Dylan Calm, Author at Art of the Float

Your hosts started out with one goal in mind – to talk about kids and floating. But in true Art of the Float fashion, they couldn’t just leave it at that. So this episode is like three in one!

First up, you’ll learn about what each host does (or doesn’t do) in the way of hosting floats for kids – policies to implement, waivers, conversations to have, and pricing. You’ll learn what questions you should ask upfront and why it’s so important to forewarn the parent about the potential for stinging.

Then you’ll journey through a valuable sidebar conversation about donating floats and whether or not members get to keep their credits after they cancel. Two are a hard yes, and one says nope, but with a twist.

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Transcript:

Dylan (00:05.804)

Welcome back to another episode of Art of the Float where float centers thrive. My name is Dylan, I own the float shop in Portland, Oregon with my lovely wife Sandra.

Kim Hannan (00:14.167)

Hey everybody, it’s Kim Hannon. I own Sukino Float Center in Salt Cave in southern Indiana with my husband, Graham.

Drew Kane (00:21.070)

And this is Drew from New Hampshire, Float in New Hampshire. And I am really excited for tonight’s topic. I can’t wait to get right into it. Dylan, why don’t you introduce tonight’s topic and let everyone know what we’re talking about.

Dylan (00:32.224)

Yes, Drew, your energy. I love how you bring the energy each and every night. Yes. So tonight we were talking about, well, you know what? This is gonna blow you away. We’re talking about floating people. Yes, and I’m gonna narrow it down even a little bit more. We’re talking about floating kids, people under 18. And there’s a wide range of what that means for somebody, floating somebody under 18. And I wanna talk about it. It’s something that we do at the shop have as well and let’s talk about float waivers, let’s talk about best practices, guardian, no guardian, all that jazz. Let’s dive into it and first of all have you guys floated kids?

Kim Hannan (01:18.627)

Not all at once here.

Drew Kane (01:18.770)

Yeah, yes, I think I’ve had…

Dylan (01:19.864)

Yeah. You know, for all your excitement, Drew, I want you chomping at that microphone.

Drew Kane (01:26.890)

I was ladies first in the situation, but I also remembered a conversation we had off air, so I screwed that one up, hand up. So I’ll let Kim go first because I think her answer will be quick. Dylan can edit it.

Kim Hannan (01:35.626)

I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

Dylan (01:38.065)

Cool, we’ll clean this all up in post. I’m sure I’ll remember to. Hey.

Kim Hannan (01:38.526)

Cool. Yeah.

Kim Hannan (01:43.106)

share mine for sure. We haven’t floated a whole lot of children and you know our policies that we do allow them after the parent has floated at least two or three times they feel comfortable with the float process themselves and can make a judgment call on whether or not it would be a good idea for their kids. You know we can’t tell age is just a number really and we can’t tell you know if their child is going to have a good experience can you know can get into the float tank

Dylan (02:11.972)

Mm.

Kim Hannan (02:13.186)

all of that. So our policy is what it is and you know we do always have a conversation with somebody you know if they’re asking about their kids not just like are you familiar with it are you comfortable with it how many times have you floated but also just to let you know if your child is pre-pupasant or in puberty there’s a solid chance they may experience stinging sensations and so we are very upfront with that and then we let them know like they’re welcome to

Kim Hannan (02:43.046)

what our kind of rule is. If they’re under the age of 12 we do ask for a parent to stay in the suite. That means that our exterior room light is going to stay on because it’s motion detected and so it’ll be a little bit of a different experience but it’s allowed. But my daughter has floated many times and she is now 14. She started floating when she was about 10.

Drew Kane (03:04.750)

Kim, what’s your waiver say? Do you have a number on your waiver?

Kim Hannan (03:09.167)

Um, no, we don’t. And, you know, obviously the parent would still have to sign for a child because they can’t legally sign any document on their own. But we don’t have any kind of specific age. We have a special pass where basically, you know, we have $10 off the regular price for kids. And, you know, my my team members get a special deal if their kids want to come in. But, you know, we just really haven’t had a lot of demand for it.

Drew Kane (03:10.950)

Okay.

Kim Hannan (03:37.307)

there wasn’t a lot of need for us to go too deep yet into anything beyond that. But I’m so I’m here to learn from you guys.

Dylan (03:43.451)

Drew Kane (03:45.690)

Yeah, I have some experience with this. So this is great. Oh, I wasn’t talking enough. Now I’m talking too much. All right, Dylan.

Dylan (03:48.564)

Give me some room to talk to her, oh geez, come on. All over that microphone. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Well, I was going to say that I like that it’s not in your waiver because, yeah, anybody under 18, you got to have a guardian signing for it, but that’s a conversational thing because, like you said, age is just a number. You don’t know that mentally that kid is that.

Kim Hannan (03:48.626)

Yeah. He’s excited! Get that enthusiasm, Drew.

