I was born and raised in the Salt Lake City area of Utah. I am studying journalism at the University of Utah to increase my abilities and credibility as an emergency preparedness blogger and podcaster. You can find more of my stuff at everymanpreparedness.com or by checking out “Are We Prepared, Yet?” on podbash.com

Stories by me:

How Teton Sports is getting more people outdoors

When “The Big One” Strikes

By Samuel Knuth

How many kazoos do you own? Probably not as many as Boaz Frankel. He says that he has “between 100 and 200 kazoos” in an upbeat, excited tone, and “about 60 or 70 are on display at the museum” at any given point in time. You read that correctly. Frankel owns and curates a kazoo museum in Beaufort, South Carolina.

For some, this may seem out of the ordinary. For Frankel, however, kazoo collecting is only one of several unconventional projects he is working on. Frankel is a media personality who has cultivated his brand and internet presence through enterprises that, while not setting out to specifically buck convention, definitely do not fall under the usual definition of particularly “normal.”

Frankel cut his teeth in media while he was a student of dramatic writing at New York University. On the Cusp, a late night talk show style program that Frankel produced, broke viewing records for NYU-TV, NYU’s internal television station. He then gained more experience in media by interning at another talk show, Last Call with Carson Daily.

Since moving home to Portland, Frankel has continues putting out content. “I’ve never really liked driving,” he says. He instead operates a scooter to get around his hometown of Portland. His apathy towards cars was the inspiration behind his “Un-Road Trip” documentary series. On his not-quite-so-road-bound adventure, Frankel crossed America over 10 weeks aboard 101 different modes of transportation, none of which were cars. Notably, these included a couch bike, a camel and a “motorized cooler.”

Between his early experiences with talk shows and his experiences with modes of transportation, Frankel’s preeminent new media project should come as no surprise: The Pedal Powered Talk Show. It’s exactly what you’re thinking: Frankel, on a bike, interviewing celebrities. Among other things, Frankel realized there had been no real innovations in the quintessential news van. It is big, bulky, and cumbersome as transportation. Frankel got together with his friend, an expert in building bikes, and between the two of them they came up with a unique design: a polished, executive-style wooden desk which houses Frankel and the recording equipment situated on top of a long bike with a low center of gravity. The desk-bike hybrid comes equipped with stands so that Frankel and his companion do not have to balance their way through an interview with the likes of Bruce Campbell.

The project that Frankel is currently working on is true his style. Podcasts are typically lengthy broadcasts, some upwards of four hours an episode. So, of course, Frankel had to spin that around. His upcoming podcast, “What’s Your Favorite Sandwich?” addresses exactly that question. He asks people to describe their favorite sandwich in as many or few words as the respondent would like.

Frankel attributes his particular brand of unique creative output in large part to his Portland heritage. According to him, people in Portland are always willing to support new, creative, and weird things. When asked about the divide between old and new media and his transition, he simply put it “I like doing fun and weird things wherever they’ll have me.”

Boaz Frankel is both man and brand. You can find out more about him and his exploits at http://stuffbyboaz.com/. There you will learn great facts about him and his projects, such as that three of his high school teachers all thought that he was a “pleasure to have in class.” His website and exploits are just like him: interesting, funny, and a little weird in all the right ways.

Samuel Damiani de Barros

Lauren McCluskey loves being a student athlete at the University of Utah. McCluskey has being doing Track and Field since she was 8 years old. She has faced many challenges until she was recruited to do Track and Field for the U, such as injuries, but never got discouraged. McCluskey is always trying to improve herself.

Track and Field involves running, jumping for height and distance, and throwing for distance. “When I was 9 years old I started competing nationally,” said McCluskey. She has received many awards and she was a state champion during her freshman year in high school. “I got injured in high school and that was a challenge for me,” said McCluskey. Her mom has been her biggest support during the difficult times. She said that her mom would take her to different parts of the country to help her gain more experience. Even though she did not always win, her mom was always very optimistic about her potential.

