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

Todd, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

In nearly 30 yrs there are many, but our origin may be the best.

I THINK I committed a form of fraud…

In 1996 I was 19 and not liking the way work and school was going. I had just come off a terrible semester at college with the pressures to work 40+hrs a week at 3 jobs and take 18+ credit hrs at school. My parents house that I was living just had a major fire, life was rough.

My mother was giving me grief one day about a display case a bought that was taking up space in the garage and the growing mass of sports cards, magic the gathering cards and comics in my room that needed moved or more accurately “thrown away” after the fire and said “its worthless until someone pays for it” and “nobody wants that crap!” That was the flip to the chip on my shoulder that made me say “WATCH ME”.
Problem was I was 19 and while I worked a lot I was also the guy in our group that bought food often and loved concerts so my “extra” time was fun seeking and friends, thus little funds. I had about 500.00 saved for a ring for my now wife that was untouchable and maybe 1000.00 saved for a rainy day. Nowhere near enough for a business. So I set my goals to devising the how too.

Shortly after setting on this path I was talking to my local banker about my idea and he was supportive but not “able to help” because I needed 20,000.00 to start in my mind. while speaking to him we were interrupted and in his conversation he stated that the internet was slow and the banking for all transactions after 2pm on Friday didnt hit until Monday at 10 am. That got me thinking. So I asked how much he could offer and he said he liked my passion and said the top personal loan he would give was 4,000.00. I thanked him for his time and then went to my mothers and grand mothers banks and asked the same 4k and 3k were their answers.

So the following Friday I went in with a plan and had paperwork ready and went to each of those banks at 3:00, 3:20, 3:45. All gave me the max loan. All not know ing I had gotten loans just moments before.

With 12k in the bank I went about the task of buying what i needed to start and finding a location. My best friend jumped in to be a 10% owner for 2 k more, but never actually paid the 2k….but that is another story.

By August of 1997 I had my location, business license, and some displays. I was ready.

In September I was in the first bank paying my loan when the bank manager asked to see me in his office. Scared shitless I went in. The conversation went a little like this Manager: “say I knew” Me “knew what?!” Manager “say I knew and you know I knew” Me “okay…” Manager “say I knew and was impressed you were that smart to figure out a unknown flaw” Me: “say I understood and would like to ensure we were the only ones that knew that fact” Manager: “you know once your loan is paid off there is nothing for me to look at right?” Me: “you got it”

I paid that loan off in less than 6 mo, nothing was ever said again. That Bank manager not surprisingly got several big promotions shortly there after our conversation. Curious how that works….

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Opened in January 1998. On a challenge from my mother (that she obviously didn’t intend to do) I opened with a friend and that didn’t end well but the passion for the business was fully burning so I continued with the business. We struggled hard. I as a boss struggled with how to speak to people, customers, even family. We failed, I failed, often. I grew, we grew, our faith grew in the business, the town and most importantly our customers.

In the fall of 1998 Pokemon came out and we were one of the first 50 Pokemon league stores in the US and one of the first 250 Arena league MTG stores (at least to the best of our knowledge) and Likely one of the first mixed media stores in the country because we added video games shortly after opening (still remember the first customer to trade in games). We were forced to move the business several times in the first few years due to funds, landlords issues, more landlord issues and the eternal search for the perfect location. we nearly went out of business several times in those early days due to just poor business practices, theft, building with massive roach infestation, personally becoming so sick I was out for several weeks form working 80hr/wk and 20 cred hr at school for months and sooo much more. But effectively I am stubborn and I truly loved the kids comng into my store. My first wave of regulars were the greastest change in my life next to my own child because they were brilliant, needy, funny, and most importantly supportive of each other and anyone who came in…they helped create the forever feel to the business-ALL WHO ENTER THESE HALLS ARE WORTHY, ALL WHO STAY ARE FAMILY FOREVER. Effectively this unspoken mantra has saved many lives literally and emotionally and this small business owner many times. We have sheltered battered kids from family in our official and at times unofficial capacity as a “safe place”, I have doled advice out to any kids that wants it and oft times when they need it but don’t want to hear it. I have been loved and hated for this…and then loved again. I say because I have lost customers over the years (mostly teens) that were making mistakes and I gave the best advise I had to offer some were offended/mad that I butted in and left. Some of those kids are still coming back today to thank me for my words for while they didnt heed them then they never forgot I took the timje for them and eventually did. Others took my advise and went on to do great things and occasionally will swing back by to let me know how they are doing and how my words lifted them to their passions and that they are happier for it. Some of those time as if a greater hand knew I needed it they would tell me these stories the very day I had decided to call it quits.

