Don't Stop the Music

Don't stop the music. Welcome back to the Elevate Polk Podcast. I am your host, Chrissanne Long, and with me today, my co-pilot, my friend, Nate the Great Kendrick.

Thanks, Chrissanne. Happy to be here.

We have some exciting guests with us today. I really love it when we get to have people who are my friends as our guests because I have stories that I I'm sworn that I will not talk about, but welcome to the show, Sam and Parker. Sam Houghton from Union Hall and Parker Duncan from Union Hall as well.

Hello. Hello. It's good to be here.

Thanks for having us.

I'm wondering these stories about me that you're not going to tell.

Well, you know, I don't think we—

I don't think we're friends enough yet.

You're going to tell those stories today. So, so we're here just kind of talking about Union Hall, which is one of Sam's businesses. But let's talk a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey before Union Hall, because I know you from way, way, way back. So let's talk about the things that you're doing, Sam, and how you got— like, lead us to the Union Hall experience. How did you get there? Where did that, where did that start?

Uh, it started when I was about 14.

We're gonna start at 14.

My dad, uh, owned a veterinary hospital in town, and he gave me the keys basically to the boarding facilities for the summer and said, I'm going to give you a certain amount of money, but you have to hire people and make sure they're here and make sure the dogs are walked and the cages are cleaned out, new newspaper in there. And so I hired some of my friends from high school and we bought shirts that said EF on the, I guess, chest says EF, we take care of the mess. And so EF stood for Excrement Facilitators. We, uh, for this the whole summer, I just, I played golf while I scheduled everybody else to do the work. I didn't make as much money, but I had fun.

Yeah, but you made money playing golf.

But it taught me entrepreneurial spirit and hard work and understanding, you know, process and how you can make things a little bit better, you know, each day.

So then I, um, See, I went to school, went to University of Florida, and you can do a plug, you can say go Gators, but I'll say go Noles.

Yeah, Alabama, what's up?

And then we have Parker, I don't like football, and then Nate can say go Knights.

Yeah, UCF. Sorry, back to me, back to Sam. Um, no, so I, I went to law school and I helped at Clark Campbell Lancaster at the time, and I think it's Clark Campbell Lancaster Munson now. I worked with Ron Clark, who was my mentor and helped me to learn all about entrepreneurial law and how to help businesses. And then after a certain time, I decided that, uh, how can I tell all these businesses how to run their business if I'm sitting here in an office, you know, working for somebody else? So I got the experience of going out and starting my own law firm and just got into a little bit of real estate. The only other active business that I've actually ever been involved with is Union Hall, and got involved with that with Pete and Dan Signer. So Pete Maris was my business partner on some of the real estate stuff that we bought, and Dan Signer is an amazing musician for anybody that has not heard him.

Everybody in the listening audience should know Dan. Name.

So there's a lot of people that don't really know him either, and I'm like, how do you—

how do you not know Dan?

Yeah, yeah.

But, but first, you said the only other business you've been involved with is Union Hall. What about Lean Spaces?

Well, Lean is just— it's a, it's a company that owns the building, and then we lease the space out to other people. So it's, I guess it's kind of semi-active because, uh, Christy works there and she provides juices and coffee and—

Shout out to Christy for the juices and coffee. Yay!

And yeah, it's a cool space. It's cool space. We love it. So right next door was this, it was Truly Nolan. And Pete and I decided, why are we fixing up Lean Spaces, which is this really cool office space in Dixieland? We've got a couple offices available. Yeah. And why are we fixing this up if it's just going to increase the property value of the people next to us? And so, I bought the one next door to it, which was Truly Nolan, and we decided to raise the rent and then we decided to kick them out and do something ourselves. And we were going to put a printing store in half of it and the other half was going to be a wine and beer bar. But then we— Pete knew Dan from a while back and he said, together we can do something really special.

So, so I want to stop you right there because I think this was the point at which because we've been friends for a long time, Leadership Lakeland alum, Class 30, best class ever. We have connected over the years. And so there was a point at which you were like, Chrissanne, I need you to come. I want to show you something.

Yeah.

And this was like still a, you know, a dream in the daddy's eyes. You know, he's like, I was— he was telling me all the things that were going to be there, the connection, the relationship with Dan. I got to meet Pete. And to me it was like, wow, this is exciting. But it was so almost uncharacteristic from me looking at my friend Sam, who has been a business attorney for all these years. He's going to open a music hall.

So, yeah, so it was—

Pete must have talked you into it.

Pete and Dan definitely talked me into it. And when you hear Dan play, then you're going to believe that the place will be successful. So we tore off the drywall and we saw these really cool square blocks. And it turns out they're clay blocks. They're known as terracotta or ocala blocks. And the first building that used them in the country is in New York City. It's called the Cooper Union. So that's where we got the name Union Hall. And so when we saw those blocks, we had to fire the preacher who had rented it for the print store. We had to basically terminate that lease.

So there was already an existing lease?

Yeah.

And you just decided the plan was gonna change based on—

So Pete had to talk to him. It was Pete's pastor.

Okay.

And he had to go and talk to him. And tell him, because we said we need to make this whole thing, you know, big hall, music hall, because Lakeland doesn't have one of these. And, and we have Dan, and Dan is amazing.

So he talked to him and he, he did okay.

The pastor was cussing out Pete.

