Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Ashkahn and Graham have developed a bit of a reputation over the years within the industry as party animals. Anyone who has met them can confirm this to be true. But how often to the throw parties at Float On? What are good occasions for float center parties and how do you throw one?
The guys share their party philosophy and offer some nice tips and tricks for throwing a sensory deprivation shindig.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Ashkahn: Okay. Welcome everybody.
Graham: I am Graham.
Ashkahn: Throw your arms up. The crowd goes wild. I’m pretty sure that’s going on in everybody’s house right now.
Graham: And that’s Ashkahn.
Ashkahn: Oh yeah, this is Ashkahn.
Graham: And, today’s question is, it’s a pretty good question, “How often do you guys throw parties?” Every chance we get.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Some of you’ve been to the Float Conference. You know that we have a love of parties.
Graham: Even this podcast is just like half party right now. Yeah, we have little hats on, there was cake earlier.
Ashkahn: Children’s birthday party I guess is the main style of party we go for.
Graham: Yeah, I mean what else would someone need?
Ashkahn: So I guess I’m gonna go ahead and assume that they’re talking about at our shop.
Graham: Sure.
Ashkahn: Not just in general.
Graham: That’s at least for the beginning of the questions, fair assumption. We’ll see how long it takes to answer that one.
Ashkahn: We throw parties at our shop and-
Graham: It’s great.
Ashkahn: Yeah. It’s really fun and we try to throw them for most things that seem justifiable to throw a party for. We definitely every year do one for our anniversary.
Graham: Yeah, absolutely. It just feels like the right thing to do and also very cathartic.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: Okay so, before we get into when we do them, the cool thing about throwing parties is not that you get to show off your tanks finally to everyone or that you get to kind of celebrate in your space and have this mingling of people in your community who fundamentally just come in to be by themselves and the nice dichotomy there. It’s that you get to make a bunch of noise, in a place that you normally have to use indoor voices and it’s awesome.
Ashkahn: That’s true, there is something great about that.
Graham: Nothing like a live, amplified band to play inside your sensory deprivation tank center is just such a rewarding feeling so, I highly recommend it. Yeah, parties are very worthwhile, for that reason, if nothing else.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it is pretty fun. So, you’re gonna have to cancel some floats probably or something of the sort. You usually just have a full amount of free party time in your schedule every week that you can fill in to the party.
Graham: But the good news is, you’re probably also not open 24 hours like we are. So finding a good time to have a party might not be as difficult and easier for you.
Ashkahn: And they’re super fun. Your regular members and stuff like that get to come and enjoy free wine or drinks or whatever and they get to have a good time feeling like they’re getting to know, on a more personal level, the business that they frequent. We often get new people. It’s very rare for us to throw a party without some group of new people that come in and like to spend that time learning about the float tanks. We also throw pretty fun parties. I think people bring their friends too. They’re like, “Oh we should, there’s a party at this float shop,” and they bring people with them to go party because it sounds like a fun party and those are the people are the new people that’ve never experienced floating before. That’s how we get them to come in.
Graham: Yeah and at this point it doesn’t us too much organization or too much money to throw a good event. I think, other than the cost of actually shutting down and canceling floats for the period we throw a party, it’s pretty simple and painless.
Ashkahn: Yeah. We basically move our couches outside, so all of a sudden we have outdoor seating and more space indoors. We have some fold up tables. We bring out some snacks and we have alcohol and some of our staff members become the people kind of serving the alcohol. And you know you’re rules will vary state by state and stuff like that for the legality around all that stuff.
Graham: Yeah and we bring in live music, usually a couple to three different bands. Often we’re paying them a very minimum amount, we’re just trading floats. And it’s great. It works out really well. You can get some really nice organic food of all different kinds for not that much money when it comes down to it. We have leftovers every single time too and it costs maybe a couple hundred dollars in food and snacks. We’re not talking about a huge amount of money here. So other than paying your staff, paying for some snacks, maybe paying for a custom cake. We’ve even bartered for custom cakes. The cost is incredibly low.
Ashkahn: And it’s super fun. You get to have a good time. Your staff gets to have a good time. Your customers get to have a good time. I guess back to when we party, so we definitely do one every year for our anniversary. That’s just super fun and a very easy excuse for throwing a party. And people come and they’re really happy that you’re another year older as a business. It’s great. It’s basically like a birthday party. We’ve done one for John Lilly’s birthday before, which was fun. That was a fun party. We’ve often done one if we go through a huge renovation and we do a lot of upgrades to our business. We’ll often throw a party afterwards a kinda like “Hey, new remodeling party,” or something, as a great chance for both to celebrate and to let our customers know. It’s a really easy way to spread the news that you’ve done cool upgrades to your business. You’re like, “Hey, we’re throwing a party because we’ve done this awesome remodeling.” So it’s a nice way to showcase that and spread the word on upgrades to your business.
Graham: Yeah and just let people know you’re done upgrading now. “Okay, it’s time to get back in the tanks.” We do one just for fun projects that we put out. If you’re doing anything outside the float world, but related to floating. When we, for instance, publish books or have musicians do a bunch of music based on their floats, we kind of do a book launch party of a CD release party. Kinda like, “we did this exciting thing, come celebrate with us and explore with us” kind of celebration. And we do one every year for the Conference. So, if they float conference is in your town, maybe consider having a party for that.