The University of Utah is known for having a very prestigious sports program. Many high school kids from Utah and other states compete to be recruited and receive scholarships here. McCluskey’s success during high school got the attention of many schools. The U and five other schools contacted McCluskey in order to recruit her. She visited them all, but “when I visited the U I was very impressed with the facilities that they had and the coaches, I really liked the environment here,” said McCluskey. She also mentioned that she felt that the U had a good program for her major: strategic communication. She knew that coming to the Utah would be the right decision to make. McCluskey is from Washington State and Utah has become home for her.

Adjusting to being a student athlete in college was very hard for McCluskey. “The training is very intense and a lot harder than high school,” said McCluskey. She also thinks that college is a lot more competitive than high school. “I was very stressed out my first year here,” said McCluskey. At the same time she loves the university and the classes here. She has made many friends since she came to Utah. She is on her second year at the U, and her goal now is to relax more and enjoy more her experience. When I asked her about the hardest thing about living in Utah McCluskey was quick to respond, “I miss my family, but overall it’s a good experience.

McCluskey has many goals in her life. ‘’My biggest goal is to always improve myself, said McCluskey. Even though she is always busy with her classes, she always finds some extra time to go practice by herself. Her practice often lasts three hours and she mainly focuses on doing specific workouts that will help her prepare her body for future competitions. She believes that you can achieve anything in life if you work hard. Even though she has been very focused on her athlete life since she was 8, she has more goals for her life after graduating. “I want to find a career that I am passionate about, I also want to travel to new places,” said McCluskey. She has not been outside the United Stated and looks forward into that. She is not very sure about her career after graduating, but she has some interest on working with public relations. Despite the challenges of living away from her family, McCluskey is a true example of a person who works very hard to achieve her goals in life.

Heilala Potesio

SALT LAKE CITY—The smell of fresh brewed teas, coffee, and the cafe is adorned with nostalgic memorabilia of comic book superheroes like Batman and Spiderman brings the inner child of any customer that walks through its doors. Watchtower Café is not a typical cafe but it’s inspiration from the childhood and personality of the owner Mike Tuiasoa, aka Tui the human.

Watchtower Café was established in October of 2015. It is a brand new cafe that replaced Coffee Connection on 1500 South and State Street. The coffee shop has attracted customers of diverse backgrounds mainly individuals who have a love for comics.

One customer on Facebook shared, “The atmosphere is wonderful and they have a wide selection of games to play. They have ample seating, so it never feels crowded and stuffy. And everyone is so nice here.”

Customers can enjoy weekly events such as board game nights, open mic displaying local talents within comedy and poetry, drink specials on Wednesdays, latte art night as latte masters dress up your cup of latte, live music, art galleries and geek hangouts to meet new geeky friends.

Initially Mike Tuiasoa was not interested in the food services industry. He wanted to do something different that was based on his childhood pleasure of comic books, action figures and Saturday morning cartoons.

Tuiasoa always knew that he was different from his own family but his conversation with his cousin who had similar interests inspired both of them to start a business involving their childhood interests.

“We both hated our jobs, we wanted something fun to do but it would be really cool to run a comic book shop,” said Tuiasoa.

He also realized the challenges of owning a comic book shop and then decided that they should run a cafe in which people can grab their favorite comic book and also enjoy a cup of coffee.

Since the age of 13, Tuiasoa has always kept his interests in comic books hidden from his peers and later on, even his wife. He always thought he was too old to enjoy them or too geeky that he would lose friendships and relationships. But he realized that reading comics has always been a hobby that brought him happiness.

Even in the darkest moments in his life he would find his happy place. Tuiasoa shared, “I grabbed onto the one time that I was happy in my life and that was reading comics, playing with action figures, watching superheroes and cartoons to bring me out of the darkness.”

Many have wondered how a Polynesian man would own a coffee shop based on comics. Reading comic books or owning a comic book shop is not common among the Polynesian community. Tuiasoa shared, “I grew up in Hawaii, I couldn’t find anyone else that was into comics or playing action figures.”

How has Tuiasoa been able to navigate his personal ethnic identity and also balance with his own personality? “I refer myself as a day walker like Blade in which I can be in both the geeky world and also be with my Tongan culture,” he said.