He wasn't really happy.

You found a great spot.

All right, so let's, let's then talk about, um, when you guys opened. I mean, so there was a whole renovation of the building, building out the plan, establishing the business. You did that, and, and so things were kind of just getting underway, right?

Yeah. Oh, we started May 1st of 2019. So our first event was a Wachula State Bank after-hours sort of gathering, and it was, it was so exciting. Then the next couple of days was a Brian Sutherland concert, which was very heavily attended. We had a comedy night, and that whole summer was amazing. Everything went well, and throughout the fall. But then in December, Pete tells me that he wants to move to Michigan.

So the guy who kind of said, "Sam, let's get into this together. Let's do this," is now up and heading to Michigan.

I don't think he hears this. Yeah. And then later that month, Dan decided that he likes playing music and traveling, better than he does running a live music venue. So those two guys, although they're great friends, are not a part of Union Hall day to day.

In the current day, yeah.

But they do check in from time to time, see how we're doing. I know they're rooting for us.

And that just leads me to kind of talk about the best laid plans, right? Like we all, we move forward with emotion, with a vision. We decide, hey, we're going to do this thing. And then life, right? Life doesn't always have this predictable path where we say all of these things are gonna happen. And, you know, 20 years from now, we're just gonna be sitting here reminiscing about the last 20 years and how the plan was perfectly executed. So these are stumbling blocks that I think a lot of entrepreneurs all have to resonate with. I mean, I, I think Nate, you've had a story of where a partnership, you know, wasn't what you thought it was gonna be as you got down the path and you kind of had to part ways and everything's great. Relationships are probably still intact.

Yep.

But it's not the plan that you had. And so you've, you've, adjusted to the plan, right?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

So now is December 2019. Plan is, is we're recalibrating, right? We're readjusting.

And then, and then in the middle of January, um, that was when Dan told me that, that he wanted to go out and actually play music. You know, he kind of got overwhelmed with the admin side of things, and I can see how, you know, a musician for his life and then gets into this stuff It'd be a pain in the butt of, you know, hiring people and having to let people go and dealing with finance and accounting and insurance and all that stuff. So anyway, he left. That was January 15th. And then about a month and a half later, this thing called— have you guys heard of this? It's called COVID-19.

Oh no, what is that?

Yeah, this P word, this pandemic word comes into play.

And we had 2 months worth of acts booked out you know, national touring acts where, you know, anywhere from $10 to $30 a ticket, um, and for the next 2 months. And so when COVID hit, I guess it was March 15th, which, which was a Sunday, and I didn't see any other answer. And so I had to let the staff go, you know, at that point. And thankfully it was a, it was a good thing because it allowed them to get unemployment, right? And then we had the big back— backlog of unemployment. So they were able to get out in front of that, I think, or some of them were.

Yeah, I mean, some of them got, got it pretty quick. Some of them didn't get approved at all, but they still had other jobs.

So that was the 15th, which was a Sunday, and we had a big celebration set for St. Patrick's Day that 17th.

Yeah, right.

And that was the exact day that Governor DeSantis shut us down, right? Which, I mean, I don't want to call him out personally. I mean, it was the pandemic.

I think—

shut up.

Yeah, the pandemic, the pandemic made it necessary to temporarily stop the music, right? So that was the day.

So then we start scrambling. Yeah, right. And we've got all this equipment and all these artists have nowhere to play. They're not allowed to. And so I don't remember where the idea—

in the meantime, you and I are communicating about PPP. We're talking about how to help businesses get access to the funds that they needed and what they were going to be required to do. And so you and I were in communication kind of on that side of things.

Yeah, that was kind of more in the end of March. This was like right after the 17th, so the week after. We, we had to figure out something to do to to do this. So we, we started looking at doing the live music, right? Like the live streaming, Facebook.

And enter Parker.

Hey Parker!

So Sam, you're not the technologically savvy, um, guy that is going to figure out how to do the live streaming, right? You just said that I've got Parker for that.

Oh, he's very—

he's a millennial.

So I started in Union in December of 2019 is when I started and I was, you know, just a bartender. And then come January and they're like, all right, well, you're gonna be the manager now. I was like, all right, that sounds cool. Yeah. And then, you know, it's a big, big upgrade. It's a lot of things to take in, a lot of learning. It's a huge learning curve. And then, yeah, once March hits, I'm just kind of sitting around, you know, just what are we gonna do? Right. There's nothing to do. And then I don't know if it was over the phone. I think it was over the phone because I looked at that text and I just started laughing.

What was the text?

Sam said, Parker, I want you to live inside Union Hall.

Oh yeah, that thing. And I said, what?

And he said, yeah, I want you to live inside, you know, because this is also when, um, all the protests and riots were going on, right? He's like, you know, we got a bunch of music equipment in there, and I was worried about us shut—

them shutting us down so we couldn't leave our houses, which they ended up doing.

Yeah.

And then you needed to make sure that there was somebody there to kind of keep Yeah, yeah, exactly. Keep an eye on the property.

Yes, I want about a month and a half.

Well, no, first of all, you said basically you said no, and then I said I'll pay you to live there.

Yeah, I was just like, already I'll make you an offer you can't refuse. I was already just kind of like, well, I already have a house, and what about Delali? And then he was just like, well, I can go and I'll pretty much pay your rent for the month.