Dylan (04:18.764)

to the parents can help you establish whether it’s a good idea or not and it just requires a little bit of cognizance from the float center owners and the parents and having that conversation about whether a they should be floating at all setting expectations parent or guardian in the room all that stuff

Drew Kane (04:37.150)

that is a great first step is having that conversation. I ask why, why do you want this, why do you want your kid to float? What do you think the kid will get out of this? What’s the reasoning for thinking this, right? But I did have an 11-year-old who turned 12 while he floated with me, who was a little junior gymnast and very mature and he was injured leading up to a big competition

Dylan (04:42.744)

Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Drew Kane (05:07.310)

and floated a couple times a week leading up to that competition. And the conversation was exactly what Kim had said. It was, hey, do you understand what this is? Do you understand that you’re going in there to be quiet and there are other people floating, so you have to be respectful of that and understand that you’re going in there to just relax and not move around and yada, yada, yada. So communication is the big, as I say, yada, yada.

The communication is the big piece of it. Yeah, right. But I’ll let just about anyone float, but I have had a bad experience with females under the age of like eight. I’ve had two bad experiences. So I say, I tell them exactly what Kim said that they’ve had. And also I’ve since learned that as kids of toilet training, so what’s that age? I don’t have kids, four, five, six,

Dylan (05:38.828)

Ha!

Kim Hannan (05:39.753)

Skip over that communication piece.

Dylan (05:50.888)

Yeah.

Drew Kane (06:07.150)

they’re there, they can be rough. And it’s not just toilet training, but as the young kids are learning how to wipe, they can be really rough and it creates the abrasions that can then sting when they get into the float water, the solution, right? So I think that really it’s great to have young kids float, but I think there is a little bit of a too young. And I don’t see a problem with 12, 13, 14 year olds floating if they understand what it’s about.

Dylan (06:14.785)

Hmm.

Dylan (06:21.466)

Right.

Drew Kane (06:37.270)

kids and I’ve had a bunch of them float and a lot of times it’s for anxiety and the parent is trying to help their child with anxiety and they don’t want them taking drugs. So I definitely try to work with people. I think it’s great that they’re exposed to it and as long as they again understand, I did have one time where there were two kids for one of their birthdays who were getting in and out and that’s why I’ll use that as an example and say if they’re getting in

Dylan (06:41.744)

Yes.

Dylan (06:44.044)

you

Dylan (07:06.545)

Oh wow. What?

Drew Kane (07:07.170)

giggling, I’ll ask you to leave. That’s not what this is. You go into your room, you have your float, and you leave, right? So communication, setting the expectations, and you know, again, finding out why. What do you think your child will gain from this? Especially if you haven’t floated, why are you bringing your child in? What caused that? So, and I think that also helps to learn a little more about those customers, and you can kind of, you know, guide

Dylan (07:16.844)

Mm-hmm.

Dylan (07:22.871)

Mm-hmm.

Drew Kane (07:37.330)

So do they want the light on? Do they want to be in the same room? Do you want to wait? You know, I try to engage the parent if they’re waiting in the lobby while their child is floating. So I think it’s great. I don’t, I try not, I try not to put barriers in front of people for floating. And, um, but we do have conversations. Definitely. I try to have blunt conversations about that.

Dylan (07:40.744)

Thanks for watching!

Dylan (07:47.565)

Hmm.

Dylan (07:49.946)

You’re covering great stuff.

Dylan (07:53.544)

Sure.

Kim Hannan (07:57.126)

Yeah.

Kim Hannan (07:59.706)

Yeah. Dylan, before we hear yours, I do have to say, now that I’m thinking about it, we’ve had some high school age students, or high school age guests who’ve come in. And in my mind, they’re not kids. Yeah, so I think of that just differently. But we have had some teenagers who’ve come in for a lot of the reasons that you mentioned, Drew, athleticism, recovery from competitions or sports in general, and some who are there for anxiety. Some just saw their parents doing it,

Dylan (08:12.107)

Oh, right, right.

Drew Kane (08:24.892)

Yeah.

Kim Hannan (08:29.666)

and thought it sounded cool and they’re learning self-care. And that’s the piece that is really awesome to see is they’re watching what their parents are doing, saying, hey, why are you going to this float place so often? What’s so special about it? OK, cool, can I try it too? And those are the ones that I really love, because then that teenager has learned a life skill. And it’s just really awesome to see those folks coming in. And sometimes it is curiosity. I think for the little kids, it’s often

Kim Hannan (08:59.686)

but there are definitely cases. I think I agree, Drew, like get them in there and teach them how to do this and they can benefit for life. I wish I would have known about floating at a much, much younger age. But Dylan, I wanna hear your stories. Like how many littles have you all floated?

Dylan (09:09.944)

Hmm.

Dylan (09:17.244)

Man, you guys have covered so many great things. I feel like we used to float more littles, but I think based off what we’ve talked about is we’ve talked parents out of bringing their younger kids in, because girls in particular, a lot of stinging, a lot of pain, it’s not comfortable. I am curious, have you found that with boys? Do they have that same experience? Nope.

