space for extended periods of time.

It can be misleading where people see a lot of our videos where people have masks on and they're taking them off.

Our spaces are purpose-built and so they are completely blacked out.

We only have people use the eye mask when we're transitioning them from inside the dark space to the outside.

So they put a mask on, we walk them outside, and then they kind of come back into the light when they're outside.

Our spaces are built into the hillside.

And so they are mostly 99% of the time soundproof.

important.

And that's tomorrow night, right?

It is.

And, uh, Pat's been a regular guest and, um, I can't personally say that I have met him yet, because that's not true, but much of my staff has.

And I can tell you, I think that the fans that come out are going to be in for a treat.

He's at risk of not disparaging anybody else.

His personality seems to be quite engaging and much more like Tom Izzo than maybe some of his predecessors.

What makes One North the ideal place for the kinds of things we're talking about?

Well, you know, we've really tried to occupy a very unique space and between white tablecloth and sports bars.

And when you think about fans who would like to say, hey, I was there for the first Pat Fitzgerald show, they only get one opportunity to do that, and that's tomorrow night, right?

It is, and Pat's been a regular guest, and I can't personally say that I have met him yet because that's not true, but much of my staff has, and I can tell you I think that the fans that come out are going to be in for a treat.

He's at risk of not disparaging anybody else.

His personality seems to be quite engaging and much more like, Tom Izzo than maybe some of his

What makes One North the ideal place for the kinds of things we're talking about?

Well, you know, we've really tried to occupy a very unique space and a between white tablecloth and sports bars.

Yeah.

We think we have the best food and drink offering, like a lot of great white tablecloth restaurants do in the area.

Uh, Scott, why is it important for you to be here, and really here, as a sponsor for One North?

Yeah, I mean, uh, obviously I'm a sports fan.

We love the, um, we love all the sports.

We love MSU, but you know, most of all, Alex sitting to your right, I had the pleasure of, uh, doing a little coaching with him.

And I think, you know, the, the, the nature of the high school area coaches sometimes just don't get, and teams and players, just don't get the attention-

Right

... uh, that they deserve, and the work and sacrifice.

And what it means, I think, to contributing to building a better community and better young people as they grow up.

Yeah

...

I think most of us on here, and certainly all the people in this room, are grateful for our country.

Despite the challenges that we may face, it's still the greatest country in the world and worthy of our celebration.

So we're, we're gonna do, uh, in the spirit of baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie, we're doing, uh, baseball on the TVs all weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, of course, along with, uh, soccer to, to mix in a little, uh-

[laughs]

And that's the, that's the God's honest truth.

I mean, it's, uh ...

Okay.

So for 12 weeks, a different, uh, member of our culinary team at each restaurant gets to create their own burger.

We keep track of the sales.

The one that sells the best from each of the, through the 12 weeks-

Mm-hmm.

And if they buy six burgers during the championship week, they get their burger half off.

And if they hit, uh, all 12 burgers or get 12 coupons, then they get their burger free championship week.

And obviously, their purchases are the votes that tally and decide the winners.

What numbers, what KPIs do you try to look at every single day or every single week? I want to start with daily.

All right, so I look at it as a mathematical formula.

Effectively, I'm looking at leads coming in every day.

And then I'm looking at it on a more granular basis on where the leads are coming from, because I think you can have multiple lead sources, but you have what we call high intent and low intent leads.

I'm really focusing on where the high intent leads are coming from, because in my mind, if you tell me what the high intent leads are, and let's say they're 30 to 40% of your lead volume, I know that the next day I'm going to have a good sales day.

If conversely, 70% to 80% of my leads come from aggregators, I know I'm going to have a bad lead day.

Chances are, I'm going to have a worse sales day.

It's really cool.

And it's letting go of those rules and rigidness, right?

Yeah, and that's, you know, that's difficult.

I mean, that's a whole nother amazing thread to explore.

So our typical, I guess one thing that I'd say is where someone does a dark retreat, completely shapes their experience like all places are not created equal like it's more than just going into the dark and it like how the containers held the the type of support that's provided completely shapes the type of experience that someone has.

And so it's not like somebody hears about a dark retreat or they see a lot of different experiences that someone's having at maybe one place and then goes somewhere else thinking they'll have maybe a similar experience because the way that the container's held, the way that it's presented, it completely shapes someone's experience.

And we could kind of touch on some of that.

For example, most people do not enjoy a dark retreat, just to be completely frank.

Is there a bit of a pattern do you see with women and men or mothers in particular?

And I thought the way that you shared that was really beautiful and affirming of we're going to have all these or potentially have all these different expectations or reactions and that's part of the experience is to meet whatever's here and it sounds fascinating I was going to ask about like how do people know what time of day it is or how long they've been in there how do people make a bubble bath Do they have a little bit of light? I'm just kind of curious about some of these experiences that people have in a sky cave retreat.

Sure.

I don't know how much fun a bubble bath would be if you can't see the bubbles.

Maybe they're still there and they're playing.

So I don't know if we've ever had anybody make a bubble bath, but certainly bath, like bath salts and essential oils.

And it's completely dark to where your eyes don't adjust to see your hand in front of your face.

There are touch-ins twice a day.

And so I'm curious if you could talk about maybe some ways that you talk about that being with whatever's here, if there are certain words you use like presence or meeting it or full awareness, or if you could just kind of talk about this question around how we talk about being with something.

Why would somebody purposefully go and go see Scott and the trees, put a blindfold on, and just hang out for a while?

Yeah.

So, I mean, one of the things I'd s- you know, start with to kinda pick up where you touched in on is, you know, it's more than just being without your visual field.

So somebody who is visually impaired would still likely have a pretty impactful experience at the retreat here.

Because more than just losing your vision, there's also the sound quality, because the spaces that we've built here are pretty much soundproof.

And the spaces that we've built here are completely blacked out, so you don't even wear the eye mask.

The eye mask is just used when people, when we transition people from the dark space into the light so that they can be seated down and kind of be in a comfortable place when they come out into the light.

What are some of the tools that they seem excited about taking home, uh, in their own way that they take with them? Have you been told some stories?

to

shift focuses.

After that, there's a period of novelty.

Where it's like, wow, this is amazing being in this quiet space.

And for some people that lasts a day and some people like an hour or two.

And that's when then the meat of just like...

The volcano erupts of just of all the things, the past and the future and the desires and the resentments and all that.

And I think a lot of that can get really tricky within the space.