Yeah. And you know, I think let's talk for a minute about how crazy that period of time was. Like, people were figuring things out that they never thought that they would have to figure out. Like, all right, we're taking the dog to work, we're gonna have an employee live at our business? You know, we started to talk about, you know, businesses that had never done takeout are now doing takeout. And it's just like the world was just upside down. And so all of these decisions you guys are making, it's like in the moment, right? There isn't any time to just go, hey, let's talk about it. No, we're going to do it.

I mean, I borrowed a shotgun from a friend of mine and buried money, honestly, underneath the ground in a bag.

Because you had no idea what was happening, what was going on, right?

I didn't know if there was going to be a run on the banks and, you know, you'd need this or that. And so then the PPP stuff started coming out, which is a payroll protection program.

Program, yep.

And, um, and so in the— it was like an 800-page, uh, bill that I just poured through. I made a little lair.

Sam made himself busy.

You're pulling like what, like 15-hour days like reading and doing that stuff and helping everybody out?

Well, yeah, I mean, I gotta be honest, some of it was, it was either I'm in the house where I'm not allowed to leave at all with my family, you know, and my kids, my 4 kids, which are wonderful, but at a certain point I need to be able to get out and do some work and support this family, you know. And, uh, it was at the time where nobody was used to having their entire family at home 7 days a week. And so I needed like an outlet. So at my house, we have a little outbuilding thing and I put a portable air conditioner in there and put a TV up. And so I was working out of there when they weren't allowing us to drive around town.

Right. And so you've been double hit by this pandemic because the most hardest hit businesses have been bars and restaurants because they were completely shut down and closed. There wasn't any way to operate or make revenue. You didn't have a standing restaurant, so you didn't have the ability to do takeout. You know, There was a time when you were doing the packages.

Yeah, the drink in a box.

Drink in a box, right? So this is like innovation, like in real time, you know, you're watching and I'm having these conversations with you and I'm just, I'm inspired by the fact that we're not going to take this laying down. Like that was the reaction that I felt was coming from you guys.

And then we were worried about them telling Parker he had to go home. And so we had to come up with a way to be a essential, an essential business, right? And so we decided since we had all the audio video equipment, let's film some public service announcements so that we can be categorized as essential businesses so they don't shut us out.

You had the fire department come out, you had—

we did one with the mayor and you, right? We did one with, um, the police department.

Oh, it was the police department. And then Alice Kaler from, um, Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine.

Yes, we had a lot of, um, public service announcements when we were doing the live streaming for a lot of the local artists, and that was pretty much me living there, me setting all the equipment up, and then we livestreamed for them and had tip jars and everything. So there was probably, I think one of the days it was like 7 days in a row of us livestreaming. You know, some people made up to $1,500 one night, and some people made nothing.

And this is the heart to me that I love, that I wanna like talk about, because Sam says to me, you know, from a marketing perspective, we were helping with kind of putting some of those pieces together, getting the website so that it could be conducive to the live streaming and helping with social and all of that stuff. But Sam's like insistence at that time was to make sure you tell everybody that the money in the tip jar is going straight to the artists. Like that was the insistence over and over and over. Make sure everybody knows this. Make sure everybody knows this. And so to me, like, you're a music hall, you're a business, you're an entrepreneur. And yet your heart is in helping others. It's constantly— I mean, you spent hours poring over 800 pages of legal, you know, law documents. And then now you're figuring out, okay, Parker, figure out how to livestream so we can have music playing even though people can't be here. And we were able to listen to the music. I mean, that became a tradition for me on a weekly basis. I was listening to the music and I got to know Stone Grey and I got to know some of the other artists that you were connecting us to. And that was like, don't stop the music. Like that was literally what was going on in real time.

Yeah. That, yeah. I want to say I just wanted to be there for the artists so that when all of this ended, that they're going to be there for us.

Well, and that's a part of the community that we're building. I mean, that's what entrepreneurship is. At the core of it, you were wanting to help.

So I wanted Union Hall to be known as the place that helps helps artists.

The artists, right? And there isn't a lot of that going on in the world today. Sometimes it's a dog-eat-dog world in the music world. It's a dog-eat-dog world in the creative space. I mean, creative space is inundated. The marketplace is heavy and busy. So just to have somebody as kind of a mentor for me, looking at how you were doing that, I thought that was pretty powerful.

Well, thank you.

So, yeah. Um, and then, so Parker, talk us through kind of when things kind of went south on the whole livestream. And maybe it wasn't really south, it was just there was a stall in the process.

You got in trouble?

Yeah, there was this— I wouldn't say trouble, there was a scare where, um, we had, I think we had 2 or 3 bands playing back to back one night. And, you know, we're not, we're not allowed to be an open bar, so some people brought their own drinks and they're out in the patio drinking their own drinks. I don't know who it was. It might have been one of the other bars that was shut down. They thought we were open again. They called the police department, then one of the other cops came and he was sitting on the other side of the parking lot, kind of where you couldn't see him, but he was taking pictures and filming all the people out there. And then the next day I got a knock on the door and it's a—

because you were sleeping there. Yeah.

