We were lucky to catch up with Jonathan McClain recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jonathan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

While the story of the Bluffwoods Renaissance Festival may be a bit unusual in the terms of starting a business, perhaps there may be tidbits of useful information for others.

“Lets start a Renaissance Festival!” or so my random mid-day, mid-thought social media post stated.

My ADHD brain decided it was appropriate to blurt out the latest idea. To my surprise the post attracted a large amount of supportive attention. I asked around a bit more, almost like a bit of mini market research, and I unanimously got a similar response That was enough to trigger my hyper focus on the idea.

I asked a coworker/friend if he wanted to start a renaissance festival with me and he ecstatically agreed. We began sharing ideas after work. His thoughts were always towards the artistic design and the story of the event. It was all useful and a great time. But my thoughts were all over the place with every facet of this event. What of dates, times, locations, financing, parking, tickets, and that one guy people throw tomatoes at. There was a lot to consider, so I sought out more help.

Through personal friends and networking I began to add to the group. I was looking for individuals with different skillsets and ideas. One important thing I’ve learned in life is that EVERYONE wants to share their thoughts and opinions, all you have to do is ask. It’s honestly a wonderful thing. Sure some ideas may be rubbish to you, but you never know when someone may have the “missing puzzle piece idea” that you were looking for. As I continued to add people to our meetings over time, my “Council” was formed. This is still a group today and is essentially my board of directors. It is quite interesting to me that the board of directors was formed even before there was business license filed, or even a business itself.

The first few meetings were a little rough, and often went on for hours. A friend of mine pulled me to the side after one meeting and told me “You need to take charge.” So through helpful videos, and self help leadership books I was able to hone my ability to direct the group. Every individual was amazing with great thoughts, but after I established a sense of authority we became much more productive. Through planning, working, lots of meetings we got a lot done and Bluffwoods Renaissance Festival was born.

Our hard work was shown when the festival finally premiered. We had over 4,500 unique visitors through our gates, close to 100 vendors, and performers from all over the country. All of us were overjoyed with success and hope to continue well into the future.

I’d have to say that the key to the success of the vent was the meeting of the minds. The festival wouldn’t be happening today without the efforts of each and every one of the people involved. Often when in conversation someone will say “Your festival”. I immediately remind them “OUR festival.” Remember that even if you have the greatest ideas in the world, you don’t have the same life experiences as others. You’ll never have their viewpoint, or their ideas; so listen. I enthusiastically believe that listening to the ideas of others is the key to creating something wonderful.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Jonathan McClain, and I love thinking and creating. To me their is no greater joy than to come up with a new idea and to see it come to life, businesses included. I currently am involved in a plethora of small businesses and I couldn’t be happier in life.

The most recent success (and the feature of this article) is the “Bluffwoods Renaissance Festival.” It’s an annual event in our city that draws in thousands of visitors, creates opportunities for local businesses, and is simply put… is FUN!

I am most proud of all the people that have helped to make things possible. I would want potential fans and followers to know that we have never put money first. For some people businesses are meant only to make money. To us money is simply a means to an end. The end hopefully being the best festival anyone could ask for.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I am all about sharing ideas, and listening to everything everyone has to say. Unfortunately in order to maintain productivity there is a line in which you have to draw.

When we first starting I was so accepting of any input that I would let people go on and on, and everything seemed to take too long. While the speaker was enjoying sharing, everyone else would lose energy and no longer even pay attention. EVERYONE wants to share their thoughts, but everyone doesn’t want to listen to others for long without their chance.

I had to learn to be blunt and cut people off in order to keep things moving. It was very bizarre for me at first because I was worried everyone would think I was mean/rude. But as it turns out everyone was quite understanding and appreciative.

I got much better at be authoritative and when we came closer and closer to our event we even developed a temporary motto for our meetings “NO NEW IDEAS.” It was pretty funny having everyone repeating it in the meetings before the event. But honestly it skyrocketed our productivity and I am grateful to have learned the lesson.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Earlier in my life I had been a waiter/bartender. It was very quick cash, and was always higher than any hourly wage I had ever seen. I was never meant for a 9-5 office job either, so it seemed to be the perfect job. I did always have my doubts though.

After working at one particular establishment for over a decade, the pandemic hit the country and things changed.
I was very heavily wronged, even to a criminal extent, of the owner of the establishment I had worked at for 1/3 of my life. Long story short, I was fired and had to go on unemployment with nothing but fear for my future.
Thankfully I found out that there was a stimulus granted to those unemployed.

This story is not about the fact that I received money to cover my needs, but more so the fact that it helped to eliminate my fears. I began to work more on my business ideas, and I became self employed. Except this time I was my own boss and I didn’t have some terrible person looming over my head telling me what to do. I was free and happier than I had ever been. I soon found out that I didn’t even need that unemployment income I could have made it on my own the entire time. It was just fear of failure that held me back, don’t let it happen to you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bluffwoodsrenfest.com
• Instagram: bluffwoodsrenfest
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bluffwoodsrenfest
• Twitter: @bluffrenfest
• Youtube: @bluffwoodsrenaissancefestival

Image Credits
-John Bachman