Kim Hannan (09:28.326)

and I’ll see you next time. Bye.

Kim Hannan (09:39.066)

We only had one, I think, who was kind of in that prepubescent puberty starting age and didn’t have any experiences that were reported from him. But again, like definitely my daughter experienced it. You know, she tried to float when we first opened and it was a nightmare. And we waited a while. You know, we did all the things that you would normally do to try to help prevent that stinging. And then we waited a while, tried it again. After the second time, we were like, nope, we’re gonna wait a little bit longer.

Dylan (09:43.564)

Mhm. Mhm.

Dylan (09:54.244)

Thanks for watching!

Dylan (09:56.748)

Yeah.

Dylan (10:04.466)

Yeah.

Kim Hannan (10:09.126)

she came to us and said you know what I really want to try again one day and so I took her back in and now she’s floated several times she absolutely insists on at least 90 minutes and she oh yeah and she loves it right now she’s not allowed to float because she has hair dye temporary hair dye on half of her head and so it’s like you’re giving up floating are you sure about doing this and so temporarily she’s she’s not floating at the moment but it I wish she

Dylan (10:12.054)

Wow.

Dylan (10:16.044)

Let’s go.

Dylan (10:19.485)

Ha! What? Jeez…

Drew Kane (10:20.250)

Thanks.

Dylan (10:28.970)

Whoa!

Dylan (10:36.664)

Who are these parents letting their kids dye their hair all sorts of colors? I can’t even believe it That that is such an awesome story. I love that and then she demands at least 90 minutes is so cool My littles can’t can’t float yet the the stinging. It’s just just negates it, but they’re so excited by it They think it’s so cool. They even practice in the bathtub floating, you know, and it’s so great super cool, but I Have not so while we’ve had teenagers

Kim Hannan (10:39.911)

I know right

Kim Hannan (10:46.826)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Kim Hannan (10:55.111)

Yeah.

Dylan (11:06.464)

and like they’re the ones guiding the parents like I want to try this I want to experience this which is super cool and we’ll say I have not had some somebody regularly somebody under 18 regularly float with us so Drew you sharing that story was really cool with the the gymnast of like getting getting the recovery and the focus or whatever they were getting out of it I think that’s so awesome

Drew Kane (11:29.250)

I also had a high school, I think he was a senior at the time, but he was an athlete and scholarships were on the line. I think it was football season, he was floating during football season. But he was under that high school pressure of trying to stay healthy enough to get a scholarship somewhere. That’s a big deal. So yeah.

Kim Hannan (11:38.409)

Yeah.

Dylan (11:43.470)

Cool.

Dylan (11:54.107)

Yeah.

Drew Kane (11:58.950)

kids from doing it, but also I do think, I don’t know what the age is, maybe it’s 10, maybe it’s 11, I don’t know, but I do think there’s an age where it’s like, why don’t you just wait a little bit, and if they wanna do it, try it, right?

Dylan (12:10.044)

Mm-hmm. If I can play just a little counter, I don’t even know if devil’s advocate is the right word, but just a little bit of counter to that is I have had kids float with their moms together in the float tank for about an hour, it seems like is the amount of time. I don’t know if we’ve had somebody stay in the entire time, but I’ve been really blown away by how long they’ve stayed in there, and just had really awesome experiences. I think it’s a really cool thing. I think couples floating in general

Kim Hannan (12:10.226)

Mm-hmm.

Dylan (12:40.184)

If you know what it’s about, letting go next to your partner can be really beautiful and practicing that. But obviously like a different dynamic, but you’re letting the kid acclimate to this and feeling safer because you’re right next to them as the mom. Like and then both of you letting go, but maybe the mom’s still being more aware of their kid and having that feeling of comforting them and everything. I think that’s awesome.

Kim Hannan (12:43.526)

Mm-hmm.

Kim Hannan (12:54.691)

Mm-hmm.

Kim Hannan (13:00.326)

Mm-hmm.

Kim Hannan (13:04.106)

I’m curious, do you guys do anything different? Like you mentioned that, you know, only an hour. So do you do a shorter time when you have children or do you have any other precautions or tools or anything else that you ask for?

Dylan (13:14.364)

No, like again, we’re like 11 years in. So like it’s all just this regimented, like we do these transitions every two hours. Like it’s this whole thing. So you’re signing up for a 90 minute period of time. If you want to stay in there during that whole time, that’s awesome. The only thing that’ll change is the conversation beforehand and guiding somebody into it and talking about the things like expectations about time. We’re like, there’s no requirement to stay in there for 90 minutes. And so if that kid’s timer is done at 30 minutes, that’s fine.

Kim Hannan (13:18.910)

Mm-hmm.

Kim Hannan (13:32.694)

Yeah.

Dylan (13:44.504)

If they got something out of it and that was a cool experience, that’s great. But usually they, again, especially I feel like with the mom in the room, and I’m sure I don’t know all the time that they’re getting in or if they’re sitting next to the float tank and even if they’ve told me it’s jumbled up in my head, but they tend to stay in there, which is really cool.

