Yes.  It’s true.  I was paid to perform as Leatherface at a year-round Orlando attraction called Terror on Church Street.

I should note that I only performed this once, but I was the first female to take the roll and, after that night, I was the last for a long time…

As you may know, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do for extra money.  Naturally, this has led me to think about the insane things I’ve done for money in the past.  My job at Terror was by far the most unusual.  I mean, how many people can say they once paid the bills with a job as an acrobatic exorcist or a ghostly bride? Maybe 30.

To give you a better idea about the kind of place we’re talking about (click for video), you need to understand that this wasn’t your average haunted house.  This was a 22,000 square foot historic building with 25 rooms, each themed with a movie-set quality and high-budget effects. The Eternal Dwellers Theatre Company was a professional acting troupe with make-up calls and show times.  Depending on the role, you could be in make-up for as many as three hours.  Every October, we’d scare more than 1,000 people in a weekend.

Terror was the real deal. When you walked through the vampire-infested swamp, you had no idea you were in the middle of an indoor attraction… you were there. And someone was about to suck your blood.

I could wax on about all the things I loved about each of the roles, but I’m not telling you this story to encourage you try your hand at the fine art of horror performance.  Instead I’ll tell you what life lessons I got so you don’t have to go to all the trouble…

Lesson One: Fear is all in your head.

No matter how much you try to scare the guy who is determined to mock your attempts, you’re not going to do it.  You might startle him, but you’re not going to scare him.  Why?  Because he’s already made up his mind he’s not going to be afraid of you.  When you refuse to be afraid, you’re brave, whether it’s a conscious effort or not. This isn’t just a truth reserved for spook houses.  This is everywhere… Think about it…

Lesson Two: Your head doesn’t work right when fear is in charge.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen doting boyfriends run fifteen feet from their scared girlfriends because I popped out of a dark corner wearing fangs.  People who knew it was all lights and make-up have punched me in the face.  The most delightful people do crazy things when they’re afraid.  The reason is simple: people don’t think straight when they’re scared. Not only does it cause physiological changes…it inhibits your ability to make good decisions. No bueno.

Lesson Three: Even scary places have dark corners where you can sneak a smoke or a quick make-out session with Hellraiser.

This has little to do with what I’ve been talking about, but it’s the truth so I thought I should include it.  Seems only fair.

Lesson Four: As fun as it may sometimes be to scare people, you’re the one who ends up scared.

There was this room at Terror that was referred to as “the doll room.”  You dressed up as a clown and waited for people to come through your hall before you made the room come to life.  On slower nights, I hung out with the Exorcist and whoever was working the morgue until the people came. Once you had the rhythm of any given room down, you knew exactly how long the delay would be and just how close the leader should be to your hiding place before you jumped out.

In my opinion, this was the scariest room to work.

On the few occasions I was cast as the clown, I enjoyed the role until it was “showtime.” As soon as we heard Freddy Krueger call out, we knew it was time.  I dutifully waited in a hallway that backed to the hydraulics on the Exorcist bed.  Between the creepy music and the lulling hiss of the pipes, I would often be more scared than the people walking into my room.  I’ve entirely missed groups because I freaked myself out so badly awaiting their arrival (see Lesson One).

In my employment history, I’ve been in a number of positions that could have benefited from fear-based messages, ie. “You’re going to pay too much,” “You’re missing your one big chance,” “Our competitors will make you fat,” “You’re killing baby polar bears,” and so on.  Every time I consider such tactics, that same feeling curls up at the back of my neck and I just can’t do it.

Fear is magnetic and will attract more fear, much like strength attracts strength. If what you’re putting out to your “guests” is a message of fear, fear is what will return to you (see Lesson Two).

Lesson Five: People love to be scared.

When we’re scared, adrenaline is released in huge amounts and directs the oxygenated blood supply to all our muscles to allow us to run away. Our mouths dry, our hands get hot, and our hearts beat out of our chest until we realize it’s all in our heads. And damn, that rush felt fun…

My next job (post coming soon) was at a comedy club where we didn’t have half the paying customers that the spook house had. The people who came into Terror were on edge because they knew what we were going to do.  Comedy customers would come to relax and laugh, but customers who pay for professionals to scare the crap out of themselves are entirely different.  Yet Terror made more money…

Since we’re really nothing more than a collection of experiences recalled as knowledge earned, I’m glad I worked there.  Again, scare-acting is not for everyone…but most jobs aren’t. The one thing I’m walking away with from this employment expedition is that fear is the answer to everything and nothing.  On one hand people love it, yet it renders them unavailable on the other.

Fear creates a one-sided relationship where one delivers and the other eventually runs. Sure, there’s money to be made, but do you want it that badly?

I did once, but I don’t think I could do it again… The exception to this is October 31^st, on which date I’m not satisfied unless at least one person seriously thinks they could pee themselves.  I should allow myself at least one night to unleash my talent, right?

More soon… thanks for reading 

I write this post with a heavy heart.  There is so much sadness in the world right now with tragedies multiplying by the day.  Of course, my topic has nothing to do with those catastrophes.  Mine has to do with sex.

For months now, I’ve been working on a covert project that consumed countless hours of my “spare” time.  Although I’m quite successful in my current career, I had hoped to augment my income through a new product that would help people enrich their sex lives.

After an exhaustive amount of research and market testing, I knew this was poised to be a huge success.  However, instead of approaching this with excitement, I found myself merely going through the motions of building this product, continually plagued with internal resistance.

Like many entrepreneurs would, I passed it off as fear. I continued pressing on, only to find myself dreading new discoveries and mentally shutting down when the content got too deep for my tastes.  It took weeks before I allowed myself an opportunity to take a real inventory as to what was going on.

After finally running through all the reasons I wanted to do this versus the reasons I didn’t, I realized I was building toward a dead-end.  But why? How?

I ignored something so simple, so necessary, so critical to the success of any entrepreneur’s journey…

I forgot to ask myself if I would do it for free.

What I realized is that I was so focused on building what I thought would be a successful source of income that I neglected to ask whether this was a niche I would want to produce, promote or protect. Instead of building a freedom business, I was designing an emotional death sentence.  And no, I’m not insane. In fact, I bet this could happen to anyone…

This business I was building was solely for profit.  I actually convinced myself that I was passionate about something I had no real connection to because I was blinded by my goals of getting out of debt. My drive to succeed in this venture had little to do with the mission and everything to do with the dollar.  For many, the dollar is enough.  For me, I need a reason or I will be miserable.

My niche and I officially called it quits this week and my heart is broken.  It feels like I just ended a relationship that wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t right.  You know… the kind where kisses are just lips touching and when you look at the other person, all you feel is a sense of longing to feel something other than what you do.  Only now that it’s over, I’m left to figure out how to move on…

Having survived a fair amount of disagreeable events in my life, you might think it’d be easy to pick myself up again after failing a business venture I never even launched.  It sounds so stupid to even say.  But it was real to me, and knowing all the time and effort I put into dotting every “i” and crossing every “t” makes it hurt that much more.  I want to tell myself I made a huge mistake, but the smarter me (yes, on occasion there is more than one “me” in my head) knows that’s not the truth.

I believe this couldn’t have been a mistake.  My coach has been enlightening me with his views on faith in business and according to the Gospel of Truant, things happen for a reason.

So now, as it seems, I need to put away the cosmic chocolate ice cream, turn off the damn Meg Ryan movie and learn the lesson I obviously needed to learn…

Then, with a little bravery or something like it, you may soon see what I’ve found I would do for free… And hopefully you’ll buy some for everyone you know…