And you know, there's a knock on the door, Delali's barking, and she's like, oh, who's this person? And I wake up and he's just like, Hey, what are you doing here? I was like, well, technically I'm just staying here. And he's like, you're not allowed to stay here. And I was like, what does that mean? He's like, no one's allowed to be in this establishment, in this place. And then Sam was, uh, well, then you called me right away. I think you're, you're literally like 5 minutes away. I think he was on his way here, and then the guy hands him a piece of paper. And then, you know, Sam being argumentative lawyer, he's like, what does this mean? And the guy's like, it says what it means. He's like, explain it, like, what does this mean? And then he's just like, I'm not trying to be you know, an asshole. He's like, I just, I won't understand. And the guy wouldn't say—

well, it was a warning.

Yeah, right.

And so we were explaining to them we're not selling drinks because that's what they thought that we were doing. And we are, we're doing these live, uh, feed shows. And, um, and it was basically a warning, like, don't do this again. I said, well, what does that mean, that we can't do the live streaming shows? I mean, who do I talk to to get permission to do that? I mean, I get it if we're selling to anybody, but I don't think we were, and I know we're not going to in the future. That, that we cannot do. But, uh, are you saying that we can't have these live streaming shows because all we're doing is raising money for the artists? Well, it says right here on the paper. Well, all it said was it's a warning.

Okay.

And then we made like 20 calls to the— yeah, we tried to call like the DBPR, and it was like the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

Okay.

And then the next day too, we had another guy show up and then Sam wasn't around. And then he was just like, yo, you're not allowed to be in the building. And I was like, why? And actually, no, I don't know if you were there for that one or the second one, but then Sam was like, well, I own these. Am I not allowed to go into my property? I own, right? And then he didn't give us an answer there. He just said it was all on paper.

Yeah. And so it's like there's this juxtaposition between, all right, we're in the middle of a pandemic. There are more important things to be thinking about and worrying about and dealing with at this time. And yet here we are, you know, trying to figure out how are we going to make it? How are we going to continue to take care of our families and continue to take care of the things that we need to take care of? And so those are the challenges I think that were the most frustrating for so many entrepreneurs is it's like, I, you know, we had Jack McHugh on the show earlier and he was talking about, you know, I'm just trying to figure it out. Right. And we're all just in that same boat. And it would have been nice if there had been some assistance instead of some you know, some sort of like authoritarian, like we're shutting you down or we're gonna— we're looking out for ways that we can get you in trouble, I guess, if you will.

Well, it came, it came all down to loopholes, finding a loophole to be able to survive your business. So, you know, they said, all right, all of a sudden, hey, now if you have a food truck out there, uh, you can serve alcohol and food because you're now a restaurant, right? And it's like, also for us too, it could be, all right, well, this is a private event venue, and they rent out the space, you can still serve alcohol.

Right. With a crowd of under however many, whatever the numbers were at the time.

And then it got to the point too where it's like, hey, let's do the dumbest idea ever and sell to-go drinks. So now you can drink legally on the road.

Right.

In a Styrofoam cup. Who's gonna know?

Yeah.

And so we, we never did like to-go drinks like that, but we did our drink in a box kit, which was pretty much, and it was like an old-fashioned kit. You can get like a gin and tonic kit and you could pick different.

It's this wooden box that David made. And in it we had this hay, like we had a whole bale of hay there that we would pull from.

Yeah, recipe card.

We put in like an entire bottle of orange and a bottle of Woodford and then a recipe thing and some bitters and some simple syrup and tells you how to make it.

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I don't know what we're going to talk about. Slowly but surely. So in the past month or so, we've, we've gotten ready for it. We were open sort of in February, March, but We had really just been preparing for this grand reopening, which is April 9th. So in the past month or so, we have taken steps to do a bunch of different things. We've added audio video equipment so that we can better livestream and record all the shows and give copies to the acts. We've added misters because it's gonna be hot.

Yep.

We've added some additional shading areas.

And the misters are on the outside area.

Oh yeah.

There's not gonna be water inside, right?

Yeah, inside, no.

On the equipment.

Our place doesn't have any AC, so we have misters.

Yeah, just kidding. Just joking.

It's outside.

It's not April Fool's Day.

And let's see, what else have we done? We've resurfaced the entire outside tables, which holds like 86 people.

Yeah, we've—

when I say we, I mean Parker and David.

They've been slaving away doing physical labor the past few months. We built a pretty much a really rad little fenced-off area to make it more private for private events. And even if you're, you know, sitting on the patio, it's— you're not looking at a parking lot, you're not looking at a different building. So it feels more like an enclosed space, you know, looks a lot better as well. So then you have the misters and those.

And we added, uh, well, they haven't been put in yet, but we're putting shades in that are like automatic where you can just push a button and they all go up and down because these huge windows on the south side And so the sun comes in, so we have a projector and a screen and everything. And when the sun comes in, it's kind of hard to see. So now we're adding the, those shades. Um, and then the biggest thing is, and this is what I think is going to make us just, you know, go crazy is we have a full-time restaurant there now.

I know this is exciting. All right. So wait, back up. Say that again. Say that with enthusiasm, Sam.

Well, I, It's honestly one of maybe the top 3 restaurants in Lakeland that I love to eat. I'll eat there every day. It's Good Time, which is right across the street, right across Hunter Street from us.

Right there in Dixieland.

In Dixieland.

Right behind Kong Fu.

Shout out to our friends at Good Time. Maybe podcast hosts can get a free meal for a shout out.

