We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christina Toliver. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christina below.
Hi Christina, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Our mission is to help as many people as we can reduce stress and live healthier lives, both inside and out. I was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, the middle child of three kids, and proudly represent Generation X! Although I grew up in the most epic era of all time, my family life was far from the Huxtables. My parents married young and quickly outgrew each other a few years after moving here from Connecticut around 1974, shortly after having my older sister. There was a lot of fighting and infidelity, which ultimately resulted in divorce by the time I was six years old and my mother moved out and remarried an even more abusive man than my father by the time I was seven. Sadly, I do not have many fond memories from my childhood. I’ve rewritten this part of my story countless times, because I find it too difficult to be so vulnerable and share just how much turmoil, disappointment, and pain I experienced as a child, but at the end of the day, learning how to love myself, nurture myself, encourage myself, and always wanting more for myself, I believe are what attributes to why I am such a severe empath and why I have so much drive to champion this mission.
Prior to forming SmashBox20, I knew nothing about rage rooms aside from the general concept, but the consistent and overwhelming relief and satisfaction we noted with every smash right from the start, and serving more than 3,000 customers in less than two years, only drove our ambitions to maximize our efficiency and cultivate smashing into the true novel intervention that it is and globalize accessibility.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My professional career prior to SmashBox20 was the typical corporate ladder climb, holding executive administrative assistant, corporate administrator, and office manager roles in a variety of industries, although, my ultimate goal was always to help others and have my own business some day. As a single Mother of two, having the resources and the financial stability to start my own business was far from reach, so for many years, it was just never the right time. Instead I chose a career I felt was the next best way to help as many people as I could, which was working in public service for our local county government. In effort of advancing my career during this time, I also obtained my baccalaureate in Public Policy and Administration, only to fall victim to the underlining corruption, nepotism, and maltreatment commonly indicative of this industry. I ultimately chose my health and wellbeing over my paycheck and pension and resigned in October 2019.
Thankfully, by this time of my life, I was married to the love of my life, who, by the grace of God, was able to support our family during this time of transition. I wasn’t sure what my next professional move was going to be, I just knew I was never going to work for someone else again so, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to finally go for it and start my own business! My initial concept was providing process improvement, streamlining, and innovation services to other businesses and then, Covid-19 hit and the whole country shut down. Hitting the ground during this unprecedented time, ran me right into a brick wall and sent me back to the drawing board. It was while watching one of my favorite television shows one night and the cast visiting a rage room, that the idea to simply go to one myself to relieve my own quarantine stress came to mind. It wasn’t until I discovered there were no rage rooms in our entire county, that the notion to open our own sparked. My husband was beyond elated and the rest was history!
Our ideas of what a rage room experience should envelop, has developed into a cutting edge, unique model, that defies the unwritten laws of this most inimitable therapeutic cathartic release known to man. SmashBox20 stretches beyond the typical rage room experience that in most cases includes basic smashing of an electronic or two and a small bin of maybe 10-20 pieces of glass, in an equally small room. Whereas, SmashBox20 provides our customers with an absorbent amount of space, plenty of full size wood furniture pieces, and well over 30 pieces of glass per individual session, adequate amounts for groups of any size to smash up to an entire day for the very basic tier smashing that we do. We offer several add-ons and a variety of session types, including paint, car, and mobile smashing, and now, the most innovative smashing series to date, that integrates mental health support with smashing; the first of its kind, patent pending Smash Intervention Technologies!
These specialty smash sessions include a Guided Smash option that provides a licensed therapist we refer to as Smash Coach, who go into the smash room and/or attends on-site “Mobile Smash Clinics” and facilitates a series of specially designed smash exercises, as well as talk therapy during the session to assist with the release of pent up emotions and aggressions while they smash! The third modality of these one-of-a-kind Smash Intervention Technologies is, SmashBox20’s very own virtual reality smash room, of which we have the privilege of partnering with the University of South Florida’s Mental Health Master’s Program Director and the Center for Assistive, Rehabilitation & Robotics Technologies Director to develop and bring to market this revolutionary technology. What’s even more exciting about this new venture, we received an invitation and are in the midst of finalizing a full proposal to the National Science Foundation to solicit for a grant to help us build phase III of the SIT project!
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
My public service career came to a screeching halt and my husband was the sole provider for our family when we started SmashBox20. We didn’t have a significant savings and unbeknownst to us, we believed a rage room overhead would be relatively low because, there wasn’t much supplies needed to operate that we couldn’t get for free or very low cost, so we jumped in head first. All of our start-up costs came from our own private funds including personal credit cards, and thankfully, my husband’s income was enough to carry the rent until the business was self-sustaining by month five. As demand increased, so didn’t our need for more supply than I could manage to procure on my own, so the need to hire and move into a bigger facility became inevitable. Finding a bank willing to lend us business capital, especially in a niche industry and without two years of positive income tax returns was impossible, so we opted to risk it all and use the profit we earned from our first year in business to fund the move into a larger space. Almost three years later, we now have double the space, which we are looking to quadruple at the end of our current lease term and we are looking to hire our fourth employee. Although we have been blessed to have accomplished what we have thus far, we have yet to reach the level of success we hope to attain in order to be in better position to give back beyond the standard charitable smashes we give regularly.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
Being a novel and niche small business in and of itself adds a level of challenges when it comes to growing a business such as a rage room. There have been some slow months and losses we have endured, such as a $9,000 brand new 8.5×16 foot cargo trailer we purchased to store all of our smash supplies that was stolen right out of the parking lot. We also experienced a severe decline in business when Pinellas County was braced for impact by Hurricane Ian up until the day before making landfall and we most recently felt a similar strain when hurricane Idalia threatened the area. At times I felt like we had finally reached the point when I could step away from the more laborious work and each time we would position ourselves to make this transition, we experienced yet another shift of some kind, keeping me right in the thick of it.
We believe everything happens for a reason. Through all the hardships, ups and downs, it is our faith that prevails. Never in a million years would I ever expect that God would put us in a position to help and serve others by providing a safe place for them to let it all out by breaking things, which is why we stand firm in knowing that no man, no competitor, and no force can alter His plan.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://smashbox20.com/
- Instagram: Instagram.com/SmashBox20.llc
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/SmashBox20
- Youtube: @smashbox20llc
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/smashbox20-clearwater-2?osq=smash+room&override_cta=Request+a+Quote