Brenster's Beach Bash in Mazatlan, Mexico recently celebrated 10 years and 50,000 customers with a new theme song I Live For Tuesdays.
A big thank you to Brent McAthey for coming into the studio to talk about the stumbling blocks he had to overcome as he turned his dream of an afternoon beach party into one of Mazatlan's favorite tourist destinations.
Below is a transcription of the Stumbling Blocks S1 E3 Brent McAthey interview:
00:00:00.04
[Brent] - Nobody knows who Brent McAthey is in Mazatlan. But I go by Brenster now so.
[Barbara] - Brenster, yeah.
[Brent] - And it's called Brenster's Beach Bash.
00:00:08.05
(upbeat music)
[Title Sequence]
Stumbling Blocks
With Host Barbara May
Special Guest Brent McAthey
Stumbling Blocks Team Building Seminars
00:00:15.02
[Barbara] Brent McAthey is a two-time Alberta Country Artist of the Year award winner. He's toured across Europe and North America and now he calls Mazatlan, Mexico his home.
I had the opportunity to go to your Beach Bash and I didn't know what to expect. And it was amazing! Like I was thinking, okay what's this gonna be like? A university frat party, or--
[Brent] - It's senior's spring break.
And how it started, you know, most of the people there are snowbirds. So they're 55 plus. They're spending the winters there holidaying and I just, I just love that crowd of people. I mean they're just so responsive. And I have about 150 of 'em that never miss a Tuesday. They're there every single Tuesday and they have their spots reserved. But it's just growin' every year and last year we set a new one day attendance record at 450 people--
[Barbara] - Holy smokes.
[Brent] - Yeah, it was pretty great.
[Barbara] - Right, and so you set up on the beach.
[Brent] - Yup.
[Barbara] - In the middle of the afternoon.
[Brent] - Yes.
00:01:24.05
[Barbara] - So tell me how that whole setup works.
[Brent] - Well how it all started was, I'd always just had this vision of this beach party during the day and I was talking with a friend of mine and I was telling him about my concept and he said, "Buddy, you can do this. "I know that you have this vision, "and you know if it's something that you really want "you can do it."
So I had to find the right place... Actually the first place I found, it was perfect and then things changed, the owner's changed.
And so there's a little place there called Diego's. And there was really nothing there. It was just a, they'd just opened it. It was a little bar. And the manager and I became friends. And he'd never even see me play me. He knew that I sang but, so one day he said "Well why don't you do that show here?"
And I said "Well to be honest", Miguel was his name, "you know I have this vision of it growing to get to a point "where there's 300 people here or something."
And he says, "You, we get 300 people here, "we'll make it work." And so we did. It just kind of grew and grew and grew. And every year it grows about 10-15%.
00:02:41.02
[Barbara] - Right, and so you've celebrated 10 years.
[Brent] - Yes.
[Barbara] - And you've had your 50,000th customer.
[Brent] - Yeah, last year we celebrated that. And we only do the show, it's every Tuesday from two to six, so it's just once a week. And you know, they say supply and demand. So I just wanted it one day a week. And of course the older people love that it's over at 6 o'clock and they can go home early and they don't have to stay up late.
00:03:07.01
[Barbara] - And so what's your biggest challenge in putting this show on?
[Brent] - Um, well the biggest challenge was finding the right people to, first of all, do the sound and the staging. I got a great, they're called KW Sound. They're partners with me now in my production company. But just havin' guys that can show up and you know deal with all the different things that may or may not go wrong, And a PA that's big enough to push that air.
[Barbara] - 'Cause you're literally like on the beach. You've got all the water behind you and then like 300 people in the audience.
[Brent] - Well and now they're on the beach and on the back side of the stage and everything too. So each one of those stumbling blocks you learn a way to get around it and keep building.
00:03:59.02
[Barbara] - So tell me how important is the merchandise to supporting what you're developing?
[Brent] - Yeah, I think it's a huge part of it. I've got a little thing there, Brenster's gift shop. And we sell so much stuff there. And I mean nothing feels better than to look down the street and see somebody wearing that Brenster's Beach Bash shirt and of course then people say oh well, what's that? And then they tell them and it just carries on like that.
So spending the money on marketing and advertising with merch like that is really key, you know? And then those people are coming back to Canada, United States and wearing that stuff. People ask 'em about 'em. They tell 'em, well if you go to Mazatlan, you got to go to the Beach Bash.
00:04:45.02
[Barbara] - Yeah, and I know you guys just did a video and you have a new theme song.
[Brent] - Yes, I wrote, well for the 10-year anniversary it was coming up. I thought I gotta do something special here.
00:04:54.02
(upbeat music)
♪ They call it Brenster's Beach Bash ♪
[Brent] - So I sat down one day and I wrote this song called "I live for Tuesdays" and we ended up doing a video for it and showing how much fun it is so.
[Barbara] - Yeah.
[Brent] - It's been great. The thing that I'm most proud of the Beach Bash, is how many people have come there and make friends with so many other people. And they're lifelong friends, you know. They're all retired and they all say "We have way more friends here then we do "back in Canada or the United States." And it's just so many people look forward to coming here there on Tuesday and having a good time.
00:05:32.08
[Barbara] - Do you have any advice for artists starting out? I mean--
[Brent] - Well I think it's, and it's not just about music too. I think so many people... First you have to have a dream. You have to have something that inspires you that you like. And then once you have that dream, then you need to figure out with the stumbling blocks how to overcome all those things and make your dreams come to fruition.
So for me, it's I spend a lot of time in my hammock thinking about how I'm going to go about doing things and again, I come back to finding, surrounding yourself with great people. 'Cause you're only as good as the people that you surround yourself with. So, whether that's musicians or management or you know, working with a venue that understands your vision, so that you're working together instead of against each other. I think that's the biggest thing.
[Barbara] - So you're saying, you have the vision but you can't do it by yourself.
[Brent] - Well, exactly and you know I mean, I can get up there and play but it's all those other things that come together that make it happen.
[Barbara] - Well when we were down there, the wait staff, you do this thing in your show where you get all the wait staff up on stage.
[Brent] - Right, yup.
[Barbara] - And like, its little things like that, I mean I was only able to go to one of your Beach Bashes, but I felt so involved and it was like you know I wanted to go back. And I think that's probably why you've been able to build such a great client base because you create an experience.
[Brent] - Exactly, and that experience is you know, I've had so many people now and more and more every year... So we're planning our trip around the Beach Bash, you know, so know we fly, we get there on Monday and we leave Wednesday so we can get two Beach Bashes in.
So you know, that feels pretty good to know that that experience, that party, is bringing people from all over North America there. And it's the highlight of... That was the greatest day we had there. So, you know, nothing feels better than that.
[Announcer] - Best Tuesdays ever.
[Barbara] - Thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule.
[Brent] - Thanks for having me.
[Barbara] - Yeah, and hopefully you'll invite us back down to Mexico
[Brent] - I sure will.
00:07:57.05
(upbeat music)
[Closing Sequence]
Stumbling Blocks Team Building Seminars
Thank You For Watching Stumbling Blocks
Producer/Host Barbara May
Director of Photography Joey McIntyre
Music Chris Ayries and Brent McAthey
Stumbling Blocks Team Building Seminars