Shout out, perhaps. Good Time at Union Hall starting Friday, April 9th.

So the official start date of that is the same day as your reopening event.

Yes, exactly. So we are so excited to have a full-time restaurant there because we think that we're about to create what is the best date night in Lakeland. And the goal is, uh, 2 months out we're gonna book acts. Anything past 2 months we may fill with private events. So if people want to do weddings and rehearsal dinners and birthday parties and grand graduation parties and that kind of thing, we'll book those a couple months in advance. And then when we get to the 2-month mark, I'll start booking acts.

So any empty space that hasn't already been booked by events that you just mentioned, you'll start looking at booking those acts.

Okay.

And the musical acts that you're going after, just so that we can keep our minds going as to who do we want to connect you to, who are those musical acts?

We don't, we have a Switzerland view in terms of type, genre of music. So just for instance, we have Stone Gray, which is like a Pearl Jam, Nirvana type grunge-ish alternative rock alternative. Yeah.

And then we have a great sound, by the way. Yeah.

So that's on Saturday the 10th. I mean, the grand reopening is just 3 amazing acts. It's a guy who came from California. He sounds just like Bob Dylan. He sings a lot of Bob Dylan. His name is Rich Sheldon. And then two bands that have already produced videos, they're potentially gonna really take off here shortly, and that's Alma Vertical, which plays right after Rich Sheldon, and Hope Darling. And so those two we're really excited about. That's Friday, October— er, sorry.

All right, so that's April 9th. This Friday, April 9th. So if you're listening to this episode on the day we, we publish it, that is this Friday. So you can still buy your tickets, go to unionhallevents.com. There, hopefully.

Yeah, I don't know, we might be sold out.

Sold out, that's true.

We'll see.

Well, it'll be sold out after people hear the, the episode.

So, but Saturday is Stone Gray, and we actually, yeah, we just impromptu filled in an opener for them. So we have Social Cakes, they're Lakeland local band as well. Okay, so we just, we now have it open now.

Saturday the 10th. Cool. All right, walk us through the rest of the calendar.

Yeah, so then the next week on a Thursday, this is, um, the week of Sun 'n Fun. On Thursday the 15th, this is the one I'm, I'm excited about, the most excited about honestly. Okay, it's a Tom Petty tribute.

I'm going to that. I already, I already committed. I'm like 10, I'm buying 10 tickets.

And if you haven't read or listened to the Tom Petty biography, it's amazing. Okay, it talks about you know, from when he just started. And people that are in his band from Lakeland talks about all about his band playing all over, uh, the state of Florida. And it just talks about how he made it. And he was way more impressive of an artist than I thought. And I went to University of Florida. I mean, everybody loves Tom Petty at UF because he's from there, right? But, you know, he— his band toured with, uh, Bob Dylan for 2 years as their band. Yeah, as his band. And he was in a group called the Traveling Wilburys, which included Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, and John— not John Lynch, Jeff Lynch, who was a— he was in ELO, which is an English band.

Electronic Light Orchestra.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

So that— it was just amazing for me to see like that they— that he was so involved with all those. And, and if you hear— if you read the book, you'll read about all these different people he had Well, and who doesn't love a good Tom Petty song?

I mean, you just, you know, you've gotta get into that. That's gonna be cool. So I'm excited to be there. And shout out to another past guest on our episode, on our podcast, Tom Phillips is gonna be there. And I messaged him and told him that we were gonna be there and he wanted to dance with Craig, my husband. So we'll see if we can make that happen.

So the next night, which is a Friday, is a guy named Ben Prestige. And this is another national touring act. He makes his own music.

Instruments.

Okay.

He's a singer-songwriter, um, and you can kind of get a feeling for it. All these are a little bit different, so we're gonna put—

mention— we're gonna put links in the show notes for each of these artists that we're mentioning, so make sure that we get them in there.

Then the 17th is a private event. That's us, basically, friends and family. We're going to be tasting a bunch of different things. Um, and then the next week, the 23rd of April, is, uh, Melissa Lee and Friends. That's country.

Okay.

And she's amazing.

And then the 24th, she's bringing Jay Taylor, which is also a Nashville country artist who's also really, really good.

Now, was she one of the livestream acts? Because I think I heard her.

Okay, all right, she livestreamed.

And so that's the 23rd, that's Friday. The next night is the hip-hop artist Bernard Jabs, who released a song 3 weeks ago and he has 300,000 views.

Awesome, that's great.

He's like 19 years old, is he local to Polk County? Extremely talented, he's got connections. And he may have an opener from Lakeland.

Yeah, he might have— try to have at least 2 or 3 local opening acts on the Lakeland hip-hop scene.

Awesome.

That I gave them some information, and so hopefully they're reaching out with that.

That'll be great. And what's the date for him?

That's Saturday the 24th.

Okay.

And then the next week is a free event, and that's the Adult Spelling Bee. I, I still have to figure out a way to turn that into a fundraiser, you know, pick a charity and somehow embarrass your friends by nominating them for the adult spelling bee.

I think I threw out a— we should have a Leadership Lakeland challenge where like one person from each class steps up and, and, and participates in the spelling bee challenge. And I'm going to nominate you to be the speller. That's fine for leadership for Class 30.

I'm gonna be the announcer.

Uh, I can't because you can spell.

No, I'm going to say Sam spell dolphin.

