands of new products, and bringing new buyers in from around the WORLD wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for me... I essentially started it.

So wow what a shot at me ... holy cow!

I'm doing a seminar how how to sell 1 million dollars worth of tickets online because I've actually done it... I'm offering to teach you! I get paid a $450 dollar speaker fee for that, when in fact its probably worth like $10,000 speaker fee.

WOW!

And not to leave out 13th Floor, yes those guys have expanded in many cities and are doing a great job. Many haunts have done this before and I'm sure many haunts will do it into the future. Most if not all will fail but 13th Floor guys seem to be doing great, good for them. So certainly have the business side of this industry down to perfection and will offer I'm sure some really exciting perspective but they are business people expanding their business as all aggressive business people SHOULD DO! I applaud them because they are in fact growing their business and they are making a lot of money. More haunts should follow their lead and learn that its a business first and foremost and if you remember that you to can be very successful.

But to be CLEAR 13th Floor are doing what they are doing to grow THEIR business... I'm doing the same exact thing as is Netherworld and I hope all haunted houses. NO one should be considered an industry leader because of how they help their own business, rather what they do to help the industry as a whole. And to be perfectly 110% clear ... there are MANY people I would say are doing JUST THAT and some are older and have been around a long time, some are coming up and some think they are but they are NOTHING but hot air.

Its up to the people to decide who is actually doing good and who isn't... I personally don't care if someone considers me to be an industry leader or not.

I gave up caring about that a few years ago. I realized that trying to lead this industry soaked up so much of my time, with NO reward so I smartly started to realize I needed to focus more on my business and less on the rest. Its paying off for me because hey I have to put my kids thru college now, I have to pay a lot of bills so I need to put my focus more forward and less in the rear view mirror.

I have never been given an award, a thank you, a ribbon, nothing nor have I ever asked for one... I do what I do because I choose to that is the true meaning of a leader. So in closing I hope you will retract your statement because its actually very disrespectful in so many ways. And even though you gave all the props to 13th Floor and yes they deserve a lot of applause for what they've done, I'm 110% POSITIVE they would agree they look up to guys like Cyd and Ben I have no doubt at all. You can call whomever you CHOOSE to call an industry leader, you can look up to whomever YOU choose to look up to, however don't disrespect those who are doing a lot and have done a lot and continue to do a lot. That was just the cheapest of cheap shots in my book.

I put up thousands of dollars, my time, and more to start the industries FIRST PR PROGRAM which gave us all the press we still enjoy today. There was MANY haunts who believed in this CRAZY idea I had over 10 years ago, one being Ben Armstrong who supported all my nutty idea's and he supported them with his dollars, his knowledge, and his leadership. When we break it all down here, anyone who really knows would tell you Larry has done sooooo much... and behind the scenes of almost every single thing I've done to help EVERYONE was people like Randy Bates, Ben Armstrong, and Chris Stafford. I have to thank all these guys for helping support many of the things I wanted to do... and thankfully most of them worked out great. Ben has been a great person and a great friend to me he was always the rational person to help guide all my energy. When I wanted to start this show that is about to happen in two weeks it was people like Distortions, Gore Galore, and many others who said LARRY we support you... creating this show took a lot of leadership, tons of phone calls, a lot of damn near fist fights (LOL), but more than anything it took a TON of INDUSTRY WIDE SUPPORT. People said the industry was too small, not enough buyers, we should stay with the retailers... thankfully we had real leadership and support to do what is NOW the single greatest achievement our industry has ever known.

And the people who made that possible including Jen Thayler to Distortions to Ben Armstrong to everyone between... you can't cast that aside even when they are 90 years old. Most importantly I think the biggest industry leader we've ever seen was the Halloween Retail Show folks... who showed at least me when someone tries to BULLY YOU, stand up and kick them dead square in the nuts! Their constantly insults of our industry finally showed this industry we could do whatever we wanted and we did.

For those who read this whole entire letter it was needed because ANY haunter who forgets what actually GOT YOU to this point is a total FOOL! I can tell you the people who design cars today still hail Henry Ford... when you forget your roots or origins you will lose your way and the whole industry could be lost. The owner of Amazon.com said it best when he said ALL INDUSTRIES will ultimately have a life expectancy he just hopes to keep his running longer than most. The haunt industry is not fool proof and will I believe be a thing of the past one day... and that day might be sooner than you think. So the king of staying around as long as you can is by learning from the past, and looking into the future.

Larry

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Critical To Your Business - The Future Of Haunting Panel!

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Critical To Your Business - The Future Of Haunting Panel!