Ashkahn: Which is very fun.
Graham: We do one for my birthday.
Ashkahn: That’s not true.
Graham: I’m sorry, that’s just me. I do one for my birthday. That’s right. That’s right.
Ashkahn: I think that’s pretty much the scope of why we’ve thrown parties in the past.
Graham: Yep. No reason at all. Also a great time to party.
Ashkahn: A good time to party. Yeah, I mean have fun out there.
Graham: Yeah. This isn’t all hauling salt and customer complaints and stuff like that.
Ashkahn: Yeah. For no other reason even if it’s really not necessarily making you a ton of money, it’s just fun. It’s fun to party in your space. It’s fun for all the staff to get together and have a chance to party.
Graham: Really fun to make a lot noise.
Ashkahn: It’s fun to make a lot of noise, yeah. One time we actually got a noise violation.
Graham: Oh my God. I was hoping that we’d tell that story.
Ashkahn: It’s gotta be one of the most hilarious letters you can get in the mail as a float center. They send it to you in the mail a couple days later and we literally got a letter saying, it was from obviously a day we had a party with an amplified band playing deep into the night. Not deep, like 11. Deep for the neighborhood that we’re in. And, we got a thing saying your neighbors had a noise violation and they threatened to spontaneously come by and check on our business to check the noise levels.
Graham: Yeah, sometime in the next couple weeks or month or something like that and we just framed the letter and we’re just like, “Oh my God, I hope they come by.”
Ashkahn: Please, someone come by from the city to check on the noise levels in here.
Graham: Walk in, they’re just like, “Excuse me, what are you?” “Shh, shh, be quiet please.” “Why are you here?”
Ashkahn: So we did get a noise variance permit now, so we’re a little bit more on top of it.
Graham: Which in itself is kind of hilarious to me. So, have fun out there, but not too much fun.
Ashkahn: Party on.
Graham: Or what the heck, have too much fun. And, when you have your own questions that you want to submit, go to floattanksolutions.com
Ashkahn: /party /podcast
Graham: Podcast. Party podcast. Alright. Bye everyone.
Ashkahn: Bye.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Who to Trust in the Float Industry – DSP 214
The float world is a confusing place. The industry is known to disagree on construction materials, ideal float techniques or frequency, and even the benefits of using a float tank. How does anyone in the float industry know who to trust?
Graham and Ashkahn discuss why the industry often feels like it’s full of misinformation and how it compares to other industries. They also offer solid advice on how to find the best information available.
What is Chamber REST? – DSP 213
Every once in a while, during a talk that a researcher is giving, or when pouring over old data about sensory deprivation, it’s easy to come across something called “Chamber REST”. The REST part is an acronym for “Restricted Environment Stimulation Therapy”. But what is it and how does it relate to floating?
Ashkahn and Graham take the time to fill us all in on the nuances of old sensory deprivation research and how it helped influence float tank research, as well as the important differences between them.
Should People Wear Bathing Suits in Float Tank Ads? – DSP 212
Most float centers have people float naked as the day they were born, but most ads and promotional videos and stuff show floaters in bathing suits. What’s up with that? Well, obviously fully nude images on Facebook or something will probably get flagged, so how do you deal with this situation? Nude models? No?
Ashkahn and Graham break down the problem, their own frustrations with it, and how they’ve dealt with it at Float On.
Checking in on Float On’s Annual Summer Sale – DSP 211
Recently, Float On ran a big discount for the summer season. It’s become a bit of a tradition and the mailing list every year that gets this notification is really large.
In this episode, Ashkahn and Graham share the success of the sale, as well as comparing it to the previous few years. They dive into the real numbers from the shop and the impact of changing just a few words and numbers on the sale to get it to perform as best as possible.
How do Float Centers Incorporate Massage? – DSP 210
What’s the best policy for a float center that wants to add massage? Do they hire on the Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) as an employee, or do they bring them on as an independent contractor? Or what about just letting them rent a room in their business and not having to worry about it.
Dylan Calm of The Art of the Float podcast is in the studio with Ashkahn and Graham to discuss this issue, since his float center, The Float Shoppe, offers massage as well as other services, unlike Float On.
Latest Blog Posts
What Time of Year Is Ideal to Open Your Float Center?
Like most businesses, a float center will experience seasonal slumps. Be sure you’re planning to open your center at a peak time of the year. Find out the pros and cons of opening a float tank center during different times of the year.
What Happens When You Give Out 700 Free Floats?
We’re all about giving out free float sessions as a marketing strategy. However, when you give out 700 floats, there can be some concerns. Find out what happens when we set out to make Float On one of “The Top Things to do When Visiting Portland.”
Wanted… Blog Topics!
We’ve written on a large number of topics about opening / running a float tank center… BUT we want to make sure your questions are getting answered. Use this form to send us blog topics to write about.
Building a Float Business Through Blogger Outreach
Floating is great for a vast diversity of people, but it is really great for travelers. Hours sitting on a cramped plane, surrounded by stimulation, going through the dreaded airport processes, disrupted bio-clock rhythms… the list can go on. All of these things can easily be mitigated by the float experience, wiping away the tensions of travel, and leaving people energized and refreshed for the next adventure!
