We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cliff Barackman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cliff below.

Cliff, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

One of the main goals of the North American Bigfoot Center is to gather and curate historical collections and information. Sasquatches are real animals, and therefore will certainly be academically recognized at some point. In the meantime, diligent researchers are gathering evidence and data. Many of the older sasquatch researchers have already passed away, and more are dying all the time. While their research collections may not be of much monetary value, they will be immensely valuable to historians who later study the “pre-discovery” days of this field.

One of several goals of the NABC is to gather and archive historical collections for future study. Forming a non-profit that will publicly share the gathered historical items and information would be a worthy legacy for both me and the museum I curate.

Cliff, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been doing sasquatch field research for 29 years as of this writing. At first, I would just go to areas where sasquatches had been purportedly observed before and spend a few days exploring the area. Later, I started collecting footprint and handprint casts realizing that these represented some of the best physical evidence of the species’ existence.

I was a classroom teacher for 14 years, and I would regularly include sasquatches as part of my toolbox for hooking young people on science. I would encourage outside-the-box thinking using the subject to teach other curricular areas ranging from math to reading. My own writing on the sasquatch subject, whether it was journal or magazine articles, blog articles, or book reviews were used in the classroom as real life examples of writing for one’s own “real life” and for fun.

Over the years I developed a good name for myself among other researchers and spent as much of my time in the woods as possible. In 2009, Discovery Communications, owner of the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and other cable networks reached out to me to invite me to participate in a television show. This show, Finding Bigfoot, aired on Animal Planet from 2011 through 2018, with a special episode later airing in 2020. We visited 46 states and five continents in search of sasquatches and other relict hominoids worldwide.

After Finding Bigfoot went off the air, I shifted gears and opened the North American Bigfoot Center. I continue to be a popular public speaker at events, conferences, and gatherings all over the country. I also continue to be a featured guest on several television shows.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My cofounder and business partner is my wife, Melissa. I met her when I was the host of Animal Planet’s television show, Finding Bigfoot. When we were shooting an episode in upstate New York, she was brought on as a production team member. The short version is that I asked, “Who’s that?” and I eventually convinced her to marry me.

Melissa is a talented artist and a accomplished producer. When Finding Bigfoot went off the air, she and I put our heads together and developed the NABC both in concept and in physical reality with the help of friends with retail business development experience.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

The NABC has a few smaller revenue streams that help us along the way. First among them would be selling our merchandise at festivals and conferences across the country where I am a keynote speaker. Selling at these events ensures that the audience in attendance is interested in the subject and is a viable market.

Another excellent revenue stream is our Patreon museum membership. We currently have over 300 members who pay us a small subscription fee on a monthly basis. For this fee, they receive weekly updates on the museum, interesting news items having to do with the subject, and two video documentaries we make ourselves in the museum about our own field research.

We are starting to post member videos from a couple years ago on an NABC Youtube channel. This is a new project, but when our views get high enough, I will start advertising it on my various social media outlets (I have over 60,000 people following me on my various social media) and this will generate a small revenue stream from Youtube.

We have occasionally rented out the museum for weddings, and have one scheduled for October at the moment. I am a licensed minister and can legally perform weddings. Getting married at a bigfoot museum by Cliff Barackman from Finding Bigfoot is a ridiculous and wonderful way to start any sasquatch nerd’s marriage bliss!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.NorthAmericanBigfootCenter.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/northamericanbigfootcenter/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/northamericanbigfootcenter
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/nabigfootcenter
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/northamericanbigfootcenter