Drew Kane (14:03.370)

Yeah, my experience is also that they tend to stay in and as long as the phone gets turned off, yeah, I think that tends to be the big distractor, but if they shut the phone off, which I highly encourage multiple times during the introduction, I can’t think of a time where someone got out early and said, ah, I didn’t like that. They tend to enjoy it. So I think there’s also something cool about it,

Dylan (14:28.088)

Right.

Drew Kane (14:33.350)

for the kids that they get to go and tell their friends they did this really weird, cool thing, and it’s cool because it’s weird, and their friends probably have never heard of it, so they get to tell their friends that they did this funky thing. And then they, you know, yeah, so then they’re sending your website around, and you know, it’s a good thing.

Dylan (14:42.324)

Right? Sure

Kim Hannan (14:46.507)

I definitely.

Dylan (14:52.644)

Thanks for watching!

Kim Hannan (14:54.226)

My daughter talks about it all the time to her friends and their friends then go tell their parents and we’ve had a lot of parents who’ve come in to float with us because they heard about it from their kid. So she’s a great marketer. You know, she’s just that guerrilla marketing style. She gets out there until she spreads it around. We have lots of our teachers come to float with us. So yeah, it’s pretty fun. And that’s, you know, typically the gift that we give to all of our kids teachers too is, you know, gift certificates come in and they all love it.

Dylan (15:02.510)

No.

Drew Kane (15:04.534)

Yeah.

Dylan (15:04.684)

So cool. Ha ha ha ha ha. All right.

Dylan (15:13.125)

No way. Oh, that’s so cool.

Drew Kane (15:15.150)

Yeah.

Dylan (15:20.944)

That’s awesome.

Kim Hannan (15:23.226)

pricing for your kids or like tiered pricing or anything unique.

Dylan (15:27.244)

Nope.

Drew Kane (15:29.050)

So I kind of do. I have a girl who floats with me who, she had a broken femur and it didn’t take and she has to have another surgery. And she’s in college and is just struggling. So I came up with a special price for her. I offered that to her if she wanted to do it regularly. I have a special deal for $40 a float for her.

Kim Hannan (15:49.726)

Mm-hmm.

Dylan (15:50.867)

sure cool.

Kim Hannan (15:57.647)

nice.

Drew Kane (15:59.050)

that doesn’t exist for any. So I would do stuff like that for a kid who’s maybe in college. I remember having three jobs when my dad was sick with cancer and I was eating peanut butter and jelly and oatmeal. So if there’s a kid I can help out and who wants to float, I try to do that. But I don’t have a flat like, oh, you’re under 16, you pay less. No, but in a unique situation, I definitely work with people to try to get them in there

Kim Hannan (16:02.226)

Mm-hmm.

Kim Hannan (16:18.646)

Absolutely.

Kim Hannan (16:24.846)

Yeah.

Drew Kane (16:29.580)

help them out.

Dylan (16:30.784)

something and I’m digressing here but we I do tell people there there is we’ve never turned away somebody for price for for not being able to afford floating like if this is something you find valuable we will find a way to float you sometimes that’s just a discount sometimes it means volunteering for people going through cancer treatment it means donation based because we just want you in here healing right so I like that Drew and sometimes and again it’s just like the whole conversational thing of knowing your clients and

Kim Hannan (16:31.011)

Yup.

Drew Kane (16:58.850)

Yeah. And that’s part of the community that you build, that you, you know, you’re, I would say the successful float centers are the ones that care about floating and care about helping people. And the money is secondary. And we’re really trying to impact the community. And in the long run, that benefits everybody and that will grow floating and that will grow our business. It might not be that, you know, short term, uh, high financial gain, but in the long run,

Drew Kane (17:28.870)

your reputation and if someone heard about you helping someone out, then they might refer you again to some, right? That goodwill and that word of mouth is how do you put a price on that, right?

Dylan (17:38.288)

Yeah.

Dylan (17:42.944)

But before you feel like listener, before you feel like we’re encouraging you to bend over backwards and go out of business helping people, you have to take care of yourself to be able to take care of other people. We all three of us understand that. So just know that’s a part of it too. But. Yeah.

Drew Kane (17:53.557)

Yep.

Drew Kane (17:56.510)

Yeah. I don’t go around looking for people to help out, you know, but if they come to me and we have that conversation.

Kim Hannan (18:02.650)

Fes… funny you say that Drew. I am doing that actually and it’s interesting that we’ve twisted this because this is something I’ve been actively working on this week. We are starting well we’ve had what we call a pay it forward program and we haven’t done a lot with it but basically every time we have a member who cancels their membership we any remaining credits on their account are

Dylan (18:07.344)

Ha.

Dylan (18:15.928)

Oh yeah.