Can you spell dolphin, please, Sam?

Do you need it in a sentence?

Sure.

Dolphin. Oh, wait.

D-O-L-P-H-I-N. Dolphin.

Dolphin.

Good job.

That's a noun, right? Dolphin, noun.

So I don't know what reference you're making. I don't know that. What was that from a show?

No, just spelling bees. They're like, spelling bee, your word is dolphin. And they say, all right, can I use it in a sentence? And they're like, all right, well, I saw a dolphin the other day.

If you haven't seen the Letterkenny episode of the spelling bee, it's really good.

Yeah.

Okay.

But I think my favorite one is I'm going to say, Sam, spell weather. And you're going to say, can I get that in a sentence? I don't know whether the weather is going to be good today. And then you're just—

which weather?

You're just going to take a gamble.

Yeah, that's fine. I'll do it. But I love that idea. And I think whoever wins, whichever class guy or girl wins, yeah, they get to pick the charity for the night. Charity.

Yeah. I love it.

And then we'll give 20% of whatever we bring in to that charity for that night.

I love the idea. Wow. And it happened right here on Elevate Polk.

Nice.

Exciting.

It's like a Jeff Lynch production. That's a—

wait, wait. So that— what's the date of the spelling bee?

The date of the spelling bee is, uh, Friday, April 30th.

April 30th. What's happening the night before the spelling bee?

That Thursday The 22nd and 29th, we have open mic.

All right, but in conjunction with the Bridge Local— yes, meet and greet.

It's a cultural open mic night.

It's a cultural open mic night. We're having our Bridge Local meet and greet that night, Thursday night. It's 5:30 to 7:30, and it happens to be our celebration at Maximize Digital Media for our anniversary. So we're having a big shindig. We've got a big sponsorship from Bella Visage, our friends Mark and Gina Parker. They're going to be participating, and so we're We're really excited. We're still working out the final details, but since we're talking about Union Hall and that happens to be where our event is going to take place, I thought we'd throw it out there.

So open mic. Yeah, you should ask all your friends that are musicians to come up there. Anybody and everybody's welcome.

And even the people who aren't musicians.

Yeah, yeah. They like—

you like to scare the crowd away?

Yeah, you can do stand-up.

Yeah, and so we tell you to get off the stage, right?

Do you have like one of those hooks where you can pull people off?

Oh, that'll be good. Like Looney Tunes.

Yeah, sorry. Or The Gong Show.

Yeah, I'm really excited because that day I'm probably gonna— I'm gonna bust out my instrument skills. Um, do you beatbox? No, I actually— I just started playing the triangle.

Oh, fantastic. And let me tell you, your open mic triangle debut.

Yeah, that'll be fun.

Solo artist.

Oh, for sure. You guys know that video? You guys remember that video of that guy, um, doing karaoke to Tequila, and he's just like, tequila, and he's just sitting there like that, tequila, and it's That's great.

That's a good idea.

And he just like backs out.

Sounds like Andy Kaufman.

Tequila. I don't know.

That's hysterical. So that's exciting. I'm excited that the things are starting to move in that direction for the community, obviously, but for Union Hall specifically, because my friendship with you, and I know the trials and challenges and barriers that you guys have had to overcome. So we're really excited about, you know, encouraging people to book some event space, right? So that there is that opportunity there. But I want to— let's Any other final announcements? Because you got us through April. Is there any other big things that are on the horizon that you want to share?

No, I can't. I almost have May booked out, but we're going to share that probably in the middle of each month. We're going to share the next month in the middle of each month.

Well, you're not coming back on the podcast every month just to tell us an update. Well, maybe you could do a commercial. You could do a quick little commercial in between each episode. That'll work.

We can talk that through. Okay. Um, and we just invested and, oh yeah, a slushie machine.

Oh, that's right, you were sending me pictures. That's gonna be awesome.

Um, they're gonna be NA for anyone who doesn't partake in drinking, so you can still come by.

For those of you who don't know what NA means, that's non-alcoholic.

So you can still come in and, you know, get some food at Good Time, enjoy a slushie, enjoy the misters outside.

Or taking the full slushy experience at Union Hall and use Parker's bartending, um, knowledge prowess to spruce those babies up.

Oh yeah, see what you can add to the blue one, you know, literally.

I don't know, gin and slushy, probably not.

So we're gonna have really cool names for them too. If you want to know what the names are for the grand reopening, can there be an Elevate Polk?

Oh, all right. Yeah.

Yes.

What flavors do you want?

Um, fruit punch.

Fruit punch.

How about mango?

Oh, mango's good.

Mango.

Yeah, mango surprise.

We can do like two colors and do like mango and something else.

Two of them.

Yeah.

Okay, awesome.

And then just add—

All right, so when you go to Union Hall on April 9th, ask for an Elevate Polk.

No, not on April 9th, on your night.

Oh, on the 29th.

No, we already have the names picked out on the night.

For the 9th, what are the names? Do you have them?

Mudcrutch.

Mudcrutch.

I don't know what that means.

And Wilbury.

And Wilbury, because of the Traveling Wilburys.

Yep. And the other one, Mudcrutch, was Tom Petty's first band.

Oh, fantastic.

Oh, be fun.

Awesome.

But yeah, we're excited about the future. We're excited about just having really cool acts, and there's a chance we're gonna have a couple of big acts before the end of the summer, before the end of August.