We have had many business struggles. from tax problems to theft, to outright robbery. We survived each time and came out stronger through new practices or simply as I the owner was a little less naive to the world. We have grown only to collapse under internal theft or spite. We have been blessed each time with amazing support from friends of the store from free labor to just help when I was broken. Eventually we found our forever home in our Carnegie Library. Saved from the wrecking ball we placed a bid with the local school corporation and purchased the building of 10k sq ft for 5,000! it needed love and again the store stepped up to help and I learned many repairs to get it functional. 2017 we opened in the library and things actually went down due to people not recognizing the building as a retail store. I changed sales and advertising tactics to extremely unconventional and it worked sales improved. then covid hit and we were nearly out of business. Again our community stepped up to help not just locally but from the industry. we got a couple of small grants and again I had to get creative. We changed tactics again. This time online ads and reminders of support local while doing what I said to do by supporting other small businesses, we grew, we welcomed change. We added more unusual advertising and used laws to allow us to stay mostly open during the pandemic with harsh limitations on customers in building. again we grew. I decided after that conventional was not for me or my business and added new inventory, new spaces for the players. In 2023 I decided to lean into our “Mr Magorium wonder emporium” style building with all our statues and fun item all over the building and commissioned the creation of our dragon that has been a qausi logo for many years, only huge. He is just under 15’X15’x16′ and we hung him from the building outside facing the street, which happens to be a main road highway through our small town. I had at one point run for US District 3 congress so I learned a few things about promotion and set a press release out to over 120 new outlets in the greater region. Our story made the news everywhere and the story behind the dragon repeated often as Charlie was my imaginary friend come to life. One of us had to grow up (Charlie) and One just got old (me). Again our sales and our community grew and grow quickly we have done since. I am now opening distribution and a sculpting and entertainment business and looking to franchise.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

see previous…life is struggle. Life is growth. life is a lesson worth learning.

While out campaigning I left the vast majority of my business in the hands of my manager that was a high school friend. At first it was great but as I spent more time away from my business she changed how the business ran and sales dropped and harshly.

I lost my election in a very huliating way. Genuinely lost to a drunk homeless guy with significant mental illness…thats another long story.

after that loss I took a lot of time to mentally recover. Once I was ready to get back to business I found sales were down 80% and I was near bankruptcy. Taxes had not been paid and employees were simply not caring about the customer anymore. I was crushed.

Rather than just throw the towel in I laid off all the employees, spent many hours looking at paperwork to find the issues. repaired what I could and dealt with the financial fallout.

I personally worked 10-10 every day except Sunday and had a friend I trusted work. Sales returned within 3 months to near “normal “all while I took very little pay to cover the massive losses and the huge amount of inventory that no longer existed. Can’t say it was stolen just that it was not there anymore…previous to this crew I replaced I had massive internal theft and closed a store from it. A customer noticed I personally was back and offered to help fix things and would do it for cheap. He came in part time and after just a few weeks sales significantly improved. After another bit of time, he all but forced me to leave for a week to be with my family. Sales improved and most importantly I was no longer burnt out and we grew again while now being able to maintain a healthy work home relationship. Customer turned employee turned trusted friend…and now my company lawyer for he went on to get his law degree.

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

With all my struggles I often note they were not in a vacuum. I got myself into believing the business can only succeed if I am personally doing everything. I became jaded, rude even to the very people working hard to help build up the business. I would unintentionally let my frustrations out in front of customers, and they would see me as an uncaring boss or worse. Which is the furthest from what I wanted or thought I was doing.

Again my customers set me on the right path. I may not have liked the discussion nor did i like being told I personally was part of the problem, but I promised to listen and listen and learned I did.

My life growing up I was told you earned respect in the workplace and the employees job was to work as hard or harder than the boss to make your earned place in the business. I never believed that but inherently that constant influence through my early life somehow just left out of me and I was, at times however brief, hard to deal with because I expected more than I got from employees at times and rather than retraining or simply addressing the issue I would grumble with irritation and harshness. This in a small part or the whole reason was the cause of employment issues and internal theft because as a rule I treat everyone as they are very important to me and they are special. If i then speak poorly about them, especially indirectly, they become more than angry they get hurt to the core and I had no intentions to do so…breaking generational lessons/traumas is hard.

I work with intent now. I speak with joy and passion. I am not perfect but I am also quick to apologize and genuine when I do so for we can only strive to improve so much that people only know the good without the struggle. I’ll be better be tomorrow if I am mindful today

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tcb.games
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/tcbgameshuntington
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-nightenhelser-5a5b8431
• Other: www.craft-export.com
  craftexportandentertainment.com