Kim Hannan (18:27.066)

and we transfer those into our Pay It Forward program. And so we have an account that we literally are transferring credits over. And so we have this whole big giant bucket full of unused credits. And we went round and round trying to figure out how do we launch this, how do we offer this to people? What’s the right way? Do you just throw it out and say, I have a paid for float today if you have an opening? How do people qualify? Do we want them to have to qualify? Is it a burden approved situation? What is it? And we can’t come up with anything specific

Dylan (18:33.144)

Hmm.

Kim Hannan (18:56.826)

about what makes sense for launching this. And we might try a couple of different techniques, but one that we have done is we have an option if we end up working with a specific group and tying it back to the kids. If we had a coach who came to us and said, hey, I think this would be great for my team. I could say, you know what, we’re going to help you out. We’ve got some, you know, some prepaid floats. We’re happy to donate that to your group. And so we work with them and get those scheduled and, you know, we’d use our pay it program

Dylan (19:12.079)

Oh.

Kim Hannan (19:27.906)

We tried to do it with a VA group and we had everything arranged. We were in the process of getting everybody booked in and then the coordinator found out that they could not take donations. And so we had to cancel. Like, we were so excited because it was the first official group that we were really launching this with. Yeah, right? It’s just a dollar. We’ve done pay what you can days, but you know, this pay it forward is something that we’re really excited to launch at some point this year. And I think, you know, what you’re saying, Drew, like it’s a great opportunity to

Dylan (19:41.164)

should charge a dollar each.

Kim Hannan (19:56.666)

to be able to help somebody who may not really be able to float. And so I’ll come back whenever we’ve actually fleshed out the program and what it looks like and share what it is and how we launch it and all of that. But right now we’re just in that little soft sludge. If somebody comes to us and says, I can’t afford it, but I would love to do this, we can do a one off and cover them with those floats. But we’re almost, we’re approaching our fifth year and we waited.

Kim Hannan (20:26.666)

beginning but we were able to stockpile enough of those now that we feel really comfortable being able to launch programs and say you know what these are already paid for let’s give them out to the community.

Drew Kane (20:27.771)

Yeah.

Dylan (20:35.244)

So yeah, I’m curious about that. So what does that mean when, by the way, I’m just getting her up real quick. If just so you know, the show is also on YouTube. Kim is our spotlight of the week here. Kim’s hair is just on fire. Go onto the YouTube, check out Kim’s amazing hair. Come on. Incredible. B or two. So if somebody cancels their membership, does that mean they’re necessarily moving out of state?

Kim Hannan (20:51.933)

Oh thanks.

Dylan (21:05.264)

paid for their floats, they actually go away. Talk to me about that.

Kim Hannan (21:08.466)

They actually go away, yeah. So we say all of our floats are valid for two years as long as you’re a member in good standing. And so before they cancel, we ask them to go ahead and schedule out all of the remaining credits. I don’t care if you want to schedule them over the next nine months, next year, whatever, let’s go ahead and schedule them. And we have some people who say, no, I don’t need to come back, or I don’t know why they don’t. Honestly, it baffles me. But I find that we often have people who just suddenly can’t fit into their schedules. They’ve let their membership go.

Dylan (21:31.086)

Hmm.

Kim Hannan (21:38.526)

We text them every month, we send emails, like we do all the communications about it. We do calls to check in periodically, you know, all of those sorts of things. But some people they’re just like, nope, I’m done. I don’t care about all that money that I just threw away and you know, some of them are 30 credits, 40 credits. And so we’ve we literally have several hundred in our account right now that are prepaid and because we do flex membership credits that allows them to use any of our services. So as we’re doing this program, you know, we can cover any of our services, not just floating.

Dylan (21:40.229)

Mm-hmm.

Dylan (21:56.206)

Wow.

Dylan (21:59.210)

Wow.

Dylan (22:09.064)

Okay, okay, this is what I’ll implement at the shop. We will ask them when they cancel, can we donate some or all of these floats to a fund? But I’m gonna definitely say if you’ve paid for it, these are yours, you don’t need to schedule them. Maybe when the expiry comes up or whatever, but in general, if you paid for it, it’s yours, we’ll refresh the expiry, so interesting, interesting.

Kim Hannan (22:09.661)

But…

Kim Hannan (22:19.890)

Yeah.

Kim Hannan (22:26.376)

Mm-hmm.

Kim Hannan (22:29.606)

Yeah. Yep.

Kim Hannan (22:34.326)

We want our folks to use them and so that’s why we put it out there to them and of course if somebody came back to us and said you know what I canceled and I didn’t have those credits I really need to float. We’re like all right cool let me transfer this back to your account. You know I mean we would absolutely still work with somebody we’re not gonna be like nope you’ve lost him. And we use that more as a line to remind them to use their credits and we’ve never had anybody come back and say that they want them after they’ve

Dylan (22:36.544)

Sure.