Well, I want to make a connection for you. I have a friend, a new friend, but an old band that I have always loved since I was in college. So you know my Sister Hazel connection, which I'm doing a shout out for Sister Hazel, and there will be a day when we will get Sister Hazel, all right, or Ken and Andrew or somebody, you know, Ken and Drew over here. We'll make that happen. But recently I was reconnected to a band from college called Jupiter Coyote, okay? And they're, they're really well known in like the Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina area. So I was having a conversation with Matt Mays and I'm saying, I have a venue if I can get you to Florida. And he is traveling to Tampa. I don't know what those dates are, but if we can get him while he's down, I would love to have Jupiter Coyote at Union Hall. That would be awesome.

Do we want them to play after? Are they playing in Tampa?

Uh, they're traveling and there will, there will be a show in Tampa.

Yeah. That's, I mean, sometimes bands will do that.

Yeah.

Um, So as a special request from me, you never say no to Chrissanne Long.

Oh no, I'm saying we can do it. No, for sure.

No, we're talking about the bands. Like sometimes they don't like to play two places like right beside each other because it cannibalizes the market. But if you have a band playing in Jacksonville and then it's playing in Fort Lauderdale, right, that's perfect because then that's called a routed act. So sometimes the bigger acts will already have a tour set up and they got a couple days between and they'll give you a deal to come and it'll be like a known band. So that's the, that's the gold, you know, what's the— what's it called? It's just the gold that you're looking for.

Yeah.

Is finding an act like that that everybody knows and everybody can make a huge deal about. I can tell you that some of the bands in this, in April, are at that level. They're just not known, right?

They're still at the, at the beginning parts of, of their journey to being known. If anyone knows, Union Hall is going to be a part of helping make them known, which is exciting.

If anyone knows, um, Andy Hall and has a connection, send them our way, please.

If we know Andy Hall?

Andy Hall.

Andy Hall.

I think it's— oh yeah, Andy Hall. Okay, he's with Manchester Orchestra, so if anybody knows—

oh, or the Avett Brothers.

Or the Avett Brothers.

Okay, so we're pulling out all of the requests and dedications so that we can get, uh, some of these great acts at Union Hall. And so let's, let's talk about the, the bigger picture here from the Elevate Pult perspective. So raising the economic, raising the entrepreneurial ecosystem is part of like my personal mission. It's a conversation that Sam and I have had, you know, over the years and trying to figure out how to raise the bar. So in this case, we're raising the, you know, the entrepreneurial ecosystem through a business that you own, but also the musical talent and helping put Polk County on the map, right? And so Union Hall is going to be a contributor to the success of countless artists in the future. And I think that is an incredible gift to the community that we need to just kind of applaud and suggest people pay attention to that, pay attention to the music scene as it continues to grow, because the more we talk about these talented people and like you said, you are Switzerland when it comes to what type of music. So you've got hip-hop, you've got country, you've got some rock and roll, you've got some old, older stuff, some newer stuff, all of them and everything in between. So the possibilities are endless for the vision and the future of what Union Hall is going to contribute to the community.

Well, thanks. Yeah, it's exciting. If back to the Tom Petty biography, right, that it talks about this record store in Gainesville where everybody used to meet, and that's where the Allman Brothers came from and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Sister Hazel and the Eagles. Some people came out of there and played for the Eagles and Sister Hazel eventually. And so we, Union Hall is the number one rated by Google live music venue in the state of Florida. The state of Florida has a long and storied history of musicians.

Yeah.

From Tom Petty to Ray Charles to Jim Morrison to a bunch of country artists that are amazing.

Oh, is that the best band out of Florida, Underoath?

And the Allman Brothers, of course. And so You know, I guess just between us girls, I asked Parker to give the keys to an act that has been very great for Union Hall, and hopefully we've been good for them. Do we want to say their name?

Oh yeah, I mean, if you guys know Chris Torres, Chris Torres has been a homie for us. He's helped us bring together so many great local shows with local artists.

Oh, that's awesome.

Everyone's, you know, appreciated him bringing it together, and he's told me personally that he loves that we're able to give him creative freedom and book what shows he wants to book because he doesn't disappoint.

Yeah.

Every show he's booked has always been a really successful night for us. So I'm thinking, I was just thinking of this before you said that, you know, thinking on maybe like a Monday or Tuesday since technically we're closed, you know, we can use that as a practice space for anybody that wants to come and practice.

Oh, that's a great idea.

A lot of people can't play drums anywhere because It's too loud. Yeah, so, you know, might be a, um, you know, that might be a cool thing to do. And we're going to give Chris a key pretty soon, so, you know.

Yeah, you basically get to a certain point where we, like you're saying, we want to be the place where bands are made. And to do that, they need to be able to jam, they need to be able to mess around with stuff, you know, without an audience there.

So, and a place that has the acoustics that they're going to really be able to appreciate what they're sounding like other than in their garage, right?

And it's the mixer too.

Yeah, well, I think when they're practicing— because I asked Chris too, I was just like, well, if you're going to come in, do I got to show you how to use all this? He's like, no, we won't need it. But the fact that they can just practice as loud as they want somewhere, you know, that would be great.

That is cool.