Tuiasoa’s love for comics and portraying his geeky personality has influenced the cafe. The place has transformed into his personality as if customers can understand his story. The cafe has been running successfully and has a strong social media presence that has raving fans. One fan shared on Facebook that, “It has quickly become my favorite place for coffee, and to meet up with friends over geeky interests, like card trading. The baristas make a fabulous cup of liquid heaven!”

By Falande Swain

In 1984, a young women left her home, family and culture in hopes of a better future. At the time, Vietnam, her home, was a corrupt country where people couldn’t do what they wanted. The government was known for taking people’s money and opportunities for education were limited. Cindy Tran left her country to join her sister in America for freedom and to pursue her education. That was over 30 years ago, and today Tran is the proud owner of Sixth Avenue Salon in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Tran welcomed me with a warm smile as I walked in and asked me in her strong Vietnamese accent, “How are you today?” I was always curious what it was about the beauty industry that interested her. This was a great opportunity for me to learn about her culture and how she was able to start her own business.

Going into the beauty industry was the last thing Tran thought she would do, since she moved to the U.S. to pursue her education. After high school, a friend suggested they go to beauty school. The idea wasn’t appealing to Tran at all at the time, but her friend told her that she should try it and if she didn’t like it she could drop out. After a month of beauty school Tran’s friend ironically dropped out and Tran stayed because she was actually loving the experience.

Learning English was by far one of the most difficult things for Tran. “I cried all the time when I went to school. You read and write and when people speak, it’s so different,” she said. She learned English from her niece and nephew but doing nails is what truly helped her. “I learn a lot when I do nail because my clients teach me a lot.” She said that Americans are really nice and always help her pronounce words the right way.

After her 1-year program of beauty school, Tran worked at a nail salon called Nail Master where she was able to shadow others and become better at her job. After four years of working at Nail Master, she was able to start her own business through the help of her clients. “They don’t help you with the money, but they help you to know where to go and how to open my own business,” Tran said. Her clients guided her to the places she needed to go to start her salon.

Sixth Avenue Salon is located on 480 East Sixth Avenue. The building was recently remodeled and has a beautiful dark blue exterior with big glass windows and doors. Tran opened Sixth Avenue Salon about 14 years ago. In addition to manicures and pedicures, she also does facials, waxing and body massages. She owns and runs the place by herself. If she ever gets busy she has a niece and a friend who she calls to come help her.

Tran has built a clientele over the years and provides services to regulars each week. She said that her clients have become her second family because she sees them so often. “I love when I make people look beautiful and making others feel good about themselves,” she said. Other than doing nails, Tran loves cooking with her husband. Tran says that people from Vietnam are really good with their hands and going into the beauty industry was a great way for her to start her own business. However, she hopes to open her own restaurant someday and her ultimate dream is to open a day spa.

Spencer Schwendiman

The world of advertising has been completely changed by the Internet. A company would spend large amounts of money for billboard space or airtime on the TV or radio. Now, the Internet and social media provide opportunities for free or cheap advertising that reaches a larger audience. A great example of this evolution is the Utah-based outdoor gear retailer: Teton Sports.

Teton Sports is a small company based out of a single warehouse on the industrial side of Salt Lake City. They started with making backpacks that were a high quality product that people could purchase for cheaper than most products of equal quality. From there they moved to sleeping bags, tents, sleeping pads and cots.

Shawn Perry, the head of product design and marketing at Teton, spent years doing print marketing has helped Teton to avoid this dying system. In his opinion, using social media is a more beneficial system of marketing because it “brings people together.” Once he saw that Twitter was a way to bring a community of people together he helped Teton Sports co-create a twitter chat known as “Hikerchat” which is the largest outdoor chat on Twitter and trends quite often on Friday’s when it is held. The other perk of using social media for marketing, according to Parry, was the “instant feedback we can receive from customers.” He finds it is much easier to keep customers happy when he hears directly from them about a problem.

From Twitter they adopted a form of marketing many companies use known as an ambassador program. This program makes it possible for people from all over the country to get their hands on a product and share that on their own social media or with friends. Ambassadors are selected based on their ability to teach others about enjoying the outdoors or staying safe. Once selected, the ambassadors develop a strong relationship with the people at Teton Sports.