Dylan (23:03.304)

Interesting. So I am confused. Okay, so yes, as I said at the top of the show, this is our episode on floating, youth and donation-based floating as well. Which, so when somebody cancels for me, A, usually they’re putting it on pause, but sometimes they’re like, I need to cancel, like these are building up and, yeah, I mean, I’d like to get through them, but I need to cancel. So if that, like that is the regular conversation I have with my clients

Kim Hannan (23:03.968)

It’s mind-boggling. It really is but

Kim Hannan (23:13.742)

and donation.

Kim Hannan (23:26.490)

Yeah.

Dylan (23:33.244)

they’re canceling a membership. So what happens there in that conversation? I’m like, hey, listen, these are getting stacked up. It’s been a busy year. I’d like to use these, but I gotta cancel. I can’t just keep having these growing here. I can’t get in that frequently. What are you gonna tell? And hey, listen, I’m all over the country. I can’t put these on the schedule. What are you gonna tell me?

Kim Hannan (23:33.426)

Mm-hmm.

Kim Hannan (23:43.112)

Mm-hmm.

Kim Hannan (23:51.566)

Yeah, we always, we start by offering the hold. And so as soon as they say they can’t come in and say, okay, we’ll put you on hold for up to three months, go ahead and use these credits while you’re there. And when they’re on hold, we’re texting them a little bit more frequently and sending messages. We send at least two to three in that three month period. And, you know, specifically saying, hey, don’t forget, you have these credits while you’re on hold and your next billing date is this date, reminding them again, your hold comes off on this day. And so we can have a conversation. And then that’s kind of like a trial period for them

Dylan (23:56.149)

Okay.

Dylan (23:58.744)

Okay.

Kim Hannan (24:22.226)

And most people at that point if they’re not coming in, they’re never coming in. You know, it’s never gonna be a priority. So you know, I went back and forth around it because I’m kind of… Mindset wise I agree. Like if you paid for it, it’s yours. But at the same time, if you paid for gym credits, they’re not gonna let you use those six months after you cancel, you know. It just doesn’t work that way. And for us as a business, that is kind of a huge liability to have

Dylan (24:23.144)

Sure.

Dylan (24:38.004)

The psychology. Right. Yeah, that’s a great point.

Dylan (24:50.946)

Right. Totally.

Kim Hannan (24:52.286)

that aren’t being used and they’re just sitting out there if we ever decided to sell the business I mean immediately that could sink us by tens of thousands of dollars in our you know asking price so I kind of did the pros and cons list and looked at it from every angle and ultimately decided like this is what we’re gonna say how we’re gonna say it and then you know what we enforce and our system cancels it but then of course we have the ability to go back later and

Dylan (25:01.844)

Right.

Dylan (25:13.906)

Super cool.

Dylan (25:19.465)

sure.

Kim Hannan (25:21.526)

We’re glad you remember with us for so long. You lost this many credits. We rolled them over. We’re happy to roll some more back to you. But nobody’s ever done it yet. So, yeah.

Dylan (25:23.365)

Mm-hmm.

Dylan (25:29.904)

And I’d ask Drew for his input, but I know he’s a free balling, no memberships kind of guy. So I’m sure this hasn’t come up for him. Ha ha.

Kim Hannan (25:36.126)

I’m going to go to bed. I’m going to go to bed. I’m going to go to bed.

Drew Kane (25:38.191)

No, I get, I let people keep their, I’m, I’m a, you pay for it. You can use it type of person. And if they don’t use it and it, there’s a year expiration date on it. So it’ll fall off eventually. And I’ve definitely had people come back like late way later and use a float credit that they had in their account that, you know, maybe it’s been a year or two years and they it gets them back. But

Kim Hannan (25:55.547)

Yeah.

Kim Hannan (26:00.567)

Nice.

Drew Kane (26:06.330)

Yeah, I don’t know if people are letting you do that then more power to you But I also don’t think I would get away with that at my float shop with the people that come there They’d be like what well, you’re just gonna take it from me. I think I’d get bad reviews For that so I’m very flexible about it And also if there is an expiration and they call after that I will let them float if you paid me money and you come back I don’t think it’s weird if you came back five years later and say you had a float credit But I’ll give it to you

Kim Hannan (26:06.568)

Yeah.

Kim Hannan (26:10.947)

Yeah, I’ve also done…

Kim Hannan (26:19.426)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kim Hannan (26:28.731)

Yeah.

Dylan (26:34.344)

for sure. Yeah.

Kim Hannan (26:35.743)

Yeah.

Drew Kane (26:35.970)

you for doing that, but I’ll give it to you. You know.