So then, you know, I know a lot of these local people are in 2 or 3 different bands just because they love playing music, right? So Chris has like 3 projects, maybe even 4 projects on the side. So technically he's like, all right, well, I'm gonna practice with this one, and then this one, this, and this one as well. So, you know, that'd be really cool for him too, you know, if he decides to do that. And then he can even— he'll have the keys. So if another band is looking for a place to, to practice—

connection. Yeah, so he's the connector. He's gonna help make those connections possible. That's awesome.

So shout out to Chris Torres. We love you, man.

Chris, you better read the Tom Petty biography because that's basically what Tom Petty did.

Yeah, he was the connector there in Gainesville, and then that's where all that made a few people quit school and join his band. Oh boy.

Well, I think we're too old to have people that are still in school.

We're not in school anymore. I mean, life is school, right? So we're not quitting that.

Well, yeah, he does want to go back to school though.

Yeah, follow your dreams, Chris. Do whatever, do whatever your heart is calling you to do. Um, well, I just want to— if there's anything else, I'm just excited, um, for the opportunity to have you guys here on the Elevate Polk Show. We're excited about what you guys are bringing to the community. I know it's a very unique, incredibly awesome sound when there's live music playing there. So anyone who's listening to the show, make sure you make a point to look at the schedule. Go to unionhallevents.com. I know that's the website. What would an inquiry— what would you like an inquiry like? Let's just say there's a musician listening who wants to come practice at Union Hall or, or there's some event, you know, that they were thinking about or a connection to a possible musician. What's the best way for them to get in touch with you, Parker?

Let's send them to management@unionhallevents.com.

Okay, or follow us on Instagram or Facebook and send us a message from there as well.

DMs on social or an email.

Slide into our DMs, guys.

All right, all right, that's cool. Any final thoughts as we wrap up today? This is a great conversation. I'm glad we just really rapped about the music because that's what is so exciting to me. I'm so looking forward to Friday, hearing live music and being a part of the community again.

Yeah, no, I guess the last thing that I wanted to portray, make sure that we get out there, is that the way we have it set up is that all the ticket sales go to the acts. We make no quals. We have no bad feelings about charging, you know, $10, $15 for to come see these very talented musicians live in concert in a really cool place, because the alternative is, is paying that to go to the movie theater.

Right now.

Um, so I would encourage you guys to try us, check it out one night, uh, come out and see us and, and take a look at our website, see what kind of music you like, and pick a show, come see us.

And if you have a resistance to cover charges, check yourself, because the reality is these are businesses trying to open and trying to stay and pay their staff and pay their people. And then Sam's just basically saying, I'm not paying my staff or my people from the COVID charge, I'm paying the band, the musicians, because the truth is, you know, you've all been somewhere where you've listened to music and you're like, yeah, there's this cute guitar with cash that people are dropping tips in and you've been guilty of not leaving a tip.

Yeah.

And so by the sheer opportunity of being a part of this experience, Sam's going to get your cover, right? Sam's going to make sure that that artist is going to get what it is when you come in. So it's a win-win. You get to hear the music. You don't have to worry about having cash in your pocket to go tip the musician. The musician gets the tip, and then we all get to join the community of music lovers that we are.

And then if you see a show and you're unsure about it, a lot of the acts, we have links to their social medias. You can give them a shout out or, you know, give them a check out and listen to their music. And also, if you're too lazy enough for that, um, we're going to be streaming about—

my audience isn't lazy—

so we're going to be streaming about 15 to 20 minutes of of each band's once they're starting. So you get your little, little sample and then we're just going to shut it off. And then if you're so inclined, uh, want to keep listening, hop in the car and come on down and help them out.

That's awesome.

So the ticket thing with giving all the money to the artists is because I want— it's like a market, it's like a free market basically. I let the acts pick the what they want to charge for the tickets and the only acts that'll come to Union Hall if they're just getting paid from the tickets are the ones that can sell tickets.

Yeah.

So it, and I don't, I have an easy way to tell my friends, no, I'm sorry, I can't let you in for free because all the money goes to the artists.

Well, and you know, that's an important part of this discussion I think too, just because you're such a generous friend and you've always offered, you know, to me, you've just said, hey, bring your friends and you know, I've got you covered. And I don't ever want that, right? But I know that in, in the business world, people are always looking for a favor from the guy who has the venue or the guy who has the, you know, whatever the business is. And so, you know, I think as adults and even as, as, as we've, as we're, because of the challenges of small business ownership, right? In the general normal world. Now we're in a pandemic. Please don't ask anybody for a favor. Just come and support the local businesses, support local music, and be a part, a contributor to the local economy. Because without the work that you guys are doing, we would be a boring town. Like, we wouldn't have anywhere to go and anything to do. So I'm just going to kind of get on my soapbox for a second and say, don't ask for favors, just show up and be a part of the— about other part of the music.

Yeah. And if you're going to ask me for something free, you might as well go ask AMC or somebody else.

Yeah, they've got more money than Sam, right? Yeah. Thank you.

All right.

Well, we're going to wrap it up. To wrap up, thanks for listening everyone, and remember we have a new episode each week, so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And remember to leave us a review, we promise to read every one. You can always find all of our episodes at elevatepolk.com, and if there's something or someone you want to hear on an upcoming episode, reach out to us on Facebook at Elevate Polk. Boom shakalaka!

Did you hit record?

Oh, we're done.