In order to do that, Teton decided that they would take their ambassadors on an adventure, hiking throughout Colorado, Washington, Oregon and other surrounding states. This helped to create a fun new idea to send the ambassadors throughout the country advertising Teton Gear.

The idea grew into a program that would send ambassadors all over the country. This is known as the Your Lead Van.

The van is handed from ambassador to ambassador and will be driven all across the country, even up into Alaska. They will stop at Sportsman’s Warehouse stores along the way and educate the store associates, as well as the general public on products from Teton Sports, Goal Zero, Merrell and Camp Chef.

This is part of their three-part system for the van, Parry explained, first is education, second is a thank you to the ambassadors and the third is a “trade-up program”.

The trade-up program is a way to say thank you to people who have helped them to grow as a company and help people who want to share in a passion for the outdoors. People can send their old, worn out gear to Teton via the ambassadors, and Teton will send them new gear that matches what they sent and then repair the old gear to give it to someone else. The best part according to Parry is when they “connect the two people through social media” that way, the person who donated sees the gear that they loved being used by someone else and bringing them joy.

Teton Sports’ motto has always been “get outdoors”. Now, according to Parry, using a mixture of social media and the “Your Lead” van they encourage people to do just that. To see where the van is going next, visit: http://www.tetonsports.com/yourlead.htm or follow the van on Instagram and Twitter by following @yourlead_van.

By Angel Cortes

The ocean, palms trees, and entertainment as seen in Hollywood inspire the creators of a fun center, Malibu Jack’s to come up with an idea to bring a piece of California to Lexington and Louisville in Kentucky. Malibu Jack’s started as an idea when owners Terry Hatton, his son Bryan and his brother Steve sat together thinking what was going to be their next successful business. Bryan said that before Malibu Jack’s there was a scarcity of family entertainment in Kentucky. He mentions that there were movies theaters, ice cream places, but nothing that involved fun for all ages.

Hatton said, that “we  are looking for ways that the  community could embrace fun that will pass on generations to generations.” Hatton  reflects that he wanted to open a business where families could enjoyed a time together and convert Malibu Jack’s into a cultural center. Where fathers could bring their children to Malibu Jack’s and create a place that has the perfect setting for gathering the community together. “Malibu Jack’s is successful and great when customers and their families are able to enjoy time spent together,” he said.

They faced some challenges before they could open a business of such magnitude. The most challenging  was finding the right building. They wanted to find a place that was accessible to the people in the  community that could comfortably fit the attraction they had in mind, and close to the interstate in a growing metropolis. In Lexington the Hattons found a building of 50,000 square feet that was essential to the creative ideas that they had in mind.

One of the things that Hatton mentions is that they wanted to open the business as soon as possible. However,  they had some step backs because they had to repair some things in the building. Once they had done the repairs in the building they moved forward to build the first Malibu Jack’s in Lexington, Kentucky. The first business attractions were miniature golf, go karts, and arcade. The miniature golf is one of the main attractions. The miniature golf course include palm trees, waterfalls, and a big giant shark. One of the newer attractions is the Xrider. Is a 4d motion simulator with hydraulic seats that make it feel as if were really on a roller coaster with great graphics and wind “The success of Malibu Jack’s is making the customers happy and this is demonstrated by the returning of its clients,” Hatton said.

The Hattons employ a good code of ethics. They make sure that each individual is treated fairly, both customers and employees. What business skills did it take to make Malibu Jack’s successful? Bryan said it was  hard work, communication with people to make good deals, and his motivation to be able to help the community are the most important to him.. One of their goals is to open more businesses and continue to franchise, expand their business. Another of his goals with Malibu Jack’s is to make a certain amount of money per business quarter. Malibu Jack’s have customers anywhere from 100 to 2,000 per day. Because of the success of the first Malibu Jack’s in Lexington they opened another one in Louisville, Kentucky.

“Our company loves offering a place where friends and family members of all ages can come together and have a great time and make memories together while having fun at Malibu Jack’s,”

Bryan Hatton said. “When this continues to happen is when Malibu Jack’s is the most successful.”