Kim Hannan (26:38.306)

And that’s pretty much our, you know, if we look at somebody’s account, we always make a note, you know, of what day they canceled and how many credits they had remaining. And we make a note that we transferred those to our pay it forward account, but making a note that we had 20 credits remaining at cancellation. So if somebody ever does come back in and ask for that, we’re happy to, you know, still honor that and give it back to them. What I’ve also done though, is for, especially for those folks who used to float with us a lot, if they canceled their membership during down times, I’ll send out what we call miss you credits and we’ll just put a free,

Kim Hannan (27:08.526)

on somebody’s account and send them a message says hey we were just thinking about you here’s a free float coming in to see us by X date and you know we’ve had a couple of folks who come in and just said you know what I have missed you guys thanks for doing this and sometimes they come back in again sometimes they don’t but it’s nice to just have that option and you know we we use it as okay you paid for it you’re not gonna use it anymore let’s give it to the community

Dylan (27:36.644)

I think that’s fascinating and cool and I feel like it takes a special person to pull that off too without getting the one star reviews as Drew mentioned. So that’s interesting. Before we go, I do want to just circle back to the floating kids part, which I just want to ask if there’s anything else you guys want to share. Oh, you know what? I’m going to share one quick thing, which is one kind of downside potential that I’ve experienced I think is similar to Drew’s, which is the amount of respect they give can

Kim Hannan (27:43.146)

Heheheheh!

Dylan (28:06.744)

be like from I’m gonna fold all the laundry and just make sure everything is perfect here to It seems like a wet dog was left in the room and there’s saltwater crystals dripping from the sea like how did this much water? Get on every excuse me water solution all over the walls. It doesn’t even make sense. What was this kid doing? So I feel like that’s a risk but in the end Yeah, true true true. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, fair enough

Kim Hannan (28:24.808)

Yes.

Kim Hannan (28:28.226)

I wonder that with adults too sometimes. So age is just a number really.

Drew Kane (28:34.950)

Thanks for watching!

Dylan (28:37.024)

Is there anything else that you guys want to share about floating kids at your float center? Kim does $10 off, right?

Kim Hannan (28:42.746)

I, you know, I’ve, yeah, $10 off. We’re actually, yeah, I’m actually getting ready to change our pricing and I put a note on our thing the other day to make sure that we had a kid’s pass and it’s not published, you know, so people do have to have that conversation with us. But I’m trying to pull up my list. Sorry if you’re hearing me typing right now. But we want to have something that’s sort of there if people ask for it, just in case, you know. What did I make a note of?

Dylan (29:09.644)

Hmm.

Kim Hannan (29:12.806)

Here we go. I’ve got a new float for kids. Yeah, it’s $10 off ages eight to 14, 15 and up. We consider that adults, but it’s truly the cost is the same for us, no matter how old they are and people don’t really realize that, but it’s just as a courtesy. But with that said, sometimes I go back and forth and maybe this summer we’ll try a like kids program. Cause yeah, cause I mean, the summertime is our slowest time. I’m actually seeing that now.

Dylan (29:20.684)

Huh. Sure.

Dylan (29:25.408)

Yep.

Dylan (29:35.924)

Oh interesting, that was like a promo.

Kim Hannan (29:42.786)

into podcasts like over the past few years I used to say we didn’t get the summer slump well we do now I saw it last year but maybe we’ll try to do a little like kids float but I don’t know what that would look like and so if anybody’s out there listening please share with us I’d love to hear if you’ve got a successful program in place and you know maybe we can come back bring them on the show and talk about it again sometime

Dylan (29:48.750)

Welcome to the club.

Dylan (30:10.104)

Speaking of which, the fans of the show, the people who are listening regularly, we’ve never had like a name for the people who are into the show. And I think the Seedogs, Seedogs is definitely the name of our fans. They’re the Seedogs.

Drew Kane (30:25.910)

Dylan didn’t run that by us, just so everyone knows.

Kim Hannan (30:28.126)

Just, hmm, yeah.

Dylan (30:30.344)

because they’re salty, the salty sea dogs. But you don’t say the salty part, it’s just the sea dogs. It’s great, it’s great, we’re running with it. Send it to the presses, Truman 1.

Drew Kane (30:39.591)

let it marinate.

Kim Hannan (30:39.606)

I hope you’re watching this on YouTube right now just to see the faces here.

Dylan (30:44.904)

Okay, run it past the co-host before announcing on the show. Okay, okay, okay, okay. The salty sea dogs, they’re our greatest fans. No, okay, okay. We’re gonna keep workshopping that for another five years, or however long this podcast has been in existence. Longer, I don’t know. Okay.

Kim Hannan (30:46.493)

Mmm.

Kim Hannan (30:51.257)

I’ll put that in the show notes for you, Dylan.

Kim Hannan (30:58.107)

Maybe, maybe another day.

Kim Hannan (31:05.926)

You know, oh no, Dylan, you said five years. That’s perfect because five years ago to get today, it showed up in my memories. Five years ago today, I finished listening to the first 127 episodes of the art of the float five years ago today. And now we’re yeah. And now we’re at over what 270 something. So we’re in our two seventies right now. Yeah. So pretty cool.

Dylan (31:09.428)

Okay.

Dylan (31:17.944)

jeezy-creazy

Drew Kane (31:19.650)

I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me.

Drew Kane (31:22.070)

That’s awesome. That’s a lot of episodes.

Dylan (31:24.264)

That’s a lot of episodes.

Dylan (31:28.964)

Yeah, 276 maybe, 277, yeah. It’s a lot of content, it’s a lot of value, and we’re always so laser focused, it’s just pure value, it’s fantastic. Yeah.

Drew Kane (31:33.171)

Whoa.

Kim Hannan (31:35.472)

It’s a lot of content.

Kim Hannan (31:40.451)

Kids, float them.

Drew Kane (31:43.170)

The one good thing is nothing’s changed because I used to tell people, you know, you have to listen to the whole episode because the title doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what they talked about. And that was with the old host. That was, and it continues today.

Dylan (31:50.995)

I’m sorry.

Kim Hannan (31:51.127)

I’m gonna go. I’m gonna go.

Dylan (31:56.785)

I feel like we’ve improved that a lot, but aside from tonight, of course. Yeah, tonight’s a very rare exception. Yeah, exactly, tell me your content half the time. It’s a quick episode too. So does that mean we’re at six to seven years? Six and a half years? I’m trying to think of weekly episode math. No.

Kim Hannan (31:57.410)

Yep.

Kim Hannan (32:01.728)

Yeah. Tonight’s just a double. It’s a double episode. Kind of triple. It is. Nice job.

Drew Kane (32:03.971)

Yep.

Kim Hannan (32:19.608)

Whoa.

Drew Kane (32:20.570)

2015.

Kim Hannan (32:22.326)

Mm-hmm, yeah. Well, I, yeah, I did. Mm-hmm, that sounds about.

Drew Kane (32:26.172)

8 years Dylan.

Dylan (32:27.244)

No, no, no, no, no, no, that can’t be right. It’s gotta be like, that’s insane. Wow, time has passed. Fascinating. Weird, okay, well, I don’t wanna keep talking about that. That’s crazy. Yeah, exactly, yeah. My bursitis is acting up. Oh yeah, how old did he turn? We should announce that on the podcast.

Kim Hannan (32:32.466)

That sounds about right.

Drew Kane (32:32.761)

Wasn’t it 2015?

Kim Hannan (32:37.626)

Yeah.

Drew Kane (32:39.313)

Waha!

Drew Kane (32:44.450)

Just means we got old.

Kim Hannan (32:47.570)

Yeah, speaking of old, it’s my husband’s birthday today. So he’s, yeah, he’s, he’s a cute little old man turning 47 today. So happy birthday, husband. Yeah.

Drew Kane (32:52.790)

Happy birthday, Graham.

Dylan (32:59.704)

What? Happy birthday, husband. Are you serious? He’s not 47 years old. Wow, all right, wow. He’s doing something right. Good for him. For, nah, I won’t even say it. Nevermind. Outdated, not, no, it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t like a record, no record. No, no, no. Okay, so on that note, because we’re clearly going off the rails, happy birthday, Graham.

Drew Kane (33:02.250)

Happy birthday! Yay!

Kim Hannan (33:05.226)

He’s 47. Yeah. Yeah. He is.

Kim Hannan (33:15.126)

We’re still recording. We’re still recording.

Drew Kane (33:17.290)

Don’t say it, Dylan, don’t say it.

Kim Hannan (33:20.626)

Ha ha!

Dylan (33:29.544)

and I’m sorry, I was just thinking about what he did for his birthday today. I started chuckling. I’ll save that for Kim’s social media. But happy birthday to Graham. Thank you to my co-hosts, Drew and Kim. Oh, I should announce Gloria’s not going to be able to make it tonight. I’m sure she’ll be with us again very soon. I think she’s out holiday. She’s not even working hard this time. Usually there’s like really busy stuff she’s doing. She’s just out having fun without us. Not cool. She should have zoomed in. Yeah.

Kim Hannan (33:35.267)

Hehehehe

Drew Kane (33:39.250)

Dylan.

Kim Hannan (33:53.286)

Yeah, at the beach in Hawaii.

Dylan (33:59.624)

Why? Let’s see here. Thanks to Olga for maybe producing tonight’s episode. Yes, thank you Olga for producing our episode and thanks to our sponsors, Helmbot, thanks to the FTA and thanks to Mindful Solutions, that’s Mindful with two L’s, Mindful.Solutions, if you wanna search that in your old search browser there or in your URL. And thanks for supporting us on Patreon, artofthefloat.com, no, excuse me, I’m sorry, Patreon.com forward slash artofthefloat if you wanna check out

social media content we can deliver to you. Float photography, float videos, and blog posts, some real cool stuff we can load you up with. And check out shop.artofthefloat.com. Oh, including this shirt that is designed by Flux. There are some really cool shirts on there that you should check out, but also video testimonials and other things you can use for your social media.

Dylan (34:59.724)

And I think that’s it. Till next time. We’ll see you next time, you salty sea dogs. Yar!

Dylan (35:08.644)

It’s finalized! That’s it! I’m cutting that out!

Kim Hannan (35:09.286)

Mmmh.

Drew Kane (35:10.814)

He didn’t discuss that with us.

Kim Hannan (35:14.131)

I’m sorry.